Lunch with Ponyo

We rented Ponyo from the Library this week; hardcore Miyazaki fans we have most all of his other movies but had been putting off purchasing this one mostly because of poor reviews. However, what a surprising delight this movie turned out to be! Abigail was completely in love with it and we have watched it everyday, sometimes twice a day for the entire week. Long story short it is a retelling of The Little Mermaid, but way more adorable and with typical Miyazaki charm and strange Japanese references that still elude understanding but remain quirky and enjoyable. 

As in all Miyazaki movies he never forgets to include the food ( and I have a theory about his love of cold fried eggs because he uses them a lot) but in this movie Ponyo and Soske have a bowl of Noodle soup with Eggs, Ham, and Green Onion.  So imagine Abby's squeal of delight when she managed to locate the last two packages of Ichiban ( that's Ramen for the American readers) that were lurking in the cuboard. "just like Ponyo!!!!!" So off we went to recreate the noodle soup that Ponyo and Soske eat after the big storm in the movie.

Eggs, Ham and Green Onion were easy to recreate and I was delighted that Ponyo had enough good sense to mix some hefty protein in with her carbs. Also the fact that before Ponyo Abby would never ever ever have even entertained the idea of eating Ham, Green Onions or Eggs in soup, these are all things that she east separately and does enjoy but in a soup? really? well Ponyo does!

And this really took me back to being a kid, those crunchy noodles just waiting for the hot water, and the salty salty broth..mmm....

Then there was  the moment I had to pretend to be the mom from Ponyo and cover the soup telling Abby to close her eyes while slipping in the eggs, ham and onion. then SURPRISE! 

I guess there is such a thing as universal soup surprise look , lol.

I never got to eat my soup as Norah woke up just in time to partake in the meal. Which she also immediately knew was from Ponyo, I guess I know what Santa is bringing for Christmas:) And I hope we can last Ponyo-less until then. And one thing for sure : there were definite threats hurled against those dang Librarians who wanted their movie back today.

Good Gravy, where has it all gone?

who knows, I remember when summer was this long drawn out ridiculous affair that was so devastatingly awesome at the beginning of July when there was no school, and then by the end of August we were bored out of our skulls and begging to go back to school. ANd really at the moment it is only the beginning of August with a good solid three weeks left until September creeps up and cooler winds crisp the air. We have birthday's coming up, successive planting to accomplish, more weeding to do, patterns to write, and we did have fun in July having a holiday with family and splashing in the pool. But I  can't help but have no clue as to where the time in July actually went as it went so fast I didn't take stock.

We started the month out with some exchange students from CHina who visited with us and stayed in the house for ten days or so. Talk about culture shock, I think we had a tremendous amount of fun and it was seriously thrilling to convey the word 'cholesterol' to Meng Jiang after trying to discuss it for 38 minutes including drawings, miming and a Chinese/English dictionary. But there were a few things that definitely made me realize we live in very different places from one another, for one the utter terror that my dogs instilled in our guests. Of course I know that the Chinese do not keep dogs, for pets anyway and that they are not used to them but really who couldn't love a cute bundle of fuzzy cuddly fur that wants to lick you up one side and down the other, well the CHINESE that's who. So we started the trip with our poor young gal Tian Yu crying her eyes out in giant wracking sobs and refusing to allow the dogs into the house for the entire trip. After explaining that our dogs were part of our family we headed down the arduous road of trying to keep them contained in their own house so as not to completely terrify Tian Yu with a glance of fur. It did all come out in the wash as by the end of the visit she was petting and feeding them treats.

In the middle of July we went up to Scotch Creek with mom and dad which was a total riot of course, had lots of fun in the sun on the beach and watched Abby swim it up hardcore. That girl is going into swim lessons at the end of August because truly she can jump off a diving board into the deep water of the pool surface and swim to the edge by herself. She's not yet four and she may be part fish.

Other than that I've been gardening up a storm, lots of zuchinni, swiss chard, lettuce, peas, carrots, and beets have been eaten in the past few weeks and there are beans, tomatos, calabaza squash, buttercup squash, cucumbers, cabbage and kale to come... yummmm.....