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<\/a><\/figure>\nWow! Did 2021 go by in the blink of an eye for you? It did for me; if it weren\u2019t for this blog to keep me regularly contributing each month, I\u2019d probably spin into a vacuum. What the heck did I do all year? Now that I think about it\u2014a lot.<\/p>\n Even though we weren\u2019t very sociable because of COVID, we did our share of hot pots at home<\/strong><\/a><\/span> just because it\u2019s good for cold weather and we love it. There\u2019s a Taiwanese hot pot restaurant near us that\u2019s always crowded because people love to hang out, spend money and take pictures of what they eat. We\u2019ve been there and it\u2019s alright, but I prefer my hot pots to be simpler than the Taiwanese kind. Japanese nabe<\/em> style hot pots let you taste all the ingredients without all the heat, in my opinion. If you own a Zojirushi Electric Griddle<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a>, one of the most fun and worth it optional accessories you can buy for it is the Takoyaki Plate<\/span><\/strong><\/a>. Host a \u201ctako-pa\u201d<\/em> or takoyaki<\/em> party at your house and everybody can take turns rolling octopus dough balls<\/strong><\/span><\/a> in the plate. Super fun activity and you get to eat hot takoyaki<\/em> right off the griddle.<\/p>\n What\u2019s brilliant about this accessory is all the other creative things you can cook on it by rolling them into ball shapes. A search online was eye-opening, seeing all the appetizers and desserts people figured out how to make, like Nutella\u00ae Pancake Balls.<\/p>\n For college kids, classes were still taught online this spring, which meant our daughter was living with us at home. As much as I\u2019m sure it frustrated her because she lost her independence, I loved having her around. I know we\u2019re not going to have her that much longer if she moves out permanently one day, so I cherish these days until she graduates and moves on. We were still able to do the local things as a family though, like hike near our home near the bluffs of Palos Verdes<\/span><\/strong><\/a>. I feel lucky we live near the coast.<\/p>\n Oh by the way, if you never saw my recipe for Brandy Iced Tea, check it out in the post. This will be a treat, I promise. And don\u2019t worry\u2014it\u2019s alcoholic, but not really, you know what I mean?<\/p>\n If you own the BIG Zojirushi Electric Griddle<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, you can spend all morning doing pancake art<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, like I did with mine on Japanese Children\u2019s Day. I was so into creating the pancakes, I really didn\u2019t get a chance to eat them; and I don\u2019t have the little kids anymore who would have appreciated it. Too bad! If you do, try this and I guarantee they\u2019ll love it. I\u2019ve seen guys do this using food coloring in the batter, so they can really go all out with their \u201cart\u201d. But then they\u2019re no longer pancakes, and who wants to eat them anymore?<\/p>\n This summer our local Korean restaurants still weren\u2019t open completely, so we had to do Korean BBQ at home<\/span><\/strong><\/a>. Not quite the same, but not bad if you have the equipment to do it right. I mean, it\u2019s still all-you-can-eat, right? I have a Zojirushi Electric Grill<\/span><\/strong><\/a> that did the job so well, that it satisfied our cravings until all the restaurants were able to open again.<\/p>\n This is my deliciously beautiful grilled corn, basted with soy sauce Japanese style, called Yaki Tomorokoshi.\u00a0<\/em>So good!<\/p>\n Also around this time we started having our squirrel problem. At first I thought the critter was kinda cute, trying to steal a whole peach through a hole he chewed in my screen.<\/p>\n But it got old really fast when he got so nervy he was regularly invading the house.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/a>
But being that we\u2019re a Japanese\/Korean household, and democratic, we can\u2019t have one kind of cooking without the other. I like this army stew because it combines both Korean and Hawaiian cultures into one down-to-earth dish that isn\u2019t just about pretty ingredients or food writers\u2019 taste buds. I mean, the stars of this hot pot are hot dogs and SPAM\u00ae! Yeah, it\u2019s basically glorified spicy instant ramen, but it\u2019s good!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/a><\/figure>\n