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posted: January 2nd, 2017 |
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This page features most of the amazing confections which Kazuya baked during the month of December. Rows 9 and 10 show what he made for a huge Christmas Party which we attended. There were around 28 people present and, once again, the items which Kazuya made were the talk of everybody. It was amazing to hear what people were saying. It's already to the point where people expect the most amazing desserts from him. Click on any thumbnail to begin.
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| Kazuya's Baked Delights - November 30th through December 25th |
Well, December was a busy month for Kazuya and his baking. Here are some photos of the Candied Orange and Lemon Peel which he made in preparation for making Stollen. If you don't know what Stollen is, Wikipedia has this to say: "Stollen is a traditional German bread usually eaten during the Christmas season, when it is called Weihnachtsstollen (after "Weihnachten", the German word for Christmas) or Christstollen (after Christ). It is a cake-like fruit bread with the fruits are often soaked in rum or brandy.
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 Nov30th_021_ LemonPeelRC |
 Nov30th_025_ OrangePeelRC |
 Nov30th_030_ OrangePeelRC |
The first shot in this row shows the rum-soaked fruits that went into the Stollen. The second photo shows two loaves which are ready to go into the oven. The third photo shows two loaves just after coming from the oven.
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 Dec1st_002_ StollenRC |
 Dec1st_003_ StollenRC |
 Dec1st_006_ StollenRC |
The first shot here shows just after being coated with finely granulated sugar and the second shot shows a loaf after being sprinkled with powdered sugar.
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 Dec1st_011_ StollenRC |
 Dec2nd_001_ StollenRC |
After curing for two days the first loaf was sliced. OMG! Delicious. Kazuya made four loaves and gave away two of them. Both of the recipients of them said that it was the best Stollen they had ever had, and the first time they'd ever had it with homemade candied-citrus peel.
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 Dec3rd_005_ StollenRC |
 Dec3rd_006_ StollenRC |
There were some leftover fruits from making Stollen, so Kazuya made this cake for us. WOW! The second photo shows a Chocolate-Cherry Cake and the third photo shows some freshly baked Gingerbread Cookies of various shapes.
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 Dec1st_014_ FruitcakeRC |
 Dec4th_005_Chocolate CherryCakeRC |
 Dec13th_002_Ginger BreadCookiesRC |
On December 15th we received a package in the mail from an Oregon friend - look at this stuff!! Christmas stockings, persimmons, pesto, greens, a bag of walnuts, a box of wonderful coffee and more.
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 Dec15th_001_Gift FromSandyRC |
Kazuya got two used Bundt Cake pans from a second-hand shop, so he wanted to test them out. Here is a Pineapple Bundt Cake made with fresh Pineapple. Pineapples were on sale at the price of 2 for $3, so he bought 2 of them and a good portion of one of them went into this cake.
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 Dec16th_002_ PineappleBundtCakeRC |
 Dec16th_011_ PineappleBundtCakeRC |
This beautiful Chocolate Cake was made with the second Bundt Cake pan. Oh my, was this delicious!
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 Dec19th_004_ ChocolateCakeRC |
 Dec19th_009_ ChocolateCakeRC |
Here is an amazing Christmas Fruitcake, one of the two cakes which Kazuya made to take to the Christmas Party referred to at the top of the page. Just look at all of the fruit! You know, generally people say "Christmas Fruitcake" with a derogatory tone. They are talking about those mass produced ones made in God knows what country and generally not even edible. People give them to you for Christmas and you take them to the office and try to get rid of them that way. Well, let me tell you, you would NOT take this one to the office. You would save 100% of it for yourself!
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 Dec25th_001_Christmas Cake_FruitcakeRC |
 Dec27th_003_Christmas Cake_FruitcakeRC |
Here is the second cake which Kazuya took to the Christmas Party referred to at the top of the page. Just from the name - "Schwartzwalder Kirschtorte" - you can probably guess that this is pretty darn special. Unfortunately, we did not get to bring much of this cake home with us, and that is despite there being a great number of desserts at the party we attended.
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 Dec25th_012_ChristmasCake_ SchwartzwalderKirschtorteRC |
 Dec25th_016_ChristmasCake_ SchwartzwalderKirschtorteRC |
| End Kazuya's Baked Delights, End December 2016's Photos, Begin Mountains Climbed During 2016 |
Here you can find a list of all the mountains which we climbed during Calendar Year 2016. Note that we only did 4 mountains in Japan and only 7 mountains in Alaska, but only 4 DIFFERENT Alaska mountains. Numbers in parenthesis (e.g. #112) indicate the number of times I (or we) have climbed that mountain.
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| Mountains Climbed During 2016 | ||||||
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| No. | Date | Mountain Name | Elev., Ft. | Elev., M. | Location | |
1 |
Feb-28-2016 | Mt. Takao (#112) | 1,965 | 599 | Tokyo, Takao Area | |
2 |
Feb-28-2016 | Mt. Kobotoke-Shiro-yama (#57) | 2,199 | 670 | Tokyo, Takao Area | |
3 |
Apr-01-2016 | Mt. Takao (#113) | 1,965 | 599 | Tokyo, Takao Area | |
4 |
Apr-01-2016 | Mt. Kobotoke-Shiro-yama (#58) | 2,199 | 670 | Tokyo, Takao Area | |
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-- | -- | -- | -- | -- | |
5 |
June-23-2016 | Eagle Summit | 3,652 | 1,113 | Near Circle, Alaska | |
6 |
July-09-2016 | Table Top Mountain | 3,130 | 954 | Chatanika Area, Alaska | |
7 |
July-13-2016 | Wickersham Dome | 3,207 | 977 | North of Fairbanks, Alaska | |
8 |
July-14-2016 | Angel Rocks | 1,750 | 533 | Chena Hot Springs, Alaska | |
9 |
Sept-08-2016 | Eagle Summit (#2) | 3,652 | 1,113 | Near Circle, Alaska | |
10 |
Sept-18-2016 | Angel Rocks (#2) | 1,750 | 533 | Chena Hot Springs, Alaska | |
11 |
Oct-01-2016 | Wickersham Dome (#2) | 3,207 | 977 | North of Fairbanks, Alaska | |
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| End Mountains Climbed During 2016, Begin Miscellaneous Links |
Here are links to separate web pages - all of them will open in a new window (or new tab). The first link shows some photos of our DVD Collection, an AVI Movie of our Home Theater System and 9 photos of our Sharp Aquos TV. The 2nd link shows our entire DVD collection in DVD Profiler (if you're asking yourself what might be good to rent for the weekend). The DVD's will be sorted by date purchased. You can click on the "Title" Column to sort that way if you desire. The 3rd link shows our entire DVD collection in php DVD Profiler, which is much more sophisticated than the plain vanilla DVD Profiler just above it. The 4th link takes you to a set of pages which show you the FRONT cover-art of our entire DVD collection.
