Welcome back to another year of Okaasan and Me.
What fun and games will we get up to this year?
Hopefully more fun, than games.
Yesterday - January 1st - we ate ourselves to a standstill.
Lunchtime: the box of Osechi (New Year) food that I'd ordered. I lied and told Okaasan that a kind friend had sent us the box, couldn't of course say I'd bought it in case she wasn't interested in cooking! Also ate a red/white salad that I made, which Okaasan predictably enough said was too sour and not sweet enough...
Here is the gorgeous box.
Dinner: the Osechi that Okaasan had bought or agonizingly slowly made with my assistance. And do you know? The strange thing was that I don't think she recognized any of it...YUjiro and I were like over bouncy kindergarten teachers exclaiming "how delicious!" over it all and making a fuss, Okaasan just ate it and didn't really appear to have any personal connection to the seaweed rolls, the stewed taro or the root veggie and chicken dish.
In fact she was more pleased with the red and white fish paste thing she'd bought at the supermarket, AND more concerned about how Yujiro had served the herring roe - which comprised of opening the packet and putting it on a plate.
Okaasan said it should have been soaked for an eon and other preparations....(so it's not just me that gets things wrong :-)) )
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| My setting of the food we'd made...and yes...that IS water I'm drinking....needed something to refresh my mouth with all this soy sauce and sugar! |
So. At the end of all of that.
Was it worth it? Getting Okaasan to shop and make some New Year food?
No. Not really. I absolutely won't do it next year.
She loved the shopping. But the making was stressful for both of us. And the end result can so easily be bought from a supermarket.
Basically so many of these dishes are vegetables that are first boiled, then cooked again in a sauce of fish stock, sugar and soy sauce. It's food from another era when there were no shops open and bad refrigeration.
BUT!!!!
TODAY'S NEWS!
I am going skiing!!! For the first time in 2 years I am taking the bad knee and the weak thigh muscles skiing!!!!!
Got to go now and get ready!
Will just leave you with a great snowbear we spotted on our walk in the park yesterday.....
And hope to be back at this computer later to report successful ski return.
LOVE the snowbear. Definitely doing a bear next big snowfall. Have a great time skiing - take it easy on the knee.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year Oyomesan.
Xxx
Congratulations on getting through New Year and back to skiing! There's an interesting article in the New York Times about dementia care - probably not what you feel like reading at the moment, but it had some interesting ideas: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/01/health/01care.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=general&src=me
ReplyDeleteVery interesting article thanks!!!
ReplyDeleteYes, I really think that creating happy emotions every day is immportant - and looking back on some of the bad flare ups we've had with Okaasan - they were almost always linked (as far as we know) to some negatitive thing - at least twice it was food that she didn't really like...the hard part is trying to judge when a previously "good" thing is becoming "bad" - such as the hula dance class and the stress of practicing for performances.
With cooking I really doubt that Okaasan is getting much pleasure from it anymore. So sad because she likes looking at TV cooking shows and magazines, writing down recipes, shopping, talking about food....but the reality is confusing.