When I first came to Japan I couldn't speak any Japanese, but one of the principals at my school was insistent on teaching me complicated sayings that I thought I would never need or remember. One of them was "Asa meishi mae" which literally means before breakfast. In a less literal sense it means "a stroll in the park" or " a piece of cake" and this morning I managed to mix the literal meaning with the real meaning and achieved a whole day's work before breakfast - well 10am anyway! Today was my childrens' social study's outing so they needed a bento lunch box (Japanese style so no stuffing a sandwich in a bag and adding an apple) so I was up at 6am making that. After preparing for two kindergarten classes I made 3kg worth of strawberries and wild strawberries into jam as a "donation" for a friend who is organising a wonderful project called "Children's Kitchen" - more about that project another day. I then did my 30 minutes exercise before racing into the shower and was out the door by 10:10 to teach my 2 classes of midgets (none of which put their fingers anywhere near my bottom!).
It felt so good to get so much done in one morning that I decided to take the afternoon off and watched a DVD and had a nap.... it was far too hot to do anything else. A nice reward!
By the way.. I seem to have confused some of you with my measurements in the last recipe. At the moment my daughter is studying volume at school and they talk a lot about "cc"s so I got a bit carried away... - 1cc is the same as 1ml. Therefore in the recipe below 250cc really means 250ml or one New Zealand cup....
It felt so good to get so much done in one morning that I decided to take the afternoon off and watched a DVD and had a nap.... it was far too hot to do anything else. A nice reward!
By the way.. I seem to have confused some of you with my measurements in the last recipe. At the moment my daughter is studying volume at school and they talk a lot about "cc"s so I got a bit carried away... - 1cc is the same as 1ml. Therefore in the recipe below 250cc really means 250ml or one New Zealand cup....
You have enough strawberries to jam this time of year? Wow. And seriously, wouldn't it be easier if a sandwich and an apple would suffice?
ReplyDeleteHow is your sister going?
Asa meishi mae! Nice to have the word for it. I discovered that during my last pregnancy, when I felt horrendously ill after eating anything, and spent most of the time exhausted, so I got into the habit of doing all the housework as soon as I got up, before breakfast. Used to be up at 6, breakfast at 10. Now it's more like up at 7:30, breakfast at 9:00!
ReplyDeleteI am impressed! When I get up to make bentos I usually collapse on the sofa after from the early morning work and watch videos until the kids wake up.
ReplyDeleteMy friend Megan has just provided a great bento link that's almost made me keen to get up early to make one for lunch.
ReplyDeleteMuch better than my boring sandwiches!
http://www.aibento.net/