Still Clumsy with Chopsticks

A Windy Day on the Cape with Very Nice People!

2012-02-02T08:50:00.007+09:00

Pumpkin Flan? @ UTOCO (Hoshino Resort UTOCO Auberge & Spa)

Yesterday was a G R E A T day for me. A very good friend of mine came to re-visit my hometown, and she brought her friend this time. Me and my two Japanese friends welcomed them at the information center, then the five of us strolled around on Cape Muroto in the 16 m/s wind! LOL

After the nice walk, we had this Kaisen-don (a bowl of rice with seafood on top) at a hotel restaurant.

I liked the dish, but what really tickled me was the lovely dessert, pumpkin flan.

Nice chat over a good meal... That was something I didn't have for quite a while.
It sure was an unforgettable day. :)
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In a Springy Color

2012-01-29T08:43:00.007+09:00

Seafood Pasta in Pink

The reason why I call this color "springy" is that this light pink color reminded me of typical spring flowers we see in Japan: peach and cherry blossoms. Can you imagine what gave this pasta dish the lovely color? It was mentaiko (marinated pollock roe).
It was the restaurant where I had the lettuce fried rice the other day. Here I bumped into a friend of mine who was having lunch with her son. Maybe they thought I was weird, because I was shooting photos of my lunch so enthusiastically. ;)
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An Overnight Trip

2012-01-19T11:23:00.013+09:00

I visited two places in Hyogo prefecture on the 16th and 17th of January, as written here and here. This was the humble dinner I had at the inn I stayed at. Unfortunately, this packed sushi I bought in Sannomiya was no good. But the lady who took care of the place was so nice and made my stay there very comfortable.

The earthquake memorial event was held early in the morning on the 17th. It was freezing cold.
After coming back to the inn, I slipped into futon again and waited until I got warmed up.

Around 8:30 am, I finally got out of futon. Before leaving the inn, I looked for the lady to pay for the stay. She was in the kitchen and offered me breakfast (even though it was not included in the service). How nice!

I liked this inn. She charged me only 2,500 yen for the overnight stay.
I've got to come back again!

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Warm Lunch on a Cold, Windy Day!

2012-01-11T19:48:00.006+09:00

Lettuce Fried Rice with Starchy Sauce, Shrimp Spring Roll, Salad and Miso Soup

It was so windy today. See the waves in the photo below? See how the wave splash was being blown by the wind? On a day like this, nothing beats a warm lunch with steaming hot soup and tea. :)

I had lunch at a seaside restaurant.

Some coarsely ground black pepper flakes were hiding beneath the spring roll.

I liked everything, except that the fried rice was a little too salty for me.

They still had traditional ornament from the New Year's Day. The red berries looked so lovely. :)
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Nanakusa-gayu

2012-01-07T09:32:00.007+09:00

Nanakusa-gayu (Rice Porridge with Seven Kinds of Edible Wild Herbs)

This is the very first time that my mom made this porridge on the 7th of January. Perhaps the piled up packages of the seven herbs looked too tempting at the supermarket yesterday.

You can find the details of this traditional custom here. Mom didn't care much about sticking with these traditional seven herbs. She threw in some cabbage and pumpkin wedges, which was probably a good thing to do, at least, nutrition-wise. :P

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Happy New Year!!

2012-01-01T19:54:00.017+09:00

Hope everyone enjoyed the New Year's Day. I know there are those who had to work on January 1st (I used to be one of them). I hope that they had a good day at work, and can have lots of fun later when the majority of people have to be back at work. :)

Home-packed (not really homemade) New Year's Feast, 2012

So, how do you like this new template? At the end of last year, I noticed that those lines around the title bar, main posts and the sidebars were not really necessary. Hence, this new template.

Yes, there are a couple of things I want to fix. Can you help me with this: how can I show the links in bold letters as was in the previous template of this blog? But overall, I'm happy with this new look.

I'm going to post more food photos this year.
Dear readers, thank you so much for still visiting this blog, even though I couldn't update it very often last year. Your attention meant so much to me, and it will in the future, too. :)

* For those who are interested: these are typical New Year's dishes in Japan. Click on the links for details. ;)
- Osechi
- Zoni

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Wishing You the Very Best

2011-12-24T11:58:00.005+09:00

It's been a while since I made gingerbread people for Christmas last time. For one thing, I didn't have time. But more than anything, I totally lost motivation.

But obachan is back now, and here's my little tree for the Christmas 2011.

Gingerbread people without ginger and molasses

Thank you for your support and friendship this year, when I was so lost, exhausted and feeling used. Now I have this feeling that the worst part is over and I have some practical idea for making my year 2012 somewhat better.

Hope you keep visiting this blog :)

** Have a wonderful holiday season.
May 2012 bring you lots of joy, happiness and success!! **

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Kinmedai Ankake Donburi

2011-12-12T18:24:00.007+09:00

Kinmedai Ankake Donburi (Deep-fried Alfonsino on Rice with Starchy Sauce)
at Jibaumaya restaurant, Cape Muroto

About two weeks ago, one of my facebook friends and I talked about this fish, Kinmedai. Its English translation is probably "alfonsino," but the friend gave me a much more descriptive translation: "the splendid golden eyed red snapper." I love it.

Today I had this Donburi (rice bowl) dish for lunch. Alfonsino is my favorite fish. But we don't see it very often in our kitchen, because it is expensive.

The fish was OK, but the starchy sauce was not too great. Mmmmm... :(

Oh, I almost forgot.
On the night of the 10th, we saw a total eclipse of the moon here in Japan. These are the shots I took that night.

Not bad, huh? ;)
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Coffee Break

2011-12-01T20:58:00.004+09:00

This photo was taken about a month ago, when I needed something sweet after giving a couple of tours. I remember that the lady who brought me this cake and coffee said, "Oh, my! You look so tired."

It is already December and we are still busy here giving tours to visitors. (For those who are interested, I've been blogging about it here. )
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Next Time I Have to Take a Photo of the Sunset Here

2011-11-06T20:14:00.005+09:00

Homemade Custard Pudding

In a town which is about an hour drive from our town, there is a coffee shop built very close to the shore. (See the photo on the left.) From a local's point of view, building a shop here is a very brave thing to do. This is the Pacific Ocean for God's sake -- not some inland sea -- and this area is known for being hit by typhoons frequently. Actually, several years ago, this shop closed for a while because its windows were broken by terrible typhoon wind.

But when the sea is calm, the sunset you can see from this coffee shop is nothing but gorgeous. And the top photo is my favorite: their homemade custard pudding. :)
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Pizza and GingerAle

2011-10-28T22:27:00.007+09:00

Pizza Margherita

I've been quite active as a volunteer tour guide recently as posted here. Sometimes I give two tours (or even more) a day and get so tired afterward. Today was one of those days. Usually when I am exhausted, I go for something sweet with a cup of hot coffee. But for some reason, after giving two tours today, I craved for cheese. So these are what I had: Pizza Margherita and ginger ale.

Yes, I spent a nice, relaxing time at the restaurant. :)
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Montana!

2011-10-14T12:37:00.010+09:00

tSee this beautiful scenery? I was in Montana from 4th to 7th, October, 2011. The details of my stay there are posted here and here, if you are interested.
This is the local beer I tried there. It was flavorful, but to tell you the truth, it gave me a little headache afterwords.

Guess Where I am Now!

2011-10-03T12:34:00.007+09:00

View from the plane widow today

I'm in the U.S. right now. More specifically, in LA now. I'm flying to Missoula, MT tomorrow, via Salt Lake City.　For those who may be interested,I no longer work for the geopark promotion committee.　But I am still related to the geopark activities and now I am on my way to a workshop in Montana. Will tell you more about it soon.

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I love American airports. Good Wi-fi coverage. Many desks and chairs to sit down and enjoy the internet or get some work done. I especially enjoyed being at the Salt Lake City International Airport. See the Cinnabon in the photo?

Norway 3

2011-10-01T06:49:00.002+09:00

The second day of our two-day field trip after a geopark-related conference in Norway. To be perfectly honest, the trip was not as good as the first day. Mostly it was because of the disappointing weather. It was cold and rainy, though the rain stopped once in a while.

In the morning, we visited a production site of Larvikite, the national rock of Norway. The rock itself was interesting. But what was more fun to me was seeing geologists being excited like small kids.

We saw children's performance near the beach and loved it very much. Each of them had a role as a rock and told us what it was made of and how it was made.

It was very lucky that the rain stopped for a while for our lunch outside of the bus.

After that, we visited a place known for traditional salmon fishing. See the river?

These are the people who made the wonderful salmon dishes for us. THANK YOU!! xxx

Our last stop was at a herb farm.

The traditional farm house reminded me of "Ann of green gables."

This last photo was taken at the airport, either Sandefijord or Copenhagen. (I cannot remember which it was...)

I enjoyed almost everything I ate during my stay in Norway. But I have to confess that a craving for rice and miso soup started a few days before our departure. Hahaha... Those were the first thing I had when I came home on the night of the 22nd, September.
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Norway - 2

2011-09-20T08:01:00.009+09:00

At a meat shop in Kragerø

This is a photo I took at a local meat shop in Norway. In our"geotour" we stopped by at this shop and tasted their sausage. It was so good.

But before I tell you about the meat shop, let me start from the beginning of the field trip we were in on that day.
The houses in Norway look so lovely, being painted in pretty colors. You take a photo at anywhere and it will make a nice postcard. We had an hour boat tour to Jomfruland.

Jomfruland was a long island made of glacial deposits. (Is this correct? If I'm not mistaken, the deposits there are called end moraine.) I truly loved this scenery of cows relaxing on the beach, so close to the sea. The scenery of cows and seaweed being so close together looked so unusual to me.

We have traditional stone walls like these in our hometown, which block windows very well but look kind of plain. The stone walls here looked, again, so pretty in different colors and I loved them.

The stroll on the island was just lovely. We had fish cake sandwiches for lunch. You know Japan is surrounded by the sea and we eat a lot of fish. We have wide variety of fish products, including various kinds of fish cakes. But I would say that the fish cake I had that day was better than any Japanese one I had had before. Honestly.

After coming back to Kragerø, our tour visited an old mine (in the middle of the town!) and some shops in town.

See? Kitty-chan is all over the world!

We stopped at a meat shop. There each of us was given a piece of sausage to taste, which I thought a nice idea.

The sausage was very good, though a little too salty. It made me want to drink something -- like wine. (Maybe that was the reason for the saltiness?)

It was truly a nice one-day trip.
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I'm in Norway Now, And We Did It!!!!

2011-09-18T12:44:00.004+09:00

I'm in Norway now, attending a geopark conference. And last night, we -- the project I've been working for -- were accredited as a member of the Global Geoparks Network!
I'm not going to give a long explanation about what the Network is about. But we have worked SOOO hard for the member status of this network, and it was one of the most rewarding experiences in my life to hear the announcement of our accreditation last night at the conference dinner.

The work required for this project almost ruined my life. You know that made me too busy to blog, and also made me totally dependent on my relatives for driving my dad and mom to the hospital. But this great feeling of accomplishment ... !

Maybe it was not such a bad idea that I worked for this project.

Vietnam - Ha Long Bay and Symposium

2011-07-24T21:35:00.009+09:00

Ha Long Bay

I came back to Japan yesterday (July 23). Now I'm writing this post in my hometown, feeling that part of me is still left in Vietnam.
These photos are from July 17th. Me and my colleagues went to Ha Long Bay for 1 day trip.
I'll write more about the trip soon.

Party Food at the Symposium Gala Dinner 1

Party Food at the Symposium Gala Dinner 2

I am in Vietnam Now!!!!!

2011-07-16T20:16:00.007+09:00

Hi! You thought I gave up on this blog? No no! I had been just terribly, extremely busy to prepare for the on-site evaluation by the people from the Global Geoparks Network. And now IT`S OVER!!!! YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OVER!!! And on the last day of the evaluation, the delegates from our Geopark including myself flew to Vietnam to attend an International symposium. So that is why I`m in Hanoi now. I will post some photos soon. Stay tuned!

Loved the meal. ;)

Just to Let You Know

2011-06-14T02:09:00.002+09:00

Hi! Sorry about not posting for a long time. I'm OK, though I'm in a real, real crazy month right now. Why so crazy? Because the evaluation of our geopark is taking place next month, almost 1 month earlier than we all had expected. We were truly shocked and speechless when the evaluation dates were officially announced. But now, we are just doing our best, because that's the only thing we can do, after all.

I'll let you know more about it in a few days. Sorry, no food photo today.

Ice Plant

2011-04-24T19:33:00.005+09:00

Ice Plant with Cottage Cheese

This is an interesting plant called "ice plant," which contains salt in these beads-like things called bladder cells. Here, this ice plant seems to be gaining popularity as a vegetable rather than an ornamental plant. I just love the crispiness of these leaves. :)
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It's Never Too Late to Make a New Start

2011-04-16T16:56:00.008+09:00

Black mushroom spaghetti, Japanese style

"It's never too late to make a new start."
That's what I have been telling myself over and over for the past couple of weeks.
And it must be what many -- so many -- people in Japan want to believe in now.

It's been more than a month since that terrible earthquake hit north-eastern part of Japan. On April 11th, at our workplace, we observed one minute of silence to pray for the victims. I guess most people did the same throughout Japan on that day.

Like I wrote before, the quake, tsunami and the nuclear power plant accident did not cause damage directly to our region. But we all have been affected in some way or another, I would say. And I have to admit that, in my case, it must have triggered some unfinished issues from my experience of Kobe Earthquake in 1995. After that earthquake, things looked really hard around me, including my work, family and everything -- and in late March, I told my boss that I wanted to quit my job. But after all, I decided to stay, and I'm still working the same job with a couple of newcomers.

On the other hand, at home, dad decided that he was too weak that he had to move to a room that is closer to the restroom, so he told me to swap rooms with him. Well, he has been healthy enough to visit several hospitals, looking for a doctor who says there is something wrong with him. And he is also healthy enough to move some furniture while moving his stuff into my room -- no, my ex room and his new room. But according to him, he can hardly walk and needs to buy a new bed. Anyway, moving into a new room did make me feel good to some extent, except that dad's closet smells like naphthalene moss balls. :(

I'm going to have to face soooooooo many challenges. Hope I don't have to face them all alone.

The photo above shows the spaghetti I had for lunch today. It was OK. The important thing is that I didn't feel like shooting a food photo when I was going through a hard time, but today I felt like it.
One step forward. ;)

BTW, thank you so much for your kind comments to my previous blog. Sorry I only responded to about half of them, but I truly appreciated all of them. Honestly.

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No, I Haven't Given Up!

2011-03-11T11:25:00.007+09:00

You thought I gave up on this blog? No, no! It's been a long hiatus, but my heart was always on this blog and you, kind readers. Oh, you know me, don't you!

Honestly speaking, I've been really busy. As the person who sent me these goodies in the photos above knows, I never went home before 9 pm for the past couple of weeks. There were several nights that I went home past midnight. And what really sucks is that all those efforts often do not pay off!

It was one of those terrible times when a friend of mine sent me these -- should I call them crackers? -- made from sweet potatoes. Just when we (me and my colleagues) needed to bite on something really crispy. Stress reduction, you know.

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(added after 10 pm, same day)

To those who have heard about the earthquake in Japan:
Please don't worry. Me and my family are OK. The earthquake hit the northern part of Japan, so we didn't feel much shaking here. But because of the tsunami warning, city employees stayed in the city office until late at night for disaster response. They might be still there, since the warning level in our prefecture was just raised. Aftershock tsunami, I suppose.

This afternoon, after we saw the TV news on the earthquake, my colleague and I were sent to the promenade on the cape to tell tourists and anglers to stay away from the sea. Then we kept watching the news on ustream for the rest of the day. It's terrible. Especially the tsunami! It's so fast. That's what we are expecting in the near future....
Anyway, I'm tired because so many unexpected things happened today; I'm going to bed earlier tonight.
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Weekend in the Snow

2011-01-21T12:41:00.011+09:00

The lunch on the last day of our trip

OMG! It's already the end of the month!! :O
Forgive me for this procrastination. I prepared the draft of this post with these photos about 10 days ago. And I forgot to finish it.

Anyway, on the 17t of this month, I went to Kumano Kodo Pilgrimage Routes in Wakayama Prefecture. It was a work-related trip, but still it was fun. But the snow and wind! Gee! We were worried that we might not be able to come back, because the ferry service between Honshu (main island) and Shikoku Island was stopped for several hours.

Wakayama is famous for umeboshi (pickled plums). Look. This entire section was umeboshi section!

And see? They make so many different kinds of umeboshi! Unbelievable! All these cute containers had umeboshi for tasting. Usually umeboshi is very salty and sour. There are some that are less salty or even sweetened with honey, but I wasn't too crazy about them.

But some of the umeboshi I tasted there on that day were amazing. They were not too salty, even slightly sweet, but not the artificial sweetness from something like honey or sugar, and had some refreshing fruit-like flavor. I bought a few packages for my family and relatives, and everyone loved it.

This is something to brag about. This is hot spring by the river. We bathed here at night. We (women) had bathing suits on, though. The water smelled a little strange, but it was quite a relaxing experience. But after getting out of the hot spring... Gosh, it WAS cold.

Kumano taisha shrine in the snow

It was just beautiful. The traditional shrine and the old pilgrimage road in the snow looked like a scene in totally different world.

I wish I could visit there again to enjoy several hot springs at different locations, and try more umeboshi. :)
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A Happy New Year!

2011-01-02T11:53:00.007+09:00

As most long-term readers of this blog know, I went through a lot of challenges in the past couple of years. In 2009, the challenges were mostly related to adjustment issues, and in 2010, they came from the combination of mom's surgery, dad's hypochondriasis and my work. It is just amazing that I survived all the turmoil. I guess you can survive most anything if you don't really care about "how well." LOL

To minimize mom's workload in the kitchen, we cooked only a few kinds of new year's food at home. More than half of the food packed in our tiered boxes for osechi feast was store-bought this year, but it actually did not ruin any festivity and made things a lot easier for all of us on the new year's eve. So I was happy.

You see the cute pink-and-white thing in the top photo? It is steamed fish cake called kamaboko in Japan, and I cut it that way to make it look festive. If you can get kamaboko and want to know how to do that, the instruction is on this site -- the one at the bottom.

As a representative of my family, I visited the nearby shrine at midnight on the new year's eve, just like previous years. The stars were oh-so bright in the winter sky that I felt as if I heard their twinkling sound.

And at 7 am on January 1st, 2011, I was on top of the cape to see the first sunrise of the year at the highest lookout in the city, because I really, really need a good luck this year!

I wish you and yours the very best for 2011!!

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Christmas on the Cape

2010-12-27T12:47:00.005+09:00

I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas! :)
Mine was not very eventful, but I did spend nice 30 minutes on the cape -- at the spot which was designated as a "lover's sanctuary" a few months ago.

Though a bit cold and windy, there was even a saxophone performance as well as some "romantic" events planned by the tourism division of the local government.

At home? No festive dinner at all this year. Not even a chicken leg from KFC. Hahahah...

****************** Merry Christmas *****************

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Relaxed Morning

2010-12-07T13:11:00.006+09:00

Breakfast at a cafe

Actually, it was very unusual for me to eat breakfast at a cafe, but I really HAD TO on that day.
This photo was taken about 10 days ago, when I was almost stressed out to death. Why? Because it was just a few days before a big, huge and important deadline in our work, and we still had a lot to do then. I don't remember how much I had told you in my previous posts, but I now work for the secretariat section of local "geopark promotion committee" which is applying for a member status of a global network. The application dossier was due at the end of November, and I was translating the Japanese dossier into English.

It was a real hard work, but that was not because I had to translate some scientific sections on geology. It was indeed challenging, but exciting in a sense, with a lot of new discoveries. I didn't mind learning a lot about the great geologic value of my own hometown. But what was really terrible was that the Japanese draft went through TOO many changes until the VERY LAST MINUTE, even after my translation was sent to proofreaders. So I had to look for some additional proofreaders. It was already a patchwork job then, but as if it was not enough, in the last week before the deadline, almost all the proofreaders got sick. And STILL my colleagues were making some changes on the Japanese draft.

Meanwhile, mom came home in mid November after her several months of hospital stay. She was originally going to stay at her sister's house, but after staying there only one night, mom came back to us, saying that she wanted to help me. She had an artificial foot from the hospital for temporary use, which she didn't like very much and avoided wearing as much as possible. Now, I really appreciated her willingness to help with cooking, but I was almost yelling at her when she was about to hop around on one leg with a big pot with hot broth inside in her hands. In a sense, her presence was a stressor rather than a help, and dad was still hypochondriac -- more than ever.

So, the last Sunday in November, I was really, really on the edge and about to burst. Then I heard a voice -- an inner voice -- telling me to drive up to the top of the cape to see the beautiful, boundless sky and the ocean, and have a nice breakfast at a cozy cafe. So that's what I did.

The application dossier? It was submitted in time. I didn't have time to give it a final check, and the translation turned out to be something I cannot be proud of. It did not have terrible mistranslation or anything, but definitely had enough typos to make it look unprofessional. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! But yes, at least, we made it.

Nevertheless, I -- we are not feeling on top of the world. The submission of the application was a big challenge, which was just a beginning of forthcoming series of, endless challenges. And sometimes I can't help wondering if it was a right choice to start this whole thing in the first place....

Well, I guess I need a nice breakfast like this again this weekend. :)
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I Do Eat Well... Sometimes

2010-11-09T13:05:00.006+09:00

Last Friday. At my favorite curry house. :)

This place serves what we call "Soup Curry" in Japanese lately. It is probably closer to the curry dishes in Southeast Asian countries, but for us who are used to the thick "Japanese style curry," this runny version seems to deserve a special name with the word "soup" included.

This "tomato-eggplant curry" is my favorite. Actually, some fatty pieces of meat (pork?) are hiding at the bottom, but these green vegetables topping the soup and grain-rich rice on the side, I am convinced that this is a healthy dish.

And I like this cozy atmosphere.
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No, I didn't Eat Elmo

2010-10-15T12:34:00.009+09:00

Pork cutlet sandwich?

A baker's van comes on Fridays.

My colleague bought this one. Not me.

I haven't posted anything for a while, but don't worry. I've been doing OK and keeping myself busy. Last weekend I attended a training workshop for eco-tour interpreters. It was just so much fun.

I'll write more about it later... maybe tonight. :)
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Waiting...

2010-09-14T12:50:00.007+09:00

Apple Tart

Lunch break now. Today is a BIG day for us. The result of the on-site evaluation will be notified today, at around 5 pm. If we get an endorsement from a domestic geoparks committee, we can go for the application for a global network member status.

The photo above is from last Sunday. The apple tart was soooooooooo good. No, I didn't make it myself. The shot was taken at a coffee shop in a nearby town.

... I hate waiting like this.

GOOD NEWS! WE DID IT!!

We got the endorsement and from tomorrow on, we will be working towards the next step! :D

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Maybe Regression?

2010-08-27T12:47:00.007+09:00

Psychology people must know what regression means. If you are not in psychology, the term regression means this and that is probably what made me buy these for lunch today. Hahaha...

Can you imagine what they used to color the Baikin-man (right)? Bamboo charcoal! At least, that's what I heard. (I hope they are kidding...)

BTW, I started writing about my current situation on another blog of mine, if you are interested.
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Sorry!

2010-08-17T21:34:00.005+09:00

Terribly sorry about not posting for such a long time! Also let me apologize for not telling you about my mom's situation, though I promised to do so on another blog of mine. Things looked devastating once, and I'm in the biggest challenge now. But the worst part will be over tomorrow and I should be able to post about it either tomorrow night or the day after.

So, please be patient and stay in touch.

(Added August 26, 2010)
I started writing about my current situation on another blog of mine, if you are interested.

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And the Challenges Go On..Part 9

2010-08-01T21:34:00.006+09:00

Is this happening because I bragged about my good luck? You know, how I'm enjoying my new job with colleagues and all?

Now I'm facing a biggest challenge -- bigger than ever.

In a nutshell, mom's foot needs an operation when the project I'm working for is facing a B I G challenge, if not the biggest. The date of her surgery is August 6th, and she needs to stay in the hospital at least for a month.

Well, this doesn't sound too terrible, right? But actually, there's more to it... I'm not going to write any more details here, because this is a foodblog after all, and I want to keep it that way. I don't want too much medical discussion here. So if you want to know more details, please come to my another blog in about a week, and if you want to comment on the story about my mom, please do so there, not here.

I just can't help asking this question: Is this a punishment? What did I do to deserve this?
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OK. Enough. Now, food-related challenges.
This year, we didn't have a good harvest of almost anything. Ume plums, yamamomo and zucchini... None of them did well. Watermelons are doing good -- at least they taste good --as in my previous post, but we got no blueberries. I wonder why.

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Our First Harvest of Watermelon

2010-07-26T06:49:00.003+09:00

Watermelon

Actually this photo was taken about a week ago. The first watermelon from dad's veggie garden. Compared to the luncheon mat underneath, I guess you can tell the size of it. Yep, pretty big-- too big for the fridge in our kitchen. So as we always do, we cut the watermelon into slices and cut off all green parts so that all we have left was flat slabs of edible parts only. Then we put them into big tupperwares, as flat as possible, to fit them into any room left in the fridge. ;P And I gave the rest to my friends.

Seems like we are going to have fewer but sweeter watermelons than last year.
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Hometown Fair

2010-07-19T07:13:00.012+09:00

Takoyaki -- My favorite fair junk food!

This festive event is held at a local fishing port in mid July every year and features boat paddling race, outdoor amateur singing contest and fireworks at night. This year, someone in the same workplace (but different department) participated in the singing contest, and I was there as a member of the "cheering squad" :P with my colleagues.

I was quite surprised to see this many food stands at this festival. I heard that food vendors from big cities used to be reluctant to come this far, because often there are not enough visitors to make up for the big gas expense. But now it's changing... I hope.

Nagashi somen is a traditional and fun way of eating somen noodles outdoor. I guess you need to be good at using chopsticks to catch the noodles that try to swim away. To make it festive, they made the bamboo "water slider" laughably long. It was funny to see the participants, with a bowl of broth and chopsticks in hand, anxiously waiting for the noodles to come.

I didn't go to the fireworks, but it was on the local TV news this morning. Looks like many young people in yukata came from other towns to make a decent crowd. Good!
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Colorful Souvenir

2010-07-08T20:33:00.001+09:00

Macaroons

These are from a confectionery shop, not in my hometown but a bigger city where I change buses on my way back from Osaka.

They look so cute, but were terribly sweet -- at least, to me. Well, not all of them, but the chocolate one was.

Which photo do you like the best?
:)
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Ume Juice, Again

2010-07-04T15:33:00.006+09:00

Obachan's ume plum juice 2010 version (Photo taken on Jun 29)

Forgive me for posting about this juice this late -- in July! Maybe some of you were planning to give it a try this year? But ume plum season is over now and I don't think anyone in Japan can find green, unripe ume plum at the store any more. Well, I could be wrong. I don't know about northern part of Japan like Hokkaido island...

Anyway, let me post this recipe for future reference. This is not a translation of any particular recipe -- it is more like a summary of several similar Japanese recipes.

UME PLUM JUICE
Ingredient
1 kg green, unripe ume plums
1 kg sugar

Wash and pat dry ume. Using a toothpick or something, remove the scab-like thing remaining at where the stem end was. Put the plums in a plastic bag and freeze for more than 24 hours. Place the frozen ume and sugar alternately in a jar. Close the lid and keep in a cool, dark place. Juice will start to come out in a few days and sugar will melt. Eventually it will be like thick syrup. It should be ready when the sugar is completely melt -- in about 10 days. Strain the syrup with a strainer lined with a paper towel or cheesecloth into another container. ** Refrigerate. To make a drink, thin the ume-flavored syrup with water. Adjust the amount of water depending on how strong you want the drink to be. Serve cold.

** My family usually skips this step so I didn't mention it before, but, according to some websites, the syrup will keep longer if you boil it. You could strain it back into the same jar and place it in a big pot with boiling water for about 10 minutes. Cool and refrigerate.

This site has good photos showing the procedure.

I used crystal sugar as in the top photo, but if you live in a warm region, maybe regular sugar is safer, because it melts faster with less risk of alcoholic fermentation occurring in the jar.

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Eating Out

2010-06-28T12:37:00.007+09:00

Oyako-don

Phew! Last weekend was another hectic one. As some of you know, I went to Osaka on Friday to attend an evening English class there and came back on a night bus. With a terribly sleepy head, I got some things done on Saturday afternoon like getting a haircut and doing grocery shopping. Then on Sunday, I joined a meeting with some tourism-related people from another city to plan a one-day trip to my hometown, mainly to the geopark there. It was so much fun. My colleagues and I took them to several places in town and showed them around. This is what I had for lunch with them. The dish is called oyako-don(buri) and I enjoyed it so much, partly because I didn't have it for months but mostly because they were such fun people to be with.

Ooops! Lunch break is over. I'll write some more later tonight ... or tomorrow, because I'm going to have a day off tomorrow.

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(Jun 29, 2010)

Yep, today was my day off. It was a nice, relaxing day after a busy weekend. It doesn't mean that I stayed at home all day, doing nothing, though. Mom and I did manage to do two rounds of laundry and set up a trellis for bitter melons before it started raining. I dropped by at the information center, then at a bus station to run errands. Also I had time in the afternoon to shoot some food photos.

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Bento on the Train

2010-06-18T21:52:00.008+09:00

Anago bento

I'm still coughing, but I can hardly stay inactive. Things are getting more and more exciting around me!

Guess where I was yesterday. I was in Osaka -- for just half a day. LOL
It was a real touch-and-go; I finished up some work in the office before 10:30 am, then went to Osaka by bus and train to attend an English class there in the evening. Right after that, I jumped on an overnight bus and came home. I'm going to do this every Friday until the 3rd week of July, means 4 more times, in order to improve my skill as an interpreter. (Here I mean a foreign language interpreter, not the one in eco tour. But before the end of this year I'm planning to attend a course to be an eco-tour interpreter, too.) It'll keep me busy for several weekends, but I'm happy to finally have a chance to improve the skill that I really need, without paying from my own wallet. Yes, my employer is paying for this. YAY!

With the schedule being this tight, I had to have lunch on the train that day. So this is what I had: Anago-meshi bento.

Anago (salt-water eel?) looks similar to eel, but less fatty and usually less expensive. But prepared nicely, it can taste better than eel, I think. This bento was pretty good, though I would have liked it warm.

BTW, after my first pay day (June 8th), I bought some stuff to make my life easier, including a very small laptop (for use on business trips), additional memory and a larger battery pack. And I'm on SKYPE now.
See? Obachan is getting civilized. :D
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I'm Tired of Coughing!

2010-06-13T17:21:00.006+09:00

Keema Curry

To those who live in Japan: Isn't either pertussis or mycoplasma pneumonia going around in your area now? Here in my hometown, it's both of them. At least, that's what the doctor I saw yesterday said.

I have been coughing like hell for about 10 days and suffering from stuffy nose and slight fever as well. Almost everyone in the department had the same problem from late May to early June and I was the last one. No OTC drug worked for my symptoms, so I realized that it was not a regular cold and I should go see a doctor to get some antibiotic pills.

At the hospital in a nearby town yesterday, I had to take a blood test. They told me to come back for the result in a week. Until then, it is not known whether I have pertussis or mycoplasma. But looks like the same type of antibiotic is used for the treatment of those diseases and that is the medicine the doctor prescribed, so I should be OK.

So sorry that I still haven't posted much about my new job and new eating habits. I should be, because these days I sometimes eat out -- the day before yesterday, a colleague and I sort of interviewed someone over lunch at the nice curry place. (The top photo was not taken there, though.) And the girl sitting next to me in the office loves sweets so much. Dear readers, finally the time has come for me to bake goodies and bring them to office to share with colleagues! For the first time, none of my colleagues are diabetic or weight watchers. YAY!

Just wait and see. Soon you'll read about me bringing cookies and muffins to the office, and yes, jams, too! Oh, I've got to get rid of this cough ASAP and be active. There's a lot of things I want to do now that I have a regular income! :D
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Sorry, No Food Photo This Time!

2010-05-30T23:54:00.004+09:00

And sorry that I don't know the name of these flowers...

You know, I have a lot to tell you about my new job, but have no time to shoot food photos... No, that's not true. I did bake some matcha cookies, but they looked outrageously deformed when they came out of the oven, so I decided not to take photos of them. And last night, I went out for dinner with my colleagues. It was a welcome dinner for me and another new staff who is starting on the 1st of June, and an old member leaving at the end of May. That was probably the best chance ever to take shots of some local cuisine -- some dishes that we never make at my parents' house -- but I didn't bring my camera. AHHHHHHHHHHHhh!!!!!!!!

Anyway, things are getting more and more exciting at my work. "Exciting" or "crazy?" Well, that depends on what "normal " means to you, I guess. This morning we had a meeting and went over our schedule for the next 3 months.

Woooops, lunch break is over. I'll write some more tonight.

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Sorry, I was lazy last night. It's the lunch break on June 2nd. This morning was not really eventful, and our boss went home sick. But we have one meeting scheduled in the evening today and that's going to be fun. It's not meeting bunch of middle-aged executives; We are going to see some young, energetic college (and graduate) students who are doing an ecology-related research in my hometown. I had heard about them long time ago, but never had a chance to actually see them.
Gee, can't wait! ;)

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Busy and Fun Days

2010-05-23T16:30:00.007+09:00

Dorayaki (pancakes with sweetened azuki bean paste filling)

Well, this photo has nothing to do with me having busy and fun days, but this is the only photogenic food in the kitchen at the moment. Hahaha...

Anyway, as I told you before, I started working full time on May 6th -- right after the "Golden Week" here in Japan. I am a translator for a local geopark project which I was helping as a volunteer tour guide in my jobless days. Now I do translation work at the secretariat section of the project, occasionally giving a tour to visitors (sometimes in English), and also help with many activities to promote geopark and educate the public.

The activities include joining community meetings to talk to local grandpas and grandmas about what geopark is, or going hiking with kids to see how "nature tourism" is being introduced in this rural town blessed with abundant nature. Let me tell ya; In the past couple of weeks, I joined two community meetings (I didn't do the talking but I was there to help) and one hiking, and helped with a tour for more than 30 overseas trainees! Now you know why I said, "busy and fun days," right?

-- I AM HAVING FUN!! --

I told you that my colleagues are nice. But they are more than just nice. The people I work with at my new workplace are young, energetic folks who love to meet people to try out new ideas together. Those are the people who make you feel 10 years younger. We joke together, brainstorm together and share ideas and experiences together. It's been a while since I took part in something like this last time.

Of course there will be a lot of challenges. And in my case, it can be devastating when they happen both at work and at home at the same time. But you know, there are times in your life that you have to take a risk, and your inner voice tells you that it's worth taking a risk. You know what I mean? I thought this was one of those times, so I'm taking a risk. Could be a stupid decision, but... well, we'll see.

BTW, these store-bought dorayaki were pretty good. Sometimes you find dry, firm ones, but these were moist and not too sweet. My favorite kind.
:)
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Don't Worry -- I'm Doing Great!

2010-05-15T06:12:00.004+09:00

My Bento

Sorry I didn't post for about two weeks and probably made some of you worried? Don't worry. I'm doing perfectly fine. As some of you predicted, it's like goodies are finally coming my way! Yay!

My new job is interesting and colleagues are so nice. Actually I knew most of them from before, which makes me feel so much at home. The only problem is that I didn't have time to cook/bake at home, so had no food photo to post here. The above photo is the only one -- not a great one, but it was taken at my workplace. Yeah, something to show you a little bit of my new work environment.

I'll tell you more about my new job sometime soon.
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It's Been A Year...

2010-04-30T20:38:00.005+09:00

Homemade Strawberry Jam -- First Batch of This Season

Yes, it was this day last year that I moved into my parents' house. Oh, I can never forget all those agonies I had to go through before and after moving in. And all those challenges I had to face in the past year...!!

After surviving the year, now I'm making a new start. It's not that I'm ready to go onto the next stage or anything. Almost none of the problems I had in the past year has been solved, though many things are getting better. It's just that I, and my family cannot stand me being unemployed any more. So, dear readers, obachan is going to start working full-time next week (starting on the 6th, May).

I guess I should be happy.
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Obachan Eats Langkawi - 2 -

2010-04-21T09:00:00.025+09:00

Awana Porto Malay Langkawi

I noticed that I didn't take many photos of main dish because I was busy eating and chatting. And the majority of the not-so-many main dish photos turned out blurred because I didn't have enough light in the room. In a nutshell, you are not going to see the photos of the dishes like chicken dish, lamb dish, curry, stir-fry, pasta and fried rice that I enjoyed so much. Too bad!

This is a shot I took in the traditional fishing village we visited on a field trip. The details of the trip will be (hopefully) posted on another blog of mine sometime soon, but here I'm going to show you the refreshment we had there.

See? I tried coconut juice. First time in my entire life. It wasn't as sweet as I had expected, but it was good, especially with these munchies. I liked the flat, round crackers (chips?) the best.

Another thing to tell you: I tried Chinese take-out food, too.

See the drink in the plastic bag? That's what I wanted to see there... I had heard (or read ) that the drink does not spill, but I couldn't really believe it. Well, what I read was right. The top of the plastic bag was really nicely and tightly closed that the drink was not spilled at all. The ice cream dessert was nice, too. It was warm on the outside, cold and sweet on the inside. Yum! :D

Here's some more food photos from the conference dinner.

Standing in line, it was hard to take shots of warm buffet food in buffet servers with lids. At the table, I was busy eating and chatting. So, again, no main dish photos. :P OK. Desserts again (and the guy who made these sweets).

And this last one is the last meal I had in Malaysia: nasi goreng we had at the airport (KL).
Oh, I LOVED this dish. The sauce was not too sweet and not too spicy -- just perfect for me.

So, that was my heavenly week in Langkawi, Malaysia.
While I was there, basically I was no one's daughter, no one's relative but just "me." That's the kind of freedom that I can never have in my hometown, and I miss it so much, because I don't know when I can ever have a freedom like that next time.

Oh well. Now I've got to get back to the reality and think about what I should do next.
:)
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Obachan Eats Langkawi - 1-

2010-04-19T16:54:00.022+09:00

Awana Porto Malay Langkawi

I want to say thank you to those who had given me the information on the climate in Langkawi before I left Japan. Yep, it WAS hot and HUMID over there! :D

But it was a heavenly week. I enjoyed every single minute, even when I was in the conference room, listening to the presentation and struggling to summarize it in Japanese for my friend.

Seafood something (I forgot the name) @ Awana Porto

This was my very first meal in Malaysia. I enjoyed it with beer.

Their breakfast was really good, too. In addition to Western breakfast food like bread, cereal, muffins, pancakes and sausage, they served curry. Curry for breakfast sounded like a crazy idea to me, at first, but hey, I LOVED it! :D

* (Added 23, April) BTW, the herb I asked you about in my previous post was served in the white dish right under the flowers in the above photo. In those stone bowls were some kind of sauces (salad dressings?).

And they had so many kinds of sweets.

@Laman Padi (Rice Museum)
This was an interesting place where they showed us the traditional rice growing procedure. Of course, rice-growing itself is nothing new to we Japanese, but watching real buffalo working in the rice field was really something.
And they treated us with some sweets made from rice flour.

I don't know the name of this sweet, but it was light and crunchy and VERY good.

... to be cont'd.
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I'm Back!!

2010-04-17T23:35:00.004+09:00

Yeah, I came back yesterday evening, from hot and humid Langkawi, Malaysia to chilly and rainy small town in Japan. I have soooooooooo much to tell you, and so many photos that I don't even know what to do with. And my brain has not been functioning at all.

But I have to post this photo, because my curiosity is almost killing me.

Dear readers, what is this herb?

It tasted and smelled really weird first, but as I kept chewing, it got better and I almost liked the flavor of it. What is it?
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Mango Jelly

2010-04-04T15:01:00.005+09:00

Mango Jelly

Dear readers,
Don't worry. I'm still alive. Still blogging. It's just that I was feeling down a bit for the past couple of weeks -- around my birthday. Having no job at the moment, and having to deal with mom's hunger strike, getting one year older was absolutely no fun at all. So I didn't feel like cooking/baking, thus had nothing to post about on this blog. Shame, shame. At least I kept a healthy everyday routine, though. I didn't skip any meal and walked a lot on the beach both in the morning and evening.

Today mom is out of town for a tea ceremony meeting or something, but still I'm not in the mood for any elaborate cooking. I did make easy stir-fry for lunch, and I have to admit that that made me feel good more than I had expected. Gee, I miss my own kitchen! That's part of what's making me feel down, I guess...

So, to make myself feel even better, I made this dessert-- an EASY dessert. It's mango jelly made with store-bought mango juice. All I did was dissolving gelatin and whipping the cream.

Well, no time for whining any more. Just five more days and I'll be in Langkawi, Malaysia!!
Yay!

I think I really need to go somewhere else and be myself for a while. ;)
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Teriyaki Glazed Yellowtail

2010-03-23T14:43:00.009+09:00

Buri no Teriyaki (Teriyaki Glazed Yellowtail)

Sorry I've been lazy these days... I haven't updated this blog very often lately. The thing is that I didn't feel like doing much of anything last week, and then, my younger sis and her kids came to stay over the weekend. (We had a long weekend with last Monday being a makeup holiday.) Oh, it WAS an eventful weekend, as it always is when they are with us. We took kids to dad's orchard to pick some oranges and edible wild plants, to the cape for a quick geotour, to the beach for jogging, and to the fishing port for fishing (in a terrible wind and yellow sand). Hahaha... And of course we had good meals.

Dad bought another whole yellowtail (7.7kg) at the nearby fishing port. (I'm not going to tell you how much it cost, because I don't know exactly. But I'm pretty sure that our price is less than 30% of its price in big cities. How 'bout that, huh?) We enjoyed it grilled, as sashimi, and buri-shabu, too. The last one may not sound familiar -- it is the fish version of a Japanese meat dish called shabu-shabu. Honestly speaking, I wasn't too crazy about this hot pot dish that my sister brought into mom's kitchen. To eat shabu-shabu, you put, with chopsticks, a piece of meat(fish) into boiling broth, swish back and forth a few times, take it out and immediately dip into sauce and eat. Doing the same thing with yellowtail slices, I found it difficult to know the perfect timing to eat. If the fish was cooked completely, it was no better than regular fish in regular hotpot dish, and when undercooked, it was too fishy for me.

Anyway, after being stuffed with the yellowtail dishes on day 1 and yakiniku on day 2, my younger sis and her kids went home yesterday. And I was too busy to take any food photos throughout the long weekend!! :O What a shame! Am I really a foodblogger??

The top photo is what I prepared this afternoon with the leftover, not-so-fresh yellowtail. The recipe for the glaze sauce? Well, it's a classic proportion so I guess I can put it up here without worrying about copyright? It's basically sake, soy sauce and mirin mixed together, and the proportion is 1:1:1. If you like it sweet, you might want to add some white sugar, maybe half the amount of mirin? Or you might want to add a little ginger to the sauce to add some refreshing flavor. You need to grill the fish first in a frying pan until it is almost done inside, then you pour in the sauce to give glossy sheen. If you marinate the fish fillet in the sauce or poured in the sauce too soon, the outside would probably burn before the inside is done.

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BTW, long time ago, I think I read in someone's comment about an English forum or translation forum where you can put up your English writing and the members there would make corrections. Today I went through almost all the posts on this blog, but couldn't find the comment. Can anyone give me any information about this kind of forum?
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Baby Ume Plums

2010-03-13T07:10:00.011+09:00

Baby Ume Plums

Look at these baby ume plums! Aren't they adorable? I'm sure that mom and I will be working like crazy again when the ume season comes this year.

To tell you the truth, I haven't been doing much cooking/baking lately. For the last three months I worked from 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM, 5 days a week, and mom dominated the kitchen. Now I don't work there any more, but still I cannot find my place in the kitchen here at my parents' house. *Sigh*

So here I'm posting a photo from last summer, because I haven't taken any food photos for a while. This photo IS related to this topic of ume plum, at least, because ume miso is used for this dish.

Green onion and squid, dressed with ume-miso

Last summer mom and I made this ume miso when we harvested a whole bunch of ume plums in dad's orchard. To make the dish above, all you have to do is blanch and chop green onions (negi), boil and slice squid, mix and dress with ume miso. That's it. (Sprinkle with some white sesame seeds, if desired.) The dish is similar to this nuta salad with vinegar miso dressing, but it turns out so much more refreshing (and easy, too) when used this ume miso.

My ume miso recipe is here.

Have a great weekend, everyone. :)

BTW, if you are interested in Japanese antique dolls, you might want to take a look at this post. It's the festival in my mom's hometown. I went there and took some photos in the first week of March. (Yeah, I'm trying to make the best use of my time in my jobless days...)
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And the Challenges Go On.. Part 8

2010-03-05T19:30:00.015+09:00

When mom finally went to the hospital to have her foot checked, I thought that the end of her agony was close.
Well, things are never that easy.

As I had written in my previous posts, mom started seeing a doctor at the end of January for her foot problem. First, seeing her X-ray, the doctor said that her problem was a minor bone fracture and a tiny piece of the bone was missing. Then, after the MRI scan, he said that that bone was not missing but just its color was turned really dark, most likely due to osteoporosis. But her foot have been badly swollen for months, and now, after about a month of treatment, it is still the same; the swelling has not improved at all.

Mom said that the doctor did not even take a look at her foot for the past couple of weeks and just kept giving her the same medication. Then yesterday, according to mom, he examined her foot and said that the swelling could not be from the osteoporosis. Oh, yeah. Thanks for supporting the idea our family had had for WEEKS. And he put an extremely expensive ankle supporter on her foot, without even asking her if she wanted it or she could afford it, and also told her to come back next week for another MRI scan. Doc, have you ever thought that most of your patients -- grandmas and grandpas in the countryside -- may not make as much money as you do???!!!

I can understand if we get charged a lot when the treatment dramatically worked and the illness was cured. But at the moment, the reason why we have to keep paying more and more is because the doctor cannot find out what the real problem is. It's no fun. :(

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So, my work as a data input operator finished at the end of February and now I'm unemployed again. My humble saving will be all gone next month, and I have not found a new job yet.
But I'm not feeling down or anything. Right now my mind is occupied with a trip abroad next month-- I'm going to Malaysia this coming April!

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Yesterday dad came home from the nearby fishing port with a big boxful of sardines. In the yellowtail season, sometimes loads of sardines come into the fishing net, too. Such sardines are not really good ones and fishermen often give them away to local people. Mom and I spent a whole day cleaning them. And yesterday and today, we ate sardines at every single meal. Grilled, breaded and deep-fried, vinegared and simmered... Hope the DHA would make me smarter for at least several days. ;)

Oh, BTW, the tsunami from the recent Chile earthquake measured about 20 cm in my hometown and caused no serious damage. Thanks for your concern.
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The Bounty of the Ocean

2010-02-20T08:02:00.008+09:00

Homemade Buri (Yellowtail) Nigirizushi

No, no! These are not SPAM on rice balls. These are nigirizushi (hand-shaped sushi) with yellowtail slices on top. VERY fresh yellowtail -- they were swimming in the ocean in the morning of the same day!

Yellowtail is probably the most loved fish around here. We jump with joy when we hear that 2,000 or 3,000 yellowtails were caught in the fixed net and brought to the nearby fishing port. Its season is late February to early March. During that time, the fish is nice and fatty, and tastes the best.

At the fishing port

We usually do not eat yellowtail on the very day it was caught, though. It is recommended to wait for a couple of days -- or at least one day -- before you eat it, so that the fish will be softer and tastier. But we couldn't wait, and that is why, in the top photo, our sushi with yellowtail slices are looking like SPAM musubi. Hahaha...
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Cottage Cheese Cake

2010-02-11T16:16:00.007+09:00

Cottage Cheese Cake

Today is a national holiday and a baking fairy came by. I felt like a cheesecake, and was almost going to grab a big cream cheese brick at the supermarket. But I came home with cottage cheese after all.

I made them into cupcakes so that I could give some to mom's tea ceremony students. Unfortunately they left much earlier than usual and I didn't have a chance to see them. Too bad.

Here's an update on mom's foot. Guess what? After seeing the result of MRI scan, the old doctor said, "Oh, your bone is not missing. It's here... just its color turned dark," or something along that line, according to mom. She came home with more pills, and the way she walks has not changed a bit. :(
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Thistle Roots

2010-01-31T21:15:00.007+09:00

These are young thistle roots. Yes, we eat them around here. At this time of the year, we can buy them at farmer's market, or dig them on the beach. Can you imagine how we eat them?

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Thanks for guessing, dear readers.
The answer is "TEMPURA!" Yes, we dip thistle roots in batter and deep-fry them. They are flavorful and pleasantly crunchy. :) Mmmmmm....
Sorry, I don't have a photo of deep-fried thistle roots at the moment. Maybe next time.

BTW, thistle is called "Azami" in Japanese.

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(Added Feb.28, 2010)
Here's a photo of our Thistle root tempura.

Azami tempura

I know. Too much batter... :P
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Ponkan Orange Cake

2010-01-24T15:26:00.008+09:00

Ponkan Orange Cake

It is orange season around here now, and my family has been busy picking oranges for the past couple of weeks. Like I wrote in my previous post, I cannot say that I truly enjoy the work, but it does feel good to work in the orchard on a nice sunny day, hearing birds and breathing crisp air.

And today, while dad was at some community gathering and mom was in the orchard with my aunt, I baked this cake.

Ponkan Oranges

The cake was not a great success, but it felt good to occupy the kitchen and bake something. Really.

BTW, here's a good news -- well, at least for me. I think I have written several times about mom's bad leg? She has been limping quite some time, but never agreed to go see a doctor no matter what.

Then last week, she suddenly started saying that she wanted to see a doctor because she might have gout. I had no idea why, but why should we miss this once-in-a-lifetime-chance to send her to a hospital? Everyone, including a couple of relatives, strongly supported her decision, and finally she drove to a hospital in the neighboring city yesterday.

Can you guess what the doctor said after seeing the x-ray of her foot? According to mom, he went, "OMG. You're missing a piece of bone here!"
It turned out that she somehow had a minor bone fracture in her foot years ago, and a small piece of her bone came off. She just ignored it, the piece was displaced (wrapped by the surrounding tissue?), and she has been limping for years, saying that it was aging thing and no doctor could fix it.

Anyway, she is going to have an MRI scan tomorrow, and the doctor would decide on the treatment. The treatment could include a surgery, which is good, I think. She would hate being hospitalized for a while, but it won't be long. It would be much, much better than living with the pain for the rest of her life, don't you think?

Oh, I'm so happy that things started moving forward...
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Creamy Turnip Soup

2010-01-17T18:45:00.004+09:00

Creamy Turnip Soup

I haven't posted about the winter veggies in our family vegetable gardens, have I? I guess I took a couple of photos at the end of last year and just forgot about them. Anyway, now we are growing daikon radishes, spinach, mizuna, Chinese cabbage, shungiku, Japanese mustard(?) and lettuce. Oh, and my turnips. I'm growing them in the spot where I grew zucchini in summer.

It turned out that my parents do not care for turnips very much, so basically I'm the only one who brings them into the kitchen. And this is the dish that I usually make with them. The ingredients are turnips, onion, spinach, chicken, sausage, flour, margarine, powdered chicken bouillon, salt, pepper, soy milk and a little herb (I used dried thyme today).

The turnips turned out really soft and sweet. And the leftover soup might taste even better tomorrow.

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Today my parents, my aunt and I went to the orchard to pick oranges. Sounds like a wonderful family cooperation? But the truth is... it's pretty stressful to work with elder people with some health problems. Dad says that he can't see well. Mom has bad legs. My aunt always nauseates after picking a few bagful of oranges (perhaps because of the Meniere's syndrome that she hasn't completely recovered from).

I guess I'm getting more and more impatient these days. Yes, I was never totally happy when I had to repeat the same thing many times when talking with my parents, or walk/move slowly when doing things with them. But it didn't bother me THIS much before... Now it annoys me much more because, at work, I'm getting used to talking and working with "normal" people, and enjoying it. I must be sounding awful, but I have to admit that this is the truth.

But working 5 days a week has its good side; I AM MAKING MONEY. And I'm planning something exciting for this coming spring. Just wait and see. Obachan might surprise you in a couple of months.
;)
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My First Baking in 2010

2010-01-09T16:17:00.003+09:00

Sweet Chestnut Financier

Gee, I haven't done any baking for more than a month! Time really flies...

Today is the first day of a long weekend here in Japan, and I was alone at home all morning. When I opened the cupboard in the kitchen, I saw my silicone bakeware right next to the thing I was looking for, and I suddenly felt like baking. Maybe it was the baking fairy who made me feel that way.

Anyway, there were some Tenshin amaguri 天津甘栗 (Tianjin sweet roasted chestnuts?) in the kitchen, and I decided to bake the sweet chestnut financier. It was about two years ago when I tried it out for the first time, and I truly loved it then.

But today, I found the buttery flavor of the financier overwhelming. :(

I'm really older now... *sigh*
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The First Day of 2010

2010-01-01T16:17:00.011+09:00

........ ........ ...... ........... ...... .... ........ ................ .... ............. .................. ...........

Time for a brand new start!

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At Least, I Did the Best I Could

2009-12-31T19:30:00.008+09:00

Now I'm alone in my room, enjoying solitude after a whole day of cooking and saying goodbye to 2009. In front of me is a glass of beer to reward myself for all the efforts I made this year. This drink should taste better than anything.

New Year's food, already packed and waiting for tomorrow

To be honest, I have never felt this exhausted at the end of a year... exhausted not from being busy, but from wondering, worrying or being paranoid throughout the year. Yeah, and from "waiting" without knowing what I was waiting for. Uncertainty wears you out, doesn't it?

But for tonight, I'm just going to give myself a gentle hug and let the old year go.

Thank you, dear readers, for being with me as I went through a big transition.
I don't know how I could have survived this year without you.

The light to guide the God of New Year to this house

See you all in 2010! :)
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Santa Did Come To Our Kitchen

2009-12-25T23:55:00.007+09:00

My parents made a fuss about Christmas only when their children were small, because old folks in Japan generally think that Christmas is for kids. Thus, this year, living with my aging parents, I had to have a terribly un-festive Christmas. There was no Christmas tree, wreath, gingerbread people, fruitcake or dinner with sparkling wine. The only thing the family got was a typical Japanese Christmas cake which dad had to buy to help the relative who works at a local pastry shop.

But you never thought that this blog would just ignore Christmas this year? OF COURSE NOT!
How could I end a year without exchanging warm wishes with all the good people who support me?

So here it is... The Santa above (made with a strawberry and cream taken from the "anpanman Christmas cake" dad bought) and I are wishing you a warm, joyful Christmas and a wonderful new year.

Mom said OMG when she saw this strawberry Santa. She showed it to dad and he laughed, too. That was something new to me... actually seeing someone react to what I made for Christmas.
And I think I liked that. :)

*::::*::::*::::* Merry Christmas *::::*::::*::::*
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Daikon Pickles

2009-12-20T13:41:00.011+09:00

Daikon radishes ready to be pickled

Mom and I pickled some daikon a few weeks ago. We don't make typical "takuan" that requires nuka powdered rice bran. Ours are pickled in sweet-and-sour solution.

This is the recipe mom got from one of the neighbor grannies several years ago.

Daikon Pickles
Ingredients
For STEP 1
5 kg daikon radishes
300 g salt
A thick plastic bag
10 kg weight

For STEP 2
500 g sugar
450 mL rice vinegar
dried kelp
dried red pepper
(MSG... optional)
(Yellow food coloring... optional)
A thick plastic bag
5 kg weight

STEP 1
Peel daikon radishes. Place them in a big container lined with a big, thick plastic bag, sprinkling salt all over. Close the top of the bag (not necessary to seal). Put a wooden lid or something and place a weight on top. Leave in a cool place for 2 days.

Two days later...You'll see plenty of water in the plastic bag

STEP 2
Drain daikon. (No need to wash them.) Place them in a new plastic bag. Add the sugar, rice vinegar and dry ingredients. Add food coloring to the solution, if desired. Close the top of the bag, place the wooden lid and the weight on top and leave for at least 2 weeks.
* Note that a lighter weight is used this time.

For some reason, our pickles turn out differently every year, even though we use the same recipe all the time. Usually the saltiness is gone in two weeks, but this year it remained much longer. We had no idea why...
（If you are interested in trying out this recipe, you might want to use less salt to be safe. )
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And the Challenges Go On.. Part 7

2009-12-12T17:17:00.023+09:00

It seems that the word "CHANGE" was the theme of this year in many places worldwide. And now at the end of 2009, I, too, am going through a transition.

When I wrote the last post of this "challenges" series, I was still looking for a part-time job, and my biggest concern was my parents' condition, especially mom's. My plan was earning a little money every month as a part-timer and studying translation at home for the rest of the time so that I can work as a sort of free-lance translator in the future, taking care of my parents. But dear readers, on the 1st of December, I started working as a data-input operator. And it's a full-time position, though only for three months.

Why the change of plan? Because I want money.

I want money to do and buy some things that are related to my new interest: the local geopark project. As I wrote on this blog (and another one), I have helped the project once in a while in the past couple of months. Sometimes I was pretty stressed, but after going through some rough times, now I'm interested in being something like an eco-tour interpreter myself, not as a professional of course but as a volunteer. Then there are books to read and workshops to attend, which will cost some money, if not a fortune.

I was still hoping to find a part-time job that would pay me enough to pursue my new interest, but I had no luck. Then finally, at the end of November, I felt that I had no patience left and went for a full-time position that was available then. I knew it was a challenge, but since it was just for three months, I thought that we --my family, especially mom-- might be able to handle it.

Now it has been about two weeks at my new workplace. I work with another new employee and we enjoy working together. More than anything, for me it's so great to be able to talk with someone about my age every day. Oh it's a long-forgotten feeling!!

And how mom is taking this? Well, so far so good, I would say.

In my first few months here at my parents' house, I often wondered if my existence at home was making her mental condition worse, because though I didn't mean to, my presence brought a roll confusion in the house; I was a threat to her position as a housewife. If I be in charge of the kitchen and shopping, she would have no other choice but to stay in her room as a useless old woman. However, obviously it wasn't possible for her to keep things in the house (especially kitchen) under control on her own. And it wasn't possible for me to completely withdraw from the kitchen, either. As the readers from my previous foodblog probably know, the kitchen had been a special place for me -- a special part of me. So, yes, I often thought that mom may function better if I found a job, started working and established "my world" where I can belong to outside this house. But I was still reluctant to give her "mother's role" back. If I'd do so, then what should I be? Just a daughter? After being on my own and being a monarch of my own kitchen for more than 20 years?

But I have to admit this: After I started to work full time and gave her the "mother's role" back at least on weekdays, she seems to be functioning much better, perhaps from the sense of responsibility? She still has memory problems, but now she tries harder not to forget important things so that she can prepare lunch and dinner on her own.

On weekdays, every morning mom and I talk about what to make for lunch and dinner. Every day at work, I call mom in lunch break to remind her what the dinner plan was (she doesn't remember about 3 out of 5 times) and ask her what I should buy on my way home. And after work, I do grocery shopping and go straight home. Most of the time, the dinner is ready waiting for me. If not, I help mom to do the last part and then set the table. That's how we have been handling it. It is obvious that she spends hours to fix dinner because of her memory problem, but so far she is doing fine.

But honestly, I'm not sure if we are doing a right thing.
And in Mar. 2010, I'm going to have to make another big career decision... :(

Dad had a health checkup and got a Swine flu vaccine injection in the first week of December. Same diabetes, same uric acid level, but he doesn't stop eating the food that are not good for him. *sigh*

My younger sister emailed me yesterday and said that she and her kids are not coming to visit us for the new year's holiday. She still can't get rid of the bad cold. Gee... the New Year's Day with my parents without my sister, niece and nephew... My very first experience. Would I be able to handle it?

I wonder how many new challenges are waiting in 2010...

Oh, and last week, I killed a huge centipede walking across my room. (Come on, it's December!)
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My First Homemade Rose Hip Tea

2009-12-06T15:29:00.008+09:00

Yes, I did it! I just tasted my very first homemade rose hip tea. And it tasted OK. :D

But look at the color. My tea didn't get any redder than this. Is the store-bought rose hip tea artificially colored or something?

The biggest problem was... it took SOOOO long for the flavor to come out from the dried rose hips. The tea was already cold by the time it got enough flavor, so I ended up pouring everything into a sauce pan and heating it on the stove to drink the tea warm.

Well, well... I'm satisfied that I completed the project. But I'm not sure if I want to do this again. There are many other foods that are rich in Vitamin C, after all, and think about all those scraping and cleaning that you have to do to make this herbal tea...
:P
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The Bluebird of Happiness

2009-11-28T15:31:00.011+09:00

If I remembered correctly, it was a beautiful foodblog called OsloFoodie where I was first introduced to homemade rose hip tea. It was back in -- 2004 or 2005? The photo of her tea was oh so beautiful, and I felt jealous when she commented that over there in Norway, rose hips were everywhere on the roadside. After that, I bought young plants of dog rose online and grew them on the balcony. Yes, that was the start of my homemade rose hip tea project.

Unfortunately my dog rose died before giving me any rose hips, which automatically added "making homemade rose hip tea" to the list of my "indefinitely postponed projects." And my envy for those who can pick rose hips on the roadside remained.

Now I'm back in my hometown where the climate is almost subtropical and definitely different from Norway. And look what I found the other day when I rode dad's bicycle to the beach where I hadn't been since childhood!

The bluebird of happiness is in your home...

I'm going to dry these rose hips tomorrow. The weather doesn't seem to be nice, so I'll be using the oven like I did for drying cherry tomatoes in summer.
Wish me luck! ;)

---------
(Nov. 29, 2009)

OK. Take a look.

Honestly, I don't know if I can call this part of the project "fun." It could have been fun if these rose hips were bigger. But think about halving all these small ones and scraping the seeds and hair out of each! AHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhh...!!!

I gave up when I prepared almost half of them.

Dried rose hips (dried for apx. 35 min. at 140 degrees C )

And the above photo shows my very first "homemade rose hip tea." What do you think?
I'm going to brew it when the weather is nice so that I can take good-looking photos of the tea.
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TLA #2 -With My Dad -

2009-11-23T16:59:00.008+09:00

My dad was taking a walk near the fishing port a couple of weeks ago, and saw someone he knew fishing there. The guy told dad that a real big fish just cut his line and ran away. On the very next day, dad drove to a shop and bought some new hooks and sinkers. Then he realized that he got wrong type of sinkers and he had me go to the same store to buy the right ones. He had to wait for several days until the weather got nicer, and finally the day before yesterday, he went to try his luck. And the above photo was the luck he had. Ha-ha-ha. (For those who are not familiar with saltwater fish, that's an inedible blow fish.)

This is my new friend. He is a stray cat, but by no means a starving cat. And I have never ever seen any cat friendlier than this one.
:)
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Local "Industrial Fair"

2009-11-18T08:23:00.012+09:00

Spinning Squid

A local "industrial fair" was held last Sunday, November 15th. It was a nice but windy day, and there seemed to be a good crowd at the venue--a good crowd for this rural place, I mean.

The smell of barbecued beef filled the area, and fresh fish and good sushi were selling fast.

Sea salt made from deep sea water

Local food

Actually, the "industrial fair" cannot be too different from a farmer's market in a place where the local industry is mainly farming and fishing. But the performances by local kids and the youth on the main stage did make a difference that day. They were so cute.

There was even a tea ceremony booth where local tea ceremony teachers and students served matcha and sweets. But the wind was too strong that making boiling water with portable gas stove was almost impossible. Later I heard that a very strong wind blew while some visitors were chatting after taking the first bite of their sweets, and when they tried to eat the rest, the sweets were gone--they were blown off the table and onto the ground. LOL (I wouldn't be surprised if they quit serving matcha tea at a booth next year.)

But what I really loved to see was these squids being dried. Especially, I cracked up when I saw the "spinning squids." They say that spinning them with a machine like this can dry them faster, and they do this all the time, the industrial fair or not. But it's just too funny to see.

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Banana Custard Tart

2009-11-12T17:11:00.005+09:00

Banana Custard Tart

After coming back from Hong Kong, I guess I was more exhausted than I thought. Or maybe it was a burnout. I didn't feel like doing anything for several days. Then one day I had a crick in my back while helping dad with loading his car with bags of fertilizer. Gee! Can you imagine how terrible I felt? Your obachan (aunty) is officially an obaachan (granny) now!! :O Honestly, my self-esteem hurt more than my back.

I iced my back every day for at least 3 days, and this morning I was finally able to put my socks on in the way I normally do. So I felt like celebrating and whipped up this tart by combining a couple of Japanese recipes I found on the net. In the kitchen there were too many eggs and bananas as a result of mom's grocery shopping in my absence, and I managed to consume two eggs and two bananas by making this tart. (BTW, she bought some frozen sweet-n-sour-pork and gyoza while I was in Hong Kong... )

At first I was not going to bake the filling. But the custard cream turned out lighter than I had wanted and bananas were not very ripe, so I felt the need to somehow add more sweetness. What I did was sprinkling granulated sugar and cinnamon all over this tart and baking it for --about 10 minutes or so?

Fortunately it worked. The tart was still quite light, but mom liked it that way and I, too, thought it was good.

And now I'm not feeling burned out any more. I remember writing the same thing in my previous foodblog, but cooking/baking does seem to have a healing effect -- when it ended successfully, of course. ;)
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Hey, I'm Back!

2009-11-06T16:22:00.009+09:00

See what I tried?

Yep, these are the egg tarts from KFC in Hong Kong that Mae recommended in her comment to my previous post. Remembering her comment, the first thing I did in the free time on the next day of our arrival was walking around the BP International hotel, looking for a KFC. And there was a sign near the entrance of Kowloon park! :D I was almost thrilled, but then I had a problem finding the entrance to the KFC. So it was actually the night before we left Hong Kong that I finally managed to buy these egg tarts.

Mmmmmm...... Yum!!

But buying six pieces at one time was probably a mistake. :P

So, why did I visit Honk Kong anyway? What was that trip for?

OK. Take a look at the photo on the newspaper beneath the famous egg tart. That is showing a rare geological relic in High Island, and there was an opening ceremony of Hong Kong national geopark right in front of that hexagonal columnar rock. Since a geopark project is going on in my hometown, too, a couple of staff were sent to the opening ceremony and the seminar, and I was there to help with the language.

Scenery in High Island

Everything was just wonderful and exciting. The hospitality of the host organization was really touching. Though I couldn't take photos, I enjoyed the buffet breakfast and lunch at the hotel. Well... to be perfectly honest, we got a little tired of the same buffet menu on the third day. :P

But what was really great was the dinner at Peking Garden on the night before we left Hong Kong! We never expected that, but we were treated with a wonderful course meal including, of course, Peking duck--a lady sliced it up in front of us--nice dim sum, and many other dishes that I don't know what they are called. And the highlight was the noodle-making demonstration performed in front of us. It was amazing, and funny, too, because the guy threw so much flour over the dough and the flour was everywhere on the table, the wall and the floor but no one seemed to care. Oh, it WAS a wonderful dinner.

But can you imagine me staying at BP International hotel and not visiting temple street? Come on, this is your obachan. I will never let you down. After being totally full from the dinner, we walked up to the temple street and shopped around. And...

Frog Congee

I was not very hungry yet, but I thought there must be a space in my stomach for a bowl of congee. And wanting to try something "different," I chose frog congee, though the other two guys who were with me looked at me like I was some kind of monster. As for drink, I loved this Haizhu beer so much!! I wish I could buy this somewhere in my hometown...

The other two guys had this vegetable noodle soup. They said it was bland, but after adding spicy chili sauce, they were happy.

Yes, it was the must place to visit.

So that was the trip I enjoyed. I might add some more photos later, so keep checking on once in a while.
;)
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Our Sweet Potatoes

2009-10-26T07:30:00.007+09:00

Our Sweet Potatoes--just harvested

Sorry. This photo is a couple of weeks old. And I couldn't post a photo of the dessert, "suiito poteto (sweet potato)" that I made with these potatoes. The dessert was not a great success, but my family and mom's tea ceremony students ate them all real quick and I didn't have a chance to take a photo of them. (OK. Let's be honest. I almost forced them to eat the dessert. ) :P

------
(Added Oct. 27, 2009)

OK. Now it's officially settled. I'm visiting Hong Kong from Nov. 2nd to 5th and will be staying at BP International hotel for three nights.

Dear readers in Hong Kong--if any--, what do you recommend to eat at BP International or in town? (We may not have time to eat in town, though...)
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Sarashi-gaki

2009-10-18T10:28:00.018+09:00

Sarashi-gaki (Astringent persimmons treated with alcohol)

I don't think anyone does this outside Japan. Maybe even in Japan, not many people do this or know about this. I'm talking about treating astringent persimmons with alcohol to remove the astringency. It's easy. You just have to wet the top, including the stem end, of the persimmons with strong liquor and put them in a plastic bag, wrap well and leave in a warm place (around 35 to 40 degrees C? I'm not sure) for 2 to 3 days. We usually use shochu (distilled spirit) named 'White Liquor' or whiskey.

Acorn-shaped astringent persimmons

Actually the ones in this photo look rather round, but usually astringent persimmons are acorn-shaped. (Don't tell me that some acorns are flat and round.) Non-Japanese people might be more used to eating/using the pulp of VERY ripe, soft persimmons, but in Japan, it is more common to eat sweet varieties of persimmons while they are still firm, and sun-dry astringent varieties to make hoshi-gaki. It is not very popular to make sarashi-gaki like we do, though.

Our family used to put a bagful of alcohol-treated astringent persimmons in leftover warm water in the bathtub (traditionally we don't wash our bodies in the bathtub and the whole family members share the water in the tub), or leave them in the sun for several days, or in a kotatsu heater.

Now the majority of the grannies in this community use -- I'm not sure how you call this in English -- electrical warming mattress? Mom wraps the bagful of alcohol-treated persimmons with the mattress, then with another blanket, turn on the switch and leave it. In about 2 to 3 days, the astringency will be gone and the persimmons turn soft, but not overripe-soft, and sweet. And I would say that the sweetness is a bit different from that of sweet varieties of persimmons. Honestly I like this sarashi-gaki better than regular sweet persimmons.

But, I wonder if Japanese manufacturers of the electrical warming mattress would approve of this use of the product. :P

BTW, I uploaded some photos from our traditional festival here, if you are interested. :)
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OK. Now I remembered what "mattress" meant in other countries. Yeah, perhaps I should have used the word "pad." What my mom uses looks like this (a little thinner, though) and I guess it's too stiff and too narrow to be called a blanket, maybe?

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(Added Oct. 28, 2009)
Oh, I hope that no one has tried making sarashi-gaki from what I wrote above yet. When I asked mom what to do, she did say, "Remove the stem ends." But today we made some more sareashi-gaki, and I found out that the following was what my mom really meant.

First thing to do is to trim the unwanted part of the calyx and pull out the stem. Today we pinched the stem with a nipper and twisted the fruit. Ideally, the stem should come out and leave a hole like this, but when it didn't, we poked the center with an ice pick. Mom said that just poking was enough--you don't really need to dig out the stem to make a visible hole.

Next step: Dip tissue paper into whiskey and wet the top part of the persimmon carefully. Put alcohol-treated persimmons in a thick plastic bag, tie the top with a string, then put it in another thick plastic bag and tie the top.

Wrap the bag with electric blanket (or bed pad or mattress pad or whatever it is called) and then with another regular blanket. Leave for 3 days.

This was how we brought back the harvested persimmons from the orchard. Dad held the front end of the bamboo and I held the other end.

Umeshu

2009-10-10T07:12:00.005+09:00

Homemade Umeshu (Ume Plum Infused Liquor)

A follow-up on the umeshu I made in May, 2009. The above photo is the one I took in early September and forgot to post then. See how wrinkled up the plums were? After taking this shot, I took out the plums and poured the liquor into an empty glass bottle. It took only a few weeks to empty the bottle. Yes? I already drank it up. Hahaha...

To tell you the truth, everything we made with our ume plums this year -- juice, ume miso and liquor -- was a little disappointing, especially the juice was awful. (Jam was alright.) Everything had a little unpleasant flavor perhaps because the plums had speckles which were actually a disease. Mom made juice and ume-miso with store-bought ume plums with no disease last year and the year before, and they were great. So mom and I decided to use store-bought ones next summer and make only jam with our ume plums.
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Morning! -5-

2009-10-08T07:05:00.005+09:00

After a typhoon night

Typhoon Melor passed by our prefecture last night. It's on the main island of Japan now and moving up northward. I hope it doesn't cause serious damage there...

I expected a sunny day today with clear blue sky, like it usually is after a big typhoon in autumn, but oh-no. It's getting really cloudy now and might rain soon ...
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Maybe It Wasn't As Bad As I Thought...

2009-10-03T10:44:00.000+09:00

Maybe this bread wasn't a crash and burn like I wrote in my previous post, after all. After letting it rest overnight and using a sharper knife to slice, I got quite decent slices.

I made very easy open sandwiches with sliced cheese and ham, and they were not bad. If used better cheese and some vegetables, and/or some meat with a little spicy seasoning, I think this bread will make really nice and nutritious sandwiches. Now I'm glad that I gave this bread a try.
:)

The recipe was again from the Japanese recipe site, and this seems to be a "quasi-" German bread recipe that was simplified and modified for Japanese home bakers. It is absolutely a no-brainer; you just mix and bake, without leavening. For this bread I used black sesame seeds and pumpkin seeds (which I bought by mistake. I thought I grabbed a bag of sunflower seeds at the store, but obviously I grabbed a wrong one. But I don't think pumpkin seeds ruined the taste of the bread).
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AHHHHHH...!

2009-10-01T11:12:00.004+09:00

This was supposed to be German bread...

I don't know exactly what went wrong, but this turned out terribly tough on the outside and extremely sticky on the inside. :P

Yesterday I was too tired to do anything, so stayed in my futon almost all day. Today I woke up feeling refreshed, and felt like a challenge. That was the reason why I gave this German bread a try, but it was a crash and burn that I hadn't had for a while. Hahaha...

But I had a wonderful, exciting time from September 27th to 29th, being a tourguide. I still don't have enough energy to write about it in details, but a brief summary is on my another blog, if you are interested. :)
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Taking A Break

2009-09-20T13:26:00.009+09:00

Instant "Soup Curry"

Right now I'm at my refugee place, my aunt's house. This is the lunch I just had. My aunt is on a long trip until mid December, 2009, so at her house I can be totally alone and enjoy the fast Internet service as much as I want. It's "Silver Week" here in Japan now, the weather is just gorgeous (except that the sea is rough from a distant typhoon), birds are twittering and a couple of butterflies are floating right outside the window. I'm taking a complete break from being a family member, a daughter, a cook, a person who is in charge of cleaning certain parts of my parents' house, etc. Now I'm being totally MYSELF, nothing else.

And here's a good news. I got a nice job offer -- a paid job, though very short-term. Some people from abroad are visiting my hometown next week, and I was asked to accompany them for three days to help with the language. It's going to be mostly sightseeing with one presentation at the city office, so it'll be fun. Actually part of the reason for coming to this refugee place was to do some research and preparation for the next week, but right now I'm taking a break from that, too.

I took this shot on my way here.

Hope everyone is having a good time.
:)

*BTW, "soup curry" is a new name for very runny, soup-like curry here in Japan. I have no idea how it is different from "curry soup," but I don't really mind... as far as it tastes good.
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Now Being Dehydrated...

2009-09-19T11:26:00.005+09:00

Sicilian Rouge being sun-dried

I thought I would have to wait until next summer to make sun-dried cherry tomatoes, because when they were abundant the weather was nasty, and when the weather got better, the tomato season was over. These are (probably) the last harvest of our Sicilian Rouge.

Four days ago

The tomatoes didn't look quite ripe when harvested, but they are turning redder and redder as they dry.
Now, how much longer do you think I should dry them?
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Homemade Goya (Bitter Gourd) Tea -2-

2009-09-14T15:16:00.010+09:00

Goya (Bitter Gourd) Tea

My previous post is dated Sep. 12th, but it was actually Sep. 6th that I sliced up the goya and started drying them. And yesterday I finally decided that they were dry enough. I roasted the dried goya slices and brewed them with hot water.

Goya tea before roasting (Sep. 13, 2009)

After being dried for a week, the goya slices looked greenish brown like above photo. After roasting, the color turned much darker.

Yes, this tea was bitter, but I thought it was tolerable. The bitterness can be easily adjusted anyway by using less amount of dried goya or brewing it shorter. So I'm happy with the result.
:)
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Homemade Goya (Bitter Gourd) Tea -1-

2009-09-12T11:04:00.010+09:00

I thought goya (bitter gourd) season was already over for this year. Usually my family harvest them mostly in July and mid August, and see only a few left on the vine in September. But perhaps because of the strange weather, we couldn't harvest them almost at all until late August, and then BOOM! Goya season came.

Yes, we make goya juice almost every day and stir-fry about once a week. But my family does not care for bitter food very much, and we seldom use one whole goya for anything we make with it. So we ended up having more than enough of this green, warty vegetable in our fridge and on the table.

I googled for recipe ideas, and found out that you can dry and make tea with goya.

Sliced Goya (September 6th, 2009)

They say that dried goya tea is good for the people with diabetes and high blood pressure. There you go again. It sounds like ANY food has certain medical effect or health benefit, doesn't it? But even if the medical effect of the goya tea is too subtle, drinking it wouldn't do any harm, at least. Then I would be just happy with the fact that the tea keeps longer and easy to use than fresh goya.

Now Drying...

To be cont'd to Goya tea -2-.
;)
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And the Challenges Go On .. Part 6

2009-09-08T08:23:00.013+09:00

The weather has been great lately. It's much cooler in the morning and evening, and hot enough in the daytime to dry laundry hung outside. If the waves were not rough like this, I could have spent hours on the beach, fishing or possibly sketching the scenery. But the ocean is stormy because of a distant typhoon, and I've been wanting to wash mom's car but unable to decide when to do that. It's amazing what the salty air and wave spray can do to your car windows. :(

It seems that we human are not the only ones that are feeling active now because of the good weather. In the past week, I killed at least one baby centipede a day in my room. It's strange that I saw almost none in July and August -- when it was hot and humid -- and now they're suddenly wanting my attention. Good thing that all I saw was only babies. By the time they grow up, it will be too cold for them to come out.
... Wait... How fast do they grow???

-----
Mom has been doing much better, though she still has the habit of avoiding to eat with us when she is upset. It happens about once a month, which is much better compared to how it was last May and June.

I know I've been saying, "I'll write about mom's issue in more details sometime soon," but as you see, I haven't done it yet. I did start it, but it is taking way longer than I had thought, because I'm trying to give enough background information as well as describing what mom said and did. :P But anyway, just in case some of you are concerned about the result of my mom's health check, here's a brief summary: The MRI scan showed absolutely no atrophy (shrinkage) of the brain, and the young doctor told her that her memory impairment was nothing but "age-appropriate forgetfulness."

Mom was really happy about this result, but I was happy and unhappy at the same time -- happy that it wasn't serious, but unhappy that I lost the chance to educate mom and dad about MCI and lure her into healthy eating and exercising in the name of "dementia prevention." Now when I tell her to do something to prevent dementia, her answer is, "No, the doctor said there was nothing wrong with me and all I needed to do was taking memos often so that I don't forget important things." Dad threw away the printout of "understanding MCI" which I had downloaded and given to him, and now he is less hesitant to argue with mom. Gee, thanks, Doc. (Grrrrrrr)

------
There's one thing I learned after moving into this house. (Well, I think I've learned more than one thing, and mostly in a hard way, but this is one of the biggest discoveries.) I used to think that the elderly people do not care for greasy food and love light-tasting food. In other words, I thought that they would welcome the dishes they have never had before as long as they taste light.

W - R - O - N - G.
Or at least, it doesn't apply to my parents.
They like the food familiar to them. Period.
And as far as it is familiar, strong taste or greasiness doesn't matter. Or actually they may prefer stronger taste as they get older because they loose their sense of taste with age.

I tried not to make a big deal out of this, but it has been really discouraging to see my parents obviously forcing themselves to eat what I cooked, saying, "Yeah, this is good. Really tasty." In the first couple of months here, I googled like crazy and tried out recipes for Japanese traditional dishes that were light, low in calories and said to be "old people's favorite." But soon I figured out that "I've never tasted something like this before" was not a compliment. And after hearing enough of "Country bumpkins like us are not used to eating something different... It upsets our stomach," I lost interest in exploring "old people's favorites."

Both my parents just want to eat THEIR favorite foods only. That's it.
The difference is that dad wants to look and sound health conscious, but mom doesn't. Dad doesn't stop eating food that is rich in sugar and/or purine, saying things like, "Oh, just a little bit only once in a while is OK." "You shouldn't be too compulsive about this," blah-blah-blah. And when he is with his friends, he keeps lecturing on healthy eating habit.

AH, when was the last time I truly enjoyed preparing a meal without worrying if it was too "different" or "foreign"?

------
Let's take a look at the bright side: My driving has improved. And now I can change tires.
LOL
?
.

Mushipan

2009-09-01T14:35:00.006+09:00

Mushipan (Steamed Cake)

Ah, these cakes almost make me cry from nostalgia. Mushipan was one of a few homemade desserts my mom used to make when I was very small.

No, it's not that my mom was terrible at baking or making desserts. It was just not a popular thing to do in olden days in this rural area. When my grandma was young, this place was nothing but a poor village, and sugar was a luxury for most farmers and fishermen. With some exceptions, sweets were usually something to be bought at stores on special occasions. And my mom's generation was the one that experienced the extreme poverty and starvation after WWII in their childhood. So, you see why not many dessert recipes have been handed down in my family? (It was in her early fifties that my mom learned to make jams and sugared orange peels and to bake bread.)

Anyway, I can recall three desserts mom used to make when I was a kindergarten kid, which were: very simple pancakes, doughnuts and mushipan. She made the pancakes and doughnuts from scratch, but used "mushipan mix" (pre-mixed baking mix) to make her mushipan.

I really like the ones made from the mushipan mix because they are so light, so fluffy and not too sweet (and darn easy to make). But I couldn't find the baking mix at our regular supermarket the other day, so I tried out a recipe from that Japanese recipe site again.

Matcha Swirl Version

These home-made ones were pretty good, too, but much heavier than the ones made with the mushipan mix.　
:)
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.

Morning! -4-

2009-08-26T07:53:00.013+09:00

The weather has been strange this summer. Up until the end of August, the morning was either

... cloudy

or misty from wave splash

or foggy.

Seaweed on the beach

But perseverance prevails. The early bird catches the worm. And obachan finally shot a couple of photos that may make a few amateur photographers jealous (not because of my skills but because of the luck).

Omega Sunrise @5:32 AM August 25, 2009

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So I Gave It Another Try...

2009-08-23T11:30:00.010+09:00

Fig Compote

This was alright. Perhaps ice cream or soft cheese would be nice to eat with it. But I don't think I want to make tarts with my fig compote.

I might seriously consider buying a fruit dehydrator. It would take care of not only figs but cherry tomatoes, too, which would make my life a lot easier next summer.
(But before that, I need to find a job to save some extra money.)

---------
(Added August 24, 2009)

Here's one more fig dessert. Baked figs with sliced cheese on top.
I know. More cheese. Definitely more cheese is necessary. This dessert doesn't taste good unless enough amount of cheese is used. But this was the last slice left in the fridge and I didn't want to drive all the way to the supermarket just for this...
.
.

Help!

2009-08-19T13:36:00.014+09:00

Mom's Fig Jam on Yogurt

Help us. Our figs are ripening. So many of them, one after another... after another...

Mom is hyper now. Having recovered from burnout real quickly, now she makes fig jam EVERY SINGLE DAY. Every day she comes back from the garden being so mad, because her enemy, masked palm civet has been enjoying the ripe figs before we pick them. Several nights, she put some pieces of our not-very-good watermelon under the fig tree, hoping that the animal would eat the watermelon first, get satisfied and go home, forgetting about the figs. Nice try, but too bad, mom. Obviously he climbed up the tree first for the main dish, then came down and took a small bite of the dessert watermelon on his way home. He could be feeling more welcomed now, since he is given a dessert, too.

These are just part of mom's creations.

I don't hate fig jam, but it's just too much and I still have other kinds of jams to consume: ume plum jam, yamamomo jam and tomato jam. Dad doesn't eat any kind of jam very much anyway, so mom is practically the only one who is eating the fig jam every day. I'm sure she is going to give some jars to her friends. She'd better.

Fig jam pound cake

This is my contribution in consuming the jam. Yeah, pound cake. AGAIN! I'm sick of it.

If I could buy red wine tomorrow, I might give fig compote another try and make small tarts or something with it.
.
-----
(Added Sep. 18, 2009)

I found the misplaced recipe yesterday, so I'm adding it here:

FIG JAM POUND CAKE Obachan's Version

100 g cake flour
1/2 teasp. baking powder
90 g butter or margarine (room temperature)
70 g sugar (I used beet granulated sugar)
2 eggs, beaten
70 g fig jam

Sift flour and BP together. Preheat oven to 180 C.
Cream butter (or margarine). Add sugar and beat until white and fluffy. Add beaten egg in 2 or 3 times, mixing well after each addition. Add sifted dry ingredients and mix with spatula. Add jam and swirl it with spatula. Bake at 180 C for about 40 minutes or the toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

* Adjust the amount of jam and sugar depending on how sweet the jam is. (My mom's is very sweet.) I came up with this recipe by adjusting a popular pound cake recipe and using "maximum tolerable" amount of fig jam, since consuming mom's jam as much as possible was the main purpose of this pound cake project.

.
.ed

The Hectic Week Is Over...

2009-08-17T16:33:00.010+09:00

My younger sister, her husband and kids left last Saturday. My parents and I were so happy to see them, and so relieved when they were gone. LOL Well, family reunion. You know what it's like, especially when kids are small. ;)

It was a stormy day when they arrived. But the weather got better soon and we were able to do most of the things we had planned to do: baking, fishing (two days in a row), BBQ in the backyard, BBQ on the beach and fireworks...

These are the only photos I was able to take during the hectic week. My aunt bought us the crabs in the top photo. We pre-boiled them at home and barbecued them on the beach. Also, as you can see in the second photo, we cooked rice and ate with retort-pouch curry. Ah, nothing beats the joy of eating on the beach on a summer evening. Cool wind, calming sound of the waves, a couple of fish jumping out of the water... When everyone is full, kids start counting stars above the dusking horizon...

We missed the peak of the Perseid meteor shower, but on the next night, my sister, niece and I spent hours outside, looking up at the star-filled sky.

So, that was our family reunion in summer, 2009. Right now my parents and I are suffering from mild burnout. It would take a few days to recover from this. The good thing is that they are calling for sunny weather for the rest of this week. We can wash and dry the sheets and covers used by the guests.
:)

So Sick of the Humidity

2009-08-10T07:30:00.004+09:00

Mushrooms on the straw mulch for my zucchini
(photo taken end of July, 2009)

My younger sister and her kids are coming today to spend the week with us. But what a luck. There are two typhoons, Morakot and Etau, one of which coming close to Japan to spoil our week. Heavy rainfalls have been reported, and the dancers at this big dance festival will have a hell of the time. (I can't be there to shoot photos this year, so I'm kinda happy about the weather being nasty. :P) Well, this is the year that a total eclipse of the sun happened. The weather must be somewhat unusual throughout the year, I suppose.

There were a couple of summer days like this last week...

... but it didn't last long, and today, it's soooooooo humid again that mushrooms could grow on my shoulders. :(

Well, we'll try to have as much fun as possible. Hope I can take some photos to share with you guys.

Fruit Salad for Salvaging Bland Fruits

2009-08-05T12:33:00.009+09:00

Roasted Fruit Salad (Figs, peaches and blueberries)

My first encounter with a foodblog dates back to 2004. It was this lovely blog that totally charmed me and inspired me to start my own foodblog several months later. Yes, she who eats. That was the one. It was (and still is) a dream blog to me, and after reading the posts there, I felt like making everything she made and posted about.

One of the things that I definitely wanted to try out was this roasted fruit salad, because it looked so tasty and, at the same time, awfully easy to make. But in 2004, I didn't have a casserole dish, and couldn't buy much fruit except some real popular ones like apples, bananas and tangerines.

Now it's summer, 2009. I have this Pyrex thing, and more than necessary figs from mom's fig tree and loads of peaches. I tell you -- peaches are terrible this year here in Japan. Maybe because of the lack of sunshine? The ones we got from a relative as a summer gift were so firm and bland; they were almost like raw potatoes! My family didn't know what to do with the peaches, and when I was brainstorming, the memory of chika's roasted fruit salad came back to me. Yeah, some butter and brown sugar might do a magic...

The result: Bland peaches were still bland even after roasting, BUT the butter and brown sugar really helped. I cannot say that this was a great success, but it was not bad -- and definitely far better than eating the peaches fresh. (Figs tasted better when fresh, I would say.)

Maybe peach cobbler is worth a try to salvage the rest of the peaches.

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* I noticed the linkwithin widget on "she who eats" and just added it to this blog.
;) How do you like this?

Fig Compote with Ice Cream

2009-07-30T20:37:00.004+09:00

Fig Compote on Vanilla Ice Cream

It seems that this extremely long rainy season gave the fruits and veggies in our garden a break. The rain killed almost all my zucchini plants. My blueberries didn't ripen for several weeks. Even mom's figs were taking a break for about half a month!

But finally today, mom said that some figs were ready to be picked. Being sick of fig jam already, I made fig compote with red wine.

The ice cream was great with fig-wine sauce, but the compote itself was... mmmm...

Maybe I should forget about compote and make fig and red wine sauce next time. The sauce could be more versatile.

Easy Kabocha Pumpkin Pudding

2009-07-25T10:48:00.008+09:00

We have four different kinds of kabocha pumpkins ripening in our veggie garden now. Again, none of them are for sale. It's just for my family and extended family to eat. Then why do we need to grow so many different kinds? Well, it was dad's curiosity; he wanted to compare the taste and texture to pick his "favorite(s)." As a result, we have been eating simmered kabocha VERY often lately, and as you can imagine, I was getting sick of it.

Then this recipe (Japanese) came into my life and saved me. It's an easy pumpkin pudding (or "flan") recipe which doesn't require pressing the pumpkin mash through a strainer. All you have to do is to puree it in an electric blender with other ingredients, and I liked that very much. (Well, to be precise, the original recipe tells you to blend eggs and cream in a separate bowl and then mix with the pumpkin puree mixture made in the blender. And the pudding mixture needs to be strained through a strainer once, but it's no big deal.)

Baking in the oven

I had to admit that the texture was not quite smooth, but it was tolerable. And the taste was pretty good even though I substituted heavy cream with vegetable whipping cream and milk with soy milk so that dad can eat the pudding. The substitution was worth it because he ate it and loved it so much. Perhaps this pudding was the most successful dessert I've ever made here... Both my parents and even mom's tea ceremony students loved it.
GOOD! :D

* Sorry, there was a mistake in what I wrote about the instruction in the original recipe. I fixed it.

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(Added Jul. 29, 2009)

I guess I have been using the word "pudding" quite loosely. But if what I just read on this site is right, I think this dessert should be called "flan" instead of "pudding." This IS quite thick and firm.

Need More Repertoire...

2009-07-19T22:01:00.024+09:00

Aji no nigiri-zushi (Hand-formed sushi with Japanese jack mackerel)

One of the challenges in the kitchen at my parents' house is "unpredictability," especially when it comes to buying fish. (I know. This topic should have been included in my "challenges" series, but I kept forgetting to write about it. :P )

Here in this very, very small town near the Pacific Ocean, fixed netting is the main fishing method in the community. Local folks go to the fishing port first thing in the morning and buy fresh fish that were swimming in the ocean just about an hour earlier. When there was a big catch of variety of fish and help was needed for sorting them, community people take turns to help out (and perhaps get some give-away fish when they go home?? )

In our family, it is dad who goes to the fishing port to buy fish or to help out there. In the latter case, the whole community gets notified about the big catch, so mom and I at least know that we will have some fish that day, though not sure about what kind. But dad doesn't tell us beforehand when he goes there just to buy fish, which gives us more challenge.

There is a strict rule in my family: fresh fish good for sashimi (sliced raw fish) MUST be enjoyed as sashimi first, preferably on the day it was bought. So, no matter what mom and I were planning to make for lunch and dinner that day (and even did some preparation on the previous day), it has to be postponed if dad comes home around breakfast time with a big Styrofoam container full of fish. Yes, sashimi has the highest priority.

When dad buys aji, Japanese jack mackerels, he buys about ten of them at one time (if available), and that makes mom and I busy with gutting and filleting. Some aji is used for making sashimi, of course. But we have to make other things, too, with the rest, and we are running out of repertoire because dad buys the fish so often...!!!

So last night, wanting to try something different, mom and I made what we seldom make: nigiri zushi (hand-formed sushi) with the Japanese jack mackerels dad bought in the morning.

The sushi was OK, but we concluded that we should stick with smaller mackerels when making this sushi, because deboning was such a pain in the neck. :P

FYI, we have made these with Japanese jack mackerels since I moved in here:

(I took this shot on the bottom-left before putting the dish in the oven.)

Sorry, no photos of more popular dishes like grilled or deep-fried aji. We make them quite often, but for some reason, I never had time to take photos of them before eating. I'll post about them someday in the near future.

------

BTW, here's a big news. I went for a morning walk on the beach the other day and guess who I saw there!

JONATHAN IS BACK. YAY!! :D

(Added Jul. 21)
According to a neighbor, someone (perhaps one of the fishermen?) seems to be taking care of Jonathan now. He is given a "birdhouse" somewhere in the rocky part of the beach near the fishing port and getting fed almost every day, I heard.

Seventy Percent Home Made???

2009-07-16T11:44:00.012+09:00

Veggies from our garden

Don't you love the way they look? :D

There's a dish that I always make when I have plenty of summer vegetables.

Ratatouille

The ingredients of this ratatouille were: eggplants, tomatoes, onions, zucchini, garlic, basil and thyme. I'm proud to say that they were all home-grown. Olive oil, salt and pepper were the only store-bought things. So can I say that this ratatouille was 70 % home-made??? (The green tomatoes in the top photo were not used for this dish.)

The other day they officially announced the end of the rainy season in the areas around Tokyo, but not around here. Yesterday was a hot, sunny, summer-like day, but today it's getting cloudy and they are calling for rain later tonight. Yes, rain. Again. I'm sick of it... :(

P.S. Woops! I forgot about the rosemary and dried bay leaf. Now it'll affect the percentage...
:P

Morning! -3-

2009-07-11T22:21:00.002+09:00

See the bird?

It's still rainy season around here and we haven't seen the morning sun for quite some time now.
But anyway, here's some morning photos. (Some of these were taken in early June, actually. )

After a storm, you see some unusual things on the beach...

No, the kitty-chan was not sitting like this when I first saw her. I put her there to make her feel comfortable. ;)

In our garden

Oranges are bigger now.

Have a nice day!

Two Bean Dishes

2009-07-08T06:07:00.011+09:00

Bush String Beans?

IIRC, I think this type of beans were called "string beans" when I was in PA, USA, but I also heard "snap beans" and "green beans" somewhere else. Anyway, its season is already over around here, thus it is not a threat to me any more. :)

Ingen no Goma-ae

Now, this doesn't happen very often, but the other day I measured the ingredients(!!) when making this dish so that I can post a recipe. Here it is.

INGEN NO GOMA-AE (blanched string beans with sesame dressing)
Obachan's version
Ingredients (three to four servings)
120 to 150 g string beans
a pinch salt (for blanching)
3 Tbsp. toasted white sesame seeds
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. soy sauce
2 tsp sake

Blanch string beans with a pinch of salt. Drain and chop into 4 to 5 cm pieces. Grind toasted sesame seeds with a mortar and pestle. (Coarse grind is OK. If you don't have a mortar and pestle, put sesame seeds in a plastic bag and crush them with a bottle or a rolling pin.) Mix ground sesame seeds, sugar, soy sauce and sake. Dress the beans with the sesame seed dressing and serve.
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Ingen To Atsuage No Miso-Itame

This is my favorite dish, but so sorry, I didn't measure the seasoning ingredients. I made this dish at least four times since I came here, but each time I gave up measuring because I kept adding some of the seasoning ingredients until I felt enough... Anyway, if you are interested, the ingredients are:

Blanched string beans
Atsuage (deep-fried tofu)
*Miso
*Sugar
*Mirin
*Sake
Soy-sauce
White sesame seeds
Salad oil

And I always mix the seasonings marked with * in a small bowl beforehand, then pour over the ingredients being fried.

I'll try to measure and post the amount of each ingredient someday. Yeah, someday... hopefully.
:P

Deliciously Red

2009-07-04T22:18:00.016+09:00

Fresh Tomatoes ("Momotaro" and "Sicilian Rouge")

Dad said the small ones were not "Aiko." "Sicilian Rouge" is a variety developed in Japan by a collaboration of an Italian tomato breeder and a Japanese company. It is said to contain much more lycopene, pectine, GABA and glutamic acid than regular varieties. As they say in the ads, the sauce made with this variety of tomato thickened pretty quickly and was very tasty.

The herbs are from our garden, too.

Making Tomato Sauce

This was a test batch so I didn't use a big enamel pot.

Tomato Jam turned out great!

Note:
TOMATO JAM
1 kg tomatoes
330 g granulated sugar
1 tsp. lemon juice*
2 whole black peppers

*Dad's meyer lemon. Whole black peppers were added when the jam was poured into jars (one for each).

Oven-dried Cherry Tomatoes in Olive Oil

Note:
OVEN-DRIED CHERRY TOMATOES from "Hanamaru Market"
Halved cherry tomatoes sprinkled with salt. Pat-dried with paper towel in five minutes.
(Baking at 140C for 15 minutes + pat-drying) x 2
(140C for 30 min. + pat-drying) x 2
Keeps for one month if stored in olive oil.
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You see I've been working hard? ;)

This was my first time making oven-dried tomatoes. I think my oven did a good job.
But I want to try sun-dried cherry tomatoes, too. Maybe after this rainy season is over...

And the Challenges Go On.. Part 5

2009-07-02T13:50:00.020+09:00

Now my nightmares are in red color...

A fact of life in a super-rural area in Japan: Farmers' relatives are also farmers.
Living in the same climate, they grow mostly the same crops. And the crops become ready for harvest at about the same time... :O

Our tomato season has started. Dad and mom pick tomatoes and bring them into the kitchen every day. I already made tomato sauce twice. And my family eats fresh tomatoes at every meal. Then yesterday dad came home carrying a big white plastic bag like a Santa Claus, and the bag was full of tomatoes! Yeah, I should have known... One of our extended families grows tomatoes in a huge greenhouse and they give us some every summer. Gosh, it's already that time of the year...!!! OK. Time for the biggest enamel pot and a wooden spatula again!

Dad shoved some tomatoes into a smaller plastic bag and hurried to another relative's house. Oh, well. It can't be helped. In a place like this, you just have to be caught in the big cycle of the free distribution of fruits and vegetables and get drowned. :P
------
And it's fig season as well. Soon you'll read about our endless "battles" with hakubishin (masked palm civet?) that comes to our garden almost every night. Maybe you'll find him (them?) smarter than us.

Then our watermelons will be ready... one after another. Tell you what. Currently 37 watermelons are ripening in our veggie garden. Thirty seven. You heard me? THIRTY SEVEN! That was all my parents were able to count, so they must be forty-something actually. And none of them is for sale; they are all for our family (and extended families, probably) to eat. Where would we put them after harvesting them?! Personally I don't mind sharing them with non-human guests to our veggie gardens -- as far as our family can get more than half of the fruit -- but my parents can't stand it.

The unwelcomed guests are crows. Do crows eat watermelons in your country? Around here, to protect watermelons from the greedy birds, people usually a) hide watermelons with straw or weed, b) spread a net over the watermelon plants or c) set up fishing lines across the field over the watermelon plants.

Our neighbors must have been puzzled if they saw my parents and I walking around in our veggie garden for hours with big old fishing rods in hands. No, we didn't start a new religion or anything. It was us doing the c). We decided to use the fishing lines on dad's old fishing rods, and they were too terribly old that the reels didn't come off the rods. LOL

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It's also pit viper season. Every year several people are brought to the hospital in ambulance in this part of the prefecture. I always try to bring my cell phone with me when I go to the orchard with my parents, just in case. (But many times I forgot. :P) You know what. When choosing a cell phone service around here, there is more important thing than fancy functions like decomail, one-seg TV or games. It's a wide coverage in mountains and on the beach so that you can make emergency calls!
LOL

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As for my mom, things got much better. She doesn't go on hunger strike any more, though she still avoids eating meals with dad for a while after they had a quarrel. But she doesn't try to starve herself, and pays more attention to nutrition when she eats alone in the kitchen or in her room.

The freezers are not jam-packed like before because -- thank goodness! -- she is not obsessed with buying frozen food now. In the past she just kept buying but almost never ate the frozen food. These days she checks what's in the freezer and once in a while uses the stored food to make some space in there. Perhaps she began to understand that it feels better when there is a "flow."

Honestly, I really tried hard to keep the "negative" happenings in the kitchen to the minimum. You know a kitchen can be such a great source of stress if negative experiences accumulate while being there. Letting a lot of food rot or "fossilize" in the freezer is by no means empowering, you know. So I did my best not to waste food. If grilled eggplants turned out yucky, I made them into hummus. When leftover white rice dried up, I microwaved it and made doria or risotto with my homemade tomato sauce and summer vegetables from our garden. Mom's fig jam was baked into pound cake a couple of times like I did with my yamamomo jam.

And whenever I experimented with food, I always had mom taste it. While dad doesn't like anything new and different, she enjoys trying something new. Recently she even tries to experiment on her own.

But I guess that what worked the best for both mom and I was quitting my driving practice with mom. :P

BTW, I would like to be straightforward about this since being indirect didn't serve its purpose:
Mom is not currently being treated for dementia NOT BECAUSE her family does not know anything about dementia and/or in denial of the idea that a family member is "crazy." I had my training in mental health in the U.S. with DSM-III-R (I know. Old. :P ) and have a basic knowledge of Petersen's classification of MCI as well as the tests doctors use to diagnose dementia (esp. AD) in Japan and side effects of drugs commonly used for aged people.

Mom has certain health problems (physical) from before, and whatever treatment to seek, it has to wait for the result of her annual checkup including MRI scan of the brain scheduled this month. And living in a super-rural place where the one and only clinic in town closed more than 30 years ago, finding an appropriate hospital/doctor and securing transportation for hospital visits is much harder than you might think. It usually takes time and it IS taking time. That's the situation now. (I have received good many emails so enthusiastically trying to convince me that mom is "crazy." I do appreciate their concern and enthusiasm, and I don't want to hurt anyone's feeling, but I hope, reading these paragraphs, the readers understand that that's not the kind of support I need.)

I'm going to post about all these in more details on another blog of mine sometime soon. I'll link to it when it's ready. Like I wrote before, this is my foodblog and I want to keep it that way.
---------

As for myself, things are looking up, too. I might be doing some translation work for a local volunteer group this summer. Also in August, I'm attending a course to be a volunteer tour guide here in my hometown. It'll be fun. Yeah, it's about time I do something other than cooking/baking and fishing...
:)

Fried Green Tomatoes

2009-06-27T06:47:00.006+09:00

Gee... I never thought there would be the day that Michael Jackson dies... Yeah, I'd heard that he was sick, and with all the operations and rumors about his health, maybe it was expected? But still it's hard to believe ...

Anyway, "Fried Green Tomatoes" is my all-time favorite movie and thus this dish is very special to me. It's a great privilege that now I can get green tomatoes anytime (in tomato season, of course) from our veggie garden for free. No more walking around at the Sunday market asking, "Do you happen to have green tomatoes?" :)

Next time I want to make them thicker and crispier.

I was lazy and just tossed the sliced tomatoes in the flour mixture without dipping them in egg or milk or anything. As a result, I ended up seeing far more cornmeal at the bottom of the skillet than on the tomatoes. :P

That's OK. We still have plenty of green tomatoes in the garden.

No More Fears...

2009-06-23T07:42:00.022+09:00

First Harvest of My Zucchini

OK. Confession time. Be honest. When you read, "I thinned out the young zucchini plants and left only four of them" in my previous post, how many of you went, " 'Only four?' *chuckle* Well, you'll see..." in front of the display? Yeah, I learned a lesson. Definitely.

When I made a quick online search in May, I did find some sites that mentioned the bounty of the crop, but all the authors happened to be living outside Japan. The Japanese websites I read then said more things like, "Pollination may not be successful unless you do it manually" or "Male and female flowers tend not to bloom at the same time," bla bla bla... So I thought that maybe zucchini was difficult to grow in Japan because of the weather or something.

But I started feeling a bit scared as my zucchini plants reached for the sky like this ...

...and both male and female flowers opened one after another...

... and their offspring grew like long balloons being blown up one after another. My parents said that they had never seen anything like this before.

Darn me. No one else but I asked for this. And some of my zucchini grew twice as big as store-bought ones while I was busy with consuming other crops from the veggie garden AND yamamomo.

But finally yesterday, I told myself that it was time to face it.

First I went for "the must" recipe: zucchini bread. The recipe was my good old one, except that I added a pinch of salt this time. (I don't exactly remember why I omitted it when I wrote the above mentioned recipe... Maybe at that time I was using somewhat expensive, rather moist salt. I remember that the salt didn't melt well when sifted with other dry ingredients, and since the zucchini was rubbed with salt beforehand, the saltiness added up to make the bread too salty. So perhaps I wanted to be on the safe side.)

Zucchini Bread

OK. One zucchini disappeared from my sight. And I kept looking for a few more recipes to use a lot of this vegetable at one time, because there were several more that looked almost ready to be picked. Then I bumped into a recipe which turned out to be a lifesaver. It was -- I should copy and paste the name instead of typing -- Kolokithokeftedes!

To try out this Greek dish, I simplified the recipe quite a bit. I didn't use tomatoes or potatoes, and used grated cheese (popular Japanese brand) instead of feta cheese. But still, the "fake meatballs" really tasted like meat and it was AMAZING! :D So tasty!

Kolokithokeftedes Obachan's Version

I made about ten meatballs, or patties -- whatever you call them -- and managed to use up two big courgettes just like that. Oh, I'm soooooooooooo happy! Now I'm not scared any more. No more nightmares of this long, green vegetable chasing me with evil eyes and sharp claws. Hahaha...
(Nevertheless, I'm going to grow less than three plants next year ... or maybe just two.)

And I'm going to experiment some more to make a Japanized version of this dish without cheese so that dad can eat it. I wonder if using katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes) would do... because I know a recipe that uses it to make "fake chicken nuggets." I'll post a recipe if I come up with a great invention.
;)

Viva! Anthocyanin -2-

2009-06-21T16:56:00.009+09:00

The second batch was a big success. Yay! :D

After the disastrous attempt on the previous day, I told my parents, "I don't wanna see yamamomo any more. I'm making no more jam with them, at least this year. I mean it!" They grinned and said nothing, and I knew what that meant. There's one more yamamomo tree in dad's orchard where it's relatively flat ...

And I was right. On the next day, they came home late in the evening with another 5 to 6 kilograms of that anthocyanin-rich berries, and said, "Oh, it was just the perfect timing!" with big smile on their faces. Yeah, the berries are nice'n ripe. They look juicy. But what are you going to do with them? I'm not making jam any more!!!! Seeing the look on my face, mom rushed to the fridge to make some space in there and stored the berries neatly in it. Dad gave away about 1 kg of them to a relative. And they made puppy-eyes at me...

At 10:30 AM next morning, I found myself in front of a few big enamel pots, bunch of granulated sugar, a lemon and loads of that juicy berries. Mom was there to help.

First we made juice out of them, thinking that it would be a safe choice. Even if the juice wouldn't turn out great, it can be used for jelly or mousse. A few online recipes I found looked very similar; they said 1 kg yamamomo, granulated sugar (apx. 30 % of the weight of the berries) and a half lemon (sliced). All you need to do was to wash the berries, put all ingredients in a pot, add water just to cover them, cook for 5 minutes, cool and strain with a cloth. No-brainer. :)

The pink color of this cloth faded in a few days.

The juice was not anything great, IMHO, but not bad if properly thinned with cold water or soda water.

After lunch, mom and I started making jam. Yeah, jam. AGAIN. But by that time, my motivation was pretty high -- I wanted to improve and do a better job so that I can save my self-esteem.

And things went much better this time. Pitting was much easier with mom's help. We had fun checking each other's work to make sure no seed was left in the mash, and our fingertips were colored pink when we finished. This time I knew better about when to stop cooking. Of course no pectin was added. Actually, maybe because the berries were a different (bigger) variety, the jam started thickening much faster this time. :D

Look how much we made! But no problem. The jam turned out good enough to be given to friends and relatives, so we are going to give away the smaller jars. I made the labels myself, BTW.

See? The color of the second batch was just fine. (The real color was a little darker than this photo, but definitely not as dark as Worcestershire sauce.) I was worried about the texture because the mash wasn't strained through a strainer -- just processed in the blender like the last time. But it was no problem.

Here's a note for the future:

Yamamomo Jam Obachan's Version
2 kgs -- yamamomo
1070 g -- granulated sugar
5 to 6 drops -- juice of lemon from dad's orchard

* Dad's lemon was not as sour as store-bought ones.
---------

So, thank goodness, my trauma was healed. And now I'm willing to make yamamomo jam in the future-- BUT NOT THIS YEAR! :O

Oh, and even the super-dark, ultra-viscous first batch is being consumed little by little. Just adding a little boiling water solved all the problem when it was used for these creations.

Baked Cottage Cheese Cake with Yamamomo Jam on Top

Yamamomo Jam Swirl Cake

There's a good reason why I'm not showing inside of this cake, but you're not supposed to ask.
;)

-----------
* I don't think fresh yamamomo can be shipped to other countries from Japan. It goes off so fast and so easily. In addition, often some tiny worms are hiding inside between the long... I don't know what they are called, sacs? fibers?... and the worms could multiply even under refrigeration.

But the fruit is said to be good for health, being rich in anthocyanin and flavonoid.
:)

Yamamomo

Viva! Anthocyanin -1-

2009-06-19T06:36:00.028+09:00

Fresh Yamamomo (Japanese Bayberries)

Before I talk about my terrible two days with this anthocyanin-rich fruit, I think I should apologize. My "challenges" series may be quite misleading or unfair because they are digests of stressful incidents only and do not include positive aspects, such as what mom is perfectly capable of doing or what we enjoy doing together at this point.

Honestly, I started that series just to make my adjustment easier and to provide fun(?) reading for those who want to know what life in rural Japan is like. Nothing more. Having a little mental health training background, I would have been more fair and thorough in giving information IF my intention were to discuss mom's condition and treatment on this blog. But it wasn't, because this is basically a foodblog, after all, and I want to keep it that way.

Nevertheless, I'm adding a little more information here for those who are worried about my family because of my unfair input. Mom is not disoriented yet, and still capable of organizing and running a tea ceremony event. She lists up all the necessary equipments correctly (means matching the ranks and seasonal themes correctly), packs all of them, crossing out the listed items one by one and makes lottery to give participants thank-you gifts before they go home. Sometimes she collects necessary fee and distributes photos when necessary. She often does that all by herself, and so far never forgot to bring anything to the event. (Sometimes sorted the photos wrong, though. :p) Oh, and she has medical checkup every year.

Yes, here in Japan, ARICEPT is available, even for MCI patients (if the doctor thinks it's necessary), but IN BIG CITIES. In a very rural place, the issue is if there is any hospital at all in town. But it's possible to see Japanese diagnostic test for Alzheimer's disease online as well as the limitations and side effects of the drugs used for treatment. In fact I had an experience of taking a senior to a doctor for testing and being involved in her case conference at a facility years ago. It was amazing how the diagnosis... Well, it's a long story, so perhaps I'll write about this whole thing in more details somewhere else someday.

Anyway, let's go back to yamamomo. Dad and I harvested about 4 kilograms of them in dad's orchard on day 1, which filled this big basket in the top photo and a big plastic bag. We really had to work hard, and it was hilarious. Why? Because the yamamomo tree was planted in a VERY inconvenient location. Dad's orange orchard is terraced on the hillside, and the flat parts are obviously meant for the orange trees only. OK. I'll reveal my artistic talent (Ahem!) to show you where the yamamomo tree was and how we harvested the berries.

Don't laugh. My family has been harvesting berries from this tree in this way from two generations ago. The berries are high up in the tree and the tree is weak, so we tie a net like this and one person climbs up a nearby, bigger tree and shakes off the berries. What was hilarious this time was that the net was not in the right angle, though we spent hours to set it, and nearly all the berries bounced on it and jumped over my head to fall on the ground! LOL

But that was not the hardest part. When we got home, dad said that yamamomo goes bad so fast so they must be kept in the fridge, and if no space in there, the berries should be eaten or cooked right away. Of course there was very little space in the fridge, so I had to start making jam with them right after dinner, alone, though I was already exhausted...

It was the most traumatizing jam-making experience in my life, honestly. I picked a recipe on a Japanese website, which called for 5 kilograms of yamamomo and said that the berries should be washed carefully and thoroughly. Give me a break. It's already 8 pm. I measured only 2.5 kgs of them, but my back started hurting when I finished washing them. Then I boiled the berries until soft, and seeded them by pushing against a coarse strainer with a wooden spatula. The instruction said that the mash should be strained through a strainer, but it was too fiber-rich that I gave up real soon. Instead, I processed it in an electric blender for 15 to 30 seconds.

Then cooking. The recipe said, "Don't cook it too long over low heat, or the color would turn dirty." Fine. But no matter how long I cooked, the jam didn't thicken at all. The wooden spatula and dishcloth were colored red. When it was past 10 pm, I saved half of the runny mixture as "yamamomo sauce," and threw in a bunch of pectin into the rest in order to put an end to this agony and go to bed. Yeah, the jam was set -- finally, and overly...

Next morning, the jam was too thick that it almost broke the spoon inserted in it, and the color was as dark as Worcestershire sauce. And it gave me a headache after I ate it. It was overwhelmingly sweet, with a hint of sourness of wild berries. AHHHHHHHHHHH....

So, dear readers, be ready for another jam pound cake post coming soon.
;)

... to be cont'd ...