Curved Pinkys

I get many emails everyday and some make me very happy for example when  a customer tells me how much they like the items that they bought. But this last week, I got an email that really made me smile.

Vadim from Russia wrote to tell me that he saw my rings and while he thought they were great, he emailed me for  a completely different reason. He wrote to talk about my pinky. Yep, my pinky finger. In all his life, he had never seen another person besides himself and his son who had the same curved pinky finger.  He was really excited about this because he said that  people were always asking him if he had broken it and it hadn't been set properly etc.  He now had proof that others were out there!  He even sent pictures! You can see that we do indeed all have the curved pinky!

He suggested we start a club and he named it INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY OF OWNERS OF CURVES Pinky! ! 

Reading his emails really put a smile on my face and it also made me wonder.....how rare (or common) are curved pinkys?  Before this email, I really had never thought about it. Even growing up, it wasn't anything I thought about. My dad's are also cuved so I just thought it was his fault! :)  Anyone else have curved pinkys?

I was busy baking today! Gluten Free Of Course!

As many of you know, I eat basically gluten free and I'm always looking for new and yummy recipes.  I found some and thought I would share with you!  First, 2 of these recipes come from http://www.elanaspantry.com/ .  They are easy to make and very delicious!

Now, I must apologize for some of the pictures. My kitchen has very little light so the pictures aren't great. Sorry!

The first recipe is flax focaccia. Her recipe is here. I did change 2 things.  1) I didn't add any agave nectar 2) I used only 1/4 cup of oil (not 1/3). I used Bob's Red Mill flax meal for this recipe.

I lined the pan that came with my Japanese oven with parchment paper. 

 She recommends letting it sit for 2-3 minutes before pouring it into the pan but I did that the first time and it was much harder for me to smooth out the top. So, this time, I mixed it and poured it right away and smoothed out the top. This is what it looks like before going in the oven.

This how it looks like once I cut it up. This "bread" is great. I usually toast a piece and then put 2 sunny side up eggs on it for breakfast. It is super filling!



The next recipe I tried was the vanilla cupcakes. This uses all coconut flour. These are to die for!!! The recipe is here.  I used Bob's Red Mill Coconut flour (which sadly isn't in Japan so I had to have a friend send me some-totally worth it!).  I didn't use agave in these either. I used honey since I had some on hand.  I made both cupcakes and a loaf. I found that using parchment liners for  the muffin tin and a strip of parchment on the bottom of the loaf pan is VERY important.  This is how they looked once the came out of the oven.

 Here is what they look like after I put some chocolate icing on them ( I used my own recipe for the icing). Honestly, these are also fab without the icing!

 Honestly...these are some of the best things I have ever eaten. They are moist and very cake like. I was really shocked at how good these are considering it is just coconut flour, eggs and a few other things. I will be using the recipe as a base and will be adding things like chocolate chips, nuts etc.

Tonight I made pizza!  Now, I don't remember where I found this recipe as I just wrote it down.  I will warn you that if you are looking for an exact copy of a regular wheat filled crust..this isn't for you. It isn't crust in the traditional sense but it is gluten free, lower carb and I think very good. And even my husband likes it.

4 eggs
1/3 cup  coconut flour (I used Bob's Red Mill)
1/3 cup flax meal (I used Bob's Red Mill)

1/2 cup of some kind of milk ( I used unsweetened regular almond milk)
herbs
Cooked toppings of your choice.


I mixed the coconut flour, flax meal and herbs (I used an Italian mix-not sure how much but I did find more is better to cover up the slightly coconut flavor) in a big bowl. In a smaller bowl, I mixed the eggs and milk. Then I poured the milk and egg mixture into the flour mixture. I mixed really well. Then, on  a parchment lined pan, I scooped out the mixture using a 1/2 cup measuring cup and made 4 shapes (can't really call them circles).  I made them fairly thin as they do rise.  Then I put them in an oven preheated to 350 degrees F or 180C.  First bake them for 10 minutes. Take them out and flip them (which is why making 4 smaller pizzas is much easier than 1 big one). Then the recipe says to bake for another 10 minutes but this time I baked them for 15 to try to make the crust a bit "crispier".

While they were baking, I cooked mushrooms, onions, ham and bacon and prepared some cheese. Once the crusts are done, take them out, add your pizza sauce and cooked toppings and of course...cheese! Pop them back in the oven under the broiler until the cheese is melted. Yummy! 

 This after I flipped them.

I am totally loving cooking and baking! I hope you give these a try! If you do, let me know how you liked them!

Was surprised to find this!

The other day, my student opened her pencil case and I took a look inside as she normally has some cute pencils and erasers etc. I  was quite surprised to find a box cutter in it!  I asked her about it and she said her teacher told her to bring it to school.

Now, I'm guessing that this is not ok in North America as it can clearly be used as a weapon. Am I right?

More Unbelievable Japanese TV!

I just had to blog about this....and this must fall under "only in Japan"!

It is midnight here and we were just  flipping through Japanese TV channels and I stopped at one and watched as a girl walked up to men on the street and asked them a question. I didn't understand what she was asking but I continued to watch and the girl took a guy to a kind of van, knelt down, undid his pants and looked inside!! Apparently she (a porn star btw!) was asking men if there are circumcised? If a man said yes, she then asked if she could check. If he agreed, they went to this van (turns out to be a porn set) and she checked!   Seriously??!! Who thinks up these kinds of shows?

I'm right....right? This has to be an "only in Japan" thing, right?!

Crazy Japanese New Year's TV Shows!!

I almost put the title of this post as "Rambo and Rocky= New Year's In Japan" or "I couldn't make this stuff up" because frankly...it is beyond weird.

In Japan December 31st until January 3rd are ...basically holidays. That means all kinds of weird TV shows. First, the movies Rocky and Rambo are shown on  many channels and for many days.  All of them. In a row. So, if you don't like either movie series you better change the channels. Then there is the bizarre "24" TV challenge (yep...Jack Bower). Fox TV here in Japan, will be showing all 7 seasons of "24" in a row so for 1 week...that channel is all about Jack!

Now...for Japanese TV shows. Here is an example of how crazy Japanese TV shows are. I'm not making this up. I just watched this.

Imagine a cold winter day (ok..no snow but still cold) in a big high school field. Imagine there are many men all in black suits and black trench coats standing in front of a big stage. On the stage imagine a chubby man dressed in a woman's military uniform (with wig, red lipstick, blush. pantyhose, heels etc). Then next to him on the stage is some white foreigner (we think he is from Holland) dressed in a military uniform with a huge crazy mustache. Now...the foreign guy is yelling in the microphone (in some language)  at the men in black. He is freaking out and the guys in black are trying not to laugh. But of course they do because it is stupid. Suddenly the foreign guy says in English "out" and points at the man who is laughing. Then out of nowhere, a guy comes running out on to the field with a big black tube in his hand and hits the guy who was laughing on the butt.  This keeps up for like 5 minutes- the crazy foreign guy yelling and pointing at the laughing men and then the laughing men getting their butts hit with some kind of rubber tube. The point? Try not to laugh while the crazy guy yells.   Sadly, my husband is laughing his head off. I truly do not get Japanese TV...especially the New Year's TV shows. Wish me luck as I have another 3.5 days of this!! At least for some of the time we will be watching K-1 which is a combined fight of karate, kick boxing among other things. I actually like this. You can find out more about K-1, if you want ... here.

Happy New Year everyone!

Merry Christmas!!

I almost made the title for this post "I survived" as this December  has been unbelievably busy for me and my rings!! It has been a  record month and I'm very thankful!! That, plain and simple, is the reason I haven't blogged!!  I hopefully will be blogging more regularly.

So...Merry Christmas everyone! It is 1:40 am here on Christmas morning!   Last Saturday I worked as we had the Christmas party for the children. Here are some pics!  This year their craft project was decorating blank pencil cases. They used fabric markers and glittery fabric paint. You will see some very cute ones!

Then we played bingo. They LOVE bingo and they were looking at the board as I was writing down the numbers that my boss has shouted out.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday!!!



We can ship to the United States again! Plus Christmas lights!

We just found out yesterday that from today, December 1st, we are again able to send packages weighing over 1 lb (453 grams) to the United States via airmail!!!  There might be a slight delay but basically all is back to normal! 

Canal City, a shopping mall in Fukuoka (near us), is all lit up for Christmas. Click on the link and it will take you to a panoramic view...it is stunning! You can use click on the buttons to see the top or bottom or either side of the view. Enjoy!

http://www.canalcity.co.jp/canalxmas2010/panorama/sunplaza/