A Rainy Day

It’s been cloudy for the last couple of days, but today it’s been raining since early morning.  The sky is white, and the air is cold.

I actually like the rainy day. Some people may get depressed feeling because it’s dark and cold, but it kinda make me feel relaxed.  I had pumpkin soup and toasted ham & cheese sandwich for brunch, and enjoyed it while listening to the sound of rain.

Oishii–!

I started tidying up my room yesterday, and found that I have so many things I actually don’t use. Clothes, zakka stuff, toys, kitchen tools…  I know I should through some of them away, or at least give them away to someone.  I’m still working on sorting these things out.  I can only do this while Hiro is sleeping (which is only 30 minutes every 4 hours), so I think it will take a while…  I’m Year of the Pig, so I can’t stop doing things once I started.  No wonder I dreamed about tidying up room last night. :p

I thought I should also remove all my kitchenware (plates, cups, etc) from kitchen and put them in a cardboard box, because I’m not using them and won’t need them until I move out this house. (I don’t know when though…)  Now the kitchen storage looks great.  I think in-laws will be happy when they come back here from Jakarta sometime next month.

It’s so funny that I have so many things for house even though I don’t need them.  Like, a frying pan, a panini press, cutlery, plates, etc.  I’m so ready to move out, I guess.

Wow, now it’s stormy outside.  I was going to go to a swimming pool to have a look at baby swimming class, but I’m not sure now.  It looks cold…  Probably afternoon.

A Beautiful Spring Day

It was bit cloudy yesterday morning.  I thought it was going to rain. I checked the weather on my iPhone and it had a illustration of half rain/half sunny.   The whole week seemed to be like that.

I felt like eating Japanese food in the morning, so I quickly prepared my breakfast.  Steamed rice, umeboshi (sour plum pickles), natto, seasoned nori, and osuimono (clear soup).  That’s it??? You ask.  Hmmm, it doesn’t seem to be a meal, does it?  But yes, it is to me.  I love soshoku (plain/simple diet).  Placed on a box of toy….  This is my dining table now.

During the day I took Hiro to a neighboring Duck Park for a walk.  The sun was blight then and it was a perfect weather for strolling in the park.  It was just after 1PM and there was no one around, except one mum and one baby girl sitting near the pond enjoying their quality afternoon.

This is what I love about Perth.  There are so many parks… almost everywhere.  The beautiful ones.  Lots of greens, lots of birds, lots of nature….  Walking through a quiet park in such a beautiful weather, I just wanted to scream! “I LOVE THIS”

For lunch, we headed to Northbridge because D wanted to buy some Indonesian noodles.  We went to the usual Vietnamese place on William street, again.

D ordered Pork Chop Rice and I ordered Mai Fun with Braised Chicken.  D loves this place because there’s always not many people inside.  Yesterday when we arrived, there’s no other customers- only us.  It was lucky because Hiro was screaming while we were eating our lunch.

We had a look inside Kong’s and VHT, but D couldn’t find what he was looking for.  D wanted this particular Indonesian instant noodles which we haven’t seen anywhere for a while.  Maybe it’s not permitted to import to Australia anymore.  We could go to other grocery shops to have a look, but we didn’t want to bother.  There are many Chinese grocery shops, but I wonder if there is any shop selling many Indonesian items.  Maybe the one in Market City in Canning Vale?  We’ll give it a try another day.

I actually wanted to go to Emma’s Seafood to buy some Japanese stuff too.  But it was bit too far to walk….  I felt like making kappamaki (roll sushi with cucumber).  I have lots of wasabi left at home.  Well, I will come back another time.

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Morning Walk and Bacci Cake

I love the smell of cold morning….  Cold air with bright sunlight and birds singing are somehow different from what I remember of Japan’s winter morning, but they still reminds me of how I liked waking up early in winter while I was in Japan.

I took Hiro for a walk this morning, because I felt like going outside and also wanted him to wear a hat I found in the closet.  Looks like Mongolian baby … or a girl.

Ohhh my right wrist is so sore… It was ok until I visited Play Group on Friday though. I was holding Hiro for 2 hours there and after I got home it started to be really sore.  Now I need to wear tape around it so that I can do things like holding him, cutting vegetables, and even opening a lid of a jar.  Did I strain it?

This photo reminded me… In-laws came over to eat a cake together – a Bacci Cake from Cookie Barrel.  It was very rich chocolate and nut cake…

I mean, very rich.  I couldn’t finish one piece…  but I know this is how people in Australia like chocolate cake to be!  A very rich and sweet.  Hmmmmm, if there was less cream in the ganache and less liquor in the Bacci filling, I might be able to finish it.  Having it once in a while may be a good treat for myself?

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Winter to Spring

D and I get a craving for juicy chicken karaage (recipe is here) once in a while…. I made quite a lot, but we finished them all in one night.  I can’t believe the size of my stomach :p

The best accompaniments to karaage, for us, are Japanese mayonnaise and Srirachang chili sauce.  And, of course, steamed rice.  I need lots of salad too.  Oily food needs to be eaten with some vegetables.

Karaage is one of the easy dishes to make.  You just need to toss all ingredients in a plastic bag and let chicken get marinated in the bag.  I added 1 tablespoon of roasted sesame seeds this time.

I made white  soup (recipe is here) with hakusai (Chinese cabbage) to serve with karaage.  This time I didn’t use chicken thigh but used bacon.  Other ingredients are similar : onion, carrot, broccoli, mushroom, etc.

I love soup, especially in winter.  Soup with lots of vegetables fuels me up and warms my body.

The winter is almost over though.  My garden is very colourful now.  Lots of green, lots of yellow, and lots of sunlight.  Bees and butterflies are everywhere.  Yet, early morning is still bit chilly….

I realized I had frozen scone dough in the freezer, so I baked them off just now.  Smells good.  Oh, I don’t have cream…..  That’s ok, I will eat them with whipped butter and sweet strawberry jam ;_)

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Fairy Birthday Cake

A birthday cake I made last week – a white chocolate cake with a image of fairy.

When I was asked to make this birthday cake for a 4-year-old girl, I wasn’t 100% sure if I could do this. Things a mother required me to do are:

• white chocolate-based

• image or doll of fairy on top of the cake

• 100&1000 on the side

• square. not round

• 5~6 strawberries on top

• a message plate on top “happy 4th birthday”

• pink or light purple themed

• decorated with whipped cream

…… I’d never made a decoration cake with white chocolate. I could just make white chocolate mud cake, but I knew she wanted it to be somehow Japanese-style. Probably sponge cake with white chocolate ganache? Will it do?

When she said “a cake with fairy image on top” “100&1000″ “pink or purple themed”, I had an image of the cake in my head already. I used to be a little girl and I knew what the birthday girl is after.

I decided to layer vanilla sponge cake, cocoa sponge cake, white chocolate ganache and whipped cream, then decorate the top and side with white chocolate and whipped cream.

The most important thing I had to do first, however, was to look for an image of fairy. I found fairy-shaped cake toppers at some online shops, but I didn’t like them. I didn’t think they’re cute. So I ordered a sheet of Tinker Bell edible image.

It was actually my first time to handle edible image!  I’d never even seen or touched one before. (You can tell from the non-smooth surface of the image on the photo ^^;)  So I was quite nurvous until I opened it from its packaging sheet in the morning of her birthday party.

Edible image is made of icing, and it can’t be placed on wet surface. Butter cream or fondant will be the best cake to top with edible image, but my cake was made of whipped cream and chocolate ganache. Whipped cream is too wet and it’ll ruin the image. So, I only used white chocolate ganache on the bottom and around the edible image. Whipped cream is used around the cake only.

The morning was kind of disaster… Not only that I had to make this special cake for a little girl, but I also had a little baby to look after at home. Hiro doesn’t take long nap during the day, so I knew i’d need D’s help while finishing up the cake.

1 hour before the delivery, I opened the Tinker Bell edible image from it’s packaging and tried to place on top of the cake I prepared.
It doesn’t peel off!!!!! ((((；ﾟДﾟ))))))). I tried putting it in the freezer for few seconds, but it didn’t work. The time passed, and I was in panic. Hiro was crying next to me. I repeated putting it in the freezer and tried to peel off many times, and after several tries I could finally get a sheet of Tinker Bell removed from the backing sheet.   Thank you, thank you!!!

I quickly placed it on top of the cake and finished decorating the cake. It took longer than I expected and I had to leave home already in order to deliver it before little girl’s birthday party. Hiro was still crying, and continued crying in the car. Very hard. It was more like screaming. His face was red and he didn’t even listen to my voice. I was holding a big box of cake, navigating D to the little girl’s house, and trying to sooth Hiro at the same.

We were few minutes late, but I was reliefed I could deliver the cake safe.  They seemed to like the cake, and I was happy.  Now I’m 100% back to Hiro.

When I returned to the car, he was sleeping….  Crying must have tired him out.  Maybe he felt the pressure and stress I was feeling and that’s why he was crying?  Anyway we all went home in a quiet car.