Vacation!

Wooo, I'm on vacation! Except for one pesky meeting on Monday, that is...

Goals for this 2.5 week vacation:

1. Finish Current Thujas
These are a gift for someone, so I'd like to finish them by Wednesday. The first one is already halfway done, so this should be very do-able.

2. Blog More
I have one completed pair of Thujas to show off, and I may as well show off some other in progress works. I've also been baking, so I can show some cookies too!

3. Finish 3 Baby/Lap Sized Blankets
The first one is already most of the way done, so it shouldn't be too difficult to do this. We've also found a way to get Hulu here, so I can peruse the movies on that while knitting.

4. Finish Fellowship of the Ring
I hated The Hobbit. However, the Lord of the Rings trilogy is on so many booklists that I'm finally tackling it. It's really pretty good so far!

5. Cook Daily
Lee's been cooking here since the majority of my recipes are sauce and cheese based (lasagna, stuffed shells, chicken parmesan) but you can't get plain tomato sauce or most cheeses here. I could definitely do Chicken Parm, and I probably will this week, but I can't get the ricotta for the others. I also like chicken and dumplings and chicken and beef based soups and stews, but there's really not stew beef or good chicken for such things either. No chicken on the bones here. The vegetables are also very small, so I'd be peeling potatoes forever for a good stew or potato soup. I have a recipe that I love, but it requires cheese too, which again is nigh impossible to get, unless you want to spend an arm and a leg. Since I'm on break for the first week and we're both on break for the second week and a half, I'm going to be doing the cooking.

To that end, are there any good Japanese style recipes you enjoy? We eat a lot of cabbage, bean sprouts, carrots and onions, and there is an abundance of fish. We can get really good pork, chicken, and beef, but it's expensive so we try to have vegetable based foods with some meat, instead of American style meat based foods with some veggies. We can only get short grain white rice, and can't get plain old distilled white vinegar. There is pasta and lettuce. There are also eggplants and a multitude of mushrooms, purple sweet potatoes and diakon, but I tend to stay away from those. The purple sweet potatoes are delicious and make really good mashed potatoes, but I don't like/don't know what to do with the rest. Any ideas?