thanksgiving funness

I haven't been blogging much. Bad me. I guess I'm just lazy sometimes, but today I loaded some photos in my camera and realized that I had to blog about our Thanksgiving Day this year!


We went to Utah's Hogle Zoo this Thanksgiving! There was a program called "feast with the beast" where the zookeepers gave the animals Thanksgiving treats! Ok we missed all of the feedings, but we had a great time! John's favorite was still the wolves, and we hiked up high behind the fences and watched the wolves up close!

I really enjoyed watching the tiger, the lion, and the giraffe, and oh the red panda was just so cute. And there's this wild boar looking little creature that was pushing his food dish, stirring his food around, and ignored his friends' stares... too cute, too cute! (OK I'm going to find the actual name of this fun animal.)

We didn't make ham like we usually did, but we did make festive udon noodles and other side dishes. Yummy. So visiting the zoo and making noodles can be the new Thanksgiving tradition?

heart in the coffee

I put my heart in the coffee! I love pouring these hearts in my macchiatos and lattes. It makes me happy to see happiness on people's face when they see the little heart in the cup.

homemade udon

We were going to test different udon soup recipes and were excited about making homemade udon. The problem was that it would have taken 3+ hours to make the udon noodles, so we decided to make the simplified version of it... so instead of continuous kneading and "stumping," we knead the dough some and then rolled it out to cut into pieces.

Anyhow, the soup was yummy. I boiled bonito flakes, drain it, and added pork, spices and miso. The noodles, however, was a bit soft and not as chewy as udon should be.

I'm going to make some real udon noodles soon!

negotiating

We're talking with some property agents about a potential property that we're interested in for another project right now. We actually met with the property owner today and he was a calm and nice guy. There are some points we still need to make sure we address and accomplish, and then we'll know if this is THE property for this project.

dashi maki tamago

Dashi means "soup stock", Maki means "roll", and Tamago means "eggs" in Japanese; and therefore dashi maki tamago literally means "soup stock rolled eggs," or "soup flavored thick Japanese omelette rolls". Sometimes people call these tamagoyaki, where yaki refers to food that's grilled.

Anyhow, John and I love tamagoyaki, and while we were in Japan last time we got two tamagoyaki pans... and yes there are pans that are designed to make these yummy tamago. We got one for the restaurant project, and the other for home use. They are slightly different... the square and copper one is used in commercial settings while the rectangular and teflon one is used in homes.

I have this wonderful recipe that makes the best dashi maki tamago ever. It's better than any tamago I've had in Japanese restaurants.

And here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
6 eggs, beaten
4 fl oz (125cc) dashi stock (Japanese dashi is the best, but I used my own creation)
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sake (optional)
1 tbsp mirin (optional, but it's just so much yummier when you use it.)
1 tbsp vegetable oil for frying

And the techniques on how to properly make a tamagoyaki/dashi maki tamagois a whole new other subject. It somehow tastes better if you make these in a proper pan, but if you'd like to make scrambled eggs with the recipe I think it'll still be yummy.