Shopping and Food Therapy

I have been a little frazzled with school and trying not to think about my dream job, which has been hard because it is pretty much always on my mind. It is a slow process, however, so I am trying to not focus on it. My sister in law, Amanda, her husband Dustin, and their adorable daughter Lucy were in town for a few days and they helped relax me, we all went to Uwajimya together, and on Tuesday Amanda and I went shopping in local boutiques, which was so much fun. Except I sort of took her on a wild goose chase in the rain, but she was a great sport about it. I can't believe I did not take a single photo!
Then we all went out to the Concordia Ale House for dinner and I had one and a half beers. I think they went straight to my head and this morning I had a pretty intense hangover! My head is still throbbing a little. Why? I think I need to drink more water.




Here are some things I picked up while we were out and about, which all was nice to comfort my hangover with this afternoon.
Orange Page is my favorite magazine in the universe! I have gone off about it before here, but lets go over it again, just for fun. It is a Japanese housewife (or just women's lifestyle) magazine that comes out weekly in Japan. The price surprises me, I pay 3.80 for it here at Kinkokunia bookstore, which is quite a bargain for an imported Japanese publication. I know that the recipes are in Japanese, but they are very inspiring to look at the beautiful photos, many of which are step by step. If you click on the Orange Page link and hit the book icon, it will load a player that lets you browse through pages of the last few magazines. My grandmother in law, Toshi has gone through some of them for me and given me the ingredient list in English, then I follow the photograph instruction. But mostly what I get out of it is general food styling ideas, fashion, craft, and decor inspiration.
While in Portland, Amanda and Dustin went to the Decorette Shop and she got me some awesome cake/food decor! I am so excited. But i am waiting to show most of it until I bake some things. But these little gnomes are going in my garden area, so I took some photos today! It was such a sweet gesture on Amanda's part.

When we went to Bolt (a fabric boutique in Portland) I got a little bit of kawaii Japanese fabric. Today I made a little pillow for my shih tzu, Nigel. He is always stealing my pillow, so I hope he starts using this little one! I know, I probably shouldn't let him sleep next to me, but I enjoy it!



And, to end off a long day, I needed something hearty to boost my spirits. I made cheesy rice with bulk pork breakfast sausage wrapped in egg. It was just greasy enough to make me feel good!

It was so nice to visit with Amanda and her little family! I hope that I get to see them more often and just spending time with her gave me some creative inspiration!

Lazy Weekend/Dreams for the future

This weekend was marvelous, we hung around the house most of the time. Things are going to start getting really busy for us soon, so it was really nice to take some time out to enjoy not doing much. Thursday night Casey brought home a large amount of asparagus from his work, so we made Asparagus Tempura, with rice.
Here is the batter mix

Served up:


In a bento for the next day's lunch

For dessert we had these vanilla soy milk ice cream banana splits, topped with coconut wafer cookies.

I love soy ice cream, not really to be healthy, I just really like the taste better than dairy ice cream. But I love both!
Here are some new plants we added to the garden over the weekend.
More hens and chicks cactuses:


They have giant ones on sale at our neighborhood grocery store, fred meyers
Here are some african daisies, they are so pretty! Casey took these awesome shots.


More various flowers from the garden, I really like the the ant on the yellow flower, ants are everywhere right now!



On a walk home from the grocery store, i noticed several sakura clumps that got blown off trees during a windstorm earlier last week. I grabbed a bunch of them and made little dome bouquets for the living room. They lasted about two days and I felt they were a nice tribute to say goodbye to a season of beautiful sakura that means so much to me.


A lot of great things are happening around here in our household. I am trying out for a job that coincides with my goals for the future. I am keeping it undercover for now, because I don't want to jinx my dreams. But if it does come true, everything will change for the better for us. I haven't been able to sleep, I am so excited! One clue is that if I get this job they will pay for a lot of my tuition. It is located at my dream university, the one I aspire to attend as a student someday. If i don't get a job here, all is not lost, but this is the king of all jobs! My sister in law, Amanda is town for a few days! I am meeting up with her later today, I am so excited!
Also, I have been setting up my Flickr account. I have so many photos, it is hard to organize. For awhile I was accidently uploading duplicate photos, and not knowing it. I have fixed this problem, and now I am working on organizing into sets properly. I will have a garden and baking section, so check it out! The photostream is a little messy at the moment, but I have the sets pretty well organized. If this dream job doesn't work out, I have been offered a job at a camera store in Downtown Portland. That would be a fun part time job, I think. But I really want this secret job. It is all I can think about!!!!

Whole Wheat Baking/Gingham Love

On Monday I was all set to make these Chocolate Raspberry Sandwich Cookies, and after all the ingredients were set out on the counter, ready to go, I realized that I was out of all-purpose flour. What? I just bought a 5 pound bag less than two weeks ago! I guess that is what baking flatbread everyday does to my flour supply! I didn't realize that 2 cups of flour could really add up. Anyways, I didn't feel like going to the store, and I also didn't feel like giving up completely, so I made them with whole wheat flour. I think that the flour was mixed with a little white flour, but I am really not sure because I can't remember if I added any back when I filled my jar. I couldn't believe it, the cookies came out moist and chewy, with no sign of whole wheat to distract the cooky's flavor! I think the cocoa powder disguised the healthy parts of the cookie! Casey doesn't even know that they have whole wheat in them and he has been eating these for a couple days. I haven't kept it a secret, I just forgot to tell him. I really like these cookies, but chocolate desserts are an every once in a awhile thing for me. After a day of eating a lot of chocolate I am ready for something else, like vanilla. Oh, that also reminds me. These cookies taste really good on top of vanilla ice cream!
I am going to put the recipe in the comment section after I am done posting this.


So, the flatbread obsession/craze hasn't stopped around here. This recipe also did well with whole wheat flour, just needs a little longer in the oven. I normally have a rule with myself not eat "cute animals" such as deer, rabbits, ducks, and lamb. Not that I judge anyone who does, I just already feel a little guilty about eating meat, so I decided to not eat anything that I wasn't raised on eating. Well, my petty little morals can always be compromised and I ended up making Lamb Gyros for the both of us. Normally I buy Casey a patty and get myself a beef patty. While I was at the meat counter, I thought this is silly, and bought all lamb. I made the gyros with bulk lamb sausage, spinach, whole wheat garlic flatbread, and homemade tzatziki sauce (recipe from Kalyn's Kitchen). I really liked it, but I would like to try and stick to my no lamb rule in the future, just to make myself happy. Plus, it is so greasy! and the color of the meat stays pink no matter how long you cook it! Whats up with that? Oh, and the drink in the background is a peach strawberry smoothie. Lately if I don't have a smoothie everyday I start to feel like a corpse.
The weather in Portland has awful! I don't mind the rain, but the wind is what is annoying! I have been doing little projects inside, including a lot of homework, but I scored this massive amount of gingham curtain fabric at goodwill for 99 cents! So I made this little half apron today.


I did not sew the trim, unfortunately, it was all ready on there. All I did was cut it and sew a button on the back. What I would like to know is: should I add and embellishments, a bib, pockets, etc? Or should I just leave it alone??? I am limited in skills, lack of sewing machine, so easy ideas/feedback is what I am looking for.
I LOVE GINGHAM! Really, I love it too much! I have matching kitchen slippers from Japan that I am excited to wear this with!

Sugary Sundrops/Succulent Appreciation Day

Thursday I made these little sugar cookies (it seems like the only cookie I bake is some sort of variation of the sugar cookie, but they are very popular with the cookie monster that I am married to!) topped with Sundrops. Has anyone ever tried Sundrops before? They are organic M&Ms and they have a taste that is extremely addicting. it is hard for me to bake these cookies because I end up eating a ton of Sundrops while I am baking them!


So this weekend (weekends for us are Friday and Saturdays) the weather was COLD. The sun came in and out and when it did peek through the gray skies, we would rush outside and do some gardening. I am so proud of Casey's work, he planted a ton of different tomatoes varieties, basil, artichokes, more lavender, and more strawberries.
Here are some flowers that got planted this weekend:




I am not sure what this is, it is a perenial, and has the prettiest little flowers on it, here is a bud taken in macro mode.



And Casey planted a lot of succulents which I am happy about because succulents make him happy the same way Sakura blossoms make me happy. Here are some macro shots that he took of his newest plants, after a light rain.



We even got one for the bedroom.
The more plants we have around and fresh cut flowers, the more alive and cheerful the house feels. We went through a little phase where we were very busy and most of our plants died, it feels really good to be back into the swing of things again!

Ikea Shelf Update!

The shelf is up! Well, it has been up since the evening of my last post, but I have had the hardest time getting a decent photo of it. Anyways, I love it and it is nice to be able to display my vintage stuff better and more safely. The shelf actually was really easy to put up, it was the fact that we needed huge screws to hang it, and that took a minute to track down.



Here is my secondary shelf next to it.

The Better Homes and Gardens cookbook is a shout-out to my Mom, who has had that cookbook since- well actually I have no idea when she got it, but probably close to 1962, when my father and her got married.I love how used it is, you can tell her favorite recipes by the burn marks and dog-eared pages. I love everything on the shelves because either it came from family or Casey and I found it together.
The Bambi book on the main shelf we got on our honeymoon when we made a pit stop at the thrift store. The illustrations are done like paintings and I have always wanted to frame some of the pages, but Casey won't let me. I know he is right about not tampering with the book, but sometimes I have come really close to just doing it anyways while he is at work. Now that I have the shelf to display the book, there are no more worries of a Bambi book massacre! One time I even bought frames for the pages while he was at work, but I forgot to hide them and he found the frames with the book sitting out and he grabbed them and confiscated everything!!!!
Bambi is our little theme, I have talked about in the past.
Spring cleaning has been going really well, we now have a van full of Goodwill donations. I just have one more area to clean out, which is my closet, which is the least favorite mission and I am blogging right now instead of doing it.

Spring Cleaning

Every season, I try and do major overhaul of the house, and clean out every room. I get rid of things we don't need and donate them to goodwill. By doing this, it sorta justifies my new purchases. Also, our house is very old and seems to get dusty and dirty faster than normal. I bought this shelf at Ikea this week, I am so excited about it because now I can display all my canisters and everything and free up a lot of space. I have to brag a little here, I don't drive and I spontaneously stopped by Ikea on my way home from work on Monday and bought the shelf. It came in huge packaging and I had to carry it home from the train station (about a mile or 2)..... in my high heels! I felt like a buff monster when I got home!
So just like every purchase I make at Ikea that requires assembly, what should be very easy never is for me, and the shelf is still sitting in my kitchen and this is what is going on in here right now.....

It will be up tonight! With school and work, trying to get our garden growing, and not driving this little shelf has had some delays. But I love it, and my kitchen will be really organized by the end of tomorrow.
I have been picking up plants and flowers every time I head to the grocery store (which is often) to get our gardens going. I am so thrilled that we are actually doing what we always talk about doing with the yard, year after year. I am going to have a little photo session soon with what we have done, but for now here are a few things that I have going.


Haha, does a weed count as something I have going on in the yard? I love dandelions, though. We do some weeding in our yard, but I don't like the idea of having a perfectly manicured yard. So I can appreciate the "weeds" just a little!
More blossom photos! I can never get enough!





I haven't posted in awhile about any thrift store finds, but I have been going to the goodwill a lot lately to stock up on plant pots, and while I was there the other day I scored these cute sauce cups for 50 cents total for the set.


They are made by Kotobuki, one of my favorite Japanese manufacturers, they make quality Japanese housewares. Casey's work sells their products at a price I can't afford, even with our discount, so I am overjoyed whenever I find anything by them at the thrift store.

what a weekend

This weekend was so beautiful! The weather has been around 70 degrees and it has been fantastic. We had an event filled weekend. I am still getting used to my camera, so it has been taking some time and practice, there are so many new things to learn. Friday we went to Washington/Forest Park, which has the Japanese gardens. We walked over 7 miles through the park, which his amazing and it doesn't even feel like you are in Portland anymore.

We decided to walk home, which totaled our hike around 20 or miles. We stopped at shops along the way and took our time.

This was on the Broadway Bridge on our way home.
When we came home my brother in law Micah came over and stayed the night, it was so good to see him! We had dinner and hung out. The next day we took him on a walk around our neighborhood and went to Blend, our local coffee shop

After that Micah headed back home to Salem, and we did some major yard work. Casey started up a whole vegetable garden, with Corn, Cauliflower, Spinach, herbs, and strawberries. I am working on the container gardening for our porches, which has Wheatgrass

more herbs,

and I planted some flower starters. I will show more pics when we have it all finished, which should be tonight.
I did bake and do a lot of cooking, but nothing I haven't posted about already. I did make this Sake no Dengaku from my favorite cookbook series Quick and Easy from Joie,Inc.


I don't use many cookbooks anymore (preferring online recipes) but I do use my Japanese and Chinese books still. This recipe is simple, basically Broiled Salmon with a glaze, that when broiled, produces a yummy shell coated over the fish. I eat salmon ALOT, but I would have to say that this is the best recipe I have ever tried for it. These cookbooks are pretty old, and they are still sold at the Japanese stores in Portland due to their popularity. I have learned a lot from these books, how to prepare sushi rice, make miso soup properly, etc. The recipes vary quite a bit from the Americanized sushi books that are sold at major book stores.
I also have made that flat bread from my last post every single day last week! It has been so nice to have fresh baked bread everyday.
I did update more Sakura photos from our trek to the Japanese Gardens here,
and here are some flowers that are currently blooming at my house. This time of year it is so hard to keep up the Spring changes. One day a flower will be in full bloom and I will forget to get a picture and the next day it will be gone!






Well, I am off to enjoy the weather some more. We just put up our hammock in the backyard and it is supposed to start raining again tomorrow (which really is a good thing) and I want make the most of the good weather while I have it.

Fantastic Day/New Camera

Well, that didn't take very long! I got a new camera today and I am so happy! I really thought I was going to have to wait longer, but I ended up being able to get one and I am overjoyed! My last camera broke due to me, not the camera. I had a half broken SD card inside it and it broke the connector pins off. So I won't be careless like that this time! It is a Samsung S1050, I really liked my Samsung L73, and I feel familiar with it. I am still getting used to it because it has a lot new features. Thank goodness for tax season!
As I was walking home I couldn't wait and I was on a quiet street, so I ripped the packaging open and took these pics.



This week I have been making Flatbread from this month's issue of Martha Stewart. This recipe is so easy, which is so nice because it is something I can bake even on a busy day. The bread rises really fast and there is only a minute of kneading so you can mix it up really fast after work and relax for about 45 minutes and then bake it for 10 minutes. I sprinkled garlic powder on top. I made some last night with chicken, pesto, roasted peppers, and fontina cheese.
Tonight I made some with chicken, marinara sauce(store-bought), spinach, and mozzarella cheese. The recipe makes 4 sandwich style flatbreads.

I also made a pear cake, which I didn't have the best luck with. =( I have more batter, so I will try it again and see!

Stressed!

Oh no! i broke my camera today. I think I may have a heart attack!

Rainy Days

This weekend it rained a lot in the mornings.

It made for lazy mornings, which meant there was no trip to the Japanese Gardens.


Since we don't drive right now, there is a lot of hiking involved to get to the gardens (which is fun) and the rain just didn't give us the energy to do it. I think the sakura should still be around the gardens next weekend. The sun did come out in the afternoon, so we headed out and walked to the University of Portland campus, which is not far from us at all. The campus overlooks the Willamette River and downtown Portland. The campus is beautiful, with lots of greenery and old buildings.

There is a lot of picnic spots overlooking the river and so we brought a little snack picnic, with hard boiled eggs. I love this printed foil from Daiso. Except I never want to use it because I don't want to run out!


I love this view of Portland because it has so much going on. In the very back you can see Downtown Portland, you can also see the hills and the industrial boats. There were a lot of pretty flowers framing this view.




When we came home I made Jalapeno Cheese Cornbread


I got the recipe from Epicurious.com. I really like this recipe because it only calls for a little sugar, and more cornmeal than the average recipe. I used Fontina cheese, because I think cheddar cheese gets too greasy in baked goods. There was just the right amount of jalapeno in the batter because it made my husband happy, but I could also handle it. If it got to be to hot for me, I just picked a little out. Some I made as muffins and some I made into wedges.
The weather was just fine for a lot of neighborhood walking and the rain is nice because then we get raindrops on flowers when we take photos outside. That is my favorite!




Great times! I did a lot more baking and cooking, which I will talk about later...
I did find this gorgeous Japanese Photography magazine that I can't wait to get! It is about female photographers, it is called Joshi Camera.

Looks so amazing! I found about it through The La Tartine Gourmande.

Sunny Days

The weather has been stunning here in Portland, which has made for a great week. We have been taking long walks and the birds are chirping, everything coming out of hibernation.
The best news is that i have been able to wear shorts!
Yesterday I made these Snickerdoodles, taken from the Joyofbaking.com. In the recipe, the author even gives the history of the cookie. Snickerdoodles are so simple but so good. I halved the recipe making 3 dozen. I ran out of white sugar after I made the dough, I rolled them in light brown sugar and cinnamon. I think I like that better, it gave it a little crispy shell.


Later that afternoon we went for a walk about an hour before sunset. Here is my husband. These ground succulents are his favorite, so I really love these pictures of him admiring them. I just love him in general!



Here are couple highlights from the walk




This mossy path is so lush and pretty. I really love moss!

For dinner we had Bacon wrapped Turkey Mignon. I got them fresh at Trader Joes. Here is a leftovers in Casey's bento. The green stuff in the background is Edamame Hummus. I never knew the two would be so yummy and refreshing together! I love the turkey mignon because it is on a stick and you can eat like a lollipop if you wanted to!

I love spring!!!!! Tomorrow we are going to try and go to the Japanese Gardens and view the sakura!!!!!!!!!

Redmond Antique Co-op

Last Redmond post, I swear! I just had such a great time... My mother in law, Betty and my sister in law Amanda took Casey and me to the town's Antique co-op. So much fun! Amanda has written about in the past on her blog. I love vintage stuff, and the prices were reasonable, a nice change from Portland. The different booths were all so interesting and set up very nicely. I love taking photos in stores, and this place was set up so that I could do so without too many people noticing. Here are a few things I noticed, but did not buy:

I love this stewardess thermos!

And these old spice tins were bright and cheerful.

This was the store front, sign is super cute, we are not so photogenic in this pic, it was cold!

What I did buy that day was this gingham jar set! I love it, it is so delicate and pretty. I love gingham, I think I talk about it a lot on this blog.

While we were there I fell in love with this vintage espresso pot, which thanks to google I found it is called a Moka Pot. I have never seen a ceramic topped pot like this.

I didn't buy it, it was 25 dollars, same price pretty much for the one I bought at IKEA, here is that one:

Not so cute is it??? So the price for the vintage one was not bad at all. But I get weird and stingy and so I decided to think about it. The next day while I hanging out with Amanda, Casey and his mom went and picked it up for me as a surprise! I was so happy. The pot makes really, really good espresso, here is evidence.

It really tastes different, I have no idea why.
I love the yellow color too. So anyway, I am not going to use this everyday, mostly for weekend breakfasts and company. But, it is nice to know that Andrew (my brother in law) can each have our own pot of espresso when we binge drink it! I love this. Can you see how we were spoiled in Redmond?

I cannot find any info on the maker or how old this is on the internet, which intrigues me. I really want to know more about this pot.

Full Bloom

I posted this flower awhile ago. I am unsure of what it is, I should really find that out. But anyways I really loved this flower and today as I was walking home I saw it again in my neighbor's front yard. Quite a bit different!
I also updated some more cherry blossom/sakura photos here. The first five photos are new. I like this photo below because my real name is Holly and I like how the Holly berries are in the pic with the sakura in the background, since I pretty much worship cherry blossoms!