around the neighborhood

The weather has been kind of weird, raining off and on and blustery and the sun making candid appearances. Plus, the trees still think it is autumn, some still have their leaves and the ones that didn't get to change color have started--and it is almost Christmas!....I think something is broken...

I wanted to share with you some sights from around our neighborhood.

A persimmon tree that lost all of its leaves and still had TONS of fruit.

Tsubaki (camellia) trees in both dark and light pink.

A gingerbread house in front of a baking class. Seeing this brought back memories of the Christmases where we would get together with several families to make gingerbread houses. One of the mothers would bake the parts for the houses, others would bring the candies. We would all then gather at one house and each family would put their own house together. It was tons of fun! We used royal icing to put everything together then stuck candies on the roof and walls. It was interesting, most of us had never seen or played in snow because we grew up in Hawaii, and all of our houses had icicles hanging off the roof and there were snowmen on the front lawn.

Tonight's dinner was kind of an ad-lib. I intended to make gyoza (pot stickers), but the wrappers I had in the freezer were freezer burnt or something, they were REALLY hard and not pliable, so I had to throw them out. Left with only the filling, I decided to pan fry these up...gyo-burg (gyoza burgers). With a glass of Minoo pale ale, they were delicious!

Hope you have a great week!

gratin and the opera

Tonight's dinner was gratin. Usually in Japan, this dish is made with a white sauce and seafood or chicken. I've never had it with tomato sauce, but since I had some pasta sauce in the freezer, I decided I should try to use it up.

The Japanese also have an original version of gratin called doria, this is a gratin made with rice instead of macaroni. I sauteed some shrimp and spinach in oil with some garlic, then put everything into a baking dish and topped it with parmesan cheese and bread crumbs. It baked in the oven for about 20 minutes. (My oven has a "gratin" button, so I just press it and it cooks the dish.) It was a great dish to warm up with.

While wandering in the convenience store, I found a new candy by Morinaga, called "Winter's opera". After checking out their website, I realized it came out last month in Eastern Japan and only came out this month in Western Japan! This candy is very decadent.

The box has a hologram type film on it which sparkles when light hits it.

When you open it up, you are introduced to 9 little opera candies. All with gold leaf flecks smiling at you.

The layers: the gold leaf flecks, a slightly bitter chocolate, a coffee flavored creamy chocolate and lastly the crunch of a chocolate and cookie bottom.

Enjoy the weekend!

bead stitch-intermediate level

The weather has been rainy and cold, and kind of reminds me of London. It is cold, but, not cold to the point where you have to where all the clothing you own.

Well, my bead stitch class is over for the year, and the next class for me will be in April (I'll be going back to Hawaii for my annual visit between January-March). If you'd like to see a project that I just finished, I've posted it here.

Have a nice weekend!

cantucci

In August, I saw Yvonne's post for cantucci, printed it out and set it aside.

Then, as I was thinking about what to bake for Christmas, I tried Lebkuchen, but Satoshi said they were "too hard".

And then, I remembered I had printed out the recipe for cantucci from Yvonne's blog and realized I should give it a shot.

The recipe was rather easy to follow. The only problem I had was that the dough was REALLY sticky and gooey, I'm not to certain why.

Still, they came out great, I think Satoshi will approve of these.

visola

There is a shopping mall about five minutes by car, 15 minutes by bus from our apartment called Visola. They have a movie theatre complex, fitness center and large supermarket, Carrefour, plus many small boutiques and shops.

Satoshi and I went to watch a movie there this morning, had lunch and then had dessert at Hiro.

Hiro has many cafes around Osaka and the one in our neighborhood is the one we often frequent on weekends.

The dessert we tried was called "Provence" and looked like a little snow ball. The outside is a fluffy mousse-like meringue with a caramel and milk chocolate top.

The inside was a layer of cake with lots of orange zest and orangey syrup and a layer of caramel custard. This cake went well with the Sumatra Mandheling coffee that I ordered.

UPDATE: as of November 2011, Hiro and Carrefour are no longer at Visola.

chocolat chaud

Remember when I went to Tokyo in October? I was able to buy some chocolate beads from La Maison du Chocolat. Today, I made a cup of their chocolat chaud (hot chocolate).

Inspired by a blog friend, William, he is having a hot chocolate week on his blog, Chocolate Obsession--check it out if you have some time, he has an excellent stash, I decided to give the chocolate beads that I bought a try.

The 7.41ounces (210g) of chocolate beads makes 4 cups, I cut the recipe down because I wanted only 1 cup.

It was rather easy to make, just bring to a boil the suggested amount of milk and water on the package and whisk in the suggested amount of beads. (I don't have a whisk, so I used a slotted spoon and stirred constantly.) Then turn the heat down to let the mixture reduce a bit and strain through a sieve before serving.

The mixture is thick, rich and very chocolatey. It starts off sweet in your mouth and ends with a little bitter chocolate taste at the end.

I'll have to make a cup for Satoshi, he'll love it.

arashiyama

This evening, Satoshi and I travelled to Arashiyama. Arashiyama is on the outskirts of Kyoto and is about an hour from our place by train. I had seen an ad in the train station for a light-up of the Arashiyama area. We usually visit this area during koyo (autumn colors) and during the daytime, so it was our first time to experience a light-up of the area after the autumn colors.

Unfortunately, my digital camera doesn't take good photos at night. I think I don't know about all the settings on it. I'll be willing to accept any type help. The pictures that did turn out were results of using the flash or some lighting.

The weather was nice but very cold and the wind kind of icy. Still, there were TONS of people and at times it seemed like we were standing in line for something when in actuality we were just trying to get from one place to another.

Even if I couldn't capture everything I saw on "film", the light-up was still very beautiful.

Have a nice week.