Exciting news! God has been exceedingly gracious to us and allowed all of our paperwork to be completed! What this means:
- Mrs. A can stay here in Okinawa with Mr. A with full acknowledgment and approval from both the military and from the Japanese government.
- Mrs. A can get a legitimate drivers license and not be restricted to using just an international driving permit.
- Mr. and Mrs. A get to move out of the bachelor's quarters into a real home!
We weren't completely sure whether we preferred to live on base or off base, so we looked at both options prior to making a decision.
Out of the six off-base homes (apartments, single family homes, and duplexes) that we looked at, here was the run down:
- House #1: close to base, single family home with a yard, but had really low ceilings and seemed somewhat run down
- House #2: within walking distance of church, tall ceilings, wood floors, gorgeous balcony with a view of a lush, green valley, but somewhat odd floor plan and looked like the energy bill could possibly be outrageous.
- House #3: absolutely gorgeous apartment on the 8th floor overlooking a lush, green valley and the ocean, wrap around deck which had doors that opened to a glorious breeze, but a good 45 minute to an hour commute to work, and pretty expensive.
- House #4: Attractive apartment with balcony, but somewhat odd construction, with the top two feet of the walls being plain concrete, and one room with a large concrete 'beam' running the length of it, also a good 45 minute commute to work.
- House #5: Two story single-family home with tons of space, small yard, right off base, but over-budget and smelled a little like smoke.
- House #6: 2 car garage, beautiful floors, gas stove, two balconies (one off the living area and one off the master bedroom), and five minutes from one of the bases. Also a five minute walk to a small beach and close to many good restaurants on the sea wall.
Out of all of these choices, House #6 was the most appealing, probably because it was built in American style and because it was pretty close to Brent's work. I also love love love gas stoves. However, from the first model they showed me to the second model, they changed the layout of the kitchen to a layout I didn't prefer, and they changed the cabinetry and island from an attractive warm wood with nice handles to cheap cabinetry. They also changed the bathroom styling to be less attractive.
After we looked at these six options, we were told that there were two options open in on-base housing. The deal with on-base housing is that they promise to show you at least two units, although they may not be able to offer you both units at the same time. Once they show you a unit, you have 24 hours to either accept or decline the option. If you decline two options, you're placed on a 90 day probation list, and they won't offer you another home on-base until that period is over.
We were able to look at both options the same day: one in a large apartment-style building, and one town home. Both options are about a five minute drive to work for Mr. A, which is awesome. The tower option was somewhat less than thrilling, despite having two balconies (again, one off the living/dining area and one off the master bedroom). It had tile floors and generally looked and felt dingy. The kitchen was also very small. However, it did have something that none of the apartments off-base had: a DISHWASHER! Seriously, how is it that two people create so many dishes? One of the many mysteries in life.
The second option was a town house. As soon as we walked in, our decision was made to live here. It had gorgeous 'wood' floors, a small yard both in front and in back (big enough to enjoy, have a small cook out, plant a little, but not so big that it's overwhelming), a big kitchen, a DISHWASHER!, and plenty of space. In fact, this home is just like House #6 out in town, but about doubled in size. The only things it lacks is an actual garage, balconies, and a gas stove (all of which would be nice, but not nearly as nice as having enough space to actually have people over).
So, we're moving!
In fact, we signed all the paperwork on Friday and move in this Monday and Tuesday. Yep, things move FAST once the ball gets rolling o_O. So we are now in a packing frenzy! So far, we've got about 18 boxes packed, and somehow there's still more left to do. And the majority of it is kitchen stuff. We cannot WAIT to get a real kitchen to use all of it! I've already bought canned pumpkin and cooking pumpkins in preparation for this moment. Also, apparently the commissary runs out of pumpkin if you don't act fast.
Anyhow, we are so thankful that the Lord has provided so well for us! Hopefully you'll hear about various events where we get to open up our new home to people here on-island :) Also, there are two extra bedrooms, so please come visit!
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Naha Tug-of-war
We were able to attend the Naha Tug-of-war along with some other members of our church and about 25,000 other folks. According to Wikipedia, it dates back to the 17th century. There are supposedly many such events annually, but this one is the largest in the region. They close off the main street and bring in a rope that's about 4' tall using cranes to put it in place.
Leading up to the actual tug-of-war, there are many performances. First, a large number of 'floats' pass by, which are basically large poles around 15' high with decorations at the top. An individual carries the pole while a crew of people around them make sure it doesn't fall over. Then they stand each pole up using four forked poles to steady the large pole in the center.
They also have a gigantic golden ball suspended between buildings at the very center where the two sides of the rope are joined together. The ball opens before the match begins.
After the decorated poles pass, two emperors from opposite ends of the rope are carried to the center, symbolizing the leaders of each side, East and West, for the tug-of-war. They are dressed as Ryukyuan emperors. When they reach the center of the rope, they perform a ritual sword contest. While they perform in the middle (which can only be seen by a fraction of those who are in attendance), there are many other performances down the length of the rope. There are martial arts performances and fan-dances. We were lucky enough to be in front of a group of students of martial arts. After the emperors perform their contest in the middle, they are carried back to opposite ends of the rope, the ball opens up, showering the crowd in balloons and confetti, and the match begins!
There is much adjustment that needs to happen in order for the match to begin. The rope is actually made of two ropes, joined in the middle with a sort of 'pin' (the size of a somewhat large tree trunk). In order to join the two sides, the ropes first have to be pulled to the center to meet. The participants grab hold of smaller ropes which extend to either side of the main rope and pull in rhythm to bring the two ropes together in the middle. Once the two ropes are joined, the tugging can begin! Every 8 meters or so, a guide stands on top of the rope to give the participants a steady rhythm for pulling. Our section was a little odd because the guide just behind us didn't keep on rhythm with all the guides in front of him, so we often fell off-beat. When either side got off-beat from each other (that is, North and South), the middle of the rope became a precarious place to stand as it moved side to side from conflicting motions. The tug-of-war lasts 30 minutes, and then the winner is chosen. I heard from one announcer that it was a tie, but I suspect that the East won.
Afterwards, it is tradition to cut off a piece of the ropes used to tug on. They are thought to bring good luck, and are hung as decoration in the home. During the winter months, people make them into wreaths, too.
It is clearly one of the primary events of the year in Okinawa, drawing locals, American military, and many tourists to participate. The street vendors were out in full force to support the hungry participants! All in all, a fantastic experience. As we were leaving, those who brought the decorated poles took them away, and the cranes came to claim the center rope.
I loved that even the metro stop closest to the tug-of-war paid homage to it:
Leading up to the actual tug-of-war, there are many performances. First, a large number of 'floats' pass by, which are basically large poles around 15' high with decorations at the top. An individual carries the pole while a crew of people around them make sure it doesn't fall over. Then they stand each pole up using four forked poles to steady the large pole in the center.
They also have a gigantic golden ball suspended between buildings at the very center where the two sides of the rope are joined together. The ball opens before the match begins.
After the decorated poles pass, two emperors from opposite ends of the rope are carried to the center, symbolizing the leaders of each side, East and West, for the tug-of-war. They are dressed as Ryukyuan emperors. When they reach the center of the rope, they perform a ritual sword contest. While they perform in the middle (which can only be seen by a fraction of those who are in attendance), there are many other performances down the length of the rope. There are martial arts performances and fan-dances. We were lucky enough to be in front of a group of students of martial arts. After the emperors perform their contest in the middle, they are carried back to opposite ends of the rope, the ball opens up, showering the crowd in balloons and confetti, and the match begins!
There is much adjustment that needs to happen in order for the match to begin. The rope is actually made of two ropes, joined in the middle with a sort of 'pin' (the size of a somewhat large tree trunk). In order to join the two sides, the ropes first have to be pulled to the center to meet. The participants grab hold of smaller ropes which extend to either side of the main rope and pull in rhythm to bring the two ropes together in the middle. Once the two ropes are joined, the tugging can begin! Every 8 meters or so, a guide stands on top of the rope to give the participants a steady rhythm for pulling. Our section was a little odd because the guide just behind us didn't keep on rhythm with all the guides in front of him, so we often fell off-beat. When either side got off-beat from each other (that is, North and South), the middle of the rope became a precarious place to stand as it moved side to side from conflicting motions. The tug-of-war lasts 30 minutes, and then the winner is chosen. I heard from one announcer that it was a tie, but I suspect that the East won.
Afterwards, it is tradition to cut off a piece of the ropes used to tug on. They are thought to bring good luck, and are hung as decoration in the home. During the winter months, people make them into wreaths, too.It is clearly one of the primary events of the year in Okinawa, drawing locals, American military, and many tourists to participate. The street vendors were out in full force to support the hungry participants! All in all, a fantastic experience. As we were leaving, those who brought the decorated poles took them away, and the cranes came to claim the center rope.
I loved that even the metro stop closest to the tug-of-war paid homage to it:
Monday, October 10, 2011
Food!
So, as we are still living in bachelor's quarters with no kitchen, cooking has been a thing of excitement in our household. Okay, perhaps 'excitement' is too strong of a word, but certainly a thing of creativity.
I had become so enamored with our Pasta Boat 
and stoneware microwaveable covered casserole dish that I had still kept steering away from the crock pot. I can't tell you why I am afraid of the crock pot, but sadly, it is not something I have desired to cook with in the past. However, recent events have changed this drastically. I managed to short out our previous microwave (I didn't even know that was possible - it's not like I was pouring gallons of water over it while hitting it with a baseball bat or anything), and the replacement unit is too small for either my beloved pasta boat or covered casserole. So, now lacking any other cooking options, we have been almost completely limited to cooking our main dishes on the grill or in the crock pot.
At first, I tried to rebel against the whole crock pot idea. Instead, I made sushi. Yes, I have become a sushi aficionado. Okay, that's stretching it. I can (sort of) make sushi rolls. The first adventure here was going to the Aeon, the Japanese grocery store, to pick up the seaweed wrappers, salmon, and sushi rice. To be completely frank, I was unaware that there was even such a thing as 'sushi rice'. In case you were wondering, you use short-grain rice for sushi, unlike for what you use with normal Asian food (long grain - I prefer jasmine rice) or middle eastern food (basmati rice). Not only do you use different rice, but you prepare it slightly differently. You add rice vinegar, salt, oil and rice vinegar after it's all cooked. You also have to rinse the rice until the water is clear before cooking it. Normally I only rinse rice three times before sticking it in the rice cooker and pushing the 'on' button. It takes -forever- to rinse until the water's clean, but apparently it's necessary. After my adventure in the Aeon, where I tried to use my 3 words of Japanese to make sure I was buying good enough salmon for sushi and pay the correct amount for my goods, I made the sushi rice and let it cool off some. I decided to make my sushi rolls with varying combinations of the following ingredients:
- Salmon
- Chives
- Cucumber
- Cream cheese
- Avocado
- Carrot
A helpful piece of advice I was given when I first learned how to make sushi was this: always add a crunchy ingredient. So, in every roll I made sure to put chives, cucumber or carrot, in addition to the other ingredients.
After cutting up all the ingredients to appropriate thicknesses and lengths, I got out my handy-dandy sushi roller (it's a little bamboo mat), laid out a piece of seaweed paper, covered it with a layer of rice, added the ingredients for that roll, and rolled it right on up! I ended up using all 10 sheets of seaweed paper in one night o_O. That's a lot of sushi. Important hint on sushi making: Make sure you have a VERY sharp knife (my brand new cutco knives were perfect, but even my cutco knives that are a year old weren't sharp enough) and COLD water to clean off the knife in between cuts in order to cut your sushi rolls in to pieces. Otherwise the rice gets stuck on the knife as you cut and you end up tearing apart your beautifully made sushi roll.
Overall, a very successful venture into sushi.
Eventually, however, I had to get over my fear of crock pots and start the real challenge. Over the last few weeks of solely crock pot cooking, I have gathered a couple favorite crock-pot recipes. Some of them are favorites because they're incredibly easy, others are favorites because they are -delicious-.
The award for easiest goes to the McCormick Seasoning Slow Cooker Italian Herb Chicken recipe. Grab one of the McCormick Seasoning packets for Slow Cooker Italian Herb Chicken for this one. The recipe is on the back. All you need is the seasoning packet, 2 1/2 lbs of chicken, 1 package of mushrooms, 2 cans of stewed tomatoes, and a can of tomato paste. Throw it all into the crock pot and cook for 8 hours on low or 4 hours on high. You're technically supposed to put the chicken in first, then the mushrooms, then mix all the other ingredients together and pour them on top. I suspect you could probably pour everything in, mix it up, and it'd work just fine. We also added some grape tomatoes to our recipe because we had them lying around. I particularly like this recipe because it doesn't call for any cans of condensed soup. I swear, I've never used so much condensed soup before in my life, and it's starting to scare me a little. I hope to find more recipes like this one where I'm not pouring globs of salty paste into my dinner.
That being said...
Our favorite recipe totally has condensed soup in it. You'll have to wait for the bottom of the post to hear about that one.
I also made pineapple pork chops, probably from this recipe. No guarantee there since I didn't actually -save- the recipe, but it looks familiar. I didn't marinate the pork chops overnight, which I'm sure would have been delicious. However, they were definitely a hit, served (of course) with rice and a salad. I believe I thickened the sauce a little using flour, as I didn't have cornstarch at the time, which is my preferred thickening agent.
I also made a delicious Chicken Masala (ish) using this recipe. Now, I often refuse to buy specific spice mixtures (with the excpetion of the McCormick seasoning, although, that makes me cringe because I ought to be able to come up with my own 'slow cooker Italian spice' mix). This particular recipe calls fro garam masala, an Indian spice mixture that is lovely. However, I was either unable, unwilling, or unable AND unwilling to buy said mixture, so looked up a recipe on my own. Most of the ingredients in it you should already have in your pantry. It was a fantastic recipe - thick and flavorful. I believe I didn't measure the pepper, and probably put in altogether too much, making it inedible for anyone shy of spiciness. Top things I learned from this recipe:
1. Don't use chicken with bones in a crock pot recipe. You spend your whole meal trying to pick them out instead of enjoying your food.
2. Be careful with cayenne pepper. It's spicy. No, really. Be careful. Rice can only absorb so much of the spiciness.
3. When adding yogurt or sour cream (or other such ingredients like coconut milk) to a crock pot recipe, wait until the very end, allowing it to be in the crock pot only until heated. Otherwise, it will curdle and ruin your whole recipe. Thankfully, I learned that from the recipe and not from trial and error.
One of our favorite recipes is a family recipe for Italian sausage and tortellini soup. I liked this recipe because it included spinach. I find it difficult to get anything healthy out of the crock pot, and to be able to add in a vegetable other than potatoes, onions or tomatoes was a relief.
I have made Paula Deen's Crock Pot Macaroni and Cheese several times to bring as a side dish. It is delicious and fairly simple, but laden with Paula Deen calories. I've used the low-fat sour cream and skim milk instead of the normal versions when I've made it and it tastes just fine.
And last, but not least, our favorite crock pot recipe to date:
Beef Stroganoff.
Now, people have made 8,000 changes to this recipe in the comments section. I... don't know that that's really necessary. The first time I made it I followed the recipe fairly well. I used a whole onion instead of half an onion and I didn't use wine at all. Oh... And I used fresh chives instead of dried chives and soy sauce instead of Worcester sauce (that's what was in my kitchen). The second time I made the recipe I used stew beef instead of top round, red wine, and a whole onion. I also used cream cheese in addition to sour cream (half low-fat sour cream, half low-fat cream cheese). I also forgot the parsley (oops) and again used fresh chives. I found that my first recipe was better. I definitely liked the top round steak better than the stew beef, though.
I hope your cooking adventures are as exciting and colorful as mine!
I had become so enamored with our Pasta Boat 
and stoneware microwaveable covered casserole dish that I had still kept steering away from the crock pot. I can't tell you why I am afraid of the crock pot, but sadly, it is not something I have desired to cook with in the past. However, recent events have changed this drastically. I managed to short out our previous microwave (I didn't even know that was possible - it's not like I was pouring gallons of water over it while hitting it with a baseball bat or anything), and the replacement unit is too small for either my beloved pasta boat or covered casserole. So, now lacking any other cooking options, we have been almost completely limited to cooking our main dishes on the grill or in the crock pot.At first, I tried to rebel against the whole crock pot idea. Instead, I made sushi. Yes, I have become a sushi aficionado. Okay, that's stretching it. I can (sort of) make sushi rolls. The first adventure here was going to the Aeon, the Japanese grocery store, to pick up the seaweed wrappers, salmon, and sushi rice. To be completely frank, I was unaware that there was even such a thing as 'sushi rice'. In case you were wondering, you use short-grain rice for sushi, unlike for what you use with normal Asian food (long grain - I prefer jasmine rice) or middle eastern food (basmati rice). Not only do you use different rice, but you prepare it slightly differently. You add rice vinegar, salt, oil and rice vinegar after it's all cooked. You also have to rinse the rice until the water is clear before cooking it. Normally I only rinse rice three times before sticking it in the rice cooker and pushing the 'on' button. It takes -forever- to rinse until the water's clean, but apparently it's necessary. After my adventure in the Aeon, where I tried to use my 3 words of Japanese to make sure I was buying good enough salmon for sushi and pay the correct amount for my goods, I made the sushi rice and let it cool off some. I decided to make my sushi rolls with varying combinations of the following ingredients:
- Salmon
- Chives
- Cucumber
- Cream cheese
- Avocado
- Carrot
A helpful piece of advice I was given when I first learned how to make sushi was this: always add a crunchy ingredient. So, in every roll I made sure to put chives, cucumber or carrot, in addition to the other ingredients.
After cutting up all the ingredients to appropriate thicknesses and lengths, I got out my handy-dandy sushi roller (it's a little bamboo mat), laid out a piece of seaweed paper, covered it with a layer of rice, added the ingredients for that roll, and rolled it right on up! I ended up using all 10 sheets of seaweed paper in one night o_O. That's a lot of sushi. Important hint on sushi making: Make sure you have a VERY sharp knife (my brand new cutco knives were perfect, but even my cutco knives that are a year old weren't sharp enough) and COLD water to clean off the knife in between cuts in order to cut your sushi rolls in to pieces. Otherwise the rice gets stuck on the knife as you cut and you end up tearing apart your beautifully made sushi roll.
Overall, a very successful venture into sushi.
Eventually, however, I had to get over my fear of crock pots and start the real challenge. Over the last few weeks of solely crock pot cooking, I have gathered a couple favorite crock-pot recipes. Some of them are favorites because they're incredibly easy, others are favorites because they are -delicious-.
The award for easiest goes to the McCormick Seasoning Slow Cooker Italian Herb Chicken recipe. Grab one of the McCormick Seasoning packets for Slow Cooker Italian Herb Chicken for this one. The recipe is on the back. All you need is the seasoning packet, 2 1/2 lbs of chicken, 1 package of mushrooms, 2 cans of stewed tomatoes, and a can of tomato paste. Throw it all into the crock pot and cook for 8 hours on low or 4 hours on high. You're technically supposed to put the chicken in first, then the mushrooms, then mix all the other ingredients together and pour them on top. I suspect you could probably pour everything in, mix it up, and it'd work just fine. We also added some grape tomatoes to our recipe because we had them lying around. I particularly like this recipe because it doesn't call for any cans of condensed soup. I swear, I've never used so much condensed soup before in my life, and it's starting to scare me a little. I hope to find more recipes like this one where I'm not pouring globs of salty paste into my dinner.
That being said...
Our favorite recipe totally has condensed soup in it. You'll have to wait for the bottom of the post to hear about that one.
I also made pineapple pork chops, probably from this recipe. No guarantee there since I didn't actually -save- the recipe, but it looks familiar. I didn't marinate the pork chops overnight, which I'm sure would have been delicious. However, they were definitely a hit, served (of course) with rice and a salad. I believe I thickened the sauce a little using flour, as I didn't have cornstarch at the time, which is my preferred thickening agent.
I also made a delicious Chicken Masala (ish) using this recipe. Now, I often refuse to buy specific spice mixtures (with the excpetion of the McCormick seasoning, although, that makes me cringe because I ought to be able to come up with my own 'slow cooker Italian spice' mix). This particular recipe calls fro garam masala, an Indian spice mixture that is lovely. However, I was either unable, unwilling, or unable AND unwilling to buy said mixture, so looked up a recipe on my own. Most of the ingredients in it you should already have in your pantry. It was a fantastic recipe - thick and flavorful. I believe I didn't measure the pepper, and probably put in altogether too much, making it inedible for anyone shy of spiciness. Top things I learned from this recipe:
1. Don't use chicken with bones in a crock pot recipe. You spend your whole meal trying to pick them out instead of enjoying your food.
2. Be careful with cayenne pepper. It's spicy. No, really. Be careful. Rice can only absorb so much of the spiciness.
3. When adding yogurt or sour cream (or other such ingredients like coconut milk) to a crock pot recipe, wait until the very end, allowing it to be in the crock pot only until heated. Otherwise, it will curdle and ruin your whole recipe. Thankfully, I learned that from the recipe and not from trial and error.
One of our favorite recipes is a family recipe for Italian sausage and tortellini soup. I liked this recipe because it included spinach. I find it difficult to get anything healthy out of the crock pot, and to be able to add in a vegetable other than potatoes, onions or tomatoes was a relief.
I have made Paula Deen's Crock Pot Macaroni and Cheese several times to bring as a side dish. It is delicious and fairly simple, but laden with Paula Deen calories. I've used the low-fat sour cream and skim milk instead of the normal versions when I've made it and it tastes just fine.
And last, but not least, our favorite crock pot recipe to date:
Beef Stroganoff.
Now, people have made 8,000 changes to this recipe in the comments section. I... don't know that that's really necessary. The first time I made it I followed the recipe fairly well. I used a whole onion instead of half an onion and I didn't use wine at all. Oh... And I used fresh chives instead of dried chives and soy sauce instead of Worcester sauce (that's what was in my kitchen). The second time I made the recipe I used stew beef instead of top round, red wine, and a whole onion. I also used cream cheese in addition to sour cream (half low-fat sour cream, half low-fat cream cheese). I also forgot the parsley (oops) and again used fresh chives. I found that my first recipe was better. I definitely liked the top round steak better than the stew beef, though.
I hope your cooking adventures are as exciting and colorful as mine!
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