I made it!!

It's my Home Bakery. This time it worked well. Can you see the number 1:45?
When I (or HB) baked bread, it usually takes three and a half hours. This time it took  1 hour and 45 minutes.

It baked ---

Pizza dough.

 I got a zucchini. To tell the truth I'm not good at cooking zucchini, because the vegetable is not familiar with me.
However, I wanted to cook tasty.
So I try to make pizza.

Perfect!! I know the shape is not perfect. Don't mind!!!
I put sliced zucchini, and put some "say sauce" and olive oil.
And I put mozzarella cheese.

It was easier than I expected, and it was "tastier" than I expected.
Ok, this summer I'll cook zucchini pizza!

My volunteer activity at the East library

Yesterday it was the day to do a volunteer activity at the East library.
This year I stopped most of my volunteer activities, however only this activity at the library is continued.

Three times every two months I do my volunteer activity at the library.
Yesterday it was a weekday, so not many people came there. The people there were mainly some senior people or some mothers with babies.

These days I've searched what English picture books are stored or hidden in the library with the members of my English Picture Work Shop club. (there are only three members in the club this year.)

After we got permission, we went down the book store room and checked what books are stored in the shelf.
This time I took about 20 books, and we introduced 6 books to the audience who came to the openroom after hearing the announce.

 

 

Of course in the library they open mainly Japanese books and they don't have enough room for foreign books  especially foreign English picture books.  However they store some English picture books. Once they are stored in the store room, they are seldom open. Especially old picture books are buried even they are on the list of the books. 

So we offer the librarians to change the books constantly. They don't know which books are suitable, so we search, choose  and suggest them to let the books

 

I have a question.

 

Can you see the book of "who made me"?  It is a British book.

The illustrations are really realistic and some kids have nothing on or "natural", even though they are really cute. Probably here in Japan we don't see such pictures on the "picture book".

And a member who used to live in America, also said it would be permitted.

 

Have you seen or do you use such books which have real nude  illustrations?



How was your father's day?

Did you celebrate your father's day?

Well, in my case, my father and my father-in-law has already passed away, so --- I celebrate the day for Yuki instead of my daughters.

Oh, I have to tell that  ---- to their credit,

our elder daughter called us anyway and she said "next time we meet, I'll present something for you (it means me) and dad!" ( we don't know how many times we hear such word!)

my elder daughter also called us, however  as soon as she called us, we changed the way to talk into skype, it means we "enjoyed" seeing and talking our granddaughter. -- so the calling for father's day finished in a second.

Well, well, our son-in-law presented a good quality of SAKE to Yuki. It was a perfect present.

 

And I accepted his proposition (is it a suitable word in this case?) and we went to a new "noodle" shop. They serve "mazesoba". Have you heard "mazesoba"? Probably you've heard "ramen".

The origin of mazesoba is probably ramen, because it is served a kind of ramen shop.

 

 

 

 

Mazesoba is kind of ramen noodle without soup.

When it is served, you should "mazeru" ,stir it hardly with Chinese chili oil (layou).  It looks caustic.

And at the end, you put some rice and agine "mazeru".

 

Well, well, unfortunately I wouldn't eat it, so I just tried a bit, and ate GYOZA.

 

After that we enjoyed dessert at another shop.

Do you know this type of cake, we call it savarin.

This is my mother's favorite.

It means some younger people than us don't know it. Recently  a cake shop they only serve savarin opened. It is said "if you come here by car, you can't eat our savarin because it includes lots of alcohol". (so if you go this shop by car, you should take one to you home.)

When I was a little girl, on special days we would eat cake. Children would eat strawberry "short cake " (probably in English layered cake) and adults would eat savarin which had lots of alcohol.  Well, my mother doesn't drink alcohol, but she loves cake which has alcohol.

before Father's Day

This coming Sunday is Father's day, isn't it?

Have you prepared something for your dad? or for your husband? yet?

 

This week I do the lesson for Father's day. What is the lesson for Father's day?

 

Just read some picture books and make cards.

 

Though I don't know why, anyway always students seem to have difficulty to give compliments for their fathers.(In my case my husband)

My friend introduced me a nice page for compliments.

So we are learning compliment words now.

 

Well, well can you see the word "well-built", his father, this card was written by a boy who is in the ninth grade, is --- actually "f**" and "hea**", which word came up with him first. However we tried to change into the word "well-built" (He said he has no  little muscle) .

 

Happy Father's Day!

 

 

 

 

 

SHITAKE mushroom "AHIJO"

Well, well, I can't find a word "AHIJO" in English. What do you call "ajillo (Spanish)" in English?

These day "AHIJO" is getting popular in Japan.

ajillo means dish fried in garlic oil.

 

The other day I went downtown and there a festival was held by welfare groups.

There they sold handmade bags, sweets and etc.

I bought these SHITAKE mushrooms.

Can you see a paper bag? To make such paper bags using old newspaper is one of their job.

I "intentionally" bought small SHITAKE mushrooms. because --

I made "AHIJO".

 

Perfect!

KIRIRURI art festival

Last Sunday Yuki and I went to KIRIFURI highland where is close to NIKKO. It takes about 40 minutes by car. There during June some pensions are open to one day guest, so we see their collections.

 

 

At this pension, they open their picture book collection. And this day they held a workshop of picture book reading by an author who lives in NIKKO. Unfortunately we didn't have enough time to see it.

 

 



 

At this pension the owner is also an artist to make stained-glass.  In each room her (the owner is a lady) works are put. And this rooms is for "comic" lover.



 

At this pension we see some works by KAGAWA DAISUKE who also lives in NIKKO.

 

There is a big fall called KIRIFIRI NO TAKI . I climbed up (Yuki walked up) to see it.

Probably about 20 years passed since we saw it once. To be surprised the walking path to the fall is set out neatly, so it was easy for us to walk on the path with usual shoes. (Probably even with heels)

 

 

 

There we had "lunch"  I made. (This time we wanted to eat something outside, and I wanted to save money)

 

Then we went to a private house which was the main purpose of us this time.

It is a house of an artist who makes artistic doors. It is called KIKAGAKUDOU. (though the HP is written in Japanese, you can see his works.)

He and his wife lives in this highland.

 

 

 

They live in nature --- it means, this is a big room with a glass ceiling and without windows.

They always face to the nature, enjoy the summer time and "fight" (they said enjoy) the difficult winter.

[

 

This is their main room.

We talked them for a while. Their live seems completely different from Yuki's life as a "salary man" (which means business man) . Yuki seemed to re-consider his life.

It's good to know that there are many many life styles.

 

After long interval we enjoyed nature and talking with people who seem to live in another world.

 

 

Lamb cooking -2-

While I ordered lamb block for our cooking event, I also ordered --another lamb for lamb stake.
Of course ---- for Yuki (and me)

It was the first time to cook it by myself. Yuki also worried about "my" cooking, so "we" cooked it together according to the procedure manual.

 

To be surprised, it said "not to use oven" "use pan".

and "not to use high temper" "use low temper".

 

Well, well, though you might the way to cook, I'll introduce it.

First put some olive oil and garlic in the pan, and warm the pan and add garlic flavor to the olive oil.

Next "stand" the lamb (after sprinkling some salt and pepper) on the pan, it means you put the bone side up.

 

 

 

And grill lamb at low temper while scooping the oil in the pan and putting on the lamb.

It took around 8 minutes.

Then we laid the lamb and grilled both side. it took around 8 minutes to grill both side at "low temperature".

 

Finish!

 

Well, well, unfortunately we didn't stock red wine, so we enjoyed it with white wine poured into a usual glass. These days it is "prohibited" for Yuki to use a wine glass. As soon as he holds one, he breaks it. I don't know "why".

lamb cooking -1-

Last Tuesday three ladies came to my house and did lamb cooking.

 

This year I sometimes (until now once a week) hold Mary Poppins cooking club.

Reading the recipes on the book, we challenge to cook them.

 

This time, the menu was Irish stew and topsy-turvy cake.

Actually I cooked Irish stew using lamb. Because the process was simple, but it took more than three hours. So I started to organize it from 7 o'clock, and before the ladies came at 10:30 I already put the pot in the oven. The first picture is taken at 7:30.

 

For you living in foreign countries, lamb cooking must be popular, however for Japanese people it's not so popular. And usually we can't buy lamb at usual super market, though we can get sliced lamb for Korean BBQ.

So this time I ordered block lamb to a special lamb butcher on the net. Net shopping is really convenient, and my cooking world has broadened.

 

I consider why we don't eat lamb so often. Goat and sheep meet are a little bit stingy, and tough.

However good lamb is tasty.

Probably Japanese people used to eat fish and chicken, in Meiji period as foreigners landed in Japan, cow-meet was introduced. And we have cows at farm. However we don't have sheep for our diet.

So even now not so many people eat lamb.

--- I think.

 

Anyway the perfect cooking, (Well no members know what is perfect. if the dishes we made are tasty, it is called "perfect")

we enjoyed Himalayan tea, it has the same taste of Darjeeling tee. It is in reason, Nepal is close to Darjeeling province.

 

We shared in the expense. However while they're at it  I ordered lamb stake meet personally.

I'll write about the meet later.

 

 

Last weekend

Last weekend, "suddenly" my younger daughter and Akari came to my house and stayed one night with us.
On Saturday we had already have planed something,  -- dentist, car-shop, golf-practice etc.
So Akari went along with us on everything, except golf-practice. While Yuki was taking golf-practice we were at a park nearby.

 

Of course at night we ate meat. Though Akari is about 2 years old (she will become 2 years old this July), she "can" already eat usual "meat".

 

And on Sunday

 

It was a sunny day, so we did a kind of BBQ at the garden.

 

And we went to a bookstore nearby.

On the day a man who is a son of a nearby electric appliance  shop owner hold his live performance.

He is probably in the middle of 30's.

As a neighbor we went to see "him".

 

As I expected some neighbors came, but --- unfortunately not so many audience.

We were going to listen to his live, but the sound was too heavy for Akari to listen to it, so we went to a book store and spent a time for a while.

 

And -- my younger daughter and Akair came back to TOKYO with these pre-cooked dishes made by me .

So I cooked "our" pre-cooked dishes on Monday. cooking, cooking, cooking, it was my Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.

 

And the cooking is continued ---. I'll update another cooking  on my next blog.

 

In TOKYO -2- my liesure time

After I see my mother off at a subway station, I went to a place I've wanted to.

This is the Peninsula Tokayo hotel.

In this hotel they sell Lamington whose origin is Australia, or someone sais New Zealand.

I knew this sweet in a picture book "Possum Magic" . The sweet is sold only at this hotel, so I've wanted to come and get it.

And the café in the hotel is also famous for all-day live at café time.

So I had a good herbal tea listening to the piano & violin performance.

(Of course it costs very expensive, can you guess how much is it?)

Then I dropped by a famous bakery which sells only SYOKU-PAN (a loaf of bread? a sandwich loaf)

 

Fortunately I got this number ticket, and waited in a line for 20 minutes.

Here it is. The loaf was too hot to keep the shape until I got home. From Tokyo it took about 3 hours to my house.

Because I took a local train and bus to save my money.

I had a wonderful leisure time.

In TOKYO -1- with my mother who is 80 years old

This past Tuesday I went to Tokyo to see my mother and take her --- to a place.

 

Before taking the aimed place we dropped by here.

Do you know this place?

Since April it has been open to the public. It is GEIHINKAN, the State Guest House.

It seemed not to be so far from YOTSUYA-station, actually we can see it from the train platform at hand.

However it was  a little bit far for my mother who is 80 years old.

Moreover  though we see the garden for free, to enter the main house it costs 1000 yen per person and we needed to wait for more than 30 minutes because many people were waiting.

The aim of the today was not to visit there, so we just saw the garden and went to the "destination".

Anyway, if you are interested in the State Guest House, check the HP. It is not always open.

 

Our aim of the day is to go to a gallery in GINZA MITSUKOSHI department store.

My daughter's work is exhibited with other's works.

The them of this art exhibition was "rose".

 

So she made rose with Japnaese paper.

(Unfortunately this time it seemed not to attract any buyers.) 

 

And we went to "the real destination", it means --- to eat TEMPURA for our lunch.

In the department store, at a restraint we can eat TEMPURA sitting at the bar. So the Tempura chef serves fresh tempura as soon as he cooks one.

This is Anago-tempura.

The long thin one is a bone of Anago. (Anago is conger?)

 

After eating several kind of tempura, rice is served to finish up. BUT not just rice, we can choose TEMPURA-don, TEMPURA-soup rice with green tea, or mixed TEMPURA and Rice

 

This is Tempura-soup rice with green tea. We eat it after poring green tea.

We had a good lunch. Then I took my mother to DEPACHIKA.
DEPHACHIKA are department store basements, filled with high-quality food shops.  This is GINZA-MITSUKOSHI department, which is a topnotch department store. The quality is very very high and --expensive. Do you know why are these shops in the basement? One of the reasons is that, in big cities depachika connect to subway stations. so it's really easy to access from the station to food shops.
Actually after her shopping, she went to the subway station directly with lots of bags, and went home.

Then I enjoyed my time in Tokyo.

A letter from Akasaki Wednesday Post office

 

It is Wednesday, today.

Last Wednesday, I got this letter from AKASKI-POSTOFFICE".

Why?

 

 

It "was" a kind of event.

 

I'll try to explain this art event in English. (Unfortunately they don't have their English site.)

 

AKASAKI-POST OFFICE is not a post office. It is the just name of a building.

It is near the seashore in KUMANOTO in KYUSYU (Fortunately it didn't have any damage from the sever earthquake in April.)

The building used to be an elementary school.  There students used to swim in the see, or fish from the windows of the hallways. In 2010 it was closed because of deceasing the number of students.

However some people wanted to do use the place for people to communicate.

 

So, on Wednesdays they opened it as a post office and started to accept letters from anyone who joined their event.

If someone write a letter about their Wednesday story and send the letter to the post office, the post office becomes an mediator, and sends another letter  to someone (of course this person also sent their letter to the post office).

So someone get someone's letter on "Wednesday"  (the post office manages to do it) from someone and knows someone's Wednesday story.

 

I hope you understand it.

This event was finished last March.

I knew this event at the end of March, so I was wondering whether my letter would be accepted or not.

However my letter would reach to the post office within a time limit of it.

Because I got the letter from someone.

So probably someone got my letter on a Wednesday.

 

The letter was written by a woman who is in her 70's, I knew it in the letter.

She wrote her calm Wednesday, no complain, just watching her Wednesday was written in the letter.

What a calm letter it is.

 

In Japanese HOKKORI-SHITA.

 

The letter came last Wednesday, but I wanted to tell you this calm  and happy thing on Wednesday.