Pass the Pasta

フレッシュなパスタが最高！！

もう買わないメリッサが。手作りが早いと安いしやっぱこちの方がいいね　＾＾

自分で自分の食べ物を作ると幸せよ！ボックスパスタよりもっとやわらかいとちょっとうどんの食管みたい。やばい！作り方も簡単し「じゃ、パスタ買うか？」もう思わんよ。...会ってるかな..？

 左下から：パスタ生地、小麦粉のふるい、生パスタ麺、アルカリ水、パスタローラー
Starting from the bottom left: Pasta dough, flour sieve, raw pasta noodles, alkaline water, pasta roller

いただきます！！

あ、でも今フランス語のテスト勉強中やし「Bon Appetit!」と言おうかな？

Okay, in case I've lost all Japanese writing skills...

Homemade pasta is the best ! It's faster and cheaper, which is good :) 

To make you own food yourself is pure happiness. These noodles were softer than the box pasta you can buy at the grocery store, and it kind of had the texture of udon. (I wanted to say "chewy" but I can't remember how to ! >_<). I don't think I will ever think of buying pasta again. This was just too good ^_^

DONE !

Classes are DONE ! Term papers are DONE ! Year-long-History-course midterm is DONE ! And now I have time to be crafty :)

I did a bit of reconstructing and upcycling today. Some knitting, reading, and listening to salsa as well. It was what I longed to do all through last week when was bogged down with writing and studying. What a release !

Took an old t-shirt with formidable colours and added a bit more material from an old t-shirt to make it into a dress. I'm thinking of adjusting the shoulders too and changing the neckline to a V. We'll see. I'll make something from the leftovers of that Tee another day. No waste ! :)

Restructured a male dress shirt into .... something that fits me. Forgot the before picture, but it was basically a massive tent. 

Next up, lots and lots of baking :D And pasta making.

Don't tell Jojo, but I'm going to attempt to knit him a Christmas sweater this year. 

Including his name, soccer balls and candy canes.

Mamak Night in Da Houuuuse !

Faire mes devoirs. Faire mes devoirs.　
宿題をして。宿題をして。

No matter what language I say it in, it's not going to end just yet. Homework. Homework. Homework.

But no complaints, I am so lucky to be able to go to school freely, study what I want and pursue my dreams. I just wish this translated into a better work ethic. I need to be more proactive

Devoir 2 pour le francais. Due mercredi. Mostly done.

World AIDS Day showing of A Closer Walk. If only tomorrow wasn't so busy, I'd stay for the whole thing...

Chamber concert at night, I'm really excited ! I think everyone's so exhausted from the term that all our dress rehearsals went very sketchy, but it's sure to be a great performance tomorrow. I love Ravel and I'm really excited to perform it for an audience. I hope it goes well !

English play review and term paper. As well as getting W;t from the library. Oi oi oi Melissa, what are you doing !?

To cap it all off, here's what we ate for supper tonight :) Mamak is the name for East Indians living in Malaysia, and this is the type of food that they have honed (I think). Malaysian food is one of my favourite parts of my heritage. It's just so exuberantly spicy, fragrant, and unique to other "world foods". Plus it hasn't got a North American fake version

Yu choy, fried eggs, curry ikanbilis (south-east Asian anchovies), cucumbers, and nasi lemak wrapped in banana leaves. My mom says she used to buy nasi lemak for lunch at school for 15 cents when she was little !! Talk about sweet deal !

Close up on nasi lemak. Mmmmmm

and open. In Malaysia, the Malay and Mamak people eat the food with their right hand (no utensils) and use their left hand for the bathroom. If you mix these up, people will probably be extremely disgusted with you.

Good Sunday

The end of August is coming...where did summer go ?!

I went to the Public Library for the first time in a Long time yesterday. Since then I've been listening to Dear Catastrophe Waitress by Belle and Sebastian for a majority of the day. I did pick up other CDs and books, but this album takes the cake ! Piazza, New York Catcher makes me think of Carlos everytime I hear it, I can't wait for him to be back in the city for good. As well as for us to talk and figure out what exactly we're doing. Patience Melissa...

This drizzly Sunday turned out to be a really great day. I've finally found the trick to making my room clean: throw out everything that's unnecessary, instead of hoarding all the things I find sentimental. I never look at those things again anyways. So with a newly clean room, I took apart an unused bunnyhug and used it to spruce up a funky gigantic sweater. Actually, I just added the white band at the bottom. This shirt is so big that the wind would blow right up through the torso and I would feel like I was wearing nothing at all. 

"Chibikko Festival"

Then me and mom baked Red Bean Buns. Well, she bought frozen dinner roll dough and we stuffed them with Coshi An (red bean paste) then left them to rise to triple the original size.

After rising

Egg washed and black sesame seeded.

The lighting makes them look burnt.

Tada ! I've got that corny smile going on because my mom was taking the photo. Remember, when you're little and your mom says "Smile like this, it looks nice" but you actually just look quite silly?

Ha, she moved so I wouldn't photograph her, but it turned out even better.

Washed down my bun with some Postum:
ground roasted barley drink that tastes like coffee.

Deeeeelicious ! We did leave some behind for Jojo to eat when he gets home from Edmonton, though mom was pretty steamed (and most likely worried) that when I texted him at 9, he and Shari were just leaving Lloydminster, meaning they won't be home until around 11. He's a grown man, he'll be fine. She'll learn to stop stressing herself over him unnecessarily...one of these days. Everyone's geating down for sleep, as should I. Need to load up all Belle and Sebastian, Most Serene Republic, Malajube and New Pornographers onto the Mp3 to make work fun for tomorrow. Night !

Peace Tree Project

The 22nd Saskatchewan Children's Festival started yesterday, and today I spent the whole morning helping out in the Peace Tree Tent ! We have a "garden" on man-made trees, and we're getting the children to make decorations about peace to put on them ! Too bad it's raining or these pictures would be nicer

 

世界人類が平和ありますように。
May Peace Prevail On Earth.

Cabin Fever

Trekked out to Kristina's cabin for less than a day of fun chatter and a puzzle.

友達と楽しみのためKristinaのキャビンに行って来ました！

超スウェーデンぽい！素敵なキャビンな～

Graham, Alex, Kate and Kristina, after we FINALLY completed the puzzle of "Kitty City"

「ねこ市」のパズルを完成した後。マジしんどかったわ！！

Next morning, everyone was still asleep at 11 am, so we decided to go for a bike ride by the lake

次の朝、皆が11時でまだ寝ていたしGrahamと湖でチャリに乗って行くことをした

Potluck

Potluck: a gathering where all who attend bring one dish to share with everyone else.

ポットラック：集合場所ですべての人が一皿を持って皆で共有する。

Maia and Cassie (the Stark twins) have an awesome mom. She came up with the idea that "Hey, we should have people over. On a regular basis. Let's have a weekly potluck at our house every Sunday !"

双子友達マイアとキャーセィのお母さんは賢い！彼女が「毎週人々が私達の家に来たらいいな」と考えて「じゃ毎日曜日ポットラックしよう！」のアイディアが生まれた！

This past Sunday was the very first one.

先の日曜日が初だったよ！

I decided to make homemade udon ! And since we didn't have any udon dashi, I made miso with wakame and tofu to go with it. It turned out not too bad ! Pretty healthy tasting anyhow...

メリッサが手作りうどんを作った！だしがなかって味噌汁とわかめと豆腐を作ってあわせて。。。まぁそんなにまずくなかった！めちゃヘルシーな味。。。