Flood of information/ 情報の洪水

It has been nice to attend all day lectures and cooking classes. It will take a while to process all these information. Over all, I really enjoy attending this conference. Especially chatting with friends and teachers, which gave me different insight outside the class room. In level 3, we learn more profound topic and special cooking such as Credo or Non Credo (use your own judgement and 7 great consciousness; macrobiotic theory). For cooking, we had a workshop that we teach student how to make a miso soup. Being a teacher is whole new thing I experienced! I enjoyed it.

cooking class /クッキングクラス

I have been so busy and am tired, so it has been hard to keep it up with my blog...

Today I had a really nice cooking class with Patricio. He gave us cooking with Natto!

Very interesting! His cooking is just fantastic. full of inspiration! I think some of his natto dish maybe will satisfy some of my friends who doesn't care about Natto. We'll see...

summer conference

I am in a countryside in Holland, in a forest 1 hour away from Amsterdam. I started level 3, advance macrobiotic Art of life course yesterday. Here, there are about 200 people attending this conference from all over the world. It's a very energiging event! I met Patricio, the head of the Kushi Institute of Japan, who is teaching here this year. He also gave us a cooking class today. He brought such a frech energy into our course!

It's going to be full schdeule till mid August here in the conference.
I will start a day with Taichi or Nordic walking in the forest.

July in Amsterdam

Amsterdam, here I come! It's in late July, and all the leaves of trees I saw in April grew massive and everywhere I see here is trees, trees, and trees! After 15 hours of flight from Los Angeles, I am still tired with jet lag. But I feel soothed with this green city. It rained on and off all day, changing constantly from shower to shine with a little bit of thunder. It reminded me of Japan.

I like the smell of the rain.

アムステルダムに到着です。初夏のアムステルダムは４月に見た木々の葉が大きくなって街全体が緑に包まれています。１５時間のフライトの後、時差ぼけの頭のまま、外に出たのですが、すっかり、この街に癒されました。今日は、ずっと小雨と時折太陽が覗いたり、雷が鳴ったり、常に天気は変化していました。日本みたいだなって思ってこんな天気が懐かしくなりました。雨の匂いって好きです。

I made this strawberry mousse

I made this strawberry mousse for my friends. It's so seasonal and flavorful.  

I made with strawberry, kanten, silken tofu, pear juice, rice syrup and tahini for the mousse.

The pink / red is the color of the symbol of summer. very energizing, isn't it?

このストロベリームースを作りました。季節のフルーツを味わうのは本当によいですね。

ピンク／赤は情熱の色、これから暖かくなり夏にむけて力が湧いて来るそんな色ですよね。

友達もよろこんでいました。

Apple Pie / French style

I learned in Europe that French bake their apple pie very simple. They don't have to put creams inside. So, this one is very simple, just crust, raisins, apples and the coating on top!

Simple is the best, right?

French Style Apple Pie:

Crust:

pastry flour (unbleached  whole wheat) 250g

salt 1 teaspoon

corn oil 85ml

maple syrup 85ml

Vanilla extract 1 teaspoon

apples

raisins

kuzu 3 teaspoons

pear juice 150ml

maple syrup 

pinch of salt

pinch of vanilla powder

Blend liquid well first, then add to the powder to make the dough. Spread the dough in a pie dish and bake 15 to 20 minutes in a oven 350 F. Sprinkle the raisins and fine sliced apples on top of the crust. (You can bake this a little bit, too) Bring pear juice with pinch of salt, vanilla powder, kuzu to boil, add maple syrup to sweeten as you like. Pour the liquid on top of the pie to dress the pie!

Chill and serve. 

Desert recipe/ Strawberry Kanten

I am back in sunny Los Angeles. I miss Amsterdam.... but now I am enjoying cooking in my kitchen, trying to improve my cooking skill. 

The other day I made this dessert with fresh strawberries. It was really good!

Strawberry Kanten with Amazake , sesami flavor

ing:

Amazake 1.5 cup , Water  1,5 cup , rice syrup 2 teaspoon, tahini sauce 1 teaspoon, strawberries, powder kanten ( agar agar) 2 teaspoon (5 g)

Mix Amazake and water, then add rice syrup, tahini and kanten powder. Bring it to boil (keep stirring!) Once it's boiled, pour it into a container with fresh strawberries, then chill in a fridge.

Enjoy!

ストロベリー寒天　（ごま風味）