daoryn

Purple Wednesday

daoryn — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 12:35:22 GMT

Originally posted by thelake at Purple Wednesday

IT GETS BETTER

♥

It’s been decided. On October 20th, 2010, we will wear purple in honor of the 6 gay boys who committed suicide in recent weeks/months due to homophobic abuse in their homes at at their schools. Purple represents Spirit on the LGBTQ flag and that’s exactly what we’d like all of you to have with you: spirit. Please know that times will get better and that you will meet people who will love you and respect you for who you are, no matter your sexuality. Please wear purple on October 20th. Tell your friends, family, co-workers, neighbors and schools.

RIP Tyler Clementi, Seth Walsh
RIP Justin Aaberg, Raymond Chase
RIP Asher Brown and Billy Lucas

REBLOG to spread a message of love, unity and peace.

- original post by neo_prodigy

Bento #28 Moomins!

daoryn — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 21:21:41 GMT

A friend of mine loves the moomins and for her I did this with the leftover of yesterday's the omelet.

I present you moomin and moomina. =)

It's omrice again with two omelet moomins and zucchini decoration.
In the top tier, there's grapes, babybell, mousse au chocolat and again, a mochi. (I love them so much <3)

Moomina got a little too small and too thin, but I think the hair turned out ok. (But she could look a little more happy =) )

I'm really looking forward to my friends reaction =) (Never made a bento for another person before. Only for myself so far.

Bento #27 Chinese new year bento

daoryn — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 20:36:00 GMT

Today's Chinese new year and now we're in the year of the tiger.
I'm a tiger myself so I like those years best =)

To honor the occasion, I made a special bento for tomorrow: A tiger- bento!

It's om-rice with chicken, carrot, zucchini, onion and orange bell pepper, topped by an omelet tiger with nori-stripes.
I am really proud how that came out!

In the lower tier there's veggies with a baby bell cheese, grapes and mousse au chocolat with pear paw prints and a mochi filled with sweet beans.

The baby bell has the chinese sign for luck on it. And yes, it is upside down. It must be upside down on a red square and you plaster it on your door for best luck ;)

Here some close ups of the tiger:

And of the head:

Hope you enjoy this. It was fun to make =)

新年快乐!! (Happy new year)

bento #26

daoryn — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 12:58:35 GMT

It's carnival today so a free day for me and no bento.
But I still have yesterday's photos to post:

Tortellini with tomato sauce, cheese and black sesame in the top tier.
Red and orange bell pepper, radish, mushrooms, cucumber and sauce pig in the bottom tier.
There was a plum involved but it was too shy for the picture =)

Close up:

bento #25

daoryn — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:20:45 GMT

Leftover from the big party this weekend:

It's spaetzle (something typically Swabian), piccata milanese and saltimbocca in the top tier.
Plum, cucumber, bell pepper and kiwi in the bottom tier.

Tasted really good and I'm a bit proud of the radish mushroom (they are really easy to make, didn't expect that)

bento #24

daoryn — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 23:47:33 GMT

It's not my usual procedure but as I won't have time tomorrow, I will post tomorrow's bento today as I finished it.

This is fried noodles with carrot and bell pepper in soy sauce, Tamagoyaki and, in the other tier cucumber, bell pepper, zespri (golden kiwi) and a plume.

Today I tried a classical two-egg-tamagoyaki instead of a one-egg as I usually do. It came out a lot nicer, I think.

I'm especially looking forward to eating the zespri and the plume cause they already look so healthy and full of vitamins =)

Bento #23

daoryn — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 22:47:38 GMT

So, here's today's bento:

Theres mashed potatos, cauliflower, breadcrumb and for the deco carrot flowers and radish butterflies.

Also I put some veggies, a filleted blood orange and mini cupcakes in the top container.

I also had a big sauce bottle with sauce hollandaise but I forgot to take a photo of it.

Sad thing, it didn't get eaten 'cause I was treated to lunch by a friend. Now I'm thinking about keeping it for tomorrow (at least the non perishable things).

Bento #22

daoryn — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 18:01:31 GMT

I put a little more effort into making something dekoben-like. Thus the flowers... =)

This is noodles with tomato sauce and carrot/ radish flowers on the left, veggies, an apple bunny on kiwi grass (hidden) and two mini cupcakes =)

Close up of the flowers:

I cut the noodles into little pieces because I find it easier to eat them like that (they always stick together overnight in the fridge...)

Close up of the apple bunny and the mini cupcakes.

Bentos #17 - #21

daoryn — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 23:26:46 GMT

The last two weeks were a bit hard on me and though I did make bentos, I didn't have the time to post the pictures.

Also, as I didn't count, there wasn't anything fancy for number 20.

Anyways, I decided to number only those I put up here. The few ones not worth mentioning will be left unpictured and uncounted.

Alas, here we are:

Just noodles, chicken with teriyaki-sauce and some veggies/ fruit.

Here we have little sandwiches with pumpernickel, veggies and fruit salad with hidden pineapple.

Chinese fried noodles with broccoli, veggies and fruit.

This one was a rather experimental shot with the microwave as a mirror.
Front are veggies and fruit, back are au gratin potatoes, Brussels sprouts and chicken caramelized with brown sugar. (very delicious, really!).

And last but not least:

Self made pizza with bell pepper, mushrooms and ham (and fresh bell pepper and mushrooms) and radish, apple bunnies and mini-cupcakes.

I'll try to update a little more regularly in the following time and to give a bit more attention to describing each bento as I did before.
I just felt the need to put those up after bothering with making the pictures and everything. =)

Bento #16

daoryn — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 18:48:22 GMT

Here is today's bento.

I like it, because it looks especially fresh and very healthy =) (ok, except the chicken, but that's ok)

As there's chicken, there's chicken shaped cucumber on rice with carrot flowers.

In the other compartment, I tried something rainbow-y.
It's carrot, tomato, red bell pepper, zucchini, corn and a slightly deformed cucumber rose.
For dessert there was grape and physalis.

As you can see I changed the background (which consists of a scarf, spread on my little dining table for the photo ;) ). I think the bright color looks more cheerful than grey and it makes the veggies look so much fresher! =)
I think I will keep the nice blue scarf as background for now.

bento #14 & #15

daoryn — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 16:31:17 GMT

Ok, first bentos after the holidays.
Those are from tuesday and wednesday. No bento today as I'm staying home with the flu.

Bento #14 onigiri, tamagoyaki, veggie-salad and some fruit.

Bento #15 is a little more decoben.

That's noodles with salmon-tomato-sauce and some fishy deco.
And some salad, dressing-fish and fruit with some flowery thingy. Wanted to do water lilies, but that didn't really work out.

Here are close ups from both tiers:

bento #13

daoryn — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 19:45:24 GMT

So, this was the last bento this year since I have holidays now, my mom cooking and won't be in need of bentos until the middle of January. =)

Today's nothing fancy, because I just needed a quick snack for lunch. So everything is rather finger food like.

These are my first onigiri decorated with some veggies. Behind are brie, pumpernickel, some red bell pepper, peanuts and a chocolate cupcake.

The brown on the onigiri is caused by soy sauce in which I fried them a little. Since these were my first onigiri (filled with curry chicken left from yesterdays dish) I was concerned that I wouldn't like the pure rice taste. I'm not Japanese so I don't have this appreciation of the pure rice flavor yet =)
But they tasted great and would have even without the soy sauce (as I'm quite happy to report, that opens so many new possibilities in bento making =D )

These are the side dishes, as mentioned, all finger food. Got to use all of my new silicon cups at once.
I made some cupcakes especially for bento use. I think they will have to be even smaller because I think it looks much nicer when you can put in several little ones. (I think I will try with the little paper cups for pralines but I will have to experiment with the baking time...)

So, as there won't be another a bento related post this year I wish you all a very nice Christmas and a Happy New Year! (Yes, with capitol HNY! =D )

bento #12

daoryn — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 21:32:17 GMT

So, here we have today's bento.

The top box is curry noodles with chicken and broccoli. (Leftover dinner from yesterday). The bottom is asparagus, cut veggies and little sandwiches with brie and pumpernickel. Also a tomato flower and some pear/ physalis for dessert.

When I make myself curry I always seem to wind up with about four times as much as I needed... *sigh* but it still tastes so good =)

The little sandwiches were due to the mini-brie I got yesterday. They are stuffed an little flower sticks to keep them together. Bentos are not only great to eat, I'm becoming an attraction at my lab =)

Today a colleague said to me: "Oh, you're gonna have lunch? I'll accompany you, I want to watch!"
Lol, no comment... ;)

bento #11

daoryn — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 22:30:41 GMT

Today's bento:

Main dish is the same as yesterday. Chicken with teriyaki sauce and rice with furikake. Side dish is vegetables (carrots, zucchini, broccoli, asparagus) and some mousse au chocolat with pear-decoration.

I like the little silicon cups, cause they are smaller than my other cups and they are so cute! Oh and asparagus from a glass is very wet so: Note to myself, let it drip a little before putting it in the bento box.

Bento #10

daoryn — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:27:44 GMT

No bento yesterday 'cause I had a very important exam and my stomach doesn't want any lunch in such situations...

But, I got a new box and some accessories! Yay!

So, Bento #10 in the new box.

A bit more japanese this time with rice, furikake, chicken with teriyaki sauce and sesame in the one box.
Tamagoyaki, cucumber, carrot and a tomato flower and physalis and pear in the other box.

I absolutely love the furikake! It gets some color on the rice and it tastes really good, too! =)
Oh and I used Italian risotto rice. Perhaps it's me being used to European food but I like the risotto rice best concerning the flavor. And it's similar to japonica in its properties.

I even decorated the bento to honor the occasion (I know 10 is not much, but everyone needs to start at some point ;) )

The tamagoyaki is too brown, I know, but I was in a bit of a hurry and I thought the extra color is kind of nice (even if unintentional...)

This is the new box, btw. Isn't it cute? I love the bunny!

Bento #8 & Bento #9

daoryn — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 15:18:43 GMT

Forgot to post number 8. For the post, see this post on bentolunch.

As for today:

As everybody seems to be making quiche I tried as well.
My first quiche ever and I also took the recipe from jokergirl at JustBento.

First the quiche: I filled it with everything I could find (i.e. bell pepper, carrot, onion, some cheese and a rest of wieners in small cubes). But it still tasted great!
Thank you, jokergirl for the cute idea and the recipe! (But I have a question: Is it normal that the bottom of the quiche stays not completely baked and a bit... see through? Or did I just do something wrong?)

I decorated with bell pepper and carrots and then I realized I had nothing green at home! *gasp* As it looked stupid without something green, I put on the green deco leafs... hehe

In the other tier there's physalis, pear and banana and some mousse au chocolat.

Bento #7

daoryn — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:57:29 GMT

Here's today's bento.

In the back there is a smiling rice with tamagoyaki left and right.

On the front there's two little rissoles, some veggies with sesame and some fruits to the right.

I finally tried tamagoyaki and I have to say I love it! The taste is great and after the recipe of Justbento for a (1-egg-tamagoyaki) it was so easy and fast!

I will surely try that again with some lighter soy sauce.

The rissoles are quite salty which goes well with the plain rice, really.

Bento #6

daoryn — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 19:47:43 GMT

I like today's bento especially because of the nice color combination.

On the front are some christmas cookies (later put in an extra bag), behind peas, tomatoes, zucchini, pear and physalis.

Behind are Linguine Carbonara.

I'm slowly getting the hang of the color-combination-thingie which lets everything look especially yummie...

The noodles got a bit clumpy and were a little difficult to eat...
How do you solve that problem? More Sauce? Making them even more 'in time'?
Am happy for suggestions!

BTW I'm posting my bentos here at bentolunch . It's a really nice community and there are so many fantastic bentos there! (and helpful suggestions!)

bento #5

daoryn — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 14:57:51 GMT

Today's bento.
I'm afraid it's noodles again (I got a bit carried away on Wednesday night while making them so it was waaayyy too much ;) )
But for the sake of change, I decorated the noodles with a little forest (all zucchini).

In the other box are some mini pumpernickel sandwiches, another salad with a dressing pig and a fruit bowl with physalis, grapes and pear.

No sweets today so it was way too healthy. I think I will have to compensate by eating a whole pizza tonight ;)

Bento #4

daoryn — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 14:14:42 GMT

So, here's today's bento.
As we have december now, there are some self-made cookies and christmas-tree- and star-shaped- carrots.

The smaller box is noodles with carrots and zucchini in coconut milk and some green curry.
The bigger box is salad with a dressing pig, fruit salad (physalis and grapes) and the cookies.

This one was prepared completely yesterday night because I didn't have the time today in the morning. Even the cut fruits keep fresh, when put in the fridge. Amazing...

Bento #3

daoryn — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:06:57 GMT

Today's bento

It's leftover smoked salmon with rice, nicely shaped vegetables and some fruit. The white cream in the middle is creamed horseradish for the salmon.
In the lid are some smarties.

Plätzchen!

daoryn — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:06:02 GMT

No bento yesterday, because I didn't stay away for lunch.
BUT I started trying the recipes of my grandmother who makes the world's best 'guatsle' (special christmas cookies).
And actually it wasn't that hard, even if I don't have the space and have to bake them in two turns, because my oven is not that big.
I tried 'Husarenkrapfen' yesterday. They are mostly butter, nuts and sugar and filled with some self made currant-marmalade.
They don't look as perfect as my grandmother's but it was my first try so I'm quite happy with them.

I've got a photo of the lovely Box I use to stow them (or better hide them for a week or so to get the butter flavor to spread a little - If I don't hide them from myself they won't live long enough ;) ).

And the cookies. I staple them with aluminum foil in between so they don't crack or anything:

Today I'm baking 'Vanillekipferl'.

Edit:

Vanillekipferl are finished. I'm quite pleased with the result, especially because of the taste. (Can't show you that ;) )
The ends are a little burned, but that is something I intend to do better next time.

another bento

daoryn — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 14:46:47 GMT

Ok, here the daily Bento.

Today there's leftover pasta with salmon filling and tomato sauce from yesterday on the left.
Also some cucumber, red sweet pepper and kiwi. And another pancake with self made marmalade on the right.
The top of the box (middle) was filled with some sweets.

Oh and I had some admirers, too. ^-^
So I rambled on about bento and how to and shared my sweets.

Bento baby!

daoryn — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 13:35:47 GMT

Ok, so I'm in Bento-fever, too.
Since I'm gonna be in the lab from Christmas on, I won't be able to get an hour for lunch (which you need if you have to stand in the queue, get your food and eat at a reasonable speed so that you don't get stomach cramps in the end).
So I decided to get myself a cute little Bento-Box and try it out myself.
And what shall I say? I'm delighted!

The box is from the shop sukiyaki_jp at ebay. The box only needed about 4 days to ship and there were some extras, like chopsticks, food cups and some deco-leafs. (and of course the box, a rubber-band and a bag for the box.)

And here are the photos of my very first bento:

The smaller box is fried rice with onions, ham, tomato and red sweet pepper.
The bigger one is cucumber, pancake with self made marmalade, kiwi and physalis.

The bento was really delicious and I will try again tomorrow.

My adventure in the rain

daoryn — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 20:01:44 GMT

Today I want to talk about the electric sunroof of my car.
My car goes by the name of Lilly. A nice, reliable, green car. I've got her for about 5 years now and we got on well until yesterday night.

Because yesterday night, Lilly decided that she needed a thorough washing of her insides. And thus, the sunroof opened.
I've got no idea how that happened, but fact is: It was raining into my car!
I was so lucky to go out again at 2 am to check if the light was still on or I wouldn't even have noticed until next morning.

Now, what do you do at 2 am, if it is raining into your car? No roof available, still raining.
I admit, that was the point I panicked.
Standing there, in my white and red striped nightgown (a sweet thing, but not out in the streets at 2 am in the pouring rain, I assure you).

K, I thought, cover it! Somehow! So, I ran back inside, grabbed the next best plastic bags and some duct tape.
I assure you, duct tape (even very much duct tape) doesn't stand a chance against water. And plastic bags only cover a hole, if you use one big one. Not two, overlapping in the middle.
Water is intelligent and runs exactly through that damn little slit.

I panicked a little bit more, while Lilly had a nice, little soak.
Me, in my nightgown, standing besides a car with an open sunroof. The people driving by in the bus must have had a nice laugh, I think.

Eventually I saw my umbrella lying there in the middle of the mess.
And what to say? I grabbed that stupid thing, draped it over the wet plastic bags and tied the handel to the handbrake.
I assure you that was actually awfully effective! (I still can't believe I did that... at that time it was 3 in the morning...)

And now, I had to wait till at least 7 am to call my grandpa to ask what the hell I should do.
And what can I say? One sleeps horribly bad if it rains and there is only an umbrella between your cars interior and everything else.

In the morning, my grandpa sent his hysteric granddaughter to a garage in the city.

There was the next problem: It was still raining!
So I dressed in a coat with a hood so I wouldn't get too wet on the 25 minutes drive to the garage.
I was so damned afraid the police would stop me and take me to a doctor or something... I might have still been a tad bit hysterical but damn, I was desperate!
So I drove and cursed at every traffic light (and oh, there are MANY traffic lights on that road!) and cursed some more as my hood soaked through.

I thought about wipers for my glasses. But I don't think they would sell...

So, what shall I say? The nice guy at the garage had a great laugh and fixed the sunroof.

And now I am running out in intervals to check if everything is still alrghit with my poor soaked Lilly.
Plus I think I'm getting a cold.
But I didn't drive to the garage in my nightgown. I think that is the most positive thing I can take with me out of this experience.
Oh and that I can make people giggle uncontrollably while telling this story.
I am told that is a gift. Yeah, whatever...

Now that leaves one question: What did I learn?

1) You can't have enough water-resistant duct tape and plastic bags (biiiig plastic bags) at home. You could be in desperate need of some.
But in the end, an umbrella could do, too. =)

2) Sunroofs are dangerous! They act all innocent and useful until you don't expect it and then they stab you in the back! (And the thought of electrical windows make me faint just a little bit right now.)

3) Choose well what you sleep in. You could end up in it on the streets in the middle of the night. That could be embarrassing depending on your choice.

Now, dear readers take this advice with you and have a serious talk with any of your sunroofs. (especially if they are electric! Electric things are evil!)