Yum-O-Rama Connects: Now on Facebook!

There are more ways to connect with Yum-O-Rama - I've created a page for this blog on Facebook.

Alternatively, you can follow me on twitter, share with me / view my shared links in google reader, or view my photos on flickr!

I started Yum-O-Rama: Where I Live to Eat! (officially) in January of this year. Previously, there were strains of YOR in my former blogs - Who knew that after six months I'd still be here, with all of you, with this undying appetite for food?

Thank you all for following me and continuously making my day! I am always ready to receive constructive criticism, although all I've received so far (and am VERY appreciative of!) are positive comments and feedback. To you, my friends, new and old, online and offline - THANK YOU! May you all have fantastic months and delicious food experiences. :)

Thanks a million!

Plushie Sushi Bentos

Aside from loving and making food, I also knit. And am learning my basics with crochet.

Here's some softies / plushies I made for my boss' daughter. I got the idea when the boss' wife was talking about having a hard time finding some sushi / sashimi play toys for her daughter. When she brought that up, in pops that image of the amigurumi and knit sushi toys I'd seen on knitty.com and (the now defunct) magknits. And so after much procrastinating, a lot of trial and error, and some learning on the go, I give you the following two sushi bentos - they made me crave sushi while I made them!



The two completed sushi bentos above!

Below is my favourite of the two. Some of these were just trial and error, and playing around with little balls of yarn that I had in my stash. Clockwise from the bottom left hand corner, the items (supposedly) are:

- inari (like the confetti-coloured "rice"? ...the boy thought it looked like a dumpling. Meh.)
- tuna sushi
- tamago (egg) sushi w/ a band of nori encircling it
- ebi (shrimp) sushi (in the grey area between "fun to make" and "I can't believe I started this".)
- inside out rolls (definately in the "geez. did I *have* to commit to making rolls?" category)
- pickled ginger "flower"
- small ball of wasabi
- a baby cupcake! This was a lot of fun to make. I wished I had more time to complete it, and to embroider it with some seed bead "sprinkles".
- veggie sunomono, complete with baby "heirloom" carrot and two slices of cucumber





Above is the first bento box I worked on. Although I liked working on this, I almost gave up and wanted to gift the littler girl just one box, because I ran out of ideas on items to make! Clockwise from the bottom left hand corner:

- a baby cupcake! (see above) I really enjoyed the amigurumi items in this project as opposed to the knit items, although I am more familiar with knitting, the circular crochet methods made for near-instant gratification.
- lettuce leaf, topped with a gyoza (both were similar circular "doily" items, the gyoza was just worked a couple round less, with HDCs on the outer hem, as opposed to the TC stitches on the lettuce leaf)
- four mini rolls
- ebi sushi
- tuna sushi
- tamago sushi
- small ball of wasabi
- pickled ginger "flower"

For the entire Flickr photoset, click here.

Next "cooking" projects, will be the big Christmas feast. The bf has been working on stuffing some turkey wings with sticky rice - we had some of the stuffing for dinner last night and it was so good!

Merry Christmas everyone! Hold your loved ones close. I know I will.

My life in photos.

Originally, I was going to have a separate post for the past couple days. There were posts with recipes, photos with days and strolls in Stanley park, downtown, and days of food and beverage, car selling, and a haunting walk through TMs old building.

Life has been...interesting. There have been ups: we take possession this weekend, TMs apartment was, for the most part, spared. Jerry Graduated! I am so proud of my friends and family for all they are doing and achieving. But there are the bads too: Ewas mother passed away on Monday, finally succumbing to breast cancer complications. G, one of the most vibrant and brilliant people ever, didn't get into med school. I haven't seen some of my friends in the longest time, due to time and money constraints.

It's been a little overwhelming. The posts will come later, I swear.

For now, here's the past couple of days:

We went back to the apartment on Monday. The damage to the upper levels was pretty scary and horrific. The fixtures were melted, the carpets had been removed in the entire building, there was a lot of smoke, fire, and water damage.

The makings of Banh Mi - that delectable, addictive Vietnamese sandwich. Mmmm.

Strawberry Kuchen - my first try at a strawberry tart. Originally, I had visions of incorporating mango into this, but ran out of time...and mangoes. ;)

Finally, after all that cooking, I enjoyed it at the beach! We relaly needed that day of relaxing and just forgeting about everything house & apartment related.