Parlier's Obon '09

Sunday, 7/26/09

I always want a snow cone when I go to Obon! Got some corn too, but I didn't take a picture of it.

Here's a rainbow one (I think it was some kind of tropical fruit + bubble gum + cherry) with all of the flavors. Unfortunately, they had run out of ice cream. Next time I won't wait until after the dancing. haha


Hm... Shouldn't it be "Shaved Ice"?

Pumpkin-Filled...Mexican Bread?

Not sure what these are called, but my family has been eating them every so often for years now. I've never really loved them, but they are good. I like the soft-but-firm texture that I can't describe very well. The filling isn't overwhelmingly sweet. Hm...not sure what else to say. I wouldn't go out of my way to buy them, but they're in front of me, I'll eat 'em.

Farmer's Market Baked Goods, Fruit, Vegetables, etc.

6/13/09

Farmer's Market is awesome. Fue un mercado al aire libre (that was one of my Spanish vocabulary terms: an open-air market). I love how it's open all year...and look at the setting/scenery:








We got that pumpkin ravioli. Yum but s



Dad gets mushrooms from King-Oh fairly often. They were giving out free samples of some kind of mushroom salad as well as battered and fried mushrooms:

Gotta love free samples (those big mushrooms were separate from the salad):

On to the baked goods!:

Polenta & almond cookie (really hard but good flavor & nice, grainy texture):

Banana...something muffin (I don't usually like banana-flavored baked goods, but this was pretty good):


Pumpkin muffin (yum):

Sashimi

6/7/09

Tuna (maguro) = yuck...but kinda pretty


Some other kinda fish. Not yellowtail. I think it was the fish my aunt & uncle caught the other week:

Mitsuwa's Mochi Pan

MMM. I decided to get these last weekend (7/19/09) at Mitsuwa (one of the LA area ones) because of the phrase "popular 'chewy' bread." It's amazing what one word or phrase can do to influence whether a person purchases a product or not. "Best bugers in town"-like signs work on me. haha Anyway, I'd DEFINITELY get these again. In fact, I'll be looking for them the next time I go to Mitsuwa. If only we had those places in CenCal.

Chewy on the inside:



Someone (Brady) just asked about recipes, and I found these links (I'm going to try making them too someday):

(1) Baking 'n' Cooking

(2) baking friends unite

(3) The Back Burner

(4) Other blogs that wrote about mochi pan

Soba

Almost as easy as somen (just boil for two extra minutes; somen's done in three, so this only takes about six minutes). The texture's not like somen at all. They're both types Japanese noodles, but soba is more textured and chewy. I didn't like it much when I first had it, but I love it now. I don't have a sauce/shiru/juice/whatever-you-wanna-call-it recipe because I made the noodles and my mom made the broth. She got the one we used for this online, so you could look there or in pretty much any Japanese cook/recipe book. They really need a Japanese Food Network star. Or another kind of Asian food. Mmmm.

That darn shadow! I really did try to hide it, but obviously I failed. That green stuff is seaweed.

Healthy Blueberry-Grape Smoothie

More smoothies! This one is my healthiest yet.

It was just made of ice, non-fat milk, non-fat yogurt (plain), frozen blueberries, and grapes.


Then I watched Giada De Laurentiis make an espresso frappe (going to try that someday!!) and decided to try her scraping method on the healthy smoothie pictured above by freezing it completely and then scraping it up like a wannabe granita until it was like a snow cone (you don't always need an ice-shaving machine!).

Ummm...why is the image sideways?

Does anyone know how to fix this? It happens to me once in awhile, and I end up just notposting the sideways pictures.

Anyway, it was really good despite its lack of sugar and fat, and my grandparents were confused as to how I made it come out like this. hehe

I could try making this and adding vanilla ice cream. Shaved ice + ice cream is sooo good. Had some at Reedley's obon last night, actually.

Copycat of Jamba Juice's Chunky Strawberry

Decided to make a homemade (and probably healthier) version of Jamba Juice's Chunky Strawberry, which consists of peanut butter, strawberries, bananas, granola, pumpkin seeds, yogurt, and I'm not sure what else. This one was gooood.

Here were my ingredients:

Ice, non-fat milk, non-fat yogurt, strawberries, Maple Pecan Granola cereal from Trader Joe's:


...and Trader Joe's Crunchy Unsalted Peanut Butter:

Homemade Blueberry Apple Smoothie

100+ degree weather calls for SMOOTHIES! I've decided to experiment a bit. I started out with something pretty easy and really healthy:

Frozen blueberries + apple slices + ice + milk + non-fat yogurt + a sprinkle of brown sugar. Didn't measure anything.

FCC Tacos

Consumed 7/8/09

Tacos a business-related organization was selling @ Fresno City College:

Homemade Kettle Corn

JoytheBaker is another of my favorite food bloggers. If you read this post about her homemade kettle corn, you'll see why I wanted to try this recipe. It WAS easy and reeeeeallly good. Mm...I've made this three times now.


Here's the really easy recipe (I don't normally just copy and paste from other people, but this was such a simple recipe that I decided to just leave it as it is):

Original recipe (below) from Joy the Baker

"Homemade Kettle Corn

1/2 cup popcorn
1/4 cup vegetable or grapeseed oil [*** I used vegetable]
3 tablespoons sugar [*** I used a tiny bit less]
Salt to taste. I think I used between 1/2 and 1 teaspoon. [***I used about 1/2 tsp]

Heat oil in a large, heavy saucepan over medium heat. Make sure that it’s a pan that you can easily lift and shake in the air. Yea… you’ll also want to have two pot holders on hand.

Once the oil is hot, pour in the popcorn, sprinkle sugar on top and cover.

It will take a few minutes for the first pops, but once the popcorn starts popping, shake continuously until the popcorn is popped. This means that, once the popcorn really starts going, you’ll want to grab the pot with your pot holders, securing the lid, and shake the pot above the flame of the stove for a few seconds, return to the heat, and repeat this process several times throughout the popping process. This will prevent the popcorn from sticking to the bottom of the pan and burning.

Transfer to a serving bowl and salt lightly. Mix with a big spoon. The sugar will still be hot, and the popcorn may be sticky. Don’t burn your hands on hot sugar. The popcorn will dry as it cools. Makes 8-10 cups."

Ryan's Pineapple Smoothies

Ryan made pineapple smoothies the other day with pineapples, sugar, yogurt, and ice I think.

A Yellow Watermelon

@ Mitsuwa

Pucca!

One of my favorite Japanese snacks. I think these are better than the more-popular chocolate-filled koala or panda cookies. The pretzel shell makes these so much better.

Cheese Curds

I coulda sworn I had already posted about cheese curds, but I guess I never did. Here's a picture of the cheese curds my family and I ate last summer in Wisconsin (squeaky in your teeth...but yummy). Looks kinda nasty...especially since it looks like plastic...or like the cheese Wallace and Grommit eat on the moon (that one cheese episode grossed me out because it looked like they were eating playdoh).