Cooking Reattempt & First Lodispotto Item

Last week's cooking fail didn't prevent me from giving another go at another recipe... this time, one rather "safe" I had previously made years ago.

The recipe is "Rice, Broccoli 'n Cheese Cups" from Kraft. It's really simple and you can easily eyeball the ingredients, so it's pretty practical.

I kinda went overboard with the eyeballing thing and cooked a gigantic amount of rice... which consequently made me add 6 eggs to smoothen the consistency.

Before cooking

After cooking

I didn't expect them shrinking that much (must be the cheese and broccoli), so I was rather surprised when I took them out of the oven. The rice on top of the cups was also a bit overcooked so it was crunchy, maybe a little too much. Since that was only the first batch, I adjusted the amount in each cup as well as the cooking time for the following ones.

The recipe uses extremely simple ingredients and no spices at all (I suppose you can surely add what you want though), which results in a not-so-exceptional taste, but it's still edible and I find it nice to eat. In total, I made 42 cups.

I'm going off topic now to post pictures of the new (secondhand) Lodispotto cardigan I ordered with JaponicaMarket. I had been stalking this cardigan long ago, before Christmas, but in pink. The price was in the 9000 yen or something, so I never gave in and one day both colors (black and pink) got sold out.

I found it in black a couple of weeks ago on Mercari for a much more affordable price (+ good condition) and was glad I could snatch it before someone else.

Item name: ミルフィーユバイカラーニット (you can see it there in Lodispotto's A2017 collection)

It's not pink, but I eventually grew fond of both colors since I liked the cardigan so much. I do plan to buy the pink one once I spot it somewhere though.

The reason why I try to avoid black clothes is because lint looks more visible as you can see in the above picture. However, I make exceptions for certain pieces of clothing...

Sleeves have a mesh layer

It's such an adorable cardigan that looks as lovely when worn, whether with a dress or a high-waisted skirt.

This being said, I discovered Lodispotto a while ago and fell in love with their collection mille fille closet. Although their clothes are pricey and I doubt I'll be buying brand new from their website (but we never know), I'm still looking forward for their next creations.

I'm sorry, this post feels a tad monotonous. I could give a better description of the Lodispotto cardigan, yet I don't feel like it. Actually, I feel a little bit sad tonight. Not unusual, but I do suspect that the soon-to-be-over three-day weekend is part of the reason behind my low mood.

Thanks.

The Bobon21 Shoe Saga Goes on & Cooking Fail

It is currently 21.03 p.m. and I feel tired. My day was quite unproductive and had some fails. I really want to go lay in my bed, but prefer to shoot this post here first.

Today, on a sunny Saturday morning, I wore my Bobon21 low heels for the first time. I was very excited since I had been anticipating this moment for a while. Turns out they hurt like crazy. I did mention in my last post that the shoe vamp felt a little tight and manifested disappointment over the fact that I couldn't wear socks with them. Well, not only wearing socks is impossible, but walking in them isn't really do-able either (I mean if you don't mind feeling pain -gradually increasing- each time you make a step, I imagine you can walk in them all day long).

After two hours running errands, my feet looked like this.

It doesn't look that bad, but it really hurt.

Because the pain was too distracting, I had to return to my apartment and forget about errands I still had to do in the area (I was downtown).

My father works in a shoe repair, therefore my mother advised me to hand them to him, and he'll try to make them bigger/larger—I'm not sure what exactly. But there's already enough space lengthwise. Anyway.

As for my cooking fail. Three years ago, I bought a recipe book to encourage an organization that offers various services to help its local community (but also because the recipes look delicious). Sadly, I had never tried a single one until this afternoon. I "cooked" a punjabi chole from India (chickpea curry).

I can't justify why I decided to add a can of potatoes even though the recipe didn't ask for potatoes. I also added three tomatoes while the recipe asked for two. Lastly, I used only one can of chickpeas instead of two as shown in the picture.

It smelled really good. Only, the saucepan I used was too small (it was the only one I had). I eventually had to waste some liquid in the sink, unfortunately.

Showing the mess around.

The taste was strangely very bland, even after I added a substantial amount of salt. There's probably something I did wrong, I admit I'm not far from being a lost cause when it comes to cooking.

I was very disappointed in how the final result turned out and in myself. Cooking takes time and makes your kitchen dirty and in the end, it wasn't worth the fuss.

Hope tomorrow will be a better day. I'm off now.