Saturday: Viron

No running, of course, but definitely a week-on-week improvement in my right leg. Friday, by walking only somewhat more slowly than usual, I could arrive at work without pain, and other walking pain that day was more numbness than tear-inducing pain, so I'm optimistic that I'll be able to run again. I'm hoping that I'll be able to walk normally for reasonable distances by next weekend. Still working out inside, both upper-body exercises (although I'm doing push-ups from the knees) and a lot of squats.

Saturday, I went out to Mitsukoshi for another form for tarts (not actually a tart form: Cuoca lists it as for brioche). I wanted exactly one more, and that's exactly what they had of that size, probably because I bought seven last weekend. And I bought another half kilogram of pecan halves.

At Mitsukoshi, I got also a Dalloyau croissant, which was great (but no picture, sorry), beautifully layered and flaky and only 216 yen. So they and Fraoula have the best croissants that I've found, and I need to try Lettre d'Amour's again.

The store cake for today was from Viron again, Chiboust Poire Vinrouge for 648 yen. Inside the chiboust are large slices of wine-red pear (I assume from red wine, but I haven't read the card all the way through yet). It's both simple and complex. I don't think this is a regular item, so get it while you can.

At home, I made pecan tarts using my small forms. I used a pecan pie filling from Better Homes & Gardens and the crust is from one of my mixer cookbooks, although it came out very crumbly this time, due to being very cold in the room, so I didn't really mix until smooth, but just until I had fine crumbs that I could form into balls with the heat of my hands. I wonder if my cheap 100-yen shop eggs are also a factor, since maybe other eggs have bigger yokes. Anyway, I'm not sure that a more solid crust would be better (and I don't know how to make flaky crusts).

Also, I made pizza. It's the best use of cherry tomatoes I know and shiitake are great, although I'll try pre-grilling them a couple minutes less next time, and I'll take the trouble to make garlic and red pepper tofu cubes instead of using almonds.