My Japanese Cooking Adventures and Other Stories

The Spring 2009 Tokidoki Shoes

erinachan — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 14:40:42 +0000

So I was on the tokidoki blog yesterday and I came across the new shoes for the Onitsuka and Tokidoki collaboration. I wanted to the get the sneakers from the first collection sooooo bad but they a hundred and fifty bucks and in limited quantity which is sad now because on ebay they are now over 200 and never in my gigantic clown rivaling shoe size. =( But these new ones im so in love with! dont think Ive ever seen Onitsuka ballet flats let alone tokidoki ones and the sneakers look a lot like skate shoes this time around. I wish there were a few more characters displayed on the outside but definitly still adorable! Just have to work on the price now. Still close to $150. Ouch…

I Met Another Erina Last Night!

erinachan — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 15:10:23 +0000

So I was on etsy last night checking stuff out and on the front page someone had made a treasury and there was this AMAZING cape I saw on there, I’m checking it out and I see the designer’s name is Erina Wang, I was soo excited! I checked out her shop and everything in there was so cute and she even had a dress called the Erina dress! I’ve NEVER met another person with my name before. I really was way too excited but I ended up writing her a note on etsy telling her her shop was beautiful and we had the same name and congrats on making the front page and she actually wrote back so sweetly saying thanks and offering me a discount when i can get something at her store. I love when people are that nice, it makes me happy!

My Newest Creation! Sorta… And I Got Featured!!

erinachan — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 17:53:18 +0000

So first of all, so exciting! this awesome seller on etsy offered to feature Teahouse Confections on her blog so everyone should go check it out since it looks like a cool blog anyway! http://monasmane.blogspot.com/

Also at my shop I already sell a basic Kasutera which is a Japanese sponge cake but now I figured it was time to try some other flavors so this time I took a stab and chocolate kasutera with cocoa powder. It turned out sooo good! Like dangerously good, like Im going to have give it away to get it out of the house good! In all actuality kasutera is a huge pain to make just because you literally have to spend a half an hour using a hand mixer just to get the right consistency but its all worth it once its done. it ends up so light and fluffy but its differen than angel food cake, it really is totally unique. Behold my latest success!! =D

A Tokidoki Christmas…

erinachan — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 15:01:14 +0000

So I started this little project back in August. I figured this will be my first real Christmas on my own out of my parents house and I wanted it to feel like Christmas but ornaments are so freakin’ expensive and really cheap looking especially the ones I wanted like Invader Zim and Nightmare Before Christmas. So I decided to take matters into my own hands to save money and start making my own ornaments! I have a huge obsession with the brand tokidoki. I mean really I have clothes, purses, toys, pictures, screensavers seriosuly there is a lot of tokidoki in my home. So i thought me and my fiance will just have a tokidoki themed Christmas with the stockings and the ornaments being tokidoki characters! So here are my ornaments so far I know I need to make A LOT more and they aren’t perfect but at least when we put them up on the tree Ill feel good knowing made our Christmas what I wanted it to be! =D

I fixed it, I fixed it!!! Woot!

erinachan — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 16:26:48 +0000

So my failed strawberry biscuit recipe went from the failed experiment category to the success category! yay! It only took 4 tries to get it there. This last time I swore if it didn’t work I would give up on it but this time they had a mild strawberry flavor and after I cooled them, they were awesome! ugh Im so happy it worked, I spent so much money experimenting on this one…

Failed Experiments #3 and 4…

erinachan — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 22:46:04 +0000

*sigh* I tried making a kabocha cake and an asian pear calufoutis last night, but alas it was not meant to be… Well really with the kabocha cake I was just really dumb and threw a bunch of stuff in there that really had no purpose being in there like cheap beer and sesame oil. It looked ok coming out of the oven but it definitly had a unique scent. I figured Id cool it overnight before I’d take pictures. So this morning I woke up took it out, it still looked fine but the smell was even stronger, I cut a piece to set up for pictures and I figured Id best try it in case I was wasting my time. OMG it was the worst thing in the history of the world! I can’t even explain how bad it was! Needless to say 2 seconds later the cake landed in the bottom of my trashcan..

As for the calufoutis, it turned out really well! I personally thought it was awesome, I had my fiance try it though but he wasnt too much of a fan but I can’t trust his opinion because he says asian pears taste like “retarded apples” I totally would have used this one for my shop the only thing was no matter how hard I tried, I just could not get a good picture! And as sad as it is, no matter how good it tastes, if I can’t make it look pretty, I can’t sell it. =(

Kabocha Cookies!!

erinachan — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 22:43:28 +0000

Last night I finally got up the nerve to fully cut through a kabocha squash (Well at least with the help of my fiance who in all reality cut through the squash for me but only in half and I cut the rest!). There have been attempts before but this was the first time I successfully cut through one! So as the reward for my hard work and
determination on getting that sucker open, my first stab at making kabocha cookies turned out awesome! Like really out of all my recipes so far, I would say the kabocha cookies are my favorite!! they came out so soft and the nutmeg and cinnamon just made it feel like fall, I got all giddy having one cause it made it feel like Christmas is on the way! Is that weird? I imagine it is…

The Agony and The Ecstasy… Failed Experiment # 2 Plus a Success!!!

erinachan — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 22:39:34 +0000

So yesterday I was attempting a new recipe and I really wanted to make black sesame cookies for my store. The first one I tried was a total disaster! I tried making a super slightly sweet cookies with very little sugar and no binder except for olive oil. Well it sort worked I was hoping once they were baked and cooled, they would bind together but alas I waited till they were completely cooled but they still completely fell apart no matter what I did =( The taste really wasn’t too bad
though, maybe too much salt perhaps but not bad! So I had to scrap the first idea and went with a more traditional type of cookie! I went for more of a shortbread type cookie but still with minimal sugar and grinded up some of the black sesame seeds to give a little more of the taste as well as keeping whole ones. This 2nd recipe came out awesome! They were rich and buttery and best of all they stayed together even in the half sphere shape! I was afriad I was just going to have to post another failed experiment but at least it was a total disaster. Yay!

Odin, the Grumpiest Dog In the Universe…

erinachan — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 22:35:47 +0000

This is my dog Odin, and this is what he looks like every morning and basically all day unless he’s outside on a walk or chasing a laser pointer. You try to pet him in the morning he won’t have it! He’ll give you the most evil death glare you have ever seen. It’s really kind of funny actually, it just makes it all the more fun to mess with him. =D

Failed Experiments Part 1…

erinachan — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 22:28:21 +0000

So yesterday I was trying to come up with new flavors of my homemade pocky. The chocolate ones do well, Ive gotten a few sales on them and everybody who tries them really like them. So I figured lets take these biscuit sticks to the next level!! Behold one of my many failed experiements but the first one I’ve actually published. Strawberry Pocky! They may look alright but trust its like taking a big bite out of your lip balm! I used this strawberry flavoring oil which said on the package highly concentrated so I figured since I put in half a bag of white chocolate in the double boiler half a teaspoon would be a good starting point and I would build up the flavor as I go. Well I guess when they said highly concentrated they weren’t kidding. I almost chocked it was so strong so I put in the entire bag of white chocolate to mellow it out a little which it did but the end result was a nice crunchy strawberry flavored lipsmacker…bleh..