Cooking

Okay, first of all, Mary, your hair looks fantastic.  I adore this new cut.

Secondly, I have a recipe of sorts that's a bit time consuming, but certainly easy, and definitely healthy.  Japanese onigiri, or rice balls.

What's needed is short to medium grain rice (long grain doesn't work as well, and doesn't look as nice), nori (also known as seaweed, can be found in any Asian market, or even the international section of a supermarket), and some sort of filling.  I usually use crab or cherries that have been rinsed and patted dry really well.  If the filling is too wet, the rice will fall apart.  Filling is optional, and so's the nori, really, it just makes it easier to hold the onigiri, as the rice is really sticky.

Take short or medium grain rice, and cook it with 1 part rice, 1 part water.  Don't pay attention to what the package says, this is best for onigiri.  For stovetop, cook for twenty to thirty minutes, depending on temperature, altitude, that sort of thing, stirring only occasionally.  In the microwave, check your cooker's instructions.  Once the cooking is done, be sure to let it sit to properly fluff.  Stovetop, this is fifteen minutes.  Do not touch the lid.  Leave it on.  If you take the lid off at all once the fire's off, you will let the steam out, and it won't properly fluff.  Once the rice is done, pour it into a bowl, and let it cool.  If you have a mold, this step doesn't take as long.

After the rice is cool enough to handle, take a handful (no more than can fit in your hands; if you have small hands, live with small onigiri), and make a small indent if you want to use filling.  Insert the filling, then cover it with rice.  Form your hands into a ball around the rice, so it forms a triangle, and compress it.  I usually then turn it a third, and do the compressing again, to make the rice a bit more compact and make it stick better.  Obviously, if you have a mold, this is easier, as you just need to fill the mold, then press.  Anyways, once you have made the rice balls, take nori (I usually buy teriyaki-flavored nori from the Asian market near my house, three dollars for 80 strips that are perfect for onigiri), and wrap it around one side of the triangle.  Then, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate, or simply eat right away.  Usually when I make it, I bring it to my fiancé, so plastic wrap is needed.  The plastic wrap will help stick the nori to the rice, and help it keep its shape.

+/- 1 1/2 cups of uncooked rice will make about eight onigiri, with my size hands.  Really?  You won't need more than two or three to fill you up.  Or to fill me up, anyway.  And I have a ginormous appetite.  It's a good thing to make ahead of time, and eat them as a filling snack or small, healthy meal.  You can also freeze them, then microwave them for a small amount of time later, but they taste best chilled and fresh.

PS- microwave rice cookers can be found at Target for about ten dollars.  That's where I got mine, and it's fantastic.

I cook almost every night because my boyfriend has a food allergy that makes it difficult to eat "on the fly." It's also healthier and cheaper to grocery shop and come up with your own meals and know what's going into them. I started a food blog a few months ago to share the recipes and pictures with family and friends and it's really a close-knit wonderful community, once you share and comment on food. It also makes you really care about what you're eating, since you know you'll be sharing it with the world and taking a picture to capture it's beauty!

www.dinneratchristinas.com

Great episode. Trying to balance a busy job, an exercise schedule and an active social life makes it quite difficult to cook at home. But the benefit of saving money by bringing my own lunch to work, as well as the physically trimming effect of eating my own cooked food is amazing....I've recently hopped on the Rachael Ray's 30 minute cookbook train b/c they are just soooo convenient.

Thanks Alex!  It's Banana Republic and I just got it about a month ago!  :)

http://vegetarianeats.tumblr.com/

Awww Mary, thanks for the shout out! You are way too kind! 

I'm super impressed with the cooking in college gal, that is soooo hard! What a driven cooking queen. Love it.

Mary, your hair looks great with the deep side part. Very modern and up-to-date. You're really improving a lot with every show. Great job!! 

Julia, that recipe from your mother cannot be real, right?? If it is, can you post it here, because those ingredients don't sound good together AT ALL.  It just sounds like you were talking just to talk and just making something up. It seems like you do that a lot on these shows... talk about yourself or tell a story over and over again just to have something to say. It's like you have to dominate the conversation. LISTEN to what the others are saying and stop trying to make it all about YOU all the time. It's really off putting and you can tell because your co-hosts are making some really awful faces while you talk.

Mary's really coming into her own in terms of being at ease in front of the camera. I'm also really feeling the low side-part hairdo. You look gorgeous, Mary!

And I would totally want to borrow Julia's dress and Meghan's necklace. 

As for cooking... I'm all for ordering delivery or grabbing a slice of pizza around the corner. Aaand I feel guilty about it. (Thanks, Mom.) I definitely need to step up in terms of trying out simple recipes at home.