Popin' Cookin' Bento Box: The New Kit!

Those of you who have seen most of my candy reviews, have probably seen the old Popin' Cookin'  Bento Box video. Kracie recently came out with a new Popin' Cookin' Bento Box Kit that is slightly different than the previous kit. Gone are the famous Popin' Cookin' sprinkles and in comes:  Karaage! These are Japanese fried chicken pieces that are commonly seen in traditional bento box sets.

Here is the box for the new set.

                                                                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                                                                     
Here is the old kit.

                                                                                                                                                                      
Today, we will be reviewing the new and "improved" Popin' Cookin' Bento Box!

The bento box set probably contains the largest number of packets of mystery powder. This kit contains seven!

                                                                                                                                                                       
This does take a little bit of time to put together because there are seven different components to make: rice panda, rice triangle, squid-shaped hot dog, noodles, egg, and broccoli.

Here are some images of the finished product.

                                                                                                                                                                      
As with most Popin' Cookin' kits, the results are surprisingly realistic!  The Karaage really looks like fried chicken nuggets! Kracie magically knows how to visually mimic the real foods in candy form!                                                                                                                                                                                        
However, the downside of most Popin' Cookin' kits is that the taste is quite terrible. The rice is spongy and wet with an artificial bubblegum grape flavor. The Karaage has a similar texture. The broccoli and egg have a citrus flavor with a broken-down jello texture.  The noodles and squid were the worst of all.  Chrissy best described the squid as tasting like "mealy jello". The noodles are horrifically pasty.

Do not buy Popin' Cookin' if you are looking for tasty candy! Buy Popin' Cookin' because you want to make an unusual candy that yields aesthetically fantastic results and is satisfyingly interactive!  I highly recommend this kit for this reason!

Remember, Popin' Cookin' is: Fun to make! Not fun to Eat!        

Watch the video here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8ar98k_kXY                

Australian Candy Review Part 2

Yes! We have more Australian Candy! Shane's generous candy donation is much appreciated! :-) He recently traveled to Australia on a business trip and picked up many candies to review. So here is Part 2 of our Australian Candy Adventure!

We reviewed five different candies.

The first is Crystallized Hot Ginger by Buderim.

If you like ginger, this is the candy for you! As the package describes, it doesn't get any more genuine than this! This is sugared ginger. Not merely candy with some ginger flavoring added. This is the real deal. The candy has a nice sugar outer coating with a slight crunch. You can see the fibers from the ginger stem as you bite into it. It has a nice spicy bite as ginger should have. I definitely recommend this!

Candy #2 is Pascall's Pineapple Lumps.

Sadly, the name is just as unappealing as the candy itself! :-(  I'm not really sure why the manufacturers call this "Lumps". It isn't lumpy in texture at all. The candy consists of two small marshmallow bars coated in milk chocolate. The chocolate outer coating is decent enough. The sickly sweet, artificial tasting interior was pretty dreadful! It actually contains real pineapple concentrate, surprisingly. I don't taste it at all. This candy is, as expected, rated "thumbs down".




                                               


Candy #3 is Fry's Orange Cream.

The description on the packaging is: "Rich Dark Chocolate with a Smooth Fondant Center".
The dark chocolate was decent, but again like the previous candy, the interior filling was horrendous! The interior was a pasty sugar with orange flavoring. "Smooth" center? Not in the least! Sugary, pasty and chunky! Yuck! Don't get me wrong. I love the combination of orange and chocolate. Fry's didn't do this duo justice. Thumbs Down!

Candy #4 is Eucalyptus Aussie Drops.

I have to admit, I had my reservations about trying this candy. I didn't have high hopes for Eucalyptus flavored candy. I was surprisingly mistaken! This was a hard candy with a slight menthol flavor. This was similar to Halls without the bite and medicine-like taste. I thought this would be a cough drop, but the flavor is too mild to be considered a cough drop. The mild flavoring works and is certainly there and recognizable. I'm not a big hard candy consumer, however, I recommend this, especially if you like hard candy.

                                                                                                                                                                       
Candy #5 is Rocklea Road.

I love rocky road and this did not disappoint! This was by far the best from this grouping of candy! The dark chocolate was nice and smooth. I especially liked the combination of large chunks and fine pieces of peanut.  This gave a nice contrast in texture throughout the bar with a  nicely infused the peanut flavor. The large pillowy marshmallow pieces, with the crunch of the peanuts and  the smooth dark chocolate made for an excellent candy bar! And it's HUGE by the way! 12" x 2.5"! High two thumbs up for this candy!

If you would like to watch the video review and bonus footage of me riding a miniature train, check out the link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ttbo1Zu_fo&list=UUAF7DMTeAnZOZvikNygerOA&index=1&feature=plcp


                                                                                                                                                           

Little Bunny Foo Foo in Felt

Are any of you familiar with the song/childhood tale of Little Bunny Foo Foo?  It's a little dark, a little funny, and it involves cute animals, so it's no wonder that I like this story! I have to say thank you to my best friend, Keyanna, for introducing me to Little Bunny Foo Foo in high school! Here is the full song for those of you who don't know about it:

Little Bunny Foo Foo hopping through the forest, scooping up the field mice and bopping them on the head!
Down came the forest fairy and she said, "Little Bunny Foo Foo, I don't want to see you scooping up the field mice and bopping them on the head! I will give you three more chances or I will turn you into a Goon!"

Little Bunny Foo Foo hopping through the forest, scooping up the field mice and bopping them on the head!
Down came the forest fairy and she said, "Little Bunny Foo Foo, I don't want to see you scooping up the field mice and bopping them on the head! I will give you two more chances or I will turn you into a Goon!"

Little Bunny Foo Foo hopping through the forest, scooping up the field mice and bopping them on the head!
Down came the forest fairy and she said, "Little Bunny Foo Foo, I don't want to see you scooping up the field mice and bopping them on the head! I will give you one more chance or I will turn you into a Goon!"

Little Bunny Foo Foo hopping through the forest, scooping up the field mice and bopping them on the head!
Down came the forest fairy and she said, "Little Bunny Foo Foo, I don't want to see you scooping up the field mice and bopping them on the head! I gave you three chances and you didn't behave! Now you're a Goon!" Poof!

And the moral of the story is: Hare today, Goon tomorrow.

I thought this scene would be perfect to recreate in felt, so here it is!

Below are more images shot from different angles.

I hope you enjoyed the images as much as I enjoyed making this piece! I especially enjoyed making Little Bunny Foo Foo's outfit. I made him a little lavender jacket and light green scarf with a button.  As I always say, "It's all in the details." :-)

Comic-Con International 2012 Part 2

I apologize in the delay of posting the second update of my Comic-Con experience! :-(  There are many things to talk about, since Comic-Con is the ultimate in visual overload!

Being an exhibitor at Comic-Con is never boring. Simply sitting and watching the attendees walk by in their elaborate costumes makes for an entertaining experience. It quickly becomes obvious that some people plan their costumes a year in advance based on the incredible detail or realism of their outfits! I didn't have time to take lots of pictures, but here is a small sampling of people's costumes.

The cartoon series, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, was very popular at Comic-Con. There were many people that made costumes inspired by the characters from the show. The lady in the pink costume above is a good example. I used to love My Little Ponies as a kid. I think I even wanted to be a horse as a kid. Fortunately, I don't have such aspirations at this stage in my life. However, what I haven't grown out of is my love of cute animals! I guess that's why it is such a common theme in my work.

I make jewelry. I will always make jewelry, but, I like dabbling in all crafts. Adding new techniques and mediums to the mix makes work more interesting for me.

Jewelry student, Susan Varnum showed me some wool felting techniques. I mentioned her in the previous blog post. When she introduced me to the medium, I was hooked! She told me, "When you come home after a hard day at work, and you start felting, there is something very therapeutic about repeatedly stabbing that wool!"  I completely agree!

Felting was and is, so calming I had force myself to stop because I had many other things I needed to prepare for Comic-Con. Here are some examples of a few pieces I made.

Of course, I had to throw a smoking goose in there too!

Comic-Con was a blast! 2012 was my best year at Comic-Con and I can't wait till next year! :-)

Australian Candy Review Part 1

Shane recently came back from Australia and kindly donated many candies for our candy reviews! We reviewed FIVE different candies in this review and did not even put a dent in our Australian candy collection! I am very excited to try out many sweets from the land Down Under!

The first candy we tasted was Chocolate Coated Raspberry Licorice.

The licorice is described on the package as, "soft eating licorice" and that is very accurate. This is one of the softest pieces of licorice I have ever eaten! The licorice has a nice raspberry flavor and creamy dark chocolate coating.

This was Shane's favorite out of this grouping of candies. I would have to say this definitely ranks higher on the list of candies we tried today.

Candy #2 was Mint Humbugs.

Technically, this isn't an Australian candy. It's actually a candy from Ireland, but what the heck. This managed to slip into our Australian collection, and I'm certainly not one to turn down candy! Consistency is overrated. :-P  These candies tasted very similar to Mentos, except that the hard candy exterior is much harder. It does have that chewy interior that Mentos has and is very minty in the same way.  Not bad!

Candy #3 was Picnic.

Picnic is manufactured by Cadbury. English Picnic contains raisins and its Australian formulation contains no raisins. I am not a big fan of raisins, so I was pleased with this! Nice creamy milk chocolate, with peanuts, puffed rice, caramel, and wafer pieces...I liked it! This was my favorite of all the candies we tried. Shane liked this as well, however, as mentioned earlier, the licorice won first place for him!

Above is an interior view of Picnic.

Candy #4 was Ginger Bears.

This was a gummy candy with a slight real ginger flavor. It doesn't quite have the "bite" that the package describes this candy as having. The gummies were soft in texture, but were a little dry on the outside.

Though I would prefer this to have a much more intense ginger flavor and a moist exterior, I wouldn't rate this poorly. Ginger Bears is a good candy, just not exceptional.

Candy #5 was Giant Fizzers.

As the name suggests, the candy was slightly fizzy. It had a mild baking soda flavor which I wasn't a big fan of. Giant Fizzers tasted similar to Sweet Tarts, but again with that baking soda after taste. Icky! This was our least favorite of the bunch. Thumbs down on this candy.

Picnic and Red Raspberry licorice were are top picks of this bunch of Australian candy! If you would like to watch our reactions, watch our video review:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yL_NO9w1WVo&list=UUAF7DMTeAnZOZvikNygerOA&index=1&feature=plcp

My sister and student made me bunnies!

I love little animals! I have a fondness for, as my sister would say, "rodentia". As you can imagine, I like bunnies! Bunnies as presents are even better!

My sister is the master of knitting and she made me a bunny for my birthday this year. She knows how much I love the color, seafoam green. Making a bunny in that color was the perfect combination!

 

One of my students from jewelry class, Susan Varnum, also made me a cute bunny!

She, not only has a talent for jewelry making, but also for making adorable felt animals! She has made quite the collection of detailed felt animals, including a giraffe and the tiniest felt birds you could imagine!

Now I have to two bunnies! Now my sister's bunny has a buddy! 

Thank you Nina and Susan for the bunny presents! I have them sitting together in my apartment!

 

Fettuccine Gummi and Kakigoori Ichigo Lollipops

Shane and I recently taste-tested more bizarre Japanese candy! We decided to film our review next to the dog park in Balboa Park, so please excuse that random bark here and there in the video! A link to our film will be posted at the end of this blog post.

Today, we tried: Fettuccine Sicilian Grape Gummi by Bourbon and Kakigoori Ichigo Lollipop by Pine. 

The first candy we tasted was the Fettucine Sicilian Grape Gummi. The package is a convenient zip pouch, so you can save your candy for later.  Here is what the interior of the package looks like:

When you look at each gummy piece, they are quite short in length! I imagined longer pieces, like traditional fettuccine pasta. 

The candy is coated in a powder and a granular coating. It does have a distinctive grape flavor with a slight sour tang.  The sour level is similar to Sour Patch Kids, therefore, very mild. The coating gives the candy a nice crunch in contrast to the soft gummy texture. Both Shane and I liked this candy! Good reviews for Fettuccine Gummi!

Now, onto the next candy! Kakigoori Ichigo Lollipop by Pine is strange product indeed! When you open the package and look in the interior, you see the lollipop immersed in white powder.

The lollipop was already heavily coated with the white powder. As you are eating the lollipop, you can continue to dip it in the white powder.

The lollipop didn't have any distinct flavors. I sensed a slight menthol taste, but Shane didn't detect any at all. It was a rather  flavorless sugar lollipop that you dipped in powdered sugar. The powder tasted like crushed up Fun Dip sticks, yuck! It was terrible! The texture of the lollipop was also strangely rough, similar to 100 grit sandpaper.  The sticky lollipop would have already easily pick up the sugar powder, therefore, I don't think the texture was necessary.

Shane and I definitely did not like this candy! We don't recommend it in the slightest bit! However, we give our thumbs up for Fettucine Gummi!  I hope you enjoyed our candy review! Watch our video review if you want to see our reactions!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BY2cW83Iv-o