Osechi Prep 1

I started shopping and preparation for Japanese New Year dishes, Osechi. It takes a long time since Osechi has a lot of varieties and some have long procedures. Today I made Salmon Kasuzuke (salmon marinated in sake lees.) It needs 3 to 4 days to put rich flavor into the fish so started today. This year we are invited to a New Year's party at our friend's house and we decided to take some Osechi there. I love planning and preparing Osechi dishes and I guess this came from my mom because she looks so alive when she prepares big dishes. Her shopping list and schedule list for Osechi are much longer than mine though. I am sure I will be calling/emailing her while I am making Osechi to get some instructions. Yes, she is always my Sensei (mentor) !

Christmas Dinner

"People eat cookies more than cake for Christmas." My host mother told me and it was my contribution to the Christmas dinner. I made Apollo Chocolate cookies, Macha (dark green tea) cookies, and checker cookies. We had fantastic crab and salmon that she made and exchanged presents. We also played Movie trivial pursuit but Steven and I lost terribly...We need to watch more movies (or need to REMEMBER the names and stuff).

Christmas Eve

We had a nice quiet Christmas Eve at home. We opened a Champagne and had some hors d'oeuvre. Terrine with black truffle which we got in France, smoked salmon, crab meat+tomato, scallop+some green...We have a lot of presents under the tree and I cannot wait to open them.

New Year's Card

In Japan, we exchange New Year's cards just like people do with Christmas cards here. One of the differences between them is that Japanese post office holds all the New Year's cards and delivers them all at once on New Year's day. (Yes, Japanese post workers work on New Year's day!!) People get a lot of (well, if you are popular, you get a lot.) cards and enjoy reading them on New Year's day. We made our New Year's card and sent this to our Japanese friends. Hope it gets there by January 1st.

Christmas Party 1

We were invited to Leah's Christmas party. She loves animals and has 2 cats and 2 dogs and they were all dressed up for Christmas! I thoght it was cute but her husband didn't like the idea of dressing up their pets so tried to take them off when she was not watching....funny. We brought a fruit tart (made by me) and Boston baked beans (made by Steven). We had a good time and it was 2:30 in the morning when we got home.

Steven's cooking Days

Steven also loves cooking and he cooked fabulous dishes 2 days in a row this week.
Sunday:Pecan crusted tilapia. Mmmm, ground pecan around the fish is crispy and tasty. I love nuts!!
Monday:Caramelized shallot and roasted chicken with herbs. Gosh! The echalote is sweet and flavorful. Good combination with the chicken. I am so lucky that he is a GREAT cook!!

Tricolor Pasta

I found a interesting pasta the other day. They are tricolor and its shape looks like toy blocks. When it is cooked, the color faded away a little bit but it still left color accent in the dish. We had it with Steven's famous tomato sauce. Yum!

Santa Clause will be coming in town soon !!

2 weeks to Christmas. We got a tree and decorated it today. I am buying a few ornaments every year and one of the rookies this year is a snow baby we got in an antique store in Philadeliphia. She is doing fine with other old guys such as nutcracker soldiers. :) Now we need to keep our eye on our cats not to climb up the tree.

Philadelphia Trip

We went to Philadelphia to see Steven's family. It was only a 4 day trip but we packed a lot of winter cloths which we don't have chance to use here in the Bay Area. We went to Steven's old neighborhood to see the park he broke his leg at, schools he went, and houses where the girls Steven had a crush on lived in :) The stories I heard from him about his childfood were all hilarious. We enjoyed a HUGE Hoagie Steven's Dad got us. We also met Steven's brother's family and had a great time. When I woke up in a morning, I saw the backyard covered with SNOW! Yeah! Merry White Christmas !!



Backyard is all white!!

The wreath goes very well with their red door.







Philadelphia has old cute houses like the ones in fairly tales.