Panda Canapes

For the rain, for the train I made a few of these dark rye, cream cheese, and smoked salmon canapes.

Stocking up on dumplings

I was reading gamene's bentozen blog and got the idea of stocking the freezer lader with these.

Today I made rice balls and dumplings and I blogged about the whole dumpling affair over at Foodie Judy.

I really meant to make bags for my new bento boxes, but that will have to wait.

Happy March First!

The Spicy Deviled Egg

The language of cooking is fascinating. A scant, a heaping, a dash, a pinch. What does it all mean, Mom?

She would teach me how many teaspoons were in a tablespoon, quarts in a gallon, and so on. She would pull out the Betty Crocker cookbook and we would make snickerdoodles. I would get to measure and sift, and she would hover over the KitchenAid. I would roll the balls in cinnamon and sugar, and she would man cookie sheet and the oven.

There's a lot to be said about teaching your child to cook. It's a math and chemistry lesson, with some cultural history, and a smattering of social skills all in one.

Take the egg. Mom would hard boil that egg to an inch of its life. It took me years to undo that lesson, but that's okay because I always enjoyed "the better late than never" philosophy. Personally when it comes to eggs, I can't eat more than one a day, and I really don't fancy eating them everyday anyway.

I went to a deviled egg party one time, and it was too much. Platters and platters of eggs made with one thing or another. Me, I like one deviled egg at a time. One, as in two halves, and spicy. Here is my version.

The Lip Plumping Deviled Egg

Take one hardboiled* egg and slice in half, lengthwise. Pop out yolks in a small bowl. Add a scant teaspoon of Dijon mustard, a heaping teaspoon of mayo, a dash of cumin, a shake of ground pepper, and a good shake of salt.

Take a fork and mash and stir till desired consistency. (Can you stand a few lumps or do you need it perfectly creamy? For me it depends on my current level of patience.)

Divide mixture in half with the eyeball and scoop back into egg white halves.

Put a small bit of ground cayenne pepper in the palm of your hand and take a small pinch with your fore finger and thumb and sprinkle on the yolk mixture. Repeat for other half.

Consume.

*Here is how I hard boil eggs.
Put four chicken eggs in a one quart pot. Fill with cold water. Bring to a rolling boil on medium high heat. Cover. Turn off heat. Set timer to 16 minutes. Prepare ice bath in sink with ice cubes and cold water. When timer dings, pour off hot water and put eggs in ice bath. Spin them around and let the eggs cool off. Get a container that has a top that will hold four eggs in water. When eggs are cool, run the water slowly in sink while you crack and peel each egg under the running water. Repeat for other three eggs. Put in container and fill with cold water. Seal and place in fridge. Eggs can be used when cold.

Polar Bear Bento

The Mister works in the great outdoors and will eat everything on his plate, everything on my plate, and everything leftover. In other words, the man is hungry!

So yesterday I made a little appetizer while the dinner was cooking. I've been wanting to use my charm stones as cold packs in my bento. Here, though, the polar bear is more of a decoration (He is chilled though.) And the shrimp are sitting on crushed ice too.