Food pictures

Brian told me that our reader from Lang 8 are looking forward to more pictures and posts about food. I've been doing a lot of cooking since I don't have school. If anyone wants a recipie I can write them down (or send you the web address.) Today we're having a friend over to play games and I don't know what I'm going to make. Cookies or pie?

Christmas cookies. I didn't make these, Brian's parents did. They were delicious.

Latkes. Traditionally these are potato pancakes that we eat on Channukah. These are just regular potatoes, onion, flour, and egg fried in oil. However, people make all kinds of latkes. I have a friend who made beet latkes.

My Grandmother taught me how to cook as a child. She was amazing in the kitchen. She loved cooking for people and she loved to entertain (as much as my Grandfather loved to eat). When she died she left me her cookie press that she used to make two of my favorite cookies. These are her spritz cookie, a Swedish shortbread cookie. It was my first time using the cookie press in 5 years and they don't look half bad.

My grandmother's other famous cookie was a railroad cookie. The cookie press makes the cookies look like railroad tracks. I tried to make these once 5 years ago but they didn't look good. I added more wet ingredients so they came out of the press easier. Hers were milk-chocolate. Mine are dark chocolate with orange zest. It made my family really happy to see them again.

These are my masala latkes. I added curry spices to the potatoes and fried them. However, I forgot to buy eggs so I had to make these very carefully. I also made apple latkes but they were hard to make.

Brian and I got a nice rice cooker for Christmas so now we can have our normal breakfast every day! I make miso soup in the morning using miso paste and dashi. I add dried mushrooms, but I can't find dried tofu anywhere! I miss it! We also have kimchi but I will start making Japanese style pickles soon in case we want something different.

Masala Challah! Challah is a braided Jewish bread. Making Challah is considered to be one of the obligations of Jewish women (though less so in modern times. And a stand mixer makes it so easy). I7m going to try to make Challah every week. I added 2TBS of Masala spice to the dough and it had a light taste. Maybe next time I'll throw in a little more curry spice for a kick. If you want to learn more about Challah, I get all my stuff from the Challah Blog ( Check it out!

I didn't make these next two things (but I wish I did). We went to a wine, cheese, and chocolate restaurant in downtown Chicago with our friends. We ordered three kinds of goat cheese. Brian and I really love goat cheese.

And these are the chocolates we ordered. One was a "Winter Spice" chocolate which did taste like Christmas. One was a ginger-sesame spice caramel which wasn't very strong but it was really good. The last one was a rosemary caramel. I loved it but Brian didn't. I love rosemary but Brian is not a fan. Ah well, no one's perfect.

Our Winter break!

The Christmas Tree at Brian's parent's house. It's our first Christmas tree in three years.
ブライアンの両親のクリスマスツリー。三年後に初めてのクリスマスです。

Brian's mom with Katie's dog Maddy on Christmas morning.
ブライアンの母とケーティーの犬のマディーはクリスマスの朝です。

Brian's mom has trouble using chopsticks. Katie found these at Bed Bath and Beyond. They work like a clothespin.
ブライアンの母は箸がちょっと難しいです。この箸はBed Bath and Beyond でケーティーが拾った。洗濯ばさみがちょっと似てる。

The Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago (a free zoo) puts up lots of Christmas lights every year. We went to see them the day after Christmas. It was a little crowded. This is the dragon light display.
毎年にリンコンパーク動物園はイルミネーションを建てます。クリスマスの翌日に見た。忙しかったです！これはドラゴンのイルミネーションです。

A big red bear in the Lincoln Park Zoo.
リンコンパーク動物園にいる大きなくて赤かいくまでした！

Of course there are animal shaped lights, like these giraffes.
もちろん、動物の形のイルミネーションでした。例えば、このキリンでした。

These lights were synced with music so they lit up to the beat of music.
このイルミネーションと音楽はシンクしていましたので、音楽のビートに輝いた。

The 8th night of Channukah. I had a lovely Channukah but I missed teaching my annual Channukah lesson to my ninensei and sannensei.
ハヌカーの８日に、いいハヌカーでしたが、二年性と三年性のハヌカーの授業がちょっと懐かしかたですよ。

It has bee a very warm winter in Chicago so far. We haven't even really had any snow! It's strange!
今までシカゴでは暖冬です。雪がふてありませんでした！変です！