Let me start this post by saying for my birthday in July I was given a mochi maker. In my mind I pictured myself making amazing mochi, dango, filled mochi treats and all the other amazing mochi based foods. So far we've used it three times, but each time has been an interesting experience. While not what I imagined it's still been pretty good. Also the lack of use isn't because I don't like mochi or what we've had so far it's just a process to get everything prepped. If you want fillings you generally want them done before hand, for the mochi itself there's the washing of the rice, and then soaking it for 6-12 hours (I generally just do this overnight). First time making it was the trial run. I definitely had high expectations of how it was going to be. I was going to make mochi and fill it with red bean paste (all home made of course). The visions of grandeur that filled my head were sadly not the outcome. I had to figure out the machine... well step one steaming the rice was no problem. The pounding I figured was like the steaming (timed by the machine), It wasn't. Pretty sure the mochi got over pounded and ended up being very soft. There is such a thing as mochi being too soft. Also fresh mochi hardens up pretty quick! I had most of the filling finished, but those beans take a lot longer to cook than I was anticipating. I could go in to details, but let's just go with the filling was a disaster...filling was nixed. We ended up enjoying the mochi dipped in soy sauce.
This brings us to experiment 2! Teobokki...I made it the standard way earlier in the summer making Korean rice cakes to put in it (lots of work) and it was pretty good. I figure why not try mochi instead! Made the stew and the mochi plopped the mochi in... as one can expect it wasn't quite what I pictured...the mochi took on the consistency of melty mozzarella cheese. It wasn't bad, but a little hard to eat and I might have been a bit heavy handed with the Korean pepper flake. On the bright side we did discover rolling pieces of fresh mochi in soybean powder mixed with sugar is delicious! Our experiments this time wasn't over yet. Mochi can be left in a cool dry spot for a few days and be fine. This is generally how to prep it for grilling....fairly certain I let it sit just a bit too long...while it properly puffed and cooked up it was to put it nicely tough as a rock.
Now we're onto last night experiment 3! Moonfini was over and we figured we'd make some mochi and attempt dango....I have to say this makes me chuckle just thinking about it. I did some research to find out if fresh mochi could be used for dango or if you HAD to use the rice flour mix. I couldn't find an answer anywhere so I shrugged and said what the heck let's do it. Mochi made! Rolled into balls to toss into boiling water. Water boiling mochi appeared to go as planned! Placed into the ice water to halt the cooking... mochi seemed...sticky and softer than I anticipated. Placed mochi on bamboo skewers (first mistake was made....didn't soak the skewers). Put the skewers on the mesh tray! (second mistake using a mesh tray). Popped them in the toaster oven to cook. Well I'm sure you can imagine what happened... if you guessed the skewers caught on fire you're wrong! Ha! They did get really hot though and seemed to be the only thing toasted. The mochi had puffed a bit, but the real trouble was that it had decided to cook through and around the mesh. It was a bit of a mess to clean up. This has not dissuaded me though from continuing to experiment! We still have some mochi left from last night so today we'll attempt to grill one more time! Hopefully no one breaks a tooth, but it should be interesting either way. 
I have discovered lately that saying you take requests on Deviant Art is a double edged sword and once said it is not easily taken back. It opens a door to a very weird side of the internet as well. Some of the stuff people request even after explicitly stating safe for work is well... surprising. Then you have the list people...they want so and so with so and so and can you somehow work in this person too and this random character sitting on them? By the end of reading it I have no idea what they even asked for. Not to say that I haven't had interesting things to draw too. After my few weeks of opening requests on there I find I already need a small break from the onslaught of randomness. I've already done one request that I had to tell myself it was requested by "a poor cancer ridden child at St. Judes" in order to finish. Was the person actually...no idea and probably not, but the image did help me manage to grit my teeth and see the project through to the end. So I guess the lesson learned is one that many before me have already learned of be careful what you wish for.
Just got books 43 and 44 of Skip Beat! Not sure if there are many Skip Beat fans here, but I have to say it's currently one of my favorites. As outrageous and crazy as Kyoko can be I feel like she's pretty relatable and her mysterious hate powers could have some serious real life advantages. **Warning Spoiler Ahead**
For those of you who might read this and are fairly up to date... How could she think Ren has a thing for the nasty girl who nearly tries to kill Kyoko after she realizes there's no way she can win the role? Kyoko is also a bit too self sacrificing at times while noble she is somewhat dense, but this is why we love her no? I'm always impressed that the author does not shy away from making nasty "villains". I feel though she may pop up in the future as others have in the past to be "fixed" inadvertently by Kyoko. As I've already given away a little bit of main plot I think I'll end on that note.
Real Life Junk-
Today my kiddo is officially a year and a half old. People aren't kidding when they say it goes by fast. Lately we've been cutting nap time to one a day (which is rough in more way than one). This is my first child and he's both amazing and exhausting at the same time. As a first time parent learning to divide my time between him and what I want to do has been a hard lesson. It's a rough balancing act between giving him enough time and myself enough time to keep my sanity. I chose to be a stay at home mom after careful consideration. Before this I worked 12 hour shifts in an ER as a registration person. I was around a lot of chaos and crazy. I worried about bringing home germs and nastiness to a brand new baby. The change from that to being at home full time has not been easy. It's still crazy, but definitely a different brand and I feel I'm not as good at coping with it as I wish I was. It's weird that I was more comfortable dealing with strung out meth heads and people bleeding profusely from random injuries than I am sometimes with a tantruming one year old. I feel like I've learned a lot about myself over the last year and a half both good and bad. Other things I've learned...even if your cell phone is locked it is not safe to leave with your child! Also screen lock apps can help to alleviate this problem a little bit. Anyone else have their child call the police using the In Case of Emergency number button on their lock screen? After the second time of me explaining to a very nice lady that no one was dying or in trouble and that my one year old merely stole my phone we installed a lock screen app on my phone that doesn't have said button. Now he just goes through and changes all my settings. Are kids programmed now in the womb to come out knowing how to use smart phones?
Art Projects-
I have a few things that I'm currently working on at the moment. I had a request on my deviant art page to do a Mako-chan picture of her in her gi beating someone's OC. Seems like a fun little request and so far it's going pretty well. I have a friend that is working on making a game and has asked me to do some concept art for one of his characters. The setting is steam punk victorian and the character is a magician. This one I'm really looking forward to...the character is really easy to visualize in my mind I just hope I can translate it to paper as well as I see it in my head. I have another request waiting in the wings for some Princess Peach fanart. Once they're finished if I feel they're worthy (I hope they are D:) I'll try and post them here.
Ok! Well that's the end of my blah, blah, blah for the moment. Until next time!
