Advents Corner

I made the most amazing chicken tonight.  My mother and father-in-law bought me Hawaii’s Bento Box Cookbook: Fun Lunches for Kids by Susan Yuen for my birthday and there are several recipes in the back of the book for you to make.  This one is called Furikake Chicken Drumettes and it was great.  Lani loved it so much.  I am definitely going to make this one again.  When Dad comes I will make it for him.  The only thing I would recommend changing is using chicken strips instead of drumettes.  Here is the recipe:

6 tablespoons shoyu

2 eggs

1 clove garlic, minced

4 tablespoons flour

6 tablespoons cornstarch

4 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons furikake

2 pounds chicken drumettes

1 cup flour

1 cup cornstarch

2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons furikake

oil for deep frying

Combine shoyu, eggs, garlic, 4 tablespoons flour, 6 tablespoons cornstarch, sugar, and 2 tablespoons furikake in a large bowl and mix well.  Add chicken, toss well, and marinate overnight.  When ready to cook, combine flour, cornstarch, and furikake in a large bowl and mix well.  Drain marinade from the chicken, and dredge chicken in flour mixture.  Fry in hot oil until golden and cooked through.

I do not have a family big enough to cook 2 pounds of chicken so I did cut down the recipe.  I did not cut down the marinade but when it came time to dredge the chicken I did only use 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cornstarch.  I also put it in a ziplock bag to cut down on the mess and clean up.  When I was finished I just threw the ziplock bags away.

I really suggest you try this recipe.  Do not let the amount of ingrediants scare you.  I bet you have all of this stuff in your cabinet anyway.  If you do try it let me know what you think.

Lani is learning the joy of reading, well you reading to her of course. She loves to sit in your lap while you read her books. Her favorite right now is, Red Train. Grandma sent it to her from Hawaii. It is just a simple book of different modes of transportation and each one has a color like, red train or green bus. Of course when she reads it all of them are cars. She is starting to say the colors when you tell her what they are.

As we travel around this great big world it is sometimes hard to remember the little details about each trip, like the name of the little café you grabbed a coffee at on your way to the little market you hear the locals talk about.  Give the gift of memory to yourself or a friend with the Globetrotter's LogBook®.  In it you can keep track of the little details you might forget by the time your vacation is over.  This little hardcover book gives you information on first aid, travel health and vaccinations you need to get before you start to travel the global, also keep track of flight delays and with a list of countries in alphabetical order  you can start to check off all of the places you have been.

I just received a new book called, Historic Photos of Tampa, and I was amazed.  This collection of photos is just breath taking.   The book begins with photos in the 1880’s during the birth of the cigar town known as Tampa and goes through World War II and the baby boom of the 1950’s.   Tampa has a lively history and this book highlights some of the important developments that have taken Tampa to the industrial heights it would later achieve. 

You also find out facts about Tampa in this beautiful book.  At one time Tampa was home to more than 100 cigar makers.   All of the photos in the book are in black and white, which personally are my favorite types.  The photos have a classic look and are in surprisingly good condition.   The hours that were spent looking through all of the historic photos, then narrowing it down to the select few in the book are just beyond me.  I bought a book of photos of Kauai when we where in Hawaii and I was more pleased with the historic book of Tampa. 

If you are looking for a great coffee table book and a conversation starter, look no further than this one.  From pictures of the first Gasparilla Court to beauty queens this book has it all.  I think a good idea would be to have the pictures of yester year next to pictures of today so you could see how much things have changed.  Also you can see the wonder splendor of when some of the buildings were first build and sadly what they have become now.  Time does take its toll on everything.