Rabbitt Days

Four!

2012-02-18T11:21:00.004+09:00

Last week, my daughter turned 4. I was woken early in the morning by the soft pitter patter of her feet on bare wood, her small warm hands reaching up to me. I grabbed those hands and pulled her into my bed where she promptly tucked her feet against my body and twined her arms in mine. We slept immediately and I woke up knowing she'd given me a great memory.

4 is big girl big, break my heart big. There has been so much change, both in her life and in ours from last year to now that it got me thinking and pulling out my sewing machine. For two years I've been dragging around her old clothes, and inspired by this tutorial I started making my very first string quilt. The hope was that it would be done by her birthday, but I underestimated both the amount of cutting, and my sewing skills, and it's yet to be finished. By the end of the month I'm hoping to have the whole front pieced.

Instead, I put together a terrarium - complete with a hand painted tiny wooden family and a few green sprouts already pushing their way up. It's enchanted her in the way that I hoped it would and has taken center stage of her bookshelf.

There was a whole lot of baking, though not much of it photo worthy, some cosmic bowling, and an enormous amount of smiles, a pretty good way to spend a birthday.

Also, we had our television debut. Check it out. (Follow the link and click on Tots to Teens: Assiniboine Tots Nature Program)

Sprinkles and Spice

2011-12-20T12:41:00.002+09:00

There are quite an array of great things when it comes to holiday season. A stand out for me, the resurgence of heavily spiced sweets and drinks. Pumpkin latte's, fresh from the oven heavily scented gingerbread, sticks of cinnamon left to simmer in a pot, bring it on. I can't get enough. Mid summer, I always get an itch for cinnamon spice cake or fresh ginger cookies but it just isn't the same.

Plus, there's something both entirely gratifying and mildly therapeutic about rolling out a bunch of gingerbread men. How there is such a strong connection to childhood memories, the sights and smells encapsulated by these deliciously crispy crunchy candy decorated men.

I've been making them with my daughter every year, though this is the first time they are proper sized men. Previously, I had what seemed to be a pinky sized cutout from the 100 yen store. Which worked just fine because my oven was tiny and my cookie sheet just as miniscule. Also, a full sized gingerbread man cost near ten dollars in Japan, which seemed both ridiculous and unsurprising.

Recipe courtesy of Martha.

Road Trip

2011-12-18T13:30:00.000+09:00

I'm an under planner. I'm a wing it and everything will turn out just fine sorta gal. This means I spend the tail end of things running around like a mad woman, or in this case, driving 14 hours to have my fingerprints taken at the nearest Japanese embassy to fulfill a visa requirement. Hello, road trip.

It wasn't all bad. I saw lots of flat, flat land, roads whipped with snow, cows solemenly grazing. We spent the night in Swift Current, Saskatchewan where as part of your room deal, you're given coupons for free money at the casino. Free money! So the man went and hit a jackpot and came back saying I'd better go. I went in the morning at 9 am and played the slots I thought my daughter would pick: anything cute, fairy themed, or otherwise sparkly. I lost it all, which meant essentialy that I lost nothing.

We spent a few days in Calgary and the end in Canmore and Banff, drinking up the snow capped mountains that you don't see in the prairies. The air was crisp, the days were cool, the views gorgeous. Z had her first ski, and I my first hot spring experience post Japan. Keenly, I miss those old onsen days which finally, seem firmly in the past. In the embassy they asked where I had lived because we were talking about the earthquake. I said, "We live in Fukushima Prefecture." And then corrected myself, "We lived." The past tense like a sudden severance, and there it was, the ties let go. The future before us.

Good, Great, Wonderful

2011-12-01T20:33:00.002+09:00

Something really crazy wonderful happened. I got hitched. In yellow shoes. To a man in yellow argyle socks. We were surrounded by family and friends, and our own little flower child in similarly hued shoes. I danced all night, had too much champagne, and chatted with friends and family I hadn't seen in entirely too long. We had a blast.

I ugly cried down the aisle. It was awful and not photo worthy, true. My mother and I crafted like mad women. Ok, ok so she did lots of crafting and I did lots of idea making and directing. There was much printing upon paper, and enough paper cutting and spell checking to make the eyes go batty. And good god the ribbon. Was there a thing that wasn't tied with a jaunty yellow ribbon. No, no there wasn't.

We went to a local farmer's market to buy fresh Georgia peaches as a welcome gift for out of towners. "I need 66 not too ripe peaches," I told the man. So he went to his truck and grabbed several flats which we sifted through in the hot summer sun. This one, not that one, counting and chucking peaches in or out while our daughter dug her hands in some. A good lead up memory.

It was the best party I've been to all year, and I've a sneaking suspicion it'll be my favourite for a long time to come. After that we packed our bags, dug out our passports and went over the border to Canada. Our new home.

Summer sped by on lazy bicycle rides through paths with no cars. With daily trips to a bakery for happy face cookies, and countless cinnamon rolls. We saw deer and bears - two cubs, their rumps sticking out from a V in the tree. We caught sunrises that looked like cotton candy, and spent afternoons barefoot, feet in sand, drying off in between dips in the lake.

Then suddenly with a rustle, fall was here. Canadian Thanksgiving, corn mazes and pumpkin picking. Where did the time go? Looking back at this, I feel like I've lost seasons in not writing. I have. Now it's not only winter, but almost the end of the year. I start to feel a bit frantic when I begin to think of this.

So the bare feet have been exchanged with fake Uggs, and a down parka that goes to my knees. I'm beginning to learn the temperature in Celsius, and last weekend, I hauled my daughter to her ballet class in a sled. I'm attempting to embrace what is sure to be a very cold, long winter.

And I'll get back on the writing too.

2011-06-20T11:47:00.003+09:00

I know, I dissapeared. The earthquake that hit Japan shook us up in ways I hadn't realized. I won't say much other than it was awful and terrifying, that holding a child in your arms while everything in your apartment crashes around you is enough to shock for life. So it has. We didn't lose much, just dishes. But I remember how my hands shook for days.

We left Koriyama and we headed south, staying in Kyoto for almost two weeks before I boarded a plane with the little one bound for home, where we have been ever since.

It's been an adjustment - of the sort that I hadn't realized. Getting used to driving again, something I hadn't done in almost a year. Being able to converse freely and understand everything, much to my ocassional annoyance. I don't ride a bicycle here as there is nowhere to ride. And with summer here, I miss the comfort that a bike lends on a perfectly warm day - how there's nothing better than wind in your hair and sun on your face and green trees all around. There is so much missed when in a car.

I haven't been baking as much as expected. Some cookies here, rye bread there - nothing spectacularly exciting, especially given the sudden availability of ingredients.

Slowly, I'm finding my way back.

Umeboshi Bread

2011-03-03T07:54:00.003+09:00

A jar of the most lovely, plump, and perfectly salty umeboshi has been sitting on my shelf for a while now. Other than eating them with steamed rice, I wanted to do something else. Bread, I thought. Knowing this would be a really hit or miss affair, my hopes weren't hight. So I was pleasantly surprised when the bread turned out perfectly. Crusty on the outside, like a pillow inside, with sudden pockets of umeboshi and an earthiness rounded out from tahini. It was the perfect comfort food for a day that had been gray and windy.

Umeboshi Bread
1 1/4 C Warm Water
1 Tbs Brown Sugar
2 tsp Yeast

3 C Bread Flour
1 Tbs Brown Sugar
1 tsp Cumin
2 Tbs Olive Oil
6 Large Umeboshi (pitted and finely chopped)
1 Tbs Tahini Paste

1 Tbs Cornmeal

1. Dissolve sugar in water and sprinkle with yeast.
2. In a separate bowl, add chopped umeboshi and 1 Tbs tahini. Mix until a smooth paste is formed.
4. In a large bowl, combine 2 Cups bread flour, 1 Tbs sugar, and 1 tsp cumin. Make a well into center and add 2 Tbs olive oil, umeboshi mixture, and yeast. Stir until combined.
5. Add remaining 1 C of flour, and knead 5 - 10 minutes.
6. Place in a covered clean bowl and let rise 45 minutes.
7. Turn onto a lightly floured surface, knead several times. Return to bowl, let rise 30 minutes.
8. Punch down dough and turn onto floured surface again, knead briefly and shape into loaves. (2 mini) Place on a baking sheet dusted with cornmeal and let rise until doubled.
9. Bake in a preheated oven at 450 F (230 C) with a bowl of water. Bake for 15 minutes, then turn heat down to 375 F (190 C) and bake for a further 30 minutes or until done.
Enjoy!

Tokyo Marathon meets Sake Muffins

2011-03-01T13:38:00.004+09:00

An escape from Koriyama into the busy-ness that is Tokyo. I got swept up in shopping (new green shoes!), wandering the city, and cheering and giving out hi-fives for the Tokyo marathon. Before leaving home, I had planned to stop by the 100 yen store to pick up a hot pink feather boa for Dave. I said, "It'd be easy to see you then."

Because I saw wolves and cockroaches, men running in full suits, girls in neon tutus, fairies, and even Waldo.
I spotted Batman in the crowd, but no Robin. There were people with hats of Mt. Fuji, dressed up as tako-yaki, and a giant squid.
Characters were in droves, Stitch especially. Popular rock groups were represented too.So there were all these people and guess who I didn't see? The one that I was there cheering for - who passed me by once, and would have passed me by again had he not finally seen me and stopped directly in front of me. I screamed I was so excited!Now that we're back, he's all on a health kick, and I'm on a baking kick that won't stop. So I made some muffins he could take as snacks during the day, which are most decidedly not healthy - but they are good.
Orange and Sake Muffins
1 1/2 C Flour
1/2 C Wheat Flour
2/3 C Brown Sugar
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Vanilla
1 Orange Zested
1/2 C Dried Cranberries
2 Tbs Sake
4 Tbs butter (Salted)

1/3 C Orange Juice
2/3 C Milk + 2 tsp Cider Vinegar
1 egg (lightly beaten)

Add all dry ingredients together and stir til combined. In a saucepan on low heat, add spices, zest, fruit, sake and butter and let simmer for 5 minutes. Add vinegar to milk and let rest for several minutes. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in Sake/butter mix, then add liquid ingredients and egg. Bake in a preheated oven at 400F for 15 - 20 minutes until golden. Makes 18 medium sized delicious muffins.

A Perfect Start

2011-02-16T12:07:00.007+09:00

Last night I went to bed reading a Japanese cookbook. It filled my dreams with white fluffy rice and warm miso soup, so that I woke craving exactly that for breakfast. How healthy it would have been, how satisfying. Only upon arriving in the kitchen, I saw the banana bread I'd baked the night before, along with a packet of caramel flavoured rusks given to us by a co worker. And then there was the coffee too.Which when combined is a whole lot of something that is pretty difficult to pass up. The banana bread was mostly inspired by this lemon and matcha pound cake. My swirls aren't as great as hers, but the taste is there - and that's what matters most, right?!

Banana Bread with Matcha

3 ripe bananas
1/3 c butter (melted)
1/4 c plain yogurt
3/4 c brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 c flour

1 1/2 Tbs matcha powder

Mash bananas in melted butter. Mix in yogurt and brown sugar. Add egg, vanilla, and baking soda. Stir! Flour goes in last, mix quickly and pull out 1/3 c of mix. To the 1/3 c add the matcha powder. In a bread pan or muffin tins spoon banana bread mix first with matcha on top. Swirl with a knife. Pop into a preheated oven 170 C (350F) and bake for around 45 minutes. Yum!

On Ice

2011-02-10T09:19:00.006+09:00

A free skate day at Bandai Atami had us tying on skates and zipping across ice. Or, not really zipping, but sort of baby stepping. At least, in my case. Z wore skates that were 16cm, impossibly small, ridiculously cute. Holding hands with her in the middle, we managed to make one loop before she called it quits in favour of climbing on snow hills and drinking hot chocolate.

At the rink they had chairs that kids could sit in and be pushed around on the ice. They seemed a bit holy danger, but she loved gliding on one. The rink was full of families, and of older men doing their requisite calisthenics while skating. Arms over head, stretching, waggling their fingers. It made me laugh.
On the stop home, we found a new beverage.
Look - It's hotcakes in a can. That you can drink! Somehow, through the use of what I am sure are mostly artificial ingredients and chemicals, it does actually taste just like warm maple-y pancakes. Syrupy sweet, and a little bit delightful.

Happy Birthday

2011-02-09T15:16:00.010+09:00

Yesterday, Z turned three. No longer my baby, she's now officially a little girl. One with a flair for drama and quick with attitude. She has a habit of crawling into my bed at night, and I am most often woken up by her saying, "Mama, excuse me. Excuse me!" Meaning that I'm taking up too much room, that I had better move over. I just can't believe that it's been three years. Really, where did the time go?

I spent an enormous amount of time making this cake. Mostly the time being enormous because I forgot to factor in Barbie's freakish tallness and had to go back and bake another cake so that it would work.

Z was in love with it, pink cream cheese icing, chocolate, a Barbie stuck in the middle. From the perspective of a three year old, it can't get much better.

Snow Day

2011-01-31T21:07:00.003+09:00

On Sunday we went out and purchased a hot pink sled and headed towards the mountains for a bit of sledding. There's a popular place with families near Inawashiro, Hotel Listel, that has a snow play area for children. They also have a fancy indoor pool and an onsen that last year, we snuck into.
We didn't sneak in this year, but we did spend some time sledding. Staying out until our hands and feet were frozen and I finally said - I've had enough, let's go. Which most likely had more to do with the fact that I didn't expect it to be so cold - on a mountain, in the winter, amongst the snow. Go figure.

I made it back to Koriyama in time to bike it over to Starbuck's for a coffee and a girl chat that warmed me right up.

And unrelated but new, just before bed my little one wrote the first letter of her name, Z. Which I know isn't that shocking, but her best friend at school has a name that starts with H and she would refuse to write a Z, instead writing H over and over again. Pleased.

Daring Baker's January - Biscuit Joconde Imprime

2011-01-28T08:13:00.003+09:00

The January 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Astheroshe of the blog accro. She chose to challenge everyone to make a Biscuit Joconde Imprime to wrap around an Entremets dessert.
This was a different sort of challenge for me because it was the first in which I followed the recipe exactly and used eggs. Because I'm cooking in a Japanese kitchen in an oven the size of a microwave I was able to scale the recipe down considerably and only used 5 eggs total. But still, five eggs - it boggles my mind.

Since I'm still riding the wave of spring themed desserts, I decided to make a green tea and macadamia nut sponge with plain vanilla sponge as the overlay. Because it's breakfast time - or because I had five pieces of chocolate before going to bed last night - I took a departure from a fancy filling and went the easy way. I filled mine with plain yogurt dotted with fresh fruit and drizzled with honey - it was an excellent way to start the day.

Omiyage

2011-01-25T14:32:00.004+09:00

Just before leaving Thailand I went in a hurried shopping spree, trying to buy souvenirs for friends, students and co workers. In Japan, the standard practice is - if you're going somewhere, you'd better bring back an edible treat for everyone. When we went to Mt. Fuji, I brought back Fuji stamped cookies. A few years ago, we went to Korea and brought back some candy (which was awful, sorry bout that.) This year I picked up peanut brittle and vanilla flavoured biscuits which were luckily, thankfully good.

It has made me think of all the souvenirs I've amassed over the years from kind students and co-workers. I've picked up towels and teas, spices and herbs, sesame seeds, bean paste buns, fruit and vegetables, cookies and chopsticks. From a student that my man teaches privately, we were just given a map of Egypt, chocolate biscuits called Ramsis, and Egyptian sand.
Going through my cupboards and around the house, I picked up gifts my students had given me recently. One woman went to Italy and brought back a heart shaped box. Another student went to Egypt and brought me a papyrus bookmark. There are kokeshi shaped rice crackers, a famous banana and cocoa flavoured cookie, a pen in the shape of an astronaut and three rocking dolls meant to be each member of my family to bring good luck. The small green things are olives, grown in Japan which was surprising to me - and a product of one of my student's hometowns.

A Year in Art

2011-01-23T14:57:00.004+09:00

Every time my daughter comes home with a paper full of colour, I either tack it to the wall or wedge it in between my cookbooks and recipes. It's not exactly an organized system and it means the walls of our house have turned into a hippy dippy mess of children's art. I mean, I love it - but one can't sit without the eyes jumping from here to there.
Finally, I took everything down. It's been photographed, dated and filed away. The white space that's left on the walls is now suddenly, amazingly calming.

Croissants and Cake

2011-01-21T14:17:00.007+09:00

On my list of things to make for several years has been croissants. I imagined them to be horribly daunting and tricky with results more easily obtained from just purchasing at the local bakery. But oh, how my mind has changed.At midnight I pulled my first batch of croissants out of the oven, warm and crusty. Making the dough - all day - it felt like a bit of magic. How these simple ingredients come together to form a pastry so wonderful, all that folding and layering - the wait time of patience.I made these throughout the day in between work. Coming home to roll out a layer, add butter, punch down. We ate them for breakfast with jam and I couldn't help but pleased. They were flaky and crisp, buttery and soft. Knowing how much butter went into them I have managed to exercise caution and eaten only one so far, but there is a tray of freshly made ones with chocolate inside that are calling my name. Because I am in love with all things Martha Stewart, I used this recipe which was mostly easy to follow. I did omit the vegetable oil, and they turned out fine. So possibly that isn't necessary. They were as time consuming as I'd imagined, but a whole lot easier to make. Which means I'll have to make them again sometime soon.

With my daughter's 3rd Birthday just around the corner, I felt the need to be marginally ridiculous and bake a practice cake before. With it snowing and the winter temperatures, I wanted something that felt spring-y, and with her insistence on walking around like a pink explosion I knew the colour pink had to fit in somewhere. So I made a lemon cake with a lemon curd layer (spring!), and a strawberry butter cream frosting (pink!).It was good, but not nearly pink enough. So it's back to the drawing table and another practice cake.

Snow

2011-01-18T14:45:00.003+09:00

While in Thailand, it snowed quite heavily in some areas where we live - the craziest story of it coming from Aizu. Which for some reason made me think I had a while to wait until I'd see my first snowfall of the year.
But the snow came on Sunday and it's been cold hands and wet feet ever since. Which got me on a baking binge. There's nothing quite like warm bread to make winter seem suddenly welcome.
New Year's Resolutions were something I never put much stock in, but coming home to our decidedly cluttered house and just as mad work hours made me think I ought to become more organized. So I've been cooking extra and cleaning extra, fitting both in when I used to watch say, reality TV. And it turns out I'm getting a lot more accomplished with the TV off, and while I do still watch the occasional program (come on, the new season of The Bachelor just started) I am definitely enjoying a fridge full of prepared meals much more.
Today I made stir fried tofu with kale, and just finished up a pot of tomato chickpea curry. Dinner's done, and it's only 3 o'clock. Whew.

Where We've Been

2011-01-14T14:01:00.005+09:00

I had wanted to keep on blogging while we were traveling in Thailand, but it seemed like such a bother. The going to the internet cafe, bringing my camera, sitting down inside when I could be outdoors with a mango shake in my hand. So every day I opted for the mango shake instead, or a watermelon shake, or a mojito. It was a divine sort of paradise.
I have spent the last few days attempting to upload an online photo book on Blurb. They advertise as saying some such nonsense like - want a photo book, finish it tonight. And I wonder of whom they are speaking, because I don't know how it can be accomplished in a night by anyone.We spent the most of our vacation on Koh Lanta. Setting up home on Long Beach and leaving for day jaunts that had us zooming around on a motorbike. We saw monkeys and elephants, white sand so fine it seemed like sifted cake flour, and swam on beaches that were nearly deserted. I didn't have nearly enough Green Curry, and I didn't get my yellow shoes that I had so been looking forward to acquiring in Bangkok, but there's always another time.
In Bangkok we went to the ever popular Cabbages and Condoms - a gorgeous restaurant on the inside that's a non profit for several good causes. Upon leaving we were of course given condoms, and I couldn't help posing in front of their condom Christmas tree. They also had condom super heroes, lanterns, and of course, Santa.

December Daring Baker's - Christmas Stollen

2011-01-11T16:00:00.005+09:00

The 2010 December Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Penny of Sweet Sadie’s Baking. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make Stollen. She adapted a friend’s family recipe and combined it with information from friends, techniques from Peter Reinhart’s book.........and Martha Stewart’s demonstration.

Though I'm a bit late in the actual posting, I made this Stollen late last month to wrap up and give as Christmas presents. I had never made stollen of any sort before and I was utterly amazed. And in heaven. And wanted to commit to making stollen every week for the rest of my life.I was never one for fruit filled breads, they seemed excessive and heavily sweet and not my bag at all. So I went into this a bit ho-hummy and was all smiles when I turned out the dough to knead in the fruit - soaked in Sake and Ume Syrup, which was mostly the only changes I made to the recipe. This dough felt like heaven, soft and silky wonderful-ness.

The recipe made two huge loaves, and while I did give quite a bit away I feel almost certain that I ate one loaf in its entirety. Day after day of breakfast and snack eating sort of does that.

The same evening I made the stollen I also rolled out some dough for a gingerbread house. My little one went wild with the decorating. Then destroyed it just as fast.

Let the Preparations Begin

2010-12-09T11:30:00.004+09:00

A new bookstore opened in Koriyama - it has a large English book selection, plus magazines that aren't individually wrapped so I can actually read them (without having to buy! Yipee!) So how pleased was I to find that in addition to all of the American gossip magazines, they also stocked Martha Stewart's magazine?! Over the moon, I was.

So off I went with pen and paper to copy down some Christmas time recipes (they wanted 1200 yen, come on that's ridiculous!)

I spent yesterday and today making up small batches of cookie dough in assorted flavours. Chocolate, Vanilla, Spice, and Citrus. Yum.

I admit our Christmas tree is a bit of a Charlie Brown, but how festive everything suddenly becomes when you whack on some ornaments (thanks to my little one), and throw some cookie dough in front. Right?

I'll be baking up the cookies a bit at a time in the next few days, as part of my all homemade gifts this year. I've been crocheting up a storm too, but spent the past two days on a pair of granny square slippers that turned out disastrous. Oh, the horror! So the hopes aren't high on the crocheted front, but these cookies will be delicious I'm sure. Jam thumbprints, cut outs, layered ice box cookies . . . can't wait.

Pandowdy, La France Style

2010-12-03T22:52:00.006+09:00

Fruit was going bad, and that's never a good situation. In an old hippy dippy cookbook from the 70s, I found a recipe for a basic fruit Pandowdy, which was a word I'd never heard before. It is the sort of dessert that can be whipped up in five minutes (well, ok, not really five) but quick enough that I put it together while my little one painted in the other room and I made it back in time before she started painting the walls. See, that is something!

Made with persimmons and pears, it had the right combination of autumn flavours that was perfect for this rainy day. Here in Japan, pears are called La France, which makes an otherwise regular fruit seem suddenly special and worldly and worth the 100 yen or more that most places charge - but don't get me started on the cost of produce in this country.

Earlier this month we had stopped at a soba shop and they had these persimmons hung out to dry. It's one of those things I always overlook until I'm here, how a sign of fall for me every year has been those bright orange fruits hung in doorways and arches, tied to clothes lines. One of those things that when we leave here, I know I'll miss.

Leaves, Words, Sweets

2010-12-01T23:11:00.006+09:00

The most of last month was spent with me in front of a computer writing a novel as part of National Novel Writing Month. It was exhausting and frantic and especially at the beginning and end, pretty exciting too. I wrapped up my writing just before the deadline, 50,000 words - which is more than I have ever written at one time. Whether or not the novel itself is good is debatable, but I checked off a life goal - write a novel. And that's something. The sort of something that called for a Snicker's Bar and a glass of wine, which I indulged in as soon as I typed my last word. Whew.

Weekends have been a steady stream of outdoor walks. This year, the leaves changed faster than we had time to notice and now they're gone. I went to the park yesterday and the leaves had all been swept up, the trees left bare.

Often, I think here I am stuck in this cement city, and then we go for a drive - twenty minutes and it seems we're in the country. I'm surprised every time.

Thanksgiving came and went so fast I didn't get to do all of the hoopla I had wanted to do, so next year. Instead, we had a few people over and I baked my little butt off - a cheesecake with kiwi jam that I winged and turned out wonderful, gingerbread and spice cookies dipped in dark chocolate.

Now that the cold is here, I can't get my butt out of the kitchen. It's been cookies for days in this house, which means I'll start on a pie tomorrow.

Flowers and Words

2010-11-05T14:40:00.006+09:00

I joined National Novel Writing Month a crazy sort of let's pump out a novel in the month of November sort of thing. But I'm loving it. Just now, I finished writing 10,000 words - so I'm 1/5 of the way there, which is 1/5 closer than I've ever been.

Today was a surprisingly sunny day and I had a long bike ride to a woman's house to study Ikebana today. Her house was beautifully cluttered. Littered with books and stuffed animals ( a life size Totoro!), embroidery and cross stitch, quilts hung on the wall, pictures here and there, a glass wall collection of spoons. It was all lovely, and makes my apartment seem so blank and lackluster in comparison - which is really something I ought to get on.

But, the point is flowers. My teacher's.
Mine. See the difference.

I think the other point, would be this cat, because he is ridiculously cute and climbed onto the table to eat the Banana Muffins I had made.Baking so good it's even loved by cats. It should be my new tag line.

Halloween Pie

2010-10-29T10:30:00.004+09:00

i'm going to a halloween party later today and wanted to bake up something special. i planned to make spice cookie ghosts, but changed my mind and decided to go for something much more time consuming.pumpkin cheesecake with a chocolate swirl, i'm smiling just looking at it.

Daring Baker's October Challenge

2010-10-27T14:53:00.004+09:00

the big donut chain out here is Mr. Donut - and when i first moved to japan i remember finding them to be bland and thick. but my oh my, how quickly opinions change when they are the ONLY donuts around.

on my list of things to do (i write a new one for baking each month), has been doughnuts. i figured the dough must be simple enough to make, but the frying seemed like a big ol pain and something i'd be incapable of doing without catching the house on fire, burning myself with grease, or frying the doughnuts until they were just bits of blackened char.

and then i found out what this month's challenge was. The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious.

so i got out my pan, whipped up some yeasted lemon scented dough and fried these little cuties - without burns! without fire! without blackened bits!

some got marked for powdered sugar.

some got marked for chocolate.

some were amazingly not eaten up before i remembered to take this picture.

dessert party

2010-10-05T14:08:00.002+09:00

over the weekend my man went down to tokyo and i thought hmmm, what a great excuse for a party.

so i called up my lady friends, made an attempt to clean this house (even under the oven, just in case), made tacos for dinner, and baked my little heart out.

oatmeal cookies, fig tart, and lemon rolls with lemon cream icing for dessert. plus dr pepper ice cream floats thanks to jen and christine.

raindrops

2010-09-28T14:21:00.003+09:00

last night we went to bed with the sound of raindrops, and now it's mid afternoon and they still haven't gone.

we had a rainy day walk full of puddle stomping and leaf ripping up and wet feet that made us come home.
where we made an assorted variety of mangled, though still delicious, cookies, and painted coffee filters to cut up and paste into some other design.

September 2010 Daring Baker's Challenge

2010-09-27T22:28:00.004+09:00

The September 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mandy of “What the Fruitcake?!” Mandy challenged everyone to make Decorated Sugar Cookies based on recipes from Peggy Porschen and The Joy of Baking.

finally a challenge without six eggs, or heavy cream, or meringue bases. joy!

several months ago a student had given me lavender, which i dried and used to make a few different cleaning products. so this house has been awash in the smell of lavender ( i mean, when i clean). but it also prompted me to make lavender sugar, something i've been meaning to do for a while.

the sugar sat stored in a pretty little jar, half forgotten, for a few months until this challenge arrived. sugar cookies, how boring i thought. because truth be told, my love of all things sugar-y does not generally include sugar cookies.

so i got out that lavender sugar and made a sweetly scented variation. they felt like the sort of thing i'd have at a ridiculous sort of lady's lunch, a tea party in which we all wore hats and gloves. i'm still not won over, but i do like the lavender - and will try some other lavender themed variations soon.

sweets

2010-09-22T11:44:00.004+09:00

last night i was in a desperate mood for cupcakes. i went to bed dreaming of buttercream icing, cinnamon cupcakes, chocolate that tasted sweet and divine, sprinkles in every colour imaginable.

i planned to spend this morning baking and icing cupcakes - only i went to the store too early (nothing opens until 10) and there were no piping bags or tips to be found in the only grocery that was open. so i made the cupcakes anyways - and a smooth sweet vanilla buttercream.

i think it's not surprising that i had one of each for lunch.

Nasu

2010-09-22T10:37:00.007+09:00

we can't get enough of farm animals in this family, or is it just me? the latest, a trip Rindo Farm in Nasu.

this farm is a massive plot of land. so big, there's enough room for zip lines.

paddle boats, carousels, and a very small "cruise" boat that will give you a ride across the lake.

plus playgrounds with challenge courses,

and an actual train that goes in a loop around the park.

which is all before you even get to the animals. horses, sheep, goats, and a big dog corral - which, was a bit odd. but also baby cows that would take milk.

the amount of work put into this place is impressive, and it has me wondering if these sort of farm/amusement parks exist as regularly as they do in japan. there seems to be one of these farms every few hours in any direction and the business appears to be steady - it's a different and somewhat better version of the petting zoos i remember growing up.

map of japan quilt

2010-09-11T20:27:00.004+09:00

i happened upon this blog, that had my mind bubbling with a million ideas. a map of japan quilt, it's adorable. it makes me smile. it was the perfect gift for barbara, a friend who is leaving the country in just a few days.
it came together quicker than i thought, and now i want to make a whole manner of map quilts about all the places we've lived or visited. also, i learned my embroidery skills need work, as in - i don't know how to do much embroidery at all. what was supposed to be a boat, looks a bit shark like (watch out!). but pleased anyways!

Mt Fuji Prayers

2010-09-08T17:18:00.007+09:00

upon coming to japan, my mind was filled with images of mt fuji. always on my list of things to do, it took three years before i actually made an attempt.

fueled by my upcoming birthday, summer holidays, and a desire to say a prayer to my grandmother, i made the trek from koriyama to fuji with Jen.

we woke early to catch a 5 am train from Tokyo to Fuji and were greeted by a rainbow stretched over the Shinjuku sky.

the climb was long, but breathtaking. walking amongst the clouds, with crystal views of everything below.

starting at station 5, there are huts along the way for food and shelter.

station 7station 8

the gate to the finish - almost there!
station 10 - done!

i made it to the top in 5 hours, and came back down in 3. lucky enough to beat altitude sickness, i made it to the summit where i was able to say a prayer to my grandmother. at that height, i'm pretty sure it reached her.

Pretzels

2010-07-29T09:45:00.004+09:00

making pretzels for my baking class this month, and as i have to convert everything to metric anyways it gives a good excuse for a pretzel making party.

so angela came over to help, which mostly served as a good measure to prevent me from eating every single one of them.

as it was, i had two for dinner, as in my main meal. they're that good.
Pretzels
120 ml warm water
1/2 tsp yeast
2 tsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt

40 g Bread Flour
70 g Regular Flour (more if needed)

250 ml warm water
1 Tbs baking soda

butter (2 Tbs melted)
salt
cinnamon
sugar

1. In a bowl, combine water, sugar and yeast. Add salt. Let sit 5 minutes.
2. Slowly sift in flour, bread flour first, until a soft dough is formed.
3. Let rise for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
4. Dissolve 1 Tbs baking soda in 250 ml warm water.
5. Shape pretzels.
6. Dip pretzels into baking soda water bath. Lay on parchment/wax paper. Let rest 10 minutes.
7. Bake 220C for 10 minutes until golden brown.
8. Brush with melted butter, and top with flaked salt, or cinnamon sugar mix.
9. Eat all. But hopefully not in one sitting.
*Though really, these are only good for one day*

yum!

onsen playdate

2010-07-28T15:07:00.003+09:00

a get together with two friends yesterday, anna and mayu. anna lives near bandai-atami, a somewhat famous hot spring area around here. we stopped to meet her at the train station in town, where right out front they have a small foot and leg bath.though i couldn't get a picture of anyone actually looking at me, we enjoyed the water.plus, a little foot massage walking area with several types of textures.it's too bad we don't have this sort of thing at home. how nice would it be to wait for a train sitting outside with your legs in a bath?

cookies

2010-07-28T13:08:00.003+09:00

the day just got better.

left a plate of these on the counter before wrapping them up, and my little bunny came by cookies in hand "eat cookie!" she'd yell. before gobbling them up in the same fashion of her favourite tv character, cookie monster.

daring baker's july challenge - swiss roll cake

2010-07-27T10:03:00.002+09:00

The July 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Sunita of Sunita’s world – life and food. Sunita challenged everyone to make an ice-cream filled Swiss roll that’s then used to make a bombe with hot fudge. Her recipe is based on an ice cream cake recipe from Taste of Home.
mine didn't turn out as well as it could have. though never one to give up, i just kept on and turned the broken shards of my vegan swiss roll into some semblance of a cake base. mine was a maple flavoured cake with strawberry and blueberry ice creams, plus the fudge sauce. taste was just ok, but that might be more my error with trying to veganize things than issues with the recipe in general.

i have to say, i am getting really frustrated with all of these heavily egg laden desserts - six eggs in a cake?! that's crazy town. crossing my fingers the next dessert is a bit more manageable.

did enjoy making the swiss roll though, and i am going to try and perfect the art of that.

three day weekend

2010-07-21T08:50:00.005+09:00

a national holiday on monday meant more time to enjoy the sun.we took a trip to ishimushiro farm and met this sweet fella

fed fish so frenzied and massive, we joked the kids could fall in and the fish would save them.

plus, a BBQ with neighbours.

where we all ate way too much and had more beer than necessary. and were the subjects of many pats on the bum from one particular drunken neighbour.

i made a pie with blueberries, peaches, and kiwi fruit - plus some ume syrup. it was surprisingly delicious. though sadly, no photo.

running for dessert

2010-07-15T11:20:00.004+09:00

a morning run - 4km in 30 minutes! woo hoo for me. here's the route. went for an early run with barbara and it was so much fun!! i feel like i've miles of energy now.

for getting on out there this morning, it means i should get a small treat. like a slice of this kiwifruit and strawberry pie i made up last night. yum!

Tokyo Disnelyand

2010-07-15T10:16:00.009+09:00

how could i live in japan for three years and never make it to Tokyo Disneyland? hoping this is our last year here i decided to plan a surprise trip for the day after father's day and take everyone out.

i think it's mostly the same, except for it being mid june and Disneyland still having their Easter parade going on. though it meant i got to see alice. ginormous cheshire cats

and some amazing costumes.

we made it through the whole day without one temper tantrum, melt down, or parent freak out. talk about the happiest place on earth. it was made even happier when my mad added this:the instant quiet your children down gift; a bucket of popcorn they can wear around their necks and eat freely while waiting in line. genius.

the jungle cruise was the bunny's favourite. though i think mine was the haunted mansion. i love those hitchhiking ghosts.

Ume

2010-07-13T16:00:00.005+09:00

when i said major update, i meant - i'm finally going to post some pictures on here that i've been meaning to share for about three weeks, but have been too caught up in baking class flyer making, and natural yeast making (which died twice), and general running around.

so i lied about the major part.
but check out this bowl full of handpicked ume (japense plums that will knock you down dead if you eat them as is). though maybe not knock down; i've no idea how concetrated the poison really is.

they were picked from several trees a friends family had planted, and we were even able to round up the kids and get them to pitch in.

before soaking the ume, they need to be cleaned which is when i invited my friend Jen over for dinner and then gave her toothpicks and the bowl of ume and said - so, how bout removing all those ends?

i made one batch salty for umeboshi. and another batch with sugar for ume syrup which smells delightful and exactly like plum wine only without the alcohol.

trust me, these little wrinkly pickled plums will taste amazing, more so than my shoddy photography does justice. plus, i'll have this cute jar to put them in - nice, right?!

on a completely unrelated note, i had also been given some fresh rhubarb and made my first pie of the season: blueberry rhubarb. it made me wish for sandals and watermelon and days spent poolside.

raindrops

2010-07-07T23:22:00.002+09:00

i know, i've fallen behind - but i promise good things and a major update are in the works. maybe after all of this rain stops ( a deluge that occurs on every wednesday and/or when i have to go to work).

today was tanabata, and most kids (and adults) make wishes and hang them from bamboo. at school they had a whole ridiculously cute little craft project that the bunny came running home to show me - and then it turned out we missed the whole memo where everyone, but her, went to school in their jinbei. and she has a darn cute hello kitty one too, so there went that kodak moment.

o well - going to bed under the drumbeats of raindrops.

size

2010-06-28T21:36:00.002+09:00

this is how small our apartment is:

i just gave my daughter a bath, and cooked dinner at the same time.

what we lack in space we make up for in efficiency. (sometimes, about once a month.)

catching up

2010-06-23T11:10:00.006+09:00

in the time that i haven't been blogging,

my first tomato of the season ripened.

my hair was re-cut into a more suitable and manageable fashion.

rice fields turned electric green.

we frolicked through spring fields of weed and grass.

my first baking class was had.
and possibly for the most fun, i planned a surprise trip to TokyoDisney for Father's day.

change of style

2010-06-10T11:25:00.006+09:00

sunday i went with jen for a haircut. i'd been thinking of having bangs cut in for about a month now,and also had a coupon for 50% off so i decided to lighten my hair as well.

the colour - great.
the bangs - getting used to them.
the haircut, well . . .

hello leave it to beaver's mother! I mean wait, what?! that's me!

i have no idea how this happened, as the picture i pointed out was in no way a mom haircut. it seems as if my stylist decided to veer off on her own tangent and decided to give me the hair of a 1950s housewife who is also in her 40s.

now i'm thinking of getting it re-cut, but that seems a more frightening prospect than just letting it grow out.

it might be ponytails from here on out.

overall verdict: mostly bad with much room for growth!

twinkies

2010-06-08T15:05:00.003+09:00

For some reason, I have been craving twinkies. a surprising thing considering I haven't had one in about 10 years.finally i had some spare time, and i decided to whip up a batch of tofu pound cake from Veganomicon. which is an amazing cookbook - only i wish they had more pictures. and more sweets! but that's neither here nor there.

their pound cake recipe is actually quite good, though i still changed it up a little. i had found these ridiculously tiny extra small cake pans at the local 100 yen store, so the twinkies were begging to be made.

did they taste like a twinkie? having been so long, i can't say for sure. but they were soft, deliciously creamy and eaten up by this whole house in five minutes fast.

polka dot days

2010-06-01T14:43:00.002+09:00

on top of it being a polka dot day in this house:it's also a rabbitt day!

did you remember? because we didn't! ;-)

bagel weekends

2010-06-01T13:38:00.002+09:00

over the weekend, me and the bunny baked up a batch of bagels. mainly because the day was rainy and she had crazy amounts of energy.

and i thought, why not let her play with dough.

practice cutting and rolling.and enjoy eating something handmade.
recipe

May 2010 Daring Baker's Challenge

2010-05-26T22:09:00.004+09:00

The May 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Cat of Little Miss Cupcake. Cat challenged everyone to make a piece montée, or croquembouche, based on recipes from Peter Kump’s Baking School in Manhattan and Nick Malgieri.

this dessert was a tough one, the recipe she asked for requiring the necessity of 7 eggs. i briefly thought of attempting to make this in the traditional way, eggs included, after watching a video of martha stewart making croquembouche.

but i just couldn't do it. i couldn't.

so instead, i present the all vegan croquembouche - recipe mostly made up!

up close and personal.

in its towering glory.

there were three main components: the pate a choux, the creme patisserie and the caramel glaze to hold everything together.

the glaze is amazing. as in i was looking around the kitchen wishing there were more things to throw caramel onto.

i made two creams: chocolate to be a bit more traditional, and banana coconut to try something new.

as a vegan substitute i was pretty amazed by the results. i'd like to play with a bit more though and see how close i can get to the original.

recipe can be found here (egg heavy)! ;-)
i'll try and get my egg free version on here later in the week.

1,000 yen special

2010-05-26T15:07:00.003+09:00

after our weekly Starbuck's meeting, Barbara and I took a wander over to Usui department store. while we were going up the escalator, we noticed the large gathering of elderly people looking at glasses and plate ware along with a sign giving a price of 1,000 yen. at the same time, we realized that it wasn't 1,000 yen per object - but 1,000 yen for as much crap as you could stuff into a plastic bag.

we just had to look, didn't we?!

there was a lot of ugly mismatched junk, along with a few winners. so i got me a bag and filled it.
that's 3 serving dishes, a set of three bowls, 1 alice in wonderland plate, 2 glasses, 1 spoon, and 1 small dipping cup.

for me.

for my man.

Sukugawa Peony Garden

2010-05-25T15:37:00.004+09:00

all weekend there was a grey sky threatening rain, but it took until sunday to come. luckily, we made it to the Sukugawa Peony Garden just before, and it was such a welcome relief from our cement city life.
the grounds were so well maintained with all these meandering paths and wisteria arches, lovely little sitting places - even peony flavoured ice cream.
we were a bit late for the full bloom so just caught some of the later ones, not as impressive as i'm sure it was a few weeks ago - but still beautiful.
see, enough to make me do jazz hands.

reach

2010-05-22T23:31:00.002+09:00

a nice thing about children:

when i point out the moon to my little one on a clear night like this - she'll get on her tippy toes and reach for it. always.

regina forest park

2010-05-20T08:57:00.005+09:00

over the weekend we took an hours drive to regina forest park to see what our neighbours had been talking about. they had told us there would be all these blooming flowers and an onsen, and apparently we found that neat enough to make it out there.
the flowers were only about twenty percent, but i can see how once they're in full bloom it will be quite beautiful. the lake is actually man made, which seems odd considering it is so near an actual lake.
apparently you can fish in the lake, and/or row about in a canoe, and you can rent one of the many cabins that dot the entire perimeter.
this is what the area looks like with the flowers. pretty, right?
and this is another new fangled little contraption that you can also rent. yes, honey let's go to the lake and rent a pod and hang out for the evening.
i mean, it is interesting and different. so points for creativity!

the main sell for me though was the onsen. they had three - mens, womens, and together. if you brought a swimsuit you could go into the last onsen that had a pool, jacuzzi's, and this gorgeous outdoor onsen with about seven different baths.
it was the first time we were able to take an onsen together as a whole family, so it was pretty neat - and SO relaxing!

trial baking class

2010-05-20T08:34:00.004+09:00

last wednesday was the trial run of my soon to be starting baking class. this is like jazz hands exciting.

the kitchen is on the 3rd floor of a cafe and it has all this gorgeous sunlight streaming in. makes it look really happy and inviting.

we made blueberry brownies and strawberry newtons, and (thank god!) everything turned out just right.

i think by the end of this, i won't be able to eat either of those things for at least a year - but hopefully everyone else will enjoy them!

classes start in june, more to come.

ramble

2010-05-13T19:39:00.003+09:00

my computer at home has been on the fritz, and any command that takes more that one second to process seems to slow the thing down to snail speed. really.

this week was back to work, so it's been a fair amount of running around - though i did manage to make an ocean themed wall out of felt in our living room.

my little bunny gave me a surprise when she put the following sentence together one night.

mommy - points at me
boob - points at my chest
yummy - rubs her stomach

well . . . ok.

golden week

2010-05-07T13:16:00.002+09:00

national holidays began this week, so it was several days of no working for me. though most of the time was spent here in koriyama, the weather finally turned enough to be pleasant.

highlights:
a night out with the girls at a bar that served fondue
miharu herb garden for a buffet lunch and to pick up plants for my garden
iwaki aquarium for a look at some fish and walruses (which was a first for me)

lowlights:
having my purse stolen at a local park in koriyama

*which is a story*

i went to the park to meet keiko and set my bag under a tree right next to the playground and where we were playing. the park was busy, people were everywhere - i didn't think for a second someone would up and lift my bag.

i had just checked on my bag and then went in an area behind that tree to play in a small waterfall with the bunny - which is when the person came and stole it. so i guess they had been watching me, which is unnerving and irritating, just waiting for the moment when i turned around.

they stole my diaper bag, which had everything i needed for the bunny and my wallet (of course). i went to the police station which took 1 hour of paperwork, with a lot of what seemed to be hemming and hawing over what i thought to be extremely ridiculous things. the friend i was with had written my name and address on the police form because they wanted everything in kanji. but then they needed someone to stamp it with their fingerprint - that someone should be me, but because my friend had written it, they worried that it should be her. they could not decide upon that thing by themselves and had to call other people and wait to be called back. and in the end ( 20 minutes later), they decided that i could write my address in english and then i could sign it.

holy moly.

in the end, my bag was found. thrown behind a bathroom at the park after the thief had pilfered my wallet and taken out the money. so all my identification plus the bag was returned. i lost about 7,000 yen, and a hell of a lot of patience - because after finding the bag, i had to go to the park with the police and fill out paperwork for one more hour. that's 2 hours total of paperwork!! does this even happen at home?

i told some students about this at work yesterday and they said - they must have stolen your bag because you always look so rich and gorgeous. which made me laugh so hard!! especially because i'd just shown up to class sunburned and sweaty from planting herbs in my garden.

now it's back to work.

naptime sewing

2010-04-30T15:26:00.005+09:00

the bunny needed an art smock, and instead of taking the easy way and buying one, i thought to try making it myself after stumbling across this pattern.

in the directions, they say it takes 30 minutes. it took me double that, mostly because i had never used bias tape before and there was a bit of trial and error.

front

back

next project: a pair of pants

peppermint, kitchens, american-ness

2010-04-30T14:28:00.004+09:00

an unusual thing happened this morning. i went for an early morning bike ride to the grocery store, just bumping along pointing out things to bunny - when we passed an older man who said "good morning, american". which made me do a double take and realize that he was also american, but someone i never met before. and i thought, do i look so american to be greeted as such. i mean the good morning is normal, but why did "american" need to be tacked on.

exciting news: wednesday i went to take a look at a cafe's kitchen - and it looks perfect! i'll be having a trial lesson on the 12th for the owner and some friends to get a feel for the kitchen and so they can give me advice. the planned menu thus far: blueberry brownies and raspberry newtons. sounds spring-y, right?!

they other day i made these awesomely delightful peppermint cocoa cookies. they look lovely enough to make me smile, and although i was a tad heavy handed with the peppermint - they tasted just like i'd been thinking of them.

April Daring Baker's Challenge

2010-04-27T08:29:00.004+09:00

The April 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Esther of The Lilac Kitchen. She challenged everyone to make a traditional British pudding using, if possible, a very traditional British ingredient: suet.

big surprise, i didn't use suet!

the other surprise for me was that i actually made it. i had planned to skip this one on by - it seemed like a hassle, and an uninteresting one. as far as i know, i've never really been in a mood to "steam" a cake.

several weeks ago i had a bit of free time as well as a marginal amount of ingredients. i'd gone into it planning to make something savoury, but at the time - late afternoon - all i wanted was something sweet.

improvising with what i had on hand, i used a basic sweet pudding recipe and added bananas, cocoa, spices, strawberries and raspberry jam. maybe that seems like a large conglomeration of things - but the result was divine.

pulling my pudding from the steam bath and seeing that it had completely cooked, had rose to a nice height with a great smell, and fell out of my makeshift pudding dish without a hitch, well - i was pretty pleased.
for this i should be applauded: even though i made this in the afternoon and i was dying to know how it tasted, i kept it all wrapped up - unpicked at, until that evening. wow, that's dedication.

holy moly

2010-04-22T08:40:00.003+09:00

i've been playing with this idea for months now - teaching a baking class in english where we would make sort of traditional american sweets (only healthy). and it's something i've just been thinking about - would it work? would people come? what would we make? etc.

due to an amazing friend (keiko, you rock!) my little thoughts might begin to take shape! keiko has a friend who runs a small natural baking class, and it's sounding like she might let me use her kitchen space. however, thus far there has been one condition put forth - no chemicals! (as in unnatural food dyes, etc). which i find both hilarious and awesome. that is a condition i can definitely be happy with.

ok, more to come - but i am buzzing away with ideas. and SO excited.

in other news, i can not believe that this is both a thing and that people would pay so much for it.
samurai underwear.

also, my man is pretty super fabulous. on sunday, i came home from work to find that he'd gone out and bought and installed a bike seat for the bunny as a surprise for me. really really fun, and we're both loving getting to zoom around town.

caffeine fix

2010-04-22T08:24:00.005+09:00

wednesdays are always Starbuck's days, and with the nicer weather we went to the park to enjoy the sometimes trickles of sunshine shining on the cherry blossoms.

we took an enormous amount of photos.

then took a wander down the road to a green tea shop keiko and barbara had been wanting to try.

the tea was lovely. two different teas with an accompanying sweet.

the way it was arranged so simple and yet quite beautiful, i think i could stand to learn a thing or two.

bloom

2010-04-20T14:08:00.006+09:00

there was a worry in these parts, that the cherry blossoms wouldn't be as great this year. the weather was off and on, and then suddenly it snowed. covering the small buds with a layer of frost i thought would surely kill them - or at least make them just freeze and fall off.

but the sun came, like it always does. now there are clear skies and warmer days, and flowers like cotton candy perfuming my days and lighting up my nights.
this morning i was excessively productive. i cooked breakfast, lunch, baked a whole wheat chocolate cake, and half prepared dinner all by 10 am. then i sewed in my ends, and finally the large reveal can be revealed. it's been two months in waiting (wow-o-wow).

the bunny's cherry blossom dress

i can say only one thing, a crocheted dress mostly done in shell stitch is not the sort of thing i will be undertaking again. lesson learned.

the smell of squid is in the air . . .

2010-04-13T16:19:00.003+09:00

and that must mean it's spring.

the cherry blossoms are ever so slowly breaking their way into the grey skies of koriyama. i can't wait for their added colour to my days.

behind us lives the sweetest retired couple with grandkids around the bunny's age. they've taken a liking to her - because really, who wouldn't?! ;-)

seeing me coming home from the park today, my neighbour came up to me with a few surprise bundles of veggies from their garden.
unwrapped, i see all of this. wow. i must get to baking and start giving her something just as nice in return.

info

2010-04-08T18:46:00.003+09:00

at work yesterday i was asked to fill out a questionnaire that's being given to all teachers so the students can get to know us a little more. that sheet had the real basic questions, where are you from, what's your hobby.

towards the end there were two questions that momentarily stumped me. and as the time was after 9 30 at night, i was wanting to get on out of there - so i just wrote the first thing that came.

1. What would you do if you no longer had to work?

2. Who are three people you want to meet in your lifetime?

They aren't the sort of questions with answers that just leap to mind, but this is what i said.

if i no longer had to work, i would do a lot more baking. (which is true).

i would like to meet amy hempel (brilliant fantastic mind-blowing author), martha stewart (please let me pick your brain about everything), and i couldn't think of a third so i took the easy way out and said obama.

only it was as i was walking to my bike i realized who i would want the third person to be. ingrid newkirk, founder of PETA, animal rights activist. in short, one super inspiring chick.

so i'm wondering, how would you answer those questions.

rabbitt day

2010-04-07T13:11:00.004+09:00

sunday was the official rabbitt day, and i rang it in with a peanut butter bunny shaped sandwich to greet my little one with in the morning; which she gobbled up before i could photo.

we took a wander over to the park and were able to have a real easter egg hunt (is it still real when the eggs are plastic - does anyone use real eggs anymore?). the eggs were courtesy of my parents back home, because you can not buy plastic eggs here. not anywhere. not even at toys r us. peeps are also not sold here - which would be a real shame if you were the sort of person who relied on marshmallows in bird shapes in pastel colours full of artificial colouring and preservatives to get you through the festivities, but we are not those people. however, if we were, i totally would have made this.

instead we took those plastic eggs, and went to the park.
this one was my favourite, a little chick-a-dee filled with rice crackers. which the bunny promptly fed to the ducks.

carrot cake was the hightlight for dinner, though the result was so so. my oven is horribly uneven at cooking, and i probably ought to pay a bit more attention to recipes and not go off on my own tangents so freely. but i've a feeling i'll hit upon the right combination one of these days.

Daring Baker's Challenge - Orange Tian

2010-03-27T13:05:00.006+09:00

i joined an online baking group. yes, that does sound dorky. yes, my friends do tease me about. but really, it's actually quite neat. it's called the daring bakers.

The 2010 March Daring Baker’s challenge was hosted by Jennifer of Chocolate Shavings. She chose Orange Tian as the challenge for this month, a dessert based on a recipe from Alain Ducasse’s Cooking School in Paris.

let me tell you, when i saw that above statement, i was none too excited. an orange tian - for one, i didn't even know how to pronounce it. for another, i don't love oranges as a dessert - and even an orange sherbet popsicle is enough to make me want to run.

so i was hesitant, but determined to make the recipe in its original form to see what it was all about before i tore it down.

it required multiple steps - making a pate sablee base, whipped cream with orange, orange marmalade, and orange caramel syrup. not to mention segmenting fruit and making it all beautiful.

surprisingly, other than the marmalade this was a breeze to make and put together and took way less time that i'd imagined. i had just about everything completed during the bunny's nap.

ok, enough talking!

my gorgeous marmalade. made without pectin, thank you very much!

and my tian of hearts - a gift for my man. whipped cream made without gelatin. as if this vegetarian would allow that sort of junk in her kitchen!!

i escaped using all orange by the fact that i had run out, and didn't want to buy more. so instead, i made do with a mix of strawberries, grapefruit, and orange. in the end, i think for me at least, the result was better than if it had only been made with orange.

i made much smaller rectangular ones and gave them to girlfriends.

verdict: great, but most likely won't be made again. i used the leftover whip cream and sandwiched it between graham crackers - stuck it in the freezer and have been having "ice cream" sandwiches. with the small flecks of orange marmalade in the whip cream, it tastes divine.

the ginormously long recipe can be found here.

busy but baking

2010-03-27T12:45:00.004+09:00

this week's been busy - bustling to and from work and trying to arrange schedules around naps and drop offs and pick-ups, and it is marginally exhausting.

i relaxed in two ways. the first, baking.
i've had a hankering for scones. something not too sweet, and just slightly citrus-y. the result was better than expected, especially as the recipe was one i made up. which basically means, there was a huge margin for error!

chocolate chip and lime scones
*makes 8*

1 c. flour
2 Tbs + 2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 c butter

--mix all dry ingredients together, cut in butter (or margarine)--

in a separate bowl, combine
1/4 cup plain yogurt
3/4 tsp Ener-G Egg Replacer (powder only, don't add water)
1 Tbs lime juice
1/2 tsp lime zest

--add wet to dry--

stir in 1/4 c. mini choclate chips

form into ball, smoosh down on a floured surface and cut into 8 wedges.

bake 180C for twenty minutes or until slightly golden.

yum!

the second, crochet. i finished the booties.

52

2010-03-18T13:47:00.007+09:00

i keep a sheet of paper near the computer and write down new words as the bunny discovers them. which is more out of interest for me. i wonder what are the most important things to a 2 year old. apparently, this.

exclamations: oops, wow, yay, ow, uh oh, oh no

niceties: hi, bye, see you, thank you, please, yes, no, more

verbs: clean up, wash, brush, touch (as in hi-5), jump, come, sleeping

body: eyes, nose, toes, head, pee pee, poo poo, boob (is it obvious - we are late nursers)

animals: meow, woof woof, bu bu (pig), baa, neigh, moo, hoo, bzz, butt (butterfly)

food: milk, juice, wak (water), rice, apple, cheese, pickle, cookie

etc: flower, shoes, Elmo, An-man (anpanman), beep beep

japanese: dame, dozo, nani

looking and buying

2010-03-17T15:58:00.006+09:00

a store i rarely go to, yet always buy things when i do - uniqlo. it reminds me of target stores in america, in both fashion and price.

went there with a friend, she needed a sweater, and i needed nothing. i told myself in the car on the way to pick her up, i said - no, you don't need to buy anything, it is a window shopping and trying things on sort of day.

so no, i didn't buy this. o cute jumper that my friend made me try on. and yes, how much i did like you. but how would i wear you? this seemed a complex thing, and i gave up.
part bat cape, part sweater - i felt like a lovely little butterfly. again, i am confounded in the wearing. but i might go back for this.
cute little wispy blowing in the wind, hey it's going to be spring soon - sort of shirt. yes, i bought this.
and shorts that are an ode to my awkward middle school days with both the rolling of the cuffs and the colour, yes - also i had to get you.

up to now

2010-03-08T14:51:00.007+09:00

around here, the bunny's started to learn how to use chopsticks.

with potatoes.

over the weekend we went to sukugawa to a vegetarian restaurant that is amazing and delicious and so delightfully yummy i wish i could eat there every day!

gorgeous, right?! if only i could cook a meal as varied and visually appealing as this. hmmm. . .
and today i finally finished this baby bootie.

its mate is in the works, and my hope is that the next photo - of the 2 of them - will come out much better. because even though it may not be apparent, these booties are darling. so darling that i want to smack myself over the head for having never made any item of apparel for my own little one when she was this tiny. making up for it now, and working on a dress to be revealed soon.

ms. stein

2010-03-02T12:46:00.004+09:00

i had forgotten how much gertrude stein can make my heart sing. 2 quotes i've happened upon recently.

". . .and that is all there is to good writing, putting down on the paper words which dance and weep and make love and fight and kiss and perform miracles."

"Money is always there but the pockets change; it is not in the same pockets after a change, and that is all there is to say about money."

play

2010-03-01T14:08:00.004+09:00

i think there should also be rainbow coloured playgrounds for adults. because how could this not brighten anyone's day.

it's a rabbitt day - we forgot. well, i remembered an hour in. does that count?!

the weather's been hit and miss. showers and sun, wind and grey skies. today was a sunny one, a nice walking day.

this is the big kids park. at 2, i think it's still too big for the bunny, but not getting to play there made it all the more enticing. she was thrilled.

i've been in a bread baking mood. i whipped up ( is it really 'whipped up' when it takes 3 hours) a batch of dinner rolls, and kept half the dough to roll out and make cinnamon rolls. there was no cream cheese icing, but with a bit of butter and toasted - they are divine.
and i can't stop checking out this site for random crafty-ness. one pretty thing

two different stories of the same thing

2010-03-01T14:00:00.002+09:00

i met a friend of mine at the park today - she just had a new baby. a sweet tiny little gorgeous boy - and sidenote, it is amazing how quickly one forgets how to hold/pick up infants - i carried him momentarily last time and i broke into a sweat. seriously, i was freaking out.

she has a daughter the same age as the bunny, only three days apart to be precise. she tells me, we were walking here, me pushing the stroller in front, and her walking behind when she starts yelling "mama, mama" and tries to put something in my hand. and that thing - was dog poop.

i started roaring with laughter, that is so inappropriately hilarious.

which reminds me. . .

two weekends ago, i went to sendai for work and was doing a bit of shopping during my break, when i realized the bunny had taken a poo. ok, so we go to the bathroom and i'm changing her when i realize that poop went up her back, into her shirt - a little poop-splosion. and i'm looking at her and thinking - hmmm, what to do about this. as she's wearing three different layers, all of which are a pain to take off, and then the last layer being this poopy shirt and what should i do with that. suddenly, an idea formed. i realized that i had scissors, that that shirt was a onesie, and that it was one i neither particulary liked, nor cared for. and i just cut the damn thing off. turning it into a belly shirt and throwing the poopy bits away.

done. poop solved.
(luckily, no photos)

flying oranges, tiger gods

2010-02-22T14:19:00.006+09:00

the girls whom i meet every wednesday at starbuck's, we've been awaiting a festival. a festival which we knew almost nothing about other than a few things:
1. there would be a statue which is kept closed, and only shown to the public once every 12 years
2. it would be somewhat small town-ish
3. we could buy protection charms

i wanted a new protection charm, and i wanted to see the statue - i mean once in 12 years, that's some sort of luck. so we drove to a small temple near motomiya and explored.

statue of the protector of children, set amidst a buddhist cemetery

monks

the way to the 12 year statue

can you see it? the carved wooden buddah in the back? barely - yes, that's how we saw him too.

another viewchanting. how lovely to hear those sounds bouncing off the walls.

prayers set on fire - or given up to god - or honored - or whichever way you want to view it
the running naked men. it was cold out, like long johns, pants, gloves and 3 sets of underwear sort of cold. which means these men were not only mostly naked, but also quite drunk.
oh hello there naked men. the one in the red loincloth was on top of what they carried whipping around some sticks on fire. he was very proud of his naked-ness, and kept shoving his groin this way and that at the crowd. also, we got to see his bum. good times!

but that's not at all.

we arrived at this festival to find that we were the first foreigners to come, and as such had many pictures taken, as well as an invitation to dinner with all the other benefactors/workers/important townspeople - in which i stole 3 onigiri and a few oranges and devoured all today. yum! we also took part in the lottery, where all those naked men above threw small envelopes to the crowd. i think each envelope contained a 5 yen coin, and some held a piece of paper which meant you had won the lottery and had to claim a prize. and surprise, surprise! one of us did win - so Angela had to take the stage and claim her prize, a kerosene heater.

to add an element of danger to the lottery throwing, the naked men also tossed out boxes of oranges. so every now and then you'd get whacked with one of those. the people were SO into the lottery though, most keeping low to the ground and just sweeping the floor and pushing this way and that. i didn't win anything - my hands were so numb i caught a few things but couldn't grasp on. i would drop it, only to have it immedialy pounced on by the three or so people crouching around my legs. later, when i went to pull out my wallet, my hand found an orange - by luck it just fell in. and that's the sort of luck i like the most anyways; accidental.

corsage, bird, clay

2010-02-20T22:49:00.005+09:00

this past week i started a new job - i now work for four different companies, which sounds potentially neat until i add up all the hours. i think i spend more time traveling back and forth between all these gigs than i do working. and that doesn't really make any sense at all.

my mother's group had a valentine's party ( a week late, but hey! we're all busy) and we made brownies and chatted and it was a nice little day.

one woman had recently learned how to make these corsages, or hair bands, or just fun little flower doo-dads, and taught me how. i'm looking forward to tearing up some fabric and giving it a go.
i've been making these little birds. this one and a smaller version. i had the most frustrating time trying to tie those ridiculous french knot eyes. finally i gave up, brought that bird to said party - and asked one of the ridiculously crafty moms to do it for me. and she did. voila, a bird finished!i am one of those people who can't mix clay. i just can't do it. i like my reds to stay reds, and my green to stay green, but not the bunny. she mixes the colours with passion. while cooking dinner, i turned around to find her daddy had helped her to make this, as a prompt to get her to clean up. which she did, but not before smashing that clay.

morning pancake smiles

2010-02-16T09:13:00.004+09:00

i was bad. about a month ago i made some amish friendship bread starter and kept all of it! i've been using it to bake breads, and i won't lie - a cake that i ate almost 1/2 of. it was that good! today i thought to make pancakes.

the results were delightful.

Friendship Pancakes
*feeds 2 people*

3/4 c flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp cinnamon

-combine all in 1 bowl -

1 Tbs oil
1 c yeast mixture
1/4 c milk
1 tsp Egg Replacer + 1 Tbs water
dash vanilla
1/2 banana (mashed with fork in separate bowl and then added to liquids)
-mix thoroughly-

-add wet to dry-

-grill those babies!-

*but be careful, these have a propensity for sticking, so grease thoroughly.

results are fluffy, airy, and with a just a hint of sweatness. top with fruit and you won't even need syrup.

valentine's around here

2010-02-15T10:48:00.002+09:00

valentine's day is more of a men's holiday in japan - women buy them chocolates. then, one month later - march 14th - white day - men buy women these prettily packaged marshmallows or cookies, and sometimes chocolates. but i think the other two are more popular. in any event, my man still surprised me with a few things.

pink tulips

a handmade card. and this is what the bunny made for us. paste and glitter does the trick. sweet.

happy valentine's day

three projects

2010-02-15T10:15:00.004+09:00

a mushroom bath mitt - just have to add the spots

an afghan - in need of only, 50 or so more squares!! eek!

and these little flowers. should they be washcloths or should i make a scarf for the bunny?

birthday musings

2010-02-10T22:26:00.006+09:00

yesterday the bunny turned two. i was raving sentimental and took pictures of her the night before while she was sleeping. i mean - pictures of her sleeping. i wanted to capture the last night she was one.

that's silly. but i have these photos of a sleeping beauty that i'll hold in my heart, and that's good enough.

in the morning i made chocolate chip pancakes in my newest niftiest gadget:
a cast iron octopus pan i picked up for 100 yen. does it get any cuter?! i think not.

we went out for an adventure.

full of looking,

running,

and puddle stomping.

can't wait to see what this next year brings!

monkey

2010-02-07T21:19:00.002+09:00

thank you martha. i made it! and it turned out fabulous.

woof + chocolate

2010-02-03T21:33:00.003+09:00

with loving stitches, i did indeed finish the dog. yes, there are a few rather haphazardly sewn corners - but as my friend pointed out, it is clearly made with love. next up - an embroidered bunny. as if that's a surprise.
i came across a post about nanaimo bars. something i'd never heard of, but was keen to try once i read they are a canadian dessert. i bug my man about this, as he is canadian, and he can never come up with any canadian foods to tell me about. tonight i surprised him with this.

yum!

rabbitt day

2010-02-01T10:46:00.000+09:00

did you remember?

thinking

2010-01-31T21:39:00.003+09:00

there are big decisions to be made in these parts. such as, which flavour of birthday cake shall it be this weekend?

i am using martha as my guide. because she is usually dead on, and i don't feel like trying another cake recipe between then and now just to see how it turns out. actually, what i mean is - i want to try another cake recipe, but only because i want to eat it. and one of my goals this month is to quit it with the sweets. well, quit it a little.

anyways . . .

the theme is monkeys. and this would be perfect, but the inside is a banana cake. and do we want banana cake? does the bunny even like banana cake? will it be too dense?
or should i go with a yellow cake (baked in the same monkey mold sort of thing) but using lemon cream in the middle and chocolate icing on top?

or - should i make a rainbow monkey cake?

or is that just too much pressure?

baking the days away

2010-01-28T08:32:00.004+09:00

there is nothing like bowls of rainbow cake batter to turn any day extraordinary.
when added into the pan, circles of colour.
iced and cut - a rainbow awaits. yum! the cake looked beautiful, but the inside was too dense - i need to try another recipe. this was a try out for the bunny's birthday next week.

also, have i mentioned that i'm onto slow things. meaning that almost 2 weeks ago i decided to make my own yeast in the hopes of making sourdough bread and amish friendship bread. it was an attempt to remind me that good things take time and love, and generally lots of stirring.
the friendship bread turned out lovely - though i don't know why it's called bread as it's much more cinnamon cake like. but a really divine tasting sort of cinnamon cake that i want to eat every single day. dangerous!

sadly, the sourdough yeast went bad and had to be thrown out. but i'll be attempting another batch this week due to a tip from my friend - put the yeast under your kotatsu (heated table) at night. duh! why did i not think of that?!

sneak peek

2010-01-27T21:23:00.006+09:00

today was a coffee clutching wednesday planner's meeting at starbuck's sort of thing. and i've been bringing projects to finish. and actually fnishing. today i brought along this cute little doggie - he's part of a present for the bunny. after all, she's turning 2 next month and i can't let that happen without giving her something handmade!
i did all the top stitching embroidery, but if i'm being honest - then i have to admit that a friend's mother stitched 3/4 of it shut - which was useful, because she showed me a much more efficient stitch. also, she's faster. and better. and her lines are much cleaner. but she did let me know that my lines were made with love. and that counts for something!

after the meeting, a ladies lunch of quinoa and veg from barbara's house. she is a much more masterful chef, with the fancy placemats and serving bowls to boot.

sweater vest

2010-01-21T12:53:00.003+09:00

this was the sweater i began in thailand, and a month later it's finished! ;-) it was supposed to be a sweater from this pattern. but if you look at that pattern and look at this, not so much the same. also, mine's more vest than sweater.

there were a few errors in the pattern, which made me tear my hair, and may rows out - eventually, the end result was this, with several alterations. i think my version is a bit more modern and befitting of the bunny

front - i decided to close with 2 wooden buttons and leave the rest free.
what she is holding is a protection charm i was given while i was pregnant with her. now i carry it around just in case. luck is luck.

lace happens

2010-01-18T10:12:00.003+09:00

and it happens suddenly and unexpectedly as if i just woke up one day and suddenly liked the colour pink and lace. which is a lucky thing i live in japan, as lace seems to be a requisite notion on almost any top or girly layer.

the most recent finds:

and that's not bad, right. quite tasteful in the lace category - matching, etc. but then on impulse i also bought this -
also, in theory not bad - the neckline with the velvet tie, cute. the somewhat smocked (is it still called smocked when done like that?) chest also looks quite nice. but then lace happens - and it may or may not be good. and i did buy it - but the jury's still out. gonna wear it today and see how we go and maybe chop all that lace off.

and this one's for my mom - the quest for yellow shoes has ended - and they are fabulous! 2 sets of shoes i picked up in thailand, yellow and purple - they make me smile, but can't yet be worn - it's snowing and i don't want to ruin them. ;-(

white sand dreaming

2010-01-12T14:08:00.004+09:00

actually, i think this photo would sum up the holiday quite nicely - sunny, with occasional bursts of dancing.
and an accompaniment of seaweed.
and two islands connected by sand.

2010-01-12T13:53:00.003+09:00

thailand - where to even begin. it was a lot like this: warm sunny days, occasional rain, sand in our toes, our beds our hair, lost shoes and hats - french fries and ice cream for snacks, spicy soups, hot sun, beaded necklaces, stray dogs and salty ocean air. ah, i miss it already.

we built lots of sandcastles, and then promptly smashed them.
i took a cooking course on ko lanta and made tom yum, green curry, pad thai, and bananas in coconut milk. i also bought a knife - for five dollars - and i am in love with it.
our pool at sunset cove, it just slipped right off into the ocean.
these are those planked paths i was talking about, our place was far at the back - but how lovely to walk it in the morning, and how dangerous for the little bunny - but she loved running down them.

happy rabbitt year!

2010-01-01T00:30:00.002+09:00

the music's bumping, the bunny's sleeping and it's just a bit til new year's.

on the beach of ko lanta, it is lovely, with a wide white beach and soft sand and blue skies all around. (well, not now - but there is a bright full moon). in the background fire crackers burst, people laugh, and geckos climb the walls.

a dinner of morning glory, fried rice, and chang beer. does it get better than this? yes, because said dinner was eaten in a little private bamboo hut off the beach where we could hear the waves crashing and enjoy eachothers company over candle light.

also, the bunny was so dazed at being allowed to stay up past 8 pm, she just crawled in my lap and was mellow as could be. wonderful.

tomorrow is the most important rabbit day of all - so don't forget - and let rabbit rabbit rabbit be the first words said - and then a year! (instead of a month) of luck will be yours!

happy rabbit new year!

hello thailand!

2009-12-28T22:42:00.003+09:00

we made it. after a four hour bus ride, and 7 hour plane ride ( in which the bunny was able to snag her own seat - for free!), a stay at a bangkok airport hotel - and another plane ride to ko samui. and then a ferry ride to ko phangan - and finished. (and that was just the first 2 days.)

ok, so we arrived exhausted - but a pretty nice hotel - sunset cove - and we've been enjoying it. they have these neat wooden planked paths that meander around the place and it's all sorts of greenery with an infinity pool and a great view of sunsets. the only bad point, the beach is a bit lacking in soft sand, and in a beach - as mostly the tide is high and there isn't much of a place to sit. but no matter.

we've been motorbiking it, me the man and the bunny all strapped onto a little moped and whizzing around the island - we've explored several other beaches and it's been fun. finally getting into the hang of relaxing and not having to worry so much about time.

we're leaving tomorrow for khao sok national park - a 7 hour ferry/bus ride - so fingers crossed the place will be worth it!

-pictures to come soon, once i find a computer that accepts my memory card -

but so far
we've consumed an amazing amount of bananas and cashew cookies
i've found my new favourite shake flavour - watermelon
i've half finished crocheting a sweater
had 1 massage
and have had daily freak outs about why the bunny should not touch stray dogs. do not touch them we yell, say hello. say hello. so now we have a little one running around waving at dogs - all. day. long.

2009-12-19T09:33:00.002+09:00

things to smile about:

1. christmas cake, or in this case, christmas pumpkin cheesecake, which beats my other recipe hands down ( will add soon)
2. decorate your own gingerbread
3. the bunny's ET hands, when she refused to wear her gloves and would only wear mine.

on top of that: koriyama's 1st snow this winter. holiday parties. and sparkly dresses.

holiday parties, handmade lazy-ness

2009-12-18T00:02:00.004+09:00

tomorrow afternoon my mother's playgroup is having their holiday party. we were told to buy a gift that was 300 yen (last year it was 100 yen, and let's be honest - those gifts were all mostly lame - so we decided to up the ante as it were for this year).

i decided to hand make something. which was mostly a ridiculously silly notion as i didn't really have time, and i didn't have any good yarn. the end result is this:
the question - is it cute enough to be given as a gift? or should i just call it a day and run to the store and pick up some cheap chocolates instead?

things

2009-12-15T16:57:00.004+09:00

hello santa

we took the bunny shopping for toys for our upcoming trip to thailand, while perusing the various junk that we don't really need - but we want it, damnit, we want it - she hopped on away.

we found her here, in the shoe section, chucking her shoes off and trying to shove her feet into these. good taste, i think.
and if this isn't a reason to have a baby, i don't know what is. i'm partial to the sweet pea.

you never know

2009-12-15T16:24:00.003+09:00

i decided to challenge myself today and try to go to the government sponsored (read: free) 1 year and 6 month check up offered to children in japan.

the problem is my lack of japanese, so i went by the international salon in hopes that someone could help. the sweet woman who runs the desk agreed to come, but had to leave early to return to her work. in the meantime, i met another mother with 2 children who had just moved to koriyama after living in california for 4 years. both her children were born there, and in honour of that, she gave them english middle names - ocean, and angel - i LOVE it! her boys were indeed both serene and calm when compared to my wild banshee of a bunny who kept escaping out the doors and had to be chased down by me or one of the workers! whew!

as we were talking, i heard my name, and turned around to find a friend from my mothers play group who was there with her son, atsunori (how cute is that name). so it ended up being a fun sort of chat fest - which was good, considering the almost 50 minute wait before any sort of examination actually occured.

but to get back to it: this is the place. it's a room filled with screaming, running, energetic children and their mothers (and NO dads). it's free, so that means it takes forever. there's a line, and then another line, and you sort of move down it. s-l-o-w-l-y. so it was good to have run into both those women for the company.
this is the waiting area, strewn with toys. but this is the tail end of it, so not as busy - when i first arrived it was packed and steaming hot. the exam is mostly the same as US, but there seems to be a large dental component - exam and they dye the teeth to show areas that need attention. i appreciated the addition as the bunny hasn't yet been to the dentist and i had wondered how her teeth were faring.

and the only funny part was they have a paper of different characters and ask - where is the car? point to the car. that sort of thing. but two of the things were anpanman characters - which she doesn't really know.

an hour and a half later, we were done - and now i'm left to come up with a good dessert for the little one tonight for her (mostly) good behaviour.

2009-12-09T15:53:00.004+09:00

baby booties

2009-12-08T08:56:00.005+09:00

a friend is on bed rest at the hospital waiting for her baby to come. i wanted to visit her and bring a gift, so i thought to make these little booties, which worked up quick - and turned out too cute.

the only thing, i wonder why it is that i never made booties for my own little bunny. hmmmm . . .

(please excuse the bear model - he is the only thing i had with small enough feet)

sendai girls trip part 2

2009-12-07T09:04:00.006+09:00

a last minute phone call asking if i could go to sendai for work and fill in for someone who was sick. i said sure, but that i'd need to bring my daughter and was there a chance of over-pay for it being so last minute? (it doesn't hurt to ask, right?!) he said he'd get back to me, and did - with good news! an extra 3,000 yen compensation and fine to bring the bunny. woo - hoo. off on another girls trip to Sendai - in which i remembered to bring my camera!!!!

we walked down to the station, it takes almost 40 minutes when pushing the stroller, but the weather was great and nice to start the day with fresh air. i should do that more. to my dissapointment, we did not have enough time to have breakfast at McDonald's, so instead i went to the convenience store and picked up a rice ball for her - and this for me:

o - hotcake sand, how i have grown to love you. i thought you were just pancakes, but actually you are laced with both fake butter and syrup, and the result is divine. mmmm.

actually, my work isn't in sendai - it is several stops from there on the subway. this is the walkway to get on the next train, these little windows that look so wonderfully whimsical. a whole wall of them, it's quite beautiful.
this is just outside of sendai station, it's the mini-tokyo of this area, all busy and bright lights.

didn't wander the town though, just did a loop to snap these pictures and hopped on the train for some "me" time. as the bunny was sleeping and i wanted to work on my planner.

first haircut cookies

2009-12-04T13:08:00.004+09:00

it's been going on for a while. this long scraggly shaggy hair that we've been letting the bunny run round with. and occasionally we can wrangle her to sit still long enough to do her hair - but the results tend to be short lived.

also, a friend of mine who went back to america left me some yellow icing. and there is a tendency in this house to celebrate any sort of event with baked goods. which is how the haircut cookies came to be.

she is a bunny, is she not - so the obvious choice was carrot cake cookies sandwiched together with cream cheese icing, with a bit of yellow frosting hair, blue sprinkles for eyes, and licorice for a mouth. given more time, and if i ever figured out how to pipe frosting properly - the result could have been spectacular. instead, the results were both cute and a little scary.
this is the first one i made, and gave to the bunny to eat while we cut her hair. which worked out really well, since it just turned into a smear the frosting around with her hands project and kept her very occupied.
these were the next two. a bit scarier, right? like unhappy alien people.
no matter though - sully loved them, and the taste was fabulous. light, cake like, creamy - everything i was hoping for. now i just have to stop eating them . . .

Carrot Cake Cookies
3/4 c margarine
3/4 c brown sugar
2 Tbs powdered sugar
1 egg
1 c carrots (about 2 medium finely shredded)
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c walnuts (ground finely)

*cream butter and sugar.
*add egg and vanilla.
*mix in flour, baking powder and salt.
* add carrots and walnuts and stir thoroughly.

For cream cheese icing
3 oz cream cheese
3 oz butter
1/2 c powdered sugar
pinch of salt
dash of vanilla

bake in preheated oven 350 F (170 C) for around 20 minutes, until edges are golden and tops begin to brown. let cool, then spread icing and press together to make sandwiches.

enjoy!

rabbitt day coming up

2009-11-30T13:19:00.002+09:00

tomorrow is December 1st. the last month for 2009, which means the last chance for a lucky rabbit month.

it goes like this - wake up in the morning, and the first thing you say has to be RABBIT, RABBIT, RABBIT.

the first thing. that's the important part. i usually put a post it note on my alarm or on the door, or wherever it is i'll look first in the morning.

and if you do it, a month of luck is yours.

don't believe me, look here.

my style

2009-11-30T13:01:00.005+09:00

me and a few friends have a tendency to talk about plans and goals and all sorts of organizational aspirations which may or may not come true.

but then, came along the planner of all planners.

ta-da. be amazed! i am.

a lunch with my friend and she shows me the new planner she bought. and it is cool. like in capital letters - COOL.

she sees my eyes light up, had figured as much and like the very rad lady she is, takes me up to the bookshop and buys me a copy so that we can all get together (there is another friend in on this whole goal planner planning thing) and get together for weekly chats and where are we on our goal-ness sort of things. also, just to chat. and have starbuck's frappucino's. ok, maybe it is mainly about the chatting and frappucino's - but this is irrelevant!

this is why the planner is so cool. for each month, it has a page before where you write down your monthly themes, to-do list for those themes, and space for a shopping list. on the opposite page, at the bottom - is your percent of progress! yes, i love this idea. and at the end of the planner it has a sort of year end summary sheet, where you add up all your percentages of progress and see how you fared. nice, eh?!
at the start is a place for 2010 yearly goals in regards to everything, career, life, money, beauty/health. i have to think about all of these things. but i like that i'm thinking about it.
also, there is a life plan. i like the kitsch-y appeal of a life plan. is it kitsch-y? i dunno. but it feels that way. it's a thing i have not done, but why not make up some larger dreams and goals and see where they go.
we'll be meeting wednesday for that aforementioned chat, and i'll be thinking about what to write in all those little spaces until then.

-woo hoo - let's hope this means a little more organize 2010.

nabe christmas, kfc thanksgiving

2009-11-30T09:26:00.003+09:00

last weekend we went to a danish christmas/nabe party hosted by two close lady friends. the party was fun, only i didn't take very many pictures. surprise, surprise!

the nabe was great, even the bunny ate it up. and mostly the mushrooms. i made this vegan quiche that really takes almost 3 hours to make. and i. did. not. take. a. picture. of. it. damn, i'm lame sometimes.there was this holiday danish beer which i did not try. and a strong liquor of some sort we were all given a shot of - which was good, but strong. wow. they also made a wine-y sweet drink with almonds and raisins inside. which was awesome. i want more of that.
on wednesday, the day before thanksgiving i got up and felt like baking. so i started with dinner rolls and pie crust for a cherry pie. and spent the rest of the day mostly in the kitchen and pulled together an all vegetarian thanksgiving dinner. well, apart from that box of KFC that the meat eaters went in on! ha!

actually, i was going to let thanksgiving pass us by this year. the man's canadian so his was the month before and i didn't make a dinner for it - but then i started thinking, this is the bunny's 2nd thanksgiving and also that damnit! we're americans - and i had better get my butt in the kitchen and put something together. so i did.

with this picture i realize several things.1. i should work on photo taking.
2. gravy does not photograph well.
3. neither does creamed corn.
4. and for that matter, the cranberry sauce should have been cut into cute little flowers.