a multilingual evening
Feb
7th
2010
Last night we celebrated Katherine’s birthday. My mother and I had been watching the food network together last week and Anna Olson made a turkey scaloppini dinner which we re-created last night except for the dessert. Hannah made a cake worthy of Ultimate Cake Off. She made a drawing of her design and then with some sisterly direction in the math (we had to figure out cups of batter) she made six loaves of various sizes, and two flavours. She rolled out fondant with a pasta maker, cut out circles and rectangles, air brushed them with color….
well needless to say, i am bursting with pride. Both the chocolate and the vanilla layers were delicious… I made the buttercream for her. (it was good too
)
Th menu had a citrus twist to it, so Emily created, ala Sandra Lee of Semi-Homemade, a citrusy tablescape.
Here is a link to the recipes (actually to the salad recipe but the other recipe links are there,) our menu included turkey cutlets breaded with fresh thyme and crackers (slightly different from Anna’s recipe,) smashed red potatoes with homemade creme fraiche, haricorts verts in a grapefruit and orange sauce, and a salad with brie and toasted baguette on the side.
After dinner and cake,
we opened presents. (this present is from Melinda, Earl and Hannah…. justin morneau, a Canadian, plays for Katherine’s team, and she received from friends at school the t-shirt with his number.)
Then we watched a DVD slideshow from my Auntie Claire’s birthday bash in 2007. This is my mother’s older sister. We would pause the DVD and my mom would tell stories of all the people in the photos. We re-told the famous cousin Brian biting me in the stomach story and his being my invisible friend in Germany. (I was a toddler and would tell German people on busses not to sit on him… he was actually living in Hawaii with his parents at the time, but I apparently brought him with me to Germany.)
After the DVD, Katherine, Hannah and my mother researched, on google, the meanings of the Japanese names. Hannah began begging me for a Japanese name… hence her new name on facebook… Hannah Michelle Yasuko… peaceful child. Which is fitting for her most of the time, and also the middle name of a much beloved late aunt of mine…. my mother’s youngest sister… Helen Yasuko Sham.
My mother also sang some old lullabies… Japanese and German. The German ones she had sung to me when I was small while we were living in Germany and my father was stationed there. She and I both sang these songs to the girls when they were small. We could not remember though we tried for some time the one about a little black sheep. Mary, in particular, used to climb into my mother’s lap, wrap her pudgy arms around my mother\s neck, and whisper in her ear…. “schwarz schaf, schwarz schaf,” (black sheep, black sheep) to request it.
Mary called later for a nightly good night with Hannah, and told us that her 48 Hour Film Project entry won “Best in Show.” I recounted some of the evening to Mary who then told me she had renewed the search for fukigen, a Japanese pickle i could easily become addicted to.
Anyway, hearing Japanese roll off their tongues so easily was pleasing to me.
Currently, we are praying that i fight off a cold threatening to be, I have been having a difficult time with diarrhea, vomiting and sores. HOWEVER, the doctor visit on Wednesday was with my “pain” doctor… I inherited him from the November hospital stay initially to handle the pain the tumor was causing… now my pain needs are much lessened so he has recalculated the medications, so I am taking less intense Rx for the pain, but he also added Rx for the sores, and some other complaints of mine. He was warm and encouraging. He gave a Rx for a “nail polish” like substance that I paint on the opening cracks on my hands and feet…. medication goes into the crack and forms a seal over the top. smelly, but cool….
Time to rest more, there are more photos i hope we have a gallery to share soon…. click on the gallery link and you can go to my incomplete photo a day album, and nag Katherine for the link to hers, it is more complete and in my mind, wonderful… presently, it is snowing, so I am somewhat of a peaceful child myself…



