K-chan and the Japan-able Lasagna

"Suddenly, I'm a vegetarian," our friend K-chan announced in English class one night. We were planning having her and our other student S-kun over for dinner and a movie and when I heard her proclamation, I knew at once I should make the Japan-able cheese lasagna a fellow missionary taught me to make. Why "Japan-able"? Well, because there is one kind of cheese available in every grocery store and it isn't ricotta so westerners craving Italian food need to get creative. I"ll leave the recipe below for anyone who wants it. I promise it's fabulous! I think I might continue to make it with the clever substitution even once I'm back in the States.

That evening was months ago, but the meal must have left an impression on K-chan because Friday I got a request to teach her how to make it.

I was delighted to have her over and cook with her. The recipe was simple enough, so instructing her in Japanese didn't stretch me too far. She even got to do most of the work while I fed Jillian her dinner.

After dinner K-chan got to play with Jilly and even read her a few of her Japanese bed-time books. I'm sure it was nice for Jillian to have the Japanese books read to her by a native speaker for a change.

I really hope K-chan enjoys making the lasagna herself and that we have more chances to cook and hang out together.

Sue's Japan-able Lasagna

(Sue, if there is a real name for this dish, please let me know and I'll edit as needed :) )
*Lasagna noodles (cooked)
*Filling:
      -2 eggs
      -1 brick of tofu (This is the magic substitution. It is creamy like cheese, has a lot of protein, but is available in Japan!)
      -2 cups(?) shredded generic white cheese ( I use most of the bag and reserve a bit to use as a topping. If you have access to better cheese than "generic white" use it!)
       -Various seasonings to taste (Salt, pepper, thyme, rosemary, basil, parsley, etc...)
*Pasta sauce

1- Layer sauce, noodles, and fillings until you've filled your pan.

2- Top with extra cheese 

3- Bake 30 Minutes at 180C (350F) or until cheese is bubbly.

Ta-da! The easiest Japan-able Lasagna Ev-ah

Adventures in Cooking: Squid

Pregnancy cravings and aversions are a funny thing. They're never what you think they'll be. For example, though I've never been much of an OJ drinker, for 6 weeks straight I craved and drank multiple glasses each day. As for aversions: I never thought, being a missionary in Japan, that Japanese food would wind up on the "get that away from me, now!" list, yet somehow it has.

This little quirk of pregnancy has made life a bit difficult for me, as you can imagine. But, I think my greatest challenge was today's Japanese cooking class.

Today's menu: rice stuffed squid-head, & sauteed squid-tentacles.

I'm sure it has a pretty sounding name, but I didn't catch it while I was staring and the whole, raw squid I was about to dismember.

The last time I was that up-close and personal with a squid was 8th grade biology.

I'll spare you the gooey details. but,

with much prayer, I was able to disassemble, clean, chop, cook, AND eat the squid.

Pictured center: squid-head stuffed with rice

Pictured left: sauteed squid tentacles

the Japanese expression "Ganbatte" (try hard/persevere) has never meant so much to me.

I think today's class may have been the end of my Japanese food aversion. Just to be safe though, I'll still be staying clear of the fish section and the grocery store for now.

Adventures in cooking: My first REAL lesson

A couple weeks ago, I wrote about a sample cooking class I took with S-Sensei to stretch my language and my Japanese cooking ability. I had such a great time I decided to sign up for 6 real lessons.

My first class was yesterday. And rather than ease myself into Japanese cooking gradually like a sane person would do, I learned to make udon noodles and various side dishes from scratch! Turns out everything we made was actually pretty easy to do. The most complicated part of the class was receiving instructions in Japanese. I did manage to pick up some new language concepts and words.

for example,

when your cooking instructor wants you to cut the dough in half, she says "han-bun".

when she wants it cut in quarters she says "yon-bun".

one spoon full is "ippai,"

two spoons full in "nihai".

I was very glad I retained my new words from the last class. "Mazete" is the command to stir, "guru-guru" means to turn around and around.

The other girls in the class were fun to chat with too. One of the girls kept asking me what various phrases meant in English. It was fun to share what little I could with them, since I was usually on the other end of the "how do you say this?" table.

The meal? It turned out beautifully! After we finished cooking, the other girls in the class and I sat down to enjoy the works of our hands.

How did it taste?

Can you guess?

Adventures in cooking

I love to cook. so much so that when asked by a colleague what I wanted to do to get into the community more I said join a cooking class, with out even a thought.

Of course, I had no idea how to go about FINDING a cooking class, much less signing up for one.

To my great joy and surprise, while wandering aimlessly through the underground shopping center at the train station, we walked straight into a cooking school, which just happened to be offering sample lessons!

In my best Japanese, I awkwardly asked for information about the class. S-Sensei ran back to the desk and brought me a floor guide to the shopping area.

"Yes, I know I'm in Passeo."

Let's try this again...

"I like to cook. I learn to cook?" (Yes, this is direct translation of my awkwardness, S-sensei deserves a raise for dealing with me!)

I was able to sign up for a class a few weeks later.

The class itself was really fun. After I got over my initial terror of having to learn something new in Japanese, I had a blast. S-Sensei was eager to practice her English with me, so between the two of us trying, we understood each other pretty well.

Here's the cake we made in the sample class.

Hands down, the funniest part of the class was making the whipped cream. As I learned from my mom, when whipped heavy cream first turns into whipped cream, and then into butter/buttermilk. So, when I was using the hand mixer on the whipped cream and saw it reach the proper consistency I asked S-Sensei, if it was okay. She said, "A little more." and walked away.

I watched the whipped cream start to develop chunks and gradually separate into butter and butter milk. But I kept the mixer going, because the teacher said, "a little more." Maybe she wanted me to make butter for the cake filling.

When she came back and saw the butter, she was quite surprised. Apparently she had never seen that happen before! (If you haven't seen it either, I recommend trying it out. Quite a fun cooking science experiment!)

Me, S-Sensei, and my beautiful cake (with second-try whipped cream filling)

I had a great time, and am excited to go again to another sample class that S-Sensei invited me to.

Japan Goes South of the Border

A few weeks ago, a friend at church asked me if I could make lunch for the congregation on May 22nd. I think she was really telling me, more than asking me, but no worries cuz it sounded like fun.

I decided to make burrito bowls (Mexican rice bowls), since it was something no one had ever tasted. And I find that is a good thing when making food for so many. It really cuts down on the criticism and ups the compliments when they have no idea what it's supposed to taste like.

Burrito bowls are easy enough. Mexican rice in a rice cooker (and we have those a plenty here in Japan), Black beans, and shredded chicken in the crockpot.

I started the meal the night before. 3 bags of black beans soaking: Check. 6 chicken breasts, 2 packs of taco seasoning in the crockpot on low: check.

all night a slept fitfully, having nightmares the crockpot turned itself off, or the beans soaked up all the water and were now dry. thankfully, all was well in the morning . Chicken cooked, and beans ready to be boiled.

Making the rice at church was another adventure in itself. Making Mexican rice in a rice cooker was a new idea for all the ladies helping me in the church kitchen. It was an experience translating the directions in to broken Japanese and checking for accuracy in broken English. We must have understood more than we think, because the rice turned out beautifully.

With the beans on the stove and the rice in the cooker, I sat down to hear the message and wait til 12 when I would see if my hard work paid off.

"Interesting." was the statement I heard most. Typically not the thing a chef wants to hear about their food. To my great pleasure, the "interesting"s quickly turned to "delicious"s. The greatest compliment was the fact that there were barely 2 servings of beans left over, and no servings of anything else.

What did they do with the left over beans? They were brought to evening service for our meal there. but, not for the dinner portion. They were for dessert. They were an ice cream topping.

Let's let that sink in.

Black. Beans. On. Ice. Cream!

Have you ever had Mexican black beans over ice cream?

No?

Nor had I. Something about the garlic, chili powder, cayenne pepper, onion powder and beans doesn't exactly scream dessert topping to me.

Our pastor getting a big helping of beans for his ice cream

Our pastor got Stephen to try it by saying, "challenge." That's also how he ended up eating the silk worm pupa.

I tried and spoonful, and although they are not a vile as I would have thought, it was not my cup of tea.

Over all, it was a successful meal. And I learned some really important things about cooking for a large group. Namely always make something they've never seen before to guarantee good reviews, and never underestimate what Japanese think would be good for dessert.

So, next time you have black beans, don't forget the ice cream.

Challenge!

Easter Cookies

Today, I had the most fun since coming to Japan. 4 women from church and/or English class came over to make cookies for the Easter Potluck. I thought making cookies would be the perfect excuse to have these ladies (not all of whom knew each other) over to hang out grow in friendship. So, I broke out all of my cookie cutters (minus the snowflakes and candy-cane shapes) & 9 bottles of sprinkles, threw a plastic sheet on top of my table, kicked Stephen out for a few hours, and let the ladies have at it.

While we backed and decorated we chatted about anything and everything. In English, Japanese, and even a little Korean too.

We were even able to tell my new friend and Japanese teacher, M, a little about Easter.

Did the ladies have fun?

I'll let you be the judge.

Here're the finished products.

The sprinkles from America were definitely a big hit. Can you tell?

While we waited for the icing to dry, we drank coffee, looked at albums, and played Mario Kart on the Wii.

I can't wait to find another reason to have these ladies over again!