Snickerdoodles

Now that it’s fall, I’m craving the taste of cinnamon. Snickerdoodles are Dustin’s favorite cookie. Since today was his first day at his new job (YEA!) I decided to make these to congratulate him! It’s also important to note that these are the first cookies that I’ve baked in my new kitchen in Santa Cruz, [...]

Read Full Post »

New Beginnings

We’ve made it back to Santa Cruz and would like to introduce Jonas, the newest member of our family at only 3 months old. We adopted him from the SPCA a few days ago.

Soon we will be back with more recipes and food-related posts. In the meantime, we’re scurrying around trying to organize everything in [...]

Read Full Post »

Something Like Tom Ka Gai

We definitely can’t claim that this is the traditional way to make the famous Thai soup, but we enjoyed the challenge of creating something that tastes pretty close, using the ingredients that were available to us in Japan. This recipe serves 2 with enough for seconds. On a side note, it’s been snowing all day [...]

Read Full Post »

Feliz Navidad: Mexican Pizzas and Christmas Tree Decorating

There’s nothing tricky about making these. Eating something far different from stuffing and mashed potatoes was the goal here. At home my Mom makes turkey enchiladas the day after Thanksgiving, and we eat them in the same room as our decorated Christmas tree that we’d cut down earlier that day. Since we [...]

Read Full Post »

"American Taste" Lemon Bars

Last year we threw together a Friday-night English Coffee House event at our church for all of our English students. They enjoyed listening to some live music, mingling and conversing (in Japanese, as much as we had hoped that they might want to take advantage of the English-theme of the night) while drinking freshly [...]

Read Full Post »

Moroccan Chickpea Chili for a Japanese Halloween

Can we get any more multi-cultural? I don’t think so. So, Halloween in Japan: No trick-or-treaters can be found, and if you’re lucky enough to find a pumpkin that’s big enough to carve, it will cost you the equivalent of 40 US dollars or more. But at least the stores have plenty of [...]

Read Full Post »

Crisp Salmon with Lemony Potatoes and the Kitten’s Parsley

Japan isn’t really known for its space, and our balcony is no exception. Nonetheless, it’s our only place to enjoy the fresh (?) city air. So we recently cleaned out the junk that was being stored there by the last tenants, bought some planters, and plated some herbs — basil, parsley, and sage, [...]

Read Full Post »