I'm back! And Happy 2011!!!

Hello everyone! I’m back… from the trip that is. How was your Christmas? Ours was a bit “relaxing” as we took it easy this time by waking at the time we wanted and took our time to stroll in the malls and not having a “time table” to follow like the previous trip. We spent almost 80% of the trip eating and eating. I really dare not step myself onto the weighing machine now. LOL!

Besides eating, we also did a bit of shopping of course but mostly CNY outfits for the girls and hubby. Can you believe that I only managed to get a top for myself? And this time round, I only got a total of 12 items from Daiso (all 3 stores)! And out of the 12, 8 are bento tools (which 3 are of same item). There are not much of new items on the racks and also I still have all those gifts from Japan still in their packing’s {blush}! Storage is a main problem to me now. So I’d better tie my hands a bit before hubby tells me we are moving to a bigger house with a “bento room” for me. Kekeke. {hint hint to hub} 

Bento loots from Daiso

Top right~left: picks and food drawing pen – EXTREMELY happy with this as it’s the 2nd item on my wish list, that explains why I sapu all 3 units left on d rack.. hehehe

Bottom righ~left: round cutter knife, seaweed punchers & bento bag

Non-bento loot from Daiso

Top: rice crackers & training chopstick

Bottom: a set of bento box & matching bag to be used as a birthday gift bento soon

Moulds from HOI

Those silicon Mickey, Pooh & HK moulds were very very good buy. I regretted not getting more units. But then, there's another "excuse" for next trip. :P

The plastic 3D choc moulds are pretty neat too.

Overall, I considered this a fruitful trip!

Since today is the last day of 2010. I would like to take this opportunity to wish all my friends and readers A WONDERFUL 2011 ahead. “See” you all in 3 days time when my “bento kitchen” resumes “business”. LOL!

Bento # 263, #264, #265, #266 & #267

Hola everyone! Wow, it had been weeks (1 day short to a month!) since I last posted any new bentos on this blog and it’s already starting to grow “cobweb”. LOL! To “make it up” to my blogs, I’ve just did a minor “make-over” (Blogger had limitations) and gave them fresh new looks for a fresh new year ahead. Hopefully I will be able to make more exciting bentos for my girl and improves with my “skills”. It had been real busy and packed weeks for me for the past 1 month as hubby’s travelling had “suddenly” gone so intense that he was only in PG for 6 days! And everyone had been asking me how come it took me so long to recover from my “sickness” (yes, have been down with flu, cough and diahorrea for the few weeks and still having them now.). So now you know.

Thank God its school holidays now and I do not have to wake up at “ungodly hours” to pack bentos. There were 3 birthdays and 3 Christmas bentos I’ve made in this week. Very likely they will be the last for this year until Zo starts prim2 in Jan.

Below are the lists of bentos I've made this week.

Bento # 263

This was for my sis’ “belated birthday” whom is back with her family for holidays from UK. But on the actual day of her birthday, she was in Singapore where my bil attended some business meetings prior to retuning to Malaysia. My initial plan was to make her a 3D HK holding a miniature birthday cake but then, I do not have a box that is that “tall” to keep HK in a sitting position (PS. My sis name had something to do with “cat” so that’s how HK came into mind). At the end, it turned out to be like this. And I had to finish the bento in less than 20mins because we were rushing out to have dinner with them and my parents to celebrate my mum’s belated birthday. So guessed what happened when one is in such rush (besides burning 1 HK charcoal black..opps)? I guessed you must have realized it from the picture too…. Yeah… HK looked like a BIRD!!!! All because I have totally forgotten about the whiskers!!! Oh boy… and I only realized when my niece pointed it out on FB. [pai seh… blush blush]. But at least, my nephews enjoyed the bento very much (honey cured ham sandwich and cheese HK toast) and wiped the box clean within seconds! Ya, the bento was meant for my sis but ended-up she was only left with the strawberry and the lettuce. o_O”  

Bento # 264

This is for a colleague’s birthday. Yup, she was born in the year of pigs hence she adores everything that is “piggy” and it made my life a lot easier since “piggies” are pretty straight forward and easy to make. I bought some cheese & sugar rolls yesterday and made them into honey cured ham sandwiches. The piggy was decorated with ham & nori features. The mini snowman on contrary was the “killer”. I really need to have more practices in handling those darn filament sticks specially the red parts which are oh-so-precious!

Bento # 265 & # 266

The above 2 were Christmas gift bentos for our neighbor’s daughters. I found the Care Bears boxes too sweet to be resisted but hubby thought that the girls were a bit “over aged” (they are turning 12 & 14 respectively) for the designs. But hey, be it 3 or 30. A girl will still be a girl. No girl will resist kawaii stuff. LOL! In the boxes were “Santa Pooh & Santarina HK” cheese on top of honey cured ham rolls. There’s an L size strawberry, 2 honey cherry tomatoes and 2pcs of rainbow marshmallows as treats.

Bento # 267

This is also another Christmas gift bento for a colleague’s daughter in Sesame Street bento box. I wanted to make “Santa Minnie” at first but I’ve pressed the mould too hard and the cheese got stuck on the “stamper”. The same piece of cheese is not big enough for 2 Minnies therefore I have no choice but to use the smaller HK mould and did a similar one.

And now I just realized these was the only Christmas themed bentos I've made this year and I only started joining the rest 4 days prior to Christmas! How "efficient" eh? hehe. So if this mama is reading, you are not alone... LOL!

I would also like to take this opportunity to wish all my friends and readers a

VERY VERY BLESSED CHRISTMAS and a GREAT NEW YEAR 2011 ahead!!!

Christmas goodies - Choc-pops

If you follow my blog, you would know that I baked cookies and made cupcake bites as Christmas goodies last year. It wasn’t quite a “good experience” and I nearly “starved” Baby Jo (whom was still under nursing that time). This mummy ar… I told hubby, if this year I were to say that I’m going to bake again. Just go ahead and give me a big tight slap and wake me up! LOL!

We won’t be in town this coming Christmas as we need to attend hubby cousin’s wedding in KL. We are also taking the opportunity to extend the trip for a short “holiday” spending some time with my sis and her family whom are back for holidays from UK before they leave for another unknown years.

After seeing this mummy’s posting on her cup cake and chocolate pops, it seemed to be a “heat” in “blogging town”. And with her help, I managed to get the tools I needed for the chocolate pops. (Hey, only melting and freezing the chocs, no baking needed, so no tight slap needed too. LOL!). She was so so kind to help me get the tools from her friend’s supply shop and passed them to my hubby (when he was there on biz) despite her busy schedule. I really want to thank her for her kindness and guess what? Through this, we also found out that we actually “knew” each other! She was the ex-classmate of a close friend of ours and the sister of my ex-schoolmate! What a small world huh?! And the “power” of cyberworld! ^.^

Ok, back to the goodies. It’s so much easier to make comparing to baking. I just need to melt the cooking chocolates (I got a 2.5kgs slab btw! & a 500gm block of white choc), place the lolli sticks on the moulds and pour the melted chocs into the moulds, have them set, stick on the super cute icings, packed them in those small clear plastic bags and tie it with colorful wire ties and WALAH! Aren’t they irresistible cute?! Each recipient will be getting 1 choc-pop, 1 Minnie (Mickey for male) choc & a mini candy cane as goodies. And now… doesn’t it sound like Halloween… hhmm… oh well, I hope everyone will like them as much as I enjoyed making them.

Goodies from around the world

Remember I posted about my niece whom travels around the globe (she is an air-stewardess) and got me some bento tools during her recent flight to Japan? And finally, after much “transiting” - she is based in SG and had to pass the goodies to my sis from UK whom is on a short visit to SG prior to retuning to MY for holidays, and my sis had to pass the stuff to hubby whom was in KL on biz and finally the goodies reached me last Fri night when hubby returns. If the goodies were to have “passports”, I guess the pages would have been fully utilized with immigration stamps. LOL!

Top left~right: HK brushing set for the girls from Korea. Bento bands, musical food picks & cute freshness sheets from Japan

Bottom left~right: Sunflower shape mini-pastas from Milan, animal shape onigiri wrappers, heart shape silicon baran from Japan and a set of toast stampers from Germany

Finally! Singapore Chili Crab premix!!! I’ve used 1 to cooked Chili Crab dips served with friend mantao and they are awesome! Yummy!!!!

Yes, yes… I’ve asked her to get me these super yummy and expensive (to get locally) buffalo mozzarella all the way from Milan. She even went to the extend in buying a new cooler bag to carry the cheese balls back to keep them fresh. Oh dear, she is just too sweet. If I’d know that it would cause her so much trouble, I would have kept my mouth shut and asked for a Prada bag instead. LOL!

Thanks dear. Love all of them! ^.^