Pipi Kaula & Onigiri Picnic Bento

Today we were going to take the kids to the pool nearby here, but when Mr. Pikko went to check out how crowded it was, he found out that it was actually closed. Bummer! We made alternate plans to go to another pool and I ended up staying home with Buddy to finish making the food while Baby Girl and Daddy went swimming. We were going to eat chili and hotdogs so I wasn’t really intending to make so much food, but as usual with picnic bentos, I got carried away. We at these at my sis-in-law’s house and then the kids got to swim in a wading pool in addition to the big pool earlier. It was a nice, fun, sunny day!

It’s funny how food can take you back in time. I filled these up with shoyu tuna, which I haven’t eaten in a VERY long time, like maybe 12 years or something nuts like that. But anyway, even though it’s been around that long, as soon as I ate some I could remember myself sitting at our table back at home reading Archies while eating some plain ole shoyu tuna with rice. The recipe is very easy. You basically drain a can of tuna and then add two tablespoons of sugar and two tablespoons of soy sauce. (I used Lower Salt Aloha Shoyu) Mix it in a small pot and heat and you’re done. The first two balls I made leaked juices when I squeezed the upper mold down so I squeezed the tuna before putting it in for all the others and that solved my problem.

The nori faces kinda drove me nuts cause the sheets I had kept ripping when I punched it. Either that or the eyes and mouth wouldn’t completely cut. Plus I had to figure out a way to make 16 faces out of 3 punches.

I dug out my frozen spam musubis from the zoo bento before and reheated them. I thought they tasted fine but Mr. Pikko flipped out that I’d give people old musubis from “three weeks ago” when really it was only from last Sunday and I froze them immediately after making them. Next to that is some pan charred pipi kaula (pronounced peepee cow-lah) that my mom and grandma were so nice to give me while I was in Hilo. It’s basically smoked beef and tastes so awesome when fried or microwaved. They used to come in big slabs but then some genius at Frank Foods must have been wrestling with his pipi kaula and knife when the incredible idea of pre-sliced pipi kaula came to him. Or her. Whoever it was, you’re the awesome!

I weighed 128.9 this morning but am now 132.1, so tomorrow will be a light lunch with soup!