Shrimp in a van

This has been such a crappy week. I am feeling like such a fish out of water. I have that feeling like nothing is working. I have spent the entire week trying to find the ingredients to cook some Japanese food. I have been missing Japan. Finding a decent soy sauce, fresh ginger, and sake have been a very trying experience. Today I am driving quite some distance to an Asian food market, I believe it is Vietnamese but I still have hope. Lily and I are going on our own so I am trying to memorize the directions.

I am still having a bit of trouble adjusting to the driving in America. Even though I first learned to drive in California as a teen. First there is the driving on the other side of the road. I accidentally go on the wrong side every once in awhile especially in parking lots, where I tend to get really confused. And then there is the speed thing. I am no longer used to driving so fast. I believe the fasted I drove in Japan was around 30 MPH (which was the day I got ticketed for speeding), here I am supposed to drive 70 on the freeway and around everyone else seems to be going around 70 on the highway too even though the speed limit is 45. I swear if you get caught going 45 they will run me down with their big ass-ed pick up trucks. Every time I leave the house I see an enormous and aggressive pick up truck coming up on me in my rear view mirror. They use an awful lot of aggression and tail gating to try to get me in my tiny little car to speed up. It all freaks me out. And heaven forbid if I have to change lanes because I don't know where anything is, they get very irate at lane changers. Anyways the driving is driving me crazy. I have found some small back roads to get to the places I like, but today I am going to take all the crazy roads in order to try and find some decent Asian ingredients.

The cookie store ran out of Lily's cookies. I tried to bake a batch based on this recipe from Gluten-Free Mommy. I had to spend a small fortune in ingredients and then I made some modifications. This recipe is a cookie recipe with no wheat or egg, but it had some corn in it and so I tried some modifications. The cookies turned out a bit too sweet and very crumbly. They explode into tiny little pieces when you hold them. The reason they are too sweet I believe is that I substituted sweet rice flour for the Pamela's baking mix. But, otherwise the texture and feeling in the mouth was the best I have had. Even better than the store box cookies we have been eating. I am thinking of trying again with less sugar and adding some Xanthum Gum, first I have to check and see what Xanthum Gum is and if it contains corn. For now we have no cookies.

This is probably a good thing. While Lily was initially overcome with the joy of the cookie and I was able to use this to convince her to do many things. She caught on to the fact that I was getting my way and she told me I could keep my cookies she was not going to be listening to me again. In fact this last week she has been extra bad to make up for the good I got to enjoy previously. I think we are all caught up and I wont be using cookies for behavior modification anymore. I asked her to stop screaming in the car, if she did she could have a cookie. She stopped screaming and said in a clear sweet little voice, "I think I would rather cry than have a cookie." And then she continued to cry/scream all the way home. So I pulled over to the side of the road, pulled her out of her car seat by her hair and gave her a good beating. Just kidding, but wouldn't that have been shocking. I imagine she would say, I would rather have a beating than quit screaming right now but thank you for asking.

I have high hopes for today. I am going to make it to the Asian Market, without a single missed turn or tailgater. Lily will be an angel. And then we will find the children's park and play with all the other little children and eating our sack lunch. We will drive home, and Lily will fall to sleep and sleep for several hours while I enjoy my favorite soap operas and eat bon bons. This is my hope for the day.

Tonight is the Relay for Life. Thanks to all of you great Internet friends Jeff was able to meet his goal. He was also the fourth highest fund raiser in his group. Which I think is really great since we just got here and don't know anyone. He wants to donate more money so he can be at least third. What a nut. So tonight after working more than 70 hours this week he will be staying up all night running around a track. I hope he has fun. I will be here at home feet propped up eating a new batch of gluten-free, egg free, corn free chocolate chocolate chip cookies and beef donburi. If any of it turns out edible I will post a recipe.

Here is my question to you wise peoples. I live on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, this region is famous for shrimping. The seafood market was destroyed by Katrina and has not been rebuilt. There is a guy in a white van on the corner across the street from the Wal-Mart who sells fresh shrimp out of an ice chest. He is there everyday. I see that many people will stop and buy shrimp from the van guy. I would stop and buy strawberries or boiled peanuts from people on the side of the road but, buying shrimp out of a van, does that sound sane to you? Would you buy shrimp from a guy in a van? I imagine that he or his friends go out on their shrimp boat and get these lovely shrimp early in the morning. They could be the freshest most delicious inexpensive shrimp in the world. But, they come from a van. Just wondering.