Happy Girls' Day!

I learned earlier this week on Facebook that my favorite company, OXO celebrates Girls' Day or Hinamatsuri. What a nice surprise! I then decided to try to cook a Hinamatsuri dish with as many OXO items as I could. Although I couldn't spend so much time as I would have liked, I think I did a pretty good job for having a one-month old baby (I had to work small steps between feedings)!

I also had some other challenges:

1. I had to make sure the cake had no dairy or eggs for my daughter (the yellow color of eggs would have been perfect for decorating it though). I was going to use ham (cute pink color!), but it was raining this morning, and I didn't want to go to a grocery store with an infant in the rain, so I grabbed a can of SPAM from my little pantry and shredded it.

2. Last year, I made Hina Doll rice balls and used quail eggs for their faces (I didn't know that my daughter was allergic to eggs back then!). Since I really couldn't think of anything white and egg-shaped this year, however, I completely gave up on making the doll part edible and used paper dolls instead. Using mini magnetic clips for holding the Emperor and the Empress was a very last minute idea I got, and I hoped OXO people would notice it without me telling them when I posted a photo of this sushi cake on their Facebook Page.

3. I made flower-shaped carrots and daikon for miso soup, but you know what? They don't float!!! What was I thinking? I should have made osuimono (clear broth)! So I scooped some of the carrots out of the miso soup pot, rinsed them, and put them on top of the cake. Phew, it kind of worked, didn't it?

So, here's a list of OXO tools I used today:

Flexible Vegetable Brush
4-Inch Mini Santoku Knife
Swivel Peeler
Miso Strainer Set
Rice Scoop
Stainless Steel Mixing Bowl (as a mold)
Magnetic Mini Clips
Pie Server

Now OXO people, if you're reading this, please leave some comments, please!

Santoku Knife & Swivel Peeler

Rice Scoop

Miso Strainer Set

Stainless Steel Mixing Bowl (as a mold)

My sad miso soup. The carrot and daikon flowers are in there though!

Happy Hinamatsuri!!! My daughter loved this cake and ate so much! That made me really happy. :D