Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

Once there was a snowman, snowman, snowman
Once there was a snowman, tall tall tall!
In the sun he melted, melted, melted
In the sun he melted, small small small!

"A thnowman with a cawot nose, Mommy. . . he has a wake!" This is what Jake and Ellie did to pass the time between busy Saturday activities. Ellie is waiting for it to turn into a puddle, which will probably happen tomorrow. Crazy Denver weather!

BTW, Monsters v. Aliens in 3D is worth seeing.

Home Brew

I received the March Martha Stewart magazine about a month ago. It featured recipes for corned beef and cabbage and Irish soda bread. I thought, I'm Irish, I should make an Irish meal for St. Patrick's Day.

Well, I am part Irish--I was a Murphy before I was a Ross. So we had corned beef with cabbage and Irish soda bread for dinner tonight. I'm sure you're wondering what is blog-worthy about such a dinner. After all, you need only throw the corned beef in a crock pot and buy a loaf of good soda bread. Ha ha. Remember that part in the previous paragraph where I was reading the Martha Stewart magazine? Yeah. Crock pot? Fat chance. Crock pot occurred to me only after I had been boiling the corned beef on the stove for over an hour. And, might I add, this was a 5-lb. corned beef brisket that I had cured myself.

That's right. I cured it myself.

I started having second thoughts about the home-curing only after I had put the brisket in the curing solution (two weeks ago). It was only then that it occurred to me that I have never actually liked a single Martha Stewart recipe that I had tried. The curing solution smelled suspiciously like cinnamon. That was the only odor emanating from the brine. That was scary to me. (FYI, we Japanese don't usually dig on cinnamon in general.)

I was very skeptical. Then things got even scarier. Jake is very confident of my culinary skills. He invited his parents, two sisters, and brother-in-law to share in the Irish feast. That is fine, except that I have never made corned beef before, let alone having cured my own meat. I was really just hoping to not poison anyone.

Fortunately, things turned out fine. Corned beef tasted like corned beef. Cabbage tasted like cabbage. Irish soda bread tasted like Irish soda bread (actually, I can't really say this honestly because I don't really know what Irish soda bread tastes like).


Ellie was very helpful. She set the table all by herself. Amazing, I know, considering that she is still 2 years old. Here is her handiwork:


Then she got creative with the tuna. Imagine this on a larger scale, and you can imagine the state of my entire house on any given day.



She really thought she was doing me a favor, bless her heart.

Oh, yeah. She would also like you to know that she poopooed in the potty today and so she got some new Littlest Pet Shop bunnies. We're all quite pleased with her.

All in all, it was a pretty good St. Partick's Day. Don't hate me because I'm Irish.

Don't Eat Here, Eat Here

Friday night was one of those tired evenings where I wasn't going to make dinner, Jake just doesn't make dinner, and, well, yours truly doesn't eat pizza as a general rule. (I do sometimes, but it's a very rare occasion.) So Jake and I, grumpy as you might suspect, went out in search of something to eat. After much debate, we wearily settled on Jasmine, which is a Chinese restaurant in Lone Tree that we often go to when we don't feel like driving downtown and/or spend very much money.



BIG MISTAKE.



But how were we to know that in the few months we hadn't frequented the place it would have taken a happy little nosedive into to realms of the UNIDENTIFIABLE ASIAN-ISH genre? My instinct was to turn around and head for the closest burger joint when I noticed the main sign had been changed to include the words "Asian cuisine" and another computer-printed sign in the window advertised the "grand open" of the sushi bar.



But we doggedly entered the establishment anyway because we hadn't had a problem in the past. As we walked in, I attempted to ignore that sure enough, Jasmine had built a sushi bar within their restaurant. I was also quite annoyed to find that the menu now included Thai selections as well as Japanese dishes. Actually, let's call them "Japanese" dishes. OK--so NOT even similar regions of the VAST continent of Asia, all on the same menu, and not even claiming to be fusion or something ultra modern like that.



We still didn't run, and we really should have.

I'll try not to bore you with the details, so here's a quick synopsis. First and foremost, someone put mushrooms in the kung pao chicken. No, more like "kung pao chicken." The dish came out and both of us leaned in to get a closer look at the mess--but the waitress declared that it was indeed kung pao chicken. I ordered the Singapore noodles. Basically, this is their version of Singapore noodles: dump rice noodles in pan, dump other stuff in pan, and finally, dump in a pile of curry powder and no other seasonings. Stir. That's it. Big sigh here.

Did I mention that I hate bad food?

But I love good food--pretty much up there with how much I love my husband and children. So I think it's fitting that my most beloved husband took me to my favorite restaurant in town on the anniversary of his proposal to me five years ago. That is to say, on Valentine's Day.

We went to Sushi Sasa and I am telling you unequivocally that Chef Wayne Conwell is a genius. He had a special menu for Valentine's day--an 8-course treat:

Duo of Oysters: Japanese Peruvian Ceviche & Ume Kombu Ponzu

Japanese Bruschetta: Hamachi tartare, ankimo and foie gras pate, etc.

Yellowtail & Roasted Beet Salad

Japanese Bluefin Carpaccio

Pinkberry Frozen Yogurt Float

Colorado Lamb Chop, Broiled Black Cod, and Seared Scallop

Premium Nigiri Selection: Salmon, O-toro, Anago, Madai

Chocolate Cake

Everything that could be served raw on this menu that didn't indicate otherwise was. It was wonderful! My one complaint is that someone put mushrooms (shiitake, to be exact) in my carpaccio, but even that was forgivable.

It was a perfect evening--a perfect reminder of all the things I love in life. (My husband, my family, and good food.)