Return of the Emo-Octodogs

Jan's bento for today features some of my pride-and-joy gyoza, and also the return of the octodog - that terrifying Japanese snack consisting of a hot dog with facial features and eight legs. I made one face smiling and the other threatening an axe murder. This is good. Life should include both aspects don't you think?

In addition I carved a hard-boiled egg into a 'design', and included a chickie pick with cajun smoked cheese cubes. Then there's a rice salad with kalamata olives and sweet peppers, and a brownie bite to add the sweet conclusion. What a mixed up lunch. It's snowing and sleeting as I write, and that's mixed up too since it is supposed to be spring I think...

Spring Sunshine Bento

I see Blogger has decided this image should appear sideways. Can't figure out what to do about that so...

Yesterday the sun came out fiercely for awhile, and even though it was still frakkin cold (BSG technical term here), some students around campus wore a touch of summer. I saw: young lady in flip flops and a down jacket; young lady in Ugg boots, shorts, and a full length wool coat; young man barefoot and in shorts, with goose bumps and slightly blue knees.

This is a time honored ritual in northern Minnesota: Welcome Spring! We are uncomfortable in these summer duds but we are bull headed and dang it we are wearing them regardless.

My sideways bento has: gyoza which I made myself!, umeboshi onigiri, broccoli, home-made yogurt with also home-made cranberry topping yumty yum, and a nice big orange in the sunshine. In bento lid: a Fig Newton. Good times for a Monday!!

Karaoke Recovery Gyoza

Last night we went to a birthday party at which extremely loud karaoke singing was the big event, or the only event really, because no conversation was remotely possible.

Now karaoke. Who invented it and What Were They Thinking? Did it seem like a good idea to invite people to massacre other people's favorite songs? I guess it was marketable anyway since karaoke shortly conquered the world.

At last night's event, the 'funniest thing' was this: if you don't know the song, just squawk the lyrics in loud 'funny' voice as the words light up. I came home with my ears ringing and regretting the conversations I could maybe have had. Call me an old grumpus, but I had awful karaoke nightmares all night long.

So this morning to recover I made gyoza for the first time. I had bought some 'pot sticker wraps' last week, hoping they would work in the little gyoza squeezer I named "Jaws". Sure enough they were perfect. I chopped up Savoy cabbage, pork roast leftovers, ginger, and green onion; added a splash of mirin and one of soy sauce; pepper and a tad of corn starch.

I made a 'sealing paint' of one tablespoon corn starch, one tablespoon water. Then I went to work making little pillows of goodness! What fun. Here's is my pile of gyoza fresh from Jaws:

By sheer luck, I had almost exactly the right amount of filling for this pack of wraps. Since this will never happen to me again as long as I live, I took a picture:

I froze half and cooked up the other half for today's lunch or dinner. Really I just wanted to cook them & see how they tasted! They are terrific.

As you can see I got carried away frying them and some are too dark. These will be the first to go!

Success; I almost can't hear the ghastly karaoke caterwauling any more. When the song "YMCA" came up, everyone sang and danced. The host of the party had a philosophical moment: "Isn't this an interesting statement about human nature? The stupidest song is the one that makes everyone happy". That song does have some strange power over people, myself included.

Happy weekend everyone!

Friday Pad Thai with Substitutions

At 5 this morning I decided to make Pad Thai for Jan's bento. Here's my thought process lying in bed in the dark:

"What goes into pad thai? I have some noodles, shrimp, chili sauce, blah blah...I bet I could make that this morning! I'll get a recipe on the internet!"

Looking up a recipe I had to realize what I did not have on hand, so my 'pad thai' is pretty unorthodox. No rice noodles, substitute soba. No fresh coriander, sub in fresh cilantro. No tamarind, but apparently this is a common plight for cooks because I got about 100 hits searching for "don't have tamarind?" Lime juice with brown sugar is the standard fallback.

Anyhoo it was fun to make and too easy so I think I might have come across a nonstandard recipe with shortcuts. Oh well! It smells great.

Jan also has: a salad, some cucumber slices with ume plum vinegar, and King Peep in all his glory. TGIF bento babes!!

Bento Cowgirl

Jan's bento this a.m. is wrapped in my favorite 'furoshiki' which is really just a bandanna he gave me for my birthday a few years ago; it depicts a typical session of me riding one of my nice quiet horses. :)

His bento is:

Carrot-lime slaw (yummm), egg salad cup, grape tomatoes, and Savoy cabbage sauteed with sesame oil, a green onion, and some shreds of red pickled ginger; then hoisin sesame pork, a nice fresh umeboshi onigiri made late last night, chocolate oatmeal bite and marshmallow Peep.

Yeehah!!

MexiBento and Furoshiki

Jan gets: soy'meat' burrito roll slices with cream cheese, black beans, cottage cheese, and salsa; salad from last night's dinner salad with a little olive oil container and a slice of lime to squeeze over it, baked tortilla strips.

Today's bento being in the larger container which has no 'belt', I used a furoshiki to tie it together - so the pretty cloth is actually doing a functional job instead of being just decorative! Two jobs because it is holding a Cadbury cream egg also!!





This furoshiki (is that singular or plural??) came with instructions; Japanese people use these pretty cloth squares for gift wrap, lunch wrap, other presentation modes, shopping bags, purses, book bags, everything. And they are reused, gifted along, they live a life of their own. How much better than our endless throwaways and plastic bags! How did our culture get on this wasteful path?

Bento Masculine or Feminine?

On another bento board I was reading a post by a young woman who is starting to make bento for her male room-mate; she wanted ideas for 'masculine' foods. Are there such things? I think I know what she meant, and that one post was the reason I added skillet chili fries to Jan's bento this morning.

He has: MachoMan quiche, sugar snap peas, cherry tomatoes, kalamata olives, and a super masculine pumped up daikon chickie on top; chili fries with jalapenos (UNGH!!), orange sections with little heart-shaped grapes on top just like ripped biceps; Pocky (hey I've seen boys eat it!) in the lid.

I have much the same except in my case it is: lovely lite quiche, veggies and olives with a kyoot widdle daikon chickie on top, oranges, grapes, and a bright red marshmallow Peep.

So I think we are OK with the gender boundaries. Phew, that was close.