I'm SO not a plumber

and neither am I an electrician, but at least when doing electrical work around the house, the fear of electrocution makes me turn off the circuit that I'm working on.

This morning while I was removing the shower mixing valve to check the part no., I inadvertently removed the part that holds back the water, and water came shooting out at high velocity. Fortunately it was cold so I didn't scald myself, but by the time I reached the main property valve, the entire bathroom was under about a quarter inch of water.

It wasn't funny at the time, but now it's hilarious. Now I wish I had a pic of the shooting water to blog about, to remind me of how stupid I can be. At least with the burning wok, I had pics of the toasted microwave.

Christmas Dinner 2009

Tonight was Christmas dinner, so we had L's family over. To save time I started prepping things yesterday.

The first dish I prepared was a sicilian sweet and sour butternut squash, which was butternut squash, shiitake and grape tomatoes, drizzled with rosemary and garlic infused extra virgin olive oil, then roasted. The dressing was red wine vinegar sweetened with some sugar and drizzled over the top.

Next I braised some shortribs in herbs and vegetable stock, then refrigerated them til today.

This afternoon I resumed cooking, and started by heating the spiral sliced ham in the oven. While heating the ham, I prepared the celery sopressata salad, which also has basil, lemon juice and olive oil.

Next I made a festive Waldorf salad with Fuji and granny smith apples (for the Christmas colors), toasted walnuts, celery, flat leaf parsley and cranberry raisins, with a yogurt mayo honey dressing.

After that I took the shortribs and did a light au jus dip breadcrumb crust. I broiled the shortribs to brown the breadcrumbs, which was a deviation from my original plan to do deviled shortribs (there were too many sweet items on the menu).At the last minute, I ended up doing a honey dijon mayo sauce, but as it was on the side, the sweetness was optional. It had a vaguely horseradish flavor so I thought it worked well with the beef.

Next I heated the wok, coated the opakapaka with cornstarch and salt, then deep fried. The sauce was a sweet and sour sauce.

Last we added some 'nalo greens, and L's aunty brought pasta salad. The dinner was close to being a little too sweet, but optional sauces countered that.

Though everyone was told to come at 5:30, people showed up as early as 4:15, so we scrambled to finish things up. That's partially why the salads were last on the buffet line. But it ended up working out fine. Can't wait to come up with next year's dinner!!

Fried opakapaka (snapper) with sweet sour sauce

Braised shortribs with honey mustard sauce, sicilian sweet and sour butternut squash, spiral sliced ham

Nalo greens, waldorf salad with craisins, celery sopressata salad, pasta salad

More opakapaka

Last night's opakapaka turned out much better than the previous one. As I predicted, the high pressure burner heated the oil really quickly, about 8 minutes. Here's the opakapaka in the oil - I could have added more oil to immerse the fish completely, but that would have been too much oil just to cook its tail.


It came out quite nice. Once again I took it out to early and the inside was underdone, so I put it back in, but only for a minute. When I took it out it was much more tender and flaky than the last time I overcooked it.


Everybody at the pot luck seemed to enjoy it, so I'm confident that it will come out decent on Christmas day.

I think next time I will stand it up on it's bottom. At the pot luck, when one side got eaten and I flipped it over, all the grease had settled to the bottom. If I had more time to experiment, I would try cutting the fish in half lengthwise.

Propane Stove

Part of the whole Christmas opakapaka experiment / learning experience is how I'm going to cook the fish. The fish in the previous entry was relatively small, and I had to turn it and cook the tail by holding the rest of the fish and immersing the tail in oil.

My Christmas present this year is a wok and propane burner. It burns REALLY hot and fast. So fast that I have to be careful. I'm thinking it will heat a wok of oil in maybe 3 or 4 minutes.

Here's my burner sitting on the wall in the back patio area where the grill is supposed to be.


And here's the wok, partially seasoned.


Tonight for our block party I'm going to try another opakapaka, this time in my new wok. Having made two opakapakas so far will put me in good practice to make a decent on one Christmas day. Hopefully.

Fried Opakapaka

For Christmas dinner, my brother-in-law is coming over. He doesn't eat meat or poultry, so I'm making a whole fried opakapaka. The trouble is, I've never made one before! So I found some at Tamashiro market, our big fish market here in Honolulu. I bought two - one to experiment on, and the other for Christmas dinner.

Here was my first attempt. It came out quite well, if a bit overdone. First I put some "dragon wings" on by slicing the sides to the bone. I salted it lightly and dredged with a 50/50 mixture of cornstarch and flour. Then I fried in my wok in canola oil. I'll make a sweet sour sauce for the Christmas dinner.

Death/Black Metal song idea, take 1

The drummer I'm working with just sent me a drum track that he wrote over some guitar ideas I had. It sounds awesome and I can't wait to write lyrics and a vocal line for this, and put in a bass line.

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=8447502

Historic Hawaii Foundation Fundraiser

Mrs. Irene Hidano Inouye

Last night we went to a fundraiser for the Historic Hawaii Foundation at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, which was also an event honoring Senator and Mrs. Inouye.

The good: Our table was pretty close to the head table, and we had an excellent view of the stage. We got to sit next to our host (the guy that bought the table) and it was fun talking story and joking with him. The program was excellent - the MC was great, the invocation was excellent, and the video honoring Dan and Irene's accomplishments in the historic community was really informative and well done.

The bad: Despite our proximity to Dan Inouye's table, he was not there! He was in Senate hearings in Washington and he couldn't make it, but his wife Irene was there. Parking was a nightmare - after idling in line for 20 minutes they turned us and everyone else away at the valet because they couldn't accommodate us, which forced us to park at the top of the neighboring parking structure, so we missed the entire cocktail hour (I told my wife that I really wanted to get a picture taken and show up on the Paina section of the Midweek!!). The food was quite atrocious - super salty soup, the main course was really starchy with gnocchi and an edamame flan and a steamed snapper, and the "study in coconut" dessert was too heavy and too sweet. Lastly, the waiter spilled water all over me and our host. When the manager came out and asked if they could do anything for us, we both said no, but I later (jokingly) realized I should have told her "can you bring my car around for me?"

Trojan soccer

We went to see our old alma mater Mililani Varsity Girl's team play Campbell tonight. It was a pretty lopsided game but still fun to watch.

Rats

This is a place we used to shop at. With an emphasis on "used to".

I won a guitar!!

I entered this video for a contest called Coverband 2010.



After the judging went through, I ended up in second place and won this $1000 guitar.

Mid life crisis guitar

I think a lot of guys my age that go through mid life crises want to get a really nice custom shop Les Paul or a relic Strat. My mid life crisis guitar is this:



It is both awesomely evil and ridiculously silly, all at the same time. Part of the reason I like it is because it's the anti-Les Paul - it's devoid of beauty, class and refinement. And no, please do not remind me of the extremely poor resale value of something like this.

Eh HOWZIT!!

There was this guy that was in my Mechanical Engineering class back in 1986. I believe a year after that, he dropped out of Engineering and went into Computer Science.

Fast forward to around 2000 - I had been working for 4 years for the State, and this guy gets a job in my building. The first time he sees me, he's all like "Hey Ryan!" and I'm all like "Eh... howzit!!" (because I couldn't for the life of me remember his name, after only having him in one class 14 years earlier).

For years, my friends have joked with me about the guy named "Eh howzit". Every time he sees me, he says "Hey Ryan" and I say "Eh howzit!". I really should have just asked him his name the first time I saw him, but after seeing him like 12 times, I'd feel like a fool asking him his name.

After 9/11, we were required to wear our badges around the building. One day I'm wearing my badge, buying a soda at the snack shop, and I see him. I say "eh howzit..... where's your badge?" (hoping I can get a glimpse of his name on his badge). He replies "I leave it in the office". Dang.

Then a few years later, I'm standing in line with my son at McDonalds and he's a few people in front of me. He turns and says "hey Ryan" and I say (say it with me) "Eh howzit!". My son then proceeds to loudly ask me "DADDY, WHO IS THAT?" Well, at that point, I can't say "oh, that's Eh Howzit".

A few years back, he leaves our building to work for another division.

Fast forward to today. My wife and I are sitting in a restaurant and who should walk in but "Eh, Howzit". He walks in with my Aunt's brother, who immediately sees us and starts talking to us. As they're leaving, I hold him back and ask him "what's that guy's name", and he tells me "oh, that's Jared".

A long standing mystery, solved at last.

And by the way, if I ever see you on the street and say "eh howzit", please, please, just tell me "hey Ryan, I'm (insert your name here)", because as evidenced by this post, I am REALLY crappy with names.