The wee mousey burrito

The title of this post sounds utterly disgusting, I know, but don't worry it's not a real burrito or even real mice. If you ever find me eating real mice burritos, then you should consider that to be a sign of either my descent into insanity, or the apocalypse.

little mousey poking out of his cover

During a recent visit to our local antique store, I found a cute little box of mice with extraordinarily long tails. When I asked the proprietor for more information as to their use, he said that the very long tails were for holding cheese and other hors d'oeuvres. Well, I think I may have hopped with delight, right there in the middle of his store. I was so excited at such a cute and clever idea. And when he offered  to sell them for just twenty dollars, well, I couldn't refuse.  

such long, luxurious tails

Now I have a whole litter of tiny nice to help me with my next party. Fortunately, these mice are more like the little, happy, clean mice in Cinderella and not so much like the ones in my cupboards.…hmm, maybe scratch that next party until I can convince my neighbor to stop sending over all of his little furry cupboard friends.

So, to keep these little mice in tip top shape, I decided that they needed their own rolled felt case. This would protect them from each other and from any outside scratches. I will admit, they came in their original box which kept them nicely separated and displayed them beautifully. Somebody had taken great care to keep the box in fairly good shape, but it still had an inevitable layer of grime from having been around for many years. So, I tossed the box and, although I have little doubt that when I threw away that box I probably gave up any chance of selling my little Napier mice(Napier is the company that made them) for a fortune in the future, I find the tiny felt burrito cover to be a much more adorable way to keep them clean. And handmade by me, means that that I can make a new one anytime I want :)

so mysterious... what's inside?

oh, hello!

Now there are two of them!

so many mice came out to play.

The month of canning

 So, I realize that it has been over a month since I last posted on my blog, but once you see all the delicious treats I've been making this past month, you'll realize just why I haven't had time to post!

I've gone on a little bit of a food preserving rampage. I have, of course, made some normal jams and such, but I also tried my hand at some less common (for me, at least) products: tomato ketchup, peach ketchup, mustard, jasmine peach pickles and pickled grapes.

I didn't actually photograph the pickled red grapes because they do look a little bit frightening, floating around their jar like tiny monster's eye balls, but they really are delicious! I love them with any cheese. I used this recipe, and would happily make them again and again, any time I'm stuck with more grapes than I care to eat up fresh (this happens more often then you would imagine and is part of the reason that I so rarely buy grapes).

I did manage to photograph everything else that I made, and I will say that I was delighted with how everything turned out. It's all delicious! And, while I'm still figuring out how to use the new stuff, it's kind of exciting to have things like homemade mustard and ketchup that I made all on my own and didn't have to buy from a store. This isn't to say that my versions are better than store bought, or that I would only ever use my homemade versions in the future(I absolutely won't), but it's always a nice feeling to be able to make something that is usually always store bought, in our modern age.

Blueberry jam made with Liquid pectin.

Pluot Jam- I only made three jars of this. It's delicious! I didn't use any pectin for this recipe.

This is actually new to me, I've never actually made pepper jelly before but thought it would be fun to help a friend who has never canned before. This turned out great. We used Liquid pectin for this jam/jelly.

This plum butter turned out pretty good. I made it in the crock pot(a first for me) and I actually think it needed a little more sugar and a little more time on the heat. I took it off too early because I was getting impatient, but also because it started to stick.

Nectarines in Syrup- growing up, we made canned peaches every summer, and last year I made a single jar of peaches, but this year I thought I'd try canning nectarines because they are so easy. I think I like canned peaches better =)

This is the only really strange item that I made recently. These are from a really innovative chef, Edward Lee, and while I love this concept, the peppers he called for in the recipe give the peaches an odd, vegetal taste. Still, these are lots of fun!

The most unusual and most delicious item I made, this peach ketchup goes splendidly with cheese, especially brie, but any cheese will do =) it's really, really good.

I used David Lebovitz's recipe for Mustard. I've been wanting to make mustard for years and finally decided to make some this month, since I've been on a "making weird foods" roll.

The tomato ketchup. This was pretty good. I ate some with roasted potatoes last night for dinner and I really think it would be tasty on a hamburger. Hopefully I'll have some left the next time I get around to making hamburgers. I doubt that I'll make this very often since it took a lot of cooking down to get it to the correct consistency. But it was fun to try homemade ketchup. I used a mix of different recipes for this and hope to find the perfect, easy recipe some day =)

More delicious food

We have spent the last two days traveling with a friend who is very interested in food. This means that we have been eating amazing foods that we would never have had the opportunity to try otherwise. It has been incredible!

Soba noodles eaten at Enryaku-ji (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enryaku-ji), Osakan okonomiyaki, takoyaki eaten "Osaka style" with dashi soup instead of sauce and mayonnaise, delicious sashimi and some truly delicious sake.

So. Cali in über hip Tokyo!

California has arrived in Tokyo! On this trip we have seen quite a few billboard signs for avocados, and when we went to a tiny cafe with a hand lettered menu and just a sign over the bar with the lunch specials, we encountered the BLT and the shrimp and avocado nan bread sandwich. It was a delicious combination and the avocado sandwich was flavored with Cesar salad dressing which was quite delicious and very Californian. This was our lunch today, in the super hip area, known as shimokitazawa.

A picture post: happy spring

 Okay, so this post will just be a quick blast of photographs. All the fun and adorable things that have been keeping me so very busy in these recent months. So busy, but so happy!! =)

Tulips (c/o Jessica) to welcome spring

Such perfect bud vases, I need to make a serious effort to find some of my own (if for no other reason, then that I stop coveting Jessica's).

Valentine's day mushroom bouquet- What could be more romantic? Is it any wonder that Matthew loves me when I offer him such fabulous gifts :)

But really, why doesn't every card come packaged with such a perfect bow?

Carrot Cake Cupcakes- in anticipation of Easter. Somehow, I don't think there will be any left to offer the Easter bunny when he hops by on Sunday.

Sadly, for the sake of cuteness (but happily for the sake of my sanity), I did not use these tiny baby carrots in the cupcakes. These are so sweet and tender that I couldn't bear to do too much with them, just sauteed them in loads of butter and a sprinkling of fresh mint for the simplest and tastiest preparation.

And, last picture, because it's a little ugly compared to all the pretty little things in the photos above: this is my very first little baby lettuce shoot of the spring. I was so delighted to see it just a couple days after planting the seeds. Now the planter is full of baby lettuces. I really should take another photo to post. I love the freshness of seeing green lettuces growing right outside my front door.

Emergency pickles

Last Tuesday, while I was prepping veggies for ease of that week's dinner preparation, and therefore digging around in the frightening depths of my fridge, I came across a sad little baggy of baby carrots that I knew I needed to use very soon or else summon up the will to throw them away. I decided that a quick pickling was the best way to save them from a sad, slimy fate.

Here are the carrots layered with some thinly sliced cucumbers that were also taking the slow path to the garbage can.

I made a very salty brine and warmed it briefly, then tossed the carrots in the hot water before layering everything with a couple cloves of garlic and some tasty spices.


A refreshing, crunchy snack on a hot day!

my new friend: an elderly owl

I have a new friend! He is an elderly owl who belonged to a friend for years and years, but upon discovering that I like the occasional owl, my friend thought that I might enjoy his company an awful lot, and so she gave him to me.

Today was the first day that I took him outside for a little look-see and what I discovered was that he desperately needed a bath. So, several hefty doses of Endust and a stiff toothbrush later, he looks much better; his plumage is shiny and bright, and his eyes are no longer cloudy. After his cleaning, he looked so dapper and cheerful that I realized he deserved his very own post on my blog.



He is a very clever little owl and comes apart so that I can store things in his little baskety body. I guess he can't hold anything too heavy, so probably bits of string or other fluffy things are ideal materials for him to hold.

His delicate feet probably can't withstand holding any heavy objects

My elderly owl has a very handsome profile!

a little grumpy bear

 I started crocheting this little panda bear rattle a few weeks back, but when I started photographing him, I realized he's almost too smug and saucy looking to give to a baby. He might frighten a baby with his grumpy visage. But, then again, maybe that's okay since babies are often grumpy their own tiny selves.

 I used a tiny bell stuffed inside the filling to give the rattle a very soft sound. I know babies like interesting noises but parents prefer quieter toys. In the future, I might make the handle ring a little bit smaller. Sometimes I forget just how teeny-tiny, itty-bitty a baby's hands are. 

Wow! that's a grumpy little face! kinda cute though =)

adventurous living for a holiday weekend

For the first time in several years I had Memorial Monday off with Matthew and although I did spend most of the day cleaning, we did take the time to try out a few new treats.

This is caramelized rock sugar from the Japanese market, Nijiya, where we do a lot of our shopping. I've wanted to buy it for a while now(maybe a year?) and on Sunday we decided to make the splurge. It really is delicious and makes for a much richer cup of tea, although the packaging says it's for coffee. To be completely honest, I think it's perfect fine crunched up as a snack, since it has such a wonderful, caramel flavor all on it's own. There are few things I wouldn't use this large crystal sugar on, with it's fancy pantsness and pretty crystalline look.

Buying fancy sugar isn't the only adventurous step we took this weekend; this afternoon, in a fit of courage we went to a new and unusual(for us) grocery store, Fresh and Easy. I know, I know, this may not seem like a big step for most people, but Matthew and I tend to stick to the tried and true, the places that are familiar and where we know for certain that the cashiers won't just take a bite out of us.

We were, of course, rewarded for our daring and bravery with a delicious jar of vanilla curd. This stuff is pretty much divine. It tastes like really, really yummy vanilla ice cream but just not cold and painful to the tiny toofs. I think I'm going to like it, if I can figure out some other ways to eat it, other than simply dipping a spoon into the jar and then licking off said spoon. Yum!