Thanksgiving and the return of Scrabble

We had Canadian Thanksgiving dinner at our house with a bunch of friends. A couple of people were early and I brought out Scrabble to see if they were interested. I was surprised by how in to my Japanese guests were. I remember the first time I played it with Masa he was really in to in too. He was really obsessed with getting as many points as possible. I would have expected him to be more focused on just making words. It was a great evening with tonnes of food.


You can see the 100yen shop maple leaves I found. I was pretty impressed by the quality. I really just wanted something a little festive for the guests who were mostly Japanese.

The spread was pretty good. I cooked a turkey, stuffing, turnip puff (made with daikon) and carrots & celery. Masa made mashed potatoes, Japanese pickles and french onion soup. Tomoko brought a great pumpkin pie and some lovely cornbread (Lori's recipe). I kind of miss the pumpkin pie my mother makes but I will make that at Christmas.

Hiking up Tanigawa-dake 谷川岳

On Saturday I had the privilege of hiking with my friend Mariko and a couple of her friends. We went to Gunma prefecture and did one of the hardest hikes of my life. We went down the night before and slept in the lobby of the gondola building. It is apparently open for hikers/climbers all night. We slept basically on sheets on hard concrete covered with thin office carpet. Mariko and I couldn't sleep. It must have been from excitement or something, not from discomfort. We were both really excited about the next day's hike.

We woke up at 5:30 to eat and get ready to board the gondola at 7:00. The first thing I did was to walk out the door to enjoy the crisp morning air. It was the most satisfying breath I had taken in years. There was mist over the mountains and it was beautiful.I went back in only to discover that they were actually going to fire up the camp stove inside to boil water for cup ramen and coffee. I wonder what the staff would have said. I know that is a define safety no-no. You can see the vending machines in the background in the picture.
We boarded the gondola and took the ten minute ride that saved us an hour of hiking. I then decided that I would give the mountain a go in my sandals. I did the whole ascent in my sandals and changed into hiking boots before the chains. I was struck by the beautiful green at the top. The plants are quite different from the Rockies in Canada and I kind of felt that I was in a different world.
Technically the hike wasn't tough but mentally it was excruciating. We went the day after a typhoon which made for a pretty difficult descent. The way up was great and I felt like I could have gone on forever.

We then started our descent backtracking along the narrow top of the ridge between the twin peaks, Tomanomimi (トマノ耳) and Okinomimi (オキノ耳). I am afraid of heights, not so afraid that I can't do things like that but I find myself being overly cautious and slow. This was the first kicking of the ego. You can't tell from the picture but the terrain is quite steep.

The trail also had several sets of chains to help the climb, it really was half rock climbing. Given my fear of heights, dangling over the edge of a little cliff on the the top of a mountain ridge was not appealing. I felt a sense of accomplishment because when I used to hike regularly when I was younger, I would always avoid the chains like the plague. This was my small success for the day.

Once we finished with the ridge I breathed a sigh of relief as we were going to take the trail that branched off into the trees. I have always loved trails through the trees. We got less than a hundred meters before we encountered our first steep rocky, mossy (and still very wet from day before's typhoon) section. I had a bad experience a long time ago with slippery terrain and these rocks brought back bad memories. The trail turned out to be like that for the entire length save the last two hundred meters. I believe this was the first time that I have ever thought "Will this ever end?" while hiking. I am pretty content in the mountains and usually enjoy most trails - even after the stressful ridge I was good to go.


This last descent, which took at least two hours, destroyed my ego (which I don't mind now) and left me feel like I was going to sprain my ankle with every step. I discovered about an hour and a half in to this descent that my sunglasses with brown lenses actually made the rocks look wetter than they were. I had kept them on because the light on the trail was kind of grey from the mist and brown lenses make everything look better. I felt a bit foolish because I had been hiking fairly slowly because I was worried about the rocks. The change is perspective had good timing because I needed more confidence near the end to balance the thoughts of ankle sprains.

We finally got to the parking lot at the end of the trail. We had a twenty minute walk back to our parking lot. That also felt like the longest walk of my life. My feed were killing me because I was too lazy to ditch my hiking boots and go for my lovely Chacos that I had brought for that exact purpose. I have always had a policy of not wearing hiking shoes anywhere but the trail. My feet have never liked shoes and once a hike is done I can think of nothing but freeing my feet. The rest of my body felt great actually. After a tough part of a hike is over I don't usually have residual angst or tension, I go back to enjoying myself.

More photos

Cinnamon Buns

I was skyping with my sister yesterday and she just happen to be finishing off a cinnamon bun. I couldn't not make some. I had previously found a small batch recipe for Amish White Bread on allrecipes.com and decided to use that. The cinnamon buns caused a problem. I used very little sugar and have thus eaten way too many for breakfast this morning. At least I'm not consuming too much sugar.

Cinnamon Buns (Amish White Bread base)

1c warm water
1/3c sugar
2 1/4tsp dry yeast
3/4tsp salt
2tbsp vegetable oil
3c flour
sugar, cinnamon and slivers of butter

1. In a large bowl, dissolve the sugar in warm water and then add the yeast. Let sit in a warm place until foamy. Mix salt and oil in to yeast. Mix flour in one cup at a time.
2. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth. Place in a well oiled bowl and cover with a damp cloth. Let rise until doubled in bulk (about an hour).
3. Punch dough down and knead for a few minutes. Roll out on a slightly oiled surface until it is a large, thin rectangle. Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon and add slivers of butter here and there. Roll up and slice into 3/4" pieces. Put on baking sheet or in a pie pan. Let rise for about thirty minutes. After fifteen minutes, preheat the oven to 175 Celsius. Bake for about 15min or until golden on top and sound hollow when knocked on.

I made two pies pans with this recipe.

Potato Nuke

About a month ago I came across a great idea for baking potatoes on the blog Kalofagas. He sliced the potatoes very thinly and drizzled them with butter, spiced them with steak spice, wrapped them in tin foil and baked them. It looked like a marvelous idea so I tried it using the microwave. I have tried to bake potatoes in my oven and have found that it takes a lot longer than it should so I usually just microwave them.

Potato Nuke

5 small potatoes
1 bunch asparagus (substitute any vegetable you like)
3 tbsp butter, melted
1 clove garlic
salt and pepper to taste

Wash potatoes and slice thinly almost all the way down to the bottom. Place the potatoes in a casserole dish. Crush the garlic into the butter and drizzle over potatoes. Try to get the butter between the slices. Cover and microwave for seven minutes. Baste the potatoes, add asparagus (cut into bite sized pieces) and toss with butter in bottom. Cover and microwave for another three or so minutes.

The leftovers make excellent hash browns the next day - and the potatoes are almost fully sliced already for you.

Costco Spoils

We were quite delighted to find that one of Masa's friends and his wife (who have a car) wanted to go to Costco and Ikea for the first time. I have a membership but not having a car makes it impossible to buy fresh food unless I want to carry it all the way home on the train (approx 1.5hrs). We went two weeks ago and had a great time. We thoroughly enjoyed eating lunch there as well - pizza and hot dogs. I miss how pizza tastes back home. Pizza in Japan is either thin crust (absolutely delightful) or Japanese style thick crust pizza which just doesn't taste the same. Given that this is an entirely different country, it probably shouldn't. That being said, the Costco pizza was the highlight of my day.

We bought a massive package of red seedless grapes - 1kg in fact. They lasted 36hours. I had bought a nice salad/fruit bowl from Ikea and wanted to put the grapes in it making the grapes accessible for over-grazing. It is challenging to find red seedless grapes in my parts of the woods because Japan grows other very delicious varieties.


I also bought a wooden salad bowl from Costco. It is massive and beautiful. It's from the Emeril by Wedgwood. Interestingly enough, the price I bought it for was 1/3 of what the shopping sites from home have it set as.

Sparkling Sake

Japan is famous for sake with many varieties that can be drunk at various temperatures. I am not a fan of sake at all. I find the taste strong and despite it being sweet, cannot drink it. I was a little skeptical when my sister-in-law gave my hubby and I two bottles of sparkling sake. One was pink and the other white. They were absolutely fabulous with the pink being the better of the two. The bottle is also the perfect size for two - 300ml. I think this will be out standby celebratory drink as neither of us really enjoys champagne.

Pickled Carrots and Japanese Cucumbers

For some reason I woke up this morning wanting to make pickled carrots. Luckily a few months ago I spotted pickleing spice in a international supermarket. I took a quick look on the internet and found a recipe on Cooks.com that looked similar to my moms. I followed it to the t.

Pickled Carrots

1 lb. carrots (I used five Japanese-sized carrots)
1 1/2 c. white vinegar
1/2 c. water
1 c. sugar
3 tbsp. mixed pickling spice

Wash and scrape carrots. Cut into thin sticks. Cook carrots in boiling water until almost tender. (Can add salt if wanted.) Drain. In pot combine remaining ingredients with 1/2 cup water and bring to boil. Place carrots into hot sterilized jars. Pour over carrots and seal. Makes about 2 pints.

After making the first pickles I just played around with the Japanese cucumbers. Here is my recipe:

Pickled Japanese Cucumbers

4 japanese cucumbers
1 1/4c vinegar
1tbsp dill seed
1/2c water
1/3c sugar
1tbsp salt

Slice the cucumbers thinly, put them in a bowl, cover with a heavy dish and let sit for 30min.
Add rest of ingredients to a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Rinse cucumbers and put in steralized jar, cover with liquid and seal. Let sit for about a week.

Yummy looking pizza dough recipe

I recently realized that Masa and I have never made pizza together. If we lived in Canada we would have made pizza several times but since home made pizza is not that common in Japan, I never think to make it. I stumbled across a great looking recipe on Choos & Chews.
The recipe was originally published in one of Jamie Oliver's (The Naked Chef) cookbooks.

Measure out 1 kg of strong white bread flour and 1 level tbsp sea salt onto your work surface. Mix 14g of dried yeast (I used 10g of instant yeast), 1 tablespoon of castor sugar and 4 tablespoons of olive oil in about 650ml of tepid water. There is no need to let the mixture stand if you use instant yeast.

Make a well in the centre of the flour and trickle in the liquid. Using a fork, draw the flour in towards the liquid. When all the liquid has been incorporated into the flour, knead until you have a soft, smooth and springy dough. Roll the dough into a ball. sprinkle some flour on top. This recipe yields about 6-8 medium-sized pizzas.

Place the dough in a warm place to rise until it has doubled. This should take about an hour. Once the dough has risen, knock it back, that is, gently knead it so you push out some of the air.

Divide the dough into 6-8 portions, and you can either freeze your portions, put them into the fridge for later, or use the dough immediately. It's best to roll the pizzas out about 15 minutes before you intend to cook them.

On a lightly floured work surface, roll each portion of dough out as thin as you can. I didn't attempt a toss, but I did manipulate the flattened dough from palm to palm until they thinned out further. Play with your favourite topping (less is more!), drizzle on some good olive oil, a bit of sea salt if necessary, and freshly ground black pepper.

I topped one pizza with some blanched asparagus, lots of mozzarella, some asiago, oregano, black pepper, salt and a drizzle of olive oil. I baked the pizza at 220C for about 10 minutes.

I'm very excited to try this sometime this week. Then I'll have pizza dough ready for a variety of uses.

Tomato-Quinoa Bread

I was just reading Kitchen Confit and came across a delightful looking recipe for Tomato-Quinoa Bread. I love tomato bread and had always assumed that you needed sun dried tomatoes to provide tomato flavor. Much to my surprise and delight, you can use tomato juice instead of water and have the same effect. Who knew? I haven't actually done much research on bread making because I get put off by the plethora of bread machine recipes and lack of recipes for those who do everything from scratch. I don't each much bread and thus do not want to sacrifice precious Japan-apartment space for a machine that would get used once a month.




Changes to the recipe: millet instead of quinoa (I thought I had the latter but it was infact the former), regular flour (I didn't have bread flour), vegetable juice instead of tomato (I couldn't find regular tomato juice)

Anyway, the dough has to rise 8-12hrs in the fridge so pics of the finished product will have to come tomorrow. It is actually a much brighter color than it looks in the photos.

Peach Crisp

Yesterday we bought some peaches from a fruit vendor near Oji station. They were five for 500yen which is a pretty good deal around these parts. I wanted to bake something not so intensive last night so I decided to use one of the peaches and another one we already had to make peach crisp.

Peach Crisp for two

Filling
2 large peaches dash of cinnamon dash of ginger
2tsp tapioca

Topping
1/4c butter 1/2c rolled oats 1tbsp bran 1tbsp brown sugar dash of cinnamon dash of ginger
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Mix the filling ingredients together and put in glass baking dish. Put all topping ingredients in a small bowl and mix like pastry. Put over the filling and press down a bit. Bake for 30min and let sit at least 10min before serving to allow tapioca to absorb extra peach juice. Serve with ice cream if dessert or alone for breakfast.

Peaches in Japan are pretty bland but the crisp tasted like a little bit of home. I really miss my mom's apple crisp because the like the peaches, apples are also on the bland side in Japan. Japanese fruit growers seem to favor large, beautiful but tasteless fruit. I'll take the deformed, flavorful ones any day.

A Good Hamburger

I was waiting for Masa in Korakuen last night and decided to try a newish burger shop, Zest Premium Burgers, on the first floor. It can be pretty tough to get a good burger in Japan albeit there is a plethora of fast food burgers. Every once in a while you need a good one. I was sold as soon as I saw that they make their own fries out of great Hokkaido potatoes. Who could resist? The patty was 100% Angus beef and they cook it right in front of you. Here is their description:

The new Zest Premium burgers use Angus beef, ground upon ordering, grilled to perfection and topped with locally-sourced veggies and our homemade Zest sauce. They're fresh, natural and juicy, the way a burger should be.

I had a burger, fries and a drink for 1070yen which is decent for a good burger. They seem to have two locations in Tokyo, Korakuen and Hiroo, if you wanted to check them out.

Working out Matthew McConaughey Style

A while ago Masa and I were talking about what kind of body is sexy and how to get that way. I mentioned that Matthew McConaughey has a great body so we googled his workout routine. We didn't find the exact one but I did find a good article on Men's Health Magazine website. It was called "Work Out with Matthew McConaughey" by Mike Zimmerman.

I immediately felt a connection with what he had to say and was inspired by a couple of quotes:

"I go for distance instead of time," he says, "to where I'm sweating and tired as far away as possible from where I started."

But doesn't he worry about having enough gas left in the tank for the return trip? Nope. "The return trip is always easier," he says. "Think about it. One, you can anticipate the road you've already traveled. Two, when it's time to eat the hay, the horses get home no matter how tired they are. Third, you're past the hump. You're in. Each step gets you closer to sitting down and relaxing."

"I tell myself, Okay, you're going to run as far as you can today, then run back, and you have as much time as you want."

I tried the run until you are really tired and then turn around method tonight and I ended up running twice as long and far as I normally would have. I also ran through the city instead of the river valley and ended up exploring as I ran. I got pretty close to a state of flow at the pace where I feel I can run forever. I ended up running from my apartment to Nishi Kawaguchi station. The total distance was 6km and I kept up a slow steady pace. It will be a good start to training for the Toda Half Marathon.

Quick Japanese Vinegar Pickles

Usually when you make Japanese-style pickles you have to wait a while for the salt to draw the water out of the vegetables. I saw my mother-in-law take a shortcut once that really saves time. The following recipe is based on a recipe from a Japanese cookbook called "One Dish Cooking". The original recipe calls for regular vinegar without sugar and uses the traditional method of letting the cabbage sit for thirty minutes while the salt draws the water out.

Fast Cabbage Vinegar Pickles
1/2 head of cabbage shredded or cut into small pieces (your choice of size)
1tsp salt

2tbsp sushi vinegar (or regular rice vinegar mixed with a bit of sugar)
1-2tbsp water
1tsp soy sauce

Put the cabbage into a glass bowl and sprinkle with salt. Scrunch the cabbage over and over until it becomes limp. This should take only a couple of minutes. Rinse the cabbage well, return to bowl and set aside.

In a small bowl, mix the vinegar, water and soy sauce. Pour over the cabbage and serve. You can make this ahead of time and keep on the table or in the fridge.

I can't rank things

One of my clients was late today so I had a bit of time to write in my notebook. While doing so I came to a realization that I severely dislike ranking things. It doesn't really matter what it is - I have a hard time doing it. I think I have a hard time separating things from their context which is needed to rank. This realization came in the middle of reading Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami. While journaling I started to wonder what my favorite character in the book is. I couldn't decide. Not because I like them all so much but because they are just a part of the story - they are just an element. Then I tried to think of my favorite character from fiction - also couldn't do it. Then I got curious about my lack of ability to choose a favorite character because of context. I decided to take a step back and do something like make a top ten drink list. Sounds easy enough, right? I found it took a while and I only got up to six and they rankings are deeply related to the context. I even had to do a formal brainstorming session.

Top Six Drinks

1. Water - the only beverage I enjoy any time, any place- especially during and immediately after a workout or when I first wake up in the morning.
2. Lemon water - cool but not cold, in a nice water glass with a stem, drunk while sitting on the couch
3. Peppermint tea - when the tea is cold on a hot day
   
4. Hot tea - with a bit of honey - drunk on a cold day when the room is cold and I can warm my hands on the mug while reading a book
   
5. Sangria at Bar ChitChat - drunk while chatting with friends but only if there are no smokers near
6. Blue Raspberry Slurpee/slushie - While driving on a hot day with the windows down and music blaring - especially on highway 21 between Fort Saskatchewan and Sherwood Park or highway 15 between Fort Saskatchewan and Edmonton

A beautiful ending to a blah day

So most of yesterday was pretty crappy. I had a bad sleep, when I woke up it was hot and there was no wind and I spent an hour and a half in the immigration office (before work). By the time I got home from work, which was great, I was not feeling very well. I rushed from the station to the dry cleaners because it was going to close ten minutes after my train arrived.

When I got out of the subway station, I noticed that the sky was looking a bit pinky and orangy but didn't seem spectacular. On the way to the dry cleaners is a park/baseball diamond and as I looked across the park, I spotted a great sunset. It literally made my day. I stopped and had a nice pause and snapped this pic with my cell phone.

I continued on only to find the dry cleaners closed because they are closed on Monday; a fact I had forgotten. I was not bothered the slightest bit because I got to see the sunset on the way home.

I don't usually get home just at the right time to see the sunset. The view from our fifth floor apartment also includes aspects smog which detracts from the overall effect. I think there are two good places to view a sunset: one, on ground level and two, from the top of a mountain.

A bit of Canadiana in Tokyo

About six months or so ago I found an interesting cookbook in a local used book shop, The Blue Parrot in Takadanobaba. Much to my surprise they had "Out of Old Nova Scotia Kitchens" in the cookbook section. The book was written in 1970 and my version was published in 1979. This particular book was actually a wedding gift to someone named Pam from her Aunt Bea - the card is still taped to the inside of the front cover. I felt that as a Canadian, I should buy it. It is filled not only with good recipes but, anecdotes, historical info and old jokes as well. I just picked it up and started reading it last night. There are a few great recipes in there - especially since my mom sent me home with cream of tartar last time I visited. A lot of old recipes used baking soda and cream of tartar for leavening before the invention of baking powder. A little piece of history in the heart of Tokyo. I have never been to Nova Scotia but I still felt a strong connection to a lot of the foods as I grew up eating moder versions of them. なつかしいな～。

That cookbook inspired me to pick up a new cookbook that my mother gave me recently. I had only flipped through in and must have seen lots of recipes with ingredients that I cannot buy in Japan because I hadn't picked it up since I first looked through it. I started to look through and found lots of interesting recipes with anecdotes from Premiers and other government types. The cookbook was created to raise money for the 2007 WD Workplace Charitable Campaign by Western Economic Diversification Canada. There are tonnes of recipes that I can make and a lot that remind me of home. I can't wait until winter to try a lot of them out. There is an onion salad that looks good. I don't actually like onions but I think my onion-loving husband and his family will enjoy it. If I can handle the smell, I will make it and post the recipe and pics.

雪花ワイン

A while ago we recieved a bottle of red wine - it's infact more purple than red - from Masa's aunt. We finally opened it up and were pleasantly surprised. My first reaction was "wine juice". It is very fruity and lite. Red wine usually makes me feel a bit ill but this doesn't. I believe the grapes are niagra concord - at least I think that is what the bottle says.

You can find it here via an online. The site is in Japanese. It appears they make a white version as well. I will definitely be checking it out.

The Clan is Coming

My husbands parents, an aunt and family friends are coming over tonight and we are preparing dinner for them. The menu: grilled sausages, Masa salad, green pea soup, tofu quiche, veggies and dip and kimchie tofu.

Masa Salad

This is a salad that we had at a restaurant and my husband figured how to make.

1 bunch mizuna (potherb mustard) - cut into 1.5" pieces
1/4 yellow bell pepper - chopped into small pieces
1/4 red bell pepper - chopped into small pieces
1/2 small carrot - grated (optional)
50g cheese (your choice - I like goda)- grated
1-2tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/2c Japanese caesar dressing (it tastes nothing like real caesar dressing - it's closer to a ranch/blue cheese mix)

Mix all the cut veggies together in a large bowl. In a small bowl, combine dressing and balsamic vinegar. Pour dressing mix over veggies, add cheese and toss. Serve.

Tofu Quiche (crustless)

1 pack of tofu
1 small onion - diced
1 clove garlic - minced
3 slices bacon
1/2 bunch spinach - chopped finely
2tbsp soy sauce
1tsp basil
1tsp oregano
1tbsp flour

Preaheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius. Cook the bacon, onion and garlic together in a frying pan until onions are translucent. Add the spinach and cook until wilted. Remove from heat. In a bowl whisk the tofu with a bit of water until it looks like a pudding (it doesn't need to be really smooth). Add soy sauce, basil, oregano and flour and whisk together. Add cheese, mix and stir in veggies. Pour into a lightly oiled glass pie pan and smooth out the top. Bake for about thirty minutes.

Dip tip - you can use tofu instead of sour cream in dips to make them fairly healthy. Just blend it in a blender for a nice smooth texture. I usually make ranch dip or french onion dip (using オニオンコンソメ).

Kimchie Tofu

We had this at a yakitori place once and it was great so we decided to copy it.

1 pack tofu (firm is best)
1/2c kimchie
2-3tbsp yakiniku sauce (Japanese style Korean BBQ sauce)

Rince off the tofu. If using individual bowls, cut the tofu to size and place in bowls. If you use a large serving bowl, put the whole piece in as is. Top with kimchie and yakiniku sauce. Serve.

Tomato Goodness

I was at the supermarket the other day and found gorgeous tomatoes for a really good price. There is a green house down the street from the supermarket and I suspect that is where the tomatoes came from. I decided to make two tomatoe dishes this morning to eat over the next couple days.

Gazpacho

1 garlic clove - minced
4inches of day old baguette - crusts removed
3 ripe, juicy tomatoes - deseeded and peeled
1/2 japanese cucumber - peeled
1/8 yellow bell pepper
1/8 red bell pepper
1tbsp red wine vinegar
2tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1tsp sugar
1tsp sea salt
extra fresh ground salt & pepper for seasoning

Throw all veggies and bread in the blender and then blend until smooth. Add everything else and blend for a few seconds to mix. Refrigerate for 8hrs to overnight.

Toasted Tomatoes

This one is really simple. Cut a tomatoe in half and deseed. Put the cut sides up and spread pesto sauce over the top. Put in the toaster oven and toast until warm and fragrant. They can be eaten warm or cold. I am going to let them sit in the fridge all day and then toast them again at supper tonight with cheese on top.

Hot and Sticky

Tokyo is hot and sticky today. It started out cloudy this morning and I was worried that the sun wouldn't come out at all. The sun didn't fail me. It is now beautifully sunny and 34 degrees celcius. I check the heat index and it is a balmy 40 degrees. No wonder I feel lethargic.

Last night I looked through some old pics from last year and found a real winner. I have always appreciated great t-shirts. I just happened to be born in 1981 so I felt a personal connection to that shirt.

Today I also discovered an interesting cookbook "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day". I discovered the book while checking out Dragon's Kitchen which seems to have loads of good baking recipes. I'm pretty excited for when the weather cools off a bit and I can try some of the recipes. I've asked my sister to send it to me with my birthday stuff so theoretically from September I will be posting beautiful bread on this blog. They will be much smaller because my oven is the size of a tiny microwave.

A jam failure and my new favorite pasta

I tried to make jam with a type of plum that I don't know the name of. I believe I overcooked the fruit because I have made wonderful fruit sauce with them before. I'm sad. I even went to the effort of sealing jars only to have them filled with runny sauce. I think it will taste good in homemade ice cream. I shall save them for the middle of winter...
Today brightened up at dinner time. Below is a pic of Masa's dinner. I played around with spinach linguine, zucchini, bell peppers, butter and Jane's Crazy Mixed Up Salt. I am in love and have discovered my new favorite pasta. The rest of the food includes: yogurt & cucumber salad, green beans with mayo and leftover chicken wings that were baked in Yoshida's BBQ sauce. Overall a good meal.

Sunshine Tea

When I was a child my mother and I would make sunshine tea. I just remembered about it a couple days ago and went out and bought a glass jar. I was dissappointed to see that after I bought the glass jar, it was cloudy for three days. Today the sun has just peaked out from behind the clouds and is ready to brew.

Sunshine tea uses sunlight instead of hot water to steep the tea. It takes time to steep but saves energy. You don't need to boil water and if you are making ice tea you don't need to put hot water in the refrigerator.

All you need to do is put a couple tea bags in a lidded glass jar of water and place it out in the sun for a while. When making black tea, I also added some lemon slices. I don't drink black tea anymore so today I'm making peppermint herb tea.

Tokyo Comedy Store

Last night Masa and I went to the Japanese show of The Tokyo Comedy Store at The Baron in Roppongi. We went to go see our friend Spring Day perform. Luckliy she was the last in the lineup because we were a bit late and only caught the last four comedians. When we walked in someone was on stage singing "otsukare samba" which was kind of funny but possible too much for me for the first set. I quite enjoyed most of the jokes overall. I did miss a couple of things but had a great time. All of the comedians are native English speakers so I found it quite easy to understand as the jokes were told using western logic and flow. They just started doing a Japanese show recently and apparently it has come a long way. I'll have to go back in a few months to see how they are progressing. I'll definitely check out their English shows in the time being.

Our New Project

There is a great secondhand furniture shop near our apartment. It is huge - especially for Japan - and you can sometimes find really great stuff. Our coffee table is from there. I repainted it as it was a disaster before. It took quite a while since the top has glass and comes off. I also painted the inside. The original color was kind of an orangy brown color.

Our next project is a desk. We (most likely I) will refinish the desk so that it matches the rest of our furniture. We found a nice solid wood desk that was pretty worn but has the potential to look great. It should take quite a while as we don't have an electric sander. I will spend an hour here and there on the balcony with some sandpaper and hopefully finish it by mid August.

Fresh Pea Soup

I found a wonderful recipe for pea soup on The Joy of Soup blog. I used frozen peas instead of fresh and didn't add the marjoram and it still tasted fabulous. I never would have guessed that oregano would taste good with green peas. That goes to show how often I use green peas. It's kind of hard to find frozen green peas around my station. We found some near our gym and proudly carried them home on the train from Korakuen. Masa really liked the soup as well. I love the bright green color in the dark wood bowl. I also added bruchetta sans bread and rye bread with plum jam. Overall a successful lunch.

Classical Music

I've recently started to listen to classical music a lot again. It's so relaxing and sounds wonderful on our new speakers. I will never purchase cheap 1000yen computer speakers again. I'm listening to a Bach CD I borrowed from the local library. It is quite lovely.

My current Favorite Classical Pieces
1. Bach - Mass in B Minor
2. Bach (Vanessa Mae Version) - Toccata &Fugue
3. Beethoven - Moonlight Sonata
4. Beethoven - Symphony #9
5. Mozart - Requiem

I have now switched to listening to Vanessa Mae on Youtube.

Cooking, Cooking and More cooking

A few days ago I found a recipe for ume jam on Blue Lotus' blog. I thought I would give it a shot since I can imagine it tasting wonderful. I unfortunately left it alone to start this blog post and the sugar browned. It still tastes okay but is now a really ugly color. Think of the greeness of ume combined with the color of burnt sugar. Yum, yum, yum... I think it will make wonderful ice cream though.

I got a lovely book from the library recently. It's called 'easy summer food' and it is fabulous. I think I copied about thirty recipes from it. I mixed up the gazpacho last night and we are going to have it at dinner tonight. There are also tonnes of bread recipes. I think I'm going to make some sort of flatbread tonight. I'll post pics if they turn out.

ブログやろうかな。。。

I have tonnes of free time at the moment and I think I shall start blogging to fill the time. Work goes through busy periods and dead periods and this is the deadest period yet. I should enjoy the free time but instead I feel guilty for not contributing to the GDP. I don't actually feel all that guilty but I am pretty bored. I'm not really a mindless activities person so there is only so much time I can waste on the internet.

Reflections on Disney Sea

Last weekend I went to Disney Sea for a friend's birthday. I was expecting an over abundance of cuteness and while that was there, there was a quiteness to it as well. The quietness was probably due to the fact that it was really cold out. Who goes to an amusement part in January? I had expected to leave with a headache from Disney jingles but that was not the case. I believe I had a fairly inaccurate image of Disney Sea before I went. I'm not saying that I like the place - just that it didn't completely turn me off. I ended up having a blast with my friends all day. The surroundings really made little difference to my day.

The day after snow - 雪の次の日

When I woke up it was snowing yesterday and I was really excited all morning. I had my heart set on taking pictures on my way home from work. By the time I left work, the snow had turned into rain. Almost all evidence of snow was gone. The only picture I have is from the window at work. Today I woke up and it was sunny and bright. You can't even tell there was precipitation yesterday. The snow was glorious though - nice, fat snowflakes. When it is snowing, it doesn't seem to be cold and the air is so crisp and fresh. Glorious!

昨日起きたときに雪が降っていってうれしかった。仕事の後に雪の写真を撮ろうと思ったが終わった前に雪が雨になっちゃった。雪が降っていたことをぜんぜん見えなかった。会社の馬田からとったの１枚の写真しかいない。雪がとってもキレイでふわふわしていた。雪が降ったら寒くなくて空気がフレッシュな感じです。美しいです。