Jeff and I decided we are going to start cooking more at home. We have a cupboard full of food, and yet we keep eating out. We are eating way too much restaurant food and need to get back to more healthy home cooking. We’ll feel better, we’ll eat more of a variety of foods and pretty much everything about our lives will improve. This is what we repeated to each other all Saturday morning. Yes, we were determined.

So, in the spirit of our new commitment, I pulled out the big soup cookbook and picked a hearty concoction for us to try. I hit a snag right away, though, when I tried to open a can of cannellini beans and couldn’t find the can opener.

Jeff hemmed and hawed over what happened to it. I still don’t think I got the whole story. I’ve never heard of anyone breaking a can opener before. I’ve seen Edward break a knife cutting pecorino cheese. I personally have had the handle of the cheese grater slip off mid grate. But how do you break a can opener?

My soup had to wait. We set off to the kitchen store. I love cooking stores. They are right up there with office supply stores in terms of useless gadgets that bring you intense, fleeting joy. Aside from the wall of can openers to choose from, I was also browsing the appliance section. I’m in the market for a propane crepe maker like street vendors use in Paris.

We chose the can opener with the fewest plastic parts that could break and made our way out without any impulse buys. We browsed a few other stores, and enjoyed a nice stroll in the sunshine before heading back to the car.

By then it was past lunchtime, so driving home Jeff suggested we try the new Miso Teriyaki restaurant that moved into where Oasis Coffee House used to be.

When you walk in you’re greeted by an enormous vase of flowers and a little Sumo wrestler statue. The inside is very modern with comfortable booths and tables along the wall. We shared the gyoza as an appetizer. I ordered the seaweed salad and mixed veggies. Jeff got the house salad and steak.

For some reason, miso soup isn’t on the menu, but it came for free with our food. Score.

Also, it’s mostly a sushi restaurant, which I wouldn’t have guessed from the name.

The seaweed salad was good. Although, every seaweed salad I’ve ever had has tasted the same. So, maybe there is no such thing as bad seaweed salad. This one had strips of cucumber in it that added some extra crunch. The atmosphere is relaxed. It’s the kind of place where you can sit and relax and even laugh a bit too loudly, which I am prone to do. At the end Jeff and I got fortune cookies, which seemed a little out of place to me. I didn’t mind, though, because not only did my cookie have two fortunes, but they were both really good.

We returned home with our new can opener, still full from lunch and with extras for a midnight snack. On the counter I saw the can of beans. I put it back in the cupboard for another day.

Miso Teriyaki is located on 1811 State of Franklin Road. For more information, call 423-975-MISO or visit their Web site at www.misoteriyakihouse.com.

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