Mummy Snoopy Bento

I did not have time for bentos or blogging due to the exams. I did not feel like making any as well, as marking and going through my boys' revision work always spoils my mood. -_- So happy that it's finally over today, and we can put our books aside for the year. I can't wait for the school holidays and our year end trip. :)

Pooh Bear & Piglet in Autumn

I love the beautiful colors of fall. I love snowy white winter too. Unfortunately, it's summer all year round where we live, lol.

 

Jack Skellington Bento

I first made Jack Skellington for Halloween 3 years ago. Till today, we have never watched the movie, The nightmare before Christmas. However, my boys are very familiar with this character, simply because there there is a theme ride in Disneyland which features him. Somehow, Halloween always reminds me of Jack Skellington, click HERE to check out similar creations of him from previous years.

Wednesday Addams Bento

It's so hard to wake up so early again today after the break. Doing revisions with my boys and marking their papers the past few days is giving me a headache. I can't wait for their exams to be over, have to hang in till next tuesday. Ganbatte!

 

Doraemon Burger

I actually wanted to do up more blog posts this week, as there was no school these few days. I thought I would have more time, but somehow, it did not work out the way I expected, lol.

Graveyard Pasta & Toast

My boys only have school for today, it's holiday for the rest of this week. Not really a holiday for them, as they have exams next week, so they will be studying instead. They are still happy to be off from school. And I'm looking forward to sleeping in, I hate waking up early. :P

Totoro Bento & Steam Cake

A fire broke out in the unit above us just a few hours ago. Thank goodness it was confined to one room and the security guards managed to put out the fire before the firemen came. Nobody was hurt in the ordeal, but it was still quite frightening since it was so close to us.

Vampire & Grim Reaper Bento

Daddy is in Nagoya for a work trip now, he went a day earlier and took a side trip to Kyoto. How I wish we could all go but exams are coming, so I'm stuck in Singapore doing revisions with my boys instead. -_- He'll be back tomorrow, waiting for him to come back with my stuff, asked him to get me something for my bentos. :)

Wagashi and Mashed Potato Duck

Thank you very much to all those of you who emailed to ask about my upcoming book. Sorry for not talking about the book earlier, I started working on it in June, as I'm working on it slowly, I was hoping to wait until I submit the manuscript before talking about it online. However, due to the interviews, the news came out earlier. Just to share a bit about it for now. The book is a bento cookbook, with lots of bentos and food recipes, and all bentos come with step-by-step photos. It is estimated to be out in US in fall next year, I'll update more in due course. :)

I started making Halloween bentos this week, but I'll only be updating them next week. Meanwhile, if you need ideas for Halloween bentos, you can click HERE to check out those I made previously, I've plenty of old Halloween bentos.


The duck sitting on top of the mini pancakes stack is a type of wagashi ( traditional Japanese sweets), I made it using white bean paste and shiratama flour.


I won't be sharing the recipe for this, as you can't get white bean paste here. I've not seen it being sold here, if you know where to get it in Singapore, please let me know.


However, you can easily create these ducks using mashed potatoes, and I'll be sharing how to make them in this post.


The mashed potatoes ducks are sitting on ham and egg mayo sandwiches, and there's also prawn salad packed in the bento.

Please continue on for the detailed tutorial on how to make these.


Finally, the mashed potato tutorial I promised. Sorry for taking so long to get it done. First, peel potato, chop into small pieces and steam for around 10 to 15 minutes or till soft.


Mash them up with a fork or potato masher. I usually add a pinch of salt and half a teaspoon of butter so that it taste better. Please do not add too much butter, and please do not add milk.


You can colour the mixture using gel colours. To make the duck, I divided the mashed potato and coloured them yellow and orange.


To make the duck, roll yellow mashed potato into 2 balls, one slightly bigger than the other, using the palms of your hands.


Take the bigger ball, flatten the front a little and mould out the duck's tail at the back.


Place the small ball on top.


Take a bit of orange mashed potato, mould out the duck's bill and mould it onto the duck.


Punch out a circle from nori, using a hole puncher. You can stop at this step.


Or you can get some yellow mashed potato and mould on the duck's wings.


I chose this duck to demonstrate the step-by-step as it's very easy to make, but you can use this same method to mould into other things you fancy. You can also use sweet potatoes and purple potatoes. You can even fill it in a pipping bag with a pipping tip and use it to pipe on designs for sushi cake. :)