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Ever since the earthquake/ tsunami/ nuclear power plant crisis in Japan, we've come to appreciate our normal daily routines even more. Fortunately, so has my family in Japan, though we still fear for their having small earthquakes on and off since.
So being able to cook just as normally has a whole new meaning now. In my beloved red pot was Irish stew cooking on this St. Patrick's Day.
After dinner at home we went out to have beer, local brew, at Vierling. Our not so Irish St. Patty's Day tradition.
Nothing special really.... it's Monday, and it's slightly snowing. I had a day off and wondered what's for dinner. Recently I've been enjoying Thai cooking every chance I get. Tonight is no exception.
Menu: spring rolls, coconut curry with chicken and green beans, and rice
Another new thing is my orange tea pot. We just received a package of green tea from home (along with my coffee), so we got to try the new green tea with our dinner tonight. Oh yeah, and I've been pretty good about using our rice bowls, too.
Tomorrow night, however, we are going out to our favorite Cajun restaurant for Fat Tuesday!!
This morning I received freshly roasted coffee beans from Japan.... Overjoyed, I spilled coffee beans everywhere on the kitchen floor. (I accidentally knocked down an opened bag of coffee beans from the table corner.) For the next 20 minutes I patiently hand-picked the beans one by one, thinking of all those hands that worked and picked the beans initially, somewhere in Honduras. Well, I worked hard to get to my cup of coffee.
It was actually my second cup of coffee... after which I ran like a fully charged bunny. I started on two oil paintings (ABOUT TIME!!), ran two loads of laundry, went grocery shopping, and cooked meals for the rest of my work week!
On this snowy wintry 5th we ventured out to go back to the ice caves.
Once again we wondered why we walked across the snow blowing field and yet further hiked up and down the treacherous icy trails. Thank goodness this time we had our cleats on. We still slid, but not to a death defining level. Once we saw what awesome nature's ice sculpture ahead of us, we eagerly climbed that last uphill... only to get closer and to explore inside. 
Pictures just can't justify!
Trust us, we took such a nice shot of ourselves only when we could. As you can only imagine, we had to go back the way we came. But what fun can we have in life, if you don't take a slightly treacherous path, once in a while? Well, we certainly did today. 
Back in town we went out to have authentic Thai food for dinner. What better food after our frigid outing! Then, to top it off, Joe took me out to a movie to celebrate the 5th. We went to see "Rango!" Very cute, actually a lot more serious than we were led to believe, with very good music and visuals. Our treacherous date turned out to have a very good balance of cold, heat (Thai chilies), good exercise, yummy food, fun....!!
I just love tiny little dessert. The other day I mumbled that I used to make home-made cream puffs and found out that Joe's dad loves them, or eclairs. So I found a recipe and made a small batch. I melted some chocolate for the eclair tops. Why not put the chocolate sauce over regular cream puffs, too!? Yum.... Guess I could have made them a little bigger, but then we just have two!
Right after I assembled my slightly clumsy looking eclairs below, we made a special delivery to Joe's family.
Today was Joe's birthday. For breakfast we had Belgian waffles topped with whipped cream and chocolate sauce. Since I had to work all day today, Joe himself cooked the waffles from the batter I prepped last night. And we celebrated with some Japanese food at home yesterday, Fish Friday.
Chawan-mushi (savory egg custard) and lobster pot stickers:
The egg custard was something I tried for the first time and turned out pretty good (though I wouldn't say it was just like Mom's).
