How To Make Microwave Mochi

After making the felt sweets I decided to make some real ones. Mochi is one of my favorite things to have with a cup of green tea. You will find this recipe to be very simple. It makes a nice project to do with a child. Directions below.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup Mochiko (picture on left)
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup water
Katakuriko (potato starch)
Pam vegetable oil spray








Directions

1. Mix mochiko, sugar, and water in a bowl until smooth.
2. *Optional add a drop of food coloring for color. For flavor you can add vanilla extract or any other flavoring you wish like lemon extract, etc.
3. Spray a pan that can go in the microwave with Pam vegetable oil spray. Pour mixture in pan.
4. Cover and microwave for about 7 minutes on high. You might have to cook the mochi longer depending on the microwave. The mochi should be firm all the way to the center.
* this will be the hardest part to determine if you've never had mochi before. keep in mind it will still be very pliable and sticky
5. Cut mochi into desired pieces, either square or circle shape

picture of mochi out of the microwave

You can roll the mochi into either potato starch, kinako(picture to left), roasted sesame seeds, black sesame seeds, coconut, or anything else you like.

The mochi recipe is really a base to make any flavor you want with it. Some people add fruit, chocolate, peanut butter or azuki beans.

To make the mochi above I used roasted sesame seeds, kinako(soy bean flour), and black sesame seeds.

*Check out the contest below, ends August 1, 2008.

Japanese Craft Book Giveaway

Photos from "My Favorite Felt Sweet @2008 Japan Publications Trading Co., Ltd and Joie, Inc."

I'm loving "My Favorite Felt Sweets", which I just received from Kodansha America. The first thing I noticed about the book is it's written in English. Thank you! Usually Japanese craft books are written in Japanese, go figure. It has 106 patterns that are life size (no trips to the copy store). I found the projects to be easy and inexpensive to make, which is pretty much my craft mantra.
I hand sewed this Steamed Peach Bun using one of the patterns in the book. Wouldn't this make a cute Christmas ornament or gift topper?

Photos from "My Favorite Felt Sweet @2008 Japan Publications Trading Co., Ltd and Joie, Inc."

Photos from "My Favorite Felt Sweet @2008 Japan Publications Trading Co., Ltd and Joie, Inc."

Here's how to win your own copy

Leave a comment at the bottom of this post no later than Friday, August 1st, 2008. Please leave a way for me to get back to you if you win(enter your email address in the comment form). The email address is only used to notify the winner, I do not save the addresses. I'll choose one winner and post their name Saturday. Good Luck!

*This contest is open to US and Canada residents only.

Contest now closed

Egg Molds: Kawaii ne?

I've been planning to do a post for a while now on these egg molds I found at Daiso($1.50 for a set of two). They're so easy to use and the results are adorable. I would have better pictures but my children were hounding me for the eggs while I was taking the photos. My son even called dibbs on the blue car, go figure.
Directions:
Place hard boiled egg in mold and close. Place mold in a bowl of cold water for about 20 minutes to set.

I'm sharing the directions because the package directions are in Japanese. The first time making this I put a raw egg in the mold. Then I dropped it in boiling water. You can imagine my surprise when I discovered egg floating all over the place.

P.S. sadly this mold does not work for rice crispy treats, I tried

Related Posts:
Spam Musubi 101, Halloween Bento, Christmas Bento,

Interview with Grover from Sesame Street

Before you watch this video I have to warn you, I look ridiculously awkward and nervous in it. I'm like some giggly teenage girl meeting Brad Pitt for the first time. Yet in reality I'm a 30 year old grown woman being interviewed by Grover, sigh.

This was taped at the BlogHer 08 Conference. There was a Sesame Street room where attendees were given the chance to be videoed with either Grover or Abby Cadabby. So really, how could I pass up such an opportunity?

Make Guitar Picks out of Gift Cards

Last week I was out in the city(San Francisco) shopping when I came across a green guitar pick. It reminded me of the green that Starbucks uses for their logo. And at that moment it occurred to me you could probably make a guitar pick out of a gift card. I would say the gift card is roughly the same thickness as a .80mm guitar pick. This is a super easy project for even the craft challenged.

Supplies
Guitar Pick
Pen
Gift Card
Heavy duty scissors (I used our Joyce Chen kitchen scissors, please don't tell my husband)
Light weight sand paper

1. Place your guitar pick on the gift card and trace around it with a pen (refer to picture).

2. Cut out with scissors. Make sure to keep your scissors at a 90 degree angle with the gift card to get a smooth cut. If your scissors are slanted when cutting the edges will be rough.

3. Sand edges of pick with a light weight sand paper.

Done!

Teriyaki Salmon with Wasabi Sauce

I took this picture just before we ate dinner. My family was sitting at the table patiently waiting for me to bring out the food. So you could imagine their surprise when I walked right past them and set it by the window to take this picture. What can I say, if you live here, this is what you have to deal with. Anyhow, lately this dish has been in heavy rotation at our house so I thought I would share it with you. It's one of those recipes that's easy to make, tastes good and looks impressive (well, at least I think so).

Ingredients
Salmon
Yoshida Sauce (original) - Can be found at Costco and Safeway
1 tsp Wasabi - I recommend the one in the tube opposed to the powder kind
2 tsp Mayonnaise
Furikake - rice seasoning

Set oven to 4oo degrees.

1. Brush the top of the salmon with the Yoshida Sauce
2. Place in oven covered with tinfoil for first half of baking.
3. Brush more Yoshida Sauce on the salmon, bake the remaining time without tinfoil
4. Bake about 10 minutes (will depend on the size of salmon)
5. Garnish with Wasabi Sauce.
6. Sprinkle with Furikake (optional)

Wasabi Sauce
1. Mix mayonnaise and wasabi together. You can adjust the amount of wasabi to make the sauce more/less spicy.

If you like this recipe you may also like this, click here

I'm attending BlogHer

You may have seen this badge on my blog and I just wanted to share that I'll be attending the BlogHer Conference July 18-20. If anyone I know(or don't know) in blog land will be attending please shoot me an email(kawaiicrafter@gmail.com). Lets try to meet up!

Making Vases Out of Recycled Bottles

This little red bud vase was once a hand soap dispenser in my bathroom. One day when I was washing my hands, the thought occurred to me that it looked like a vase. And after a little brainstorming this is what I came up with. What's great about this vase is you can put flowers in it. Often natural vases are for decorative purposes only. I could also visualize this done with jute string. Directions below.

Supplies:

a glass or plastic bottle(I used a method soap dispenser and took off the lid)

raffia or anything else you'd like to use like lace, string, ribbon, etc.

glue - I used a basic white craft glue

Glue the raffia to the top of the container. Wind the raffia around the bottle and glue as you go.

While winding the raffia, have it overlap a little so none of the bottle shows through. Wind the raffia all the way to the bottom of the container. Done.

Corn Tomalito Recipe

In preparation for a party I discovered the Chevy's Fresh Mex Sweet Corn Tomalito Recipe . I love this stuff and can't tell you how excited I was to find the recipe online. I'm sharing the link because it actually tastes like I got it from the restaurant. You know how some recipes claim to be authentic and then they taste nothing like the original. Well this one lives up to expectations.

Note - the serving size for the recipe says 12 -16 but it yielded enough to fill a large soup bowl.

If you want the dish to look true to the original here's how to make the cactus. Just cut a tortilla into a cactus shape with cooking scissors. Spray with vegetable cooking spray and pop in the oven at 375 till lightly toasted. I didn't have orange tortillas on hand but that's what they use at the restaurant.

How To Curl Fabric Ribbon

It all started with those four little words, "I can make that". Yes, I'm one of those people. When I'm out shopping I find myself saying that a lot. It's a blessing and a curse really. A blessing because sometimes I can make the item and forgo buying it. A curse because sometimes I take on way more than I can handle. Take for instance the time I spotted a braided rug at Pottery Barn Kids. I thought, didn't I see an article in Martha Stewart about how to make braided trivets. Didn't it say if one continued with the pattern it would make a rug. Oh, yes I can do that. So I purchased a large quantity of fabric and began the project. The braiding took forever with the fabric. Next the sewing, which was difficult because it required hand sewing with thick fabric. All that effort and I had a rug the size of a coaster. My hands had turned blue from the cheap dye. So needless to say, a month later I gave in and purchased the rug.

So here's where the curled ribbon comes in. I saw some cute hair clips at a child boutique and new I could make them. The hair clips were basically curled ribbon glued to a hair clip. So here I am in 100 degree weather baking ribbon! Directions below.

Supplies:
ribbon - I used grosgrain ribbon
wooden dowels or skewers - I used bamboo skewers(dollar section at Target)
spray bottle (optional)
clothes pins
cookie sheet lined with tinfoil

1. Wind ribbon around skewers. Hold in place with clothes pin. Refer to pictures.

2. Spray ribbon with water until all of it is wet. I recommend spraying the clothes pins with water also so they don't burn in the oven.
* You could get the ribbon wet first and then wrap it around the skewers if you wanted to.

3.Place ribbon on a foil lined cookie sheet and bake at 200 degrees for roughly ten minutes.

4.When ribbon is completely dry take out of oven and let cool. Remove ribbon from dowels.

Transformer Birthday Cake

My Aunt made this awesome cake for my son's birthday party. It was a big hit with everyone. The children were circling it like sharks.

close up of the top of the cake - autobot logo

She made the top of the cake with gum paste

Related Post - Baseball Birthday Cake

Another Game of Tag

Well I guess that old saying is true, "when it rains, it pours".

Julia from "Create With Me" was kind enough to pass an award my way. Thanks Julia!

M. Kate from La Vie Est Belle recently passed this award on to me. Thanks M. Kate!

Anja from Drobtinice nominated me for this award. Thanks Anja!

Here's some facts about me you may or may not know.

1. I spent a month in Mexico with my best friend during my sixth grade year. We went to Mexico so her parents could gather research for their dissertations.
2. I found an arrowhead in Mexico but had to leave it at the site. Sometimes I wish I kept it.
3. I have a phobia of bees.
4. When I was two I decided to walk to the pet store by myself. The babysitter had no idea where I was. The police found me at the drug store.
5. I played the violin for five years but can only remember "twinkle, twinkle little star".

The following sites I'm passing the awards onto.

Mushroomeadows - Adorable illustrations
Honey and Clover - She cooks a lot and takes wonderful photos
La Fuji Mama - Japanese food, crafts, and life
Finding My Knitch - Recipes, life stories and knitting
Hurrayic - Sewing and inspiration
My Byrd House - Sewing, cute aprons!
Macati - Crafts, Sewing, and other fun stuff
Planetjune - cute crochet patterns

There's so many blogs I visit. I wish I had time to list them all.

How to Make a Birthday T-Shirt

Back of T-shirt

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm in the process of planning a Transformer birthday party for my son. So, I decided to make him a special shirt to wear for the day. What I like about this project is you can personalize it anyway you want. My friend Jenny made one for her son to resemble a rugby shirt(which is where I got the idea by the way). It had the child's name on it with his age. Simple directions below to make your own birthday t-shirts using iron-on printer paper.

Supplies:
iron-on t-shirt transfer printer paper (I used the Office Max brand, it cost about $14.00 for a pack of 10 sheets)
*they have special paper for darker shirts

t-shirt (purchased mine at Walmart for $3.00)
scissors
iron

Decide what images you want on your t-shirt. I created the text using Photoshop. Reverse the image then print on the transfer paper (refer to picture above). I recommend fitting as many images as you can on one piece of paper to get the most use out of it.

Next cut out the images and decide where you want them. Iron it on the t-shirt according to the transfer paper's directions.

I put an image on the front and the back of the t-shirt. If you're going to do this, make sure you put a thick padding in the middle of the shirt when you go to iron. Otherwise the heat will distort the image on the front of the shirt.