Tarte Tatin - I peeled 12 apples today

English follows.　Later.

今日は日本語から！という作戦で。これでバイリンガルを目指します。

思わず早起きしてしまったので散歩に出かけて、半分部屋着のままスタバでコーヒーとマフィンを頂き、編物をして朝を過ごしました。帰り道、広場で「信州物産展」なるものに遭遇。まあ小ちゃなファーマーズマーケットです。紅玉を一袋買いました。５００円で９個くらい入っていた！
お店のおじさんに「何に使うの？」と聞かれ思わず「もちろん食べるんです」と答えそうになったところ、別な種類の甘いリンゴと一緒にジャムにすると美味しいと教えてもらいました。家に帰って早速皮むき。紅玉の煮えた匂いって、コーヒーの次くらいに良い匂いだと思います。

紅玉が思ったより熟していたこともあって、残りの５個も使ってしまうことにしました。

今では買い食いを極めるわたくしからは想像もつかないかもしれませんが、大学くらいまではほぼ毎日のようにお菓子やパンを焼いていました。今考えれば、母もよくあれだけバターや小麦粉を買ってくれたものだと思う。バターだって高いのに。
当時、秋といえば「紅玉でアップルタルト」が作れる季節。で、久しぶりにタルトタタンを作ろうと思い立ったものの、もう作り方が分からない！ネットで探して１５年ぶりにタルトのクラストを作ってしまいました。

使ったのはこのレシピ。大好きなSmitten Kitchenを検索して見つけました。

クックパッドのレシピは冷凍パイ生地やホットケーキミックスを使ってお手軽に作るものばかりで、却下。（冷凍パイ生地は不味いです。）

リンゴを剥きすぎて手が疲れた。
ストウブの鍋を使い、鍋が深すぎたこともあって水分が蒸発せずリンゴがすぐに煮えてしまって、結果的にキャラメルっぽくならず。クラスト生地の上にリンゴのコンポートが載ったようなかたちになってしまいました。

でも！美味しい。。。。。。。

やっぱり砂糖はこれ以上入れられないので（今でも十分過ぎるくらい甘い。紅玉って砂糖入れなくても美味しいし）、焼き時間を次回は２７分ではなくて３５分くらいにしてみようかな。

美味しすぎる！ただ、バター２００gと砂糖１カップ、小麦粉１．５カップを総て一人きりで消費するのかと思うと、非常に哀しいものがあります。だから一人暮らしって嫌なんですよね。

今日は早起きに感謝！かな〜。う〜ん。

友達に「美味しそう、あれ、カボチャじゃないの？」とメールで言われたので、次はカボチャに挑戦しようかなと闘志を燃やしているところ。

Farmers' Market, Japanese Style...
売っているものはファーマーズマーケットなのに、見た目がここまで違う。。

I happened to have a very early start this morning, against my will, so I really treated myself well.

After spending a few hours knitting at Starbucks, I found a small farmers' market in the neighborhood, and bought a bag of cooking apples.  It's my favorite kind of apple, called "Red Ball"(sort of).  In fact, I don't like any other kinds.
So anyway, a man at the apple stand told me how to make apple jam without adding any sugar - just add another sweeter apple.  So I was compelled to try that myself.

On returning home, I peeled 7 apples (I could not fit any more apples in my cooking pot), started an oven, then my room was filled with an amazing aroma of cooking apples. Hmmmmm!
Three big jars were now full.

While chopping up the apples, I noticed that some of them were rather soft.  Instead of saving them for eating, I decided to make a tartlet.  There is a fairly easy but great recipe on Smitten Kitchen, linked here.

The process was fairly easy.  The only issue was that, because I used Staub deep pot, the apples were cooked too soon and it became more saucy.  After baking it for about 27 minutes, it was not yet caramelized as it was supposed to be.  Next time I will try 35 minutes.

Anyway, though it looks like some apple comport on top of a crust, rather than Tart Tatin, it taste soooo delicious!  My god.

But if you imagine the 9 ounces of butter, 1 & 1/2 cup of flour, a cup of sugar, all destined to go into my belly, it makes you a little scared.  I hate living by myself.

Nevertheless.  Today I am thankful that I couldn't sleep in, that I had a wonderful start of the day, and ended up with a delicious tarte.

The best part is looking into the oven and breathing in the gorgeous smell.

Therapy

Yesterday was another difficult day, although, I felt stronger myself and felt it easier to endure.  Perhaps thanks to this dog, Bailey!  He is a therapy dog, owned by the Tyler Foundation, for those children with cancer.  People from the Foundation visited our company for a charity event.  They said they traveled all the way from Hamamatsu driving, because in Japan, therapy dogs are not allowed on public transportation.
Bailey is a very very calm and sweet dog... he won't hurt anyone at all.

I could not sleep well and am up before 6 AM...

Also yesterday, a friend of mine sent me this photo.  It was such a coincidence that I met him for the first time, exactly 10 years ago yesterday.
Hope it is alright to show to everyone, especially to Retta!
I am more of a dog person, but still, the kitten is so so cute.

Thank you, all!

Recovery Notice

すごいモノグサ太郎なので、なかなか日本語で書けずに済みません。。。（翻訳が面倒くさい）。
毎日ブログを書くって大変。もう10月が過ぎたら止めようと思います。
昨日落ち込んでアジのたたきを食べた話を書きましたが、今日はもう大丈夫！It's a new challenge!

全然どうでも良い話なのですが、夢で会社のトイレがすご～く広くって、個室や洗面台以外にソファやテーブルもあって、窓があって明るくって、なんか女性だけで秘密の無駄話をして盛り上がっている、なんていうシーンを見ました。夢に見るほど、会社で休憩場所が欲しいっていう意味なのか、考え込んでいます。。

I just wanted to tell you that I am completely, fully, wholeheartedly recovered this morning.  Thank you, fish!  I will come up with a new idea and plan B.  Yes!

A Shrine

As it turns out, my mother's father (never met him) came from a family that runs a shrine as a (shinto) priest from 1200 years ago.   We had been talking about visiting the place forever, so I imagined some distant place up on a high mountain.  As it turned out, it was just a town right next to my mom's home town.

It's called Ogura Shrine in Kusu, Oita Prefecture.  It's still very well-kept, although the family now live someplace else, and only come here for occasions.

It seems that the ceiling of the main building was covered with paintings, but now it had faded.

This is a very very old oak tree that belongs to the shrine (but I forgot how old it is).

I always thought that my mom does not have any sibling.  It turned out several years ago that she has several half siblings (she never really told us about them).  This time, I learned that she also had about 35 cousins, mostly on her father's side.  35 is now beyond my imagination.

And it is my mother's family that was up on a mountain.  This is her birth home, and it has been like this as long as I remember (there is a house inside the wooden fence).  My sister and I used to run up these stone steps, but the steps were too wide for us.  

There used to be a peach tree beside the steps, and I always wanted to eat some.  But it turned out to be a neighbor's tree, I just didn't know until now.

Looking down, there is a huge ginkgo tree, and beyond, it's just mountains after mountains.  It took my mom 1 hour one way to walk to her elementary school, 2 hours to a middle school.

Bloom True

My third and the last Squam class was a painting class called Bloom True.  We did acquilyc painting on huge 30" x 30" canvases.  We had 2 canvases to finish in 3 hours, which, in my case, was completely impossible.

Flora showed us how to start - sprinkle different colors of paints and just spread thinly across the canvas.

In the end, we do many many layers of colors, so that the original layer sometimes will be completely covered up.  Below is one of her work... so truly pretty.

I didn't get to finish neither of my paintings, and I didn't really have time to take photos of them.  Hopefully, I will finish them someday...

Mix It Up!

Since it's been a month passed after the Squam is over, I decided to hastily post some photos from my classes.

On my first day, I took a mixed media class taught by our lovely teacher, Sarah.

After a brief introduction, we went outside and did some sketch.  I took this photo too.

My sketch pad on the right.

Then, we played a little game.  With a prompt, we passed around a bunch of cards with instructions such as "use a stamp", "draw something with your eyes closed", "cut something from a book and paste onto your board".  A new card comes every 2 minutes, and boy, that was hard!!!!  I never imagined 2 minutes was that short.

I also made my name tag during the class.

Below is my second piece.  I created a theme around the photo I found in Sarah's stack.  The couple looked so happy, that I wanted a happy picture all around them.

In reality, we didn't really have any time to think, so I just put whatever came to my mind...

And then this one, the motif is from my sketch I'd done at the beginning of the class.  It's still half done.

It was fun!  I think Mix Media will become one of my things.

Fish

I am thankful for a fish in a depth of the sea, which traveled all the way to a supermarket around the corner, so that I can eat for dinner and make up for my bad day.

Today was another bad day.  Not because of the meetings all day (even during lunch hour), but because, oh gosh, we are stuck again.  And I feel so down for so many other reasons, too.

So I needed some fish.  (And I am not a cat.  And do cats eat a lot of fish in the States?  Perhaps it's just in Japan.)

I feel down because my vacation is over,

because I wasted the best part of my 30s,

because I can't spend all my time reading the huge piles of books in my room,

and because there is nothing in my life that I am looking forward to right now.

But then, pain and hardships are sometimes good for us. 

Yesterday, I was watching Grey's Anatomy. There was an episode with a little girl who cannot feel any physical pain from a genetic disorder.  She keeps getting badly injured, and she could not even feel her stomach bleeding internally to the extent that she needed immediate surgery.  Someone said in the end, "We feel pain for a reason."

And I am also reading a book called "Giver".   It's supposed to be a Young Adult fiction, but the theme is so profound that I wonder whether a young kid really understands.

I am still in the middle of it, but the book seems to be about experiencing pains and developing wisdom.

So, in addition to the fish in the water (subsequently at the supermarket), I am also thankful for a life  that doesn't go so well, so that I can learn.

Post Script:

I wanted to add that, one of my ex-boyfriends used to smile everytime things wouldn't go well.  When I asked him why, he simply said "well, it's a new challenge."  I really loved that about him.

Soup

Today I am thankful for a soup restaurant chain in Japan.  I go eat there quite often when I am too tired to cook but still want something healthy.  They usually have several kinds of soup, plus you can choose bread or rice for a set.

Patience

Today I am thankful and glad about my patience and endurance (at least I have some).  I needed to wind some yarn for my test knitting project, and one of the skeins was all tangled up.  It took me 3 hours to untangle it.  I am all so exhausted.  And I was supposed to go to bed early today.
... I hate Amy (just for the day. Amy is the owner of the Madelinetosh yarn, an indie-becoming-mainstream yarn brand).

Sorry, thus, no picture.

I didn't post anything yesterday, although I did write a post.  It was just not of a public-viewing quality...

Kat (Knitting)

Pattern Name: Kat by Kim Hargreaves

Yarn: Zara Kid, Charcoal, 2.4 skeins

Needles: US 5 (3.75mm) & US 7 (4.5mm)

Details here

I had this hat on my queue for a while, so I am very happy to be able to finally finish it.  Instead of Rowan Kid Classic, I used Zara Kid.  Unlike Kid Classic, the yarn I used had more substance to it, very tightly spun, and the knitted fabric feels much heavier than the original.  So the hat is a little too big for my head.  But it's ok I guess.

I also took a photo of the bolero I finished a while ago.  (My hair color is new!)

Details here, if you are a knitter.

Mom's Cooking

Today I am thankful for my mother's cooking.

I went back home for a day and had dinner with my mom.

We had:

Soup with vegitable, mashroom, and minced fish ball.

Rice cooked with chestnut.

A small side dish with seaweed, raddish sprout, and tiny white fish called shirasu.

Sesami tofu with miso sauce.

Cooked fish with ginger, sweat and salty sause.

Gosh, the photo looks like an old cookbook photo from the 70s...

Friends and Family Weekend

Japanese follows. 日本語は下に

Today I am thankful for everyone around me.

I saw in many emails and on Facebook that this past weekend seemed to have been a "Friend and Family Weekend" in the States. I am not sure if that was ture, but that was exactly what my weekend had been.

On Friday, I met a very good friend of mine whom I haven't seen for about half a year. He is much older than myself, but one of the older friends who I see very regularly. We had both been busy and had gone through a lot individually, so I fell out of touch. It was a great catch-up dinner. (And the food was great, too.)

The restaurant he chose was very coincidendally housed in an old, classical-looking building, which I had been eyeing for my potential restaurant location (in case I should open a restaurant myself... which I don't have any plan so far... but just in case). The 2-story building had been so under-utilized that I was wondering why nobody would buy it and convert it into something fancy. Well, someone had the same idea, obviously. It's just.... now it's pink.

On Saturday afternoon, there was my high school reunion. I am not going to count the years after graduation. Who cares?

I was so reluctant to go, but my best friend literally dragged me to there. Thank you!

My reluctance was derived from two reasons, in afterthought:

(1) My college reunion was so not fun. People had changed so much, and I only saw very snobbish people flashing their gold, or very humble people who were about to fade into the background. I wasn't sure where I belonged.

(2) My self, my identity, my character was so unestablished back in high school. It's almost like, people who knew me back then knew me before I was born. Does that makes sense?

I did not know who I was back then, what I wanted to do, what I liked. The only thing hasn't change was I spoke English back then, I speak English now. People remember me by that, how funny.

(Oh, and there was the third reason... (3) I am not married.)

But I realized my mistake when I went there.

My high school friends, 150 people who came yesterday (out of 450), still feel like my buddies who I grew up with. We all became who we were, fighting, joking, studying, agonizing over ourselves, together.

Out high school was rather special that, due to the education system in Japan, we belonged to the top several percentile in terms of the achievement level, which means we all came from the similar family background. But it's a public school in the suburb so that there was no son and daughter of super-riches. We were all so naive in a good sense, and we all had to study hard to get on with our lives (no family advantage).

My first year classmates used to be especially close. And it still feels to me that they are my brothers and sisters.

... Anyway, after I recuited several single/DINKS girls as my dinner-mates, I went to visit my sister's family.

My baby niece had grown so much since the last time I saw her!

As you can see, it was truly a Friends and Family Weekend for me.

日本語で書くのが面倒になっちゃったのですが。

この週末はわたしの周りの人たち総てに感謝する週末でした。

何故か先週から「Friends and Family Weekend Special」という広告メールを色々な会社から受け取り、アメリカではどうもそんな週末があるらしい、と薄々感じていたところでしたが、今振り返ってみると、まさに私の週末にピッタリのタイトルでした。

金曜日は古い友人とディナー、土曜日は高校の同窓会、そのあと妹の家に泊まりに行って、お喋りいっぱいの週末を過ごしました。

高校の同窓会は本当に面倒だな〜と乗り気ではなかったのですが、親友に無理矢理連れられ、陰のように寄り添って辿り着いたところ、実際はとても楽しかった！大学の同窓会があまりにも詰まらなかったのと、高校当時の記憶が余りなくて実感がなかったのもあったのですが、行ってみたら記憶が蘇ってきました。ああ、一緒に大人になった仲間なんだな〜、と妙に感動してしまいました。

妹の家では妹夫婦とお喋りし、赤ちゃんと遊び、犬と戯れ睡眠を妨害され、でも犬も可愛く、とても楽しかったです。

どうみても日本語が少なくて済みません。。。英語が出来る方はぜひ、詳細は英語の方で。

Aroma

Speaking of aroma, in the time when "aroma-therapy" and various types of herbal essence is so popular, the smell of coffee relaxes me the most.

Today I am thankful that our office is full of wonderful aroma of coffee.

After our team moved down to an executive floor (I'm not an executive, just working for one), there was a coffee machine installed, which is such a privilege in our company.  The company doesn't even provide a water fountain, except for this floor.  So, before, I was reluctant to be working on the floor full of C*Os and their secretaries, but now I am totally happy.

Japanese

Japanese follows. 日本語は下に。

Whenever I have Japanese meals, I am grateful for being a Japanese.

Last Monday, I decided to have quick-fix Japanese food for dinner everyday.  The same menu every day, the menu a normal Japanese person would eat for breakfast.  But I don't have time to fix food in the morning and just have a toast.

The menu is:
White rice + miso soup (instant, but you can't tell the difference anyway) + natto with a bunch of things (the 2nd photo is only a part of them).

Natto is fermented soybeans, a very popular food in Japan.  It's a love-it or hate-it food, often an acquired taste, because of its smell.  I used to dislike it when I was very little.  But it's an ultimate health food.

The other day I watched on news that natto can keep your skin and organs healthy and helps you live longer (they did an experiment on mouse), but you have to eat a pack a day for at least 2 months to see the difference.
So I am thinking, perhaps I should try that too.  So far, I am not at all tired of the same menu.

BTW, my brain-racking work yesterday paid off by my boss's "that's what I was talking about!" Yes, sort of... But I felt totally rewarded so I am very happy today.

和食を食べるときが「日本人で良かった」と思う瞬間。（唯一？）

この間テレビで納豆が身体に良いというのを改めてやっていて、最近体調が安定して好きなものが食べられるようになってきたので、納豆を食べ始めました。朝は時間がないから、夜。納豆に野菜を沢山と卵、すりごま、鰹節、小女子などを入れて、あとはご飯とみそ汁（これはインスタント。。）。あと、大好きなのは胡麻豆腐。
納豆は身体には良いそうですが消化には悪いので、体調を見ながら続けようと思います。毎日でも全然飽きない！

テレビに出ていた大学の先生が「最低２ヶ月くらい食べないと効果が出ない」と言っていたので、ハードルが高いですが、まあ無理せずに気の赴くままやってみよう。

なんで気にするかと言えば、ここ３〜４年体調が悪かったせいで髪の毛などがとても傷んだからです。入院して３ヶ月絶食したときには、その間生えた部分の髪の色が全く抜けてしまっていたので、髪の毛ってスゴく健康状態が出るものだと実感しました。

頑張ろう。

昨日残業して作った提案が上手くいって上司が満足げだったので、今日はわたしも満足げに早々にオフィスを後にしました。たまには頭を振り絞るのもいいものだ。

Commuting

I worked 12 hours today, and I didn't spend time on reading blogs.  So I am truly sincerely thankful that the public transportation in my town is so great.  My trains came in no time and took me home straight away.

My colleagues vacationed in different places, and they all came back with their "subway" experiences.  I am sorry for French people, but the metro in Paris was voted as #1 for "the worst subway experience ever."  (Although I do love to look at it in movies, such as "Paris, je t'aime", the metro episode is my favorite.)

A while ago, there was a documentary on TV, featuring those people in Tokyo Metro companies who maintain subway time-tables/diagrams.  There are professional people who passionately improve the diagrams so that the trains won't be 30 seconds late (or 10 seconds).
We hear announcements on trains like, "we are sorry that this train is a minute late." Which is funny sometimes.
Some people may say that's a waste of time, but I wouldn't mind paying extra for the trains to be always on time.  Subway stations are often air-conditioned, and still the fare is probably cheaper than NYC or London (depending on the exchange rate, but generally).


(((In case you are wondering, the photo is of a subway station.  Some stations have walls/doors between the platforms and the trains, so that people won't fall...)))

Give me a break

Honestly, I am not in a thankful mode today.  A normal person would reward oneself with a booze or a piece of tartlet, or even a good long bath, but I am doing neither to go to bed early (need to get up early tomorrow).

Today I am disappointed by lack of direction and will from my superiors.  I am disappointed that some indispensable colleagues left our company (some time ago, I only found out today).  Just realized today that, I am caught up in a situation where several issues have to be solved all at once in order to make sense.  It's impossible, of course.  Which means, perhaps, our approach has been wrong all along.
Moreover, I am disappointed in myself, for, while I still believe our goal is rightly set, I didn't spend much time arguing about the approach.

So I am thankful that today is almost over, and tomorrow is a whole new day, and I still have got a few new ideas to try.

If you can visualize it in your brain, that means it's achievable.  I can visualize the end-game.  Why do we get stuck so often?

I wish my sister's dogs are with me tonight.

Igo Festival

I am thankful that, on a gorgeous day like today, I had a reason to stay outside all day, enjoying nice breeze and fun big crowd.

As announced a few days ago (in Japanese), a group of young Igo (Go) players in Tokyo, called Igo Amigo, hosted an annual festival at the Roppongi Hills arena.  The group was started by a professional Igo players and amateur Igo freaks several years ago, in the purpose of enlightening young generation with the world of Igo.

Today, I participated as a volunteer.

A professional Igo player teaching a quick introductory workshop

Approx. 4,000 people came to play / watch

Igo is a board game invented in China 4K years ago, but became more popular in Japan afterwards.  Many history figures are known to have played Igo.  It uses black and white marbles, pretty "zen-ish", and has a traditional japanese feeling to it.  The game is much more complex that, unlike Chess, even the strongest computer program still cannot beat experienced non-professional players.

Anyway.

I am also grateful for my colleagues who introduced me to the group, and who teaches me Igo every week.
Thank you so very much.