fall color

taken with contax-rts

days have passed so quickly.

i have to apologize to my friends who kindly left comments for me and have been looking forward to new post. (especially big apology for having not published precious comments. i thought i successfully did that, but actually didn't.)

i'm so sorry, dear friends.

i was so lazy here lately because i worked so hard on my renewed cooperated website with my husband.

if you're interested in my photo around the table, please check here.

i'm exhibiting some of my tabletop photos with some japanese words. (sorry, no english.)

that place is created as an imaginary cafe on the web.

to tell the truth, i want to my own real cafe in future :)

by the way, i feel fall has been approaching day by day.

the smell of the air has totally changed from that of summer.

i don't see much change visually, but my smell sensor sensitively catches much.

so i'm gradually shifting to fall color on my table.

the photo above shows that obviously, doesn't it?

recently i'm trying to eat whole grain a lot.

even though i sometimes want to skip that heaviness, i still try to stick with that.

few days ago, i met my naturopathic doctor after about 400 mile drive ( she lives in the next state to mine.), and she suggested me to do so.

i have loved every whole grain and also enjoyed that.

but, as some of you have already known, i've loved bagels so much, and i have kept eating bagels almost every morning.

now i quit that.

really. ( she doesn't like me to eat bagels made from white flour. she doesn't even like whole wheat ones.)

so now, i eat a bowl of oatmeal or granola and fruits with low-fat yogurt for my breakfast recently.

and the photo above is one of my lunch.

i made a bowl of instant rice pudding not from scratch but by using ready-to-eat soy pudding.

firstly i heated about 1/2 cup of pre-cooked brown rice with some soy milk in a pan, then cooled it down.

put it in a bowl and mixed with a cup of soy pudding (i love this product so much, especially vanilla flavor! i call this a "panda pudding" :)) ) and add some flavors like cinnamon and nutmeg.

topped with a handful of granola (add crunchiness) and blueberries and blackberries.

as i love the food like for babies, it was so yummy for me :)

now i'm enjoying whole grain in some ways.

and i noticed that whole grain usually have fall color, and that entertains me a lot!

dear whole grain,

i have noticed you're full of energy and nutrition originally, but i sometimes neglected that.

i'm sorry for that.

now i truly love you not only because it's fall and you're wearing fall color, but because i consider my total long-standing health care.

i promise you that i respect you more than before.

sincerely,

tomily

an interesting play with croissants

taken with contax-rts

one sunday morning in July, i finally did an "イタリアごっこ ( italy-gokko)" which is a japanese word means " imitating italian way".

it's really hard to explain this word because it has a very personal meaning and a very curious to call that way.

so, i'll try to explain that the easiest way.

 

1, my husband i had a trip to italy last may, and we ate a croissant and a cup of cappuccino for our breakfast everyday there.

2, we seldom eat croissants for our breakfast usually.

3, we are missing italy very much since we visitted there.

4, "ごっこ(gokko)" is a japanese name for some kind of play in which kids can pretend to be someone they want to be.

5, so, my husband and i came up with a new play and that is "イタリアごっこ(italy-gokko)".

we eat croissants with cups of cappuccino for our breakfast when we do that pretty play!

now, you understand that.

then i'll teach you how to do that. ( everyone has to have their own favorite way to do that, but below is a very helpful suggestion for you.)

1, you have to get 1~7 croissants ( depends on the number of your family. but you know, 1 is still great to do this play :) ) on one sunny saturday afternoon at your local bakery shop.

if you have a french style bakery shop in your neighborhood, that'd be great!! 

in our case, fortunately we have the one in downtown :)  hooray!!

( please don't ask me why french even though you do the play related to italy. i still don't know if eating a croissant for breakfast is popular in italy or not. and speaking of croissants, i believe french ones are the best of all.)

2, on sunday morning, it's so nice if the weather is good.

but you know, we can't choose the weather ;) ,so let's do the play even though it rains.

just one caution, you can't sleep over once you decide to do this play.

our case, we wake up about 7 weekends and i think that's enough :))

3, prepare a pot of espresso and foamed milk (our choice is unsweetend soy milk) while preheating your oven.

don't forget to put everything you need ( 'nutella' is necessary, i think) on your table with clean table cloth.

on this step, you'll probably feel tired from series of bustle.

but please remember this, you're still before the play and you're just preparing for the most excited play for your precious sunday morning :)

need patience, ok?

4, now's the time to put croissants (or a croissant) into the preheated oven.

don't put them on the top rack but lower as possible.

you don't bake or burn those but just warm those up.

5, congrats!, you're ready to play "イタリアごっこ" now.

let's enjoy this bewitching play and indulge in that sweetness :))

now i'm a bit tired as i was too much excited with typing all above, i'll skip my love letter today.

thai cuisine

taken with nikon-fe2

2~3 weeks ago, one saturday afternoon, i went to the thai restaurant in my town with my husband for our lunch.

we seldom eat out (approx. once in 2~3 months other than during trip).

as we are vegetarian, it's much easier to fix something in my house.

so this was the first time after we had a vacation in italy in this may.

as you who like asian cuisine have already known, you can choose your meat from couple of option, like " pork or chicken or shrimp or tofu, $1 added for shrimp".

and besides, you can chose fried tofu or steamed tofu, if you choose tofu.

i like shrimp the most, but i want to be frugal for my lunch, so i usually choose steamed tofu for my thai food.

for that day's lunch, i decided to have a pad-thai ( with steamed tofu) set from lunch special.

in that affordable restaurant, they have quite good selection, probably 12~15 option for lunch set menu ( all the set menu come with a cup of egg soup and steamed/fried rice).

the picture above is the plate that i had, pad-thai and fried rice.

they all were so delicious, and pretty good price too! ( i don't remember exactly how much, but i'm sure all the lunch menu cost less than $8 :)) )

probably i'll go back there in this year, and i can say this is the very honor for them because we seldom eat out!

dear thai cuisine,

i love your subtle flavor of sweetness, hotness and sourness!

and i also love your pretty elephant pattern i can see around everywhere in your restaurant.

i have loved elephant the most in zoo since i was a child :))

sincerely,

tomily

some recent favorites

taken with nikon-fe2

finally hot summer has arrived in our land.

i was afraid that i could have summer this year because of cool spring and early summer, even though i'd hated summer.

but now, i have enough summer heat and i think my body and soul are enjoying that very much!

probably i won't say " i don't like summer." this year. ( i'm not sure next and following years... )

btw, i 'm enjoying taking pictures inside the house these days.

my favorite way to spend summer is being stuck inside the house and staring at brilliant light and sparkling greens outside.

i'm also enjoying mild bluish light that occupies in the room.

and for all pictures above, which i took with a film camera, they all got that bluish tone.

it may be partly because of the characteristic of the film i used ( lomography 100).

i think almost all of you have had the idea that the color of blue doesn't make food looks delicious, and have i.

but here, i don't think these pictures aren't bad very much, aren't they?

probably our eyes are eager for this tone under this hot weather :))

ok, i'll explain these pictures simplily.

clockwise from upper left, 

a: cubed watermelon which a friend of mine gave me. the jar right side has salt in it. in japan, it is a popular way to eat watermelon to sprinkle a pinch of salt over it. the saltiness makes it much sweeter. but watch out for your blood pressure ;)

b: red plums. usually i don't cut them, but bite them. keep them fully cold in a fridge, and just bite them. that's the pleasure of summer :)

c: i love this simple tomato and cream cheese bagel sandwich with this vivid light blue plate. especially in summer :)

d: my bagel had a big hole. that's not fun at all ;)

so, have fun summer experience with your favorite blues!

(today, no love letter. oh, but you remember? the plate in "b" has a love letter with its back :) )

 

refreshing

taken with nikon-fe2

hi!

i'm sorry for this long absence, but i needed that ( as you know).

and i want to express enormous thanks for your warm messages to the last entry.

i haven't written back to a couple of last comments yet ( i'm so sorry), but i've read all and appreciated a lot.

i'll try to keep this place, i've decided finally :))

the photo here is the one of refreshment i had these days.

it seems to be very refreshing, doesn't it?

actually i didn't drink that, but my husband did ;)

it stimulated my eyes a lot, and it was enough for me to have some refreshment.

so i drank a cup of coffee  :D

dear a glass bottle of coke,

you're so nostalgically pretty.

i love your cute round butt :))

sincerely yours, 

tomily