Showing posts with label Personal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Personal. Show all posts

27 June 2010

Exam time is almost over!

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In two weeks I will be able to restart posting properly, for my examination time will be over :) I will be ordering some bento cookbooks soon but I'll talk about the ones I have when the exams are done and also my new acquisition:


And it's not a new pet :D it's decent camera at last! I still haven't tried it on food because I'm slowly learning how to work with it and make the most out of the manual options :D if you have any suggestions/advice for that leave a comment.

Back in a few days!

13 May 2010

Taking a break...

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Exam time is close and I won't have much time to pack bentos, I've been packing them but they're quite clumsy and more to eat than to look so I haven't posted any. If I do anything interesting I'll certainly post but for now, exams are my priority.

Thanks for reading!

01 April 2010

Birthday food (and more)

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Yesterday was my birthday and as always, I had to take a few pictures at the cute foods I found near the cake before dinner :D


Aren't they just CUTE?! They're sweets with some sweet liquid filling on the inside. I tried getting all the different types in the bag but I might've missed one or two.

I spent all morning in a voice casting so I didn't plan the rest of the day. Thanks to my mum, I was able to have cake and dinner :D


Woops, there's a piece missing already. All the full cake pictures had me staring at the cake like I'd eat it with my eyes so I put this one :)

When we're done eating cake, I completely forgot what I wanted to do this year with my birthday cake, but.. I did it anyway!

For those who have seen house M.D.'s latest season you probably know what I'm talking about: I dug my face onto the cake just like in the series. The cake choice for this was bad tho. All the chocolate sprinkles stuck to my face and I didn't hurt the cake too much. I got cake on my hair too!



It didn't get too damaged and I dont mind eating the part where I put my face in :D

I'll be taking a trip this long weekend, I'll be sure to post something here later :)

OH, and you know... just to make it clear... the cake is a lie (from Portal, I loved the credits song)

09 March 2010

Emptying the refrigerator (and some rambling)

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It's been a long time! O_O

I haven't posted much lately because our freezer looks like the north pole and for that I've been using up stuff to be able to clean it. Not much shopping and not pretty pictures of what we eat, just plain boring but tasty meals. Its a shame you can't photograph tastyness!

Also, major house cleaning project has been initiated so if I didn't have anything interesting to show in the beggining, I don't feel like cooking until everything is clean. It's the longest setback I have had since I started blogging but it will probably be worth it.

On my next To-do-foods I want to try some inarizushi and the tamagoyaki again with or without square pan. I did find a way to maybe get the pan: one of my classmates lives in that town and she does over there for the weekend. It's a shame I can't go see it with my own eyes but just the trip would be more than I can afford right now (around 45€ which could be spent getting uhm, bento gear! or anything else at all)


School isn't going all that great either... I am running out of options to make a good exam at the end of the year simply because I'm tired of begging people to play with me... I want to get at least a decent mark which for me is quite high and I'm stressing because we're 3 months from the exam and I still haven't done half of what I need and the worse part: It doesn't depend on me...

Enough rambling about bad things!

I have plans for when the freezer is clean and all set, and I'll have plenty to blog about at that time. Until then please bear with the lack of posts, they will come sometime later.


Oh, I almost forgot. If you're looking for bento giveaways check Adventures in Bento making and Bento zen !

02 February 2010

Korokke lunch

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Continuing with the spree! It's lasting more than usual:


There's 2 korokke with raw finely cut cabbage, carrot "fingers" 1, 1/2 tangerine and some white rice. The bf said it was wonderful, he didn't even complain about the raw cabbage.

It all went fine until the evening, when I was supposed to cook the Torihamu from Maki's recipe on Just Bento after marinating it. I got distracted with studying for my exam... resulting in slightly burnt torihamu. It's still good tho, but I'll give it another try sometime later:


And there's a little something from yesterday night. It's been rather cold here so I tend to sleep with 3 cats on top/ below me. I was reading before bed time and one of them cuddled with me under the bed covers:

31 January 2010

Cooking Spree

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It's been a while since I had that feeling of wanting to cook something new!


Korokke! I used a youtube's recipe ( i love cookingwithdog) and made some soboro for emergencies (Recipe from AnnaTheRed)


This should be enough for 3/4 good lunches. Everything worked perfectly in the kitchen! The soboro's sauce evaporated nicely, the korokke got golden brown and i managed to make about 18 of them, for rushed evenings/mornings. Here they are just before being frozen:


I had never tried panko before and I must say it was wonderfully crunchy! Something you can't get with normal breadcrumbs, or at least me. I'm not a fan of deep fried things, specially the smell of hot oil and mushy, greasy food, but most of the oil was gone from these and none of it got inside. I was so pleased with this, specially because it fills me up quite fast, and I've got a bit stomach.

We went for a walk on a different place, the tide was very high, cold but sunny. I miss seeing the sea everyday like in Madeira, this was the best I could get (it's Tejo river).


For dinner, we ate out and I took a picture because most people out of portugal have no idea you can cook this "thing" like this:


Can you guess what it is?

Fried eel! How does that sound to you? These weren't the best ones I've eaten but when well fried they're really good. Not so good for health but I eat them once a year, if lucky. Usually is eaten with tomato rice and saute'd bell pepper salad.

Do you know some unique foods from your country?

16 January 2010

Some news

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I am finally back in shape from a nasty flu! It's been a hard week with so much to wipe from my nose and trying to sleep that I didn't make anything worth taking a picture. I did however take a picture of what my bf did for me on one of the days:


Don't you miss anything here? No matter how hard I try, if he cooks, he will never put vegetables in it!

Yesterday I made some lunch for me for today because I had classes all day. I guess the kitchen was angry at me for not using it for nearly a week and so, it punished me: First the eggplant i was saving to try out a new recipe was rotten from the inside -_- this is the 2nd time this happens; I buy rotten-on-the-inside eggplants...

Lucky for me I had some zucchini so I changed he eggplant with it. Then I forgot to defrost the meat and ended up burning it a bit when I stir-fried it. If that wasn't enough, when I cut it to bite-sized pieces one of the pieces fell to the back of the oven, then the rice would refuse to cook, I cooked a sweet potato (never cook them, they taste awful when cooked), I cut myself and to end the night beautifully me and my bf started a long fight (until 3am).

The food however tasted so good today, it felt so warming to eat my own food at a public garden even though it was cloudy. I should cook more for myself!


And finally the last news: I decided to upload a song I sang on youtube - Hallelujah the Jeff Buckley version. If you're curious, give it a little try on your ears it won't hurt (much) :D

05 January 2010

Pan-fried tofu & couscous "gratin"

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It's been raining for about 2 weeks (or maybe 3 I'm not even sure anymore) without a sunny day, and yesterday afternoon I found myself in an enjoyable experience: under the rain. I always try to leave school at the time my bf leaves work so we can go back home together. Here's his lunch for today!


There is a pile with couscous underneath, fresh tomato slices, cheese and oregano. On the lower part I put some snow-peas and some stir-fried tofu "steaks" (slices).


The tofu is an old recipe from my mum (or at least one of my favourite ones she made a long time ago).

She always uses extra-firm tofu (something like cheese tofu) boils it until nearly cooked. Then grabs a frying pan, slice sthe tofu, some chopped garlic, a bit of olive oil and some soy sauce. She Pan-fries it until golden brown on each side (or at least make sure it's stiff on each side because you might not be able to see the golden with the soy sauce). When it's cooked, just eat it warm and it'll be delicious.

Since it's been cold, my bf's been warming up his food in the microwave from work so I made use of that aspect to plan the food.

The tomato-cheese-oregano idea came from something I made in summer called "pan pizza" which is made of bread with tomato slices, cheese, salt and oregano on top, then slightly grilled or baked in the oven until the cheese melts, making it look like some sort of pizza.

I was quite surprised when he actually said he LIKED the tofu, usually he says "mm" or "it's okay". I might be doing some more tofu recipes because it's cheaper than meat and this month's budget is super tight for me at least, having to pay school and some workshops.

I'll leave you with the little adventure "underwater" :D stay safe and warm!

Yesterday, instead of taking the bus from my school to my bf's work, I walked half the way with a classmate, went through a shopping centre, did some quick shopping and went out. It was raining quite a bit when I left the centre but I would never expect the rain to get THAT worse... in 3 minutes I was on the tips of my toes avoiding giant puddles and when I reached some stairs, they had turned into small waterfall. In 15 minutes (which was the time I took door to door because I stopped for about 5 in the rain jut looking around and listening, I love rain ^^) the main road was a river, and I am not exaggerating.

At some point I regretted waiting on the rain because it got so hard even the umbrella couldn't stop it from dripping on me.

When it stopped raining, my bf went out of work (lucky bastard, he never gets the heavy rain) and we had to cross the road to get the bus, the problem was on the "crossing" part... We tried thinking of different paths but we'd always have to cross the road with half a meter of water on each side. We reached a point where half the zebra crossing was covered in water. At that moment,  the bus came and we ended up running in water, to catch it, which reached to 1/4 of my legs. With all that water, the result was 1h and a half ride home of really slow buses and flooded streets.


30 December 2009

Fast and simple

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Since X-mas we've been trying to reduce protein and sugar incomes so our bodies don't suffer anymore than they already did.

This was a fast to cook and assembly meal and I just added the carrots for extra vegetable/color

There's beef with onions and tomato sauce on top of a leaf of lettuce. Then there's broccoli carrot and rice. We had the same thing for dinner along with a tomato soup bowl.

I'm looking forward for next year's experiments. I hope I finally get my bento boxes (you have no idea how many setbacks I had on getting these >.<) and might buy some bento books. Where I live there's not one single store that sells anything bento related in the whole country.


So, some of my year's resolutions will be:

- Assembling proper bentos;

- Improving my photos of food & background;

- Losing the extra weight from christmas;

- Getting my cat fully healed (she's getting better really slowly and I'm stating to worry if her belly's fungus will ever disappear);

- Get the car back!!;

- Finish my degree so I can get another one;

and some more I just don't feel like writing for now ^^ Wish you all a Happy new year and hope all your resolutions come true!

23 December 2009

A few words/news

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I'm sorry I haven't written any posts but this while Christmas time and my sudden too short budged until the end of the month kind of gotten my mood down. It is very complicated for me this time of year because I love my family but I also love my bf and for reason's I can't specify, I can't have them both. Also not having a car anymore... Well, let's say it's been a chain of turn-off events that have succeeded in preventing my posts. I did try something a few nights ago but it didn't taste as I expected and I only took a picture at it after it was cut:


I had leftover curry from the day before and my failed attempt to make gyoza dumplings frustrated me so much I went insane and tried making a big gyoza. (I just divided the dough and put half on top, half on the bottom, like a pie!) Turns out the dough gets really hard to chew after baked, but the curry was still nice.


I'm not sure I'll post much for a while, but I'll make sure to take pictures at Xmas' foodies, not made by me but grampa doesn't really mind I take pictures of his doing.

Also, I'm expecting a book I won (Special thanks to Pikko for hosting the event) and some goodies from Japan which should arrive around February! Let's see if I finally dive into Bentoing more seriously and make sure to include meals for me too!

Oh, and whenever I make Farinheira again, I'll make sure I make a How-to post for those who keep looking for it, or you can just leave a comment and I'll tell you everyway I know to cook it.


That should be all thanks for reading and Merry Christmas and a Happy new year!!!



11 November 2009

Meatballs

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I was dieing to try out basmati rice so I made something with a delicious sauce to go with it:

PB110001

We hadn't eaten meatballs in a long time, mostly because they're a bit more expensive and I can't do much with it except for tomato sauce with them. Maybe next month I'll try to make my own, since I will probably get a little "gift" supply of meat soon.

What I really like about the basmati rice, is it's lightness. It has no stickiness and it feels so soft and light in your mouth and stomach. Despite eating a lot, I don't feel bursting like with japanese rice. I love them both, for different purposes, but 'm not sure wich one goes best with curry.

I ran out of "to-sauté" vegetables and the bf (I still have to find him a nickname because he doesn't like reading "the bf") is getting tired of carrots and green peas. It's a little hard to find vegetables to go with the food because he doesn't like beans nor peas. I can live without beans but peas... I love their sweetness.

Is there any way I could maybe mask these vegetables on something? I already did on soup, but after eating soup for a meal, he'll complain he doesn't want soup everyday.

When I was loading the pictures to my pc, I found some that I had no idea were they were and I just have to post one of those:

PB100008

That's err... me sleeping with the cat on top. There probably was one underneath my legs like usual. I sometimes get these on my camera because the bf loves to take random pictures whenever his mind says so. It was probably 5 or 6 am I'm can't be sure (I was sleeping)

I might post something on Friday, tho not really sure. Thursday is hard to make something look good on any plate.

09 November 2009

Hamburger & Tonkatsu

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I couldn't help playing around with the food:

PB080031


I had to use up the corn I had on the fridge (next time I'm buying frozen corn it lasts longer and I don't have to "use up" on everything I eat until it's gone)

Since the bf wanted hamburger, I just put some veggies with it and I really lack the abundance of veggies on fall. Squash is expensive and we can't eat it that fast. Plus, this week the supermarket's veggies were really really bad so I didn't buy any! I have no idea how they can present food that's rotten, or dried out, it's a lot different than back in Madeira. (I had fresh veggies T.T)

I made an apple pie again, this time with a different crust than the first one and a double apple-layer:



PB080048

We spent the weekend going out to either buy things or for classes so I didn't cook much, but I'll show you my lovely cats gathering with cold weather. One of them has a small problem being solved so she has that around her neck, but she'll be fine with another 2 weeks treatment.

PB040002

The white and black one is a male and the other two female.They're between 5 and 8 years old.

16 September 2009

Comments/Ideas

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I thought I'd give it a try asking readers' to feedback what I've been blogging so far. I have read various blogs but when it comes to making one, sometimes you need to be told a few things to notice them. So, if anyone has any opinion or idea that could help me improve the blog and make it more pleasant for the readers, they're all welcome!

Also, if you'd like me to try cooking/photograph/write a recipe of something, just post here or beneath the lunchbox correspondent to the recipe you'd like to read more of. All ideas are welcome and very appreciated.

Íris