Mochiko Chicken Bento

A lovely visit to the Santa Rosa Original Certified Farmers Market yesterday means I can now fill my bento lunches with local veggies and fruits. This bento has items from a few different local farmers.

In this bento: lime mochiko chicken, a hard boiled quail egg, slices of armenian cucumber from Redwood Empire Farm, orange cherry tomatoes from Ridgeview Farms, padron peppers and a mini Pink Pearl apple from Triple T Ranch and Farms, and a yakionigiri rice ball from Trader Joe's.

I was super excited to try these gorgeous apples from Triple T Ranch and Farms. The interior has a bright blush of pink extending from the skin towards a white interior. Larry of Triple T helped me pick out a few small apples perfect for bento. Some of the apples in this photo have apple scab, which is just an outer flaw on the apple, it doesn't extend into the rest of the fruit. These are tart, juicy little apples. I just love them!

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!

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!

Overtime Bento

You probably won't see many bentos from me in the next week. My coworker is off on vacation (his started the day I came back from Seattle), so that means that I am doing both my job and his. No time to breathe! It means I am here for very long days, with little chance to leave the office, so I have to be prepared. I bought these two bentos at a store called Tokyo Japanese Lifestyle in Seattle. They are matching colors and will hopefully work well enough to keep me from dying of hunger through these long days of work.

In the large bento: caprese skewers, a few slices of Armenian cucumber from Redwood Empire Farms, steamed corn on the cob from Ortiz Farms, fried padron peppers and tamagoyaki omelette from Crescent Moon Farms, and rice with a nori flower and beni shoga pickled red ginger.

This is an onigiri box, but I was too lazy to make an onigiri rice ball for this bento. In the lower compartment: edamame tossed with soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, powdered ginger, a bit of sugar, and black sesame seeds, plus some cherry tomatoes from Ridgeview Farms. In the upper container: more rice with beni shoga and black sesame seeds.

Happy Bentoing! I'll chat with you again when I come up for air. :)

Eggs In A Basket

The dish called Eggs In A Basket, also known as Toad In The Hole (at least to some of us in the U.S.) is a piece of bread with a shape cut out of the center of the bread, and an egg fried inside of that hole. Toad In The Hole in the UK is sausage cooked in a Yorkshire pudding type batter. This bento features a mini version of Eggs In A Basket.

Also in this bento: fried shishito peppers (similar to padron peppers) and orange cherry tomatoes from Crescent Moon Farms, Toad In The Hole decorated with a few black sesame seeds, a sprig of purslane, radishes from Triple T Ranch, baby carrots, half of a Gravenstein Apple from Walker Apples, and two turkey patties (they are still frozen in this pic).

Beverage Pairing Suggestion: Since I usually call this dish Toad In The Hole, a glass of Toad Hollow Vineyard wine is a perfect match! Toad Hollow makes a stainless steel Chardonnay that is crisp and great with fried foods, like the fried peppers and Toad In The Hole. It will also work well with the turkey patties (after they thaw out!), and its crisp flavor and nice acidity should balance well with the fruits and veggies.

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.

Hotsy Totsy Bento

This bento is not especially hot or spicy, per se, but I thought it had enough oomph to call for devils and this fiery fabric as a background. I think I got the devil cocktail charms at Archie McPhee in Seattle. I love that store so much, I lurve it! I don't see them on Archie's site right now, but Amazon may have them: Cocktail Demons

In this hotsy totsy bento: a half hard boiled egg, blueberries, raspberries, and slices of deep red plum from Neufeld Farms. In the lower compartment: slices of lemon cucumber from Crescent Moon Farms, a flower shaped open face sandwich with ham, provolone, and smoked paprika (I broiled it to melt the cheese a bit), cherry tomatoes, and pan fried padron peppers from Crescent Moon Farms. I picked up the cool star shaped silicone muffin liner from Cost Plus this weekend, along with the jar of pimenton (smoked paprika).

If you have never tried padron peppers, I highly recommend them! I get mine from Crescent Moon Farms each year. These were the first of the season. Preparation is so easy, you really don't even need a recipe. Heat some olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Add the peppers whole, and fry them until they are softened and brown on the outside. Toss with sea salt and serve. Once in a while you will get a hotter pepper, but they are generally mild, and so flavorful. You can also use this method with shishito peppers, a japanese cousin of padrons.

These lemon cucumbers from Crescent Moon Farms were really delicious. Look for smaller lemon cucumbers, otherwise you will get nothing but seeds inside.

Gooooooaaaaallllll!

My sweetie pie had a four day weekend this past weekend, and it made me bento lazy. But yesterday we did manage to head dowtown for a little World Cup Fever. I wanted Holland to win, but alas, they didn't. It was a pretty good game, though, chest kick and all!

After the game, I headed to the pool for some chillaxin time. I made this little snack bento to enjoy while I got some rays. In the magic round bento: slices of Valley Ford Cheese Co. Estero Gold cheese, pan fried padron peppers from Crescent Moon Farms, slices of lemon cucumbers from Crescent Moon Farms, cherry tomatoes, raspberries, a few blueberries, and half of a plum from Neufeld Farms.

I made the little Spanish flag from a set I got at Cost Plus Market. For some reason, it didn't have the coat of arms on it. And I had to make nails to match! I only show the Spanish set, not the other hand with the Dutch flag on it.

Pretty hard to make soccer balls, they look a bit more like cows, huh? Moooooo-oooaaaaallll!