daily slice-of-life photo blog of a Gen-X dad
We had one of my all-time favorite meals tonight: okonomiyaki! This particular okonomiyaki is Hiroshima-style, which is a bit different than the Osaka-style okonomiyaki. The batter is layered instead of mixed with the cabbage, and there’s yakisoba and egg on it. It was delicious! And perfect with a cold Sapporo. いただきます！
It has become a tradition to stop at Pepito’s Cafe for lunch on the way back from camping out at Big Bend, and now also Guadalupe Mountains. I’ve always gotten the Pepito’s Mexican Burger to quench my hiker hunger and it never disappoints!
We’ve been upgrading our car-camping gear recently and one area that we were lacking in was our camp coffee prep. I’ve always pre-ground the beans at home and brought it with us in a plastic bag, but I decided to buy a Hario Mini-Slim Ceramic Coffee Mill so that I can grind the whole beans just before brewing. Freshly ground coffee is so much better than pre-ground!
This mill is hand-operated with a crank and takes about 2 minutes to grind 12 grams of beans, which is a good amount for one cup of coffee. On this mill’s measuring scale, that means filling it to the #1 marker. It definitely requires a little bit of muscle, so if you don’t have strong arms and wrists, a coffee mill such as this might not be a good idea. On the flipside, the extra exertion would be a good way to get your blood flowing in the morning. 😀
I need to mention that the coffee mill comes with a barcode sticker on it that absolutely sucks to remove. It tears and is super gummy, and the mess gets everywhere. Just getting it to the stage where I can use Goo-Gone on it took a while. What a pain in the butt!
Here’s this year’s obligatory Thanksgiving meal photo. Besides turkey, we had oyster dressing, mac n cheese, macaroni salad, au-gratin potatoes, green beans, and cranberry sauce.
The sides were all yummy, but this year’s turkey was pretty lackluster. Turkey is a bland meat anyways and I think I’ve come around to the opinion that I’d rather have a different type of main dish for Thanksgiving. Or even maybe a non-traditional turkey breast recipe is in order. I wouldn’t mind trying that plus something like pork loin or beef tri-tip. Something to think about for next year.
One thing will never change is the oyster dressing. I love it so much!
I returned from 80° F Southern California sun to a chilly 50° F Texas gloom, but tonight’s dinner was the perfect antidote. A pot of delicious Japanese oden. The traditional 辛子 karashi (hot mustard) was perfect with it, but I also kicked it up a notch by adding some fresh (homegrown by my mom) scotch bonnet to the broth in my bowl. 🌶 I was toasty warm after that meal for sure!
