Leftover Bento and Bentobird Visit

This is a bento I made with more leftovers from Sizzling Tandoor. I used both the chicken tikka masala that I ordered, and the leftover lamb vindaloo that my hubby ordered. Both were great with the rice, and I just turned the whole thing out into a bowl and warmed it in the microwave at work for lunch. Yum!

In the smaller container: a slice of tangerine from The French Garden, a cherry plum from De'Santis Farms, and a few flower shaped pieces of watermelon.

My friend Jenn, also known as Bentobird, has posted about her trip to the Santa Rosa Farmers Market! She also has some great photos and descriptions of a visit to Point Reyes. It is really fun to see your home through someone else's eyes, especially someone who loves color and whimsy as much as Bentobird. I encourage you to follow her bento and food adventures on her blog.

Speaking of adventures, I am about to head off to Seattle to go to my 20 year high school reunion (eeek) and spend time with my adorable and brilliant niece (she's learning German and French at 6 months old!) and family. I see an inflight bento in my near future!!

Crepes and Cherry Plums Bento

As I type this, the smell of bacon is wafting through the office. Our afternoon talk show host just finished talking to Duskie Estes and John Stewart of Zazu and Bovolo Restaurants, and they brought their own Black Pig Meat Co. bacon which they cooked up in the studio. I was able to sneak a taste, otherwise I would be crying as well as hungry right now. Duskie and John won the recent Cochon 555 competition in Aspen, so they are the official Queen and King of Pork! Woohoo!

Sadly, there's no bacon in this bento. But it was still tasty. This bento features items I picked up at the Santa Rosa Original Certified Farmers Market yesterday when I went there with fellow bento maker, Bentobird!

In this bento: crepes with turkey, colby jack cheese, and wilted arugula from Ridgeview Farms. Also baby carrots, french breakfast radishes from Ridgeview Farms, a few broccoli spears, and cherry plums from DeSantis Farms. The cherry plums were a bit tart, but so cute and perfect size for a bento. It was really fun to show off my favorite farmers market to a fellow bento buddy.

Here is the video I made of my recent adventures at the Sonoma County Hot Air Balloon Classic. Enjoy!

Food Themed Nail Art and Bento

I entered a fun nail art contest on Leslie's blog called "Nail Polish Art Addiction" - an addiction I share, by the way. Her contest required entrants to make food themed nail designs, so it totally combines two of my favorite things: food and nail art! Here is my entry:

Trout Nails! These are actually fairly easy to do, so if you are a nail art novice, you could make these yourself without too much trouble. It's just a series of stripes for the base of the fishies, then some dots for the pattern and the eyes of the trout. If you have a second, I would love a vote in my favor this week. Here is the link to see all of the entries. There are some really creative ones, even some sushi nails!

And here is a bento I made recently with some farmers market supplies: cucumber slices, orange baby carrots, yellow carrot 'stars' from The French Garden in Sebastopol, a yakionigiri rice ball, tamagoyaki omelette slices, edamame, grapes, and a plum from Hamlow Ranch.

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!