Super Express 土日曜日 Recap - September 6th

As I write this, it’s still Sunday in the States, but it’s Monday morning here in the land of the rising sun. Which means that I have about 21 minutes to post this before I have to run and get ready for work. I intended to post last night, but then I was distracted by coffee with Bailey’s Irish Cream and The Emperor’s New Groove. The combination proved to be too much for the Form of Productivity and instead I blissfully sought the arms of Morpheus around, oh, 8:45.

So, very quickly, Saturday and Sunday’s Reasons to Be Happy and Grateful

Saturday (土曜日)

Friends and Food, Friends and Food!

I had my first dinner party on Saturday, and at the risk of sounding less than modest, I do believe it went well! This was largely due to the helpful and calming nature of my friends, who not only willingly cut up vegetables, boiled noodles, and entertained each other while the food cooked, but also made sure that my wine glass was filled and that I didn’t take myself too seriously. The Other ALT gets bonus points for letting me borrow her table, her oven, her silverware, her cups, her dishtowels, and her patience. Rocko loses points for calling me a dork because I made a (BEAUTIFUL and BILINGUAL)  menu highlighting the evening’s dishes. Although, I guess we can give him points because he was the primary one cutting up vegetables and keeping my wine glass full. Jyona33, although not physically present, was responsible introducing me to the three guests that really made the party for me, so he gets Causality Points.

Mathematically, this works out to be something like:

4 hours of cleaning + 3 hours of cooking + 17 text messages + 9 phone calls + 2 Dishes I’d Never Made Before but Thank God They Were Delicious Anyway + 9 Awesome Guests + 5 courses + 5 hours of dinner party = 1 Amazing Night and An Infinite Number of Unforgettable Moments and Memories

We will be doing this again very, very soon. Although the theme is probably going to be less Italian and more Japanese. Let’s expand those Cultural Horizons!

Sunday (日曜日)

This was … Return to the Beach Day!! I woke up and felt less than productive (a good theme for a Sunday, I believe), and opted to take myself down to my Happy Place for a little while. It was super warm and sunny, and although the beach was eerily abandoned (with only, like, two families and the concessions stand completely shut down for the season), I had my iPod, some Japanese comics, and a feeling of accomplishment to keep me company. There was also a 6 km run in the evening that made me quite pleased with my lot. Then there was Baileys and a movie, so I do believe that I finished my weekend in a state of beatitude.

Now, I just need to make it through the next six days of work …

“City lights are calling

Slowly coming back to life

Speeding in the fast lane”

[Via http://earthdragonette.wordpress.com]

Pita Breads

Since we’ve been working on the great hummus experiment recently, I’ve been wanting to come up with a good, easy pita recipe (because $2 for 5 pita, while not a terrible price, gets old). Yesterday I did a side by side of two different recipes I found online. The first recipe, a Greek pita recipe, was ok. I used this recipe to make pita chips today, and they turned out quite well. The recipe is repeated here for modification:

1 tablespoon active dry yeast

1 tablespoon of sugar

1/2 cup of warm water

4 cups of bread flour

2 teaspoons of salt

1 cup of warm water

1 tablespoon of olive oil

Proof yeast in 1/2 cup of water, with sugar. Mix dry ingredients, then add the liquid and bring together to form a smooth dough. Let rise until doubled, then knead briefly. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Portion dough out into small amounts-I was able to make about 12, although you could probably get 16 pita easily as well. Roll out to about 1/8″ thick, and place on a greased sheet pan. In the future, I won’t dock the bread, as I’ll be using this for chips, and in that case, pocket pita does work better. Bake for about 3 minutes on the lowest rack of the oven, then flip pita and bake for another 3-4 minutes.

To make chips, cut pita into 8 wedges and brush with oil and lay out single file on a sheet pan. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Sprinkle pita with salt and pepper, and any other herbs or flavorings you care for-in the restaurants around here, zatar seasoning is popular, but it’s up to you. Bake for 6-7 minutes, then flip chips over and bake for another 5-6 minutes, or until golden brown and crispy. These go great with hummus, the cannellini bean dip, or a baba ghanoush.

The second recipe was found here. We both preferred this second recipe as soft pita for simply eating or dipping. Now, neither of us are too keen on the typical pocket pita (aside from the aforementioned chip application), as they tend to be dry and rather styrofoam-like.

Ingredients:

1-1/4 cups milk, warmed

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 cups bread flour.

1-1/2 teaspoons sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoon yeast

Proof yeast in milk with sugar. Mix the remainder of the dry ingredients together, then add the liquid and oil. Bring together, kneading as necessary to form a smooth dough. Let rise until doubled. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Knead dough, and divide into 10-12 small balls. Roll out to 1/4″-1/8″ thick, and let rise for another 30 minutes. Place on a greased sheet pan, and punch down slightly with the knuckles before baking for 4-5 minutes on the bottom rack of the oven.

For the next round of pita I make, I’m going to get some whole wheat flour and substitute about 1/4 to 1/2 a cup of the bread flour for it. Hopefully that will give it some extra bite and and good grain undertone.

[Via http://swordchefs.wordpress.com]

Saturday

We had a nice day today, a good mix of going out and discovering, and staying in and relaxing. We got up early to go to the Farmers’ Markets, where I got these lovely yellow gerberas, which are now brightening up our kitchen while I wait for the tulip buds to open too.

We also made a trip out to the Fyshwick Markets to go to the game butcher. As well as sharing a bag of hot, salty macadamias, we tried a piece of apple from one of the greengrocers, who was standing out the front of his shop shouting his wares at the top of his voice, assuring everyone that his apples were ‘chilli chicken flavour’. It’s nice to see the spirit of the larrikin is alive and kicking.

We had a nice slow afternoon, with a bit of relaxing, a nice walk, and some cooking. We made rocket gnocchi in butter sauce for dinner—so buttery but so good!

And now I’m off to have a bath.

[Via http://lacepetticoat.wordpress.com]

Turkish Delight Truffles

Turkish Delight truffles; well, OK, not really, that is, there’s not rose flavoured jelly inside these sweets, but there is rose flavoured milk chocolate. All thanks to this Rose Water in ‘my’ M&S. The recipe is the same as that for Baileys truffles but added 1 1/2 tsp rose water instead of Baileys.

The finished truffle was dipped in milk chocolate and decorated with a dried cranberry just to give it that red look and a hint of what’s inside. If I was being fancy and knew how, I would have decorated with edible/crystallised rose petals. Maybe that’s not even possible …

[Via http://somesaycocoa.wordpress.com]

Book auctions ... (autographed!)

I have some books left over from my latest speaking engagement and thought I’d see how it would go auctioning them on eBay.  Wanna buy an autographed book? 

  Frozen Assets: Cook for a Day, Eat for a Month http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250493130952     Frugal Living for Dummies(R) http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250493133366     A Simple Choice: A practical guide for saving your time, money & sanity http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250493138633     Mix and Match Recipes: Creative ideas for busy kitchens http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250493136738

[Via http://dsimple.wordpress.com]

Japan's first lady claims being abducted by aliens

Japan’s first lady claims being abducted by aliens.

Japan (日本) might have shown immense faith in Prime Minister-elect Yukio Hatoyama (鳩山由紀夫) by bringing the Democratic Party of Japan in power after 54 years of rule by the Liberal Democratic Party, but first lady Miyuki Hatoyama (鳩山幸) is taking that faith to a whole different level as she claims that she had been abducted by aliens.

Amongst other claims that she has made, as reported by UK newspaper The Independent, the 62-year old has also said that she has travelled to the planet Venus. She also claims to have known Tom Cruise in a former incarnation, when he was Japanese, and is now looking forward to making a Hollywood movie with him.

“While my body was asleep, I think my soul rode on a triangular-shaped UFO and went to Venus,” she explains in the book she published last year.

Yukio Hatoyama is known to be a devoted husband to the lady he met when he was still a graduate student at Stanford University and she was married to someone else.

Miyuki is a lifestyle guru, a macrobiotics enthusiast, a performer, cookery books’ author and a retired actress. She was born as Hatoyama Miyuki, in 1943 Shanghai (in China) which was under Japanese occupation during World War II.

bron: www.hindustantimes.com

[Via http://wocview.wordpress.com]

Perfecting Imperfection...one day at a time

Hello World!

I am happy to finally put my blog into motion and even happier that you decided to drop by, I hope you enjoy it. Throughout the many posts to come I will talk about all the things that I am trying to do better at and the adventures that come with that. To give you an idea of what you can expect, here are some example topics that I love (in no particular order):

life, marriage, love, family, motherhood, children, traveling, photography, eco-friendly, crafts, DIY, baking, cooking, recipes, dance, music, books, freebies, food storage…and the list goes on!

I decided the best way to organize this site is to organize it just like I would my home. At the top of the page you will find a list of different rooms in my family’s home. In each room you will find posts about  products, my thoughts, recipes and anything else going on in that room this week!

If you have any recommendations of fabulous things I should highlight I would love to know them, just leave me a comment. Look forward to hearing from you.

Cheers!

-Labella

[Via http://labellastudios.wordpress.com]