Cake and other things

Sunday I had Girl Scouts for the first time since before winter break. The troop in the town closest to me only meets once a month, so I`d missed both December and January. We made two things, a hinamatsuri ornament, and a fish. Well, the leader made the fish because I couldn`t figure out what I was supposed to do. But I put the eyes on it. ^^

Hinamatsuri is a Japanese holiday that takes place in March. It`s also called `Doll`s Day`. Girls collect dolls of this particular variation, and every year they`re displayed in one`s home till March 3rd. The legend goes that if you don`t remove them by sundown, you won`t get married!

In response to omiyage I brought for them (candy from America) one of the Girl Scout leaders gave me some シラス. Shirasu. They`re in school lunch sometimes, but I never really knew what they were actually called till now. ^_^ And if you google it, it tells you that shirasu is also known as whitebait. And they come in a couple of different sizes too. But the one I got was the tiniest one.

Only problem is that I had no idea what to do with them…can you eat them as is? Do you have to cook them? Usually in school they come on salads and don`t seem very cooked, so… so I tossed some on rice yesterday, and on noodles today, then microwaved it all together. It tasted fine, so probably close enough.

Then Monday, the third years at my Junior High had buffet for lunch. Oddly enough, they call it `biking`. Which to me, has nothing to do with food, but it`s Japanese English, so…

Anyway, there were leftovers, and they kept insisting that I take some home. I had to keep saying I was only one person and couldn`t eat it all! I still ended up with enough for a good three or four meals!

I thought to freeze the rice and meatballs, but I better eat the rest soon…

One of the convenient stores currently has a snoopy prize thing going. That is, you buy a ticket, and draw out of the box, and it tells you what prize you won. Since it`s Snoopy, and some of the things were useful items, not just decorative, I wanted to try. I got a frying pan.

At first I was super excited, thinking I`d make pancakes this weekend. But then I got a little confused. When you flip the pancake over…it won`t fit into the pan anymore, will it? Something to play around with, I guess…

A frying pan is a good thing though. Mine`s starting to scrape in the middle, (the coating is coming off) and I`ve been on and off debating buying a new one anyway.

And lastly, cake. I made the mistake of stopping in the local bakery. Mistake because I always spend at least ￥1000 or so. (About $10) As always, their cakes looked gorgeous, and I picked the one that was called Gato Caramel.

It was delicious. They also had meringue cookies, which I feel like I haven`t eaten in a while, but those`ll keep for a few days so I don`t have to eat everything at once!

One of the people who runs the bakery has two daughters, one of whom is at one of the elementary schools that I teach at. Today, when I was picking out which cake, I saw one of them peeking over the counter at me, though she hid behind the counter until her mom pulled her out to say hi. (She`s in 2nd grade, which isn`t a grade that I see that often, is most likely why she was shy). But after that we (the mom, the kid and me) had an interesting conversation about English and English pronunciation. It was fun.

And that`s all for now. ^_^