A Happy New Year!

A Happy New Year to everyone!!!!

I hope everyone had a nice and peaceful holiday.

For us, my very close cousin "Mon-chan" who is like a sister to me and her husband visited us from Japan for a week during the new years holiday, so we spent a Japanese style new years eve and a new years day. This was very special for me because the New Years eve and day are important family holidays just like Christmas is in the USA. Aibo-kun and I used to visit Japan around this time of the year, but since I went back in spring, we've decided to stay in LA this time.

Since the New Years Eve was a pretty cold day, we decided to stay home, cook warm dinner, and watch this Japanese music show called "Kouhaku Utagassen" which most Japanese people watch on TV right before the new year's countdown.

LA has such a large population of Japanese people that we can watch this show on a local channel! My friends in Michigan wish if they could have it, too. It is a pretty big deal.

Another tradition is to eat "Soba" noodle (buckwheat noodle) before the countdown, so during the show, Mon-chan and I cooked some and tried to finish eating before the "Happy New Year!!!"

We woke up late on the New Years Day, and I prepared a simple small New Years dish setting using the plant in our yard. I used to cook the whole new years dish when I lived in Japan and would love to make them here, too, but we were just too busy this year. Maybe next year.


Then the main course was a soup bowl with mochi (rice cake). Mon-chan and I made the soup from the leftover crab from the night before, and it made a really good broth! Right before putting the mochi into the soup, we cooked the mochi just until they puffed up.









Surprisingly, we were still not full, so cooked some more mochi and this time, ate with a drop of soy sauce and nori.

The mochi I bought this year was organic brown rice mochi from an organic Japanese supermarket, and this was a big hit!

Then came the dessert time♪

Mon-chan brought this cute Japanese sweets just like fortune cookies made for the new years, so four of us broke a few pieaces each.

Mine were "Procrastination is the thief of time.", and "Better now than later", so I guess I should be more active this year!

It was a very peaceful new years with lots of laughter, and hope that this happiness will continue throughout the year 2009, not only for me, but for everyone!

Friend's great Christmas Party

My very good friend Nadia held a great Christmas Party at her home over the weekend, and she wanted me to bring the rectangle cheesecake after she saw one in this blog, so I've decided to decorate it with the marshmalllow snowman.

I also baked my recent favorate, a chocolate pecan pie. Both of them are my favorites.

The holiday season traffic was pretty heavy, but we finally got there and as I walked into the house, the main table was filled with great looking tasty food!

The first ones came into my sight were beautiful main dishes, ham and salmon.

Then follows other good looking side dishes such as salads, special rice, and bite size quiches.

Chicken and sauces were great, and the whole table just looked so beautiful!

I was so proud of Nadia.

Another thing I really liked with this party was that the idea of the cool drink bar. So many different drinks with cute ice container with fresh cranberries.

Each glass had a real leaf with a ribbon so the guests could write their name with a sharpie to identify each other's glasses.

I would love to use this idea if I have my own party in the future! :)

There were about forty people at the party and everyone was having great time with great food and decoration. Kids were having fun, too.

For myself, I was really glad to see people enjoying my cakes because making people smile with my sweets make me happy!

Celebrating holidays with great friends is always enjoyable and precious. Cheers to a great party!

Happy holidays to everyone, and have a great rest of the year 2008!!!

Stories of Persimmons

A bag full of freshly picked persimmons arrived from my friend's co-worker's percimmon tree.
For some reason, I had an image that percimmon is a Japanese fruit, but it actually originates in China. Nowadays, persimmons are very popular in Korea as well, so you can find large, tasty percimmons at most Asian supermarkets.

There are two kinds of percimmons, sweet ones and bitter ones. It has something to do with the tannin, but not sure about the detail. The bitter ones are too bitter to eat as is, but my grandmother used to air them outside under the roof, and after a while, the percimmons dry out covered with white powders, and that is the sign that the bitter percimmons have turned into sweet dried fruits.

Of course, the ones I received this time were the sweet ones with less seeds, so all I had to do was to peel and eat!

There used to be a small park with percimmon tree next to my parents' house in Japan, and every fall, my brother and I used to pick them. The funny thing was, every year, the percimmons took turns in taste, sweet and bitter. For example, if they were sweet this year, they would be bitter next year. I'm not sure if that's an usual thing for percimmon trees to do, but we were surely disappointed in bitter years.

The sad thing is, the park is now gone, and a large apartment building is standing after where the percimmon tree was. Memory...

Here is the picture of percimmon tart I made earlier this year. Fresh ripened percimmon flesh over creme parissier filled tart shell. Maybe I should make one before Aibo-kun and I finish eating up all the percimmons!

Chestnut Rice ~ Kuri Gohan ~

As I planned the other day, I got more chestnuts, and instead of making more "shibukawani", I've decided to cook chestnut rice this time.

After returning home, I boiled the chestnuts for a few minuts, and let it soke until the water was cool enough to put your fingers in. This process will let the outer skin soften and makes it easier to peel.

When I just started peeling them, Aibo-kun got home earlier than expected with hungry stomach, but I really felt like eating the chestnut rice, and in order to prep dinner, had to finish peeling them.

Finally the peeling was done, and time to cook the rice! Washed the rice, added sake, soy sauce, and salt to add flavor, and cooked the same way as I usually cook my rice, in my favorite "Le Creuset" pot.

While waiting for the rice to cook, I prepped other side dishes like vegetables and soup.

Good quality "Tarako" (salted cod roe) was in my fridge, so I added some to our dish as well.

Then finally!!! Our dinner time has arrived.

Introducing a traditional Japanese dish, "Kuri Gohan" (chestnut rice).

Chestnuts kind of taste like Japanese yellow sweet potato (not yam), but has its own crunchiness remaining in this dish. It turned out so well, and Aibo-kun was so pleased, I should make it again before the chestnuts disappear from the store.

Pumpkin Tart & Tofu Brownie

Here is another fall item. Pumpkins!!!

I saw sugar pumpkins lining at the farmer's market. They were really cute.

It was before Halloween, and I thought I should make something with these pumpkins.

So in a pastry class, I taught Pumpkin Tart and Tofu Brawnie. Usually punpkins are made into pies, but for this particular filling, I prefered using tart shells rather than pie dough.

Using a few kinds of spice such as cinammon, clove, and freshly ground nutmeg, the tart turned out very aromatic. To add some extra flavor, home made orange marmalade I made earlier this year was added and it matched very well with the other ingredients.

With the left over tart dough, we made them into different fallish shapes using cookie cutters so we could decorade our tasting dishes.

With Tofu Brownie, instead of using cane sugar, I used natural liquid sweetner such as maple syrup and agave nector. There is no butter used in the recipe, so it is healthy and less guiltiness!

This tart is not only for Halloween, but can be served at a Thanksgiving dinner or Christmas dinner as well. Very tasty, fallish sweet for the holiday season. Yummm...

Panna Cotta with Apple and Pomegranite

Aibo-kun (my husband) brought back a nice colored pomegranite from work which one of his co-workers gave him.

I remember when I was a child back in Japan, our neighbor had a pomegranite tree and when fall arrived, they gave some to us. Even though it is not an easy fruit to eat, or really tasty one for a child, I was still excited with the bright red color they have, and the seeds looked like red jewerly to me in those days!

There are different ways to deseed pomegranite, but I think the cleanest way is to break or cut one in quarters, soak them in a bowl filled with water for a little while. Then get the seeds out, and they should come out easily.

You can juice them and make some syrup or jelly, but this time, since I only have one, decided to simply enjoy it as is. Fresh!

I loved the flavor, the aroma, the tartness, and the look.

The next day, I made some vanilla panna cotta topped with caramelized apple. Then I noticed the dessert was missing something... Color!

I opened my fridge, and there they are, the left over pomegranite seeds from the previous day. Perfect natural decorative color.

So, here it is, the vanilla panna cotta with caramelized apple topping with a finishing touch of pomegranite seeds. Yummmm♪

Shibukawa-ni ~ Cooked Chestnut Sweet ~

It's already November, but since the leaves are not colorful nor temperature is dropping enough to wear winter coats in LA, I don't feel like winter is coming up.

However, foodwise, the fruits and vegetables we see at the farmer's market are different from the kinds in summer, so I've decided to make something fallish today.

I bought large good quality chestnuts, peeled the hard shell, boiled them with baking soda for a couples of times, then boiled the batch the third time, and finally cooked them in a syrup made with two kinds of sugar, and rum to add extra flavor.

The most time consuming and difficult part of making this is cleaning the excess fiber and skin without breaking the inner skin of the chestnut. You need patience, but it does take your mind away from everything else, so it is like meditating in a way.

This chestnut sweet is called "Shibukawa-ni" in Japanese. You can eat it by itself, or make chestnut puree out of it, or bake different kinds of cakes using it.

Just thinking of different ways of using "Shibukawa-ni", I may run to the store tomorrow and buy some more chestnuts, so I can try out making different sweets and upload in this blog!