With Thanksgiving being just around the corner, food is on the mind…. Living in one of the most health-conscious areas of the country, where there are farmer’s markets galore and an abundance of locally-grown, organic and pesticide-free produce readily available at relatively affordable prices, we’re fortunate that eating healthy is not as much of a challenge as it may be in other parts of the country and the world. With the global rise of obesity and type 2 diabetes among children, it’s really important to consider what you feed your children in their early years, too. Baby food is abundant in supermarkets and they come in a plethora of flavors and sizes. The convenience of having such ready-to-eat jars of baby food comes at a price: they’re usually loaded with fillers and preservatives to give them a longer shelf life, and vitamins and nutrients are lost during the processing stage.
A couple of months ago, I was sifting through a Williams-Sonoma catalog and found what seems to be a great solution: The Beaba Babycook. It’s a French-made counter top appliance that has been used in Europe for years, and it easily steams and blends vegetables, fruits, meats, and even grains into baby food. You can choose exactly what goes into your baby’s mouth by buying your own organic produce and turn it into baby food and still retain all the vitamins and flavor! You can also freeze the excess baby food you’ve made, and the Babycook will defrost and reheat it when you want to bring it out again. It’s essentially a steamer and food processor in one, but it’s easy to assemble and wash, and creates much less mess and saves more time than having to use multiple appliances — perfect for the busy, working mom!
The appliance is BPA and PVC-free, so there is no risk of exposing your baby to toxic materials that may be detrimental to the baby’s health. It’s a little pricey for an appliance, but Dan and I both agreed that it would definitely be worth it in the end, if you consider all the jars of baby food you would buy anyway, as well as the the advantage of making sure your baby’s meals are preservative-free. We won’t be needing it for a while, since babies don’t start eating solid foods until they’re four to six months old, but it’s definitely at the top of our to-buy list!
Have any mothers out there used the Babycook before, or made their own baby food? Please let me know if you have any thoughts or advice!
I was having cravings for some matcha-flavored dessert last night, so Dan and I made matcha tiramisu! We’d never made it before, so it was an undertaking — we made the filling, syrup, and even the ladyfingers from scratch! (Usually, you can buy ladyfingers readymade for making regular tiramisu, but we were too lazy to go out and get them. It was also because we wanted to make the ladyfinger spongy layer green tea-flavored too, and ladyfingers don’t come in green tea flavors.)
This was my first time actively making baking/cooking in the kitchen in a couple months, and I was still feeling pretty queasy, so Dan helped a lot — it was a collaborative effort! 🙂
The results came out pretty good! Although since I have a taste aversion to eggs, and the recipe we used called for a lot of eggs for both the ladyfingers sponge and the filling, it was a little too egg-y/custard-y for my taste. Dan gobbled it up, though! Maybe I’ll try a recipe that uses less egg next time.
This past weekend, I flew down to Los Angeles to spend the weekend with a couple of my close college friends! Ryosuke had been in SoCal for a week for a business trip, and Mariko was very gracious to host us again and drive us around everywhere. We had a memorable, fun-filled weekend together!
I flew down to LAX on Friday morning, and after Mari picked me up at the airport, we went to Il Chianti, an Italian restaurant in Lomita. But this is not just any Italian food — it’s Italian food that is tailored to Japanese tastes, so it was very light yet flavorful, and it doesn’t leave you with the heavy feeling that a lot of other traditional Italian restaurants leave you with.
Afterwards, we went shopping to get a joint birthday present for Ryosuke, and waited for him to get out of work….
Ryosuke finally got off of work, so we picked him up at his hotel in Hawthorne and after wandering around Book Off and Marukai in Gardena, we headed over to dinner in Koreatown, at Honey Pig. My coworker Estella repeatedly recommended it, saying it was some of the best Korean BBQ in LA, so I’d been really wanting to try it!
The service was great, and our waitress was very friendly and knew some Japanese. She showed us how to eat everything since it was our first time at Honey Pig. They even gave us some complimentary octopus to grill along with the amazing galbi and samgyeopsal that we’d ordered.
After stuffing ourselves to satisfaction at Honey Pig, we drove to Max Karaoke to spend a couple hours singing our hearts out! When the three of us would hang out back in Northern Virginia, we always went karaoke, so we decided to stay true to tradition! 🙂
Ryosuke sang an impressive rendition of Jason DeRulo’s “Whatcha Say” at my request. (I have been loving all the covers of that song on YouTube — they’re even better than the original!) He should be one of those YouTube celebrities that do cover songs! 😛
The next day, we headed over to Orange County and stopped at Mitsuwa’s food court for lunch.
After finishing our lunch and hanging around Mitsuwa for a while, we drove to the OC Fair in Orange County!
We left the fair in the late afternoon to catch a showing of Inception. It was my second time seeing it, but it was still really enjoyable to watch and I was able to pick up on more of the details of the film. Definitely got me thinking all over again. What a great movie! I don’t think I will ever get sick of it! We enjoyed a late Japanese dinner at Sanuki no Sato back in Gardena. They are known for their udon and soba noodles, as well as their great izakaya food.
The next day, after we dropped Ryosuke off at LAX for him to catch his morning flight back to Tennessee, I went to church with Mariko. Her father is a pastor and gave a very intriguing and inspiring message. 🙂 It’s interesting to attend a service in Japanese, because it’s so foreign to me since I never had the experience growing up — any and all services I’ve gone to were always in English. Afterwards, we had some delicious cake at Patisserie Chantilly before heading over to the airport for me to catch my flight.
It was really nice to kick back and relax with old college friends again, since the opportunity is so rare these days, living all the way on the other side of the country from most of them. A huge thanks to Mariko for being such a gracious hostess as usual, driving us all over the megalopolis that is LA… and to Ryosuke for extending his stay in California so we could all hang out for a couple days! 😀 Looking forward to another reunion, hopefully in the near future!
On Monday, Dan and I celebrated our two year wedding anniversary! We of course both had to work since it was a Monday, but we went to dinner at the world renowned Chez Panisse. Located in the “Gourmet Ghetto” of Berkeley and founded by the famous Alice Waters, it is credited as the birthplace of California cuisine. It frequently makes it into the ranks of the top 50 restaurants in the world, and reservations fill up very quickly. Dan and I were lucky to get a reservation in 8:45… pretty late for dinner, but Chez Panisse was well worth the wait!
It’s been an amazing two years, and although this puts a cap on our status as “newlyweds,” we’re very excited for the many more years to come and all the anniversaries that we’ll get to celebrate with each passing year. We are constantly reminded that it is thanks to our family and friends and all their love and support that we are who we are today, and we feel humbled and so grateful for having all of you as such an important, ever-present, and precious presence in our lives. We can’t wait to build more amazing memories together with each other, as well as with you!
Day Nine was the last day of our vacation in Hawaii! :'(Â This was actually the only day that we didn’t have anything concrete planned, so we winged it. It was nice to just relax and drive around without a real itinerary for once. 🙂
For breakfast, we stopped by Sweet Marie’s, a gluten-free bakery in Kapaa. We just randomly found it and decided to eat there, but it ended up being really good! We recommend. 🙂
Leave it to me to procrastinate on my souvenir shopping… Thankfully, the Kauai Products Fair on the East Shore had some really nice goodies — this is where we did the bulk of our souvenir shopping for my family. 🙂
Upon completing our souvenir shopping, we went onto get shaved ice. (Yes, again!) This would be the last time we’d get shaved ice in Hawaii. :'(Â We went to Ono Ono Shave Ice.
In the early afternoon, we returned to the Coconut Marketplace (which is right by our hotel) and watched a free hula show. One of the girls who was performing had been at a fruit stand we went to the previous day, and had urged us to stop by to watch her perform.
The female singer whose songs the girls were dancing to sang the famous Israel Kamakawiwo’ole version of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” It was so pretty of it, I took a video to capture the audio:
We were pretty hungry after the hula show, so we drove over to The Fish Express in Lihue for a late lunch/afternoon snack. Dan’s coworker had recommended the place for their good poke.
The Fish Express is definitely a place you must go if you’re in Kaua’i and love raw fish like us! My only regret was not going to this place sooner. I would have been totally content with having poke from there every day we were in Kaua’i.
One of the better known places in Kaua’i that we had not been to yet was Poipu Beach, so we drove down to Poipu once our stomachs were stuffed with poke fabulousness.
We had time to stop by one more location before having to grab dinner and head towards the airport, so we drove over to the nearby Wailua Falls.
With the video, you can sort of see a more accurate view of how the falls looked from our vantage point. We even caught a rainbow on camera. 🙂
For dinner, we decided to eat near the airport at the Japanese restaurant Kintaro.
But alas, we had to leave. After dinner, we promptly returned our rental car and dragged ourselves to the airport to catch our flight. The lines for check-in and for the security check were heinous… it seemed like half the island was flying to LA! But after all the waiting and stress, we were able to safely board our plane. The journey back to San Francisco was anything but fun, since it was an overnight flight and I was freezing the whole time in the overly air-conditioned cabin. I barely got any sleep! We arrived at Los Angeles International Airport early in the morning, where we had a three-hour layover. Not fun! 🙁
But eventually, we boarded our one-hour flight from LAX to SFO, and were able to get home safe and sound. It’s only been a month since we’ve gotten back, but I miss our time in Hawaii a lot. There’s still a lot I’d like to see if and when we ever go back, and I’d like to check out the other islands of Maui and Big Island someday, too.
Thank you to all of our friends who gave us recommendations on places to go, sights to see, and foods to eat! Our trip wouldn’t have been nearly as memorable if it weren’t for you!