Bentos: Kawaii Fun for Lunch

I have been making Bentos for a number of years now.  If you don't know Bentos are neat Japanese style lunches.  They range from extremely complicated works of art to delicious simple creations.  In the past I have posted a few bentos here.  All have been of the simple variety.  Just good food in a cute box.

My adorable Clickity Click Monkey Bento . . .

I also have an angry onigiri case.  I also have a nice yellow sandwich case!

I have a bit of a reputation amongst my friends for making everything cute or creep or both.  Previously, my bentos have not really benefited from my creative talent other than the fact that I make delicious meals to go in them.  It seems that my friends what this to change.  For a late Christmas Exchange I recieved - Yum-Yum Bento Box: Fresh Recipes for Adorable Lunches by Crystal Watanabe and Maki Ogawa.

I have not yet made anything from the book, but I did skim it.  It looks like a lot of fun.  The ideas are great, plus the recipes look edible and quick.  My next grocery trip I'll need try getting some ingredients to try out the recipes.  I'm having to eat on campus more and more as I have an increasing amount of work to do in the lab, so I was already thinking I could use another (larger/adult) bento case.  My gift inspired me to finally take the plunge!  I ended up purchasing my bento from Bento & Co.  I felt they had the best selection (so I wouldn't need to go to more than one site) and reasonable prices.  They ship all over the place!

This is my cool new box!

I got the green set!

Condiment cups!

Soy sauce/dressing bottles!

I think I got a nice assortment that should allow me to get started.  I already have a bunch of cutters (though I want a couple nori punches).  I find making bentos to be fun and entertaining.  The point isn't for it to take for ever just so that your lunch looks as good as it tastes.  I would recommend it for all you creative types and for those that want to take lunches, but feel uninspired!

Bento Recipes:

• JustBento.com
• cookingcute.com
• lunchinabox.net
• My Lunch Can Beat Up Your Lunch

Bento Supplies:

• Bento & Co
• JBox
• Amazon.com
• Japonmania

Chirstmas Presents!

I thought I'd share a bit more of the holiday decorations with Christmas approaching.  Here you have multiple views of all the presents I wrapped for the holidays!

Yes I did make all those bows.  And yes it took an entire day.

Glutten Free Gingerbread House: Part 1 Baking

My dad and I make a Christmas project ever year.  It usually involves cake or cookies.  This year we decided to make a gingerbread house.  This is complicated by the fact that my father is now on a gluten free diet.  Baking challenge accepted!

We started by picking a recipe.  If you've ever cooked gluten free you know that it can be difficult.  The ingredients are often expensive and recipes often require a huge amount of ingredients.  In the end I settled on one that we already had most of the ingredients for.  I used a recipe found at Jenn Cuisines.  The author of the recipe also used it to make a gingerbread house, which I thought was a good sign.  I should warn you that my batch turned out a bit dry and I only added 1.5 cups of millet flour.  I should also mention that the cookies are not very sweet.  If I make this again I'll add a bit more sugar.  In the end we had enough for the house, but not much else.

Half the dough ready to be rolled out!

The next stage is picking a pattern.  I looked all over at free patterns.  We flirted with the idea of designing our own, but as this is our first time decided to use something we were pretty sure would work (fingers crossed).  In the end we went with the Swedish gingerbread house design found at Marthastewart dot com.  It was the right amount of classic and interesting . . . and the patten was free!

Patterns ready to be cut!

We made up the dough and cut out all the bits!  It was rather stressful due to the dryness of the dough.  However, we ended up with what appears to be very sturdy house pieces.  Construction has not yet began due to time constraints, but you'll get a blog as soon as possible!

Unbaked with the windows being popped out . . .

First sheet out of the oven . . .

The front!

Side of the house

Most of the parts baked and ready to go!

Ikkin-bot baker extraordinaire!

So far the project has been great.  I recommend family christmas projects.  It is a great way to relax and make sure you actually see people at the holidays instead of just running around stressed out. 

If you were wondering about the Blizzard. . .

We had a slight blizzard.  11 inches of snow in a few hours with really strong winds creating white outs (and banging christmas decorations in to the winds hard enough to make use fear for busted glass . . . but not enough to go out in the storm . . . and get on a ladder).  The outside holiday decorations still look good (mostly) despite the storm.

The pile between the back door and the drive

You can get a feel for depth on the porch

Ynnep has a path shoveled out

Dragon is still flying!

Snow removed from backyard to make a better latrine

More on the piles of snow

This is all from the one storm . . .

Happy snowman

Right side decorations

Left side decorations with collapsed tree from wind :(

Santa!

Ignore the fact that he doesn't have a face or pants . . . or legs

Two headed dragon has his jingle bells on

Front of the house in its entirety

Close up of the toppled tree

Close up of the new tree

Buried tree

The sculpture and holiday decorations are all welded metal.  All dragons made by me. :)

Christmas Tree!

I came home for winter break early for my grandmother's funeral.  Because of this I was able to pick out a Christmas tree with my family and help decorate.  So, we have a silver lining of sorts.  We also had a blizzard the day I was suppose to fly in so I made it home for Christmas without staying overnight in an airport because I came home early.  It did snow the day I came however so I was still delayed around 6 hours for a 40 minute flight. Crazy right! Here is the tree with lights

Putting the ornaments on took all day.

Facing the door

Left side

Facing the living room

Right side

Close up!

It looks pretty good! I think. It was nice that the whole family got into the holiday spirit.

Ynnep-bot does not like hats . . .

The house is still being decorated.

Arrangement in progress . . .

Overall, it was pretty fun.  Hope everyone is having a great holiday season!