New Years Day is coming – I’m resting up for two full days of cooking. A big part of my Japanese New Years party is mochi. Mochi is a traditional Japanese rice cake – it can be sweet – but on New Year’s it’s plain, eaten with kinako or soy sauce+sugar.

In the old days my family used to pound mochi by hand with mallets. THAT’s old skool. Me? I use the new electric plugged in machine with very minimal work on my part because I live in the future.

I recently went to thefoodlibrarian’s house where they used old school machines to make their mochi. They’ve been doing it for 40 years and they’ve got the process down – steaming the rice, extruding the mochi, cooling the mochi, forming the mochi, letting it sit in a bed of mochiko flour, and then finally packaging it. We made over 250 pounds of mochi. Unbelievable.

It was a lot of work but so worth it. There’s nothing as good as fresh mochi!

Who can resist a tree made of chocolate? Buche de Noel do not have to be complicated. You can make a simple one with whipped cream rather quickly – and everyone will think you spent hours doing it!

Filling ingredients:
2 cups heavy cream
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup Valrhona cocoa powder
1/2 Tablespoon espresso powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cake ingredients:
6 egg yolks
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup Valrhona cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
6 egg whites
1/4 cup white sugar
powdered sugar for dusting

Make the filling first. In a large bowl, whip cream, powdered sugar, cocoa powder, espresso powder and vanilla. Start slow, then whip up good. This happens quickly, so watch it! Keep it in the fridge while you move on to the cake.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prep a 10×15 inch jellyroll pan with parchment, lightly buttered.

In a mixing bowl, beat the egg yolks with 1/2 cup sugar. Carefully add the cocoa, vanilla, and salt.

In the bowl of an electric mixer whip egg whites to soft peaks. Slowly add the 1/4 cup of sugar, and beat until whites form stiff peaks. Go nuts! You want peaks baby, peaks!

Quickly fold the cocoa mixture into the whites.

Pour the batter into the jelly roll pan – using a spatula to even it all out.

Bake for 12 to 15 mins depending on your oven. Now, get a CLEAN dishtowel and dust it with powdered sugar. Turn the warm cake onto the towel. Peel back the parchment paper.

Now, roll the cake up with the towel. What you are doing is trying to form the rolled shape. Let cool in the rolled up towel for 20- 30 minutes.

Set aside about 1/3 of the filling mixture to frost the outside of the cake. Carefully unroll the cake, and spread the other 2/3 of the filling on top – keep to 1 inch of the edge of the cake. This is to prevent the ooze factor. Now roll the cake up again. Quite obviously NOT with the towel.

If you REALLY want it to look like a log, cut off about 3″ off the end of the cake – at an angle. Place that piece along the side of the log. What you are doing is trying to mimic a branch. Don’t ask why. Why are you eating a cake in the shape of a log in the first place, you know? Don’t ask.

Place seam side down onto a serving plate. Frost with the remaining frosting. You can make cute woodsy patterns if you like. Decorate with berries, or meringues and just refrigerate until you are ready to serve. Dust with powdered sugar before you serve it to look like a little snowy scene. This is an impressive dessert that takes very little time!

Just take the original recipe and make it CHRISTMAS-Y!

ingredients:
2 small boxes strawberry jello
2 small boxes lime jello
1 can sweetened condensed milk (Like Eagle or something, got it?)
2 envelopes unflavored gelatin
water

In a bowl, dissolve the strawberry boxes of jello into two cups of hot water. Pour into a flat tupperware. In a separate bowl, dissolve the lime jello into two cups of hot water. Pour into a flat tupperware. Chill the two containers overnight.

Ready a 9×13 pan. Cut the two jello flavors into small blocks. Mix together carefully in pan.

In a separate bowl, dissolve 2 envelopes unflavored gelatin in 1/4 cup cold water. Add dissolved gelatin to 1 3/4 cup hot water and condensed milk. Cool.

Pour cooled milk mixture over jello and chill overnight.

These colors look so nice for the holidays, you’ll have a festive christmas dessert table!

The kids wanted to decorate gingerbread. So I made up some dough and got out my GIANT 10″ gingerboy cookie cutter, which makes a pretty nice sized cookie. Lots of surface area for decorating!

I made up some royal icing and let the kids have at it.

The Baby went wild with the candies and was more interested in eating them than actually decorating.

I made up some Batman faces to stick on top of them, the idea was to totally Batman-them out in black and yellow, but I saw how much fun the kids were having just going whole hog with the candies, so I got caught up in the fun. They turned out not so much Batman – more like creepy Candyland. Still they were delish, then again, cover anything head to toe in candy and you can’t go wrong.

I just realized that this tutorial is lame since I forgot to take pictures of the process. See how rusty I am with a week off? Pathetic.

To do lettering in fondant, simply print out the wording you want in a font you want to emulate, on the computer. Take an x-acto knife and cut out the letters to make a template.

Then – much like the Batman how-to – place the template over your fondant and carefully cut out the letters.

Placing the letters on a circle of fondant makes them stand out and tops cupcakes really well!

Well, the vacation didn’t quite go…as planned. Four out of five days I was lying in bed sick as a dog, never even left the hotel – only to end up in the hospital. Only after an EKG, chest xray, blood work and an IV of fluids – was I finally was able to stand up again…just in time to get on a plane home. Can I get a break up in here?? Ugh.

Now I am home, back to cooking three meals a deal and trying to stay alive til Christmas. Bah humbug.

But who cares, right? Who won is all that matters and according to the random integer generator the winner is…

102…Sandra Dee!

Congrats and thanks to everyone for participating AND reading!!

Ok, I’m posting this a bit early, but next week, I’m going on vacation with O.G. It will be like the Amazing Race with no running and all the yelling. FAN…tastic.

So I’m having a big giveaway of…BENTO SUPPLIES!! If you don’t have a bento supply store in your hometown or you’re just too lazy to go to the store, then this is the prize package for you. I hand picked all this cool stuff just for you!

First up: Shapers.

You know about the egg shaper, but there is also a rice shaper because who doesn’t need a rice ball in the shape of a bear’s head…or a child head. Whatever, Japan. And – turn your boring square sandwiches into fun animal shapes. (That shaper is the easiest to use of all, just press down on your sandwich!)

Next: Picks.

Oh how I love picks. They are so cute and it eliminates the need for a fork.I have an assortment of animals and also FLAG picks. Whee!

What else do you get? Chopsticks

These fun chops are cool – even for adults – if you don’t feel steady with the chopsticks. Just put them on and instantly you can start shoveling the food into your mouth. Also – are you laying your chopsticks on the table when they’re not in use, like a common peasant???? One – don’t. That’s rude. Secondly, wouldn’t you rather rest them on a chillaxin’ rabbit? (Seriously, I don’t know who thinks of these designs.)

Food Separators. What.

God forbid your food touch other unlike-foods, so here are little plastic food separators. They are as thin as paper – cute animal ones and yes, the old sushi standby…grass. (These packs should last you a lifetime.)

Finally the weirdest yet cutest of all – Sauce Bottles.

These things are so freakin’ small they even include an eyedropper to get the sauce in there. Ok, I don’t need sauce that badly that I need to use an eyedropper full, but whatever. You can’t deny that the bottle tops on these suckers are BEYOND cute.

And that’s it. Alllll of those things can be yours!! From now through Friday December 18, leave a comment on this post. Just say hi, tell me your favorite recipe, favorite food – doesn’t matter. That’s it! Winner will be announced Sunday December 20. Hopefully I will return from a week with O.G….sane. Thanks and good luck!

WHEE! The Kid’s chocolate allergy has magically disappeared so I’m all excited and want him to go for it Augustus Gloop-style. No dice. The Kid is way too cautious. He wants to eat at tiny bit just to make sure he’s ok. He’s no glutton like me. So I made these up to test the waters (leaving out the espresso, of course.)

ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup Valrhona cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon espresso powder
pinch of salt
2 eggs
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

In a bowl, whisk together the cocoa powder, baking powder, espresso powder and salt. Set aside

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Carefully add the pre-whisked dry ingredients until combined.

Add the eggs one at a time. Then slowly and carefully add the flour – don’t overmix! Add the chocolate chips – you can do this by hand if you like.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill for 20 minutes or so.

When you’re ready to go for it, preheat oven to 375 degrees. Divide the dough into two rounds, taking each one and rolling it onto your prepped sheet in a long skinny log, flattening it out JUST a touch. Yes it looks nasty, don’t mind that. Place logs a few inches apart on a silpat or parchment lined cookie sheet.

Bake for 20 to 23 minutes, just until a toothpick comes out clean. Let it sit on the cookie sheet for just a bit, then let the logs cool on a wire rack.

Now’s when you cut it. Don’t be freaked out – if all goes well this should be easy…if not, don’t blame me.

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Using a good serated knife, cut the loaf on the diagonal – making about 1/2″ slices. Now….Place the slices on a lined cookie sheet, and bake only for about 8 minutes. Turn cookies over, and bake for 7 minutes. Yes this step is necessary, just do it. It’s worth it.

Let cool and they are ready to eat!

In Kindergarten they were writing about what they will be doing over Christmas. Here’s what the Kid wrote:

“My mom and I are going to bake cakes for Satan.”

Yikes. Those would be the most evil cakes ever. Poor Santa.

The Kid loves to bake with me and this weekend he asked for something specific – his favorite Mini French Breakfast Muffins. They are really easy to make and a perfect one bowl recipe, so the Kid knows that he can do all the steps himself.

They were so delicious I took a batch of them to eat and give out to friends as I sold stuff at a craft show. It’s the cinnamon and sugar that keep you wanting more, I tell ya. Later the Kid asked where his muffins were….um. Guess we’ll be making more soon.

Mini French Breakfast Muffins