And So It Begins . . .

And then I discovered Bento. MU HA HA.

The concept behind bento is to: 1) for adults: make food look so appetizing that you WANT to eat it and 2) for kids: make food look so CUTE that you WANT to eat it. And when I say cute - I mean cute. Hello-kitty, carrot stars, and little cats cut out of baloney cute.

The funniest part of the whole story being that I found a site called Adventures in Bento Making - and the author happened to be bemoaning her strange obsession with bento - which apparently includes insane behaviors like taking pictures of food you create and posting it on-line. And I felt oddly at home. Seriously - click on the link and take a moment to look at her lunches! OMG!!

(And yes - I've already placed an order for some bento making equipment. FEAR ME!!!!)

But before anyone laughs at my new obsessions . . . look at the following:

Bag of Gyoza (potstickers) $3.79. (With enough pieces to feed a 3-person family for two meals)
Shelled Edamame $1.27 (Ditto. . . )
Cup of Rice $0.50
Dumpling Sauce $2.79 (Which, given the amount needed per meal, will probably live in my refrigerator for months.)

20 minutes of cooking time . . . . and VOILA!


PRICELESS.

And not only am I officially posting pictures of my food . . . I have a SECOND new obsession as well. Please take a moment to notice the kawaii (cute) soy sauce dish I found at Pacific Mercantile. I've always been able to resist knick-knacks because they aren't functional. Well not anymore! MU HA HA.

Whoa nelly . . . let the obsession . . . er collection begin!

My First Day of Staycation and Thoughts on Asian Cuisine

Originally I was taking A. to Las Vegas to see his grandmother. Then I remembered he started Kindergarten on the 19th, so pulling him out of school for three days at the beginning of the school year was probably not the best of ideas. Silly blasted education. (I won't admit how many other appointments I had to reschedule from the same brain fart. At least most of the receptionists were kind enough to hang up before they laughed at me). A.'s school instituted a new quasi-dress code - the boys can only wear white and navy blue shirts (solid colors) and khaki or navy blue shorts/pants (no jeans). He looks so cute! (Tika just looks lost - which is her default expression). First and second day of school!



A long story short . . . the trip went, but the PTO stayed - so I am enjoying my first ever Staycation.

So far, I like. I do a few housechores, play on the computer, do a few more chores, watch some anime, do a few more chores, prepare dinner . . . I could get used to this!

And speaking of dinner - I recently purchased a book of Asian recipes because it seems that a) Asian food is healthier, b) Asian food is cheaper, and c) Asian portions tend to be smaller (and yet VERY filling). Since there is not a lot of meat readily available in Japan (I won't speak to Korea, China, Vietnam, etc.) there tends to be a heavier reliance on vegetables, rice, and spices. So the very first step was to actually stock my larder with some standard Asian cooking materials. This led to a fascinating hour wandering around the Pacific Mercantile market learning how ingredients are categorized (let's see . . . this aisle is seaweed and curry - alrighty, then). Luckily, most of the labels sport English translations - but I'm confident enough in my hiragana and katakana that I think I could have located all of my ingredients even without the assistance, which is a neat feeling. Four grocery bags later (I bought sesame oil, chile oil, two kinds of sesame seeds, daikon radish, tofu, green onions, fresh ginger, canned pink sushi ginger (MMMMMMMmmmmmm), rice vinegar, mirin, srirracha sauce, frozen dumplings, frozen edamame, dumpling dipping sauce, and a 1/2 gallon of soy - okay, maybe not a half-gallon - but it's a huge bottle!) - the register rang up at around $40.00. Oh, yeah. I could get used to that!

And my first experiment was a sweet sesame tofu dish with a side of daikon/carrot salad. Aside from the fact that "sweet" apparently meant "burn your tastebuds off hot (the recipe called for a tablespoon of chile oil), it turned out beautifully and tasted wonderful!


Of course . . . if I keep this up, I'll actually have an excuse to buy all of the absolutely adorable Japanese serving ware at the Pacific Mercantile. MU HA HA!!!

The following day I decided to experiment with making cupcakes (a totally non-Asian food in practically every way) based off a recipe from the book Hello, Cupcake! Behold - the first batch of butterfly cupcakes!

For someone who lived off of Raviolis and fast food for 1/3 of her life . . . I'm not doing too badly! The funny part is, I think I might take to Asian cooking like a took to Japanese. For some reason - it makes sense to me. I like the ingredients. I love the recipes - and for someone who is usually a little timid about trying new things - I've actually enjoyed the experimentation. And as for the cupcakes . . . the book gets all the credit. It is filled with brilliant and easy ideas for making eye-popping cupcakes. And I definitely need to practice - A. is already demanding shark cupcakes for his birthday! (The sharks are so cute! They include blue frosting, water dingies, sailboats, and red and white rescue donates to help set the scene.

Don't worry - if I make the shark cupcakes, there will be pictures. Apparently I can't stop myself from taking pictures of my culinary creations. Heh.

This Intermission Brought to You By . . .

The technological world - ever changing. Our hobbies. Our interests. Our children growing up . . . This intermission is brought to you by the advent of Facebook and my child officially starting Kindergarten. In all honesty, I will probably shut down my blog fairly soon - I'm not updating near as much as I used to - and I think it has served its purpose for several years. Now I just need to figure out how to capture the information so my favorite entries can be added to a real journal. Regardless . . . the rest of August will be mostly devoted to two things - me finally getting a vacation (a go nowhere - stay at home - and do whatever I feel like doing vacation) - and adjusting to new schedules. Can you believe I kept forgetting my child is entering the school system - and so I kept making doctor appointments and vacation plans for AFTER he started school?! Heh. At least my pain has provided amusement for several others.

All of this to say - I'm still here! I'm just having to be selective about where my time is going, and unfortunately, Blogger is not ranked high on the list at the moment. For those who know my real name - I've joined Facebook, and you can look for quirky comments there. Otherwise - we'll see if the muse strikes me and I wish to continue my blog - or if I let it fade. (And feel free to weigh in on the decision. If you enjoy reading my blog, I'd love to hear it!)

Jaa mata! (See you later). Kyuugatsu kamoshiranai (Maybe in September . . . ).