Apple Sauce Muffins

I baked some apple sauce muffins today. I followed a basic Japanese muffin recipe and added apple sauce just before baking them in the oven.

New Kit Kat

This season's new flavor is cherry blossom and macha. Japanese favorite flower, the cherry blossom, is beautiful and the leaves are tasty. You can find cherry blossom sweets and tea in spring.

Mexican American Tacos & Japanese Tacos

I made tacos for lunch today. First, I deep fried some corn tortillas and folded them. I added some ground beef that I had cooked with some seasonings. I then added some onions, tomatoes, lettuce, and some cheese. It was delicious.
On the same day, I made taco rice, which comes from Okinawa (an island in south of Japan). The ingredients are the same as American tacos but they all on the cooked rice. I think it is difficult to imagine the taste but Andrew and I love the Taco rice very much.

Iceland Poppies

There are many Iceland poppies on our property. They have a short life but many orange flowers bloom every morning. I gathered some flowers and put them in a vase.
Everyday I can pick some fresh flowers. These ones below are from the next day.

Bamboo Shoots and Rice

I bought some bamboo shoots today. I cooked them with rice, some soup stock, sake and soy sauce. The rice had a light taste so I could enjoy the bamboo shoots taste more.

Sprouting Flowers

Today, I found tiny shoots coming out from some flower pots. It is about two weeks after I sowed the seeds. I move the pots to the sunny side of our house on several occasions everyday.

Strawberry Vinegar Syrup

We tried some peach vinegar drink at a store last week and we like it very much. It seemed easy to make fruit vinegar drink. I tried to make it with strawberry. I mixed strawberries, rock sugar and rice vinegar in a glass bottle.

I could see the rock sugar starting to melt right after I mixed everything together but it was slow.
This picture below is one day after. I only rolled the bottle three times a day and waited for a week.
After one week, the rock sugar had completed melted. The colour of the strawberries had faded.
I bottled the vinegar. It was a beautiful red colour.I mixed the vinegar with some water. The drink had a refreshing sour taste.
I bottled the strawberries too. I might use them for cooking.
The next day, I had the strawberries with yogurt.

Blueberry Bagels 2

Today, I tried to bake some blueberry bagels again. I mixed the blueberries into the dough before kneading it this time. The blueberries were squished and so the dough became purple.
I waited for the dough to become two times bigger during rising.
After I boiled the dough, I baked them. They looked a funny colour.
There wasn't much blueberry taste when I tried one so I think it is not a good way to make blueberry bagels.

Blueberry Bagels

I baked blueberry bagels today. I added blueberries when I made the shape of bagel dough but it was difficult to roll the dough because the blueberries were moist so I couldn't put lots of blueberries inside the bagels.
The bagels tasted OK but I want to try making them another way next time.

Cinnabon Cinnamon Rolls 2

I tried to bake cinnamon rolls again a day after my first attempt. They turned out better than last time.
After the second rising, they still looked OK.
I was excited because the rolls looked perfect to me. I couldn't wait to taste them.
They looked good but the taste was bland since I used less butter, sugar and cinnamon in the rolls because I didn't want the same thing to happen as last time. I sparkled cinnamon powder on top and put icing on the rolls to improve the taste.

Cinnabon Cinnamon Rolls

I wanted to eat cinnamon rolls like Cinnabon makes so I baked some today. It wasn't very good because some of the butter, sugar and cinnamon fell to bottom of the buns.
My cinnamon rolls were a far cry from Cinnabon's but they still tasted good.

Chub Mackerel Fish

I sauteed some chub mackerel fish in butter and balsamic sauce for lunch today. On the side, I had some butter-sauteed Brussel sprouts, cheese macaroni and rice. Andrew told me that fat from fish was good for our health. I should eat more fish.

Apple and Cabbage Salad

I made apple and cabbage salad today, which is the same as Hye-kyoung made when I stayed at her house in Korea. I used cabbage, onion, raisins, walnuts and apples. I like that Hye-kyoung's delicious salad had pears in it but I couldn't get any because it is out-of-season. The apple was good too though.

Roast Chicken

I bought a chicken for making a roast today. I soaked the chicken and some herbs in salted water for one day and then put stuffing in the chicken and roasted it on some vegetables.
A 2-kg chicken is a good size for us. It usually takes a couple of days to finish it and we enjoy eating the leftovers.
I had the chicken with stuffing, baked vegetables, mashed potato, gravy sauce, cranberry sauce and a bun.

Walnut Buns

I baked some walnut buns today. I like the combination of whole-grain and walnuts.
This picture below is of the dough after the second raising. I like that risen dough is so soft and smells nice when I bake bread.
Just before I baked the dough, I sparkled some flour on top and made equally spaced cuts in them.

Hot Dogs

I got some local sausages today. I like the fresh high-quality ingredients that are used and that there are no preservatives or additives.
I decided to make hot dogs for lunch! When I made the buns, I sandwiched the dough between parts of the cloth as to make shape of hot dog buns.
I thought the buns were much bigger than the small sausages but I couldn't fix them at this time.
They sure looked nice!
I put the sausage with some relish and ketchup in the bun. Andrew and I were hungry so we were too busy eating to talk to each other.

Collecting Bamboo

I want to hand-make a duster. I went out looking for some bamboo sticks that are light but strong.
I met one of my neighbors on the way to bamboo forest and he helped me to cut down these young bamboo trees.
The lake water was clear and I could see many small oysters at the bottom.
I also saw a ladybug before I went to home.

Ginger Preserve

I made some ginger preserve recently. I ground 300g of ginger in the food processor.
I then cooked the ginger with 200g of honey in a pot.
I enjoyed eating the preserve on toast, having it in tea or cooking with it. My favorite way to use it is for ginger pork saute.

Chilli Beans

Today's lunch was chili beans. It was windy so we used a heater. The chili beans also warmed us up.

Roast Pork

I recently made some roast pork but in a different way than last time. I put salt and pepper on the pork meat and wrapped it with some kitchen paper and some newspaper.
I put the pork in the refrigerator and waited 24 hours for some of the water to leave.
I tied up the pork with some nets that I got at the store. The nets were very useful. I then baked them at a low temperature in the oven.
After the pork had cooked down, I wrapped them well and put them in the refrigerator for 24 hours. They were delicious with Branston pickle.