i love ramen

here's a little video of my new favorite ramen shop in shizuoka!

pastries in japan

we love eating pastries in japan. i don't know if it's a french influence they have or what, but everything is so fresh and so amazingly delicious. we walk from our hotel via the underground railways to matsuzakaya department store every night to pick up fresh pastries. the lower level of department stores in japan are dedicated to food counters and we can never pass up the bread shop.

just one of the many counters in the lower level

this pic was taken mid morning...
if the pic was taken around 6pm you would see nothing but people

erica vs. man

my 'epicurious in theory' middle child, who is obsessed with food network (but eats nothing but pizza, chicken nuggets and eggo waffles) and i somehow got hooked on watching man vs. food recently. now, this guy is completely annoying to me...there's something very reminiscent about high school in his demeanor, but none the less we can't seem to change the channel whenever we come across his show.

we definitely have always enjoyed competitive eating programs...we get hooked on them when we visit japan. our latest obsession is with gyaru sone an absolutely adorable japanese girl who can seriously eat. so being inspired by sone san's eating abilities i decided i would love to attempt all the food challenges that 'man' failed in man vs. food and see if i could beat even one of them. if there's any chance at all it'll be in the egg category i think. i'm not sure when all this is going to happen, but i'll keep you posted if i attempt any of the challenges...and expect video.

steamed bread

my host mom, zola, made this bread one evening. it was one of the best things i ate while in south africa. my host mom is only like 3 or 4 years older than me, so we were more like sisters. i have no idea how she made this bread other than it was in a pot that was in another pot with water and it was steamed on the stove. i sooooooo wish i had been there when she made it, but it was just finished when i got home one day. so, we ate slices of it nice and warm and fresh.

ceviche monterrico

ceviche!

after a looooooooong drive from tikal...back to guatemala city for a night...then to monterrico...we found a quaint little place to spend the night right on the beach with a 'restaurant' that served amazing ceviche. these bowls were huge! i think i maybe finished half...all the seafood was so fresh it could have only been caught that day. it just goes to show that sometimes the best food you'll ever eat can't be found in posh little restaurants in the city. you have to stay in a place with no locks on the door and mosquito nets, where most people pass out on hammocks 50 yards from the waves.

superbowl 2010

so...what do the zizak's eat on superbowl sunday? do you need to ask? mexican food of course! we do live in california people (says johnny). anyway, it's easy to make and economical and you can make a ton and have it turn out as delicious as if you make it for a party of one. that doesn't mean we have a ton of people over, of course. my superbowl philosophy...love it...love football...could care less about the parties...i'll cook all day and drink all day and pig out all day and enjoy the game, but i will not go hang out at other people's houses with a bunch of people i do not know and have no desire to hang out with...but anyone who knows me knows they are always welcome to stop by here and if you want to invite us and only us or us and people we know over...we'd love to spend time with you :)

back to the food...i think that's what this blog is supposed to be about. being a sunday we don't eat breakfast until after church, which ends up being brunch or lunch. today we opted for brunch and it consisted of pillsbury cinnamon rolls and milk...five satisfied customers, which is great for the short order cook (usually me, sometimes johnny). mid afternoon snack involved another instant and easy pleaser...blue corn chips with melted cheese...a.k.a. nachos...only 1 minute in the microwave. and for dinner...drum rolls please...homemade tamales, homemade guatemalan black beans and an attempt at spanish rice. i'm full from brunch and snack, but i'm definitely drooling thinking about supper...will the colts hurry up and win, so we can get to the pigging out?

i will say that i had a blast cooking today, while watching the game. this was my second time making homemade tamales and i had some feedback from the first time and some tweaking of my own that i wanted to implement. the two things that i really wanted to focus on were the masa consistency/spreadability and the amount of meat in each tamale. last time i had trouble spreading the masa, so i thought i should try and make it a little bit more moist. also, there was feedback that there should be more meat in each tamale for the amount of masa...which i agree with because although i love masa...it shouldn't be the bulk of the tamale...the meat should be.

all the key elements prepared and ready to be assembled

with those two things in mind i went to work. i increased the moisture of the masa, but found that i was having the same problem spreading it onto the corn husk thin enough to create a wide enough disk to increase the amount of meat. then by some random occurrence i started spreading the masa with the heel of my hand versus my fingers and wouldn't you know it the masa spread beautifully! i love discovering new techniques...of course this is probably what all the native tamale makers do, but i'm learning off the internet, so i don't have anyone showing me the best way to make these things. with that discovery increasing the amount of meat per tamale was easy. so, now i'm wondering if i really needed to make the masa more moist or if it was just my spreading technique. i really liked the consistency of the masa in my first batch, so i'll have to make a judgment after i eat some from this batch. anyway, without a doubt a fabulous cooking experience.

the only thing i would change about today is that i worked alone, as everyone else had things they had to get done. i am looking forward to suki growing up and helping me with tamales and teaching her my ever so particular way of doing things.

only 58 tamales this time!

kara's cupcakes

i think what i enjoy most about cooking is watching people eat and enjoy the food i've made. i especially love watching my kids eat...everything from the goofy faces they make when you first put a new flavor of mashed up baby food in their little mouths to how they wolf down one of their favorites without even tasting it...with the intermittent 'tastes good mom'. desserts at restaurants are always fun!...sweets of any kind really.

when we're in san francisco we usually always stop by ghirardelli square because we love chocolate, and it really is a nice little plaza. the last time grandpa zizak visited we treated the kids to some cupcakes at kara's cupcakes. it was an expensive treat, but the cute pics and happy faces were well worth it. cupcakes aren't really something that i have a taste for, so i can't give a taste review...but i will say that they are beautiful and the shop is adorable and with the huge dollop of frosting on top i think anyone with a sweet tooth will find them worthy of their $3.00 a piece price tag. in this picture suki is enjoying her 'vanilla chocolate' cupcake.

kara's cupcakes at ghirardelli square, san francisco

the grape debate

so one of the many 'discussions' suzanne and i had on my last visit was regarding grapes in fruit salad. the issue was whether or not the grapes should be cut in half or kept whole. as you can see in the picture of this gorgeous fruit salad...suzanne's 'keeping the grapes whole' philosophy was clearly in the right. the reason it works so well here is because of the melon baller technique, which i haven't ever used because i don't own a melon baller. so, as it turns out everything looks gorgeous because of the many round pieces of fruit. my fruit salad on the other hand is quite different than this one and i will make it soon, so i can post a picture for everyone to see. in my fruit salad i slice the grapes in half because it drives me crazy when i'm trying to eat the salad and the grapes are rolling all over the place...but this only works if the other fruit is sliced and not balled.

eating with friends

it's gotten to a point now where my friends are so aware of my food picture taking obsession that they always ask if i want to take a picture before we all dig in. here my hilarious friend suzanne has offered me her beautiful pickle vanna white style.

yummiest street tacos ever!

one thing margot learned within hours of our arrival in guatemala was that daniel and i have some not so productive traveling habits in common...it's a form of adhd...just about anything can distract us from getting to the originally planned destination...and we don't have any problem with that or sense of urgency about it whatsoever. so the burden of getting to where we needed to go layed entirely on margot. so, our destination for the first day was the mayan ruins in tikal...how far did we actually get?...oh...about half way. but if it weren't for being half a day behind schedule by the end of the first day we wouldn't have had the pleasure of tasting the yummiest street tacos ever! the magic is in the marinade the meat is soaked in for over a day and the green sauce, which i have no idea how to make...i will definitely try my best to find out how to make this sauce...it's phenomenal.

the nice young man who cooked up these delicious tacos...and his portable grill.

cooking quote April 1st 2007

The discovery of a new dish does more for the happiness of mankind than the discovery of a star.

~Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

Cooking with my friend Anna

On Saturday, my friend Anna and her husband came over for a cook-off. Anna and I share a passion for cooking and eating (not to mention, photography, crafts, gardening, travel...you name it). So, we tried several new recipes and found a couple really good ones. As expected with any first time recipes and meals our timing was a little off, so we had some slightly overcooked items, but everything tasted wonderful, and with a little tweaking I think all the recipes will be incorporated into my rotation. The meal was also very healthy, for those of you who are used to my melted cheese and butter on everything food.

So, here's what we had and I'll make a new post for each recipe, so you can pick and choose. We started off with some Cucumber Ginger Sake Sangria to get us all warmed up for cooking. For dinner we had Couscous Salad, a recipe we found in Everyday Food, and Chicken & Zucchini and Ginger Pineapple Chicken Skewers both recipes found on one of our favorite cooking sites Chocolate & Zucchini. Then for the grand finale dessert we made Chocolate Chile Bread Pudding a recipe I ripped out of the February 2005 issue of Gourmet magazine.

cooking with anna

I have this wonderful friend, Anna, who has been pointing me in the direction of a higher level of cooking. We both love to cook and eat, she has an incredible sweet tooth, which is exciting because I have a feeling I am going to become a much better dessert cook than I have ever been before. So, I want to share two of the fabulous items that Anna sent my way. One is a Thai cook book that is wonderful for beginners because it illustrates all the ingredients, so you can find them in the store. You can find the book on amazon.com and it is called Thai Cuisine Lemon Grass Cookbook by Panurat Poladitmontri and Judy Lew (I am going to order my copy today!) I have always wanted to learn how to cook Thai food and Asian food in general, but it has always been difficult for me to know if I am buying the correct ingredients...this book eliminates that uncertainty. The second item is a great resource for decadent recipes and it is a blog by a Bay Area transplant and techie turned chef. You can check it out at Chocolate&Zucchini and comment on anything you've tried. Anna and I will be trying one of the recipes this weekend for our little weekend get together and I'll let you know how it goes.

Easy Recipes

I've been looking around at other cooking blogs, and found this wonderful one I've listed it under my GOOD COOKS link list to your right. It's called Anne's Food. Her recipes sound delicious and the pictures are gorgeous. I have no idea if the pictures are the actual food she made or from the web. Regardless, I recommend checking out her blog.

My blog recipes are going to seem much more amateur because I really only know how to make the easiest recipes. I'm a mom with three kids; an 11 month old girl, a 4 year old boy and a 10 year old boy. So, I really don't get much of a chance to make anything too elaborate or time consuming at this point. I usually will take a relatively easy recipe, make it once and then tweak it depending on how it turns out. I am also the queen of the crock pot.

So, if you're in the same league of cooking as me, please try my recipes and then make comments on how you would change them to make them yummier or easier. I am always looking for a quick meal that tastes better than a quick meal. I bought Rachael Ray's 365 No Repeats book and tried a couple of the recipes, but even hers are a little much for my situation. I will definitely keep trying her recipes though and report back on what works for the busy family with kids.

I think I'll post a crock pot recipe next! And by the way...for you single guys (or gals) out there who are just learning to cook...a crock pot is probably the best investment for your kitchen you could ever make. So, go out and get one TODAY...they sell them at Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, Walmart...you can get one just about anywhere.