Let's Go To Kyoto

While living in Japan I went to Kyoto twice.  I loved Kyoto.  When you imagine Japan, THIS is the place you think of. The architecture of the buildings are quintessentially Japanese. The above picture is that of the Tori gates at Fushimi Inari Shrine.  Fushimi Inari is my favorite place in Kyoto because it is so cool.  There are literally thousands of Tori gates lining the mountain path.  You can read more about it here.

Kyoto is the old capital of Japan before the capital became Tokyo.  Luckily, Kyoto was taken off the list of places to be bombed and escaped the damage of an atomic bomb.  For this reason you can see many old and wonderful landmarks here today.  You can read more about Kyoto here.

Since I am new to blogging, and a bit short on time lazy, I will highlight just a few of my favorite things I discovered during my time in Kyoto.  You can find great information about the area, and all areas of Japan actually, from the website Japan-Guide.com.  They have really good information and I used that website to plan both of my trips to Kyoto. I was able to maximize my trip by following their itineraries of places to see.


The Golden Temple

This is the Golden Temple.  Surprisingly, this was not one of my favorites.  It looks beautiful, but it did not feel as magical as some of the other places I went.  This place is definitely worth a stop if you are near the area, but it feels so much like a tourist stop that it just loses some of its luster. You do not get to go into the temple, but rather you walk around the grounds and get close enough to see the detail in the gold, but it never really feels like you are experiencing it.  Now, I understand this. I wouldn't want thousands of people trampling through that old temple anyways.  That said, it is kind of out of the way and I feel as though I wasted some of my limited time trying to see it.  I can experience this just the same by looking at the pictures online.  However, if you do want to go, you can read about it here.  They also have some more pictures of the area.  I am not a photographer by any means, so this is about as good as it gets for my blog. 

The Bamboo Forest

Biking through the Bamboo Forest was great fun.  I highly suggest renting a bike at the rental place once you get off the train.  I really love the Arashiyama area of Kyoto.  This is a short train ride from the main area of Kyoto (hotel and central train station area).  You want to go early in the day for two reasons. 1- it will not be super crowded.  Later in the day there are just too many people walking through that forest, and 2--you will not be able to get a bike if you wait till later.  The first time I went to Kyoto we didn't reach the area until about 1pm.  There was 1 bike left. That would not work for the four of us.  The second time around I was smarter.  We left in the morning and got there around 9am-ish.  The three of us all got a bike for about 1,000yen each.  It was so worth it!! It is entirely too hot and uncomfortable to walk the entire trip through the forest, so riding the bike was pleasant and made the trip quicker. You want to go through the entire forest because there are temples lining the entire way.  So many things to see during that little trip through the forest.  You can read more about the area and the things to see here. Since we had the bike the second time around, we were able to make it all the way to the top of the ridge and see the Stone Buddhas.  This was a great find by my friend Karyn, and I am so glad she saw these on Pinterest of all places.  We planned our entire Arashiyama day around these Buddhas.  

There were hundreds all carved into the stone by a different artist. Each one is unique, and it is amazing to see them all. This is just a tiny little section of these Buddhas.

Look at that detail!!

Fushimi Castle

One of my favorite things about the trip to Kyoto is how easy it is to stumble upon something cool.  My friend and I took an early train trip to Fushimi Inari Shrine, and along the walk back we saw a sign for "Fushimi Caslte."  The way the city is situated, and how easy the train system is, it is easy to just explore and "find" things.  We decided to take an adventure and "find" the Fushimi Castle.  When we got there it was amazing.  It was deserted, yet beautiful. We both said the grounds felt somewhat spiritual.  It turns out that this is a replica of the original castle, and it was built to be an amusement-type park.  It was closed in 2003 though and is no longer open to the public.  We were able to get close enough to see the outside and walk around the grounds, but there was no entry into the building. After we left the location I was obsessed with finding out more about this castle.  It turns out there was a mass suicide of Samurai there, and the blood soaked floor is now the ceiling in many other temples throughout Kyoto. How cool is that?? In some of the temples you can see the bloody footprints on the ceiling. If you google Fushimi Castle you can find several different bits of information on this castle and the temples with the old blood soaked floors of the original castle. 

One side up-close

I guess that is all for my Kyoto post.  I wish I would have been a blogger when I actually took the trip, because then I could have preserved some more practical information such as where to stay, how the trains work, etc etc.  Instead you just get some highlights of the trip.  If you have questions though, please comment and I will do my best to get you the info you need.  We did so much more than these things in Kyoto, and I hate that I only have time am too lazy to write more. 

Delicious Pork Chops

     I would love to show a picture of my delicious pork chop, but it was eaten before I was able to snap a picture.  If I knew how awesome these chops would turn out I would have documented the journey.  

     I am honestly only posting this now so that I have a record of my recipe in the hopes that I can recreate it another day.  The recipe is going to be approximate because I was not measuring. I just threw some stuff together and it worked. It REALLY worked.  My 9 year old ate two whole pork chops.  It was the last one on this very plate that I tried to snap a pic of before he ate it all, but I was too late.  This is the only proof that remains, so you will just have to believe me when I say this is a recipe worth trying. 

     A little background first---I was going to cook all the chops this way, but my daughter did not want hers in the pan.  So I decided I would just experiment with four of the boneless chops.  They are not super thick either, but I imagine you would just adjust the cooking time if you wanted a thicker chop.  In the future I will be cooking the whole family pack this way, and I will only put about four chops in my pan at a time.  That seems to be the perfect number.  Not much crowding.  The pan was a Paula Deen 12" round, deep, skillet.  

Ingredients

4 boneless, thin (maybe 1/2" thick) pork chops

1 egg

Splash of milk

Approx. 3/4 c. crushed french fried onions (the stuff you put on green bean casserole)

Approx. 1/4 c. powdered Kraft Parmesan cheese ( I know....fancy)

Approx. 3/4-1 c. Kellogg's crushed corn flakes

Dash of onion powder

Dash of garlic salt

Dash of pepper

Olive Oil 

Recipe

Mix egg and milk together in one bowl and set aside. 

Mix dry ingredients together in another shallow bowl, and set aside. 

Place oil (thin layer) in your pan and turn the heat on to about 6-7

Take each chop and dip it into the egg mixture, then press it into the dry mix. Coat both sides with the dry mix and then place each chop into the hot oil. 

Fry the chops for about 4 minutes and then flip. Cook for about 4-6 minutes longer--depending on how thick they are. 

Take them off the heat, see if they are cooked all the way (sadly I have to do that because I am NOT good at cooking pork, which is probably why I am so surprised these worked out)

That is it.  These were so delicious and I will be adding them to our dinner menu again.  I will be sure to come back and update with a picture of the food next time. If you try this out and like it, let me know. 

Let's Make Pasta

     This Christmas my husband got me the pasta attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer, and I kick myself for not getting one sooner.  If you have ever been on the fence about getting this attachment...DO IT. If you love pasta you will not regret it.  There is a bit of a heft price tag on the item (over 100$), but it is well worth it, and not once have I regretted the money spent.  
     A couple things I learned about making pasta in this attachment....you should use the base recipe provided with the machine for best results.  There are tons of pasta recipes out there, but many problems people experience with their machines (too dry or sticking dough) have to do with the recipe.  The recipe provided by Kitchen Aid has been tested and works perfect.  I was able to make pasta on the first try by using that recipe.  The second thing is......it is addicting!! This is like playing with adult play-dough.  Sometimes I have so much fun rolling it that I accidentally roll it too thin because it is so fun watching it get longer and longer.  My family prefers the thicker fettuccine attachment, and we like a 4 for a thick noodle or a 5 for a bit thinner.  I have rolled it to a 6 before, and it is just too thin for us.  I feel like they are little whisps of noodles.  I have also made ravioli in the maker (maybe another post in the future), and I still like to roll it to a 5 because we like a doughier pasta bite. 
     Without further delay, here is the best recipe for a semolina pasta in the Kitchen Aid.  I have made the semolina recipe from the booklet, and it was a little bit too tough.  This recipe takes the traditional pasta recipe and mixes in 1 cup of semolina flour for 1 cup of the regular. 



Recipe

4 large eggs plus 1 egg yolk
2 tbs water 
2 1/2 cups regular flour
1 cup semolina flour
1/2 tsp salt (I use kosher salt)

The ingredients I use are mostly from the local market here in Okinawa, so I do not have any name brands to give, but the flour I used is the King Arthur brand. I'll include a picture.

First you want to sift your flour into your mixing bowl, then add the salt and eggs.  I add my water 1tbsp at a time as I am mixing. If it seems to be wet enough with 1tbs, then I omit the second. Turn the mixer to stir, and mix until incorporated with the paddle attachment for about 30 seconds.  Next, switch to the dough hook and turn to speed 2 and knead for two minutes. The dough will still be crumbly. I have never had my pasta dough actually turn into a ball on the dough hook.  I imagine this is because the dough has to be a bit dryer for the pasta roller than it would be for hand rolling. 

Back to the topic....so you turn the dough out onto a surface to hand knead until the dough forms a nice ball.  Kitchen Aid says to do this for about 1-2 minutes, but I think it takes me at least 5.  Then I wrap the dough in plastic saran wrap and let sit for about 20-30 minutes. Once it is done resting divide it into pieces to feed into the machine.  You will press it down flat a bit with your palms, then run it through the machine on 1 to start.  I fold it over a couple times and repeat the process. Once the sheet is a nice even-ish size, I move on to level 2. I run it through 2 about 2-4 times. Then I switch to 3 and roll it through twice.  I roll the rest of the numbers twice too, stopping at the number thickness I like my pasta (4 or 5).  Then you will switch out the rollers to the cutter roller.  Then you just turn the machine to speed 2 and roll the sheet through.  I only let my flat sheets set for the amount of time it takes me to roll them all out flat and that seems to work just fine.  I didn't mention dusting my sheets with flour because I usually do not have to.  I dust the work space once before I roll it into a ball, but that is it. If, for some reason, your dough is too wet, you can dust it with flour.  You do not want your dough getting stuck into your rollers.  If I do not want to make all the dough at once, I keep the ball wrapped in plastic in the fridge and use more the next day.  It really can only keep like 2 days, and even then I check to see what it looks like.  You can always roll and cut it all and keep it frozen or in the fridge too.  I have done it both ways. I do not have a pasta drying rack yet, so I like to just roll and cut in small batches for now. Here are some pictures to better illustrate the steps. 

This is how I sift my flour now. It is much easier than the sifting machines. I have broken like 3 of those, and this has lasted me a long time. It is a simple strainer looking thing that I got for 100 yen. 

The "crumbles" after I have kneaded with the dough hook

Dump those crumbles onto a surface to hand knead into a nice ball

Hello nice ball wrapped in saran wrap

This is what it looks like when it goes the first few passes on the #1 roller setting

Then I take and fold it over on itself and run it through the machine again until it is a nice square/rectangle that fills the machine width nicely

 Rolling the sheet through

 Running it through the cutter

The final product.....yum yum! 

Countdown to Texas

I am going to try blogging.  I tried once before and it never went anywhere.  Maybe this time it will work.  I want a way to document the move my family is about to make.  This is our countdown to Texas. 

We have been living in Okinawa, Japan for the past 6 years.  Leaving this island is going to be hard.  It is a great place to live, and honestly I am a bit scared to live in the United States after being in this small-town, safe, environment.  There is a laid-back island style here, and I am unsure if I am ready for the hustle and bustle of the US.  That said, I am excited about going home at the same time. 

Texas is not really "home", but there is the saying "home is where the military sends us", and that saying applies here.  We are going to Texarkana, Texas to be exact.  We have to leave Okinawa in about 50 days and then we will be homeless for at least a month.  Hopefully we will find a home before our month is over, otherwise we will be homeless even longer. 

This blog is my attempt at documenting this experience of moving across the country and reintegrating into American society.  I might post about things I will miss in Japan, maybe some of the things that I am doing up until we leave, and certainly all the adventures we have when we return. Hopefully as I get more comfortable with the blogger website I will bring some entertaining content to the table blog.  

One of my favorite pictures from Okuma (I'll be sure to post about this place soon)