Home Cooking

Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 19mm, f/4, 1/40 sec, ISO800
“Making Pasta” Cedar Park, 2020

During the “Shelter In Place” life we are living because of the COVID-19 pandemic, almost everyone is cooking at home more. Today, Koa helped Mariko make pasta using the KitchenAid mixer pasta attachment. The noodles came out great, and were a nice change from dry pasta. I guess because we have gained back all the hours we normally spend on out-of-house activities that there is more focus and intentional effort given to the everyday tasks. Maybe it’s just because there are less tasks that we are available to us… I’m not sure, but I’ve seen it in other things too, like planting our seedlings, veggies, and herbs, house-cleaning, and getting outside for walking, running, or bicycling.

This may seem like a positive, and I think there are good habits being formed or reinforced, but also it’s been pretty hard on a lot of people whose livelihoods depend on people going out of the house. For instance, the restaurant businesses have been suffering and I feel so sorry for them. I guess we all just want life to return to normal so we can do things like socialize, go to movies, resume school classes, concerts, dine out, and go hiking/camping.

In the meantime, we’ll just cope at home – and homemade pasta can help with that. 😀

Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 19mm, f/2.8, 1/60 sec, ISO500
“Pasta” Cedar Park, 2020

By the way, Lani also like when we make pasta because she’ll occasionally get lucky with a stray noodle.

Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 19mm, f/4, 1/35 sec, ISO800
“Hoping” Cedar Park, 2020

I hope you had a nice day!

またね~

Chicken Tikka Masala Dinner

Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 19mm, f/4, 1/25 sec, ISO800
“Chicken Tikka Masala” Cedar Park, 2020

Yummmm… Chicken Tikka Masala is a favorite at our house. And the homemade naan is so good! The problem is that there aren’t much in the way of leftovers because we all have seconds (and sometimes thirds). 😆

Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 19mm, f/4, 1/100 sec, ISO1600
“Big Naan” Cedar Park, 2020

I’ve been working from home for almost two weeks now, and it’s been going pretty smoothly. Being with the family 24/7 has not been difficult, since we all are busy with our individual activities. Bay’s architecture classes keep him working into the evening, Mariko is busy baking, I’m working in our home office room, and Koa is practicing his music and keeping up with his schoolwork (although classes haven’t started for him yet). Our breakfast and lunches are kind of on an as-needed basis, with each of us choosing what to eat, but dinner time we’ll all eat together, just as we always have (before Bay left for college). It’s nice to have all of us at the dinner table! ❤️

Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 19mm, f/4, 1/25 sec, ISO800
“Hello, Kitty” Cedar Park, 2020

I hope you had a good day, and hope you are healthy and well!

またね~

Lucky Shot 🌠

Photo info: SONY NEX-6, 0mm, f/0, 13 sec, ISO3200
“Lucky Shot” Cedar Park, 2020

The early-evening moonless sky was pretty clear so I decided to do a little astro-photography out on the back deck. I used the Sony NEX-6 paired with the Sigma 10-20 mm lens to take a few RAW snaps, and when I got to editing in Adobe Lightroom, I noticed that I managed to capture a shooting star. 🌠 Lucky!!!

Photo details:
ISO: 3200
Shutter speed: 13 seconds
Aperture: f/4
Post-processing: Adobe Lightroom 5.7

I hope you had a nice day!

またね~

Socially-Distanced Exercise

Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 19mm, f/5.6, 1/160 sec, ISO200
“Bike and Bluebonnets” Cedar Park, 2020

Our local guidelines for living under the COVID-19 lockdown state that we are permitted to go outside for exercise, such as jogging or bicycling, and I’ve actually been doing both. Since we are supposed to stay at least 6 feet away from others, I only run on the neighborhood streets where I can easily avoid the sidewalk or go to the other side of the street. And when I go bicycling, I stick to the roads so there’s plenty of distance from pedestrians out for their walks. (I pulled my bike off the street so I could take the photo of the bluebonnets!)

For the most part, everyone has been very friendly – plenty of waves and “hello”s. Which is nice, because the reports of increased incidents of racism towards Asian-Americans have kind of kept me on-edge when I see others out in the neighborhood. Our city is pretty diverse and tolerant, but it only takes one person, right? Anyways, let’s keep it nice and cool, shall we?