See you next year

We will be going to Osaka tomorrow morning for the New year holidays.

See you again in Year 2009!

Hot pot

We have hotpot every week during winter. Usually I will make my own broth using kelp or chicken bones. When we crave for something spicy or flavourful, I will use ready made hot pot soup available in the supermarkets only in winter.

This is our best find this year. Mutton shabu shabu soup base which comes with spices like cumin, nutmeg, wolfberry and red dates. Totally addictive and warms us up instantly!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

A simple Christmas dinner

Christmas is not a public holiday in Japan. It doesn`t feel like `magical` Christmas at all when your husband still leaves home for work in the morning as usual. Well, anyway we sort of celebrated Christmas on the 23rd which happened to be a public holiday.

I buried myself in the kitchen since noon in order to feed my family with an early Christmas dinner. Cooked and cooked for hours.


Shun had christmas pasta and creamy mushroom soup.


We had seafood pilaf and


Stewed lamb shank

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year !

Horsey

Shun visits his favourite animal at the Riding Centre.

Japan Hour

My cousin and his wife were in Japan for a 2 weeks vacation last month. They visited us in Matsumoto and requested for a traditional hot spring inn (ryokan) experience, like what they have always seen in Japan Hour - a popular weekly hourly show featuring on Japanese culture and mouth watering cuisine.

There are numerous natural hot spring ryokans in Nagano prefecture. We are basically living in a hot spring area..Its everywhere..the nearest one being about 10 mins drive. After deciding on their budget, I searched around and found this nice and cosy inn about an hour drive from our home.



After immersing ourselves in the ryokan ambience, we went to the hot spring. In the evening, the inn filled the outdoor bath with Nagano apples. Sake was also provided free so we drank in the minerals rich bath while enjoying the snow flakes. Totally rejuvenated. Nothing can beat a good soak in a hot spring after a tired day.


The highlight of our trip is of course dinner. Cousin made a funny face when the raw horse meat was served (a local delicacy). Horse meat may sound disturbing but it is actually quite tender and succulent. We didn`t let Shun know that his favourite horsey in on our dinner table though..haha

I must mention the sukiyaki dish because it left a strong impression. We were served cotton candy filled in a wok and as we poured sake over it, the cotton candy melted and became the soup base! Amazing idea.


After dinner, we took a stroll in the hotel. Very lucky to see snow that night. It usually starts snowing in December but we had our first snow in mid November. Hope its not going to be a harsh winter this year.

Overall, we were very satisfied with this ryokan. The price was reasonable and the food was good. I hope my cousin and his wife have enjoyed their Japan Hour @ Matsumoto. So, who`s coming next?

Oatmeal Cookies

My son must have hated his oatmeal breakfasts.

I hated it too when my mum cooked it for us when we were young. Oatmeal breakfasts just sucks! Its a torture to start our day with a bowl of yucky oats.

But then, it is an easy, quick and healthy breakfast idea for a lazy mum like me. I have been feeding Shun oatmeal for breakfasts since he was 10 months to 12 months until he decided that he had enough of it. Maybe he hated it so much and came up with a revenge plan. He took out the box of oats from my cupboard while I was not looking and spilled it all over the kitchen floor. He even happily bided farewell to the oats when I cleaned up.

I used the spilled oats to bake oatmeal and raisin cookies tonight. The cookies were a hit. Boy munched on 1 with a satisfactory grin and mum decided that he is going to eat that tomorrow morning with his milk.

By the way I do love crispy oat prawns. Its hard to imagine that its actually the same yucky oats that I hate so much.

Balcony scare

I was locked out on the balcony this morning by Shun while hanging out the laundry.

Totally freaked out for a few seconds wondering what to do next. It was a cold morning and I was in my sweater only. Damn it.

I can always call my husband home with my cell phone, but it was on the table inside my apartment. To make matters worse my apartment is on the second floor so I started looking around trying to figure out how I can get out of this predicament. Maybe I could climb over to my window?? Maybe I should shout for my neighbour?? Or should I try jumping down?

Anyway nothing on my mind seems feasible so I continued to wave and knock on the door frantically. Shun innocently knocked back thinking that it was a game. -Sweat-

Then I started pointing at the door lock and signaled him to open it..He managed to catch my cue and opened the lock! Phew..what a relieve..my little episode ended within 10 mins.. I must make sure that it doesn`t happen again.