Cloverless

It may not always be obvious, but I try quite hard not to write really negative things on my blog. There are a lot of frustrating things that happen every day and for me focusing on them just seems to make them all worse. But... having said that I also find that if I do a bit of complaining then I often get the problem off my chest and realise it wasn't such a big issue anyway. So on that latest note, I'm going to break my "positivity rule" and get something off my chest so that I don't take it out too much on the person involved....
Yesterday I drove up the road to our house and discovered my mother-in-law in my garden. I think I have mentioned before that we have a pretty good relationship and after a few tears in the past which were shed over plants which she ripped out thinking they were weeds etc. I thought we had an agreement that she would stay out of my garden or at least consult me before she got her digger out. However she seems to have forgotten that recently (either that or she just has far too little to do) and I arrived home to find that she had weeded a big strip between my peas... which I had planted in clover to help improve the soil, attract a few bees etc. The clover was just starting to take off as the weather warms up a little. Needless to say I was more than a little annoyed so called out the window to PLEASE stop immediately as I had actually intentionally planted those "weeds". I managed to say it quite nicely, but for some reason she got angry at me and told me that I should have told her... not quite sure how I could have done that when I wasn't even home when she started it and when I thought we had an agreement that she leaves my garden alone..... I think she is just anxious because her peas failed to germinate this year and so is relying on mine for her dinner!
Phew, that is off my chest. It's not going to bring back my clover, but it does make me feel a little better. Thanks for "listening"!

Splitting Bamboo

Japan has a way of using bamboo like no other country I know. They use it in very intricate weaving of plates, they use it for tomato supports in the garden, they use it to make fences and they use it in another zillion kinds of ways. Until today I've always been puzzled by how they split the very large, very long pieces of bamboo to use for fences etc., but today it was all revealed when I wandered past the neighbour who was making himself a wind/wild boar fence. He was using this tool - a bamboo splitter! Basically an axe-like blade that splits the bamboo into four... very simple, but very effective. Of course now that I've discovered my father-in-law also has one of these gadgets I might go for a wander up the hill and get myself some bamboo to try it out.
Or perhaps I'll just ask my father-in-law to get me some bamboo and split it for me and I'll take a few more photos!

Extensions

One of my dreams is to punch a huge hole in our kitchen wall and extend it out a few metres, giving us a bigger kitchen with more bench space and a pantry. Unfortunately it looks like that will have to wait for many years, unless we win lotto in the near future. So in the meantime we have to be satisfied with practicing by punching a huge hole in the side of the chicken house and extending it out a metre or so to give the chickens a bit more roosting space. When we first built the chicken house we planned on having about 5 chickens, but quickly fell in love with them and now want to keep at least ten, hence the size problem.
Today stage one was completed... the wall is gone. I wonder how many weeks it is going to take to get onto stage two... I really hope we will have some more chickens before the end of March, but it may be a little chilly without a wall!

New uses

You may remember a while ago that I bought an octopus ball maker hotplate which has different kinds of plates that you can use for different kinds of cooking. Last night we used the grill plate for hamburgers, but tonight the kids requested octopus balls again so it was back to the little round holes.
Near the end of our feast we ran out of batter so decided to make some "cheese fondue" with the leftover fillings. It worked really well - just throw a bit of cheese in one hole, a bit of sausage, shrimp or octopus in another hole and combine after the cheese is melted. I'm guessing we may be running out of batter even earlier next time... delicious! I wonder if chocolate would also work....
Apologies about the photos... hard to get in focus!

Japanese food

I am often asked what kind of food I cook at home and my usual answer is that I cook a mix of Japanese and "Western" food - perhaps lately with more of an emphasis on the Japanese food. Most Japanese dishes use a combination of 7 basic seasonings - soya sauce, mirin, sake, vinegar, salt, miso and sugar. I like the fact that the flavours are not overpowering, but tasty enough to bring out the best of the vegetables etc. I am pretty good at reading Japanese cookbooks and producing more or less what the picture shows.
The only area I really struggle in is fish. I don't really like fish all that much anyway, but the kids love it and I know I should try harder to cook it. But the majority of fish in the shops is whole and is often still moving. I don't like bones and I hate the smell of fish on my hands so unless I can find some fillets I very rarely buy it, which is such a shame as there really is a lot of fresh fish available near us.
Fortunately my husband sometimes brings home special treats for the kids - like these little beauties. Both kids went crazy tonight over these dried out whole little fishy things. I almost had to leave the room as they were being lightly grilled.... the smell, the sight, everything about them just makes my stomach turn. But the kids had great fun chomping them down... chewing at their heads, grinding on their tails. Now if it was a good ole lamb chop bone I would be happy, but... these fish are just evil!

Trying to snow

This morning we woke up to a small amount of snow on the ground. The sun then came out and melted it all away. It is now trying to snow again, but unfortunately it doesn't look like it will be enough to make it impossible for me to get to my "party" tonight. It is a gathering of parents from school who worked together for the bazaar etc.... I just hope I get to sit next to my friend and not next to the loud, needs to know everything (even more so than me...) mother. I think I'll go and do a snow dance just on the off chance I can get out of it!

Cake pops

Just a quick sneak peak of my latest way to put on weight because I'm sick of funeral posts and the most exciting thing I did today was clean the bathroom.....
Cake pops... cake on a stick, covered in chocolate... yum, yum, triple yum! Emily and Masaki also made a batch the other day, but they seem to have disappeared before any photos could be taken. Next challenge is to make them into much more interesting animals etc. Unfortunately I'm sure there will be many failures before the perfect animal is formed... and therefore lots to eat before anyone sees how bad they are!