Gardens

There is a lot of nature in NC.
We found the North Carolina Botanical Garden which is in UNC and we finally visited. It takes about 10 minutes to drive there from our house. We saw a bagpipe concert because it was St. Patrick's Day. It has a comprehensive herb garden which has 33 varieties of rosemary.



The weather was good, but very cold so I wore gloves and a hat. It has been quite warm for the last few days so the cherry trees bloomed. When the cherry blossom season comes, I feel spring has arrived.


We also went to The Sarah P. Duke Gardens which is in Duke University and takes about 30 minutes to drive to. The tulips were in bloom and there was a large variety of flowers. They had many different varieties of magnolia trees. Also, It has a Japanese garden. We really enjoyed walking through Duke garden. We want to go to these gardens once a month from now on! When I was in Tokyo, it was quite difficult to visit nature preserves.

Fondant Chocolate

Our favourite dessert is called Fondant Chocolate.
It means melting in French.

*** recipe ***
5 cup servings

• chocolate (preferably 70% cocoa) 110g
  
• unsalted butter 75g
  
• granulated sugar 80g
  
• 2 eggs
• all purpose flour 40g

1. Preheat oven to 400 deg F (200 deg C).
2. Grease 5 large muffin cups; paper muffin bake cups can also be used. Grease cups with butter sprinkle lightly with flour.　Leave them in the fridge.
3. Break the chocolate into small pieces and melt it with butter over hot water.
4. Beat the eggs with sugar and mix in the flour until white.
   
5. Gently pour the melted chocolate butter into the bowl and mix.
6. Fill each cup to 3/4.
   
7. Bake at 350 degrees for only 15 minutes; the outer part should be cooked and the inner part liquid.

Heat eacg fondant chocolate for 20 seconds in the microwave to melt centre before serving.
The Fondant Chocolate may be served hot on its own or with ice cream, custard or whipped cream.

Coconut Macaron

I made Coconut Macaron.
It is very easy cooking!!! Let's try.

*** recipe ***

• 2 egg whites
• coconut 140g
• granulated sugar 140g

1. Preheat oven to 320 deg F (160 deg C).
2. beat 2 egg whites.
3. Put the coconut and suger into the 2 and melt them over hot water.
4. Drop by teasopoonfuls onto lightly greased baking sheets.
5. Bake at 320 deg F for 20 minutes or until edges are brown. If the edge are brown, cover with foil.

• 
  

North Carolina BBQ

My friend, Nancy, took me to lunch and shopping at Costco! We went to Bullock's Bar-B-Que
which is a very famous BBQ restaurant around here. I ordered North Carolina BBQ and it was very different from normal BBQ. It is very difficult to explain, but North Carolina BBQ is eaten with special sauce. Nancy told me each district has its own sauce.



Nancy ate vegetable and bean soup.
It had a very simple taste.
People in NC like beans and corn very much.







This restaurant looks very famous.... There are many photos and I found Billy Joel's autograph on one of the pictures!!!

A Southern Season

I found nice shop by chance. The shop name is A Southern Season.
Look! they are beautiful flowers, aren't they?

I really enjoyed spending time there.
There were very nice displays of products. Also, many varieties of nice food are sold.








There was a big wine section at the back of the shop.
I don't know about wine, but it would be easy to find nice wine here. We saw some Australian wine as well.








Here is the chocolate area... You can find chocolate from all over the world. I also went to the cafe and they have a nice cappuccino.
The frothy milk was really smooth and I love it!

Scraps

My quilt friend, Nancy, told me about getting free scraps from a fabric marketing company. When she went there with her friends last time, she got 120 boxes….
So we called the company and they had 12 boxes available.
We went there at 9 am and got back around 10 am. I carried all the boxes into her house because she has back and hip problems.



When we started opening the boxes, our faces had big smiles. We seemed to be opening treasure boxes.
Of course, some scraps were very stiff or not 100% cotton, but I think we've got a lot of goodies.
We choose a lot of nice scraps and the rest of the boxes Nancy will give to her cousins and friends. Scraps make everybody happy… :-)

Recently, I have been making a scrap quilt. This pattern is called "postage stamps".
I used floral fabric which I got from Nancy's friends. I cut 2.5 cm squares and sew them together. I will quilt a design in the white boxes.
This project is going to be a big tapestry. Anyway, I've got a lot of scraps so I have make more scrap quilts !!!!

Valentine's Day

I made Fondant Chocolat for Valentine's day!
" Fondant" means "melting" in French.
I ate it at Lantern a long time ago and I really liked it so I wanted to try to make it.

Unfortunately, when I opened it, it wasn't melted . But it was good.
I want to try to make it again.

I cooked "lemon herb chicken" for dinner. I marinated the chicken with lemon, thyme, garlic and rosemary for 2 hours.
It was very delicious.

My husband bought raspberries and chocolate for me. We ate them with fandant chocolat and ice cream.

Yam Wun Sen

It was my husband birthday on 10th February. We had planned to go to our favourite restaurant "Lantern", but when we got there, it was already full and the wait was about 90 minutes so we gave up! It seems we have to book on Saturdays. Anyway, we went to "Thai Palace" instead.

It was also crowded, but we waited a bit and we finally got a table. We ordered "yam wun sen" , "curry puff" and "Bangkok duck". "Bangkok duck" was similar to "Peking duck", but "Bangkok duck" has a red curry sauce and all dishes were good. We didn't order deserts because I made cheesecake!! It was the best cheesecake I have made. We ate it with ice cream.... ummmm yummy

Coasters

公開
These coasters are hand made. My friend made the round coasters for me.
The pattern on the middle coaster is called "lemoynestar". The pattern on the two upper coasters is called "drunkard's path".

Lemon

I have a question... How many lemons do you eat a month?
We like lemons a lot. I think we eat at least 3 lemons a week so we eat a dozon lemons a month.
We use lemon with chicken, fish and salad.

I made hot lemon with honey. It is very easy to make.

*** recipe ***

• lemon 3 pcs
• honey
  

1. Wash lemons and slice.
   
2. Put lemon into a bottle.
3. Put in enough honey to cover the lemon slices.
4. Rest the mixture for a day in the fridge.
5. To make a drink, place 2 slices of lemon and 2 spoons of syrup in a glass with boiling water.
   

The egg farm

I went to the egg farm with my naighbor, Nancy. I didn't buy any eggs because I already had enough. The owner gave us 2 special eggs which were double yolkers.

The eggs were very big. I cooked cabbage soup and poured in one beaten double yolkers.

It's like spring

It has been very warm this weekend. It's about 20 degrees during the day. Many people enjoy ed lunch outdoors. Some people wore sleeveless tops making feel like summer. Also some plants are in flower. I like this weather, but I worry about global warming.

Today is a holiday called Martin Luther King Jr Day. I joined a quilt lesson from 8 to 15 and my husband worked on some house chores.

Apple cider vinegar

my skin has become very dry. I have to put on body lotion after my bath. I don't know what is wrong. Is it winter or another reason? I checked the web and it seems that the water here is different from Japan. The local water is much harder meaning it has too much calcium which dries out my skin.
Anyway, the web suggested taking "apple cider vinegar baths". So I put 200 cc into my hot bath. This made the water feel very soft and gentle. My skin is getting better. I think this works very well.

Pouches

I finally made two pouches. I used a sowing machine so it was much faster than sowing by hand, but it is still difficult to sow because I am a beginner. I need a lot of practice.
This pattern is called log cabin.

My quilting friends invited me to go fabric shopping on Friday. The place is 2 hours drive from here so we will probably have to leave early in the morning and spend the day there. It will be an excursion.

VOLVO 850

Wishing you a happy new year!
We bought a '93 Volvo 850 at the end of 2006. It is MY car to learn to drive. It is very good condition for its age.
The car has a moon roof, heated seats, air conditioning ( the last two are quite important in NC) and is an automatic. My husband drives a different type of Volvo and it is a manual. We tried to look for a manual for me, but it was quite hard to find here. The first time I drove it was along the expressway by myself taking it home. Before I drove, I was quite nervous. When I started driving, I wasn't so scared and I came back home very safely. Of course, I followed my husband's car. :-) Anyway, I will practice driving every day. ( especially parking… ha ha ha)

New Year Eve

We were cleaning our house today! In Japan, it is a custom to clean the house at the end of year and start the new year with a fresh feeling.
Anyway, my husband enjoys cleaning very much so he likes this custom. He was in charge of cleaning the 5 Venetian blinds. He washed them on the clothes line in the garden. I was in charge of washing the two bed rooms, the stairs and windows. Then we cleaned our favourite kitchen appliance - the stove!!!
We were so exhausted, but it is very good feeling.

By the way, the above photo is taken from my old flat in Tokyo. I could see the scenery from my room. It is very nice view, isn't it?

Carry bag

Recently, I have been concentrating on quilting. I have completed 3 projects which were a Christmas tapestry, a pouch and a bag. I made a carry bag for my sister in nine patch pattern. It took 2 weeks to make. I used a sowing machine for piecing together and I quilted the side and bottom with 1.5cm wide quilt lines by hand. My left forefinger was peeling from so much quilting.


At present, I don't need to hurry to make any projects so I feel good, but my quilter friends gave me a lot of scrap fabric so I think I have to start making pouches for them.
I made this cushion in mariners compass pattern that I displayed at a quilt exhibition in my quilting class.

Quiche

We made another quiche. Actually, this is the second time.
It had a good taste this time, but we have not perfected the recipe. When we find the best recipe, we will blog it!! We used bacon, onion, emental cheese, tomato and olives in the filling. The method of preparing of the pastry is very well explain in a book called The science of cooking by Peter Barham. He explains all the science behind strange steps of short crust pastry preparation.

Hamburgers

I cooked Hamburgers today. Normally, I don't cook mince meat because mince meat needs preparations such as kneading and mixing. I like cooking, but when I am short of time, I prefer to cook chicken or pork. Anyway, hamburgers were very juicy and delicious. My husband cooked mash potato and broccoli with garlic and soy sauce.

Baked cheesecake

I made baked cheesecake. It was a bit hard to control the temprature of the oven.
It was a little over cooked on the top, but taste was OK.
I will make it again on Christmas day.