KookyCulinary

Yes, I am back!! For this past week, I have been so busy baking and planning a party. Lil’ C turns 5 this week!! Time really pass too fast. It seems like yesterday that I was making her 1st birthday cake. And now I am making her 5th one! Well, this year besides making her cake for her birthday party, I had to make cupcakes for her to celebrate in school. When I asked Lil’ C what kind of cupcake she wanted, she said pink and lots of sprinkles and that’s what she got.

The cupcake is butter cupcakes topped with pink buttercream, sprinkles and a litte flower made of sugar paste.

All ready to be sent to school for a little celebration. Happy Birthday my princess!!
Stay tuned for her actual birthday cake!

Now that the weather is getting colder, I find that I have been craving for Korean food a lot especially the dolsot bibimbap (mixed rice in a stone pot) and soon-do-bu (spicy tofu soup). I guess the hot and spicy just hits the right spot on these cold winter nights. Since it is very expensive to eat out at a Korean restaurant, I decided to recreate some of the dishes at home starting with bibimbap.

Bibimbap is literally translated as mixed rice. It is a bowl or stone pot of rice topped with various seasoned vegetables and gochujang (spicy pepper paste). Beef and a fried egg are also commonly added. The ingredients are then thorougly mixed together just before eating. I also like the fact that I can add as much vegetable or as little vegetable as I like. For this bibimbap, I added lettuce, carrots, cucumber, beef & onion, fried egg and gochujang. I love dolsot bibimbap which is bibimbap served in a hot stone pot because it gives a bottom crispy layer. Unfortunately I don’t have a dolsot, so I served it in my claypot which I have to say works pretty well. It did help to create a crispy bottom layer.

Another simple bento of peanut butter & jelly bunny sandwiches, pineapple slices and cheese sticks.

Lately bento-making has been on a slow side because firstly there had been so many off-days at the school, so lunch had not been necessary. Between field trips, teacher in-service days, parent teacher conference days and other events, I am just learning how many off-days a regular school has. Frankly I am liking those off-days because it is nice to take a break from school and not having to wake up early.

Secondly, Lil’ C’s birthday is in 2 weeks and I have been busy planning the birthday party. Every year I make Lil’ C’s cake and so I have been cracking my head trying to decide on what kind of cake I will be making. I think I have finally decided on one and I am hoping that it will not be too difficult to make. Lil’ C’s previous cakes coming up in the next post.

Wow, I am finally at bento #90! It has taken a long time to get here and I can’t believe that I am still doing it. I think I will do a little celebration at #100. Maybe a little giveaway? Hmm.. gotta think about it.

Anyway this bento contains cheese sandwiches invaded by some goldfishes, apple sauce topped with ice-cream shaped fruit leather, a bucket of celery sticks stuck in a bucket of peanut butter and some candy corn.

After making the cupcake pops the last time, I have been itching to try more cake pops. So last weekend, I made some pumpkin cake pops.

Initially it was supposed to be jack-o-lanterns, unfortunately my food marker didn’t work well on the candy coating. So it ended up just as pumpkin cake pops. The cake pops were chocolate cake dipped in orange candy melt. Then I added a little pretzel for the stem and a tiny sprinkle for a leaf. It was so much fun making them and I can’t wait to make them for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

As part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program, every so often I get free stuff to try out. This time, I got a $30 credit to spend at Asian Food Grocer, an online source for Asian groceries. (Thanks, Asian Food Grocer! )  I ended up with a whole bunch of stuff including soy wrappers which I have always been curious about but never got around to trying it.

There are a few things that I plan to make with all the groceries but first I started off with tofu. I like the fact that this tofu needs no refrigeration. It will come in handy on those days when I need tofu and do not have time to go to the store to get some.

Anyway, I decided to make homestyle fried tofu. First I mashed the tofu into little pieces and then added an egg and jalapeno. Mix it all together and steam it in a block. Then I cut it into little pieces, coat with rice flour and pan-fried the tofu. Add a dash of spicy sauce before serving.

It’s apple season now. So, two weeks ago, we went to pick apples from the a local apple orchard (Jones Creek Farms). It was so much fun because we got to eat as much apples as we wanted off the apple trees and we really ate A LOT of apples!!! I actually felt a little guilty because we ate so much but the apples were so tempting and there were so many different varieties to try. But the owner did tell us to eat as much as we want and so we gladly obeyed. Not only were the apples fresh from the trees, they were organic too. Besides filling our tummy, we also ended up buying 16 lbs of apples.

Since we had so many apples, I made apple crisp using this recipe from Ina Garten

I love the crispy & crunchy top layer in contrast to the soft bottom layer. Oh so good!

Add a scoop of cold ice-cream to a bowl of warm apple crisp. Yum!! A great dessert for a fall night. I think next year we will definitely go apple-picking again!

It will be Halloween in 2 days. Will your kids be going trick-or-treating? What do you do with the bags of chocolate and candies that your kids will be receiving? I admit that I am one of those moms that confiscate the candies that my daughter gets. Seriously, I don’t think I need to feed 1 pound of candy to my girl. She usually ends up getting just 1 piece of candy from her candy stash. As for the rest of the candy, I usually end up sending them to my husband’s office. Apparently, there are a few like-minded people in the office because according to my husband, there are a lot of candies in the break room after Halloween.

Since candies are not good for the kids and probably a lot of them are going to end up in the trash anyway, what about giving out a healthier alternative. Check out Trick or Treat Me for this healthier option. Chocolate milk is healthy, a great source of calcium and most importantly kids love them. This chocolate milk in shelf stable cartons can be kept in the pantry and refrigerated when needed and does not contain preservatives. Not only are these chocolate healthy for the kids, the milk cartons are also healthy for the environment. The cartons are mainly made from paper, a recyclable and renewable resource that can be replenished and they have a low carbon footprint.

For more information about healthier alternatives for Halloween, check out Twick or Tweet Me and hey, there’s even a coupon available for you. So drop those candies and give out chocolate milk instead this year for the little trick-or-treaters. I am sure that their parents will appreciate this healthier treat a lot.

When packing a bento for the younger kids, I find that it is very important to pack food in a way that is easy for them to pick up and eat. Somehow it encourages them to eat more. I remember when I used to pack chicken salad croissant for Lil’ C. She loved them at home but whenever I packed them in a bento, she never ate them. Eventually I found out that she had a hard time picking up the croissant-wich because it would always be messy and she is not a big fan of messy fingers. So nowadays when I pack sandwiches that fall apart easily especially croissant, I always deconstruct them.

Today’s bento contains croissant, ham rolls, grapes, tomatoes, carrots & Ranch dressing for dipping.

Probably once every 2 months, we will make our way to Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle. It’s a really happening place with lots of tourists. There are lots to see but there are also lots to eat and we were there for the food. A great place to start out at Pike Place will be the first Starbucks outlet. Since we didn’t have breakfast, we went to Piroshky Piroshky first. (BTW, just for fun, try saying Piroshky Piroshky fast. It’s really a mouthful!!: P ). You will not miss this place because of the delicious smell of the piroshky fresh from the oven. Every time we go there, we try different types of piroshky. This time we got 2 different type of piroshky.

Potato Mushroom Onion Piroshky – Nice but a little too much potato

Cheddar Cheese Roll – Yummy!

Then it’s off to Le Panier to pick up French baguette and my favorite macarons

Then we wandered around the market for a while. There are always so much things to see at the Market. Lots of arts & craft stalls, fresh flowers, fresh fruits and vegetables and maybe a flying fish or two. For lunch we headed over to Pike Place Chowder for what else but clam chowder. They have a few different types of chowder but we always end up getting the basic New England Clam Chowder. It is served with sourdough bread.

We also got the Dungeness Crab Roll. It is like a cold crab salad served on warm crusty bread. I love all the crab meat but it definitely needs a little more seasoning. Adding the cocktail sauce made it better though I am not a fan of cocktail sauce.