daily slice-of-life photo blog of a Gen-X dad
We kicked off the new year with another delicious traditional osechi. In addition to the usual awesome dishes, we had some saba (mackerel) that our friends prepared for us and it was excellent. I love saba so much!
Here’s to a good 2021!
This year, we each had a huge serving of soba. The long noodles symbolize a long life, so I made a point to finish my noodles this year, and since we had so much soba I expect to live forever! 😂
Here’s to saying good bye to 2020!
Usually we have crab in Jamaican rundown sauce at my parents’ house for part of Christmas dinner, but since we didn’t travel, we missed it this year. Well, Mariko found Dungeness crab on sale at Costco, so she bought a few for dinner. We simply steamed them ate with melted butter. The meat was so sweet and delicious!
Next year we’re planning on having Jamaican food in California, but I wouldn’t mind it if we had crab at home more often. 😀🦀
Following another of our family traditions, we had bagels, cream cheese, salmon, pastrami, roast beef, homemade pesto, swiss cheese, and sliced onion for breakfast. And lately, we’ve also had Scotch Bonnet on the table for those who like to add a little heat (that would be me). When we meet with our extended family, we also have corned beef, but I skipped that this year. But one thing that made it very special for 2020 is that the bagels were homemade. Super yummy, with good ingredients.
The timing of the breakfast varies… sometimes happening before opening gifts, sometimes after, and many times both. This year it was before the gifts which is fine with me because that gives me more time to wake up and have coffee! I guess the older the kids have gotten, breakfast seems to come first as they have more self-control with their gifts and can wait a bit longer. 😊
For those celebrating, I hope you had a nice Christmas!
Each year on Christmas Eve, we have a Hawaiian feast. It’s usually at my parents’ house in California, but this year we decided not to travel due to the pandemic, so we just had a smaller 4-person version here in Texas. Instead of the usual lau-lau, I made a char-siu-style chicken, and also our staple kalua pig. Kalua pig is really easy and simple to make following this recipe from Foodland, and it turned out perfect! Mariko also made poké and mac salad for a delicious, traditional (to us) Christmas Eve dinner. 😊🎄🍴
