Dang! You Go Mochi!

So ... it happened again.

I found another anime on Netflix and watched all the episodes in less than a week. It helps that I'm not taking any classes this semester - I'm going to Mississippi for a week and missing a week class would have had dire consequences on my grades.

Anyways, back to anime.

I was watching Fairy Tail not too long ago and realized something. In most of the anime that I watch, the male character is usually struck with a talent for over eating. They usually need it for their Parasitic anti-akuma arm (D. Gray Man), strength for the Kamehameha (Dragon Ball), or to power his inner fire (Fairy Tail). If you are like me, you find yourself craving all the delicious foods these main characters eat on a daily basis. Living in the United States and also, living in the real world, all these foods are sometimes hard to acquire. I decided to not let this stop me and for the past 4 years I have looked for the easiest most delicious recipes for Japanese or Chinese treats to share with the world. 

I came upon a recipe for Microwave Dango Mochi about three years ago and I thought this has to be a dud. There is no way I can make this delicious soft sweet treat in the microwave without having it goop all over my kitchen. Well, thank the Mochi Gods that I went against my inhibitions and tried it anyways. It. Was. Perfect. I've never had real authentic Mochi so I don't want to compare it to the real deal, but I am sure a lot of people would agree with me when I say that it's amazing.

Also, for my fellow visual learners, I posted step by step pictures after the recipe!

Warning: Be careful with the hot mochi if you want to keep your fingerprints!

Microwave Dango Mochi Recipe

Ingredients: 

•  1 1/2 cups of glutinous rice flour (make sure to get "glutinous" rice flour and not regular rice flour.   Regular rice flour will not work)
• 1/4 cup of white sugar 
• 1 cup of water
• 2 drops of food coloring 
• 1/2 cup of cornstarch (to prevent the mochi from sticking to your hands or cutting board)
• Sweet Red Bean Paste (to fill the mochi with)

Other things you will need:

• Cutting Board 
• Plastic Wrap 
• Knife
• Medium Sized Bowl
• Microwave (duh)
• plastic spoon (for stirring. Mochi will stick to metal spoons easier)
• Hands (to shape the mochi)
• Rolling pin (if needed)

 Instructions:

1. Combine rice flour, sugar, water, and food coloring in a medium sized bowl and mix well.

2. Cover in plastic wrap and make sure the bowl is "sealed" completely. 

3. Microwave for two minutes. The mixture looks as if its rising at around a minute and 50 seconds. While the mixture is in the microwave place the cutting board (I used a cookie sheet) on your counter and sprinkle with a generous amount of cornstarch.

4. Remove the bowl from the microwave and stir the mochi. At this point, the mochi is VERY difficult to stir and feels sticky, but make sure you stir it at least a little bit.

5. Place the plastic wrap back on the bowl and microwave for one minute. The mochi will rise (to be your favorite treat and destroy all your other sweet treat families muahahaha).

6.Remove the bowl from the microwave and uncover.

7. Place the mochi on the the cutting board. Cover your hands with corn starch to avoid the mochi from sticking on your hands and it will create a barrier between your fingers and the heat. Spread the mochi as much as possible. The mochi is as hot as molten lava so I use a the rolling pin (or meat mallet...) to help me "roll out" the mochi, but it is very difficult nonetheless.

8. Once flattened out, cut the mochi into various squares and place a small amount of Red Bean Paste in the middle.

9. Grab the square mochi by all its corners and press hard to make the ends stick together. Keep doing this until the under side of the mochi looks like a ball.Or after you pinch the mochi ball closed, roll it around between your hands to make a ball.

10. Display the mochi with the underside facing up to show a perfect round ball.

Title credit goes to Adam Hernandez because he is awesome with names and titles for things!

If you don't like where you are, move. You are not a tree.

Let me be honest here, I had a very difficult time thinking of the topic for my first post. I first thought maybe I should write about a funny occasion; like the time I had to take the walk of shame to the bathroom when the plane turned slightly and a cup of water fell on my pants, but then I decided to write about something that has always been a predicament to the youth of this generation err.. everyone really.

Deciding what you want to be when you grow up. This is something that every human has to think about, whether it be in high school when you're picking the college of your dreams, or in the womb, where all you want to be when you grow up is a human.

 

First, let me tell you a little bit about myself and how at 20 years old, I still have no idea what I want to be when I grow up.

Ever since I was 5 years old, I wanted to be a Veterinarian. Helping out animals and people through what I thought was a happy medium. I went to a high school where I earned my Veterinary Assisting Degree and I had my dream college in mind, my grades in check, leadership blah blah blah. The point is, I had spent 12 years of my life preparing to become a veterinarian. Then ... The Talk happened. No, not the birds and the bees talk, but the talk every parent gives that usually starts with this question: So ... what are you going to do with your life?

I felt confident with my answer, yet my father, a doctor from Peru, thought otherwise. He somehow convinced me to pursue a career in Human Medicine by giving me a hypothetical World War III scenario. I don't recall what he said exactly, but he mentioned Hitler and hamsters in the same sentence and it surprisingly made sense to me at the time. Anywho, now I am in my Junior (3rd) year of college as a pre-med student and I felt as confused as a husband in the feminine care aisle.


I looked outside my car window thinking of what I wanted to do when I graduate. I looked at the streets and thought life is definitely not a highway... it's more like a regular city street. Let me elaborate. When you get in your car to go to Walgreen's, you are taking the first steps in starting your life (school, job, clubs etc.), then you head out to the main road and you encounter various green or red lights and some options to turn left or right. The green lights are the opportunities you have and the red lights are the opportunities that you need to wait for. You have the option to turn right or left if you don't want to wait, and this where the fun begins. You get lost. You explore a new street that you have never explored before. You expand your horizons by trying something new. So now you are trying to find your destination (your career, life, passion, future etc), but at the same time you want to explore more. You know how there is more than one way to get to the Walgreen's at the corner (of happy and healthy ...haha)? Well, there is more than one way to find out what you want to be when you grow up. Some might take longer than others, but you will always find your way.

I decided that I want to take a different road. I decided that what I want to be when I grow up is not the question everyone should be asking. The question is... what do I want to do with my life. I want to learn more about the world before I settle down. I want to make a difference in my community and strive to become a better human being by meeting new people, traveling, educating, and spreading awareness.

Now, I have a question for you. Have you had any red lights in your life lately? Maybe it's time to make a turn. It's time for more people to realize that it's okay to get lost once in a while because that is where the best memories come from and that is where you will find yourself. If you don't like where you are, move. You are not a tree.