Holiday Pictures for Miho

Miho is one of the kid's teachers at Obu School. She is sweet and hilarious, an amazing cook (she always feeds me) and an awesome jazz singer. I am hoping that she'll come to visit me in Toronto next Christmas so that we can swap recipes (or rather she and my mom can) and I can show her all the pretty decorations in the city! Here are some pictures that will hopefully tempt her to come!

(Fil and I at Pearson Airport - The flight was long, the food bad, the Air Canada flight attendants pushy and I caught a cold from someone. All in all, not a great flight)

(Some practice 'Aaron' shots for my mom's Christmas card. My dad took the top one. I then took over taking the pictures)

I was SO excited to come home for the holidays. The countdown had been on since the summer and it was awesome to hang out with family and friends. Just chillin at my house was nice. I watched a lot of cooking shows, played Guitar Hero with my bro, took afternoon naps and ate my mom's scrumptious food.

Meat Glorious Meat! I hadn't seen this much meat since leaving Canada. And check out those potato latkes with homemade apple sauce. So amazing!


Christmas Dinner

This year we had a quiet Christmas dinner. Taryn joined us and we ate good food and played a lot of Guitar Hero (I LOVE THAT GAME). I was dying for turkey and the fixin's. Unfortunately, you can't get turkey in Japan...awww now I want turkey...

Baked sweet potatoes and asparagus (above). My mom's wonderful stuffing (below).

Christmas dinner

(My brother, Christopher (who is an amazing Guitar Hero player!) and his sweet girlfriend, Chelsea)

I got my wish for snow!

Two of my favourite people - Steph (above) and Taryn (below).

(My dad's painted sugar cookies - He tried to give the pig a sweater. It was delicious, dad!)

Aaron and Tiffany at I COOK, a Taiwanese(?) hot pot restaurant near Pacific Mall. You get your own pot of soup and then go 'shopping' for meat, veggies, etc that you want to cook at your table. Fil, I have no idea why I don't have a picture of you at icook. Maybe you were getting food? hmm..

(Haha, just a funny picture I took at the Great Canadian Superstore...The movator...hahaha)

My family's new favourite oven meal - Braised lamb shanks and couscous.

New Year's Party

I didn't feel like going out for New Year's so we all decided to stay at home and have a little party. Taryn, Fil and Aaron dropped by and my brother's friend and Chelsea joined us. Christopher and I made tons of California rolls. And my parents cooked lobster.

My dad made unagi and maguro sushi (below). So oishii. Yum.

My mom's famous chow mein (below).

Dessert was lemon meringue tarts, chocolates and fruit. I don't want to think about how much that mountain of cherries would have cost in Japan.

Fancy-Schmancy Lunch with Justine

I met Justine at the Gardiner Ceramics Museum where we had reservations for Jamie Kennedy's posh and beautiful restaurant. It has a great view of the ROM and the food was amazing. (Hopper with fish and vegetables (above) and radish and cheese tart (below).We ate other stuff but I guess I forgot to take pictures.)

Miss Justine! After lunch we went window shopping and I had to pull her out of the Coach store (although I did find a pretty fabulous purse there...but alas too expensive).

For my final home cooked meal I requested lasagna. My mom makes amazing vegetable lasagna. My final meal was Chinese food at Lee Garden, which is the restaurant I miss the most. I swear, I haven't been able to find better Chinese food anywhere in my travels. The next day I headed back to Japan. Now less than 7 months until I come home for good!

So Miho, there you have it - some of the food I ate, some of the people I hung out with and some pictures of my house. I hope you do decide to visit next Christmas!