Congee

The white sweet potato congee (jook) turned out a little thick, but with a poached egg and soy sauce, it was delicious.

Sweet Potato Congee

I've started (white) sweet potato congee (jook) in the rice cooker for tomorrow morning.

Oyakadon

Mother (chicken) and child (egg) rice dish for dinner. Brown rice topped with leftover cooked chicken, eggs, soy sauce, sugar, chicken consommé powder, and water. Some leftover steamed veggies, too.

Oyakodon

At the Temari Café in Rockvile, MD, today, I enjoyed a nice oyakodon. This is chicken and eggs with onion and seasoning over japonica rice. Pickles on the side.

Greek/Asian

Leftover Greek chicken over brown rice, with spinach, a poached egg, and a little toasted pita.

Made-Ahead Meatballs

A few weeks ago, my wife went to the beach with her mother for a week. I made ahead 48 baked meatballs and homemade sauce. Divided into six equal meals of 8 meatballs each plus sauce, I froze them.

So, tonight's dinner of thawed-out meatballs was great (and simple) over rice cooker rice. The vegetable side was microwaved fresh carrots with butter and mint. Olives and buttered olive bread, too.

Dinner Party

We had friends over tonight, so we put together a dinner party. The appetizer was a bruschetta with Hilah Cooking tapenade, grilled halloumi, and basil.

Our next course was a chilled cucumber soup, using an Ina Garten ("The Barefoot Contessa") recipe.

Here's the tablescape for the soup course.

Our starch was a Hilah Cooking recipe of rice pilaf.

Our vegetable dish was roasted asparagus dressed with raspberry vinegar.

The entrée was roast salmon, using a Marc Bittman recipe.

Our friends brought wines to drink and an excellent fruit tart from Wegmans for dessert.

What an excellent evening!

Soup For a Friend

A friend is home recovering from stomach problems, so I cooked her a batch of easy-to-digest chicken & rice soup. This is only half of it; and she can thin it with chicken broth if she wants to.

Fortify That Breakfast!

We had takeout Japanese food last night. What to do with the leftover rice and miso soup? In Japan, they often have these for breakfast with some fish. No fish in the house, so I popped in a beaten egg and made the soup into an egg drop miso soup. I jazzed up the rice with furikake topping. Can't forget dairy and fruit, which explains the blueberries topped with Greek yogurt (and mountain honey). Coffee is a must.

Sardines Over Rice

Worldwide ingredient ls tonight. Canned Norwegian sardines coated with breadcrumbs and za'atar. Served over brown basmati rice mixed with sundried tomatoes. Zipped up with Bermudian sherry pepper sauce. Italian blood orange soda for my beverage.

Tomato Rice With Egg for Lunch

Another episode of cooking by just riffing with what I find around the house.

We had some fresh medium-sized tomatoes, so I cored, seeded, and diced one. Then, I added some salt and pepper, and sautéed the pulp down in some olive oil. Two cloves of minced garlic were mixed in and softened up. The pan was deglazed with white wine. In the rice cooker, I cooked up some Carolina gold rice. The tomato sauce and rice were mixed in a rice bowl. I had (poorly) poached an egg, with which I topped the mix. Then, a drizzle of olive oil, and basil. Very tasty!

This Isn't Odd!

Lunch today is canned sardines mashed with a little chipotle in adobo sauce and a little mayonnaise, over rice. Wakame (dried seaweed) for garnish.

Shrimp & Rice Breakfast

For breakfast today, I had an unorthodox (by Western tastes) breakfast: a half-cup of brown rice, with a half-cup of dashi, 8 diced cooked/shelled shrimp, and two tablespoons of fueru wakame (chopped dried seaweed). Plus a cup of coffee.

Bean Salad & Brown Rice

Leftover Soup Lunch

Diced leftover rotisserie chicken, mixed vegetables, rice, and green beans. Chicken broth. Instant ramen. Kimchi.

Curry Beans & Brown Rice

My wife is at a class tonight. So, I made a light beans & rice supper-for-one. I mixed Heinz curry beans with brown basmati rice topped with sliced grape tomatoes and grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. I had pita on the side and a nice glass of skim milk. Aren't you jealous?

Veggie Lunch

I thawed out one of the veggie bean burgers I'd made a few days ago and had it on toasted rye bread with dijon mustard. As a side, I made a brown rice onigiri with a watermelon rind pickle inside. The salad is shaved carrot with zante currants and honey.

Mr. Bento in the Succah

For the first time since I retired in May 2008, I took out Mr. Bento. We went for dinner in our synagogue's succah. I brought baked chicken (smoked paprika on top) over mushroom rice, dilled carrots, honeycake, and 3-seed bread. Then we blessed and shook the lulav and the etrog.

Nice, simple lunch

I had a nice simple lunch today. My wife's cousin sent us a 5-pound bag of genmai, Japanese short-grain brown rice. I put a cup in my rice cooker this morning, set it for noon, and at 12 o'clock spooned it out into two bowls. My wife added a little milk to hers to loosen it up. I just diced up some smoked Nova Scotia style salmon and mixed it in. Nice, simple lunch.

Only 51 more servings left in the bag of genmai. Any suggestions?