HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRISTIAN!!!
Christian turned 31 years old today! Can you believe it? He worked both jobs today so we didn't get to do anything to celebrate. Earlier this week we had a combined party at my house for him and my sister Andrea. 
We made Yaki-Soba...
Tempera shrimp and veggies...
Sushi from Wendy's Sukiyaki....
and cheesecake with fresh strawberries! Yummy!
They opened their presents together. We got Andrea a gift card to the spa and to Sephora, and Christian got a gift card to Sportsman's and to get some new shoes that he wants. He picked out new patio furniture set from me. I can't wait to hang out on our deck!
This is Andrea and her boyfriend JC
Jellybean has a thing with sucking water out of towels and wash cloths. 
Make a WISH!
Hope you had a great birthday! Thanks for always working so hard, I love you!
12 comments:
OH happy happy birthday Chris and Andy!!!!
Did he serve a mission to Japan? My DH makes tempura with chopsticks and usually only people who have lived there do that. DH served in Sendai.
We are yakisoba lovers at this house too. Japanese cusine...YUMMO!
Oh, and happy birthday Andy and Chris!
It looks like you guys had an awesome party. Family get togethers are so much fun.
Happy bithday to Chris and Andy.
That dinner was yumm! Nice choice guys. We will have to make it again.
I can't wait to sit on the patio with your new treasures. :)
Blackeyedsue.....
Christian served in the Okayama mission which is now the Hiroshima mission. He served in 1996-98.
His family also lived in Okinawa for a few years while he was in high school. I love a lot of the food as well. I need to learn to make more things for him.
What other Japanese cusine do you make?
Happy Bday late Chris...sorry we missed it. Looks like you had a fun bday party, and all of the food looks amazing!
Ashley, I make Curry, Real Ramen, Udon, Gyoza, Tonkatsu with Bulldog sauce, Miso Soup, tempura, sticky rice. My kids LOVE plain seaweed and eat it like cookies. They also snack on the rice crackers wrapped in seaweed. We go out for sushi a lot because I am not quite comfortable serving my own raw fish to my family. We make other random things. There is this little Oriental food store where Riverdale meets Roy and we buy a lot of our items there. Chris would LOVE it. Where did you find your electric wok?
Gyoza
INGREDIENTS:
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 cups chopped cabbage
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic, chopped
1/4 cup chopped carrot
1/2 pound ground pork
1 egg
garlic and ginger to taste
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 (10 ounce) package wonton wrappers
1/4 cup water
SAUCE:
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
DIRECTIONS:
Heat sesame oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Mix in cabbage, onion, garlic and carrot. Cook and stir until cabbage is limp. Mix in ground pork and egg. Cook until pork is evenly brown and egg is no longer runny.
Preheat vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium high heat.
Place approximately 1 tablespoon of the cabbage and pork mixture in the center of each wrapper. Fold wrappers in half over filling, and seal edges with moistened fingers.
In the preheated vegetable oil, cook gyoza approximately 1 minute per side, until lightly browned. Place water into skillet and reduce heat. Cover and allow gyoza to steam until the water is gone.
In a small bowl, mix soy sauce and rice vinegar. Use the mixture as a dipping sauce for the finished wrappers.
Tonkatsu
Ingredients:
Flour
salt & pepper to taste
Thin sliced pork cutlets
1 egg (lightly beaten) with some water added. More eggs depending on how many cutlets you make.
Panko bread crumbs
Vegetable oil
Directions:
1. Mix the flour, salt and pepper in a bowl
2. Dredge the pork in the flour.
3. Dip the pork in the egg.
4. Cover the pork in panko.
5. Fry the pork in oil until golden brown on both sides.
I buy panko from my local grocery store and the Tonkatsu (bulldog sauce) from the Oriental food store. Also, I have found that Wal-Mart's meat section has some super thin center-cut porkchops that work perfectly with this dish. DH says those are the most authentic. Before I fry them, I let them sit for about 10 minutes and it gives the panko a chance to adhere to the pork. I cut up some cabbage and put it on the plate with some sticky rice and some stir-fried veggies and he loves it. You should seriously surprise Christian with it. DH was SO happy to have something so much like the real thing!!!
I forgot to mention that we make yakisoba and soba. Also...I can't remember the name...a chicken and egg bowl. Dang.
I found this blog a long time ago that has some AMAZING Japanese recipes on it. You will love it.
http://closetcooking.blogspot.com/search/label/Japanese
Also, on her home page she has a recipe for Bulgogi (Korean Fire Meat). I don't use her recipe but I have a recipe similar. It is yummy. We like to get lettuce leaves and spread plum sauce on them, put some sticky rice on top and then the fire meat. We roll them up and eat them. They have a very Asian flavor.
Bulgogi
½ Tbsp sesame seeds
2-3 cloves garlic, crushed
¼ tsp black pepper
3 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp soy sauce
¼ cup green onions, chopped
¼ tsp salt
2-3 Tbsp water
1 Tbsp sesame oil
1 lb tender beef, cut into very thin slices (ask meat dept to slice it for very thinly for you, otherwise you just can’t get it thin enough)
In a dry skillet, parch sesame seeds until slightly brown. Grind or mash. Combine rest of ingredients except meat. Once mixed, use hands to coat all pieces and mix. Let sit for 2+ hours. Cook in frying pan with a bit of hot oil. Make a dipping sauce with ¾ part soy sauce to 2/3 part water. Serve meat with sides of large leaf lettuce, sauce and rice. To eat authentically, use lettuce leaf as a wrap, put meat, rice and sauce inside and wrap lettuce around it.
Happy birthday to Christian & Ander-Pants! It was a fun night. And notice how I managed to be behind the camera or some other object for picture time...tee hee hee...I knew you'd post a blog about it. Promise I'll wear makeup for the photo shoot! :)
Sorry...
That should say "the NEXT photo shoot/family party"
But I'm a moron sometimes. You'll just have to forgive me.
Happy Birthday!! I love sushi too, in fact we just ate at Wendy's last nite, YUMMY! Your house is so cute...what I could see of it. You should post some more pictures of it!!
Fantastic. HAPPY BIRTHDAY. I'm glad to see pictures of everyone. I'm also glad to Christian is older then me.
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