sachi bento - a little bit of everything

i wanted to call this entry "mixed plate" but then i realized i already an entry with that title so here we go with the bento!

lately, i've been busy doing lots of different things (hence the title "bento.")  for those of you who don't know what a bento is, it's a japanese packed meal that has a little bit of a bunch of different foods in it...rice, veggies, meat, sides, etc.

so my (sachi) bento includes: school stuff, sweet stuff, and photography stuff :)

school stuff:
school has been crazy-busy lately.  the whole first quarter has flown by which means it's time for report cards and parent-teacher conferences.  though things are hectic, i'm enjoying what i'm doing.  i've got a fun bunch of kiddos and this year, i'm trying new things.  one thing i'm working on is a class blog.  here it is:
http://kidsteachingothers.blogspot.com

sweet stuff:
one of my coworker friends got married last weekend so our grade level threw her a mini-bridal shower luncheon.  she was on a no-carb diet so we decided on salad for lunch.  being me, i reeaally wanted to make dessert but a no-carb diet makes that quite challenging.  i couldn't make cupcakes or cake pops so i decided on layered-sugar-free jello in heart molds.  this prompted my first experience with gelatin, i know...pretty crazy.  so i used 3 packets to one box of jello.  in my opinion, i used a little too much, so maybe next time i'll try 2 packets :)

more sweet stuff:
this weekend i was craving cupcakes...quite the shocker ;)  so i decided to try the Sprinkles cupcake mix that my cousin got me for my birthday (you can get it from wiliams-sonomoa.)  it super easy to make, i just needed to add butter, eggs, and milk + frosting.  my favorite part was the signature Sprinkles-dots.  the cupcake ended up tasting good and was moist but it was quite dense (like all the other cupcakes i've made from scratch.)  any ideas for fixing this?

photography stuff:
in my last post i shared some photos i took of faces i came across in china town.  i've been practicing more and i've been loving every moment of it.  there's something about looking through the lens of a camera and capturing moments in time that is just so exciting to me.  i guess you can say it's my way of telling stories.  here are some pictures i took in seattle/portland.

the joy of baking +photography

yes, i know...my title sounds like the title of a recipe book, like "the joy of cooking."  but the phrase is simply true.  this past week i baked for "fellowship time" at my church.  basically, after church gets out, the congregation gathers outside and eats and talks story.  food has a way of bringing people together...my husband and i started going to our church in march but never really started talking to/meeting people until we started staying for fellowship.

i've come to find that baking for others gives you that "feel-good" feeling deep in your heart (and yes, i know this sounds corny too but it's oh so true.)  there's just something special about knowing you're bringing a little bit of sweetness into someones life.

here are my little bits of sweetness - red velvet minis

this past week was also one of my good friends' birthdays so i decided to bake for her as well...ironically enough, it was her family that taught me a lot of my foundation for pastry decorating when i worked at their bakery.  here are her birthday cupcakes.  i was going for the vintage-tiffany blue look.

i've also been working on my photography...getting tutored by a friend and trying some new things.  today i went out and actually shot people...people i didn't know...people who in one split second, told a story.  it was quite the experience, definitely stepped out of my comfort zone but in a good way :)  here are some of my favorite shots of the day.

whoopie! - it's back to school

my summer came and went and now i'm back in school...though i was not SUPER excited about going back to work, now that i'm back into the swing of things, i realize i have a pretty awesome job!  each day is a new day and at least one student is sure to make your day :).

so in the spirit of back to school, i baked some whoopie pies for my coworkers...cheers to a "SWEET" year!

i followed bakerella's recipe:
http://www.bakerella.com/whoopie-pies/

mix wet ingredients

mix dry ingredients

mix wet + dry ingredients

scoop onto parchment paper

bake (i think i should have flattened them before i baked them...they were thick)

frost - vanilla

frost - cherry

frost - chocolate

assemble

stack

wrap - thank you joohee for the cute tags! :)

i decided to try making cupcakes out of the batter too.

mint chocolate

in the end, i decided need more practice.  my whoopies were more like whoopie balls than whoopie pies and i need to work on the moistness of the cake.  it was a fun learning experience though!

mixed plate

so summer is about to come to an end for this school teacher, but today is my department directed leave aka furlough day so here i am summing up my summer.

the past month has been filled with family, food, and fun.  my sister got married so we had lots of gatherings which meant lots of food and baking for me.  it all started with her shower.  we planned an "around the world" themed shower since she loves to travel.  we had stations of food from japan (because we're japanese), and mexico (because her husband's mexican), and italy (just because).  the food was delish!  to top it off, i made classic red velvet cupcakes decorated with the fondant flowers i got in washington (the box of fondant i bought and planned to practice with this summer is still sitting in the pantry...i guess that summer projects is now pushed into a fall project.)

japan sushi station

mexico taco bar

italy pasta bar

around the world on a plate

the next gathering was the rehearsal dinner.  my sister asked to help with desserts so of course i decided on cupcakes.  since there was a lot of family and friends coming from the mainland i decided to do tropical cupcakes: guava and lilikoi chiffon. :)

lilikoi + guava combo

lilikoi

the next gathering was the wedding.  i did not bake for the wedding...i took the day off and enjoyed.  nothing like seeing your sister get married and then making yourself and the wedding guests laugh and cry with the maid of honor speech :).  it was a lovely evening.

after the wedding festivities i had a little down time so i got together with my cousin to think up some new ideas.  i wanted to try a chocolate buttercream since most of my cupcakes have a vanilla-base frosting so we decided on doing a rocky road cupcake.  it was quite the rocky road that lead to a pleasant ending.  we used a chocolate batter and tried to put marshmallows in the batter.  since we didn't have mini's at the time, we used regular sized marshmallows and cut them in half.  for half of the cupcakes we put the marshmallow on the bottom and for the other half, we put it on top of the batter.  well, marshmallows melt in the oven.  they pretty much disappeared and made things sticky.  but they cupcakes were still savable, so we continued on.  the chocolate buttercream turned out well.  we used a recipe that was pretty much vanilla buttercream with melted chocolate added in.  finally we topped off the cupcake with the rockiness of almonds, chocolate chips, and marshmallows (we went out and bought minis).

after all this baking, i got inspired to do some actual cooking.  so when my sister's in-laws left, they dropped off the left over food they had from the house they were staying at.  included in this bunch of food was a bag of extra-long-grain rice.  so, i decided to get in touch with my mexican side and try out a batch of mexican rice.  it turned out quite well, especially from someone who's never made rice on the stove before!  if you want to get in touch with your mexican side, here's how:

in a pot, saute 1 clove of garlic and 2 tbs of onions (i also added in carrots).

add 2 cups of rice and saute until it starts to brown.

add in 1/2 c of tomato sauce and 3 cups of chicken broth.  bring to a boil, cover, and let it simmer for 20 minutes.

 then, ta-da!

oh, and i squeezed in one last bit of baking.  my mom had a class reunion potluck so i baked some butterscotch w/ vanilla buttercream and sea salt cupcakes.  i'm really liking this recipe :)

now it's on to back-to-school fun!  hopefully this school year brings good things :)

pop-a-lot + cupcake favors

this was a busy baking week.  on thursday it was my turn to bring refreshments for our writing class and it was joe's last day at the bank...so i baked. on friday we had a pot luck for our last day of class...so i baked.  i also offered to do favors for my coworkers retirement party on saturday...so i baked.

so here goes...here's what i did :)

for refreshments, i brought cake pops:  yellow cake with white chocolate, yellow cake with semisweet chocolate, and hello kitties.

for joe's coworkers i tried heart cake pops.

for my pot luck dish i brought maple cupcakes w/ a maple frosting, sprinkled with bacon.

and finally, for the party favors, i did red velvet cupcakes with a vanilla buttercream topped with "tiffany blue" flowers.  i have to thank my husband joe for this one because i consulted with him on the color combination for the ribbon/flowers.

for this upcoming week i'm planning on trying out some new cupcake flavors and baking for my sister's bridal shower! :)