お料理（パンプキンパイ）

I decided to try making pumpkin pie, even though there is no canned pumpkin here, and I didn't have any of the spices I needed. But I ordered some canned pumpkin from here, and went to a special international market to get the spices. The market was nice (reminded me of a very small Whole Foods), but extremely expensive, not to mention far away. But whatever. At least I could now make pie. I needed to choose a recipe that didn't use evaporated milk, so I settled on one from Paula Deen here. My comments are in italics.



Pumpkin Pie

Yield: 1 pie (6-8 servings) (This really made more like 1.5 pies.)

Ingredients:

• 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened (226.8 g)
• 2 cups (1 can) canned pumpkin, mashed
• 1 cup sugar (American cups aren't equivalent to Japanese cups. 1 cup in this recipe is around 240 mL.)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 egg plus 2 egg yolks, slightly beaten
• 1 cup half-and-half (This amount would make it too watery. I used a little over 1/2 cup (~120 mL) whole milk instead since I couldn't find any half-and-half.)
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
(Note: You can buy pre-ground cloves, though they apparently lose their flavor quickly, so it's better to buy whole cloves and grind them yourself. You can use a coffee grinder, though then all your coffee from then on will taste like cloves. I tried crushing the things myself with a bowl and wooden spoon handle which REALLY didn't work. Cloves are really, really hard, as I discovered. I did the best I could, then picked out the biggest chunks and added what was left. It tasted fine, so don't worry if you can't get them ground very well.)

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 350°F (~175°C)

Place 1 piece of pre-made pie dough down into a (9-inch) pie pan and press down along the bottom and all sides. Pinch and crimp the edges together to make a pretty pattern. Put the pie shell back into the freezer for 1 hour to firm up. Fit a piece of aluminum foil to cover the inside of the shell completely. Fill the shell up to the edges with pie weights or dried beans (about 2 pounds = 0.9 kg) and place it in the oven. Bake for 10 minutes, remove the foil and pie weights and bake for another 10 minutes or until the crust is dried out and beginning to color.

(I used a Betty Crocker crust mix ordered from here. I prepared it the same way as in this recipe, though I didn't let it sit in the freezer since I was too impatient. It still worked out fine.)

For the filling, in a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese with a hand mixer. Add the pumpkin and beat until combined. Add the sugar and salt, and beat until combined. Add the eggs mixed with the yolks, half-and-half, and melted butter, and beat until combined. Finally, add the vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves, and beat until incorporated (I was pretty generous with the spices, so don't be afraid to go a little over the specified measurements).

Pour the filling into the warm prepared pie crust and bake for 50 minutes, or until the center is set (Reviewers of the recipe online suggested covering the edges of the crust with tin foil after 20 minutes or so to prevent burning, but my pie was way too hot to put on the tin foil. Mine turned out fine anyway. People also recommended cooking the pie for an extra 15-20 minutes, but mine was done after about 40 minutes, so just keep an eye on the thing.). Place the pie on a wire rack and cool to room temperature. Cut into slices and top each piece with a generous amount of whipped cream.

***

There was a lot of filling left, so I put it in a greased glass dish and cooked it after the pie was done. Both the pie and this secondary dish burned a bit on the top, though the pie tasted fine. I'm not sure what I did wrong. I think the cooking time really depends on the size of your oven since mine is very small (a combination microwave/oven), and the pie cooked very quickly.

Since I couldn't buy ready-made whipped cream here, I decided to make my own.

Whipped Cream

Yield: Enough cream for 2 pies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup heavy cream (~240 mL)
• 1/4 cup sugar (~60 mL)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Preparation:

Whip cream until almost stiff. Add sugar and vanilla; beat until cream holds peaks. Spread over top of cooled pie or dollop on bread pudding, gingerbread, cobblers, or other desserts.

景色

Pictures taken within a 10-15 minute walk from my house. This blog has gotten really boring, hasn't it?

お料理（厚揚げ・鶏肉・ピーマンのみそいため）

Time for more food from Nintendo. This one could be made veggie by leaving out the chicken and adding more vegetables, or else just serving with a lot of rice, maybe? Just trying to be equal-opportunity here.



Deep-Fried Tofu, Chicken, and Bell Pepper Miso Stir-Fry

Yield: 1

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 pieces fried tofu triangles
• 40 g chicken breast
• 1/2 green bell pepper
• 1/2 red bell pepper
• 1/3 cm fresh ginger
• 1 cm scallion
• 1/2 tsp sesame seeds
• 3/4 tbsp salad oil
• 1/4 tsp Chinese soup stock granules
• 1 1/2 tbsp water
• 1 tsp red miso
• 1/2 tbsp sugar
• 1/4 tbsp sake
• 1/3 tbsp soy sauce

Preparation:

In a small bowl, mix together 1/4 tsp Chinese soup stock granules, 1 1/2 tbsp water, 1 tsp red miso, 1/2 tbsp sugar, 1/4 tbsp sake, and 1/3 tbsp soy sauce. Set aside.

Remove the seeds and cores of the bell peppers (1/2 green, 1/2 red). Cut each into bite-sized pieces. Peel the 1/3 cm fresh ginger and mince finely. Mince the 1 cm scallion finely. Set aside.

Add some water to a pot and turn on the heat. Once hot, pour the water over the 1 1/2 pieces fried tofu in a collander. Cut the tofu into bite-sized pieces. Cut the 40 g chicken breast into bite-sized pieces. Set aside.

Add 3/4 tbsp salad oil to a frying pan and set on medium heat. Add the ginger and scallion, then cook until they begin to smell strongly. Add the chicken and cook until it just begins to change color. Add the fried tofu and stir carefully. Add the bell peppers and cook until the chicken is completely done. Add the soup stock mixture and cook until everything is heated.

Transfer everything to a plate, and top with 1/2 tsp sesame seeds.

***

I added two pieces of fried tofu, twice the amount of chicken called for, and served with a lot of rice. It was really too much food, but I managed to eat it all the same. I have to eat huge meals sometimes to use meat and other ingredients before they go bad. Tasted decent, though, so give it a try!

琵琶湖

I went to Lake Biwa a couple of weeks ago. Here we see the hapless foreigners attempting to windsurf. Every few seconds, someone would fall spectacularly into the water.



When I tried, I managed to give myself a softball-sized bruise the very first time I fell. I'm special like that. Don't let that tranquil water fool you. Bulbous and menacing rocks lurk beneath every gentle wave.

I woke up before 7:00 the next morning because of that delightful thing known as the "hangover." I sat reading Harry Potter and drinking Gatorade until the nausea/headache passed. Then I took some pictures.





So, yes. Majestic Lake Biwa. Home to the Kayak Nazi. And various other wildlife.