Reversed Chocolate

Today is sunny again, but we need to be careful not to catch the flu when the air is dry! I wear a mask on the train, gargle and wash my hands for protection!

Anyway, here in Japan, women give chocolate to men on Valentine's Day. Then funny, but on 3/14, men give gifts (used to be candies) to women in return for the chocolate they were given. So some women give chocolate with expectation, out of courtesy!
However, this year, Valentine's Day is on Saturday, so many chocolate manufacturers expect the downturn in sales: no work or schools, so women are expected to buy only the chocolate for someone special! Thus, some of the chocolate manufacturers promote "reversed chocolate" to target men to give chocolate to women. This morning, I saw on TV that Godiva has a Valentine's Day chocolate that costs $15 a piece in a jewel-box-like box!!! Also, there are some funny ones which packages are printed in reverse. The image above is one of them.

How about in your country?
I should tell my boyfriend about "reversed chocolate" and ask him to take me out for dinner! Ha-ha ;)

Please click below and vote for me.

Chocolate Muffins

Hi! It snowed a little on Saturday. Probably the first snow of the season. The high was 50F(10C) and it was cold!!! Oops, jo might laugh at me. Her place was at 15F(-9C)...

This is the same chocolate muffins as last time in a different style ;)



---------------------------------
Chocolate Muffins

Difficulty: Very Easy
Time: 40min (15min preparation, 25min cooking)
Number of servings: 6 medium (2.4inches/6cm) aluminum cups

Ingredients:
A
* 100g (3.5oz.) all-purpose flour
* 20g (0.7oz.) cocoa powder
* 1 tsp. baking powder
* a pinch of salt
60g (2.1oz.) butter (softened)
60g (2.1oz.) sugar
1 egg
70cc milk
few drops of vanilla extract
25g (0.8oz.) chopped walnut
40g (1.4oz.) chopped chocolate bar

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350F (180C). In a large bowl, whisk A together and set aside.




2. In another bowl, beat butter and sugar until creamy, add egg, milk and vanilla extract in sequence, mixing well after each addition.


3. Add the dry ingredients (1.) in the liquid ingredients (2.) a small amount at a time, and with a rubber spatula, gently stir to blend. (Do not overmix!) Then stir in the chopped walnut and chocolate bar.

4. Spoon the mixture into aluminum cups. Bake for 20-25 minutes.




My original recipe in Japanese is here.
---------------------------------

Stay warm!!!

Please click below and vote for me.

LOVE Message Chocolate Chunk Muffins

The sun finally came out from the rainy sky. This weekend is going to be sunny, good :)

Here is another Valentine's Day recipe!
I posted about these muffins last year (if you could find), but without recipe, so I will translate it now.



---------------------------------
LOVE Message Chocolate Chunk Muffins

Difficulty: Easy
Time: 1hr (15min preparation, 25min cooking, 20min decoration)
Number of servings: 4 medium (2.4inches/6cm) muffin cups

Ingredients:
A
* 100g (3.5oz.) all-purpose flour
* 20g (0.7oz.) cocoa powder
* 1 tsp. baking powder
* a pinch of salt
60g (2.1oz.) butter (softened)
60g (2.1oz.) sugar
1 egg
70cc milk
few drops of vanilla extract
25g (0.8oz.) chopped walnut
40g (1.4oz.) chopped chocolate bar

Decoration
chocolate bars
mini heart chocolates or heart candies
chocolate pen
ganache or chocolate to attach the message bars

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350F (180C). In a large bowl, whisk A together and set aside.




2. In another bowl, beat butter and sugar until creamy, add egg, milk and vanilla extract in sequence, mixing well after each addition.


3. Add the dry ingredients (1.) in the liquid ingredients (2.) a small amount at a time, and with a rubber spatula, gently stir to blend. (Do not overmix!) Then stir in the chopped walnut and chocolate bar.

4. Spoon the mixture into muffin cups. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Cool the muffins.




5. Prepare the LOVE message chocolate bars.




6. Attach the message chocolate bars on to the muffins.




My original recipe in Japanese is here.
---------------------------------

Have a good weekend!

Please click below and vote for me.

"S"

Hi! It is raining & cold again. It reminds me of writing the same thing in this season last year on my posts! Ha-ha!!!

Anyway, jose passed me a fun game!

Here's the deal:
If you want to play, leave a comment on this post letting me know, and I’ll assign you a letter. You write about ten things you love that begin with your assigned letter, and post it at your place. When people comment on your list, you give them a letter, and the chain continues on and on.

I got the letter "S"!



1) Sparkle
I love bling-bling stuff ;)

2) Sports Club
I go to the gym almost every day since last August to stay healthy! Now it is becoming part of my life!?

3) Sushi Rolls
I think I make sushi rolls once in a short while!

4) Shopping
I love shopping clothes, especially at Shibuya 109! I love there because they have cheap but good clothes! Also, I love to shop at a supermarket :) I shop every day and get only food that I use on the day.

5) Sausage
I love to cook food using sausage because it's my boyfriend's favorite food. It makes him happy!

6) Sweet Stuff
On the contrary, this is something that my boyfriend hates... but I love sweet stuff! I wish I could eat more without getting fat!!! Mostly, I hold back :(

7) Sisters
I have 2 younger sisters. I don't say I love them (we are not buddy-buddy) but I think I do by tacit agreement ;)

8) Singing Songs at Karaoke
I love Karaoke! I think I can stay there for more than 3 hours!!! But again, my boyfriend doesn't like it, so I just go there once in a loooooong while :(

9) Something Special, Being Special
I love something special! Maybe this is why I love to receive a prize at a cookoff. And I am a jealous girlfriend who wants to be special for my boyfriend! Ha-ha.

10) Single-Lens Reflex Camera
As for #10, I first wrote "Smiles" but I will change it because I also have an unpleasant memory of it. (You know, if you have read...) Anyway, I love my camera, Olympus E-500. I use it almost every day! I just took some pics of my dinner and remembered!

I wrote them down off the top of my head, so I feel like missing something important. Hmm.

Okey-dokey, see you again!

Please click below and vote for me.

Action Painting Cookies

Do you know Jackson Pollock?
He is an American abstract expressionist painter.

Last weekend, I baked some cookies and used his "drip" technique to decorate them! Don't you think this is easy and COOL!?



---------------------------------
Action Painting Cookies

Difficulty: Easy
Time: 2.5hrs (15min preparation, 15min cooking, 2hrs ready in)
Number of servings: 20 cookies

Ingredients:
60g (2.1oz.) butter (softened)
30g (1oz.) sugar
1 egg yolk
A
* 95g (3.3oz.) all-purpose flour
* 2 tbsp. cocoa powder
* a pinch of baking powder
chocolate pens or colored icing of your choice

Directions:
1. Beat butter and sugar until creamy, add egg yolk and mix well.




2. Sift A in 1. and mix well.





3. Press and shape dough into a log (1.5 inches in diameter) and wrap in plastic wrap or waxed paper. Refrigerate dough for at least 2 hours until very firm.


4. Preheat oven to 350F (180C). Cut in 0.25-inch slices and place on a greased cookie sheet about an inch apart.



5. Bake at 350F (180C) for 12-15 minutes. Cool the cookies on the sheet and action-paint them with chocolate pens or colored icing of your choice.


6. These are the chocolate pens I used.





My original recipe in Japanese is here.
---------------------------------

It is going to rain this afternoon (after a long time) and temperatures are predicted to turn much colder in the weekend!
Let us keep warm!!!

Please click below and vote for me.

Wedding Style

Yesterday (1/19), Erika Sawajiri (age 22: a Japanese actress, model, and musician) and Tsuyoshi Takashiro (age 44: a Japanese DJ, filmmaker, and writer) held a wedding at the Meiji Jingu Shrine in Tokyo!

I love her bridal costume! Don't you think this is traditional but modern? Her tunokakushi (a traditional Japanese wedding headwear) is made of lilies.

The image is from The Sankei Shimbun & Sankei Digital.

HERE I found a video of the ceremony!

Oops... I am off my culinary topic again. Sorry...
I will post my Valentine's Day recipes before too long ;)

Please click below and vote for me.

Hudson River Plane Crash

Hi! After the rain, the temp is high at 59F (15C) today! It will drop back to 48F (9C) tomorrow, though...

Did you see this news?
"Hudson River Plane Crash" was an eye-opening news of the weekend! Thanks to God and the pilot, I'm glad to hear that all 155 people on board survived!!!



Dramatic New Details Released About Moments Before Jet's Crash Landing in Hudson River
Image is from FOXNews.

Anyway, have you ever find out your loved one having an affair?! Yesterday, I accidentally saw my boyfriend's cell and found he is hanging out with his co-workers, with guys and "girls"!!! I always thought he is with guys!!! For more than 5 years, I didn't care about his friends, but I think I need to keep an eye on it!!!

Please click below and vote for me.

Andy Goldsworthy

Do you know Andy Goldsworthy?

He is one of my favorite artists who I knew while studying art at college. I am not that crazy about appreciating art, but his work just amazes me. I have some of his artbooks, too!

I once wrote a research paper about his work and posted online, but I just realized that the page (my server) was gone :(

Anyway, what I like about his work is he works with nature as a whole. All materials he use are found in nature, such as brightly-coloured flowers, icicles, leaves, mud, pinecones, snow, stone, twigs, and thorns.

Rowan Leaves with Hole

Rowan leaves around a hole, made on a sunny day in the shade, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, West Bretton, October 25, 1987. Andy Goldsworthy
The image is from University of Cambridge.

Can you believe those materials aren't edited at all?!

I've once been to Storm King Art Center to see his Storm King Wall (1998). I remember it was close to Woodbury Common Premium Outlets! You can shop there afterwards! Ha-ha.

Have a good weekend!

Please click below and vote for me.

My Accomplishments

Hi! It is sunny but cold almost daily. I opened a pocket warmer. Do you use it in your country?

I will list my first accomplishments this year!

On 1/7, I won diet pills by submitting my healthy recipe. Diet pills?! Anyway, better than nothing! Ha-ha!!! It was for the first 700 applicants, so the probability was pretty high! I submitted my healthy rice gratin. It's sauce is made from soy milk and yam.




On the same day, my Valentines Day recipe (Butterfly Cream Cheese Cupcake) was posted on Cookpad's contest page, as a sample recipe for the upcoming Kraft's Philadelphia Cream Cheese Contest! I used the cream cheese for both cupcakes and frosting (white chocolate ganache colored green). The slight sour taste of the cream cheese is delicious!!! For the butterflies, I used raspberry chocolate.

Again, on the same day, my "Daikon and Mochi Japanese Curry" was introduced as a surprising recipe in the newsletter published by cookpad.com.

Then on 1/12, this recipe luckily won the grand prize at hot food recipe contest organized by cookpad.com! Thanks for selecting my recipe!


On 1/9, I finally won the grand prize at Asahi Food & Healthcare's diet recipe contest. They manufacture health care products, yeast extract, organic foods, and freeze-dried foods, such as chunky ingredients, aim to be a creator of wholesome living styles. I submitted my "Diet Sakuraebi and Mushroom Fried Rice" cooked with a microwave.


Yesterday, the gym was almost empty! There was no treadmill available last weekend, though... I saw many people coming to view and becoming a member after the new year's holidays, so might be crowded again this weekend!!!

Please click below and vote for me.