Happy Birthday, Princess! You are three!

Since the arrival of a little one (he is 4 1/2 months now!), my life is busier than ever before!
Came back to work in the end of January, balancing work and family has been a complicated, challenging, (but rewarding) journey!

My princess turned three last Tuesday. I baked a vanilla cake and decorated with Parve whipped cream and strawberries - topped with a candle (letter 3) :-)

Happy Birthday, my dear.







She loved it!

Time to catch up - 2010 Holiday Round Challah and More

My photo library (on my laptop) is full! It's time to post some recent creations.
I'll start with today's baking - 2010 Holiday Round Challah for a New Year! Rosh Hashanah starts on Sept. 8 (sundown) this year. Usually, I make very simple round shaped challahs. I took a bit more time this year to make the round challahs pretty :-) Oh, yes, as always, the little one "is" the challah.

Challah for High Holidays




Healthy and Moist Banana Bread

Here is a Banana Bread that I baked while rising the challah dough...
Mira loves it! She had three slices for dessert after her big lunch. Using two ripe bananas, small amount of sugar and canola oil, cinnamon, and flour. Simple and healthy alternative to the traditional banana bread.




Weekend Onigiri

These are from last weekend. We had a picnic hosted by our Jewish congregation. I made some "Onigiri" to take along - some simple Onigiri (mini-size) for Mira and Onigiri with Sushi rice for Stan and me :-) I kept them in my favorite bamboo steamer to keep them moist and yummy all day.




Simple Fluffy & Milky Bread

Here are some baking creations from last week. This is a fluffy & milky bread (simple three braided shape). The dough is made with flour, yeast, water, skim milk powder, sugar, salt, parve margarine and vegetable shortening. Unlike challah (sweet dough make with sugar and eggs), this bread is so fluffy! Very yummy as is - when you toast the bread, it is crispy outside and soft inside. Stan's favorite breakfast bread. Mmmm.


Six-Braided Challah for Every Shabbat

Here are my six-braided challah for every Shabbat. I baked two loaves last weekend.




Mira's First Popsicle from Ice Cream Truck!

Something for Mira - An ice cream truck visits our neighborhood every Saturday during the summer. Stan asked the driver to stop in front of our house and we got some treats. Mira got a fruit Popsicle! Put the Popsicle on a non-drip holder - then, let's lick!


Breakfast Table at Starobins

I think this is enough update for now - oh, one more. Stan and Mira eat breakfast together every morning. They sit together side by side at our dining table. I love how they look every morning. They make me so happy when I serve them breakfast :-)



In the photo, they were having a cup of fresh fruit smoothie, grapes, cheese, and Japanese pancakes (hotcake) for Mira, cheese toast for Stan.

Happy New Year!

Soboro Obento and weekend baking - July 10-17, 2010

My digital camera has a full of pictures - it's time to update my blog entry. Here are some pictures from last week.

Breakfast on Saturday, July 10

Yeast-donuts! Very soft and not greasy - fresh donuts are great in the morning. We had these in our back yard patio. Simple sugar coating (my choice), plain (for Mira), and of course, chocolate graze for Stan.





Yes, they are deep fried :-) but ingredients are all organic - even I used Organic Canola oil for frying. Tasted so good!

Then, I baked some sweet rolls for our friends - we had a dinner get together with them. I thought it will be nice to bring some treats :-)

Chocolate Rolls (for our Friends)


Cinnamon Rolls (for Mira)


Challah Roll (for Mira and Brooke at dinner)


I was happy to learn that everyone enjoyed these treats.

Opps - this is a blog for my Japanese Obento. Here is Stan's Soboro Obento from last week.

• Bed of Japanese steamed rice
• Topping - Soboro (cooked in sweet soy and ginger graze) Ground Turkey Meat, carrots, and snap peas
• Marinated tomato
• Mushed potato
• Kabocha squash cooked with Shiitake mushrooms, Lentil beans, Hijiki-sea weeds, fish caked in sweet soy based sauce

Stan loved it!

Here is our breakfast this morning - Saturday, July 17, 2010

Fresh Baked Bagels!!!


I tried baking bagels for the first time two weeks ago - did not look too pretty. I made some improvements - here there are! I try to make them soft for Mira (not too chewy) - sacrificing the shiny look of the traditional bagels. The most important things - Taste! and be able to enjoy them. They tasted great and still soft for her.
Mira had a half bagel - Stan had a bagel and a half with cream cheese :-)



Happy Weekend!

Holiday Obento (for dinner) and Challah

During the last holiday weekend, I found a few containers of leftovers in the refrigerator. A little bit of this and that - so difficult to serve as dinner. Well, I decided to use my "Makunouchi Bento Box" to serve the leftovers. Here they are! After our holiday lunch (with burgers), it was perfect dinner.

Holiday Dinner Makunouchi Obento

• Bottom left - Chirashi-sushi (make over of the leftover steamed rice)
• Botoom left - Unagi-kabayaki (frozen - warmed up in the oven)
• Bottom right - Cucumber slices and sauteed vegetable and enoki-mushroom
• Top left - Kabocha squash (cooked with soy, mirin, Dashi (fish broth) and fish cake
• Top middle - Ingen Mame no shi ra a-e (boiled green beans with creamy tofu & sesame dressing)
• Top right - Cabbage and tomato salad with herbs (Fried fish cakes for Stan)

Here is Stan's Chicken Obento on July 7

• Japanese steamed rice (bottom of the chicken and eggs)
• Drunken chicken & flavored eggs (leftovers from dining out)
• Cucumbers and Red peppers
• Pickled ginger - "Gari"
• Boiled new potatoes with fresh dill

Home baked cupcake with hazelnut chocolate creme with fresh strawberries for dessert (Yum!)



It's Friday - Fresh Baked Challah
New recipe - I love the texture - very fluffy! I baked one big loaf (six-breaded) and two mini-loaves (three-breaded).





Shabbat Shalom.

Holiday Special - July 4th, 2010

I have some pictures of Obento and treats. Here are some of my recent creations.

July 4th - Holiday Lunch

Let's start with today's special lunch - July 4th, 2010. Celebration of the holiday and Iowa summer produce! We got some beautiful and fresh Iowa produce from a Farmers' Market yesterday. I cooked most of our purchased produces for lunch.

• Burgers with home baked buns: I baked fluffy buns last Friday. Cooked grass-fed ground beef with graded onions, carrots, and ginger. Add egg, Japanese panko bread crumbs, a touch of soy & mirin for seasoning. Made patties - boiled once to remove excess fat and cooked in a pan. A slice of fresh Iowa tomato and lettuce leaf.
• Iowa corn!: Boiled with salt.
• Iowa new potato with fresh dill: Boiled, tossed with extra virgin olive oil, with salt & pepper for tastes. Wonderful alternative to the mayo-based potato salad.
• Asparagus with corn: (sorry, forgot to take a picture) boiled asparagus and corn tossed with 10-year aged Balsamic vinegar, extra virgin oil, salt & pepper for tastes.

Too bad that it was raining, otherwise, we could be in our back yard patio. Anyway, lunch was delicious!


Treats - Baked Goods

Some treats I baked last month when our friends from Ohio visited us for dinner. I packed these treats for them so that they can eat as dessert or breakfast next day :-)



Custard cream rolls



Chocolate - Mocha cream rolls with chocolate chips



Cinnamon rolls - Croissant style



We also tasted these treats. They were soooo good :-)

Here are Stan's Obento pictures from last week.

June 28, 2010 - Chicken sandwich Obento in our home office

He was working at home. I make a tray of lunch and brought it to a study room where he worked.

• Organic Chicken sandwich on Ciabatta bread
• Carrot and Red pepper sticks
• Potato chips
• Beets, cucumber & artichoke salad
• Green grapes
• A glass of roasted barley tea (Mugi-cha)

June 29, 2010 -Potato Croquettes "Potato Korokke" Obento
I used left-over mushed potato to make some potato croquettes. Added boiled cod fillet. Mira loves it - so do we :-)

• Fried rice (chicken and veggies)
• Potato croquettes
• Mini-tomato
• Cucumbers
• Pickled ginger "gari"

July 1, 2010 - Soko's tender Teriyaki-chicken Obento

• Japanese steamed rice with Furikate-topping
• Tender Teriyaki-chicken
• Sauteed vegetables with fish sausage
• Cucumbers
• Mini-tomato

Last words for today - This morning, I baked my first Bagles. They tasted great! I made them "soft" not too hard & chewy for Mira. As a result, they came not too attractive looking :-(
Did not take any pictures. I'm going to some research and practice more...stay tuned for my bagle baking.

Happy Holiday Weekend!

Weekend Brunch and Snacks - Mom is in a baking mood!

Lovely weekend - June 5 & 6, 2010. Here are some breakfast, brunch (?), and snack items from my kitchen.

Breakfast on Saturday, June 5, 2010. Starting the weekend with Japanese breakfast.

• Japanese steamed rice
• Vegetable Miso Soup (onions, squash, zucchini, white radish, wakame-sea weed)
• Japanese egg omelet "Tamago yaki" with Hijiki-sea weed and kale green - flavored with soy sauce, mirin, and fish broth
• Pickles (only for Stan)
• Strawberries

Sunday morning - I was in a baking mood. My plan was to working-out in a gym, but could not resist my urge for baking. Ahhh.

Healthy Banana muffins (with soy milk, a large ripe banana, organic sugar, vanilla, flour, baking powder).
My princess and her babysitter had these for their morning snack in the back yard patio.



Cinnamon Rolls



Icing on top :-)



Organic Chocolate-Hazelnuts butter cream rolls





Lunch at our favorite local cafe. Stan and the princess had matching clothes today. Blue Hawaiian shirt and dress from Maui!





Happy Weekend!