Gyoza : Dumplings Recipe

Gyoza is my favorite. I guess it called dumplings in English. You can find in the frozen food area, but I make these every now and then. It is a lot of work to make but when I eat them, it worth the trouble.

Ground pork : 150 gram
Cabbage : 200 gram
Green onion : 2 or 3 strings
grated ginger : about 1 tea spoon
Chinese chive (if available) : 50 gram

Soy Sauce 1/2 tea spoon
Salt 1/2 tea spoon
Sake (Japanese rice wine) 1 table spoon
Sesame Oil 1 tea spoon

Gyoza Skin : 1 pack

1) Boil cabbage for a few minute, drain and squeeze off the liquid and chop into mince. chop all other vegetables. throw in meat and all the seasonings in a bowl and mix well with your hands (yack!)

2) Put spoonful of the mixture above on the gyoza skin.

Wet the half end and fold in to make a gyoza.
You can make about 30 gyoza with ingredients above.

3) heat the pan with oil, put gyoza on the pan and put a nice brown mark on a side.

Flip the gyoza and add 1/4 cup of the water and put a lid on a pan. simmer for 3 to 4 minute. let the water evaporate and make gyoza  crunchy with a golden mark. Serve and enjoy with a soy sauce!

Some people make gyoza skin but I've never made them.

Get a PFOA free pan!!

I make peace t-shirts. Check out at Peace Wings Apparel 

Burrito for picky eater

At least once a week, we have burritos for dinner.  I don't know about authentic recipe, but this is my recipe for my son, who doesn't eat vegetables otherwise.

Cut garlic, half onion, chicken, may be green pepper, cilantro, and stir fly until everything is nicely cooked. season with spices like paprika, cumin, garlic powder, coriander powder, etc..  salt and half of lemon juice.

I usually wrap with rice, refried bean, meat (above) guacamole (if available) salsa, cheese sour cream..

Mille-feuille cutlet with vegetable stir fry

What are you gonna eat tonight? I ate Port cutlet with vegetable stir fry and brown rice.

I tried a new recipe from Japanese TV because it looked easy and delicious.  I used frozen thin sliced pork. Paste mixture of beaten egg, flour, salt and pepper on the meat and coat with bread crumbs like this.

and cooked with 50cc of vegetable oil. The TV recipe says needs to cook only for 5 minutes but it took nearly 30 minutes! This is called mille-feuille cutlet. I guess thin layers looks like mille-feuille pie.

Nice. But I wonder it will be enough for 2 adults and 2 kids..

I thinly cut carrot, asparagus and garlic.

pour some stir fry sauce from Trader Joes.. Sour and sweet.

With yesterday's left over brown rice and hand made kimchee by Korean neighbor. It was a nice dinner again.

I am using PFOA Free Non-stick Stone Cookware

By the way, Valentine's day is coming soon. I make t-shirts and sold at Peace Wing Apparel

Yesterday's dinner Omelet Rice & Miso Soup

This day's dinner was Omellette Rice. (O mu le tsu in Japanese)

Under thin egg layer, there's fried rice.

I made with asparagus, green onion and sausage (nitrate free.) I used brown rice.

My husband doesn't like rice, especially brown one. I had to make potato omelet with cheese. The pic above is before I flip the omelet.

With Japanese probiotic soup, miso soup. Bon appetit!!
I use PTFE and PFOA FREE non stick frying pan.

My little garden

I have a tiny garden at my new apartment. I planted some flowers and vegetable plants.

Mint. I made some tea with this. This herb is very strong and grow well. I'll dry them when it grows more.

Aloe can be used when you have minor burns and cuts. It's still small but I planted red perilla (called Shiso in Japanese ) next to aloe.

Mini tomato. 

has some fruits already! I can't wait!

Bread Machine is awesome!

I got a bread machine two months ago. I'm baking bread about every other day, and it tastes great! I used to get bread from Japanese bakery every now and then because their bread is really good, but because the flour price has been shooting up in recent years, the price of the loaf of bread raised to $3.60 from $2.60 in just 5 years! I did some calculation : If I get two loaf of bread every week, in a year it comes up $187.00 I got Panasonic SD-YD250 Automatic Bread Maker which was about $135.00, I might spend more than $187 with ingredients in the first year, but from the second year, it will cost less than buying at the bakery, and it is easier than I thought to bake a bread.

My recipe for the tasty bread is like this:
Bread Flour : 250 g
Non fat dry milk : 20g
Brown sugar : 20g
Sea salt : 3g
Butter : 15g
Water : 170cc
Dry yeast : 1 tea spoon

Put all the ingredients except for dry yeast in the bucket. Put dry yeast in the yeast dispenser and set the machine to Bake, size: M, crust: light and press start.  In 4 hours on regular, or 2 hours on fast setting,  you can have a warm fresh loaf of bread!

You can set a timer and wake up with good smell of bread, but it is noisy so don't sleep in a same room as this machine. 

My only regret is not spending $20 more to get a machine with a raisin dispenser. 

Prepare for the holiday season (budget)

My husband takes lunch at least 3 days/week since middle of last month. I should have done it throughout the year, but I slacked off for a while, now I make him sandwich & pack some snacks. That would save us at least $5.- per a day. $15 X 3 X 52 weeks will be saves $720.00 for a year! If you take your lunch everyday, you would save $1300.-!!

my new year resolution

My new year resolution.
1) Save money.
Food - $400.-
Restaurant $100.-
Baby expense - $60.-
Gas $160.-
Others $200.-
Put on the saving account $400.-

I recently went back to Japan. I found lots of magazines featuring how to save on household expenses, such as food, energy, and so on. Some expert housewives spend only about $100 a month.- but their eating doesn't look so poor. Using cooking technique and knowledge, You may spend much less on everyday food. My current is about $500, I want it to be within $400.