this is Raqx hibernating.

I didn't realize its been a month since my last post. I think my body and mind is currently undergoing an unconscious hibernation. Our metal sliding doors and windows are now shut, effectively shielding us from the cold and simultaneously blocking the light. So even at a broad daylight which is already short as it is, my house appears to be at night time when it is best to be lazy...sleep..and.. eat. yah yah! I can paint the mountain of unburned calories in my head alright. So i tried.. not to be a bum. Last weekend was way beyond unsuccessful since I only got up from sofa to go to coin dryer. But weeks before that..i think I made a pretty good job. :)

here's why





I made KYARABEN for the first time! and it was my entree to our friendly competition with my work partner. Actually there were only two of us..for fun. But there were more judges than we thought. Kids' moms did the informal judging. Plus some more of our co-workers too. My work-partner really did a neat job I'll post her entry later.

I agreed, or we actually mutually challenged each other to take our bento-making into the next level- the Kyaraben. I've never done this but always wanted to. Without any idea what to make, I surf and surf for vector images until I found none (thats easy enough to interest me anyways). Luckily, the day before the "judgement day" I was on my way to Tokyo when I texted a friend and asked for directions going to a filipino store, thats when I noticed my totoro bling hanging tightly on my cellphone..and there flowed ideas.

I opted to make a "grinning totoro" with makkurokurosuke and chibi-totoro. I always wanted to go to ghibli museum and if you have no idea who totoro and other characters are... you can check this site

Save yourself from asking...it took me 2 hours to make all these. I cooked everything from scratch including the rice so I can have a good gauge of the prep time :)

Random 8's since I've been a wife

Got this from april. I just found out that I already did this couple of months back, so I'll make a tiny change by making this as "random 8's since i became a wife"

First, the Rules:

1. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
3. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

My 8 random facts

1. My sporadic OC mood was reversed! I now have a sporadic "tamad" times and my being OC has become endemic. Note the terms.. I still regard being OC as an abnormality. Not being able to sleep because of an undone chore isn't a bit fun :(

2. When I got married it became a highly difficult task to go on a diet, hence, my narcissistic photography was dramatically changed to a "photography without me".

3. My alcohol tolerance became low, and the last time I tried to puff some nicotine, I coughed.

4. I have a "kimochi blanket" (feels soft and good)thats intended for winter use. I bought it from US and I never want to depart from it even in sweltering heat. I only have that kind of relationship before with my pillows :P

5. I don't put make-up as much. But that doesn't excuse me from buying my mac ;)

6. I still haven't memorized the basic japanese characters (katakana and hiragana..dami eh :P) but I think I can somehow survive living in japan.

7. I have an almost 10 kilos worth (or more) of beads and accessories in pinas, now I only have 2 big drawers full of scrapbooking materials (and still remained unused up to this time).

8. My first domestic plane ride was 2005 going to Davao. My first international flight was 2006 going to Japan..and then I got hooked after that :D

I dont have much to tag.. I'd like to know your random 8's too Bill and Saj.

Raqx Project 365

I just posted the 1 of 365. This hopefully will be completed as my Project 365. I've been wanting to make this kind of project before but I cant decide if its gonna be a bento box or a recipe or just a journal. I guess photos are easier to share since its already clogging my hard drive. I chose friendster because thats where my network of friends from the Philippines are. Try finding them in facebook or something alike and you'll only get a handful. And even though the features are far from being dynamic and close to being a d-u-h and the word that fits according to my friend is b-o-r-i-n-g, thats the closest site to home.

I know those tiny snippets captured in lens would translate to how me and my friends usually spend hours and hours talking or texting about everything under the sun. *Sigh* i miss my friends back home.. and i love them as much..this project is dedicated entirely for them.

15 minutes bento

Setting laziness aside, its nice to take advantage of ready-made eats that lined grocery stores. It sure cut my bento prep more than half.

for honey romar


for raqx

Salmon onigiri needs about 3 minutes for the salmon to cook inside a microwave. Simply put the salmon, some garlic powder and pepper and its good to go. No need to put salt coz salmon meat are already a bit salty. Once the fish is ready, mash till the desired texture and mold using rice ball shapers and wrap with nori or sea weed paper. It takes about 5 minutes for the entire rice ball to finish (dont count the cooking time of rice syempre) I found really cute nori cut to different animal shapes. While waiting for the fish to cook start chopping the cucumber.

Usually rice balls have fillings inside. For the sake of color I put it on top. It wasnt messy to eat so I guess it was okay. Feel free to experiment with how to put your fillings.

Heat sausage and the fish fry for 1 minute or according to package directions if you are using frozen foods. At the same time warm the bread pocket in the toaster. Then assemble sausage pita, cut up some cherry tomatoes, spread mayonnaise, season with salt and pepper and add lettuce and onion if desired. This will take another 3 minutes.

Assemble all in bento boxes then add the vegetable roll. Ang bilis!

My new bento box

...is actually three months old.

And I filled it with these

a garden salad, fruits and salmon for me and egg and jam sandwich with salmon sushi for honey.

This is a what-you-see-is-what-you-get post. Lets just let the pictures speak for themselves this time. :)

Sabado fried chicken nights + cooking tip

You know those lazy Saturdays where you just want to curl in the sofa and watch one thing after another in your tv or in our case from our pc monitor? (uhm, while waiting for the laundry- realistically speaking). I have this simple recipe to top these times with smothering calories! lol.

I made these chickens during one of our Saturday nights movie and alcohol marathon which turned out to be just a movie and chicken marathon.

All you need are

Chicken wings or any part you like

Oil for frying

For coating:

I used 1:1/4 ratio of flour and cornstarch

Iodized salt

Freshly ground black pepper

White pepper

Garlic powder

Dashi

100 ml water. Amount varies on how thick you want your batter. I don’t want it to be runny so I used around this much.

Super simple. I didn’t even marinate the chicken. Just put all coating ingredients in a bowl and dip your chicken with it before frying. Here’s a frying tip though. We found it best to use a pressure cooker to cook fried chicken! Just put enough oil to cover the bottom of the pressure cooker or if you have lots of oil about 1 cm from the bottom, bring it to heat, and when its ready put your chicken and cover, set in low fire for 1-2 minutes, then turn off the fire. The pressure is high inside, it will make your chicken soft to the bones without burning the skin and coating. Open only when safety valve -the thing that pops up and down (that small thing that indicates if pressure is still high so don’t force open or you’ll regret it..I guess you know what im talking about) is released. Do this again for the next side. But if you do this using a lot of oil to deep fry your chicken you only need to do this once.

Time for ... cool change..

At least a bit. I changed the template and crop a photo of a japanese maple leaf (momiji) to fit in the banner. I took this photo last year when my EOS baby was a shiny new toy. We've come a long way surviving Japan life for another autumn season. Indeed its fall and the cool wind is seeking the warmth of my faithful sweater. Change clearly is inevitable and the more I think about it, the older I feel. Yet I have to suck it up, brave a smile and greet each morning..we've got a long way to go.