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!
I made this pasta dish last night for dinner, and the leftovers are perfect for bento. You'll also see something I rarely include in bento: fresh lychee fruits! I found them at Trader Joe's. Yum.
In this bento: pasta salad with red onion, tomato from The Patch, basil and armenian cucumber from Redwood Empire Farm, carrots, and shredded chicken. Also a hard boiled quail egg, a mini Gravenstein Apple from Redwood Empire Farm, edamame, and lychee fruit.
My hubby and I stopped by the European Food Store in Santa Rosa yesterday. I've been curious about checking it out, as I heard it has various Russian, Polish, and Eastern European food stuffs. I bought some delicious sunflower seed bread, some tea and coffee, and this fun bottle of mayo-mustard spread from a company called Zakuson. Upon closer examination, it looks like the company is based in Toronto. But the label just cracked me up. The guy looks totally crazy! The spread is pretty mild, nothing special, but it works well on this sandwich.
In this bento: baby carrots, a mini Gravenstein Apple from Redwood Empire Farms, and a sandwich with sunflower seed bread from the European Food Store, slices of tomato from The Patch, sopressata, mayo-mustard spread, and butter. Насладитесь вашей едой!
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!
I've named this bento after what happened today, which after the last month, really seems like a miracle. :-) For almost a month, I have been covering for one or another vacationing co-worker on the morning news show. That means rolling out of bed at 4am, being coherent enough to write news stories at 4:30am, and then having enough brain power to talk without stumbling over my tongue at 5:30am. And I also had to do my own regular job in addition to covering the morning show. Ouchie. So this is really a celebration of the fact that I got up at a reasonable time today, and had the energy to actually make a bento. This is a small one, but I need to take baby steps while getting back into bento.
In this bento: yakionigiri from Trader Joe's, slices of peach jam-glazed pork (peach jam is from Dry Creek Peach and Produce), a fresh fig, baby carrots, and slices of Early Girl tomato from The Patch. I'm going to Party on the Plaza in Rohnert Park tomorrow, so I will have time to do more market shopping then... gotta restock for delicious summer time bentos. I missed you, bento buddies!
I am playing with your mind in this bento! What looks like a strawberry is actually a slice of watermelon radish! Moohoohahaha! I guess it would have been even more subversive if I had cut it in the shape of a watermelon, huh?
In this bento: corn from the Santa Rosa Original Certified Farmers Market, bbq pork from G&G Supermarket in Santa Rosa, slices of armenian cucumber from Redwood Empire Farms, the crazy strawberry shaped watermelon radish slice (from Orchard Farms), tamagoyaki omelette made with an egg from Hector's Honey, a bit of Violet Queen Broccoli (so pretty and tasty) from Orchard Farms, and lightly steamed green beans from The Patch. Super local bento!
And here's a look back at the bento I made a year ago today. Quite fun, it's got an ant made from olives and nori, plus teeny tiny deviled eggs made from hard boiled quail eggs. Tee hee!
Sorry I am not posting so much right now. I am covering the morning show again for coworkers, so my bento making is not happening as often (if I tried to make bento at 4am when I have to get up, they would be very ANGRY bentos), and when I do make them, it's mostly leftovers. Not so inspiring. Only 3 more weeks of covering the morning show! Zzzzzzzz....
I just got back from a nice long visit to see my family in Washington State. This was the longest vacation I have had in over 5 years, so it was really nice to not be rushed and have the time to relax. Of course, it was also a great reason to make airplane bento box lunches!
My first bento for the trip from Santa Rosa to Seattle contained falafel from Trader Joes, a few kalamata olives, cherries from the Neufeld Farms, caprese skewers, and spinich bolani made in the Bay Area.
Of course, while I was in Washington State, I had to go bento shopping. I found some fun bento boxes for my sister in law, my brother, and even baby sized bento boxes for my little niece. My bro decided to make bentos for us for a picnic to a local winery. I have to admit I got a little bossy and assembled my own bento, so he was kind of peeved. But I really do like his bento, it's the larger black one with the sandwich wrapped in wax paper. Our bentos had either eggs or egg salad sandwiches, radishes, cucumber, carrots, apples, bell pepper slices, and broccoli. Very healthy!
And here's the bento I made for my plane trip back from Seattle. My sister and I stopped at a great asian market in Kent, Washington called 99 Ranch Market. We got some delicious roasted duck, which I included in this bento. Also edamame, carrots, rainier cherries, and cucumber slices.
Here's a video of the shenanigans I got up to playing with my little niece. I made shirts for the Aunties to celebrate Auntie Palooza 2011. Hee hee!
I live, work, cook, and play in Sonoma County, California. Our year-round farmers markets make it easy and fun to eat healthy, seasonal food. I also love nail art, and will share it with you here.
