At times I get homesick for my Mom’s cooking. Despite our recent warmer weather, we had a slight cooling trend with a touch of June gloom which prompted a craving for tonjiru, or traditional Japanese pork soup. It’s a miso based soup and the ingredients might vary just slightly from one family to the next, but ours consistently includes carrots, onions, gobo (burdock root), konyaku (devil’s tongue root), and pork. Usually,...

In my culture, there are certain Asian-fusion dishes that usually make an appearance at potlucks. One such dish is the ramen salad. If you didn’t grow-up going to Japanese-American boy scout jamborees and Eagle Scout ceremonies, or Japanese-Hawaiian family potlucks where there are always jello cheesecake squares (recipe available here) and soy sauce chicken (recipe available here) next to the ramen salad, it wouldn’t be uncommon...

About two months ago when the weather turned warmer, my husband and I decided to try hiking with the kids, at least once a month, to different local spots. We live in an area with quite a number of really great state and local parks and nature preserves, all within a few minutes drive. It’d be a waste not to explore! (Photo Above: Newport Back Bay) Most of the places we’ve visited are little kid friendly. The longest hike...

I have a black thumb. Unfortunately, I didn’t inherit my paternal grandfather’s amazing green thumb and ability to grow gorgeous rose gardens, tall beautiful sunflowers, wisteria nor every vegetable imaginable. My grandparents grew everything from fig trees, strawberries, avocado, lettuce, edamame, corn, potatoes, brown onions, green onions, peas, and of course Japanese cucumbers, to name a few. Me? An occasional container of basil,...

When we were kids, my parents used to freeze fruit for us as treats. During the summer time, one of my favorites was frozen cherries and my other favorite was frozen bananas. I especially loved the frozen bananas dipped in chocolate that we occasionally got to enjoy down by the Santa Monica or Redondo Beach piers. At home, however, I don’t recall ever being lucky enough to cover our frozen bananas with chocolate (I’m sure my parents...

  Happy Father’s Day! Thanks Dad for your patience, love, support, and all that you do for us. We love you very much! Thanks for bringing over all the delicious crab, T. Hope you had a great Father’s Day too – you’re a good Dad. …And thanks for the pointers on the crab meat removal and showing us the piles and piles of crab meat you were able to collect. Totally awesome. Thanks Uncle Konbu for being Bebe’s...

Pre-school is winding down for us this week, although we still have a little time before Nene’s high school lets out. Our plans for the summer are still up in the air and aside from swimming and play dates I’m not quite sure what activities Bebe will be involved with during the warmer months. The last month or so she’s been quick to let me know that she wasn’t interested in going to school although she always comes home...

  I’m not sure about everyone else, but I often find lone vegetables in the crisper drawer of my refrigerator calling out for attention. These little guys are often overlooked because there is only one or two of them left, or even worse, only half of something is wrapped up in plastic wrap such as half a zucchini or onion. On this day, I had two very small yellow squash leftover from a pasta salad that I made, in addition to an almost...