Tender Meat! European Style Beef Stew

I made "European Style Beef Stew" with slow cooker last week.
My friend gave me this"William Sonoma" cook book (this certain book isn't available anymore), and this is the only recipe that I tried in the book. I changed here and there to fit our family size.

I used,

Half onion, finely chopped,
2 stems of celery, finely chopped,
3 or so garlic cloves, finely chopped,
1 lbs beef
2 slices of bacon
2 table spoon of flour
one or two tomatoes
Red Wine, (10 fl oz / 300 ml)
Beef Stock 16 fl oz / 500ml)
1or 2 Bay leaves
Thyme (dried herb)
1potato, 1 or 2 carrots, turnips as you like
salt and pepper
One table spoon of ketchup and Worcestershire sauce

1) Cut veggies,

About 1 lbs and half beef, (this time was sirloin tip roast) salt and peppered.

2 slices of bacon, cut like this and sautéed until oil come out and slightly crunchy.

Add onion and celery, sauté until the onions are soft.

Using a slotted spoon, transfer the onions and bacon to a plate and set aside.

add the beef to a pan until golden brown, (I didn't cut up the beef this time, but I usually cut the beef) add 2 table spoon of flour, coat the meat, return the onions, celery & bacon to the pan, add the garlic.

raise the heat to high, pour in the red wine, (10 fl oz / 300 ml), stirring to scrape up any browned bits from the pot bottom. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the liquid is reduced, (3-5 min) Add some tomato (I used two small, cut up)

You can use the big pot from the beginning, or transfer to the slow cooker, add the beef stock (16 fl oz / 500ml)

Add some potatoes, carrots, turnips, anything goes with the stew, put bay leaves, some herbs like thyme, sage, etc..

cook for 4 hours high with slow cooker, or if you are using stove top, one hour and half or so in low heat.

Season with salt and pepper and one table spoon of ketchup and Worcestershire sauce. (if you like)

The meat will be tender, and very sophisticated taste!

Too bad that I forgot to take a serving photo.

Marie Kondo's closet makeover!

Marie Kondo is a very famous tidy up specialist in Japan. She published a book in Europe and the United States and became popular too.

I read her book in Japanese once.

Her method is, instead of folding up your shirts and piling up,  roll your t-shirts and pants in the drawer and display so that it's easy to see what you have.

Before you do that, you need to take out what you have and re-organize. You might need to throw away worn out stuff.

I tried with my drawer a month ago and it's working good, so I did to my son's and daughter's drawer too.

I hope the inside of the drawer will look this way for a while.. It worth reading her book if you are serious about tiding up your house!

Slow Cooker Season!

Working at night, kid's sports practice at night.. Busy parent's great helper, "Slow Cooker".

When I was little, I read Ramona's series and that appeared every now and then. Slow cooker isn't used very much in Japan, even though almost every household own a rice cooker.  Anyway,  I have been pretty busy because I started doing waitressing at night few nights a week and I have been using slow cooker quite often lately.

I made beef stew,

I forgot to get red wine so I used sake. beef taco meat,

pulled back pork,

baby back pork ribs,

shoulder pork ribs

etc..

One time, somehow the glass lid broke but I carefully removed the lid and no glass was in there (Thank god) since then, I'm using other stainless lid from other pot I have.

Even the cheap hard beef or pork will be tender and delicious!

Feeling Vortex at Sedona!

Sedona in Arizona is very popular among spiritual people. It's very popular among Japanese. Since I heard of Sedona, I wanted to go there for a long time but didn't because of the long drive, 7 hours drive from Los Angeles!

Sedona is famous for Vortex. I wanted feel the Vortex, and wondering what is vortex. I don't know if I felt it or not, I really liked  the view of Sedona red rocks and hiking.

There are 4 vortex spot in Sedona.

1) Airport Mesa

This place was near we stayed. Very easy to hike up, the parking was full always.

2) Cathedral Rock (Picture from the Airport Mesa)

Don't use map app on your iPhone! We drove to wrong place for the trail head. I saw somebody was also got  wrong way using the app. Easy up to the middle, harder to the top. My 4 year old (then) daughter couldn't make it but My son (9 then) and I went up half way to the top. My husband stayed with our daughter.

3) Bell Rock
We couldn't go this time, since I read a little hard hike for the little kids.

4) Boynton Canyon
Right next to the Enchantment Resort. You could see their parking spot and resort while you are hiking.. we didn't check the map before we hiked and missed the view point. We encountered the "Heart Man" who gives you heart rocks. We were so lucky! Thank you Heart Man!!

Did I feel the vortex??

Maybe and maybe not. I surely enjoyed the view and atmosphere.

We ate at those places.

• Famous Pizza azfamouspizza.com

Easy & Casual dinner after the long drive!

• Coffee Pot Restaurant coffeepotsedona.co

Very busy! Nice breakfast spot. Great atmosphere and glad we found here.

• Olde Sedona Bar & Grill oldesedona.com

We settled finally after a few places we tried to go were closed.. It was OK..

• The Mesa Grill mesagrillsedona.com

Right near we stayed so we walked for the breakfast. Very trendy and sophisticated. We should have checked out their happy hours!

We also brought some cup noodle with us and ate at our room one night to save money.

We went into the jewelry store right next to the Olde Sedona Bar & Grill. I like to see crystals and power stones, but their price was pretty high and we were the only customer. The guy in there was very friendly and I bought a heart shaped pendant head for my daughter and gave her a free string to make it a necklace. The guy explained this rock is good for this and that and one of them is good for nightmare. (Black turmaline) My son suffers from nightmare every now and then so we bought that too. My son said the stone really works.

We stayed at Sky Ranch Lodge www.skyranchlodge.com
Very convenient place. Close to Airport Mesa, Mesa Grill, great view, reasonable place to stay.

I want to visit there again in spring or fall which is the best season to go!

What I buy at Trader Joe's

You shouldn't go to Trader Joe's on weekends. It's so crowded especially before the dinner time. I had to go there 4 weekends in a row, and I happened to choose a very slow line.

I go to Trader Joe's at least once a week. I usually buy

• Unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• Organic unsweetened soy milk (Whenever I see the expiration day, it seems so far ahead but the time comes fast)
• Half and half coffee milk
• Cage free eggs,
• Bacon (Nitrite Free)
• Refried bean
• Himalayan pink salt
• Black pepper
• Greeting cards 
• Spaghetti sauce
• Pasta
• Bagel
• Cookies
• Coffee

I mean, I could say 30% of my body made out of TJ products. I would miss Trader Joe's very much if I live somewhere without it!

Before the summer vacation some products such as Himalayan pink salt or eco bags disappear from Trader Joe's. Japanese people buy for the souvenirs, I saw them buying with boxes. About 10 years ago, their eco bag used to be sold Japanese version of Ebay with price as much as 10 to 20 times more, maybe still is. I hope TJ won't go to Japan because I won't have anything to bring there for souvenir!

End of the year Cleaning up for good Feng Shui

In Japan, we do "Oosouji" means "massive cleaning up". Maybe similar to spring clean in here.

Dirty spot has a bad "Qi" and people live in the dirty house won't have a good luck.

So from 1st of December, I try to dust off shelves, ceiling fan blades, wipe off dirty spots inside of the shelf doors.. Devote 15 minutes a day to clean up one spot, and hopefully by the end of the year, my house will look clean, and we'll have good luck in next year...

So far, I've done most of the dusting off done. There were a lot of dust, I know I need to do this at least once every month or so, but I wouldn't do it.

I was surprised when I saw a cleaning lady coming to my host family's house cleaning kitchen. I thought they must be really rich since in Japan, we don't see many people hiring maid to clean their house unless they are really rich. Later on, I learned in here middle income people casually hire maid to clean their house. I guess it's getting common in Japan too, especially when they clean inside of  air conditioner.

We once ordered maid service once. It cost nearly $300!! My husband signed up, and I tried to stop it but that was when my daughter was around 1 year old and I was exhausted..

Well, I have done a lot already for cleaning up, I need to clean door, windows, and bathroom tomorrow!

I could have this using that $300. I hope the clean house will bring better money luck for next year.

Asian Party Dish, Nabe

Are you ready for the holiday? It's getting chilly out, For a lot of us, Japanese, (or Asian), it's time to enjoy Nabe. We cook vegetable and meat, fish on a table and dip on a favorite sauce. Once you prepare ingredients, you can cook as you eat, sitting around the table, we would take turn to cook, serve, and eat with favorite drink such as sake. I recently enjoyed Thai style nabe. The recipe is for about 4 people.

Ingredients are simple. You'll need half of a whole Chinese cabbage, green onion, next to Chinese cabbage is called "Shungiku" (garland chrysanthemum) You can find those vegetable at Asian market, but you can skip some ingredients if you can't find them.

On this Thai Nabe, I used Cilantro, if you have Asian market near you, you can buy Shirataki (konnyaku noodles), Enoki mushroom, and Tofu (may be you can get all over nowadays).

Chop all vegetables/tofu into bitable size, boil over konnyaku noodles and chop.

For meat and fishes, thin sliced meet (beef in pic and shrimp devined and peeled or any kind of fish or meat as you like. I added fish ball, and made some shrimp wan ton.

Make dipping sauce. For Thai dip sauce, you'll need
6 table spoon lemon juice
6 table spoon fish sauce
2 tea spoon sugar
1 or 2 clove of garlic, chopped
5 stems of cilantro, chopped

Just mix them.

For Japanese nabe, you can use ponzu (soy sauce plus some lemon juice) for the dipping sauce.

You can add chopped cilantro, garlic, and Chinese chili sauce on your dipping sauce as you like.

On a portable stove on the table you are gathering at, put a pot, you can use usual pot.
The soup is one litter of chicken broth, chopped lemon grass stem, and cilantro stems.

For usual Japanese nabe, we would use kelp broth (a 1 inch square dry kelp with about an litter of water) with a few table spoon of soy sauce, sake, and so on.

You don't need to make it salty since you'll dip the food to your dipping sauce later.

Put a lid and wait for boiling soup..

Once the broth is boiled, put tofu, shirataki, Chinese cabbage, green onions, fish ball, but not the meat or fish.You don't have to put all the meat, or vegetable at once. cook as you eat.

Add some meat and fish to the boiling pot. put lid and wait for a while.

It's cooked! Add soup on nabe when it seems little low later on before you add more vegetable or meat. you can add some water since it's already flavorful.

Serve on individual bowl and eat with dipping sauce and topping.

After you scoop up all the meat and vegetable, add some cooked Udon noodle or cooked rice and boil and serve. This is called Shime in Japanese. (means finishing up)

This burner is handy for camping too!

This is similar to what I have.


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