05-18 Vidalia, Sweet Onion, Recipes

Arboretum-san sent Vidalia onion and its recipe’s pamphlet to Hiroko on May 18.

The couple of recipes and “the instruction of storage tip” from the pamphlet, published by Bland Farms, LLC, 1125 Raymond Bland Road, Glennville, Georgia 30427, 1-800-VIDALIA, www.BlandFarms.com, are posted in this blog.

This is recipes pamphlet.

This is Vidalia, Sweet Onion

This is the wrapped Vidalia onion as the instruction* in the pamphlet.

This is the Vidalia onion Arboretum-san sent Hiroko

Hiroko made 4 dishes from this Vidalia onion.

1．Stapleton Crab Salad from the pamphlet (for 4 people)

½ cup white wine vinegar

¼ cup sugar

Pinch salt

Pinch pepper

1 medium Vidalia onion, peeled and thinly sliced

1 medium vine-ripe red tomato, diced

1 medium vine-ripe yellow tomato, diced

12 ounce fresh blue lump crabmeat, picked over to remove shell fragments

¼ cup virgin olive oil

4 scallions, thinly sliced

4 basil leaves, julienned

In a large bowl combine vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper.  Add Vidalia onion and cucumber slices to vinegar mixture, toss to coat.  Marinate for 1 to 2 hours.  Add tomatoes, crabmeat, olive oil, scallions and basil.  Toss gently and season to taste.  To serve, divide salad among four chilled plates.  Makes four servings.

Hiroko didn’t use the crabmeat, because she didn’t have that, and there were chicken dish the night.  This salad for only Dan-san and Hiroko, so only 1/3 of the Vidalia onion was used, and all other ingredients were used less than mentioned in the recipe.

2．Vidalia Sweet Onion Bruschetta  from the pamphlet (for 4 people)

3 medium Vidalia sweet onions, peeled and thinly sliced

6 Roma tomatoes, cored and quartered

½ cup olive oil

Juice of one fresh lemon

11/2 tsp. dried Italian herbs

2 cloves garlic, crushed

Salt and pepper to taste

According the recipe, mix all the ingredient in a large microwave safe bowl and cook in the microwave until onions are tender. Serve with Italian bread

Hiroko cooked all the ingredients (1/2 of the mentioned) except lemon juice in the pan, and added lemon juice and 1 Tbsp. honey, and mixed well. 

There were no Italian bread, and Hot-Dog dinner the night, so Hush-Brown were served with this sauce instead of tomato ketchup.  Dan-san likes it.

3．Chicken Salad with Vidalia Sweet Onion (for 4 people)

1 cup macaroni, cook

1 set boneless and skinless chicken breast or 4 strips of chicken tenderloin, cook (by baking, steaming, broiling, pan frying with salt and black pepper) and dice ½ inch pieces

1 medium side Vidalia sweet onion, chop

2 stalk celery, chop

½ seedless cucumber, ½ inch dice

½ red pepper, ½ inch dice

½ green pepper ½ inch dice

1 apple, ¼ inch dice

½ cup walnuts

4 pieces mushroom, dice – optional

½ cup white cheese, ½ dice - optional

Sauce:  2 Tbsp Olive oil

            2 Tbsp vinegar or lemon

            Salt and pepper

            2 Tbsp mayonnaise - optional

Mix all this ingredients in a large bowl

4．Sandwich with Vidalia Sweet Onion and Tomatoes

This is the best sandwich said by Dan-san’s Uncle Jimmy-san who lives in Georgia

1 or 2 slice Vidalia onion as thick as you can take

1 slice tomato

½ tsp mayonnaise

Place this on the toasted bread, and eat.

Hiroko didn’t use mayonnaise and use one sliced bread.  This is the best way to eat Vidalia, sweet onion.

Thanks Arboretum-san for letting Dan-san and Hiroko to have all these delicious dish with Vidalia for a week.

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Hiroko would like to tell the history of Vidalia to Japanese people, so check the WikipediA, The Free Encyclopedia.  Here is the History mention in the Encyclopedia.

The onions were first grown near Vidalia, Georgia, in the early 1930s. It is an unusually sweet variety of onion, due to the low amount of sulfur in the soil in which the onions are grown.  Mose Coleman is believed to be the person who discovered the sweet Vidalia onion variety in 1931.

The Vidalia onion was named Georgia's official state vegetable in 1990.

Please go to the WikipediA for more information.

*The instruction for Storage Tips and Health Benefits from the Pamphlet

O The key to keeping Vidalia Sweet Onion fresh is to keep them in a cool, dry and separate space.

O Wrap onions individually in tissue paper, paper towel, or newspaper and store in refrigerator.  Be sure onions are dry before storing in paper.

O Place onions in the legs of sheer pantyhose.  Tie knot between each Vidalia.  Hang in cool, dry, well-ventilated area.  Cut above knot when you want one.

O To freeze, chops onion and place on a cookie sheet in freezer.  When frozen, remove and place in freezer containers or bags and seal.  Freezing changes the onion’s texture, so frozen onions should be used in cooking only.  Whole frozen Vidalia can be baked.

Health Benefits

O Great source of Vitamin C and quercetin

O Fat and Cholesterol free

O Low in sodium

O Excellent antioxidant

O Great dietary fiber

O Aids in cellular repair

Health Benefits:

o Great source of Vitamin C and quercetin

o Fat and Cholesterol free

o Low in sodium

o Excellent antioxidant

o Great dietary fiber

o Aids in cellular repair

05-17 Belated Mother’s Day Celebration Part II

Steven/Amanda made the reservation at Sunshine Café at 6 PM.  There weren’t too many people in the restaurant at the time.

This is inside the restaurant.  The table was set at the middle of the restaurant.  Group of 8 is the large number of reservation for Sunshine Café.  Later hour the restaurant was full, and some were waiting.

Here are the people of 7

No need to explain.  Sorry, it is not a good shot.  Hiroko should attend the school of learning how to take good photo.

Appetizers – Steven had already taken care to order all these appetizers 2 plates each

As usual Hiroko forgot to take photos.  Here are some left over. 

Spinach dish, Gyoza with sauce, Shumai, Tsukemono, Croquets, and Calamari were ordered.  Dan-san even ate the calamari because Richard asked him to eat.

These are the main dish

2 Ten-Soba (Tempura with Soba in hot sauce)

1 Ten Zaru-Soba (Tempura with cold soba)

Hiroko knew the Chicago Soba is not same as Yamagata Soba, but she ate the Ten Soba

Teruyaki-Chicken

Saba (broiled salted code)-Shioyaki

2 Tonkatsu dishes

Sukiyaki

There are not too much meat but lots of green onion in Sukiyaki

Hiroko appreciated so much to hear that Hiroko’s Tonkatsu and Sukiyaki are much better than these.

Thank you!

Thanks for Steven trying to treat everyone tonight, but Elsa and Lisa/Dave pitched in some of them to pay all these food.

Gochisosama! Thank you!  Oishikatta!  Everything were very tasty!

Various presents from everyone. 

Isn’t it good have Mother’s Day once a month?

Hiroko was cheered up with this gathering.  She was faced with some sad news from Japan.  It was very nice to talk to everyone and thinking about Hiroko’s sister a while.  Thanks to everyone for encouraging and understanding Hiroko.

14 05-11 Mother’s Day – Part I; Journal

One day before, May 10^th, Mother’s Day celebration at Pasteur Vietnamese Restaurant invited by Elsa.

This is the front entrance and the side windows of Pasteur.  This restaurant had been located here for around 15 years.

This is their outdoor dining area behind the restaurant.  Elsa and Dan-san had already sat down under the umbrella.  It was very windy day, so this umbrella was taken away later.  The weather finally warmed up to around 70 degree and a very fine day.  The greenery is very beautiful, and all dead trees in Chicago called by the 5 years old boy from Hawaii come alive.

Appetizer

Vietnamese spring rolls made with thin rice noodle, beef, some vegetable, and nuts

The sauce was really tasty.

Before the main dishes came, soup was served.  The light salt taste of the soup with couple of different vegetables and mushrooms was very good.  No soup photo.

Here are main dishes ordered by three of us.

So-te (sautéed) Vegetable and Shrimp with the rice dish for Elsa

So-te Vegetable and Beef with Thin Rice Noodle for Dan-san

So-te vegetable and Fried Calamari with Rice for Hiroko

You can see how we enjoyed the lunch.  It was a very tasty foods.  Thanks Elsa for these delicious foods.

Elsa ordered Vietnamese coffee for after drink.  It wasn’t anything fancy coffee maker came with.  Hiroko’s blog friend Hakoniwa-san mentioned in her blog about her experience at Vietnamese Restaurant at Hakone, in Japan.  French traditional coffee maker called Café Fine was used to make the coffee. 

This is Hakoniwa-san’s photo.  Can you see the coffee maker in this photo? 

Coffee was very strong and sweet.  Hiroko enjoyed this coffee as dessert. 

Lisa/Dave and Steven/Amanda, and Elsa/Richard again will invite Hiroko/Dan-san to late Mother’s Day dinner at Japanese Restaurant, Sun Shine Café on Saturday, May 17.  Steven had already made the reservation.  I don’t know how, but this restaurant owner told Hiroko that they have never accepted reservation from anyone before.

Well, Hiroko can’t wait for the dinner.

Amanda, thank you for your invitation to cook Mother’s Day dinner for Hiroko.  Hiroko will have to wait for your cooking until August having the family gathering at your house.

Long Stem Red Rose

One of the young men of Hiroko’s church prepared to give away many different color roses.  Hiroko loves red rose, so picked this rose.  Hiroko thinks the red rose shows the passionate love.

Hiroko’s father used to raise the red roses in his garden all year around, so Hiroko grew up in the red roses.

God created this beautiful red rose.  Hiroko imagines that all the mothers raise their children with the passionate love like the red rose, and then all the children will grow up beautiful and good.

Let’s have grateful for having the children who celebrate the Mother’s day, said by Arboretum-san.  Hiroko gives thanksgiving for the children.

Putting this long stem red rose on the window shell by the sink, Hiroko will enjoy and meditate many thoughts with this red rose.

Curry with French Fry

This is not a recipe.  Hakoniwa-san posted about 「ニュー・クイック」の雲仙きわみ牛ビーフカレー translated it, Unzen (Kushu) Extremely Cow Beef Curry at “New Quick”

This photo borrowed from Hakoniwa-san’s blog called “Garden Library” http://gardenlibrary.blog43.fc2.com in Japanese.  Hiroko thought it is very good idea to put French fries on the rice.  Because the potatoes in the Hiroko’s curry have always melted in the curry.  So Hiroko would like to experiment and to eat curry with French fries.

Here is the French fry

Making French fry, cut-up fresh potatoes in any shape, and placed in the cold oil

And then, cook with high heat for 10 to 15 minutes

French fry and Cole-Slaw

In Chicago it is not easy to buy Fukujinzuke (the sweet Japanese cut-up pickles) eating with curry.  Hiroko made this sweet cole-slaw in place of Fukujinzuke.

Hiroko forgot to buy the curry cube at Mitsuwa last time, so she has to make curry cream roux for this curry.  It is very tasty curry and can be made with olive oil and flour and lots curry powder.

Here, curry dish with French fry is done.

The curry poured on the rice, and place French frie and red vinegar zingers on top of them. 

It was Very Good!  

On May 1, today is our Bible study day.  During the study, Pastor asked us, “Have you ever thought Jesus will have a party in the Heaven?”  “Yes, Yes.”  In the Bible, there are many ways mentioned that Jesus had a party, Jesus was invited to the party, Jesus loved to eat and have a party.

Jesus went to the Wedding Party and changed water to wine. (John 2:1-11)

When Jesus came back from death, He barbecued fish and prepared bread for His disciples, and He asked more fish from Peter’s fish net.  He told the disciples, come and have breakfast that He has prepared for them. (John 21:7-14)

Jesus has been asking us to open our door of heart, then enter into the room and eat with us. (Rev. 3:20.)

One asked Hiroko that is there Sushi in Heaven?  Yes, I had already asked Him to have Sushi in Heaven.  Hiroko hoped curry would also be there.  However, in Heaven there should be amazing foods far tastier than sushi, curry, or any other tasty foods.  Hiroko can hardly wait to be in Heaven.