Study Japanese

Japanese is a language I studied through the end of primary school and throughout high school. I was even lucky enough to go to Japan on a 3 week exchange and stay with a fantastic host family which allowed me to see a lot of their every day life, at home and at school, as well as a few of the tourist places as well like Hiroshima, Osaka, Kurashiki, Miyajima and Himeji Castle.

The great thing about staying with a host family was doing all the things my host sister would do. Except for a couple of short trips we stayed with our host families so I got to try a lot of new foods cooked by my host mother and enjoy the wonderful pleasure that is a relaxing japanese bath at the end of a long day. The extended family (grandmother and grandfather) lived with us and my grandmother worked as a beautician at the back of the house so I was very lucky to be made up and dressed in a kimono by her.

I also found during my stay how difficult it was to hold a conversation in Japanese. I think I was studying grade 11 at the time (Australian high schools go up to grade 12 before university) and I found the person I could most easily hold a conversation with were the two neices of my host family who were 5 and 6!!

It has been more than 10 years since I officially studied Japanese and a couple of times I have tried to pick it up and study again in home from books or the internet. Recently I found a fantastic site that I think will really help. It is called Japanese Class and it gives you vocabulary and kanji lessons as well as practice questions and for more advanced users, reading articles from Japanese news sources. I've been enjoying the practice questions and it tracks your progress and encourages you to log in every day.

You can track my progress in the footer on this site and feel free to send me a friend request. My profile is here.

私は勉強するつもりです!!

I have also downloaded a program called Anki which enables me to study kanji in a system similar to flash cards. I have downloaded the JLPT level 4 and 3 kanji and hope to find some more kanji and vocab flash card downloads as well as I progress.

Another site I have been looking at is called iKnow which looks fantastic for the study of Japanese as it uses a combination flash card style system with 4 styles of questions and example sentances. The only down side is though it has a fantastic setup which looks a little easier to use than Japanese Class, it is subscription based and about $90 a year. At this stage I can't afford to splash out with a subscription.

I contemplated starting a journal on Lang-8 but for now I think I want to practice a little more as I feel like I don't know enough vocabulary as yet. Instead I have started yet another blog to try and put a few things into practice and learn some vocab that applies to my day to day life. It is also helping me with the different forms of verbs as the lessons only focus on the plain form. I know this is a problem area for me as school taught ~ます form only until close to the end of high school and I had a terrible time trying to get my head around plain form and ~て form verbs.

The blog I have started is called "and chicken". The japanese word "niwatori" was already taken on blogger so I chose "toniwatori" instead. I've made a couple of simple posts already and learnt a few words such as にわ which means garden.

 と鶏  -  私のブログ

Learn AJAX

My role at work changed at the start of this year and I have a much more hands on role with the web development, specifically programming for web sites. This has meant I need to become a lot more familiar with JavaScript and Ajax as this is one area that I am not very confident in.

Prior to a big upcoming job which was quoted at about 60 hours I sat down to learn a bit more about Ajax and how APIs work. Just quickly, Ajax is a new way to use the JavaScript language with jQuery which makes it very flexible and enables you to run functions and all refresh sections of the website without reloading the whole page. API is an Application Programming Interface which enables you to request information from another site with queries.

For my experiment I decided to set up an Instagram account and then try to get the images from there and post them into the side bar of this blog. It required two API calls to translate my username into a user id and then retrieve the photo information I required.

Secondly I wrote a part PHP and part Ajax web page which enables the customisatio of the script. It gets the information from a form and uses jQuery to update a div to display the script needed to show the images just like in the side bar of this blog.

While this has been a reasonably simple project I learnt a lot about how Ajax is structured compared to JavaScript and it extended my knowledge enough that I had a bit more confidence going into the big job at work. A lot of what I learnt was able to be applied at work straight away and helped me be able to concentrate on my tasks instead of having to learn basics during work hours.

The script is publically available so if you would like to use it or even just see what it does you can take a look.

Instagram photo widget

Making Jam

Our satsuma plum had a fantastic little crop this year and with more plums than we can eat it was a great time to experiment with my first attempt at jam making.

I don't have a jam recipe book yet so I turned to the internet and found a fairly simple recipe with a ratio for ingredients from the Canning USA website. I decided to use this recipe without adding pectin as I read that plums have a naturally high pectin content.

Of course with any first try... I promptly did it wrong! But the jam still worked out really well and is sweet and delicious to our taste. If I had followed the recipe better perhaps it would have been overly sweet??

2lb of plums makes about this much jam

I used 2lb of pitted plums, 2 cups of sugar, 4tbsp water and 2tbsp lemon juice. I followed the rest of the instructions reasonably well, heating to the right temperatures using my new candy thermometer and I tried to check the liquid for a "thick syrup" but then decided I didn't really know what I was looking at and it tasted good so I would bottle it and see.

It was quite fun watching the stewed fruit jam go into the bottles and putting the seals on then watching the plastic tighten up as the jam cooled.

Second batch I used the same amount of sugar but included a 50g packet of "Jam Setta". I also cut each halved plum into 3 instead of leaving them as halves. This made a slightly thicker jam which was a little easier to spread but still had the same great flavour.

You get about the same amount of jam as you have fruit. So 2lb of fruit made a little under 1kg of jam. I like the size of used 190g pesto jars best for bottling the jam.

Of course the best way to sample freshly made jam is with freshly made scones!

Homemade scones and jam... time to buy a cow and make my own cream?

Cleaning and Steralising Jars

Prior to a jam making experiment I was hunting around the shops for things I might need and found a set of jars on sale for $20. After deliberation though I decided why buy jars...? I would still have to learn how to steralise them and we throw all sorts of jars into the recycling bin every week.

When I got home I scrounged around and came up with a few jars that almost made their way into recycling... actually one was in the bin and I had Mark fish it out! Cleaning them is pretty easy as they are already reasonably clean before they are thrown into the recycling bin. Getting the labels off is a whole other story.

After soaking the jars in very hot water most of the day and having sticky residue left on the jars I went hunting on the internet. One person on a yahoo answers thread said that several cleaning products (that I don't own), WD40 or cooking oil cleans stubborn labels. Not wanting to use chemicals I opted to try the cooking oil method and was thoroughly surprised that it works!! The oil starts disolving the label glue straight away and turns into a creamy opaque gel. After working it in I used a butter knife to gently scrap the goop away then washed it thoroughly in soapy water.

 Sparkling clean jar with label completely removed

So that is the cleaning taken care of, now for steralising.

Before using the jars for food they need to be steralised so that the food won't go bad in the sealed jars. Again I turned to the internet and looked through several sources until I found a general concensus. There are two methods for hot steralisation. I used the dry method which I thought would be safer than trying to keep them in hot water - especially as I don't own tongs for picking up hot jars as yet.

To steralise the jars put them into an oven at 120C after cleaning and leave them there until ready to use. Take out only one jar at a time when ready. This also has the benefit of heating the jars so that you can put hot food/jam into them.

It was much easier than I was originally thinking which makes me happy!!!

Make Bread

Just before Christmas I was considering adding a bread maker to my wishlist however I found that my mix master has dough hooks so I decided to experiment with making bread from scratch instead. I have used a bread maker before, but making bread from scratch is a lot more satisfying.

My mix master came with standard beaters and dough hooks which I'd set aside because I didn't know what they were for!

To start experimenting we found a pack of Lauke German Grain bread mix which comes with 4 individual packs of bread flour suitable for 1 loaf each (600g) and a sachet of yeast. I followed the instructons and ended up with a fairly good loaf... but then things started going wrong.

I've made about 7 loaves now and 3 of them had various levels of fail. I started playing around with the times and amounts and had a great success with the Lauke Crusty White bread mix which has translated well to the other loaves. I now use 380ml of water (the german grain says 410ml) and I've learned that the kneading period starts after the water is combined and not as you start mixing.

So all up this means I am using a little less water and kneading for a bit longer. There seams to be a sweet point where the dough looks amazing and light it is wanting to start to rise. I think this may come purely with experience.

The last thing I'm doing different is after I forgot I was making bread between rising stages and left it longer than I intended. I now allow both resting times to go for at least 30 minutes and then bake for 35 minutes at 220C. This may have to vary depending on ambiant temperature, loaf tin size and oven.

The last 3 loaves I've made have been perfect so I think I have the hang of this now!! Cost is about $1.8 per loaf with the fancy bread kits, but we could probably reduce this by using a plain bread flour. It takes about 2 hours to make the bread, but only about 20-30 minutes is hands on time and the rest is just watching the clock to check in when the process needs attention.

Nothing better than fresh bread straight out of the oven!

Make Yoghurt

This yoghurt maker from Easiyo is one of those kitchen gadgets that you think might be gimmicky, but once you have one you wonder how you ever lived without it.

I've never been a huge eater of yoghurt before, but it is my husbands regular breakfast. I bought the Easiyo for him for Christmas with about 10 starter packs. Now I'm going to sing the praises of this amazing kitchen gadget!!

The Easiyo is pretty simple in its design. It is a thermos style system with a smaller container that fits neatly inside. In under 5 minutes the Easiyo is set up and ready to make yoghurt!! You simply take the starter packet and mix with water in the container, then fill the thermos to the designated mark, close it up with the container inside and let it sit. In 8-12 hours (or the next morning) you have 1kg of perfect yoghurt!

The thermos keeps the yoghurt cultures at the right temperature for long enough for them to make yoghurt without any additional heat source. Since getting the yoghurt maker I've done a little more research and found some people are making yoghurt in an oven at a very low temperature or with an electric heating pad or electric yoghurt maker. I love that this system doesn't require any prolonged use of electricity... just boil the kettle!

Since getting the yoghurt maker I've been experimenting with slight variations in the yoghurt making process. Making yoghurt with the Easiyo starter kits cost about $3.50-$4.50 but there are other ways of making yoghurt as well as long as you have a live culture to start.

Two ways I have been successful at making yoghurt is by using UHT milk (because regular milk needs to be heated then cooled which makes the process longer and less convenient) and either 3 tablespoons of the previous yoghurt, or 3 tablespoons of the Easiyo starter. So far I haven't had a failed batch, but I am very curious how long I could keep making yoghurt just through using the old yoghurt each time. That would make 1kg of yoghurt only $1!! What a huge saving!

Our Easiyo maker and the last batch of (almost gone) yoghurt

I purchased my Easiyo from GoldenGlow.com.au and if you sign up to their newsletter they give you a $15 off coupon. A limited selection of the starter packs can be purchased in supermarkets. Check the jelly/dessert aisle.

To learn more about making yoghurt from scratch check out the Sustainable Suburbia blog.

Learn to Crochet

I decided to give crochet a go just before last Christmas after I found a great idea for a handmade gift. You can find the pattern I used here.

To learn to crochet I used a youtube video which shows the basics, a 3.5mm crochet hook ($2.50) and some old yarn. A couple of false starts which I unravelled and two starts which I clipped off and discarded as they were very wonky and I had constructed an approximation of a square as per the video. Next I printed the bunny project and used a pen to help note the counting and mark off rows I had completed. The arms and legs are the hardest part because they are such narrow tubes!

Crochet was easier than I initially thought despite taking about 6 starts to get going and have it look like the video. I know I've only done a very basic stitch so far, but I'd love to have a go at doing some granny squares and make a blanket.

Youtube is fantastic for learning something like this where written instructions are less useful than actually seeing something done. It took me a little experimenting over about 5 days and then each bunny took a couple of days to make.

Crochet Bunnies

Aims of the blog

I have a great many interests and love learning new things. Many of the things I want to learn are skills that are becoming quaint and uncommon as modern technology and easy access to mass manufactured goods make many skills obsolete unless you take them up as a hobby. This can also make some things difficult to learn but the internet and youtube brings with it a whole lot of knowledge just waiting to be discovered.

In the past many of the skills I want to learn would have been passed down from generation to generation, like cooking, cleaning and gardening tips. I'm not talking about how to cook an egg or grow some flowers... I'm talking baking, canning and growing a whole heap of edible stuff!!

My aim is to slowly learn and relearn as many "old" skills as I can. I can be stubborn and resourceful when I set my mind to something so I'm going to make a great big list and see how many things I can work out how to do. I'm going to try all sorts of things from the mundane, like cooking and cleaning, to more whimsical skills like bee keeping!