Saturday, June 23, 2012

The Beauty of Fungi

My older daughter and I visited the downtown farmer's market today, and we couldn't resist picking up a package of mixed mushrooms.  They were just so beautiful and perfect!!

The Beauty of Fungi

Such interesting shapes and textures.

The Beauty of Fungi

I couldn't resist getting in there with the macro setting.

The Beauty of Fungi

And Finnegan couldn't resist trying to eat some!  I couldn't believe how determined he was to snag a piece while I was trying to take photos!

We have an awesome recipe for mushroom soup that we can't wait to use these for.

Funny.  As a child, I didn't like mushrooms.  Now I love them!

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Birthday Girl

My kids have long since lost interest in birthday parties, so one of our birthday traditions is now taking them to the restaurant of their choice to celebrate.  My younger daughter, my baby, turned 16 this year.  Her choice of restaurant this year was Kyoto. We've gone to the one downtown, which is near Philippe's office, a few times.  The food is wonderful, but we've had issues with the service.  This time we went to the location across the river (see link above).  We went in the afternoon, so there weren't many people there and there was only one server, but the service was still much better then the other location!

Kyoto Birthday Dinner

For an appetizer, we got the pork dumplings, gyoza, which were quite tasty.

Kyoto Birthday Dinner

All our meals came with a starter soup with bean sprout salad.  My kids normally skip the starter soups, but not here!  We all really enjoy it.  I also got a pot of green tea.

Kyoto Birthday Dinner

Philippe always orders his favorite, the gyu don.

Kyoto Birthday Dinner

My older daughter ordered the chirashi, which she absolutely loves.  This is one of those dishes she finds herself craving!  Personally, I don't have the courage to eat raw fish, but she loves it.

The teapot in the background is what they use for tabletop soy sauce pitchers.

Kyoto Birthday Dinner

Meanwhile, the birthday girl and I both ordered the Bento Box D - this is our dish that we crave!  Their tempura vegetables and seafood are fantastic and comes with a wonderful dipping sauce, the beef and chicken moist and tender, the salad is fresh and crisp, and the pickled radish (?) adds just the right amount of tang.  Also comes with a bowl of white rice.  Delicious!

Kyoto Birthday Dinner

And here's the birthday girl herself!!

Happy Birthday, Sweetheart!


Monday, June 18, 2012

My Bag!



My Bag!

The kitten we adopted is now pretty much fully grown.  Hard to believe he's even the same cat!!  Gone are the deep blue eyes, and the tiny speck on his nose has turned into a black patch that covers of his nose.

As you can see, he's quite settled in to our home.  One of his favorite things is bags.  All bags, but especially this large, rather noisy bag.

He likes to nap in it.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012