So very Thankful and a Tezukuri Holiday

This year my boss was nice enough to give me the whole week of Thanksgiving off to  visit my hometown.  Many members of my extended family came from miles away to take part in the festivities.  For the most part everyone was always busy shopping, laughing, eating- we even had a group photo taken by one of my most dear and talented friends!  There was hardly a free moment to spare!  However, during the couple of days before everyone arrived I got to spend some time with my grandmother, who had a large part in raising me.  Sewing and cooking are among the things my grandma tried to teach me growing up (let's face it, I wasn't exactly a quick study...) and now I've been trying to pick up some of the things I should have learned back then.

Most of the Tuesday and Wednesday before the big day we spent making cookies by the dozen and lots of homemade pies.

Both the pecan and pumpkin pies have been honored guests at our feast for many many years.
The pumpkin recipe is from the 1956 2nd edition of Betty Crocker's Picture Cookbook, which has actually been reprinted recently....Maybe I should think about getting one?

The pecan pie; however, is not from this book, but instead from a newspaper article featuring the winners of a Pecan Pie Bake-Off.  Here's how to make it:

Pecan Pie

-        3 eggs, slightly beaten

-        ½ cup each white and light brown sugar

-        1 cup white Karo syrup

-        1 ½ tsp. vanilla

-        4 tbsp. margarine, melted

-        1 tbsp. all-purpose flour

-        1 ½ cups chopped pecans

1.  Mix eggs, sugar, syrup and flour.

2.  Add vanilla and pecans, then margarine.

3.  Pour into pie crust and bake at 350° for 50-55 min.

My waistline can attest to its deliciousness...


And in the evenings, after all our baking was through, I worked on these little guys:

These precious little things came as kits from The Cheswick Company.  For about $10 each you get almost everything you need to make them.  I don't think  I could get out of Hobby Lobby for less than that, but there are also e-patterns available for instant gratification straight to your inbox!  You can get them from Cathy Pandleton's Etsy shop which continually leaves me searching for loose change in the couch cushions to buy more!

And in the end I really couldn't think of a better way to spend my week than with my wonderful, crazy family making all sorts of lovely things!

A Lovely Hallo-weekend/お化け焼き弁当

Today is one of my favorite days: Halloween. 

However, since I've become an adult (sort of), I have found that most festivities surrounding the day place more emphasis on consuming alcoholic beverages than I generally care for.  I much preferred the days when we weren't too old for candy, trick-or-treating, and games that didn't involve jello shots.  So, this year I decided to forgo the typical parties and create my own festivities.  That works out just fine for me, as I'm not very good at parties anyway.

A festive Halloween:

A.  The Decorations:

  Random 'Pumpkin Flowers' purchased from the supermarket

B.  The Activities:

Coloring.  Still therapeutic after all these years.

C.  The Guests:

Richard Parker...

...and Lola make an appearance!







D.  The FOOD!

 Candy, pepitas...

 ...baked pumpkins filled with...




                                      


                 お化け焼き! ...little fried tofu ghosts!

Accompanied by asparagus stir fry and a quinoa and bell pepper pumpkin patch sprinkled with the homemade toasted pumpkin seeds! Truly an お化け焼き弁当 (obakeyaki bento), just right for a Halloween party for one!

And who knows where my Halloween adventures will lead, now that the sun is beginning to set?  (Maybe even Sonic 50-cent corndogs?  :)

Happy Halloween!

Halloween Horrors

Two weekends ago, a friend, her husband and I made a trip to Orlando for a wedding.  Of course, just about anyone traveling to Orlando feels the magical pull of Disney and Universal theme parks, and I was no exception.  As it is October, the parks were decorated fabulously for Halloween, and I couldn't resist exercising my photography skills (I use the word 'skills' very loosely).

Although my camera doesn't do well at night, (I tried adjusting the ISO/white balance, but it is just a point and shoot after all...) I did manage to get some good shots during the day.  And of course, where would I be without my friend Picnik?  I always have so much fun editing my photos, but I think sometimes I go overboard.  I guess the fun is all that matters!

Day at the Fair

A Healthy Autumn Bento and a Fashionable Lion

I guess I've been on a short, but unwilling hiatus from bento-ing, thanks in large part due to recent unusual work hours.  Necessary use of popular common use equipment forced me to arrive at work by 5 am each morning, which goes against everything my body believes in.  However, despite some uncomfortable effects on my circadian rhythms, I got through it relatively unscathed and was rewarded with some of the most beautiful data I've produced yet. 

Not everything has come to a complete halt as far as my crafting goes, however; I did manage a few nice things including my most recent bento:

(The tree is made of string cheese, salad mix, and carrots, and the mushrooms are made of broiled tofu! It actually didn't take long to prepare!)

and this "oshare na' (fashionable) lion.

This cutie was produced from this book: "Ehon no Kuni no Neigurumi," which I purchased from JapanLovelyCrafts' Etsy Shop.  This, as far as I can tell, is translated as "Stuffed toys from picture book land"  The book is actually full of instructions to make things from (assumedly popular) children's books.

This lion is from "Hadaka no Oosama," (the naked king) which is what I believe to be the Japanese version of "The Emperor's New Clothes." Stated in the instructions is the phrase:  Next to the king, there is always an "oshare na" lion.  So though he doesn't make an appearance in the American stories, one look at his stripey coat and I think his value is obvious :)

One Man's Egg is Another Man's Treasure

Today's bento is a little treasure bag made of thin omelet.  Inside?  Delicious curry chicken and rice leftover from my favorite Chinese Restaurant.  It's a little reminiscent of Japanese omu-raisu (omelet rice) but with a little less ketchup.

Also, as a switch from regular short-grain rice, this week I've got Red Quinoa.  I don't like the texture quite as much as rice, but what it lacks in fluffy texture it makes up for in nutrition.  With ~12g of protein per ~200 calorie serving, this is like a protein disguised as a carb! Usually I just have it plain, but being adventurous, I stir fried this with a little Pam and Soy Sauce.  Not to mention the cute sweet potato and squash cut outs and the sweet pickled beets from last week that make a flavorful appearance on my salad.

Additionally, I've been meaning to try out recipes from "Honnori no Wafuu no Okashi," a book I bought from a Japanese bookstore in L.A. that roughly translates to "slightly Japanese sweets," I believe. 

I tried out the Kintoki Imo no Chakin (Kintoki Sweet Potato in a tea towel?) today because the ingredients were readily available: Sweet Potato, Sugar, and Honey.  Mine aren't the same color as the picture because Kintoki sweet potatoes are golden, while mine are average American supermarket variety.  Anyway, I think I got them right, but maybe not!  Apparently you're supposed to use the tea towel to shape them, but I used Saran Wrap.  That's where the "tea towel" part comes in.

And I wonder if the word "okashi," or "kashi" for us less sophisticated ladies, which means "sweets," is where the word for the brand that we know and love for organic cereals, crackers, and granola bars originated? Nazo nazo da ne...

We got the beets!

No bentos this week because I went home so that my family and I could go to the Hope Watermelon Festival.

Mom, Kelly, and I got up at 4:30 on Saturday to make the long drive to Hope, Arkansas in time for the Watermelon 5k.  I ran it in 33min almost exactly and, while not fast by runners' standards, is kind of a personal best for me.

Unfortunately, Mom's blood sugar dropped too much from the long car ride and the 5k which brought on a migraine and we had to leave after only being there about an hour.  Because of this I don't have any pictures of the event. Though Mom was feeling bad, we did stop quickly at Burge's on the way back to get some sliced turkey and a turkey melt sandwich for me and Kelly.

And, my grandma gave me her recipe for sweet pickled beets this weekend, so that was my project after returning home this morning. 

If you like this kind of thing or know somebody who does, they're really easy to make:

Ingredients:

-3 cans of plain beets
-1 cup sugar
-1 cup vinegar
- whole Allspice

1. Pack beets into jars with a few pieces of whole allspice.
2. Bring vinegar and sugar to a boil.
3. When it boils, it's ready.  Just pour the syrup over the beets and put the lids on. 
They'll be ready to enjoy in a few days.


When I made these, I followed sterile jar technique so that I could keep them for a while.  However, my Grandma just does it when she needs a new jar and keeps in in the fridge, so either way works.

Beautiful Sunday

As promised, I'm presenting here last week's canning job.  Chocolate banana Jam, recipe from HappyHomeBaking.  It doesn't have the same visual appeal as fruit jams, but it's chocolate.  And bananas, which is why I kind of decided to go with the yellow and brown theme in the photograph.  My point and shoot is so dependent on natural light for good shots that it's hard to get good variety, so I just decided to have a lot of fun playing with the colors here.  Oh and I ate the chocolate in the photo as soon as I finished the shots.  Win-win :)

Because a couple of people were so pleased with these little octopus guys before (and because I felt I didn't do them justice the first time) I decided to try again, this time with takoyaki.  The takoyakis  are supposed to have octopus (tako) in them, but mine have turkey hot dog instead because I was just a little too lazy to fuss with the real thing. :) I have trouble turning them and getting them to become round, but in Japan they do it so fast!

Also, I managed to make some manjuu thanks to my Japanese teacher, who showed me how one day before my lessons.  These are just simple and filled with red bean paste, but I think they turned out pretty well!  I had quite a time making the bean paste; I thought I turned off the burner but I hadn't and found my apartment filled with burned-sugar smell (you know the one that reminds you of camping and roasting marshmallows?).  However, I was also trying to make some amanatto, which I needed for a recipe  I want to try, and those accidentally cooked to long and turned soupy.  The ingredients for both tsubuan paste and amanatto are the same, so I just stirred some of the soupy stuff into the dried up stuff and got a good consistency.  Maybe since it made so much, I'll try them with mochi next time!!

Mata raishu!

#3: 鬼ぎり (お握り!)

My third bento, which I'm calling "Onigiri," or "rice ball" bento.  Yes, you say, those are obviously onigiri.  However! Not only have I attempted making them; I have also attempted my first pun in Japanese! 

In the title of this post, in the the first word, "鬼ぎり," the first character can be read "oni" and means "demon" or "ogre."

A good look at the faces on these guys should tell you all you need to know about the logic behind my use of that character.

The second word in parentheses, お握り, is the real word for normal onigiri.

I'm not sure how well a native speaker would take this, but it kept me kind of entertained :)

Also, in other news, I'm apparently attempting to become a domestic goddess by grabbing anything I see and cramming it into jars. 

Last week's project was spiced peach preserves.  I added a little too much cinnamon, so they are almost like those red hots candies that break everyone's teeth, but not bad for my first solo attempt. 

I think the color is so pretty though!

I did some more canning today, but I think I'll save that for next week!

(Now if only I could can onigiri...)

#2: 20,000 leagues under the bento

I've noticed that one of the problems I have with making bentos is that I want to stuff the entire contents of my refrigerator into my little owl box.  While that would make lunch a fabulous lunch to rival Man v. Food, I don't think I have enough rubber bands to hold the lid on.

So, after narrowing down what I could, I proudly present to you Bento Number 2, affectionately known as 20 000 leagues under the sea/octopus bento. 

Using turkey hot dogs I somewhat skillfully fashioned a couple of little octopus characters. This is a pretty typical bento addition in Japan; mine didn't turn out quite how I envisioned them, but I think they turned out pretty cute anyway. Tamagoyaki makes an encore appearance this week and the vegetables feature gobo, lotus root, taro, and mushrooms, courtesy of our local Asian foods store.  I felt so adventurous buying and preparing them!



I'd also like to take some time to highlight what I consider to be the ingredient of the week: Enoki mushrooms!  I just think these little guys are so precious (not to mention delicious.

Tell me they don't look like something straight out of a Miyazaki film :)

The recipes I used for the vegetables and instructions for an octopus were found in this book; the pictures are a lot of fun even if you aren't making a bento yourself.