KookyCulinary

I am back after a week’s cruise to Alaska. It was an awesome trip. My parents came from Malaysia and joined us on the cruise. The weather was great, the seas were calm and of course, the food were awesome! If you are ever thinking of going on a cruise, make sure that you go on a diet pre-cruise because you will be packing on the weight during the cruise like I did.

Food is available pretty much from the moment you wake up till you go to bed and it’s all free, even room service! The best part of an Alaskan cruise is the dining view. Imagine watching a glacier passing by while you eat your lunch and occasionally a glimpse of whales and dolphins jumping out of the water. So gorgeous!

Sending lots of lovey-dovey hearts in her bento will remind her that mommy loves her. :) Today’s bento consists of Nutella Sandwiches, Cheese Hearts, M&M chocolate, Carrot Sticks with Miso Dip & Grapes.

All kids love animals and this is just one way to bring animals to them without going to the zoo. It’s always fun when they open up their bento and discover the different animals.
Today’s bento consists of Peanut Butter & Jelly Bear Sandwiches, Ham elephants & giraffe and carrot butterflies on cheese logs.

I am off on a cruise to Alaska for the next week.  There will be internet on board but it is very expensive, so I doubt I will be online for the next week. I will be auto-publishing a few bento posts for the next week. Have a great week, everyone!!

Today’s lunch: Spaghetti, Hot Dog, Mandarin Orange, Rice Krispies cube and decorated with cheese stars

Say Hi to Mr. Crabby! Isnt’ he cute?? The body of the crab is a slice of ham, the eyes are made up of cheese, ham & star sprinkles, and the legs are hot dogs. Under Mr. Crabby is chicken & mozzarella cheese ravioli in marinara sauce. The other container has Nutella roti canai roll-up & cherry tomato.

For those in US, you can get the chicken & mozarella cheese ravioli from Costco.

I usually keep a pack in my freezer all the time. It’s very easy to prepare and Lil’ C loves it. Just boil it for 6-8 minutes in water. Remove and mix it with marinara or any spaghetti sauce.

For the past few days, I have been spending my time here . . . .

The Seattle Space Needle! My parents and 2 of their friends are visiting from Malaysia. So now I am the official tour guide. Unfortunately the weather is not cooperating. See the background of the Space Needle. On a nice day, it would have been blue but now it’s all thick clouds. In fact, the clouds have been so thick that I haven’t seen even a hint of blue for the last few days!!! Since I have guests, I have not been spending anytime in the kitchen at all. Fortunately I still have a lot of unpublished photos.

Whenever we have leftovers from our grilling days, I usually try to make something out of them like sandwiches or pasta. This time, we had chicken and apple sausage and also grilled bell peppers. They were added to to fettucini for a yummy sausage and pepper fettucini meal.

It’s been a long time since I last baked. For the last couple of months, I have been very busy playing “travel agent” for my family (See my other blog for details if you are interested) and being a chauffeur for my little girl. Who knew that a 3 year old could have so many activities! Ever so often, I would look longingly at my very long to-bake list but alas, my tired body keeps saying no. So the long list goes back into my recipe folder.

Then last week I finally had a chance to cross one recipe of my to-bake list. It was Lil’ C’s last day of preschool and I had promised to bring a dessert to the year-end picnic. I decided to make something that I have been wanting to bake for a long time - the Chocolate Cheesecake.

What does the cheese layer remind you of? Doesn’t it look like a seahorse? Haha… It was not intentional but somehow the cheesecake layer sank and formed this cute shape. I guess I didn’t do a good job layering the cake. Even so, the cake turned out really nice. I like the cake slightly chilled just because of the cheesecake layer. The recipe can be found here.

All packed up and ready for the picnic. I decided to serve this cake bite-sized just because it is much easier to eat and less messy at a picnic.