Gyoza and Wreath Bento

Gyoza and Wreath Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

I made gyoza today with whole wheat wrappers, which I'd never used before. I also picked up spinach wrappers too, but haven't used them yet. These wrappers are kind of chewy compared to the regular ones, but the kids didn't seem to mind. I used a ground pork filling with chopped scallions and shredded spinach, and seasoned with salt, sugar and shoyu which tasted pretty good. I pan-fried then pan-steamed, so they got nice and crispy on the bottom and stayed soft on top. After they were done I pan-fried some lightly steamed kabocha in the same pan, then drizzled with sesame oil and shoyu at the end of cooking. Sound familiar? I have been eating tons of kabocha this way lately. It's SO good, I'll eat it right out of the pan. To fill in the gaps I added steamed peapods. Other side has kiwi, grapes and my nod to the season: a satsuma mandarin wreath decorated with purple carrot "berries" and festive bow & leaf picks.

In other news, tomorrow is MisterMan's Christmas concert, where he'll be performing on the violin. He has been playing for only three months, but when I attended the rehearsal last night I was surprised to find that they all sound pretty good (no cat screeching). Whew! I never would have believed the director could get a bunch of first and second grader first-time players to sound decent, but I guess their method works. We'll see how the actual performance goes!