Chili and Corn Bread-or-A Match Made in Heaven

This wasn't planned.  But sometimes, the best meals aren't planned.  They are thrown together in an hour.  And they are de-licious.

My amazing husband made this chili while I was away at my koto lesson. 

Guys-it was amazing.  I don't know how he made it.  He explanation was, "I'm a guy-all guys just know how to make chili!"

Ok. Not arguing with that.  

I made a super quick corn bread when I got home.  Because cornbread and chili together...they are like peas and carrots. 

I used this recipe and added a small can of green chilis and some grated sharp white cheddar cheese. 

It was marvelous.  A great end to a weekend. (We were at an awesome wine festival yesterday-post coming soon!)

Season of Soup Part 2: Tortellini Spinach Pesto

I know I have complained before of some ingredients being difficult to find in Japan.  (Cheese is one, if you recall.) 

Making Chinese soups is a snap.  Finding ingredients for Asian recipes is usually not too hard.  Things like fresh shiitake mushrooms and bamboo shoots, which would otherwise be dried or canned. 

Fabulous.

After the Schezuan soup, I was in the mood for something different.  So I looked to Italy.

I have found and used some great soup recipes on the Eating Well website.  This particular recipe I based off of Eating Well’s Chicken and Spinach Pesto recipe-it's delicious. 

When I made this soup, I basically made the Chicken and Spinach Pesto soup, but added tortellini.  If I could get my hands on Italian sausage, I would have substituted it for the chicken, but alas.  I have yet to discover Italian sausage in the Land of the Rising Sun.  Sigh.

But the chicken is still delightful.  It's an excellent soup.

I recommend wine and Italian bread on the side with tiramisu for dessert. (In my book, these three things go with any meal.)

Yummy!

Find the soup recipe here.

Expanding Horizons

I am used to regular cheeseburgers.  You know, made with cheddar cheese.  To me, this is “normal.”  The “regular” version, if you will.  (ps-that junk they put on fast food burgers is not even real cheese. In fact, those aren’t even real burgers…or real food for that matter.)

For some reason, using other cheeses to top burgers never occurred to me.  Until a couple of years ago, that is.  I really started getting into other types of cheese. 

Since there is a significant lack of good cheese in Japan, cheeseburgers are not something we have on a regular basis.  Besides that, even Costco doesn’t fulfill my greatest dreams of cheese.  It is missing one of my all-time favorites…

…Jarlsberg.

Sigh.

Fortunately, I have been able to go on a Jarlsberg binge lately because some fantastic people sent me some for my birthday.  Best gift ever!  (In case you’re wondering, vacuum packed cheese does very well when sent overseas. Winkwink!)

Occasionally, Karl and I get our America on and have big, fat cheeseburgers for dinner.  The most recent instance resulted in the best burgers I had ever made.  Ever.

Remember these?  After devouring the steaks, we kept the leftover marinade.  It would have been a horrible waste to toss it!

I mixed some of the marinade into some ground beef with some panko and an egg.  Then fried them nice and slow.  They didn’t shrink at all.  Which means they fit perfectly onto the toasted bread.  

They were veritable gourmet hamburgers. 

コストコ (Costco)

There is a place in Japan you can go when you need some staple items.

Like cheese.

Scattered about the country there are Costco stores.  When we first got to Japan almost a year ago, we heard murmurings of the supposed Costco and the magical items to be found within. 

Like cheese.

Finally, we went.  As many of you are aware, Costco is a member only store.  Karl and I like to buy as organic and local as we can manage…but we sold out to the big corporation in the name of…cheese.  We bought a membership.

As you might imagine, Japan doesn’t really do cheese… You can buy cheese in the regular grocery store.  But it's pretty gross.  (Says the girl who lived in Wisconsin half her life.)

Costco also sells other things that are imported.  Salsa, tortilla chips, breakfast cereal, bagels…the types of things that you really miss from home and can’t find in a typical Japanese supermarket.  They also have household cleaners, laundry detergent and the like. 

It’s comforting to the homesick…in a massive, corporate sort of way.  Once in a while, a trip to Costco is a definite plus when living in Japan. 

If, that is, you can stand weaving the gigantic American sized shopping carts in and out of the massive aisles…amongst huge amounts of people who are used to driving tiny carts. 

Patience is a necessity when it comes to shopping at Costco in Japan.  It just is. 

But it is soooooo worth the cheese.