Kimchi Nabe

Okay. Today's post is for my kids. The other day I was "chatting" with them online and they were making dinner. Leiya spent the holidays in California with Takumi and for her last dinner they decided to make Japanese "nabe".

Nabe literally translates as "pot" (not the smokeable kind) and almost anything turns into "nabe" if you throw it into a pot. Oh and the number of shapes and sizes of pots in Japan! How I would love to send one of my kids a Japanese ceramic pot but they are heavy and big. I have a feeling my kids were trying to make their nabe dinner in a pan. I don't know if that worked or not.

Takumi: "We are trying to make "dashi" (broth) for our "nabe". How do you make "dashi"?"

Me: "That depends on what kind of dashi you want. If you have a few dried sardines you could throw them in a pot and simmer them for a few minutes."

Takumi: "No dried sardines."

Me: "Okay. How about konbu (seaweed). You could cut a stalk up and simmer that for a few minutes too."

Takumi: "No seaweed."

Me: "Katsuobushi? (dried bonito fish flakes) Do you have any of that? Just simmer that up awhile but remember to strain the broth afterwards."

Takumi: "No fish flakes."

Me: "For heaven's sake! What DO you have?"

Takumi: "Soy sauce, sugar, mirin (sweet rice wine), tsuyu (noodle soup stock)."

Me: "Forget the sugar and mirin. Your best bet is the noodle soup stock."

I don't know how their dinner turned out.

My family's favorite nabe is Kimchi Nabe. 20 or more years ago I clipped a recipe out of a newspaper and it has become yellowed and frayed with age and use. (I once read you could read a family's dinner history by looking at the stained cards in a recipe box. Those are the recipes that were used the most.)

Ingredients:
Kimchi (Korean pickled vegetables)
thinly sliced pork ...200gms.
green onion
shiitake mushrooms 3-4
miso 1 Tbs
sake 3 Tbs
soy sauce 1 Tbs
tofu 1 block
shishitou or green peppers
natto (fermented beans) 1 pack
garlic 1 clove chopped
sesame seed oil 1 Tbs

Fry pork and chopped garlic in sesame seed oil.
Add 3 cups water and simmer 2 or 3 minutes.






Add kimchi. If you don't want it too spicy wash the kimchi first.
Add sake and mushrooms, cover and simmer 15 minutes.






Add miso, natto, and soy sauce and simmer another 10 minutes. Our family really likes the natto so I always add another pack or two.






Add green peppers, green onions, and tofu and heat completely through.











Kimchi Nabe is a little spicy but it warms you up nicely on a cold winter day. I'm afraid I don't decorate my nabe up with star cut carrots like in the newspaper picture.

Takumi and Leiya! Now if you could only find a real "nabe" you could make Kimchi Nabe in your own kitchens... (Assuming you have an oriental market where you can buy miso, kimchi, tofu and natto... At least you don't have to make "dashi".)

Fat Cats

I'm still on winter break and I vascillate between feeling guilty about all my time up in the sewing room and enjoying playing with fabric.

Sina sent me a FAT CAT ruler as a Christmas gift and I decided to put it to use while I had a chance. I made a Fat Cat bag!

The ruler is great! The bag, not so... I don't usually use patchwork bags much anyway so I hurried through this and pulled from the depths of my memory how to put in a bag bottom and how to hide seams etc. I guess I prefer making quilts. I'm not so good in the 3 dimensional area... The bag seems to pull in strange places so I must have misaligned the batting in there.... Oh well.



And I had a cardboard stencil I'd made 20 some years ago that always works nicely for a quilted bottom... Now who is going to look at the bottom except for here on my blog?

Sort of cute. Thank you Sina!

Lost and Found

As you know, I spend a month each year knitting a sweater or vest for Tetsu. That's a lot of knitted work over 30 years! Some of Tetsu's old vests get passed on to his mother (the ones he's not especially fond of). Some of them I use. Some of them get reknitted into something else. Some of them get tossed. Most of them get hand washed at the end of the season and put away til the next year...


So, ding-dang-it-all, where did I put those sweaters away? This has been the question for the last two months.

"Tetsu, I can't find the blue and green gradation sweater I once made you. Or the blue sweater with the holes that I fixed. Or the beige sweater that I made for you just a couple of years ago... You only have three vests and one sweater in your closet now... Where could the others be?"

"Hmmm. I don't remember which ones you're talking about. Are you sure you didn't just toss them all?"

"No. I don't think so. Some I really like... Some aren't that old. But I've looked in all the closets and all the storage chests. I thought they'd turn up when we were getting out Christmas ornaments but they didn't."

"That's okay. I have enough as it is."

Still I've been looking and looking and yesterday I found them! (In a drawer where I used to keep old sheets in the laundry room.) There must have been some rhyme or reason for putting them all there last March or whenever. I'm so glad I found them before the season is over so that Tetsu can get a month or two use of them.

"Tetsu, Tetsu! I found the sweaters! Which one do you want to wear today?"

"I like the one you made for me for Christmas. I think I'll wear this one for awhile longer."

Oh.

Maybe I need to put some new moth balls in the drawer...

Happy!

Yesterday I had a FULL day at the sewing machine. And yes, I caught the bug and got drawn into making a happiness block... Oh my, what fun! Wonky is right but it looks like the dish I bought the other day so I guess it says "happiness".

And while I was upstairs I decided to try the stamps that Joe Tulips has such fun with on her blog. I love looking at all the little things that "Joe" does with her stamps... she can make such a fun quilt with just a few words. And since she is stamping, there isn't a whole lot of work involved (like making Wonky Letters might involve).

I BOUGHT stamps (after asking Joe where she got them and how to use them) last summer, and there they have sat in my drawer for the past 6 months. It is amazing to me that I can write so much on this blog and when confronted with a project for using words I can think of nothing to say...

Yesterday I pulled out the stamps and the fabric and some acrylic paint from at least 20 years ago (it was still usable after a bit of stirring) and I STAMPED. Yes, this is part of my Happiness quilt... for lack of a better name right now... And yes, I was HAPPY working on it the whole day through!

Hakone Ekiden

When I was a child I remember going to a family friends' house for a New Year's Day supper and evening of games. As I recall, the men folk sat around the TV all day watching football.

It's not so different in Japan. January 1st had other programs on TV but January 2nd and 3rd are devoted to something that is called Hakone Ekiden, the Annual Hakone Collegiate Rely.

Just as my father never played a day of football in his life but still loved watching the Superbowl or Rosebowl or whatever it was, Tetsu and I have never run a rely in our lives either but we can stay close to the TV and will even turn to the race on the car radio if we have to be out.

The Hakone Ekiden has a history beginning in 1920. On January 2nd, 20 college teams compete with 5 runners each to run 108 kilometers up to the town of Hakone not far from Mt. Fuji. Most of the first day is an uphill race.

On January 3rd, a different 5 runners from each team will run back DOWN the mountain another 108 kilometers. It goes without saying that all roads in the immediate area are closed down for the event and the television coverage and police support is worthy of a presidential parade!

There is all sorts of excitement along the way. Of course every team wants to win, but the most important point is to be able to pass the relay sash to the next team member. And then there is also a time limit so that unless a team member gets to the relay point within 20 minutes after the first team, the other teams get sent on without receiving the sash... That is a terrible blow to the whole team. At the end of the first day, only the first 10 teams get their times counted up and the NEXT day they are allowed a lead of the day's before finishing time. The other 10 teams have to start all together at a later time point.

Yesterday's race included a runner slipping on the icy downhill road (but he bounced back up and his team won the overall race) and another runner getting off course just barely making up the time to get "seed placement" for his team next year. Only the first 10 teams automatically get "seeded" for next year's race. The other 10 positions will be fought for by colleges all over Japan for the next 12 months.

Some years the drama includes runners who end up with heat stroke or a torn ligament and they are forced to retire which of course is a loss for the whole team. We will see runners stumbling along trying to make it to the relay point with tears streaming down their faces and it is a bit of a tear jerker for the spectators too. All these young men so determined and focused on their team responsibilities...

Tetsu was especially engrossed in this year's race because the college he attended had one of the 20 positions this year... Unfortunately they came in 16th so they didn't get the "seeding" for next year's race. Still, it was exciting. (And that's saying a lot for a non-sports person like me!)

All my pictures are off of my TV. I don't like sports enough to actually GO to an event.

Pottery

Japan is filled with towns that specialize in hand made pottery. I have potter friends that make their living from making and selling the works of their labor, there are loads of small shops that sell pottery along with other things like coffee, clothing, etc. Housewives who are especially good at cooking will have an amazing collection of different shapes and sizes of pottery.

Yesterday there was a pottery festival at a park in the next prefecture over and Tetsu suggested we drive out. Let me tell you, we do NOT need any more pottery. For one I never make anything worthy of its loveliness, for another in more than thirty years of living in Japan (and living near the famous pottery town of Mashiko) I've got my own humble but plentiful collection of pottery. But we made the trip out and had a good time. Tetsu and I wandered around the stalls (sort of like a street fair) and decided we'd buy one or two pieces to celebrate the new year.

This was dish that I found. At first I thought it was just an interesting pattern on the dish but I realized after looking at it a bit that the design says "Happiness" in Chinese characters... Oh my... I think I could do that design in wonky patchwork. Do I dare try?

Because it was the New Year, some of the stalls were offering combination sets and so after a couple of hours of perusing we settled on a coffee cup set. Now, what is my criteria for buying pottery? (for buying anything?) It has to be unusual... I'd prefer thinking that I have a one of a kind thing or at least that I'm not going to walk into the nearest department store and find the same thing there (that's why I like street fairs). It can't be expensive. I'm thrifty if nothing else! It has to make me smile. Especially something like a morning coffee cup. If I'm going to stumble through a morning I want something that cheers me.

So this morning Tetsu and I drank our morning coffee and ate our New Year's omochi with our new coffee mug set. Two colorful mugs, two small bowls and a large serving dish. The pretty pottery made everything more delicious this morning! (let's see... on the serving dish is the omochi and butter and in the small bowls are bean paste and the orange stuff is sweet potato and chestnut paste. There is some soy powder in another of our pottery.)

And here is another purchase that definitely makes me smile! Now, that's not very practical but it will fit into our house very nicely. A cat bowl!!! How will I use it... I don't know... A candy dish (as if I need any more candy).

Tetsu is back at work today. He may need a Starbucks later on today from a loving wife to take the sting out of such a short holiday.

Quiet holidays

Tetsu's New Year holidays started on the 31 and we made a stop at our friends' farm to pick up our New Year's supply of omochi (pounded rice). In most Japanese families, the new year can't start without omochi (Tetsu even sent some to Takumi as a "Christmas present".) Our friends were busily doing end of the year chores such as washing windows and screens, making pickles for the holidays, cleaning the house front porch. I love this picture of Daddy and his little girl scrubbing away. And a few minutes later the little girl was helping grandma cut up vegetables for their pickles.

We went directly to Tetsu's mother's house and split the very large slab of omochi with her (and she will split it further with Tetsu's sister.... our friends gave us a lot of omochi!) and then we did our grocery shopping. I'm ashamed to admit that I do as little cooking as possible during New Years and so we picked up supermarket noodles, supermarket tempura, supermarket New Year's food... bean paste, seaweed, soy powder, and a lot of nibbles. Real Japanese families will have tiers of traditional New Year's food each with a special meaning (eat lots of caramelized small fish if you want many future generations. Make sure your potatoes are cut in hexagons so that they will look like a tortoise shell back... long life you know...) but Tetsu and I choose simple and easy to eat.

Finished up writing our New Year's cards... Tetsu uses a brush-pen so that he can do Japanese calligraphy.

Yesterday, (January 1st) the Japanese tradition is to go to the local shrine on New Year's day, Japanese churches offer a New Year's service for the Christians so Tetsu and I started off the year in prayer and rejoicing with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

In the afternoon we got a little late Christmas shopping in and Tetsu bought me a new handbag and some tennis shoes. So different from New Year's 30 years ago when the whole country closed down for three days. Nowadays supermarkets are open and stores are giving a big blowout sale. I guess I prefer looking at sales rather than sitting in front of the TV. Tetsu probably prefers the latter...

And we ended the day with a hot spa bath!