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!

Mayorer

You know in the past there was a craze in Japan where people put mayonnaise on everything? Maki wrote about it on her blog, and I thought, hmm ... I think I will fit in very well, since I put mayo on a lot of things as well. My favorite of course is Kewpie, but it gets expensive, so I enjoy the Fat Free Kraft mayo as well. There is a slight texture difference in the fat free kind. It feels lighter, fluffier and less creamy on the tongue, and slightly more sour (?) but overall nothing different. Plus it's healthier! Ha ... well not really.

So far I've seen people look at me oddly when I eat:

French fries with mayo
Corndogs/Hot dogs with mayo
Spaghetti with mayo
Rice with mayo (but to be fair california temaki is rice, ebikko, vege, and mayo)
and of course, not to sound trailer-parkish ... but mayo sandwich!

Am I a "mayorer"? I think so!

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I'm currently hunting for a Zojirushi rice cooker, so anyone out there who has experience with these rice cookers, please enlighten me on the ones with the best value. My rice cooker has not been working right ever since Stewie climbed the dining table and flung it to the floor. -_-; And yes, I have my rice cooker right on my dining table for easy access. ke ... ke.

Konnyaku & Bento

My son, making a funny face at the bright flash of the camera, or posing ... drinking warm milk out of a tea cup. He loves it because the cup is just his size!


I finally, finally bought molds to use with the konnyaku jelly mix my mother gave me from Malaysia. This stuff ... hardens WAY too fast!!! I painted over some with food coloring. Aren't they just so darned cute?


A closeup of the kitty face! The mold is all about cats and cat related things. There was a dog one too but I thought these were cuter. Nya~


Using the fish mold my mum gave me as well. There was way too much mix in the package!

This was tonight's dinner bento. I know, I know it doesn't look like much either but it took me a whole freakin day! We went to the park at around 11am after he finished his breakfast, then I went shopping for new bento toys (about 60 bucks worth of scissors, stampers and molds) then came home and worked on the wonton goldfish, gave Stewie lunch, worked on the spinach. By that time it was 3pm, and hubby came home, while Stewie was napping. Made the rice, packed everything nicely ... then went to start my surveys. By that time it was 6pm and Stewie woke up from nap, and so I went upstairs to play with him a little bit. But I ended up passing out instead! And now awake at 11pm. >_<>

Close up of the domokuns ... haha, yeah I know the cheese isn't uniform, but I was trying to work fast.

There's spinach on the upper left. My gripe is there wasn't enough veggies, but hubby doesn't like em, and there's only so much that Stewie will eat that is raw vegetables. He hates cherry tomatoes, and has spit out all the non-pureed veges I've fed him. The crowning glory though, is that my husband did in fact polish off his ENTIRE bento box. :)

Second Launch

Now to make this place as interesting as the Xanga.

So the past week, I got bonked on the noggin again with things I meant to do but never pulled through with *cough damn resolutions cough* Such as? (where is the damn strikethrough key?)

• Getting haircut and donating it to Locks of Love
• Switching to Blogger from Xanga
• Learn how to make OBento Thanks Pikko!
• Update my whole wardrobe
• Wear more accent jewelry I make my own too.
• LOSE WEIGHT! (funny how this is a caps lock enabled priority huh?)
• Beat every song in Guitar Hero 2 with 5 Stars (my left hand is now temporarily a claw)
• Stop playing Neopets >_> (ya not possible)
• Find a job
• Drive with a valid license *whistles innocently*
• Like myself more
• Obssess(sp) less about the future

I ADMIT I SUCK AT HOUSEWORK! Yes, today I just sat down on the bed, looked at the place and totally admitted it, while muttering under my breath, picking up all the mess that Stewie made while I was still fuzzy with sleep and didn't want to get up.

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So, I sped off to the Japanese store and bought a bunch of goodies to replenish my supply. I had to make Onigiri as they are one of my favorite things to make and eat. Is this not festive for Independance Day?

I should color some to make red and blue. Tee hee this is so much fun! They had umeboshi filling because I was rushing due to somebody.

Also, I thought this was cool as hell, the leftover seaweed looks so military.

This is my monkey enjoying his onigiri. He was starving when I was trying to get the food together. He gorged himself on two onigiri and some turkey breast slices and cheese as well as a cup of pureed spinach. He's not putting on any weight though ...

This is my first attempt at making a nice Bento for Sean. I know it looks so kiddy-like, but I really need to get more cutters! Tomorrow's Mission! It is pork balls on a bed of baby spinach, with baby carrot, turkey breast, cheese, shio goma furikake on rice.

My lunch tomorrow:

... because nattou is the best thing for my body right now.

Stewie's bento consists of an onigiri similar to mine, a bed of spinach, and this:

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O_o why does Blogger always put spaces under sentences where I didn't see them before? Grr.

I remember ...

Back when I said I would move all my posts over here. Don't think I really ever did that successfully. Nabemono is a hotpot, which is what this blog will continue to be. Reading up on what to tag this blog has made me aware of a few things however. Like I should definitely focus on my cooking, parenting, photog, art and poetry.

To Blogger, well done! I finally enjoy posting here a lot more seeing as the layout has more of a "managed" feel about it. The ease of customizability really works in your favor this time around. The areas are highlighted very well, allowing for realtime GUI interaction. I love that you can add more elements if you wish, and/or update the ones you have. No longer will lay users be baffled by the lack of HTML knowledge!

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Getting 5 Stars in all the songs on Guitar Hero 2 in Easy is not as (easy) as it seems! Pun intended. It takes a lot of time, especially mastering the Face Melters. I can imagine that Medium and Hard will take so much longer for me.

Honestly how many girls do YOU know that game seriously. Hell if I could be a game tester or reviewer for a living that would rock so hard. Ah well being a Secret Shopper is great too.

Spaghetti con Frutti

This is actually my own modified version of aglio olio in that substitute for fresh basil I used spinach instead, and tossed in some grilled chicken breast strips as well as a few fresh green grapes for that sweet and sour note. Delicious!

You will need: (Serves 4)
4 servings Whole wheat spaghetti (or any kind of pasta if you prefer)
3 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil (the fresher the better)
4 cloves Chopped garlic
1/4 tsp Dried chili flakes
1/4 tsp Fennel seeds
1 tsp Parsley (dried or otherwise)
1 tsp Dried basil
2 cup Baby spinach
1 cup Sliced seedless green grapes (red for more color)
1 whole Grilled chicken breast, with salt and pepper and no skin
Optional: 1/2 cup diced red bell peppers

Sautee olive oil, garlic, chili, peppers, fennel, parsley, basil in a shallow pan. Add in chicken breast and spinach at the last minute. The warm heat will slightly wilt the spinach but that's okay.

Toss it into the drained and cooked spaghetti. Top off with the sliced grapes and serve.

Zuppa Toscana

Ick ... I am addicted to this Zuppa Toscana stuff that Olive Garden makes and I reproduced in our kitchen. Sean does not like it (as usual) but Stewie does! So I share it with the little man.







Makes: 6-8 servings
INGREDIENTS
1 lb ground Italian sausage
1½ tsp crushed red peppers
1 large diced white onion
4 Tbsp bacon pieces
2 tsp garlic puree
10 cups water
5 cubes of chicken bouillon
1 cup heavy cream
1 lb sliced Russet potatoes, or about 3 large potatoes
¼ of a bunch of kale or mustard greens

1. Sautee Italian sausage and crushed red pepper in pot. Drain excess fat, refrigerate while you prepare other ingredients.
2. In the same pan, sautee bacon, onions and garlic for approximately 15 mins. or until the onions are soft.
3. Mix together the chicken bouillon and water, then add it to the onions, bacon and garlic. Cook until boiling.
4. Add potatoes and cook until soft, about half an hour.
5. Add heavy cream and cook until thoughouly heated.
6. Stir in the sausage.
7. Add kale just before serving. Delicious!

Paan Mien

Suddenly this craving for paan mien (a poor man's food with everything thrown in) is spread out across the recipe blogs. Of course it made me hunger for it as well. Here is my own take on the dish as I substituted udon noodles instead of the normal "torn" dough pieces. It gives the dish a chewy bite that goes splendidly with the smooth strong aroma of the soup, which should be the highlight and VIP of the dish to begin with!