Tonkatsu Ramen soup with boiled eggs

 I told Esme I was going to write this down because it is different than 'just making the package' but unless I do it while paying close attention, it's hard to tell her what exactly is so different about it. 

Tonkatsu ramen soup : (you can make it with different meat or just vegetables, just adjust to your taste) boil four eggs, then place in cold water unpeeled while chopped up 1 cooked pork chop, and gather up frozen green onions. Set pork chop and green onions to boil in one cup more liquid than the package calls for (in this case, 3 cups when the package asks for 2 cups), add a tablespoon of soy sauce and a shake of ginger-garlic-sugar-sage-black pepper pork seasoning, bring that to a boil and let it continue to heat while peeling the eggs. 

Sometimes I would add frozen green peas, bok choy or shredded frozen cabbage at this point.  I will sometimes put in a shake of furikake flaked seaweed into this - I did tonight.   If using shredded carrot, (we didn't have any tonight) let that boil to a tender state before continuing. I don't use canned carrot in this because it becomes mush and is not tasty in the broth, but some softened shredded carrot is really nice.  

 Break up the noodles and place them into the pan and cook for the required amount of time (4 minutes in this case), add the soup packet and oil packet from the package. Break the boiled eggs in the bowls to expose the yolks - and pour one half of the pot over each bowl of eggs.

chopped up porkchop, green onions, tonkatsu pork chop flavored ramen package

 

Bring 3 cups of water (the package calls for two for the noodles and broth packet, this is one extra to be absorbed into the meat, veggies and eventually eggs) to a boil, add the pork chop, 1 tbsp of soy sauce, green onions and a few shakes of a spicy pork ginger based seasoning.  We make our own, but it has garlic, ginger, sage, black pepper and a few other things in it as well as some sugar.  Do not mix the soup packet or oil packet from the package in yet - that goes in later! 

  

Boil 4 eggs - I try to soft-boil them but the key point is to not overboil them.  I boil four for two bowls, and if one cracks and is lost, three is still enough.  Pour out the hot water after they are boiled enough, refill with cold, let sit until the soup mixture is heated up well and the pork has started to flavor the water.  

  

When the broth is just about ready - break up the noodles into four sections and place them in the broth.  Set the timer for the amount of time the package says the noodles need to cook.  Peel the eggs, but do not chop them up yet. 

 When the noodles are entirely done, open the soup packet and the oil packet and mix them into the soup and noodles.  Break up the eggs to expose the yolks.  Pour half of the soup and noodles over each bowl of eggs.  The soup will mix a bit with the egg yolk and make the broth even richer. 

 

And there is your soup - much more than just the packet, but not so much you have to spend all day making it, like REAL tonkatsu soup would be - one of those told me to boil the pork for five hours to make the broth!  

 

melted and refroze - january ice storm tennessee - february 4

 

Charlotte and Melody (goat) had discussions with me this morning about the ice still outside, and about food stores.  I am increasingly glad we went for that extra animal feed run last week and bought extra bags while we were there.  And Esme found that gallon of milk, and I keep weird things in the cabinets that I will eat even though they may be time-intensive and I don't do them often.  We had filled ALL of our propane tanks in the days leading up to the storm, standing in line for an hour on the last one (which was when everyone else decided it was time to fill), and still ran out before this ice was done, so that is on our 'to be better prepared' list - another 40 gallon tank to keep full.

They've declared a state of emergency, closed the schools for the same full two weeks I've been iced in, and I do know we're not the only ones - although much of the towns and main highways are clear, there are a lot of people asking for help and also a lot of people getting themselves and rescuers in trouble on the road trying to drive in these conditions. 

It melted some a couple of the 40 degree days and only reformed into harder and tougher ice during the cold overnight temperatures.  It got up to maybe 36 today, and maybe 38 tomorrow.  We still feel lucky to have the electricity fixed (after that outage last Sunday) and the water pipes working.  Although I will admit : my feet are so cold, I've done double socks and slippers and a wool rug under my feet, and been able to work at my desk.   Esme is wrapped up in hoodies and blankets in her room, which is well-insulated and next to the house furnace.  Mark is sitting next to a wellhouse heater just to stay warm enough for his lungs - and I did bump the whole house heat up some.  Our elderly animals are enjoying the heat lamp he set up.  At dinner we pile up under some covers and are watching a criminal investigation show again for a few hours before bedtime.  All of our chickens are winter-type breeds and they are doing quite well, although not laying any eggs (understandable).

I am also lucky I've been able to work from home a little and actually help out with some things that needed to be remembered and/or done at work.  I've been allowed to log a little time on that.  I know I will have stacks of things to do when I can get in - buckle down and power through those physical paper things that I could not get done this week not being there. 

I took a few more walks out today, with the last one being a full two mile walk with the camera and took a couple of videos as well that I posted on FB.  It is still ice out there - even where it melted yesterday, it has refroze.  Just look at that garbage can - with the sun on it and some melting it is now sitting in a hole in the ice berm.

 

in order : our hill going up into our driveway 

 

looking back at our drive from Grandma's house and mailbox 

looking out at the next neighbor's house past Grandma's

Looking down the hill into the intersection with the county road

This is the only place you can see some road, because the neighbor ground the wheels on his very large 4 wheel drive truck on one of the slushy times 

 

 

down and around the first corner 

looking up at this side of the double 'S' hill, there was the sound of water running all the way down into the gullies there - and the sides of the road are clearing up some, which means another couple of days of melting it will maybe be passable (for those who don't have a huge 4 wheel drive truck) - but I think that the neighbors, too, got out at the slush time with that truck and haven't been back in since the melt - and that their relative with the baby had left at the beginning of the storm and is wisely staying in town.

Mark had me looking for the yeast today, which we have some but it is four years out of date.  I made a box of jell-O.  We still have food for dinners that everyone would want for a few days, Mark says 'because we're weird, cook from scratch AND keep a lot of stuff in the freezer / cupboards' - having pumpkin seeds, hazelnuts, peanut protein powder, making pea soup and onigiri and a variety of other things, yes, that's about right, but he is still thinking I might try to make some other bread experiment with Esme tomorrow.

On languages?  I'm studying Turkish on one platform and have kicked into the high grammar Japanese on the other and some Lithuanian practice here and there.  I'm listening to Japanese cartoons and French.

oh my and not much done in the rain

I had the day off.. and Esme had school.  Can't say I did nothing while she was gone... but it doesn't feel like really much to take pictures and blog about.. here it is anyway, because it still feels like a kind of progress I'll be repeating, organization, small projects.   I watched some Khan Academy, perused subjects much too far above my head on Wikipedia and Google books (but liked it), listened to a whole CD of music on the computer (so rare I've done it maybe three times this year) and organized this sewing shelf.  I did not take a before shot.... but it wasn't pretty.  It probably won't stay this way for long and I could have delved into those little drawers a bit more for things to organize..but then I opened up one of the plastic bags on the shelf and found all these little strip fabric things for chandelier chains I had bought on clearance a good while back... so I put them to some experimental sewing recycling and made a mat backed with muslin, which ended up under my clock and journal on my dresser... I didn't need another pillow ;)

Why yes, that is another book box on the shelf - I painted that today, as well.. the inside (not pictured) is a scene of "multiple moons" and stars... in yellow, purple and gray.  I wanted to try that color combo and see how it looked.  The paints are in the handled tin box and the cardboard drum... two large dust-collecting cardboard boxes were thrown away and who knows how much paper that was stacked and not very useful, wrappers,bits and bobs of things I no longer had any plans for etc..

Esme is still napping.. she had a tough day today.  She said school was hard, but some was easy.  She was glad to be home where she could play all day and not 'do the learning, but for a little bit of learning, but not a lot.'  That is the 'oh my'.. third day of school and she realizes she would be rather be playing.  We saw beautiful butterflies on the road on the way home - we all stopped to look at them.  Then she got all of her school things off and did her homework sheet.  She tried to play Skyrim Dragon game and got too scared after a bit... then went for a nap.  I wonder what she will think about having to get ready for school again..

This is a 'bunny in a space helmet' and a birthday cake in some sort of glass box, too.

Esme did this yesterday in Minecraft while I was at work.

A Round tent for reading and playing

I've been wanting to spruce up Esme's room to make it more fun for both of us to play in there - instead of just me sit and watch her jump off her bed twenty times in a row etc etc...  I read up on a few different ways to make a tent in her room - but I was worried about her pulling down some of the other designs, and we had all the materials for this one on hand.  It is a hula hoop hung from the ceiling with strong cotton yarn, and then the fabric curtains I made for it are also tied on with cotton yarn through tab loops at the top.  I had wondered what to use this donkey fabric for - and it is a perfect match as a pretend 'tee pee' pattern. 

Boo!  She loves it :)

She says I made it and that is a hero thing.

setting up a blanket for Mr.Frog
There is my old combination lock from work on the toy chest.  I brought it home 'broken' and not working right - and she told me we needed to get a small hard tool and put it in the hole in the back of the lock (where does she get these things?) and we all worked on it together and it came open eventually.  We reset the combination and she put it on the footlocker herself (but not actually locking the box) and she actually remembered the combination this morning and was taking it off and putting it back on today.  She says she is a smart girl that is a remembering girl, who can think :)

Showing off her handiwork with Mr.Frog and the 'bed'.
I had hoped we could sit here and read books as well.  We've read some of the Hobbit together today on the Kindle e-reader.

Sitting on top of her bed with the new toothbrushing calendar

Things to remember:  Esme told me her elephants were 'making mud on the African savannah, like the lion king.'  The other day we were going to school with her and the sun was coming through the clouds in little pinpoint rays here and there.  She said that was like Africa, way over there, and there were lions over there who were holding up a baby, like on the cartoon, and all the animals - can we go there?  There is a lot going on in this little mind :)

We gave Yoda kitten and most of her siblings away today.  I wish her well... I wouldn't have given her up except the lady promised she would be very good and gentle with her.. she was still so much tinier than all of the others.

Electrical Wire Spool Table

I got this from work and knew it was just the right size.  The bottom was broken some, so Mark cut it off straight on two sides.  Esme helped me paint it pink.  Then I put a large circle of cardboard on the top and used a staple gun to secure the fabric under the edge all the way around.  Esme gets home from school without me in a few hours - I hope she will like the tea party :)

Hexagons

hexagon kitchen cloths
click here to buy in the shop

I made these up yesterday using an equilateral triangle as the base piece.  They will be helpful little bowl holding cloths, 'napkins' to put in my lunchbox and so forth.  They are backed with muslin and have overstitching along the seams.  Many of the scraps came from recycled things and from bits saved in bags that were leftover from projects.

My Kingdom for a Box

Or is that my kingdom as a box? Remember that awesome box I scored at work the other day? We finally got to working with it. It is the perfect castle shape, so I gave it a drawbridge.


Welcome to my Castle


Interior decorating


a little Tom Sawyer


C'mon Mom, you can do it, come in!


Odd little curious George smile she does

In other News
The Mayflower beans are about to give two seed pods and the Shackamaxon have a handful of swelling pods waiting. And on top of those I am 'reserving' there are pounds and pounds of regular beans coming in! With gallons of soup frozen already, I need another way to use these without having to blanch them the regular way (getting them cold enough afterwards is the part we keep failing on).

This recipe looks good!:
Scalloped Green Beans originally from easy southern cooking, converted to what I have on hand:

Gallon ziploc bag full of beans, trimmed and washed
1 onion, diced up
2 hard-boiled eggs, sliced
1/3 c. diced up Cheddar cheese
1 can cream of chicken soup
Half the soup can milk
crushed up crackers or toast crumbs

Combine all ingredients except crumbs in greased casserole; mix well. Top with crumbs. Bake at 325 degrees for 45 minutes or until bubbly.

Other recipes for using up the harvest(s):
saucy green bean bake probably without the 'processed cheese' though...
walnuts, onions and cheddar cheese over olive-oil steamed green beans (my thought)

Other 'other' recipes that peaked my interest:
lemon yogurt cornbread, odd but intriguing
Lemon ginger carrot cornbread idea
Lemon cornmeal cookies<--- gotta try this!
Crown Jewel patties, carrot and onion patties covered with cornflakes and baked

Homemade Reminiscing

I look about at our house often and count the number of things in plain sight that I have made or recycled out of something else. Sometimes I hardly realize I'm doing it - but it always brings a nice feeling. The number of washcloths, clothing, pillows, toys, containers - every item says something about who lives here. Other items that were made by people I have known in my life...

I also think back to things that still resonate in my memory from my childhood home. I walk to those places in my memory, see them as if they were right before my eyes. The house itself was made by my grandfather - right down to the built-in cabinetry, small little doors in the walls where one would usually not expect them - a broom closet, a linen closet, a closet for garden tools by the basement door etc... Many of our household items there were handmade - curtains and couch cushions, macrame wall hangings, handpainted animal pillows on our beds, quilts made by grandma, drawings made by Mom, handcrafted benches and clothes chests and bookcases, flower pots and placemats...

Sometimes I wonder if Esme will live in a world like that as the future continues.. or if everything will become 'stock'. I hope we can give her that empowerment to alter and create. I hope to teach her to dream of what she can make her world be - using her hands and eyes, time and space...

I am still working to perfect the pattern for the raglan dress. I think I've made six now and still working to tweak a few things (haha!). I'm hoping to post it to BurdaStyle soon, a website where sewers share their patterns and projects with each other. I've posted a more complete set of instructions (with more pictures) at this link.

UPDATE: I think I did it! I made a few small alterations to the last pattern and tried it out - and it fit perfectly the first time with no fixes! YAYAYAYAYAY! I even made it a short-sleeve with no changes to the rest of the bodice. I think this pattern is ready to go 'all out', ie: make a few for other toddlers this age and see how it fits them. Plus - I'm going to make another one for Esme with the green fat quarter I was saving!

Third Diaper, a little closer to a winner

Even simpler, and this fabric is much easier to pin
It was a little gappy in the legs, so I tried some elastic.


I'm really not good at elastic yet!
It needs to be on the inside of the construction (not like this),
so it doesn't catch Bazooka's skin.

Found this fitted diaper tutorial, that has elastic in the legs. It shows how to make a casing for the elastic, but I wish it was more detailed.

Somebody on an email group I joined suggested this wool diaper cover tutorial. The leg elastic instructions are a bit clearer here (and the contrast on the pictures is better, too). I'll try this on my current pattern and hope I've got the winner.

Materials used in this diaper: prewashed mid-grade muslin (not tightly woven) for less than 2.00 per yard, and one of the pack of cotton shop towels Mark's mom gave us. The shop towels were about the same size as 'prefold diapers', and are folded once-over and sewn in the center for the 'soaker' part of the diaper.

Jennifer gave me a treat!
Thank you Jennifer!


This is a tag, here is the info!:
The Trickortreat treat giving orginated with Anni, who's been giving out Halloween treats this month on her blog. The idea is if you are given this treat, that you post it on your blog, pass it along to others, but also provide a link back to the source, Anni!

I'll pass this treat along to Jeanne at K3tog, and the always sweet Mrs.Pao!