beautiful.

I'm having a wonderful day and these photos, taken from Misao the Big Mama and Fukumaru the Cat, make my heart so happy and full of love.

Taken from Little More Books: 

Thirteen years ago, photographer Miyoko Ihara began snapping pictures of the budding relationship between her now 88-year-old grandmother, Misa, and her odd-eyed kitten, Fukumaru. Since Misa found the cat abandoned in a shed, the pair have barely ever been apart. Their beautiful friendship is documented in a photo book, Misao the Big Mama and Fukumaru the Cat.

12 years ago, Miyoko Ihara has started to take photographs of her grandmother, Misa. Miyoko wanted to leave a living proof of her.
One day, her grandmother found a odd-eyed kitten in the shed.

She named the cat "Fukumaru" in hope that "God of fuku(good fortune) comes and everything will be smoothed over like maru(circle)".
Even thought she is 87 years old, she still go out into the fields everyday, and Fukumaru always accompany her.
Green fields, blooming flowers and plump fruits ... in the colorful, diverse landscape, the life of an old lady and a cat is captured in the photographs.
It has been 8 years since they first met.
The grandmother whose hearing become weak and Fukumaru who has hearing disabilities are always looking into each other's eyes and feeling warmth each other.
When the white cloud float across the blue sky, the grandmother and her cat go out in the filed today too.

See more of the wonderful photos  >> here.

really good bread.

If you're on Pinterest, you know this bread. You've seen it pinned again and again. When we went on vacation in September to Saturna, I brought my Le Creuset dutch oven along for the trip with the sole purpose of making bread.

It was worth it. This bread is really, really good. Too good even. It's ridiculously easy to make, way too easy to eat hot from the oven with butter. So good, that I took a break from making it because we were eating too much of it.

I followed Simply So Good's instructions exactly, her easy to follow photos make it idiot proof. I've made a bunch of variations, my dad has been making a really amazing honey raisin version, but hands down, my favourite was when I added onions, cheese and black pepper. Here's the recipe.

Onion, Cheddar and Black Pepper Bread

adapted from Simply So Good

3 cups unbleached all purpose flour

1 3/4 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon yeast

1 cup largely grated aged white cheddar

2 green onions, finely chopped

1/4 white onion, finely chopped

a generous grinding of black pepper - about a teaspoon  

1 1/2 cups water

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, salt and yeast.

All cheese, onions and pepper, mix well. 

Add water and mix until a shaggy mixture forms.  Cover bowl with plastic wrap and set aside for 12 - 18 hours.  Overnight works great.  

Heat oven to 450 degrees.  When the oven has reached 450 degrees place a cast iron pot with a lid in the oven and heat the pot for 30 minutes.  Meanwhile, pour dough onto a heavily floured surface and shape into a ball.  Cover with plastic wrap and let set while the pot is heating.  Remove hot pot from the oven and drop in the dough.  Cover and return to oven for 30 minutes.  After 30 minutes remove the lid and bake an additional 15 minutes.  Remove bread from oven and place on a cooling rack to cool.