New Year's Oshogatsu at JustJenn's House 2011

Happy New Year! It's Year of the Rabbit in 2011!

My friend JustJenn came over for my family's mochi making and walked away with two trays of mochi. Her kids ate it every morning and night. But the main reason for all the mochi is for ozoni soup on New Year's Day!

Jenn made lots of traditional and not-so-traditional but yummy foods for her annual New Year's Oshogatsu luncheon.

Last year, I got some comments that indicated people thought I made all this food. No. JustJenn made everything unless noted! She is a Oshogatsu machine. I'm sure she'll have lots of good luck in 2011!!!

Check out this spread! JustJenn is amazing!

 

Nothing like a mountain of desserts...that I kept returning to over and over!

JustJenn's mom brought sushi from old school Sakae Sushi. This little store has been around forever, and they don't do cream cheese in their sushi. As if. If your grandma made sushi, this would be the kind. They sell out of their New Year's orders in November.

Traditional foods...read JustJenn's story of shopping for these at the Japanese market.

A few non-traditional, but delicious meats!

Making Ozoni soup. We used the fresh mochi made with my family! You have to drink this soup or you'll be out of luck for the new year. ;)

All the traditional foods have meaning. Eating shrimp will give you long life, somen or soba noodles will give you more long life (see why the Japanese have the greatest life expectancy of any country in the world?!), those black beans give you health and success, and the little fish give you good harvest and wealth.

I brought over some Broken Glass Jello and Cream Puffs...yeah, not so traditional, but fun to eat. JustJenn and I made homemade mochi on New Year's Eve (I'll post about that next) and Jenn made delicious Milk Tea Cupcakes.

Happy New Year everyone! Thanks Jenn for inviting me to your delicious celebration! I hope everyone's new year is filled with peace, love, joy, bundt cakes, mochi, friends and family! :)
- mary the food librarian

P.S. Here is JustJenn's post with links to recipes!!

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The Mochi Factory...in Gingerbread by JustJenn

The Mochi Factory Gingerbread House

I hope you and your loved ones had a lovely Christmas! My December consists of:
Dec 7th - My Birthday. Yes, you may have heard about that! :)
Dec 25th - Christmas
Dec 26th - Mochi Making with the family
Dec 31st - New Year's Eve

Every year, my family makes tons and tons of fresh mochi (pounded rice cake) for a Japanese American New Years celebration. I'll post about this year's mochi making next...but on Christmas, my friend JustJenn dropped off the most awesome gingerbread masterpiece! Check it out!

Since she was a little girl, Jenn would make elaborate gingerbread houses with her mom (a librarian). And you wonder how Jenn grew up to become an architect, huh?! Now Jenn makes them with her boys!

See the Mochi conveyor belt in the window! Too cool. The mochi pieces are represented by cut marshmallows.

You can see thru the window and the conveyor belt goes up the side of the house! Jenn draws out ARCHITECTURAL plans for her gingerbread homes. Yes, gotta use that degree for good and yum.

The mochi conveyor belt climbs up the side of the house. The lamp post is a lollipop! The top of the house is covered with chocolate licorice. Awesome!

Did you see this detail? The fish pond is sprinkling sugar and the goldfish is, naturally, a cheese goldfish. Everything is edible! Jenn uses royal icing as her glue.The walkway is a fruit leather and the railings are pretzels.

My whole family was in awe during mochi making! And the kids were good that they didn't pick off all the pieces. Thank you sooo much Jenn for including our family tradition in your gingerbread tradition!!!

** Updated to add JustJenn's post about her Mochi Factory...you have got to click here and see it. It includes the behind the scenes architectural drawings, paper mock up and hints for making your own masterpiece! **
Next post, Mochi making!

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