jen eats crow: August 2012

Monday, August 6, 2012

august 6, 2012 dinner

clockwise from top: takoyaki (filled with wheat and soy and sugar, oh my/oh well), saba shioyaki (salt-grilled mackerel, one of my comfort foods!) and renkon (lotus root) cooked in butter. what's the occasion? an old friend i hadn't seen in over ten years is in town. she's from chicago, and i'm from seattle, but we became friends when we both lived in japan, i in hiroshima, her in kure, about 15 miles away. (coincidentally, today is the 67th anniversary of the bombing of hiroshima.) a group of us met up at maekawa bar in the international district and ordered a bunch of small plates to share.

this was so obscenely delicious it made me want to dance down the street. it's like okonomiyaki without the batter and noodles and cabbage, just pork wrapped up in an omelet, drizzled with the same tangy, sweet sauce and mayo.

some gyutan (grilled beef tongue) was also consumed, which i quite enjoyed. it was sliced really thinly, and flavored sparely with salt and pepper. i did not get a good photo of it, probably because i ate it too fast. all in all, it was great catching up while enjoying some izakaya treats.

time out!

i haven't been the most timely or thorough about updates lately, and i think it's because i've bitten off a bit more than i can chew. timewise, it's been demanding and i'm starting to get woefully behind on posts. so from here on out, i'm not going to document every single meal. to be honest, i am boring myself silly with shots of the same breakfast four days in a row. it's started to feel like a chore - taking a photo of each work lunch, then getting a week or two behind, then uploading a bunch of meals all at once and hustling to get through it all. so here's the new, reasonable plan: i'm going to include only one of each repeating meal, and even skip documenting some meals. (i forgot to bring my camera to sushi last week, for example, but i'm not going to fret about it!) while my posts may be more infrequent, i hope that they will have more substance overall. i'll post more of things like step-by-step recipes, special occasion meals, eating out at restaurants, and camping meals.

ahhh, feels good to loosen the blog shackles a bit. thanks for reading!

Sunday, August 5, 2012

august 5, 2012 breakfast

breakfast as we tear down camp is a scramble of everything we have left: eggs, ham, mushrooms, zucchini, onions and avocado.

we do a short hike from sunrise, getting a taste of the other side of the mountain..

the view from the ridge is breathtaking, but swarms of mosquitos are mobilizing, so we keep marching.

this clark's nutcracker is keeping pace with us along the trail.

Saturday, August 4, 2012

august 4, 2012 dinner

after breakfast, we drove up to paradise. the weather was absolutely perfect, not a cloud anywhere. the beginning trudge uphill up to panorama point is a superhighway of a trail, but the further you hike, the more it thins out. a lot of people turn around about halfway. we pushed on, although part of it went through snow on an incline - kinda sketchy without poles!

you could see for miles. that is mt. st. helens peeking over the horizon in the distance.

the wildflowers were everywhere. here are some magenta paintbrush.

marmots were moseying about. this one seemed to relish the contrast of the sun on his back and the snow under his belly.

naturally, godzilla was our amiable hiking companion. although his boastful posing on the way back held up our party a bit.

following a not very picturesque lunch of leftover sausage, eggplant and zucchini, we decided to tackle the silver falls trail, which leaves directly from the campground. this waterfall, on the ohanapecosh, is definitely worth the hike!

the trail winds through some mossy forest, strewn with massive boulders. part of it passed through old growth forest (the trail links to both the grove of the patriarchs trail and the pacific coast trail).

we'd passed some hot springs upstream of here, but didn't linger, as the day was sweltering enough. returning to the campground, we saw that some folks had the right idea!

i dunked myself in the river a couple of times, but it was freezing! we'd hiked about ten miles that day through temperatures in the 80's, so it felt good to get some of the grime off, though. anyways, on to the campfire pig greens. ridiculously easy. cut a cabbage into eighths, wrap each with a piece of thick bacon, dab butter here and there, and salt and pepper the whole thing. wrap in heavy duty aluminum foil (more than one layer strongly recommended) and place in the campfire coals. Turn occasionally - it'll be done in, oh, 45 minutes, or longer if you want to leave it in the fire..

as the piggie greens sizzled away in the campfire, we grilled up some cod for fish tacos, using this amazing recipe.

eaten open-faced on butter lettuce leaves. (we are foolish, and brought living lettuce camping. it sure takes up a lot of cooler space! next time we will wash and prep the leaves at home.)

the spicy citrus sauce and mango avocado salsa on top made for messy but oh-so-delicious eating.
(note: right now, this photo is upside down. i will fix it later. for now, marvel at the amazing gravity-defying fish taco!)

august 4, 2012

good morning! sleeping to the white noise of the river was so peaceful. that was the best night's sleep i've had in i don't know how long..

make way for grilled portobello breakfast sandwiches! we were excited to try out this idea. these were hearty, and had to be eaten with a fork, not as a handheld sandwich. assembly was simple enough:

first, we grilled up some portobello caps that we'd brushed with garlic olive oil.

topped each with a few slices of thick bacon..

then a fried egg for the next layer..

half an avocado atop the whole shebang, and she's ready to nom nom!

deliciousness. this steller's jay wanted a bite, but no dice.

Friday, August 3, 2012

august 3, 2012 dinner

it's still light out when we arrive, but by the time we get our campsite set up, it's pretty dark. (it's a walk-in site, so we have to carry everything down a steep path to the riverbank, where our campsite is.) we're staying at ohanapecosh, on the southeastern side of mt. rainier. it's in a lovely old growth forest, with the turquoise ohanapecosh river flowing right by our tent. grilled zucchini and japanese eggplant, brushed with garlic oil, as well as mushrooms (not shown) are starters.

two of these sausages are for tonight, and two will be cold munchables for tomorrow. it feels late in this old forest, even though it isn't, so off to tent!