Cereal, French Toast, Miracle

Sometimes you just miss the old country. Today was one of those days. So, I decided to reward myself in advance for all the cleaning I'm about to do.

I swear those eggs looked better in real life.

Possibly the only brand of cereal in all of Shimabara. It says "corn flakes." Apparently it's also good in salad. Nifty.

Martin

J'aime 昼飯

Lunch. Brie, apples, and tofu. Makes me feel very French for some reason despite the tofu and lack of baguette.

xo, Kristin

I bread to differ

First, I want to mention that this week is my "no carbs challenge!" week. I am abstaining from bread, baked goods, pasta, etc. Any kind of simple carb you can think of (even beer! D:). I started yesterday and will go all the way until Sunday when I will finally break my sad fast at my friend's Octoberfest party. Woohoo, beer and bratwurst on buns!!

Also, like Martin, I am a throw things in the pan kinda person. Therefore, tonight's dinner:

xo, Kristin

A Touching Story for All Ages

The other day I was at the supermarket, and there was a saleswoman trying to sell some sauce and noodles or something. And, suddenly, she called me over (!).

 I was very touched because it must have been scary for her to talk to a random foreigner who may or may not speak Japanese. But she did because she's very nice and she wanted my money.

 Long story short, we had a nice chat, and she showed me how to make food with the above-mentioned sauce and noodles. I felt joyful then so I bought them. And now I make them at home and it's delicious ever after.

 Don't laugh at the noodle-vegetable ration, 'kay? It tasted fine.

Martin

(Pie)ce of my heart

Kristin thinks she's so housewife-cool with her instagramed pie shots. Get out of town, gurl. I whipped this baby up with only a cake pan and a microwave. And a little love.

How about a Pie Throwdown next time we hit the lake?

Martin

Stir Fry Me to the Moon

So here's the deal. I'm obsessed with stir frying. You buy whatever the you want, put it on the stove, and BAM. It's fool-proof delicious. I love throwing stuff in the hot pan (no measuring), smelling my genius cooking, and feeling like a chef. Several of many minor variations below:

The basic blend: veggies with meat n' tofu. Martin's Kitchen Secrets #1: salt and pepper (and I think here some soy sauce and sugar) make everything good.

This is from the website "The Stone Soup," which provides easy and healthy recipes for the incompetent. It's zucchini and beef with some yuzu something substituted for the lemon. 

 Getting feisty here with some tumeric, chili powder, and cumin.

God I hate chopping. But I love when it looks profesh.

Martin

3, 2, 1... FOOD!

I've been wanting to eat healthier, and so I've been trying out new foods. This week I've tried my hand at baked butternut squash from the gardens, onion and garlic turkey burgers made from ground turkey and croutons I found in the dorm's communal food cabinet, and concord grapes.

I had never had concord grapes before, but I always wanted to try then. I've always wondered where grape juice and popsicles get there "grape flavor" from, since they taste nothing like traditional red/ green grapes!

Well that's the flavor of concord grapes. My first time biting into one, I thought I was eating a gummy candy. They have exactly the flavor and texture of grape fruit snacks. So odd! Love it though ♡

xo, Kristin

Cake-tastrophy ??

This weekend I celebrated my grandpa's birthday with my family. I decided it would be fun to make a cake from scratch, and so I tried out the really chocolate-y recipe from the back of the Hershey's cocoa box.

I thought things were going well until the cake deflated, wouldn't come out of the cake pan, and then finally cracked down the middle. Turns out the baking powder was expired. Whoops.

But in the way things work out sometimes, what I thought would be a hot mess turned out to be a delicious chocolate delight ☆♪

xo, Kristin

surPIES!

Pie is just a gift from heaven. I made 3 apple pies today. Two are a surprise for my ex-cross country team, since they have their first meet of the season tomorrow. One was for me to eat with friends. I'm considering eating less carbs. Goodbye pies...

Rating: 10/10 (Who can go wrong with apple pie??)
Total Time: 1hr 15 mins total
Difficulty: 3/10

Also, check out my friend's food blog! Her blog, Eat The Impossible, addresses allergy friendly recipes!

Kristin

Lets be fruity

It's berry season! To commemorate this, I've been eating boatloads of strawberries, and enjoying homegrown raspberries and black berries.

The other day I tried my skill at making perfect oatmeal pancakes. They turned out really good. I topped them off with real maple syrup and some store-bought fresh raspberries. Great and filling breakfast!

Rating: 9/10
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Difficulty: 5/10

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yesterday, a friend that used to live in the grad house dropped off some peaches from the peach tree in her new backyard. I couldn't believe how much fruit this tree produced. There must've been at least 50 peaches in the bag she brought to us, and she said that wasn't even half. Since they were getting ripe fast, and I was a bit skeptical about biting into the peaches, which were topographically not-so-pretty, I decided to make a peach pie.

It's probably a good thing I didn't eat them raw because I found a couple worms while slicing up one of the peaches. I guess that's what you can expect from a back yard peach tree.

It was my first time making a fruit pie with peaches, and so I was kind of nervous at first, but I made it just as I would make an apple pie and it turned out great! I decided to skip any kind of lattice crust because the crust is the best part, and I want to eat a lot of it. Duh! The pie is vegan and uses an oil crust recipe passed along from grandma.

I like this picture because the pie looks like a face going :O

Rating: 9.5/10
Total Time: 1.5 hours
Difficulty: 5/10

Can't wait for apple season. There will be MANY more pies to come.

Kristin

No Fridge No Problem

It's official! I have ordered my new fridge and it's on its way. At first my supervisor couldn't figure out why I wanted a bright orange fridge, but now she's jealous of how superficially quirky I am (she told someone so!).

Anyway, the intervening period has not been totally devoid of self-cooked food. It just might not have been the best food. The need to cook started when I was looking at pictures of french toast, and had a minor breakdown. I wanted it SO BAD. Just not 6 eggs and a carton of milk's worth of it.

My solution was to go to the supermarket, buy individual sized portions of various vegetables and nonperishable items, cook them all together in a pan, add some soy sauce, sugar, and mirin, and voila! The best tasting pile of vomit I've ever eaten.

Taste: 7/10 (can't go wrong with onions, garlic, mushrooms, and beef)
Difficulty: 3/10 (looks terrible, but was very easy and just my size. Maybe should've made some rice for it to go on top of....)
 
Next one up is all thanks to Jen Graham. She passed along a recipe for cup brownies you can make in the microwave. I kept it slightly undercooked cuz that's the way I like it uh huh uh huh.

Taste 10/10 (When I get my fridge I'll add ice cream!)
Difficulty 2/10

As a side note, through the brownie-making process I learned my microwave is also an oven. So much cake in my future. So many feelings to eat.

Martin