Vinegar

Just typing the title had me singing

Fiiiish 'n chips and vinegar,
vinegar, vinegar,
fiiiish 'n chips and vinegar,
pepper, pepper, SALT!

Don't throw your junk in my backyard,
my backyard, my backyard,
my backyard's FULL!



Although, of course since I'm loosing my voice from a cold, you'll have to imagine me singing in a nice gravelly baritone!

Anyways... where was I?



Right... VINEGAR!



This month's Washoku Wariors ingredient. Although I have a bottle of rice vinegar in my cupboard I haven't used it much and enjoyed trying out a few different recipes. The only drawback was that after three vinegar recipes in one evening my kitchen smelled like vinegar for a few days!

The recipes I tried were the Tangy Seared Chicken Wings and the Classic Sweet-and-Sour Sauce, with which I made Sweet and Sour Lotus Root.


The Tangy Seared Chicken was yummy, although I think I'd like to try adding carrots or other veggies next time, to see if this could work as a sort of stewed meat and vegetable dish.


I've never been a fan of sweet and sour pickles (I'm a garlic dill girl through and through), but I am very happy with the Sweet and Sour Lotus Root. The pieces of lotus root are crunchy and tangy and a side to just about any dish. I'm looking forward to trying another one of the sweet and sour pickles once I've eaten my lotus root!

Thanksgiving

Monday is Thanksgiving Day in Canada and Sports and Health Day (Tai-iku no hi) in Japan. U is off hiking in the south and I'm stuck home supposedly working on my thesis but really just sniffling and feeling sorry for myself as I've come down with a cold. My usual source of turkey didn't happen this year, but I decided that one of my other Thanksgiving traditions - coming up with a list of things for which I'm thankful - was a definite must to snap myself out of my stuffed-sinus induced mood. So here goes:

10 things I'm thankful for this Thanksgiving:

10 - mega electronics stores - all you could ever imagine you wanted and more... one dizzingly large floor after another!

9 - helpful electronics store staff who listen to stupid questions from stuffed up and cotton-ball brained foreigners and who calmly tell you all you need to do is plug it in and you're good to go.

8 - Points cards - while the sheer number of them doubles my wallet in size, using them faithfully can actually add up to sizable rewards - if you're patient.

7 - 100 yen stores - selling everything you could want for your house, including flashlights used to shine at laptop screens with a dead backlight in an attempt to troubleshoot why the "just-plug-it-in" screen is not working although it is in fact plugged in

6 - my cell phone - in addition to the obvious making phone calls (which I actually do rarely), it also surfs the Internet to troubleshoot computer problems, and sends frantic texts

5 - U - my kind and caring boyfriend who, 1000 km away, who replied to the frantic email by immediately calling me.

4 - U - my smart boyfriend who remembered that pressing "function" and "F8" does something to displays, and that proves to be the solution to the problem.

3 - my new screen - its purrrrty! and it works!!

2 - lemon tea and honey - soothing on a sore and scratch throat

1 - grapefruit scented lotion containing Kleenex - soft and fruity and so nice on a sore red rudolf nose!


Happy Thanksgiving!