Happy New Year to all my dearest readers!
I hope you had a wonderful New Year celebration with your friends and family. The New Years (Shogatsu) is one of the most important annual festivals in Japan, probably equivalent to Christmas or Thanksgiving in the US. We follow unique customs including eating special food called Osechi, and decorate the house and entry way to the house with special decorations. One of the decorations we decorate inside the house (see the picture above) is called Kagami Mochi, which literally means “mirror rice cake”. It is considered to bring good luck and prosperity in the near year.
Kagami Mochi is made from two rice cakes of different sizes with the smaller one placed over the larger one. The mochi are placed on a konbu sheet, a symbol of pleasure and joy. The decorative mochi is taken out on January 11 and hammered into pieces for Ozoni or traditional Mochi soup. It is extremely unlucky to cut Kagami Mochi with a knife so people break it into smaller pieces with a hammer.
This year we couldn’t get to celebrate Japanese New Years in the traditional way since my mom is visiting from Japan and we are in San Diego for a short vacation. My children had a blast spending the past few days in all the local attractions like LEGOLAND, San Diego Zoo Safari Park, San Diego Zoo, and Sea World.
I just wanted to take a moment and say a special thank you at the beginning of the new year. I’m thankful for your comments and emails, your encouragement, and finally your support. I started my blog last year without knowing what a “blog” is. I had no audience besides my husband, a couple of friends, and myself back then. My blog evolved throughout the past year, and without you, I wouldn’t be able to celebrate the winning of CBS San Francisco’s Most Valuable Blogger 2011 and 1st Blogiversary today!!
I wish to meet each one of you to thank you, but that’s not possible, so I prepared this giveaway in a token of appreciation. Thank you from bottom of my heart!
*****
YOU could win one of three: one (1) $50 Amazon Gift Card or Cash via PayPal or two (2) $25 Amazon Gift Card or Cash via PaPal.
To enter, please leave a comment on this post with any feedback or suggestion for me to improve my blog.
For Bonus Entries to maximize your chances of winning, please:
1) Subscribe to Just One Cookbook by Email and leave a comment.
2) Tweet this giveaway daily through January 15th (one entry per day) and leave a comment for each entry. For example:
I just entered to win $50/$25/$25 Amazon GC or Cash via PayPal @justonecookbook. #giveaway https://www.justonecookbook.com/happy-1st-blogiversary-giveaway/
The Rules: This giveaway is WORLDWIDE and expires on Sunday, January 15th, 2012 at 11:00 pm PST. Entries that do not meet the entry requirements will not be considered. Winners will be selected by random.org and announced on Monday, January 16th.
Full disclosure: This giveaway is sponsored by yours truly.
Breaking my normal lurking to say that I found your blog last month (and subscribed thank you 🙂 ) and I can’t believe you’ve only been going for one year! I love the recipes you are sharing, the descriptions and presentation are fabulous, and as a mad keen lover of home-style Japanese food I am feeling very inspired! Thank you (and your supportive hubby) for putting so much into this blog.
Just found your site and I have subscribed via email.
Hi Nami Happy New Year, this is the first time I knew about Shogatsu it is really good to know about other tradition…I do really love your blog and the step by step procedure of your delicious recipe…I also wanted to join on the game…about more improvement for me your blog is perfect. I hope I could read all your post [:))]congratulations and happy Anniversary[:p]
_________________________
I added cool smileys to this message… if you don’t see them go to: http://s.exps.me
Happy New Year Nami! I’ve been subscribed to your blog, on Facebook and on Twitter for awhile now. I love your recipes and I regularly use them. Just keep those recipes coming and I will be very happy.
I have so enjoyed your blog and recipes! I would like to see a blog about clay pot cooking with recipes.
Thanks for everything you do!
Tweeted 🙂
Congratulations on your 1 year anniversary!!! Your blog is SO well done…I can’t think of anything more you could do to improve it! Well….maybe more desserts….LOL!
Just tweeted for today! 🙂
And I am already subscribed on email 🙂
Happy 1st Blogiversary Nami! I am so happy for you on winning San Francisco’s most valuable blogger.. Just a year and you’ve achieved so much! I can’t think of anything to change your blog because it is so perfect already.. I always have a homely feeling while reading your posts 🙂
Do you know you are my first friend in the blog world? 🙂 I am still very new here and just like when you started, today even I don’t know much about it.. But it sure looks welcoming and that is because of sweet people like you..
tweet
https://twitter.com/#!/maynekitty/status/153807579225665537
Hi Nami, Happy 1st Blogiversary! I can’t believe that you just set up this blog one year ago! I also started blogging about a year ago. Just One Cookbook is one of my favorite food blogs that I’ve discovered during the past year. I really love the nice photography and your clear step-by-step instructions. As I always would like to learn Japanese home cooking, but not being able to read Japanese very well, your blog is almost like a gift for me! I wish you happy new year and very fruitful 2012 full of happiness. I’ll be following your blog closely this year too!
ps. I also entered a tweet!
email subscriber
Congrats. I can’t think of anything to improve your blog. Explanations and photos are always very clear and easy to understand. Love the ‘How To’ page. Maybe focus on using fruits and veggies that are in season, especially during summer months. Thanks
I just came across your blog last week. And I love it! ESpecially like your pantry section. Having pictures of the ingredients have been a real help. And love it when you mention the brand that you like to use. I just show the pictures to the folks at the Japanese market! Can’t wait to see what year 2 will bring!