Happy New Year!

A belated Happy New Year to everyone as I am still behind on so many things since the start of the year. My older son has brought home a cold virus on New Year's Eve, which was passed on to me on New Year's Day, then transferred to my younger son and then to my husband, who is still suffering from mild fever. 

In addition, with the two boys still around the house (I think winter holiday in Japanese public schools are definitely too long!) I really didn't have much time to think about my cooking classes as well as updating my blog.

Despite all the chaos, not to mention my mother-in-law visiting for a week, I managed to make my first New Year's traditional feast "Osechi Ryori" this year. Up to last year, my mother-in-law would order a ready-made osechi from a place in Kyoto, which was very fancy with so many small dishes packed in the 3 tier jyubako (lacquered serving box) , but after several years of eating the same osechi, I grew tired and decided to make my own. Much less variety of dishes but only the ones I would like to have.

Thanks to my friend who gave me a whole red snapper, I was able to make a red snapper sashimi marinated between the konbu seaweed which added glamour to the jyubako.  Although my boys only ate the chicken and the duck breast, the other dishes all turn out great and the end result was very satisfying and not as much work as I had anticipated. I think I can make this every year from now on with some minor changes.