![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Yeah I'm Obsessed With This Itaki
Thursday was slow as predicted.
I was in a mood so didn't do a lot, just practiced and prepped my clothing and lunch for tomorrow.
Watched two episodes of Sandman with Jameson because they gave us a cliffhanger that we couldn't let slide.
Enjoyed researching recipes for my Itaki, and making an ingredients list, and deciding what to have for dinners.
Whole Paycheck and Sprouts are about halfway home from work, so if I can get ingredients tomorrow after work it'll save me a trip.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday was my last day at court reporting.
I got up early as usual and was there in time to set up my desk and paperwork before the judge arrived.
So I knew, before we started, that none of these claimants were going to show up, and I would essentially not be paid for the day.
(You can tell when a claimant is unlikely to show when they don't have a lawyer.)
The judge was awesome, she walked in and confirmed that the only case she actually expected to show up was the first one, a mom representing her kid. The mom did show, 30 minutes late but she was there. So at least I got paid for one case, and at least she had her case heard.
The rest of the day was basically free time for me.
The judge went back to her office and asked me to message her if anyone showed up.
I got to take two walks around the building, during which time I found a big green June beetle; a hawk couple having a lunch date together; and a patch of fungus that was glowing in a beam of sunlight.
So it was a nice day, if nothing else.
At the end of it I sent my paperwork out for the last time, and turned in my ID badge.
That's it. Job over.
On the way home I stopped at Whole Paycheck for beef bulgogi ingredients, then to Target for a few specific things and Boursin Bites for Jameson. He wants to try them in the air fryer.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday after breakfast I mixed up my bulgogi marinade, chopped up the beautiful (expensive) ribeyes I'd gotten, and got that into the fridge to get all flavorful and juicy throughout the day.
I made sure to practice fairly early on so I wouldn't be making a racket during the Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert.
It was streamed live from Wembley around 11:30am, and Jameson wanted to watch.
He has deep emotional connection to certain bands and certain music, and the Foo Fighters/Taylor Hawkins are one of those.
I stayed out of the way so he could have room to be emotional, but also watched as I was putzing around.
I did laundry, folded it, and put the clothes in the spare room for packing.
I gathered other things like nonperishables and tea and packing supplies, and laid out all of my packing cubes.
Around that time the doorbell rang; it was my Itaki!
Of course I wanted to check it out right away!
Look how CUTE. For scale, here is our teapot.
It is very lightweight, maybe two pounds max, so theoretically I should be able to find a place for it in my luggage.
It comes with two metal steaming bowls, a plastic snap-on lid for the larger bowl, a tiny 40ml measuring cup, an egg holder for steaming eggs, a brief instruction manual, and a Japanese fabric carrying bag.
I already knew what I wanted to make first: cake!
I had bought some cake mix and found an Itaki-sized recipe from At Home With Theresa.
Theresa has experimented with her Itaki and these recipes are brilliant, so I'll definitely be referencing her site frequently.
To elevate the cake mix I used butter instead of oil, and coffee and buttermilk instead of water.
The batter:
After steaming in the Itaki for between 40-50 minutes:
On the cooling rack:
While the cake was cooling I whipped up a batch of peanut butter icing.
When the cake was cool I gobbed it on and decorated it with ancient sprinkles that I found in the back of the cupboard.
It turned out pretty good! The texture was a little gummy; I could have overmixed the batter because there was so little of it, or perhaps I cooked it for too long...or maybe steaming a cake makes it gummy. Still, it wasn't "bad". Felt kind of like using an adult EZ Bake oven!
For dinner I made the bulgogi (on the actual stove) and it was a lot of work and a huge mess for a "just ok" dinner, so unsure if I'll do it again.
I did like all the veggies, and the beef was quite good. A fried egg and some gochujang on top (post-photo) brought it all together.
------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, I bounced out of bed because I was excited to make my breakfast egg in the Itaki!
Interluding fact: I have two breakfasts that I alternate between.
At some point I sat down with myself and asked, "What could you eat for YEARS without getting bored?", and made a list.
From that I decided on two breakfasts that I could alternate, to offer nutritional stability no matter what happened for lunches and dinners.
Breakfast #1: egg whites with misc inclusions, bread/toast, nut butter, fruit.
Breakfast #2: oatmeal with misc inclusions, Greek yogurt, milk and/or flax, fruit.
Today was an Egg Day, so I put a little water in the bottom of the Itaki and mixed up egg whites, dill, black pepper, and two small pieces of Boursin herbed cheese. While that was piping away I gathered the rest of my breakfast, made coffee, and did some stretching. After 15 minutes I checked on the egg.
It was done, and it was GREAT!
It was so delicate and creamy, almost custard-like in texture. The Boursin was a wonderful touch.
Next time I'll make it in the smaller steamer tray to see if it gets taller but keeps the custardy texture.
Huge success! I can't WAIT to take this on tour with me!
In the afternoon I finally started packing while Jameson was at the gym.
It wasn't difficult, but can be a little overwhelming having a load of items in one place and deciding where they should go.
I eventually got a basic Tetris thing going between packing cubes, toiletries, and appliances, keeping in mind the space and weight of the Itaki (which I'm not done playing with just yet). With almost everything I'm at 45 pounds, so there is a little wiggle room and if needed I can lighten things further.
The coolest thing is that I could potentially take both the Itaki AND the electric skillet with me!
Searing AND steaming. Damn, that's high society!
After a quick trip to the grocery I started on my Itaki beef stew and cornbread for lunch.
This time the recipe was from Cool Cucumber Cook, a person who has made lots of excellent recipes and shared them as instructional YouTube videos.
You pretty much just assemble all of the stew ingredients in the large bottom compartment, and the cornbread in the top.
To ensure that everything cooks well (and more quickly), you cut the veggies pretty small...not quite "diced", but I'd say about the size of kibble if you can visualize that, lol. The beef can be larger than that, but still not too large.
To my stew I added beef stock, thyme and rosemary, shallot, celery, and shiitake mushrooms, along with the potatoes, carrots, beef, and spices in the recipe.
The cornbread was tricky because I thought we had cornmeal but no, it was POLENTA. Whoops.
I didn't realize this until after I'd already mixed the batter, and scrambled to compensate by adding cake flour.
Anyway, here are the results.
The beef stew was peppery and delicious. Everything was cooked well through, but if I'd let it go another 20-30 minutes the vegetables would have been softer and the meat more tender (I think). If I do this recipe again, I'll do that and also add a cornstarch slurry near the end of the cook time to thicken it up a bit more. Otherwise the flavors were wonderful.
As for the "polenta bread", it was dry like the desert, but it WAS a cornbread of sorts.
I drizzled it with hot honey to make it good.
That and soaking it in the stew made it edible. I think it would have been lovely if I'd used the correct ingredients.
Overall I was very impressed at how this turned out.
On the road I won't be able to cook something this involved most of the time, because you can't just buy one teaspoon of cornstarch or 1/4 cup of cornmeal, you know? But SOMETIMES, we will be near a Sprouts or a co-op with a bulk section.
And THEN, my friends...some magic will happen :)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
I was in a mood so didn't do a lot, just practiced and prepped my clothing and lunch for tomorrow.
Watched two episodes of Sandman with Jameson because they gave us a cliffhanger that we couldn't let slide.
Enjoyed researching recipes for my Itaki, and making an ingredients list, and deciding what to have for dinners.
Whole Paycheck and Sprouts are about halfway home from work, so if I can get ingredients tomorrow after work it'll save me a trip.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday was my last day at court reporting.
I got up early as usual and was there in time to set up my desk and paperwork before the judge arrived.
So I knew, before we started, that none of these claimants were going to show up, and I would essentially not be paid for the day.
(You can tell when a claimant is unlikely to show when they don't have a lawyer.)
The judge was awesome, she walked in and confirmed that the only case she actually expected to show up was the first one, a mom representing her kid. The mom did show, 30 minutes late but she was there. So at least I got paid for one case, and at least she had her case heard.
The rest of the day was basically free time for me.
The judge went back to her office and asked me to message her if anyone showed up.
I got to take two walks around the building, during which time I found a big green June beetle; a hawk couple having a lunch date together; and a patch of fungus that was glowing in a beam of sunlight.
So it was a nice day, if nothing else.
At the end of it I sent my paperwork out for the last time, and turned in my ID badge.
That's it. Job over.
On the way home I stopped at Whole Paycheck for beef bulgogi ingredients, then to Target for a few specific things and Boursin Bites for Jameson. He wants to try them in the air fryer.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday after breakfast I mixed up my bulgogi marinade, chopped up the beautiful (expensive) ribeyes I'd gotten, and got that into the fridge to get all flavorful and juicy throughout the day.
I made sure to practice fairly early on so I wouldn't be making a racket during the Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert.
It was streamed live from Wembley around 11:30am, and Jameson wanted to watch.
He has deep emotional connection to certain bands and certain music, and the Foo Fighters/Taylor Hawkins are one of those.
I stayed out of the way so he could have room to be emotional, but also watched as I was putzing around.
I did laundry, folded it, and put the clothes in the spare room for packing.
I gathered other things like nonperishables and tea and packing supplies, and laid out all of my packing cubes.
Around that time the doorbell rang; it was my Itaki!
Of course I wanted to check it out right away!
Look how CUTE. For scale, here is our teapot.
It is very lightweight, maybe two pounds max, so theoretically I should be able to find a place for it in my luggage.
It comes with two metal steaming bowls, a plastic snap-on lid for the larger bowl, a tiny 40ml measuring cup, an egg holder for steaming eggs, a brief instruction manual, and a Japanese fabric carrying bag.
I already knew what I wanted to make first: cake!
I had bought some cake mix and found an Itaki-sized recipe from At Home With Theresa.
Theresa has experimented with her Itaki and these recipes are brilliant, so I'll definitely be referencing her site frequently.
To elevate the cake mix I used butter instead of oil, and coffee and buttermilk instead of water.
The batter:
After steaming in the Itaki for between 40-50 minutes:
On the cooling rack:
While the cake was cooling I whipped up a batch of peanut butter icing.
When the cake was cool I gobbed it on and decorated it with ancient sprinkles that I found in the back of the cupboard.
It turned out pretty good! The texture was a little gummy; I could have overmixed the batter because there was so little of it, or perhaps I cooked it for too long...or maybe steaming a cake makes it gummy. Still, it wasn't "bad". Felt kind of like using an adult EZ Bake oven!
For dinner I made the bulgogi (on the actual stove) and it was a lot of work and a huge mess for a "just ok" dinner, so unsure if I'll do it again.
I did like all the veggies, and the beef was quite good. A fried egg and some gochujang on top (post-photo) brought it all together.
------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, I bounced out of bed because I was excited to make my breakfast egg in the Itaki!
Interluding fact: I have two breakfasts that I alternate between.
At some point I sat down with myself and asked, "What could you eat for YEARS without getting bored?", and made a list.
From that I decided on two breakfasts that I could alternate, to offer nutritional stability no matter what happened for lunches and dinners.
Breakfast #1: egg whites with misc inclusions, bread/toast, nut butter, fruit.
Breakfast #2: oatmeal with misc inclusions, Greek yogurt, milk and/or flax, fruit.
Today was an Egg Day, so I put a little water in the bottom of the Itaki and mixed up egg whites, dill, black pepper, and two small pieces of Boursin herbed cheese. While that was piping away I gathered the rest of my breakfast, made coffee, and did some stretching. After 15 minutes I checked on the egg.
It was done, and it was GREAT!
It was so delicate and creamy, almost custard-like in texture. The Boursin was a wonderful touch.
Next time I'll make it in the smaller steamer tray to see if it gets taller but keeps the custardy texture.
Huge success! I can't WAIT to take this on tour with me!
In the afternoon I finally started packing while Jameson was at the gym.
It wasn't difficult, but can be a little overwhelming having a load of items in one place and deciding where they should go.
I eventually got a basic Tetris thing going between packing cubes, toiletries, and appliances, keeping in mind the space and weight of the Itaki (which I'm not done playing with just yet). With almost everything I'm at 45 pounds, so there is a little wiggle room and if needed I can lighten things further.
The coolest thing is that I could potentially take both the Itaki AND the electric skillet with me!
Searing AND steaming. Damn, that's high society!
After a quick trip to the grocery I started on my Itaki beef stew and cornbread for lunch.
This time the recipe was from Cool Cucumber Cook, a person who has made lots of excellent recipes and shared them as instructional YouTube videos.
You pretty much just assemble all of the stew ingredients in the large bottom compartment, and the cornbread in the top.
To ensure that everything cooks well (and more quickly), you cut the veggies pretty small...not quite "diced", but I'd say about the size of kibble if you can visualize that, lol. The beef can be larger than that, but still not too large.
To my stew I added beef stock, thyme and rosemary, shallot, celery, and shiitake mushrooms, along with the potatoes, carrots, beef, and spices in the recipe.
The cornbread was tricky because I thought we had cornmeal but no, it was POLENTA. Whoops.
I didn't realize this until after I'd already mixed the batter, and scrambled to compensate by adding cake flour.
Anyway, here are the results.
The beef stew was peppery and delicious. Everything was cooked well through, but if I'd let it go another 20-30 minutes the vegetables would have been softer and the meat more tender (I think). If I do this recipe again, I'll do that and also add a cornstarch slurry near the end of the cook time to thicken it up a bit more. Otherwise the flavors were wonderful.
As for the "polenta bread", it was dry like the desert, but it WAS a cornbread of sorts.
I drizzled it with hot honey to make it good.
That and soaking it in the stew made it edible. I think it would have been lovely if I'd used the correct ingredients.
Overall I was very impressed at how this turned out.
On the road I won't be able to cook something this involved most of the time, because you can't just buy one teaspoon of cornstarch or 1/4 cup of cornmeal, you know? But SOMETIMES, we will be near a Sprouts or a co-op with a bulk section.
And THEN, my friends...some magic will happen :)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
no subject
I may have to get one. 😀
no subject
There are other larger steamers on the market that could cook for a family, and the Instapot is far more versatile than this little guy. But if you have application for it in your life I can testify that it works exactly as advertised!
no subject