Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Recipe: Kabocha Squash Soup

Yesterday I was watching repeat of TV show “Seinfeld” with my husband. And they are showing the episode of “Soup Nazi”. One of the best episode of Seinfeld!(You can see the short clip of it here)
Seinfeld “Soup Nazi” Clip

That was so funny and made me wanna eat a bowl of nice soupペロリ
And I found a Squash in our fridge.
The squash I used for this recipe is called “Kabocha”.
You can see the image of Kabocha squash here.
(http://www.recipetips.com/glossary-term/t--35847/kabocha-squash.asp)
In Japan, we eat this Kabocha squash for fall/winter season. It's sweet kind of squash.
Here’s how I made the Kabocha squash soup. You can make this soup in 20-30min.

Ingredients:
-kabocha squash 1/4
-milk 1 cup
-onion 1/4
-celery 1 stick
-butter 1 table spoon
-chicken flavor bouillon 1/2 teaspoon
-salt, pepper, sugar a little
-bay leaf 1

1.Cut the squash and scoop seeds out by spoon.
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2.Wrap the 1/4 of squash by plastic food wrap and microwave it between 5-8 min. Duration will be depends on your microwave and how thick the squash is.
Poke a tooth pick to check how soft it gets.
If the tooth pick goes through the squash easily, it’s cooked perfectly!

3.While you are microwaving the squash, start to chop 1/4 of onion and 1 stick of celery.
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4. Put 1 table spoon of butter in the pod and start the heat.
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Once butter starts to be melt, you can put chopped onion & celery.

5.When the squash is cooked, scoop the orange part from it’s skin.
You can put it’s skin into the soup if you like, but the color of the soup would be yellowish green. Probably it’s healthier to put the skin into the soup nutrition wise…but soup looks better without the skin to my eyes...
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6.Put the squash into the pod, then add 1 cup of milk.
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7.Add 1/2 of chicken flavor bouillon, bay leaf, and a little bit of salt, pepper, and sugar.
Check the taste and if you need more spice, add some more.

8. Pick the bay leaf out from the pod and put whole soup into the food processor, or juicer to puree. You can eat without pureeing it. I just prefer to have a smoother texture soup. 
THAT’S IT!!!!!
Now ready to eat it!
Today I also made some dinner rolls.
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BON APPETIT!!!!
(As the garnish, I add some cream and parsley on top of the soup)
Even though I didn’t buy a soup from the Soup Nazi, my tongue and stomach was so satisfied with this soupペロリ

Thursday, September 22, 2011

New products on my Etsy shop

Today I am so happy that I could spend several hours to make new products for my Etsy shop!
Here's the new products!

 Needle Felted An Orange Flower Brooch

 Needle Felted Brooch A Blue Flower


 Needle Felted Brooch A Lavender color Flower
All of those flowers are made of 100% wool.
They are soft yet solid and give you warm, cozy feeling.
It fits the fall / winter season for sure :)

Besides, those flower brooches, I also made a brooch for upcoming fun event; Halloween!!!!!
I love Halloween! It is one of my favorite event!!!
And here's the finishing product.

Needle Felted Brooch Jack-O-Lantern

I am going to make more Halloween related jewelry / accessories to celebrate it.
If you are one of the Halloween lover, please stay in tune on this blog ;)

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Needle Felted Brooch: Skeleton

Wow, it's already September!!!!!
I was quite busy past few months and there's no time & energy for writing my blog nor adding new stuff on Etsy.
Finally today I add a new product of mine on my Etsy shop! Hooray!

Needle Felted Brooch:Skeleton
Actually I originally made this for celebrating the opening of "Pirates of Caribbean" 4.(http://hirokohandmade.blogspot.com/2011/05/pirates-of-caribbean-is-back.html)
I tried to finish this as a brooch and wear it for the movie, however I didn't have enough time to finish it.
In the end, I've never wore it and it stayed in my unfinished project box.

Now I realize that it is good time to finish it because HALLOWEEN IS COMING!!!!!!
And here it is! The finishing product of skeleton brooch!!!!

You can put it on your scarf, or


You can put it on your cool hat. Wherever you like :)

I am going to switch my gear from "Summer vacation mode" to "Going back to my regular life".
That means more handmade stuff are coming up here and my Etsy shop!!!! (I hope...)