My Birthday and Awesome Stuffed Peppers

My birthday was last Wednesday and I had a pretty good day despite Ryan working nights.  I got to see him in the morning before I went to work and he went to bed and then again before he went to work and I went to dinner.  At least we were able to go out to dinner on the Friday before.  

But before I get into all the tasty looking pictures of my birthday celebration meals, I wanted share this vegetarian stuffed peppers recipe.  For American Day (American foods served to the local Japanese community as a fundraiser for on base groups and organizations) Ryan's shop made kebabs.  At the end of the day there were a punch of left over peppers.  They were asking who wanted them.  Obviously I could not let them go to waste even if I had no idea what to make.  Naturally stuffed peppers came to mind.  I did them once before with mushroom orzo and they were good, but I was looking to try something different.  

After a quick, and I do mean quick, search, I found this recipe for Mexican-style vegetarian stuffed peppers.  The recipe makes 6, but we only had 5 peppers.  The good news is that there is more filling left in my freezer.  I honestly think it could have filled 7.

Onions and garlic is always a good start.

One thing I liked about this is that it called for brown rice.  Not only was that so simple and easy to find in my pantry, but it already had the healthier option so I didn't even need to sub anything.  I love fun and funky grains, but I really liked that this just stayed simple.  Maybe it was the Mexican aspect that led to just plain rice, rather than the latest and greatest grain of the week (and yes, I do have most of those in my pantry too...I love all of those grains!).

In with the onion and garlic went corn, black beans (so excited that the commissary started carrying the low sodium canned black beans- I always rinse them anyway, but the lower the sodium to start, the better).  The recipe called for tomato puree, which I could not really find, so in went some tomato sauce.  That's like a pureed tomato, right?

Mix in the rice and seasoning and we are good to go!

I love how these look!

But of course I had to top them with cheese.  They were amazing!  I loved them.  Ryan loved them.  It was a major win and he even asked if we could do them again.  No complaints eating the leftovers the next night either.

Moving on the my birthday.  Ryan was not working the Friday night before my birthday so we headed to Marche, which is a French restaurant by the base.

I started off with the marinated raw salmon (think lox with Italian dressing), which was really good.  Mostly because salmon around here is always just really good.

Some rolls for the table.  The set up was too cute!  The rolls were warm and buttery even without the butter on them.

I had a salad also.

The garlic bread here is phenomenal (if you like extreme garlic) so I ordered some, even thought I couldn't eat it all.

Ryan decided to go for something a little different for him and he had the chicken cordon bleu.

For my entree I went with the mushroom soup pot pie.  Yes, mushroom soup does work as a pot pie.  Basically it is a cream of mushroom soup with puff pastry baked on top.  It is awesome!  What can I, the Japanese love their mushrooms.

Ryan had ordered a set meal and it came with dessert.  We both took a bite just to try, but we knew we really wanted to get some desserts from the bakery down the street.

We headed over to La France (do you see a theme here?).  They were getting ready to close so most things were out, but I was able to score the last piece of this chocolate cake.  Just to give you an idea of size, this is sitting in the middle of my salad, not dinner plate at home.  The Japanese desserts are no where near the size of American desserts.  It was really good, but I was not expecting the bottom to be alcohol flavored.  It was a shock, but not entirely bad.

That weekend I tried some of the Japanese goodies that Ryan brought home.  A coworker gave them to him as a thank you gift.  They made a baby shower gift for his wife and she is Japanese, so the custom is to give a thank you gift, which is most often a little baked good.

I have no idea what this was, but it seems to have sweetened butter in the middle.  Don't ask!

On my actual birthday Ryan came home from work as I was heading to work and cooked me breakfast.  For lunch, the girls I work with took me to the Mexican restaurant near the base.  Actually it is Tex Mex, part of a chain and started by an American that now lives in Thailand, and yes, this place does really well in Japan, not just with the Americans, but Japanese too.  I ordered an enchilada lunch special.

That night Ryan had to work, but my friend and I went to dinner.  Her husband was out of town and she lives in the building next to me, so it made for the perfect birthday evening.  We planned to go to an Italian restaurant, but they opened at 6, so at 5:30 we still had some time and she has a baby, and we decided the better option was go to our favorite Chinese place.  Perfect!  Since we like the same things we were able to get two dishes and share.  We were so involved in catching up that I forgot to even take pictures of the food!  But it was good.  We had eggplant and scallops in XO sauce and sweet and sour shrimp.  I even splurged on a beer because she was driving.

After dinner she drove over to a bakery and said she had always wanted to try it.  To which I just laughed.  Why?  Because she took me to La France.  The same bakery Ryan and I went to Friday night and bought me some birthday cake at.  I know the guy working there was thinking that the crazy American must really like cake.

My friend treated me to this lovely dessert.  Again, it's pretty small, which is perfect.  This had a little alcohol in the mousse filling too, but the overall flavor was chocolate hazelnut.  The center was like eating a kinder happy hippo.  It was like nutella with crunchy pieces.  It was amazing!  It was even topped with a mini macaron.

My friend can't have chocolate so she was extremely excited to find that their strawberry tart was chocolate free.  It's so cute!

Then we ate our desserts and spent some time getting caught up on things.  It was nice to have a girls night and just chat.  Even though Ryan didn't get to spend much time with me, it was still a good day.  Plus, I will continue to celebrate my birthday because I am getting ready to go on another trip soon...and Ryan will be joining me.  I have a lot to do to get ready before then, but I think my next post will probably be the start of my travels.  Southeast Asia...here I come!

QUESTIONS:  What did you do for your last birthday?  What are you doing for your next birthday?  If you could go anywhere in Southeast Asia, where would it be?

French, Italian, Indian, and Chinese Cuisine

Would you believe we have them all right here in rural northern Japan?  Well, we do!  In the past few weeks Ryan and I have been out and about enjoying just about every type of cuisine we can find.  Probably enjoying them all little too much, but you almost can't help it when your spouse returns home safely from Afghanistan!

Here are some of the things we have been enjoying here:

French- We found this bottle of Meursault at a nearby grocery store.  This is a lot more meaningful than a bottle of wine.  Nearly 2 years ago Ryan found this wine mentioned in a magazine and wanted to try it.  They didn't sell this pricey (and I do mean pricey) French wine in the Azores, so we thought we would get in when we were moving to Japan and passing through the US.  That was a great idea until we considered the cost and remembered that it had to travel with us in our suitcases, not carry on bags.  Scratch that idea!  So when I was in CA a few weeks after we moved, I thought I would check again.  Instead, a gentleman recommended another white from the Burgundy region of France at a much more reasonable $25 price tag (much cheaper than $80).  I brought it home and a full year later, Ryan and I enjoyed the bottle.  It was devine (Macon Villages is the name and I HIGHLY recommend it) and this drove us to seek out more whites from Burgundy.  Long story short, the Japanese are fans of the French and with a little searching we found this (yes, expensive because we paid in yen too) bottle of Meursault.  

The verdict?  Good, but the Macon Villages we had was actually much better.  Still a huge fan of white Burgundy wines.

To go with the wine we had to get some cheeses.  To save on money after the wine splurge we opted to go to the grocery store and buy these individually instead of on a pre-made platter.  Yum!

While we were wine searching, we discovered a nearby liquor store selling a variety of beers from around the world.  I picked this beer, La Trappe, mostly for the purple label, but it turned out to be great.  This is from a Trappist brewery in the Netherlands.  Not sure if you have had a Trappist brew, but if not, definitely give it a try.  Chimay is probably the most easy to find.

On to some Italian.  One a snow, snowy day, Ryan and I decided to try this place out.  We had never been before.  It was an "off" hour (places closes after lunch and reopen for dinner, like 3-5) and we were in need of some lunch.  This place was open, so we decided to go in.

I started off with tomatoes and mozzarella.

Our entrees came with salads.

The garlic toast was a bit of a splurge.  Amazing fresh bread.

Some sort of kelp soup (I think!).

I had shrimp and pasta with tomato sauce.  Even though it was just fair, I am still planning to give this place another shot because the ambiance was perfect for a cold, snowy day.  The decor was very log cabin feeling and cozy.  Warm and inviting.  Plus, that garlic toast was amazing!

Ryan had pasta with meat sauce, and again it was less than spectacular.  Thankfully, he enjoyed the setting there too and is open to going back.

But we didn't stop the cultural food tour there.  The following weekend we went to an Indian restaurant in Hachinohe that we hadn't tried yet.  Our meals each started off with a salad.

Next up was the entrees.  Ryan and I always order 2 vegetarian dishes and split them.  I love that my husband is all for vegetarian dishes and is happy going meat free.  Indian food is always so flavorful.  It's in the spice, not the meat.  So this time we ordered a vegetable curry dish.

We also ordered aloo gobi, which is potatoes and cauliflower.  It was amazing!  And spicy, of course!

It also came with naan bread and some rice.

Last, but not least, the night before New Year's Eve, we decided to try some Chinese.  Finding an open restaurant was difficult, but we managed.

I started off with these sesame balls filled with red bean paste.  Amazing!

Ryan tried out the egg rolls.

For dinner, Ryan went with this spicy ramen soup.  After some questionable meat the last time he was here, he decided to try something completely different and go with this soup.  It was a good choice for him.  He absolutely loved it.

I ordered the crab and tofu, which is one of my favorite dishes.  I love this!

Last up, the eggplant.  We felt like we needed more veggies, so we ordered this very flavorful eggplant dish.

It was great to have 11 days off with my husband and not have too much to do.  After having him gone for a few months it was great to be able to relax and enjoy each others company.  We even worked a lot on fixing up the house.  We sold our old couches and bookshelves and purchased new ones.  The place is pretty much finished now and everything is "grown up" and matching.  I would say that we were very productive over the break and our house really shows it.  Most of the "mess" around here was cleaned up too.  It is nice to have less clutter.  What a great way to start of 2013!

QUESTIONS:  What different cuisines have you enjoyed recently?  What is your favorite Chinese dish?  Have you redecorated recently?

Day 15: Manly Beach

I was starting to have a problem with weight.  Not my own, silly!  My actually weight of things gathered during my trip.  It wouldn't have been such a problem, but my airline was "threatening" with $40 USD charges for each kilo over, and the weight limit was only 20 kilo.  How did I know I was having a problem?  Coming from Melbourne to Sydney I was at 19.1 kg and I as carrying some things extra with me on the plane.  Then I added to that everything acquired at the conference and in Sydney so far.  Hence, a weight problem.

But I had a solution.  I was going to find the post office and mail some stuff.  I was just hoping that it was not as expensive as when I did that from Israel.  So with this plan, I headed to a nearby mall because there was a post office there.  In the end, my package of 5.5 kg was still cheaper to ship home than it was to try and take on the plane with me.  The only problem was that to ship it to my APO address it was cheapest for the 3 month slow boat to the US, which was way too long because I had some food in my package.  So for airmail it was a little more expensive.  Somehow we discovered it was cheaper to send to my Japanese address (luckily I have one) and faster.  So for just around $80 I was able to ship my ~5.5 kg to Japan.  Amazingly this arrived to my home just 5 days after I sent it (I know because I am home now).  Oh, and another problem, I couldn't ship all of the food like I planned.  Too many import/export rules, so I ended up taking a bag filled with food, mostly Tim Tams and candy bars for gifts (stuff you can't get in the US).  But in the end, the package made it here and nothing was confiscated.  Yeah, apparently I didn't remove all of the food like I thought I did.

Package mailing=success!

When I was in the mall by the post office I found this Asian Bakery.  It totally made me feel at home.  Is that weird?  I came very close to buying some things and realized that was silly because I was heading back to Japan soon and could get this stuff then.

Instead, I headed across the street to a French Bakery.

I had an amazing breakfast.  This is toast with avocado, topped with spinach and poached eggs.  Super yummy!

The rest of my morning was dedicated to teaching.  With Kaplan I teach an online live audio seminar, so I actually have to be in class at a specific time.  This happened to be on this morning, so I did that first, and then headed to the Manly Ferry.

Let me refresh your memory.  I have some serious motion sickness.  Thankfully my doctor has prescribed me some wonderful scopalamine patches and these work very well.  Armed with a patch, I was ready to go.  Well, the patch and a little snack to settle my stomach.

Again, amazing weather.  I don't know what I did to deserve this.  Perfect weather almost the entire time I was in Australia.

The Manly Ferry goes between Circular Quay and Manly beach, which is just north.  The ferry is well known for it's amazing views as you cross from Sydney Harbor to Manly.

Not sure what this is, but it just popped up out of no where.

Great view of Sydney as we got further and further away.

On the ferry I was sitting next to a gentleman that had been living in Manly.  His suggestion to me was to get a map from the visitors center, and then when I got to the beach (the ferry lands bay side) go right instead of left.  Everyone goes left.  It is the big walk around all of the beaches.  He said if I go right I can find some nice little areas and get some really good views.  It was windy out, so I decided that this made more sense than walking all the way around all the beaches and then all the way back.

So that is what I did.  Welcome to Manly!

I headed towards the beach, walking down this shopping street with cute little buildings.

Here is Manly beach.  Some nice waves because of the wind.

I took the advice and turned right, headed around towards Shelly beach and park area.

These benches are placed just opposite of where I took the picture posted above.  Not a bad spot to stop and have a rest.

There is Shelly beach in the distance.

There was a manmade swimming pool here, but it was under construction.

Getting closer to Shelly beach.  There are some guys learning to scuba.

I loved these little sculptures all around the walk way.  It lets you get an idea of what wildlife can be found here.

You are here!  This gave me some information about the area.  It was a little more protected over here, which was nice because it helped block some of the wind.

Here I am at one of the look out points on the other side of the beach.

On my way back around I decided that this spot was the perfect place to enjoy my orange.

I stopped here and just gazed out, thinking about how lucky I am to be in this spot and able to travel all over.  It looked like a postcard!

Back over at Manly beach.

Of all the things to find!  Crazy! (I teach for Kaplan online)

I am not kidding, everyone seemed to be eating an ice cream.  I couldn't imagine why everyone had an ice cream from Royal Copenhagen, but there had to be a reason.

So I investigated.  It was pretty easy to figure out.  Homemade ice cream in fresh waffles cones that are dipped in chocolate at time of ordering.  Yep, that is why everyone was eating these.  I got the cookies and cream.  It was so good!

Taking my friends advice, I boarded the 5:15 ferry back to Sydney Harbour.  She told me to take this ferry to see the sunset.  I wasn't quite able to fully grasp what she meant until a few minutes after we departed Manly.  These pictures will say it all (although can't even compare to the real thing).

Amazing!  I have concluded that Mt. Fuji was my most amazing sunrise, and this was my most amazing sunset.  Unreal!

When I got off the ferry I decided to walk back to the hotel.  It was only about a 20 minute walk and the weather was nice.  I couldn't help but laugh about this.

When I first moved to Japan that was one thing that I couldn't seem to catch on to.  I always wanted to look the other way.  In Australia they drive on the left side of the road, so it is easy to want to look the same way you would in the US.

Here is a church I passed on my way back to the hotel

I nearly died when I saw this.  This is a chain restaurant that we have in Japan.  We have one at our local mall.  It's meat, so I don't eat there, but all my friends rave about this place.

This was also too cute not to take a picture of.

For dinner later that evening, I headed over to China town.  To the heart of China town, not just the outskirts where I was staying.

I settled on Nine Dragons, and really it was a hard choice, but this menu stood out to me.

I started off with some vegetarian egg rolls.  Not that I needed the fried food, but for some reason I was having a craving.

For my entree, I had the sweet and sour shrimp.

Of course I had some rice with this, but this serving was way to much, so I didn't eat it all.

On the way home I stopped in at this place called N2 Extreme Gelato.  Actually, I overheard a girl at the table next to me the night before telling her date about this crazy ice cream place, so when I accidentally stumbled into it, I knew I had to check it out.  I really wanted to take pictures, so I thought it was only fair that if I did that, I also buy something.

So, what's the idea here and why is this gelato extreme?  The ice cream is made to order.  Yes, to order.  How, you ask?  The fresh ingredients are added to a mixer and on high speed, while mixing, liquid nitrogen (dry ice) is poured in instantly freezing it into ice cream.  Insane, right?!?!

Here is the menu.  You can pick from these items, which are mostly pretty extreme and very unusual flavors.

You can see that it looks like a mad scientist is hard at work here.  The employees were lab coats!  Crazy!

This is my ice cream he is making now.

Look at that!

Within in moments I had a fresh made blueberry cheesecake ice cream.  Yum!  

Too bad I couldn't eat it all, but there was no way I was missing out on the chance to just give this place a try.

QUESTIONS:  Do you get motion sickness?  Have you ever heard of ice cream made this way?  What is your favorite Chinese food?