みなさんこんにちは。

今年度もいよいよ終わりが近づいてきましたね。

今週は小学生の子どもたちがまとめのリビュークイズ(復習テスト)

に取り組んでいます。

学んだことの中で吸収できていること、そうでないことをしっかり

確認してもらいたいと思います。

Eggtastic!

We eat a lot of eggs in my family. Scrambled, over easy, sunny side up, poached, hard boiled, omelets, egg salad, egg bakes, even Eggs Benedict. Because we eat so many eggs I decided to learn a little bit more about eggs. Here are a few of my favorite things I have learned about them recently that might be good for you to know, especially if you like eating eggs, too.

#1) For perfect scrambled eggs, always under-cook them. Even if they look too runny in the pan, they will continue cooking in their own heat as you serve them.

#2) Never beat eggs whites in an aluminum bowl. It will turn them gray.

#3) If you shake an egg and you can clearly feel movement inside, then it is old. You can tell because egg shells are porous and some of the moisture inside the egg will leave the egg over time and as what is left inside shrinks over time, it will leave a small air pocket in the egg.

#4) An egg that is only one or two days old will lay down horizontally in a glass of water, but at a 45 degree angle it is a week to 10 days old, but vertically if it is much older than that. This is also due to the air pocket formed in the egg.

#5) Very fresh eggs take longer to boil, so add an extra 30 seconds to what you would normally take to cook them.

#6) Because egg shells are porous, if you store them near anything with a strong smell, it will change the taste of the eggs.

#7) After cooking, if you have left over egg whites from one of your recipes, it is okay to freeze the egg white and use them again later.

#8) For total accuracy, many chefs use eggs by weight in recipes, not just the number of eggs called for.

And for a last bonus fact: If you are a fan of Batman, there was a villain created for the 1960’s Batman TV series called Egghead played by one of my favorite actors of all time, Vincent Price. The character was known by his very pale, totally bald head and for always wearing a white and yellow suit. He claimed to be “the world’s smartest criminal,” and his crimes would usually have an egg theme. He would use many egg puns while speaking, such as “egg-splode”, “egg-zactly” and “egg-cellent.” Additionally, he would use a wide variety of egg-shaped weapons, such as laughing gas eggs and tear gas eggs. The tear gas eggs were said to be laid by chickens fed on a diet of onions.

That’s all for me! I hope you all learned something interesting or at least something new about your good friend, the humble egg.

John

啓蟄（けいちつ）の日を知っていますか？

気温が上がり、土の中にいた虫が地上に出てくる日だといわれています。

去年の12月ごろ、家に迷い込んできたカタツムリを虫かごで飼っていました。

土を敷いて、カタツムリが好きだといわれる卵の殻とほうれん草を入れて、

カタツムリはすくすくと育っていましたが、土の中にもぐってしまい姿が

見えなくなってしまいました。

啓蟄（けいちつ）の日が３月６日だったので、土の中で眠っているであろう

カタツムリがそろそろひょっこりと出てくるのを楽しみにしています。

Whenever my family or friends get together, we love to play/try out different board games. Two board games that I’ve been getting antsy to play again are Arkham Horror and The Castles of Burgundy. The two are vastly different games. The first is a cooperative game where you fighting against the game board (which almost always wins because defeating Lovecraftian horrors is virtually impossible); the latter, a competitive game where you assume the role of a French aristocrat trying to develop and expand your princedom before the other players.

Arkham Horror is definitely a frustrating game – a game that you gives you some shred of hope before dashing that feeling into the netherworlds of Lovecraft’s designs.

The Castles of Burgundy pits people against each other, and, more often than not creates thread-bare alliances that sever with the beginning of each turn. Compared to Arkham Horror, it doesn’t take three plus hours to play.

-Me winning The Castles of Burgundy :))))))

-Kyle

３月に入り少しずつ春らしくなってきましたね！

春と言えばお花見、ということで今回は瑞穂市にある一夜城で毎年３月の末から

開催される桜祭りのお話をしたいと思います。

私は幼い頃からよく、家族や友達とこの桜祭りに毎年のように言っていました。一夜城の近くには堤防沿いに、桜の木が何本も並んでいます。なので堤防を通るたびに

桜吹雪が舞いとても綺麗です。また、一夜城というお城を背景に見る桜は、何だかとても

日本らしくて、毎年見るのをとても楽しみにしています。

実はここ数年タイミングが合わず、通りすがりに見ることはあってもきちんとお祭りに行けない年が続いています。なので今年こそは、行こうと思っているので皆さんもぜひお時間があれば一夜城でお花見をしてみてください！