The End of an Era

....and the beginning of a new one!
My never used solar panel will finally be opened and used by a fellow van guy.
I bequeathed that, the unused Porta potty and lots of bungee cords.
They will now serve a new owner and will go places.
May they serve his small fam well wherever they go.

It's been a year!!!???

OMG!
My last post was a year ago!
It's been a very busy year for me. Still living out in Asia although I am stateside for 3 months right now just making new business contacts before I submerge again.

Life hasn't gotten better, financially.
Still struggling.
With my parents to look after in the Philippines, my dream of wandering the US in a campervan has been put on hold.
I can only support one household, at a time, anyway.

So if I am half paying for the expenses of the house in the PHilippines, I might as well live ther and consolidate expenses instead of paying for that and maintaining a household Stateside as well.

It's been quite a year. Full of ups and downs. Still alive and still dreaming of the day...

For now, I must content myself with doing a lot of travel when I can and just return to the house to do more work when I should.

It is my hope that you all are doing well and better. I continue to live vicariously through your wonderful posts.

Take care of each other and yourselves!

Cheers.

Instant sushi

It's been a while since I logged on.
For now... a small post about...
Instant Sushi!

All one needs is the ability to cook rice/boil water.

Everything else is fresh. Can be bought from the store and used right away or stored in a small refrigerator.

I make these small hand sushi on a small table.
I buy the precut snack size seaweed for convenience although I do have the large ones as well. they seaweed snacks also come flavored so that adds extra to it.




Admittedly, adding raw tuna and fish eggs does up the price, but that's just me and my personal tastes.
A simple roll can be made with just plain rice, crab sticks and one ripe avocado. Other veggies can include thinly sliced carrots and cucumbers.










Cooked items, I have used (I think I'll repost this on my original message too)
1) shrimp plain or mixed with mayo, cayenne, a bit of wasabi;

2) boiled egg (chopped fine with mayo, pickle relish, bit of cayenne, finely chopped shallots)

3) crab (seasoned lightly with salt and pepper and a bit of... cayenne --a pattern is emerging! My love of Texmex is becoming obvious)

4) canned tuna or salmon. (with the obvious seasonings of southwest cayenne, salt and pepper...)

5) baked salmon (My favorite is when they lay the salmon raw on the rice and put some thick plum sauce on it with a stripe of mayo and then blowtorch that till the salmon is baked on the outside but still medium rare near the rice... that combo is just to die for! Like eating medium well steak with a bit of pink...)

6) smoked salmon (for those who don't like raw salmon --just as good. Lay in on top of the cooked rice and seaweed and that's it!)

7) scrambled egg (My formula for the Japanese omelet that I love to do is 3 eggs, a tablespoon of milk (powdered works fine), 1 tbsp. of rice wine vinegar, a few grains of dried fish flakes (found in oriental stores), salt, pepper, 1/2 tsp sugar or sugar substitute like honey)

8) Imitation crab sticks (mixed with mayo, bit of wasabi, few drops of chili oil)

9) Cooked scallops. These little babies go on sale often because people don't know what to do with them. When they go on sale, I scoop them up. There's 2 ways you can cook these. a) microwave with butter and a bit of water for 1 minute. b) steam them gently as your rice cooks. Just put them in a small glass container that will float above the rice. You may want to put them into the rice when it is halfway done as it is very easy to overcook the scallops.
Preparation: chop the scallops finely. Mix with chopped green onion leeks, bit of mayo, bit of chili oil, bit of sesame oil.
Mix those all up and put them on the rice and seaweed.