One of my favorite foods...

I'll be honest. I love rice, there are times it can top chocolate odd as it may seem with me. You can pretty much keep the rice pilaf, thanks, I prefer the sticky kind often used in Asia. I love it with some rice seasoning and Kikkomon soy sauce. Rice seasoning I use I have to get from Amazon, for I have yet to find that elusive ethnic store up in Cape Girardeau to see if they carry it - it's called Wasabi Fumi Furikake. Despite the wasabi in the name it's not hot at all. (Just to add another odd fact: High quality wasabi is not hot - the cheap stuff is.)

Akachan loves rice too and it's healthy. In fact when she had tummy problems, our vet at the times suggested a diet for a couple of days of plain white rice and skinless boneless chicken breasts cooked. Akachan thought she was living high on the hog - she was reluctant to go back to dog food.

It was tonight's curious event that left me posting about it on Facebook, but I noticed that Akachan was down to one Freezy Pup so I mentioned it to my husband; Josh had to make some more. But they take a few hours of freezing before they icy goodness can be consumed and Akachan was laying down at the bottom of the stairs whining. The whine that sounded like if a dog could break down in tears for she-can't-have-what-she-wants-now...like a spoiled six year old wanting that candy bar 'fore dinner but knows better then to throw a fit spiel.

I'll own up to the fact I was feeling bad due to her whine. She rarely whines like that, actually, and Josh was surprised that he heard it for he's usually not attuned to her talk of whine and other 'talking' sounds she makes.  Josh hears her easily when she barks though.

So I went down and made some - really easy to follow formula I use and well, it does take about 25 minutes.

Recipe calls for 1/2 cup of rice per person and a cup of water per portion. So for one cup of rice is two cups of water. (I use Botan calrose rice for best results.)

After you have the rice in the water, bring it to a boil. Then drop the heat down to medium heat and let it simmer for about 5 minutes or until the water is practically gone. Then turn the heat down to low, cover it for about ten minutes - very important at this part for steam is what does the trick. Last part is to take it off the heat, still covered, and let it sit for another ten minutes - hard to do when *hungry* and it smells soo good! Akachan usually fusses at me during this time too - she doesn't understand why the rice needs more steam time, but it does. LOL

A few pointers - I don't use long or extra long rice, just doesn't have the same results. If not using Botan you may have to wash the rice, which is basically rinsing the rice until the water is practically clear. I usually stir the rice once after bring it down from the boil, I don't stir it again until after the ten minute 'rest' time to fluff it up. A good timer is your friend here - since I usually not in the kitchen when it's simmering or steaming and Akachan doesn't keep good time at all. But Akachan will stay in the kitchen until she gets her share though.

Well, I'm finished with my bowl and I got a whine from Akachan again. It's not the one that moves me to pity her, it's her impatient tone of "are you done yet?!?" for she knows I usually can't eat all my rice...

I think Josh may be on to something about how I can differentiate on Akachan's different whines, whuffs, barks, and other sounds she makes as well as her body language as being pretty proficient in 'Dogese' to the point he often will ask me to translate. LOL

Busy lately? How'd you guess?!?

Okay, granted, it's not that bad yet - but these days definitely make me feel that sentiment often. It's probably one of the reasons why I haven't been blogging is that I've been busy. Well, I do realize that's an excuse that's been used by a lot of people often to ad nauseum let's explore, shall we?

I am if I can cross my T's and dot my I's (and not the other way around) I can be graduating from Art Institute Online in late September. Wow. It's a big milestone to wrap my head around. I think I threw my instructor a monkey wrench when he realized my biggest passion in game design is writing. I think I can do the 3D Modeling without too much of an hassle, but let's own up to it - I like writing stories and my imagination's pretty vivid, so why not pursue an angle that fits me? (It also fits me in a different way: writers tend to be the unsung heroes in game design.)

Work tends to be okay, with Thursday being my favorite day so far - Truck day! Yes, I know I'm not normal. I actually finding dating boxes, sorting them, stacking them up in a long cart to play Tetris in the freezer then the refrigerator fun. Then I work on fixing up the storage room and making sure it's 'just right' since dayshift usually has time to open boxes to nab what's needed but putting things away with the truck date on them isn't something they have time to do. Y'know they're responsible for prepping the food, most of the huge orders happen during that time, and general chaos. But it doesn't excuse them from all the side work in my opinion. Heh!

There's naturally other things, like friends, gaming (Perfect World International), and my hobbies. I enjoy beading, and oddly enough I think I'm pretty decent with it. Bead loom, peyote stitch, general designs, yup, I do that pretty well.

Drawing hasn't taken a backseat either with me finally getting a new tablet. I'm almost finished with the dragon I'm working on in Corel Painter IX. All I got to say with Corel that the same tactic applies with Photoshop - layering is your friend. Therefore when there's a 'oops' you don't erase everything - or need to tweak, tweak the corresponding layer - not the entire nine yards.

I'll try to be a little more active here. If not feel free to ready the wet noodles for flogging, 'kay? LOL