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mini-totoro

Bento #80: Santa Totoro!

December 31, 2010 bento
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It’s a little late but with all the blizzard stuff going on, and going up to Boston for a couple of days to hang out with Derek’s sister’s family, I finally found the time to post this. Bento #80: Santa Totoro! Created and eaten on: 12/25/2010 I can’t believe it’s been a year since I made Bento #31: Totoro snowman last year but it was [...]

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bento #75: Totoro temari zushi

March 25, 2010 bento
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Wow it’s been more than a week since I blogged?! I didn’t mean to turn this into a weekly blog, but things been even more chaotic around me recently. I have so many things I want to write about, but since I haven’t written any bento/food related blog posts recently, I’m going to post this one. Bento(?) #75: Totoro temari-zushi bento Created and eaten on: [...]

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busy wonderful week and Bento workshop

March 4, 2010 bento
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Oh where do I start… The short version of the story is, I’ve been super busy and so many wonderful things happened! Here’s the long version.

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Bento #72: Setsubun Totoro

February 3, 2010 bento
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Today, February 3rd, is the day of Setsubun in Japan. It’s the day to drive away evil spirits, which means to throw roasted soybeans at Oni (evil creature/ogres from Japanese myths). In almost all kindergartens and schools, students make an Oni mask for Setsubun, so that kids can take the mask home, have someone wear it, and throw soybeans at them. “Roasted soybeans are thrown [...]

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Bento #69: Nekobus #3

January 19, 2010 bento
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Hooray! I finally made the first kyaraben of this year! I wanted to make it a lot sooner, but I just couldn’t come up with an idea. I thought of making a different/easier bento but I really wanted the first kyaraben to be “new year themed.” I was worried about not finishing it on time since I was so out of touch, so I made [...]

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non-bento #21: kagami-"onigiri" Totoro

January 7, 2010 bento
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For those who have missed my previous post… Kagami-mochi is a decoration for the New Year in Japan. It’s made with 2~3 round rice cakes stacked on top of each other. Traditionally, you break it and eat it on the second Saturday or Sunday of January. I wanted to make some easy non-bento food on January 1st. It was really nothing special but I thought I’d [...]

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bento #61: Summer Totoro

September 11, 2009 bento
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I made kyaraben the day I left for PAX. It had been awhile since the last time I made one… but the weather was getting no so summery, and I wanted to make something before the summer was over. Bento #61: Summer Totoro Created and eaten on: 9/3/2009

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bento #58: Sitting Totoro

July 14, 2009 bento
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Since my previous bento was a big failure, I needed to make something I’m more comfortable with. And nothing makes me feel better than this guy. Bento #58: Totoro sitting on a tree Created and eaten on : 7/14/2009

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bento #56: Moving day Totoro

July 2, 2009 bento
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Like I mentioned in my previous blog post, my company has been in the process of moving for the past week, and because of this we had July 1st off. I knew I wouldn’t be able to make bento until next week, so I decided to try making a “stay-home” bento. When I decided to make a bento to eat at home, I realized something. [...]

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bento #52: Rainy day Totoro

June 4, 2009 bento
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I wasn’t planning on making a bento this morning. I didn’t do any drawing the night before and I woke up late. (the time I usually wake up when I don’t make bento) I looked outside and it was raining. Again. So I decided to make a bento to cheer my boyfriend (and me) up. Bento #52: Rainy Day Totoro Created and eaten on: 6/4/2009

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bento #46: Totoro with cherry blossoms

April 30, 2009 bento
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After making three Castle Crashers related bento in a row, I needed to take a break. I do adore the characters from the game, but every bento is a challenge for me. I struggle, get frustrated and learn (from big mistakes, usually) while making them. Those three bento definitely were not an easy challenge. So, again, it was time for Totoro for me. Bento #46: [...]

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how to make Totoro cream puffs

April 7, 2009 Baking
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I know there are many recipes for cream puffs, and it’s not like you must use this recipe to make Totoro cream puffs. If you’re using your own cream puff recipe, make cream puff dough and jump to Step 5. A blog post about my very first batch of Totoro cream puffs can be found on “non-bento #12: Totoro cream puffs.” [How to make Totoro [...]

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bento #42: Totoro parade

April 4, 2009 bento
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I had been working on a sketch of a kyaraben for a week, but it just didn’t look like it’d work out, and I was feeling pretty bummed. (I can’t tell you what it is yet! I hope I can make it next week.) You know what always makes me feel better? Totoro! Bento#41: Totoro parade bento Created and eaten on: 4/4/2009

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non-bento #12: Totoro cream puffs

March 31, 2009 Baking
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Today was my friend/co-worker’s last day (for full-time) at work. I’ve known her since art school, and she’s the one who made me the picture book of my bento. She had a baby last year, and recently she decided to work part-time from home and be with her baby. So it’s a good good-bye. I know she loves sweets, but cookies seemed a little boring… [...]

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bento #31: Totoro snowman

January 29, 2009 bento
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After I posted how to make a Wall-E sandwich on December 21, I started getting a lot of traffic to my blog, my flickr and my boyfriend’s flickr. At the time, I was still writing about my older bento on my blog and using my flickr to post pictures for my blog, so I decided to make a bento for people who were visiting my [...]

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bento #25: Flying Totoro

January 10, 2009 bento
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After getting my game bento rush out of my system I decided to go back to my all time favorite theme. Totoro! I wrote in my blog before, but I think I’m best at copying things. I like figuring out how to make food into a character or how to recreate a certain scene, but I’m not good at coming up with something original. So [...]

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bento #16: Sleeping Totoro

December 13, 2008 bento
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After my Katamari bento and Super Smash Bros. Brawl bento, some video game sites put the pictures of my bento on their sites. Even though I’m making bento for my boyfriend, any compliments are always encouraging. So, I gathered my courage to revisit “bento #1: Totoro made out of rice”, which was my very first and the most embarrassing kyaraben I’ve ever made. It wouldn’t be interesting [...]

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bento #10: The Path to Totoro’s Forest

November 29, 2008 bento
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When I made my first Totoro bento, I used bonito flakes for his gray body color, but it didn’t look quite right.　So I thought, “What food is gray?” The first food that came to my mind was konnyaku. I searched the web for “Totoro made out of konnyaku”, but to my surprise I couldn’t find anyone using konnyaku for Totoro… so of course, I had [...]

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How to make mini-totoro

November 23, 2008 characters
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Now you can make your own mini-Totoro! I’m using quail eggs because they sell quail eggs at local supermarkets by where I live. They cost about the same as normal eggs, so some people might find them expensive. Quail eggs are very good for bento, and I always have them in my fridge. If you can’t find it, you can use a normal sized egg. [...]

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How to make makkurokurosuke

November 23, 2008 characters
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Makkurokurosuke and mini-Totoro can come in super handy when you’re making a Miyazaki film themed bento. They are so easy to make and small enough to fill the space in a bento. They may be too easy to do how-to on, but I thought I’d just do it anyway. [Makkurokurosuke ver.1] – rice – seaweed (1/4 sheet) – kamaboko (fish cake) or cheese if you don’t [...]

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bento #5: Nekobus

November 18, 2008 bento
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When I was cooking croquettes before, I thought the color was perfect for Nekobus (a.k.a Catbus) from “My Neighbor Totoro.” I thought, “I’ll just shape mashed potato like Nekobus and fry it like a croquette!!” Bento #5: Nekobus (My Neighbor Totoro) Created and eaten on: 9/29/2008  

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bento #2: Makkurokurosuke

November 13, 2008 bento
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This is my second kyaraben. That’s right. After my failure, I didn’t give up, but decided to make something different and easier. So, I looked around the internet, and found how to make Makkurokurosuke and mini-Totoro. Bento #2: Makkurokurosuke and mini-Totoro (from My Neighbor Totoro) Created and eaten on: 9/17/2008  

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