The first day

Shonichi

So this morning I took the Pumpkin Princess shopping, and bought groceries while I was at it. For lunch, I whipped up fried noodles with leftover meat and veggies.

I started pressure cooker chicken broth with two chicken carcasses, the green part of onions, celery leaves, and shiitake stems. I let it cook 40 minutes under low pressure, and left it to cool.

While it was cooking, I made pickled ginger. I chopped fresh ginger into matchsticks, 

salted it (about 5% salt per weight) and put it in a sterile jar full of rice vinegar.

The pinkish color isn't the lighting. It really turns pink when you put it in vinegar (think of the pickled ginger slices they serve you with sushi!).

After I turned the heat off the pressure cooker chicken broth, I headed alone to the craft shop (thank you, Pumpkin Daddy). I wanted to buy thread for my pants alterations, and ribbon for the hat and the shirtdress.

 I’d checked my thread swatches for the color numbers of the thread I needed for the pants alterations, and I headed to the craft shop all proud of myself...

This could be the only place on the Internet you will find this information in English. Tokay, a big craft store chain in Japan, carries Shappe Spun sewing thread by Fujix (most common sewing thread in Japan), but it’s an exclusive line unique to Tokay alone that has different color numbers from the thread in other stores. The usual Shappe Spun color numbers are useless.

I thought about going home and bringing the thread swatches to the store to find the best matching thread, but that would be an extra degree of separation from the correct color. I couldn’t bring the pants themselves because they were in the wash. So, no thread.

I was totally ready to shell out for nice grosgrain ribbon like from Mokuba, but all they had was the moderate grade stuff. At least it was 100% cotton. So I bought the ribbon (wide for the hat and narrow for the belt) and left the store.

I felt unfulfilled because of this thread number and non-high brand ribbon snafu, so I headed to Daiso and got 100 yen (+ tax) acrylic paint in dark brown, ochre, and black. I also got dish sponges to use for seat cushions for the sofa (any left over can be used as...dish sponges!)

I came home, and after a cup of coffee, picked the meat off the chicken carcasses and got this much meat for later use. This container is 600 mL.

I also put some of the chicken broth in the same sized container and put it away in the fridge marking it “soup" in two languages. (We don’t want any intra-fridge accidents).

Dinner was boiled potatoes; fried pumpkin slices; not-stuffed cabbage (same ingredients as stuffed cabbage but with chopped cabbage and the ground beef and onions loose in the pot); bean sprout, scallions, and chia soup (with the chicken broth); and plain white rice.

So, I'm prepared to get at least something on the list crossed off tomorrow or the day after. Not bad!