One of the simplest of sandwiches that I enjoy is a fresh cucumber sandwich on Japanese shokupan (morning toast). It’s reminiscent of a tea sandwich, yet lacks the daintiness that is typically associated with a tea sammy. After all, if you’re only going to eat cucumbers, your sandwich is going to need to be a tad bit on the “hefty” side. Over the summer I was the happy recipient of fresh organic Japanese kyuri or...

Given that I haven’t been cooking anything new to post lately, I thought I would start sharing some of the crafts that we do at home. One of Bebe’s favorite indoor activities to do at home is, you guessed it, crafts. Playing make-believe probably comes second, followed by homemade activity boxes which I will explain further in another post. Last month, we had her cousins over for a swim, but I planned a non-water craft that I left...

There’s really no great English translation for “hiyashi chyuka” that would embody the true deliciousness of one of my favorite summer-time Japanese dishes. The dish is essentially cold aldente ramen noodles served on a plate and garnished with fresh vegetables and proteins. It might be difficult not to conjure up an image in one’s head of instant ramen noodles served cold on a plate. The noodles are not similar to that...

It’s no secret that I’ve been having a difficult time creating regular posts for my blog. I’d like to blame my absence on a recent heat wave in our neck of the woods which completely turned me off from cooking and going anywhere near the stove. Unfortunately, I can’t get away with eating out every night for two weeks straight so I’ve resorted to what I refer to as lazy cooking. I mainly rely on cooking somen...

Yesterday was the first day in a very long time where Bebe and I didn’t have plans and we quietly enjoyed our solitude at home. After a very busy weekend and another broken household item, the slower pace was welcoming. Unfortunately, I’ve been on a bad luck streak and I’ve broken several things over the last week, including today. Has this ever happened to you? I first broke our vacuum cleaner. Usually hubs is the one who...

Have you ever gone grocery shopping and lost a bag of groceries? If not, welcome to my world! I can laugh about it now, but there was a moment of confusion (sadly this confusion struck three hours after I returned from the market and not as I was putting groceries away) when I couldn’t find the cantaloupe that Bebe picked out for us. I thought that it might have rolled out of the bag in the trunk of our car… but alas that...

As promised in my last post, this is the second of two desserts from Bebe’s little pool party with her cousins. Along with the “fish-outta-water” jello cups, Bebe and Nene had fun making these little “clams” with pearl cookies. I saw a number of different cookies used to create the “clam shells” but I chose Nilla Waffers since they’re a favorite of Bebe’s. The “pearls” are yogurt...

During my brief absence from my blog, I’ve become a Pinterest-addict and it has resulted in much time spent either on my iPhone Pinterest app or glued to my laptop as I scan dozens (hundreds?) of “pinned” ideas. It turns out that what I call, Fish-Outta-Water Jello treats, can be found widespread across the internet, and I can easily see why they’re popular: 1. Jello is super easy and inexpensive to make. 2. Moms (at...