Easy Miso Soup

I rarely have time to think these days, much less spend a long preparing a meal. With the demands of being a super-daddy that I face every day, relaxing moments are sometimes hard to come by. So today I would like to present to you some simple-zen-in-a-bowl...
Easy Miso Soup
Ingredients
- 2 litres H2O
- 1/3 cup miso paste
- 1 pack (2 teaspoons) bonito soup base powder (available at Japanese grocery stores)
- 1 cube chicken bullion.

Throw in pot. Boil. Stir. Eat.

(If you want to get crazy you can cube up a little bit of firm tofu and throw that in along with some chopped green onion and some udon noodles, but don't break a sweat.)

Now that you are feeling all nice, chilled out, and relaxed, here is some irritating, sappy, kiddy J-pop (apparently extolling the virtues of miso soup) to snap you back to the harsh reality of life.

Pop Tart Martini

The last few days have been beautiful in Vancouver and it finally feels that spring has arrived. The sun is shining and the cherry trees are in bloom. I was in the mood for something festive last night so I whipped up something that was bubbly, but wasn't too sweet. However, it does go down very easily. Consider yourself warned.

Pop Tart Martini (It isn't made with toaster pastry but it pops, and it's a bit tart)
Ingredients
1 shot gin
1 shot pomegranate juice
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon simple syrup
1 dash bitters
ice
white sugar
2 shots sparkling white wine
2 shots Mountain Dew
Rim a martini glass with sugar. Put first 5 ingredients in a cocktail shaker over ice. Shake like you are having an epileptic fit. Strain into martini glass. Gently stir in sparkling wine and Mountain Dew. Make sure that you raise a toast to spring...

This recipe goes out to my buddies Lars and Phil who, at this very moment, are chatting on Facebook, joking about drunken heckling in the back of church tomorrow. You guys rule.

Speaking of Pop Tarts and Phil and Lars, I will leave y'all with this gem.