Cooking as a Husband: My Rookie Dishes: Teriyaki Chicken and Pork Belly

My wife is a wonderful cook, and I occasionally feature her dishes on this blog.

However, I had to say that I am totally new to cooking, and I should start learning.

Here are the two pictures of the dishes I cooked for the first couple of times:

Salted Pork Belly (butabara)

The first picture features salted fried pork belly and miso soup.
If you have a good bottle of garlic salt and pepper, you can make the port belly taste wonderful.

Teriyaki Chicken and Avocado

The second one is teriyaki chicken and avocado.
Teriyaki chicken is actually extremely easy to make.
All you need is chicken and couple of spoons of soy sauce.
While frying your chicken piece (breast or not), use a little soy sauce and spread on top of chicken.
This would give you the brown color.
Then, spread the garlic salt and pepper and other spice you like.

Then, after 5 minutes, you have the teriyaki chicken bowl.

Product Review: Trader Joe's 4 Croissants

In January, we got this from Trader Joe's.  4 Chocolate Croissants.

Trader Joe's Croissants

It was interesting because you need to take them out of the box, leave them out overnight, and they will "grow" bigger after you wake up.  Sounds funny....but it is interesting.

Here is the pictures of them.

Then, you baked them...
Then, we get the breakfast with croissants...they are absolutely delicious!!!!
They taste better than a lot of croissant outside and do not cost you 2 dollars per croissant.

Thanksgiving Dinner 2012 with Turkey

My wife cooks turkeys every year for Thanksgiving even though we only have 4 people in our family.

This year, too, we had turkey for Thanksgiving dinner.

Thanksgiving dinner 2012

Here is our dinner that we had:  Turkey, Spam Sushi, fries, macaroni, salads, Swedish meatball and sauces.

They were delicious as always!!  We need to get a turkey dish soon...

Old El Paso Taco Dinner Kit

They were giving away free Elso Paso Taco Dinner Kit on the coupon site, save.ca in the summer.

We went to get the free taco box, and my wife made the taco dinner:

Old El Paso Hard Taco

It is tasty but of course, you have make the inside.

Taco dinner

It was delicious along with fries and broccoli!

Product Review: Country Oven Onion Hamburger Buns

The large economy of the United States allows it to have all kind of selections for all products.
Not only for clothing and cheese, but also for bread and hamburger buns.

Here is the Country Oven Onion Hamburger Buns I bought last weekend:

Country Oven Onion Hamburger Buns

It does have tastes and scents of onions. 
With cheese and beef patty, it can be a great tasting, unique burger to enjoy.
Here is a picture for the burgers my wife made:

Country Oven Onion Hamburger

The best thing is that the supermarkets have good deals for the loaves.
For example, two loaves for 4 dollars.

It is hard to get deals of the same choices in Canada.
In the states, you have different kinds of bread such as potato bread, rye bread, butter milk bread.
We only have white bread and grain breads....not much selections.

Bento Lunch Box: Port Belly Egg Wrap (Slices)

Another one creative idea from my wife:
For today's lunch box, she wrapped a cooked egg with seasoned pork belly meat and sliced them.

I am not sure how she keep them sticking together so well, but they are delicious.

If you are wondering what is on the rice, it is cooked chicken liver.
For some people or cultures, you will think "yuck".
However, if you are used to eating it, it is quite a delicacy and very nutritious.

I enjoyed today's lunch as usual!  Thanks to my wife.

bento Lunch Box: Omuraisu (Omelette Rice) with Gratin

Gratin is a French cuisine that is very popular in Japan and various style exists.
It is a local food from the Dauphine region of France and traditionally, there are 4 french styles exists.

Omuraisu, meaning Omelette Rice in Japanese, is very popular as well!
It can be seen in any western style restaurant in Japan and has become a set menu.

My wife has combined the two in my lunch box today (without the egg).

She mixed in different kinds of cheese in the gratin, and it was absolutely delicious.
The omuraisu contains mixed vegetables and slices of ham.
My co-workers kept staring at my lunch box as usual...

Too bad only my lunch boxes grab attention, not me...haha

Bento Lunch Box: Curry Croquette with Mexican Four Cheese

My wife made a croquette lunch box today.

The croquette is made of mashed potatoes and a type of cheese called, "Mexcian Four Cheese".
You can buy this type of cheese in any major supermarket in the US.
The one we bought is made by Kraft.
Curry croquette tastes wonderful with the mixed cheese. (I can see different colors of cheese inside, too!)
The tastes mixed together quite well.

Bento Lunch Box Curry Croquette with Mexican Four Cheese

On the rice, it has the Japanese sprinkle seaweed and Nori (cut seaweed) and Taiwanese Bamboo Shoot pieces.  On the side, we have scrambled eggs and broccoli.  On the Curry Croquette, she used "Okonomiyaki" sauce (Japanese pancake) sauce for extra taste.

Happy Father's Day: My Father's Day Card

Happy Father's Day!! Everyone!
This year, I received a Father's Day card from my 3 year-old.  I felt very warm and happy receiving that card.

first father's day card

It was my first Father's Day card from my son!
My wife also made great dishes for me, which I felt very grateful for that.

She prepared crackers with caviar, chicken cream macaroni, ketchup macaroni, mahi mahi fish steak and Thai green chicken curry.

caviar on cracker, macaroni, thai green curry

I don't eat caviar often....more like 3rd time in my life eating it, so I enjoyed it.
All other dishes, including the curry was absolutely delicious!
I love mahi mahi fish!

I also went to the Toys R Us event at noon with my kids and built two Lego racing cars.
It is a great free event with kids and I will upload the photos later.

Trader Joe's Uncooked Chicken Breakfast Sausage

The other day, while I was at Trader Joe's, we bought this pack of "uncooked chicken breakfast sausage".
First, I thought, "oh gee I don't know.  It is uncooked and I wonder how good it can be."
We bought it and tried it next morning.  It was very good and delicious without any unpleasant taste!

trader joe's uncooked chicken breakfast sausage

Another of our food adventure.

Bento Lunch Box: Chicken Cheese Sushi Roll

My wife made this creative "chicken cheese roll bento".
First, she cut the chicken breast meat into small pieces.
Then, just like rolling a sushi roll.  She put the cheese stick in the center of the chicken meat spread and rolled.
The end product is as the following:

lunch box: chicken cheese sushi roll

The cheese in the center might be hard to see because of the brightness of the picture but it was delicious.

Bento Lunch Box: Asparagus Wrapped by Meat Patty

My wife created a second version of asparagus lunch bento.

This time, she made a long meat patty roll and inside, she put asparagus in the roll.
Once the meat patty roll is cooked, she cut it into 6 pieces evenly, just like sushi rolls.

It taste good with rice and veggies on the side!

Bento Lunch Box: Garlic Mayonnaise Shrimp

Here is one lunch box I did not upload for a while.

In the picture:  Japanese fried rice with dried seaweed, garlic mayonnaise shrimps, broccoli, egg and chicken.
Excellent taste!

Valentine's Day 2011: Moules Marinières, Cheese Cake & Card

 We like occasions and celebrations.  (I know it is already late for this topic.)
My wife usually spends lots of effort cooking for these celebrations and occasions.

(of course, I enjoy eating them...haha)
She cooked for me this Valentine's Day and prepared a Valentine's cake.

moules marinières and sirloin steak

Menu:  Moules Marinières (French Mussels steamed in white wine and garlic), top sirloin steak, fries and broccoli cream soup.

The moules marinières is just magic, absolutely delicious without a doubt.
We had this dish in Paris, so it always brings out the good memories.

The sirloin steak also taste great with customed spices and sauce.
(She likes to experiment with different mix of spices and sauces, just like a magician.)

The Valentine cheese cake is very cute with "LOVE" and a smile, too.  It tasted great!

We also exchanged couple of cute cards with cute messages and thoughtful gifts.

With two kids, the day was busy, but I thought it was a good meaningful Valentine's Day for us.

Fred Meyer: Pillsbury cake mix and cream & Chocolate Cupcake

US has many products that Canadians don't have access to.
They have more varieties for every kind of product, clothing, tools, electronics, you name it.

Even for vegetables, sauces and baking goods, they have more varieties.

We found a few Pillsbury products that we have never seen in BC, Canada:

We found cake mix and several flavors of creams and brought them back to make cupcakes!
They were delicious especially because my wife put Lindt Chocolate inside.  Yummy!

We found the silicone foot stands in TJ Maxx for a good deal.

Bento Lunch Box: Shrimp Tempura & Seaweed Egg Wrap

This week, my wife has another creative arrangement for my lunch box:

Shrimp Tempura with Seaweed Egg Wrap.

As you can see, the egg rolls have seaweeds within them.
Seaweed is a very important part of the Japanese diet.
Not only it is an important part of the food culture (because it is an island nation),
It is very healthy.

There are all kinds of seaweed dishes that oriental cultures enjoy.
To enjoy seafood, you have to enjoy both the plants and the fish stocks.

Now, the oriental people usually enjoy eating all kinds of seaweed.
For people from other cultures, they don't enjoy it because they are not used to the taste.

Just like spice tea, I did not grow up to drink it, so I am not used to it at all.
I grow up drinking all kinds of oriental tea:  Pu-er, green tea, sencha, oolong, etc.
It was a part of life.  It is kind of funny to hear comments such as "it is bitter".
Well, the English tea is bitter, too, without sugar, but I enjoy it.

Creative Cooking: Onion Ring Port Patty

My wife tries all kinds of creative cooking mixing different ideas and cultures all the time.
This time, I don't know what I should call this dish.  :)
Onion Ring Pork Patty?  haha...

We also bought new Corelle dish.

The onion ring is prepared by cutting the center of the onion out.
Then, pork patty is put in with seasoning on the top.
The pork is prepared the same way as you prepare a hamburger patty.

Well, I assume most people would have bought their hamburgers from the frozen section of the supermarket.

Obviously, that will not work here.
 However, this is an easy dish to make with simple ingredients.

Japanese Day for Kids: 7, 5, 3 and Thomas Cake

In Japan, there is a festival, a day for celebration for kids that turns 7, 5 and 3 years old.

I bought a Thomas the Tank Engine Cake from a local Coquitlam bakery for my son.

I am always amazed at the cake nowdays and how lucky the kids now are.

My son, me and my family all enjoyed the cake (can choose whipped cream and all ingredients when I ordered).
The cake even come with a Real Thomas!!
The bakery, Inno Bakery, actually allows its customers to order cake to different theme and sizes.
(Cost is around 30 dollars Canadian, reasonable for its quality without too much sugar.)

I tried to avoid sugary cakes sold at chain supermarket!  They are just filled with sugar and icing.

www.innobakery.com

Bento Lunch Box: Creative Tempura Combo

My wife made a really creative tempura combo box today, which included several kinds of Japanese tempura.
There are 4 kinds of tempura in this picture:
Tempura Chicken, tempura asparagus, tempura cheese and tempura okra.
When it is warm, the tempura cheese melts in your mouth and is absolutely delicious.

The good thing with tempura is that as long as you have the tempura mix, you can experiment on what you want to wrap.  One can also put different kind of cheese in the middle for different tastes.

Now, depending on your taste and the culture background, you might find these more or less tasty and acceptable.

The picture above also includes salted sesame rice, scrambled egg with chive and broccoli.

Bento Lunch Box: Asparagus Pork Roll

I haven't been uploading my daily bento box that my wife made and I should do that more often.
Here is one themed bento with asparagus rolls.  The outer layer is made of "butabara", meaning pork belly in Japanese. 

The asparagus is steamed first, then it is wrapped in raw sliced pork.
Next, the roll is fried with salt and pepper for seasoned taste.
The picture does not look that good because it is from my cellphone.
However, the dish tastes excellent!! yum!