カテゴリー: cooking

I didn’t think I was so exhausted.

I got up at 5:30a.m. this morning. I had to attend my mother because she was going to move to another hospital today. Since the end of February, she had been hospitalized because of cerebral infarction. Now it is the time for her to move to the next hospitalization to get rehabilitation. I got on a train at 7:30 and a bus at 7:57. I quickly gathered her belongings in the hospital, and we left there at around 9 by a taxi modified for transporting sick people. All through the morning after we got to the new hospital, I got a lengthy explanation, did consultations, and signed on a lot of documents. I left the new hospital at 12:20 by the free shuttle bus of the hospital.

 Getting off a local train at my village, I went to a supermarket and bought packages of Sushi and fresh sardines. I took my late lunch at 1:30, eating Sushi. Then I just wanted to take a short nap on the bed to get rid of my fatigue. But it couldn’t be a short one. I found that it was already 6 p.m. when I awoke from the nap. I got out of my bed and I called to two uncles to let them know that my mother had moved to another hospital.

 Then, I started to cook sardines.

It was terrible that I couldn’t find a function to rotate an image 90, 180, or 270 degrees on the editor of wordpress. I had to rotate images on my computer and upload them again.

It happened all of a sudden. I haven’t got used to the new situation.

Yesterday was a tough day. Today, I looked around and felt this house was too big just for me. And I am not willing to cook well because who eats my meal is me only.

Yesterday, my mother was hospitalized. She was diagnosed to have a cerebral infarction.

I found something was wrong three days ago. In the supper, she could not drink well grape juice. In order to prevent aspiration, we have cheers of fruits juice at the beginning of supper every night to make her throat smooth. But she couldn’t do the series of motion; touching her lip to the glass, tilting the glass, and sipping juice. It seemed that she couldn’t use her mouth for opening, chewing, and swallowing. I became suspicious of cerebral infarction, so I told her to wave her both hands. It seemed to me, both hands moved evenly. In retrospect, this could have affected my decision about her condition.

The following day was two days ago. It was obvious that she couldn’t eat breakfast well. I thought I needed to take her to a clinic. On that day, Thursday, two of three clinics in my village open only in morning hours, and close in the afternoon. I totally regret that I didn’t take her to one of two, where we take medical checks every year. In the afternoon, I told her that I was going to take her to the clinic that was only one clinic opening on Thursday afternoon. But she refused. She said she didn’t want to catch influenza by going to the place where many sick people were, and said she just wanted to sleep. I said her body might be cold in the next morning, but still, she didn’t want to go to the clinic.

And, yesterday. Her right-hand holing chopsticks were shaking in breakfast. She couldn’t swallow meal and said those foods were not tasty. She also realized that something terribly wrong　herself. When I said to her that we were leaving our house, she was arranging flowers. Because there were a lot of flowers in the house because the seventh-year commemoration of my deceased father has just recently passed. Such her action made me think that she was still okay, but in fact, she was not okay.

The doctor in the clinic told us to go see a neurosurgery specialist immediately. He didn’t write a letter of introduction nor ask any medical treatment fee. The doctor suggested two neurosurgery clinics nearby (though several miles away from my village). I made a phone call to one of them, and made an appointment at 1 p.m. Since I don’t have a car, we went to there by taxi.

In the second clinic, MRI test started at 1:30. The neurosurgeon called us at around 2p.m. What he showed us was cross-section images of my mother’s brain. In the center, but on right side, there was a small bright area. He said that she got a cerebral infarction. And He also said he was going to call on an ambulance car to move her to the large hospital. I quickly paid the fee of 4,930 JPY (approx.32USD), and got on the ambulance in which my mother has already been laid on the transport bed.

The ambulance got to the large hospital before 3 in the afternoon. While she was getting treatments, I had to sign on a lot of paper. After that, I am not sure what time was it, I went to her bedside. She was conscious, able to speak though very slowly, laying on the hospital bed. Still, I needed to do paperwork for her hospitalization. And there were a lot of questions on paper which only my mother could answer. I asked her, she answered to me, and I fill the blanks on questionnaire. And then her supper was brought to the table on her bed. I told her to eat well, because she didn’t eat well in the morning, and had eaten nothing since then. Time was already 7p.m., I left the large hospital, took a bus for JR Niigata station, and got on a local train.

I found breakfast remain on the table when I got my home. There were one of two quarter-size toasts, omelet, and Natto (fermented soy beans) on the plate. I ate the toast, but threw omelet and Natto to the garbage. Then, I needed to cook my supper. But I didn’t want to cook.

“I am not willing to cook well just only for me”. This was what I thought last night and in this morning. There is someone who eats my cooking, therefore I want to cook. Hospitalization of my mother has just started, and it will take many weeks or even months until she comes back my home. Although my cooking is not good Japanese cuisine, I want to cook meals for my mother again.

I should have planted more vegetables for winter

It seems they will run out before spring come.

Since I don’t use pesticide, insects or worms have eaten a lot of green part of the Chinese cabbage as shown in the photo.  I need to wash the leaves well and get rid of worms’ droppings completely when I cook this cabbage.

This part of fish contains a lot of bones. You need to be careful when you eat it.

Every time I buy, cook, and eat “Burikama” that is part just behind of gills of yellowtail, I always think the same thing; I will not buy it again but buy ordinary slices of body meat which doesn’t contain a lot of thick bones. Because Burikama contains a lot of bones, it is difficult and even dangerous for my mother to eat by picking up pieces of meat between bones.

Next time I buy yellowtail, I am going to cook “Buri-Daikon” which is a famous winter menu.

I made two small bottles of lemon jam yesterday

Today was a cold day. Temperature was barely plus in Celsius. But I have been working in my garden most of the day.

I have done two tasks; making the support of persimmon “KOYO(tm)” more rigid, and pruning of several plum trees. The support for the persimmon tree is of course a measure for snow so that the branches will not break by the weight of snow. But not only for that, I aimed at growing each branch longer as I intended. This autumn, I could get only 29 of persimmons. I want more. So, I added longer support bars along branches, trimming short unnecessary branches, and buried fertilizer around the trunk.

As for the plum trees, they have grown too much high such that I cannot reach by my hand. I cut the long and tall branches. There are four plum trees and two prune trees in my garden. What I want most with those trees is to harvest from the tree of “Soldum”. For me, other three plums are just pollination trees so that the Soldum can have fruits. The plum Soldum was introduced from North America to Japan in early twenties century. Its appearance is actually not so great; sometimes it looks green. But inside is very beautiful red violet color. Since I planted the Soldum tree ten years ago, I have wanted to get fruits. But so far, I have got almost none. It is kind like: every year it gets less flower and less fruits, falling onto the ground before ripening, and then I get none. I think I need to learn better pruning, better fertilizer, and how to pollinate properly.

Although I worked outside today, I didn’t take a picture. The photo below is bottles of lemon jam and red-radish pickles. I made the lemon jam yesterday.

Worked in my Field in the Morning, went buying Food in the Afternoon, and cooked in the Evening

As the title indicates, today was just a normal day. The weather was fine in day time, but now strong wind and rain are making sound around my house.

This evening, I cooked a fish of sea-bream by cutting the whole one fish into slices and bones. Since I haven’t cut a sea-bream for so long, I couldn’t cut it well. Certain amount of meat remains on bone, and the slices became thin. I thought I need to cook a sea-bream often for learning a good skill to cut the fish. From today, my miso-soup will get taste of head and bones of the sea-bream that I cooked today. I will boil them two or three days.

Once I upload this post, I am going to arrange a song of “Sand Mountain（砂山）” using the software “Sibelius” (not a Finnish composer) for one hour or so. And then I will fall asleep in Futon which is now warmed up by Kotatsu. I feel that now my life is a kind of tranquil. Weather forecast says the temperature is going down tomorrow. I would like to stay at home in such a cold winter day.

Something on the top of the building of Japan Agricultural Association was hiding snow-covered Iide Mountains.

They are what I bought in the afternoon. The sea-bream was hidden under the bread. Two sweet cakes at the top left in the photo are to be offered to the alter of my father who passed away five years ago (I’ve already put them there).

Made Slices of Radish hang to Dry them

Only several radishes were still left on the ground in my field. I pulled all of them in the morning today. I chose two of six radishes, pared them off, cut in six slices, and hung those slices from the ceiling. I was not sure which was better to dry them outside or inside, but this time I hang them inside house, at the place where the air-conditioner’s warm air blows.

In the afternoon, my elder sister came to my house. She, the only sibling of mine, comes once a month to see my(her) mother. But she stays at my house only two to three hours only. Today, she came at two, left at four in the afternoon. So, no lunch together, not much conversation, she just brought some fruits and music CD. My mother always complains, saying “Why she comes? What she is going to do when coming here?”.

I guess that my sister wants to show that she is also taking a care of my mother. When it comes to taking care of old parents, how each sibling shares the care tends to be a cause of conflict between siblings. Since I am single, just living in my deceased father’s house. She is eighty-six years old, still can wash and clean, but no longer cooks herself. So, I cook all the meals for my mother (and me). I take much care of my mother more than my sister, but I don’t have any bad feeling about my sister. Coming here once a month, I think that is the best she can do. And spending 19,600JPY (approx.125USD) for high-speed trains to come here is not that cheap.

When my sister came, I was out. I went to a DIY shop to buy fertilizer for field and soils for pot. I recently bought a fertilizer of phosphorus and potassium. That one was okay, but I also needed another fertilizer having three ingredients of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (N, P, K) balanced. And I bought two packages of soil for using in a pot; one was soil in which water can go through easily, the other was acidic soil for blueberries.

A day without rain is precious in late autumn in Niigata, northern JAPAN.

It’s the First Time for me to grow Pea in my garden

This year, I have tried growing pea. This is the first time for me. I actually have some experiences to grow other type of beans, though most of the time I failed to grow them well. When I came back Japan in the summer, I was just looking for vegetable seeds that can be planted in August and September. Then I found seeds of pea on the shelves of DIY shop. I bought the seeds and planted them on my garden.

Beans like soils whose PH is slightly acidic to neutral soil. As for peas, they like more alkaline soil. So, I had mixed a lot of oyster shell lime with the soil in my garden.

When a pea has grown up this size, I pick and cook it. But I have a little problem with this pea. There is a fiber on upper edge of the shell. The fiber needs to be removed at cooking because it cannot be soft by chewing. Removing the fibers from the shell takes some minutes in cooking. Next time I plant pea in my garden, I want to get seeds that has been improved not to have fibers so that I can save the time for cooking.

I hung slices of radish (Daikon) to dry them for preservation, today

I harvested three Daikon(s) from my field today. I wanted to make “Dried Daikon”so that I can keep Daikon longer.

Only two in the photo, but this photo was taken after I had cut one radish. You can see some peels which was the first radish.

Since I didn’t know how to tie them to hang, it was difficult for me to do this. But somehow, I made it.

I hope that no mold propagates especially at the part where cords are attaching

The First Harvest of Red-core Radish; I made it pickled in vinegar.

Red-core Radish that I planted in my garden

Pickling liquid contains Vinegar, Sugar, Salt, and Water

Green Leaves of the Radish were used in Miso-soup

I need to take my mother to a big hospital tomorrow morning. The hospital is located in very inconvenient place. It is too far to walk from the railway station. I don’t know why that location was selected at the time of planning. But they may say, it is next to the interchange of an expressway, so it would help a lot in the case of emergency of a patient in local area behind. But you know, an interchange of an expressway would never be constructed in the center of a city.

Anything on the ground in Niigata is planned, designed, and constructed with precondition that everyone in the society moves by a car. People without car would never be given a consideration at all. I have a driver’s license, but don’t have a car because I don’t like driving. I am not going to blame anyone who drives a car, but I myself feel uncomfortable to drive a car on the road, especially with a concept that an individual person’s car runs and occupies a certain area of public road. One concern is safety, and the other issue for me is that a public road often becomes a battle ground where each individual person’s interests crush, even though physical crush happens not so often (it should be). I know my driving technique is poor and is likely to make other people angry with me.

Anyway, I hope that the retest of tomorrow will not result in a major health problem of my mother.