Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Okinawa Mama's Perfect Sticky Rice

After intensive investigation into how you make sticky rice sticky, I found the secret! It's so easy! I'll be rolling sushi in no time. No I won't. I don't even like sushi. Why would I waste my time? Here's one secret I'll reveal and don't expect many more.


Okinawa Mama's (that's me) Perfect Sticky Rice (every time)

Rice Cooker Method:

Rinse rice well in a strainer cold water to remove talc and dust. Make sure you rinse until the water runs clear. Not all rice has talc or dust but the kinds I buy do. We use Basmati rice and another type of rice from Japan. I don't use Basmati rice for sticky rice although it would probably work.

Put rice in the rice cooker and cover with given amount of water. I usually have 2 cups of rice and let it soak for 1 hour in 3 cups of water. My rice cooker has the lid with the handle that seals the cooker. It "knows" exactly how long to cook whatever amount of rice and it comes out perfectly every time.

2 cups rice
2 1/2 cups water
1/2 tsp. salt

This will yield 4 cups.

Use short or medium grain white rice. It's a 1 1/4 cups water per 1 cup of rice ratio. Do NOT use instant or Minute rice.

1 cup uncooked rice yields approximately 2 cups cooked rice. I know you already knew that.

So, it would look a lot like this...

3 cups rice
3 3/4 cups water
3/4 tsp. salt

4 cups rice
5 cups water
1 tsp. salt

Monday, September 29, 2008

Super Typhoons vs. Major Hurricanes

I was watching the weather yesterday and I took a long look at Super Typhoon Jangmi that hit Taipei yesterday. Somehow Taiwan seems to be a lot closer here. Hmm... Jangmi had reached winds of 180 mph and its radius was 174 MILES WIDE. By the time it struck Taipei it was down to 135-140 mph. Whew! What a relief. That's got to be better than 180, although not by much.

We check our weather on the Kadena Air Base website. The picture below is of a hurricane and it's one of the best ones I've seen.



So, here are explanations of the two storms...

Super-typhoon" is a term utilized by the U.S. Joint Typhoon Warning Center for typhoons that reach maximum sustained 1-minute surface winds of at least 150 mph. This is the equivalent of a strong Saffir-Simpson category 4 or category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic basin or a category 5 severe tropical cyclone in the Australian basin.

"Major hurricane" is a term utilized by the National Hurricane Center for hurricanes that reach maximum sustained 1-minute surface winds
of at least 111 mph. This is the equivalent of category 3, 4, and 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale.

You know, the buildings might be really ugly here...and they are...but, apparently there's a pretty good reason everything is built out of concrete. Yesiree, The Bunker's going to be a safe place to wait out a super typhoon. I do have some concerns about the windows. I wish there were bars on them. Of course, that would be bad in a fire but with a super typhoon it can block those big pieces of what I can't call "debris" because that seems to cheapen it a little. But the bars would block those large trees and other things from shattering the window. Then we'd be in serious trouble with the wind and rain after that.

All bases are under what is called TCCOR-4 during typhoon season. That means Tropical Cyclone Condition Of Readiness. When Typhoon Sinlaku was expected to hit Okinawa two weeks ago we were bumped to TCCOR-3. Now, there are several things you are supposed to do to ready your house and family for the storm. From what I heard it's more of an order than a suggestion. The TCCOR changes with the severity of the storm and the recovery period following. Fortunately, Typhoon Sinlaku decided to go on a different course and we only received 2 mornings of heavy rain. But, I know the big one's comin'...

Saturday, September 20, 2008

After a Google Investigation...

After a Google investigation I'm adding a little info on one of the plants. The mother-in-law's tongue is, in fact, NOT a member of the Dracaena family. I didn't take Botany in college. It is a member of the Sansevieria species. Also, the name "mother-in-law's tongue" comes from the sharpness of the leaves. Only the messenger. Don't shoot the messenger. If it makes all of you mothers-in-law feel better then we'll just call it the snake plant (because of the shape of the leaves) or Tiger's Tail which is what they call it in Japan. When in Rome... or Okinawa...

Meet the Money-Saving Maven...

Ah, yes. That's me! But, where has she been for the past two weeks? Well...I've been unpacking boxes. Incredibly enough, when Lonnie called to see where our household goods were on September 02 it's as if all 6, 200 lbs. (we were 1 ton over our weight. Oops!) just materialized from out of nowhere in that warehouse. Believe it or not, they were on our doorstep delivering everything the very next morning at oh-800. That's a miracle of Biblical proportions, friends. It either popped up out of nowhere or it had been sitting there for who knows how long and they were just waiting for us to call begging for it. Hahaha!

I have surpassed my most impressive personal best at the commissary. This week I saved 21% of the total bill. That was over $51.00! Wow! Coupons are a wonderful thing! The best I had ever done before that was 18% of the total. It's just a big game for me. It's pretty helpful that the commissaries take coupons that are up to 6 months past their expiration date. I don't believe I had a single coupon in the pile that wasn't expired. The lady behind me said, "oh, my goodness! You're such a great coupon shopper." You could see it in her eyes. She hated me. She didn't have one single coupon to offer. Tsk, tsk, tsk. At the end of checking out the cashier did something wrong and the manager had to come with the key before the payment was processed. Then the woman behind me said that I must've reached the maximum number of coupons allowed. LOL

I've had people make comments about my coupons several times in...now, what's the name of that little store I used to go to?...starts with a "W"...Wa...Wal...Wal-Mart? Oh yeah! THAT'S the name of it. I almost forgot. I had the DT's after several weeks of no Wal-Mart. I go to a support group three times a week now at the grief center. "Hi, my name is Deanna and I'm a 'What-am-I-going-to-do-for-3-years Without Wal-Mart Wailer'". Hyperventilators are given those white plastic bags to breathe into. The first thing we're going to do when we come back to visit is eat at Chick-Fil-A (in the South) or In-n-Out Burger (if we stop in CA) and go to Wal-Mart. I just want to stand there and take it all in. Oh...and a mall...I'd like to go to a mall...

Also, there is a family moving out of housing that will be condemned and torn down at the end of the year. Yeah, I know what you're thinking. I wouldn't have wanted to live there either. You've got to think...the end of the year is how many months away? Well, she had these gorgeous, and I do mean gorgeous, plants that she didn't want to see destroyed when the buildings were torn down. Well, she wouldn't have seen it but you know what I mean. I had posted a wanted ad on JapanUpdate.com for plants and she emailed me. I have 4 of the largest aloe plants you've ever seen. There are 4 HUGE elephant ear plants and a bunch of what I believe is in the Dracaena family..."mother-in-law's tongue" is the more common name. Apparently, they're hard to kill. Look, don't lecture me about it I didn't come up with the name. Let's see what else... Oh yeah! There's this incredibly large palm-type tree. She said that she saw one that was less than half of the size of this one at Makeman's and it was $750. Wow! Look at all the money I saved this week! LOL

So...we all know that the LOVE of money is the root of all evil. Most people say that MONEY is the root of all evil. They must be reading a different version. So, if I'm saving all of this money what category does that put me in? Hmm. You could say that I love money so much I want to be miserly with it; however, I just look at what else you can buy with the money you just saved! Look, honey! I just saved $50! Now we can go get that rug at the exchange I've been wanting for the hallway... It's just what we do. Men don't understand it. Most women do, but those that don't take the time to use the scissors pay the consequences...and the extra money!