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Today was my last day of work before Christmas, too. Joe and I have three days off!! A miracle. Christmas is almost here, and we are almost ready. 
We are going to see "Sherlock Holmes" the new movie tomorrow, so Joe is making me watch the first one on DVD tonight. So he doesn't have to explain to me as much in the theater. Gotta start the movie now.
Merry Christmas to all!!
P.S. Yes, it is lightly snowing outside.
Our usual potted pine tree has been decorated for the holiday season... for a couple of weeks now. This year I only put up the antique glass bulbs to stay simple and classic. 
We have lots to do before Christmas. I'm just getting started on our greeting card design. I'll help Joe make his leg lamp cookies, too. All the holiday shopping left to do... all the fun.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.
To follow Joe's Thanksgiving tradition, I went along to sit in his deer blind this morning, mostly expecting to see no deer. Just then, past 8 a.m., a little doe came into our sight. I basically froze, trying so hard not to move, or breathe. Finally after a while I figured she was here to stay and eat some more (though I didn't expect her to stay for almost an hour!). Then I reached for our camera to take a shot at the doe. Right, not with a rifle, with a camera. Certainly my very first deer to shoot from the blind.
The funniest thing was that so many times the doe looked right into our direction like she was the one watching us. A strange feeling in the wilderness. One thing is sure: Joe is a better shooter than me... he took the clearer photo below.
That was my half day hunting story... whereas Joe's heavily emphasizes on the truck not running right since last night and his brother Mark locking in the ignition key and Joe breaking his chair. The good news for me is that Joe is sleeping in tomorrow to make me breakfast and to drive me in to work for my Black Friday shift 1:30 -10 p.m.
Happy Turkey Day and good night....
Tonight I made salmon & avocado rolls for dinner with that opened bottle of cloudy "nigori" sake from the other day. My sushi rice turned out very good, so I was quite happy. I went out and about with Joe this afternoon taking care of the last small business matters before the deer season opening day Tuesday, and didn't have anything else planned for menu.... I had a head of napa cabbage. On the side I made kimchi slaw and kimchi flavored fried pork belly. Don't ask. It sort of just happened. 
P.S. We did not finish the bottle, really, though it would've been very easy if we tried.
It's Friday and my day off finally! I did some laundry and cleaning, but mostly enjoyed planning and cooking dinner. I remembered about this rare bottle of "nigori" sake that Joe had picked up for my birthday. Though tonight's menu wasn't really Japanese, we opened it anyway, thinking its cloudy white color is quite appropriate for the first snow we just had this week. The sake was simply... exquisite. Smooth, gently sweet, easy, too easy to drink.
Menu: shrimp wantan soup, beef & mushroom stir fry in oyster sauce, jasmine rice
I was just happy to have freshly cooked white rice, though I will have to cook something Japanese to accompany the rest of the "nigori" sake this weekend.
It all started... midday yesterday and did not stop snowing hard till early today. Heavy, heavy, wet snow. By the time Joe came home in dark after going out in the woods to feed the deer blinds, almost a foot of snow had accumulated in our driveway. He ran his snowblower then.
I was at work till 7pm and was very glad that Joe called to warn me about the terrible slushy highway and side streets. I came home driving around 25 mph all the way, the last few miles in total dark. Our city had lost power right after I talked to Joe. No electric pot, no electric stove, no microwave. We had cold pork roast and peanut butter and graham crackers for candle-lit dinner.
The power came back on after 4 hours, thank goodness. Hot tea, warm bowls of oatmeal, hot shower, furnace this morning! Oh, and internet connection and phone. Thank you, electricity!
Our plow crew went by again this morning, so Joe blew snow again, while I cleared our front steps. It's the kind of heavy snow that sticks to everything!! It's like that yucky, thick, sugary frosting all over. I really hope this is only for this first snow. I much prefer the fluffy, dusty, feathery snow.
So begins our winter officially up this north. Joe's already gone to work as normal. Today is my last day of 9 consecutive work days before the 3-day weekend off!! I think I'm going to put my snowflake necklace on.
No doubt there's a big empty hole that Joe's dad has left. But very fortunately so many things stay the same. Many wonderful memories, and many more new ones.
Once again we forgot to take "before" pictures of our another successful party yesterday. Joe cooked BBQ ribs for Kayo's birthday to share with his big extended family, including niece, nephew, cousin, little cousins, aunt, uncle, future-sister-in-law, and her brother. We managed to document the stack of dishes and silverware we washed, which should tell you all the fun we had.
Today Joe and his brothers start getting ready for deer season officially.
Life goes on.....
Just the other day I attempted to make dragon sushi rolls again. I wanted to make a different presentation from the previous time. Better... but not scary enough.
What prompted me on the making of dragon rolls was that someone gave us quite a few beets. When I cooked the beets (I roasted all the whole beets in the oven), that bright red bleeding of the beets somehow made me think of bloody dragon rolls. The below picture shows a bit of bleeding.
Yesterday I ended up making three batches of grape jelly, using up all 10 pounds of grapes we picked the day before. I figured I got everything set up for jelly making and canning, why not? Besides we have many more grapes ripening on the vines.
Of course, we tasted the freshly made grape jelly and gave it THUMBS up!
Today was my last day of work before Christmas, too. Joe and I have three days off!! A miracle. Christmas is almost here, and we are almost ready. 
We are going to see "Sherlock Holmes" the new movie tomorrow, so Joe is making me watch the first one on DVD tonight. So he doesn't have to explain to me as much in the theater. Gotta start the movie now.
Finally we took time to make leg lamp cookies on Wednesday evening. And finally I got to use my new RED hand mixer from my birthday. It was doubly entertaining because Joe's cousin and his wife sat and watched Joe make his cookies. No explanation. Just funny.
Then, last night was our frosting party. Joe was better with covering more cookies, and I made them neater. Joe was in charge of his leg lamp cookies, of course.
Lots of snowflakes.
Joe's masterpieces.
Finally, I printed our holiday season greeting cards today... all 115 of them. Once again I was quite happy smelling the fresh inks, though I felt a little like a printing machine with a stack of paper too slow to disappear. 
I must say it was quite an efficient operation. The hardest part really was to come up with the design idea. I'm not used to the full-time job taking up lots of my time and mind. 
Little by little, we are getting ready for the Holidays....
Friday, my day off, was a cold day. At 11 the temperature was barely 10 degrees F. You know it's cold when the sun is out and the temps stay below the freezing point all day. Brrrrr.
Upon Joe's request, I made sukiyaki for dinner. A perfect meal for a cold night.
I'm actually impressed that Joe can do raw eggs. I think he's qualified to have REAL sukiyaki next time we visit Japan. We just can't get the marbled and real thin cuts of beef around here.
Our usual potted pine tree has been decorated for the holiday season... for a couple of weeks now. This year I only put up the antique glass bulbs to stay simple and classic. 
We have lots to do before Christmas. I'm just getting started on our greeting card design. I'll help Joe make his leg lamp cookies, too. All the holiday shopping left to do... all the fun.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.
That was my half day hunting story... whereas Joe's heavily emphasizes on the truck not running right since last night and his brother Mark locking in the ignition key and Joe breaking his chair. The good news for me is that Joe is sleeping in tomorrow to make me breakfast and to drive me in to work for my Black Friday shift 1:30 -10 p.m.
It's in the middle of deer season up here. Joe has hunted three days and seen a couple of does and a young buck whose antlers indicates he is not legal size. Still Joe is happy that he's seen more deer this year so far than he had seen in the last two whole seasons.
It started raining in the afternoon and turned to sleet then snow. Maybe 3-4 inches.
Tonight I made salmon & avocado rolls for dinner with that opened bottle of cloudy "nigori" sake from the other day. My sushi rice turned out very good, so I was quite happy. I went out and about with Joe this afternoon taking care of the last small business matters before the deer season opening day Tuesday, and didn't have anything else planned for menu.... I had a head of napa cabbage. On the side I made kimchi slaw and kimchi flavored fried pork belly. Don't ask. It sort of just happened. 
P.S. We did not finish the bottle, really, though it would've been very easy if we tried.
It's Friday and my day off finally! I did some laundry and cleaning, but mostly enjoyed planning and cooking dinner. I remembered about this rare bottle of "nigori" sake that Joe had picked up for my birthday. Though tonight's menu wasn't really Japanese, we opened it anyway, thinking its cloudy white color is quite appropriate for the first snow we just had this week. The sake was simply... exquisite. Smooth, gently sweet, easy, too easy to drink.
I was just happy to have freshly cooked white rice, though I will have to cook something Japanese to accompany the rest of the "nigori" sake this weekend.
It all started... midday yesterday and did not stop snowing hard till early today. Heavy, heavy, wet snow. By the time Joe came home in dark after going out in the woods to feed the deer blinds, almost a foot of snow had accumulated in our driveway. He ran his snowblower then.
The power came back on after 4 hours, thank goodness. Hot tea, warm bowls of oatmeal, hot shower, furnace this morning! Oh, and internet connection and phone. Thank you, electricity!
So begins our winter officially up this north. Joe's already gone to work as normal. Today is my last day of 9 consecutive work days before the 3-day weekend off!! I think I'm going to put my snowflake necklace on.
Welcome to the six hundred block. Unfortunately I will be at work for trick-or-treating tomorrow evening. Joe should see some trick-or-treaters after work.
Happy Halloween, everyone!
Today guys went out in the woods to put up their deer blinds. They are back at their normal hunting spots after the entry path got logged last year. The old hunting spots are untouched. They had pretty good deer signs, too: all the bait was gone from a few days ago.
Me wearing a camo sweatshirt and a hunter's orange hat! I'm just going along with Joe to enjoy being in the woods.
Joe has a to-do list before deer season, in about two weeks. Yesterday he and his little brother Mark went out to sight in their deer rifles. I got to go along with them just for fun.
Right on the target!
After this we had a little fun shooting. Believe me, none of the shotgun shells in the below picture were ours. This gravel pit site is a popular place for shooting. 
No doubt there's a big empty hole that Joe's dad has left. But very fortunately so many things stay the same. Many wonderful memories, and many more new ones.
After having made enough jelly from 20 pounds of our grapes, we decided that the rest of grapes can be turned into something else, other than jelly! Joe was itching to try grape wine making again, this time with a packet of yeast. So he picked a little over 10 pounds of grapes last night (note: there are MORE grapes yet on the vines) and followed one of the simplest recipes for wine making. It's simply grapes, water, sugar, and yeast. Nothing else.
Onto a different subject. Yesterday I made gyoza, pot stickers, again from scratch. I wanted to perfect my wrappers, not too soft. Here's a stack of 20 gyoza wrappers I made. 
Filled....
Yum.... I'd go through the trouble of making homemade wrappers again when I have enough time. It was worth it.
On this lazy relaxing Sunday, we actually didn't go anywhere for a change. The only time Joe went outside was when he picked another ten pounds of grapes (oh, and when he chased a flock of birds out of his grape vines). For dinner I made okonomiyaki (savory cabbage pancakes) as a main dish, along with soba noodle in light soup and corn on the cobs with a hint of butter/soy sauce. Everything you would find at a street fair in Japan. A fun accident! 
For dessert was matcha (strong green tea served at a tea ceremony) ice cream. Thanks to Tak for having brought me a container of matcha powder from Japan, I just mixed Breyers vanilla ice cream with some matcha powder. Almost, only almost, as good as the real matcha ice cream in Japan.
P.S. Joe is getting grape juice squeezed in the kitchen as I type. I'll probably can some more grape jelly on Tuesday.
Just the other day I attempted to make dragon sushi rolls again. I wanted to make a different presentation from the previous time. Better... but not scary enough.
Yesterday I ended up making three batches of grape jelly, using up all 10 pounds of grapes we picked the day before. I figured I got everything set up for jelly making and canning, why not? Besides we have many more grapes ripening on the vines.
