Japanese food

When I first started blogging I thought I would be writing about quilting and knitting with an occasional cat post thrown in. Then I thought it would be easy to write once a week about what we eat around here. But I don't like to cook. I DO cook during the week but rarely on the weekends. For awhile I was even taking a monthly cooking class but the class ended and though I had fun I never have incorporated much of what I learned into the daily menus.

There are the ol' faithful menus. For our family these are things like Spicy Chinese Tofu. Curry Rice. Japanese Vegetable Soup. Korean Kimchee Stew. Sounds exotic when I write it down but these are dishes I can make with little thought and whatever I have in the kitchen. Occasionally I will try new recipes from Japanese magazines but western recipe books and recipes don't get tried often. Too many things that I can't get in the Japanese markets or if I can get them they are just too expensive to buy.

This was our dinner a couple of nights ago. It needed a little color didn't it. It turned out very Japanese and seemed typical of an evening meal. There is the ever present white rice. And there is the miso soup. I think I put turnips and deep fried tofu and green onions in it. There is a slice of grilled fish that has been marinated in miso. There is a small plate of spicy bamboo shoot pickles (from a jar). There is a salad of cucumbers and seaweed. And the vegetable is a serving of boiled greens that have been mixed with fermented soybeans (natto) green onions, and mayonnaise. Tetsu also added a block of cold tofu to his dinner but that's too much tofu for me.

Preparing Japanese food takes too long for me and all those little dishes to wash up afterwards makes the thought of making a Japanese meal dreary. I guess it is healthy enough... Tasted pretty good too.