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!!!!!!!!!