Teri-Q Salmon Bento & Giveaway

As some of you know, I’m a born and raised Hilo girl. When I first moved my doe-eyed innocent butt to Honolulu in 1997 to begin college at UH Manoa, my Aunty Joy took me under her motherly wings and helped me adjust to life away from home. She got me pepperspray, made me a freaking crazy looking club with which I was instructed to use to beat the crap out of anyone who approached me in the dark, and drove me to Kunia Walmart to buy all those dorm things like shower caddies and soap and sheets and stuff.

I was welcome to sleep at her house on the weekends to feel at home, but eventually I met Mr. Pikko and I distanced myself to fall in love with my super senior hunk. Throughout the years, she’s always been supportive of me and the things I’ve gone through. She’s the kind of aunty that you want to tell good news to because she’s got that massively enthusiastic positive outburst that makes your good news suddenly feel like fantabulous news. On rare occasions over the last 13 years, I’d end up at her house and usually I’d leave with a bottle of her famous teriyaki sauce, packed in a recycled mayo jar with layers of plastic wrap at the top, ensuring that you’d pop at least three blood vessels trying to open the precious stuff.

Fast forward to today and Aunty Joy is now starting up her own company of the sauce called Taste of Joy. Since she’s given me free jars of sauce in the past, I felt it was time to give back to her a little by blogging a little more in-depth about her product. The sauce is called Teri-Q and can currently be purchased at craft fairs for $5 per bottle. I recently stopped by at the Manana Elementary Craft Fair to buy two bottles, one for myself and one to give away.

The bento above is one that I packed for Mr. Pikko in my bento box from Eco Lunchboxes, my new advertiser. Get 15% off your purchase at Eco Lunchboxes for the entire month of May using the coupon code “greenbento”. It contains some Teri-Q Salmon, which is made from a recipe included in a little recipe book attached to the bottle. I don’t think the salmon is supposed to look that dark brown, but that’s just me being a disaster in the kitchen. Despite an ever so slight burned taste, it still tasted awesome. I pan fried it according to her instructions, but I think next time I’ll try using it with Grandma J’s Teriyaki Salmon recipe. I am a huge fan of salmon cooked with mayo and doing that with Teri-Q will just be more epic.

After I burnt the salmon, I cooked some asparagus as fat as my thumbs (from Costco) in the remaining sauce. That turned out yummy! Unfortunately, the heat cooked it down a little too much, which is why it’s pretty wilted in the bento.

Aunty Joy’s little recipe book has seven recipes and general tips for using the sauce. To win my extra bottle of Teri-Q, post a comment here and tell me who your favorite aunty is. Of course, I’m lucky to have more than one awesome aunty, cause you all know how great Aunty C is too!

I’ll draw a random winner on Saturday. Good luck!

I packed a quick charaben for myself that I made in 15 minutes. I have a lot of these rolls leftover from making Maki’s recipe for dinner last week. A pack of four chicken breasts ended up netting me 12 rolls, which is a LOT of bento food! I cut it in half and tucked it in with onigiri, a ham and cheese tabby, broccoli, strawberries, and a tomato wedge. The lettuce garnish is from the yard.

I’ve been slacking on my Docubentory, so here’s Box #22. My collection on Flickr is a bit more updated now for people curious. It’s really highlighted to me which boxes I’ve been sorely neglecting and need to use.

The kids have been doing a lot of things lately that I need to document somehow because I know when they’re older and I’m trying to scream hysterically into their heads why they can’t elope at 18 or have their own motorcycle at 15, I’m going to wish for days like these when fist-sized holes get cut into my bedsheets or my son gets his nails painted hot pink by a sister maddened by the fact that she only has ten fingers and ten toes to paint.

I had consented to her painting my toenails until I began to feel the cool airy nail polish feeling on my flesh, at which point I told her it was over. I’m now walking around like an idiot with only one foot painted.

They’re freakishly obsessed with playing Cooking Mama 3 right now and a few weeks back I finally figured out that the puffy cloud means you have to blow into the mic. The kids have a hard time with this, so when me and Mr. Pikko saw Baby Girl holding the DS up to the A/C unit, we almost died right there. Yesterday, I come out into the living room to find a frilly yellow umbrella unfurled and stuck between couch cushions. Buddy was lying underneath it playing Cooking Mama. He needed the umbrella because it was raining (outside).

Anyway, thanks for being my kid story guinea pigs!