明けましておめでとうございます。オランダ在住の私は本日2日から出勤。先週は（有休使い果たしてたので）29日までみっちり仕事・・・。
Happy new year! I, who is living in the Netherlands, started working from today, the 2nd of Jan. I was working hard until the 29th last week. I had finished my holidays earlier on. in the year, so I ended up with a much shorter New Year holiday than I would have had in Japan, and....)
なんか正月な気がしなーい！
I don't feel the coming of the new year!
そこで、少しでも正月気分を味わおうと、この年末年始はあがいていたわけであります。
So I was struggling at year end and the beginning of the new year. I tried to feel Japanese new year at least a ilttle bit.
ささやかながら手に入るものでおせちを作ろうと黒豆をに始めたのが30日。（乾燥豆から煮るのは初めて！）8時間コトコト煮た結果、黒い液体に浸る豆をすくってみると・・・なんと、ちっちゃい！買った乾燥黒豆、すんごく小さかったのです。でも無知な私、あれが煮るとぐぐぐーーっと大きくなるんだと思ってたんですよねぇ・・。お恥ずかしい。
I started working on making a bit of Japanese New Year`s food (Osechi), from the ingredients I can buy here. I tackled Kuromake (black beans) on the 30th. (It was first time for me to cook them from dried beans). I heated it 8 hours slowly and scooped the cooked beans into the black liquid by spoon.... wow! small!! (the one I usually see in Japan was much bigger!) The dried beans I could get were very small and they remained that way. Because I have no knowledge about making these beans, I had expected that the small beans would become very big after cooking.... embrassing....
後は30日のうちに数点用意して、翌31日。大晦日なんだもの、年越しソバが食べたーい！てもソバがない。ということで、ふふふ、手作りしました。なーんて偉そうに言ってますが、実は粉と水と卵をマシーンに入れるだけ。（この機械についてはまた後日書きます。）
I prepared some more food on the 30th and the 31st. On new years eve, I want to eat soba! (Japan has tradition to eat soba on new years eve). But I didn't have soba. So, I made it! I am writing as if I did something complicated but actually what I did was only putting flour, water and egg into a machine. (I will write about this machine some other time)
後は機械が勝手に練ってくれて、写真のようににゅにゅにゅーっと出てくるのですわ。
海老と野菜の天ぷらを乗っけて、作った汁をかけて、でっきあがりー！こちらも初めての挑戦でしたが、味はまぁまぁってとこかな。蕎麦屋にはもちろんかなわないけど、それなりには見えます。
The machine mixed and kneaded and then soba just came out from the machine like in the picture above. I put some shrimp and some vegetable tempura on top of the boiled soba and poured the soup (that was pre-prepared) and it was done! It was another first attempt, but the taste was ok. It is not as good as soba from soba restaurant but it looked nice.
年は明けて1月1日。朝からせっせとお雑煮作って・・・
じゃじゃじゃーん！
1st of January. I made Ozoni (soup with mochi) from the morning....
Tadahhh!
しょぼい手に入ったものお節とお雑煮で「明けましておめでとう」となったわけであります。重箱もないし、見た目も非常に悪いのですが、まぁ、自己満足自己満足。(あ、卵焼き作るの忘れた！)
We celebrated the new year with very simple Osechi and simple Ozoni. I don't have special Japanese dishes and the food didn't look so beautiful... but it is only for my self satisfaction. (Oh, and I forgot to make omlette!)
そんなこんなで、本年もよろしくお願いいたします。
Best wishes!!