consistency

This has urked me for a long time; every time I bake cupcakes I can't divide out batter evenly. When I make cookies and pie crust, I roll the edges out too flat and every other side is a different thickness. Is there any foolproof way to to make everything even? I've seen these pie crust rolling rubberbands, but the only setback is the price. There's no way in hell that I'm gonna pay $8 for four rubberbands that don't look like they'd stretch enough to fit around my large rolling pin.

and man do I suck at frosting...

There's more than just that, but it's slipping my mind at the moment.

omgwagashi

I is punk-rori enough?

:D I make peanut butter with my suribachi! weeee

CTown Purikura, shrimpies, hotcake

I finally found an excuse to go to the purikura (print club) shop at the back of the Elizabeth Center Mall; Pauline Bertha-Mae and I met up afterschool to hang out together since we didn't get to for Bertha's birthday. We were so immature though; BALLS.
Warnings: Tic-Tac-Toe's takoyaki is crap; too soggy and undercooked. I paid $4 for 6 OCTOPUS BALLS (xD;;). Though it was funny how the wind/heating was blowing at the bonito flakes which made it look rather alive and moving. Sent us into giggling fits haha.
The purikura place charges $20 for the small photo set. I don't blame them too much, since the rent is expensive, but still. The most you can take with the small set is 7 photos and we ran out of time trying to decorate the photos. YES it's timed.

The purikura place I went to in China with my cousins were a lot different. We chose about 10 frames for the sticker photos from albums with numbers, stood in a long line (very popular place), the photos weren't timed, we could choose what to laminate the photos with, and the price was CNY $5. Cheap, friendly and *o* beautiful frames.

☆☆☆

Recipe from aunt. おいしかった！

☆☆☆

ホットケーキミックス （Hotcake Mix) was on sale at Sunrise Mart and I paid for it immediately. There's a certain charm to the packaging that I really like about it. Not just the happy kitchen utensils in the how-to make the pancakes part of the bag. Unlike your average American pancake mix, this big 800g bag comes pre-measured, so all you have to do is take out a 200g bag, measure out milk and add an egg. There's less hassle and it comes with additional recipes you can use with the mix like... donuts and bread. The recipes are also available online! The Nipponese seem to like it a lot and I see from tv shows like 二人ごと　(Futarigoto). Aibon makes a heart-shaped pancake and Yaguchi Mari also makes some before Aibon's turn.

Psssst Aibon's also the reason why I bought that box of MokoMoko Chiffon Cake Mix a few months back.

For the sake of excitement

After a year of waiting, I've finally gathered all the ingredients I needed to make Anjali's Kurogoma Cupcakes! *o* Not only is it tasty, but even my picky older brother likes it. Thumbs up man! D: dunno, but every picture I took of the frosting turned out lighter than it really is...I'll post it in a bit, but not now since I'm not done frosting every one of them in the luscious, creamy matcha frosting. YES I made real frosting too. Now I'll cross my fingers and hope my mum eats the frosting and doesn't yell at me for mugging half of the black sesame seeds. Remembered that she can't eat butter ;o; lactose intolerant.

















And yesss I actually cooked a whole meal for my family the other day. Happy mum= happy day. But of course, it makes her so happy she has to tell every person who calls her that Amy MADE DINNER. So the recipe I tried (which my bro ate all of it) was another of Anjali's: Agedashi Tofu. But I used firm tofu in place of the cotton tofu and pan-fried it in our big flat-bottomed wok. ; 3; It makes me so happy to see that recipes I've bookmarked a year ago can actually be used and very much worth the wait.
















Also forgot to mention that I *tried* to prepare soba noodles for lunch.. my brother didn't like it; too bland. Also 'coz it's omgmadHEALTHYFOODdesu~! (；ﾟДﾟ) ... and it was the cheapest bag of soba from Sunrise Mart.
To the people who have actually eaten soba the right way, point out anything that seems... off (besides the lack of kaeshi cups...)

Favorite foods at hand, bento storing, homemade butter

Dear Yoplait,
I love you very much! Will you stay in my fridge forever?




















favorite flavor: Whips! Chocolate Mousse Style


Haw Flakes are the bomb.
















GOOD (and cheap) curry. I bought it on sale and my brother and I secretly eat it when our parents are out :x And if the box behind the curry roux? That's the "ichigo dessert" that I also bought on sale. Promise me that you'll stay the hell away from it; flavor=ok, preparation= convenient, aesthetics=questionable. That stuff was NOTHING close to the bright pink in the picture. I would've been a lot happier if it made more since it's regularly priced at around $2 plus it's just a pouch of jelly that you mix with milk.
















How I store my bento collection:















The blue lunch bag is now used to hold my fake lacquered sakura bento, my oshibori, green baran(plastic divider) that's kinda visible on the netting, candy thermometer, suribachi, and Japan Home Center bento.
Outside of bag: (top right, down) 6 clear boxes used for dividing up snacks and one of them containing sakura denbu, 3 jars of furikake (bonito, beefsteak plant, and salmon), plastic cup holding 3 sets of mini chopsticks with one いただきます chopstick missing and a mini grater.
2nd row; blue Japan Home Center kinchaku, blue Feel at Ease bento, green collapsible Putifresh bento, green tight Putifresh bento, Totoro bento still unused(ilu P&K) , mini Comment vas tu? bento.
3rd row; 5 different rice molds, V-Color forkchopstickspoon case, 2 i.kotoba blue and pink bento.
random: packaged mochi for shabu-shabu/okonomiyaki/etc, dashi soup stock set (wakame, bonito flakes, dashi kelp), nori (upper shelf), tempura batter mix.
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Homemade Butter: Fill a small glass jar half way with heavy cream and add a pinch of salt. Shake for about 20 minutes or so until butter lumps form. The rest of the liquid left behind is buttermilk, which can be used in other recipes. Place butter lumps on a seive/ collander to let drip excess whey. You can spoon the butter into a mold or a small bowl covered in plastic wrap, then cover and refrigerate to allow the butter to solidify.
recipe from Oishii Eats
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picture: butter made yesterday and cheap ready-to-bake buttermilk biscuits from C-Town. Cheap food; 99 cent carton of cream + 3 tubes for $1.39 (30 biscuits)= biscuits that feed a crowd with pretty good health stats (if butter is substituted) and decent taste.
I still have some shiro-an (white bean paste) left over from making dorayaki and stuffed a small ball of the paste into a biscuit. D: I really need sugar.