If you've ever wanted your kids to be excited to eat radishes, here is your answer. The Super Mario themed Bento above is the awesome work of Anna The Red. Complete instructions here. Japan has had a wonderfully fun, light hearted, and healthy impact on the world of food. A couple more examples of work by Anna The Red: Manga Meat Bento, for the cave man in your life. Inarizushi Totoro Bento, and Totoro Cream Puffs definitely fall into the category of too cute to eat...well, almost, they are cream puffs after all. This is the greatest turkey sandwich ever. Food doesn't always have to be pretty. I'm sure we've all have a recipe that looks horribly unappetizing but more than makes up for it, but there are times when making your cooking look great can be a big part of the reward of cooking; on the other hand, there is really no excuse for things like fondant. Just because it is 'edible', doesn't mean you should sculpt things out of it and eat it. Thank you Japan for making cute food edible again. I leave you with a somewhat related clip, via geeksaresexy:

This one is in honor of Stanza over at CookingOnSundays, who couldn't make it today, but the people must be fed! True to Stanza fashion, this one is a soup made from stuff I had sitting in the freezer in the garage (I don't have a closet) for too long, and that is the way it should be made, but with no onions! Any time you are looking for something in one of your many food storage options and you find there is just too much stuff you have to move out of the way, it is time to make some variant of what I erroneously call Jambalaya. Every year, we plant a garden in the back yard, and impatiently wait for all the little sprouts to sprout, and then spend a portion of each day urging the cats to keep the gophers out, and yelling at the cats that the garden is not a litter box. Then we complain that there are snails and we need to get the chickens to eat them, which ends with us flapping our arms as we chase the chickens out because they are kicking up the sprouts and eating our lettuce. Somehow, a couple months ...