Decotte Pocky!!

If you have a creative mind, you definitly will love this post!!!

You know what pocky are! Now, you can decorate them!!!!

You need the trays. It's a bit long first when you have the melted chocolate, sticking the pocky together (tray on the far right), filling the shapes (tray in the middle) and then using the last one for decorations. Be sure to use chocolate for cooking not any kind of regular one!

Then the funniest part (after a few hours in the fridge so you can take the trays off) !!

Decorate with anything you want: candies, cake decorations, food pen...

You juste need heated chocolate to stuck things on the pocky!

The results are simply cute!!!

Everyone LOVES it!!!

ENJOY!!!

Back to the classics

I haven't used my rilakkuma bento in a while!

I have used the tamago shapers, lettuce, chinese coconuts moon cake, and onigiri filled with fish pieces! (smash it so it looks like tuna! easier to make the onigiri) The rilakkuma one is a perfect size for kids!! (^_^)

Those two are bigger but still cute. Using the same kind of ingredients, it suits more adults as there's more rice to get your stomach full!

English Bento

As a matter of fact, I have two bento to present in this post!

The first one is a regular one, if we shall say... ^^

Spaghetti mixed with soy beans and beef pieces marinated in soy sauce!!
Desserts are mochi and pudding! There's also some sliced carrots to have a sense of summer.
I also found Calpis (カルピス) in a nearby store to accompagny the bento!!

The next one has more of an English feeling to it!
This one has to be eaten hot!!!

Bacon (of course!), on tomatoes stuffed with onion, carrots and pineapple (which had been cooked right after the bacon), and an omelette!! I made it the same as you'd do a tamago yaki, but I stuffed it with onion. And yogurt with sliced apples as the dessert.

FUTOMAKI's RETURN ^^

Here comes the REAL futomaki!!! I tried to make some by hands in my previous post. It didn't turned out so good... SO I decided to buy a futomaki maker:

Called FUTOMAKI MAKKI by BANDAI. You can buy some at Strapya World!

It's all in japanese but not hard to understand thanks to the drawing, and really easy to use (after 1 or 2 try though... you need to get used to it first)

Here's the result:

 I wanted to make a bear...... I didn't realized I put the face wrong so it's totally disconnected with the ears. BUT it turned out better than making it by hand!

Here I tried heart shaped and flower with the maker. Now compare with the "by hands" and see the difference (^.^)

あけおめ!!

So, I'm definitely not regular on my posts... actually I'm not regular at all on making bento!!

Lately I discovered the futomaki and those with designs inside!

So, I decided I'll try! One that seemed easy to me: the flower!

1. You need to color some rice for the flower's heart and the petals.   I used classics yellow and pink.

2. You need to make a small roll with the yellow and 5 petals: just squeeze the nori around the pink rice without closing it.  

3. When you're done with it, you need to put 3 petals in the center, hold the maki to tighten around the flower; then you can put on top the flowers' heart and the last petals. Now you can roll it normally!

So, my flower turned out... not a flower... but at least now I see how it goes!

I think next time, I'll try with other things than just rice (this was just a try out...)

So here's the bento!!

Three pieces of the futomaki will make you full!

But as I can't miss on dessert, here are the mango pieces and the baby donuts!

Working Bento Part2

We actually have the 60th here!

おめでとう

Sadly, it doesn't have anything special... (-_-)

A simple working bento that will help me go through my day tomorrow!

Oishii soooooooooou!!!!

For once, those two are for me!!! Yep, there's no sharing with a friend this time!! That's actually because I made those with the left-overs, and the only things remaining for me to eat this week (-_-')

In both: corn, veggies mix, and tabbouleh (some kind of north african dish), and "tako"-sausages.

There's a mix of japanese crackers, and a mochi in both.

Then, one has a chocolate pudding, the other one has some candies.

 Those candies are from a well-known box. If you've seen "Graves of fireflies" you'll understand (^_^)

And finally, rice with sliced nori and sesame seeds.

Big set!

Today, I made two bento for both lunch and dinner!

Using simple ingredients such as salad, corn and french endive (with sesame seeds)

The small recipients are for different dressing.

Then you have the dessert made of cookies, mango pudding or coconut balls.

This time, I also added something new!!

I finally tried Tamagoyaki!

Those are omelette rolls, more or less. The difference is what you put inside.

At first, I added a bit of soy sauce and ginger powder to the egg.

You cook half of it and roll it up before it's all cooked up,

you let it in the fry pan and add the other half of the mixture.

For mine I put nori on top.

Then you roll the previous one over the new omelette to make one big roll

(always before it's all cooked)

My fry pan was round, so it was a bit hard to manipulate and you have to think of cutting the nori before-hand so it will fit the pan.

~

ENJOY!

Today's :

Let's welcome RAMEN!!!

I can use it for the first time with what I have now! Which is a bento that can go in the microwave, and a cup (for the soup... because it might spill if you let it with the noodles)

And, NO, the noodles don't dry up!! (^_^) (unless you leave it for a long time).
Mine stayed in the fridge over night and it was okay for lunch.

We also have the come back of Mochi and japanese cookies!! (I used to take Koala's March, but I came across bears this time)

Japan Expo Bento!!!

Following the previous post, here are the bento we made with a friend for Japan Expo.

As I said it's really crowded, so to get to eat at any food stand, you'll have to wait and wait and wait and wait... so it's easier sometimes to bring your own food. (even though there's no place to sit...)

So like everybody else, you go sit on the floor at the end of the exhibit, and eat.

Here we had a little cup with japanese crackers, 2 heart-shaped onigiri, sausages, carots, tomatoes... and cakes, cookies and pineapples for dessert.

Simple and refreshing!

JAPAN EXPO 2011!!!

 Last week-end was Japan Expo in Paris!

For those who don't know what it is, it is a HUGE convention, lasting for 4 days, with a lot of artists' exposition, concerts, signing sessions from artists, show cases, cosplay competition, a lot to see and to buy too! (^_^)

 The place is actually crowded (especially on the saturday) but this is really fun!
There you can all kind of things you can't in your hometown, and buy things you sometimes even can't find on the internet.

This is a big display of the japanese culture and really entertaining for anyone, japan-lovers or not!

See you there next time ^^

Working Bento

As I'll be working all summer, I really can make bento for everyday!!

Lately it looks like this:

pasta and a salad mix

For the little pizza-like:

take dough and cut shapes in it. Then cover it with sour cream and ham, and put it in the oven. Very Simple ^^

~Fruity~

A good thing during spring is that there's a lot of fruits (^_^)

so here's a fresh one:

Main dish:

- carrots

- tomatoes

- pasta with pesto

- "Ebi" shaped ham

Dessert:

Red fruits mix with sugar hearts

Light and Fresh

 Using fresh ingredients when it's SO hot outside,

feels good!

The main dish is mostly composed of veggies: carrots, cherry tomatoes (two with cheese), lettuce.

Ham pieces and cheese/cucumber characters to complete!

For the dessert: fresh fruits and chocolate pudding!

It goes well together (^_^)

After~finals!!!

After a few weeks without posting because of the finals,

I'm coming back with a kinda new thing!

I made those with an awesome friend! It is an ULTIMATE bento!!

For the main dish:

- first we used a pie dough, we cut stars, flowers and hearts for fun, then added creme fraiche and pieces of ham

- next we cut and emptied the cherry tomatoes, and put inside a mix of creamy cheese, oil and chive

- and you have the incontrovertible tuna onigiri

Dessert:

- two chocolate pudding each, with sugar stars and hearts

- pieces of chocolate candy

 

These are really easy-to-do recipes! Hope you'll enjoy!

Snack Time!

You know how sometimes, you wonder what you'll get?

"Should I get salty... should I get sweet..."

Now, here's something you can make when you're doubting!

The bottom compartment can hold two cookies (normal size)

Or fruits' pieces for example.

On the divider, there's a lot of space.

The screwtop is pretty large.

Here is a little cheese sandwich,

salty onigiri, with a smiling cheese face,

cherry tomato

(there's actually enough room for more cherry tomatoes)

  

Here is the kind of boxes for that:

There's is several kind and designs.

Check it out!

It's easy to find on the internet!

(same as bento)

Kitchen collection

As I announced a few posts ago, I ordered new tools for my kitchen.
My collection has considerably grown since the last time I checked...

Today, I tried the onigiri push!
It is way easier than making it by hand of course,
but to me, it is also a good way to have several onigiri with the same size
(which I have never been able to do by hand)

Also, you will spot a little cup together with the dessert.
This contains mayo to go with the carrots.

Isn't it convenient?