Mothering Corner

Sorry that I hardly leave comment on most of the bento blogs I’ve visited, but I do read your posts. Most of the time, I will just read from my feed, but for some blogs, I will drop by if I have the time. Life is getting busier for me, but I still want to steal some time for blog hopping.

I know that Hapa Bento organizes BOMB every month, but the theme always slipped passed my mind when I’m too busy. Luckily, there are a few bento-ers who took part and I kept reminded about BOMB. The theme for May is flowers, so here is my submission.

I cut the bread and cheese with a flower cutter. For the bread placed on top, cut out a small circle with a round cutter. Then, I added nori and artificial crab meat as cute faces.

Here are the bentos:

My gal’s bento with flower sandwiches, rambutans, carrot roses in baked fish cakes, strawberries and some blueberries.

This is for my boy. Most of his fruits were hidden in the lower tier under Pikkachu.

I should have place some flower picks for him too, but I was running out of time. I have just got the items from Bento Craft, and my kids love them all.

New bento tools by Bento Craft. Thanks for the cute duckie cutting board, which my gal claimed it’s hers!

BTW, the tiny carrot roses are inspired by Hippomum. Do check out her tutorial. I just replaced fish sausage with blanched carrot strips.

Carrot rose.

I emailed Christy about my Mickey and Minnie Meet The Noppon Brothers Bentos, and I suggested that I would submit my bentos as samples. So, they won’t be considered as an entry for the contest, and it sounds fair to me.

Thanks for all your comments. If you are interested in taking part in this contest, do check it out.

Christy Jones sent me an email regarding this fun bento designing contest at Japan Society, and hope that more bento-ers will take part in it. I’m not sure if I will participate though, it all depends on my SCHEDULE! LOL!

Here are the details:

VIRTUAL BENTO BOX BATTLE
Calling all amateur chefs, food artists, and bento enthusiasts! We invite you to show off your most clever and kawaii bento box creations in a virtual bento box battle. Entries will be displayed at j-CATION on April 10, 2010, and may be posted on the Japan Society website for the world to admire. Special guest judges will select the winners, who will receive some amazing prizes to further your bento creativity!

Guidelines
Although there is no strict theme to this bento box battle, special consideration may be given to entries incorporating any of these topics:
• The mission of Japan Society: “…to bring the people of the United States and Japan closer together in their appreciation and understanding of each other…”
• Imagery from the Japan Society Gallery exhibition Graphic Heroes, Magic Monsters: Japanese Prints by Utagawa Kuniyoshi from the Arthur R. Miller Collection
• Representations of iconic Japanese foods, landmarks, customs, or public figures.

Deadline: Wednesday, March 31

Prizes:
1st Prize: Panasonic Fuzzy Logic Rice Cooker (SR-DG182) and Electric Thermal Pot (NC-EH40PC) (1 awarded)
2nd Prize: Canon Selphy CP780 Compact Photo Printer (2 awarded)
3rd Prize: MUJI Bento Box & Chopsticks Set (3 awarded)

Winners will be contacted after April 12, 2010.

How to enter:
Send an email by March 31 to bentobattle@japansociety.org with the following information.
Attach 1) a JPEG of your bento design and 2) a JPEG of you holding your bento (for verification only, not for display). Photos should be less than 20 MB combined.

I guess we still have time for it, so please check it out if you are interested. Maybe I will just submit one of my normal tea bentos, let’s see how…

But now, will you please excuse me, I’ve got to discuss something with my sales staff, send some emails, check the stock and barcode scanners delivered by DHL and etc. Argh…it’s another busy day!

I shared the link with Ellena yesterday, and both of us went “woo wow wah ah…” all the way on MSN when we were drooling over the results of the 3rd Sanrio Charaben Contest. If you are a bento-er who loves Sanrio characters, please hop over to the link and check out the wonderful bentos, which are too nice to be eaten!

I can recognize a few bento-ers’ creations, but not all. Too bad Sanrio didn’t link the bentos to the bento blogs (assuming that some of them are bloggers), if not we would have a chance to check out their other creations.

These Japanese mothers are not only talented in decorating the lunch boxes or picnic bentos, they took nutrition into consideration too when the charaben bentos were created. Personally, I think all these bentos need a lot of planning, preparation, skills (you really need to be good at forming rice balls and cutting the details) and time to be done, so don’t you think they are awesome?