Time for our last introductory post! Our final image for the year is a New Year's tradition till today. I'm really not sure if they still actually pound mochi in Japan, but I'm aware of families that still practice this custom here in Hawaii. I think it's really cool that people will go through all that time and effort to make mochi. To find out more about mochi pounding check out this link...
Until I moved to Hilo, I never knew anyone that really made mochi. Even going to my husband's grandmother's house to make mochi using the machine was a big deal to me as I have never made mochi before. I guess it's not just the mochi itself, it's everything that goes with it.... Going to Bachan's, eating Jook before we start making the mochi. Now the tradition has moved to my mother-in-law's house, but we pretty much do the same thing. I remember not knowing "how" to form them correctly, but I guess I've graduated since most of the seasoned mochi makers have moved away. Luckily my sister-in-law always comes home for New Year's, so we end up forming most of the patties. See!?
As you can see, we are not mochi pounders... we cheat and use machines...
We've gotten creative over the years.. not only do we make regular mochi and mochi with an, we've graduated to peanut butter, peanut butter and chocolate, and snickers... I think I see some cookie butter mochi in our future this year. See how much fun we have?
For all the more traditionalists.. this stamp is for you! I gotta say, this stamp is quite large, so it will fill up an A2 sized card no problem! I fussy cut the image, but you could probably separate the two kids if you wanted to. Decide to turn this card into an easel calendar. Added a 2014 laser cut by Island Scrapbooking and a mini calendar to hold the easel up.
Here's a closer look at the image.
And of course, after all that hard work, we eat the mochi! Here's one of the other traditions of New Year's that we follow. You are supposed to eat Ozoni or mochi soup in the new year. Many families eat it right at midnight, but we usually wait till the next morning to eat our soup. Mmmmm.... I guess one of these days I need to find out how to make this.
Now I want some soup! Want to thank my sister-in-law for taking all of these photos. Photo credit- Stefanie Sakamoto.
If you would like a chance to win this image, all you have to do is:
1) Leave a comment on THIS POST by 11:59pm HST by 10/31/13; and
2) Tell me if you've ever made mochi... if so, do you pound?
