Monday, October 4, 2010

10,000 Hits Bento

It looks like sometime last week the Sonoma Bento blog reached a milestone. 10,000 hits since I started the blog in April. Woohoo! Thanks to everyone for following my blog, or even just stopping by occasionally to see what fun things I am putting into my bento boxes. I really appreciate your comments and your interest in bento.

To celebrate, I am doing a fun GIVEAWAY! Are you interested in bento, but don't know where to start? Are you a bento blogger who needs more bento supplies? Do you just like to win stuff? Anyone and everyone (even outside of the U.S.) who would like to enter this giveaway is welcome to enter. Here's what one of you will win:

A blue double tiered bento box. It has a lower tier, and an upper tier with a fitted lid, and finally a top that goes over the two tiers. It will hold about 500ml. The word "pastel" is on the wrapper, not actually printed on the box.

A pumpkin ice cube tray! This is fun for making polenta pumpkins (see below) or ice cubes, or jello molds, or whatever you want to turn into a pumpkin shape!

Cute apple containers for sauce and a furikake seasoning container, plus a starburst shaped craft punch, perfect for cutting nori (toasted seaweed) into fun shapes.

And finally, this cute handmade bento box strap. I call him Jack O'Bento! This felt bento box strap will fit most two tiered bento boxes. Look for more fun felt bento box straps (made by yours truly) in my Sonoma Bento Etsy Store. I just added a kawaii Skull felt bento box strap!

To enter the contest, follow these steps:
1. You MUST be a follower of my blog. To follow my blog, click on the Follow with Google Friend Connect button on the right side of the page. Let me know in a comment that you are a follower and what your Google ID is.

Additional Ways to Enter:
2. Leave a comment telling me about your best Halloween costume. I LOVE Halloween! Update: I realized that not everyone celebrates Halloween, so you can also post about any Carnival or other costumes you wear for your own holidays.
3. Blog or tweet about this giveaway and post the link here in the comments section.

That's it, please leave a seperate comment for each entry. Good luck! The winner will be selected randomly from all entries on Friday, October 8th, 2010 at noon, Pacific Time.

Here's the bento I made today, the first of many Halloween themed bentos I am sure. I used my own pumpkin ice cube tray (not the one you might win) to make polenta pumpkins!

The polenta pumpkins are resting in a pool of tomato sauce. I made this quick sauce this morning with two early girl tomatoes from The Patch. I used nori to make a Jack O Lantern face on one pumpkin and added a few basil leaves from Middleton Farms. In the upper compartment: baby carrots, red bell pepper slices, cucumber slices, tiny cherry tomatoes from Middleton Farms, raspberries, and green grapes.

Beverage Pairing Suggestion: I added a tiny splash of Syrah to the tomato sauce as I was cooking it this morning. The Syrah I used would be a great fit with this bento box. Acorn 2007 Axiom Syrah picked up a Gold Medal at the 2010 Harvest Fair this year. It's spicy and fruity, and big enough to work well with the garlic tomato sauce and creamy polenta.

42 comments:

  1. Polenta pumpkins are too adorable!! And congrats on 10K!!

    Oh, and my fave costume that I made for my boy was when he was 5 -- he wore a sushi chef coat and headband, and I made a bento box of felted sushi with cute fish and other sea creatures for him to carry. teehee!

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  2. Congratulations on 10,000 hits!!!
    Nice and yummy bento, I love those fresh raspberries. ^.^

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  3. I am following your blog now and I love it! Fresh, local and full of ideas. My google id is Schroeder Family.

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  4. And...my favorite Halloween Costume was last year when my daughter dressed up as Cinderella and I was her fairy godmother and in full costume myself!

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  5. Congratulations on the 10k, Sonoma!

    I'm a follower - the ID is sternenblumen :). I'll give a shout-out to your giveaway on my blog later! (I can't, for the life of me, remember if I ever dressed up for Halloween, let alone as what - Halloween isn't important over here. If dressing up, it's done on Carnival.)

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  6. Congratulations on your 10,000 hits! I love the polenta pumpkins in your bento! Too bad my family don't really celebrate Halloween, but I think I'll still make Halloween theme bento later :D

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  7. congrats!! :D I'm one of your biggest fan! <3 The Polenta-pumkins just look like garlic to me ^^ it fits perfectly to halloween and vampires I think! ^_^b

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  8. Congrats, SB! So happy for you :D
    Giveaway? It's something that should not be passed hehehe. I has been your follower :D. I never celebrate Halloween, but I did ever use a ghost costume to scare my friends on their birthdays as a surprise :D. For this year, I've planned to make some Halloween-themed bentos.

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  9. congrats on 10k! Hm... polenta pumpkins? Might want to try that some time, they look so cute! I'm a follower via gfc, by the way.

    le.paradis.found at gmail dot com

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  10. My best costume... I was a giant ebi nigiri sushi, with a black obi as the seaweed and me in a simple white yukata as the rice. The ebi was handmade, and there was a pair of chopsticks and a tube of wasabi tied to the obi with a red tassled string. It was fun to make!

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  11. here's my blog post! http://ateacupofwhimsy.blogspot.com/2010/10/win-some-bento-making-goodies-i-sure.html

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  12. Congrats Michelle on your hits! Wow, pretty amazing huh with that 10,000 hits ... I always enjoy reading your blog and looking at your pretty bento :)

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  13. Congratulations! That is so exciting! I happily follow you :)

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  14. I am a follower and I just shared this on facebook - now I guess I will post it on my blog, too! I'm always needing new bento supplies :)

    www.mysimplelittleblog.blogspot.com

    oh- and my favorite costume? last year we did the kids and red riding hood and the hunter - they were SO cute and now we're wondering how to top it! lol

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  15. I am a follower and love your blog!!! My google id is Bar 7 Ranch.

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  16. Ooooo....I love halloween costumes!! Last year we made my son a Texas A&M Yell Leader costume. It was the best!!! And I was a Rodeo Clown! It was fun too!

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  17. I blogged about your giveaway here: http://bar7ranch.blogspot.com/2010/10/1st-grade-bento-22-thermos.html. Congrats!

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  18. How fun!! I'm following your blog!! Thanks for the chance!! : )

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  19. I don't know how great it is, but my favorite Halloween costume was the one year I went as a bag of jelly beans! My mom bought this heavy plastic and made a sack somehow for me to fit in. She hand painted the front like the package and the back - it looked just like a bag of the jelly bellies. Then we filled it with different colored balloons!! It was a great costume until I got to the party and saw there was a dart board. Yes, you guessed it - I didn't have balloons for long. :( LOL!!!
    Thanks for the chance!! :)

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  20. Congrats on your 100th hits ! Love the Jack o' lantern lunchbox band. You are so creative. =)

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  21. Congrats Michelle on your 10K hits! So glad I found your blog via the wonderful bento community!! I love to see you fresh bentos.. (and get so jealous about all the produce!! ^_^)
    Well, my follower ID is karaimame :) eheheheh

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  22. Wow congratulations michelle! That is awesome. And what a great giveaway. Can't wait till you get another 10,000 lol

    I would love a chance at winning. I am already a (very avid) follower of your blog!

    kelly(dot)polizzi(at)gmail(dot)com

    BTW I have a giveaway on my blog too. My second!

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  23. Congratulations for 10k. I am a follower and big fan of your blog.

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  24. Is a long time ago that I was disguised. At that time I was a squaw or a little princess.

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  25. Here's the link http://twitter.com/#!/OishiiBentoBlog

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  26. I linked to your giveaway on my blog :).

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  27. Congratulations :D As you know, I'm following, too ;D

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  28. My favourite Halloween costume (I only do little teaparties, so there's nothing about the 'scare people'-thing) is the 'cute witch' :D I look for a nice fluffy black dress with a panier and add some pigtails and a witch-hat and that's it^^

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  29. GET OUT.. Polenta Pumpkins.. that is genius.

    I follow you!

    Congrats on the 10K

    Patrizziag at comcast dot net

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  30. My favorite costume was a female version of Michael Meyers. My husband was Michael Meyers. We won best costume! :)

    Patrizziag at comcast dot net

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  31. I don't like halloween that much, because I live in a small town where nobody is celebrating it. Only in some bars or disco they use it as a theme to sell more alcohol ;-) It's kind of boring ^^° But I think I would go as a little witch. When I was small I went as a Tirex (dinosaurer) with a mask and an whole-body costume and a real tail stuffed with wool. Everything was handmade by my mom *ggg*

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  32. congrats on your 10,000 hits! that's an awesome accomplishment! I am already a follower! :)

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  33. I love making halloween costumes. Last year I made Harry Potter for my little one (with homemade glasses holding an owl in a cage), along with his cousins as the gryffindors (hermione holding a stack of books, ron holding a rat). They had sooo much fun! If only we the adults would dress up as the professors...but I didn't have time. :( Will add your giveaway in my blog when I post something up. =)

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  34. congrats on 10,000 hits, love your blog and the giveaway! i'm following and posted about it on my blog: http://myspotofsunshine.blogspot.com
    my favorite halloween costume was being a cat with my two friends one year and we forgot our wiskers LOL

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  35. Congratulation Sonoma!!!!!!
    That was really a great achievement!

    What a cool giveaway and yummy looking bento!!

    Always happy to read your blog with all those fresh goods you got from the farmers market.

    We don't celebrate Halloween either but we love Halloween! We were in LA 4 years ago and joined our friends for trick or treat and it was super fun!

    I am going to do a Halloween bento too.

    Btw, the pumpkin bento strap is super kawaii!!

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  36. I has been your follower. ^.^

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  37. This is the link about the giveaway:

    http://emilynpf.wordpress.com/2010/10/07/ghost-bunny-happy-ghosts/

    Thanks for the giveaway!!!

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  38. I am a follower! My google id is emilynelson1@gmail.com!

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  39. I have just discovered the joy of bento and was given the link to your sight by a friend. I am now a follower, GREAT blog!

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  40. I found your blog through justbento.com's flickr. My friend and I have recently become interested in bento making. There's so much to take in but you have a lot of great info on here.

    I just signed up to follow your blog (LRC, twitter.com/recycle_bot).

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  41. Oh, and it's a bit last minute but I just tweeted about the giveaway. I hope all my friends get a chance to read it :P

    http://twitter.com/recycle_bot

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