One of the things on the “must-do” list for our time in Tokyo was visit Tsukiji Market. While I wasn’t so interested in seeing fish auctioned at the crack of dawn, I was certain that if I wanted the freshest of fresh fish, this would be the place to find it. So on the second morning of our trip, my husband and I set off in search of the market.

Luckily, we worked up quite the appetite after getting a little lost coming out of the train station and making a huge loop instead of going direct to the market. By the time we got there, we wondered around, and settled on a sushi bar that had some air conditioning.

Inside, we decided on a sampler of tuna, and our favorite, tako sashimi (octopus), and the requisite Asahi to cool us down. While the fish was amazing, the thing that struck me most was that it was not cold. Unlike in the US, where the fish is cold to nearly freezing, here they served it room temperature, the flavors shining through. I decided to try a bit of uni as well, one of my not-so-favorites here in the US.

And uni is still not my favorite. It seemed better in Japan than what I’ve had here, but it will still never top my list.

Filed under:
Japanese, Lunch, World traveller by Courtney

Actually, bringing home the zucchini is more like it. This evening I went out, knowing that some of the zucchini was ready to be picked, not realizing I had monster zucchini in the garden. These two bad boys were waiting for me, along with a few non-freakoid zucchinis of normal size. Nearly 8 pounds total. I see zucchini bread, zucchini casserole, and zucchini pizza and/or pasta in my future.

Filed under:
In the Garden by Courtney

A while back I stumbled upon a picture of The Hungry Texan’s pickled jalapenos on YumSugar. Hers were very festive – a great mix of green and red, perfect for holiday gift giving – and I’ve been thinking about them ever since. Putting away some jalapeno peppers for football season would be awesome – nachos here I come! So that’s exactly what I did, following her recipe to a tee, scaling down a bit since I didn’t have nearly enough jalapenos.

While mine aren’t as pretty (not enough red peppers) I’m sure they’ll be tasty come nacho time. (more…)

Filed under:
Condiments, Dairy free, Gluten free, Prep for Later Use, Vegan, Vegetarian by Courtney

I’ll have to admit, when I first received the Morgan Freeman and Friends |Caribbean Cooking for a Cause cookbook, I was disappointed. I had seen him on one of the morning shows, promoting the book, and I had expected the book to be packed with recipes from islanders themselves. When I got the book, it was more about fancy hotels’ restaurants, and less about the simple island cooking, so it sat on my bookshelf for quite a while.

After a while, I started trying some of the recipes, though. First, a simple recipe, more like what I thought the book should be featuring, Pasta, Smoked Fish, and Cream. Then I ventured out a bit more and tried the Ital Soup. Then I decided to go the uber-fancy route, and make Chicken and Shrimp in a Pineapple Pontoon (a huge hit with my hubby, with an inspiring combination of flavors – orange and star anise… mmmm!). (more…)

Filed under:
Cookbook Review by Courtney

After many battles with my tomato plants, over the past weekend I finally yielded enough tomatoes to make something beyond an individual caprese salad. I decided to flip through one of my favorite cookbooks, the Food of Italy, to find inspiration on how to handle the 3 pounds of roma tomatoes I had on hand.

While many of the tomatoes will be destined for pizza sauce, I decided to take 20 of them and make oven-dried tomatoes, which was really easy. (more…)

Filed under:
Appetizers, Dairy free, Gluten free, In the Garden, Italian, Vegan, Vegetarian by Courtney