Baumkuchen with pudding

Yesterday was the last day of work at Yamato delivery Company.

One of the drivers gave me this cake as farewell.

Sooo yummyyyy!

Pudding is inside of the Baumkuchen.

Such a clever invention :p

Merry Christmas!

My sister built a christmas house with sweets !!

Friend's wedding in Chiba

Very nice view!!

My friend's wedding was held on the roof top with ocean view Y

It was sooo beautiful.

This is the Bento box i had for dinner on a way to chiba.

I bought this at Tokyo station.

A lot of veggies and healthy tasty bento.

This is where I stayed a night before the wedding.

My friend booked a nice ryokan (hotel) for me.

And this is what I eat at the Hotel breakfast...

It was a buffet... and I took so much.. :p

As always... I'm so greedy when it comes to food.

I had too much breakfast. therefore I couldn't eat anything at the wedding lunch... (sob)

But my friend was so beautiful.

It was a very nice wedding.

I gave a speech at the wedding lunch.

She was crying.

I was touched.

Back in Japan

I finally finished my final assignments and came back to Japan!!! :) yay!!!
I'm really happy to see my family and friends again!!!!X)
I won't be cooking much in Japan because I can finally eat my mom's cooking again!!! :p

I baked a birthday cake for my brother though!

Have a lovely christmas and a happy new year to everyone!

xoxoxo

Tomo

pork miso udon

I love it when the egg is half cooked...

Udon serves 3


Ingredietns

*Udon 1& half bunchs

*water 6-8 cups

*Japanese soup stock 1/2 package
*miso 1 table spoon

*mushroom 2

*minced pork 150g

*mirin 1 table spoon

*soya sauce 1 tea spoon


Instructions


1. cut the mushrooms into thin slices.
2. heat up a pot with some sesame oil, cook the pork and the mushrooms. add mirin and soya sauce, stir well.

3. pour the water and the soup stock in the same pot. cook with strong fire, once boiled, add miso and take out scums.

4. put udon in the same pot. take out scums, once udon is cooked, it's done!

Halloween☆cream puff

Pumplin cream puff!




not only the shape but the cream is made of pumpkin Y

I used a folk and melted chocolate to draw faces.

happy halloween!

pork & veggies in sweet chilli sauce

Last night's dinner Y

*fried rice (made by tina)

*pork and veggies in sweet chilli sauce

*niku jyaga (everyone loves niku jyaga!)

*seaweed and pickled plum soup


Pork & veggies in sweet chilli sauce recipe

Ingredients

*thin sliced pork 150g
*onion 1
*egg plant (big one) 1/2
*garlic 2 tea spoons
*water 1 cup
*chicken soup 1 tea spoons
*soya sauce 3 table spoons
*mirin 3 table spoons
*sugar 2 tea spoons
*chinese chill (to-ban jan) 2 tea spoons


Instructions


1. cut the onion and eggplants into thin slices.

2. heat up a pan with some oil and garlic. cook the meat and veggies. once cooked (cook till egg plants become soft), add all the ingredients, place a lid and cook for 5-10 mins.

*****
My mom always cook this dish back home in Japan and my sister and I LOVE it so much YY


and Today, my housemates loved it too YY


This is originally just a pork dish.

But I changed a bit of ingredients and added veggies!

The sauce is sooooo good that you can eat a lot of veggies! :)

Therefore, HEALTHY!



Assignment was due lastnight!

I finished it 8mins before midnight (dead line)!!!!!

I was soooo happy Y

Today, I went out for lunch with my housemates and had a huge huge hamburger from datch pancake shop :)


We are all so full that we didn't have dinner tonight.

shaved radish cream pasta

OMG, This is soooooooo YUM!!!!!!!!


Today's lunch YYY




*Shaved radish (daikon) cream pasta
*roasted pumpkin

Cream pasta recipe
shave 1/4 Japanese radish, drop a bit of soya sauce in, put it on the top of the pasta and eat it YYY



I love cream pasta, but whenever I eat it, I feel the pata sauce is a bit oily.
But this radish cream pasta is soooo refreshing!

honey carrots recipe

I had a semester end party with my music club people tonight.

I had some lasagna cooked by my housemate in the late afternoon and had few pizza for dinner at the party.

**From yesterday's dinner**

Honey carrots recipe

Ingredients

*carrot 1
*onion 1/2
*soya sauce 1 table spoon
*mirin 1 table spoon
*honey 1 table spoon



Instruction
1. cut the carrot and the onion into thin slices.
2. heat up a pan with some oil, stir fry them.
3. add soya sauce, mirin and honey, stir well. once carrot became softer, stop the fire.

Even my housemate who doesn't like carrots loved it :)

Miso chilli egg plant

I did a lot of study today :)

Still it's a long way to go to finish my 8000words essay, but I'm happy about my progress!

Today's dinner

*Miso chilli egg plant don
*Radish salad
*honey carrots
*Kakitama soup


Both my housemate and I loved today's dinner Y

Miso chilli egg plant recipe serves 2-3(Improved version of ma-bo nasu)




Ingredients

*nasu 1/2 (huge one)
*minced pork 200g
*miso 1 table spoon
*soya sauce 1 table spoon
*dried garlic 1 tea spoon
*to-ban jyan (chinese chilli)
*chicken soup stock 2 table spoons
*1 cup of water


Instructions

1 cut the egg plants into big thin slices
2. heat up a pot with some sesame oil. cook garlic, then cook pork.
3. once pork is cooked, add the water and the chicken soup stock. add egg plants, put few drops of sesame oil on egg plants. then, stir well.
4. add soya sauce, miso and chilli. when egg plants became soft, stop the fire :)

Tomo's Ramen lunch

Tomo's sho-yu ramen recipe serves 2

Ramen soup ingredients
-soya sauce 2 table spoons
-chicken soup stock 3 table spoons
-water 3 cups
-garlic 1 tea spoon
-bean sprouts 1 package

*dried wakame (sea weed) 1 table spoon
*ramen 2 brunches

*sausages 2 thick slice
-soya sauce 2 table spoons
-mirin 1 table spoon
-honey 1 table spoon


Instructions

1. put all the ramen soup ingredients into a pot and boil them for 10-15 mins, then add wakame, cook for another 5 mins.

2. meanwhile, cut the sausages into thiner slices, fry them with soya sauce, mirin and honey.

3. Take out another pot and cook ramen noodles. (Heat up water (3-4 cups) first, and once water is boiled, put ramen noodle in).

4. Once everything is done, put the cooked ramen noodles into a bowl, then pour the soup and finally place the sausages on the top!

yummmmm Y

My housemates loved it too!

story about sardine

I remember that the first fish dish I made was this sweet sardine kabayaki dish.

I went to Victorian Market and one of the guy in the fish stall was telling me that
he can give me 12 sardines for only $5.

Very cheap!

At that time, I wasn't quite sure what sardine was, but the guy kept telling me it is such a good price that I should get them.

I asked him how I should cook sardine, and he said,

"it's easy, just grill them!"

Today, I know that whenever I ask him this question about any fish in his store, he always bluffs and tell me to grill everything.

But at that time I didn't know him well and I was tricked.

When I came home and stood in the kitchen, I realized something was wrong.



How do I grill fish?


I was scared.

My sardines in a plastic bag were all bleeding.




I called my mom in Japan.

That what I do whenever I'm in troble.


I asked her how i can grill sardines.

she asked me rather carefully

"does sardine have its head?"


I said
"yes."


she said

"Ok, the first thing you gotta do is to squeeze the head and tear it out from the sardine body."


"WHAT?"


"you're so brave, my girl. I never buy dardine with its head. I buy the ones already nicely opend because I'm scared of taking its head off."


I said
"it's not fair!"


I was so depressed.

But my mom told me that once i go through this preparation process, i can cook my favorite dish, sweet sardine kabayaki.



I love kabayaki. so I gained motivation.


There is no fish swiming without its head off.
If you buy fish without its head, that means somebodyelse is doing the job for you.

I thought I should show appriciation to my sardines fish for giving me their life.



At that time, I was sharing a house with 9 other girls (we had individual bed rooms), and when I started to cook sardine, some girls came out from their rooms to check what I was doing.

Some of them said,

"Hey, what are you doing tomo?! looks so disgusting!" and run away.

Others said "Oh gosh, it is so smelly! " and went back to their rooms.

But there was one housemate who supported me.
She was quietly observing me dealing with the fish.
She didn't say anothing.

It was when I finished the hardest part of preparation and started to gril the fish with sauce, she said

"smells good and looks good. can i try some?"

We had dinner together with the sardines I cooked.

She said

"it tastes really good!"

and I agreed.

Yes, without your support, I couldn't cook kabayaki.

since then, sardine kabayaki becomes the most attached fish dish to me.

sweet tuna & cucumber

Ingredients

*canned tuna 1/2 can
*cucumber 1/2

sauce
*soya sauce 1 table spoon
*mirin 1 table spoon
*miso 1 tea spoon
*sugar 1 tea spoon


Instructions

1. cut the cucumber into small pieces. take out oil or water from the canned tuna.
2. heat up a pan with some sesame oil and stir fry them. add the rest of the sauce ingredients.

roasted chicken and mushroom risotto

Today's dinner




*Chicken and mushroom risotto

*Veggie roasts

*miso pork on tofu

(miso pork is from a previous lunch. by simply putting it on the top of the tofu, it tastes great :D )

*miso soup




Roasted chicken & mushroom recipe






Ingredients


*2 bowls of rice

*1 cup of cheese

*konsome 1 cube

*soya sauce 1 tea spoon

*Mirin 1 table spoon

*water 2 cups

*mushrooms 6

*roasted chicken 1/3




Instructions

1. heat up a pot with some oil, cook the mushrooms. Then, add water and rice, boil for a while and take out scums.

2. add konsome, soya sauce, mirin and roasted chicken. Stir well. cook them till the rice absorb all the soup.

3.stop fire, add cheese and stir well.




My housemate's friend (or rather father) gave her roasted chicken (whole chicken) every week :)

We couldn't finish all so I made risotto with it.

My housemates loved it :)

chicken & potatoes in Japanese style soup

Today's dinner Y


*chicken & potatoes in Japanese style soup





*pumpkin croquette





*carrots&egg sweet stir fry



*white rice with sesame






Chicken and Potatoes in Japanese style soup recipe




Ingredients

*potatoes 2

*chicken 6 drum sticks

*small onions 1 & 1/2

*Japanese soup stock 1 package

Instructions

1. boil the chicken, then cut the meat out of the bones

2. put the chicken, potatoes and onions into a pot, pour water till it covers everything.

3. add the Japanese soup stock, place a lid and boil them with a medium fire.

4. take out the scums. (cook for 10 mins)

5 add 1 table spoon of soya sauce and 1 table spoon of mirin, and dried bonitoes 1 table spoon each.

6. cook for another 10 mins.

done Y


All 3 housemates gathered and cooked together and had dinner together !

This is fun... :)

When we share meals together, we can enjoy meals better than when eating alone :)

miso pork congee

Let's use the extra miso pork from yesterday to make congee★
Today's lunch...


☆Miso pork congee recipe☆

Ingredients


*rice 2 small bowls

*water 2 cups

*miso pork 1/2 cup

*chicken soup stock 2 tea spoons

*egg 1

Instructions

1. Boil the water mixed with chicken soup stock. Once boiled, ake out the scum.

2. Add the rice, cook it till it becomes soft. Then add the miso pork.

3. Take out the scum, then stir well.

4. Add egg and stir well.

spicy miso ramen

Ingredients

*ramen noodle (Organic♪) 1.5 bunches

*minced pork 250g

*carrot 1/2

*onion 1 & 1/2

*mushrooms 3

*miso 2 table spoons

*soya sauce 1 tea spoon

*chicken soup stock 2 tea spoons

*water 1/4 cup

*to-ban jyan (Chinese chilli) 2 tea spoon



Instructions

1. boil the ramen

2. while boiling, chop the carrot, onion and mushrooms into small pieces

3. heat up a pan with some sesame oil, cook them.

4. add water, chicken soup, soya sauce, miso and to-banjyan

4. put them on the top of the ramen.

done!

Trip to countryside: Woodend, Maldon and Castlemaine

I went to visit my friend's countryside from the 1st to 2nd of October :)

My friend's geese! so cute!

This is what I had for dinner↓
We cooked dinner together!
It was really really yummy!!

Vegetarian lasagna Y

Dumpling soup

Dumpling soup recipe





Ingredients

*Dumplings 5-6

*onion 1/2

*water 3 cups

*Chicken soup stock 3 table spoons

*soya sauce 1 table spoon


Instructions

1. put everything in a pot, cook them for 10 mins or so with medium fire.