Random Monday Evening...

I had some time on my hands (go figure!) so I decided to try some of the techniques I've learned in the past few months...

I bought some fresh Edamame (soy beans) and prepared them for snacking.  First, you have to rinse them with cold water. 

After the rinsing, pour salt on them, and mix it up with the beans. 

Place the beans in a pot of boiling water - boil for 5-6 minutes, then drain.  To eat them, just pop the beans out of the pods.  Eating these remind me of eating boiled peanuts - way healthier, though!

This is the bowl of the finished product.  Notice how green they still are!!! 

Here we go - I bought some molds at the 100 yen store to make some rice cakes (onigiri)  for Ryan.  Brandon hates rice, so I was depending on Ryan in this endeavor! 

I bought some imitation crab at the local grocery, and let Ryan try a bit of it. 

After sampling and eating half of the package (you go, Ryan!!!) I pulled some pieces out to shred.   All you have to do with these pieces is pull them down as strings ... a bit like string cheese...

Since he loves cucumbers, too, I chopped up this one.

Here is the crab/cucumber mixture.  I asked Ryan what kind of seasoning he liked (basically, I put a bunch of bottles and containers in front of his face, and he smelled them. ) This is what he decided to use.  On the left, is a 'seasoned soy sauce' mixture.  It has a bit of a fishy smell.  The next bottle is sesame oil, which Ryan said, 'YES!" 

I put some rice half way in the mold, then put the mixture on top, and added another layer of rice.

As I've said before, I don't care for seaweed (nori,) but I thought I'd try it out on Ryan. 

I cut them into strips...

...and wrapped them around the onigiri. 

He loved the onigiri, but didn't care for the seaweed. 

Usually, you would 'decorate' kids' onigiri with nori.  I decided to use cucumber peel instead.  I bought this little smiley face punch at the 100 yen store. 

I'm not the best artist, but it was fun to do these anyway! 

For dinner, I made beef bulgogi.  I wanted to grill some veggies and used these small bell peppers. 

I mixed the peppers and onions with some of this new garlic sauce we got at the festival.  It was really tasty!