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Back in business bento

2010-07-20T20:41:32Z

Ahoy bentolings!

We've been living in a chaotic whirlwind the last few weeks due to getting the entire house painted. Needless to say, bento'ing in a crazy house wasn't going to happen. I think even my kitchen was depressed. The lights seemed just a bit dimmer and I swear the stove was boiling water slower.

The job was finally finished on Saturday night. We had to camp out in a blanket/pillow nest in the living room over the weekend. Normally that would seem fun... if you're twelve and don't have back issues. Well, it was fun, even though I felt like Tong Po broke me in half over his knee the next morning.

So the last couple days we've been shifting and cleaning and getting the place out of chaos mode. Feels good! So good in fact, I broke out the bento arsenal and made a quick one to ease myself back into it. It's not fancy and there aren't any faces or anything. Just a simple, delicious lunch. I didn't realize how much I missed making them! Hopefully nothing will cause another hiatus.

I made a really lovely sun dried tomato and basil ravioli dish for dinner tonight. It had a white wine pesto cream sauce with fresh garden peas. I know it sounds bad for you, but there's a trick I use to make it healthy and still taste great. No butter, no milk, no cheese apart from a little bit of Parmesan on top. I put aside a few for the bentos. There is a little diced up chicken, salad o'plenty and the token tiny, so tiny cupcake. YUM!

Of course the kitties weren't pleased about the painting. I had to put them in jail for the majority of the day for two weeks! Yuki meowed pretty much the entire day until her little voice sounded hoarse, followed by her throwing herself at the door in an attempt at escape. The only time she was quiet when in lock up was when she was in one of the bedrooms and could curl up under the covers like a pretzel.

Until next time!
<3

Cap'n bun bun bento

2010-06-14T21:06:05Z

Ahoy long lost bentolings!

I've finally equipped my bento utility belt and cape. Not really, but I would if I had either of those things. Life has been pretty hectic lately. The TT race is finally over, thank goodness. All the crazy biker folk are starting to make their way back to where ever they come from. I'm fairly certain some come from the moon. Driving isn't nearly as terrifying as it was the last two weeks.

Of course now that that's over, a new trauma will begin. We're getting our house painted starting tomorrow. That means we've been tearing down trinkets and books and generally ripping the whole nest apart. I for one hate situations like this. I like things in their place and clutter organized. This is going to drive me mad. It will be worth it in the end I'm sure. Or, it will be a giant disaster. Never can tell in the whimsy land of DIY. Actually, we're not doing ourselves. It's more like DIWAPP (Do It with a Paid Professional). That's definitely more our style.

I decided I had better get some bento making time in before the kitchen is a war zone. I've missed making them! At lunch time today I stopped in M&S for some bento supplies and a (soggy/ick) sammich. I saw these amazingly cute tiny carrots with the green tops still attached. It inspired me to make a Cap'n Bun Bun™ bento. Those not familiar with the Cap, he's my favorite inanimate object. Here he is dressed as a gangsta.

I had to make him look happy since he found some carrots bigger than him. It's like bunny euphoria I'm sure. I sculpted him out of rice, ham for the pink ears and nose and nori face. The flowers are carrots and spinach centers. Some steamed broccoli and a tomatoberry. I've not tried these before, but they are tomatoes shaped like strawberries! Another lovely find from Marksies. My love for exotic produce is boundless.

On the other side is tiny sandwich cubes with a smaller carved carrot and cheese/spinach flowers. Also a so tiny vanilla cupcake to end the lunch with a slight sugar bang. Only 100 calories for them, so I won't feel too guilty.

Did someone say Chocobo cupcakes?

2010-06-03T19:19:42Z

Ahoy!

As you can probably tell, I'm vacationing from my bento making this week. I was rather busy this weekend with family fun and this week is another story. There are situations that come about while living on the Isle of Sheep. One of them being the annual TT race. It's the biggest two weeks on the island and if you're a resident here... a total nightmare. Half the island gets shut down because the whole place is the race course. It's crazy motorcycle people in leather pant nightmares every where you turn.

Because it's TT practice week I've been working from home. It's very dangerous to drive as the people that come here with their bikes pretend to be TT racers and almost kill you/themselves on the roads. Since I haven't been going to work and working here, packed lunches aren't really a necessity this week. I take my hour lunch break and whip us something up to eat. No time for pictures and my grilled cheeses are camera shy!

This past weekend I did have some culinary fun that I can share. I wanted to prepare some cupcakes for snow's sister and husband who are visiting the island for a while. It was her birthday Monday (same as my Mom's! Hooray for having to memorize less dates because I suck!) I knew their Mum was going to prepare a special cake so I didn't want to go too crazy. I got a yellow cake recipe off my lovely sis who is a baking genius. She wanted me to do this really complicated icing recipe, but I got spooked by ingredients/steps and went with a traditional buttercream.

Here's the thing, I think one of my most embarrassing moments as a human being was because of cake. I had just arrived on the island and was to attend a celebration dinner at his Mother's house. I was convinced she didn't like me and I was desperate to make a good impression. I decided to bring a cake.

See, in the US bringing a cake is good. Doesn't matter the cake, cake is a sign of peace. I at this point in my life, never made a cake from scratch and was still scared to death of the ovens here cooking in the foreign centigrade. I didn't want to make something gross, so I opted for a box cake. I made them all the time for family events... cake is cake right?

I show up to a lovely dinner and present my cake. It's cut and we all eat it. My future mother-in-law said to me, "Oh this is lovely... you'll have to give me the recipe". I couldn't lie and felt like a complete ass. "It's a box cake and the recipe is on the back because I suck" or something like that I must have muttered back. I failed as a future wife. Total wife fail!

I was determined to never let that happen again. It was the last time I'd made cake from a box. I haven't really prepared cake since then to be honest. We aren't big cake eaters. I never have been which is why I never learned how to make one from scratch. Strawberry shortcakes maybe (which are AWESOME and will share the recipe soon).

I knew I was going to make cakes. Kat deserved from scratch real cakes for being awesome so...armed with my sister's glorious recipe (listed below) I went all in spatulas blazing! They turned out delicious! Really, really tasty and better than any box! I did the icing and decorations to make them look like chocobos. She met her husband playing FFXI too, so it will always have a soft spot for all of us I think.

Here they are! Now, the really CUTE one on the left, snow made special for his sister for her birthday. He made it all by himself and made it look like a real chocobo sitting on a cake. Adorable eh?

Their Mum made a really spectacular cake that was delicious. They ate the cuppies later I think. We had a lovely picnic at the wildlife park and then strolled around looking at animals (mostly ducks). It was a super day and we all had fun. I think Kat liked her presents we (I) got her too. We usually give her silly things or Magical Trevor™ so I wanted her to have something special this year. Graduation and all. She's a smartie, more so than the ones on her cake!

Here's the recipes!

Scrummy Yellow Cake

1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups white sugar
8 egg yolks
3/4 cup milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions

1 Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour 2 - 8 inch round pans. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

2 In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolks one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the milk, mixing just until incorporated. Pour batter into prepared pans.

3 Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, (15-20 minutes as cuppies) or until tops spring back when lightly tapped. Cool 15 minutes before turning out onto cooling racks

I used a recipe from the Joy of Baking site for the icing. I've tried home made icing before and it failed. It's important you add the ingredients in a specific order and follow the directions exactly. It came out amazing following this recipe:

Buttercream Frosting:

2 cups (230 grams) confectioners sugar (icing or powdered sugar), sifted

1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 tablespoons milk or light cream

Assorted food colors (if desired)

In an electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, cream the butter until smooth and well blended. Add the vanilla extract. With the mixer on low speed, gradually beat in the sugar. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the milk and beat on high speed until frosting is light and fluffy (about 3-4 minutes). Add a little more milk or sugar, if needed. Tint the frosting with desired food color (I use the paste food coloring that is available at cake decorating
stores and party stores).

Makes about 12 cupcakes

WOO SUGAR COMA!

Congrats to Kat for her super spectacular A for all her hard work at school. Skewl makes you sooper smaaht! <3

USA picnic style bento

2010-05-26T20:34:15Z

Hello my bentolings!

Time for the mid week bento box. This week is going unusually fast for me. Probably all the working and bentoing. I could really use more time to sleep. Ah well, no rest for the crazy folk!

With the sun making an appearance lately, it's put me in the summer kind of mood. When I think summer, I think picnics outside and more importantly my Mom's awesome salads! I decided to make a USA style bento with summery picnic food. There is her tuna pasta salad that's so delicious. Mine never tastes quite as good as hers for some reason, but it's pretty close. Nice salad greens, yellow peppers and bits with some blanched broccoli and peas. The other side has strawberries that are so good, it's surprising there are even any left in the fridge. The little happy chick is made out of a mini corn muffin (another USA favorite food of mine) with a carrot beak, black sesame seed eyes and carrot feet.

I ordered some different shaped boxes today since they really are starting to look so similar to me. I may or may not have ordered 10+ other things while I was there *whistles innocently* I hope they arrive soon!

Next picnic salad on my hankering list is my Mom's potato salad. I don't like potato salad but I love hers. I can get it almost exactly like hers now that I've been making it every summer for years. It's one of those dishes that every time you bring it to a party, everyone then expects you to bring it to EVERY party you attend for the rest of your life. It's not too hard to make and I'll post the recipe when I get around to making it. The only trouble is cutting everything up and having your house smell like eggs for two days afterward. I then burn all sorts of candles to try and get rid of the eggie smell and then the house smells like spicy apple eggs... which is even more unpleasant. It's worth it though I assure you.

Time for jammies and kitten snuggles. Peas out!

Colorful lunches yay!

2010-05-25T20:14:25Z

Hola Bentolings!

Tonight's bento is just a nicely arranged one... no faces. I found some odd yellow tiny tomatoes and really nice veg at M&S today. Colorful lunches are always more fun! There is a little brioche roll with veggies and cheese hearts, salad with carrot sliver rolls and the other side is rice cubes wrapped in carrot slivers and nori strips with some tasty looking strawberries and almonds.

I think I need to invest in some different shaped boxes. These bentos are all starting to look the same to me. Maybe a nice square shaped one would do the trick. I think I already filled my J-list quota for the month though.

Looking forward to the bank holiday on Monday. Can't beat a three day weekend! Maybe the weather will be nice and we can have a bento picnic out in the park. I haven't seen any baby ducklings yet this year and that must be changed. I will arm myself with seeded bread!

Hope everyone is having a good week so far!

Panda bento

2010-05-24T20:36:43Z

Ahoy Bentolings!

Normally I make nice bento boxes on Sunday afternoon/evening since I have all day and can take my time. This weekend however, we actually did outside things. The sun... it burns. Snow's sis and her husband are visiting so we ended up going walking in my favorite glen on Saturday. It was so green and lush that I felt like a forest nymph and had a strange longing to play a pan flute. Unfortunately I didn't have one in my purse so I just stuck to walking.

Sunday they came around to our town and we walked all over with melting ice cream cones in hand. It generally doesn't get very hot here, but Sunday was muy scorchio. We sat in the park for a while, not realizing my flesh was burning and I'd feel like I'd been dipped in lava all day today. We ended up at the house after I walked bare foot home after an unfortunate flip-flop situation. Great day, but no time for bento'ing.

So, tonight after work I decided to whip up some panda boxes for lunch tomorrow. These are dead simple ones, salad and onigiri with nori panda faces. I was out of carrots and other nicely colored items so it's not the most glamorous bento in the universe. It will be healthy and tasty though and that's what really counts.

Not too shabby for a work night box.

Here is a shot of a lovely waterfall in Glen Maye from Saturday:

Now I'm going to go attempt to take a shower even though my seared skin will cause me agony. It takes me back to when I was little and we'd go to the ocean to visit my Nana. I would get so sun burned that I looked like a little lobster with a bowl cut. Nana would end up coating me in vinegar mixed with ice water. I'm half tempted to do this on my back, but I'm pretty sure smelling like the local chippy is way worse than burned skin.

Pitfalls to bento making

2010-05-20T21:51:25Z

Ahoy bentolings!

Tonight I'm going to discuss the pitfalls of a bento hobby. All over the internet you will see sites praising the magical bento and all it's many pleasures and surprises. I'm here to talk about the dark side of bento making. This is the side I'm just now starting to see through the cute nori faces and endless bowls of steamed rice.

It started as I drove home from a very long, exhausting day of work. I usually try and plan out what I want to do in my precious evening hours on the way back. My soul spent, all I could really process was how cute all the little lambs are in the fields across the mountain road. I did come to one conclusion though... I wasn't going to bento tonight. Too tired, really can't be bothered.

I get home and start tidying and begin to prepare dinner. An hour later, we eat and watch an episode of Smallville (we're watching the entire series start to finish as I've not seen it. On season 5 now). I still am adamant I won't be making bentos tonight. My brain is sore.

I figured however, I could at least put together some sandwiches for snow and myself to have for lunch tomorrow. I'd rather control what I'm eating and not have the need to go to a store and get something icky if I can help it. So, I lope to the kitchen and get out some bread. Next thing I know, I've got the paper grass out and I'm curling carrot slices and goddammit I ended up with this...

This... THIS IS WHAT ME MAKING A SANDWICH LOOKS LIKE NOW! >_<

I wasn't even going to put hearts on or anything and then the bento devil on my shoulder whispers into my ear... "what if snow worries he doesn't have hearts on his lunch? You can't have that now can you? You better fetch the cheese quick, fast, in a hurry if you know what's good for you!"

I couldn't help myself. I think I'm doomed.

*sigh*

Mad scientist bento

2010-05-19T21:26:37Z

Ahoy Bentolings!

****update! snow said comments are fixed! Please comment away and hopefully it doesn't break. Hooray!***

The dust is slowly clearing on my flu-plague. I'm feeling slightly less undead, which is great! I miss the good old days of being sick. When you're a kid and have a sick day, you get to stay home in bed rocking the cozy jammies. No worries about dinner to cook, laundry to do, work to be done. Just game show bliss and canned soup lunch. Those were the days. Now I have to do all these adult wife things and just feel like crap while doing them.

My Nana always said that when she died, she was coming back as a man. Now I kinda understand where she was coming from! I still think coming back as a house cat is a better gig. Less thinking in the pants. Cats don't wear pants.

SO, feeling 75% better. I decided today that I wouldn't focus on the aesthetics of tomorrow's lunch. I'd focus on the taste and experiment with recipes instead. I work full time, so doing both just isn't happening. I have been wanting to try this recipe for sweet potato puff things that I found in a book. I followed the recipe to the letter and something didn't feel right with it. I'm not sure I had the correct type of potatoes? Everything else was spot on, and I know I can follow a recipe, so something wasn't correct. I suspect what wasn't right and will probably try and alter the recipe at a later date.

They don't look as glorious as they should have, but believe it or not, they taste divine! Snow came down to vulture hover over me and saw these tiny cupcake things cooling on the counter. He of course asked to eat one (as it was already halfway in his mouth). He said they were delicious, so I guess that's good? I still want to modify the recipe at a later date.

I'll call this an avant garde bento rather than mad scientist. I had no plan, no idea, just moved things around and thought about what would be tasty. These are lunches and not art projects after all. I'm trying to develop my skill in the flavor department just as much as the visual.

Mini cube onigiri with a side of my Hoi sin noodles and a shaped tomato on top. Sweet potato puffs, salad, cheese crisps and side of fruit on the other side with the token Happy Panda cookie for my tallest (my husband).

On a side note, I've been really dedicated to blogging on a regular basis as of late. I'm trying to fit it into my routine, which is filled with all sorts of other dances. It's funny how your pets adapt themselves to your new routine as well. So far, every bento blog I've written... I have had Yuki sleeping in between my arms as I type. It's her new thing and as soon as I sit down to type, there she is. She plops down on the desk, buries her face in my arm and listens to me type. I have to say, it makes blogging much more enjoyable as she's far more adorable than any bento I could ever hope to produce. It looks something like this:

YES I BLOG IN A PINK FUZZY ROBE! WHAT OF IT? *karate stance*

Thanks for reading ^_^ May kittens rest on your typing arms.

Plague Bento

2010-05-18T20:01:57Z

Ahoy Bentolings *cough*

I've managed to come down with a nasty flu/cold/bug/plague thing, possibly all of the above. I'm not bed ridden quite yet, and have shuffled my way to and from work the last two days. Luckily I have a nice boss that let me go home an hour early and nurse my plague. I rested, took some meds and I think I'm starting to feel slightly more human than yesterday.

I didn't bento last evening. I wasn't well and definitely not up for it. I really didn't think much of it until lunch time today. I really wasn't hungry anyway but not having that lovely lunch to look forward to made the day seem sad. I don't think this means I will bento every single work day, because I know I won't. I'm saying that I dusted off my sore, headachey self and made dinner and bento boxes for tomorrow because I knew doing normal things would make me feel better. Mind over matter!

I'll be honest, these look pretty crap. If you ever wanted to see what a bento looks like while feverish and on loopy cold medicine, here you go. I don't even remember what I put in there. There's probably a tin of beans under the lettuce or possibly some shoe polish rolled in dust. I can't be sure. Alas, I am sharing.

*cough cough* Ok, Helllooooooo night nurse!

Hedgie bento!

2010-05-16T21:44:39Z

Ahoy Bentolings!

Spring has sprung and so have all the hedgehogs or hedgies as we call them in our house. I had a discussion the other day about Hedgehog Awareness Week, which is an actual thing here. It was the first week of May. According to the Isle of Man Courier (the only local newspaper), if you find a hedgie stuck in a hole, you should not reach in and grab him/her. You're supposed to construct a tiny ladder and lower it down for them to use and climb out. Is it wrong to hope I will find a hedgehog in a hole some day so I can construct a tiny ladder and see what happens? Probably.

Anyway, the theme of today's bento is hedgies! We have a soft spot for them in our house because Yuki's favorite toy in the world is a tiny stuffed hedgehog named (you guessed it) Hedgie. She brings it into bed with us, and carries it all over the house. It's the cutest thing you'll ever see.

I made the hedgies out of hard boiled eggs dyed brown with soy sauce and soy rice, with egg paws and nori faces. There is a bit of rice in the "garden" with veggies. The other side has chicken rolls and steamed broccoli with salad. The chicken rolls were a recipe that Pikko was nice enough to share with me. I modified it a bit, but it's pounded out chicken with baby spinach and fresh basil. You roll it up and bread via flour, egg then Panko. Pan fry in a bit of olive oil and holy crow... talk about delicious! I tried making enough for two rounds of boxes but snow ate every left over piece.

His

Mine

It was fun but slightly challenging to get the hedgies to work. I think they're pretty cute though. It's not exactly what I had in mind, but the rice wasn't cooperating like I would have liked. Also, my new favorite condiment is Furikake. I got some with my last Jlist order and it's so incredible, I'm sprinkling it on everything in site. I can't describe the taste, but it's really divine. On rice, it's absolutely perfect. There are loads of flavors, but this is the one I use. Here's a pic of the bottle:

I'm starting a nasty cold so, I'm not sure how bentotastic this week will be. I'm loading up on vitamins and juice so fingers crossed it just goes away before I'm curled up in bed feeling sorry for myself. I'm off to a date with the Night Nurse™ <3

Mini pita bento with a side of love!

2010-05-13T21:21:41Z

Evenin' bentolings!

Tonight's bento box was fairly easy. The only reason I was in the kitchen for an eternity was because I made loads of onigiri and some special heart shaped ones for the boxes. That and the fact that we have no dishwasher. It took me almost as long to do all the dinner/bento dishes as it did to cook and prepare everything. I actually daydream about owning a dishwasher again. Now that's sad. The homes here just aren't really designed for one, unless of course you're willing to put your washer/dryer in the living room, which I am not. Some day though... oh yes, you will be mine shiny dishwasher. ALL MINE!

Back to the box. I found these adorable mini wholewheat pita breads at M&S while out shopping at lunch time. They are TINY! So, I carefully filled them with a bit of turkey and ham and some cucumber slices. The other side has some heart shaped fried rice style onigiri, lightly steamed asparagus and salad. I didn't use any oil fry up the egg/veggies, just a really good non-stick pan. I want these lunches to be as healthy as possible. There is also a wee side car of blueberries and the token Happy Panda cookie because my husband expects one in all his bentos now. They really are delicious little cookies.

Mine

Snow's

I have some ideas I want to try this weekend. One that if I can pull off, it will be amazingly cute. Fingers crossed! I managed to hunt down some super mini cupcake foils at lunch time, and some other odds and ends. I'm going to try the sweet potato puffs, but I'm confused because I don't think the recipe I have calls for the orange/yam type of sweet potato, because they're white in the picture. I'll have to do some research. Last resort is red potatoes because they're yummy and taste good in any potato recipe I think.

I'm glad I made them tonight. I took the night off last evening and today I looked at my manky old ham sandwich and thought, what's the point? I'm spoiled now and want to eat with my eyes as well as my mouth. That's the way food should be I think.

Where am I?

2010-05-12T21:08:05Z

Ahoy civilians!

Sadly, no bentorific pic/update this evening. I don't think I can do them every night for fear of burning out. Tonight was a big work out night and I have a few books I'd like to look through and get some recipe ideas going for the next ones. I really want to try these sweet potato puff thingies, but I need to find very small cupcake papers to put them in. *glee* I plan to venture out into the world tomorrow and hunt some. There really isn't enough time in the day when you work full time.

It's an odd week. Work is feeling like that song you hear in the circus when all the clowns get out of the clown car and there's just colorful, kind of scary chaos all around you. The bento'ing and blog re-design have helped tame the stress though. Speaking of which, looks different in here doesn't it?

Snow and I have been working hard getting things up and working properly. I'm pretty much just drawing silly things and playing with colors and he's doing all the MT wacky back end voodoo to make it work. It's coming along nicely I think! Still needs some tinkering and a lick of paint here and there, but progress always gives you that warm fuzz. I will warn though, that during builds or code botches (most likely by me) the site could look totally broken, if showing at all. We're trying to get comments up and running too.

Previously when comments were allowed, the server got hacked so badly it was a miracle it made it back alive. So, my ninja is trying to come up with a secure way of doing things. Hence the silly captcha in the email link in the bio. Last night he put a security protocol on the server so strict that I couldn't even add a new entry. You'd think I was trading government secrets for nazi gold it's so locked down. Seriously, it's just a site about my lunches, cats and dreams about ducks.

Stay tuned for more bento fun tomorrow, and hopefully the server doesn't explode.

Speedy bento..ish?

2010-05-11T21:58:16Z

Ahoy bentolings!

I had every intention of just throwing some noodles and salad in the boxes and calling it a night. However, one thing led to another and I ended up spending more time than anticipated. The lady at Lunch in a Box specializes in speedy yet awesome boxes. She lists how long they take, etc. Very efficient! Sadly, I'm still a noob at this so I'm slow. I'm learning to be more organized to make clean up easier. I've been lining my counter work space with wax parchment that I can just roll up with all the scraps and throw away. Seems more sanitary as well. I started trying to prepare things ahead of time while I'm cooking dinner too.

Another of my favorite bento sites out there is Pikko's Adventures in Bentomaking which has some stunning creations and even has a youtube video how-to explaining bento techniques. Amazing stuff on there!

Tomorrow's lunch will be: Noodles with a sweet Hoisin and garlic with cashew sauce (like what was used for the bird nests I made in bento five), some steamed baby asparagus, BBQ chicken pieces. The other side is salad with a plain sesame mini onigiri, blueberries and a Hello Panda biscuit.

There are some cherry tomatoes with ham/turkey/asparagus wrapped up inside. I got the tomato idea from the new book that arrived for me today from Amazon called Kawaii Bento Boxes, which has some really great ideas and recipes. It's all in English and has loads of lovely pictures and thoughtful bentos. I doubt I'll be making any boxes just like in the book, but I'm still learning the recipes and "lingo" so this book is a great source of inspiration.

His

Mine

They look delicious! I can't wait for lunch tomorrow.

So, on a different topic... cats! As I'm sitting here writing this and sizing the pictures, I hear a strange slurping sound. I realized that earlier snow had filled a tub of water and set it out to get to room temp before topping up the fish tank. Well, Yuki thought this was set out for her. Obviously everything in the house belongs to her, seems reasonable enough. So, she's sitting there taking drinks out of the giant bowl and then proceeds to stick her paws in and clean her face like she's pretending to be a bird in a bird bath. >_< There's water all over the place and we had to move the bowl to the bathtub for health & safety reasons.

Never a dull moment in the Snoku house!
<3

Face Cat™ Bento!

2010-05-10T19:53:11Z

I had this one planned for a while. I wish I would have waited for the weekend to make it because it didn't come out as nicely as it looked in my head. Tomorrow's bento boxes are inspired by Cat Face who I absolutely love! He looks very much like my cat face except she is Asian and Cat Face is French (I think?). I showed a picture of her to Weebl and he calls her "Pointy Cat".

I wanted to make CF and his trusty companion Box Cat. It took me ages to figure out how I was going to do a box. It's not edible unfortunately. I made an origami box out of a box color lined paper. It doesn't have a bottom so you can just lift it off and get to the treats inside.

Box Cat has a side of smoked ham tortellini with pesto sauce. Face cat is flying through the air with tomato balloons, salad and some broccoli. It was another fun one! I just wish I had more time to work on it. Detailed ones I probably shouldn't try doing on a work night. Enjoy!

His

Mine

I also am in the process of a blog re-design. It's looking a little less 90s now. Make sure you refresh if you still have the blue background, etc. Snow is trying to work on the server so comments are allowed/safe. Feel free to email me naku(at)naku.org if you have any comments or questions though. ^_^

I dream of baby ducks. Who doesn't?

2010-05-09T18:36:04Z

I spent a lot of time on the bento boxes for our lunch tomorrow. I had a dream last night about all these baby ducks and birds. There was even this very large black and white puffy bird walking with the duck family. The strange/cute thing was, this bird's baby was riding on her back! Just this little teeny black and white puff. I'll have to try and sketch it. Nice dream! I was going to do something else for this round, but I was inspired by the dream birdies and made little chicks in noodle nests.

mine

snow's

The nest is made of fine egg noodles with Hoisin and garlic sauce, ginger, soy and crushed up cashews. Snow took the left over noodles for a test drive in his belly and said they were really delicious! The chicks are small onigiri with sweet scrambled egg, carrot beaks and nori eyes. The rolls are turkey, ham and cheese rolled in a tortilla and some lightly blanched broccoli with sesame seeds.

I really loved making these boxes. I'm pleased with how they turned out! I really hope my nori punches arrive in the mail this week. Trying to cut out tiny eyes is really painstaking.