Fresh home-made food every day
This week I ‘ve had only one dinner home, all the other nights I’ve had business related dinners, and when it’s the case I always try to prepare something for A.. Something he likes and that can prepared in advance. A. likes sausages which are not really a favorite of mine, so I cooked some new onion, shiitake and new potatoes stew with sausages for him. It super quick to prepare, it cooks while I get myself ready to work, and A. is happy when he comes back alone to have a nice dinner ready!!!
The other day seeing the natsumikan trees plowing under the weight of their fruits I decided we needed to harvest them. Our garden is an intricate mess of trees and access to all the fruits was not possible, hopefully the birds will eat some (though with the thick skin it’s not one of the birds favorite). Yet we managed to harvest about 100 fruits!!! This year has been incredible for harvesting fruits: plum, ginko nuts, tangerines, and now natsumikan. They are also super delicious. Usually they be quite sour but this year it’s pure sweetness!!! Yet, it’s too much for just for us. So I’ve given away 2/3 of the fruits, made marmalade with half of the remaining fruits, and kept the rest for eating raw. For the marmalade I used the seeds of an apple to gelify and it worked super well. And since we have now delicious marmalade to eat, We just needed something to spread it on, so this morning I made English muffins. So simple and so delicious!!!
When we were in Karuizawa, they would serve delicious scrambled eggs for breakfast, so this morning when I asked A. What he wanted to eat he asked for creamy scrambled eggs to accompany the dried tomatoes fougasse I was making. Perfect since I just bought fresh eggs. For the fougasse I used my classic recipe, just add Sicilian dried tomatoes. For the eggs, simple, pre-heat a small pan and grease it a bit, keep a low heat during the whole process, add 2 eggs per personne in the pan, and with cooking chopstick start to mix gently, to obtain an homogenous batter. Then anytime the bottom and the edges start to harden mix again and again until the eggs have the consistency you like. Serve immediately, add a bit of salt and pepper on top. Have a good Sunday!!!
One day warm, one day cold, it’s hard to know which season we are, already spring or still winter? So for the food it’s the same, I crave for new veggies one day, the other I dream of hot soup and hot veggies pot. To solve this problem I prepared a salad with hot boiled potatoes and thick fried tofu, and finely chopped raw red cabbage, radishes, mini tomatoes, ice plant and walnuts, with just olive oil. A perfect winter & spring option!
Yesterday my undergraduate students presented their research in the department and this marked the end on the year since masters already presented last week. I was particularly pleased with my students, their research results and the way I can see how much they improved their hard and soft skills during their stay in the lab. It’s a very nice feeling and it is very motivating. So this morning I am full of positive energy, and with the beautful blue winter sky, the crispy air And I need to take time to think. There are so many things I need to think about and I am usually too busy when seated in my office to take the necessary time for that. I find that walking outside in the city is a great way for me to sort my ideas (I think I also miss working in the city). I would usually do that when I have meetings in town or more often when I go to practice kyudo, walking there is about 40 min and it’s perfect to arrive in a calm and rested mind, but recently for too many reasons I haven’t practiced, the first one being unable to find the proper time and the proper calmness, the second being all this muscles and joints ache I have had since the beginning of January, that was definitely related to work and forced me to slow down a bit and is getting slowly better. Yet I didn’t take the time to walk.
And I am very lucky because the train was not working properly this morning, if working at all. I know it sounds strange to say that, because usually it’s when I’m in a hurry for class, or appointment, or when it’s pouring and there’s no taxi to be found. But not today. No meetings scheduled, perfect winter weather, no heels so perfectly equipped for a walk, so I decided to skip the Sobu line and walk to my next transfer. Probably nothing more than 30min at my pace. And that was so great. Tokyo is not of of these European old and beautiful city that you just watch, it’s a city beautiful from the small things going on there everyday, and it’s humility. Feeling the city moving around, people going to work, many walking because of the stopped trains, the shops preparing to open, the homeless sleeping like cats in the sun, the tourists in Akihabara waiting for the shop to open… It just boosted me and gave me an opportunity not only to think properly, but also to reconnect with this city I love but I haven’t enjoyed properly recently, and it just confirmed my feeling that I need to take more time to walk outside!
After a rainy and windy morning. The sun finally showed up, it was incredibly warm, so we decided to go for a (Valentine) drive ;). You know like they do in the Japanese drama… Ahahah! Except that ours was a little twisted, we always love to visit industrial areas!! So this time we picked a scenic route through the city that leads us to the “dinosaur” bridge, a bridge that was opened a few years ago in the bay and that we’ve never taken so far. Eventually the route we took was a (romantic) garbage and waste collection route since we’ve passed all Tokyo dumpsters that happen to all be on the newer islands in the sea front with a beautiful view all with names that try to conceal the hideousness of their finction: Yumenoshima (Dream island), Wakashu (Young land)…!! Actually Yumenoshima-夢の島 is worth a trip for itself for its little museum on nuclear tests in the Pacific and the sadly famous wreck of the Daigofukuryu-第五福竜. The route we took was passing also right next to Haneda airport, so planes were just flying over ours heads at low altitude! Kind of love that! Finally we crossed the bay arrived in Heiwajima and Shinagawa’s warehouses and containers warf, for the industrial part of the ride, passed the water sewage and recycling plant and drove to Tokyo tower, before heading to Mitsukoshi to buy ourselves some little Japanese sweets: plum jelly and sakura manju and watch the sunset from home. Happy Valentine! Hope your Sunday was a good one!!!
PS: I also prepared the classic chocolate truffles for Valentine!
We wanted to go to Hakuba for a long snowboarding weekend but didn’t manage to get a room at our favorite hotel: la neige Higashikan, so we decided to go to Karuizawa. Karuizawa is not well known for being a ski resort but rather a summer getaway to get a bit of fresh air and to avoid Tokyo heat. It’s therefore known for being a classy place for the Tokyo well off to have a country house. We really love the forest in Karuizawa and we once considered buying there before we found our house in Ohara. Karuizawa in winter is not a crowded place, most of the villas are closed during the winter, a lot of shops, museums and restaurants too. But the principal was there. There is a little ski resort with enough tracks to spend a whole day having fun there, and it’s steep enough for a few shirt black tracks. The view of Mount Asama, a nice smoking volcano, is really nice from the top of the resort.
There are tons of nice hotels to stay at. We tried the newly refurbished Kyu Karuizawa Hotel and were not disappointed. And since there are some hiking courses in the area we went snowshoeing too, which is also something I really like to do, and I found missing in Hakuba (only found guided tours). I also like very much visiting the old Nakasando-中山道 area of Oiwake with some nice old houses along the path.
Eating in Karuizawa is also nice, there are plenty of local nice products, one being ham and cured pork meat. Miso is also great and I bought a few. I can’t wait to try it!
And if outdoor is not your cup if tea or the weather is not good, there are a few art museums to visit around.
So it was a great outdoor time, with little use of connected devices; I have muscles ache and this time I know it’s not because of work and stress and it feels really good!!!
Yup!! Today is the last of the week for me!! But squeezing in a whole week of work in 3 days is quite a challenge. Plus this is the end of the year for students in Japan and that means a lot of thesis reading, preparation for presentations and grading. So from 8:00 to 22:00 it’s all busy. Adding a few round-the-world meetings late at night and the cup is full. So we’ve decided to retreat for a few days in the mountains, probably snowboarding, ice skating and hiking. Being so busy is ok for me, it’s kind of normal, but having to break my sleep habits is really the worst for me. My body stops to regulate its temperature and I feel cold often. So last night I wanted a warm and fresh, soft and crispy, colorful, and ready in 10min. It turned out in a one-plate with steamed spinach, sautéed shiitake, raw celery, chickpeas and creamy boiled eggs.
This butternut squash was definitely a good source of inspiration for making new recipes, and the last thing I tried with it was ravioli, I really have a thing for ravioli. And that was awesome! For the pasta I used the same recipe as last time, and rolled it with my pasta machine. For the filling I just steamed a peeled piece of butternut squash, smash it and add salt and pepper, that’s it. I served it with just olive oil and gratted Parmegiano. The butternut squash sweetness add a perfect touch to the taste of the olive oil, and the simplicity of the preparation is just perfect to enjoy the taste of the butternut squash. It really surprised me how simple it was to make too!!
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