あけましておめでとう！Happy New Year!

New Year’s is one of my favorite holidays. Really, at this point, I should probably just declare it to be my favorite (overtaking Halloween). I look forward to it so much every December. I love watching all the Japanese (and now Korean too!) music shows, I love the cleaning and the reorganizing, I love all the lists and rankings, I love having a few days to just do whatever and enjoy my hobbies, and I love all the food!

Speaking of food….In March I wrote an OT header all about bento, and I included a photo of one of my おせち料理 (osechi ryouri) bento but didn’t explain what it was. So, what is it? It’s New Year’s food, most of which are packed and stored in a tiered bento box. Each dish is meant to represent various things for a good new year, and most of them last several days so you don’t have to cook over the holiday. If you live in Japan you can just buy these elaborate bento (very convenient!) but I don’t live in Japan, so I like to make my own every year. I usually spend around 4 days preparing all the dishes so that everything is ready to go on the 1st. It’s not always easy to find the ingredients I need in the middle of nowhere America, so I have to make a lot of substitutions, but I do what I can, and it’s always worth the effort in the end. Plus, it’s fun for me to try new recipes every year.

This year’s おせち料理

Left to right (English descriptions): Ozoni soup with mochi (rice cake), pickled carrots & daikon, pickled lotus root, simmered taro, salmon wrapped in seaweed, rolled omelette, sweet potato with candied chestnuts, fishcake, candied anchovies, sweet black soy beans, and simmered chicken and veggie stew!

And if you want to read more about おせち料理 recipes and tips, I recommend the Just One Cookbook website.

Have a nice day/night!  🐺💖🌙