Curry Rice Ducky ( ◕ )<

Currently this 16.5 metre tall giant rubber ducky is touring the world and making its stop in Hong Kong. It has already visited a number of countries and places Osaka 2009, Onomichi 2012, Rotterdam 2008, Auckland 2011 and more. I've heard so many news about it online, television, facebook, instagram... I think it's such an amazing installment. Yellow rubber ducky floating around without a care in the world! If only it made a stop in Melbourne :(

So I saw a friend's shared post of a curry rice dish shaped into a rubber duck inspired by the travelling installment. Similar to the Rilakkuma Omelette Rice I had made awhile back. After seeing the picture, I had to give it a go! The results wasn't as great as I had hoped but nevertheless it does sorta look like a duck.

Difficulty : ★★★

Makes: 1

1 Large bowl of cooked rice

1 egg

1 tbsp curry powder 

oil

Pinch of salt 

1 Small piece of carrot

1 Nori sheet

Mayonnaise 

1. Place oil in a wok and toss the rice until warm (I used cold rice from the night before).

2. Add in the curry powder.

3. Beat the egg with a fork and add into the rice.

4. Toss until the curry powder is distributed evenly amongst the rice.

5. Use a large sheet of plastic wrap and place the curry rice in the centre.

6. Shape firmly with hands until it resembles an oblong shape for the duck's body. (Make sure you press firmly so that the rice stays together) 

7. Repeat for the head.

8. Using a knife cut a triangle shape out of the carrot for the beak.

9. Use kitchen scissors to cut two circles for eyes from the nori sheet.

9. Build the duck by placing the head onto the body (You may need to slightly flatten the body part where the head sits to help the head balance).

10. Attach the nori sheets with mayonnaise so that it stays in place and draw on the white part of the eye using mayonnaise and toothpick. 

11. Attach the beak by inserting it into the rice gently.

12. Serve with curry if desired!

After note:

Make sure that your rice is not too dry or it might be difficult when trying to get the shape of the head and body to hold. If that does happen, you can add  small amounts of curry sauce/liquid into the rice when you toss it in the wok. Make sure you don't add too much or it will be the other way round and too soggy!

x

Yvonne

May Update

2013 is quite a strange year for me, it actually is the first year that I don't have school/uni in my life. It has been quite daunting because most friends graduated one or two years ago and are now working full-time with a long career ahead of them. Other friends who I graduated with at the end of last year have already moved onto full-time or casual teaching roles. Me? I'm still trying to figure out what I want. I've been to several interviews for jobs that I don't even know if I want...but in the end I'm not the candidate that they're looking for. Sometimes it's over qualification and at times I just screw myself over at the interview. It's May already and it's starting to get stressful but I'm trying to keep a level head, keep looking around and stay proactive, take this year slowly and see what comes my way. Hopefully the best is yet to come.

2013 Things to do:

• Find a suitable full-time job.
• Bake and cook!
• Start drawing and oil painting again.
• Do some exercise (hmmm....)
• Clear out my wardrobe and old clothes
• Don't give up on this blog!
• Spend more time with family

Autumn is so pretty here but so chilly as well. Two weeks ago I went to the Peninsula Hotsprings in Mornington with my family and we also visited Ashcombe Maze. We were going to go for the early bird special 7:00~9:00am for only $10 AUD per head but turns out we were 10 minutes late, thing is I told my parents that it was before 9:30 so we thought we were early too, Bad luck. 

I really like taking photos of nature -flowers, animal, leaves, micro stuff. But I know I'm not good and I don't even own a professional camera so I feel slightly embarrassed in case pro people out there can see how bad my photography skills are hehe. So here's some of the photos from that day.

         

x

Yvonne

Mini Almond Pears

I find that I have a habit of adding 'mini' to a lot of the things I make/bake. Maybe because they really are mini or it's just one of my subconscious attempts to make what I do sound a bit more... interesting? I have been doing some baking lately but I'm just too lazy to update. On a side note, I've been doing so many assignments in the past 5 years that I feel uncomfortable when using contraction in my blogging. This can be as simple as the it's, I'm, I've, don't in this paragraph. I have the urge to change everything to it's formal form. It's almost like I don't feel professional or I'm not typing with the correct grammar if you know what I mean? I know it sounds really weird! Yes I have been blabbing on for too long. Here is a cute little recipe.

Difficulty: ★

Makes: 8 pieces

1 cup almond meal

1 cup icing sugar, sifted

1 egg white

1/4 tsp almond essence

8 cloves

1. Preheat oven to 160°C and line a baking tray with baking paper.

2. Combine the almond meal with 1/2 a cup of icing sugar.

3. Make a well in the center and add egg whites and almond essence.

4. Combine the mixture until a soft dough forms.

5. Using your hands, roll spoonfuls of the mixture into round balls and shape into a long oval/pear shape.

6. Insert a clove into the top of each pear.

7. Place on the prepared tray and bake for 15 minutes or until firm.

8. Place the remaining sugar into a bowl and roll the hot almond pears in the icing sugar to coat. 

After note: 

I felt that you needed to be very generous with the sugar otherwise the almond pears can taste a bit bland! Just like biting into mushed up almonds (which isn't too bad) but I prefer if it to be more sweet. 

Recipe rating: 8.5/10

x

Yvonne

Kyaraben キャラ弁

After seeing pictures of very cute kyaraben (character bento) people have made online I couldn't help myself not to try making it at least once! So I did have to prepare some ingredients because I didn't have them at home especially the fried bean curd. This isn't quite a recipe because I didn't take photos when I made them (which is a bummer). I'll definitely remember to keep talking photos next time I try making something similar. So I had a look online, mainly on Pinterest to see what ideas other people had and I tried to make mine look just as good (note: try). I had heaps of fun but it did get slightly messy especially when it came to cutting the finer details such as the eyes and noses. So here are the ones I made: 

(♥o㉨o)ﾉ  いただきます!!!

 

Domokun どーもくん

Neko san ネコ-さん

Rilakkuma リラックマ

Personalise your USB Cables ♥

Another past midnight post by me! No wonder my skin is getting so bad :(. I've ruined my sleeping pattern this past month sleeping at 3 to 4am...gosh it was the complete opposite last year when I still had uni! It was sleep before 12pm, wake up at 7am. Not to mention my lack of exercise and eating the right foods. Haha so this post was originally a diy post on personalising your USB cables but now has turned into a self confession! 

This is a really simple way to add some spice to your boring USB cables, iPhone cables, anything really! 

Things you will need:

Adhesive sticker tapes (you can buy them in arts and craft or stationary stores -Riot Art, Typo, Daiso, eBay)

Scissors

Measuring tape

Here's my collection of tapes and ribbons, makes me so happy looking at them! So pretty :)

1. Decide on the sticker tape that you want to use. 

2. Measure the area that you want to cover using a tape measure, for my iPhone cord it's 45 millimetres.

3. Measure the same length on the sticker tape and leave a few millimetres extra incase.

4. Wrap the sticker tape around the area you want covered and cut off excess tape.

5. Repeat for other parts that you wish to cover. 

Very simple! I know it doesn't really require instructions but just to be clear. I really wanted to decorate more things so I grabbed all the extra iPhone/iPad/old iPhone cords and started sticking away! It's a really simple idea but does add a bit of flare to boring old cords. And NOW to go searching for other things I can decorate.......

x

Yvonne