Oyster Ramen (recipe)

Here's the recipe.

- Please prepare the following.

One pack of oyster (5 or 6 pieces), half bundle of spinach, approx. 10-centimeters of long onion and one ramen pack.

1. Wash the oysters with water, and wipe them with kitchen towel to dry.  Cut spinach in 4-5 centimeters long.  Cut the long onion into small pieces.

2. Start boiling the water (approx.) 400 ml in a pot.  When the water boils, add the ramen.  Mix sometimes so that it becomes loose.   After boiling 3 to 4 minutes, the ramen is ready.

3. Prepare another pan, and put the pan on the stove.   Turn on the heat.  After it becomes warm, add some olive oil.

4. Add the long onion and spinach, and mix.  After that, add the towel dried oysters.  Fry for 3 to 4 minutes when you see the oysters become big and warmed up, it is time to remove the pan from the stove.  

5.  First, prepare the ramen bowl.  Then, put the cooked ramen noodles in a bowl and add the hot spinach and oysters. 

Oyster is full of zinc, spinach contains Vitamin A, C, E, and long onion helps to warm up our body.

Enjoy the hot ramen!

A Mejiro is eating Japanese persimmons.

You will find one bird, a mejiro or Japanese White-eye in the center.  

 

If you click on the picture, the enlarged one will be shown.

 

Mozu

the pond

A male Jobitaki

Ooban or Black coot

Dec. 5

I bought one pack of kimichi this morning.

I went to buy another 10 packages of sandbags to a home center, I also bought Vioras.

The Year-End Gift

I expected to receive a package weighting 10 kgs of rice bran yesterday, but it was not delivered.

Instead I received a year end gift from my sister who has been living in Saitama Prefecture where we were born.  Saitama is located in the north from Tokyo.  

 

 

I opened the corrugated carton box, and I was very surprised!!  

The message says, "Year End gift from Kayoko Ohnishi," which was my name as the sender.
There was a mistake!  The gift company clerk should have written my sister's name, Cxxxxx, Yxxxxx.  Maybe he or she was very busy, that is why he or she made a mistake.

  

 

I opened the wrapping to see what was the present.

I found that there was assorted cute kitchen detergents.  The German detergent made from Aloe.  

 

I appreciated my sister for coming up with such a nice present.  I am not familiar with these bottles.

I have to think about what I will send to my sister in return.  I would like to send her something from western part of Japan.

I saw a president of a local herbal company in Himeji when I went to Mrs. Venetia Stanley Smith's lecture last Sunday.  I have been to his stores in Himeji for many times.   He also has his own online store, so I checked it yesterday.  Unfortunately their assorted products which he had started selling on Dec. 1st  was already sold out.

We have another popular cookie manufacturer in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture.  Maybe I would like to visit their online site to order some sweets to my sister.

Most of our momiji leaves fell yesterday.

The plum tree in our garden.

 

Our ma

I went to walk in my neigborhood this morning. 

Himeji Castle and Koko-en Park, Hyogo Prefecture (Nov. 30)

Pictures will be uploaded later.

Suma Rikyu Park, Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture (Nov. 23)

The compost with peels of vegetables and fruits

 

I borrowed a book from our library on Nov. 16. 

 

 

 

 

 

The book shows easy ways to make good soil from kitchen garbage. 

The author, Mrs. Monden, was born to parents who made a living as farmer in Hiroshima Prefecture. 

 

According to the book, she has been living in Osaka for more than 30 years.  

She was not satistfied with the quality of the soil in her garden.

 

Born as a daughter to farmers, she knew how

her parents had been taking care of their land to grow good vegetables.  

 

She tried to create a garden like the way her parents used to have.

 

 Like what she showed in the book, I made a mixture: 

2 liters of rice bran, 2 liters of strained soil, and 1 liter of water.

She calls it "seed" in the book.

 

I kept it in a sandbag and placed it outside since Nov. 16.

 

You can see the mold in the picture.

 

  

 

 The temperature is 17 degrees in the "seed."

 

Additional sentences:

 

The temperature is 17 degrees, so I cannot feel warmth of compost.

 

Anyway, the book says if you find the mold, the your compost is a success.   

 

I put kitchen garbage such as peels of apple, brocolli, and tea leaves

in a new sandbag yesterday.

Then I added a handful of "seed" on it.

I closed the top and shaked the bag so that it could mix well, and placed the bag outside.

I cook meals every day, and put the peels of vegetables and fruits as well as one or two handful of " seed" inside.

The Compost with Dead Leaves

My husband is a weekend gardener who has been growing 

approx. 500 pots of Christmas roses in our garden. 

 

He teaches science in a high school on weekdays, and particular about and chemistry.

 

As you can see in this picture, he is taking care of them. 

 

In this season, the plants grew bigger, so he was trasferring them to bigger pots.

 

He also removes brown leaves using scissors.

 

Whenever he changes the pots, he always uses new packages of mixture soil

because it contains a lot of chemical fertilizer.

As a result, we have lots of used soil.

* * * * * * * * * *

We also have a lot of dead leaves of maple and apricot trees in this season.

This picture shows a 15-liter bucket filled with dead leaves

 

Sometimes we go to a restaurant which offers packages of rice brans for free. 

Whenever we find them, we bring them back to our home.

Recently, I came up with an idea of making compost using them.

I prepared 2 liters of used soil (strainered in advance), 2 liters of rice bran, and 2 liters of water.

I mix all of them in a waterproofed vinyl bag. 

I shake the bag several times to mix it well.

After I made the mixture, I put them to a sandbag.

 

The polyethylene sand bag is tolerable enough for several times usage. 

The package of 10 bags is selled around 400 yen.

 

I bind the opening so that worms won't come inside.

The bag is non-waterproof, and the inside will dry up little by little. 

 I placed the opening facing side down, and put the bag in a place

where it can breathe as much as possible.

There are many dead leaves nowadays, so I had already made 4 packages until yesterday.

The mixure will become useful as leaf mold after two months or so. 

In early spring, I am planning to dig holes around the maple and appricot trees

to add the mixture because it contains rich organic fertilizer. 

I am happy with fewer garbages in my daily life.

A walk to the beach and a park in my neigborhood (Nov. 16)

I studied an English grammar book and a vocabulary book last spring until October.  It took me two hours every day, but I gained nothing much. 

 

Except the fact that I enjoy talking to RareJob tutors when I am alone, I don't really enjoy studying English. 

 

There is not much chance to be employed in any English related job as I am already late in my 40s, and I live in the countryside.

 

I was infected with herpes virus last Oct. 16, and I rested at home for one month.  I slept a lot, and thought about what I really want to do in my life.   

I think I found that --- growing flowers and cultivating soil by composting kitchen garbage, such as peelings of vegetables and fruits with rice hull sounds more attactive.  It is much more practical.

 

I have 3 petbirds and I give them green leaves called komatsuna, a kind of spinach every week.

I usually buy it in the grocery store.  At present, I want to grow my own organic garden. 

 

I also wonder if I can grow herbs with compost.  

 

I have checked it on the internet and Youtube.  But there are many ways of composting.  I wanted a book written by somone who is knowledgeable in this area.  

 

I went to our library to rent a book about it.  It shows how we make compost with many pictures.  

 

The pictures below were taken when I went to the library last Nov. 16, leaves are turning yellow and some of them had fallen to the ground.

 

The bird watching season has come, and I am getting excited to go outside.  

  

I live close to the mountains and near the beach.  I can enjoy both natural beautiful sceneries.

 

     

Compared with the green trees in the left side, the orange and yellow trees are less leaves, which means it is easier to find wildbirds there.  But unfortunately, I was not able to find any bird there.