aoi_no_neko

Despite having way too much to do, I still wanted to try the Washoku challenge this month. Definitely was a challenge, but hey, have to eat!

So here is my attempt at Rolled Sushi Two Ways:



Made with sushi rice with unagi, cucumber and radish sprouts in the center. See, there was a reason for the unagi sauce in this photo!



I actually added a little unagi sauce to my soy sauce for dipping. Was really good.

I also left a few of the radish sprouts long on purpose. I find it adds a little interest to the way they look.



Close-up makes me hungry.

So despite needing one of those really expensive sushi knives, they turned out decently and more importantly, tasted really good!

I think I will let Mr. Gaiman answer for me. It's a little less than half way down his post

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/11/local-man-in-hate-mail-outrage-shock.html

No not the hate mail thing. The librarian thing. It goes along with the answers I saw for people who stated what books they want baned. Basically it's the things they don't like personally. Doesn't matter what others think. Doesn't matter if it's really inappropriate or not. That's the problem with this, it's one or a couple people deciding what others should not read based on their own personal opinion irregardless of anything else. Which is a very slippery slope.

As for high schools, pretty much stuff that the government has decided is inappropriate isn't there anyway. Beyond that, considering the average reading level for high school students is between 9th and 10th grade and that only 49% say they read more than 10 books a year (figure in that the number they have to read for class) and at that point I don't think people really need to worry that all these kids are reading library books that are inappropriate. Or reading that much at all.

http://www.ocregister.com/news/prosecutors-219884-money-strawn.html

just wondering what kind of dolls Margot Jean Strawn was buying.

http://atwebo.com/wordpress/?p=646

$500,000, that would buy a lot of dolls.

They would have to do this though...

http://community.livejournal.com/bpal_excathedra/93033.html

Yes um, right after I do my Friday the 13th/Xmas/Hellboy order too.

What is very cool is more Neil Gaiman scent lockets. I have the Gold Fish Pool and it's gorgeous. And they are not paying me to say this at all.

http://www.blackphoenixtradingpost.com/neilgaiman.html
Lockets are here.

And if you are really bored and want to get your hands on some special goodies, they are having another trunk show at Dark Delicacies in Burbank on 11/29. Just when I am moving. Although if I am further along with things....

http://www.darkdel.com/



And yes I am still hoping to do a massive decanting in December including some prototypes. Wish me luck with everything now so I can get to it!

eta: the art work in their anniversary t-shirt is amazing! http://www.blackphoenixtradingpost.com/le-resurrection.html

Oh my goodness, so tired from packing and moving. And more days of this sadly. Hoping it's all worth it. Sad too I had to miss the Volks Painting Class. I'm sure it was fun.

But what I wanted to post was this blog entry I just read. Now I've seen a lot of misinformation about Geiko and Geisha on-line, but this is a really good brief explaination by someone who just recently was introduced to their world being hired to teach a few Maiko English. I think they did a nice job of hitting certain aspects and I like the viewpoint from someone not actually interested in that world.

http://www.frugalistajapan.com/2009/11/teaching-the-maiko/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+FrugalistaJapanFeed+%28Frugalista+Japan%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

I can say that I thought there was more regular education implimented for Maiko besides learning the arts. Not sure where to verify this. And that the Tea Houses get paid by the customers, a part goes to the restaurants that cater the events and the Geiko is paid her fee by the Tea House. Unless this also was changed.

I'm looking forward to the next part of this!

First I heard about it was a couple days ago when B got ripped off for $600. Someone used his bank ATM VISA debit card to make a purchase of $600 of cosmetics in Los Angeles. I guess after that they tried four more times to rip him off but those were declined.

Sadly he's with Chase now who has a history of handling these things badly. Because it's a debit card it's hooked to his bank account which means his account is frozen and he can't access the money. Chase will not close the account.

From what I read on-line, this has been happening a lot and Chase's policy is to tell people too bad, we think you authorized the transaction. Since it's money from bank accounts and not credit cards, the customer is out not Chase.

Now I'm reading today of other people having this happen including BofA customers. I do not know if they are VISA debit cards. I also had someone the other day attempt to buy somethings from eBay outside of eBay using a VISA debit card. I declined because I can only take Paypal and they claimed not to have a Paypal account. The whole thing smelled.

From what I read, it's important to get a police report to have the banks take you seriously. Sadly B found out the police aren't really investigating this. However from what I'm seeing on-line, this is becoming a massive problem and people are losing thousands of dollars.

He found out because he checked his account. So checking your account if you have a VISA debit card is important. I think also maybe getting it closed and having a non-VISA debit card might also be something people should consider.

Here is why. With a regular ATM card you have to use a pin number no matter where you use it. You can not just sign your name. It does limit the use of it, but actually it's better to pay with cash because doing that tends to make people spend less. If you don't want to carry cash around, have a credit card with a low limit on it and pay it off every month.

I say credit card because stores usually ask for ID when using one. On-line transactions ask for those numbers on the back. And if there is fraud, the credit companies are more likely to deny the charges since they can be the ones out the money. Unlike a debit card fraud where the money comes from your bank account.

Anyway, B is going to move his accounts to a good credit union for now, once he can get his money. All I can figure is someone has accessed the data banks for the VISA debit cards because this is turning out to be extremely widespread with many people getting ripped-off.

So I'm posting this as a warning for people to at least pay attention to your accounts if nothing else. Me, I don't have a VISA debit card but still going to keep tabs on things.

Stuff coming and going.  Always seems when you need to spend all your time doing something important, a bunch of non-important stuff pops-up to cause interference.  Anyone up for adding an extra week to this month?

So to keep my brain from going all 'splody, I tempt myself by looking at various goodies on this here internet.  Fashion being one of those vices.  I have a love for some of the Japanese design houses, because I feel like they are more accessable to their customers in both accessability of the clothes and designing for the human form.

Sadly it's been for a smaller form than many of us humans have.  So I look longingly yet do not touch.  Such as one Atelier Boz, known for elegant goth aristocrat wear.  But the other day my eyes did spy a sizing that actually could work!  Not just women's size but men also in case someone's shoulders are a bit more than too.



Also tempting is this skirt they have to keep posting on their blogs, darn them.



I don't know how well you can see this, these are the best photos so far.  But it has this marvelous ruffle that twists round and round.

And if that isn't enough, someone tell me what Isao and Suigintou are doing hanging out at the Kobe store?  (doll people you have to check this out)   http://bozkobe.blog115.fc2.com/blog-category-3.html

In the midst of many days of packing frenzy, I take a few minutes to peruse my lovely Google Reader which brings me all things good and wise.  Only to have temptation dangle in front of me...



Drats!  I'm trying to be good, I'm trying to not spend money...oh wait, maybe someone will be kind at the Holidays and gift me a few dollars?  (xing fingers since at least my dad still likes me)

And because SOMEONE was seriously considering getting a DAL and I saw this and went "damn she's cute and she reminds me of a certain person" ehmmmm



Boy, she really is cute.

Terminating enabling now.

Since I'm in the thralls of moving, I thought it would be good to note it's a busy time.

But I do have something someone might be interested in.  Remember that book I won?  Well if you want to try to win one, there is one more chance.  Just go to Serge the Concierge's blog for the details.

http://www.sergetheconcierge.com/2009/11/cooking-and-manga-on-menu-for-our-everyday-harumi-book-contest-part-3.html

From what I can tell, he's looking for cooking related manga?  All I can say is if I could enter again I might mention Yakate!! Japan...

http://www.sergetheconcierge.com/2009/11/julie-is-the-winner-of-crepes-in-japan-everyday-harumi-book-contest-part-2.html

But take a look at this, something did happen the other day.

Funny, me winning a Japanese cook book.  There is synchronicity in the world. 

Eh, pretend those are little skeletons below.  Some day I will finally get a paper mache' one.



Continued my tradition of going to Target the day after Halloween.  I should have probably looked at the Halloween stuff when I was there before the holiday, because I would have passed the day after then.  Last year's designs were better.  Although the monsters were kind of cute but not what I was looking for. 

So I got a couple of the Skelanimals figures.  Was suprised they are hollow and thin plastic.  Hope the paint lasts on them.  That and some "gourmet" malt balls were the extent of my discount items.  It was a little funny that there were piles of bagged candy by the scanners in the aisle.  Seems it wasn't marked down and people were not happy about it.

Oh the mug is a Fiesta mug, one of the few pieces I am keeping.

Laughing at the Poupee Girl contest, sooooo many black and orange outfits. I don't usually write about the site here any more, but just have to pimp out mine because I put her in the Halloween Contest.

  Turns out she is in Block A if you can get past all those ones in the same outfits.  Let's just say it's my shout-out to VW and Ai Yazawa.  Rock on!

While things here may be inbetween, there is one thing for sure, somewhere there is always a little Halloween.

Would have posted this earlier but had to do the shipping packages things. Trying to figure out why I feel like eBay has been partially responsible for the "sellers are bad" stuff that has been floating around for some time.

Anywho, this may not be the most exciting photo ever. But it's the start of what went into my pasta the other night...



The point being is the Presto Pasta Night blog post is up and hee hee, my pasta is up near the top!

Presto Pasta Night at Girlichef 

Take a look if you want, there is some good looking food in there!

Young brag about all they have now, all they had when they were kids.

But I had one thing they didn't.



Irreplaceable.

Well, for some strange reason I feel the need to post that Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab has their Yule Scents out now, plus some Eldritch Misatonic Valley Yule scents (funny after all these years I still know how to spell Eldritch. Darn Old Ones never leave you, they are like ichor that never ceases.)

Black Phoenix Alchemy Yules

Paging Ms. Laragoth aka Dany, if you scroll on down that ol' list you might see something that would make the perfect Christmas gift for Redd.  Yup, it's back!

Thus is why I felt the need to post this list of sniff o' fun.  And to make this totally worthwhile, here's a photo again of my boyfriend *cough* doing his best to advertise for the BPALian Folks.



Damn I love that soap, hope they have it this year.  And all this makes me think I really need to unburden myself of the mass quantity of limiteds, prototypes and such with a post of doom here since a few other things are crawling along too slowly right now.  Blame my two weeks of critical insomnia on this insane post.  I may follow it up by letting the imps loose.  You have been warned.

 



















Last night went from this...
to this!
Squash, onions, roma tomatoes, mushrooms and spices with a bit of cheese top Hello Kitty pasta. Hey, it's good pasta. I don't know where I got this recipe but have been making it for a few years. Squashes are in season and this is a great way to fill up when the weather starts getting cooler.

 

















I'm thinking of entering this into the Pesto Pasta Round-Up for the first time.
Presto Pasta Nights
Will update with a link if I do!

Thanks to all the nice compliments I received for my recent food posts, I decided to attempt something.  A Bento Challenge.  Now everyone is into bento lately, which is funny to me since I was making this type of meal ten years ago to take to work for lunch.  Just wasn't with all the cute stuff that people use.  I think what I use to do influenced me as to what I did for this one.  I didn't want to buy stuff so I used what I have here at home.  And I wanted it to be a bit more natural, no cheese or luncheon meats or candies. 

Okay, attempted a cooking challenge last night even though I was dead tired. Haven't slept much in a week but did a little better last night. So the challenge was to cook at least two vinegar based things from the Washoku cookbook by Elizabeth Andon. Now I love this cookbook because after having experienced a few authentic Japanese meals I realized there is something more to real Japanese cooking. While I discovered on my own the use of fresh local foods is important, I didn't know the full story. Ms. Andon's book explained it to me, the concept of Washoku, balance in a meal. There is the idea of cooking each dish in a different way, having different colors of food, and having different tastes to each dish served.

It's a challenging but fun way to cook. This isn't the first time I've cooked something from this book but it's the first time I've attempted a challenge. The food turned out quite well. What the dishes were for the challenge are Tangy Seared Chicken Wings and Tart Miso-Mustard Sauce which we ate on romaine lettuce. I paired this with rice and a few sauteed vegetables. I would have had a fifth dish but being so tired I decided this was enough. I could have added pickles but with the vinegar in the dressing and with the chicken it would have been overwhelming. As it was, as good as all the dishes were, pairing two dishes which have vinegar as a component was a bit too much. I would have rather had a ginger dressing on the salad with this chicken or perhaps fish with the salad I made.

My other challenge was to get a decent photos. Well, it's not the best, I need to work on lighting since I don't like the way flash looks on food photos. But at least the meal turned out well and was quite enjoyed!