I'll Make It Myself!

Like the glasses?

Now that we’ve got our summer breakfast situation sorted with overnight oats, let’s move on to that other temperature-challenged staple of breakfast: coffee.

I know that hot drinks can help you cool down, but when the mere thought of pouring boiling water from my electric kettle to my French press makes me break out in a sweat, it’s time to go setsuden on my love of coffee, too. Now, I could just pop over to the conbini to get a can or bottle of cold coffee, but then I would be creating more recycling waste–plus, I take my coffee with milk and no sugar, which isn’t so popular with canned coffee. (My theory is that the added sugar covers up the taste. Bleh.) I could take my travel mug and go to Starbucks or Doutor on my way to work to solve the environmental waste and sugar issues, but then I’m out at least 350 yen for a drink when I could pay about 400-500 yen for a 100 grams of coffee beans that will produce at least 2 weeks of coffee for two.

Instead, we brew cold coffee at home starting in mid-summer. [...]

There are two import foods I can’t live without: peanut butter and oats.

Let’s talk about oats–I’ll get to the peanut butter later. Sometimes I buy Quaker Oats in bulk from online import stores; sometimes I buy Alishan or Alara jumbo organic oats at Diamond in Omicho Market; sometimes I get Nisshoku oatmeal from the regular supermarket, though I prefer bigger oats. At any rate, there’s a constant supply of oatmeal in my kitchen, which keeps my cereal-obsessed American self quite happy, especially in the dead of the Hokuriku winter when the morning oatmeal warms the kitchen and dining room.

But what about in summer?

Overnight Oats with banana, cherries, and sliced almonds.

That’s where overnight oats come in! It’s like making cold cereal — requires no heat and barely any effort, just 5 minutes before you go to bed!

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Perhaps “The Easiest Pasta” is a misnomer. Perhaps boiled soba in dipping sauce is actually easier, but when you want a new flavor profile on easy summer pasta–i.e., when you spend all summer eating cold Japanese noodles–this is your recipe.

The ingredients are easy to find in Japan: fresh basil was in the produce section of the largest of my rural grocery stores; pine nuts are often located in the Asian section of the store with the Chinese and Korean spices. As for the cheese, if you can’t find good hard cheese, you could use mozzarella or another mild softer cheese, or Kraft grated cheese, or omit the cheese to make the dish vegan.

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The purpose of a blog roll is to let your followers know which blogs you think are awesome, but reviewing blogs is also a great way to help blogs you love find fans. I’ve never participated in blog awards before, but last week, Janelle of The JWS Do Japan reviewed I’ll Make It Myself! and awarded this blog a Liebster Award for “promising bloggers with less than 200 followers.” Like Janelle, instead of following the rules (nominate 11 other bloggers, share 11 things about yourself, answer 11 questions from the person who nominated you, and ask 11 questions for each of your 11 nominees), I’m going to nominate one blog because it makes it more special (and less chain-lettery). Thank you! It really made my day that someone likes my food blog so much. I even made this face: :3 !

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