Japanese grocery shopping, major reorganization

School starts the day after tomorrow. I can't believe this. Haven't heard back yet about AP French, and I hardly know which classes I'm taking! My books don't arrive until Wednesday, so I guess I'll just need to rely on photocopies until then.
For breakfast I had oatmeal with buttermilk, berries, almond extract, almonds, and a spoonful of almond butter. The buttermilk made it really runny, so I had to heat it a bit longer, but after that it was perfect!
Today I went with my friend Yoko and her family out near the airport to their favorite Japanese grocery stores. We went to 2: one called Mitsuwa (sp?), and the other I don't remember the name of. It made me realize how much I hate driving (or at least sitting in a car). It wasn't as big as Super H-Mart, the Korean grocery store all the way in Niles, but it was still decent (there are some weird things in these photos: yes, those are fruit and chow mein sandwiches, and a scary octopus head).

I didn't want to buy too much stuff, considering all the Japanese food I ate this summer, so I just bought a few useful (hopefully) supplies:
-Japanese sweet potatoes
-Napa cabbage (on sale)
-Umeboshi (with shiso)
-Matcha, finally... it was so expensive!
-Little frozen packets of natto, since I am DETERMINED to learn how to like it
-Some prepared seaweed salad
-Barley tea
-Bonito flakes
-White miso
While Mitsuwa had a food court, Yoko and her family liked the food court at a smaller grocery store with better sashimi. There wasn't much choice (or vegetables). It was decent, but I'm not sure if I ordered the most fulfilling option. I was sick of grilled fish and sushi, so I decided to get tempura udon, since it was the only noodle option without meat. There was only one piece of shrimp tempura (it was good), and some flavorless fish cakes, but sadly, no vegetables! Yoko got the shoyu ramen, which was topped with egg, fish cake, pork, and lots of kombu. Her sister got ramen too, but with a different soup. All our food came with packaged (but warm) rice balls. You had to unwrap them in a specific way according to the numbers on the wrapping. You could also choose from a variety of fillings: I got umeboshi and Yoko got kombu. I basically ate the seaweed and the umeboshi, but not really the rice, since I was eating noodles and it seemed unnecessary. I have to confess that the sushi looked great-- her parents split a giant Tiger Roll that came with seaweed salad and miso soup.

Next time I would still probably get a grilled fish set, though.
We stopped at Costco on the way back, and I looked for my camera battery charger and couldn't find it.
I came home a few hours later and was hungry. Other than that little piece of shrimp, the lunch wasn't very high-protein (or fiber). I had some cottage cheese and greek yogurt with berries, honey and wheat germ.
After I had eaten, I practiced some piano. I'm super worried for my piano lesson on Wednesday. Originally it should have been last Wednesday, the day after we got back, but thank god we realized that I would be too worn out... also, this is the first time that I didn't practice ALL summer, pretty much, and my parents didn't nag me at all. I think it's because I was taking on swimming and Chinese. I'm working on the Bach Italian Concerto and that's it. I need a piece to play for my re-audition to my Saturday program!

After that I realized how much major reorganization I had to do. My mom helped me move my computer to my vestibule/ closet area. I think this is really going to clear space on my desk and actually give me a space to work! Last year I was constantly working in the kitchen because 1) there was no room on my desk to write and 2) I got too distracted by the internet. I think I'll also sleep better without the computer in my room, although tonight I won't, since my room is such a mess. I also cleared out the drawers and shelves, threw out a ridiculous number of dried up pens and broken pencils, and I also plan on clearing on the closet and donating some of the clothes I never wear. Tomorrow I have to finish this! I also need to buy my camera battery and the rest of my school supplies. I also need to make sure I'm doing exercise, since I won't be swimming at the meet on Monday and I didn't do anything today. It's amazing how much less I eat when I don't work out. I think I might run tomorrow morning or go back to Ratner and swim later in the afternoon (or both!). I will be organized... I have to be. I've been using the same folders for the past 2 years and they're usable but tattered. I know it's a waste, but I'm buying new ones... it's really discouraging to start the year with less than perfect notebooks, since they get totally trashed by the end.
One of our family friends from when we lived in Cambridge, Helen, who goes to U of C now, came over for dinner. She went with my mom to the farmer's market this morning. Both my mom and I were exhausted from all the organization (or more like disorganization, since everything seemed to get messier by the minute), so dinner took a while and was kind of impromptu. We had one of our favorite Deborah Madison (see a pattern?) beet soups, which uses every part of the beet, including the greens and even the peels, which are used to make a stock. We also had arugula salad with a little bit of goat cheese and roasted pepper.
We debated and debated about what else to have, and decided on baked eggs over mushrooms-- I've never had baked eggs, but I usually dislike the yolks when they're separated from the whites. Basically, we sauteed mushrooms with a little butter (or olive oil if I'd had my way), herbs and red wine, then baked them with the eggs on top. We also sauteed cubes of whole wheat bread to make croutons for it. We were supposed to bake them for 15 minutes, but every time we checked on them, the whites still looked transparent! We took them out after 15, but we had completely overcooked the yolks. Maybe because the eggs were so fresh that the whites didn't turn opaque as easily? I don't know. Either way, I probably wouldn't have eaten the yolks anyway, but it would have been better if they were runny, since the mushrooms were a bit dry. They were also a little bit too heavy on the herbs, but other than that, the dish was a great combination of flavors and textures-- the mushrooms were chewy and meaty (also in their savoury taste), and the croutons were more spongy than crunchy, so that the whole dish became almost like a bread pudding. We'll definitely try it again.
Also: corn on the cob
My mom and Helen had a little bit of the ice cream for dessert (we took it out hours in advance this time, and it still wasn't that soft), and said that without compote, the peach flavor was stronger. I didn't have any (just didn't feel the need to), and I had a peach instead. It was so juicy and wonderful (great adjective, I know, but I'm falling asleep). So tired. I will now go to bed in my (computer-less) room!

Ho Hum, my arm is bruised, and so are the peaches that I turned into ice cream

I have never felt so sleep-deprived in my life. I think I've gotten maybe 11 hours in 3 DAYS? I usually get 9 hours a night! I feel so tired that I feel constantly awake (and I haven't had any caffeine). Practice yesterday wasn't that strenuous, so I didn't get tired until 1 AM, but then I woke up at 4 and couldn't get back to sleep. I was starving, probably 1) from jet lag (it would have been dinnertime) and 2) I'm always hungry in the morning. I kept trying to sleep, but got up and had breakfast at 7:00. I ate a lot, but still didn't feel totally full:
-Whole wheat cinnamon raisin English muffin (1 half with almond butter, 1 with peanut butter)
-A bowl of a combination of cottage cheese, buttermilk, and Greek yogurt with grape nuts, peach, berries, wheat germ, cinnamon, nuts, and a drizzle of honey.
-Rooibos tea with milk

After breakfast, I went back to "sleep--" aka staring at the insides of my eyelids until 10. My mom had slept more than me, but she also woke up in the middle of the night. Today was not a good day at the beginning. I was under-slept, my mom and I were yelling at each other the entire morning, I found out that I can't take Russian at U of C because it won't fit into my schedule, and we had to rush for lunch and everything else because my mom had to go downtown for Pilates.
Lunch was very hurried and badly presented, since I was in such a rush (and rage): Grilled portabello mushrooms (brushed with balsamic and olive oil) on potato buns, pickles, carrots and peppers with hummus, and the rest of the tomato soup. It's amazing how the quinoa acts as a thickener. As for the mushrooms, I wish there was some way to add more protein to them (other than cheese), because I just end up slathering them with ketchup. We were out of salad or anything green, so there was no crunch. Oh well.
Swim practice... I knew that it would make me feel better and more awake, although we had to do kick sets with shoes today! I know that sounds unsanitary and it probably is, but our coach says that the chemicals in the pool kill the bacteria. We had a meet today that I didn't have to compete in, but it was incredible that people were expected to do the workout that we did and then compete in 4 events each. Crazy.
The bruise from yesterday has turned bright purple and hurts a LOT. It didn't help today that after our kick sets (he made us dive in and do IM order (butterfly, backstroke, breast stroke, freestyle) sprints with shoes on!!! Satanist. And more than one set of these!), we had to sprint, get out, jump back in, sprint, get out, jump back in-- climbing in and out of the pool, scraping my arms and legs in the same place every time. Ow.
After practice I had a banana that had gotten disgustingly mushed in my bag. We won the meet, but it wasn't fair, considering the other team only had 8 people.
I got home more than an hour later and was starving, even though I didn't race today. I had a little trail mix and some milk.
For dinner, we had: Salmon steaks with berry glaze from The Philosopher's Kitchen, by Francine Segan. Basically, it's just grilled salmon drizzled with a little bit of butter (gasp), sauteed with shallots and raspberry vinegar, then served with raspberries. The sweetness of the salmon went perfectly with the tartness of the berries, and I also added a squirt of lemon and some cayenne.
On the side we had boiled purple fingerlings with mixed herbs and a drizzle of olive oil, some sliced tomatoes with basil, and finally, just a simple green salad (sorry about the picture).
Because one of my best friends and her mom are coming over for dinner tomorrow night and I'm supposed to be cooking, I decided to make the peach ice cream tonight. The problem is, making ice cream is actually pretty simple, but everything seemed to go wrong. First of all, I curse Mark Bittman for not specifying what heat to heat the custard mixture at, because it curdled and I had to strain it through a sieve, which took ages-- but at least it ended up alright. Second of all, it took us about an hour to figure out just how to use the ice cream maker-- I've only used it once, and that was for blood orange sorbet, which was much simpler. We kept thinking that we were missing a part, since we couldn't find the instructions and all the instructions online were for older models. FINALLY we found the instructions and put it together.
I combined a few different recipes for this:
Peach Ginger Ice Cream (yes, this is so creamy and decadent I think it's going to have to be the side to something else):
-1 1/2 cups cream, 1/2 cup milk (or any combination of the two)
-6 eggs
-1/2 cup sugar
-1 cup pureed peaches
-a tsp grated ginger
-I also decided to add in some chopped peaches and crystallized ginger at the end.
All you have to do is heat the milk, cream and ginger, combine the eggs and sugar, and when the milk has boiled, add a little bit of the milk to the eggs and whisk. Then add the eggs into the cream and heat. When it's thick enough (this was my mistake-- I let it curdle), turn off the heat, add the peaches, and cool. When it's cool enough, pour into ice cream maker. When the ice cream maker can't churn it any more because it's too thick, add in the peaches and ginger, then put the ice cream bowl back in the freezer for overnight.
I'm not sure what else I'm making tomorrow, but I know I'm making either a carrot or Kabocha squash soup, in addition to some kind of chickpea dish with the most delicious specialty brown rice that my mom got me for my birthday. Sounds simple and monastic, but we'll see (both my friend and her mom are vegetarians. Her mom used to be a vegan), and I might make a dessert to go with the ice cream... fruit crisp, maybe?
I really should sleep. I think I'll take a sleeping pill tonight.

HOME SWEET HOME

IT FEELS SO GOOD TO BE HOME. That flight was the most hellish experience of my life. In the end we ended up getting on standby and I slept the whole way there. By the time we got home it was already almost 10, and all we wanted to do was crawl into bed. But since there was no food in the house, we set out on a super quick grocery shopping trip to buy milk, yogurt, fruit, etc. and basically had breakfast for dinner.
I ended up unpacking before I went to bed, and we got up early this morning to go to the farmer's market, so I was really worried about not having enough energy for swim practice. I gotten about 8 hours of sleep in two nights, and i usually get more than that in a single night...
It felt amazing to be in my own bed, with space and privacy. this is the first time that this "new" (aka 2 years old) apartment has really felt like home.
This morning I yielded to my pumpkin cravings by adding some to oatmeal.
I also added half a banana for thickness, a little maple syrup, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, wheat germ, walnuts and pecans, and some crumbled graham crackers from the farmers' market a few months ago. they were too stale to eat plain, but perfect for this perfect-- it really was pumpkin pie in a bowl, and nauseated my mom to no end.
By eight, we were ready to go to the farmer's market in Lincoln Park. I don't think I can even explain my delight at seeing FRESH vegetables. The thing about Chinese food is that it's great, but unless you get extremely simple vegetable dishes, you really don't know where anything came from, and you know it's filled with pesticides.
OH, TOP CHEF WAS DOING A DEMO THERE! only 40 people could go in though.
On the way back we stopped at Whole Foods and Trader Joe's for useful things like cereal, trail mix, energy bars, hummus, etc. etc.
For lunch, we originally wanted to grill portabella mushroom sandwiches, but there was a misunderstanding about what bread we wanted to buy and we ended up buying just a fruit and nut bread, which would be disgusting with mushrooms. PLUS, the bakery changed from using whole wheat to white flour! CURSES!
We sampled everything, including farmer's market pickles, goat cheese, arugula, green zebra tomatoes, plus hummus, giant beans and pickled artichokes from trader joes. I had some apple cider on the side. This was an EXTREMELY light lunch compared to what i usually eat, so afterwards I had some Kashi Heart to Heart with peach, fresh berries and fresh buttermilk. THE BUTTERMILK WAS INCREDIBLE. We also bought milk (2% this time because it just tasted so good) and cream from the market because I plan on making ice cream this week. Indulgence time.
to sleep. I woke up tired but super excited. Luckily, practice was an easy one! We took team photos, did a 500 warm up, a few sprints, talked about the meet tomorrow (which i won't be swimming in), but then did a ridiculously painful cool down. We had to swim 600 yds of diving in at one end, swimming any stroke except for freestyle to the other, getting out, doing 5 up downs (like push ups, but you press your whole body to the ground), jumping back in and doing it all over again. We had to do this 12 times. It really wasn't that bad, but i got terrible bruises from all the dragging my elbows and knees up. After lunch my mom made me take a nap, since there was less than an hour and a half until swim practice! The problem was, I didn't get really sleepy until there were only 15 minutes left the side of the pool again and again. Mainly I was just so happy to see everyone, and I feel like I've really improved since my Chinese coach. It's pretty lonely training yourself, and it really motivates you to swim with other people. Tomorrow we have practice BEFORE the meet, so I'll be swimming then, and we have to do kick sets with shoes on. In the water. I will die.
After practice I didn't feel that tired, since we probably only swam for 50% of the time, but I was getting hungry. I had a Clif Mojo bar (peanut butter pretzel)! It was great, and possibly beats Luna bars, because it wasn't too sticky, and it was salty and sweet. It didn't taste that processed, either.
I did some other boring errands (bookstore, Radio Shack), and my mom, like the wonderful person she is, made dinner. She actually wants me to make a written schedule of our meals that I haven't gotten to yet.
For dinner we had Deborah Madison's roasted tomato soup with saffron quinoa (but we substituted turmeric and a bay leaf for the saffron), a swiss chard souffle, corn on the cob, and more arugula.
I helped a bit with the soup... it was a little overly complicated for what it was: you had to roast the tomatoes with onions underneath, then puree them and strain them, then cook the quinoa. At the end a bit of curry powder and Greek yogurt was added. It was incredible, though. I have yet to lose faith in Deborah Madison.
The souffle, on the other hand, didn't turn out so well. In addition to switching around the white-to-yolk proportions, my mom overcooked it so that it fell and was more like quiche filling. It was worth eating, but sadly the texture caused us to throw out the rest.
It feel so great to eat at home again... I'm eating so much lighter now that we're not eating in restaurants. The only problem is I find myself getting hungry again (Chinese food seems much heartier to me). I might go finish up that leftover pumpkin.