My Japanese New Year Feast - A Lewis Tradition

Having been married for 41years to a Japanese-American, New Years to the Japanese ( and myself) is very special and is celebrated ( on New Years Day) in a big way.
Japanese New Year's food is called osechi-ryori, and colorful osechi-ryori dishes are packed in layers of lacquer boxes, called jubako. Each dish and ingredient in osechi has meaning, such as good health, fertility, good harvest, happiness, long life, and so on. The kinds of osechi dishes eaten at Japanese homes vary from region to region.
It's a Japanese tradition to eat osechi-ryori throughout the New Year's holidays (until Jan. 3.) Traditionally, people finish cooking osechi dishes by New Year's Eve so that they have food for a couple days without cooking. Most of the dishes can last a couple days in the refrigerator or at cool room temperature. Nowadays, people buy ready-made osechi dishes at stores instead of cooking them at home. It can be time-consuming to cook so many kinds of dishes. You can even order a set of osechi-ryori at department stores, grocery stores, or convenience stores.

Osechi Dishes

• Kobumaki - Kelp Rolls
• Kuromame - Simmered Black Beans
• Datemaki - Rolled Sweet Omelet

• Kurikinton - Mashed Sweet Potato with Sweet Chestnuts)

• Kinpira Gobo - Braised Burdock

• Tazukuri - Candied Dried Sardines

• Namasu - Pickled Daikon Radish and Carrot

• Nimono - Simmered Dish

Nimono includes gobo (burdock root), satoimo (taro), renkon, carrots, shiitake mushrooms, and more. Oh! my gosh, so much more.....................you spend all day eating, I mean all day!!!

Eat Your Last Meal NOW! What Would Be Your Last Meal?

In her newest book ( I Love Nora Ephron), Ms. Ephron talks about getting old and eating your last meal now, instead of later, she writes..
"You do get to a certain point in life where you have to realistically, I think, understand that the days are getting shorter, and you can't put things off thinking you'll get to them someday," she says. "If you really want to do them, you better do them. There are simply too many people getting sick, and sooner or later you will. So I'm very much a believer in knowing what it is that you love doing so you can do a great deal of it."For Ephron, there was a moment that helped bring that realization vividly home. She was with friends, playing a round of "What would your last meal be?"

(Her pick, by the way: a Nate & Al's hot dog.) "But (my friend) Judy was dying of throat cancer, and she said, 'I can't even have my last meal.' And that's what you have to know is, if you're serious about it, have it now," Ephron says. "Have it tonight, have it all the time, so that when you're lying on your deathbed you're not thinking, 'Oh I should have had more Nate & Al's hot dogs.'"
This set me to thinking ( as I love food and think about it all thew time) what would be my last meal....
My picks to follow....what are yours?