Japan Again!

I didn't think I'd be posting about Japan so soon, but my grandparents are celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary so my parents and I flew over last Wednesday.

New Year, New Blog!

Blogging seems to be quite the trend lately, and to follow suit with my friends and their food+photo and food+film blogs, I've decided to start one of my own, a food+needlework blog.  It is my hope that this will develop into a solid thing, not like the other attempts I've had at regular blogging.

A little info about me/about this blog- I recently graduated with a degree in finance and even more recently started living on my own, in a small one-bedroom apartment.  Up until now, I would cook for my family or my friends, never for myself on a daily basis.  I've also discovered cooking as a hobby of sorts, right up there with...

Knitting!  And crochet.  I learned to knit years ago (you can find me at my Ravelry account here!), and this blog would be a fun place to share my knitted/crocheted creations.

Anyway, I just wanted to say hi to the world, and maybe follow up with some food recipe soon.

Pan-Fried Lemon Chicken

Ruth (my roommate) and I decided to experiment today.  I bought a pack of boneless chicken thigh last Saturday, and we're planning on battering them in egg w/ lemon juice and flour w/ lemon zest, black pepper, and garlic salt.  The fail part this time was that the chicken went from freezer to fridge, but wasn't yet fully defrosted.  Also, it's kinda hard to zest lemon without a zester or a grater.  I had a peeler, but that just tore off large chunks of lemon peel.  Ah well, a knife came in handy.

To accompany the lemon, I'm making some vegetable rotelli pasta salad.

Will update with the results!

Chicken

Last night I volunteered to cook dinner for my family the next day.  I had this idea to make something out of chicken breast.  Might I remind you, I'm only 21 and live in a residence hall on campus which is brand new and the first to feature a kitchen in every apartment.

I scoured my favorite food blogs and recipe sites last night, and picked out a couple of recipes I figured I could attempt.  This morning, I went down to the kitchen and found a book titled Chicken (rest of title to come later).  I flipped through the pages as I was eating breakfast, and narrowed my selection down to two.  I finalized my choice when I saw one of the recipes called for orange juice.  I've had a huge craving for citrus lately.

The chicken came out okay, but the biggest issue was that it was dry.  My mother said it's because breast is white meat, and tends to be dryer than say, the thigh, which is dark meat.  Fortunately, there was enough of the sauce it was marinating in to serve as a dip for the chicken.

We also made takoyaki and this Amish Friendship Soup my family got when they went to Lancaster, PA.

The Rest of the Trip

Tuesday (Dec 22)- we went to a soba restaurant for lunch, and my mom, grandmother, and I got haircuts

Wednesday (Dec 23)- we went to Kobe, and strolled through their Chinatown.  My mom encountered one of her coworkers from NJ around here!  We bought a lot of cookery, as well.  That night, my uncle and aunt treated us all to fugu (pufferfish) in Osaka.  We also walked around some of the shopping areas, and my grandmother led us all to this cute bakery/cafe.

Thursday (Dec 24)- my grandmother, mother, and I took a train to Kyoto.  We visited the Kyomizu Temple, bought some souvenirs at a fan store, and headed to the place we were staying for the night- Utano Youth Hostel.

Friday (Dec 25)- my grandmother's friend picked us up from the hostel, and we walked the souvenir shop streets of Kyoto.  We had lunch at the Grand Palace hotel, and went to my grandmother's friend's house for a short break.  She then drove my mother and me to Kinkakuji Temple (also aptly named The Golden Palace). Eventually it was time for us to leave Kyoto, so she drove us all to a subway station, where we connected to a train that took us back to Nishinomiya.  That night, my mom treated my grandparents, my cousin, and me, to dinner at Kobeya Kitchen.

Saturday (Dec 26)- lunch at a kaitenzushi restaurant, and dinner at my uncle's house

Sunday (Dec 27)- after church, I met up with a friend who had studied at TCNJ through a global exchange program.  We went to Hep5 and Hankyu Sanban Gai, swinging by SnoopyTown before grabbing some refreshments and meeting up with my mom and grandmother at the Hanshin Department Store.  We ate dinner at an Italian restaurant.

I need to upload the photos I took Monday and Tuesday.  My memory's a little fuzzy about what we did those two days (I know one of them was spent back in Osaka)... another post to come soon.

Chasing the Sun

Well, this was really supposed to be posted on the 17th or the 18th, but I've been having connectivity issues up until now.

Anyway, it was a fun flight to Tokyo because it was always bright as we were flying. The sun had finally set by the time we reached Tokyo, and we got to see the airport in all its brightly lit glory.

Here's a brief summary of what's been going on:

Saturday- we lunched at Ajisai, a little cafe run by one of my grandmother's friends. That morning we went to this department store, Midori, and that afternoon, we went to this huge mall, Nishinomiya Gardens.

Sunday- church in the morning (it was interesting sitting in on a Chinese-Japanese service), lunch after service, and then shopping at Takashimaya in Osaka.

Today (it's currently 9:35 p.m. in Osaka; I need to change the timestamp for this account)- we went to Kobe, and rode a monorail to take in all the sights.