Currently, we are on vacation in Malaysia. Who would have thought that I would ever go on a vacation to Malaysia, let alone live in Japan? Dave took three days to tell me about the job offer in Japan, and when he did, I felt nervous. When we moved here everyone kept asking us where we wanted to go on vacation and telling us where they'd been, and honestly, I was just afraid of Asia, and the only place I wanted to vacation was the US. Now, look at me, I'm in Malaysia, and even adding Thailand and Vietnam to my wishlist of vacations before we leave Japan, and I have already been to Australia, northern Japan, southern Japan, Germany, Italy, and France since moving to Japan. Oh, and now, I don't want to move from Japan, even though I came very hesitantly.
So, here we are on our vacation at a 4.5 star beach resort, even ordering room service, and I am slightly homesick for Japan. Then, I began wondering is it right to say "homesick" since when I'm in Japan, I have moments when I'm very "homesick" for America, and where is my home in America? We sold our house in NC, Dave won't get a job in MA, and we don't want to go back to IL. We are kind of like nomads, our kids lately have been saying to me that we need to pack up our house before we leave so we can keep all of our stuff. We have no intention of moving anytime soon, I guess it just comes up a lot because we know we can't live in Japan forever and we talk about where we would want to move next. It's weird to not have a sense of permanency in where we are living and I never really thought about it until recently.
There are a lot of things about Japan that make it totally frustrating for me on a daily basis, but all in all, when you go somewhere else, that is not Japan, all those little things seem to move to the back burner and you realize some important things that make it all worth it. The people in Japan are very polite and service oriented- that is something that I don't know if any other place will ever be able to top. You also never feel pressure to buy something in a shop or feel nervous when out alone. There are vending machines on every corner and convenience stores all over the place. Living in a city of over a million, almost 2 million people, with one of the world's best public transportation systems, you have so many options at your fingertips. Here, we took a cab from the airport to the resort and are limited to the resort's options. I was thinking even though we were in a hotel, we'd have others around us or at least a bunch of shops to walk to, but no, they are all cabrides away. Granted, the cab rides are not expensive, but you still have to be at the mercy of the concierge desk and where they recommend you to go.
We tried to find a grocery store yesterday, unsuccessfully, but we did find a 7-11, we must have bought 20 juice boxes, gatorades, and yogurt drinks, the guy thought we were crazy, but with resort prices for a coke falling at almost $5 a pop, we needed to have other sources for drinks for the 4 kids. We miss all the bread shops, the Mcdonald's (yes even Mcd's in Japan is good), Mr. Donut, even Pizza Hut. Here we are on vacation and all I keep thinking about is what am I going to cook when I get home? Even cooking can be a challenge in Japan because of trying to find all the ingredients, but hey being able to cook is better than not being able to cook at all. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE being on vacation and not having to do dishes or laundry, but I really am homesick for Japan- probably because I've lived there long enough to know my way around and where all the things are we need to feel less homesick for our "home country".
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Blueberry scones
I have a secret! My husband loves to bake! He loves to bake scones in particular. For Valentine's Day, I got him a cookbook, The America's Test Kitchen, Family Baking Book. We had some very expensive blueberries that were about to go bad ($12 for the pint) and I certainly didn't want to waste them, so I found a recipe in the cookbook for berry scones.
Here's the recipe with the adaptations that he made:
Preheat oven to 425'
8 TBSP (1 stick) butter
1 cup blueberries (their recipe called for 1 1/2 cups)
1/2 cup heavy cream (you can use whole milk)
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp lemon zest
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1) If possible, freeze the butter before making the scones, then grate it with your cheese grater. At this point, you can stick the blueberries in the freezer until you need them, we skipped this step and used them right out of the fridge, but you can buy frozen ones at the store and use them straight out of the freezer when necessary.
2) Whisk the heavy cream (in cook's illustrated, it called for whole milk- we only had cream) and sour cream together and refrigerate until needed. Dave likes to beat them until foamy with the mixers.
3) Mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, lemon zest, salt, and baking soda in a bowl. Add the grated butter and use your fingers to toss the mixture until fully coated.
4) Fold in the chilled milk mixture with a spatula until just combined and do not overmix.
5) Turn the dough out onto the counter. Knead it gently about six to eight times, until it just holds together (like a ragged ball- direct quote from the cookbook). If it is sticky, add a bit more flour.
6) Roll the dough into a 12 inch square. Fold the top towards the center, then the bottom up to meet it, then fold the sides in towards the center, so you have about a 4 inch square. Chill in the freezer for about 5 minutes.
7) Transfer the dough to a lightly floured counter and form a 12 inch square again. Sprinkle the berries on top and press them lightly into the dough with your hand. Carefully loosen the dough from the countertop and roll into a tight log. Press the seams closed.
8) Press down firmly on the log so it forms a rectangle approximately 12" by 4". Using a knife, cut the dough, using a floured knife, into 4 rectangles, and then cut each rectangle into 2 triangles.
9) Place the scones onto the cookie sheet or in your scone pan, Bake until they are light golden brown, approximately 18-25 minutes
These scones are a tie for the best ones he's ever made! I've never been disappointed with a cook's illustrated recipe! One thing he didn't do, which they recommended in the recipe was before baking, brush the tops with melted butter and sprinkle on a little sugar, we felt they tasted superb even without this.
Well, that's all for about a week now, we'll be on vacation, but I'm sure I'll have some good updates when we return from our trip next week! If all goes well, I'll have read the manual on how to use my new flash and my pictures won't be so dark anymore.
Here's the recipe with the adaptations that he made:
Preheat oven to 425'
8 TBSP (1 stick) butter
1 cup blueberries (their recipe called for 1 1/2 cups)
1/2 cup heavy cream (you can use whole milk)
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp lemon zest
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1) If possible, freeze the butter before making the scones, then grate it with your cheese grater. At this point, you can stick the blueberries in the freezer until you need them, we skipped this step and used them right out of the fridge, but you can buy frozen ones at the store and use them straight out of the freezer when necessary.
2) Whisk the heavy cream (in cook's illustrated, it called for whole milk- we only had cream) and sour cream together and refrigerate until needed. Dave likes to beat them until foamy with the mixers.
3) Mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, lemon zest, salt, and baking soda in a bowl. Add the grated butter and use your fingers to toss the mixture until fully coated.
4) Fold in the chilled milk mixture with a spatula until just combined and do not overmix.
5) Turn the dough out onto the counter. Knead it gently about six to eight times, until it just holds together (like a ragged ball- direct quote from the cookbook). If it is sticky, add a bit more flour.
6) Roll the dough into a 12 inch square. Fold the top towards the center, then the bottom up to meet it, then fold the sides in towards the center, so you have about a 4 inch square. Chill in the freezer for about 5 minutes.
7) Transfer the dough to a lightly floured counter and form a 12 inch square again. Sprinkle the berries on top and press them lightly into the dough with your hand. Carefully loosen the dough from the countertop and roll into a tight log. Press the seams closed.
8) Press down firmly on the log so it forms a rectangle approximately 12" by 4". Using a knife, cut the dough, using a floured knife, into 4 rectangles, and then cut each rectangle into 2 triangles.
9) Place the scones onto the cookie sheet or in your scone pan, Bake until they are light golden brown, approximately 18-25 minutes
These scones are a tie for the best ones he's ever made! I've never been disappointed with a cook's illustrated recipe! One thing he didn't do, which they recommended in the recipe was before baking, brush the tops with melted butter and sprinkle on a little sugar, we felt they tasted superb even without this.
Well, that's all for about a week now, we'll be on vacation, but I'm sure I'll have some good updates when we return from our trip next week! If all goes well, I'll have read the manual on how to use my new flash and my pictures won't be so dark anymore.
Fruit and juice
A few weeks ago, Nathaniel came up with the idea to make our own orange juice. I am not sure how he came up with it, but I started laughing, because I think he thought it was revolutionary that no one had thought to make juice from an orange, but just to buy it from the store in a container.
We had a bag of 7 mikans (japanese clementines) in the fridge, next thing I know, he's got my citrus juicer (small one for cooking) and a whole mikan trying to get juice. I informed him you have to cut the orange first and that I had a bigger juicer for squeezing your own juice. See below for a repeat performance of non-cutting the orange, even when I brought out the juice press:
The next day, we set to work making the juice, with our 6 remaining mikans, we got one glass of juice that all four kids shared. They were absolutely delighted and then wanted to try making more, but experimenting with adding sugar, etc. Of course, we had no more oranges, so we didn't try that yet. This reminded me of being a kid at my nana's house with her gigantic steel juicer making orange juice. I remember we used to add sugar and some lemon juice at times and I thought "oh this is so good we could sell it and make up our own name". I even remember the name I came up with, Lemonge.
Here are some photos of us making the juice, the only thing I helped with was cutting the mikans.
Here's our glass of juice:
They then asked can we make orange grape juice? But, of course, orange juice and lemonade are about it for me as far as what I know how to make. If you go to a grocery store here in Japan, you will not find the large variety of fruit juice you find in the US, nor the quantity. Because of the small size of the refrigerators here, the containers are 1 Liter cartons. You will find your basic orange, apple, grape, and grapefruit juice. Usually there is a fruit punch, and sometimes peach, mango, banana, and blueberry juice. Let me tell you , the juice here is excellent, it tastes like you are actually eating the fruit and what you would expect, it's not too artificial. You know, there's not a large aisle here of non-refrigerated juice, there are a lot of bottles of tea and lemon-ade type drinks in the non-refrigerated section, but nothing too familiar for us.
Here is the juice aisle at our grocery store:
The reason that I think the juice is so good is because the fruit is DELICIOUS here. You will pay dearly for the fruit, but it is always good. Very rarely will we buy fruit that didn't taste good or was bad. It is handled with care and packaged with care too, check out the displays at our grocery store:
Each apple is in it's own cup:
The mangos and papayas are in there own foam cushions, you'll see apples like that too occasionally:
The sign in front is 78 yen per kiwi (80 cents each) and the one under the apple is 298 yen (roughly $3):
Yes, the watermelon is almost $30:
The strawberries are the best we've ever eaten, all carefully placed inside the container, not thrown in:
The fruit is usually only sold in season and if it's out of season, it can get extremely pricey. One time I paid $10 for 10 strawberries- you may think that is crazy, but it was the first time I'd see them in 5 months and the kids gobbled them right up. If they'll eat fruit, I'll buy it (to a certain extent). I also once paid $4 for a peach, it was the first time we'd ever seen them here and they are mouth watering. We only see peaches here for about 2 or 3 months. Here is an example of one of the most expensive pieces of fruit I've ever seen here:
I have actually seen one for $100, but didn't have my camera with me. You know you've got a true friend if they give you a melon as a gift.
We had a bag of 7 mikans (japanese clementines) in the fridge, next thing I know, he's got my citrus juicer (small one for cooking) and a whole mikan trying to get juice. I informed him you have to cut the orange first and that I had a bigger juicer for squeezing your own juice. See below for a repeat performance of non-cutting the orange, even when I brought out the juice press:
The next day, we set to work making the juice, with our 6 remaining mikans, we got one glass of juice that all four kids shared. They were absolutely delighted and then wanted to try making more, but experimenting with adding sugar, etc. Of course, we had no more oranges, so we didn't try that yet. This reminded me of being a kid at my nana's house with her gigantic steel juicer making orange juice. I remember we used to add sugar and some lemon juice at times and I thought "oh this is so good we could sell it and make up our own name". I even remember the name I came up with, Lemonge.
Here are some photos of us making the juice, the only thing I helped with was cutting the mikans.
Here's our glass of juice:
They then asked can we make orange grape juice? But, of course, orange juice and lemonade are about it for me as far as what I know how to make. If you go to a grocery store here in Japan, you will not find the large variety of fruit juice you find in the US, nor the quantity. Because of the small size of the refrigerators here, the containers are 1 Liter cartons. You will find your basic orange, apple, grape, and grapefruit juice. Usually there is a fruit punch, and sometimes peach, mango, banana, and blueberry juice. Let me tell you , the juice here is excellent, it tastes like you are actually eating the fruit and what you would expect, it's not too artificial. You know, there's not a large aisle here of non-refrigerated juice, there are a lot of bottles of tea and lemon-ade type drinks in the non-refrigerated section, but nothing too familiar for us.
Here is the juice aisle at our grocery store:
The reason that I think the juice is so good is because the fruit is DELICIOUS here. You will pay dearly for the fruit, but it is always good. Very rarely will we buy fruit that didn't taste good or was bad. It is handled with care and packaged with care too, check out the displays at our grocery store:
Each apple is in it's own cup:
The mangos and papayas are in there own foam cushions, you'll see apples like that too occasionally:
The sign in front is 78 yen per kiwi (80 cents each) and the one under the apple is 298 yen (roughly $3):
Yes, the watermelon is almost $30:
The strawberries are the best we've ever eaten, all carefully placed inside the container, not thrown in:
The fruit is usually only sold in season and if it's out of season, it can get extremely pricey. One time I paid $10 for 10 strawberries- you may think that is crazy, but it was the first time I'd see them in 5 months and the kids gobbled them right up. If they'll eat fruit, I'll buy it (to a certain extent). I also once paid $4 for a peach, it was the first time we'd ever seen them here and they are mouth watering. We only see peaches here for about 2 or 3 months. Here is an example of one of the most expensive pieces of fruit I've ever seen here:
I have actually seen one for $100, but didn't have my camera with me. You know you've got a true friend if they give you a melon as a gift.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Baby girl's got clothes
The baby girl is really learning how to strike a pose with all the clothes I've been making her and photographing her in. She's getting good, don't you think, she bends forward, leans to the side, puts her hands on her hips, tries to do the Japanese "V" sign, but isn't quite coordinated yet.
For these two outfits, I used my own design for the pants, basically traced her current pants, but made them much wider and added a ruffle on the bottom. Then for the top, I used the Portabellopixie Claire pattern (the bodice and sleeves of the round apron dress only), then I measured out my own skirt to make it tunic-like and added a casing on the outside for the elastic to make it more fashionable. Of course, we added a kitty patch to the front of the first top because there are patches everywhere here, I'll bring my camera along next time I go to Yuzawaya, they have hundreds of patches.
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Here is the second one, same design, different fabric. I used the Snorkel Fabric by Cosmo Cricket. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this fabric!
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Ready for the runway:
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By the way, I know that an owl apparel for April is due, I actually have all the fabric cut out and ready to go, but of course, the dress I am making is VERY difficult and it is a European pattern, so I didn't buy enough fabric. Now, I have to wait a week for it to get here, the frustrating thing about sewing here is you can't just run to the nearest store and get the stuff you ran out of. Luckily we will be on vacation, so I won't be here biting my nails waiting for it to arrive. Here is a sneak preview of the owl fabric, hopefully the dress will be done in about 2 weeks.
For these two outfits, I used my own design for the pants, basically traced her current pants, but made them much wider and added a ruffle on the bottom. Then for the top, I used the Portabellopixie Claire pattern (the bodice and sleeves of the round apron dress only), then I measured out my own skirt to make it tunic-like and added a casing on the outside for the elastic to make it more fashionable. Of course, we added a kitty patch to the front of the first top because there are patches everywhere here, I'll bring my camera along next time I go to Yuzawaya, they have hundreds of patches.
.JPG)
.JPG)
Here is the second one, same design, different fabric. I used the Snorkel Fabric by Cosmo Cricket. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this fabric!
.JPG)
Ready for the runway:
.JPG)
By the way, I know that an owl apparel for April is due, I actually have all the fabric cut out and ready to go, but of course, the dress I am making is VERY difficult and it is a European pattern, so I didn't buy enough fabric. Now, I have to wait a week for it to get here, the frustrating thing about sewing here is you can't just run to the nearest store and get the stuff you ran out of. Luckily we will be on vacation, so I won't be here biting my nails waiting for it to arrive. Here is a sneak preview of the owl fabric, hopefully the dress will be done in about 2 weeks.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Time to make the donuts
But not eat them. Today, was a special day for us, for many reasons, but most of all, a Krispy Kreme opened in Osaka, only 45 minutes from our house. There are other Krispy Kremes in Japan, mainly near Tokyo, a 4 hour train ride away. Now, the bad thing about today being the opening day was that it was a National Holiday here in Japan called Showa no hi (Emperor's Day). I asked a japanese friend yesterday what the holiday for today was, just so we'd know, and she didn't even know really what it was, she had to tell me later. Evidently, the emperor Showa's birthday was April 29 and when his reign came to an end, the Japanese government was looking to add more National Holidays to their calendar, which is how his birthday came to be one. The thing about this holiday is that it is the kick off Golden Week. During Golden week, there are four National Holidays, which means A LOT of people not working and not in school. Since it is such a long time to have off of work, this is one of the only times, besides New Years that Japanese people travel. So, put a National Holiday together with the opening of a popular foreign donut chain in a very large city and you have MASSIVE CROWDS!!!!
Dave and the kids went into Osaka today to go to a Tomica Car convention, just basically lots of toy cars and model cities set up to look at, but with a BIG gift shop at the end. I decided after three hours of cleaning that it was okay to get out of the house, plus I wanted to see what this Krispy Kreme was all about (knowing full well I probably wouldn't even get a bite). Guess what? I was right, the wait was over three hours. Sorry, no donut is that good, I'll go in two weeks after the holiday is over during the week when everyone else is in school and/or working.
Did you know there are actually quite a few other foreign companies that have launched chains in Japan? To name a few, Wendy's, McDonald's, Cold Stone Creamery, Starbucks (my favorite), Tully's, Hard Rock Cafe, Outback Steakhouse, TGI Fridays, and Bob's Big Boy (that was a shocker to me). I'm sure I've missed some, but basically you shouldn't be afraid to come here because you can find a taste from home, you just might have to wait a few hours to get it ;)
Here are some shots of the new shop:
The three hour line:
The best part about the Golden Week holiday is look who comes out to be photographed:
And my personal favorite:
Oh and one more thing, I found out what shoes are in season this year while making my way to the donut store:
Dave and the kids went into Osaka today to go to a Tomica Car convention, just basically lots of toy cars and model cities set up to look at, but with a BIG gift shop at the end. I decided after three hours of cleaning that it was okay to get out of the house, plus I wanted to see what this Krispy Kreme was all about (knowing full well I probably wouldn't even get a bite). Guess what? I was right, the wait was over three hours. Sorry, no donut is that good, I'll go in two weeks after the holiday is over during the week when everyone else is in school and/or working.
Did you know there are actually quite a few other foreign companies that have launched chains in Japan? To name a few, Wendy's, McDonald's, Cold Stone Creamery, Starbucks (my favorite), Tully's, Hard Rock Cafe, Outback Steakhouse, TGI Fridays, and Bob's Big Boy (that was a shocker to me). I'm sure I've missed some, but basically you shouldn't be afraid to come here because you can find a taste from home, you just might have to wait a few hours to get it ;)
Here are some shots of the new shop:
The three hour line:
The best part about the Golden Week holiday is look who comes out to be photographed:
And my personal favorite:
Oh and one more thing, I found out what shoes are in season this year while making my way to the donut store:
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Train table makeover
Look what has become of our train table:
I decided it was time for a new look, there were a few things that I didn't like about the table, including that it became a storage unit. In this picture, you can see the side handles are low and stuff falls right off the table under them (like marbles or cars), defeating the point of keeping small things off the floor. Also, the surface was quite slippery.
First thing, we cut some cardboard into strips tall enough to fit inside the edges of the table, to cover the handle holds and to give us some creative edge (we painted them black). I didn't use a ruler, figured it wouldn't be up for long anyways, plus we have sooo much cardboard ready to use, if I messed up, there was plenty more waiting to be used.
Then, a lot of hot glue gun sticks and four rolls of felt later, voila:
A surface easy to drive on, not slippery, and easy to remove and put something else on when we change our mind on what we are playing with. I have already cut out pictures of gas stations, etc. from our car magazines for the next change. Total cost: 400 yen ($4.00) and one big blister on my finger from being burned by the hot glue gun.
I decided it was time for a new look, there were a few things that I didn't like about the table, including that it became a storage unit. In this picture, you can see the side handles are low and stuff falls right off the table under them (like marbles or cars), defeating the point of keeping small things off the floor. Also, the surface was quite slippery.
First thing, we cut some cardboard into strips tall enough to fit inside the edges of the table, to cover the handle holds and to give us some creative edge (we painted them black). I didn't use a ruler, figured it wouldn't be up for long anyways, plus we have sooo much cardboard ready to use, if I messed up, there was plenty more waiting to be used.
Then, a lot of hot glue gun sticks and four rolls of felt later, voila:
A surface easy to drive on, not slippery, and easy to remove and put something else on when we change our mind on what we are playing with. I have already cut out pictures of gas stations, etc. from our car magazines for the next change. Total cost: 400 yen ($4.00) and one big blister on my finger from being burned by the hot glue gun.
Our writing and drawing work
One thing I learned from our current and past experience with Montessori work is that kids tend to be more willing to write and creative with their work when they can choose the topic. All school year, about twice per week, I'll give Nathaniel a piece of paper that is blank on top and lined on the bottom and have him draw a picture and write about it. Lately, we've been studying space, so the examples you'll see are from his space binder, I've been asking him to draw a picture about space and write about it. He has been doing all of this writing of facts from pure memory.
I love the V20 at the top, he thinks he's cool for coming up with it for "venus second planet zero moons".
We keep all the papers together in a binder with clear page covers in case anyone wants to read them or look at them.
Another thing we do is put together mini books about a topic. Here, I have stapled together about 12 small rectangles of black paper with a white cover. He has written "My constellation book" on the cover. Each day, he chooses a few constellations to draw and label. I am trying to get him to realize that the dots are more important than the lines because the dots are what you will only see in the sky. We are using cray-pas to draw on the black paper. He enjoys looking through all the books, trying to choose which constellation to put in his book.
I love the V20 at the top, he thinks he's cool for coming up with it for "venus second planet zero moons".
We keep all the papers together in a binder with clear page covers in case anyone wants to read them or look at them.
Another thing we do is put together mini books about a topic. Here, I have stapled together about 12 small rectangles of black paper with a white cover. He has written "My constellation book" on the cover. Each day, he chooses a few constellations to draw and label. I am trying to get him to realize that the dots are more important than the lines because the dots are what you will only see in the sky. We are using cray-pas to draw on the black paper. He enjoys looking through all the books, trying to choose which constellation to put in his book.
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