Maple Pork and Kow Neuw Mamuang

It's what we had for dinner last night. Maple glazed pork tenderloin with cheesy eggplant and garlic green beans.

For dessert I had some ripened mangoes in a paper bag so I decided to make one of my favorite desserts when my family would go to Thailand ... Kow Neuw Mamuang! Mango and sticky rice. Soooooo delicious. This recipe is very simple, so anyone can do it. Instead of sticky rice, I was using what I had on hand at the moment, which was, sushi rice! Just as soft and fragrant.

INGREDIENTS: (Serves 4)
1 cup sticky rice/sushi rice works too
1 cup water for cooking rice (or follow your rice cooker instructions)

2 ripe mangoes, sliced and chilled (important!)
1 can coconut milk
3 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds to garnish

I) I had cooked the sushi rice in the ricepot as usual.

II) While that was going on, I heated the can of coconut milk with sugar and salt until it boiled, then put on simmer for 5 minutes.


III) After the rice was cooked, I added in a portion of the coconut milk mixture until the rice became somewhat mushy and moist and folded it in so it was evenly coated.


IV) Next came toasting the sesame seeds, on low heat, make sure to stir often, or you can just buy pre-toasted seeds. I prefer toasting it myself because then you get the intense freshness of the seeds.

V) And finally, to put it all together on a plate! Voila~ I drizzled about a tablespoon of leftover coconut milk on the rice and mango, then dusted it with sesame seeds. Delicious!!!

Hainanese Chicken Rice / Eggplant Steak / Work Hard Bento

Heh heh ... this was yesterday night's dinner. I seem to be getting better at making the chicken tender and moist and just as delicious as the kind from back home! The rice was so fragrant and tender, so uh ... I kind of dug in before remembering to snap a photo. The untouched one is Sean's.

Complete with 2 sauces! XD Excelsior

---
Last night's dinner was somewhat vegetarian. Simply because I was going to make dijon pork chops, but the pork tenderloins were not defrosted in time so I improvised ... eggplant chops with dijon mustard, it turned out really really delicious, so much so that Stewie finished his entire slab of eggplant, his rice and edamame.

Sean did not care for it too much, though.
I used the leftover rice (there is always a ton in each side serving package **sigh) heated up more edamame, threw in some hotdogs, and made this nice bento for Sean to take to work tomorrow.

Colorful! Now some kind people please send me cheap Bento boxes so this can be even more fun >_> LOL

---

It is all about food today huh, hmm ... I have been suffering from PMS so been fatigued more than usual and sleeping more. I did, however, manage to miss Stewie's dental appointment and will have to reschedule. We have booked and paid for the hotel in Myrtle Beach for the second week of August (when Kirsty comes!!!) and I just planned our itineraries. With the help of Priceline, I was able to find a hotel room for only $60 a night!!! We are going to try to share the room, and that will make it cost around $35 per person for both nights total. That is an unbelievably good deal.
Hmm ... pretty ... my first self-manicured French nails.

It was a reward to myself after deleting Colleen from my life. Wow, I sure do go through friends like water. Maybe it is because I hate Augusta so much ... that I kind of reflect that hatred subconsciously, and everything to do with Augusta I detest, and people sense it in me. The other day I called U-Haul to rent a truck for this weekend so I can finally toss our couch out, and the girl on the other end had such an uneducated drawl/accent that I absolutely had to hang up, and then beg Sean for help. He somehow can understand the slang and hear through it (that is because he is awesome, and is great at his job tee hee) but almost always, I find myself crying for help when it comes to trying to talk to these people. It is not quite the Southern slang, because I understand Paula Deen perfectly well >_> it is that weird uneducated accent that people pick up that sounds like they are too lazy to even enunciate, I feel like taking a bat to their face screaming "SPEAK UP?! I CAN'T UNDERSTAND A WORD YOU'RE SAYING!!!" /end rant.

Family Bento!

So darned cute!!! I took these to the playground today so we could picnic on them while Stewie played around.

Happy Independance Day!!!

Will update tomorrow!
Tonight I farmed Enraged Water Elementals for Motes of Water in Shadowmoon Valley until my eyes grew heavy, and I only got 3 stacks. Darn World of Warcraft, leeching me away from making bentos. I have a bento in mind for tomorrow all ready though, as well as photos and videos to come.

My July 4th was awesome! What about yours?

Happy Bento

The sausage kind of warped a little bit while cooking, sadly. I should have thought of cooking first, then cutting. It is so cute though! There are little tulip nori sprinkled on the rice. The border is flaked salmon with teriyaki seasoning and sesame seeds. Some steamed veges left over from making the cheese cups (upper right) The cheese cups are just steamed broccoli, cauliflower and baby carrots, tossed in margarine and I sprinkled cheese shavings on them and nuked. The left one is the fruit cup, with mango, clementines and grapes. Too much yellow and not enough red though!

I will keep trying!