Happy National Donut Day!
I hope you’ll forgive me for skipping out on sharing a garden update as promised this week. The weather has been so beautiful that I can’t tear myself away from the balcony. But I think I finally have everything planted and situated out there and I will have pictures of both the balcony garden and of plot #6 to share next week.
Now, if you need me, I’ll be out on the balcony writing letters.
P.S. The donut pictured above is from Stan’s Donuts. I had one for the first time last month and I’m hooked!
kimberly ah
kimberly at home
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Scenes From Hasegawa Happy Hours-May Edition
Hasegawa Happy Hours are still happening, but I need to get back into making them happen in a big way. And documenting the happenings better…like when we have special guests, getting a good picture of all of us together. (Special guests, you’ve been warned.) Hopefully I can find a good groove this summer.
So in May, we hosted our special guest James. We had so much fun with him, even though I only have a picture of the meat and cheese and roasted grapes to prove it. We made the Pining for the Queen cocktail for James and it was a big hit. 
I also finally shared my Barrel Aged Martinez with Naoto. I have to say it was really awesome and easy to have a ready-made cocktail on hand. No measuring needed. We also had roasted vegetables and frozen appetizers this night, so it just may have been the laziest HHH ever! 
In mid-May, Naoto brought home a new bourbon for me to try and I found a new favorite website. I found the recipe for a Fancy Free cocktail there and it was a hit. It’s similar to an Old Fashioned but the Luxardo replaces the sugar and the fruit. The best part of the Fancy Free for me is that it is the cocktail version of those quick meals you can make from your pantry. All of the ingredients are bar staples (bourbon, Luxardo, Angostura bitters and orange bitters)…there is no need for citrus (unless you count the garnish) or herbs or making simple syrup. You can enjoy this one without going to the grocery store. 
The Fancy Frees were our first official HHH cocktails enjoyed on the balcony and our first enjoyed with our new cocktail napkins from Marissa. 
And for our final May happy hour, I made Kentucky Monks, which had the most ingredients ever in a cocktail. It was really refreshing and light for a bourbon cocktail–a good one for summer afternoons.
Cheers to June and more cocktails, more evenings with friends and more Hasegawa Happy Hours!
For more Hasegawa Happy Hour posts, go here.
Summer Manifesto 2014
Naoto and I wrote up our summer manifesto during our anniversary dinner. It looks a lot like last year’s manifesto. What can I say? We are creatures of habit around here.
This summer we will:
* tend to our garden and balcony garden
* create three new cocktails using herbs from our garden
* invite special guests to Hasegawa Happy Hour
* hang out on the balcony whenever possible
* rediscover Chicago
* try three new tomato recipes
* take more walks
* visit some new Farmers Markets
* wear sunscreen & sun hats
* enjoy live music…somewhere
And that’s our summer in a nutshell. What’s on your list this summer?
Our 8th Anniversary
Yesterday Naoto and I celebrated eight years together. We both had the day off, so the morning involved a whole lot of relaxing, gift exchanges and, of course, coffee.
It was rainy, but we sat out on the balcony to eat breakfast and exchange gifts. According to the Anniversary Gifts by Year (which we have been following all along), the eighth anniversary gifts are pottery (traditional) and linens (modern). I got Naoto a fancy new alarm clock that will hopefully wake him up with light and bird tweets. Not a theme gift, but he is a serial snooze pusher and I’m hoping this alarm clock helps make mornings a little bit easier for all of us. 
And, for the “pottery” theme, I bought him a cat spoon rest from Chicago’s Circa Ceramics. It will add the perfect amount of whimsey and usefulness to our kitchen counter. 
Naoto got me a new juicer (the kind I used at North Shore’s cocktail class) and this amazing vintage table runner. It’s currently residing on our dining room table. I’m in love with it. 
Once the rain stopped, we headed into the city for no real reason. On the way, we decided to go to Little Goat Diner for lunch. You can see our entirely healthy meal above…we had to push back our dinner reservations because we were so full. (Oh, and that’s a Ol’ Blue cocktail above: bourbon, blueberry jam, benedictine and lime…go get it before they change the menu!) 
Oh, and there was pie…because well, chocolate cookie crust with sea salt caramel and caramelized bananas…how could we not?
It was a teeny bit warm, but it really was a perfect day in Chicago. We walked along Michigan Avenue and lingered along the river.
Before dinner, we headed to the garden to check out our plants. (More on that later this week.) 
We had a late dinner at Golden Steer, our tradition since we moved to Forest Park in 2010. As usual it did not disappoint. For the first time in the history of our relationship, Naoto could not finish all of his steak and we both ended up bringing something home. During dinner, we wrote our 2014 Summer Manifesto–simple but spectacular. (I’ll share tomorrow!)
And with that, eight years are in the books…
Garden Beginnings
We’ve been slowly planting our garden plot over the past couple of weeks. So far we’ve planted two Brandywine tomatoes, two Juliet tomatoes, one yellow pear tomato, peas, flowers and a loofah. Our loofah didn’t make it last year but we thought we’d try it again anyway. So far, the seeds have done nothing. Again.
We decided to skip the root vegetables since ours failed last year. (The beets didn’t do anything and the daikon were so skinny they were almost nonexistent.) Tomatoes and peas and flowers…and maybe a cucumber or some lettuce. We’ll see. We still have about a third of our plot left to work with.
Today I’m working on planting some climbers on the balcony and trying to come up with some sort of notebook to hold my seed packets for reference during the season. Last year I thought I’d be better about keeping a garden journal and I failed miserably. This year…it’s going to be different. (Hopefully.)
Happy gardening!!
Twinkle Lights
A few weeks ago, my dad put in an outlet for our balcony. We’ve been here four years exactly this weekend and I can only say whyyyy didn’t we do this sooner? The outlet gave us the option to add twinkle lights outside. I plugged them in last night and they seriously transformed the humble balcony into an extra summer room for relaxing, for Hasegawa Happy Hours, for parties…endless possibilities.
The balcony is alllllmost done. I still have a few things I want to do, like plant a climbing flower, either a morning glory, black-eyed Susan vine (thanks for the suggestion, Mr. Brownthumb!) or a cardinal climber. And I have a couple of other flowers on my wish list (as always).
I’m meeting my parents today to do a little bit of plant shopping. I’m really hoping to have the balcony all set by the weekend. The weather has been so weird here–either blazing hot or unseasonably chilly or raining. None of those situations are making it easy to finish things up out there. Spring in Chicago…I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Japan Does It Better 14: Baskets For Your Handbag
Have you ever thought about how gross the bottom of your handbag is?
Here in the states, unless there is a spare chair at the table, our handbags usually end up on the floor at restaurants and bars. This is mainly because–at least where I live–hanging it on the back of a chair is like asking someone to take it. So the options are holding it in your lap or setting it on the floor by your feet so you can keep track of it. It’s a pain and it’s disgusting, but those are the only options.
This is where Japan Does It Better. In Japan, it is considered unsanitary to put your handbag on the floor. So, most restaurants have bins or baskets at each table for your belongings (handbags, shopping bags, diaper bags…) The handbag baskets above are at Bunbougu Cafe and they are huge enough to hold a long day’s worth of stationery shopping.
A safe, clean place for your belongings…another way Japan Does It Better!
To see more JDIB posts, go here.
LWA Lab: Mail Art Master
On Sunday, my friend Karen and I went to the very first ever Letter Writers Alliance Laboratory. We drank and ate envelope-shaped cookies and an array of other snacks while Donovan and Kathy wore lab coats and went over the basics and tips and tricks about mail art, encouraging us to push the envelope (pun intended) when it comes to sending mail. As part of the class, we each got a mail art kit, complete with loads of envelopes and vintage paper bits, washi tape, adhesives, a map, an envelope template all in a handy carrying case. 
You can see some of my bits above. I sat at the seat with the orange mail art kit. (Everyone got a different color.) All of the kits were amazing, but I’m so glad I picked mine. So many of the pieces inside were perfect for certain pen pals and I got the map of Illinois (shown on the envelope above) which has both my current town and my hometown included in it! (My hometown has a tiny population of 1100…it never shows up on maps!!) I only made one envelope from the template and decorated one envelope during our free time…I was too busy talking and listening to everyone’s fun mail ideas. It’s so much fun gathering with fellow mail lovers outside of my mailbox! 
For our last mail art project, we each received a giant pencil to mail. We wrote our recipients’ addresses right on the pencil, posted it with stamps and then later dropped it into a neighboring mailbox. 
Our pencils dropped into the mailbox with a thump, mingling with all the other pencils from the workshop. I think the letter carrier who empties this box is going to have quite a surprise today!
Thanks for a fantastic afternoon, LWA!
(To see more pictures from the workshop, you can look under #LWALab on Instagram.)
P.S. Remember when I mailed a pigeon?
Behind on the Balcony
I’m behind on getting our balcony all summer ready.
I looked back into the blog archives to find that in 2012, I was all planted by May 9th. And last summer, I was potting flowers on May 15th. This year…well it’s May 23rd and I’m still not quite started.
Yesterday I went to look for flowers but came home pretty empty handed. I bought one big hanging pot of geraniums since most of mine didn’t make it through the winter. (They may have been a little bit neglected in the water department.) And last weekend I bought the fuchsia above. Its flowers are so interesting and fun. The two fuchsia plants don’t quite fill out the pot as much as I’d like so I bought an accent plant to tuck into one side. We have a few perennials leftover from last year and two mint plants potted, but it’s looking rather bare out my window at the moment.
Oh and in other devastating news, my hen & chicks, which I’ve had since we moved here in 2010, died this year. I’ve left them out over the winter every year, but this year proved too cold for them. Poor things. I feel like I’ve lost some old friends.
My dad put in an outdoor outlet for us, so we can hang lights and make it a party-like atmosphere out there and I bought some fun new pillows for the love seat. Yesterday I spent some time sweeping up and moving furniture around. Hopefully we’ll make some progress out there this weekend (and in our community garden plot too!) and I’ll have more to share next week!
Have a good weekend!
kimberly ah 