Homemade Ramen from scratch

I’ve been inspired by the amazing ramen I’ve enjoyed recently, to try my hand at making my own from scratch. If you have never had real fresh ramen I would encourage you to try it at your local restaurant or try making it yourself. One of the things that I love about Ramen is the choice of toppings, from soft boiled eggs to mushrooms, sprouts, green onions, to corn tossed in butter. I love any dish where you can personalize it easily to your own taste. 

Soup Base Ingredients*:

• 6 cups water
• 2 cups of Chicken stock (I purchased mine at a local butcher shop)
• 7 Heaping Tbsp. of Miso Paste (I used Skirakiku Awase Miso)
• 4 Tbsp. Soya sauce
• 6 Tbsp. Sake
• 4 Tbsp. Chilli paste (I used Sriracha) 
• 1 Tbsp. Sesame oil 
• 3 Cloves of garlic, minced
• Pepper to taste
• Salt to taste
• Szechwan pepper to taste

*I was inspired by this recipe on Japanesecooking101.com but added some additional ingredients and altered the quantities of the original ingredients to suit my own tastes. 

Miso, Ramen before being cooked, Toppings for the soup

Ramen Recipe:

 I used this recipe and directions from Instructables. But I added about a 1/4 tsp of baking soda to the dough… I wouldn’t recommend adding the baking soda, this was an error on 1my part… I’ll have to retry this recipe another time. The noodles were good but lacked the real al dente chewiness that I love about Ramen Noodles.

Toppings: 

Use your imagination, or whatever you have in the fridge. Here are my favorites.

• Chicken cutlet (I used a Jane’s Chicken Burger and cooked and cut into slices)
• Corn (forzen that I just defrosted with some butter)
• Sliced mushrooms (these are cremini)
• Soft boiled egg
• Chopped green onions

 

The finished dish – My husband’s portion

  

The finished dish – My portion (extra corn)

 

Yum Yum Yum – the result was delicious. The soup I’ll make again and I’ll definitly keep playing with the ramen recipe in search of chewy, slurpy deliciousness!

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Everybody loves the Dinosaur. DinosaurBBQ in Syracuse, NY

Friday night in a foreign land – Syracuse, NY.

We craved BBQ. I searched for BBQ in Syracuse and found that DinosaurBBQ had a 91% rating on Urban Spoon. But when out hotel concierge proclaimed that she was “raised on” DinosaurBBQ , a Syracuse institution, our dinner plans were set.

If you are in the Syracuse area I would recommend it. The food was down home BBQ at its best. To start we had the fried green tomatoes. Coated in a spiced corn flour batter then deep fried and served with a jalapeño blue cheese dipping sauce; I’m going to dream about these delicious morsels. I’m so sad I didn’t get a pic of these beauties. We ate them too quickly. We washed our appetizer down with a pitcher of Dinosaur smoked porter.

A moment on the beer. I loved the Dinosaur smoked porter. I don’t normally like darker beers. I usually prefer to stick to lagers and IPAs. But the smoked porter had some depth with a touch of sweetness and no bitter aftertaste.

For our mains we each were compelled to try something different. Our kiwi friend ordered , my future hubs ordered x and I had a 1/4 rack of ribs and 1/4 chick

The food was down home cooking lovingly prepared. Everything was good. But the standout favorite for everyone were the ribs. If I ever go back I’m only going to get the ribs. Not only were they huge! They were just slow roasted perfection. The meat was slightly caramelized by the rub and sauces applied and the large chunks of meat were quick to fall off. The ribs were also less fatty than others I’ve tried.

Now don’t get me wrong. I liked the food. But what would make me go back to DinosaurBBQ over and over again was the atmosphere. Servers were quick to laugh and provide their menu recommendations. Patrons were a complete mix of the population. Hipsters sat next to 50 something music lovers. The music was loud. Around 10:30 a live band complete with trumpet, saxophone, guitar, drums and piano took the stage.

Bling bling ode to my pointer fingers

I saw a girl in Salt Lake City with a similar mani and had to dupe it. Here’s to our pointer fingers!

Pink Hearts at Christmas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Mom and me. We shared matching scarves and meandered the streets of the city eliciting odd looks and the occasional “aww I love your scarves”. 

We shared Christmas together this year. Miss you!

The Vintage clothing sale – Take 2 (2013)

Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of shopping with a friend at the Ottawa Vintage Clothing sale. As usual the sale did not disappoint.

Plenty of jewelry, scarves and other assorted bits and bobs. I found a lovely italian silk pocket square for my man as well as a new pair of cufflinks.

For me I found a lovely gold collar. I’ve been longing for a chunky gold necklace since spotting this look on Lilly Allan and Lana Del Ray.

I also nabbed this scarf clip – I’m not exactly sure how to use it yet but from what I can tell I’ll have no trouble finding good tutorials like this one.

I’mmmm back. With chicken n’ waffles.

Ok this post isn’t totally about chicken and waffles. It’s about how life can grab u by the waffles and shake u around a little. That’s. Me.

Or that was me for a solid 3 months. Sigh. But I’m baaaack. And I’m going to have a great post this weekend as I’ll be heading out to the Ottawa vintage clothing sale again. Ahhhh nothing says retail therapy like rows and rows of vintage do dads.

I hope anyone reading this blog has had a happy and productive 3 months.

K

The Seat is up. Again.

The funny thing about the new house is how it has already changed me.

I used to shop for shoes. Now I’m shopping for garbage cans? And soap dispensers?

It’s wierd. It’s wierd that I’m enjoying shopping for garbage bins for our new bathroom(s). Who needs multiple bathrooms? It’s overkill – but we fell in love with the house.

But let’s get to the point of this random post. The seat, the throne, the can, whatever you want to call it. The toilet seat in my new home is now always up. Always. I’m not sure how… I think the BF likes the sceneic difference of every new room and is making his mark all over the house. It doesn’t matter which bathroom I go to, the seat is always up. Now this never bothered me overly in the old house. We had one bathroom, I’d just put the seat down. Done.
Now I’m always putting down the seat… somehow I have not yet gone to a bathroom where the seat is in it’s down position…

I think I might need to invest in an automatic seat lowering device.
Rant over.

Coals in the fire…

Rather than post crud, I’ve been neglecting my blog. I love my blog. I miss my blog.

I will return. Shortly. I’m not going anywhere.

Too many coals in the fire, professionally and personally. I think this year may go down as the one containing the most change in my life.

Change is amazing, cleansing, exciting and hugely rewarding; but for a perfectionist like me it can also be exhausting.

But with so much on the go right now – I’ll have some very exciting posts soon.

Sorry for this boring teaser post.
Hugs.
K

Hole and a Heart Shaped French

Listened to Hole while doing house stuff today. The angsty 90’s seemed appropriate for my mood.

Currently channelling rockery, grunge vibe in my clothes too. Has anyone else fallen on love with all the denim jackets and vests at Forever 21?

Say bye bye to this mani. It’s getting changed today. But I did feel rather sweet while sporting it. Time for something darker.

Starbucks. And an hour to veg out. Ahhh. Happy Good Friday.

Oh Deer

My Tuesday mani. How am I already tired? Ohhhh Deer.