Choux Paste

I made some Choux paste and piped them into bite size buns and eclairs. It's an easy paste to make and a crowd pleaser.

I filled the ready baked pastry with creme Chantilly, some with strawberries and made chocolate eclairs by dipping into hot melted chocolate.

I brought this for a pot-luck and I went home with an empty container!

Happy Birthday!

We celebrated #3's birthday last weekend. She's turned 10 years old. She had about a dozen friends over for the party. Her Godpa gave her a 3' X 12' pool and those who arrived early spent over three hours soaking in fun!


Her two elder sisters made this pinata for her. The little guests had great fun trying to 'break' it to reach the goodies inside!


The pinata from another angle.

Ice-cream and loads of fun food!



Happy birthday darling!

Daiso stock updates

I feel guilty for not having posted any bento lately. #3 completed her midterms and #2 has begun her SPM trials. It's basically been 'steam salmon' every morning. #2 has recently 'turned fishy-tarian' (eats fish) She's got some adversity towards cooked chicken lately. I hope it's just a phase!

I've been gallivanting Daiso @ the Curve and right now, it's a heavenly place to purchase any bento items!

Below are bento sized food picks, bento straps, food cups and accessories.


Here below are the 'elusive' Japanese buckle bento straps.


Below are an array of bento sized disposable food cups.


Some more cutlery, cutters, silicon cups, cold gel packs, molds and others.

Some more food and fruit cutters (can be used for biscuit cutters too), lots of silicon food cups in different size and shapes!


There are also lots of shape punches at the stationary section, lots of bento bags and bento boxes of all sizes which I didn't take pictures of. Basically, it's a paradise for Bento purchases!

Another garden surprise

I looked out of the living hall window and saw this beautiful bloom of flowers. I love these surprises that spring on me and make me gasp in delight.

Bento 234 & 235

My apologies for the long absence. It's been a busy time with other commitments and a trail of sicknesses among the children. Hectic schedules, commitments and competitions has been the base of trying times and normality should soon come again.

Simple steam Salmon bento with a sliced Kiwi.



Another bento taken at random. My favorite 'lui cha' (store bought).

Scones NOT Stones!

Scones has been a hot topic of discussion in our home lately. #1 love the scones at "Delicious". Their "traditional English afternoon tea for two" is simply delicious and worth every cent, it says "for two" but four of us shared this and couldn't finish!

I buy my stock of scones from the cafe at The Royal Lake Club and The Coffee Bar @ Amcorp Mall. I've heard more than a dozen stories about attempts to make "scones which turn into stones (instead)."

I very proudly declared to my children that I "made scones" which DON'T turn into stones! My daughters eyes open up brightly and asked if that were 'really true?' Of course, I replied, because I know the 'trick' to make fluffy scones and NOT stones. They were intrigued because they've not tried home made scones before.

So, I was pestered into making scones since last weekend. First problem I encountered was my missing recipe. I remember I made a lot of research before I attempted to make scones because it's my favorite tea-time snack.

Nevertheless, I went online to Martha Stewart.com to search for a scone recipe. I found this recipe and finally attempted it today.

It's wonderfully light and aromatic, in short - just delicious!!


Home baked scone served with Lemon Curd, Whipped Cream and Strawberry jam.

Care to join me for tea?

Bento 233

This morning we had canned sardines in tomatoes and bread.


There were grapes and a fresh button mushroom.

Bento 232

I bought a packet of Tortillas last week. This morning, I fried some "Tonkatsu" and sliced them into long pieces, stacked them on top of some rollo rosa salad. There was cheese and mayo to top it off. Rolled up this combi and sliced it into three pieces.


Two pieces of the Tortilla went into the bento box and the third piece was eaten for breakfast.
There were some sliced mangoes in the top box.


Home made pineapple tarts to complete this meal. Yummilicious!!

Bento 231

This was yesterday's bento. An egg sandwich and half a Scone with Lemon curd sandwiched in between.


Some left over fruit salad and a pickle which #2 made - kyuri in a kombu and shoyu mix.


It's all about tarts!
Making no bake cheese tarts and mango cheese cake. Also baked some pineapple tarts. All for tomorrow's BEC gathering.

Post 501 and Bento 230

Wow! This is my 501th post! Feel like I should have done something to commemorate it. Oh well...this is bento number 230. It's got a simmered dish of lotus root, Japanese burdock, carrots, some local noodle konyakku, mushrooms and chicken pieces. The stock is made up of dashi, sugar, sake, mirin and shoyu. It's got a deliciously 'light' flavor to it and the Japanese burdock is just delicious.

This simmered dish is accompanied by a nest of buckwheat soba and some fruits mixed in orange juice. All these I cooked and prepared last night and only had to transfer into the bento box this morning. It took me 15 minutes to complete that, including making the tuna sandwich in the side box.

I got downstairs at 6.30a.m. and left the house at 6.46a.m. so it was very effective for me this morning! *smiles*



I had to get the Japanese burdock at Isetan in KLCC on Saturday. Good thing they also had stock of the "Sakura Denbu" which seem to be out of stock all over PJ!!

Care eating Japanese noodles this way?

This morning before Mass, I met some friends (young adults). One of them was recounting my "sushi" sale last weekend for the fund raiser. He was relating to another friend about how a 'sushi machine' should be invented because he had witnessed #1 and I, "laboriously" rolling sushi from wee morning up to noon time.

Rolling over two hundred packs of sushi for sale over a five hour period and raising a four figure revenue is no easy feat. Nevertheless, I enjoyed myself and had a great time.

Out of curiosity, I Googled for "sushi maker" but more interestingly I found something else!!!

When I read this article about the Ramen Robot I was amazed! It's able to offer "40 million different flavor permutations".

As though that wasn't an exciting read enough, I also read about the noodle water slide which is the cream of the cake for these 'noodle related' inventions!



I've seen the "Bamboo" water slides" in TV but this?? To eat somen this way is akin to eating marshmallows dipped in a chocolate fountain! Wowweeeee!!!!

• Slightly unravel boiled somen, and place them at the top of the rail by the waterwheel
• Try to catch the noodles on their 140cm trip down! Don't worry, if you miss, there's a tray at the bottom to catch them for you

Fund Raiser for a good cause

Over the last weekend, I made Sushi for sale at a fund raiser. I spent a whole week "Shopping". The ingredients had to be purchased at different stores and I had to run around quite a bit before I could get all the necessary ingredients.

In the chaotic hustle and bustle of preparing and cooking the ingredients, I forgot to take lots of pictures. These were the few in between which I took when I 'remembered'!! LOL!!


Kyuri straight from the supermarket.


Kyuri sticks, washed and cut.


45 eggs.


...mixed with this concoction of dashi, salt, sugar, mirin and sake...


...patiently toiling over the hot stove to produce TAMAGOYAKI!!!!



Carrots...


...all cut and blanched in hot water...


Mushrooms slowly simmered in a concoction of water from soaking the dried mushrooms, sugar, salt, mirin, sake and shoyu.


Japanese short grain rice...


All 10 kg cooked and mixed with a concoction of vinegar, salt and sugar.


My sushi stall... where #2 assisted in packing and selling...

...where #1 assisted in rolling the FUTOMAKI for sale.


The basic futomaki roll...


all packed and ready for sale...


The experience? Exhilarating~!!!

Edible football field?

Bon Voyage Ian!

Bento 229

Simple stuff and repeats until I sit down and start planning again!!

Boo hoo hoo!

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