Japanese Rice Balls "Onigiri"

One of the traditional staple on-the-go foods in Japan, Onigiri is one of several rice-based dishes Sergey and I started incorporating on a regular basis. It took us a while to get it right, but we think we're on the right track.

Japanese Rice

Sergey and I have been looking for light-but-filling recipes and have come up with several rice-based ones. Many of them require us to prepare short-grain white rice as a component, so we came up with a process for making good Japanese rice.

Turkey

It was my honor to host Thanksgiving this year. I was in charge of making a turkey for the first time. Here is the result.

Hamburger Patties

Visits to my sister in Lancaster have begun to incorporate a meal of home-grilled burger patties made with local ingredients. DELISH.

Loaded Grilled Cheese

The contents of this recipe (and all ensuing photos) were obtained at great personal peril from deep cover as an innocently hungry daughter, asking her Dad just how he does the grilled cheese magic.

Chicken Teriyaki

What's there to say? We wanted to make our own chicken teriyaki. So we went to our favorite Japanese cook online and adjusted the recipe to suit our needs.

Grilled Salmon

In my opinion, this is PERFECT grilled salmon, but there's way too many recipes out there calling themselves Perfect This and Perfect That. STILL. Sergey makes it this way every time, and every time it comes out just so...

Porcupine Meatballs "Yorsheki"

A dish from Sergey's childhood. My mother in law taught us how to make them at home. We haven't practiced enough to be confident, but we have it down for when we're ready to try.

Steamed Pork Buns "Nikuman"

Sergey and I have been on a Japanese cooking kick. This is one of our recent favorites. Because neither of us has what you'd call a sensitive palate, we tripled the shiitake mushrooms and swapped greens out for green onions.

Spicy Rice & Beans

"I do not like beans," I said to my husband. "Beans are mushy and overcooked and disgusting and... oh, you mean you can adjust soak time on beans so they're a little al dente? And you can pick different beans? Well why didn't you say so in the first place..."

Shrimp Boil & Sauce

Our neighbor served us a fantastic shrimp boil one evening, and we begged for the recipe. Here is how we make it at our house.

Mushroom Meatballs

One of our oldest recipes, Sergey distilled down what makes a good meatball and... DECIDED THERE WAS NOT ENOUGH GARLIC AND MUSHROOM. Of course. Sensible man, that.

Meat & Mushroom Stir Fry

This is a pretty basic recipe that was intended to give a little more substance to a meal consisting mostly of the roasted potatoes we developed. I needed to mark down the right proportions somewhere, so...

Hamburger Steak "Hambagu"

Sergey and I went on a streak of making good quality Japanese recipes and this is one of our current favorites.

Fried Rice

Sergey and I wanted a good fried rice we could make. The first time we made this, it didn't turn out so well and we gave up, but we came back and improved it. NO PRESSURE COOKER REQUIRED.