It's turkey-lurkey time

My lemon meringue pie didn't turn out. I am officially 1 for 3 of lemon meringue pies I've attempted to make. Two of them have turned into a delicious lemon drizzle instead, which tastes great on vanilla ice cream, but doesn't hold up on a plate. Too many variables in the history of making the pie to know exactly what went wrong, but I'm sure I'll try again one day.

I'm most impressed that my pumpkin-chocolate tart turned out as well as it did! Despite the fact that I could have sworn I saw some at some grocery store somewhere, I had to make my own creme fraiche. It's not that tricky, but you have to start with buttermilk and I didn't have any of the that either. I can get it at the commissary, but I needed very little and didn't want to buy a whole quart of it. So, I started with making my own buttermilk with whole milk and lemon juice. Once that was set up, I added it to some heavy cream and just left it on the counter for 12 hours. The consistency didn't seem all that different by then, but I used it anyway. I also forgot to add sugar to the chocolate crust mix, so I just generally sugared the top of the crust and hoped for the best. Despite all this, it finished well and was quite yummy. 

Everything else went according to plan, except that I almost forgot to put the turkey in the oven! I remembered about 30 minutes later than I meat to, but that's not terrible. 

Overall, we had 10 people to feed and between our contributions and theirs, we had way more food than we could ever have needed and everyone had some of their favorites represented. I didn't even get to try it all because this lemon sized gummy bear I'm carrying around takes up more space than you think it would at this point. I even waited for pie longer than everyone else, and I still was barely able to find room for it. 

After dinner, several of us played Twister (an interesting post-dinner choice, but one our friends may make a tradition) and Pit - a game I love but don't play much because you need several players. 

Literally the only photo I took all day

Ultimately, it was a great day and a lovely meal with even lovelier people. We're up to at least 4 loads of dishes in the last 24 hours, with at least another two to go, but it was worth it! 

All the Ajax in the world ain't gonna clean your dirty laundry

The experienced Thanksgiving cook knows that it's best to spread the cooking and baking over multiple days. To that end, I spent several hours today doing just that - toasting bread for stuffing, baking a pie and a tart, making ice cream batter to cool in the fridge overnight, and making laundry soap.

Okay, so the laundry soap isn't for eating. I haven't checked, but I'm pretty sure soap, Borax, and washing soda should not be ingested. It just happens to be time for me to make it again.

Ice cream batter

I've actually been making my laundry soap for several years now. For a while, I was making the base goop and then adding a whole bunch of water and storing it in 5 gallon buckets. The mixture didn't blend well and was never quite even. It worked, but how much actual soap was going into the wash was inconsistent. Finally, moving to Japan and having my own laundry room (instead of basement communal coin laundry or a laundry closet like in the last two places I lived) inspired me to make a change and just make the laundry goop base, stop there, and store it in quart jars. Less time to make and the results are much more consistent. I use one tablespoon per load and I eventually found the perfect spoon just long to scrape the bottom of the jar.

Toasted bread for stuffing

For the curious - this is the recipe I use. I only have to make a new batch every few months, but your laundry needs may vary.

Lemon meringue pie (left) and pumpkin-chocolate tart (right)

My favorite part is when I get to blend it all up. Before that part, it's half liquid, half solid and not useful. But put it on the blender (a standard quart sized jar fits a standard blender), press the button, and a few seconds later - fwoompf - it is suddenly laundry goop. It's very satisfying kitchen science.

Kitchen science in progress!

'Cause he mixes it with love and makes the world taste good

For as long as I think anyone can remember, my grandmother made pecan rolls for her family and friends at Christmas time. They are delicious treats with a nougat center and caramel with pecans on the outside. It's a very involved, all day process, but she did it every year (except when she and Grandpa were serving a mission for our church) without fail. Every year, my family would get a package of them with one pecan roll for each of us. We'd put them in the freezer and once every other month or so, we'd get one out, thaw it, and we'd each get a piece or two. Once I didn't live at home, I'd get mine in the mail. I'd freeze it, thaw it sometime during the year and eat it over a few days. After Blake joined the family, she would send us two every Christmas. I have no idea how many she would make every year, especially as her own family grew in addition to all the friends who would receive them, but it was many. So many.

A couple of years ago, she finally announced that she would be unable to continue the tradition. It was too much prolonged standing for her, and we all understood. My mom and sister helped that last year so that they would get more practice making them on their own, and Blake and I each got one more pecan roll in the mail.

We finally thawed one of them today. They tend to hide in the freezer, plus I've wanted to save them, but it was time. It was as delicious as ever. We saved a few pieces for tomorrow, and we still have one more in the freezer for one more time.

I need to learn how to make them. I'm sure they will never be as good as Grandma's, but it doesn't mean I can't try! 

I'm havin' a baby, a little girl, a little boy, a little you, a little me

So here's a thing that it is pretty common knowledge now but hasn't been discussed on the blog - I'm pregnant! And, as of today, officially in the second trimester!

It's our little gummy bear!

Baby is due at the end of May, just before my birthday. And since it's just before my birthday, when I will turn 35, it's not a geriatric pregnancy, which is great! That magic date that will switch me to advanced maternal age is not a big deal right away anyway, just increasing risks and more prenatal tests, which we will take into account for any future kids. It's just one less thing to worry about this time.

I have been very fortunate that I have mostly been spared any morning sickness or nausea. There were a couple of mornings during week six that I thought might be the onset, but then that was it. Even then it was just some mild queasiness that was solved by sitting and sipping a ginger beer with real ginger and taking a slow morning

Mostly, I'm just tired. So very tired. Which is why household chores have been low on my priority list, as I mentioned yesterday. Instead, I've been busy growing organs and a skeletal system! I am blessed that most days I can take my time and take naps and do what I need to do, but I've also discovered that, if necessary, I am capable of dozing off in a room of 30+ teenagers.

I also have to make sure I eat regularly. Things escalate very quickly from "I should eat" to "I should have eaten twenty minutes ago" if I don't stay on top of it. I don't really have any food aversions, so that helps, so long as it's pregnancy safe.

Telling family and friends has been a lot of fun for us - we tried our best to work it into conversation subtly when we could and watching people figure it out was highly entertaining. For example, we told our parents right away, within minutes of our successful home pregnancy test. It was approximately 11 pm our time, after I came home late from a rehearsal and couldn't wait anymore to confirm what we both suspected. Telling Blake's mom went something like this "Hey! You guys are up late! What are you doing?" "Taking pregnancy tests. What are you doing?" She thought about it for a short moment and then completely exploded with joy.

Our Halloween costumes were also good for some slow burn reactions. We wore them to both the church party and another with friends from work and it went something like this text exchange just about every time.

Our main goal is making sure baby and I are both healthy, of course. We have a great medical team, from what I've observed and know from other moms that have had babies here on base in Japan. We will, however, not be finding out if we're having a boy or a girl. We have waited this long to find out, so we can wait a few more months. We already have names picked out either way and there are so few good surprises left in this world.

We are, of course, very excited. We have been waiting and hoping for this baby for a long time, and the road has not been easy. Everything is looking really good though, and we are very hopeful that trend will continue! This will be one of our best adventures yet.

Eating things only with chopsticks

I've made it pretty obvious that I love Kamakura. No matter how times I've been, there is always more to explore or someone to introduce to something I've previously fallen in love with or favorites to see again. Today's trip was most of the latter two options. With Blake preparing for his next TAD soon and a move and other life changes closer on the horizon than we will ever be truly prepared for, we are trying to be proactive about visiting favorites potentially for the last time (at least together) and crossing things off our Japan bucket list. 

Blake really wanted to make sure we visited our favorite restaurant again, the one we just happened to find on our very first Japan outing and take as many people to as we can, so we built a Kamakura day around that. 

Lunch was delicious as always. We love yakiniku so much that we have our own tabletop grill for it at home now, but this place is so good and the lunch price is excellent, so it's worth the trip. 

Following lunch, we went to a chopsticks store that we feel is like Ollivander's wand shop from Harry Potter, where the wand chooses the wizard. There are fancy and fun chopsticks of all price ranges, many of which you can have a name engraved on. We've purchased several of these for gifts in the last two years, but we hadn't yet purchased any for ourselves. More on what we picked in a few paragraphs, when it's time to pick them up. 

A few days ago, I asked Blake if he had been to the bamboo forest in Kamakura yet. "Nope!" he responded. "Have I taken everyone but you!?" I queried and resolved to fix that today. It's a small but gorgeous garden on the grounds the Hokoku-ji Temple, and we enjoyed a stroll whilst our chopsticks were engraved.

Our first (or preferred, in Blake's case) names are written on each chopstick, one in hiragana, one in katakana, which I wrote out myself on the order from. My Japanese handwriting still isn't great, but it was sufficient today!

In case you can't read Japanese, mine is the pink with the inlaid mother of pearl and Blake's is the blue with wood. The hiragana is on the left of each set, katakana on the right.

Finally, we topped off the day at what seems to be our favorite Kamakura ice cream shop with their latest creation, a five layer ice cream!

From top to bottom - matcha, purple sweet potato, blue Ramune soda, strawberry, and vanilla.

It was a lovely outing. I hope that wherever we live in the future we can find little places like this that we enjoy revisiting over and over again. 

Roll round with the year and never stand still

Last year, we completed our first Shichifukujin, or Seven Lucky Gods, pilgrimage for luck and happiness in the new year. You can read all about our 2017 pilgrimage and more about them in general here.

This year, I wanted to complete our neighborhood Shichifukujin, as I felt it would be more meaningful than some other location, so this year we visited seven temples in Zushi and Hayama. This time, we were able to complete it in only a few hours in one day! We used this blog from a previous military family's experience and this site in Japanese as our guides. It would probably been faster if we had a car, but between our feet, trains, and the bus, it was still easily doable.

Toshou-ji Temple - Fukuroku-jyu

Enmei-ji Temple - Benzaiten

Soutai-ji Temple - Daikoku

Choun-ji Temple - Hotei

Senkoin-ji Temple - Bishamonten

Gyokuzouin Temple - Ebisu

Kousho-ji Temple - Jyurojin

Happy Pilgrims

Our completed stamp sheet and the figurines and branch we collected

A few days later, I led another Shichifukujin with friends from church in Shinagawa, Tokyo (route and information here). This is one of the most walkable pilgrimages that I know of (good when leading a group of 15 people!) and with cute little figurines to collect and a boat to display them in. Here, you could get all the figurines and completed stamp sheet all at once at any of the temples, or collect them along the way. Had I never done one before, I might have collected them as we went, but for time's sake, I (and most of the women I was with) got them all at once. One of us collected them along the way, and we all visited all of the temples, so that counts for me!

Shinagawa-jinja Shrine - Daikokuten

Pilgrimage begins! Shinagawa-jinja Shrine - Daikokuten

I wore my rainbow hat so that my friends could follow me easily. The Japanese tend to wear muted colors and blend in, so I knew it would stand out. It worked! Apparently, I didn't get myself into the this group selfie as much as I thought though.

Yogan-ji Temple - Hotei

Isshin-ji Temple - Jyurojin

Ebara-jinja Shrine - Ebisu

Honsen-ji Temple - Bishamonten

All the pilgrims were great troopers!

Tenso Suwa-jinja Shrine - Fukurokujyu

Iwai-jinja Shrine - Benzaiten

Huge panda donut I found along the way. Sadly, it was filled with red bean paste instead of chocolate. It wasn't terrible, but chocolate or cream would have better.

Completed boat and stamp sheet

Fourteen temples in one week is quite a lot (and it wasn't even the final count! More on that later), but all the luck and fortune that should bring our family this year will be worth it! Do I actually believe in it? Probably not, but it sure couldn't hurt!

We're in the money!

As the Japanese observe the Chinese Zodiac, each year has a zodiac symbol (2017 is the year of the rooster), but so does every day and month. In November, on the days of the rooster, the Japanese celebrate Tori No Ichi. In the Edo period, these festivals symbolized the beginning of the new year, now they celebrate the beginning of winter. 

Haru wo matsu,
Koto no hajime ya,
Tori-no-Ichi

In English:

Anticipating Spring,
The beginning of it all,
Year-end fairs.

Source: Ohtori Shrine website and Nihon Sun

At these festivals, celebrants purchase ornately decorated rakes or kumade to rake in good fortune. Merchants pray for good sales and farmers pray for a good harvest. We weren't able to go last year, but today (the third and final Tori No Ichi festival or Sannotori this year) I could!

Rake stalls

Heading into the shrine to pray

Of course, no Japanese festival is complete without festival food and games!

Game of some kind (not food)

All I ate this time was a candied strawberry - I was meeting Blake for dinner later.

Lots of chocolate covered banana stalls, but this was the cutest

Helpful pictographs instead of mystery meat!

When you purchase a large enough rake (mine did not qualify apparently), they sing and clap a blessing on your rake.

Here's my rake! Supposedly, it's good to start small because you want to purchased something bigger and better each year. Each thing on the rake is supposed to be a symbol of luck. The face is Otafuku - Goddess of Mirth.

I can't explain it, but I was so happy walking through this festival. I really love living here and exploring and learning and so grateful for the opportunity to do so!