I stumbled upon this blog today: A Year of Crockpotting
It features a recipe a day, all designed for your slow cooker. She makes some pretty interesting things in her crockpot that I never knew you could. Stuff like chex mix and chocolate mousse! I thought crockpots were only good for stews and soups.
Personally, I don’t own a crockpot, but I’ve heard many good things about how convenient and simple it is and how tasty-delicious the results are. Now that Baby Champuru is on the way, I’m thinking more about quick, easy, and convenient ways to feed the family. Crockpot cooking seems like the perfect solution for a sleep deprived mommy.
I also did a quick search on Amazon.com and found that they have a nice selection of crockpot recipe books. Now if I could find a crockpot book of recipes for the Asian/local palate, I’d be totally sold.
Do you have a crockpot? Do you use it often? Any recommendations on the type/size of crockpot I should get? Can you share a favorite slowcooker recipe with me?
I figured I should take a photo of my nails, since they probably won’t be sticking around for too much longer.
Last week, Mahealani treated me to a manicure in preparation for my maternity photo shoot. I knew there would be a lot of hands-on-the-belly shots, so I knew my mannish hands required a major overhaul.
Admittedly, getting manicures with a girl friend is fun and it’s neat to see your hands get completely transformed in an hour. Although more aesthetically pleasing than my uber-short nails, having acrylic nails has its own set of problems. Typing, for example, is a huge challenge with these talons. Opening soda cans and pressing the teeny buttons on my Palm Treo is next to impossible. Caring for a newborn with these nails would be absolutely frightening. Can you imagine what might get stuck under my nails after a poopy diaper change? egads!
I’ll need to have them removed soon — maybe in a couple of weeks, especially since my nails are growing at a rapid rate due to pregnancy hormones. It’s only been nine days and you can see that they already look grown out at the base of my nails, which is why I figured I better take a photo of them while it still looks semi-decent.
Knowing that time is short before the arrival of Baby Champuru, Hubby has been pestering me to treat myself to a pedicure. Maybe we’ll fit it in this time, along with the removal of my fake nails. To my girlie friends, let’s make it a girl’s day out! It might be my last opportunity for a pampering before motherhood takes over my life.
It was Okinawan night at the Jikoen Hongwanji on July 25, 2008. That’s right, 100% Uchinanchu! Historically, Jikoen only featured Okinawan dancing at their obon and required dancers to wear a full kimono (no hapi coats). In recent years, they introduced Japanese dances into the program and loosened up their dress code. On Friday, they went back to their roots and dedicated the entire evening to Okinawan songs and dances once again. They even held a kachashi contest at the end of the night.
The bon dance was a mini-reunion of sorts, giving me a chance to see friends from the Okinawan performing arts community. Since I’ve been on hiatus from Okinawan dance, I rarely have an opportunity to see them, so it was nice to reconnect with them at Jikoen.
I had a few people approach me at the bon dance to say “hello,” since they recognized me from my website and/or videos on YouTube. I love it how the Internet makes the world so much smaller.
Photos from the evening can be found in my Obon 2008 Flickr set.
