Almost Time for School!!

I have some new bento equipment and have my list of things to stock up on for easy to put together bentos for school. On Monday and Wednesday I will be making at least two, maybe three because I will be at school from late morning to early evening and will need to have something to eat. I say three because I will also make my eldest daughter some if I can do it. She doesn't start school until early afternoon, so technically she would be fine without one.

Starting out fresh is very exciting. I am a little worried that I have only potstickers and pancakes in the freezer, but I hope to be adding mini quiches, meatballs and hamburgers, fried tofu and other fun foods that can be frozen. I am also going to make a carrot furikake with a recipe from Just Bento since Paige doesn't like any with the bonito flakes on her rice. She doesn't even like the nori, but will let me decorate with it when the soy paper is just not dark enough.

Paige has opened up her mind to many new ideas and is willing to try new things, she even said that she would try fish, and she loved the squid in my last post. Soon I may have to change the name of this Blog! Of course I am getting ahead of myself. Still, she has promised to be more adventurous since I will also be making one for myself and maybe Catherine. She doesn't want us stuck in a rut with the same old lunches all the time. Have I mentioned that she is a great kid?

Takoyaki

Today was the summer festival at my favorite Japanese shop Ebisuya in Medford. They really did a lot with the store and have apparently become a Sanrio distributor. They also had some bento things, which is nice. I won't have to order soy sauce bottles online anymore. We had cotton candy and some traditional takoyaki which my eldest was kind enough to buy for us. The octopus wasn't what I expected. It was chewy, but it didn't make an unpleasant crunch as I thought it would. Still, a little fishy for me, which must have been the bonito flakes. It gave me inspiration to try it at home. I got the pan, and some sushi grade squid which was very cheap and gave it a go. First I had to learn how to prepare the squid. I came out of it with all my fingers and the ink sac intact. What I wasn't sure of what whether to cook it first. With the traditional octopus you boil it first, but the squid was much thinner and smaller. Still, I gave it a bit of a fry before adding it to the batter. I think that we could skip that step next time though. I also used chicken stock rather than dashi for the batter. Oddly, it came out tasting just like the stuff they were selling.  I also made some with just some green onions and no pickled ginger or squid. I am envisioning making them like little desserts also, with some sugar in the batter and maybe a berry in the middle. We will see. They are also very filling.

They almost came out perfectly round, not bad for a first attempt if I must say so myself. I think that I had the pan a little too hot, but my friend "Cooking with Dog" on You Tube said that the pan needed to be very hot. Next time I will turn it down a bit.

Paige also had her 14th birthday on the 30th, so I made her a cake.

The cake itself was just a boxed chocolate cake, but I made my own seven minute frosting with strawberry flavoring. Just what she wanted.