Snowman Bento

We have not really had typical winter weather here in Sonoma County. Today we got a bit of rain, but we rarely have snow. And it has actually been quite warm here for December. So the only winter I can see is the one in my bento box!

In the yellow box: a snowman onigiri (rice balls) with nori dried seaweed features. I used a fun face punch for his facial features. Also in this box: baby carrots, and tamagoyaki omelette. He's resting on some cabbage leaves. In the smaller pink box: quick pickled cabbage with black sesame seeds (recipe from Maki of Just Bento), edamame, and chicken with broccoli stir fry. 

Here are the two boxes with their lids. I got these are Borders (boo hoo, I am sad they closed) from their awesome collection of Paperchase items. 

Happy Monday!

Sonoma Bento One Year Anniversary!

Today marks one year since I started this blog. I am so thankful for all of the support and interest from my bento friends. Some of you make bento, some of you do not, but all of you have been so kind and encouraged me to keep learning and keep improving my bento skills. This has been a great year, and I can't wait to see how my bento lunches will evolve in the next year. So, I thought I would do a before and after kind of a post today. Here is the very first bento I made, back on April 21st, 2010.

The upper tier has a heart shaped onigiri rice ball, steamed broccoli, slices of baked sweet potato, grapes, and a sliced strawberry.

The lower tier is filled with salad greens from Offerings of the Land, carrots, mushrooms, watermelon radish, and half of a hard boiled egg. And now, for my remake of my first ever bento, drumroll please......

The first bento I made was in a GINORMOUS bento box. The only thing you really can fit into that box and not have way too much food, would be a salad. Instead, I used this new black bento box (it's still kind of big at 600ml) and packed everything much tighter. Packing your bento box tightly will not only make sure that things don't roll around and shift, but it will also put enough food into your bento box to fill your tummy at lunch time. In this bento box: I have an onigiri wrapped with a strip of nori that I punched with a flower shaped craft punch. There are a few green grapes, a strawberry from Williamson Farms, a flower shaped slice of purple sweet potato, steamed broccoli rapini from Triple T, a mix of wild arugula from Triple T along with torn romaine lettuce, slices of carrot, a french breakfast radish from Ortiz Farms, a small container of salad dressing, and a tamagoyaki omelette made with slivers of green garlic from Middleton Farms. The only thing I forgot was mushrooms, and I actually did have enoki mushrooms from Bohemian Mushroom Farm, but I spaced and forgot to put them in. You can also see that the lighting is MUCH better in the remake than in the original bento. I take pictures of my bento next to a bright window. I also use scrapbook paper or fabric for a background. The original bento was shot in my office kitchen. Not really conducive to glamorous photo shoots. :)

This is the first bento I posted on Sonoma Bento on April 29th, 2010. As you can see, I was already making some big steps and improvements from my first bento attempt. I actually really like this bento, and I was wondering how I would remake it. In this bento: a pita sandwich with wasabi tunafish salad, baby carrots, radish slices, broccoli, two onigiri with slices of cucumber in them, and half of a boiled egg with black sesame seed details.

In my re-do: a magic round bento to the rescue! I have basically the same wasabi tunafish sandwich in a pita, but I put black sesame seeds on the outsides. Also in this bento: steamed broccoli rapini from Triple T, green grapes, a bear onigiri with nori eyes and a pickled ginger red mouth, radishes from Bernier Farms, cucumber slices, baby carrots, and a little hard boiled quail egg from Triple T with nori eyes and a carrot beak. The original bento was pretty cute as it was, so this is just a different spin on the ingredients in a different shaped bento box. I was a little puzzled about why I put both bread and rice in the same bento, which I don't do now. Ah well, this did come out pretty tasty.

Beverage Pairing Suggestion: J Vineyards & Winery Cuvee 20 Brut. A great and affordable sparkling wine to toast one year as a bento blogger! YAY!

Something you may have noticed in my newer bento photos: a watermark. As my photos have improved, I decided I should brand them so that they are credited to me. I place the words "Sonoma Bento" in my photos, using background or foreground colors and placing them in fun spots. Many bento bloggers do this, and it is probably a good practice to use if you are uploading your own bento photos. Credit should always be given where it is due, and you don't want someone to steal your photos and claim it as his/her own.

A few words about how my style and approach to bento has changed: I used to think that I needed tons of picks and cupcake liners to make my bento kawaii (or cute). I find that I rarely use food picks. A sharp knife is the tool I use the most in making my bento. I do like to use small food cutters for a quick cute element. Tweezers are important for placing details. Probably the most important part of my bento making style, however, is the farmers market! Seasonal, fresh food is what I like to build my bento around. Not everything comes from the farmers market, but I try to feature at least one local item in every lunch.

Now for the celebration! In honor of my one year blogiversary, I am giving away a fun set of bento items. It's a starter kit of sorts! Here's what I am giving away:

A set of colorful chopsticks.

An onigiri mold, so you can make hearts, stars, and bears.

A nori punch shaped like an apple.

A set of 12 food picks.

And finally, this cute three tiered pink bento box, and my handmade onigiri bento box strap. The band is pink felt with an elastic section, and a felt onigiri face on top. The bento box itself is brand new, and has a shallow upper tier to hold chopsticks or utensils (maybe a slim sauce pack), and then two tiers for food.

There are 4 ways you can win this awesome bento prize pack. Please leave each entry as a separate comment:

1. MANDATORY: You must be a follower of this blog, Sonoma Bento.

2. Tweet about the contest. Please let me know if you tweeted about the contest, and if possible include the link to your tweet.

3. Mention this contest on your blog. Please let me know about your blog post and include the link to your blog post.

4. Tell me what your favorite bento tool is and why, or if you don't make bento box lunches yet, which bento tool you would really like to have.

I will randomly select one entry as the winner on lucky Friday the 13th of May. :-)

GOOD LUCK! And thank you, thank you, thank you for being a part of my bento adventures. :)

Mother Daughter Bento-ing Part Three

We had a really stormy weekend in Sonoma County, and my step daughter and I were stuck inside all day on Saturday. My hubby had to work, so it was just us girls. We decided to make some fun bentos and work on decorating her new bedroom. We didn't have all of the supplies for her bedroom, so I had to finish it up on Sunday. The bentos turned out great though!

My bento has easter egg-shaped pink onigiri (one decorated with nori, the other plain), greens from Earthworks, baby carrots, a chicken drumstick, hard boiled quail egg and red carrot from Triple T Farms, small tangerine from Schletewitz Family Fruit Stand, pepper jack cheese butterfly, and a few slices of red pepper.

My daughter's bento includes: more pink onigiri, chicken drumstick, pepper jack duckie and butterfly, baby carrots, greens from Earthworks, tangerine from Schletewitz Family, and hard boiled quail egg from Triple T.

And this is her room! We are still looking for a different bedspread to go with the underwater theme. We did the 'waterfall' of tulle, ribbon, and fabric together. We also worked on the fabric wall stickers together (with an idea that I saw posted by ChantaleP ~thanks!), but the fusible web I got initially didn't work so well. I had to go back to the craft store and get a different kind.

The Bento4Japan eBay auction is still going on with new items added! Please bid or put up your own items for auction to help.

Last Bento of the Year

It feels like ages since I made a bento! I had to make one this morning, even though it cut into some of my prep time for the two hour talk show I've been doing this week. I was having bento withdrawal, hee hee.

I actually woke up dreaming about bento ingredients, so I knew I had to take the time to make one today. Magic Round Bentos are always good to help boost your bento assembling confidence. Everything just fits better in a round bento.

In this bento: steamed edamame, tamagoyaki with chopped wild arugula from Triple T Ranch, two pork and veggie gyoza (I think they are Annie Chun's brand), a hand formed onigiri rice ball, and two rabbit apples carved from Walker's Apples Arkansas Black apples.

I bought these apples from Lee Walker himself, the patriarch of the Walker family, who have been apple growers in Sonoma County for many generations. Lee is awesome and loves all kinds of apples, but he will tell you straight out which varieties he can do without. Pretty awesome. The Walkers are often at the Saturday Santa Rosa Original Certified Farmers Market.

Have a safe and happy new year! See you in 2011!

Polar Bear Bento

This is my 99th bento blog post. Who knew I would make it this far after only finding out about bento box lunches this year?! I am so excited to hit the big #100 (for many reasons) and so here is a fun polar bear bento as number 99.

The polar bear is a little onigiri rice ball with nori face details, and a cucumber skin and radish skin holly detail on her ear. Also in this bento box: steamed broccoli, apple 'rabbits' made from Lambert's Apples, half of a radish, baby carrots, and a homemade pork patty.

I also did some festive nail art last night. This is a plum colored polish for the base, then an awesome holiday sparkle polish from OPI on top. On my thumb I drew a holly leaf with a few little berries (you can barely see them). I did it while watching the movie Inception, which I am still trying to puzzle out. What a trippy movie!

And finally, I made this little video of the first ever Bento Christmas Carol! Special thanks to dragonmamma for her edamame lyric suggestion. I hope this gives you a little chuckle. I am sure it will be the big hit of the holiday season. :)

Stay tuned for my 100th bento post! There will be a big celebration and a fun giveaway. Maybe even cake! :)

Expelliarmus Bentokus!

I went to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 yesterday. It was pretty exciting, and I wore a temporary scar tattoo on my forehead, along with my plastic Harry Potter glasses. Yes, yes I am a huge nerd. But it's so much FUN! The movie was good, although that Harry and Hermione kiss came out of left field and made me feel bad for the 9-year-old kid who decided to celebrate his birthday at the theater. His poor little friends will be scarred for life. To commemorate the beginning of the end, I had to make a Harry Potter bento. ~8-)

This is the younger (kinder, gentler) version of Harry when he was just a little wizard at Hogwarts. Harry is made of onigiri (rice balls) with nori covering the lower onigiri, and nori for the hair, glasses, and eyes. His scar is drawn on with food coloring pens, and his mouth is part of a pink egg sheet. (It was my first try at egg sheet and it worked ok, gotta try again soon.) Harry's Gryffindor scarf is cheddar cheese and bits of red bell pepper. His wand is a pretzel stick with magical white pomegranate seeds (from De'Santis Farms) shooting out the end. There's steamed broccoli, a chunk of roasted delicata squash (from Ridgeview Farms), baby carrots, and a few Aidell's chicken teriyaki meatballs as well.

This bento also works for hapabento's November B.O.M.B. - this month the theme is Squash! I am sure I will have another bento that will fit the theme before November 30th. Check out the B.O.M.B. entries here, and be sure to submit your own.

BIG NEWS: I made a bento calendar for 2011! It's filled with lots of fun pictures of bento, and each month has a special tip to help make bento-ing easier. Check it out here! And if you buy the calendar before November 30th, it's 40% off! Use this code at checkout to get 40% off: 40CLNDRS2011

Glazed Pork Tenderloin with Pineapple Bento

Oh this one was so yummy! I have been using recipes from Everyday Food: Great Food Fast - a wonderful cookbook from Martha Stewart's minions. I say that because Martha does not write these books, her people do. I still love her, but I have to be realistic about these things.

This recipe is from the fall section (love cookbooks arranged by season!) and it was really easy to make. RecipeGirl also raves about this recipe and she posted it on her site. I had some leftover slices of pineapple that I did not roast along with the pork, and those slices ended up in this bento.

Besides the slices of pork and pineapple, there's a small onigiri rice ball that used up the rice we had with the dish, some cilantro sprigs (which are super tasty with pineapple), baby carrots, and fried padron peppers from Crescent Moon Farms.

And I wanted to take a second to introduce my brand new blog! My buddy CocoCarina and I started this hilariously named blog to review restaurants. We have one review under our belts, and will be scoping out a sushi place in the near future. If you plan on dining in the North Bay, be sure to give us suggestions for places to try, and check out our reviews before you dine. Check out Two Girls, One Restaurant here!

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.

Rock The Vote Bento

Whew, I am tired. We did special election night coverage last night and I was at the station until midnight, then I was so amped I couldn't go to sleep so I stayed up til about 2am. Totally dragging today. But we had a great show with lots of local politicos calling in. To celebrate, a bento made quickly with leftovers and a few stars in honor of a fun election day.

In this bento: bbq pork from G&G Supermarket, a fish container of soy sauce, rice balls with nori stars, steamed edamame, a slice of mango, a piece of parsley from Quivira Winery, grapes from De'Santis, and baby carrots. I love magic round bentos!

This bento also celebrates my win in the Food Ninja contest at lafujimama.com. It was SO MUCH FUN to put together a Food Ninja video, and I am thrilled to say that my video won in the video category. My prize: 10 Inch ManPan Saute Pan (4.5 pound) by igourmet.com! Woohoo! Also congrats to Sheri of Happy Little Bento for winning in the photo category. Thank you to everyone who voted for us. You ROCK!

This bento is also included in Shannon's What's For Lunch Wednesday blog. Check it out for great lunch ideas.

Quivira Bento

Living in Sonoma County sure has its benefits, like amazing producers committed to the land. I had the opportunity to interview the farm manager from Quivira Vineyards and Winery last night, Andrew Beedy. He was telling me about an event coming up at the winery on Sunday, November 7th celebrating the harvest and locally raised turkeys. I also interviewed a 4H youth grower, the leader of the 4H Sonoma County Heritage Turkey Project, and the leader of Slow Food Russian River. It was a packed studio! Andrew brought along some goodies from Quivira to showcase the amazing biodynamic farm there and the wonderful things they produce. I immediately started thinking about how to use them in a bento!

I decided to do something simple while I listened to the Giants game (!!) and cooked last night: frittata. So many possibilities! I used eggs, beet greens, and rainbow chard from Quivira to make this simple frittata. I also added a bit of Black Pig Meat Co bacon, because it's delicious, and topped it with cheese. I ate part of the frittata for dinner and saved the rest for today's bento. On top of the slices of frittata are a few nori flowers. There are slices of carrot and a sprig of parsley from Quivira as well. That parsley tastes AMAZING! I think I'll have to make some tabbouleh or salsa verde to really highlight its amazing flavor. There's a rice ball, a radish from Ridgeview Farms, grapes from De'Santis, pepper slices from The Patch, and an oak leaf shaped slice of pepperjack cheese.

It was nice to have this protein packed little bento so I can be fueled up for election night coverage. If there's still time where you live, GO VOTE!

Fear The Sushi Beard!

Ha ha! Today is National Sushi Day in Japan and a few bento buddies are celebrating with a twitterfoodparty showcasing sushi. I have never made sushi rolls before, so this was a perfect opportunity to try it out. I have to say, for my first time, I think I did pretty well. And of course, today the San Francisco Giants could clinch the World Series in Game 5, so I had to make a Fear The Beard Bento! Two birds, one bento.

Fear The Beard refers to closing pitcher Brian Wilson and his playoff/World Series beard. It's quite the sight to behold and I am pretty sure he is dying it black with Just For Men dye.

The sushi portion of the bento has mango, coconut shrimp, and cilantro rolls, baby carrots, bbq pork from G&G Supermarket in Santa Rosa, a fish container with soy sauce, and a piece of broccoli.

The Giants portion of the bento has a Brian Wilson onigiri decorated with nori beard and ballcap, cheddar cheese bill, nori eyes, and bell pepper mouth. Also in this section: grapes from De'Santis Farms, purple bell pepper from The Patch in Sonoma, french breakfast radishes from Ridgeview Farms, baby carrots, and steamed edamame. I put a panda pick in the edamame to represent Pablo Sandoval, nicknamed Kung Fu Panda for his wicked hitting skills.

GO GIANTS!

Food Ninja Bento

Today's bento is my entry into the Food Ninja contest. Three bloggers (La Fuji Mama, Salty Seattle, and bell'alimento) have put together a fun contest in which we get to show off our mad ninja skills. I chose to make a video with a trip to the Farmers Market (naturally), a stop off at Asia Mart, and then a big reveal of my Food Ninja Bento. It's quite silly with Japanese subtitles, ninja poses, and a (forced) cameo by my husband. I'll reveal the video soon. Heather of La Fuji Mama asked me to do a guest post about my Food Ninja Bento, and I was delighted to comply. Check it out here.

In this bento: a star onigiri, a quail egg ninja with radish weapons, slices of boiled lotus root, steamed yellow beans from Orchard Farms, edamame, cherry tomatoes from Middleton Farms, boiled purple potatoes from Orchard Farms, steamed broccoli, teriyaki chicken meatballs from Aidell's, and a few fried padron peppers from Crescent Moon Farms.

A special shout out to the AMAZING Sheri of Happy Little Bento for her ninja egg inspiration. I am sure many bentoists like me admire Sheri's crazy Food Ninja skills. You too can enter the Food Ninja contest! Entry deadline is October 24th at 10pm PST. There's awesome prizes, too!

Oh My Stars!

My mom is originally from the midwest and one of her favorite sayings is "Oh My Stars!" It cracks me up. And since I get to see her this weekend in Seattle, I thought I would make a starry bento.

This bento has cherry tomatoes from Ridgeview Farms and Triple T Ranch, corn from Duffy at the Santa Rosa Farmers Market, star shaped onigiri rice balls with black sesame seed accents, and a few grapes from Schletewitz Family. In the lower compartment: another star onigiri, baby carrots, steamed edamame, and chicken prepared kind of like karaage (Japanese style fried chicken) but with a glaze.

I have to head to the airport soon, so I'll try to come back and post the recipe while I am waiting for my flight. Have a great weekend Bento Buddies, and maybe I will run into you in Seattle. :)

Bento Smurf

Oh yes I did. My buddy Carina asked me to do this bento a while ago, and I had some leftover blue rice from my 50th bento post, so today's the day, Carina! It's Bento Smurf, who I think is related somehow to Handy Smurf. :)

In this bento: grapes from De'Santis, steamed broccoli, carrots, cherry tomatoes from French Garden, a turkey patty (hidden under Bento Smurf), Chocorooms, blue rice onigiri in the shape of a smurf and decorated with cheese and nori seaweed details. I stuck on his nose and ear with a skewer of spaghetti.

These are Chocorooms which I found at Daiso, but I have since seen them at many asian markets. They are pretty tasty!

I had a lot of fun making this bento, and also had time to head to the Santa Rosa Original Certified Farmers Market to get more bento ingredients. Here's a video of the market in action, and a few shots of the food I bought.

I absolutely loved this father/daughter band at the market. They were doing a bunch of killer tunes on accordion and drums. Who would have thought that combo would make a great band??

I am very excited to let you know about an interview I did with Sheri of Happy Little Bento! The interview is all about bentos and will air this Monday, August 23rd at about 5:30pm PST. You can listen to the interview locally on KSRO 1350 AM, or if you are out of the area, tune in online at ksro.com. Just click on the Listen Live link (upper right corner) on Monday afternoon. Thanks bento friends, and a HUGE thank you to Sheri for talking with me and helping to spread the bento love.

Don't forget to enter my 50th Bento Post Giveaway!

Starry Spice Bento

My hubby and I finally went to visit a new spice shop in Santa Rosa called Savory Spice Shop. It is part of a franchise based in Denver and the new shop here is just a few months old. They sell online if you aren't near one of their shops.

Oh. My. God. It's like Disneyland for Foodies! We went a little crazy because my husband likes to make spice rubs and I was trying hard to show some restraint when browsing the curry aisle. I gave in and bought this wonderful mix called Vietnamese Sweet Lemon Curry.

I also ended up with Honey Powder, Italian Black Truffle Salt (!), Vanilla Bean Sugar, and Medium Yellow Curry. So much for restraint! Ha! I used the curry to make more turkey patties for bento stash.

In this bento: an orange bell pepper, grapes from De'Santis Farms, cherry tomatoes from Ridgeview Farms, a turkey patty topped with cheese stars, a mini purple rice onigiri decorated with nori stars, a radish from Triple T, cucumber slices, and a few more cherry tomatoes 'cause they taste so good.

I used a punch to make the nori stars and wrapped a strip of nori with a star hole in it around the mini onigiri. I think it turned out really cute!

Recipe for Vietnamese Sweet Lemon Curry Turkey Patties

4 oz ground turkey

1/2 tablespoon Vietnamese Sweet Lemon Curry blend

a few grinds of pepper

1 tablespoon minced onion

1 grated clove of garlic

1 egg yolk

a few drops of toasted sesame oil

1/2 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon corn starch

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl. Heat olive oil in a pan over medium/medium high heat. Shape mixture into small patties. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes in oil until browned, then gently flip patties and continue cooking until patties are browned on both sides and cooked through. Watch the heat and turn it down if the patties are browning too quickly. Makes 4 or 5 small patties.

A Big Thank You to everyone who has been following my bento adventures on this blog. Tomorrow look for a cool giveaway to celebrate my 50th Sonoma Bento post!

Fuzzy Wuzzy Wuz A Bear

Thanks to Tona-mama of Kimi's Little Adventure blog, I now know what pork floss is, and have been able to track it down at my local asian market. Thanks Tona-mama!

I used pork floss, which was labeled as pork fu at the Asia Mart in Santa Rosa, to cover these three onigiri rice balls to make a little teddy bear. The pork floss has a kind of carpet like texture. I made the onigiri by hand, then rolled them in the pork floss. The details are made with nori seaweed and provolone cheese, and a little heart pick. The flavor of the pork floss is somewhat sweet, but also has a soy taste to it. It's kind of like those burnt ends of a pork loin or pork ribs.

Also in this bento: steamed corn on the cob from the Santa Rosa Original Certified Farmers Market, edamame, cherry tomatoes, a pineapple flavored jelly candy, a slice of purple sweet potato with a piece of provolone on top, and my first ever "rabbit" apple (it's supposed to look like a rabbit with his little ears, mine not so much). I used a Gravenstein Apple from Walker Apples. Gravenstein Apples are a special treat here in Sonoma County. They have been grown here since the early 1800's. We have a fair to celebrate the Gravenstein Apple each year in Sebastopol and this August 14th and 15th will mark the 100th Anniversary of the Gravenstein Apple Fair! I can't wait!

You may have noticed a few changes on my blog. I now have my own Etsy.com shop! I do a bit of crafting in my spare time and I made these cute little bento box felt straps to hold bento boxes together. This is a smiling onigiri. If you want to see more of my bento box felt straps, and perhaps get one for yourself, check out Sonoma Bento on Etsy.com.

Caterpillar Bento

Two posts in one day?! I am actually catching up over the weekend. Yesterday I tried out traditional bento ingredients like inarizushi and a mango rice cake. Today I am using an idea I saw on KidsDreamWork.com in which you mix purple sweet potato into rice to make purple rice! It worked really well.

In this bento: three hand shaped purple onigiri with slices of olive for eyes, a red pickled ginger mouth, and spaghetti antennae, a piece of steamed corn, steamed romano green beans from Crescent Moon Farms, cherry tomatoes with a CUTE leaf pick, and fried padron peppers also from Crescent Moon Farms. If you are wondering where to get purple sweet potatoes, I suggest checking your local asian market. I found the potato used in this bento in San Francisco's Nijiya Market, but today I discovered the same kind of purple sweet potatoes at the Asia Mart on Guerneville Road in Santa Rosa. They may also be called Hawaiian Okinawa Sweet Potatoes. They are white skinned with a deep purple flesh.

To make purple rice, simply mash some cooked purple sweet potato and them mix it into cooked rice. Shape it using a piece of plastic wrap covering your hand, so that it doesn't stick to your fingers.

Happy Heart Bento

Today I busted out the Magic Round Bento for a simple bento lunch. I used green beans (blanched) from Crescent Moon Farms, baby carrots, watermelon "flowers", a piece of lime, a few cherry tomatoes from Triple T Ranch, two teriyaki meatballs from Aidell's, and a heart-shaped onigiri. The face on the heart is made from black sesame seeds, nori (toasted seaweed), and a piece of pickled ginger. Hidden underneath it all are a few slices of cucumber, also from Crescent Moon Farms.

If you haven't yet, you should really check out the Santa Rosa Original Certified Farmers Market. I normally go on Wednesdays, because I work a lot on weekends. They are open year-round, rain or shine, and it's the perfect place to find hyper local food, and great artisan products. Today there was a big group of kindergarteners on a field trip. They were jumping around and just super excited to check out the market, so cute. And if you go to the Santa Rosa Original Certified Farmers Market this Saturday, you can enjoy FREE red, white, and blue shortcake! They will have mini shortcakes topped with whipped cream and local berries. YUM!

On a side note, I am trying out a few new items in my bento box lunches, namely pickles. I got some takuan (pickled daikon radish), umeboshi (pickled plum), and beni shoga (red pickled ginger). So far, I have only tried the beni shoga. I like it!

Also, I am featuring this bento box lunch on the What's For Lunch website. Fun!

Froggy Bento

No frogs were harmed in the making of this bento. Aaaag! Isn't this the cutest thing evah!?! I picked up this bento box at Uwajimaya in Seattle. And of course, I had to fill it with frog onigiri. This idea came from a wonderful new book that I also picked up at Uwajimaya, called Yum-Yum Bento Box. If you are interested in learning how to do bento boxes, I really recommend this book. It has so many great ideas.

To make the frog onigiri, I tinted the rice with green food coloring, and used my teddybear onigiri mold to make the frog faces. Their eyes are provolone cheese and nori, nori smiles, and black sesame seed noses. There are also carrots, arugula, a radish and sugar snap peas from Crescent Moon Farms, and chicken nuggets.

The frog bento box has an upper compartment with a air tight lid, and I put in some overly ripe mango slices (they kind of turned to mush), and cherries from the farmers market, with a little slice of lime.

Wine Pairing Suggestion: This is a fairly light, and definitely fruity (and completely silly) bento lunch, so how about some bubbly? What could be better with a frog-themed bento box lunch, than a glass of Toad Hollow Vineyards Amplexus Crémant Brut Sparkling Wine? It's toadally delicious. And the folks at Toad Hollow have great senses of humor, which would pair so well with this lunch.

Making Onigiri

My friend Coco wanted to know how I make the shaped rice balls (called onigiri) that I put in my bento box lunches. This post is for you, Coco! I bought a onigiri maker at Asia Mart on Guerneville Road in Santa Rosa. It has three different shapes you can use. In this bento lunch, I chose the heart shape to match my heart shaped mini quiche. Also in this bento box: baby carrots, a container of soy sauce, watermelon radish, grapes, a small piece of purple broccolini, and white strawberries.

The white strawberries are a variety called Mara des Bois, and they taste more like tutti frutti than strawberries. They do not grow to the size of the strawberries you get at the grocery store, but then again, those strawberries have little flavor. I got these white strawberries at the Sebastopol Farmers Market from Nancy at Middleton Farms. She is an amazing producer, always has quality stuff.

On to the onigiri lesson! You can click on the images for a larger view. (Figure 1) The onigiri mold has removeable bottoms and a lid that comes off. Many people recommend wetting the onigiri mold before filling it. Water, or water with some salt in it will help keep the rice from sticking to your mold. (Figure 2) Fill the mold about 1/3 of the way with cooked rice. I use cold rice, but you can use warm rice too. (Figure 3) If you want to, put a small bit of filling in the center of the rice mold. I used leftover barbequed brisket from BBQ Smokehouse in Sebastopol, hands down the best BBQ in Sonoma County. Do not use really wet fillings as they will leak out of the onigiri. (Figure 4) Fill the mold with more rice until you are a little bit over the top of the mold, but to not pack it in, just lightly fill it. (Figure 5) Place the top of the mold over the rice and press firmly straight down. If you have not added enough rice, carefully remove the lid and add a bit more. Carefully remove the top lid after the shape has been molded.

(Figure 6) Gently push the bottom of the mold up through the opening at the top of the mold. (Figure 7) You'll see that the heart shaped onigiri is carefully making its way out of the top of the mold. (Figure 8) Once the rice ball is free of the mold, carefully remove the bottom piece of the mold from the rice ball. (Figure 9) Place the onigiri in your bento box and embellish it with sesame seeds or a cute soy paper cut out.

I have cutters in different shapes for cutting soy paper or nori (seaweed) in cute shapes. Soy paper and nori can be found in asian markets and also at Sonoma County's G&G Shopping Centers.