What's for Dinner : Nabemono

Photo credit: www.panningtheglobe.com

Tonight I'm cooking a traditional Japanese dish called Nabemono. The word literally means "Cooked things".  I really love this style of cooking because it's not only tasty, it's also delicious and fun! You basically take  various vegetables, seafood, and meat of your liking and cook them together in a communal pot with broth. Over the course of the meal the broth becomes infused with lots of flavor from the cooking items and you can then cook rice in the broth to make a rice porridge. Here is a good basic Nabemono recipe along with some more info if you feel like trying it!

Nabemono Recipe 

 Fun Fact: Chankonabe which is a type of nabemono, was originally eaten in large quantities by Sumo wrestlers to help them gain weight.
 

 Common ingredients for Nabemono

Update in Photos

Hooray! Fresh Photo update!

Stacks of applications for my Spring Show line up.

New cozy cabled fingerless mitts I made up this winter, super happy with the result

(Pattern is here for any of you knitters who want to make these lovelies! )

My design sketch book, always open, always a mess.

Say hello to my new flip book pattern pendant! It's like 3 necklaces in one, actually it IS 3 necklaces in one :)

New Japanese Yukata fabric bracelet design. Totally love this one, you can purchase it here in the Shop!

The BEST Chocolate chip cookies that I made tonight. They seem pretty happy next to Mt. Fuji don't you think?

I'm Sharing this recipe with you all because it's really that good!

Ingredients:

1 Cup butter, softened (50 sec. in the microwave usually does it)

1 Cup white sugar

1 Cup packed brown sugar

2 Eggs

2 Tsp. vanilla extract

3 Cups all purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. hot water

1/2 tsp salt

2 Cups semi sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1)Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C)

2) Cream together butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in vanilla. Dissolve baking soda in the hot water ( I usually just pour the baking soda into the batter then add the hot water overtop and stir together). Add salt. Stir in flour and mix thoroughly.

3) Fold in chocolate chips until evenly distributed through batter.

4) Drop by spoonful onto ungreased cookie sheet and bake for about 10 min. or until edges are just barely browned.

ENJOY!

4th of July sweets

Hi everyone! I stumbled on this amazing little shop on 1000 markets today and just wanted to share! The shop is called Have It Sweet and they make the most beautiful sweets! This is a photo of their Neopolitan Marshmallows, yum! I did some poking around and found a great recipe on Smitten Kitchen for homemade marshmallows that I thought would be perfect for 4th of July roasting. I'm not sure if I'll get around to it by then but you all are welcome to try it!

Here is the link to the recipe page or here is just the recipe:

Springy, Fluffy Marshmallows 
Adapted from Gourmet, December 1998
These homemade marshmallows are not only easy to make, they set as perfectly as promised: puffed and lightweight, bouncing off one another as I tossed them in the container. Even better, they toasted like a campfire charm speared on the end of a skewer, and s’mooshed between two graham crackers with a square of chocolate.
Makes about 96 1-inch cubed marshmallows
About 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
3 1/2 envelopes (2 tablespoons plus 2 1/2 teaspoons) unflavored gelatin
1 cup cold water, divided
2 cups granulated sugar (cane sugar worked just fine)
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large egg whites or reconstituted powdered egg whites
1 tablespoon vanilla (alternately: 1/2 of a scraped vanilla bean, 2 teaspoons almond or mint extract or maybe even some food coloring for tinting)
Oil bottom and sides of a 13- by 9- by 2-inch rectangular metal baking pan and dust bottom and sides with some confectioners’ sugar.
In bowl of a standing electric mixer or in a large bowl sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup cold cold water, and let stand to soften.
In a 3-quart heavy saucepan cook granulated sugar, corn syrup, second 1/2 cup of cold water, and salt over low heat, stirring with a wooden spoon, until sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to moderate and boil mixture, without stirring, until a candy or digital thermometer registers 240°F, about 12 minutes. Remove pan from heat and pour sugar mixture over gelatin mixture, stirring until gelatin is dissolved.
With standing or a hand-held electric mixer beat mixture on high speed until white, thick, and nearly tripled in volume, about six minutes if using standing mixer or about 10 minutes if using hand-held mixer. (Some reviewers felt this took even longer with a hand mixer, but still eventually whipped up nicely.)
In separate medium bowl with cleaned beaters beat egg whites (or reconstituted powdered whites) until they just hold stiff peaks. Beat whites and vanilla (or your choice of flavoring) into sugar mixture until just combined. Pour mixture into baking pan and don’t fret if you don’t get it all out (learning from my mess of a first round). Sift 1/4 cup confectioners sugar evenly over top. Chill marshmallow, uncovered, until firm, at least three hours, and up to one day.
Run a thin knife around edges of pan and invert pan onto a large cutting board. Lifting up one corner of inverted pan, with fingers loosen marshmallow and ease onto cutting board. With a large knife trim edges of marshmallow and cut marshmallow into roughly one-inch cubes. (An oiled pizza cutter works well here too.) Sift remaining confectioners’ sugar back into your now-empty baking pan, and roll the marshmallows through it, on all six sides, before shaking off the excess and packing them away.
Do ahead: Marshmallows keep in an airtight container at cool room temperature 1 week.

Garden Fresh Dinner

Tonight I fixed the first dish that used vegetables from the garden! I was so excited. The baby spinach was ready so I made tomato and spinach toasts which are super healthy, super delicious, and quick! The fresh spinach tasted so much better than what I buy at the store! 

Here is my recipe if you want to try it sometime:

Tomato and Spinach Toast

Ingredients:

- 1 cup sliced grape tomatoes

- 1/2 cup minced onion

- 2 cups baby spinach

- Garlic (however much you like!)

-Garlic salt

- 2 tbls. butter (non-dairy for me)

-Italian herbs for taste

- 4 pieces of toast

Directions:

1) saute onion and garlic with butter on medium high heat until onions begin to caramelize.

2) Add tomatoes and garlic salt,  cook on medium heat for 3 - 4 min.

3) Toss in spinach and stir/ saute for another 3 min or until spinach shrinks and becomes  dark green.

4) Divide into four and serve hot over crisp toast. Enjoy!