Diet

Since school began, it’s been busy and cannot do much for my hobbies lately. Only thing I have been able to continue is probably my diet. My diet has been showing progress little by little. I cheat my diet menu quite often, so I guess I have been losing my weight so slow. I need to fix this! A few days ago, we bought chips somehow when we went grocery shopping. I didn’t notice A.A. grabbed chips until we got to a cashier. Well, eventually we bought them and we, especially I, have been snacking those. It’s not good!!! I love Sun Chips, but I wish I didn’t crave. Even those are baked chips, they have calories. I know I wouldn’t eat any if we didn’t have chips in my sight, so I don’t want to buy them, but A.A. wants to snack.. pretty big problem..

I started eating asian salad, which helps my diet. It has lettuce, tomato, cucumber, sliced ham, and sometimes fried eggs. Originally it was “harusame salad.” But, I have been eating without harusame since it’s out (I tried chinese harusame, but I didn’t like it). The dressing with this salad is made of 2 Tbl. soy sauce, 2 Tbl. rice vinegar, 1 Tbl. sesame oil, and 1 Tbl. sugar. And then I add mustard for finishing. When I think it’s kind of heavy taste, I reduce the amount of soy sauce and sugar. I believe my skin, especially my face, feels and looks much better because of the rice vinegar.  

I want to update my blog and take photos of Sophie and Misha more often. They have been doing great and I think Misha now weights around 90 lb. or more. She is thick and feels like heavier than Sophie.. She needs new collar, probably size 20”.

This Week..

Day 52:

• Breakfast: a piece of pear tart
• Lunch: Harusame salad; yogurt
• Dinner: Harusame salad; a piece of apple pie

Day 53: I wanted to do barbecue, but I was too lazy..

• Breakfast: cereal with banana
• Lunch: Harusame salad; yogurt
• Dinner: Harusame salad (again, but it’s good); string cheese; a piece of apple pie

Day 54: ( Back to School! fun, but exhausted and didn’t feel like fixing a meal..)

• Breakfast: cereal with banana; a piece of apple pie
• Lunch: string cheese
• Dinner: Shredded beef tostada @ El Tenampa & 10 pieces of corn chips; ice cream..(bad)

Day 55:

• Breakfast: cereal with banana
• Lunch: string cheese
• Dinner: harusame salad

Day 56:

• Breakfast: cereal with banana
• Lunch: string cheese
• Dinner: salad; a half of burnt end brisket @ Andrew’s

Week 8 Feedback:

Well, I didn’t lose any weight this week again.. this is very, very frustrating. But, I understand this happens after losing certain weight as phase 1 of diet.

Day 57:

• Breakfast: cereal with banana
• Lunch: harusame salad; yogurt
• Dinner: rest of harsume salad

Day 58:

• Breakfast: cereal with banana
• Lunch: TCBY yogurt; melon
• Dinner: melon; string cheese

Day 59: Hells Canyon Dam Tour! (Saturday)

• Breakfast: cereal
• Lunch: potato salad; a half of deep fried chicken breast; a cookie
• Dinner: rib eye wrap with green salad @ local restaurant in Riggins

Day 60 - it’s Sunday, Lazy day..

• Breakfast: cereal with banana
• Lunch: salad @ Idaho Pizza Co
• Dinner: Arctic Circle small milkshake

Harusame Salad

I arranged Bacon & Egg Pastries recipe from Cuisine at home, Issue No. 68, pp. 32-33,  and baked Ham & Cheese Pastries. I loved the taste much better than the bacon & egg pastries: light and fluffy. Main vegetables were spinach, tomatoes, potatoes, and cheddar & mozzarella cheese. I boiled cubed potatoes at first and then stir-fried with other vegetables, so filling became creamy and soft.

Since I haven’t lost any weight last two weeks, I decided make salad for lunch: Harusame Salad. The original recipe is from Sake to Ryouri by かめきち. I arranged a little bit: I added tomatoes, seaweed, and less sugar and omitted carrots. When I tasted dressing, it reminded me “Hiyashi Chuka.” I have never made “hiyashi chuka” sauce, but I thought almost the same taste. If this tastes like the noodle dish, I needed Karashi! Well, I didn’t have it in the fridge, so next time I go grocery shopping, I have to buy one. Of course, I had a couple different mustard, but I didn’t use them, because I thought “karashi” would be the best to add to this particular salad. 

Homemade Lasagna

Here is my favorite lasagna: it’s relatively light and three different kind of cheese (ricotta, mozzarella, parmesan) and meat sauce are layered. I arranged the recipe from Frigo’s Classic Lasagna. I usually make béchamel, but this time used only cheese mixture with sour cream instead. It took less time and tasted lighter. Well, I even used fresh spinach lasagna pasta, so I think it helped flavor and texture.  

Tarte aux Poires

A.A. and I didn’t do too much this weekend, but I accomplished some stuff I wanted to do: baking apple pie and tarte aux poires. The last time I baked an apple pie, I didn’t think about decorating apples over the crust. So, I arranged slices of apples a little bit fancier (I think). Also, I was disappointed how pears sank into the sponge when I made a tarte aux poires for the first time. I even couldn’t think about taking pictures of it, because it looked pretty bad. I tried to find bigger fresh pears at grocery stores, but those were about the same size as canned pears, so I decorated ten pears on the top of tart this time. I’m satisfied how it looked. BUT it’s not 100 % perfect yet: I need to find the way of how sweet pastry crust can stay together, not to break when I roll out. I really don’t know why it does that.

I love baking, but only thing I don’t like is.. who is going to eat all the pastries I bake? Nobody.. I usually taste when I bake something, but leftovers usually sit in the fridge forever. Sometimes they have to go to the trash can.. sad and wasting. Once I had frozen bunch of pastries in the freezer for months.

Sophie and Misha had a good time at off-leash park this weekend. It’s funny that Misha seems like always being picked or dominated by some other dogs. Also, she gets tired of running quickly and goes to under the picnic table or the shade. Her legs might be aching because of the growth. On the other hand, Sophie is like a horse! She runs, runs, and runs. 

Next Sunday, which is 8th, there will be Great Dane gathering at this park. We are looking forward to seeing all other Danes. Oh, do we have to leave Misha at home alone?  

Bacon & Egg Pastries

I made bacon & egg pastries and Tarte aux Poires yesterday. Well, both tasted good: A.A. already had three out of four pastries I made. BUT photos I took were bad.. so, I can’t up them either blog or my kitchen notes. I wish I had a better camera. Mine is not bad (Power Shot SD750 by Canon), but it’s so hard to take closed up photos. I took photos of these dishes on the kitchen table, but I think it was not bright enough to expose the actual colors. I may need to explore how to make fake sun light on photoshop. Or, I will try to take pictures in my room where has more sunlight than kitchen during the day.

I asked A.A. new camera for my Christmas present, but he said he would rather buy kitchen knives that were worn out. Oh, well, big decision..

I tried to take pictures of a pastry one more time this afternoon .. I think it looked much better than the last night.

Memorial Day Weekend

Today is Memorial Day and A.A. is hangover again. That means that he wants to have some big breakfast. He wanted to eat Biscuits and Gravy and of course, I didn’t have anything to make this dish. Automatically we had to go to café to get something to go. Then, I decided to have something instead of cereal: waffles and eggs for breakfast. It sounds O.K., but I don’t know. I only had a half of waffle though I could have finished whole waffle. It was delicious. I would love to buy waffle maker..

Here are some roses that bloomed for the first time of this year.

Off-leash Parks

Sophie and Misha (especially Sophie) got so excited when we were almost at off-leash park. Sophie was out of control. Today we decided to go to Military Reserve Off-Leash Park at first. It was right next to car-racing track and it looked kind of dirty. There was neither fence nor grass. After Misha tried to escape from the area (she ignored “come” command), we left the park so that there were none of dogs besides them. Then, we headed to Morris Hill Park which is their favorite park. The weather was mild and nice to be outside. They played with Scottish Terrier, Dalmatian, and some other breeds. Of course, they had a good time! While we were watching dogs played, we found the Dane meeting in June 8th ad. I would love to meet other danes. Hopefully A.A. won’t forget about it..

Green Bean Casserole

Here is one of my favorite side dishes, Green Bean Casserole. The recipe is originally from Cook’s Illustrated as I mentioned in my Kitchen Notes. I wanted to make it a little bit more creamy and less oily, so I added sour cream and used 1/3 of fried onions for topping. I have made this dish quite a lot and nothing happened before, but not this time. I went to Albertson’s to buy fresh green beans, but they were out. Instead, I found fresh cut & trimmed package for $4.99. Well, I had never tried, so I thought about this alternative a moment, because I really wanted to make this casserole tonight. O.K. I bought 2 bags. Result: I will never buy this package. When I opened the bag, some beans were already discolored like brown. I boiled and tasted them. It didn’t taste good, so I had to throw away $10! Obviously, I had to make this dish next day if I could find fresh ones at WinCo. Yes, I finally found a pound and a half there. I knew WinCo usually has fresh green beans, but I always shop groceries at Albertson’s and I didn’t want to go two stores on the same day.. that’s my excuse. Each supermarket has pro’s and con’s. Albertson’s has more choices of most products overall; WinCo has relatively fresher vegetables and most products are much cheaper than any other grocery stores. The thing is that I do not want to go to two grocery store on the same day..

It was fun, but…

A.A. and I took Sophie and Misha to Eagle Island State Park today. He wanted to try off-leash and he did. He let them be free.. I didn’t think it was good idea, especially Sophie, because she never came back to us even though we called her name before.

Well, Sophie did very well: she didn’t take off and was around us the whole time we were walking. Misha also behaved. She seemed much more active than she was on leash. She got wet and muddy, but I was glad that she enjoyed a lot.

Meanwhile, we were on the way home, and A.A. suddenly said, “What is this, Sophie? Oh, she got a tick!!” On the Sophie’s outer left ear, there was a brown tick (probably Ixodes scapularis). A.A. used matches to remove the tick: put burned matches on the tick; the tick starts moving its nose from Sophie’s skin because of the heat; removed successfully. (I was so terrified about the incident and couldn’t think about taking pictures of tick.)

I gave both Sophie and Misha bath as soon as we removed the tick and checked both bodies. I was exhausted after everything got done. I hope Sophie won’t have lime disease..