ChanomiTalk

米国本土に住んでいると、「肉じゃが」を食べたいっという気になっても、材料をパッパッと集めて料理してハイっ出来上がりとは、簡単にいかないのが難点です。その理由はビフテキ好きの人ならよーくご存知のあの厚ーい肉！しゃぶしゃぶはもとより、日本料理ではなべて薄切り肉を使います。ところが、その「薄切り」の肉はこちらのお店では売っていません。一度ならずとも肉屋さんで薄く切ってもらえないか尋ねましたが、返事はきまって「いいえ」。肉切り器の刃幅を変えるだけでは？と思うのですが。いたしかたなく、厚ーい肉を買ったら、冷凍庫に入れておき、切り易く固まったら、包丁で薄く切るのですが、何しろ冷凍した肉ですから、肉を持つ指は冷たくなりますし、包丁もしっかり力をいれて切らねばなりません。先日、たまたま人差し指が痛かったのですが、２０センチ長さの肉は半分切ってあきらめ、後の半分は後日にまわしてしまいました。そこで、肉の薄切りは今後もずっとやることでもありと、電動薄切り器を購入しました。今日は、その使い始め。さて、使ってみると、肉は冷凍でない方がよい（冷凍肉は滑って安定しない）、買ったら、両端、特に脂身、を切り落として、肉挟みにぴったり合うようにする、又肉の長さは７、８センチ以内でなければ肉挟みが使えない等がわかりました。といった次第で、初めての薄切りはしゃぶしゃぶには無理な出来でした。上手く使いこなすには、あれこれコツを見付ける必要がありそうです。

This week, we finally got our first substantial amount of snow here in Chicago. I was actually really excited because everybody talked about how it snows a lot and it finally came. Here are a couple of pictures I took around my apartment complex. I love it when the snow is untouched early in the morning because it is really picturesque. Not sure if it will snow more but we’ll see. More to come…

A few weeks ago I had lost my wallet in the Don Quiote food court. What happened was I put my wallet in my helmet. And then I had put my helmet down to use my phone. I then just picked up my helmet not even realizing my wallet remained there on the bench. As I was walking to class I had a funny feeling something wasn’t right. And instantly realized that I didn’t have my wallet. And turned and ran back to Don Quiote. I asked everyone if they saw my wallet. The Security, customer service and the little restaurants in the food court. But no one saw it. So I then quickly called my bank and credit card companies to cancel my cards. Then a week later on my way back to class, I stopped at Don Quiote again and figured I’d check and see if my wallet turned up. And sure enough, Customer service had my wallet. Told me security turned it in. And all my wallets contents were still in there. I was so relieved. 🙂

Monday was a holiday, and since I didn’t have to go to work, we thought it would be nice to have a family outing. The zoo seemed like a good choice. It isn’t far, about 30 minutes from our house. Also, Aleria hadn’t been to the zoo since she was a couple of months old. She loves animals, and we thought she’d like to see the different animals there. The weather had been relatively warm during the weekend, so we were surprised to feel how cold it was Monday morning. Most of the exhibits were closed because it was just too cold for the animals to be out there. We did see a polar bear and an arctic fox. We also saw an elephant, giraffe and something that looked liked a mixed between a zebra and a donkey. I don’t remember the name. Aleria had fun laughing and running all over the place with her hands thrown up. Despite the cold weather and many closed exhibits, we actually had a good time. I bet in the summer it will be even better.