Pumpkin Croquette-- Japanese home cooking

Croquette is served quite often in Japanese household. It's not fancy meal like Sushi. It's more like everyday home cooking meal.  I made with Kabocha Pumpkin, but most commonly we use potatoes. We eat this dish all the time, served with other items to go with rice. 

Point : Kabocha Pumpkin is naturally sweet. But you can add some honey to have the sweetness a bit smoother.

Start to Finish: 45 min

Ingredients: using 1/2 Kabocha (whole is really big. If you want leftover for freeze, use 1 whole Kabocha Pumpkin, it becomes really good lunch!)

1/2 Kabocha Pumpkin

* Honey 1TBSP
* Butter 1TBSP
* Salt to taste

Flour
Egg
Breadcrumbs

Direction:

1.Peel the skin (green part) of Kabocha, Take the seeds out and cut in 1/2 inch diced. (3cm).. this is for microwaving purpose

2. Put some paper towel in heat-resistant cookware (this is to absorb the water), microwave for about 5-6 min till become soft.

3. While it's hot, mash the Kabocha with masher, add Honey, Butter, Salt to taste. You can adjust the honey and butter depending on how sweet and buttery flavor you like. 

4. Make patties in the size you like and dip in order of Flour, Egg, Breadcrumbs. Then deepfly. 

The best sauce to go with this dish is this! You can find it at any Asian store, or wherever sell Japanese food. This is MUST-HAVE sauce for Japanese food, especially, Pankocrumbed flied food!

If you can't find this, It's OK. My husband use Ketchup!

How am I doing with IVF drugs-- Lupron and Dexamethasone

These are the first two sets of medication I have been taking for a week or so, followed by Birth Control Pills. I took the last BCP on Monday 8/8 hoping to get period by next Tuesday 8/16. BCP is only to put my body on RE's IVF cycle schedule. They want us to have period on the certain week to do the procedures. 

The only time I took BCP was for my acne when I was in 20s, just for a few months. That was all. I had not taken BCP for SO LONG so I thought I would get a full effect,, like getting bloated, making me eat more which cause weight gain etc..  It turned out BCP was not bad at all.

For now, I am only taking 2 of several other medications. The nurse explained to us how to use needles, how much to take and so on. Very detailed instructions.  Anyways, Lupron and Dexamethasone are the two in the pictures I am currently on until next week. And there are more coming. 

The pill is Dexamethasone,,, steroid pill. I take this in the AM because it causes insomnia. Yes, I take it 4AM with breakfast. After all day working, it still wakes me up in the middle of the night. I have been getting broken sleep, but I am not tired. This pill makes me wired-up all day.If I want to have a good sleep, I have to run around the block or exercises or something that makes me tired, which I can not do everyday!

Lupron is to suppress hormones at the pituitary level. I understood in my own way that this is to calm our body, they don't want our own hormone start acting up. The Injections in the AM, can be done on my thighs or stomach, wherever the fat is. I can't do it. My husband has to poke me. I have no side effects from this medication whatsoever that I can feel. And needles are pretty tiny so injection isn't so bad either. One time we poke too close to the muscle on thigh, it gave me bruises! I am learning.  

More updates to come on how I am coping with these IVF drugs! 

Fresh Basil Pesto Pasta

Pesto Pasta is BY FAR my most favorite pasta! Canned pesto is good but nothing is better than mixing fresh basil in our own food processor! This is my husband's recipe. Garlic, tomato and red onions are the only vegetable we added to this pesto pasta this time. Sometimes, we add chopped grilled chicken.

Serving : 4

Start to Finish : 45 minutes or less

1 red onion

2 roma tomatoes

Pasta ( I used angel hair pasta)

Salt and pepper

Pesto Ingredients:

1 whole garlic bulb ( not each cloves)

1/2 lb of fresh basil

1/4 cup of roasted pine nuts ( roasting can be done in a flying pan for more flavor)

1 cup of grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 cup or more of olive oil depending on how oily you want the pesto to be

1. Put all the ingredients in the food processor and make pesto.

2. Chop 1 whole red onion. In a flying pan or wok (wok is better. it holds large quantities ), sauteed with 4 garlic cloves (chopped or sliced), then add the chopped tomatoes and pesto, then add the cooked pasta. Toss everything. You can adjust flavor by adding salt and pepper, more pesto, more garlic, vegetables etc.... 

Talah~  DONE!  Sprinkle the Parmesan cheese and fresh ground pepper is good!

(optional 3. if you add Lemon oil, it gives more flavors but it's ok not to have it)

Marble Cupcake topped with CreamCheese Frosting

You won't believe how easy it is!!

I've been into this TV show called "cupcake war" lately. Every other week, I go to cupcakeries in town to treat myself. They are not cheap. The ones I buy are like $3-$3.50 each cupcake. Because I love them so much, my chef husband decided to bake for me. Less cost but more tasty! We used the silicon mold for baking so we didn't use the paper cup.

Serve : 8-12 cupcakes

Start to Finish: 30 min or less
 
Pastry Bag and Star tip ( to squeeze the cream on the cake) OR icecream scooper (you can just scoop the cream and place it on top of cake)

Marble Cupcake : 1/2 a package of cake mix ( I used marble cake mix) 

1. Bake in a cupcake size mold, follow the direction on the box

Cream Cheese Frosting :15 min

• 1/2 cup of butter (1 stick), room temperature
• 8 oz of Philly cream cheese (1 package), room temperature
• 1.5 - 2 cups of powdered sugar,, depends on how sweet you want
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1. With an electric mixer, mix the butter and cream cheese together, about 3 minutes on medium speed until very smooth. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl to ensure even mixing.

2. Add the vanilla extract and mix. Slowly add the powdered sugar. Keep adding until you get to desired sweetness and thickness.

3. Either spread on with a blunt knife or spatula, or spoon into a piping bag to decorate your cake or cupcake.

Got my IVF Calender!!

• Signed my life away for IVF cycle,, but

Well Obviously, the IVF package I thought I would be signing up for is not quite what I thought it was. Well, our RE used to offer "OBP-- Outcome Base Plan" for 3 cycle IVF package. The most expensive one but we get the % of money back if no live birth. That % depends on your age. That OBP plan is no longer available!!! They say they haven't had that for a while now.. I was like huh?  The new plan is 1,2,3 cycles with no money back. I signed up for 3 cycle one, only because I wanted to have some "insurance" that I am getting most out of it. I would be super lucky if I hit BINGO after 1st try. But the life isn't always so easy. Never known what happens, so that's how I decided.  

• My Protocol

The nurse ordered all the meds and I paid. Unfortunately, my insurance (as primary) didn't pay anything but my DH's insurance (as my secondary) picked up most everything except $260. So that's all I paid for the first cycle. I was very lucky on this one. I still not quite sure what exactly the nurse ordered for me but I see some meds on my IVF calender I received. 

7/26 instruction on shots with nurse

~ 8/5 I will be on BCP

8/5~8/15 Lupron and Dexamethasone

8/16~8/17 Lupron, Dexamethasone, Follistim, Follic Acid

8/18~8/21 Lupron, Dexamethasone, Follistim, Follic Acid and Luveris

8/22 Lupron, Dexamethasone, Follic Acid and Cipro

RE thinks I will respond to meds well so he puts me on low dosage on most of them. That's a good news for me. :D

8/22 is the day my monitoring starts. I was told to receive another calender.  Looks like ER and ET happen around the end of Aug to early Sep.

I will post more updates soon!

Pumpkin Pie

This Pumpkin Pie is so special! It's kind of weird to say by myself, BUT!! I had never had SUCH A YUMMY Pumpkin Pie like this in my life!! I think the usage of condensed milk makes this so special. Sweet, but not overly sweet. Very sophisticated flavor!  I HAVE TO share the recipe with you. It is so easy like you won't believe. I hope you can try soon!!! 

Prep Time: 15 min

Start to Finish: 1 hr 15 min

Ingredients:

1 (15oz) can pumpkin puree

1 (14oz) can Sweetened Condensed Milk

2 eggs

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

 

1 ready-use pie crust (9 inch)

Direction:

1. Preheat oven to 425F degree. Whisk pumpkin, sweetened condensed milk,  eggs, spices and salt in medium bowl until smooth. Pour into crust. Bake 15 minutes.


2. Reduce oven temperature to 350F degree and continue baking 40-45 min or until knife inserted 1 inch from crust comes out clean. Cool. Garnish with cool whip! The more the better :D

Recent days,, update on IVF and my mom & hub's Lost in Translation

I haven't had time for anything these days including twitter and blogging.  I went camping at Infenion Raceway, Sonoma California last week and it was a blast. It was really the FIRST TIME camping in my life and I am surprised that I did good! I realized it's ok to use bathroom on the wheel! I have to blog about it soon.

Anyways, my mother who lives in Japan is now here for 3 months visiting! This is her 3rd time staying for that long. She is retired and lives alone so it is nice to have her here. The only sad part is that she is stuck at home all day everyday while I am at work, since she doesn't drive. I feel bad about it. She doesn't speak English and my husband doesn't speak Japanese. But somehow they seem to communicate just fine, or at least that's what they think. Listening to them, it is totally "lost in translation"!  When I hear them talking, it's funny because they are not communicating but they think they are having catch ball of conversation just fine. It's hard to explain. The other day, my husband told her to "stir" the pot on the stove so it doesn't burn, my mom says OK! But she just stands and watches it. My hub asks me "why is she just standing there, I told her to stir". I ask mom "what did he tell you?" She said "Oh, he told me not to touch it" LOL! hello~!? He didn't say that! Well basically they are a bit off whenever they talk. So I am in the middle, back and forth between them, explaining she said this, he said that,,,translating ALL THE TIME!!,,TV, jokes, conversation, EVERYTHING. Whew! Lots of work :)
My mother and I can be both hard-headed at times, so I am hoping not to have too much argument with my mother (you know how it is..!), and rather enjoy the time together! I am the only child so now I can see mom as if she is my big sister and enjoy each other's company I hope! She will be with me during this first IVF journey this summer!

As far as IVF goes, I spoke with nurse the other day. She briefly went over what is IVF and general idea of what my August IVF will look like. For now I am on BCP. She will order medications and have them ship directly to the office so when I pick it up, she can show me and explain everything about meds. I will know then WHAT meds I will be taking and HOW MUCH DOSAGE I will need. Good news is that RE put me on really low dosage of meds so it will help me $$$ wise. This meds instruction/consultation is at the end of July. I will start in the first week of Aug and monitoring starts on 8/22, and maybe egg transfer will happen around 9/2?
It sounds like my July will still be pretty peaceful. 

OH OH OH! Attention to all IF girls!!!!: We had a SA on my hub the other day. The count was 45mil, motility 3%. In 2008, it was 7mil, 53%. The nurse said it was a compromised result and we still need IVF. The thought of IUI went through my mind for a sec. I am still on the "GO" for IVF though. I thought it was interesting change in SA.