Quick Dinner

Hello there.  DNA is still around!  These days I'm taking classes and applying for grad school and all that jazz (it never seems to stop) but, taking a break to Blogger!

After getting back from my 6-8:15 class, I don't feel like making a big elaborate dinner.  Something I can whip together in half an hour sounds mighty good.  So voila!

Quick Dinner.

Yeppers.  Not very much cooking required.  I picked up some salmon sashimi from Marukai on the way back (discounted prepped sushi and sashimi from 7:30-close, gotta love that), and figured I'd just make some brown rice & sprinkle some egg-and-bonito furikake over it and throw in some kimchi (There's regular napa kimchi, chive kimchi, and then not really kimchi but Japanese pickled plums.  A single serving of rice takes about half an hour, but it didn't take that long to throw the rest of it together so I made my new favorite soup:

New favorite soup.

That's daikon, carrot, and burdock simmered for about half an hour with some miso paste thrown in for good measure.  And just for the heck of it, I decided to bust out the iced jasmine tea I also got a Marukai ($2.49, uber-sale!)

It probably wasn't a good idea to have kimchi with the salmon sashimi (although I know some Korean restaurants serve sashimi as hwe dup bap, with the obligatory sides of course), because this particular salmon was a little bland...and not that great of a consistency.  Ehh, I guess that's what I get for getting cheap sashimi.  (Which sadly, is one of those items that 'cheap' should never precede...but I went against my own advice this time.  'Cheap' is usually fine before, say, fruits and vegetables.)  Sorry, Marukai..

Still though, not bad!  The soup was pretty darn good & kimchi is never a bad thing. 
Anyway, I have about half a pack of leftover sashimi, but I think I'm just going to sear it tomorrow morning & cover it in furikake.

I'll try not to disappear for a few months again, because I have some exciting posts coming up later this month: another year has passed, and that means my top tunes of 2010!  Top 10 albums & Top 100 singles are done and will be up pretty soon, and depending on how feisty I get, I may do a Top something-or-other worst of the year.  Haha.  But best of all, another live Top 50 countdown is in the works, so stay tuned!

DNA 

Adventures with Bread Machine, part I

Friday after work, I picked up a behemoth but practically new-in-the-box Sunbeam Breadmaker 5891 from St. Vinnie's. Since the thrift shop has a two-day window for returns on appliances, fresh-baked bread was on the menu this weekend.

The Sunbeam came with a book of 12 recipes, so I decided to start with the supposedly no-fail "Homestyle White Bread, 1.5-Pound Loaf." I made a quick grocery run for butter, nonfat dry milk powder, bread flour and bread machine yeast, and by about 9:30 p.m. I was ready to take my bread machine for its first test drive.

The process couldn't have been easier. Add ingredients to bread pan. Put in machine. Close lid. Push button. Made me wish Sunbeam also offered a Meringuepiemaker or a Soufflemaker.

I watched the kneading blade maneuver the dough around the pan through the clear window on top, and was impressed as the dough started to rise. As the three-hour timer reached its last hour, I checked on the baking process. Bummer - the top had fallen and there was a giant smushy crater in the middle of my bread. 

After the baking completed, I crossed my fingers and removed the pan. As I shook the bread out, I was relieved that the bread had risen after all, though the top looked like the collapsed Metrodome after a large snowfall. Also, the kneading blade had embedded itself inside the bread, but the people at Sunbeam fortunately had thought of this and provided a hook-like device to surgically remove this non-edible piece of metal from the bread.

I cut my first slice, which looked a little like a cat with pointy ears framing the part that had collapsed on top. However, the inside looked great - no dense layers or air bubbles, just warm, fluffy bread. Win! Next time I think I'll try different grains, seeds, nuts or dried fruit.

RNA