AOSA Cooking Club

One of the best things about living in a foreign country, is the opportunity to learn about a new culture.  The Atsugi Officers' Spouses Association (AOSA) hosts a cooking club the third Thursday of every month.  It is a great opportunity to meet some of the Japanese women from the community around the base and also to learn how to make traditional Japanese food.  One month, the Japanese women teach the American women how to cook traditional Japanese dishes (and give us recipes!) and the next month the American women teach the Japanese women how to make some of our favorite recipes.  

I attended my first cooking club in April.  The American women were teaching the Japanese ladies how to make traditional Italian food.  We made meatballs, marinara sauce, garlic bread, bruschetta, panzanella salad, a fruit platter with fruit dip and lemon ricotta cookies.  It was quite the feast.  

Getting the table ready for lunch

My food ... YUM.

Lemon Ricotta Cookies

The lemon ricotta cookies were to die for, I've linked to the recipe that we used so you can make them at home!  Just looking at those pictures makes my mouth water.  I need to re-create some of these recipes at home.  

This month, the Japanese ladies taught us how to make gyoza, fried rice, Thai salad and tapioca.  I took more pictures this month!

Mrs. Tofu Fox kneading the dough for the gyoza wrappers.  Side note:  Mrs. Tofu Fox writes a great blog about life in Japan, check it out here.  She has lived here for several years and is my inspiration to start having daily adventures.

The filling for the gyoza

One of the ladies fixing our gyoza :)  We couldn't make ours quite as pretty as they could.

Setting the table for lunch

Fried rice, gyoza, pickled cucumbers, more gyoza

Thai salad

 We usually attend cooking club at the Zama Community Center, but next month, we are hosting a BBQ for the Japanese ladies on base.  It should be lots of fun!