Steak Gusto

I took the girls to dinner tonight at Steak Gusto, a 10 minute walk from their house.

After biking today, a meal out was just what the doctor ordered.

Dixieland jazz, unlimited salad bar and western - style  meals.

My food allergies/sensitivities are so severe with soy, wheat & dairy big no-no's.

Half of my checked bag contained emergency foods.
Soy is in nearly everything here, even on the seaweed.

I've managed quite well with no bad days so far. I could not travel if it were not for the hospitality of my girlfriend who writes the CraftyTokyoMama blog.

A key for me is staying in someone's home.  Being disciplined about eating correctly. Being able to find food in her fridge.

Traveling is hard work and this home - stay makes it possible.

There are not enough words to thank her for the opportunity to experience Japan.

Notice those coca-cola glasses?

My salad. You can order just the salad bar.
Rice
Curry
Mostly the same greens.
Dessert bar is included too.

I ordered a plain steak (no sauce). (Forgot photo).
It was served very hot like in the usa.

Also on the already hot plate is a tiny 'brazier' so you can sizzle your food further.
Crazy? Afterwards, I was thinking of all those restaurant visits where the food isn't done as you ordered - you can cook it longer if you need to - right there on your plate.

Clear jello cubes and pudding.

Thank you Janine and family.

Summer Time And The Living Is Easy

I have had a love affair with this exotic canna lily for years. I don't take them out of the pots for the winter and every so often they freeze to mush. I just buy more. I adore their red & ruby striped leaves and then about now, they pop into huge orange blossoms.

This is our back patio with the pergola above and the hanging baskets. We sit out here in the shade (clematis (montana) above), sip our gin & tonics, eat dinners out here.
When we built the house many moons ago, we wanted something beyond the concrete slab. I checked out all the gardening structure books from the library and we had Bill & Ted (our excellent builders!) put up this 'open to the sky' pergola. When the clematis covers it, you don't even get drips on misty rainy days.
There is room for the BBQ, patio table, swing, and, at the time, also room for the kids to ride their bikes past without banging into us.
A great place for entertaining.

This is a hydrangea that jumped into my cart a few years back that is conical in shape. It used to be more ruby red but in my soil, its more white with pink. I need to add something like epsom salts - or whatever(?), to see if I can get the ruby red color back.

Another new flower (dang - forgot name) that is stunning in a patio pot. I have a pink candy striped geranium, ruby diascia, and a coral coleus in there too. Beautiful pot.

Looking towards runway on left, covered blueberry (still producing).
We had some terrific freezes last winter and as a result, no aphids on my stunning fuscia ( pot on bench by the first post).

It's behaving.
I don't know about you, but if I forget to water a fuscia one lousy day, its covered in aphids the next and it's all downhill from there.



This is trio of pots leading up to patio door on left. The sidewalk angles in here.
Need more Cannas!


Probably my favorite hanging basket this year. The peach Million Bells next to the deep purple verbena. Mmmm.

I gave myself permission NOT to have a garden this year. Keeping up with my acre, and my always increasing workload, I decided it was okay that my tomatoes are 'thriving' in their 4" pots.

Left hand side of the patio door.

I like my baskets to last well into the fall, so I make them myself. When you buy an already blooming hanging basket in May, it's already root-bound. This means you have to water it twice a day and its pretty much gone by mid-July. I bought these rubbermaid hanging basket pots over 20 years ago. They have a water reservoir at the bottom - if you forget to water, there's still some by the roots.
On our hot July & August days in the Willamette Valley (very little rain), these pots allow me to water once a day or even, every other day.
Most other plastic pots get brittle under the sun's UV rays.
I change out the soil every year and I use Osmocote or other time-release fertilizer in them.

I'm not one of those people who matchy-match everything. My happy dance revolves around happy accidents. Look at this peppermint impatient and the ruby diascia. There's a deep red coleus in there too but the impatients are keeping him checked.
I buy plants that I like and then put them together but without an overall theme.
I might buy fabric that way too.

A trip of pots containing a Japanese green maple, hanging Ivy geranium basket that never got hung, and the new flowers on the right which I already forgot the name of but have been blooming their heads off since May. and show no signs of stopping.


GEORGE GERSHWIN
– SUMMERTIME LYRICS

Summertime, And the livin' is easy
Fish are jumpin'  And the cotton is high
Oh, Your daddy's rich, And your mamma's good lookin'
So hush little baby, now Don't you cry.

One of these mornings, You're going to rise up singing,
Then you'll spread your wings, And you'll take to the sky.
But until that morning, There's a'nothing can harm you,
With your daddy and mammy,  standing by.

Halibut Beer Bits

Halibut was on sale at Thriftway this week.
I made halibut beer bits.

I'd forgotten how good these are.
Crispy crunchy outside with succulent halibut that melts in your mouth.

Totally not gluten-free or grain-free.

Use Krusteaz pancake batter and add beer until it's tad thinner than pancake batter.
The beer batter thickens to just the right consistency to coat 1" cubes of halibut.

Heat (a high heat) oil until 350'.

I used 48oz in a 3qt saucepan.



Cook one to two beer bits to get temperature stabilized, halibut done, & outside a deep golden brown.

Once temp. is stabilized, fry only three or four cubes at a time to keep temp. of oil constant.



While you're waiting for oil to get hot enough - do not leave unattended --make some homemade cocktail sauce.

1cup ketchup
Swig Worcestershire sauce
Spoonful horseradish sauce
2 jigs of lemon juice.

Stir until blended.




These were delish.

Hints:
Slightly frozen halibut is easier to slice.
Try to keep oil at 350'. Finesse that temperature knob.
Cut your halibut into uniform pieces. These will cook at similar times.

You can also use Tartar sauce.
Krusteaz only - don't substitute.
However, any beer will work.

Dinner Outside

I've hosed down the patio, arranged all the plants, scrubbed the table.

Let the summer begin.



BBQ hamburger with avocado, french fries, watermelon.

Christmas Crazies

I wanted to get my son who is at school in Corvallis some gift certificates for him to redeem for  some home cooking: a batch of chocolate chip cookies, or a pan of lasagna.

A quick google search turned up some interesting sites like this one. Not quite the postcard size I was looking for. A few other sites, including a tutorial on how to use my own MS Word and Excel to design my own Gift Certificates (No-no-no) and then I stumbled across this easy site.

The form was quick to fill out. Printing was a breeze and out popped three gift certificates on card stock that I will cut to resemble a large postcard.
I am addressing the back side from my son to me and adding a first-class stamp. All he needs to do is pop a card in the mail when he's feeling the need for a care package.

I need three-minute projects so I can spend an additional five 15 minutes blogging about them.  Fun.

This site also has a cute regifting game to play over on the left sidebar - don't miss it!!!

Dinner and Fireworks

We had dinner with our son in Corvallis on Saturday night here.

This restaurant is committed to a sustainable food menu - utilizing local sources for grass-fed beef, locally grown vegetables, wines, cheeses, etc.
And it offered live music on Saturday night.

The prices were a tad steep, but the food and music were exceptional.

 I had the grass-fed ribeye with a shitake mushroom sauce and steamed spinach, carrots and peppers. Yummy.