When I was teaching in Japan, one of my students once told me that her favourite thing to eat was Mick Jagger. Later on, I discovered that her favourite dish was actually called "Nikujaga". It just sounded a lot like "Mick Jagger"!

One of my Japanese friends is visiting us on the Island for a few days. She used to be a student of mine at one of the language schools I taught at when I was in Toronto. She reminded me last night that I taught her ten years ago! I cannot believe that we have known each other for ten years! That makes me sound ancient! I was twenty-five years old when I taught her!

Since things around here have been pretty crazy these past few weeks, my friend has taken it upon herself to make our suppers for us. Having Japanese food made by my Japanese friend makes me really miss Japan!
Tonight she made miso soup and Nikujaga. I had to laugh because whenever I hear the word "nikujaga", I think of Mick Jagger! Love him, by the way!

Look at these beauties from my gardens!
These gorgeous tomatoes above turn a lovely yellow when they're ripe. They are also very sweet! They go great in tomato salads or fresh salsas. I picked the veggies in the photo below just this morning.
I added a salad to our supper menu, since we had all these veggies from our garden.
C's Everything But The Kitchen Sink Salad
1 zucchini cut into bite sizes
1 cucumber, peeled and diced
Several Roma tomatoes, diced
Several sweet yellow tomatoes, diced
1 onion, chopped
1 green pepper, diced

The Yummiest Dressing Ever
Homemade maple syrup from our farm
Lemon juice
(My friend, Mrs. Bear made this simple dressing and I've been addicted to it ever since)

I basically used whatever I picked from the garden today. Add all ingredients into a bowl. Add dressing. Make sure veggies are well coated. Enjoy! Super healthy, filling, and tasty!

For dessert:
Apple Granitas
Since we have tons, and tons, and TONS of apples on our farm, I used my homemade apple sauce recipe, froze apple sauce, scraped frozen apple sauce with fork tines and served. Tasty frozen treat that is healthier for you than ice cream!
Step 1: Wash and quarter apples.

Step 2: Cook apples (make sure they're not too mushy though!)

Step 3: Press through fruit press, colander, strainer, or whatever you've got (My Korean student learned how to make apple sauce in the above photo. Here she's using some good 'ol fashioned elbow grease to press the apples through to make the sauce)

Step 4:  Add in sugar of choice and other ingredients if you like. You can totally omit this step. I like to have no sugar in my apple sauce. Some people add cinnamon. This is entirely up to  you. This stage is the apple sauce stage.

Step 5: Freeze apple sauce
 Step 6: Scrape with fork and add into serving dishes

Step 7: Garnish, serve, and enjoy!
 Like my lovely stainless steel cups I got from Orkids.ca?

Okay, I just had to add a cute pic of Little One as she was helping me pick tomatoes from the garden.

Since I teach ESL and have students from all over the world stay with us, I try to celebrate their culture and special holidays with them. Of course, they are immersed in Canadian culture, but I also think it's wonderful to celebrate their own culture. We all learn a great deal from each other.

Koreans celebrate Chuseok at this time of the year. In essence, Chuseok is the Korean equivalent of Thanksgiving.

I felt a little sad that our student didn't get to spend Chuseok with her family, so I wanted to have a Chuseok celebration for her right here on Manitoulin Island. We scoured recipes online to prepare a feast. She really wanted to have kimchi buchimgae.


Kimchi Buchimgae

Ingredients:
* flour
* kimchi, cut into slivers
* egg(s), beaten
* oil
* water

The recipe in the video calls for salt, but kimchi itself is really high in salt. We just omitted it from the recipe. I don't really follow measurements (just go by taste), so I just wrote the ingredients above without the measurements. For baking, because it's a science, I follow exact measurements. For cooking, I just go by taste.

Add ingredients in a bowl and mix together. In a hot skillet or pan, add oil. Scoop batter onto skillet. Cook until golden and then flip. Cook as though you are cooking a pancake. When both sides are browned to perfection, remove from skillet and enjoy!

...The Crypt being MY BRAIN!

It seems these days, my poor Mommy brain isn't functioning as it should. I know what you're thinking. That's because I'm up at 4AM, blogging. Right? Truth be told, I'm not usually up this early (or this late...depending on how you look at it). We just got back from an airport pick up. A new ESL student arrived tonight. The airport is 2 hours from the Island. You do the math.

I'm so wired now, I can't sleep!

I was just thinking about how my brain seems to have gone to mush. Do you know that today was the first time I realized that BOGO means "Buy One, Get One"!?!?! I feel so stupid! I've seen commercials on TV for Payless BOGO days. It never even occurred to me that it meant "Buy One, Get One", even though I knew that Payless Shoes offered those deals! Duh!

The other day, I said "Steffi and Liz is" instead of "Steffi and Liz are". That really bugs me. I don't usually make slips like that. I majored in English and Linguistics. I teach grammar for a living! Incidentally, did you know that a "mistake" is different than a "slip"?
"Mistakes are errors in choosing an objective or specifying a method of achieving it whereas slips are errors in carrying out an intended method for reaching an objective." (Sternberg, 1996)

Just sayin'.

 Then I do really strange things like orchestrate a Surprise Birthday/Going Away party for one of my students and make the 4 (for the "24") backwards on the cake! I didn't even notice it until the other student pointed it out to me. My friend, who happens to also be a teacher commented, "Well, you teach literacy. Not mathematics."
Bwahahahahahaha! I'm so embarrassed. I'm thinking that I clearly need more sleep.