at some point in 2004 i decided to actually make myself a website.  created a template and embraced CSS and used a not so friendly template version of wordpress.  once i got everything working and wordpress all settled.. i never finished.

the other night i made my kitten her very own blog. decided to go ahead and give AdSense a holler, i had never bothered before because about 3 of you actually come to my website (hi guys..). however part of AdSense policy is they don’t give accounts to unfinished websites. I’m going to be putting AdSense on sachi’s website, and figured might as well put one on mine, i figure after 3-4 years of you guys reading my blog i might make enough to finally make a $100.00 check and cash in!

i have now completely updated all the content on my website. updated my theme and made some fixes (but i did this a week or two ago), added a contact form, links (while that’s still unfinished at least i started it), a brief gallery(ill link my crappy gallery some other way), my resume, and a simple home page.

holy shit guys, i finished my website. finally.  now its time to redesign it!! haha.

born and raised in hawaii, spam musubi is a classic treat that ive turned many of my round eye spam fearing friends on to

if you’ve been to hawaii you are familiar with spam musubi. everyone has their own method of making it, since my friends enjoy my version i’ve decided to share it. i see a lot of people who cook their spam in shoyu (soy sauce) but i prefer using a marinade. i don’t usually make it with tamago (sweet egg) but sometimes i do.

Ingredients:

• 1 can spam (i use 25% less sodium)
• 1 pack sushi nori (dried seaweed)
• 3 cups of cooked japanese sticky rice (sushi rice or sticky medium grain)
• 1 cup shoyu (i use to prefer kikkoman or aloha shoyu, aloha has a much higher sugar concentration, kikkoman is salty)
  

  i have gotten several “2 cups???” response. i modified it to say 1 cup. i generally use 1-2 cups simply because when im done marinating the spam i do not throw the marinade away. I will generally use it once or 2x again for either beef and chicken (i will toss it after i put chicken in it).

• 1/2 cup brown sugar (use more if you prefer a sweeter soy base)
• 3 cloves garlic minced
• 1 bunch of scallions diced
• 1-2 tablespoons ginger shredded
• 1-2 teaspoon sesame seed oil
• 1 serrano pepper minced (if you don’t like spicy don’t use this)

Instructions (marinade & spam prep):

1. In a medium sized bowl mix Shoyu, sugar and stir until sugar is dissolved.
2. add garlic, scallions, ginger, pepper, and sesame seed oil to the marinade and stir to mix together.
3. slice spam into 10 slices one way then cut across other way to form 20 square pieces.
4. add spam to bowl and allow it to marinate for at least 4-6 hours.
5. fry spam in pan.

Instructions (tamago):

1. beat 4 eggs in bowl, add 1-2 tablespoons of sugar (or as much or little as you like for taste) .
2. fry egg in pan with oil, don’t scramble or overcook.
3. pat oil off egg and chop into squares similar to the spam size.

Instructions (creating the musubi):

Some people use the actual spam can to shape the rice and spam but i find that messy. i have on a few occasions just used my hand, also messy. you can easily online or at most asian supermarkets buy a “spam musubi” maker. it looks like a rectangle. I have both a wooden and plastic one and tend to use the plastic one more as it just seems to be easier and faster. some makers are as large as 1 piece of spam, some as large as 2. i have the large one. all this really does is press the rice into compact rectangle shape.

1. use spam musubi maker to make enough rice squares as you have spam. some people use a lot of rice others less. i like to use about as much rice as equal to or double the size of the spam.
2. cut the nori to whatever size you like. i prefer my nori to be the same width as my musubi.
3. place rice square on nori, then the spam, then the egg. “roll” the stacked musubi to be wrapped.

I have been meaning to make this post for quite some time. I took the pictures many months ago but as usual, never got around to it. several people have asked me how i make my curry so i decided to take the time to put a step by step instruction.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups steamed sticky (japanese/sushi) rice
• 1/2 large onion (sub: 1 medium)
• 2 large potatoes (sub: 4-5 small-medium)
• 3 large carrots (sub: 4-5 small-medium)
• 2- 4 garlic cloves (use as little as you want, joel and i love garlic)
• 16oz cubed beef/chicken/pork/fish (i prefer beef)
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 1 tbsp crushed salt
  • 1 tbsp ground pepper
• 3 cups water
• 1 box S&B Golden Curry Roux – 3.5oz (i use hot)

Instructions – Vegetable Prep:

1. Prep your vegetables. cube potatoes and slice carrots (i prefer carrot ovals).

2. soak carrots and potatoes in 2 cups of water. this prevents the potatoes from oxidizing and turning brown. you will use this water later so don’t throw out. the water collects the starch from the potatoes so its good for a natural thickener for the curry.

3. halve your onion then cut cubed/square slices.



4. dice garlic

5. cook your rice. (hopefully you have a rice cooker, and if you don’t, you already know how to steam your own rice.. if you don’t, learn how. if you use uncle bens or any instant rice you deserve to be shot)

Instructions – Meat Prep:

1. in a large bowl mix the dry ingredients: 1/2 cup flour, 1 tbsp crushed salt, 1tbsp ground pepper.

2. in a frying pan heat a few tbsp’s of oil (olive or vegetable). add cubed meat into dry mix and coat it. do not put it all in at once, the meat will soak up too much flour if you do it this way. coat a few pieces and sear/brown them quickly on both sides. don’t try to cook all the meat at once, this will diminish the heat in the pan and make it harder to sear the outside. do a few pieces at a time for best results.




3. place the meat aside to rest. meat will continue to cook and tenderize itself as it settles.

Instructions – Mixing & Cooking Curry:

1. heat to medium-high a tbsp of vegetable oil in a large pot. add cubed onions and a pinch of salt and ground pepper. saute for about a minute.

2. add garlic to onion. i add the garlic later because garlic burns a lot quicker. saute for a few minutes until slightly brown.

3. add rested seared meat and mix. mix and saute for a minute or 2, stirring very frequently.

4. with a strainer, pour the 2 cups of water from the soaking potatoes and carrots into the pot (don’t add vegetables yet just water).

5. allow water to come to a quick small boil.
6. break apart the curry roux into smaller pieces and disperse them through the pot evenly. constantly mix your water to allow the roux to melt and form the gravy. make sure you’re constantly stirring else the curry will start to burn and stick to the bottom and you will have chunks of curry roux not blended well.



7. the curry will appear very thick and boil, add the remaining 1/2-1 cup of water and stir well. it might appear that its not enough water and the curry is ridiculously thick. not to worry. DO NOT ADD more water as it will water down the taste of your curry. the vegetables will add a lot of water once its cooked in the curry.

8. once the curry is nicely mixed and thick reduce heat to low-medium add the carrots and potatoes. it is not necessary to mix the curry at this point. You want to keep the meat on the bottom just add vegetables to the top and with your mixing spoon press it down to soak under the curry.

9. be sure to cover your curry to prevent all the water from evaporating. cook on low-medium heat for about 10 minutes stirring every few minutes to keep the curry from burning on the bottom. after about 10 minutes reduce heat to low.
10. at this point allow your curry to stew on low for 1-2 hours. you can check on your curry as often as you want to stir. i stir every 10 minutes or so. stewing allows the meat to become extremely tender which i find very important especially when using beef. when using other meats you don’t have to stew for nearly as long.

when your meal is ready you will find that the vegetables added a rich amount of flavorful water to the curry and its not as thick as it was before. the flour in the beef also adds to the thickness and you don’t have to add any cornstarch. i try to avoid cornstarch as much as possible as i find it adds more of a gelatinous texture instead of a rich creamy texture.

i usually eat curry in a bowl, a scoop or 2 of rice on the bottom and i pour my curry over, but i usually serve to others on a plate.

mmm now go make curry! 

i am by no means a chef or pasty chef of any kind but i do love to cook and bake nonetheless.  i have owe’d joel "obligation cupcakes" for some time now and finally decided to make them.  we decided on red velvet cupcakes with a whipped butter cream cheese frosting.

red velvet makes me think of christina so in honor of her and of course joel since they are his obligation cupcakes, i took some pictures to share.

i’m presently taking a break from my non stop ui/design-athon. coldplay’s “warning signs” just came on and i got hit with a huge wave of nostalgia. 

i took bryan to their concert at the hollywood bowl and we had great seats, and this was the one song they did not play and we were pretty upset by this.  lucky enough for me a few years later i got another pair of fabulous seats for their show at the verizon amphitheater, they did in fact play this song.

it still rules.

okay back to work.

thats right, colour! i spelled it all proper like, impressed? well you should be, not with me, but with the website for COLOURlovers.

Last year during webby’s i ran across this website that was basically a niche social network that was based around creating colors and color palettes.  i have used sites like wellstyled’s color scheme generator, colors on the web, colorschemer, webcolorschemes, and kuler, just to name a few, but none of them have appealed to me as much as COLOURlovers has.

the usability of the site is not as intuitive as i would like and it takes a bit of getting use to to figure out how to successfully navigate through the site, but i find myself enjoying the experience.  its not only just a tool to help you create colors its an entire network of individuals all passionate about color and all its facets; from linking visual inspirations, or in written form, to naming your palettes and colours alike, its a whole new way of social contribution.

the sheer volume of colors and palettes being created is quite impressive, i myself have joined in the fray in hopes to share my color concepts and to inspire as i am being inspired.

come join me! its my favorite new addiction as i spend hours just thinking of color arrangements and being lost in ones created by others.

a while ago photobucket teamed up with a company/product called meez.  meez are essentially 3d photo avatars you can custom design and animate.  i made one a long time ago but almost forgot about it until got an email notice reminding me and inviting me to “come and use it again” now in beta.

simpsons… meez.. i even have a weemee for skype. maybe i’ll upload that next.

Okay yah so — i suck at this blog thing apparently.  Every time i come up with something i want to blog about i never do it.  I really need to discipline myself to take out a few minutes just to do it.  birthday resolution. anyway..

everyone has been posting simpsonized versions of themselves around lately and i’ve even played with the tool myself, but after my friend Nina made one of herself and Chad and put it on her blog, the likeness was so great to see i decided to copy and do the same so i could share with her.

easiest way to share.. is to post here. this is joel and i as simpsons.

so that’s it, you try it and share

it was a profound experience the first time i heard “last goodbye” by jeff buckley. it was just your average day sometime in 1994 that would change my life forever. to this day his album “grace” remains my favorite album of all time and if i could only keep one album for the rest of my life it would be that one. admittedly there were times where it was hard to make it through the whole album because its so emotionally intoxicating and brings out every ounce of pain into a surreal blanket i curl up in. there have been periods of time i just couldn’t bring myself to listening to it, but when i do i fall in love all over again, enveloped in its heady haunting sound, feeling him completely under my skin. i dont attest to this affecting anyone else the way it does me, but its a damn good album none the less and jeff buckley is truly missed.

he is without a doubt the most important artist and musician that ive ever had the grace to listen to.  he died on may 27, 1997 while taking an evening swim in the mississippi on his way to his studio session to record his next album.  it seems so long ago, but every once in a while i mourn him all over again.

i encourage others to listen to his music, ill gladly share it with you if you cant find it elsewhere.  take the time to read his wikiquotes page, especially the bottom portion full of quotes by other famous musicians.

all flowers in time, bend towards the sun, i know you say that theres no one for but here is one. (listen below)

p.s. yes i’m obsessed.

in 1994 i fell in love with a song playing on the radio.  it was called “Protection” and it was by a group called “Massive Attack“.  It would become an on going love affair and the first introduction to trip hop and the spark for a long burning flame for a myriad of other artists.

on sunday, september 24, 2006, 7:00pm, i will be attending the massive attack concert at the hollywood bowl in great terrace box seats with joel.

this is what our view will be like.  similar to my view/seats at colplay when i took bryan for his birthday many moons ago.

i’m very excited.  this is the first time im actually seeing them live. i want to thank steve for the sweet ass hookup and sale