its easier for me to microblog lately than it is to sit down and spend time actually blogging. so you can find me on twitter as @imaje or on brightkite as imaje as well.

ive also slowed down on the posting because of the ambivalence of posting about my personal life on something that can be viewed by the world. so, if you’re wondering where a lot of posts have gone, they’re password protected and you should know the password.

It’s been about 2 weeks since we have launched another game.  We call this one Paradigm.

Paradigm is a multiplayer turn based game of numbers and strategy. The player who has the highest score at the end of the game wins. Show some support on facebook and install and play the game http://apps.facebook.com/paradigm

shameless plug no doubt, but i’m allowed to plug my own work!  launch 10 has launched its first interactive multi-player facebook game today.

pirate ships is a game that allows you to battle against friends or with strangers on the high seas as pirates!  place, plot and fire to see who can sink who first.  you can play multiple games simultaneously and choose your pace.

join our pirate ships facebook group to help us spread the word and discuss any topics related to pirate ships the game.

so aside from all the self promoting, the game is quick and fun and we would love your support!

at some point in 2004 i decided to actually make myself a website.  created a template and embraced CSS and used a not so friendly template version of wordpress.  once i got everything working and wordpress all settled.. i never finished.

the other night i made my kitten her very own blog. decided to go ahead and give AdSense a holler, i had never bothered before because about 3 of you actually come to my website (hi guys..). however part of AdSense policy is they don’t give accounts to unfinished websites. I’m going to be putting AdSense on sachi’s website, and figured might as well put one on mine, i figure after 3-4 years of you guys reading my blog i might make enough to finally make a $100.00 check and cash in!

i have now completely updated all the content on my website. updated my theme and made some fixes (but i did this a week or two ago), added a contact form, links (while that’s still unfinished at least i started it), a brief gallery(ill link my crappy gallery some other way), my resume, and a simple home page.

holy shit guys, i finished my website. finally.  now its time to redesign it!! haha.

yes i created a website for sachi.

http://www.sachisan.com/

all future posts about her will take place there. jamiesan will remain my own personal blog!

unfortunately this is not a post about the band, but another boring post about.. the fires. but hey at least i actually live next to one. i got a few concerned calls from family and friends, some emails.. some im’s; all asking if we were okay and what was going on with the fires.

on october 21 around 6:30pm joel and i headed out to get some dinner. we both smelled a hint of smoke in the house but it was so mild it was more like smelling your neighbors grill. stepping into the hallway we were convinced “someone is having a bbq!”. we first headed to blockbuster to drop off some videos, then headed towards the freeway for food and noticed a ridiculous amount of, what appeared at the time to be, fog. “what the hell.. that’s a lot of fog!”. Joel promptly rolled his window down to put his hair out his window to see if he could feel the moisture, instead we were immediately overwhelmed by the smell of smoke and warmth forcing joel to quickly pull his hand back in and roll the window up. “that’s not fog.. that’s ash!”

confused by the volume of ash and smoke in the air that wasn’t there just minutes ago, i grabbed my blackberry and started googling “fire southern california”. sure enough listings of wildfires devastating malibu and san diego filled my screen and i passed the news onto joel. “Ahh! There’s tons of fires north and south of us! that must be the cause, remember in 2003 when the riverside fires left us covered in ash and dreary apocalyptic orange skies?”

after picking up food we headed home and ahead of us joel noticed a stretch of flashing lights, “wonder what’s going on there, tons of cops ahead of us.” not thinking anything was amiss in town, we stayed on course for home and pulled into the garage, 30 minutes ago completely untouched by bad air, now rich with the smell of smoke and ash.

we walked into the house and ate our dinner. chatting with friends closer to malibu we all discussed the fire and the smell and ash it was leaving behind. also being next to san diego i figured, maybe that’s why its so heavy here as well, though enough distance from malibu to not get this kind of ash.

i continued to google about the fires and found a link with irivne locals posting comments and sure enough i see “wildfire in irvine burning up portolla by jamboree, northwood residents are being evacuated.” i double checked the date and time and it had been posted just minutes ago. everything made sense now. the intense smoke and ash, the flashing lights, well crap, wildfires in my backyard, 2 miles away from my home a wildfire was raging.

today is the 24th and while the fire was contained by me its still burning. here are some current links and stats (santiago fire only).

• map of santiago fire – courtesy of the oc register
• satellite images of southern california wildfires
• oc register fire tracking – good source to keep updated with the fire
• name and reference: santiago incident, ORC 0706855
• cause: arson. 3 ignition points discovered. FBI and OC sheriffs search orange county home.
• containment: 50%
• acres burned: 20,000
• manpower: 600 firefighters, 110 engines/trucks, 4 helicopters, 4 air tankers, 5 handcrews, 2 dozers, 2 water tenders
• injuries: 4 minor
• structural damage: 12 outbuildings, 8 destroyed. 8 residential structures damaged, 9 destroyed

i have a new scottish fold kitten named sachi!  view pictures and read about her here.

born and raised in hawaii, spam musubi is a classic treat that ive turned many of my round eye spam fearing friends on to

if you’ve been to hawaii you are familiar with spam musubi. everyone has their own method of making it, since my friends enjoy my version i’ve decided to share it. i see a lot of people who cook their spam in shoyu (soy sauce) but i prefer using a marinade. i don’t usually make it with tamago (sweet egg) but sometimes i do.

Ingredients:

• 1 can spam (i use 25% less sodium)
• 1 pack sushi nori (dried seaweed)
• 3 cups of cooked japanese sticky rice (sushi rice or sticky medium grain)
• 1 cup shoyu (i use to prefer kikkoman or aloha shoyu, aloha has a much higher sugar concentration, kikkoman is salty)
  

  i have gotten several “2 cups???” response. i modified it to say 1 cup. i generally use 1-2 cups simply because when im done marinating the spam i do not throw the marinade away. I will generally use it once or 2x again for either beef and chicken (i will toss it after i put chicken in it).

• 1/2 cup brown sugar (use more if you prefer a sweeter soy base)
• 3 cloves garlic minced
• 1 bunch of scallions diced
• 1-2 tablespoons ginger shredded
• 1-2 teaspoon sesame seed oil
• 1 serrano pepper minced (if you don’t like spicy don’t use this)

Instructions (marinade & spam prep):

1. In a medium sized bowl mix Shoyu, sugar and stir until sugar is dissolved.
2. add garlic, scallions, ginger, pepper, and sesame seed oil to the marinade and stir to mix together.
3. slice spam into 10 slices one way then cut across other way to form 20 square pieces.
4. add spam to bowl and allow it to marinate for at least 4-6 hours.
5. fry spam in pan.

Instructions (tamago):

1. beat 4 eggs in bowl, add 1-2 tablespoons of sugar (or as much or little as you like for taste) .
2. fry egg in pan with oil, don’t scramble or overcook.
3. pat oil off egg and chop into squares similar to the spam size.

Instructions (creating the musubi):

Some people use the actual spam can to shape the rice and spam but i find that messy. i have on a few occasions just used my hand, also messy. you can easily online or at most asian supermarkets buy a “spam musubi” maker. it looks like a rectangle. I have both a wooden and plastic one and tend to use the plastic one more as it just seems to be easier and faster. some makers are as large as 1 piece of spam, some as large as 2. i have the large one. all this really does is press the rice into compact rectangle shape.

1. use spam musubi maker to make enough rice squares as you have spam. some people use a lot of rice others less. i like to use about as much rice as equal to or double the size of the spam.
2. cut the nori to whatever size you like. i prefer my nori to be the same width as my musubi.
3. place rice square on nori, then the spam, then the egg. “roll” the stacked musubi to be wrapped.

I have been meaning to make this post for quite some time. I took the pictures many months ago but as usual, never got around to it. several people have asked me how i make my curry so i decided to take the time to put a step by step instruction.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups steamed sticky (japanese/sushi) rice
• 1/2 large onion (sub: 1 medium)
• 2 large potatoes (sub: 4-5 small-medium)
• 3 large carrots (sub: 4-5 small-medium)
• 2- 4 garlic cloves (use as little as you want, joel and i love garlic)
• 16oz cubed beef/chicken/pork/fish (i prefer beef)
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 1 tbsp crushed salt
  • 1 tbsp ground pepper
• 3 cups water
• 1 box S&B Golden Curry Roux – 3.5oz (i use hot)

Instructions – Vegetable Prep:

1. Prep your vegetables. cube potatoes and slice carrots (i prefer carrot ovals).

2. soak carrots and potatoes in 2 cups of water. this prevents the potatoes from oxidizing and turning brown. you will use this water later so don’t throw out. the water collects the starch from the potatoes so its good for a natural thickener for the curry.

3. halve your onion then cut cubed/square slices.



4. dice garlic

5. cook your rice. (hopefully you have a rice cooker, and if you don’t, you already know how to steam your own rice.. if you don’t, learn how. if you use uncle bens or any instant rice you deserve to be shot)

Instructions – Meat Prep:

1. in a large bowl mix the dry ingredients: 1/2 cup flour, 1 tbsp crushed salt, 1tbsp ground pepper.

2. in a frying pan heat a few tbsp’s of oil (olive or vegetable). add cubed meat into dry mix and coat it. do not put it all in at once, the meat will soak up too much flour if you do it this way. coat a few pieces and sear/brown them quickly on both sides. don’t try to cook all the meat at once, this will diminish the heat in the pan and make it harder to sear the outside. do a few pieces at a time for best results.




3. place the meat aside to rest. meat will continue to cook and tenderize itself as it settles.

Instructions – Mixing & Cooking Curry:

1. heat to medium-high a tbsp of vegetable oil in a large pot. add cubed onions and a pinch of salt and ground pepper. saute for about a minute.

2. add garlic to onion. i add the garlic later because garlic burns a lot quicker. saute for a few minutes until slightly brown.

3. add rested seared meat and mix. mix and saute for a minute or 2, stirring very frequently.

4. with a strainer, pour the 2 cups of water from the soaking potatoes and carrots into the pot (don’t add vegetables yet just water).

5. allow water to come to a quick small boil.
6. break apart the curry roux into smaller pieces and disperse them through the pot evenly. constantly mix your water to allow the roux to melt and form the gravy. make sure you’re constantly stirring else the curry will start to burn and stick to the bottom and you will have chunks of curry roux not blended well.



7. the curry will appear very thick and boil, add the remaining 1/2-1 cup of water and stir well. it might appear that its not enough water and the curry is ridiculously thick. not to worry. DO NOT ADD more water as it will water down the taste of your curry. the vegetables will add a lot of water once its cooked in the curry.

8. once the curry is nicely mixed and thick reduce heat to low-medium add the carrots and potatoes. it is not necessary to mix the curry at this point. You want to keep the meat on the bottom just add vegetables to the top and with your mixing spoon press it down to soak under the curry.

9. be sure to cover your curry to prevent all the water from evaporating. cook on low-medium heat for about 10 minutes stirring every few minutes to keep the curry from burning on the bottom. after about 10 minutes reduce heat to low.
10. at this point allow your curry to stew on low for 1-2 hours. you can check on your curry as often as you want to stir. i stir every 10 minutes or so. stewing allows the meat to become extremely tender which i find very important especially when using beef. when using other meats you don’t have to stew for nearly as long.

when your meal is ready you will find that the vegetables added a rich amount of flavorful water to the curry and its not as thick as it was before. the flour in the beef also adds to the thickness and you don’t have to add any cornstarch. i try to avoid cornstarch as much as possible as i find it adds more of a gelatinous texture instead of a rich creamy texture.

i usually eat curry in a bowl, a scoop or 2 of rice on the bottom and i pour my curry over, but i usually serve to others on a plate.

mmm now go make curry! 

i am by no means a chef or pasty chef of any kind but i do love to cook and bake nonetheless.  i have owe’d joel "obligation cupcakes" for some time now and finally decided to make them.  we decided on red velvet cupcakes with a whipped butter cream cheese frosting.

red velvet makes me think of christina so in honor of her and of course joel since they are his obligation cupcakes, i took some pictures to share.