Out with the old, in with 2009 ~ Newlywed Girl

As part of our New Years festivities, my husband and I do an annual cleanup of our messy closets and get rid of unused items. Those items are either Goodwill worthy, eBay worthy, or trashed. This morning we welcomed 2009 with a cleaning frenzy.

We did several loads of laundry, cleaned our second bedroom that had recently become a storage room, and the hall and bedroom closets. He threw away several old dress shirts and other tops, while I threw out shoes, wedding stuff, and magazines.

We now have 3 large bags of Goodwill, 3 items for eBay, and we recycled 4 bags of magazines and other things. We also cleaned around the house and dusted everything.

It felt good to do this as part of the New Year festivities. Also, we were too tired to go out in public so the day was spent cleaning, Rose bowl watching, and cooking.

What do you guys have in mind for 2009 resolutions? I should probably resolve to not have to resort to only an annual clean up cycle.

Great places to donate your gently used work or casual clothes:

http://www.careercloset.org/home.html

http://www.dressforsuccess.org/

http://www.goodwill.org

Christmas Prime Rib Roast ~ Newlywed Girl

Happy Holidays everyone! Every Christmas I try to make something a little fancier than my normal menu items for my family. I think they usually wait for me to plan and discuss my menu options and then we pick the star of the show. The last few years I’ve made pot roast, turkey and goose. This year is the fanciest year yet. I am going to attempt my first prime rib roast.

I purchased the prime rib from a local butcher who is famous for their prime rib. They dry age the beef for a couple of weeks so its like steakhouse quality. Lawry’s Prime Rib – eat your heart out!

You can try my recipe too if you’re interested. This feeds 8-10 people.

Ingredients

9-12 lb Prime Rib on the bone – should be about 4 bones

3 Carrots, peel and chopped into large chunks

2 Onions, chopped into chunked pieces

2 cups of water, add more if necessary

Horseradish for dipping

Herb Blend

1 1/2 tsp dried thyme

1 1/2 tsp dried rosemary

2 Tbs fresh ground pepper

2 Tbs salt

5 cloves of garlic, chopped finely

4 Tbs olive oil

2 15 oz cans of beef broth

1 cup red wine, cabernet or pinot noir

2 tsp butter

Preparation

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Prepare the spice rub in a small bowl to ready for the meat. Trim some of the fat off the prime rib. Rub olive oil on the meat and then take the spice rub and evenly spread around the meat.

Take a large roasting pan with rack. Add vegetables to the bottom of the rack and place the meat on top of the vegetables. Pour the water onto the vegetables.

Cook the meat at 450 degrees for 40 minutes. Turn the heat down to 275 degrees for another 1 1/2 to 2 hours until the internal temperature reaches 130. Check that the pan has enough water for au jus. add more if needed.

When it is ready, remove from the oven and cover and allow to rest before eating. Reserve 2 cups of drippings for au jus. Strain and defat the drippings into a pot and deglaze on the stove with the beef broth and red wine. Add the butter towards the end, and season with salt and pepper.

Carve tableside or onto a platter. Serve with the horseradish. I am also going to roast potatoes to go along with this great meat.

Happy Holidays!!

Tokyo Japan Trip ~ Newlywed Girl

Part 2 of our Asia trip took us to Tokyo, Japan. We said goodbye to friends and family in Hong Kong and then hopped a quick 3 or so hour flight to Narita International Airport. We were on our way to our new adventure. Japan was a country that neither of us had visited before, and since we also didn’t speak any Japanese nor did we know anyone there, this would be an added challenge. I had consulted with a few friends who were familiar with Japan and gave us tips and a suggested itinerary.

We arrived in the afternoon and quickly grabbed our bags to board the airport limo bus, this is the best way to travel because taxis are way too pricey and the subway system is not really fun with two oversized suitcases. You can buy tickets in the arrival area from a ticket booth seller, and then go outside to find the queue. The people at the stand will help you with your luggage. When your bus arrives, you just hop onto the bus and off you go!

We were so excited to finally visit Japan! I’ve always wanted to visit this beautiful country and see all of the sights and sounds, as well as, tasting all of the wonderful cuisine. In LA, we are lucky because we have an abundance of authentic Japanese cuisine, but nothing will be better than tasting it directly from the source.

When we first arrived it was around dinner time, and after we checked into our hotel, we went downstairs to get some help on where to have dinner. The receptionist was super helpful, and spoke perfect English, so she directed us to Gonpachi for some pub food (Izakaya). The sounded perfect for a first meal, so we headed down in that direction. We arrived at the restaurant, but it was so busy and the wait was too long, so we headed upstairs to eat sushi instead. I would never turn down sushi, and we were hungry so we followed the host to our seats in front of the sushi chefs at the bar.

Due to our language barrier, many of our meals were done Omakase style. This is where the chef’s choice will be serve to you until you tell them to stop, or there is some set menu and you just eat until its over. This was the easiest way for us to get by since our Japanese was non-existant, and people couldn’t understand me anyway when I tried to speak.

Like my Hong Kong post, I’m going to post highlights to our trip.

To summarize Tokyo, we made a trip to the fish market Tsukiji  at 5:30am to see the hustle and bustle wholesale market, ate a chirashi bowl at 7am from one of the fish market restaurants, went to Ginza to shop, walked around the Imperial Palace gardens, visited various shrines, saw Harajuku goth people on Sunday, and ate more delicious foods. You’ll see the details in my photos…check them out!

    

Tsukiji Fish Market Photos

  

Imperial Palace Gardens

 

Tokyo at Night

 

Harajuku Temple and Goth People (where Bats Day at Disneyland got its inspiration)

   

 

More Food pictures

  

My next trip post will be Kyoto, Japan! This city was absolutely breathtaking and very memorable. I felt Kyoto needed its on post so I can show you all the great photos of the shrines, more delicious food, our Ryokan experience, and other cool things. Stay tuned!

Promise Rings???? ~ Newlywed Girl

Recently one of my friends received a promise ring from her boyfriend of a few months. It was a modest diamond ring, set to look just like an engagement ring. She wore it on her right ring finger. I only noticed it when our friends started commenting about it shortly after she started wearing it. I went through the motions to congratulate her on the ring and check out the rock just as if it were an engagement ring.

My real thought while looking at her ring was, “What’s the point of a promise ring?” She had really only been dating her boyfriend for about 4-6 months, and already she’s wearing a ring to signify their relationship status? I feel like promise rings are really just an outdated ritual to take women off the dating market. Are promise rings tiny steps towards a promise of an engagement? First of all, after only 4-6 months, can you really be sure enough to make such a promise to promise to later on get engaged? Also, what is really the intent behind giving a woman such an important piece of jewelry so early on in the dating period?

When I mentioned this to my husband one night, his first reaction was that it was a complete joke and the guy was insecure. This could very well be true. My friend isn’t the type to stray anyway, and I guess maybe her boyfriend needed this mark on her finger to ward off other potential suitors. My problem with this is that a man doesn’t wear any jewelry during the promise, or even the engagement period. Seems like a double standard to me. This also probably begs the question of, why do we need engagement rings in the first place? I probably sound like a complete hypocrite since I do have an engagement ring, and I wanted the ring. I guess I just have stronger feelings against a promise ring than an engagement ring. The promise ring just feels like a fake gesture to me, whereas, the engagement ring and period is truly a first step towards marriage.

Sound off, what do you think about Promise Rings?

Bats Day at the Fun Park Disneyland ~ Newlywed Girl

On the the heels of my trip to Tokyo and Kyoto, I had to mention something about Bats Day at Disneyland. Today we took my niece to Disneyland to spend part of Sunday together. As we waited for the tram to take us from the parking lot to the park, we started noticing people dressed up in goth type clothing. I had actually previously seen this at Disneyland a few years ago, and thought it was really strange. Today was no exception. There were adults and kids all dressed up in their goth gear black clothing, platform crazy boots, and lifesaver candy colored hair. The interesting thing is that there were 100s of goth people going around all over the park today, some even fly in from Europe to join this goth holiday! They even posed for a group photo in front of the Magic Kingdom. Check out my photos from today.

I really didn’t understand this dress up day at all. I, of course, had to come home immediate and start googling this strange phenomenon at Disneyland. Its basically the ironic state of happy and sad / depressing together in one place. Since I had seen this before at the park, I thought this was a weekly thing but after I read an article online its mostly just an annual planned event for all goth people. Here is a link to the OC Weekly, http://www.ocweekly.com/2003-08-28/news/when-you-wish-upon-a-scar/1.

The Bats Day has its own website! http://www.batsday.net/ You can go to this site to see when this pre-planned Bats Day will be held. Maybe next year you can plan to be at Disneyland next year to witness this for yourself.

The reason why I bring up my Japan trip again, is that I am planning to go see this very sight in Tokyo in the famed Harajuku district. Each week the kids get dressed up and go to Harajuku to hang out and spend the day in their goth attire. I am pretty sure that Bats Day copied their idea from Japan. I am really looking forward to seeing this sight in Tokyo and taking tons of pictures to share with all of our Puppies and Worms readers.

Stay tuned for those pictures soon!

Loving the Holiday Season ~ Newlywed Girl

Now that we’ve turned the corner past Halloween, I can start thinking about the best part of the year, Holiday Time! The best part about this year is the family time, cooler weather, and the days off from work! I really cherish the holidays because it brings back some really great memories of childhood. Now that all of my siblings and I are older, we have gotten past the whole materialistic gift exchange, and just really enjoy the time together with our parents and our significant others and families.

I started thinking about the Holidays today when I walked into the cheesiest decoration store. It was originally our home patio furniture store, but when we went in today for patio accessories, it had turned into a winter wonderland. There were fake trees of all sizes, ornaments, wreaths, giant Santa Claus lawn ornaments, and other over the top decorations. Here is a quick picture I took from my cell phone.

Sorry to people who like lawn decorations, but the ones they had at this store were way over the top. This particular statue was about $1200. In this economy, I really can’t see any justification for this type of figurine. I do however, look forward to my annual fresh tree purchase and recycling my old ornaments from the last few years. Maybe I’ll  even put a couple of small gifts under it for my niece.

What do you look forward to this Holiday Season? For me, ever since my sisters and I decided to forgo gift giving, I feel like I’ll enjoy the Holidays even more. No more malls, long lines, and ringing 2009 in with New Year debt. I’m looking forward to the yummy meal with my entire family.

Our First Trip to Japan! ~ Newlywed Girl

I am so excited for our upcoming trip to Japan! Hubby and I have been planning this trip to Asia for over a year, and now its FINALLY here. In a few short days, we’ll be getting on a plane for the first leg of our trip to Hong Kong, followed by the grand finale trip to Japan.

In Japan we’ll be visiting Tokyo and Kyoto. I’m really looking forward to feasting on the cuisine, which has earned many many Michelin stars. Some of the food that I’m really looking forward to include: sushi, tempura, ramen noodles, Japanese style curry, fusion cuisine with Italian and French influences, and lots more food that I can’t think of at the moment. I feel like I’m my own Anthony Bourdain thinking about my food tours in Asia. I don’t know if we’ll get as adventurous as Bourdain, but we’ll certainly try most of the great choices in both cities.

One of the coolest experiences we’ll have in Japan will be our 3 day trip to Kyoto. We’re going to be staying in a traditional Ryokan Japanese Inn. We’ll be sleeping on the floor on tatami and everything! This is one of those unique must do experiences when visiting Japan. We’ll be doing the traditional kaiseki 7 course tasting meal served at the Inn, which is another experience in itself. The Ryokan owners pride themselves on their cuisine and I’ve heard that its quite a production. I’ll have to report back with photos!

For those of you who have been to Japan before, care to share some of your favorite sights? I would love to get any suggestions on food, things to see, or where I can find blowfish fugu??

Slow Cooker Rice Porridge Soup Recipe

I feel really trendy and cool all of a sudden. I just read the Wall Street Journal article “Luxury Consumers Scrimp for Sake Of Planet, and Because It’s Cheaper.” In this article there was a mention of how luxury consumers are now living on the cheap and swapping crock pot recipes, because of the state of the economy. As I mentioned in an earlier post about slow cookers, I promised to share some of my personal recipes with our P&W readers.

During the cooler months, I revert back to the simple homestyle foods that make me feel warm inside. One of my favorites growing up was a rice porridge soup that my mom would prepare using just a few ingredients, but the combination of these few ingredients would yield some tasty results. I hope that you find this recipe just as easy and can enjoy it like I have all these years. I added my own flair to it to give it more flavoring.

I have a pretty large slow cooker so if this recipe is too much liquid for yours, simply half this recipe.

Ingredients:

1 Rotisserie chicken from the market, cut up and save the cavity (if desired)
1 cup of long grain white rice or (1/2 c of long grain 1/2 c of sticky rice)
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 C of water
5 C of chicken broth

Seasoning and Toppings:
Soy Sauce
Sesame Oil
Chopped Green Onion
Salt and Pepper

Directions:

If you have time, soak the rice overnight in a bowl of water. When you are ready to prepared, rinse the rice thoroughly in a bowl until the water is clear. Add chicken pieces (cavity and all), rice, water, broth, salt into the slow cooker. Stir it a bit to submerge all of the ingredients.

Cook on the low setting for 8 hours or the high setting for 4 hours. The rice should get nice and soft and you’ll have a nice consistency like the photo below. If its not quite there yet, just let it go for another 1/2 hour to 1 hour until its ready.

Remove the chicken cavity and bones that may have separated from the chicken.

Serve the soup and chicken in large bowls with some of the suggested toppings.

ENJOY!

P.S. Not a fan of chicken bones in your soup? You can drop in some cooked seasoned chicken breast, pork or beef. I’d be a little wary of putting raw meat into the slow cooker for this type of soup.

Send me any feedback on this recipe. Did it work for you? Do you want some other types of recipes? I think next time I will post about roasts. Those are great for the holidays! Can you imagine getting a roast for your holiday meal ready with little to no attention during the cooking time?! Sounds lovely to me.

Halloween Time at Disneyland! ~ Newlywed Girl

Disneyland has turned into pumpkin and candy corn land! For Halloween, Disneyland Park has changed all their decor with pumpkin and other Halloween themes for this month through Halloween. I recently accompanied my niece to check out the decorations at the park. Its so much fun! Also, there are special evenings at California Adventures where the park becomes a giant trick o treat outing. The kids go to various candy stations throughout the park and get fists full of candy to eat until they are sick to their stomachs. This trick o treat party is called Mickey’s Trick or Treat Party, and the tickets are reduced to $29 for the California Adventure park during the party time. Here is a link for those of you in the area and would like to attend:

http://disneyland.disney.go.com/disneyland/en_US/reserve/specialOffers/detail?name=MickeysTrickOrTreatPartySpecialOfferPage

Here are some photos that we took from the day at Disneyland

   

If you are unable to make it to Disney, get your favorite Halloween themed movies like Mickey’s House of Villains, Pooh’s Heffalump Halloween Movie, and The Adventures of Icabod and Mr. Toad to help your child get into the Halloween spirit.

Click the logo below to get your Disney Halloween movies

 

Happy Halloween!!

Chillier Weather means SLOW COOKER time! ~ Newlywed Girl

Ahhh I love when the air starts to feel cooler and the sun is not as strong. I have to say that fall is my favorite season for that very reason. I am not a hot temperature weather person, even though I live in LA. I am completely not complaining about waking up to see the sun each day, but us Angelinos faced some fierce and hot days this summer.

Now that its cooler, its time for me to take out my slow cooker. I love this thing. There is something soo great about returning home from a long day of work or errands to smell the deliciousness coming from this small appliance. I have also noticed a surge in popularity for this electric product in homes. I have owned one for several years now, and recently my friends have started asking me about dishes that I create from the slow cooker and where they can get one for themselves. Whats old is new…again? I’m excited that the slow cooker is coming back in style! I’m an old soul…I know.

I personally have an All-Clad slow cooker that I purchased from Williams-Sonoma. The one that I bought was not this super fancy one that costs $300. I don’t know why they don’t carry the more economical version online anymore. Purchasing a slow cooker is a personal preference, any slow cooker will do. You can even get one at Target for about $30 without all the bells and whistles. I just prefer some bells and whistles for my personal cooker.

What do I like to make in my slow cooker?

I enjoy making soups, stews, rice porridge, baby back ribs, and roasts. I actually purchased a couple of slow cooker cook books so that I can figure out the timing on cooking various dishes.

This is a random post, but in the past I’ve shared recipes and date night menu suggestions; so I thought maybe readers out there might be interested in one of my favorite kitchen accessories. Maybe I might convince you also to own a slow cooker?? Its convenient, small amounts of preparation, and you can leave it alone while you go out.

Is anyone out there interested in some of my slow cooker recipes? Let me know and I’ll start posting a few here and there.

My next project is going to tackle the Pressure Cooker. I’m really scared of it, since I always have this image of things exploding in the kitchen because of the pressure building up.