Is everyone ready for Daylight Savings Time? Don’t forget it’s “spring foward” on March 10th. Even though some people say to ease into the time change by sleeping earlier by 15 minutes a day because you’re going to lose an hour, I say do it cold turkey and deal with it, ha-ha! There are only two states that do not follow DST—Arizona and Hawaii, and they both have their reasons. Arizona because it’s a desert state and nobody wants more scorching sunlight than they already have throughout the year. The exception is the Navajo Nation part of Arizona which extends into New Mexico and Utah; they wanted to be able to be on the same time schedule as the rest of their reservation, so they follow DST. Hawaii on the other hand, is so close to the equator that the amount of sunlight doesn’t vary that much throughout the year anyway. Interesting, huh?
St. Patrick’s Day is coming too, so I wanted to take a shot at brewing an Irish Coffee using my new coffee maker. Since I didn’t have any bourbon or whiskey lying around I used rum and it came out pretty good—I didn’t really put in that much anyway.
There are multiple recipes online so take your pick. The four leaf clover is fairly easy—it’s just a stencil that you can cut out and mount to a skewer. Almost lay it right on top of the whipped cream and sprinkle cocoa power on top. Very carefully remove your clover stencil to leave the design intact. Try not to put the whipped cream on while the coffee is too hot; it’ll melt real quick. If you make homemade whipped cream, be sure to whip it till it gets pretty thick. You can use Cool Whip from the store too, that’ll work just as good.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
At our house one of our favorite soups is Matzo Ball Soup. The chicken broth is so homey good and I really like how the matzo meal soaks up the soup and gets all the flavor. It’s a fun kind of soup to eat I think, and perfect for Spring weather when it can still get chilly sometimes.
I still had my food jars out from last month so I decided to fill them up to see what it looked like. The matzo balls look so good popping up, don’t they? Try it and bring some to work for lunch next time.
For those who are interested, this is a traditional Jewish soup that is often served during the holiday of Passover, which commemorates the Biblical story of the Israelite’s escape from slavery in Egypt. During this major Jewish holiday that lasts a week, leavened foods like pasta, bread or cookies are abstained and matzo meal is substituted as kosher. Fun fact: did you know the famous hot dog eating champion Joey Chestnut once ate 78 matzo balls, each weighing 3.5 ounces (99 grams) in a span of 8 minutes, for charity? Wow! And yeah, he holds the world record.
The last time I tried a steamed fish dish was when I reviewed my Zojirushi NL-GAC 10/18 Rice Cooker and used the steamer basket to make a Chinese style black cod. It was such a success that I took another crack at it, this time using fresh salmon. Fish is always a good Spring food because it’s so light tasting.
If you want to try this, here’s a valuable lesson I learned about Zojirushi rice cookers. When I did the black cod I cooked 2 cups of rice and was able to steam the rice and the fish at the same time, all in the rice cooker. Fantastic all-in-one convenience right? The total cooking time was 30 minutes, which was perfect for the fish. For the salmon I made a mistake and cooked 3 cups of rice, which immediately set the cooking time to 49 minutes. Duh! The cooker is smart enough to recognize it needs the extra time to cook 3 cups vs. 2 cups. I wasn’t smart enough to realize that until I switched it on! That was too long; I didn’t want a tough piece of salmon.
No big deal—I still wanted 3 cups of rice so I made it separately and still used the steamer function to do the fish. 30 minutes and it came out perfect.
Steaming in foil is a great way to prepare fish and it’s easy as heck. Think about it—you’ve already got the rice cooker out anyway. Less things to wash.
Looks like Spring? If you want to try more foil packet recipes here’s a Mushroom and Tofu one from Zojirushi for you.
Hey, before i go, just in case you missed my Shamrock Bread from last year, check it out! It’s easy and fun and you can pair it with the Irish Coffee.
Products used in this post: Umami® Micom Rice Cooker NL-GAC10/18, Dome Brew Programmable Coffee Maker EC-ESC120, Stainless Steel Food Jars SW-KA40 and SW-KA52H
Please note that these recipes were not tested by Zojirushi America.
All images by Bert Tanimoto ©2024