The snow started falling last night and I saw a winter wonderland from my window when I woke up this morning. We don’t have much snow in Seattle and this is a big snow day for everyone. Although snow was still falling, people and dogs were out playing in the snow. Our miniature dachshund, Cocoa and Haru are not so sure about snow. Their legs are too short to play in the deep snow. So my husband and I decided to leave them in a warm bed and headed to out for an adventure in the snow.
Croquettes in my family are made from potatoes, onions, ground beef, and cheese. It’s super yummy and one of my family’s favorite foods. This is good for bento box (lunch) too for my daughter when she was little.
After my daughter left for college, I seldom cook croquettes for a few reasons. It takes time to make croquettes because of many steps. My husband and I now try to eat less beef as well as deep fried food. We try to be healthier to reduce meat and oily food. However, we have a good excuse to eat croquettes once in a while when my daughter comes over for dinner.
Although I cook croquettes, I still try not to eat beef. So, I tried something new this time. I made shrimp cream croquettes and beef croquettes. For shrimp croquettes, I used chopped shrimp instead of ground beef. I added cream in mashed potatoes to make it softer and creamy. Shrimp cream croquettes are so good as much as beef croquettes.
I have no idea what my daughter cooks in her apartment but I am sure she doesn’t know the recipe for croquettes. She was happy to eat her favorite food and she liked shrimp cream croquettes too. I added green vegetables, natto (fermented soybeans), yellowtail sashimi with avocado, and more to make the meal healthier.
We had a dinner together just like when my daughter was a child. After dinner, I put some croquettes in a tapper ware so that she can take them to her apartment. It was a good dinner with my daughter and good shrimp cream croquettes. I found a small happiness thanks to croquettes.
Cocoa is a miniature black and tan male dachshund and he is our sweet boy.
When he was a puppy, he was naughty and destroyed my shoes, my daughter’s toys, and cords. He loved squeaky toys so much and we needed to take it away because of so much noise. He liked to play in the water and he was very active.
He had been an only pet before our baby Haru who is shaded cream female long hair dachshund joined in our family. Cocoa became a good big brother for Haru. He protected Haru from other big dogs and let Haru to get all our attention for herself. I believe he felt sad a little or jealousy but he never showed his feeling and let Haru do whatever she wanted.
We had many adventures together to go to Oregon, California, or eastern Washington. Cocoa has been always with us in good time and bad time. On February 8th, he turned 14 years old. His beautiful tan fur turned white. He often stumbles and doesn’t like to walk. His eyesight got weak. Although he has a big appetite, he became very skinny. He got more and more stubborn as he got older, but he is a still very sweet and beautiful boy.
We will take very good care of you, Cocoa. Please stay healthy and strong for many more years so that we can spend more time together. Happy birthday Cocoa! We love you, sweet boy!
Happy Friday! I took a day off and planned to go out to take some pictures, but it was gray and sprinkles outside. When I took a morning bath, I thought what I would do. By the time I finished yoga exercise, I decided to make brioche with sweet red bean paste.
A Japanese owner of my favorite bakery makes one of the most delicious croissant with red been paste. I love the buttery dough and sweet red bean paste together. When I go to this bakery, I always get one croissant with red bean paste and one matcha red bean muffin. This matcha muffin has a perfect harmony of the hint of bitterness of matcha and the sweetness of red beans. These two items are my favorite and I always wanted to make bread with red bean paste.
I wanted to skip to measure the ingredients but I didn’t. The kneading the dough was the hardest part and made my hands so tired. My dogs, Cocoa and Haru were restless while I was working on the dough. A few hours later I was able to manage to bake several brioche buns with red bean paste and chocolate. It was actually good and better than I expected. Of course, I love the bread from my favorite bakery most, but I think I can enjoy my homemade brioche too.
It was supposed to be a photo walk day but I ended up to bake brioche at home. The plan changed and I was very disappointed at first, but I enjoyed baking brioche and I felt that’s okay. My husband enjoyed my brioche with coffee in the afternoon. I gave a little bit of brioche to Cocoa and Haru. It was a good day and I found a small happiness in my kitchen.
It’s in the middle of winter and we have more cloudy and rainy days in Seattle. The sky is gray and it makes me miss my favorite island in my home country, Japan. Shodoshima is an island where the weather is mild and there are many olive trees.
My husband and I had a chance to visit Shodoshima before pandemic. It was November but the temperature was high 60’s and mostly sunny days. We drove around the island to see a beautiful ocean view from the mountain and visited a local cafe for homemade cheesecake. There was a very old house which was remodeled as a restaurant. This popular restaurant was always full of customers around lunch time. We waited about one hour and finally were able to sit in a table set in the pretty outside garden. The food was excellent using local fresh vegetable, seafood, and beef. Although we had to wait, it was worth it. Another popular place was an olive park where there are many of olive trees and a gift shop we can buy products made from olive. They even had green ice cream made from olive.
Shodoshima has many cute popular spots for tourists but I love most in Shodoshima was the beauty of the nature and the simple quiet life there, a wild boar footprints I found in the beach early morning, a small chat with an owner of a cafe we had coffee, the morning glories by the sidewalk, and beautiful ocean.
I hope I will have a chance to live there someday. The view is gray from my window but it’s always sunny, blue sky, and olive trees in my heart when I think of Shodoshima.
Theo is my daughter’s golden doodle puppy. As all puppies are, Theo is super cute and sweet. I love his fluffy soft fur and he is just like a teddy bear. My daughter and her boyfriend sometimes come with Theo and we have meals together. My husband and I love that they come over but there is one problem, our dogs, Cocoa and Haru. Cocoa is almost 14 years old and Haru is seven. When Theo comes over, it’s always quite a chaos in my house.
Cocoa and Haru are miniature dachshund. Cocoa is Black and Tan male dog and Haru is shaded cream long hair female dog. They are very sweet but very protective and they are not interested in a puppy.
My daughter, her boyfriend, and Theo who is now 6 month old and getting big came over for breakfast on Saturday morning. Cocoa and Haru love their big sister (my daughter) and her boyfriend but are not sure about Theo. He is a puppy who is super excited with other dogs. He wants to play, play and play. He explored every corner of my house and found Cocoa and Haru’s toy basket. He took each toy out of the basket and played with all toys. Although he was chased off by Cocoa and Haru, he never gave up and tried to play with Cocoa and Haru in his way. I feel sorry for Theo but I guess the age gap is too far between a puppy and a senior dog.
Dogs were barking and people were talking around the table enjoying my husband’s homemade breakfast. The squeaky toys were everywhere. I sometimes have a headache after they left. It was quite noisy but happy time with my family. A small happiness in one Saturday morning.
Koko & Haru - kokobiyori 