Kirby Mouse Bentos (100)

Hurray! The 100th bento finally!

In order to celabrate this 100th bento, Little girl has invited her cousin Y to join her for lunch. Thus I made them this charaben bento based on Kirby Mouse Attack, one of their favorite Nintendo DS game. Actually I was inspired by Anna the red's bento factory too as she'd make a posting on "how to make kirby rice ball" last week (and "how to make kirby sandwich" today!).

I asked the kids about their favorite ability of Kirby yesterday, little girl said she likes Cupid, whereas Y likes UFO.

It took me a very long time to complete this bento. I started sketching Kirby while watching my favorite Taiwanese variety show "天才衝衝衝" last nite. I decided to make not just 1 or 2 Kirby but 2 sets of Kirby transforming to its ability power - Cupid & UFO!

After the show, it was midnite, I started the preparations for Kirby: blanched crab sticks, fried the egg omelette, molding and fixing Kirby. I finished with 4 Kirby designs and 2 ability designs at about 1.30am. I don know what'd happened to me, I was so excited, kept thinking of the bento designs til I couldn't sleep, I think I only managed to catch those zzzz after 3am!

Lets have a look on Kirby transforming to Cupid:

Round & cute Kirby (ham as Kirby's head and arm, crab stick as rosy cheek & spark in eye, seaweed as eye & mouth and cherry tomato as leg)...

it found the cupid ability, swallowed it and (white crab stick as wings and omelette as ring)....

transformed to an adorable angel!

What about the UFO, lets have a closer look:

Normal happy little Kirby...

found the UFO ability (white crab stick & omelette as UFO)...

turned into a flying saucer after swallowing it.

Continued preparting the bentos again this morning at 9.30am, fried the low shi fan (a kind of noodle), julienned the omelette and lettuce, then packing everything into the boxes. I finished only at about 1 hour later. I can tell u, I'm entremely sleepy now, while typing this posting, but feeling wonderful and satisfy.

I added some carrot flowers into little girl's bento as she wanna it to be more girly, * roll eyes *

So, here is little girl's box, normal Kirby on some julienned crab stick, ability token on julienned omelette & seaweed, cupid Kirby on julienned lettuce and all were on top of a layer of fried low shi fan.

Little girl loves the bentos, when she saw Kirby in the boxes, she yelled: "Ooh! Kirby! So cute.... It's angel! & UFO!". She attacked Kirby 1st, munching it happily, then slowly into the noodle! She left a small portion of the fried low shi fan today, I didn't force her to finish up, as I gotta took care of Y, just rushed her to class when she said she is full.

This is Y's bento, as he don eat vegetable, I used julienned seaweed instead.

As for the picky eater Y, was not as excited as little girl (think due to the fever he had this morning), at 1st he refused to sit near to see his bento, until little girl insisted and told him it is Kirby the UFO, that put a little smile on his face, but he still refused to eat, oh well.

Oh yeah! They had these for dessert, orange slices, skinned longan and grapes. Do u notice something there? Too close, ok, lets see from another view...

this is a further view, can u see them now?

(can u see those 100s? Orange as 1 & longan as 00, LoL)

Finally, this was my box of lunch, simple yet wholesome :)

Phew! What a nite & morning! Definitely not going to make another of this again in a very near future...

Nevertheless, the 100th bento, did I really go thru all these? Can't believe it! Oh! Who cares, lets celebrate! The 100th bento! Hip-hip hurray!!!

Crepe Specially Dedicated to Robert

Yes, it's for u, Robert or Mr. Prediger, as promised.

I know Robert since 1998 (am I right, Robert?) when my ex-company sent me to his office at Munich, Germany for system training (I was a systems consultant then). His team trained me well with the system.

I remembered he and his coleague Christopher brought me out for dinner one evening. When I saw his car while we were leaving the office, I basically begged him to let me sat on it, cos it was Alfa Romeo's Spider! He was kind enough too, to sent me off to airport in his Spider on the Autobahn, cool-huh, super cool too to have a handsome "kuai low" (European in Cantonese) beside me ;p

I was very lucky to be involved in his company's system, as later, after Christopher resigned from their company, I was the one who represented his team to conduct training for The Grand Hotel Mercure at Tallinn, Estonia (it is changed to Meriton Grand Hotel Tallinn now). Ok, I was like, "Eh! Where on earth is this country?" when I heard it, found it only when I opened up the map. I was at the hotel on January 1999, and it was the 1st time I experienced a white winter and seeing snows falling from the sky. Yeah! Being a typical one who come from a country that having summer all year round, I definitely got to feel those snows. I remembered I sneaked out to the hotel's car park at the 3rd morning, looking at the snows flying down, feeling it... never know that the girls at the hotel reception all laughing at my silly acts and thanks to them, the news spread to Robert's ear. His team emailed me a photo where all of them posting outside of office with snows surrounding them, and even builded a snowman for me, so sweet.

Then we met again at Burl Al Arab, for twice, we spent nites after nites partying 2gether, at the Hard Rock Cafe. Oh, again I was so so lucky, I gotta stayed at this 7 stars hotel, for 3 nites!! Also, if I was not wrong, I could be the 1st Malaysian who stayed there!!! It is such a luxury hotel, I was really speechless...

Ok, enough of the old time stories... back to the crepe, I don remember I ever treated Robert any lunch or dinner, and I know 1 crepe is definitely not enough for u (but it was the only one left), but since u'd asked, it has to go to u...

the crepe...

... the requested cinnaman sugar,

... and blueberry jam.

Chicken Wraps Bento (99)

Remember I made some crepes few days ago, I oledi had this bento in mind, I kept 3 crepes for today. I bought a piece of fried chicken chop on Tue's pasar malam (night market), just need to re-heat it in oven toaster this morning for 5 minutes. The whole bento was ready in 10 minutes, fast-huh, I was surprised too when I looked at the clock.

On a crepe, I layered a piece of lettuce, 2 or 3 cucumber slices, 2 big pieces of sliced fried chicken, squeezed in some mayo and ketchup, another layer of lettuce and wrapped them up.

Wrapped it in grease proofed paper, one for little girl, one for me (as for the last piece of crepe, read on for the next posting)

Cut it into half, put them into bento box

Add in some sliced pineapple, cherries and grapes.

A new bento box I bought from 100 Yen shop at Jln. Kuchai Lama yesterday.

Little girl ate half of the wrap, she said she prefers it with vanilla butter cream and chocolate bits * roll eyes * As for the fruits, she left 2 cherries.

Tell u something, I managed to influence more people into bentoing! First, it was little girl's ex-classmate, HL (who joined little girl for lunch every Thu), proudly pulled out her new 2 tiers bento box from bag to show me, also showing me her meal: minced meat stuffed in shell pasta and some fruits, such a lovely and happy girl.

Next came a worried mum & a daughter to our table, the mother told me that her daughter refused to eat the school prepared lunch, but when she saw what I prepared for little girl, she said she'll try bentoing too for her daughter. :)

Glad to see and hear more mums preparing bentos for their love one now. Such a wonderful day! Don u agree?

New Toy from 100 Yen Shop

I got this sandwich cutters from 100 yen shop of Jln. Kuchai yesterday. I spent more time playing with these cutters in the kitchen than preparing today's bento, hehehe.

Here is the star cutter and the result it turned out on the butter & marmite sandwich...

the heart shaped chicks...

and the bear-bear.

Crepes

Little girl didn't go to school today as she had fever last nite, decided to let her rest at home though no more fever today. In order not to have her feeling bored, I told her we'd be making crepes. I oledi googled the crepe's recipe for sometimes, this should be a good chance to try out as it's so easy and simple. I got little girl to prepare the batter, she really enjoyed mixing the batter :)

Ingredients

1 cup flour

1 tsp white sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 egg

1 cup milk

2 tbsp melted butter

1. Sift flour, sugar and salt
2. In a bowl, beat egg and milk, fold in flour mixture
3. Stir in melted butter, combine well
4. Let batter rest in fridge for 1/2 hour
5. Lightly buttered hot pan, scoop in batter (enough to cover pan thinly), shift pan til batter form a thin layer on pan
6. Cook til both side turned lightly brown

With a little batter left, I cracked in an egg after placing the batter onto pan, roughly spread the egg...

... the other side of the egg crepe

I made 2 sweet version with the crepes: spread a thin layer of vanilla butter cream and sprinkled lots of chocolate bits...

1 for little girl, 1 for me, yum...

Steam Minced Pork with Dried Cuttlefish and Chestnuts

I love steam minced pork, be it at mix-rice stall or mum's place, will definitely top up more rice or porridge. I watched 1 of the TVB cooking program a week or 2 ago, they gave a detailed instructions on cooking this steam minced pork, of course I gotta try out since I love steam minced pork.

Ingredients

300g minced pork

1 small dried cuttlefish, cleaned, soaked til soft, diced

4 chestnuts, cleaned, skinned and diced

Seasonings

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tbsp cooking wine

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

pinch of pepper

2 tbsp corn/potato flour

1. mix all seasonings into a big bowl
2. put in minced pork, cuttlefish and chestnuts, mix well, give the meat mixture a few stirs in clockwise direction til it turned gooey
3. place meat mixture into a bowl or plate, steamed for 20 minutes or til cook

I steamed the meat in rice cooker, just put it in 20 minutes b4 the rice is ready. I tell u, though it was my 1st time trying this steamed minced pork, I'll definitely cook it again and again.

Nick and Roy

They are the names of the pet tortoises little girl was keeping since 18 May 2008.

We bought them along with their 2 bro/sis for little girl's cousins RX and JS (Can't recall which was Nick or Roy), all 4 of them were placed in 1 small container and still have plenty of space for them to wander around, they were so tiny & cute then.

During end of last year, bro presented the tortoises a new & bigger home as they were growing bigger. However, they r much more bigger now, and the bigger home has lack of space for them to walk! We decided to give it away, not anywhere, but to little girl's pre-school. Little girl 1st got permission from the office last Wed, Mrs Yee (the administrator) said it'd be ok unless they r big, so I think it shouldn't be problem as they r huge. Thus b4 we sent them to pre-school on last Fri, we gave them a spa in the kitchen sink...

this is Roy, and the finger belongs to little girl (see how big it is now)...

this is Nick, it is much larger than Roy, with a very unique head too, see below...

look at the cobra look alike head, don ask me why or how, it grew the way by itself :)

Little girl brought the tortoises to show Mrs Yee for the final approval, Mrs Yee gave us the green light and we sent the tortoises to little girl's class, so that she may share her pet tortoises with her classmates and had her class teacher to help her place them into the pond.

I checked them out this afternoon, Nick settled well in the pond, marching everywhere and even climbed up to its new mates' back sometimes...

as for Roy, sun bathing on a rock quietly...

...their new home, Roy at the left circle and Nick at the right circle. It's so funny, they r the fairest among all the tortoises.

Lastly, hope Nick and Roy will live happily ever after at their new home.

Bacon, Broccoli & Quail Eggs Roti Canai Pie Bento (98)

Little girl requested roti canai for her bento last nite, ok, another chance for me to play with the dough again, ;p I used it as pastry dough to make this pie, stuffed with bacon, broccoli and 2 quail eggs. This was how I did it, very simple & easy:

1. Deep fry the bacon til crisp, wiped off the oil, cut into small pieces
2. Chop broccoli into small pieces, saute in remaining bacon fat in the pan, put in bacon pieces, continue cooking for another few minutes
3. Cut a circle of roti canai dough using mold as guideline, lightly press the dough into mold, using fork to make some holes at the dough
4. Spoon the broccoli mixture into mold, crack in 2 quail eggs, cover another layer of dough on the top of mold, using fork to press around the side of dough to seal the edges
5. Bake at oven toaster for 20 minutes (cover the top of pie with aluminum foil after 5 minutes of baking to restrain it from being charred), done.

This is how it turned out after baking (this is the top of the pie), look like those store bought pie-huh...

... this is the bottom of the pie, isn't it cute?

I used 15 minutes to prepare & cook the pie stuffings, 20 minutes on baking, 15 minutes on packing and taking photos. U must be wondering why it took me so long to pack the bento & the photo taking, let me tell u why...

At 1st, everything were packed into this boxes, after snapping photos, I realized I couldn't close & stack up those boxes nicely due to the height of the pie...

... oh well, threw them into another box, which is higher & smaller, snapped more photos :)

So, this is how it went to Little Girl's pre-school finally, I got the container of curry placed separately due to the size of the bento box. The contents of today's bento:

Bacon, broccoli & quail eggs roti canai pie,

cherries, grapes and mangoes.

When little girl saw me using the roti canai dough fixing into a pie this morning, she was not quite happy with the idea, as she wanted the roti canai to be normal, ;p sorry, dear, mummy oledi transformed it into a pie. However, when she ate it for her lunch, she liked it, as it was big, she left with only the bottom part of a quarter! All the grapes & cherries had gone into her tummy, and she told me she disliked the mangoes after eating 1 piece.

Woohoo! Another successful experiment with roti canai dough! Also, it is not necessarily to bake the dough in pre-heated oven, I experimented it with toaster oven, which don need pre-heating & cook in lesser time, double thumbs up! ^.^

Meringue Cookies

This is another thing that bro has been nagging me to bake him. My eldest sis (she is 10 yrs elder than me) had baked this cookie for us when we were very young, but, ever since we lost the recipe book and sis got married, we didn't get to eat it anymore.

During the Chinese New Year this year, I got to eat it at 1 of my friend's hse, I told bro about it and since then he had been nagging me (almost every Sunday, cos we usually bake something on Sun) to bake him the cookies.

I googled and found the recipe here, as it mentioned it makes with 2 main ingredients => stiffly beaten egg whites and caster sugar, easy pitsy :) I modified the recipe slightly, as we have no more vanilla essence in mum's hse, I used 1/2 tsp cocoa powder and I garnished the cookies with rainbow sugar bits and chocolate chips.

B4 I pulled out the trays from oven, bro oledi put 1 into his mouth, and moaned satisfy-ly: "Hmm... Oh yes, this is it!" Hahaha....

A batch with rainbow sugar bits...

... another with chocolate chips

The chocolate chips meringue cookies were a hit among the kids, however, both batches of meringue cookies were vanished in less than 1 hour! Little girl even made me promised her to bake her more next week, think I gotta double up the recipe next Sun ^.^ What a cookies!