Slow Saturday, Artsy Sunday

SATURDAY • 3/22/2014

Leftover lunch bowl.
Itadakimasu.

Photographed and listed more linen
pot holders at my shop in the after noon. 

 SUNDAY • 3/23/2014

Went to The Noguchi Museum for a kids' art class with my daughter.

Though this is geared for children, taking Harumi's classes reminds me of my days at art school; the days we always created and critiqued our work. It's a great exercise of the brain to observe Noguchi's work and Harumi always helps us to look at them in different perspectives.

Today's subject was akari - light - as Noguchi's work sometimes incorporated paper and light.

This is what I made:

I expressed my mind forest.
As a young child in Japan in the 70's, reading thick volumes of original Grimm Brothers' stories was very exotic, it felt like wondering in the dark, but mesmerizing woods. The images and the feel is still vivid today and trees and woods are among my favorite motifs to draw.

In this one, I replaced the LED provided in the class
with a orange-ish flickering light. I like the cozy feel.

I was pretty tired, but Kiliko helped me with the dinner.

She was so proud of her sausage spaghetti - delicious.

Leftovers

I've been making some pot holders using leftover fabric from my bib making. I love making use of things otherwise can be trashed. All you need is a little imagination to turn things into useful things for your life.

 

Talking of leftover, my standby lunch is often something I whip up from whatever I have in the kitchen, like the one in the photo at the bottom. In this, I topped rice with avocado slices, shredded chicken breast meat and nori seaweed, then drizzled it with Asian-inspired dressing I learned from a friend (I changed it a little). You can omit the chicken or add slices of abura-agé (fried tofu, available in Japanese grocery stores) - dry sautée it to make it crispy - to make it vegetarian.


Asian Dressing:

3 Tbsp.  soy sauce
3 Tbsp.  lemon juice
2 teasp.  finely chopped or minced ginger
2 teasp.  finely chopped or minced garlic
4-5 Tbsp.  oil (neutral flavored oil like canola, grapeseed, etc.)

This dressing goes well with salads, fish, chicken, and lean parts of pork.

Little tip on poaching chicken breast: Use a heavy duty pot with a lid like Le Cruiset, place the breasts in one part water & one part sake (so the chicken is barely covered) with some ginger slices & a stem of scallion. Cover and bring it to boil then lower heat to simmer for 20 min. Turn off heat and cool the chicken in the broth. I think sake & cooling the meat in its broth make the meat tender and moist. Serve with your favorite sauce or dressing. (Save the broth - it's a nice chicken stock - to use in soups.)

Enjoy!

２月の写真／February Kiliko

最近のポニョ子さん。

黄金色のマイ雲

Pink is still her favorite...

雪ばっかりの今冬。

Food Bazaar Astoria/Long Island City

This new humongous grocery store opened on Northern Blvd.
We usually are not a huge fan of giant grocery stores, but this one has some unique variety of stuff in addition to regular grocery and we like it. My husband who is mysteriously on top of local trivia says it's owned by a Korean person.

I especially like the Korean specialty meat section where you can get thinly sliced meat that is hard to find in regular grocery stores. There's a big selection for different cuts and parts at the regular meat section as well.

They always seem to have some samples of Korean pears (kind of like Japanese nashi) and we tried & loved it. Juicy and crispy. I saw the cart organizer also grab some every time he passed in front of it, too.

While promoting the Korean food, of course, I like the fact that it is also trying to cater different food cultures - e.g. a big variety of chili peppers. It's a fun visit that makes you realize New York City's diversity!


P.S. Those pictures are from early January when we walked to Food Bazaar & we thought we had a lot of snow back then...

 

 

 

Special Feature: My Mom.

Snowman making

"Hi Mama!"

Perfect sticky snow to make snowmen and snowball fights! Luckily, my husband was chosen to go out with our 6-year-old, so I got to watch the fun from a dry, warm room.

  

"Hi again, Mama!"

Daddy always has to work the hardest.

Hat mounting in action.

Adding ear muffs.

Done!

Still out there 10pm.
Stay cold, our best Snowman!