So what do you do when it’s too hot or you’re too lazy to cook? You make a one-pot meal that takes the least amount of effort, that’s what. This is based on a Martha Stewart recipe, if you want to try it. The cool thing about this is that the pasta starch thickens the water as it evaporates, making a creamy sauce that coats every strand.

The prep is perfect for the Zojirushi Electric Skillet as a one pot meal; everything goes in at once including the raw pasta, stir occasionally, done in like 20 minutes.

Add some red peppers for a little kick, parmesan for some topping. The ingredients do the rest for a pretty dang good veggie pasta. Sheesh man, you can’t get more idiot proof than this.

One thing about hot weather is that it dampens your appetite. I remember living in Tokyo during their ridiculously sweltering summers, and all my co-workers wanted to eat for lunch was zaru soba (cold dipping noodles). Oddly, I found out another good thing to eat was curry rice—the idea being that spicy food would actually make you sweat from your head but ultimately cool your body down. Seriously, look it up; I’m not lyin’.

Summer Curry with Corn Rice
Curry is pretty easy to make with store bought curry roux; and with summer vegetables available you can make a colorful version that looks so appetizing to eat.

Color is important when it comes to food, especially when you may not have much of an appetite. You’ve seen all the color studies done—there’s a reason fast food chains use so much red or yellow in their signage or for their corporate colors. it’s there to stimulate your hunger. Green is another color that is appealing in food, for the obvious reason that it’s synonymous with nature. It relaxes and calms, which is why hospitals use green in their interior design.

Here’s a way to add a twist to your rice. Make it into corn rice just by steaming it all together with your rice cooker.

Nice Curry Corn Rice dish, right? No meat so it isn’t that heavy, but still very much curry, if you know what I mean.

Do you know why they call these super hot days the Dog Days of Summer? It has to do with how the ancient astronomers identified Sirius, the brightest star in the sky informally known as the “Dog Star”. During this stretch of summer days, Sirius rises and sets with the sun and is at its brightest in the sky. The Romans believed the Dog Star was giving off heat, adding to the sun’s warmth during this long period of hot and humid weather.

Zucchini Bread
We harvested some zucchinis from our planter box in our backyard and got a really big one. To celebrate the Dog Days and our dog Henry, we made zucchini bread with the Zojirushi Toaster Oven. Henry is a senior who’s been with us for 14 years now. He’s almost blind, has kidney problems and wobbles a lot, but he still seems to enjoy roaming the house, exploring the floor for a scrap of food that we might have dropped. (He doesn’t seem to very much like his presciption diet.)

The zucchini bread was moist and delicious, and looks good with the bits of zucchini on top.

Summer Fruit Pies
Summer fruits look so good, we always tend to buy too much and can’t eat them all before they go bad. One easy thing you can do is make little fruit pies with all the extra fruit. You can get pre-made, pre-cut pie crust from the market especially made for mini pies, so all you need is a muffin pan.

Sprinkle a bit of sugar and lemon zest for added flavor. You don’t need much because most of the fruit is already sweet and starting to get overripe from being leftover, remember? They all get done at the same time, so popping a single muffin pan into your Toaster Oven makes just enough and makes great use of all that fruit.

Eat it before the Häagen-Dazs® melts!

Summer is almost over, so enjoy the rest of it…personally if I had to choose between the extremes of summer and winter, I’d rather be too hot than too cold. And get off the brown grilled meat train for a day and cook with color!
 
 
Products used in this post: IH Rice Cooker & Warmer NP-HCC10/18, Gourmet d’Expert® Electric Skillet EP-RAC50, Micom Toaster Oven ET-ZLC30

One-Pan Pasta: Martha Stewart’s One-Pan Pasta

Please note that these recipes were not tested by Zojirushi America.

All images by Bert Tanimoto ©2023
 
 

Yes, it was my birthday yesterday, so I always get to celebrate a day later along with our country. And my favorite birthday song is “Birthday”, written by the greatest band in the history of music. Did you know this song was written and recorded by The Beatles in one day? With nothing previously laid out, they came up with “Birthday” out of thin air in a single day and finished recording it. Genius.

My birthday was a big milestone for me, but I’m not gonna say which milestone…for our country though, it’s always an important day and something we should never take for granted. To celebrate, I baked a cake! I know you’ve seen this cake everywhere, but so what—this is mine. Simple cake mix, cream cheese frosting, and fresh fruit. A basic small rectangular cake pan fit nicely into my Zojirushi Toaster Oven.

The cake decorating part turned into a family project when I enlisted my daughter’s help. She’s got steadier hands than me anyway.

Happy Independence Day America! Yum!

Coincidentally, we all went to visit my son last month, who works in Washington D.C. If you’ve never been to our nation’s capital, I think it’s time you made the trip. I mean, it’s very cool that every government agency you’ve ever heard of is right here. He lives in Dupont Circle, which has a frighteningly deep subway station. Does this make you feel like you’re entering another dimension?

We went on a tour while we were there, which really is the best way to see the sights and learn about what you’re looking at, in my opinion. We love ‘em! For example, did you know they ran out of funding while they were building the Washington Monument and the project stopped completely? The government took it over 25 years later and finished it using marble from a different quarry. You can see where the color changes!

Dupont Circle is home to where all the embassies are in D.C. I’ve never seen so many black SUVs with tinted windows just driving around the city, ha-ha! And so many secret service guys riding around on bicycles during the day. They were busy during that week when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to visit President Biden. This is the Indian embassy, lit up in their national colors in honor of his visit. Pretty cool!

Now back to our 4th of July cookout…hot dogs! I got some wieners and Italian sausages for our Zojirushi Indoor Electric Grill. Plump, juicy and with the required grill marks.

And here are the hot dogs done in style. From left to right; Grilled Onion Dog (always a favorite), All-American Dog (and don’t judge me with the ketchup), Bulldog Dog (tonkatsu sauce, mayo and cabbage), and Spicy Bacon Dog (bacon wrapped with pickled red onion and jalapeños). Guess what? It’s worth cleaning the grill for these!

Finally, in case you thought I had forgotten about any healthy options for the holiday, I actually made a veggie sandwich (which for me is unheard of). The kicker was that this sandwich tasted amazing, and I think it was because the bread was so good (for real). I used the Whole Wheat recipe for my Zojirushi Breadmaker and the machine did the rest.

Your basic Veggie Sandwich for July 4th—shredded carrots, lettuce, sprouts, sliced tomato and avocado. Add Dijon mustard and mayo for a refreshing summer lunch!

If you guys own a breadmaker and you haven’t tried the wheat bread menu yet, I recommend it; you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

 
 
Products used in this post: Micom Toaster Oven ET-ZLC30, Indoor Electric Grill EB-DLC10, Home Bakery Maestro® Breadmaker BB-SSC10

Please note that these recipes were not tested by Zojirushi America.

All images by Bert Tanimoto ©2023
 
 

Happy Father’s Day to all my fellow Dads this month. Do you know when a joke officially becomes a Dad joke? When it becomes apparent! I’ve been a parent for 26 years now and my 2nd kid graduated college last month. This is a milestone! Not only for my daughter who is getting ready to start adulting, but for me having fulfilled my goal of getting both kids through college. Woo hoo!

To celebrate, I made some stuff that I like for Father’s Day. June also happens to be National Fresh Fruit and Vegetables Month, and I love a good veggie stir fry, so I made Yasai Itame. This is the best thing for eating healthy and balancing out the guilty desserts that I’ll be showing you later in this post. I used a recipe from Just One Cookbook (link below).

Start with the protein (pork is the classic choice) and the veggies that take the longest to cook first.

Add the rest—I have snow peas, cabbage and bean sprouts that I added to the onions and carrots. You really don’t need a wok, but crank up your electric griddle on high if you’re using one. It cooked quickly enough, and the large surface area of the griddle helped to evaporate the water from the vegetables fast enough to prevent them from going limp. Pour in the sauce and it’s done in a flash.

This is cheap eats—the best kind when you’re putting two kids through college. Really, the most expensive ingredient here is the meat, and that’s not all that much. I like to eat mine with white rice and a side of miso soup. By the way, do you know what PacMan® uses to make stir-fry? A wok, a wok, a wok, a wok…

Since it’s also grilling season, I took out my Zojirushi electric grill and tried chicken as an alternative to steak or shrimp. It came out good and tender, but a couple of things I learned—the marinade was probably too sugary which caused a lot of smoke, and the temperature has to be low and gradual because…well, it’s chicken.

Indoor grilling should become more of a thing though, in my opinion. It’s not as much hassle as preparing a charcoal grill, and I like it because you can do it anytime of the year.

And now for the desserts I promised. I worked real hard on this Honey Brick Toast, so pay attention—ha! This was popular a few years back, but I hate following trends so here I am right now. To me it’s timeless anyhow, and it’s the perfect way to build a crazy dessert using the basic white bread course on your breadmaker. What did one bread slice say to the other slice when they saw butter on the table? “Uh oh! We are toast.”

Bake your bread loaf first and cut out the cavity in the middle. Here’s how to do it in steps: 1. Cut the side walls but stop your knife about half-inch from the bottom. 2. Cut a slot about half-inch from the bottom but don’t go all the way to the edge. 3. Dig out the block of bread. 4. Cut the block into equally sized cubes.

Generously butter everything and toast in your toaster oven—if you don’t have one, you have indeed been depriving yourself. Check out this one from Zojirushi.

Load all the cubes into your brick and drizzle with honey.

Warning! This dessert requires a knife, fork and zero guilty conscience in order to eat.

Since we’re on a roll now and we love our Dad bods, my last one (mercifully) is this amazing looking fresh Plum & Peach Galette. Remember, it’s National Fresh Fruit and Vegetable month. Just get some ready made pie crust at the market and bake. Sprinkle powdered or crystal sugar if you like; there are plenty of ways to do it online.

Before I sign off, I want to wish my daughter all the luck in the world as she moves on with this next phase of her life. You know what they say about the bond between fathers and daughters? It’s all true.

One last one, I promise–What did baby corn say to momma corn? “Where’s popcorn?”

 
 
Products used in this post: Indoor Electric Grill EB-DLC10, Gourmet Sizzler® Electric Griddle EA-BDC10, Home Bakery Maestro® Breadmaker BB-SSC10, Micom Toaster Oven ET-ZLC30

Yasai Itame: Just One Cookbook

Please note that these recipes were not tested by Zojirushi America.

All images by Bert Tanimoto ©2023
 
 

My challenge for Cinco de Mayo—how many Zojirushi products can I use to cook a Mexican meal? Our dinner tonight was Shrimp Fajitas, Mexican Rice and Corn, which I made with our electric griddle and rice cooker. I set the timer on my breadmaker and baked some bread for the next day so we could have Molletes (Mexican toast) for brunch.

Mexican rice is a whole lot easier with a rice cooker. I found a good recipe that I’ll credit at the end of this post, but the beauty of using my Zojirushi Umami® Rice Cooker was that I could steam my corn at the same time! The ingredients just all go into the pot.

Long grain rice works best for Mexican rice, so you get the fluffy texture without the stickiness. I used Basmati, which worked out perfectly, and cooked it on the Quick Jasmine menu setting. I don’t want to brag (yes, I do), but this was restaurant quality. So good.

And here’s what I love about this rice cooker. The steaming basket gives you the opportunity to multi-task if you can think creatively. It’s just large enough to hold three ears of corn, so why not? They came out golden, didn’t they?

Now on to the Fajitas. The shrimp is frozen, sure, but I used a Chinese restaurant technique that is supposed to firm up the shrimp and give them that snap and crunch when you bite into them. You’re supposed to coat the shrimp first in a mixture of sugar, salt and baking soda, then marinate them in a bath of ice water for a couple of hours. Rinse all of it off with cold water and drain before using. Guess what? It works! Look it up and see for yourself.

I did fajitas before on this blog, but I feel I didn’t get the results I could have because I used a packaged liquid sauce to season it. I mean, it was the only one that was labeled specifically for fajitas, so that’s what I got. But frying it all in liquid just made it too wet. This time I used a packet of ordinary powdered taco seasoning and sprinkled the shrimp with it. This electric griddle was made for dishes like fajitas.

After mixing everything up, I even had room to fry some pineapples.

So have you ever had molletes, or Mexican bean toast? This was my first time, and I liked it! I figure it all starts with really good bread, so I made my own with the breadmaker. Kept it simple—I baked the basic Japanese white bread course because that’s my favorite and the easiest to bake. The advantage to this kind of bread is that you can load up the breadmaker the night before and set the timer to bake the next day—you don’t have to worry about perishable ingredients sitting in the machine. By mid-morning it was ready to cut into thick slices!

I made my own pico de gallo (salsa) with tomatoes, onions and cilantro; I used a can of refried beans and topped it off with some crumbled Mexican cheese. I toasted my bread but didn’t melt the cheese—the warm beans and toast combined with the fresh salsa was enough for me. This was good stuff! The thick toast was crisp and held everything together but was still tender and fluffy on the inside. Add some Tapatío® and you’re ready to go! And it looks good too, sí?

That’s my Cinco de Mayo challenge—using as many of my Zojirushi products as I could. Lucky I love Mexican food! What are you all going to do?
 
 
Products used in this post: Umami® Micom Rice Cooker NL-GA10/18, Gourmet Sizzler® Electric Griddle EA-DCC10, Home Bakery Maestro® Breadmaker BB-SSC10

Rice Cooker Mexican Rice: Pinch and Swirl

Please note that these recipes were not tested by Zojirushi America.

All images by Bert Tanimoto ©2023