Sake for...whom?

Fried rice is the dish I cook often.
Not only I'm a great fried rice maker, this menu also helps me to finish up all the leftover vegetables in a fridge.

Even this leftover dish looks nice if it is made into Omelette rice and served with sausage and bright color vegetables.

JC chose Sake (Sequoia Genshu) for this because he wanted to have it with sausage.

Talking about sake, JC recently met Richie Hawtin (a renowned DJ ) who were hooked on sake and became an advocate of it.
He suggests young cloud (not underage) to try sake at a party.
I've never been to DJ kind of party, so I can only imagine the scene of the dark club, loud music, cool young people, and sake... 
This picture is quite fascinating because sake has an image of the drink for older generation in Japan.

Mr. Hawtin said that they enjoyed sake. We just need to shut down our prejudice from time to time.

Onigiri Bento

When I don't have time to make full course Bento for JC, I make quick Onigiri (Japanese rice ball) Bento.
The Bento is simple, but the Bento bag is my special hand made Onigiri bag.

Triangle design to fit the Onigiri shape.

I sprinkled Shiokonbu (salted seaweed) around Onigiri instead of wrapping it with Nori (seaweed).
I didn't want JC to have Nori stuck on his teeth at work.
The side dish was Marinated Eggplant and Sauteed Carrot leaf.
Peanut butter Cookies as dessert.

Everything fits in this bag.

Cheese Club

This month's Solano Cellars Cheese Club:
Alta Langa "Il Nocciolo" (square)
Rudolphe Le Meunier Beurre de Baratte (yellow)
Lord of the Hundreds (triangle)

Il Nocciolo is from Piedmont, Italy.
Cow, goat and sheep's milk cheese.
Very soft and creamy, in texture and flavor.

Beurre de Baratte is actually butter, not cheese, from Loire Valley, France.
Custard cream-like richness and good amount of saltiness.
Bread and this butter is all you need. Yum.

Lord of the Hundreds is a sheep's milk cheese from England.
I had this with Pinot Noir as suggested.
Good pairing.

This cheese club never disappointed me, but this month's selection was especially good!

Quick Cheese Making

JC is picky about yugurt.
He doesn't like the ones with starch or coagulant, i.e. he likes expensive yogurt.
These expensive yogurt is not only delicious, but also comes with a fun project.
Making cheese!

JC's quick cheese is really easy and quick to make: drain the water all day. That's it.

And this is what you see next morning.
JC calls it (fake) Greek Cheese.

The texture is soft, and the flavor is soft, too.
We had this with granola, honey and apple. Healthy breakfast.

This made us feel Greek, so our lunch was Greek, too.
JC made Hummus with different toppings (paprika, dried parsley, nuts, etc.).

Don't mix the Hummus. Just scoop out Hummus with the topping you like.

I felt like drinking something fruity so I had cocktail, but I should have opened white wine, something rustic.

Not so bad Simple Bag

I love fabric.
I make bags so that I can use the fabric which is too much to use for clothes.
However, I also realize that I need simple bags, too, so this time I made a plain black bag.

First, cut the leather and lining.

The lining had to be that colorful? Yes!
Sew a pocket on to the lining, then attach the lining to the leather with glue.

Hand sew handle and zipper.

Sew the side to the body.
This part, I used sewing machine because with the leather needle for hand sewing, I would make a hole on the lining fabric.

I made seam allowance of the leather thinner in advance so that I could use sewing machine.

Make a bias tape with similar color, or contrasting color, and wrap the seam allowance with it.

Flip over, then done!

Simple, black leather bag.

I wasn't excited to make such a simple, even boring bag, but, well, it's not so bad.

Domain Gachot-Monot Cote de Nuits-Villages 2014

I like Chinese food, but when I cook it, I fix the flavor every time I taste it, and eventually it becomes to taste like Japanese food.

This time, JC cooked Chinese food.

Peas and Shrimp with Ginger flavor, and Pork and Green Bell Pepper with Black Pepper and Oyster Sauce.
JC said that he still used less oil and peppers than he was supposed to do, but unlike my Chinese food, it tasted more like real Chinese I have at restaurant.

My task was to choose a wine for this.
I usually open Riesling or other whites with Chinese food, but with Oyster sauce, I figured that light red wine would work better than white.

This is the wine I choose:
Domain Gachot-Monot Cote de Nuits-Villages 2014 
Organic and inorganic mineral was upfront, and fruits and flowers appeared from behind it.
Good wine.
Easy to drink wine which I really have to force myself to stop drinking.

My hard work paid off and I have some wine left to drink next day (right now!), and it's still very good.
 By the way, the pairing of the wine and Chinese food was good, too.
  

Di Majo Norante Ramitello Molise Rosso

The rainy season has begun.
It means that  the farmer's market would have fewer selections for a while, so we indulged in farmer's market shopping one last time for this season.

Among these, there are some vegetables which we don't know exactly what it is. This is the fun part about going to farmers market.

The big pale green color zucchini (probably) is the unknown object. It turned out to become delicious Ratatouille.
The zucchini was sweet, tomatoes gave acidity, and basil added freshness.

For this Steak dinner, I chose the wine which I tried last week at the Central Italian Wine Tasting.
Wine from Molise.
Montepulciano and Aglianico.

Di Majo Norante Ramitello Molise Rosso 2012
$22
There was a combination of fruit, flower and herb.
Well balanced.
It didn't have the deepness of expensive wines, but was very good quality for the wine of this price range.

As for the ratatouille, I had the leftover as sauce for buttered pasta next day.
It was delicious, and the wine was still good, too!