Rained out on the weekend...

The raining season has just started...
Coincidentally, a typhoon was approaching and the combined effect was continuous rain for the last few days...
Went out to my potager and was surprised to find that water was vigorously running underneath the surface of one of the vegetable beds...
I hope that portion of the potager will not collapse... 

So, with the rain not stopping, what to do but to take pictures...
This is the scene from our hall, looking outwards to the garden...
It is just wet, wet, and wet... 

Being indoors also allowed me to do something that I had wanted to do for a while...
That is, to learn how to make muffins from my sweeto haato...
Under her supervision, this is my 'masterpiece' rum raisin muffin...
Made 10 of them and they taste really good... 

Also learned from my missus how to make cookies...
We use fresh rose geranium leaves from our potager..
They give out a fragrance just like the rose...
I shall be bringing these to my office to gnaw during the tea breaks...

As in almost all weekends, my request for lunch is noodles...
I am feeling hungry again as I hit the PC keys...
Definitely can't get this combination from anywhere in the world... 

Bought some more equipment for chopping wood for our wood stove...
A 3.6 kilogram hammer, two splitting wedges (1.5 kilogram and 1.0 kilogram)...
These come in handy for wood that are too 'stubborn' for the splitting maul to handle...
Was pleased to see DQ Farms buying the same axe as I did...

Garden party... one Saturday in May...

Each spring for the last five years or so, we have had the pleasure and honor of inviting a bunch of friends (senior folks, actually) over for a pot-luck garden party...

The 'menu' is almost always predictable...

As in the sashimi...

This 'hamachi' (yellowtail), its meat is very succulent and I just love the taste of it...
The hamachi is designated the official fish of Kagawa prefecture...
Reason is, Kagawa first pioneered the rearing of this pelagic fish...

Plus, maguro (tuna), sawara (Spanish mackeral?), and katsuo (bonito?) sashimi...

Eaten with a dash of wasabi and soy sauce, urrrmm...

The 'oden', however, made its first appearance this time...

It is sort of like a stew with various ingredients thrown in and cooked in slow heat over several hours...
Took a bite off that octopus... real tender and tasty...

The same lady brought a second dish...

Which is her specialty... the home-made smoked chicken...

A little too salty for me but still, tasted good...  

For as long as I can recall, an 80-year-old-plus husband and wife team again brought 'o-kowa'...

Glutinous rice steamed with lots of veggies, that is...

No meat here... chewy and very popular dish among us...

The glutinous rice dish goes hand in hand with this 'tsukemono' (radish pickles)...
Tasted somewhat like one type of pickled young mangoes?

As in previous potlucks, this group of folks from a neighboring town always turn up fully geared (with pots and pans) to cook 'tempura'...
The 'seri' is some sort of mountain vegetable... very fragrant...

And they always go to the hills to dig out fresh young bamboo shoots...
Alhough we do not favour too much tempura or fried stuff, the other guests were really enjoying themselves with this dish...

Among our guests this time, we had a chef who specializes in French cuisine...
He did not cook anything French, but he dished out this simple yet very delicious 'somen' (thin wheat noodles)...

Unplanned as it was, the somen went extremely well with the crispy tempuras...

And finally, some fruit punch to seal the event...
I swore not to over-eat that day, but, but...

I was supposed to cook roast chicken with the dutch oven...
But was too occupied with setting up the venue...
Moreover, our guests had always told us to just provide the venue and the opportunity to meet at our garden...
They will take care of the food, they say...
We are very happy to see them enjoying our garden...
They have been coming back year after year, and we certainly look forward to having them again next spring...

Fishing, one May afternoon...

(Actually put up this post on 12th, but Blogger bunked me out for some unknown reasons...)

We moved to this hamlet almost 6 years ago...

Had always wanted to go fishing but there is just so much stuff to do in the house and garden... stuff with rather 'high' priority...

 There is a really good fishing spot less than 10 minutes walk away from our house...
The day was beautiful... the air cool and nice...
Used some earthworms from my potager as bait, but no bite...
Changed to a 'wharf roach' which I could catch from the rocks...
And whoallaa... a greenling fish!
It measured about 20 centimeters...
Took it home and had my missus cooked it for me...
Urmmm, super fresh and super delicious...

Then, I noticed the low tide on the way home from work...
I'd never seen the tide going so low, so I thought to myself...
What a good opportunity to go hunting for mussels?
Did just that... and came home with 11 of those morsels...
My sweeto haato cooked spaghetti with them, on top of some seaweed and kelp that I harvested from the sea...
Woooh, lovely... 

While waiting for the fish to bite, I took pictures of boats passing my view...
This fishing boat was in business right in front of my eyes...

Each day on my way to work, I pass by this dockyard...

Always find myself enjoying, looking at the bottom of the boats coming in for repairs...

While we are at it, two kilometers from our house, on the way to work, lies a pond...

And for the first time, a Common Moorhen family with six chicks...
I was glued... and I knew I'd returned with my camera... 




And one for the road...
Muffins with vinegered prunes...
Home-made... oooh

Do you have a sweet tooth?

My suweeto haato's first attempt at making 'doraiyaki', a Japanese sweet...

They look just like the ones in the stores...
Hmmm, I love doraiyakis... 

Had to harvest all the remaining carrots in the potager...

Way too much to munch as salad...

So, requested my wifey to make carrot jam...

She did that... plus a cake to match...

Wooh... very, very nice... 

While in LA some time ago, visited an old pal of mine...

He is making a name for himself in the world of BBQ...

He gave us a packet of his secret rub of spices...

And my missus tried out the rub on chicken, beef, pork, and fish...

The above pic is chicken breast meat...

She put the stuff in our wood stove before retiring for the night...

So, the meat was cooking when we were sleeping...

The taste? Absolutely lovely! 

We like to chew on salads in our evening meals...

Here, my sweeto haato came up with her own creation...

Mozzarella cheese, tomatoes, gherkins from the store...
And from our potager, snap peas, lettuce, borage flowers, rocket flowers...

Plus a generous dash of olive oil, vinegar, and pepper...

Smoked salmon and fresh lettuce, onions, and dill from the garden...
Lovely with some white wine for dinner...

The usual suspects for our lunch...
Somen noodles, shrimps, green onions, carrots, tofu...

Similarly, the usual suspects for our breakfast...
We almost always share just one boiled egg for our breakfast...