Bruschetta Bento

I realized that despite having a farmers market open almost every day of the week in Sonoma County (it's true!), I wouldn't be able to attend one until Sunday. So yesterday, I swung by a farm stand in Rincon Valley. Redwood Empire Farm has their own farm stand on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, and so I scooted out there for some zucchini, armenian cucumber, basil, and mini gravenstein apples. It was fun to see Jeff and his sister Theresa selling their products right next to where they are grown. Here's my bento made with lots of local produce.

In this bento: bruschetta with tomatoes from The Patch, basil from Redwood Empire Farm, and fontina cheese, a fresh fig, a hard boiled quail egg with nori face details, slices of armenian cucumber from Redwood Empire Farms, a mini Gravenstein Apple from Redwood Empire Farms, and two baby carrots.

Here is the face punch that I picked up at Daiso on my recent trip to Seattle. I do like it, but I still want to get the awesome face punches for sale on J-List. Sigh... we'll see.

Here's a pic of the cucumbers for sale at Redwood Empire Farm stand. There's a mix of both slicing cucumbers and armenian cucumbers (which are actually an asian melon). If you can find the aremenian ones, give them a try!

Sonoma Bento Blogiversary Winner!

Sorry this is a little late in posting, the weekend was jam packed and I am still recovering. Garden tours, food and wine tasting, and a hootenanny - and that was just Saturday!

There ended up being 46 different entries in the contest, so cool!

Without further ado: congrats to WYOWOMAN! Kristin has a fun blog called From My Little Corner filled with scrapbooking, cooking, thoughts, and other fun stuff.

Kristin, you have won this fun prize pack! You can continue your bento adventures with fun picks, chopsticks, a pink bento box, a nori punch, an onigiri mold, and an onigiri felt strap.

Thank you so much for all of the great responses, especially those who shared which bento tools they enjoy the most. Cutters seem really popular, and I can see why. They make cute really easy!

Today's bento uses leftover clove scented jasmine rice with homemade chicken and potato curry which is topped with scallions and garlic scapes from Middleton Farms, a wedge of lime to squeeze on the curry, an apricot from Neufeld Farms, baby carrots, and a few slices of cucumber. I love this round bento I got at Daiso. It's got two containers inside, which work really well to separate saucy stuff like the curry.

Have a great day bento pals!

Godzilla Polenta Bento

Rrrawr!!! Godzilla Attacks Bento! Citizens flee in terror! Actually, this bento was really cute and fun to eat as well. I wasn't scared one bit... ok, maybe a little scared.

In this bento: teriyaki chicken meatballs from Aidell's, roasted brussel sprouts with Black Pig Meat Co Bacon, baby carrots, yellow bell peppers, white pomegranate arils from De'Santis Farms, and polenta in the shape of Godzilla.

I darkened the top of the polenta here in Photoshop so you can see the Godzilla shape a little better. I picked up the cutest little jello/custard mold at Daiso and I tried it out with a polenta recipe from Martha Stewart. It worked great! Click here to see Martha's very easy recipe for creamy baked polenta. It will firm up if you chill it in the fridge.

In Flight Bentos

My lovely family came to visit this past weekend and we had a blast wine tasting, eating out, and shopping. It went by way too fast. But I saw an opportunity to make some in flight bentos for my mom, sis, and brother and had to do it! Debra of Hapa Bento makes them for her house guests all of the time, and I am so jealous of her guests! :) So I made these little snack bentos for my family to enjoy on their short flight from Santa Rosa to Seattle.

There's a heart shaped onigiri rice ball topped with a little spiral I punched out of nori seaweed in each box, plus carrot slices from Quivira Vineyards and Winery, red bell pepper slices, frozen Aidell's teriyaki chicken meatballs, and slices of persimmon tossed with lime juice to keep them from turning brown. The persimmon is from De'Santis Farms. I also used romaine lettuce and parsley (from Quivira) for decoration and to separate the different portions of the snack bentos.

As you can see, my family loved their snack bentos! And the meatballs had thawed by the time I presented the bentos, since I made them in the morning and then stowed them in the fridge until they had to leave for their flight. It was really fun to do, and wasn't hard to make three little bento snacks since I put them together in an assembly line kind of way. If you want to make in flight bentos for visitors as a parting gift, I suggest collecting a few disposable containers to use, so you don't have to part with a beloved bento box. I found these plastic containers at Daiso, but berry containers are great for this use, too.

Fresh Bento Part Deux

Ok, so this bento looks and tastes almost exactly like yesterday's bento, but that's cool, because it was tasty and I didn't have to cook anything! More yummy treats from Fresh by Lisa Hemenway (chicken salad and roasted beets), plus a few carrots, cuke slices, and a tiny cherry tomato from Ridgeview Farms. I really love the container, which I found at Daiso in Westlake Mall on my recent trip to Seattle. It's a Magic Round Bento with compartments! Double woot.

I wanted to share a couple of exciting tidbits: the Sonoma Bento blog made it to 10,000 hits this past week and to celebrate I am going to do another GIVEAWAY! Woohoo! Stay tuned bento buddies, I am pretty sure I will have it ready to go by this weekend, or Monday at the latest.

Also, my friend Maria Vieages, a fabulous chef and host of Maria's Non Pompous Food Talk has asked me to be on her show to talk about bentos! Yay! I am scheduled to be on the show this coming Monday, October 4th. You can stream her show Mondays from noon to 1pm online at kggvfm.org. Just click on the link that says STREAMING LINK. Plus, if you have any topics you think I should cover, let me know. I really hope that I can get more people excited about bento making.

And lastly, my hubby just started a new job (yay) and now I am making non cute bento boxes for him. So far it has just been sandwiches and veggies, but I am going to get all creative soon.

San Francisco Japantown

I had SUCH a good time yesterday in San Francisco's Japantown. The last time I went was in April, when I started out on this bento obsession of mine. I used a wonderful guide prepared by Biggie of the Lunch In A Box blog. If you get a chance to go to SF Japantown, I really recommend taking Biggie's review along with you.

This time I was more prepared and focused. I knew what I was looking for, and I also knew what I didn't need. But I still bought a few things that were ridiculous, just because I could. :-)

Today's bento uses a few of the new things I picked up while in SF Japantown. I have this new blue bento box (magic round bento!) from Ichiban Kan that was on sale for 50 cents! The chopsticks are from Daiso, the tomato pick is from Ichiban Kan, and the cherry stem pick is from Sanko Cooking Supply (Sanko is WILDLY expensive, but it was the only place I found these picks and I was dying to get some after seeing them on Sheri's Happy Little Bento blog). Oh, and the quail egg is from Nijiya Market (my first time trying quail eggs!).

The top of the bento box has three little monkeys on it and it says, "Do you like living here? Yes, it's great!" In this bento lunch: a biscuit filled with ham and spices, caprese salad in a silicone cup, cucumber slices (from Ridgeview Farms), two cherry tomatoes on a cherry stem pick, steamed romano beans from Cresent Moon Farms, a hard boiled quail egg, and a bit of arugula from Ridgeview Farms.

I got the idea for the quail egg little guy from a book that I picked up at Kinokuniya Stationery. A little wedge cut makes his mouth, and his eyes are black sesame seeds. I'll post pictures of the bento book soon. It's all in Japanese, so I can't read it, but the photos and ideas are great!

Here are some of the picks I got at Ichiban Kan. I was so excited to see the tree picks after seeing them used in a bento made by Shannon of What's For Lunch At Our House. I think I will have to borrow that idea because those grapes looked so cute!

I didn't take as many pictures as I should have while in SF Japantown, but here are a few of the places I visited. Above is a selection of the bento supplies available at Daiso.

This is at the Sanrio store where I actually showed some restraint. I know! I was amazed at myself, too. :-)

I did pick up a bento box with Kuromi on the front. The sales clerk at Sanrio said that Kuromi is more popular with U.S. customers than Japanese customers, and that is why their selection is so large in the San Francisco store.

I have so much more to share from my trip to SF Japantown. I am sure you will see lots of new stuff in the weeks to come on Sonoma Bento. And... I got some fun stuff for a giveaway. Stay tuned!

How to Boil Quail Eggs

Rinse quail eggs in warm water to remove any dirt or feathers from the shells. Fill a small pot with water and about 2 or 3 tablespoons of vinegar. Add quail eggs and bring water to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes, then remove pan from heat and take it to the sink. Run cold water into the pan and gradually pour out the hot water. Allow eggs to cool then gently peel. The vinegar should make it easier to remove the shells.