This year I decided to make a bold move and take a month (and a change) off from SOY. We came up to New Paltz to experience country life. I'm already super inspired to cook up new and familiar dishes with fresh local produce from this lovely region. Besides working on my cook book, my theme for the month is "Eating Hudson Valley Japanese Style," with Japanese flavors and/or our often simple techniques to enjoy seasons.

Yesterday morning I picked some fresh kale from the backyard and made a salad for breakfast. Quick blanching made the crunchy leaves softer and also took much of bitterness out. Then I topped with wakame seaweed, pine nuts, fish flakes and dressed lightly with ponzu.

After a quick hike in the Mohonk Mountain House up the road, I picked up beautiful local produce at Wallkill View Market- beets, arugula, peaches, tomatoes, zucchini, basil and even a gorgeous pot of cheery tomato in a basket, which now hangs in my country kitchen.


And here's the dinner. Not very Japanese but very simple and flavorful. Chicken stock base soup with rice noodles, tomato, napa, egg, and basil. Salt and pepper sufficed to finish. I baked the rolls too!

First day of spring was celebrated with snow. It's been still hats-and-gloves days but the sun is definitely getting stronger. With daylight savings time, a day is remarkably longer, too. I'm so looking forward to seeing some flowers around soon. We'll be greeted by cherry blossoms in Japan in two weeks- I'm taking Taiyo home for the first time over his spring break. It's my first visit in six years. Today he came home with a little drawing for me. "Mommy, mommy, I made something for you." It's a drawing of flowers and two stick figures-one tall, and one small- holding hands. And it says; "I love you and I mist you." It's just the cutest thing. Venus and the crescent moon with delicate curve were together high in the twilight last night when we went out for ice cream. Double scoop in a cone with colorful sprinkle on top was definitely the high moment of the weekend for Taiyo. It's amazing how much happiness that fat ice cream cone brings for a child.

It was "Mid-Winter Break" from school for Taiyo. We briefly escaped brutal northern weather and found ourselves in milder climate of South Carolina. We landed in Savannah, Georgia, then drove to Hilton Head Island, which was mostly occupied with golf courses and old people. It was chillier than I hoped it to be, but at 50 degrees it still felt like spring. If we saw the sun it would've been much nicer! But in this little trip we were welcomed by gloomy gray sky. Yet we walked on the beach, dipped in outdoor pool at the hotel, and had lots of bad pizza, Taiyo's primary diet. Taiyo ate most of them happily, although they were pretty bad in my opinion, even at the 'New York style pizza' restaurant. One pizza he really couldn't handle was kid's meal at Crazy Crab restaurant- well, it looked really bad and I didn't want to taste it. Kids meals are usually pretty bad in any restaurant- they look horrible and taste cheap, but somehow kids usually dig it and it's a bit cheaper than regular plates. My plate was also bad at this touristy joint. Taiyo had the best time at "Sandbox," a cute little children's museum housed in a little house. I loved walking around at Coastal Discovery museum under trees draped with Spanish moss. It was quite enchanted scenery and atmosphere down there. Next time I would love to visit Savannah, or Charleston, I was thinking on our flight back north. "When are we ever gonna go to a same vacation?" Taiyo asked me. "I don't know," I said, "There's so many places to see!"

I've been cooking like non-stop since the beginning of the year. Thanks to the publicity from NY Times, many new people are finding their way to Suffolk Street. It's great, but it's tiring. A lot more work. But last weekend, I finally decided to do something else other than cooking. But it was such a miserable day with continuously drizzling rain, so some place near a subway station. I decided to take him to Ripley's Believe it or not in Times Square. Believe it or not, I really did. I even paid full price at the door. I didn't know it was cheaper to buy on-line. It's really expensive for what it is. It's a freak-show exhibit, mostly. There were some interesting things for Taiyo, though, like a mummified bird and an electric chair. But also some serious scary things that would haunt him for days to come. The videos and pictures of long-necked Burmese women were the scariest for him.

The tablet I dropped in the tub and died two weeks ago miraculously revived yesterday. The alarm suddenly went off on the tablet! I was about to give up on it. But then later that day I realized the devil took my digital camera instead. Somewhere between Ripley's and home, I lost my little digital camera. Of course it contained a tiny memory card with years of photos. Fortunately my photos are scattered between different medias and I didn't not lose a whole chunk of an era. I also don't remember exactly what was on it. There's too many pictures anyway. And there's too many videos. Taiyo's self-videotaping is even worse- he lets the camera roll for fifteen minutes at a time. Video digest from last summer is still one-hour long. Too long! So everything is a mixed blessing. What's lost is just some pictures. There's so many more to come and when do I ever have time to look back at all those anyway. If I am every really super rich, I would like to hire a photo/video record archivist as a household help.

So there's no photo today. Another Wednesday. Laundry, a trip to Restaurant Depot, a slice of pizza after school. A bad massage and a good massage. Nice folks for Sushi Class. Disappointed regular customers who didn't realize we were closed waving outside.

I finished reading "Slaughterhouse Five," such a funny, strange, and strangely-touching novel, by Kurt Vonnegut, I would say for me one of top five writers to die for, and watched New Year sunrise over frosted field in New Paltz. Watching sunrise is one of the common things we do in Japan to celebrate New Year after all night of partying. It's a remarkably beautiful moment when that first ray shoots at us across the ocean and we cheer on freezing beach. I really didn't meant to do that this year. I just woke up before dawn. And I decided to see the sunrise. It's New Year. Perfect.

A few hours later, I found it published online. SOY was in the New York Times. This happening on New Year's Day was way super auspicious in Japanese standard. I knew it was coming, since they sent the photographer and fact-checking emails were coming in from the Times, and I was so nervous, and that's probably why I was up so early that morning. And it turned out to be a sweet story. My friends were in tears. I spent too much time on Facebook that morning.
So it's been busy since I came back, cooking non-stop, literally. And meeting lots more people. So "stop being sad," a message from Taiyo says.

So some more of our endeavors during our vacation food-wise: Neko Sushi in New Paltz- Neko means a cat in Japanese so Taiyo wanted to go there, of course. Food wasn't terrible but something you can expect from a Japanese restaurant owned by Chinese. Sorry, but we are not really same people, and that's that.

We loved this place: Bridge Creek Cafe. Nice casual friendly place with fresh and honest food. Tasty seasoned pop-corn on the table.

New Year's Day. Lunch at New Paltz's classic P&G. When we arrived, the front of this bar was lined with Harleys. Taiyo tasted New England cram chowder and said, "It looks so gross, but so yummy!"

Then we had some heavy bar food. A crabcake sandwich for me. It was so tasty but got serious weight. It really didn't look that way. When the waitress asked me if we wanted to pack up the rest, I said no. I just wanted to ran away from it.

Another cute gem in New Paltz, Village Tea Room, where we had breakfast before heading back. It's a little house. Full of character. Great fresh food and inexpensive. Taiyo loved the oatmeal and smashed down the corn muffin, literally.

So all was good. Excellent. Look at this smile.

My turkey was roasted beautifully with bacon as usual, then eaten and turned into soup at the end. We had our first "staycation" of the year for Thanksgiving weekend. We went to see a marionette show in Central Park. The park was so serene with almost bare trees. Our favorite Belvedere Castle even was relatively quiet. The park is such a gem, especially in that tranquility.

The next day we took a tram to Roosevelt Island- also a gem and must to do with a kid. Now they have this beautiful Four Freedoms Park on the southern tip, where Taiyo laid in front of FDR's "Four Freedoms" speech. If you never been there, please do. It is open and simple, with amazing view of Manhattan skyscraper. The tram ride back at dusk was also stunning. Now we are in full gear toward Christmas. Taiyo has been drawing so many Christmas trees. I do remember drawing so many Christmas trees at his age even though we didn't celebrate Christmas in Japan.

So I felt like I had to give in to this mystical and magical Christmas thing. We biked over the bridge this afternoon in icy wind to Onderdonk House, the oldest colonial stone house in NYC, at county border. It was their holiday party with Saint Nick, with practically no line for a photo, and no one's selling you an expensive photo package. I take him to all these cool and weird places and hope one day he'd really appreciate these memories.

I'm taking Wed. off from my cooking class series this month- giving us precious extra day off to do things. Every morning Taiyo would ask me, "So, what are we doing today?" My answer is usually, "We have to go shopping, then I have to work." But on Wednesdays this month I get to say, "I don't know. What do you want to do?" or "I'm taking you someplace. I have a plan." Last week I took him to LEGOLAND in Westchester. I just have to say, it was awful. We both hated it. It was pretty expensive; more than $40 for both of us. And I must simply say- it is a serious rip-off. It was small, chaotic, and since there's not much attraction in Westchester, the place was packed with summer campers and their caretakers. There were bunch of different activities, but they are basically just LEGOs of different size and materials. Taiyo was totally done in about one hour. I really didn't stay there either, so we watched a short 4D movie, which was fun, and left. Of couse the you exit into LEGO store and you have to buy something since your child insists. Also we came kind of far but felt like we didn't accomplish anything. So I got him another box of LEGOs- another Star Wars collection. LEGOLAND was horrible, but I do not despise LEGOs at all. I think they are a great toy. Taiyo often comes up with some original vehicle of his own design that are interesting and impressive. I also have to say that LEGO Movie was really fun.

So what else we've been doing? Yesterday we went to feed the goats and climb rocks in Central Park. We also spent another day in the park, boating on the lake and climbing up to Belvedere Castle. Then we got lost in the Ramble. Last weekend we went to a kite festival and flew our kite with brazilian drums in background. It was perfectly windy over Hudson. Sunday was spent at Brooklyn Children's Museum. This place always ranks #1 for Taiyo in terms of the length of time he can spend totally engaged. I may sit there for hours, a bit bored, and I have to remind myself that when I had my son, my life became not about me. It's not about what you want to do, what you want to see, or what you want to eat. At least for the time being. But it's ok. It's still a lot of fun.