Jinja and Shoga: Life in the Land of the Rising Sun

Mainly due to lack of anything else going on the past couple of days, I've been incredibly domesticated. I've vacuumed countless times, done 4 loads of laundry in the past 24 hours, cleaned the bathtub, sink, toilet, bathroom ceiling fan, wiped the floors down, cleaned out our closet, dusted, changed Wasabi's stink-box (and pooper scooped it how many times, much to the little Porker's delight, seeing as there's nothing more fun than trying to weasel your way into a garbage bag of your own poo). Actually, pooper-scooping is, in my opinion, much more fun than studying for my Japanese proficiency test, so neither Wasabi nor I seem to mind it too much!
And, I've been cooking up a storm. (Yes, lovely transition from poop to food, I know). Anyway. I can't say it's all that much compared to how much I used to cook in the US, but compared to the amount I usually do in our dinky kitchenette, it's a lot. Last night I tried a new recipe, which turned out amazing well considering that it was completely different from the intended recipe by the time I was done. Here's the original recipe if you're interested; I would really recommend the chickpeas.
While preparing the salmon, I realized that we had neither paprika nor limes, and we also didn't have any bottled lime juice for the chickpeas. So I just sprinkled the salmon with pepper, foregoing any sort of citrus topping or paprika. (FYI, if you request 'paprika' at the grocery store here, they're going to show you red peppers, not the spice). For the chickpeas, I substituted lemon juice, and they turned out quite well, albeit a bit peppery for my taste. And, obviously my photo isn't nearly as enticing as the one on the BBC site!
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/8254/peppercrusted-salmon-with-garlic-chickpeas

Peppered salmon with garlicky chickpeas and an egg and mushroom saute


For tonight's dinner, I decided that I'd better make use of the Javanese curry spices we bought while on vacation in Bali last year, since the package was due to expire this month. The last of this month being today and all.



















Finally, the Effing cookies. Their official name is something like 'Best chocolate chip cookies, but in our apartment, they go by this more infamous moniker. These cookies first made an appearance in May of this year, when I decided to whip up a batch for a bbq we were going to.
Requirements for making these include: 1. a kitchenette so tiny that your 'mixing bowl' is a stockpot, 2. You must mix everything on the stove due to lack of counterspace, 3. You may only start making them after 10 p.m, 4. You must make them in an incredibly humid country, so that any and all sugar you want to use contains lumps and clumps, 5. You must spill at least half of the chocolate chips or M&Ms onto the stove and 6. at least 5 loud curses, a threat to throw a cookie sheet through the window, and one temper tantrum are a must, or at least enough of a fit to send your significant other fleeing to the other end of your tiny apartment after he steals part of a cookie that's stuck to the pan because the bloody things are TOO @*%$$$# SOFT AND STICKY!!!
But. If you let them cool and manage to serve your friends and guests the cookies that do manage to survive the transition from cookie sheet to Tupperware, everyone will rave and rave about how amazing they are, thus inspiring you to attempt them again after an interval long enough to forget all the pain involved in baking them. And tonight was the night! Once again most of them are in varying degrees of gooey crumble, but they taste great, and there are 6 whole ones to serve our visitors tomorrow. Plus, I managed not to cuss. At least, nothing terribly bad. Am really trying to work on the potty mouth, I swear! (Ha, ha).

Effing cookies









The original recipe: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Best-Chocolate-Chip-Cookies/Detail.aspx
Here's what I changed: 1/2 cup white sugar instead of 1 cup, and I made it 1 and 1/2 cups of brown sugar to substitute. I only used 2 and 1/2 cups of flour instead of 3 cups. And obviously M&Ms are in mine instead of chocolate chips, plus I chopped up a semi-sweet chocolate bar and threw that in instead of the nuts. Finally, I baked them at 160 C for about 12 minutes, insead of 175 C. If you don't want them that soft, then bake them at the higher temp, but a friend did that and said hers didn't turn out nearly as tasty. So...your choice, deal with the goo or sacrifice flavor/texture.