The snowman was made with three onigiri. As for the facial details, I used shiitake mushroom and a heart foodpick for the hat; nori cut with hole puncher for the eyes and the buttons; black sesame seeds for the smiling mouth, a maize ear (corn) for the nose, and crab stick skin for the scarf.

As for the bento fillings, I made chicken karaage, ham and lettuce roll, and put a cherry tomato, cauliflower chunks (I didn’t use the usual broccoli chunks since I wanted more white like snowy Christmas day for the bento), and a half mandarin orange.

The other ornaments I made were a Christmas tree shape cucumber made with vegetable cutter and a pair of snowflake cheese. I cut those snowflake with the art knife, took a while to made them but I’m quite proud of the result.

So I think this is the last bento I made for 2009. I will post some more post from my cooking class before the end of the year. Merry Christmas to everyone and happy holiday, God bless us all ^_^

The twin droplets onigiri were made with my palm since I don’t think there’s a special mold for them. I made the rice ball shape first and then pull the top part to make it pointy. The pink one of course made from white rice mixed with pink furikake. The facial details were using nori and carrot (on the white droplet’s cheek) and cheese (on the pink one’s cheek). To fill the space I added some broccoli chunks and sausages.

The other container was filled with chicken karaage, a pair of chicks quail egg (nori, carrot, with food picks to make the chicks) and I also put the good-looking champagne grapes to complete the set.  I really like those grapes, it’s like they perfectly made for bento making purpose.

I just need to put the lettuce on top of ham and rolled them over, and cut them into 3 parts, very practical. I prepared chicken karaage also for this meal with a pair of yellow quail from the fridge, I prepared lots of them for making several animal shapes but found not enough time do to that

I still have unused rice mold from my bento equipment, so I used the flower shape mold to make the onigiri, added circle shape carrot for small detail.

I also realized that when making 2 bento box, I tend to concentrate my effort on one box (usually the main meal) and left completely blank idea on what to do for the other box. It also happened this time. I didn’t have any ‘clever’ idea for the vegetables, so I just cooked, cut, and then arranged them just to fill the box.

Luckily I have this very nice kiwi/fruit V-cutter. This is a very handy tool to have for decorating food, very easy to use and you’ll get the result quickly. If your friend don’t know that’s a tool to do that, I’m sure they will amaze when you show them those cut kiwi

The other bento I made 2 days ago was quite simple also. I tried to make chicken karaage, the recipe was found on the web, I’m really sorry that I forgot which site since I usually write down the recipe on my notebook, not bookmarked the page because I will cluttered my bookmarks with hundreds of sites if I did that.

I think chicken karaage is a good bento recipe since its chunky shape easily fit into bento box.

I made twin bunny from rice mold, one is plain rice and I mixed the rice with egg yolk to make the yellow one, the result was brighter compared the one mixed with curry powder. Their eyes and mouth were done with nori cut with hole puncher and scissors.

I still have the boiled white egg and I tried to make a piggy face with that, the idea was from bento mook compilation I bought from Kinokuniya. I cut ham with knife for the ear, tail, and outer nose parts and cut the two holes on center nose with plastic straw. Lastly, sesame seed was put for the piggy eyes.  Easy to make and the result was quite satisfying.

Lastly I add some carrots, parleys, and grapes to fill the bento box.