Home Cooking: Somen Noodles

For a month this summer we hosted a Japanese foreign exchange student, and when it came to meals, my husband and several sons were in food heaven. You see, Mike served a two year mission for our church in Japan, and while he was there he learned to love Japanese food. He cooks it often for our family, and we go to the Japanese restaurant at least a couple times a year for special occasions.

Two of our sons are part Filipino and they have always loved foods from the Orient. Some how the other kids have learned to love it as well. I’m the only one in the house who shudders when we have Japanese, although I have learned to like several Chinese dishes.

For this meal, I had to smile and pretend I loved everything about the meal that our foreign exchange student made for us. It was part of his assignment to prepare a traditional Japanese meal for the American family. Somen noodles are not something I normally eat, but the rest of the family loved it.

Since the exchange student did the cooking, I had to borrow a recipe for this blog from the internet, but it looks very similar to what I observed him do in preparation, so I think it’s likely the same.  

SOMEN NOODLES AND DIPPING SAUCE

4 bundles of somen noodles
2 ½ cups dashi
½ cup dark shoyu
4 tbsp mirin

Bring a large pot of water to a roiling boil. Prepare the noodles (each bundle is one serving), according to the package directions. Somen water is not used, so you can dump out the water into a colander and immediately run the somen under cool running water, tossing until cool. Serve with noodle dipping sauce.

As you can see in the photos, the exchange student made our meal a little more decorative by twisting the cooked noodles around his finger before putting them onto the plate. The dipping sauce was in a cup, so to eat you picked up the entire roll, dipped then popped it into you mouth.

Although there was nothing wrong with the food, I was tired of the flavor by the third roll, but custom and courtesy dictated I had to finish my serving. The boys loved it so much he made the meal a second time. I opted for something else.

The Week in Review: Lights, Camera, Action-packed Sequels

Christmas break always means family time at the movies for the Staheli family. This year’s selection wasn’t as appealing perhaps as in recent years, but I still managed to find two movies that I really enjoyed, maybe more than I liked the previous installments if the truth be told. The target audience for both might have initial been of the male persuasion, but add a little eye-candy and women like me will enjoy them too.

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

Okay, so Tom Cruise got a little wild when he jumped on Oprah’s couch, and maybe Knight and Day didn’t make a billion dollars for Hollywood (although I personally enjoyed it very much!), and maybe Valkyrie was a little too dramatic for you, but surely you can’t hold that against Tom forever.

The Mission Impossible franchise is back, and on top—on top of the tallest building in the world as well, a stunt that Tom actually did himself, albeit with lots of harnesses that magically disappear in the final movie. Even though my mind knew those harnesses were there while they filmed, I still found myself emotionally involved when the dust storm was coming and the specially designed grabber glove failed. Oh my!

And the eye candy? Tom was more than cute in this movie. There were certain scenes when he was downright sexy. A subtle look, the way he stood, the clothes he wore all added up to make those years melt away and he was HOT! Sorry, getting a little carried away here.

Anyway, I loved the movie. The addition of humor enhanced not only the plot, but the total viewing experience. And the potential promise of more to come made this movie-goer very happy. I think I’ll have to hit the theater a second time when it comes to my hometown.

 

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Robert Downey, Jr. is another actor that has had his ups and downs. Thanks heavens he is on the upside now (and   not bad eye-candy himself, despite the sometimes grimy condition he gets himself into in this movie). Both Iron Man movies have been stellar, we’re looking forward to the Avengers (did you catch his small part at the end of Captain America?), and now a second Sherlock that I think was better than the first.

This isn’t the Sherlock Holmes your grandparents knew, but that’s okay. The story takes up exactly where the last one leaves off, adds a little more steam punk, tosses in some intriguing use of slow motion photography and rewinding time techniques, and the audience begins to see things the way the mind of Sherlock does when he unravels a mystery.

I predicted the end of this film only because I was familiar with the history of the Sherlock Holmes stories, but let it be said that this one leaves itself also wide open for yet another film to follow. And it must! After all, aren’t movies and books meant to be trilogies, rather than a simple duo?

Getting Ahead of Myself

A rare thing has happened. I’ve actually gotten ahead on the postings for my blog this week, and therefore posted some of the entries earlier than they should have been scheduled. Don’t expect that to happen very often.

Part of the reason I got off schedule because I’m using the entries I have been doing on Tuesdays, Writing Wisdom, for a new book that I hope to have available in the next couple of months. The book will be a collection of what I’ve learned from authors, editors and agents over the years which I hope will teach potential authors things they need to know as they make their first forays into the business, and will motivate those of us who are already writing and publishing to try new things that could enrich our careers. I was so busy organizing and editing the previous blogs on this topics that I forgot to write a new one.

No matter how far ahead I seem when it comes to the blog, I’m still behind in too many other areas. I have a revision to finish this month on a manuscript, and I won’t even tell you how many books I am behind on my reading for the contest I’m judging! The number of entries in my category this year is INSANE!

And that’s how many of you view me because of the number of things I try to accomplish all at the same time. Maybe I am, but I like the challenge.

How about you?

All in the Family: John Arthur Heffner

Born September 1, 1867 in Watsontown, Pennsylvania, John Arthur Heffner was the fourth child of John Sylvestor Heffner and his wife Mary Elizabeth Watts. It appears there were nine children born to this union, but the only sibling names I have been able to come up with in my research are George W., Lillie, Thomas M., John Arthur, and a younger sister names Goldie. Much research needs to be done yet on this family it seems.

John married Meribah Webb June 18, 1889 in Elwood, Indiana. They were the parents of three children, Lewis Orvil, Ethel Rose, and Herbert Arthur Heffner. The 1900 census shows that Meribah went by the nickname of Mollie, and the lived at 1126 S. K Street in Elwood.

During an economic depression, John and Mollie placed the children into the Soldier’s and Sailor’s Children’s Home in Knightstown, Indiana. Ethel and Herb were “adopted” by a family from Hancock’s Chapel, Indiana. Lew ran away to join the carnival as a carpenter. Eventually they were all reunited when Lew, as an adult, located where his siblings had been taken and moved his wife and daughters there to be closer to them.

John was a carpenter and did fine woodworking. He often traveled to Ohio for work, eventually settling in Hamilton, after he and Mollie divorced. Hamilton was a manufacturing town, with available jobs in John’s field of expertise.

John married a second time, to Anna Teeters, who my mother called Grandma Annie. No children came from this union.

John died May 8, 1938 in Covington, Kentucky. He was buried in the Evergreen Cemetery. Both of his wives outlived him by many years, Annie passing away in 1847 and Meribah dying in 1953. John’s body was move to the Evergreen Cemetery in 1847 to be with Annie’s body.

The Year of the Book

Just as I was getting read to close out 2011, I happened to run across an entry on Twitter about 2012 being the Year of the Book. Now, as you likely know, I am a huge fan of reading. Last year I set my goal on GoodReads to read 100 books. I met the goal, and surpassed it by much more than the icon registers because I couldn’t enter ARCs and I didn’t enter picture books.

This year I decided to truly make this my year of the book by challenging myself to read 366 books, one for each day of the year. (It’s Leap Year, in case you didn’t know.) I’ll enter everything I read onto my 2012 Books page here on my blog so you can see my true running total. Plus, I’ll enter all the books I read into GoodReads, providing they have actually been released or are coming so soon that they have an entry on GoodReads.

In the meantime, here are my Top Ten books I read last year. My complete list of books—all 102 of them—is still on the 2011 Books page on the blog. Maybe you’ll find something there to help you along with the 2012 Challenge.

Good reading!

Fiction

            Variant –Wells

            Circle of Secrets—Little

            The Strange Case of Origami Yoda—Angleberger

            Wintergirls—Anderson

Non-Fiction

            The Reading Promise—Ozma

            Writing Movies for Fun and Profit—Garant and Lennon

            I’m All Over That—MacLaine

            Damn! Why Didn’t I Write That?—McCutcheon

            If You Ask Me—White

            Stories I Only Tell My Friends—Lowe

The Book of Mormon Challenge

If you happen to be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, then you know that 2012 is a Book of Mormon year. If you’re not a member, and therefore unfamiliar with the way classes work within the LDS church, that just means that this year the focus of study in Sunday School will be on the teachings of the Book of Mormon.

We go on a four year rotation schedule, with each year being a different segment of what we call the Standard Works, spending one year each on the Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon, and Doctrine & Covenants/Pearl of Great Price.

If you happen to live near a book store that carried LDS products, you will see an increase this year in books that support members’ study of The Book of Mormon. Of course, reading and studying the scriptures alone can provide a wonderfully spiritual experience, but like you might find as you study the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament, sometimes using outside resources can help you discover a deeper understanding than you might have had on your own.

I’ve taken the challenge to reread the Book of Mormon in 2012. By reading only one chapter each day, I will finish the book by the end of August. I’d like to invite you to do the same. If you don’t own a copy of The Book of Mormon, or if you prefer to have a digital copy, you can find links at http://lds.org/scriptures?lang=eng. This link also gives you access to all sorts of supplementary materials like videos, user-friendly tools like word/subject search, and cross-references to others of the standard works. There are also links where you can have a free copy of The Book of Mormon delivered to you by the missionaries.

I hope many of you will join me in my reading this year. Whether you are LDS or not, by reading this book you will find a strength of spirit that comes from learning more about Jesus Christ, Our Lord.

May this coming year bring you the blessings of the tender mercies of spoken of in 1 Nephi 1: 20, “But behold, I, Nephi, will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance.”