my little mochi

holiday oldies but goodies

Hi there! I've been super busy and don't have anything new to post but here's some crafts, recipes and tutorials from the past that may come in handy in the next couple of weeks. Happy Holidays!

  

cranberry bliss bars

 

snow globe necklaces

 

reindeer gift card holders

 

origami snowman gift bags

 

pinecone hedgies

 

snowman cookies

Gobble! Gobble!

When I saw these brilliantly awesome candy turkeys on Kimi Coopet's flickr I just had to try and make some for Thanksgiving. And they were so easy to assemble Buddy and I decided we'd do it as a kid's craft for Thanksgiving Day.

We followed Kimi's instructions and used whoppers for the heads, oreos for the base and body, candy corn for the feathers and beak. Since we have some peanut allergy issues in our family we just used Hershey's chocolate nuggets for the bodys instead of the reese's peanut butter cups. We couldn't find the black gel so we used green candy sprinkles for the eyeballs. So fun!!

What happened when the Little Drummer Boy went ice skating?

He fell on his rump-a-pum-pum! Sorry, I couldn't resist posting another one. That Buddy, he's been such a jokey-jokester lately.

So we finally got the tree up this week and managed to do the decorations this afternoon. Thank goodness! But Buddy didn't seem to mind the bare tree with just the lights, which made me feel even more guilty that it took almost a week to finish all the decorating.

I've been crazy busy at work, so most of my Christmas plans have fallen by the wayside if not crossed off the list all together. Sometimes I think I should skip all blogging during December as it tends to make me feel worse seeing all the fabulous crafts and decorating everyone's doing while I barely got the tree up a week before Christmas. But the tree is up and most of the shopping is done, so who am I to complain?

Speaking of complaints, a lump of coal to the electronics retailer on Amazon who wanted to charge me $59.00 in standard delivery shipping charges for an item that cost $64.95 and only weighs 3 pounds. Hawaii may not be a part of the continental United States but that doesn't give you the right to rip us off on shipping. Auwe!

And on that same note, three cups of good cheer to whoever invented Starbuck's Cranberry Bliss Bars. They are aptly named and always a delight. Buddy and I whipped up a batch this afternoon after we decorated the tree. We used this recipe for a mock version I posted in January.

So ono!

There's a party in my tummy, so yummy! So yummy!

                                                    Mwaaahaaa!!

Mmmmmmonday

Mmmmmmonkey!

Mmmmmmasks!

Mmmmmmochi!

Summer Min

Last week was a pretty horrible week health wise. It started with me somehow spraining my hip while sitting on the sofa and only went downhill from there. After hobbling about all day Monday, I had to go to Lanai for work on Tuesday and promptly came down with a virus Tuesday night. Three days of body aches, fever and chills later, I was finally feeling better and then the virus spread to my eyes!! And it's not pretty. Eeeewwww.

All this hot weather hasn't helped much either, but summer always makes me crave saimin, and saimin always makes me feel better.

We eat this for dinner way more than I should admit to but, it's really quick and actually a fairly healthy dish. Plus Buddy loves saimin, so it's not a hard sell. You can do saimin all sorts of ways, but I usually serve it with won bok (Chinese cabbage), tamago-yaki, two kinds of kamaboko, tofu, and my favorite (and very addicting) korean style nori. Sometimes I add shumai or gyoza too. Then I just add some sides of Buddy's favorite Japanese cucumbers, grape tomatoes, carrots and celery and we're good to go.

Watermelon for dessert, and I'm feeling better already.

Wow!

Oh my gosh! Thanks so much everyone for all of the comments for the lei-away. I can't tell you how much I loved reading about everyone's worst or best crafts. That had to have been the most fun I've had reading comments! And thank you to all you de-lurkers too. It was so nice hearing from you all.

I wish I could send all of you leis to show my appreciation, so please accept my thanks instead! Buddy helped me draw a name last night and the winner is Sarah of Sarah P dot!

I realized after I posted that I've never shared my best or worst craft. I can't really think of a single best or worst thing but as far as oddly received it would have to be a tied quilt top I made for T before we were married.

It was the first patchwork piecing I ever did and I was determined to finish it in one weekend. I started Friday evening and somehow managed to finish by Sunday. The end result was wonky at best but I still loved it and couldn't wait to give it to T. Although he said he liked it, he never did use it, and later claimed it was too short. I kept telling him he's not that tall! And much to my horror, one day when I went to his place he was using it as a curtain! We still have it, maybe I'll post a picture.

Not much crafting going on around here as I'm still scrambling to get everything ready for our Japan trip. I am so excited! With the exception of some neighbor island trips we haven't been on a real vacation in almost two years, so this is long overdue. Can't wait!

Buddy had a swim-a-rama at school today which is sort of like a swimming recital, so we decided to make some cupcakes for the occasion. It's supposed to be a bear floating in an inner tube. Do you see it?

I thought this would be the quickest cupcakes ever. Just stick a bear into the trolli gummy circle on blue frosting and add some fish sprinkles. But I mistakenly bought mini teddy grahams instead of the regular size one, so the inner tube is way too big. That's what you get for being cheap. I couldn't figure out why the big bag of teddy grahams was a dollar less than the smaller box, but I bought the cheaper one anyway. And the features on the mini teddies are much less pronounced so I ended up having to draw the faces on with food coloring pens. So much for easy-peasy!

(Speaking of cupcakes this cracks me up!)

Shades of cranberry bliss

A lovely, lazy, rainy day spent baking cranberry bliss bars,

 
and eating them in our new bunny bowls,

Browsing through the winter Cotton & Paint,

and dreaming about making these slippers.

An early dinner out for Japanese food, brings a three dollar pair of shoes my way.

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Mock Starbucks Cranberry Bliss Bars

Love this recipe so much. The brown sugar, white chocolate, lemon and tangy cranberries go together wonderfully and it tastes great chilled. I've never had an actual one from Starbucks, but whenever I make it everyone says it tastes authentic.

Cake:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
3 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon powdered ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cups diced dried cranberries
6 ounces white chocolate, cut into chunks

Lemon Frosting:
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
4 teaspoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup diced dried cranberries

Drizzled icing:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon milk
2 teaspoons vegetable shortening

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.

2. Make the cake by beating the softened butter and brown sugar together with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the eggs, vanilla extract, powdered ginger, salt and beat well. Gradually mix in flour until smooth. Mix the 3/4 cup dried cranberries and white chocolate into the batter by hand. Pour batter into a well greased 9x13 inch baking pan and use a spatula to spread the batter evenly across the pan.

3. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until cake is light brown on edges. Allow cake to cool.

4. Make the lemon frosting by combining the softened cream cheese, 3 cups of powdered sugar, lemon juice and vanilla extract in a medium bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. When the cake has fully cooled, use a spatula to spread the frosting over the top of the cake. Then sprinkle the 1/4 cup of diced dried cranberries onto the frosting.

5. For the drizzled icing, whisk together 1/2 cup powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon milk, and shortening. Drizzle the icing over the cranberries and lemon frosting in a sweeping motion or with a pastry bag.

6. Allow cake to sit for several hours and then cut into bars.

Metropolitan Cookbook

I think I need to start a vintage cookbook collection. Look at my latest find! It's the Metropolitan Cook Book, a pamphlet of sorts, published by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company in 1957. And like my Art of Chinese Cooking, it's chock full of animated food illustrations.

The Art of Chinese Cooking

A couple of months ago, I found this cute little cookbook at a local church bazaar. It was printed in 1956 and written by Benedictine Nuns. I was initially drawn to it because of the neat illustrations, but the foreward was fascinating as well.

Sister M. Francetta writes in March of 1956 that she and Sister Regia arrived in China in 1930 as missionaries at the Catholic University in Peking. They learned Chinese cooking from Ta Shih Fu, their cook, and came to love the "tastiness and infinite variety of Chinese cuisine".

They were living in Kaifeng, Honan Province when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and within two hours of the atttack the Japanese army (who were already in Kaifeng) rounded them up and placed them in a civilian concentration camp for the duration of the war. After the war they remained in Kaifeng for a while until the Communists arrived and forced them from Kaifeng to Shanghai and later to Formosa. In 1950, the American Consul thought Formosa might be too dangerous so they were sent to Tokyo. They arrived in Tokyo with literally nothing and decided to eke out an existence by starting a cooking school using the lessons they learned from Ta Shih Fu. Their school started with six students a week and quickly grew to 150 a week by 1956.

It's such a sweet little book. I wonder what ever happened to Sister Francetta and Sister Regia and their cooking school, or Ta Shih Fu for that matter?

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And speaking of cute little things, Amanda's hosting a teeny tiny swap. Go check it out, sign up ends this Friday.