Mushroom Spaghetti with Miso Cream Sauce

I love Asian mushrooms. I am so grateful that I can find shitake where I live. But in a bigger cities, more varieties are available. I brought "Enoki" from Florida. I love this mushroom. It's very long and skinny and a kind of crunchy. I should have bought different kinds of mushrooms at the Asian market that I went to. I decided to do creamy mushroom pasta, so I went to a store near my house to get shitake.

I remember that I had Miso cream sauce at a restaurant in CT before we moved away. I made it for chicken and it was good, but I thought it would be really nice with pasta.

When I was growing up in Tokyo more than 3 decades ago, Italian style pasta was not really common. Fortunately I was introduced to it by my father who had lived in Rome. However, if we go to a pasta restaurant (there were restaurants that serve only pasta dishes... they still exist), lots of dishes were very Japanized. We didn't like it at all. I also remember Western people were complaining about weird Japanese spaghetti dishes in 80's. I completely agreed with them at the moment. Nevertheless, now I look back, those restaurants seem to be the pioneers of fusion dishes.

This pasta could be easily on the menu back then though I don't remember seeing it.

*Mushroom spaghetti with Miso cream sauce*

Spaghetti 240 g

Olive oil 1tbsp

Garlic 2 cloves sliced

Mushroom of your choice 2 cups

Cream 2/3 cup

*Yuzu Kosho 1/4 tsp

Miso 2 tsp

Salt

< 1 > Start boiling the pasta.

< 2 > Saute garlic in olive oil and put mushrooms when garlic started to brown.

< 3 > Pour cream in and cook in low heat for 5 minutes. Remove from heat.

< 4 > Cook pasta to al dente. Keep 2 table spoon of boiling water.

< 5 > Dissolve Yuzu Kosho and Miso in the boiled water, and pour it in the cream mixture with pasta. Cook with medium heat for 2 minutes. If the miso is not salty enough, sprinkle with sea salt.

< 6 > Serve with Shiso if it's available. Putting bunch of Arugula is nice, also.

*Yuzu Kosho is citrus pepper paste from Southern part of Japan. It's made of Japanese citrus, Yuzu and chili pepper. I didn't know about it until 10 years ago until I was befriended with someone from Oita. She recommended to put it in Miso soup. I loved it so much and it became regular condiment in my house hold ever since.

I would think substituting is possible... Maybe grated lime zest and green pepper sauce? I need to try that sometime.

We enjoyed July 4th in St. Augustine. I loved the blue sky and beautiful architecture in down town.

Summer Rice balls

Rice balls are must have for lunch box. My mother told me that it is the best since it doesn't get spoiled even it's warm outside. By saying that, she avoided making sandwiches. I envied my friends who brought sandwiches for school trips, but I enjoyed my rice balls anyway.

 There are lots of variations. One is made of white rice and there is something in the center. I think this is most traditional. The inside could be a pickled plum, salted salmon, fish eggs, seaweed, etc. The other kind is made of mixed rice. White rice is mixed with Furikake, or scrambled eggs, seaweed, sesame seeds, dried shiso leaves, etc.

The latter one has same taste anywhere you eat, but the white rice one is plain until you get a bite of inside. It is fun not knowing what is inside and the plain part is a good complement to meat and vegetables in a Bento box.

My rice ball was always the white rice ball with Nori wrapped around and the center was pickled plum. That was my favorite. I always liked something sour.

However, my husband thinks the white rice ball is boring until you get to its core. So I started to make rice balls with mixed rice after I got married.

These rice balls are really refreshing for summer lunch. Pickled ginger is the only thing that provides saltiness (except for a little salt). Shiso gives very nice aroma to this simple mixture.

Summer Rice Balls ( 6 mini rice balls)

* Ingredients *

2 cups of cooked white short grain rice

3 large leaves of green shiso

3 large leaves of red shiso

3 table spoons of pickled ginger

Sea salt

< 1 > Put rice in a large bowl and let it cool down a little bit so the heat wouldn't wilt shiso.

< 2 > Cut shiso leaves and ginger to long strips and mix with the rice.

< 3 > Wash the hands well. Make them moist and sprinkle palms with a little salt. Put the rice on the palm and make rice balls. Make sure the salt gets around evenly around the rice balls.

If you bend your fingers from the base and make edge with your knuckles, you can shape rice balls to triangles. My mother never did this. Hers was always a circle. But I somehow can't make it like that. So my rice balls are more like rice triangles that appears in cartoon. I also like mini sized ones. It looks small, but it is packed with lots of rice, so it is a good prevention for not eating too much of carbohydrate.

Making rice balls with saran wrap became very popular as I grew up. It prevents hands getting dirty and more sanitary. You can also wrap rice balls with the saran wrap as you finish them.

But traditionally, they are made with bare hands that are sprinkled with a pinch of salt.

After having lunch with my daughter, I asked if it will be nice to put tuna or something in these rice balls. She said that it is refreshing as is. I agreed.

Summer has come

I can't believe it is summer already. Summer started with my parent's visit and I didn't really have a moment to realize the fact spring is over. I took them to lots of places and that let me discover many things. How beautiful scenery is around here. How peaceful trees make me feel. The size of the sky and shapes of the clouds etc....

I don't have a green thumb. I call myself a "plant killer". But I am enjoying having a little garden and I got ambitious this year so I started growing Shiso which is basil like Japanese herb. When I was living in Japan 20 years ago, it was almost impossible to find fresh basil in even in Tokyo. Cooking books usually suggested to use shiso instead. Yet it is a lot different from basil. I associate the taste of shiso with traditional Japanese dishes so I am not a good candidate to describe the taste. However, shiso is nice with non-Japanese dishes, too. I particularly like to cook it with butter

It started to grow nice leaves, so I decided to make cold noodle with shiso for lunch.

*Ingredients*

1 Cup of water

1 1/2 Table spoon of Sugar

3 Table spoon of Soy sauce

1/2 Tea spoon of Salt

Crashed garlic

1 Table spoon of Fresh squeezed lemon juice

1 table spoon of Rice wine vinegar

1 Teaspoon of Sesame Oil

1 Japanese Eggplant

10 Cherry tomatoes

1 Scallion

3 Leaves of red shiso

3 Leaves of green shiso

5oz. of Somen Noodle

< 1 > Put water and sugar in a sauce pan and bring to boil, then take it out of heat. Put rest of the ingredients for the sauce and mix. Let it cool.

< 2 > Slice an eggplant and cook it in small amount of oil.

< 3 > Slice cherry tomatoes and scallion.

< 4 > Roll shiso leaves together and chop them to skinny strings.

< 5 > Boil Somen. Somen is very thin wheat noodle. Be careful not to over boil it. After it's boiled, run cold water until it's cool.

< 6 > Mix the vegetable and sauce with the noodle and serve.

Somen is very thin and white noodle. It can be found in Asian stores. I use Korean version of it and it tastes very good. Sometimes I saw "Soba" on a menu of Asian restaurant and I was served Somen. Soba is buckwheat noodle. Thin white noodle is Somen. Although this recipe would be nice with Soba noodle, too.

To me, shiso makes dishes very summer-like. Because it's summer herbs. Coupled with summer vegetable (or fruits?) such as an eggplant and tomatoes, it is very refreshing. 

I'd love to play with this herb more during summer.

Woven Shibori

I've tried to weave Woven Shibori for first time.  I was amazed at the idea of this weave.  I love traditional Japanese shibori fabric.  But I never thought you could weave the tread to resist dye into fabric.  I was very curious if this method or anything similar is known in Japan.  I asked the director at Shibori museum when I visited Kyoto, and he told me that there was similar method called "Taiten Shibori" which actually is mentioned in Catharine Ellis's "Woven Shibori" book.

How the fabric is folded after gathering the fabric is really interesting .  It reminded me of paper folding in a way.  The folds come to 2 sides of the fabric and I used different colors to dye it, and here it is.  It's very interesting looking.  I loved it!

So I realized it is very different from Japanese fabric Shibori technique.  You can use the thread to resist dye, but I found it more interesting to use the thread to make pattern for folding.

I made pillow cases with the fabric I weaved and dyed.  I love how the mathematical shibori pattern becomes organic after dying.  

Colors of spring.....  It seems like spring has already arrived, but it's cold today.

New Year in Japanese style

Happy New Year!

We celebrate New Year in Japanese style every year.  I've been doing it since I came to the US with my husband.  It became tradition to our family now.  We like the calmness of Japanese New Year.  I work in the kitchen practically all day on the New Year's Eve.  But I must do this.  It's like a renewal of my will to spend time and effort as much as needed to make something nice, to develop skills to make something that makes loved ones happy, to be creative, and so on.  

So it's a ritual that I have to go through every year.

Therefore, I couldn't leave my American husband and American daughter until the New Years day is over to visit my parents in Yokohama.  It's a kind of funny that I couldn't make it to have New Year day in Japan because I had to do Japanese New Year in East TN.

But I was able to catch the trail of Japanese New Year in Kyoto.

I wasn't expecting this, but those New Year arrangements are supposed to be displayed until 7th.  So I saw lots of beautiful arrangements.  My mother was surprised how sophisticated the arrangements in Kyoto were.  The style is different from Tokyo.

Kyoto is such a popular place and I almost feel ashamed to visit.  But I must admit that it's so beautiful.  Well, if you only saw the beautiful pictures of the traditional looking Kyoto and visit there, you will be surprised at how modern Kyoto is.  Less crowded than Tokyo, but still pretty crowded.  Some temples are too crowded to feel the tranquility, some are too busy with street vendors.  

But you can find the calmness somewhere.  A corner in a shrine, back street, temples that are far form the main part of the city, etc.

One of the biggest reason that I love visiting Kyoto is that everything is tasty there.  The restaurants in the station building, tiny noodle shop in the back street, vendors in a market, not to mention fancy traditional restaurants.

It is obvious that food are made with a great care.  It probably take long time and good ingredients to even make a broth for the base.  

It must be the culture and tradition in the old city.  I admire that so much.

My interest in Kyoto grew once I started to study Fiber Art.  I always loved Kimono fabric, but now I am interested in how they are made.  

I visited Shibori museum and Museum of Traditional Crafts.  I just love the craftsmanship that goes into the beautiful works.  The skill is unbelievable.  

But sadly, they are endangered.  Those products cost so much because of the intensive labor yet those traditional crafts are not part of modern westernized life.  So only handful of people can afford it.  It doesn't bring enough money to the craftsman to sustain their living.  Young people are not attracted to be one of them.

I've heard about that everywhere I went.  Even taxi driver was mentioning that.  It is sad but it is true. I wouldn't pay thousands of dollars for Kimono even it's beautiful because I don't need it.

Kyoto amazed me with its desire to create tasteful and beautiful things, and the skills and the amount of time that go behind the things they produce.  I always wished that I had born in the past to be a craftsman, but it's still going on there.  That makes me feel so happy.

Yet Kyoto left me feeling sad.  The tradition and skill is rapidly disappearing.

But I was inspired by it.  I will continue learn and incorporate the inspirations into my creation.

So visiting Kyoto was reassurance of my New Year hope.   I will try making this year meaningful.

Christmas Rainbow

We visited Florida for Christmas.  It was so warm!  It was pretty chilly last year, so we weren't expecting to swim in the pool but it was warm enough to do so.  I usually would think it's nice to feel warm air, but for Christmas, and the fact that I was not expecting the warmth, it was too much.  But we had a very nice time with family.

It was raining on the Christmas morning.  On and off.  I looked outside from the patio, and there was a rainbow!  It was not clear, but everybody came out to see it.  Then all of them expect my daughter and I left.  More we stood there and looked, it became clear and clear shaping a perfect half circle very vividly.  It was the best Christmas present ever.

I can't believe it's almost Christmas

We visited Florida for Thanksgiving.  I baked 4 different financiers to bring with us.  Pecan and chocolate chips, Almond and English tea, Almond and Green tea, Hazel nuts and chocolate....  Too bad I finished my green tea powder.  It really gave nice taste of green tea.  I must put that on the list of the things to buy in Japan.

Our dog Rosco had a great time playing with Mama's dog Layla.  They were such a perfect couple.  So cute together.

Thanksgiving in Florida was pretty warm.  With the sunshine coming through the big windows, it didn't feel a bit like Autumn.  The feast was great.  We had a fun with the family, definitely.  

I contemplated over going shopping on black Friday.  I decided to pass.  But I ended up going to an outlet mall in the afternoon.  It was not as crowded as I thought.  I guess experiencing real crowdedness in Tokyo and NY toughened up my tolerance for the crowd.  

It was a very short visit, but it was so nice as usual.  I am so glad we are close enough to do this.  8 hours of driving is not too bad considering the 16 hour drive we had to do from CT.

And this time, we didn't go home through Savannah, we went through Atlanta.  This gave us extra 2-3 hours of driving, yet, it was worth it.  I was able to shop in H-Mart which is Korean super market.  I haven't gone to serious Asian store for over a year.  I went literally crazy.  As soon as I saw the vegetable section full of vegetables that are not available in east TN, my well thought-out grocery list lost its meaning.  I just shopped as if I haven't had any food for a week.  

We were able to have very down to earth Japanese breakfast next morning.

Natto on brown rice.  Miso soup with seaweed and tofu which is not cut to 1/4 inch cubes like restaurants.  Japanese people would cut tofu to much bigger than that!  Korean tofu is so tasty.

Natto is one of the most difficult food for non Japanese to eat because of the strong aroma for fermentated food.  But J likes it.  Actually he loves it. It's also very healthy.  We bought so many packages of them...

The days go by so quickly after the holiday.  Every year, November and December were busiest time for me because of Nutcrackers.  Since we moved and I am so far away from my clients, I was not busy in this season last year, and I felt very sad.  But this year I am busy finishing up the first semester at the college.  

I am finishing the project for my weaving class.  I enjoyed weaving so much.  It is really nice not to use any machinery.  I am so glad to discover the craft I can enjoy besides sewing.

After this is done, I will have to be in the serious Christmas mode!

Halloween

Halloween was most fun when my daughter was young.  I made costumes for her ever year.  But now that she doesn't go trick or treating anymore, it is not too exciting, sadly.  We had lots of Halloween candies to give out.  But they didn't appeal to me.  I am not a big fun of Halloween candies even though I love sweets.  So I decided to bake chocolate financiers with hazel nuts.

The combination of chocolate and hazel nuts is inspired by Nutella, obviously.  I just make hazel nut powder with a grinder.  

It was really rich and tasty.

I realized that I had missed baking.  Now that I go to school, it is hard to find time to bake.  I love the quietness in the kitchen and I like moving slowly to savor every moment of baking.  But that kind of baking hadn't happened for long time.  So I enjoyed baking these financiers in the Saturday afternoon.

We curved the pumpkin in the last minute.  I love the devilish smile my daughter designed.

Fall

The time passes so quickly when you are busy.  After I started the school, it's been non-stop!  Studying for general study classes, producing projects for art class, finishing painting the rooms, taking care of family, and my minuscule Etsy business.....  

But I took a moment to enjoy the colors of fall leaves.  In the afternoon sunshine, they were so beautiful.  Walking in the quiet woods with red, yellow and orange, listening the wolves hauling (but they are in the cage in the main area of the park so we didn't need to be afraid), it was great fall afternoon.

The lilly leaves get red, too.  I didn't know that!  I love water lilies.   We need to go back there when it gets warm to see them blooming.  

Now that it is getting cold, the farmers market is getting smaller.  In a way, it's easy to find a spot to park, yet it's a little sad to see some venders go.  

But I found chestnuts.  That made me smile.  I love chestnuts.  My grandmother boiled them and cut half, and served them with a spoon.  But I decided to roast them in a oven.  

I was going to use them for sweets, but they were so good as is, so they were all disappeared before I could use them for baking.  Now I have a reason to go back to the market.  Next time, I'll get more.  I'll make chestnut puree.

The curtain has been opened

The whole one year I spent after we moved to East Tennessee seemed so empty to me.  Because I didn't work at all.  I wasn't really happy.  It was like construction and painting after the construction, and new construction and more painting and new construction.......  Anyway, that is almost done.
I wanted to do something creative like when I was in North East.  I do miss the time.  Yes, I was almost going to drive myself sick by working like a mad woman.....
I was getting fed up with not moving forward.  I know it's not entirely true.  I learned a few tricks during the first year in TN.  I became much better at baking.  I got a new camera and started to really enjoy taking photos. I housebroke our puppy.  Even I don't have a green thumb, I was able to grow some tomatoes and basil in the little garden we made.  But I still felt empty.
But that period is over.  I now have a few small plans for my business.  And more importantly, I'm back in College.  I'm going to finish BFA that I never finished in NY.
Two weeks ago before the school started, I was thinking that the first year in TN had been a very long overture before the curtain was opened.  I liked the idea because I've worked at a theatre.  But now that the school has started, I am so busy.  But it feels good.

But August went by working on painting, getting ready for College...  I couldn't bake much.  But I am happy that I can make roll cakes pretty effortlessly these days.  

Summer Holidays are over!

I can't believe that the school started already.  Somehow, it starts early August in East Tennessee.  So I feel like it should be cooler, but it's still August, so it is still hot.  Summer is not over yet.

We had a busy first half of summer vacation.  We went to Florida, we attended Wedding, my daughter went to drama summer camp, and we went to Florida again. 

But last half of summer vacation was very slow.  We didn't have any plan, and the construction was going on, we practically stayed home everyday, not doing anything much.

It was not really fun for my daughter nor for me.  

So we are so glad to have school started.  And the construction is done, so we can now paint the newly renovated bathrooms and bedrooms.  Suddenly we are very busy!

Here are the sweets that I made during summer.  I was so fortunate to have good berries and peaches in June and July.  Almost all the sweets were made with local fruits.

Today marks one year from the day we came to TN form North East.  I feel like I didn't do anything this past year.  We had the cycle of having renovation going on, which means I get stressed out having workmen in the house all the time, then it's done and they are gone for a while but we can't relax, because we have to paint, then the next renovation starts.... we did that 3 times in the past year.  Our painting part is not done yet.  But after that, it's done for now.  I am glad.

I hope 2nd year of our new life in Appalachia will be nicer.  We couldn't go out much because either we wanted to do something at home while the workers are not around, or we had to paint.  I'd love to visit lots of places and check out some events.  I want to start working if it's possible.  I don't know if there are many chances like in North East for me to make dance costumes, but I would like to do something with my skill.

There are a lot of hopes for the future.

Tulle... My favorite fabric

Tulle is my favorite fabric.  I always loved it.  Ever since I saw a ballerina dancing on a stage as a child, I dreamed of the skirt.  I told my parents that I like to learn ballet.  They knew that I was not really active.   I was a child who spent time drawing and reading, never into any physical activities so they said it didn't seem like a good idea for them to send me a class.  They knew I was just dreaming about the costumes.

I drew pictures of princesses and I soon forgot that I even wanted to dance.  But I always liked watching ballet on TV or ballet themed movies, etc....

So I love making tutus.  Not those tutus for the little girls, the tutus for grown up dancers.  Gathering tulle makes me so happy.  And I have to say that my parents knew me so well.  They encouraged me to learn design and here I was making the costumes that I dreamed about.

Now that I left North East where I worked as a costumer, I miss making tutus.  So I started to make little tulle flowers.

Gathering tulle had calming effect on me.  

So I started to decorate my room with the tulle flowers.

Sleeping Beauty Ballet Craft Class (How to make a tissue flower)

When I was still back in North, I had a chance to teach a class for young ballerinas.  Not a dance class. A craft class.  I worked as a costumer, so a little craft is my cup of tea.
The summer ballet camps for young children usually include arts and craft class since they need a break from dancing.  But lots of times it is just to color the printed out ballerina pictures or putting stickers on the paper dolls.  I wanted to teach something about ballet along with the crafts they enjoy.  So I made the session into Ballet Craft Class.
I would tell the stories of the ballet.  Everybody, especially young children know the stories of Sleeping Beauty or Cinderella.  But what they know is usually Disney version or fairy tale version.  The story lines for the ballets are a little different.  I would bring in the pictures of stages, and describe how the stories go act to act.
I had realized how messy the gluing with preschoolers can get, I was always thinking about something that doesn't require glue.  The little dancers are so anxious to try on the headpieces or wings that they just finished and some end up with very sticky hair or leotards.  I needed to avoid that.
For the ballet Sleeping Beauty, I picked a rose for Act 1's climax, Rose adagio.  I made these flowers as a preschooler and I know it's not messy!  I can talk about very important part of the ballet, too.  The principal dancer has to be on her toe while the 4 prices give her rose one by one.  It's extremely difficult position to sustain.  It's so beautiful though.

Here is how to make the flower:

Now all the little ballerina has a rose.

Wrapping the little cakes

I baked brownies because my daughter was going on a small trip with her friend's family.  I wanted to give them something to eat on the road.  

If it was for us to bring along, I'd just put them in a tupperware.  But that's not cute nor inviting.  

When I bake, I do everything from scratch and spend good amount of time, so I want to make sure that will be eaten.  Therefore, I'd like to present the goods more nicely.

Recently when I brought mini cakes to friend's house, I used a basket form farmer's market.  Whoever picked the bluish green for the basket has a great sense in colors.  Colors of fruits stand out so well against the green.  My mini cakes had red and purple form raspberries and blackberries, I thought it was great box to use.

I wrapped the whole thing with wax paper and a ribbon.  It was ready to be a little gift.  

I like show what's inside.  Because it feels more casual.  It's not a fancy present so it shouldn't be so pretentious.

I wished if I had the box.  That could be thrown away easily and nice looking.  But farmers usually recycle them, so I rarely get to have them.  

I wanted to put the brownies in a open box so it's easy to grab and also visible.  But I wanted the brownies individually wrapped, so if they don't eat some of them, they still keep.  And the box has to be something disposable do they don't need to worry about returning it to me.

So I decided to make a basket with a brown paper bag.  I wrapped the brownies with wax paper and cooking string.  It's not too fancy but more inviting than plastic wrap.

This is how: