Happy Mother’s Day! As it turns out, we are spending our Mother’s Day weekend at home, but I have no complaints about this. My little one is still recovering from her cold, and as feared, I came down with a sore throat yesterday. I should have known I was coming down with a cold when I slept through both Round One Lakers games #5 and #6 this past week. I barely watched last night’s game #7, but thank goodness I stayed awake...
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On Saturday, May 5th we celebrated Japanese Children’s Day | Boy’s Day. Our family got together for a grand potluck to celebrate with, none other than, food. When we pulled into the driveway of my parent’s home, we saw that my Dad raised my brother’s koi nobori on a traditional bamboo stick and the colorful carp were flying in the wind. Koi nobori are wind streamers in the shape of carp that are traditionally displayed...
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I considered a non-food related, no-recipe blog post about our pre-Easter weekend extravaganza. However, after a little thought I changed my mind and decided on a post about “perfect” boiled eggs, how to color them with simple food coloring, as well as to share a few crafty ideas for decorating eggs. Before we get to the cooking and decorating of eggs, I’ll share what I really wanted to write about, which is our...
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One of my favorite restaurants on the Westside of Los Angeles is the Urth Caffe. They serve a delicious chicken curry salad sandwich that I absolutely love. It’s fresh, flavorful, light and hearty, all in one delicious bite. I should also mention they have the BEST organic tea lattes EVER. Matcha tea latte and English Breakfast tea latte are my favorites! Because of geographical challenges, I don’t always have the opportunity to...
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The week leading up to March 3rd, or Hinamatsuri (Japanese Girl’s Day), I was busy running errands to different Asian supermarkets. Bebe E was excited about her Hinamatsuri party and when I mentioned that I needed to cook or that I needed to run an errand, she started asking, “for my hina-ma-sri party?” :) Photo Credit: Hideki Ueha Many thanks to my bro-in-law for taking some amazing photos at our Hinamatsuri party! He has...
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As I was preparing to make chirashi for our Hinamatsuri (Japanese Girl’s Day is March 3rd) party over the weekend, I remembered that I liked the amazu renkon, or sweet pickled lotus root, as a topping for chirashi, but I couldn’t find it in my recipe index. Of course, it was logically embedded in last year’s 2011 Hinamatsuri chirashi post, but I decided amazu renkon needed a recipe post all on it’s own, and I...
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This year, Valentine’s Day was quite fun as Bebe E and I enjoyed a number of arts and crafts together. We decorated the house with little paper hearts. Then she made mommy a Valentine’s Day card. Yes, I helped by tying two pieces of red card stock together with ribbon, making little cut-outs and buying some supplies at Michael’s half-off (yay!). I also helped to stamp the balloon images so that the ink would show up, but the...
Read MoreChinese New Year arrived quite early this year on Monday, January 23, 2012. I wasn’t prepared for it as I was still recovering from Oshogatsu (Japanese New Year’s) and dealing with life’s curve-balls. I debated whether I would cook this year or not; whether I would write a 2012 Chinese New Year’s post. Last year, I was highly motivated and made two dishes: Chinese – style egg rolls and Jai (or Buddha’s...
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