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! 

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. 

The art of the trade, how the sausage gets made

We had grand plans today. A trip to Tokyo to a museum we hadn't seen yet, a restaurant I've had my eye on for a while, and possibly some shopping. We don't have much time before Blake leaves for his next TAD (temporarily assigned duty), so we're trying to knock some bucket list items before he goes.

But then yesterday was a bigger day than we anticipated and we didn't get to bed until late (11pm, so late, we're so old now) and our house was kind of messy and we decided to just stay home for the day. Our house is now cleaner, we had video chats with both sets of parents, I had time for a small nap (or at least a closed eyes in a dark room for a bit, not sure if I slept), and we took our dog and our weekend dog friend to the dog park. It was a good Saturday.

We figured that we'd at least get out of the house for dinner though and went to a Chinese/ramen restaurant just outside the gate of our housing detachment that we haven't been to in almost two years. We went twice shortly after moving in and then tend to forget about it as an option, even though it's the only restaurant within walking distance (while the one on our detachment is under reconstruction) and less than 15 minutes away.

I love watching the kitchen staff at ramen restaurants

Blake chose shrimp in chili sauce over rice, which wasn't too spicy and, therefore, pretty yummy.

I chose . . . poorly. I don't know what I thought I was going to get, but it was some sort of scrambled eggs with crab meat in a tomato sauce of some kind and I only managed to eat about a third of it.

Fortunately, Blake didn't finish his shrimp, and the side dishes (bean sprouts, egg drop soup, and spring rolls) were sufficient and delicious. I usually order pretty well at all the different restaurants we've tried, even when I can't read the menu, but it's always a risk to try something new. Most of the food we've had in Japan has been even better than I expected (American Japanese restaurants are probably ruined for us now), but then sometimes, like tonight, it's weirder or less desirable than expected. And that's okay. That's life! There were a lot of other good looking things on that menu, so I'm just going to have to go back and try again.

The sign outside our gate as seen on our walk back home

Rise Up

Blake's job as a first tour JAG has been to rotate between the four main branches of military law to learn about their functions and start figuring out what he likes best and what he is suited for. He started in prosecution, then legal assistance, the operational law/command services, and finally spent the last several months in defense. It was actually a bit more complicated than all that with some of his temporary assignments, but that's the basic gist of it.

Defense is actually a different command than the rest of it, for obvious conflict of interest reasons. You can't have the same chain of command working on opposite sides of the same case. So in May, he checked out of the Region Legal Service Office and checked into the Defense Service Office. Within the next two weeks, he will check out of the DSO and back into the RLSO for his next assignment.

As such, the DSO had two farewell events in his honor this week. The first was an informal dinner with fellow officers (spouses were invited, but I was the only in attendance) at a local izakaya, a type of Japanese bar where you can get a private room and order small dishes for everyone to share to accompany your beverages of choice. He received a certificate that was lighthearted in nature to commemorate his time at DSO and we enjoyed the casual social time.

The final event was his formal farewell from his command during an all hands meeting, in uniform, at the office. Here, his commanding officer read a letter detailing his accomplishments over the last five months and praised him in front of the entire command. Normally, he would have also received a plaque, but the engraver is apparently down and he will just have to get that eventually.

I cried some happy, proud tears. He really has done great work and learned a lot, which will certainly serve him well in his career to come! This life isn't easy, but he is doing it well!

I'd love to get you on a slow boat to China

Our last full day in China was a bit more low-key. Our hotel was quite close to the Beijing Zoo and that’s where we started - just to see the pandas. They have two panda houses and they are rather close to the main gate, so they were truly the only animal we saw that day.

Our guide has only ever seen six pandas in one day at the Beijing Zoo. Together, we saw eight! That brings our grand total for this trip to 64! He said we were very lucky to have seen 8 that day and I completely agree.

Blake captioned this photo: "Hello? Yes, I have a brought a pizza. Please let me in."

Height marker

Eventually, I tore myself away and we went to the Hutong area - a older, more traditional neighborhood where you can get a glimpse of what residential life used to look like. Our guide had arranged a bicycle rickshaw ride around the neighborhood, which was a neat and efficient way to get around.

At some point, our driver stopped, got off his bike, rummaged through what looked like a pile of garbage or a homeless person’s stash, pulled out a bottle of anti-freeze, put it on the rickshaw at our feet, then got back on the bike and carried on. A little bit later, we stopped at a nice place on the river for photos and when Blake and I returned the rickshaw, the driver was pouring the antifreeze into some other container. We drove a short ways, then the driver got off, took the antifreeze bottle and placed it behind a short fence into what looked like someone’s yard.

So whether it was foraging or stealing, we don’t know. Was it really antifreeze? Or is there some sort of rickshaw driver moonshine trade happening? We will probably never know the answer to these questions.

Spending time on the frozen river - picnics, speed skating, and more!

After our ride and a quick jaunt through the Lotus Market (which was pretty much all closed up, possibly permanently) we were taken to a pearl market. I wasn’t planning to get anything, but once I was told that pink and purple pearls are only found in China, I changed my mind.

Lotus Market

Lunch was hot pot. We had so much food and we at least tried it all. At some point, a staff member came over and corrected Blake on how to use his chopsticks (they are longer and thicker in China than Japan). We both tried it their way for a few minutes with some success but went back to ours soon enough.

We couldn't possibly eat all this food, but we at least tried it all.

I'd like to pretend this was right after the server corrected Blake's chopstick form, but it was probably just poorly timed on my part.

Our last stop for the day was the Temple of Heaven. The building is gorgeous, but the grounds were also quite lovely and very popular for recreation, even in the cold.

The 70-year-old door - Built by an aging emperor who need a closer way to enter the Temple of Heaven. To prevent his progeny from being lazy, he proclaimed it to be the 70-year-old Door and only to be used once the emperor reached that age.

We were done for the day as contracted with our driver and guide relatively early (mid-afternoon), so we were taken back to our hotel. Theoretically, we could have rested and then gone out for some night time exploring, but after a week of adventuring and not having had to navigate ourselves in Beijing yet (and some not feeling well on my part), we ended up staying in for the rest of the day - napping, playing games, watching movies, and ordering surprisingly reasonably priced room service. It was, for us, the perfect way to wind down. 

Room service!

In Beijing, they try to reduce traffic congestion by restricting what days certain cars drive on certain days. During the week, the last number on the license plate is banned from driving one day a week. Our guide can’t drive his personal car on Mondays and our driver can’t drive the van we’d been taking on Wednesdays. So, our guide took us to the airport himself. On the way, we stopped for a quick look at 2008’s most prominent Olympic venues - the bird’s nest and the water cube.

Water Cube and Bird's Nest!

Our fantastic guide - Tristan - If you're heading to China, we highly recommend his services and can get you in contact with him.

Our flight and train home was quick and we were home and reunited with Malcolm by dinner.

You're home! Let me sing you the song of my people!

It was a wonderful and dream come true kind of a week. We aren’t sure how we will top this for any future anniversaries, or if we will even try. Blake continues to be the best adventure partner I could ask for though, so I know that whatever is next, it will be amazing!

We could've gone all the way to the Great Wall of China

Going to China over our 5th anniversary was more happenstance than the plan - the schedule just worked out that way. When we first got married, I think I said something about maybe going back to the hotel in San Diego where we spent our honeymoon for our 5th. China was way better!

Our anniversary was on Monday this year, and we spent the morning at the Summer Palace. It’s a gorgeous and huge property, with a large man-made lake in the middle. It’s probably nicer in the summer, but still neat to see year-round. In fact, it was one of several places we saw on our trip with people doing morning exercise on the grounds. In this case, at least a couple of older men were doing tai chi in a sun warmed spot.

The Bronze Ox is keeping watch over the palace

Seventeen Arch Bridge

We elected not to explore the whole area, just so we’d have more time to explore our afternoon destination - The Great Wall! On the way, we stopped at a jade market to learn more about jade carving and found a perfect anniversary gift to ourselves.

Jade carving

Process of carving a Happy Family Ball

This photo doesn't do it justice, but we purchased a Happy Family Ball - The outer ball is a dragon (the husband) and a phoenix (the wife) wrapped around and protecting the inner balls (the generations yet to come). We wanted something with a dragon and phoenix for our anniversary from this trip, and finding this on the actual day was perfect.

Lunch was at a place at the base of the mountain with a view of the Great Wall! The food was alright, but that view was particularly neat! Some friends of ours who had previously been posted in Beijing with the State Department recommend we go to the Mutianyu section (there are several to choose from), which they said had better views and fewer people. Apparently it’s also our guide’s favorite section and he’d never had anyone request it before. Now that we’ve been there, we absolutely agree that it's the place to be!

There aren’t as many domestic tourists that come to this section and there were times we almost felt like we were alone on this wall.

We took a chair lift to the wall itself (though you can just hike up), and then hiked as many sections as we had time for. Some were practically ladders you had climb up! I bum-scooted back down that one and a kind fellow tourist looked at me, then back to Blake skeptically, and then asked if I wanted to hold onto his arm on the way, probably wondering why Blake wasn’t helping. I thanked him but just said it’s because I have short legs and it was easier this way. I promise Blake is a good helper and excellent husband!

Ultimately, we walked about 3 miles around the Wall and my Fitbit logged 91 flights of stairs this day!

As incredible as the Wall in the Mutianyu section is, it was almost as incredible to get down - by toboggan! We each took a sled 1.5km down the mountain, a ride that actually takes a few minutes! I learned about it after we had already chosen this section and our guide suggested it as well. You do have a handbrake to control your speed, and the slope is gentle. Definitely the way to go!

A little cold, but so worth it!

All told, this was probably the highlight of our whole Beijing leg of this trip. Such an amazing experience!

Dinner that night was Peking duck, beef, and vegetables. Lots more vegetables served with meals in China than in Japan, which we appreciate.

Duck on a duck shaped plate

Carving the duck

Here’s to five years of wedded bliss with an eternity to go!

Blake had try the Pepsi Blue, once available in the US, but now only in Indonesia and, apparently, in the Carrefour in Beijing. I tried the Green Apple Mirinda.