Books, Cute, and More

What a weekend! It's been wonderful restful despite the fact my body is still trying to get sick. My favorite Bento Blogger (Pikko - Aibento.net) wrote a review last week for The Mange Cookbook. I was glad to read the review as I had been waffling back and forth about getting it. After reading her review we went on an epic quest to find it Friday night and got the last copy from one of the local book chains. I read it, compiled a list of ingredients to purchase the next day and got to work.

My first recipe to try was Dango (sweet dumplings) and I have to say that I either don't have authentic enough ingredients or the measurements are all wrong! The first batch was a bit like watery paste so I scrapped it and made a second one. They came out in dumpling form but are not very tasty. I gave up and resigned myself to trying to come up with a mochi recipe online. I found one on justbento.com (another of my favorite sites) and had relatively wonderful success first time around. There are a few changes I will make next time but you can see my bright pink mochi featured in today's Bento.

I also went through my scrapbooking items and found two punches (stars and flowers) that are now reassigned to Bento duty. I cut out some nori shapes for Logician's boxes and used some of them in today's Bento as well. I bought some cupcake holders but they don't seem sturdy enough. I shall have to shell out for the silicone ones sometime I believe. So here are the Bento:

Logicians:

He has some nice carrots from the farmers market in the small bin on the bottom left. Above that is a mix of celery and diced bellpepper, topped with a grape Korean candy. For the main dish he has three triangle onigiri complete with mixed in Furikake, nori strips on the bottom and nori stars for decoration. I used the strips I punched the stars out of to make the bottoms. He then has some snow peas, celery, and radish to garnish the box. The meat is one of two thin steaks that I marinated in terriyaki and soy sauce for about ten minutes before cooking quickly. In his little cup he has some nice fresh blue berries and my bright pink mochi.

Here's a close up of his onigiri, because I am so proud of them!

I used the method in The Mange Cookbook to finally get them more triangular. They're not perfect but he's really excited. I also tucked in two of the sauce bottles.

Mine:

The quality of the picture is a bit bad but here it is! I have some tomatoes in my small bin on the bottom left, the same bellpepper and celery mix and an apple candy in the top bin. I have two small onigiri, an adorable hard boiled egg (made with tips from The Manga Cookbooks), some snow peas, celery sticks, and the steak. I paired my mochi with some kiwi since that is how I like it on my frozen yogurt. I don't have my rice but I got us some traditional (but plastic) rice bowls with lids, so I may take extra with me.

Here's the little egg because he's so cute!

He has two sesame seed eyes and a carrot beak. I left him whole but when I eat it tomorrow I will take the yolk out.

We also bought some miso soup paste, pickled ginger, and some Bonito flakes for Logician. I have a slight disadvantage in Bento as I do not like Nori, Bonito, or most fishy flavored items. But finding ways around it is sort of fun. The miso paste comes with the dashi stock mixed in so we'll see how that goes. I am looking forward to trying one of the instant miso ball soups (made using an idea from justbento.com).

As you can see there is a wealth of information online to help get into this habit! Once I have tried some more of the recipes in my new cookbook I'll let you know what I decide about it overall!

Another week down.