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.

Sonoma County Hot Air Balloon Classic Bento

Whew! I am wiped out, but really happy. This morning I was one of the announcers at the 21st Annual Sonoma County Hot Air Balloon Classic. I love this event so much. It was on hiatus last year because of improvements being made to Keiser Park, but I was thrilled to see it back this year. As one of the perks of being a part of the media, I was able to go up in a balloon on Friday. I will post a video of that soon. Today I met another bento buddy in real life: Bentobird!

Ok, so Jenn is a little camera shy, but I really did get my picture with her! She and her sweetie Jamison are in Northern California for a visit and they showed up at the Sonoma County Hot Air Balloon Classic this morning. I am so glad that I made this quick bento (at 4:00am this morning, YIKES) so that I could have a bento when I met another bento pal.

This bento, by necessity, had to be assembled really quickly. I had to be at Keiser Park at 4:30am this morning, yowza! It includes: leftover chow mein from The China Room in Santa Rosa, carrots, broccoli, edamame, and a few grapes. I used cheddar and colby jack cheeses to cut out quick balloon shapes and placed them on the chow mein.

Here is my bento with a giant balloon in the background. I think it would take approximately 1.7 million bento boxes to fill an inflated hot air balloon. That number is not exact. ;-) The balloon in this pic is called Planet Earth and it is based in Albuquerque, NM.

I hope I can see Bentobird again before her visit is over, and if I do, I'll share whatever bento adventures we might have. Sorry if you missed out on the Sonoma County Hot Air Balloon Classic this year, but mark your calendar for Father's Day Weekend 2012 because it will definitely be back, and I will most assuredly be there, too! Ok, now it is time for a NAP!

Butteryaki Salmon Bento

I have been meaning to make this kind of bento for some time now. I saw the simple recipe for butteryaki salmon on Sheri's site, Happy Little Bento. It is a very simple recipe, and I added a bit of grated fresh ginger when adding the shoyu at the end of the process. I ate this bento at home on a weekend, because my coworkers have real issues with fish at work. I would have eaten this cold, so I wouldn't have made the microwave all fishy with my meal, but still, I thought it best to avoid the wrath of my coworkers. They sure can raise a stink (pun intended)!

In this bento: steamed edamame, rice with furikake seasoning (my first time trying furikake and it is so good!), a few carrots, a radish, and a piece of butteryaki salmon with a nori star. This was a smaller bento, but everything was so tasty that I really enjoyed it.

Shepherd's Pie Bento

Holy guacamole! It's been a long time since I posted. Can we call it senioritis? Lots of stuff has been happening behind the scenes: 20 year High School Reunion this summer, vacation to the Pacific Northwest soon, lots of web projects at work, getting ready for the Sonoma County Hot Air Balloon Classic, covering for coworkers who are having babies, covering for coworkers who got new jobs, covering for coworkers who are trying to get into the police academy... and so on.

But I have been making the occasional bento, I just haven't had time to post them. Here is a leftover remake: shepherd's pie!

In this bento: cherries, radish cut with a star shape, carrots, cucumber, steamed edamame, and a mini shepherd's pie. I made this pie with leftover garlic mashed potatoes, leftover burger from a restaurant called Bruno's on 4th, leftover sauteed rainbow chard from Triple T Ranch, and leftover grated parmesan from the La Vera Pizza we ordered. I made 6 of these and froze the other ones. Bento stash!

Have a great day bento buddies! I promise it will not take me another 2 and a half weeks to post the next bento.

Miso Soup Bento

Hi bento pals! Today I tried out a trick that I first discovered through notabrownbag's website. It's portable miso soup! You can buy powdered miso soup packets, and I think I may even have one hiding in one of my desk drawers, but there is nothing like fresh miso paste and delicious cubes of tofu. Today even turned out kind of chilly with a few drizzles, so it's a perfect day for miso soup.

In this bento: steamed white corn, cucumber slices, cherries, my portable miso soup, and breaded pork cutlets leftover from last night's dinner. Portable miso soup is super easy: in the silicone cupcake liner I have a ball of miso paste mixed with a pinch of dashi granules, topped with cubes of tofu and sliced scallions. Dump the all of those ingredients into a bowl and top with hot water. Et voila: Miso Soup!

Note: I have tried making miso soup without dashi, and it just is kind of flat tasting. I found dashi granules at Asia Mart on Guerneville Road in Santa Rosa. It's totally worth it if you are making miso soup at home.

Kung Fu Panda Bento

In honor of Kung Fu Panda 2, which is in theaters today, here is a bento with Po! Bwahahahahahaha! Ok, I have to let you in on a little something that makes Kung Fu Panda even funnier for me, and for all German speakers. The name of the panda in Kung Fu Panda is Po. Po is the word for 'butt' in German. So I really just start giggling like a 7-year old every time I hear his name. Po really knows kung fu! (Butt really knows kung fu!) See?!?! It's HILARIOUS! Ah Hahahahaahahah!

In this bento: edamame, cherries, baby carrots, slices of cucumber, and a bao bun filled with bbq pork. I decorated the bao to look like Po (snort) with nori and provolone cheese. I used a bit of mayonnaise to stick the nori onto the bao. Unfortunately none of the items in this bento are from Sonoma County producers, I just haven't had a lot of time to make it to the Farmers Market. Things are super busy at work. I hope to stop by the market this Saturday.

Here's Po in all his glory (giggle) with all of his kung fu pals! I can't wait to see the new Kung Fu Panda, he's such a great character.

This is also a fun bento because it is my 140th bento, and that means another donation to the Redwood Empire Food Bank! Every 20 bento posts, I make a $20 donation to my local food bank, Redwood Empire Food Bank. That's one dollar per post. They deliver 4 dollars worth of food for every dollar donated and have received a 4-star rating from Charity Navigator for their high level of efficiency. Redwood Empire Food Bank is a really inspiring organization, and I like to help them out in my small way. Bento bloggers are lucky to have the luxury of fun, cute, nutritious food everyday. Some people are not so lucky. I encourage you to make a donation as well, or to donate to your local food bank.

Have a great week bento buddies!