From my front steps

A friend of mine loaned me his digital camera to get some shots of food from the restaurant. Been also getting shots of my garden. These are from my front container garden. Several from the distressed plant rack while the plant whisper was visiting.

alstroemeria keeps blooming

This geranium looked pretty bad when pick it up at the distress plant rack. Plant Whisper worked her magic repotting and adding some coffee grounds. It's been beautiful every since. I think it like living near the time and sage.

pink gerainum

new blossom

Another distress plant rack find. Love the purple flowers. 

purple penta

penta close-up

Just got this from the chef at the restaurant, Red shiso. She told me that vietnamese use this with grilling beef. Here's a link I found about vietnamese herbs: http://vietworldkitchen.typepad.com/blog/vietnamese-herb-primer.html 

red shiso

Will my Garden Grow?

Or not so much. Kind of slow, almost like it teasing me. The trees are much taller this year in the yard and my little veggie garden doesn't get as much light as the year before. Need to figure out what I'm doing wrong.

This is my garden so far. Most of it planted with seeds this year. May have to move my garden this fall.

almost ready to pick

first harvest

carrots 

Just watch a video from the The Rusted Garden about spraying it with epsom salt. May try it. His garden was so lush and beautiful. Wish my garden looked like that. Here's the link to cucumber maintance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JhgtTcOFyU

kirby cucumber, needs a little help

manoa lettuce

Got the garlic chives from one of the chefs at the restaurant. She also gave a tomato, basil, mint and chiso. Have that in front of the house.

garlic chives

This was a last ditch effort with seed to see if I would get something. I just threw a bunch of seeds in a couple of pots and this is what I got. Going to transplant the flowers this weekend.

parsley

dill,  zinnias and pompom flower

A Gathering of Random Links--06.2015

I decided post a monthly gathering of random links. Just stuff that I found interesting, wanting to try out or share. 

 -because of my fascination with koji. A preview of a documentary on sake making via thefoxisblack.com
http://thefoxisblack.com/2015/06/09/the-birth-of-sake-a-new-documentary-exploring-the-venerable-world-of-sake-making/ 

 -crazy playground! Love that is made with it all kind of stuff via thisiscolossal.com http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2015/06/city-museum/ 

 -looking for something to do with my chives. These look good, maybe I'll give it a try to share with my friend I'm visiting this week. via myhomspunhome.wordpress.com
https://myhomespunhome.wordpress.com/2015/06/02/chive-cheddar-biscuits/ 

 -I haven't tried this tomato sauce but have read many post about it. I've tried a similar on that is done in the oven via http://cooking.nytimes.com
http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1015178-marcella-hazans-tomato-sauce 

 -and here's the one made in the oven. The polenta is delicious, too. via joythebaker.com
http://joythebaker.com/2013/01/baked-polenta-with-tomato-and-basil/ 

 -washi tape and its history. Got this link from http://www.ofakind.com/stories/ 
http://www.masking-tape.jp/en/whats/ 

-love these artist from http://www.thejealouscurator.com 
-Love the use of the all the patterns and color palette http://www.thejealouscurator.com/blog/2015/06/01/lieke-van-der-vorst/ 

-the needlework is beautiful and how it becomes out it's space http://www.thejealouscurator.com/blog/2015/06/03/ana-teresa-barboza/ 

-I want to see this in person. I would love to see it being made. http://www.thejealouscurator.com/blog/2015/06/15/adrian-esparza/

Mr. Miyagi

Remember from the Karate Kid, when he made Daniel-san to wax on and wax off. There was a purpose. There's always a purpose. 

And I guess there's a purpose of spending my days at work to doing a similar task of clicking on and off the product I've been working on. It feels like there is no end and my right arm will die and fall off from the same repetitive movement [click, click, click]. But I through this pain and tedium, I think I've learned something about myself. 

I have to be more patient and let things happen. Don't get distracted and start something new as everything needs its time to develop. Thank you Mr. Miyagi!

So I tried to using this concept with this book I borrowed from the library.

Waiting for my connection to work, book in hand

Thought it was a good fit--knitting and a bunch characters from the club. One of those light and fun summer reads with one of my favorite past times in it.

Well, I was struggling through it. Renewed my loan twice from the library. I told myself that I was going to finish it. Then I got to page 191, they were off to Scotland to see Gran with a lot of anxiety, meltdowns and wisdom from grandma. And I started to enjoy it. Finished it last night. A bittersweet ending. There's a sequel to this. Hmmm. I don't think so. It took too long to get me liking or hating the characters. 

Now I'm on to the next book Fever by Mary Beth Keane. Not a fun summer-y book. But I love stuff like this.

So far since I started my commute I've read:

• Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern {liked}
• The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein {liked}
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy {on the fence; not a good read if you are feeling sad}

My reading list is a bit odd. Trying not to buy books. Reading what I have at home or borrowing books from the library. But I've reached and passed my goal and I guess I should reset it. How about read 9 books this year. That would really impress me. More on my knitting, baking, jamming and garden soon. 

How does my garden grow?

All dress up in my gardening clogs

Pretty good considering the up and down temps, rain and my late start. But I'm keeping my hopes up with little seedlings coming up my garden. Thinking of getting a couple more plant to put pots to round out the line up.

So far the weeds are doing the best. Tons of wild strawberries in the lawn. They are green so I leave them. The berries are much bigger than last year, maybe they will taste better. 

wild strawberries growing on the side of my veggie garden

Okano Day

I named this past Saturday as Okano Day as a day of food and fun with my parents at my house. My cousin M, her husband T, daughters A, L and T plus her mom and dad, my nephew T and his girlfriend S, and family friends P and P round the cast of characters for Okano Day.

Time sped by like a quickly with perfect weather, great food [which we forgot to take pictures of] and great company. And we all survived in one piece. 

This is our Okano Day menu: 

Savory

Momofuku Pork Shoulder

Mom's famous corn beef hash [she brought her own Libby's can corn beef from Hawaii]

Mom's famous nishime [made her make it with chicken]

Mom's famous Mac salad Hawaii-style

M's Crockpot Lentils

P & P's Thai Beef salad

T & S's Guacamole

My Roasted Tomato salsa

Kale salad

Chips

Sweet

Earl Grey Tea Cake with lilikoi mousse and lemon buttercream

T & S's Summer bars

Crazy amounts of really great fruits--especially the muscat grapes and many different varieties of berries

Here's a couple of pictures I remembered to take. I hope everyone enjoyed themselves and had enough to eat. Whoever was left at the end, took a bag food home with them. 

The start of great things to come

Patience is a virtue when it comes to pork shoulder

Waiting, waiting, waiting

Batch 1 of my summer roasted tomato salsa.

Only picture of the cake with one of the princesses

Princesses A and L with nephew T and girlfriend S in background

Too much commotion to get everyone to look in your direction

A Gathering of Random Llinks

P

chewy goodness! Lilikoi mochi!

Thought I shared some random links that you may like: 

-This post got me at "Miso". I've been obsesses about all things Miso or Koji. So why not Miso Sourdough Bread from Lucky Peach. They say the bread ends up "tasting like a cross between dark chocolate and pumpernickel in the final baked loaf." YUM!

-Although I look like hell these days, I still love fashion and I hope I get to this exhibit. Maybe one day I'll have the energy to dress like I care again. http://www.thesartorialist.com/photos/china-through-the-looking-glass-2/

-Here's an article on Koji from SFGate with some recipes. You're going to want to try it.

-Teaching myself code to get the restaurant website up and running. Found this link about 6 sites that teach you code from Swiss Miss. You know what I'll be up to this summer beside baking, jamming, knitting/crocheting and sewing. [I got to get my etsy store up]

-And of course, I couldn't end with out mentioning lilikoi or mochi. Here's a recipe Lilikoi Mochi from Mauna Kea Tea Blog. I decided to make this recipe because it uses brown sugar and kinako. I need to make it again.