Potato harvest 2014

Saturday, July 26th, the day after the haunted school thing and the actual day of the summer festival (but started at 3pm) in our housing community, which I would be working/volunteering for the kids club. Also that was the day where we were still trying like heck to get to Los Angeles, we had just decided to fly out that very night to catch the 11pm flight from Haneda to LA (which of course we couldn't get on, but at this time we didn't know) In simplest form or to put things in a nutshell, it was crazy town around our house all that week. Last minute...father's club haunted night at the school stuff for Noboru, last minute kids club stuff for me and pre-meetings infinity...clean the house before we leave on our trip plus be ready for Branden's teacher to be here, plus Noah's conference...I mean seriously each day of that particular week had non-stop stuff for us all to do. The kids were feverishly trying to get their homework done and dusted before leaving on vacation. Add the stresses of...will we get on the flight or will we not. I mean seriously this was probably *the* most stressful week for our family and the only silver lining was...at the end we'd be away on vacation...and a well deserved vacation at that...but yep, we were all running on fumes. Okay back to the pic...in the midst of all this... we were like...OMG, we forgot to dig and pull up the potatoes and to cut the gigantic zucchini. Yes, we let the zucchini get a tad too big but with the week, we had it's obviously why the zucchini was the absolute last thing on our minds. Hahaha. However...we did take 25 minutes of our day Saturday to go in the backyard and cut the zucchini and pull the potatoes. When we came back from Hawaii, we had an even bigger zucchini waiting for us when we got back. lol. 

Noah pulling out our potatoes, 2014! 

Good job sweetheart!

Branden getting right in there and pulling some out too. 

Number 1, we planted them about a month later than everyone else we know who lives near us. All our friends pulled theirs out a month ago. Hahaha. Number 2, they say you can't plant potatoes in the same soil/same exact spot as you did the year before. Fair enough, so we didn't! We planted them last year towards the end of the little row of garden, closer to the house....and this year we planted them closer to the rice fields in the back, farthest the house on our land. However, the amount we harvested last year was double this size easy! This year the amount is puny teeny tiny in comparison. Put them in a brown paper sack and put them in the veggie bin in the fridge...and ran in the house, the kids got back on homework and we did last minute stuff for our trip to LA (which didn't end up happening as we all know...we ended up going to Hawaii instead but again...at this space in time... we were.) And so we were hella busy....I had to make sure I was dressed and ready to work in 97 F type weather outside... for hours later that day. Again just crazy town around here that particular week. But yep...that is the potato harvest 2014 story. : ) 

Preparing for the swimming competition tomorrow, My dad’s arrival to Denver complete, and a few other bits and pieces mixed in there for good measure...

Thursday, June 12th Noboru and I had a lunch date at one of our favorite Indian restaurants. I had my favorite kabocha curry, with naan and salad and a piece of tandoori chicken. It also comes with a drink, we both picked iced coffee. Noboru had the same set that I did, except he picked keema curry.  Thursday was a nice day, because the house was 98% clean/finished for the week. I did some light dusting and laundry the next day and scrubbed the sink room down real quick and then it was done done. We knew my dad's flight was set for the next day. The kids were safely at school and it was just a nice lunch date Thursday. 

Friday at 10:30am, we went to look again at the cake options while at Costco. I had thought Noboru had ordered Noah's cake already, but when I asked him about it a few days ago, he said he forgot, which is fine, believe me...it happens. So... but now we are thinking about ordering Noah a Costco cake. Here's the thing. We usually order delicious ice cream cakes from this amazing lady in Nagano and the price is comparable to the cost of Baskin Robbins cakes here in Japan too. Except hers are tastier. The only thing is, the size is always just enough with a family of 4 for each of us to get 1 normal slice of cake and then 1 super teeny tiny slice the next day. It's fine and all. And the cost is like $42 US 4200 yen or something like that. Here at Costco though...the cakes are $27 US/2700 yen... around that price and they are huge normal American cake size. So there would be enough for days! So now we are deeply swaying towards this. You can get like a Boston cream type cream inside or a chocolate whip cream inside. We are also, now thinking if we should get the balloon or soccer design. Also one more thing, it says 48 hours advance notice requested. Which is fine but we would prefer order like 2 weeks in advance if possible, is that okay too though. @.@ Again we will be back at Costco again a few more times, so we will ask the bakery folks about it on our next trip there. 

After sending the kids to school yesterday/Friday. Well Branden rode his bike first time of the week only because it was raining buckets all week except yesterday, first clear day was yesterday, so he rode his bike to school. Anyway, with the swimming meet/competition in mind and whatnot. Noboru and I ran together to Costco. Just picked up some essentials. 2 packs of pancakes which are now in the freezer. Dinner rolls. Sandwich rolls (for the swim meet). Tortillas. Big hunk of colby cheese (can be used for tostadas, enchiladas or gratin potatoes, anything really). Shredded Mozzarella cheese (we are having baked ravioli tonight). Skippy Peanut Butter. Margarine. Eggs, salad, case of yogurt (we eat tons of yogurt), provolone, sliced ham for sammy's for the swim competition and a roasted chicken for last nights supper. 

Yep you can see a hint of the yogurt hiding under the provolone cheese, but it is indeed there. : )

Lunch yesterday we had at Costco. 1 chicken provolone sandwich for me and 1 big cesar salad for Noboru. 

Aha...the peanut butter is now visible, 4lb jar of Skippy, far back left. Noah got out of school at 2:20pm, so just enough time for us to drive home to our Mayberry type town, put the food away and then I went and swung around to the plaza to pick up Noah and we went home. Branden rode home later. We had a roasted chicken, cheesy baked potatoes, steamed veggie and a simple salad. : ) 

I know Sunday/tomorrow we will be gone at the swimming competition *all day*. From at least 7am,-3pm. So laundry is out for me tomorrow. So it *has* to get done today or it just isn't gonna happen for us. So, I went upstairs early this morning and with that shoe cleanser and brush I quickly brushed 1 pair of shoes for Branden clean and 3 pair for Noah clean, tossed in the washer on the fast/quick wash and tossed outside to dry in the sun, in fact they are outside even now. I also tossed out my black ballet shoes with gold beads from Old Navy.  

Noboru's favorite gray house shorts with orange stripe from Uniqlo, Noah's jean shorts many of his are outside hanging today, Branden's green bandana he wore on Friday at school is drying out right now, their gym shirts and gym shorts are also out there now and Noah's lunch serving outfit is hanging out there too. This way, they can go back to school Monday with fresh everything and start the week that way. :  )

Potato plants are big and bushy and flowers were on top last week.  The zucchini plants are on the left, they are babies still though. : ) They need to get bigger still.

My dad has already arrived in Denver. He arrived Friday afternoon for you in America....for us in Japan, he arrived today around 11am-ish. He is now at my aunties and happy. : ) He called me at Narita airport, funny the good luck we have, just as he called, I was walking through the door with Costco goodies. I ran and picked up the phone, while he was leaving a message and we spoke for a few minutes. I wished him a lovely flight. : ) My dad called me in Minnesota for 2 minutes, just asking about the flight, I said you will have no trouble, enjoy the flight. : ) And amazing is that... the airport DIA, where I'm from (Colorado), has a complimentary 10 minute international call on their courtesy phones, so he called me to say he arrived. : ) I had been tracking my dad's flight the whole way, so I knew, but I admit, I was so happy when he called.  We are really close my dad and I, he sounded very tired, but happy. I said basically. "I love you dad, have a wonderful time and I'll talk to you in a couple days" So yep, my dad is back in Denver for his 2 week vacation now. : )

Meanwhile on the swimming news, Noah brought home a booklet... a thick one! Lists of who is swimming against who this coming Sunday/tomorrow, holy goodness so many people. I explained to my dad, "it's a half an inch thick this booklet!" hahaha. 4 swimming schools competing! 3 different swimming schools coming to our swim school for the battle. A swim school as far away as Funabashi is coming all the way here for it! 196 kids total will be competing! All our friends will be there. Noah's best friend from his yochien years H will be there. All my mama friends will be there. The only thing I am worried about is seating!??? @.@ I know our swim school only has 6 benches upstairs and well... how are 196 worth of parents going to fit upstairs on 6 benches? So seating is semi worrying for me. Lunch wise it's just gonna be simple ham and cheese with lettuce sammy's. Some fruit. Drinks. I'm not packing a 5 course meal or anything. Just as simple as possible. So today we are just sorta chilling here at home, relaxing because tomorrow, we could be upstairs with hundreds of parents. Hahaha. I'll fill you all in on that later. Noah knows we just want him to have fun and learn from this. That's it. : )

Meanwhile...Branden was given his syllabus/study guide for his final... he received it on Thursday, June 12th, his final is June 26th. He has 2 weeks to study his ever lovin' brains out, poor kid, good luck for that Branden, I know you can do it. : ) Between the midterm and the final for the semester... it seems as soon as you catch your breath from the midterm blammo, here comes the final for this semester! Yikes! Hahaha. : )

June 2014, means I haven't had many 2 day weekends during June. First week of June, I was working the kids club event. Which is fine. So I only had a 1 day weekend last weekend. And this weekend, I will spend Sunday at swimming school, for a swimming competition for Noah tomorrow. Again though no complaints, anything for my kids.... but this month, I will not get many 2 day weekends. : ) Next weekend, I have a yakuin meeting. So I think it is fair to say the final week of June, we will be *so* needing that overnight getaway near Mt. Fuji. Hahaha. It will be much needed for us all.

Swimming, both Branden and Noah start swimming at the local elementary school (for Noah) and the local JHS (for Branden) this coming week. So, I needed to pack them a swimming set, flip flops (we picked up at Old Navy both pair for 500 yen), the goggles they have them already and swim caps and stuff they already have and swimming towels they have a few each anyway, since they are swimmers anyway.

Anyway that's enough for now. Have a wonderful weekend everyone. : )

Gari Gari Kun strikes again, Ice Coffee, Sour Peach and Green Apple Yogurt!!! My lunch with friends and another potato update...

Gari Gari Kun popsicles are one of the cool things about living in Japan! They're so good. While Noah and I were at the Besia/Cainz grocery store stocking up on cheap jasmine teas and cheap store brand ziplock type freezer gallon bags, we picked up some ice cream and popsicles to take home, this was when his class was closed for that week, the date on this was May 23rd. Spotted some new flavors. Ice coffee looks nice, I bet, Noboru will try this one at least once!

You know, I was sorta thinking this one was also out last year too. Either way, it says sour and I bet in the hotter weather this will be so good!

Green apple yogurt flavor and inside there is yogurt flavor and ramune type round things inside. I didn't buy any of these 3 Gari Gari flavors up above, but I'm thinking about it. I usually pick up ice cream/popsicles  once a week at Besia/Cainz (in summer) and that's only because of the price. Price of most ice creams at Besia, single serving size are about 36-38 yen each. Where as say 7-11 they're about 120-130 yen a piece! Huge price difference, which is why I prefer buy them at Besia. : ) I can get more for my money...when buying ice cream and popsicles at Besia.

These are what I picked up that week. The choco banana ice cream ones are *so* good! The kids and I love those and they are 36-38 yen a piece! And I already know Noboru prefers 1 simple vanilla..pictured top upper left and the one next to it, the Shirokuma one is his other fave. : ) And Calpis jelly's get tossed in the freezer and any other good tasting jelly's too, because perfect size when either Branden or Noah come home from school melting hot and need just an instant cool down, and the size they can just pop it in their mouth. Same for weekends, when they come inside melting hot needing a refill on their thermos, these frozen jelly's are a nice thing in the warmer weather and they can bring one out to their friend too/share one. : ) 

Monday, I went out to lunch with 2 of my really good girlfriends. We went to Coco's for lunch. Coco's is currently having some limited time only specials. Mexico, Peru and Brazil. Mexico was a taco salad, one of my friends had that, it looked really good! : ) I meanwhile debated getting my regular thing I usually order at Coco's, or the half chicken from Peru. It was a bit pricier than my regular lunch pick here, but I did order the chicken. #1, I love roasted chicken, #2, it's limited time, so why not. I am so glad I tried it because it was delicious!

You get the whole chicken leg quarter (drum and thigh) and huge chicken breast and wing. It was cooked 100% and crispy skin and the seasoning on this was delicous! The chicken was also so juicy, it was cooked perfectly! It came with a teeny tiny amount of fries/potato wedges, wish the amount on the fries was bigger then what it was, considering it was 1200 or 1400 yen! The amount of chicken was plenty! But yeah they shouldn't have scrimped so much on the potato wedges. 

The sauces for dipping, 1 was olive oil or oil, wasn't sure if it was infused with flavors or not, but I skipped the oil. I did however enjoy the flavored salt and the chili on the bottom was *amazing*...it was pure fire and had such a kick, but it was so flavorful and good! My girlfriends kept laughing because they kept saying it looked like miso paste. lol! It wasn't though at all....and it was an amazing delicious chili. I would like to go back here before it is taken off the menu. It was THAT good! : ) 

Look how big the potatoes have gotten! They have grown by leaps and bounds since the last picture! 8 plants have survived total. The only thing is, some plants are big and normal size, but some look like teeny tiny in size. Hmmm. 

See, 1 big plant in the center and 1 shrunken mini one on the left and one small one in front of the big one. I am not sure if these potatoes will catch up to each other in size or if it will affect the potatoes underneath at all. Who knows...we will find out when it comes time to harvest them. : ) Alrighty, that's it for me for today. 

Good eats, what’s cookin’ good lookin’! Comfort foods like homemade baked gratin potatoes, homemade baked macaroni and cheese, among other things...and a yard and potato update

Hi everyone! Our house is still, knee deep in midterm study and the prep for that. From yesterdays post until after the midterm is over, I'm going to close the comments and the reason I chose to do that, is because, you are all so wonderful and I like the communication we have in the comments section. But, this week is a little more hectic than I'd like. Also, it could just be me, but I feel like crap, if I can't reply to a comment. There's a few even now, that I haven't had time to reply back and I feel superly bad about it. Also that's why I have been trying to make shorter posts too since last week also, if you notice, so we could get back to midterms and concentrate on those.  I also thought about not blogging until after the midterm is over too. I sort of had this debate in my mind, pause/hold blogging for this week and then resume afterwards or just continue, but hold the comments and make shorter posts and then get back to the fun comments next week. And I just think that is better and that way I won't fall behind with blogging either. : ) So forgive me. It's seriously not you...it's me. lol. : ) Okay anyway...I cook dinner for the most part, about 7 nights a week (whole week), I think maybe twice a month, we'll go out to dinner. But it's rare. I really do love cooking, plus it's healthier and nice knowing what's in our meal and sure somedays, if I had a Taco Bell handy or a Wendy's drive thru, I'd surely use it about once a week especially during mid term season or maybe on swimming nights, Mondays and Thursdays. Also, the town we live is another factor, there's no fast food places in our town or Coco's restaurant Coco Ichiban restaurant. Those are in the small city nearest us, but on nights where we have to immediately get crackin' on homework right away, there's no time to drive all the way there and all the way back to our town. It's just not realistic. And that's okay really. So yeah most of the time, I cook the meals and make sure they are ready to go, as soon as the boys get home! Here in this picture, I decided to make fried pork chop. Now, I usually like to make this with Rice a Roni. But I've been out forever. And so, I just decided to not let that stop me and so I made, homemade gratin potatoes from scratch and homemade macaroni and cheese. I used the super fine panko flakes, not the regular sized flakes, and stir fried them with a bit of butter nice and toasty, to make a crispy bread crumb crust for the topping for the mac and cheese. I made a simple roux with butter and flour, milk and then added the shredded cheese pictured here, let the cheese melt and poured over both my potato and pasta dish, so doing both was super easy.  

I made this last Thursday, May 15th. The boys came home from swimming school starving! Swimming for 2 hours doing laps non stop at fast speeds makes a person, super hungry. Even though they had a snack before swimming school. This was waiting for them, when they entered the door after the swim bus dropped them off! : )

Comfort food! All four of us enjoyed last Thursday nights dinner, quite a bit. 

These Cook Do's are so awesome. They really make cooking for me in Japan easier. A lot of them are Chinese dishes and there are also some Cook Do that are Korean dishes too. My favorite is the sweet and sour one though. Anyway, this one pictured here... has no seafood in it at all. And sometimes the packets do contain seafoody flavors in there, but not this one. With the exception of shrimp and lobster, I really don't care for seafood at all, so I always have my husband double check the ingredients list for me. Says for 3-4 people. 

I used quite a bit of lean thin sliced pork, cut off any fatty bits and stir fried in a bit of oil, after the pork was cooked, I threw in some chopped up cabbage and mushrooms. 

The sauce is so good and not too spicy where Noah couldn't eat it, but it did have a very good flavor. We've eaten this one a few times before. 

This is another good one too. After you cut your chicken up, you are supposed to lightly roll it in flour. Not like dredge it to the point of say... you're making fried chicken, you know what I mean... but just lightly toss in the flour real quick. Also, I find this sauce salty enough, so I add not salt at all, when I fry my chicken or into the flour. The sauce is enough and it's not overly salty at all either, it's just...if you salted the chicken while cooking it could be too much. 

After the chicken was lightly rolled in flour, I skillet fried it in a little oil and turned it on both sides, until cooked, then added fresh button mushrooms. The packet suggests adding onions, but nobody really, well except me, is all too crazy about onions around here so I don't add them. So, I just add what we like. Mushrooms and then broccoli at the very end. 

And done, I think this dish is really good, because the chicken was lightly rolled in flour first, it just has a very good flavor. The sauce is also delicious, this is a favorite around our house. I make Noboru's with dark meat, because he just prefers dark meat for his chicken. I use white meat for ours. Either way works. : )

Another night I made Noboru buta kimchi. I use kimchi on his like you're supposed to and add extra chili flakes for some added kick. For mine, again I'm not crazy for seafood and most kimchi has shrimp sauce or some sorta fishy flavor in kimchi so for me, I just use Chinese cabbage and add the flakes for mine and it comes out just fine and with no fishy flavor. Sorry, while I do have a very open mind, I have very close minded taste buds! : ) Hahaha. I just can't handle seafood at all. 

Saturday, May 16th I made tacos. Also strawberries are so dirt cheap around where we live, so we eat fruit all the time. Melons too! Fruit and veg is really cheap, where we live. : ) 

I wasn't planning to share this breakfast pic, if I was planning to take a pic of breakfast to share type pic, I'd have added some vivid colors like red or green. But, it was just a random regular breakfast, and I snapped the one picture to remind myself the breakfast I made that morning. So no color really on the plate, pretty drab looking, sorry. : ) Branden serving is larger since he's older so his is at the back. Scrambled eggs, rice and 1 sausage and 3 warmed up pancakes with butter and syrup inside. Branden ate this completely and had 1 Yakult and 1 small glass of apple juice. Before getting on his bike and heading to school that morning. : ) With a 3km bike ride to school and a 3km bike ride home, plus all the studying and gym at school. Plus two nights a week, he swims for 2 hours. So he really needs to start off on the right foot for breakfast. I try to make a point of making sure they get a very good breakfast every morning. And Noah is smaller, so his serving is closest this camera. 2 pancakes, 2 sausages and a smaller amount of scrambled eggs. Noah also had 1 Yakult (for the record, I buy store brand Yakult stuff, but still call it Yakult, no worries) and no apple juice that morning for Noah. : ) I drive Noah to school and pick him up when school is done. : ) But, I still want to make sure, he eats a lot, enough so he can properly study and do gym too, kids can concentrate better on full tummy's. : )

Sanchu update, it's getting so big right now isn't it!  : )

Little heads of lettuce are getting bigger, hahaha.

Grass is getting greener!

Potatoes are looking good! However I have 2 friends in our housing community, who are also growing potatoes, they started theirs earlier than I started mine and theirs are about 2 to 3 times bigger than mine! Go potatoes go! : )

Yep greener grass!

This day, Branden and Noboru were studying in the kitchen and Noah was finished with his homework, so he went outside to swing on his swingset. Meanwhile I went to check on the potatoes. 

Enjoying a nice good swing! Especially now that the weather has been so nice lately.

They are getting there. I know we're not supposed to even pull them until summer, so we still have plenty of time to grow still. But still, hurry potatoes! Get there...get there! Hahaha. Alright enough chit chat from me for today. Time for me to go and bring the laundry in from outside. The house is cleaned for today. And sorry if this is TMI, but I started my period this morning and I just feel yuck and blah today. I did walk this morning, so it helped some, but I think after I bring the laundry in, maybe I should pop an Advil and maybe lay on the couch for 45 minutes, until my cramps go away. Noah gets out at 3:45pm today, so it's a late day for Noah and Branden gets out at 4pm, but will ride his bike home. Noboru gets off work at 2pm, and he'll be home at 2:30pm, so I know, he'll be happy to pick Noah up for me, since I feel sorta crampy today. : ) That way I can get started on dinner, while he gets Noah. Alrighty later for now. : )

Gardening...potatoes, heads of lettuce, sanchu and flowers in my hanging baskets for the front porch, plus my morning walks

These pics were taken April 15th, wow a little over a whole month delayed. We planted potatoes at the end of March, but I went out and took a picture that day of just the plain brown mounds/dirt hills where the potatoes are underneath. The plants have broken through the dirt already, so this is a really old pic, but I'll update it with a newer picture soon.

Also taken April 15th, these 4 right here are to be, 4 round heads of lettuce. Again they are way bigger now, so I'll update with a newer, down below, but this was just what they looked like April 15th.

This is a different variety of lettuce in these pots, they are for wrapping your yakiniku with type lettuce, sanchu.

Japanese grass is pretty different than say "Kentucky blue grass" for example. We once grew an American variety of grass in our front yard, but it died in the sweltering heat, that is Japanese summer. Japanese grass however is perfect for the Japanese climate (duh, lol), and it stays a bright beautiful green in summer here. However, in winter it goes scarecrow/hay yellow. I took these next few pics, also April 15th showing how the majority of the grass in indeed as yellow as some dried out old hay. Yet if you look closely you can start to see a few slivers of green here and there. Just barely, but yes you can see them. 

Yep here too, I can see a few green pieces here and there. But again just barely.

I can see a few green pieces near the hose. Few and far between, when pictured, but they were there. Tiny signs the seasons are indeed changing.

First thing I do when I get up is, start my first load of the day and now that Branden is in JHS, it's usual his uniform stuff because it can't be discolored at all, it must stay white. So, I wash those around 5:45am and go wipe down my pole outside, then start breakfast, wake the kids, hang said dress shirts and his spare gym shirt and make sure the kids get sent to school, Branden by bike, Noah by car. Then I come home and start my second load of laundry, while it washes, I go for my morning walk around my housing community. It takes me 20 minutes, sometimes 22 minutes if I am walking it slow. I put my arm band on that holds and plays my music, also I can receive emails from the school or calls from the school in emergency (hasn't happened while on my walks luckily), Line messages or emails. And I go for my walk. 

We will be hitting the rainy season sometime in June. But we do get a few days a week that it rains now, with some days rainy and some days clear, I'd say I go for my morning walk around 3-4 days a week (I don't go on weekends). Just because a few times a week it is rainy now. But I do enjoy my morning walks, I like knowing my 2nd load of laundry is getting clean, while I am off getting my blood pumping, lungs breathing in deeply. While I walk, I do think...what I have to do that day. Do I have a Saturday meeting? Movie with friend during the week or trip to Costco planned? What needs doing basically. I also like it keeps me fit and healthy. And plus I get to "good morning" many nice smiley faces while people are out walking their dogs and whatnot and also see many flowers that folks plant. These are outside the community center. where we have our meetings at. 

Lovely flowers here. 

Nice little flower pots there. 

When I took this pic, there were tulips out, now there is a new flower in it's spot. But, yep I enjoyed walking passed these on the mornings the skies were clear and I could go for my walk. 

These sakura were so beautiful when they were in season. 

Also, I did plant my flowers in my hanging baskets that hang on the front porch. So, I did that another morning as well.

Aha! Look how much bigger the sanchu got! : ) It's even a tad bigger now and that means we should start picking some leaves off! : )

Aww, how cute! Look how adorable the little heads of lettuce are doing! They are indeed getting bigger! And I should update a newer pic, because they're getting even a tad bigger now even. I'd like to plant a few more things, so I will have to go to the home center and get a few more things planted! Such as zucchini! : )

And this pic was taken, hold on let me go and check the date stamp on this real quick. May 5th. It's even greener right now even! : ) You can see the rice has been planted behind our home. You can hear frogs a croaking every night. It's a lovely time of year. : )  Anyway just wanted to share, how the grass is getting a tad greener little by little, how we did plant the potatoes and lettuce. A couple pics of flowers on my morning walks. Anyway again, want to keep this post nice and as short as possible. That's it for now. : )