a sourdough batard - epsode #2

taken with contax-rts

recently i've felt so slow over everything.
i take more time to do one thing than usual.
cabin fever, winter blues, miserable physical condition, ... whatever.
i can say this, i'm totally ready for spring.
i need active fresh air!!

anyway, to continue last day's post, today i'll talk about a little story related to a sourdough bread because i'm so ready for new meeting with something in spring.

when i firstly came to the u.s., i was totally stunned by sourdough bread.
i'd hardly imagined that bread could be sour.
in my country (far east japan), i'd never met such sour-taste bread.
so, meeting sourdough bread was the big event ever that overturned my understandings for bread.

for the first time, i couldn't accept its flavor and decided not to get along with them forever.
regardless of such firm decision, i easily rendered a generous permission into my admiration for bread to sourdough bread!
after the first moment i made a compromise, i'v been loving sourdough bread.


i'm such a girl who adores something that i hated the first ;) (same thing happened to my husband, i hated him when i firstly met him!)


dear sourdough baguette,
i'm sorry that i hated you before.
now i learned that if i don't stick to my preconceived idea for something, i can accept anything that seems strange firstly but is worthy to be understood by nature.
thank you for a meaningful lesson :)
sincerely yours,
tomily

a sourdough batard - episode #1

taken with polaroid

now, a sourdough batard is in personally.
i know i'm in love with so many food at one time, but who can blame me about that?

this is a sourdough batard from my town's local bakery.
they make a lot of delicious bread.
they all are competitive, but i dare to choose this for my most favorite bread from the bakery.

today, i don't talk about how i love it, but i'll talk about a note of caution about this bread.
to get along with this bread, we need to keep some important points.
if you can keep these, you're gonna be able to be a good friend for her or cousins of her in your town.

here's those.

1, have a plenty of time to eat her.
'cause it's super extra chewy!
it's gonna take your time even for just one swallow, really.
and also eating hastily doesn't become her.

2, don't eat her two days in a row.
'cause her ultra tough skin is gonna hurt your pretty mouth. (especially a ceiling of your mouth)
you'll need some days off after a lunch meeting with her for healing your scratch of the mouth up.

3, don't eat her in front of anyone.
'cause her super extrra chewy flesh and ultra tough skin are gonna make your face the ugliest ever.
when you are biting and chewing her, you have to use all your face muscle and this results in that ugliest face.
it's quite an intensive exercise for your face muscle.

o.k.?, now you've got all the points needed to know, i think.
i hope you'll have a good relationship with this kind of hard bread in your town.


dear a sourdough batard,
i hope you'll get more friends.
good luck!
sincerely yours,
tomily

a pancake platter

taken with nikon-fe2

it's not my table, but a table from one of my favorite cafes in my town.
i found this place quite recently, about 7 months ago.
everything is pretty here.
tables and chairs are all individual, never the same.
funny old signs are hung on the wall.
even this place seems to had been a garage formerly.
now you know this cafe is quite something.

well, recently i've been in a mood to eat a pancake platter at this cafe.
i took this picture at my 2nd visit and also my 1st breakfast here.
i ordered "plain pancake ( plain pancake only, the menu said so)".
so i didn't expect much other than a plain pancake.
as you can easily imagine, i was really stunned with this pretty plain pancake platter, really.
yes, i can call this " a platter", right?
this was amazing, this was quite a wonderful reward for waking up early in the morning, brushing my teeth, putting the day's clothes on, driving from the top of the hill down to the town before breakfast!!! ( i usually don't do this, 'cause i'm a such person who wants to seek indulgence in breakfast, which is most favorite and important meal of the day for me, very lazily.)
it had 2 rectangular pancakes (it's interesting, i think. i seldom saw this shape.) sprinkled with powder sugar (you know, this simple decoration just makes food very pretty), warmed syrup (i was moved by this little but sensible treat), 3 pieces of wrapped butter (their gold wrapping paper became this platter very much!).
now i'm wondering if i'v mentioned all about this pretty platter, but i think you've already understand how i was excited with this platter enough and why i'v been in the mood to have this platter.
i can't wait next weekend!!


dear a pancake platter,
you know, it's still wednesday, a middle of the week yet.
you make me strongly yearn for weekend.
how many nights do i have to count till i meet you?
sincerely yours,
tomily

an empty jar of strawberry jam

taken with nikon-fe2

i'v been feeling just like this empty jar.
i can't explain well, nor can i understand well what's going on inside of me.
just feeling empty.

i've been patiently waiting the time when an empty jar is filled with something.
something i don't know now.

it's kind of ridiculous, but i can't help seeing an empty jar of strawberry jam in me.
some kind of introspection.

dear an empty jar of strawberry jam,
hey.. how're you doing?
me? well, not bad, yeah ... , maybe.
so, the winter's almost done, isn't it?
are you thrilled with the spring coming?
well, take good care of yourself.
sincerely yours,
tomily

embroidered cloths

taken with polaroid

when i walk into my favorite antique shop, i usually have a theme of the day there.
otherwise i'm at a loss in that spacious shop, because i love all old things.

embroidered cloths are one of my favorite things to seek.
even if they have some stains on them, they make me feel cozy and warm for their memories with their former owners.

eating my lunch on them by myself, washing and ironing them, folding them neatly, ..... this series of events is an important ritual in my life, i believe.


dear embroidered cloths,
every single your stitches are filled with love for life.
thank you for embracing my everyday.
sincerely yours,
tomily

honey bear

taken with polaroid

a bear is standing on his head!
i love him very much.

my husband loves this bear, too.
when the bear is about to lose all his golden blood, he transfuses some hot water into the bear.
not for saving his life, but for sucking all his blood up!
he lays his body down on the floor, then hold this bear upside-down about 2 inches above his mouth, then keep on lying for a while during the bear's blood drops into his throat.
can you imagine how this looks?
it's just pretty!
oh, it's such an innocent cruel murder!!

so, my honey loves honey :)

dear honey bear,
you're so cute!
and you know, my honey is as cute as you, i think.
so could you allow him for all his rude attitude toward you?
sincerely yours,
tomily

a cup of joe

taken with nikon-fe2


it's monday morning.
it's just a start of the week.

take it easy.
just take it easy with your cup of joe :)


dear a cup of joe,
you're the most necessary thing to start up my day.
especially in the monday morning,
you soothes my tension as well as pinching my brain.
love you always.
sincerely yours,
tomily

le croissant

taken with contax-rts

about a year ago, i was so stuck on croissants.
i thought i had preferred leaner bread much than rich bread.
and so do i now.
so, i don't know why, but i loved croissants from the french bakery restaurant in my town over a period of time last year.

btw, whenever i see a croissant, i can't help thinking of my most favorite actress, audrey hepburn.
have you ever seen the movie, " breakfast at tiffanys"?
in the first scene of that movie, she got off a yellow cab, and had a cup of coffee and a pastry with looking into tiffanys' window on the 5th street in manhattan.
that's a pretty scene, and i really love that.
as it is, i 've read some episode about that scene.
it said that since audrey had never liked rich bread like pastries, she experienced difficulties with shooting that.
i love this episode, too :)

anyway, going back to the original topic of this post, after a few days' fad for croissants i'd completely returned to the usual preference.
i just wanted to talk about my curious croissant story, because i met him today (but i din't get him according to my usual preference. instead of le croissant, i got a sourdough baguette :) ).


dear le croissant,
oh you're so french!
whenever i call you aloud, i feel so french :)
le croissant, le croissant, .... i'm still not good at french "r" sound, but i know that it's so romantic.
i'm dreaming of my perfect french pronunciation someday :))
sincerely yours,
tomily

a table and chairs

taken with nikon-fe2

this is one of my favorite pics.
i took this sometime before, i don't remember well.
one of his(my cat's) favorite seats is there.

we bought this table set 5 years ago in portland, oregon.
just a few weeks before we adopted him from the shelter.
we've been sitting around this table for 5 years now.
we and he have been a family for 5 years now, too.

1 and 1/2 weeks ago,we adopted a new cat.
i heard that she's 4 years old now.
i don't know if it's true or not, and maybe it doesn't matter any if she's much younger or a bit older than that. ( i just don't want her to be much older than that, because i want to be with her as long as possible.)
anyway, now she loves one of these 4 chairs and whenever she can't find anything to do other than staying quiet and thinking of something, or maybe falling asleep, she is always on that.
so now, all the members of my family love around this table.


dear my table and chairs,
probably you're gonna be able to tell our story to someone in the future.
please remember us forever.
and now, please just be with us.
sincerely yours,
tomily

a sugar doughnut

taken with polaroid

one sunny spring day last year, we hit the road without any purpose but eating a doughnut for our happy snack time.

after driving through the sticks for quite a while, we found a cool local market that reminds us of something of from the western movies.
there we also found a pretty red old table outside of the market.
so, that was it!
we bought our drinks and took a tiny wonderful event of the day there.


dear a sugar doughnut,
doughhhhh-nuuuuuuuut!!
where're ya??
i can't see you!!!!
don't be that shy, darling.
i won't bite you ;)
sincerely yours,
tomily

pizza margherita

taken with contax-rts

the day before yesterday, it was a super bowl sunday.
it was quite a big day for me.
really a designated day for having a party!

as for me, i'm not a nfl fanatic at all, nor know much about american football, so.....
so, i just had a good excuse for having a pizza party :)

well, this party was a little tiny party whose participants are only 2 people and 2 cats ( this means that this party was quite same size as usual dinners).
so why do i call that "a party"?
'cause we ate pizza!!

we like to bake our own pizza from scratch.
he kneaded the dough (ours are always ultra-thin, super-crisp :) ), i prepared the rest of ingredients, tomatoes, basil, karamata olives, anchovy, mozzarella cheese for him, soy cheese for me and 2 cats sat around kitchen waiting for their own dry cat food.
we both have our own pizza stone because we each usually make our own pizza for ourselves.
since i don't take much dairy products (as i mentioned this before, they really hurt my tummy. ), we have to separate our pizza.
ok, so the picture above is his, because look at the cheese there!
it's definitely that of buffalo.
my soy cheese pizza didn't look that fancy.
i admit that his looked much fancier, yet had much more calories ;)
oops, forget about calories now!

till both pizza was perfectly baked, 2 quaters had already gone.
we also missed a half game show.
i'm afraid that the super bowl had nothing to do with our pizza party, but you know, it's just all about the matter of mood, isn't it?


dear pizza margherita,
you're a party queen!
no party can't go without you.
sincerely yours,
tomily

a hard boiled egg

taken with contax-rts

since i was little, i have loved eggs.
for 4 years of entire my 34 year life, i had been apart from eggs.
i had had the macrobiotic diet during that time.
it recommends people to eat brown rice, moderate amount of veggies, seaweed and vegetable protein, sparing amount of seafood maybe 1~2 servings a week.
this idea comes from the old time japanese people's diet.
it doesn't really prohibit any of food but recommends not to eat meat, eggs, dairy products, many fruits daily. ( those should be saved for some rare occasions, which is called "hare - ハレ", should be pronounced "ha-rέ", in japanese.)
since i used to have had almost same preference for food as that diet recommends, it wasn't so difficult to obey that recommendation.
as i practiced that diet, i was able to appreciate simple flavors food naturally have.
it was so exciting experience for me.
though i don't follow that diet strictly now, i still don't eat any meat but moderate amount of seafood, many dairy products and fruits.
eggs?
oh, i so love eggs, i eat an egg almost everyday and my naturopathic doctor allows me to do so :) (thanks, doc!)

here, i took a picture of a hard boiled egg for my lunch the other day.
as you can see, i had a bit difficult time to eat that.
you know, it just happens without expectation.
i was very irritated by this, so i decided to take a picture that i can enjoy this ugly situation!


dear a hard boiled egg,
oh, your smell, you're so different!
also your stubborn shell!!
that expresses enough that you're so shy!!!
though you are that difficult to get along with for me, i promise you, i'm a lifelong fan of you :)
sincerely yours,
tomily