Olive Oil Soaked Tomato

One of my bad habits is to store food more than I can consume. Even knowing I will be away for the break, still I got plenty of products. To avoid wasting them, this is one of the things I do to the cherry tomato: preserve them in the oil. I started doing this late last night. The tomatoes were halved and dried at 215 F in the oven. After 2 hours, they were taken out to cool. Meanwhile, I crushed a big clove of garlic, put it into a jar together with the tomatoes and bay leaf. Then I poured oil until it covers all items in the jar. After coming back from the break, I am ready to enjoy it :)

12/12/2011

Plenty of leftover from the group dinner last night. Also the salmon steak from the lunch.
In the bento: some kind of pasta, stir-fried pepper and green beans, Chinese sausage, mayonnaise baked salmon, stir-fried rice.

Ground Pork in Tofu Skin

One of my grandma's signature dishes is this pillow like goodie. The star of the dish, from my point of view, is the tofu skin wrapped outside the meat filling. Tofu skin is not commonly seen here, but is one of the ingredients used on a daily base in Shanghai. This is made from soybean milk. When the soybean milk is cooling, the top of the surface will slowly develop a thin layer, like the same that milk will do. The thin layer is then collected and dried for future use. So the product is very fragile, also super delicious.
My grandma usually bought the tofu skin and filled in with ground pork, shiitake mushroom, wood ear and diced onion. Then the pillow will be pan-fried until the meat is cooked. Yum~~

Gingerbread Cake with Lemon Curd

This cake was baked for the birthday celebration in my office. I have to say because I am not a gingerbread person, this is the first time I made this cake and it didn't turn out as good as I expected. The cake was very dense and a bit dry. I can taste the molasses but need more ginger taste. Although I like the lemon curd more than the cake. It helped to cut out the dryness a lot.
And as usual, I did a terrible job on frosting, never improved :(

Mashed Butternut Squash w/ Boiled Egg and Cheese

It's not always lucky to buy a good butternut squash. Generally winter is the season that all those squash taste sweet and creamy. I happened to have a butternut squash that is kinda bland. So I baked and mashed it. Spread on the toast with hard boiled egg and some sheep cheese. Not the best but eatable.

12/16/2011

In the bento: quinoa, steamed cabbage, butternut squash, broccoli, tofu skin wrapped ground pork.
I forgot to season with salt, uh...

12/14/2011

In the bento: rice, broccoli, daikon, ground pork wrapped with tofu skin.

12/13/2011

In the bento: rice, steamed broccoli, shiitake mushroom, bean curd skin wrapped ground pork, egg.

12/9/2011

In the bento: stir-fried cabbage, egg, shiitake mushroom, lamb, shanghai style rice.

12/6/2011

In the bento: Shanghai style rice, braised pig feet, egg, butternut squash, daikon.

12/5/2011

This is a magewappa!!! For people don't know what magewappa is, this is a wood bento box hand-made with cedar by craftsmen. It is the most traditional Japanese style of carrying and eating bento.
This beautiful piece of work of art feels light and smooth. There is nothing covering the wood so the rice in it can breath, thus it tastes better.
Also it is an art. Elegance says itself.
THANK YOU!!
In the bento: rice, braised pig feet, meatball, egg, shiitake mushroom, stir fried cabbage.