Potluck Party

I joined the Potluck party yesterday. My co-worker invited me to her house, and her friends and I brought a meal to the party. I prepared the Finnish meatballs, mush potatoes and baked corn on Friday night.

After I cooked them, I placed them on the plate.

The host( my co-worker) cooked two types of pasta and pumpkin salad, and her friends brought Masu-Sushi(Trout Sushi), Salmon salad, vegi(cabbage and bean) salad and Smoked salmon&mozzarella. Every meals were really good, and I enjoyed the party a lot.

It's time for Christmas, so I also baked the Christmas icing cookies.(Please see my Kitchen tab, too) Last time I baked the icing cookies was last December, and the icing was totally perfect. But this time the icing was a bit loose and it took time to dry completely...It doesn't look good this time, but I brought them to the party anyway. (I don't think I can eat them all by myself...hahaha...)

The host prepared the apple compote and other her friend baked the macrobiotic cookies, too.

Surprisingly, they all said, it's cute. I was so relieved they liked my cookies.

THANK YOU, all!

We also bought the Christmas cake as a dessert.

The little dwarf is trying to cut the strawberry with his saw...cute!

We exchanged the present and I got the herb bath salt and soap. I also got the microbiotic muffin from the host. ( She prepared it for each guests.) I won't show you the message from her, but the nice message was on the bag.

Welcome back, Cinnabon!

I LOVE CINNABON:) It's really sweet, and I feel guilty every time I eat it(high calories). But I love it! It was founded in Seattle, and I ate a lot while I was living in Seatlle. Cinnabon has been in business in Japan for 10 years, but all the stores were closed couple years ago. It might be too sweet for Japanese? I missed it so much.

Cinnabon store reopened in Roppongi last November. Last night, when I got the store, there were many people stoond in line to get it outside of the store. I usually don't like to wait in line, but I waited for 30 min just to buy two of them because of the Cinnabon :) I know there are Cinnabon fan in Tokyo like me. After I came back home, I ate one. The taste was the same, but there were two things I felt the differences compared to the one I used to had.  The sugar frost was less than I expected, and the bread part was thinner than I know... Anyway, welcome back to Japan, Cinnabon!

Birthday celebration at Imperial Hotel, Tokyo

In August, my friend celebrated my birthday at Ritz Carlton Hotel, Roppongi, and now it was my turn to celebrate her birthday. This year, her request was the aftenoon tea at Imperial Hotel, Tokyo. It's time for the Christmas, so the decoration is really nice there now.

The big tree welcome us when we enter the entrance.

I made the reservation thru the internet and requested the Christmas aftenoon tea. When we seated, the waitress took a photo of us and she brought it to our table as a birthday present while we were eating. I liked their service a lot, it's going to be nice memory. They also decorated our plate with the birthday message board. It seemed my friend liked it a lot, too.:)

Top plate: Strawberry cake, Citlus Jello and Chololate tart

Second Plate: Scone(biscuit) and orange bread

Third plate:Quiche, Tuna and Smoked salmon sandwich and Smoked duch with potato salad on bread

First drink I ordered was original iced tea. I forgot the name of the tea, but it based on the black currant.

Scone with the clotted cream and blueberry jam.

Strawberry and the whipped crema looks like Santa :)

We kept talking and talking...We got the lounge at 2PM and left at 5:30PM. It was already dark when we went outside. 

The Imperial lounge "AQUA" also has the tree.

My Christmas decoration

20 years ago, this tree came to my house. I kept begging my mother to buy it for me for a few days. Very end of Chiritsmas night, it was on sale at a store, and then my mother finally said "OK" :). My current apt is so small...so I could not bring it to Tokyo here. It is in my parents house, and I enjoy decorating it every year when the time comes.

There are about 50 branches and it starts to assemble them to the shaft. I guess the height is about 2.3m(7.5ft).

I bought the lights and the tree skirt(left) while I was living LA, and the other tree skirt( right) was made by my mother.

Paper ribons for the decoration. I'm also using these ribons for 20 years.

These are the ornaments I collected for 20 years, and I have a memory for each of them. Some are the present from my friends.

Nesting dolls

 I collected them while I was living in Seattle. I rarely see them at a store in Tokyo, but the price is sort of expensive. Now I stopped collecting them because of the price here...

Birds Chritsmas tree
I can't keep a big tree in my tiny apt, and this is the one I can keep it here instead.

Glass trees

Since I moved to Tokyo, I started collecting the glass trees. Every year I buy one,but this year I haven't seen the one I like yet.

The Christamas is no religous meaning to me, but I really like the decorations. It's just lovely, and it makes me happy. :)

First time knitting

My mother loved knitting, and she used to knit sweathers, gloves, hats and etc. for my family and herself. Once she have started knittting, she couldn't stop knitting and even she forgot to sleep...  Since my mother died, nobody touched many knitting yarns she left. I probably learned only one type of stich from her when I was 10 or 11 years old, but I haven't knitted any since then. Everytime I see the knitting yarns, I think about how I can use them. I don't think I can knit sweaters and gloves, but I thought I might knit something easy. Then I decided to knit the baby hat for my friend's baby.


Here are my first time knitting "Hat" for my friend's baby "SARA" :) I know it doesn't looks nice...but my friend said "love it" and I was so relieved she said so. Happy!

 Hat 1

The size is a little bit tight, but it looks good on her? :P

Hat 2

The flowers are on the front side

and

the butterfly is on the back side.

Again, I didn't know my friend like them or not while I was knitting, but I am glad she likes them a lot. I am also happy I really felt I am absolutely my mother's daughter while I was knitting them.

I got the present "Snoman's assorted sweets bag" from her. Thank you, Minako!

Atami

Last Thursday and Friday, my team(company) and I had the meeting at Atami, Shizuoka. Atami is the one of the famous hot spring resort in Japan. This was the first time to visit there for me.

 We supposed to see the nice view from the meeting room, but the weather was not nice the day...

The meeting started from 9:30AM and finished 6:30PM. It made me exhausted, but the dinner was really gorgeous! It could be more fun if I visit there with my friend, not the company meeting.

 The hotel we stayed is a kind of Japanese style hotel "Ryokan(旅館)." I don't think I haven't stayed this style hotel for a long time, so I was a bit surprised when I saw the table setting like above. The Nakai-san(I can't think about the best word for them. It may be I can call them as Servant or waitress) is always attentive and aware of the pace at which the guests are dining, so that she can serve dishes at the perfect timing.

Aappetizer

 Sashimi and soup

Mozuku seaweed in vinegar soup and broiled fish

 Awabi(Abalone in butter sause)

 Takiawase(Vegitable,mear, fried tofu and etc. are cooked separately.)

Nabe(Hot pot dish)

Rice and Miso soup

Dessert

 While we were eating the dinner, the "Nakai-san(servant)" prepared our Futon. We don't need to do anything, Nakai-san does everything we need. I love this Japanese spirit of hospitality! I stayed with two of my co-workers, and we drank a bit of alcohols and chatted until 1:00AM.

The breakfast was really nice.

 The meeting was over around 15:00PM, and I got off the meeting... TIRED.

I stopped the souvenir shops near the Atami station after the meeting. I didn't have much time for shopping, so I got some souvenirs for my father, friend.