tabetai

Eiko says...

Thanks to the weather dropping a few degrees these past few days, my appetite has decided to grace me with its presence again. I'm swinging towards sandwiches and mushroom soup these days. I don't think I have to mention beer. Beer is always welcome, rain or shine, summer, autumn, winter and spring!

Speaking of which, I just had one on my way back from work on the train. You do get the stares from all around, especially from the businessmen who ought to be drinking their stress away, but who don't have any beers in their hands. I guess when they see a young girl in front of them chugging down a can of beer with relish makes them feel a bit ... strange.

Food talk aside, work has been good for me these days. I'm learning a lot about what it means to be an English teacher. It's definitely not just about knowing your grammar and being able to spout off all you know about the topic of discussion, although very important. It's being able to know when to stay on one lesson and repeat it several times instead of just moving on to the next lesson. It's being able to detect when the student needs extra practice and drill work, or when the lesson is too easy and it's time to move on. It's being able to manage group lessons from 10 to 20 with a variety of levels mixed in there in a calm, patient way. Speaking clearly. Listening. Asking questions. Talking less. Using body language. Being intuitive. Being considerate. Being polite. And so much more!

Anybody with suggestions and pointers for English teaching? Share!

more stuff

Eiko says...

I found this very thin fabriced dress shirt and figured it would be convenient to have at the office, so I bought myself one. As I'm sure you've guessed, it's Zara. Great cut, easy to match up with other items of clothing, and very suzushii. What's not to like, eh?



Ken and I hung out last night over these! An amazing combination of crackers, smoked salmon, cheese and black pepper! The only missing ingredient to perfection was a chilled chardonnay to go with it. Great job, Ken.

dinner these days

Eiko says...

Keep it to yourself if that doesn't look appetizing to you! A cold beer and a crisp, leafy salad is exactly what I want every night for dinner!! It's simple, satisfying, delicious and refreshing!




After work, I went out with my Wednesday morning students for 暑気払い！Was great fun drinking with them, and also chatting with them outside of the classroom. 　ヤッパ日本の夏は飲まないとダメ！！Especially this summer, with all the energy conserving going on, you have to make a conscious effort to keep your spirits high and your mind off of the heat and the humidity. And what better way than to bond over a few drinks at an Izakaya or a bar with friends?

beer ftw

Eiko says...

As unhealthy as I know this is, the only thing I can manage to stomach in this gross weather is ice-cream and beer. Just to ease my conscious I throw in a leafy salad at the end of the day (to eat with my beer) to give me the impression that I'm eating tons of vegetables and balancing things out. Of course, I know full well that lettuce isn't all that high in nutrition. But I like salads, and as of this summer the only things that will be making it past my throat and stomach are things that I like or feel like eating. The problem seems to be that the list of 'foods I like' is limited to 3: ice-cream, beer, and salad.

Wait! Make that 4. I can't make it through a day without coffee!

I just can't seem to help not eating! This heat and humidity is killing my appetite! Even if my brain still remembers how delicious pasta is and how satisfying sushi can be, when I'm face to face with food, I just can't bring myself to eat. The sensation of hunger is fast becoming a mere memory to me.

I'm not intentionally torturing myself. I simply don't have an appetite and I'm not doing anything special about it. If I don't feel like eating, I won't eat. I am concerned though that I'll pass out during an English lesson, or while I'm on my way to work, or just silently die in my sleep for lack of nutrition and energy. Dehydration may even do the trick, given that the majority of liquids I take consists of alcoholic and caffeinated beverages. I'm not cool with that.

The solution seems to be fairly simple.

a. drink more water
b. eat more food
c. stop being an idiot about all this

But since I love eating so much, the idea of forcing food and drink down when it's not welcome or when I don't feel up to eating it, is just down right unattractive to me.

We'll see what happens.

holidays at Nasu

Eiko says...

Happy 2011, world!!
It's a brand new year, and I think I started it off right. I went back home to my parents' place and had a bunch of fun catching up on life with Mom and Dad, the younger siblings, BORIS, the relatives and the bunch. Mom and Dad's tiny cottage was packed and bustling with happy holiday spirit.

Along with celebrating a brand new year, we also had a belated Christmas party over lot's of food and drinks. Boris and I happened to be the cooks for these occasions, and spent all day in the kitchen baking, cooking, frying, and decorating. I cooked Christmas dinner last year as well, but only for 8 people. This year, with all the relatives present, (minus 4 = Yoko, Seiko, Rich, and Ryden) we had 21 Matsuoka's at this gathering, and cooking for everybody was quite exhausting.

Both me and Boris refused to cook anything traditional, and being that it's not even 'Christmas', we strayed far from turkey, pasta and gravy. Egg nog and wine were the happy exceptions. No need to eliminate those. We made pizza (boris made an amazing crust), some wraps, fried chicken, tiramisu, a cake, egg-nog, and appetizers. Cooking with next to zero counter space,...I think we did a good job.

To compliment the Christmas celebration, it snowed all day on the 30th, and everything outside was white! Check out the awesome pictures that I got from
Tom! She was our faithful camera-woman while Sam was suffering from a stomach ache/fever. There are some pictures from Sam later tough.

I'll post more pictures of the New Year's Party, the snow, and the family pictures of us all.












P.S

The following posts will center around this family get-together with lot's of pictures! AND! Yuya drew this totally amazing picture! Check it out at our art blog!

EAT SHOOFLY PIE!!!

Eiko says...

O.M.G!!

You haven't even begun to live until you've tasted shoofly pie! It is my #1 favorite pie EVER!! It's so good it's sinful!! Unfortunately, molasses-the main ingredient for the filling-is difficult to come by in Japan and is outrageously expensive. This makes it very difficult for me to have a slice of heaven as often as I would like(EVERYDAY), but the happy news is that before leaving Japan, Lixy left Mom a bottle of molasses as a bye bye present, and Mom had agreed to let me use some to make a shoofly pie! Woo hoooooo! And that's exactly what I did today. It turned out wonderfully, and was the perfect touch to my Free night and I was able to thoroughly relax and wind down.

Now, I was going to take pictures of the pie, just like any good blogger would, but during the process of slicing and distributing the pie to everyone, I had snitched a tiny, innocent looking little crumb, and all thoughts of picture taking left me. Within seconds, the slice of pie that I was saving for the pictures was in my stomach!!

Have you been feeling a bit low recently? Have you been arguing a lot with your spouse these days? Did you look into the mirror this morning and realized that you were going to have a nasty bad hair day? Have you been struggling with your Home's finances and been losing lot's of hair over it? Well, the answer is simple, really: EAT SHOOFLY PIE!!

And spend good, quality time with Jesus, and in His Word.

Life is meant to be LIVED, and you haven't yet lived until you've tasted this pie, and of course, Jesus. They're both a slice of Heaven and they'll have you coming back for more and more. You'll never grow sick of either.

Ima sugu ni shinasai!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok?

Yum, yum!!

This is my Yum Yum post! I'm always ready for a...

*Sandwich. I like it with lots of fresh lettuce, ham, cheese, avocado, and think slices of onion. Tomatoes are optional.


*Roast BEEF!! ALWAYS!! Too bad our oven decided to desert us.

*It's not an always food, esp since I'm trying to put some distance between myself and refined sugar, but I still like chocolate. It's especially nice when it's dark. If it's junky chocolate, (as in cheap chocolate/ extra junk-food like chocolate, nothing beats snicker bars!!)


*Salads. All salads, really. But there's got to be a good dressing to go along with it, and if there's avocados, all the better. I'm such a fan!
*I'm absolutely attached to mixed nuts! It's nice if there are lot's of pistachios and peanuts in the mix. Wasabi Kaki-peeees are almost as hot as mixed nuts.

*Shrimp and Avocado go together like peas and carrots. This combination is a winner.
*And last but not least, my very favorite Jim Caviezel! I'll always be hungry for seconds!!
His smile and biceps are TODIEFOR!!! My dear friends Kaori, Mitch and Shiro know this very well. Kari and Mitch made a Jim Caviezel 2009 Calendar for my Birthday, and Shiro drew me a super impressive picture of Jim Caviezel. In this way, I'm pathetic.




The above is my "Yum, yum!!" list.

It's actually a lot longer.
*Pasta (Not the creamy kind. Simple is best)
*Green Tea
*Brad Pitt
*eggs in all forms.
*Baked Chicken.
*Chicken salads.
*Heath Ledger
*Grapefruits
*Rainbow Trout
*Owen Wilson
*Most white flesh fish
*etc.

It's longer yet, but I'm stopping here.

Cookies

Akari says...

We made cookies for movie night. The idea was to make ice box cookies so that we could have fun shaping them, but Eiko and Yuriko used the wrong recipe, and the cookie dough turned out too soft, so we made faces instead. It was lot's of fun!

Oh, and by the way, we watched Over the Hedge and it was super funny. It made me want to eat more Junk food. I usually don't like animations, but this one was an exception! I liked it THAT MUCH!

Kiyoa's 1st Birthday EVER!!

Eiko says...
We love you soooo much, Kiyona!
Yuri and I baked these two Chiffon Cakes below, and we were very pleased when they rose beautifuly. But aren't the decorations just adorable? Yuri decorated the colorful one, and I did the boring one. BUT!! Notice the orange peel-ribbons! Ken's brilliant mind and my careful finger work created those! (Applause)

We were hoping that Kiyona would jump on the cake and get all messy like normal 1-year olds, but I think we pressured her a bit too much to do so, because she started crying. Oh, well. We cut her a slice, and she liked it that way.

And here's a picture I took of a sketch I drew of Kiyo-pee. Sorry for the bad quality of the picture. I'm far too lazy to hook up the scanner these days.

So, how do you like?

Apple pie

Eiko says...
Yuriko and Non-chan and I felt pretty left out since the JETTs and JRs of the home are off having a blast at the teen camp, so we decided to do something about it!

We made Apple pie!!
And since when are apple pies suppose to look so good? Yumm!