Thursday, August 26, 2010

Pear Crostini Bento

Yesterday I could not wake up and felt kind of dizzy. I think our three days of 90+ and occasionally 100+ weather did me in. Today I am much better and out of that weird funk. Rest and gatorade did the trick.

I was able to stop by the Santa Rosa Original Certified Farmers Market, because I'd pretty much have to be dead to miss it, and picked up a perfect pear from Reenie at Ridgeview Farms. Reenie is the greatest, I love her veggies and fruits, and she has the most gorgeous flowers arranged in coffee cans. I also got a basket of little orange cherry tomatoes, so sweet!

I thought about the pear all day yesterday, while I was alternately resting and zoning out on the couch. When the heat finally broke around 8pm, inspiration hit! Little pear crostini!

In this bento: pear crostini made with a perfect pear from Ridgeview Farms, edamame, and slices of Aidell's sundried tomato chicken sausage with a little panda pick.

In the upper compartment: arugula from Triple T Ranch, walnuts from the Santa Rosa Original Certified Farmers Market, a few little slices of red onion, and cherry tomatoes from The French Garden and Ridgeview Farms. I'll toss this with some olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper for a little salad.

The sweet orange cherry tomatoes I got at Ridgeview Farms.

Look! I really did get a perfect pear. :)

A close up of the pear crostini. Besides the perfect pear, there's bread from La Brea Bakery (I keep a bag of their frozen mini baguettes on hand: ten minutes to crunchy on the outside, soft in the middle hot bread!), butter, Honey Powder from Savory Spice Shop, and crumbles of Point Reyes Original Blue Cheese.

Recipe for Pear Crostini
1 mini baguette, sliced thin
butter
1 small pear, cored and sliced thin
Honey Powder
2 ounces Point Reyes Original Blue Cheese

On a cookie sheet, arrange baguette slices. Spread a small amount of butter on each slice. Top baguette slices with pieces of pear. Sprinkle Honey Powder on top of pear slices. Top each crostini with a bit of blue cheese. Broil crostinis for a few minutes, until cheese melts and crostinis just begin to get toasted. Makes about 10 small crostinis.

Beverage Pairing Suggestion: We have an amazing cider maker in Sonoma County called Ace Cider. They make a wonderful hard cider called Ace Perry Cider. It's very refreshing and would go so well with these crostinis.

23 comments:

  1. The pear is perfect! Thanks for the recipe! I'm off to our farmers market now!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Looks delicious as usual! I thought it was just cheese on the baguette, but this is sweet and savory!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oooo slushygirl! Can't wait to see what you find at your farmers market. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love the combo of pear and blue cheese, Mrs. P. We are so lucky to have Point Reyes Blue Cheese here in Northern California. The taste is creamy, salty, and very blue. You don't need much of it to get big flavor.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ooh, fruit and cheese is yummy, and I love anything by Aidell. The sausage is good, but my favorite Aidell product is the Teriyaki & Pineapple Meatball; that's what I put in my son's weekly bento today, along with a spinach salad and some homemade trail mix.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Isn't it amazing how genius can arise from delirium? The same thing happens to me -- I think about all kinds of extraneous things when down with the flu. Must be the fevered mind is allowed to access normally restricted areas of thought.

    Your pear crostini looks positively refreshingly summery and delish! Glad you're feeling better too :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. I love those teriyaki meatballs too, dragonmamma! So easy to use in bentos for delicious protein. Mmmm, his lunch sounds good.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Okay I have to ask...can you come over to my house and make me a yummy bento lunch like this? Ha! I don't even like pears, and this looks good! It's so nice that you got a photo of your perfect pear! I also like how passionate about food you are! We really need to sit down and chat sometime! :D

    ReplyDelete
  9. Not sure if it can be considered 'genius'. lol sheri! but it is fun to let your mind wander on bento ingredients and see what comes up. I often have pretty interesting ideas right when I wake up. Problem is, gotta remember them long enough to write them down. :) Didn't you tweet about dreaming of a marble bento? Funny! I had some sculptural bento dreams that were pretty bizarre.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Oh I absolutely adore blue cheese of any kind! I am jealous of this blue cheese that you mentioned!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Thanks Lyndsey! I would love to come over! :) If we are what we eat, I don't wanna be a Twinkie. hee hee. Thanks for your nice compliments. It's so fun to have bento buddies.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Wow..another delicious bento..never ate before this pear crostini. May be I should give a try. :) Thanks for sharing the recipe. You are so good in cooking too.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Your bentos always look delicious! I have so much to catch up on! Hope you had a great summer. :)

    ReplyDelete
  14. Always love the farmer's market photos. All fruits and veggies are so fresh. Delicious bento! And glad to hear that you are feeling better now :)

    ReplyDelete
  15. Glad you are feeling better...and shared this inspired recipe with us! This flavor combination of cheese and fruit sounds so lush and wonderful, great market photos, too--the arrow made me giggle :)
    Happy Friday!

    ReplyDelete
  16. I missed this the other day (internet outage day?). I am drooling, this looks sooooooo good. I love pear and cheese, now I need to go buy a pear.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Thanks emily! The combination of pear and blue cheese is a classic one. I hope you get a chance to try it!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Hi Susan! Thanks so much. Welcome back to bentos, we missed you. :)

    ReplyDelete
  19. Thanks Lia! I am totally spoiled by the great farmers markets in Sonoma County. It makes it so easy to make tasty lunches.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Ha ha, thanks bentobird! I was laughing when I put the arrow in the pear picture too. I was thinking about making it animated, all lit up and glowing, and then I realized how silly I was being. Hee hee.

    Yup, feeling much better now. Darned excessive heat!

    ReplyDelete
  21. Thanks Shannon! It was so delicious. And it tasted great warm and cold, so that was a bonus.

    ReplyDelete
  22. I LOVE LaBrea bread! My husband and I ate at their little cafe place when we went to Disneyland earlier this year and it was the source of our favorite meals on that trip! That crostini looks really good...I am tempted to try it with a granny smith apple and brie since I know I already like that combo. :D Glad you're feeling better, we topped out at 99 the other day - I am so ready for Fall!

    ReplyDelete
  23. Hi Krysta! La Brea is really good, I have always been impressed with their quality. And having access to hot bread in 10 minutes from your freezer is awesome! Granny Smiths and brie would be a great combo too!

    ReplyDelete