Cheesecake ^^

Hi again! I’ve decided to add recipes which I’ve previously tried here. I know it sounds funny because last week I was talking about diet and how I lost about 11kg in just 2 months and now I’m seducing people into eating. Don’t get me wrong! ...cooking or baking is not equal to eating. You can get other people to eat the food for you ha ha…To me, it’s a way of releasing stress. So, here is a recipe that I’ve tested and succeed. Look at the picture! The recipe is taken from http://www.dianasdesserts.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/recipes.recipeListing/filter/dianas/recipeID/690/Recipe.cfm Diana’s cake recipes are marvelous!

Ingredients:  

Crust: 
1 cup all-purpose flour 
1/4 cup dark brown sugar 
1 cup chopped pecans 
1/2 cup (1 stick/4 oz./113g) unsalted butter, melted 

Filling: 
16 oz. cream cheese 
1 cup granulated sugar 
1 tsp. vanilla extract 
3 large eggs 

Topping: 
2 cups sour cream 
6 tbsp. granulated sugar 
1 tsp. vanilla extract 
Pecan halves

Instructions:
Mix first 4 ingredients together in food processor. Press into bottom of a 9 x 13-inch baking pan. Bake for 15 minutes in a 350°F/180°C oven. Let Cool. 

In the food processor whip together the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until smooth. Add the eggs and process until the mixture is smooth and fluffy. Pour over the baked crust. Return to the oven and continue to bake at 350°F/180°C for about 20 minutes or until set and puffed. Remove and spread with the sour cream topping (stir topping ingredients together gently with a fork to mix). 

Spread over the baked filling and return to the oven. Bake for 5 minutes, remove and cool on a rack. Chill until very cold. Cut into squares. Place a pecan half in the center of each square. Keep chilled until ready to serve. 

Makes 24 squares

Credit to  Diana's Recipe Book. ^^

Lesson Five ^^

Numbers

1	Ichi
2	Ni
3	San
4	Shi/yon
5	Go
6	Roku
7	Shichi/nana
8	Hachi
9	Kyū
10	Ju
11	Ju-ichi
12	Ju-ni
13	Ju-san
20	Ni-jū
21	Ni-jū ichi
22	Ni-jū ni
23	Ni-jū san
30	San-ju
40	Yon-jū
50	Go-jū
60	Roku-jū
70	Nana-jū
80	Hachi-jū
90	Kyu-jū
100	Hyaku
101	Hyaku ichi
102	Hyaku ni
200	Ni hyaku
300	Sambyaku
400	Yon hyaku
500	Go hyaku
600	Roppyaku
700	Nana hyaku
800	Happyaku
900	Kyū hyaku
1000	Sen
2000	Nisen
3000	Sanzen
4000	Yonsen
5000	Gosen
6000	Rokusen
7000	Nanasen
8000	Hassen
9000	Kyūsen
10 000	Ichi man
100 000	Jū man
1 000 000	Hyaku man

Are	That
Doko	Where
Dōru	Dollar $
En	Yen ¥
Ikura	How much?
Ja	Ok/well
Kore	This
Kudasai	Please
Mo	Too
Pondo	Pound ₤
Ringitto	Ringgit
Sore	That

Dialogue 1

A         : Kore wa ikura desu ka. How much is this?

B         : Sen niyaku en desu. 1200 yen.

A         : Sore mo sen niyaku en desu ka. Is that one too 1200

              yen?

B         : Iie, sore wa ni sen en desu. No, that one is 2000 yen.

Dialogue 2

A         : Kore wa doko no kaban desu ka. This bag, from which country?

B         : Sore wa Thai no kaban desu. That (bag) is from Thailand.

A         : Ikura desu ka. How much?

B         : 5000 en desu. 5000 yen.

A         : Ja, kore o kudasai. Ok, please give me this one.

Lesson Four ^^

Tomodachi ni aimasu (Meeting friends)

Aimasu	Meet
Doko	Where
Donata	Who
Genki desu	(I’m) fine.
Ima	Now
Kohai	Junior
Kochira	Here
Nan/nani	What
O genki desu ka	How are you?
Ohisashiburi desu	Long time no see.
Okagesama de	Thank you. (normally after being asked “how are you?”, you may reply “okagesama de, genki desu” thanks, I’m fine.)
-san	Mr/Mrs/Miss
Senpai	Senior
Shigoto/oshigoto	Work
Shigoto o shite imasu	Working
Shokai/goshokai	Introduce
Tomodachi	Friend
Yamamoto san	Mr/Mr/Miss Yamamoto

Dialogue 1: Meeting an old friend.

Akinaga           : Kombanwa! Good evening!

Smith               : A, Akinaga san, kombanwa! Oh, Mr Akinaga, good evening!

 Ohisashiburi desu ne. Long time no see.

Akinaga           : O genki desu ka. How are you?

Smith               : Hai, okagesama de genki desu. I’m fine, thanks.
                         Akinaga san wa ima doko de shigoto o shite imasu ka.

Mr Akinaga, where are you working now?

Akinaga           : Ima Toshiba de shigoto o shite imasu.

 Now, I’m working with Toshiba.

Smith               : A, so desu ka. Oh I see.

Dialogue 2: Akinaga is introducing Yamamoto to Mori.

Akinaga           : Go shokai shimasu. Let me introduce.

Kochira wa senpai no Yamamoto san desu. Here is my senior, Mr

Yamamoto.

Yamamoto      : Hajimemashite. Yamamoto desu. How do yo do? (I’m) Yamamoto.

  Dozo yoroshiku. Nice meeting you.

Mori                : Mori desu. Dozo yoroshiku. (I’m) Mori. Nice meeting you.

Questions and answers

1. Kochira wa donata desu ka. Who is this?

à    Kochira wa Tanaka san desu. Here is Mr Tanaka.

2. Yamamoto san wa anata no kohai desu ka. Is Mr Yamamoto your junior?

à    Iie, watashi no senpai desu. No, he’s my senior.

3. Oshigoto wa nan desu ka. What is your job?

à  Watashi wa enjinia desu. I’m an engineer.

Diet! ^^

Hi again! As promised, today I’m going to share about my diet regime. I lost about 11 kg in two months and I feel lighter and healthier now. What I did was, what I called it as a “carb deplete diet”. I did not take any carb for the first seven days, only some protein and vegetables. Here is the example what I took during that carb deplete week. (It was an 8- week program)

FIRST WEEK

1. Breakfast: 2 hard boiled eggs with some soy sauce and pepper + boiled broccoli

2. Lunch: A piece of grilled/fried fish/chicken chest + lettuce, tomato

3. Dinner: Vegetable soup +little bit of chicken added to it, just to give a flavour to the

    soup

Plus drink plenty of water and stop all other drinks like coffee or tea or even fruit juice. In between meals when I feel hungry I only take some celery or cucumber, just to make myself “occupied or busy eating”. A week without carbohydrate was horrible, but I lost about 5kg during that week alone which made me really happy and full of spirit to continue with the diet.

SECOND WEEK ONWARDS

I still follow the menu above, only that I started to add carb such as rice and bread during lunch, only in a VERY small amount, say about 50-100 g of rice or 2 pieces of Gardenia bread with tuna spread. I continued with that for the rest of the 8 weeks.

Remember not to take any carb after 4pm…

TIPS

1. Get a digital health scale, so that you’ll be happy to see when you’ve lost another 100 grams…you won’t notice that when using ordinary health scale…
2. Get rid of any sweet/sugared food/drinks.

Gosh! I was supposed to go to lesson 4 today…but I’m running out of time. Got to go now, see you in a day or two with lesson 4. Bye!

Sense in the House.

Lesson Two ^^

     Hi…How was the first lesson? I hope you liked it. Here’s another one, useful daily expressions you may use to greet people in Japanese.

     BTW, I’m watching closely about what is happening in Japan now. The nuclear crisis seems worsens. That was what I read about it in Yahoo this morning. They say the France nuclear authority classified it as a Level Six on a one-to-seven scale used to rank nuclear accidents.

I really hope that the government will be able to put an end to the crisis very soon.

Cheers,

Sensei in the House.

Usefull daily expressions

Ohayō gozaimasu	Good morning
Konnichiwa	Good day
Kombanwa	Good evening
Oyasuminasai	Good night
Arigatō gozaimasu	Thank you
Dō itashimashite	You’re welcome
Tadaima	I’m back (said when you gets home)
Okaerinasai	You’re back! (said to someone who just came home, e.g. a son greets a father who just got home after work)
Sayōnara	Good Bye ( a formal one)
Ja mata / Ja ne!	Bye (informal, like when you say bye to a friend after school)
Itadakimasu	Thank you for the meal (Expression said before eating to show that we’re thankful)
Odaijini	Get well soon (Said to a person who is not well, for example when you visit a friend at the hospital, before you leave you may say odaijini)
Daijōbu desu ka	Are you alright?
Ki o tsukete kudasai	Take care
Chotto matte	Please wait
Omatase shimashita	Thank you for waiting
Sumimasen	Sorry/excuse me
Iie	That’s allright
Mata kite kudasai	Please come again
Gomennasai/Gomen ne	Sorry (informal)
Ii desu (pronounce as ee des)	Good
Warui desu	Bad
(Totemo) ii desu.	(Very) good

Lesson One

This is my first blog and my first entry…

     I’m still shocked and saddened by the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan couple of days ago…My heart aches and breaks for these people, my thoughts and prayers go out to the Japanese. I also pray that they don’t have a meltdown on the nuclear plants and add the threat of radiation to the disaster they have already experienced. I really hope that Japan and the Japanese people will recover and rebuild their nation very quickly. I always believe in them…they are strong willed people who never gave up so easily.

      I learned Japanese many years ago…and I found that it is an interesting language to learn although it’s difficult when you go to a higher level. One thing for sure, Japanese is always my passion! In this blog of mine, I’d like to share my little knowledge about Japanese. Let’s begin with self introduction first. You may need to introduce yourself during your first meeting right…Here’s some of the examples you may use to introduce yourself.

Introduce yourself

Vocabulary

Anata                          ….       You

Daigaku                       ….       University

Dochira                       ….       Where

Dōzo yoroshiku           ….       Nice meeting you

Gakusei                       ….       Student

Hai                              ….       Yes

Hajimemashite             ….       How do you do? (said during first meeting)

Iie                                ….       No      

Itsu                              ….       When  

Kimashita                    ….       Came (past tense)

Kyonen                       ….       Last year

Marēshia                      ….       Malaysia

Nan                             ….       What

Nihon                          ….       Japan

Okuni                          ….       Country

Onamae                       ….       Name

Senkou                        ….       Course / major

Sensei                          ….       Teacher

Watashi                       ….       I

Dialogue 1

Ana                 :           Hajimemashite. How do you do?
                                   Watashi wa Ana desu. I am Ana
                                   Watashi wa Marēshia jin desu. I am a Malaysian

Dōzo yoroshiku. Nice meeting you

Yamamoto      :           Tokyo Daigaku no Yamamoto desu.
                                  (I am) Yamamoto from Tokyo University.

                                   Dōzo yoroshiku. Nice meeting you

Questions and answers

1. O namae wa nan desu ka. What is your name?

à Watashi wa Ana desu. I am Ana.

2. O kuni wa dochira desu ka. Which country are you from?

àWatashi wa Marēshia kara kimashita. I came from Malaysia.

3. Itsu Nihon e kimashita ka. When did you come to Japan?

àKyonen kimashita. (I) came last year.

4. Anata wa sensei desu ka. Are you a teacher?

àIie, watashi wa sensei dewa arimasen. No, I’m not a teacher.

    Watashi wa gakusei desu. I’m a student.

5. Anata wa doko no gakusei desu ka. Which university are you studying in?

àWatashi wa Hiroshima Daigaku no gakusei desu. I’m a student of Hiroshima University.

6. Go senkou wa nan desu ka. What course are you taking?

àDenki kougaku desu. Electrical engineering.

That's all for now.

Ja-ne!