lovely moments

The girl of the little hands is now a big sister.

My friend gave birth to a girl 5 days ago and I visited her with Sekihan yesterday.

Sekihan literally means red rice as we cook rice with red beans and the colour goes to the rice as well. Traditionally we eat Sekihan to celebrate as we associate the colour with 'good'. It's because we used to think the colour gets rid of demons in the same way we use the colour for Shinto shrines, especially for gates.

Anyway she was very happy with the rice, but they were just about having breakfast. So we had it with cheese omelet, bacon and tomatoes.

Later on I tried a cake my neighbour Thomas baked. It had a combination of subtle tastes: pumpkin and maple syrup and a spice I've never tasted before, but I forgot its name already. (I'll find it out tomorrow.) It was his experimental based on scone recipe and I quite liked it. I felt like experimenting cookery as well.

In the evening I cooked miso flavour soup for the gathering of 23 people. It was for the photographer Naoya Hatakeyama who has been working at/with my friends. I'd never cooked for so many people and thought the cooking might go wrong. But I managed it alright!

Of course it wasn't only me who contributed for dinner. Mariko who made squid norimaki with herbs, Mukul who made quinoa salad, lentil with mushrooms and roasted pumpkins and Bill who made cucumber salad with pomegranate and poppy seeds, another roasted pumpkins and aubergine paste. And they all tasted very very nice and we were happy finishing with fruits tarts.

Yesterday was a really lovely day of exchanging home-made dishes and I really think the happiest moment is when sharing lovely food!

昨日は19日に第二児を出産したともこさんを訪ねに行きました。お赤飯を作っていったら、ちょうど朝ご飯を食べるところで（12時前でしたが、、、）、セバスチャンの作ったオムレツ朝食といただくことになりました。赤ちゃんにはまだ名前がついていません。ともこさんの黒髪をもらっているのと、ほっぺがふくらんでいるので、とりあえず、おにぎりちゃんと呼ばれているようです。

その後、隣のスタジオで働くThomasがお菓子を焼いてきたということで、一緒に食べることにしました。それはスコーンのレシピを元にしたかぼちゃとスパイスの焼き菓子でした。スパイスの名前が思い出せないのですが、優しい味のお菓子でした。

そして夜はmukulたちと暮らし働いていた写真家の畠山直哉さんのためのディナーに参加してきました。Mukulがキノアのサラダ、レンティルときのこの炒め物、カボチャのロースト、Marikoがイカのハーブ巻き、Billがキュウリとザクロとケシの実のサラダ、カボチャのロースト、焼きナスのペーストを作り、私は味噌味のスープを作りました。隠し味にバター、ゴマのペーストなどを使い、少し洋風に近づけました。しっかりデザートまであり、楽しかったです。

やっぱりみんなでおいしいねと言いながら食べることって、幸せだなと思う瞬間です。