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stuffed stuff: Keepon
November 8, 2009

Posted by AnnaTheRed in stuffed stuff
Tags: , , ,
1 comment so far

I already have a bento to post next, but before that I want to post some non-bento related stuff I was meaning to blog a little while back. (before I got busy with Halloween madness)

October 10th was my boyfriend’s birthday! We went out with our co-workers to a shabu shabu place in the East Village in NYC. Everything tasted soooo good. His birthday presents were still on the way, so I decided to make something to give him at the dinner the day before.
There was one character he’s been asking me to make a bento of, and that’s Keepon. The first time I saw Keepon was on youtube. I thought it was just another cute toy from Japan. Then I saw it on WIRED and learned what it was.

Keepon

“Keepon is a small yellow robot designed to study social development by interacting with children. Keepon was developed by Hideki Kozima while at the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) in Kyoto, Japan. Keepon has four motors, a rubber skin, two cameras in its eyes, and a microphone in its nose. Its simple appearance and behavior are intended to help children, even those with developmental disorders such as autism, to understand its attentive and emotive actions.” (from Wikipedia)

He may seem like a cute dancing toy, but he is a high-tech $30,000 robot. $30,000 was a little out of budget, besides BeatBots (where Keepon was created) only sells Keepon to professional institutional users.

So I decided to make it on my own. I used yellow fleece to make two small spheres and sewed them together. For his eyes and nose I cut felt out and glued them on. It wasn’t difficult at all, but I sewed the two sphere pieces wrong, so the seams on the sides ended up looking crooked. This is what happens if you don’t pay attention when you work on a simple project. T_T

Well, even though I messed it up a little bit, my boyfriend LOVED it. He couldn’t keep his hands off of Keepon. He’d make him move with his hands, like he does in the video. He has his Keepon on his desk and is always playing with him. I’ll probably make another one when I get more fabric. (Now I’ve got a cute little plastic nose that is perfect for Keepon too.) But until then his Keepon will keep him (and me) entertained.

I usually don’t put youtube videos on my blog, but I’ll make an exception for this little bouncy yellow fellow. The video is from Marek Michalowski’s youtube channel, he is the director of the video and also the founder of BeatBots where he created Keepon with Hideki Kozima. Check out more info on Keepon (where he’ll make an appearance, what he does for research, etc…) on BeatBots.

Without further ado, I give you Keepon dancing in the music video of “Don’t You Evah” by Spoon! (Please check out other videos he uploaded on his channel to see what Keepon’s up to!)

tricked or treated!
November 1, 2009

Posted by AnnaTheRed in Everything else
Tags: , , , ,
5 comments

Tricked or treated!

I hope everyone had a great spooky Halloween. I realized that I haven’t updated my blog for more than 2 weeks now! No, I didn’t have a fight with my boyfriend. :P (Some people think that when I don’t update my bento blog it’s because we had some kind of fight) I’ve been just very busy with all that Halloween madness. I had to dress up in costumes 5 times for Halloween this year. I work for an online card game called Alteil, and my co-workers and I dressed up as characters from certain cards. I did three cards, and helped my boyfriend for one card. For about a week we took pictures and swapped the actual images in the game with the ones we dressed up for. Very silly. It was a lot of work, but users seem to enjoy the event, so it was very worth it!

On the 30th, my boyfriend and I decided to dress up at work. Even though I love Halloween, I don’t really like seeing myself in pictures so I usually don’t take pictures of myself dressed up. This year, we decided to dress up as characters that I don’t really have to show my face for. We picked the characters called “Splicers” from the video game “BioShock.” BioShock takes place in an alternate 1960, so we went to a thrift store in the city to get 60’s looking clothes. My boyfriend found a very nice pair of tweed pants by Ralph Lauren, and white button down shirt by Saks Fifth avenue, and I found a very classy Anne Taylor dress. (You can find very clean high-end clothes in NYC thrift shops for very very cheap.)

Splicers are people who have been driven mad by artificially altering (or splicing) their genetic makeup too much, and most of them wear masquerade masks to hide their deformed faces. I found paper craft patterns for the masks online, so I printed it out, laid it on a poster board, cut them out and followed the instructions to make the masks. The patterns already had blood printed on, but it would’ve been too boring to use it as is. Besides, it was not very sturdy, so I paper mached over it with newspaper and tissue paper. I was going to paint it white, but the grayish newspaper covered by very thin tissue paper gave the mask a very nice dingy tone, so I decided not to paint it.

EDIT: I’d post a link to the paper craft site, but ads pop up on the site. It’s not hard to find it. Just Google “Splicer” and “mask” and “paper craft”, or email me for the link!

Next was the fun part. We had to make the clothes aged and bloody! My boyfriend sand papered the shirt and pants to create the wear and tear. The dress was way too big on me, so I sewed the back in to fit my body, and ripped the dress. For fake blood, I mixed water, red food coloring and instant coffee. We splattered it onto the clothes and the masks using a paintbrush. The coffee gave the mix a good brownish tone and nice coffee aroma. :) After the first splatter was dry, I put a bit more red food coloring to make redder blood, and splattered it over the clothes and the masks.

Paper mache bunny and bird mask from BioShock

I had so much fun doing paper mache. :)

Bloody bunny Splicer mask

Actually, I thought it was a bit too much, so I smeared the blood with wet crumpled paper.

Splicer costumes

Pretty bloddy, huh?

My boyfriend was dressing up as a thuggish splicer, who attacks with a blunt object, so he got a chrome pipe from a Home Depot, sanded it down to dull the shine, and sprayed it with red paint. The trick was to smear the paint with a crumpled piece of paper. I was dressing up as a spider slicer, who carries a meat hook in each hand. But I couldn’t really find a nice meat hook so I just made them out of cardboard.

Spider splicer from BioShock

Me as Spider splicer

Thuggish splicer from BioShock

My boyfriend as Thuggish splicer

Spider splicer and Thuggish splicer

Me and my boyfriend

At work, my friends and co-workers, Lupos and Buttercup Princess, were also dressed up. Lupos was Dee Snider, and Buttercup Princess was the Mad Hatter from Tim Burton’s upcoming Alice in Wonderland, and they look absolutely fabulous! Since I didn’t want to get my coat dirty, I didn’t paint my chest, so I looked very healthy for a Splicer. :P My boyfriend and I will probably take better photos later.

Dee Snider working hard
Lupos as Dee Snider. He worked at work in this costume that day. It was so hilarious and bizarre, I just couldn’t take stop taking pictures of him.
Mad Hatter
Buttercup Princess as the Mad Hatter. She made the hat and everything!! The details on her costume were so amazing.
Dee Snider, Mad Hatter, Thuggish splicer and Spider splicer

Group shot!

After work, Dee Snider, the Mad Hatter and us went to the East Village in our costumes, because East Village is probably the perfect place for people in costume to blend in, even if it’s a day before Halloween. We took the subway down there fully dressed up. It was pretty funny that everyone around us pretended to act uninterested. A very young girl was very fascinated by our masks, and was telling her dad that she liked my “bunny mask.” I guess all the blood stains looked like pretty patterns for her.

Dee Snyder and Mad Hatter on a train

Dee Snider and the Mad Hatter on a train. They blended in just fine in NYC.

Thuggish splicer at a subway station

A splicer at a subway station.

We didn’t go out on 31st though. We didn’t want to deal with the crowd, besides, I had to start making another costume!

The Behemoth, the game company that created Alien Hominid and Castle Crashers, were having a costume contest. I wasn’t really sure whether I’d participate it or not, because I’ve been very busy working on other costumes. But after taking pictures of us dressed up at the office on 30th, I had so much fun that I decided to go for it. The deadline was November 1st, but I wasn’t sure if it was the midnight of 31st or midnight of November 1st… Better be safe than sorry. I was going to submit my entry by the midnight of 31st.

It was madness! I was doing pretty fine until I decided to take a nap. I had 15~16 hours to start and finish (including the time to get materials) and I foolishly took a nap. T_T I scrambled to finish the costume, and I finally made it! But I wasn’t very happy with this one. Since I wasn’t planning on keeping the costume, it looked such a half-assed costume. My boyfriend took several pictures in our place, so the background looks cluttered too. Oh well. It’s always fun to support your favorite game company, right?

Red knight on a deer

I almost want to re-do this one... T_T

I’d like to thank my boyfriend who cooked dinner and did the dishes while I worked on the costumes! I like cooking but he is an awesome cook, and I actually love his food more than my food. I’m so spoiled. :)

Anyway, after a two week hiatus, I’m finally back to bento-ing! :D

See more Halloween pictures on my flickr!  ->  Halloween 2009

How to make Max
October 17, 2009

Posted by AnnaTheRed in how-to (all), how-to - characters (Ghibli, video game, Wall-E)
Tags: ,
4 comments

How to make Max

[How to make Max] (without the crown)
- rice
- ham (or bologna, turkey, etc…)
- sliced cheddar cheese
- seaweed

– cupcake cup (I used foil cupcake cups, but if you need to microwave your food, use a paper cupcake cup instead. I’ve tried it, and the paper cup handled the moisture pretty well.)
– hole punch
– straw
– scissors

1. Make a rice ball and put it in the cupcake cup. (You can put stuff inside the rice ball if you want.)

How to make Max

2. Cut ham with a plastic cap (I used a cap from a can of hair mousse), and put it on the rice.

How to make Max

3. Use a straw to cut ham for his nose.

How to make Max

4. Slice radish (or sliced cheese, or kamaboko, or hard boiled egg white), and cut triangles for his ears.

wm_how to - wildthings - max 01

wm_how to - wildthings - max 03

I trimmed the top part of ham, but it's not necessary.

5. Cut strips of seaweed and for his hair and whiskers.

wm_how to - wildthings - max 04

6-A. If you have a seaweed cutter for a smiling face like I do, use it to cut out seaweed.

How to make Moishe

Tips: If you put very thin paper under seaweed, it's easier to cut the seaweed out.

How to make Max

6-B. If you don’t have a special seaweed cutter, cut it freehand with scissors, an cut seaweed out with a hole punch, and put it for the eyes.

How to make Max

How to make Max

How to make Max

6-C. If you want to make smiling Max (like the one in the picture) use a hole punch to make a hole in the seaweed, then slide the punch a little bit and punched it again to make ” C ” shaped seaweed.

How to make Max

How to make Max

How to make Max

You can use the top " c " part or just the round part.

How to make Max

...his mother called him "WILD THING!"

*You can cut sliced cheddar cheese to add crown you if you want to make “Max the king of the wild things.”

How to make Max on my flickr

For more pictures of my bento, visit Bento! set and Bento details! set on my flickr page.

If you have any questions about any of my how-to’s, please feel free to leave a comment or email me!

How to make Moishe
October 16, 2009

Posted by AnnaTheRed in how-to (all), how-to - characters (Ghibli, video game, Wall-E)
Tags: ,
1 comment so far

wm_how to - wildthings - moishe A 06
[How to make Moishe]
- rice
- ham (or bologna, turkey, etc…)
- sliced cheddar cheese
- seaweed

– cupcake cup (I used foil cupcake cups, but if you need to microwave your food, use a paper cupcake cup instead. I’ve tried it, and the paper cup handled the moisture pretty well.)
– hole punch
– straw
– scissors

1. Make a rice ball and put it in the cupcake cup. (You can put stuff inside the rice ball if you want.)

How to make Moishe

2. Cut ham with a plastic cap (I used a cap from a can of hair mousse), and put it on the rice.

How to make Moishe

3. Use a straw to cut ham for his nose.

How to make Moishe

4. Slice radish (or sliced cheese, or kamaboko, or hard boiled egg white), and use a plastic bottle cap to cut out a “C” shape for the horn. Stick it on the head.

How to make Moishe

How to make Moishe

5. Cut sliced cheddar cheese with a plastic cap or big straw (I used a straw for bubble tea) for his terrible yellow eyes.

How to make Moishe

How to make Moishe

6-A.If you have a seaweed cutter for a smiling face like I do, use it to cut out seaweed.

How to make Moishe

How to make Moishe

6-B. If you don’t have a special seaweed cutter, cut it freehand with scissors, cut seaweed out with a hole punch, and put it for the eyes.

How to make Moishe

How to make Moishe

7. Cut strips of seaweed and fill it around the ham.

How to make Moishe

How to make Moishe

"...and Max said "I'LL EAT YOU UP!!"

This is something I came up with while making Moishe. I know that some people might not like seaweed that much, so I made a veggie version of Moishe.

How to make veggie Moishe

"...and Max said "I'LL EAT YOU UP!!"

[Mashed potato and broccoli Moishe]

You put potato salad in the cup, put ham on top and surround it with boiled broccoli. Not sure if kids love it, but hey it’s a wild thing! (strange I never hated any veggies when I was little)

How to make Moishe on my flickr

For more pictures of my bento, visit Bento! set and Bento details! set on my flickr page.

If you have any questions about any of my how-to’s, please feel free to leave a comment or email me!

How to make Bernard
October 15, 2009

Posted by AnnaTheRed in how-to (all), how-to - characters (Ghibli, video game, Wall-E)
Tags: ,
1 comment so far

How to make Bernard
[How to make Bernard from Where the Wild Things Are]
- rice
- black sesame seed
- seaweed
- sliced cheese
- radish or white-ish sliced cheese or kamaboko (fish cake), or even left over hard boiled egg white from mashed potato. In other words, you can use any white food!

– cupcake cup (I used foil cupcake cups, but if you need to microwave your food, use a paper cupcake cup instead. I’ve tried it, and the paper cup handled the moisture pretty well.)
– hole punch
– straw
– scissors
– round plastic cap

1. Put plain rice in a bowl, and mix it with black sesame seed (I used ground sesame seed but non-grounded sesame seeds are also fine)

How to make Bernard

2. Make a small rice ball, and put it in a cupcake cup.

How to make Bernard

3. Make a smaller rice ball, and put it on top of the rice ball.

How to make Bernard

4. Slice radish (or sliced cheese, or kamaboko, or hard boiled egg whites), and use a plastic bottle cap to cut out “C” shape for the horn. Stick it on his head.

How to make Bernard

How to make Bernard

5. Cut sliced cheddar cheese with a plastic cap or big straw (I used a bubble tea straw) for his terrible yellow eyes, and cut the top part off. If you don’t have any plastic cap to cut cheese, you can just use a spoon to trim it.

How to make Bernard

If you don't have any plastic cap to cut cheese, you can just use a spoon to trim it.

How to make Bernard

How to make Bernard

6. Cut seaweed into ” V ” and ” l ” shape with scissors. Also cut seaweed into a round shape and cut it in half for his ears. (forgot to take pictures >_<)

How to make Bernard

7. If you have a seaweed cutter for a smiling face like I do, use it to cut out seaweed.

How to make Tzippy

Tips: If you put very thin paper under seaweed, it's easier to cut the seaweed out.

How to make Tzippy

7. If you don’t have a special seaweed cutter, cut it freehand with scissors, an cut seaweed out with a hole punch, and put it for the eyes.

How to make Bernard

How to make Bernard

How to make Bernard

How to make Bernard

...and Max said "I'LL EAT YOU UP!!"

*For step 7, if you don’t have access to seaweed, you can use black sesame seeds for the pupils.

How to make Bernard on my flickr

For more pictures of my bento, visit Bento! set and Bento details! set on my flickr page.

If you have any questions about any of my how-to’s, please feel free to leave a comment or email me!

How to make Emil
October 15, 2009

Posted by AnnaTheRed in how-to (all), how-to - characters (Ghibli, video game, Wall-E)
Tags: ,
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How to make Emil

[How to make Emil from Where the Wild Things Are]
- mashed yam
- seaweed
- sliced cheese
- radish or white-ish sliced cheese or kamaboko (fish cake), or even left over hard boiled egg white from mashed potato. In other words, you can use any white food!

– cupcake cup (I used foil cupcake cups, but if you need to microwave your food, use paper cupcake cup instead. I’ve tried it, and the paper cup handled the moisture pretty well.)
– hole punch
– straw
– round plastic cap

1. Make mashed potato with yam! (Mash boiled yam with butter)

2. Wrap it with plastic wrap, make a small ball, and put it in the cupcake cup.

How to make Emil

3. This isn’t necessary, but you can use a fork to make wavy lines on the yam to make it look like feathers.

How to make Emil

4. Slice radish (or sliced cheese, or kamaboko, or hard boiled egg whites), and use a plastic bottle cap to cut out “C” shape for the horn. Stick it on his head.

How to make Emil

How to make Emil

5. Slice carrot and use a plastic bottle cap to cut out “O” shape and cut it in half for the beak. Stick it on his face.

How to make Emil

How to make Emil

6. Cut sliced cheddar cheese with a plastic cap or big straw (I used a bubble tea straw) for his terrible yellow eyes. And cut out a bigger circle on sliced American cheese.

How to make Emil

If you don't have any plastic cap to cut cheese, you can just use a spoon to trim it.

How to make Emil

7. Cut seaweed out with a hole punch and put it for the eyes.

How to make Emil

How to make Emil

...and Max said "I'LL EAT YOU UP!!"

How to make Emil on my flickr

For more pictures of my bento, visit Bento! set and Bento details! set on my flickr page.

If you have any questions about any of my how-to’s, please feel free to leave a comment or email me!

How to make Tzippy
October 14, 2009

Posted by AnnaTheRed in how-to (all), how-to - characters (Ghibli, video game, Wall-E)
Tags: ,
1 comment so far

How to make Tzippy

[How to make Tzippy]
- spaghetti
- ketchup (or tomato sauce)
- ham (or bologna, turkey, etc…)
- sliced cheddar cheese
- seaweed

– cupcake cup (I used foil cupcake cups, but if you need to microwave your food, use a paper cupcake cup instead. I’ve tried it, and the paper cup handled the moisture pretty well.)
– hole punch
– straw
– scissors
– round plastic cap

1. Make some spaghetti!

How to make Tzippy

2. Mix it with ketchup. (or tomato sauce if you prefer)

How to make Tzippy

3. Take some pasta and put it in a cupcake cup.

How to make Tzippy

Tips: Stick a spoon in the pasta, put a fork on the spoon, and slowly spin the fork to get the pasta around the fork. Put the spoon & pasta & fork into the cup, slide the spoon out, then remove the fork.

How to make Tzippy

4. Cut ham with a plastic cap (I used a cap from a can of hair mousse), and put it on the pasta.

How to make Tzippy

5. Use a straw to cut ham for her nose.

How to make Tzippy

How to make Tzippy

6. Cut sliced cheddar cheese with a plastic cap or big straw (I used a straw for bubble tea) for her terrible yellow eyes, and cut the top part off.

How to make Tzippy

If you don't have any plastic caps to cut cheese, you can just use a spoon to trim it.

How to make Tzippy

How to make Tzippy

7-A. If you have a seaweed cutter for a smiling face like I do, use it to cut out seaweed.

How to make Tzippy

Tips: If you put very thin paper under seaweed, it's easier to cut the seaweed out.

How to make Tzippy

7-B. If you don’t have a special seaweed cutter, cut it freehand with scissors, cut seaweed out with a hole punch, and put it for the eyes.

How to make Tzippy

How to make Aaron

How to make Tzippy

How to make Tzippy

...and Max said "I'LL EAT YOU UP!!"

*For step 7, if you don’t have access to seaweed, you can use black sesame seeds for the pupils, and a strand of pasta for her mouth.

How to make Tzippy on my flickr

For more pictures of my bento, visit Bento! set and Bento details! set on my flickr page.

If you have any questions about any of my how-to’s, please feel free to leave a comment or email me!

How to make Aaron
October 14, 2009

Posted by AnnaTheRed in how-to (all), how-to - characters (Ghibli, video game, Wall-E)
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How to make Aaron

[How to make Aaron]
- spaghetti
- mashed potato
*- egg yolk
- sliced cheddar cheese
- seaweed
- radish or white-ish sliced cheese or kamaboko (fish cake), or even left over hard boiled egg white from mashed potato. In other words, you can use any white food!

– cupcake cup (I used foil cupcake cups, but if you need to microwave your food, use paper cupcake cup instead. I’ve tried it, and the paper cup handled the moisture pretty well.)
– hole punch
– straw
– scissors
– round plastic cap

*optional

1. Make some spaghetti! (You can mix the pasta with your favorite salad dressing if you like.)

How to make Aaron

2. Take some pasta and put it in a cupcake cup.

How to make Aaron

Tips: Stick a spoon in the pasta, put a fork on the spoon, and slowly spin the fork to get the pasta on around the fork. Put the spoon & pasta & fork into the cup, slide the spoon out, and then remove the fork. It'll be less messy.

How to make Aaron

3. Make mashed potato and mix it egg yolk. (Egg yolk is just to make his face yellow, so if you don’t like egg, you don’t have to mix it in.)

How to make Aaron

4. Wrap it in plastic wrap, make an oval shape, and put it on the pasta.

How to make Aaron

How to make Aaron

5. Slice radish (or sliced cheese, or kamaboko, or hard boiled egg white), and use a plastic bottle cap to cut out a “C” shape for the horn. Stick it on the head.

How to make Aaron

How to make Aaron

6. Cut sliced cheddar cheese with a plastic cap or big straw (I used a bubble tea straw) for his terrible yellow eyes.

How to make Aaron

If you don't have any plastic caps to cut cheese, you can just use a spoon to trim it.

How to make Aaron

7. If you have a seaweed cutter for a smiling face like I do, use it to cut out seaweed.

How to make Aaron

Tips: If you put very thin paper under seaweed, it's easier to cut the seaweed out.

How to make Aaron

7. If you don’t have a special seaweed cutter, cut it freehand with scissors, an cut seaweed out with a hole punch, and put it for the eyes.

How to make Aaron

How to make Aaron

How to make Aaron

How to make Aaron

...and Max said "I'LL EAT YOU UP!!"

*For step 7, if you don’t have access to seaweed, you can use black sesame seeds for the pupils.

How to make Aaron on my flickr

For more pictures of my bento, visit Bento! set and Bento details! set on my flickr page.

If you have any questions about any of my how-to’s, please feel free to leave a comment or email me!

non-bento #19: Where the Wild Things Are
October 13, 2009

Posted by AnnaTheRed in bento blog (all), bento blog - non bento
Tags: ,
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When I made Where the Wild Things Are bento #2, I used Inari-zushi (fried bean curd stuffed with rice) as a container for rice. It looked like it’d be very good for a small party or a picnic, and it was fairy easy. (except for small details on the face) So I wanted to do a how-to on it, but I knew that not everyone could get Inari-zushi skin… So I came up with this idea.

non-bento #19: Where the Wild Things Are

Non-bento # 19: Where the Wild Things Are
Created and eaten on: 10/11/2009

Yes, another “Where the Wild Things Are” food, but the movie is coming out this weekend and I just couldn’t contain my excitement! I’m not going into the details now, because I’ll be doing a how-to on each of them, two Wild Things a day, every day until the 16th!

non-bento #19: Where the Wild Things Are

Not sure if you need a how-to, but for those who are interested in, please check back tomorrow!

Where the Wild Things how-to schedule.

10/14/2009 Tzippy & Aaron

10/15/2009 Emil & Bernard

10/16/2009 Max & Moishe (Yay! The Wild Things will be freed! Everyone go see the movie!!)

For more pictures of my bento, visit Bento! set and Bento details! set on my flickr page.

bento #65: Where the Wild Things Are #2
October 8, 2009

Posted by AnnaTheRed in bento blog (all), bento blog - ghibli (totoro, etc...)
Tags: ,
7 comments

I still had Inarizushi skins from when I made the Little Big Planet bento, and I was thinking of how I can use it. I’ve already used them to make Totoro & Neko bus, Laputa robot, and Meat with a bone before, so I wanted to make something different. My friend sent me a link to a wonderful website called “Terrible Yellow Eyes” the other day, and it just made me want to make a bento of them again.

Bento #65: Where the Wild Things Are

Bento #65: Where the Wild Things Are #2
Created and eaten on: 10/6/2009

Terrible Yellow Eyes is a collection of amazing art works inspired by Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.  If you’re a Sendak fan, you MUST take a look at the site, this site is absolutely brilliant!

I’ve made a Where the Wild Things Are bento around the end of last year. It was two-sided bento so my boyfriend ate the right side, and I ate the left side. Making the body of the Wild Things was very time consuming and hard… So this time I decided to make just the head.
Inarizushi is usually seen with the rice side down, but it’s actually easier to eat with the rice side up. I’ve seen people put shredded egg sheet, ginger, etc… to decorate the rice part, so I decided to make it into a face.

First I put lettuce around the edge of bento box, and put fried chicken at the bottom. I stuffed rice into the Inarizushi skin for Moishe, Max, and Tzippy, and put them rice side up in the bento box. I cut ham with a round bottle cap (I think it was from a hair mousse can) and put it on the rice of each Inarizushi. For their noses I used a straw to cut out ham.

Where the Wild Things Are Max detail

... and Max said "I'LL EAT YOU UP!"

Where the Wild Things Are Moishe detail

Moishe

For Tzippy’s hair I cooked a little bit of pasta, mixed the half of the pasta with ketchup, and filled around the top half of her head with it.

Where the Wild Things Are Tzippy detail

Tzippy

For Aaron, I stuffed rice in another Inarizushi skin, put it rice side down in the bento box, and I used the rest of pasta to make his hair.

Where the Wild Things Are Aaron detail

Aaron

Inarizushi skin is pretty sweet, so I made Bernard with plain rice mixed with black sesame seed and a bit of salt. I wanted to make this as simple as possible, so I just made a small rice ball, and put an even smaller rice ball on top for his mouth.

Where the Wild Things Are Bernard detail

Bernard (and yes, I forgot to put ears on him T_T)

In my first Wild Thing bento, I made Emil (the bird) with mashed potato with cheese on top. But I wanted every wild thing to have a similar shape this time, so I made mashed potato with yam, wrapped it in plastic wrap to make a small ball, and dropped it the bento box. To make his beak I sliced a carrot and cut out using a round plastic bottle cap. Because yam is mushy, I could just stick it in and it stayed! This worked out a lot better than I thought.

Where the Wild Things Are Emil detail

Emil

I filled the empty spaces with broccoli, asparagus and snowpeas. I sliced daikon (Asian radish) and cut it to make the ears for Max’s wolf suit, the horns for Moishe, Aaron and Bernard, and the feathers for Emil.

Where the Wild Things Are Aaron detail

I could've used kamaboko (fish cake) but it was very frozen, so I used radish instead.

For their terrible yellow eyes, I cut out cheese with a small plastic bottle cap (trimmed them for Tzippy and Bernard) and put them on their faces. I also cut the cheese for Max’s crown.

Where the Wild Things Are Max detail

"...and made him king of all wild things."

Finally the seaweed part. When seaweed absorbs moisture, it wrinkles up fast. So I usually put seaweed on at the very end. I used a hole punch to cut out seaweed for their eyes. For their mouths I used a seaweed cutter. Thanks goodness I had the cutter. :D I cut seaweed into small strips for Max’s whiskers and Moishe’s hair. Looks like he’s lost a lot of hair and has some bald spots… I ran out of time!! I could’ve cut the seaweed the night before, but then again, I’m lazy. My “I can easily do this in the morning” mentality always comes back to haunt me.

Where the Wild Things Are Moishe detail

Poor bald Moishe... :(

Where the Wild Things Are detail

You can see the seaweed is already curling up. >_<

Aside from bald spots on Moishe, Bernard’s missing ears this was very easy & simple & fun bento. It gave me some ideas for how-tos I’ll do later. :)

Max:
- inarizushi
- rice
- ham
- cheese
- seaweed
- radish

Moishe:
- inarizushi
- rice
- ham
- cheese
- seaweed
- radish

Tzippy:
- inarizushi
- rice
- ham
- cheese
- seaweed
- pasta

Aaron:
- inarizushi
- rice
- ham
- cheese
- seaweed
- radish

Bernard:
- rice mixed with black sesame seed and salt
- cheese
- seaweed
- radish

Emil:
- yam
- cheese
- seaweed
- radish
- carrot

Other food:
- chicken
- lettuce
- asparagus
- broccoli

For more pictures of my bento, visit Bento! set and Bento details! set on my flickr page.

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