父の日2012 Father's Day 2012

娘の父の日のプレゼントはシャツとネクタイ、と思いきや、実はこれ、ケーキなんです！夫より私の方が受けました。　　マンゴープリンの入ったチョコレートケーキで、味もGOODでした～。
My daughter's present for her father was shirt and a tie, no,actually it's cake! I enjoyed it much better than my husband did. Mango pudding in chocolate cake tasted very good.

クリスマスカード２０１１ Christmas Card 2011

 

今年もクリスマスカードを書く季節になりました。今年ちゃんぷるー・どっとこむを利用されたお客様一人一人に心を込めて、書いています。来年も元気に、楽しく、と願いながら。。。
It's time to write Christmas cards.  I write it for every customer who shops at champroo.com this year, wishing their new year with peace and happiness.

母の日2011 Mother's Day 2011

今年の母の日は、息子からは例年通りチョコレート、娘からはペンダントルーペ（欲しかった！）と無料マッサージ券３枚つづり。忘れなかっただけ、よしとしよう。
On the Mother's Day, I got a pack of chocolate from my son, as usual, and my daughter gave me a magnifying glass pendant (I wanted it for a long time!) plus free massage ticket in triplicate.  I know I should appreciate the fact that they at least they didn't forget to give me some presents.

冬休み Season's Greetings

２０１１年あけましておめでとうございます！
昨年は春からフルタイムで働き始めたり、夏には自宅もちゃんぷるー・どっとこむも引っ越したり、多忙を極めブログはほったらかし状態でしたが、今年は出来るだけ更新しようと思っています。どうぞよろしくお願いします。
A HAPPY NEW YEAR!
As I started working full time in spring and moved champroo.com and home in summer, I couldn't update this blog last year, but I try to do my best in 2011.

どんなに忙しくても行事の時のごちそうは作るようにしています。おせちもバッチリ手作り。今年は嫌いな海老も入れて、豪華に見えます。クリスマスも例年通り鳥の丸焼きを作りました。
No matter how busy I am, I try to prepare feast for every event.  I prepared osechi, Japanese feast for a new year, too.  This year, I even add shrimp to look gorgeous.  I baked a whole checkin for Christmas, as usual. 

昨年最後の畑で異形の大根収穫。形はいびつでも味は goodでした。
At the last harvest this year, we got a heteromorphic japanese raddish.  It tasted good, though.

母の日 Mother's Day

今年は母の日に娘からはブラウニー、息子からは毎年おなじみガーナチョコレートをもらいました。このところバレンタインに友チョコ作りで鍛えているせいか、ブラウニーは美味しかった！毎年ちょっとだけ成長している子供たちです。
My daughter gave me brownies while my son gave me Ghana chocolate as usual on Mother's day this year.  As she makes sweets for her friends on every Valentine's Day, she improves her skill and brownies are so good.  I can happily feel that my children grow just a little every year.

子供の日の夕食 Dinner on Children's Day

子供の日の夕食はたいてい手巻き寿司なのですが、今年はちらし寿司にしてみました。彩りよく、と思っていたのに最後に海苔を散らしたため、真っ黒。(≧□≦;)ちょっと合わないけど、子供たちの好きなコーンスープとまぐろのお刺身も添えてみました。　たまたま冷蔵庫で寝ていた刺身こんにゃくも。刺身と刺身こんにゃくが並ぶって面白～い、と妙に受けました。
Though I usually fix do-it-yoursel sushi roll for dinner on Children's Day, I prepared chirashi sushi this year.  I intended to make it colorful, but as I scattered dried laver in the end, it looked all black!!!  I added my children's favorite corn soup and sashimi of tuna.  I also added sashimi of konnyaku.  To my surprise, they liked them, saying "Wow, how strange to have both sashimi of tuna and konnyaku!"

花見 Cherry Blossom Viewing

今年は花が長持ちしているので、急きょ家族で花見をすることに。先週より人が少なく、花の真下にシートを敷くことができました。毎年夫婦二人で出かけても、最後は皆でワイワイ、になるのですが今年は誰にも会わず。でも、焼き鳥に釣られて部活帰りの娘も途中参加して、はらはらと降ってくる花びらを眺めながら、ゆったりした時間を過ごすことが出来ました。

As cherry blossoms last longer, my husband and I suddenly decided to to go blossom viewing yesterday.  There were less people than last week that we could spread our picnic sheet right under the tree.  Even if we went alone, we met our friends at the site and we ended up drinking eating with a lot of people, but yesterday we saw nobody.  However, our daughter joined us after her club activity to eat yakitori, we all enjoyed slowly falling petals and peaceful time there.

お正月 New Year's Day

今年のお正月は首里の実家で迎えました。１０時から首里城で開催されている「新春の宴」を見物。久しぶりの首里城は改修工事が入るほど古ぼけて、いい感じになっていました。儀式も、音楽が豪華になって見ごたえが増していました。

We started a New Year's day at my mother's house in Shuri, an ancient capital of the Ryukyu kingdom. We watched restored ceremony at a castle of Shuri, also rebuilt in 1992. The castle looked better now with ancient atmosphere. The ceremony was also better with more glorious music, though I am not sure if it's closer to the original.

儀式の後は、お城から那覇の町を一望。海も見渡せて、心も晴れ晴れ。

After watching the ceremony, we enjoyed a view of Naha city from the castle. We felt refreshed to see the ocean from there.

お城からの帰り道、実家近くにある組踊りの創始者玉城朝薫の碑を見学。住んでいる時は、こんな立派な人の立派な碑があるとは知りませんでした。

On the way home, we visited a monument of Chokun Tamaki who started Kumiodori, Okinawan musical drama. I didn't know there is such a glorious monument of such historical

person in my neighborhood when I lived in Shuri.

Christmas Dinner

まあいろいろあったけど、今年も家族そろって無事クリスマス・ディナーを楽しむことができました。今年の鶏には首の骨？が残されていて、妙に生々しく、何度も「鳥さん、ごめんなさい」と謝りながら丸焼きにしました。
Though we've had quite a few bumps this year, all of family members could enjoy peaceful Christmas dinner as usual. Chicken this time happened to have a neck bone? left, and it looked so real that I couldn't help applogizing many times to it before I roasted it.

バレンタイン

我が家の男どもが獲得したチョコたち。息子が生まれて初めてもらってきたので、母も嬉しくて写真を撮りました。箱で積んであるのは、夫がもらってきた義理チョコ。さあ、食べよう！と言うと「お姉ちゃんに自慢したいから」と娘が帰るまで待つことに。娘はもっと多くの「友チョコ」を持って帰りました。なんか、複雑～！

Chocolate earned by boys in my family. I took a picture because I am so happy that my son got them for the first time in his 13-year life. Boxes in the back are ones given to my husband by his co-workers. "Let's eat!" I said, but my son said "let's wait until my sister comes home because I want to show them to her." So we waited, and my daughter brought more chocolate than my son gained....Poor boy!

クリスマスカード

今年もクリスマスカードを書く季節になりました。せっせと、お客さま一人一人に心を込めて書いています。今年は買ったばかりの万年筆の感触を楽しみながら・・・

It's time to send season's greetings. I'm writing an cordial message for each customer, enjoying the touch of my new fountain pen.

娘の誕生日

今年は娘の誕生日が休日だったので、豪華なディナーにしようと張り切ってみたものの・・・あまりの暑さに手を掛けたのはビシソワーズのみで、後は簡単に作れるタコライス、チョコミント入りレアチーズケーキ。ケーキの最後の飾りつけは娘が自分でやったし、いつものように手抜きになってしまった。。。 As my daughter's birthday was on the holiday, I decided to make a gorgeous dinner for her, but it's too hot to work in the kitchen for a long time...I ended up with making vichyssoise, taco rice and no-bake cheesecake. Only vichyssoise is kind of fussy and others are made quickly. My daughter did the decoration of the cake. After all, I cut corners for birthday dinner as usual.

運動会のお弁当

息子の運動会のお弁当。ちょっと張り切ってキャラ弁風なのですが、「幼稚園みたい」と不評。友達に見られないように、大急ぎで隠れるように食べたとさ。とほほ。。。

A lunchbox for my son on his athletic meet at junior high school. I made it like chara-ben, putting smiley on rice, but my son said, "I don't appreciate it at all. It's for kindergerten kids. So he ate it hurriedly not to be seen by any friends...

今年のポインセチア

これが今年のポインセチア。去年買って、初めて枯らさずに１年もたせたのですが、葉っぱが緑のままで先の方しか赤くありません。ポインセチアに見えず、隣の和風ライトと妙にマッチ。このままじゃあ普通の？ポインセチアを新たに買い足さなきゃ、クリスマスが盛り上がらないかも。

This is a poinsettia I bought last Christmas and the first one I can keep year round. The problem is; however, that only the top is red and it doesn't look poinsettia at all. It even go along very well with its neighboring, very Japanese lamp. Well, it seems like I have to buy another, more real poinsettia to celebrate a Christmas.

お月見

いつもウサギの絵の入ったお饅頭を飾って食べるのですが、今年は月見だんごを古式ゆかしく？並べてみました。三方が無いので普通のお皿なのが残念。すすきも周囲には無く（温暖化のせい？）、花屋さんで買うのもイヤなのでお彼岸で飾った菊を流用。ダメ？

Usually we eat bun with bean-jam filling, on which an illustration of rabbit is stamped, but this year I arranged 12 damplings for moon-viewing in an old frashioned way. It's a pity that I put them on an ordinary dish because we don't have any wooden tray. I couldn't find any silver grass either, which must be everywhere in this season. Since I hate to buy it at a flower shop because it is just a weed, I put chrysanthemum instead, leftover from equinoctical week. Is that kind of sloppy moon-viewing not acceptable?

息子の誕生日

先日は息子の１２歳の誕生日でした。
娘のようにそろそろ家でケーキ、よりレストランで食事の方がいいかな、と思っていたのですが、家でケーキの方がいい、と言うので久しぶりにガトー・オ・ショコラを作ってみました。こんなことで喜んでくれるのもあと少し、かな。

We celebrated our son's 12th birthday the other day. We thought he would rather have dinner at a nice restaurant than birthday cake at home, but he chose the latter. So I made Gateau au chocolat which I didn't make for a long time, thinking maybe he will soon prefer resutaurat just like his elder sister does.

母の日のプレゼント

娘はいつも夫に促されてカーネーション一輪だったのが、今年は写真のマスコットでした。髪の毛が無いのと写真のようなヘアスタイルのと２種類あり、髪の毛ありは２００円高かったので自分で付けたそうです。そんなに器用だったっけ？２００円のために頭と手先を使ったところに成長が感じられて嬉しかったです。下はおなじみ、息子からのチョコレート。去年は３００円のカカオ９９％を買って失敗したので？今年は１００円のにしたそうです。

Although my daughter always bought me a carnation just because her father said to do so, she game me a doll in the picture this year. According to her, there were two types of dolls: hairless or with hair. To save 200 yen, she bought a hairless one and put this hair and a ribbon to the doll by herself. Is she that good with her hands? I was surprised and felt happy that she used her brain and skill to save 200 yen. Chocolate that the doll sits on is a present from my son. 99% cacao chocolate he bought with 300 yen last year was a failure, so he bought 100 yen chocolate this year, which is sweet and good.
I am very happy that they are growing in a better way than I expect.