Family Food

Food is alway better when it is shared with family. I love the quiet dinners spent alone with Casey every night, but it was so great to enjoy meals family style. There was so many great meals, I wasn't able to get shots of everything, but here are some highlights!
Our first night in Redmond, Dustin, Amanda, Monica, and Casey (and me) all went out for sushi at a place called Yoko's we sat at the sushi bar and had a great time. We drank (except for Monica, she is only a freshman in high school!) Pear Momokawa Sake (maybe a little too much for me!) and ate a TON of sushi. So much that the tab was a little ridiculous. But we don't go out for dinners like that very often, so what what the hell, right!?? You can't put a price on fun times! anyways, we had 33 plates of sushi!!!
Here was some seared albacore tuna... so yummy!

The next night Betty made this soup called Love Letter Soup. I made the parmasean chip/scoop that is on top. I was so scared I was going to mess it up. I want to make this more often and I really, really enjoyed spending time with Betty in the kitchen. This will be a recipe that I will treasure since it has good family memories!

Betty made these delicious and beautiful lemon bars made from lemons grown on Casey's grandma Marie grew whle she was in Arizona. They were so good that I was a little greedy and may have ate too many!


The last night there Betty and Glen made BBQ skewers, some with chicken and some with steak, from this cool butcher shop in redmond. We need more cute local places like this in Portland!!!




Oh, and the first morning in town Betty made these adorable Mickey Mouse waffles. Just like Hello Kitty is my little icon, Mickey Mouse is Betty's trademark. I loved the arrangement!

The last morning we were there Bunny made his famous tamago roll for 7 people. I was so proud of him. I thought he looked cute here in the kitchen.

Family and Friends in the High Desert

Wow, I am going to go a little post crazy in the next few days regarding my trip. There is just so much for me to ramble on and on about. Since this blog is a journal of memories for me and my husband Casey (I am from now on going to call my hubby by his real name, instead of bunny. this blog started out as more of a private journal so there was a level of anonymity, but now that a few people actually read it, I have begun to feel really silly calling him Bunny. But I might slip up now and then because I really do call him bunny in real life a lot.) I really want to document this trip, esp. for when Casey gets homesick.
While we were in Redmond the family went out for a Canyon walk. Amanda has written about it in the past on her blog and since then I have always wanted to do it. It was so cool and I finally got to see a Rockchuck.
I really liked this photo of the family and the sun beaming in on them. That is Casey's stepfather, Glen, Amanda, Casey. His mom is sort of in the pic.
Here are some pretty.... would you call them desert flowers or plants or weeds? I don't know, but they are really pretty!

Here is me and Monica, Casey's stepsister. This pic is a little blurry, but I thought it was real cute. Cute factor always outweighs blurry factor!

Here is Monica and Casey on the ride to Redmond playing Nintendo and having a little giggle. Sooooo cute!

Here is Casey with his Mom Betty and his sister Kadie. Betty was so kind and giving and spoiled us while we were there. We really want to try and come visit more often. We havent been able to see Kadie in ages and she is so very sweet and cute. She might move to the coast which is closer to us than where she lives now, that would be awesome to see her more.

Saturday night we went to visit Casey's best friend since high school, Mike. He just moved to Bend, Oregon a few months ago from Portland. He is the nicest guy you will ever meet. We stayed the night and drank beer and played Yahtzee all night with Mike and his girlfriend Allyson who I sadly did not get a photo of. We both missed Mike A LOT, so it was very nice to see him. Casey already misses him. We are hoping Allyson and Mike will come stay at our house for a few days soon.

The last night in Rdmond we soaked in Casey's parent's hottub. It was so wonderful, it was snowing, and a bunch of stars were out. It really felt like we were on a vacation. This photo seems a little x-rated to me, even though we are clothed and everything. It was so much fun i had to put it up, plus the steam covers us up a little!!! You can see the snow falling in backround. Portland weather is so different than Bend/Redmond weather, but it was so refreshing. The air was crisp and seemed cleaner. I felt revitalized.

We were sad to say goodbye to everyone, but we are going to make an effort to stay in better contact. Here are some shots of the mountain I took through the car window on the ride home.

I Love Lucy

Oh man. Lucy is a doll. She is so sweet and full of personality. Amanda is the best mom ever!
Lucy let me hold her for a long time and she was amazing. I wish I could see her more often, I miss her already!
Whenever I spent time with her before, everything was so hectic, like at my wedding, so it was nice to be able to chill out with her for awhile.
She was so well behaved that she let Amanda and I talk over coffee while she played like a good girl.

Here was Lucy all bundled up during a Canyon Walk


And me and her on the way to The Redmond Antique Co-op. I really like us together in this pic, but I feel like my face takes over the screen. Kind of scary to me!


And her just being cute.

Here is the sweet little family all together. Mom and Dad, (Dustin and Amanda) and sweetheart Lucy

Back from Redmond!

Spending time at Bunny's family's house was so much fun, I have so many photos and things to go through. There was so much that we did and I am just going to start with the lovely time we spent at their house, where we stayed. The house is so cozy and relaxing.
We enjoyed the wood stove and the swing in the sunroom that overlooked the pretty backyard.



And the spring decorations, this easter egg was made by his grandmother Toshi, in 1981. Bunny's Mom was kind enough to let us take it home with us!


And we had fun hanging out in the yard so much!!!!





And I plan on showing so much more, but I have to post this picture of Lucy, Amanda and Dustin's daughter.


She is seriously the sweetest little girl I have ever met in my life! I had so much fun spending time with her and everyone else.
I am going to post the food we ate and so much more when I get through sorting all my photos tomorrow. We are so happy after spending such a great weekend in Central Oregon.

Spring Break!

Spring break is here and it is lovely! I am having a good time relaxing and soaking in the sakura.
I baked these Savory Soda Crackers the other day. The recipe is in the link. In addition to the recipe, I used buttermilk, cracked pepper, sea salt, basil, and chives. The were very flavorful and had a rustic quality to them. I am trying not to buy pre made snacks, therefore forcing myself to make my own treats. This has been working out well for me, plus it is cheaper.


Here are some more spring shots of my 'hood!
This somewhat hippy family down the street lives in a awesome huge old house with these geese that roam around! So cute! I love the sakura petals in the grass that they graze on. They aren't as loud as one would think, and the noise that they do make is pleasant. (at least to me)

Here are more tree blossoms. Not knowing what each type of blossom is, I call everything sakura. These I call Shiro sakura because Shiro is white in Japanese. I really like the white blossoms, because I love white flowers. The sakura in Portland is in full effect right now, leaving a wonderland feel everywhere!


I have no idea what type of tree blossom this is, but it is sort of wild, crawling everywhere. The color is so vibrant! This photo does not do it justice.

This is lavender, I think... There are over 200 types of lavender, so I am unsure. The bees are crazy for this plant.

This squirrel (you may have to enlarge the photo to see it) was so angry with me for taking photos of him, which me made me like him even more! At some points I feared that he was going to jump on my face!


Exciting news! Tomorrow morning we are heading to Central Oregon to visit Bunny's side of the family until Sunday! That means I will get to hang out with my sister in law Amanda, aka Violaceous!! I am very excited to see her and everyone else, some we haven't seen since our big day last September.

This was us leaving our wedding after saying goodbye to everyone, riding off into the sunset. We really did ride off into the sunset, because the sun was actually setting at that time!

Best day of my life!!!!!!! I know Bunny really misses his family and I miss them too, so this will be a fun trip!

Spring Sweets

This weekend the weather was gray, but still pretty!

Friday we made blueberry crepes together, they were really good. Our first time making crepes. I really want to get a crepe pan, because the cast iron skillet is big and bulky.

Easter was low-key, bunny had to work, so I hung around the house and made more cupcakes. I made vanilla cupcakes with strawberry whipped cream frosting.

I really like whip cream frosting because it is so airy and not too sweet or heavy. I got the recipe here and here. I did everything the same as the recipe except I used a little less sugar in the cupcakes and no sugar in the whip cream (the jam is sweet enough for me)

A few of the cupcakes I topped with Moonstruck chocolate truffles.

I really want to make more full sized cakes (9 inch), but cupcakes are so much easier to bake since I am limited to using a toaster oven (which I don't really mind using) and they seem to handle the uneven heat distrubution better.
Thanks for all the good luck on my finals from everyone, I passed my classes with A's all around this term! Besides all the support I get at home, I really think baking has helped me. For some reason baking while studying throughout the day kept me sane and focused. I really hope this method works for next term! I have had so much fun going to school and spending time at home.

Happy Easter!

Here's to a very happy Easter Sunday! To anyone and everyone!

Finals Week and writer's block

So, I have been at my desk ready to hammer out my last paper. it is an essay about the pros and cons of online courses. I cannot write the essay because it has to be written in class during the final, but I can prepare for it. For some reason that is giving me a major case of writer's block. Instead of staring at the computer, I am doing a post instead!
I have been walking a lot, going with bunny to his work early so we can get coffee at Extracto and go to the neighborhood park.
I really would like to learn how to do steamed milk hearts like this!
Here is the park, I think the huge trees look pretty with the sakura.

And here are more flowers/nature I have taken recently:



I had no idea that rhubarb started growing here this early! I love it, and grew up with it growing in our family garden. I would like to do some baking with it later this year. I did plant some quinalt strawberries last week! Hopefully those turn out well.

On my way home from his work I stopped by the thrift store and scored these pyrex dishes, which I collect. Goodwill has been asking obscene prices for stuff like this lately, but I got these together for under four dollars, I can do that. I love pyrex, but i am not willing to pay ebay prices for them.

Bunny has been putting together succulent and cactus terrariums, they are so pretty, here is one:

I made some more of Average Rai's flaxseed pretzels, I cannot get enough of them. We had them for dinner with turkey meatballs and fontina cheese. Yum!!!!

Things that made me happy this weekend

Blueberry Muffins!


Choco Eggs from Little Paris! I was saving these for a special day next week, but I had chocolate emergency! Oops.


Flowers, Moss, Mushrooms, Succulents, and Sakura, all my favorite things to see on walks!!!










We took a lot of walks this weekend, trying to make the most of seeing all the new blooms. We stopped at my new favorite coffee shop in our neighborhood, called Blend.

On the way home from picking up some groceries, stopping to check out the cherry blossoms.

Today I got a haircut here! It is the shortest I have ever had it, It is the best haircut I had ever got! I updated a few Sakura photos in my post below. I really cannot get enough cherry blossoms. It is so special to me! Back to the schoolbooks, it is finals week for me!!!!!

Neighborhood Sakura

On my walk home from the bus stop yesterday I snapped some photos of the beautiful blossoms on the street I live on. So here is an influx of flower photos! I was waiting to take photos of when they are more abundant in the city and the sidewalks are pink with fallen petals, but I couldn't wait. Plus for some strange reason last year I didn't get any photos of the cherry blossoms. I think maybe because I was working 12 hours a day with a 3 hour commute? We plan on driving in the mountains soon where all the cherry orchards are and all you see is Mountain Hood and blossoms. It is magical. You see not only cherry blossoms, but plum, orange, and many other blossoms as well. Cannot wait for that!





You can see that the weather changed a ton on my walk. I was only out for about a half hour and it was so bright that it hurt my eyes, then rained, then sunny, then rain, then sunny again! And at one point raining and sunny at the same time.
A little bit ago I posted a picture of a flower that was about ready to bloom in my front yard. I have been monitoring it with pics and here it is bloomed. I was surprised that it was this color, i thought it was going to be dark purple. I am much more fond of this pale shade.

Here was my bento yesterday. It was yakisoba and the top had mango coconut jell-o from japan, and a little piece of unagi, and some granola for breakfast

Warning, this is not the end of sakura posts!

Tarts and Bentos

You can tell that I have a paper due when I bake a lot. It is nice because I can study and take time out to bake and it calms me.
Saturday I made lemon poppy seed shortbread cookies. They were a nice little snack to have around, I just took a plain shortbread cookie recipe and added 3 tablespoons of lemon juice and about 4 tablespoons poppy seed. You have to chill in the fridge a lot longer since the lemon juice adds more moisture. I have been craving citrus sweets.

Then Sunday was my brother law Andrew's birthday, and I wanted to make something that I have never made before. I have never made a tart and I have always wanted to try a recipe from my French-American culinary hero, the Latartine Gourmande. She has beautiful recipes, but her food photography has a special place in my heart. The recipes also have interesting stories that accompany the food. So I decided to be brave and try her Lime Cream Tart with Sweet Almond tart shell. I was in the kitchen all day! Her recipe is for the tarts to be bite sized, but I don't have petit four tins, so I made one tart with my tart pan from daiso.
The shell was fairly easy.... I wish mine was a little more pretty, but that will just take more practice on my end.

The lime custard was harder, I cooked it in a water bath on too high a temp and it curdled. When this happend, my phone was ringing and Andrew and his girlfriend showed up all at once. I thought I was going to have a heart attack. I let it cool and took a break. After it chilled in the fridge for awhile, it got it's proper consistency back!!!! All was well in the world again!!!!!
I added a little shaved dark chocolate to the custard and filled the tart shell.
The tart is very yummy, best enjoyed in small doses so that you don't overdose on the flavor. Funny thing was that we never ended up eating the birthday tart on Andrew's b-day, we were all too full from dinner!


Here is our bentos that we had today, we both worked and I finally got to enjoy my bento at the office. The sakura shaped veggies are in honor of the cherry blossoms I am currently enjoying here in Portland. On walks I will stop and just soak in the blossoms at random. Each day there are more and more!
Bunny's had pork and salad, mine was my favorite bread and cheese with a salad.

Royal Mail

This weekend I was greeted with a package via Royal mail from my blogging friend Little Paris in the U.K. We did a swap together and I was overjoyed with what she sent me. It was very thoughtful and I really loved everything. I hope my package to her arrives soon and that she enjoys what I sent as well. I have never done a swap before and I was nervous to make sure everything was nice enough.
But my package was just perfect and here is a sampling of what I got, there was more, but I plan on including it in future posts!
Here is the cute bag everything came in!

And this kawaii Hello Kitty stamp! I love it!

This was, I think, my favorite item! Face powder from Japan! I love anime eyes, and this girl's anime eyes take the cake! It is very nice powder, too.

Thank you Little Paris, your kindness made my day!

bento picnic in the park

Yesterday we had a great day, my mom told me to not come to the office, so I had another full day with Bunny. The bad news is that when she arrived at her office, it had been broken into! Someone took the computer I use and a dvd player she uses for training employees. How sad. It's weird, she had a brand new flat screen t.v. there and it stayed. Must have been too big too carry or something. Well, it is a good thing she has insurance, but it's still hard, she just started the office up not that long ago.
We decided to go for a picnic, the weather was overcast, but it was still enjoyable to be outdoors.
Columbia Park is about 5 blocks away from my house. I love this park because of all the trees. It reminds me of Little Red Riding Hood. This park has a community pool that I go swimming at sometimes, they also offer art classes in an old cottage on site.

Our bentos had broiled salmon with dill, brown rice, and curried peas. And I love my little soy bottles from Daiso!
We also had cubed Gyurue cheese, left over from the beer bread, I love this cheese so much, it makes me drool a little when I eat it!
For dessert we had these cute little "Le Petit Ecolier" (means "the little schoolboy" in french) that bunny brought home from his work the other day. They were lovely.
The bentos were the perfect picnic food, easy to transport and clean up. It was such a pleasant afternoon, I can't wait to come up with more creative bentos in the future. I want to make them cuter and more creative. I am also excited for when the weather is nicer and our picnics won't just be in the park, but also in the Mountain Hood forest!!!! But I am totally content with the beautiful park for now! Bunny is back at work today, so that means its back to the books, to study for finals. Wish me luck!

pita crackers

Yesterday was so refreshing! We ran errands in the sun and got home and Bunny planted a bunch of flowers. I can see some of our more interesting flowers popping up. Not that I don't appreciate all of the daffodils! I love them and there are so many in our yard. The cuttings really brighten up the house. If you enlarge this photo, you can see a flower poking out, ready to bloom!

I am trying to remember the name of this flower, and I know it is common, but I cannot think of it for the life of me. After gardening and housework we took a lovely walk and when we got home we were famished, and after last night's rich and heavy beer bread I wanted something a little healthier and light.
I made whole wheat flatbread to have with hummus. The recipe is here. It is insanely easy to make and very savory. The only thing I did different from the recipe was I sprinkled sea salt on top and I baked them a lot longer to make them more pita chip style. I served them with smoothies, which I haven't made in so long! I used to have one everyday after work last spring/summer. These were made with banana, mixed frozen berries, soy milk, hemp powder, and plain yogurt. I felt like a million bucks after I drank it.


Isn't Nigel just too cute? He looks like a bobblehead in these photos. I feel bad because right after these were taken he puked everywhere. He is a little under the weather, so I am keeping an eye on him today.

beer battered cheese bread

Today was just a delightful start of spring day. The sun was sparkling and I went with bunny to have espresso by his work at this cute coffee house called Extracto. They are in my top 3 of favorite places to have coffee at. I am a coffee snob, or should I say I just love good cappuccinos. I think Oregonians are just programmed to love coffee. We didn't stay long because the weather was to beautiful that after I dropped him off at work I ended up walking 10 miles home. It didn't seem like it and I made a lot of stops, I wish I would have had my camera. Portland on a sunny day has amazing spring seasons. autumn is my favorite time of year, but Spring in Oregon makes you feel revitalized! I am finally getting my full energy back after being ill so much. It lingered for so long.
I made Beer Batter Cheese Bread tonight from a recipe out of Cook's Country. I really like Cooks Country because of the test kitchen. The bread was made with Sapporo beer and Gruyere cheese. I added chives to the mix. I really enjoyed the crunchy top. It was super easy to make, it took less than an hour to make the whole thing, including prep. I ate way too much, and I am still really full!

The Golden Spruce

I have been totally consumed with my final essay for the class I am in. It is an essay about the book we read in the class, the Golden Spruce by John Valliant. It is a very insightful book about the logging industry in the Pacific Northwest and nature in general. So good, but so hard for me to read because I love nature, I love living in the Pacific Northwest, and it is a brutal book, with horror stores about the effects of logging. For someone like me that loves the forest, but isn't exactly "green", it is hard to face the reality of the book. There are, however, many beautiful scenes in the book as well, but I am sensitive to sad subjects such as this one. So the book and the paper have been hard for me to write about, but I have enjoyed the learning process. I guess it is good for me to be forced to learn about subjects like this in school, since i would rather read Martha Stewart than about current events. I highly recommend anyone who lives in the Northwest reading it because you learn so much about our natural history.

The crock pot has come in handy this week since i have been too busy to worry about lunch/dinner. I made this chicken noodle soup and threw almost everything in my fridge in it! It was the best noodle soup I think I have ever made. After reading average Rai's post about making chicken noodle soup it made me want some. Tomorrow is my baking day and I want to make a bread to have with it. 6 quarts of soup is a lot for 2 people!
And during my "freak out" moments writing my paper yesterday, I would take breaks and turn my little erasers from Daiso into magnets for the fridge. These are just too cute to me to use as an eraser! I love miniature things so much, I don't know why. When I was little I was obsessed with decorating my doll house.

Some exciting news to me is that I saw the first cherry blossoms today! Yay! They were downtown and I can't wait until they are everywhere! Also, last night Bunny brought me home matcha cheerios! They are sooooo good!

Matcha Madness!

I made matcha cupcakes last night, some I left plain and some I served with Matcha infused whipped cream. I really need to get more practice using my new frosting gun. I enjoyed the little cakes, but I think I am forever on a quest for more matcha flavor! I think I could have dumped my whole tin of matcha in the batter and would have loved it!. I also got this soba plate in the picture from Daiso.

Yesterday I received a surprise in the mail! Bunny's Mom sent me this beautiful origami paper for getting an A on my cell phone essay. This is very high quality origami paper, made by the same company that made my mug with the bunny on it in the photo above. It feels so good to have people send such good thoughts your way! I have to say, I have a very thoughtful Mother-in-law.
I will use this as motivation to do my best on the current essay I am working on. This paper is currently is aching my brain because this is the end of term essay. I have really enjoyed this class, however. She also included this beautiful card which I promptly added to my cabinet collage project.

Here is the some more Daiso stuff. I suppose it is my thing lately to end my posts with Daiso stuff. I cannot get enough of Daiso! Everyday the little trinkets I got there put a smile on my face!
Here are my new Bunbun slippers!

And here is my new mouse pad, I love the worried egg and his egg friend looks like he is comforting him. So kawaii!

Tagged/Finds

It has been a month, I think since I have made a trip to the thrift store down the street from my house. Now that I have been to Daiso, I can officially stop my thrift store diet! I am not trying to spend too much money, however, because I don't like how they have been pricing things. They sell used Ikea stuff for more than Ikea sells it at their store! Ugh...
I did manage to find this cool wallet for Bunny yesterday, and it is actually vintage, not a reproduction. It matches his shoes and his style a lot. The cashier had hid it, because he wanted it for himself! But I found it, you can't hide the retro stuff from me!!!!

Here are a few more Daiso scores. I am totally overwhelmed by my Daiso stuff. Today I am going to organize my bento cupboard and try to sort out everything I have gotten. I have tried to do this all week, but I end up just playing with everything like a child!
Here is the newest addition to my crazy amount of coffee mugs. I love it! The happy kitty face reminds me of how happy I get when I have a cappuccino!

And here are my generic Bodum style cups. I thought that these were a great deal for 1.50 and they are ultra light, have indents for good gripping, and handle hot liquid. I still really want a set of double walled bodum glasses glasses.

Here is a a couple cute little things, the first is a picnic mat, I got matching cups, too. I am waiting to use this for when we go Sakura viewing in the mountains this spring.

And here are some cute cutters, I especially love the bunny! I love Daiso's funny english that they put on their products.

I have been tagged by Dreamer's Loft for a meme. I LOVE her blog. Here is a sample photo of the beautiful treats she makes:

She takes amazing pictures. Her site is about the pastries she bakes, shots of Singapore, her beautiful diving expeditions, and just all around amazing photography. She has recipes for treats that I have wanted to make for a long time but have only seen in non-english publications. I was very flattered that she thought of me.
I have only been part of blogging since November and I still am learning everything about it, so I just only found out what tagging was. I am supposed to pick out 5 bloggers and tag them. I don't really know 5 bloggers who haven't already been tagged, but I can refer you to the blogs I read at the bottom of this page. I love reading blogs, it inspires me to bake better, take better photos, and learn about other cultures. I have gotten to know my sister in law better, I have only been able to meet her in person twice, but blogging has helped me get to know her. One thing have found that is amazing to me is how well a lot of people from other counties English is. Better than mine! I know a tiny amount of Japanese, but not much. Makes me want to improve my English skills.
The Meme rules:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. Share 5 facts about yourself.
3. Tag 5 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).
4. Let them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs
I hope I am not breaking rules by not personally tagging anyone! I honestly don't know 5 bloggers who haven't been tagged already.
5 things about me:
1. As much as I love Japanese culture, I have never been to Japan. We really want to go, but we want to do it right. I am hoping to go with Bunny after I get my first degree.
2. My dream for the future is to get my master's in Molecular Biology and work in a lab at Oregon Health and Science University. After that we want to adopt a baby. We would like to have a cottage in Mountain Hood and have a small farm.
3. I love rock and roll, especially classic rock. I have been collecting old records since I was 12, but don't buy much anymore.
4. I never watch TV, except for PBS. I never go to the movies, either. I watch a little anime and asian drama/sitcom, and nature documentary. So why do I have a raging online celebrity gossip addiction? Most of the time I have no idea who they are talking about, but I can't stop reading. It's out of control!
5. My screen name BunBun comes from my love of Chinese steamed pork buns (DIMSUM) It is a nickname that we have for each other. Also, because I like japanese artwork of Usagi (rabbit) a lot.