Surf & Turf w/Sun Dried Tomato Butter

This week the kitchen and I were not close as I hardly stepped in it to make dinner. I was busy 2 of the 5 nights with prior commitments and Wednesday we went out to dinner for Mike's actual birthday.

What better day than Friday night to make a nice dinner and get back into the kitchen. On the menu:
Lamb Chops marinated in my special concoction
Sauted Shrimp
3-Bean Salad
Summer Pasta Salad
Dessert - Fresh Watermelon popsicles

The lamb chops were broiled in the oven while I sauted the shrimp on the stove. They were served with a sun dried tomato butter, which was fantastic. I personally love sun-dried tomatoes and after reading all the great reviews, I knew I had to make it. It has the tomatoes, garlic, parsley, almonds, lemon juice, corriander, cayenne, and butter, added after processing all the other ingredients. It tasted amazing and good on the lamb chops.
Dinner:




So, after spending a few hours at IKEA, and buying the popsicles molds, I just had to make some pops. Watermelon, fresh lime juice, some sugar, and presto! Here they are still freezing, but when they were done, they were good.


Dinner was great and we were both full. The sun dried tomato butter makes alot, which was fine with me. I used some of it on Saturday when I made myself a chicken sandwich.
Bon Appetit!

Mike's 30th Birthday

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIKE

Its the "dirty 30" for him, even though he doesn't like it when I call it that, HA!

Today is officially the day, but we celebrated this past weekend at Kawana Hotel and Resort. I managed to keep the surprise birthday weekend a surprise up until June, so that's good, especially since it had been booked in January. Kawana is about 1.5 hours south/westish from Tokyo on the coast and is home to the "Pebble Beach of Japan" or as it's called the "Fuji course." I figured this would be the perfect way to celebrate his birthday.

We spent the weekend there and golfed the Fuji course on Saturday morning. Unfortunately, we weren't able to see Mt. Fuji from hole 13 because of all the clouds. It was a great round and the views were amazing. We lounged around for the afternoon and then headed to dinner. Our packaged included a birthday dinner, which was fantastic. We started off with complimentry champagne followed by 5 courses. They even came over to take our picture, printed it, framed it, and gave it to us.

On Sunday morning we woke up to more rain and were playing the Oshima course. We played the first 6 holes in the rain, which I was not a fan of...Mike didn't seem to mind. This course was suppose to be easier, but we both agree it was harder, probably because it was very hilly with lots of mountains. I managed to lose about 8 balls on this course and non on the other...hmmm
The rain stopped around hole 6 and by the time we started off on the back 9, the sun was starting to come out. Another great round!

We had a great time and I hope Mike really liked his gift! As for celebrations today, we'll be having dinner with friends.

HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY MIKE!!!!

Cambodia pictures

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Vietnam pictures

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Update on all things Tokyo

After I finally managed to write about our trip, I figured I should update you all on what's going on in Tokyo.

So raining season has started and as soon as its over, the highly anticipated hot and humid summer will begin...not looking forward to it.

I have accepted a new position with the women's group I joined as Director of Member of Activites. It should be easeir than what I currently do, but with slightly more work and I have to attend the board meeting. I officially take over in July, as the previous lady moved away, and will serve until next year.
This past weekend, my friends and I, put together a charity dog walk event called Sanpo (means walk in japanese) in the Park to raise funds for the animals who were left behind after the earthquake and tsunami. Our funds will be going to JEARS, a group who is actively in the area rescuing and caring for these dogs. It was such a great event and about 75 showed up and some of them with their dogs. The final amount raised is still being determined as donations are still coming in, but it looks like/about $2500...YAY.
Mike even came out to help, which I was thankful for.

As for Mike, he is very, very busy at work and has started coming home later than usual, which will be the staple for awhile. BOOO, but what can you do. His birthday is in 2 weeks, so that is exciting. He's turning 30.... I have a surprise birthday weekend planned for next weekend.

Other than that, things are fine here in Tokyo. No more consistent shakes or as much decreased lighting. We're doing well and we'll keep moving on!

Back to Tokyo

on saturday, May 7, Mike and I we done with our trip and headed back to Tokyo. We tried to have dinner, but Mike wasn't feeling good and spent most of the time in the bathroom. Instead of hanging around Saigon some more, we just went to the airport, where he continued to feel ill. Then I started to feel pretty bad, which wasn't good at all.

We finally boarded our red eye to Tokyo and tried to sleep off whatever was bothering us. Mike unfortunately wasn't able to sleep and was in and out of bathroom. I slept and was ok, but not feeling great. It wasn't until we landed in Tokyo that I started to feel worse.

Mike and I finally make it home around 10:30am on Sunday, showered, and went straight to sleep. When we woke up, we still felt so bad and and couldn't keep anything down. Both of our stomachs hurt so bad and let me tell, they were 10x worse than menstrual cramps. No bueno. So for the 4-5 hours that we were awake on Sunday, either both of us or one of us were in the bathroom. We were a sad case.
I am calling our sickness the "Cambodian curse" or food poisoning, or what the doctor told Mike, "traveling diarrhea." Whatever you want to call, it sucked. What a great way to officially end our trip.

Until the official end, our trip was good and we had a blast minus the kinks here and there. We are so glad that we went and especially glad that we saw Angkor Wat. Absolutely amazing structures...highly recommend people coming here!

Until our next vacation, here's a last picture from our trip

Sunrise at Angkor Wat

Our final destination for our trip was watching the sunrise over Angkor Wat. It wasn't included in our itinerary, but we made our driver some extra money to pick us up at 5am, so we could watch the sunrise.

As you all know, I am not a morning person, but really wanted to see the sunrise. After about an hour, I was frustrated about that the sun was taking too long and it was cloudy. Anywho, we did see the sunrise and it was the best way to end our trip! Here's a serious of pictures of the sunrise over the hour!











After the sunrise, we went back to the hotel to sleep for another 4 hours, before we had to get up and leave for the airport. Then we boarded our short flight back to Saigon, where we finished up stuff we had to do and tried to have dinner before heading to the airport.

Day 7 - night time

Our last night in Siem Reap...oh where did the week go. We headed out to the center of the town using a tuk tuk...As we had a driver for everything, this was our only chance to use the tuk tuk, yay.

We went to the night market, which is another famous market, where you can buy anything you want: purses, pictures, jewelry, shirts, etc. We opted for dinner first and then perused the market. I picked up some cutes things...YAY

In trying to find a place for dinner, we came upon this place, HA!


We did stop here, but did eat next door at a local Cambodian restaurant where we got to sit outside and enjoy the night Here's our dinner
Grilled meat, with grilled peppers and pineapple


Local cuisine, that Mike ate, called Lok Lok


Like I said, we went shopping afterwards and then headed back to the hotel. No massages tonight!

Day 7 - Temples galore

On our last full day in Siem Reap we headed out to local area outside of town to see the people, culture, and all the temples that you can imagine. When I say country side, I literally mean it, as we were driving on unpaved, still mud like roads in the middle of nowhere. We did however, see some great stone temple structures.

We started off at Beng Mealea to see the famous temple here and the culture! We weren't allowed to climb it as some previous tourists fell off, so we just looked.


However, we did climb the mini mountain behind it even though we weren't suppose to, but hey, our guide said it was ok, so we did. There were too many trees in the way, but you can see parts of it.


Next we stopped many times along the way to see various temples in the Koh Ker area.
One temple, where touching the center was suppose to bring good luck

check out the trees around it.


another famous one...we got to climb all over the stone and through the passages.





Next we headed over to Banteay Srei temple or the Citadel of the Women, where all the stone is pink in color. This place was really cool and I loved all the carvings, again.






For our final stop of the day, we were suppose to go to another famous temple, but our guide suggested we go to this one inside. As he was our favorite guide, we trusted his judgment and it was a great place...
We climbed up this stone temple.

Our view from the top from one side.

Having a cold beer, enjoying the view, with our guide. (this was the best picture highlighting the stones, even though my eyes are closed)


Oh what a day we had...filled with some many stone temples, but it was great. I still can't believe that so many of them are still intact after all these years. Absolutely amazing. Can you see why it's easy to spend a whole day at just one of these places.

Angkor Wat

This place deserves its own post as it was AMAZING...Mike and I never knew this place existed until we moved to Japan and everyone was talking about Angkor Wat. We were so happy we went and that it was the last place on our trip, as it was spectacular to see all of the temples, ruins, and Angkor Wat and to know that they have been there since the 9-12th century. CRAZY.

So on the afternoon of day 6, we spent it viewing Angkor Wat and the surrounding area. It wasn't enough time as their is so much to see and you can easily waste a day looking at just one of the areas. I'll post a few pictures for you on this post, but I highly suggest looking at all of them, once I upload them in a different post.
ANGKOR WAT


Yes, we got to climb up into the structure behind us...it was steep, but so amazing once up there and the view...WOW

Inside the structure

From the back...


Next we headed over to the Ta Prohm Temple, which is the only temple that can you distinguish from all the other temples, as trees are growing out and around the stone. This is the place where they shot the scene in Lara Croft Tomb Raider...




Next we headed over to see the Elephant Terrace and the Terrace of the Leper King...They were in the same place, but you can see the difference in the pictures




Next we headed over to the colossal human faces carved in stone or the mpressive Bayon Temple...one of my favorite places!
At the entrance

Amazing...how many faces do you see???

Mike and the faces

I found someone new to kiss and touch noses with!

As we left this area, we stopped to grab a picture of all the faces watching you as you exit. They were also there when you entered the temple!



Next we headed over to a nearby temple at the top of a mountain to watch the sunset. It was quite cloudy and unfortunately, the clouds didn't go away. However, the sunset was nice and a great way to end the afternoon.



What an amazing afternoon we had and we couldn't believe all the stuff we saw. So happy we came here.

Lastly, our evening was uneventful as Mike wasn't feeling too great, so we had a quiet dinner at the hotel and then headed off to bed, but not before we got more massages!