Bento #8

Today's bento looks a little anorexic due to the lack of filler material. And yes, there are only two spears of asparagus. I'm not so keen on eating it. I enjoyed picking the vegetable when it grew along the irrigation canals of my parents farmland. I like the way it looks. I enjoy cooking it. Just don't make me eat it! However since it is in my fridge and I have vowed to not let food go to waste, I figured a little bit couldn't hurt me.

The wedges that sorta look like colored onigiri are actually a sort of potato pancake or omelet. I learned that this is what people in Spain call a tortilla. A Spanish tortilla isn't like Mexican tortilla, which is made of flour or corn. Rather, its more like an Italian frittata, but with more emphasis on the potato than the egg. Cookie cutters would be perfect for shaping this treat!

Lastly, this bento features a Copper Penny Salad. It's a refreshing way to serve sliced carrots, and I hear celery, bell pepper, or cucumber could go well in it too. There really isn't "one" way to make this side dish, so feel free t adapt it to your tastes! (I've tried to put some measurement values for reference.)

3 carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
~ 2 cups of water
2 tablespoons cider vinegar (I used rice vinegar because its what I have on hand.)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon of an herb of your choice (I prefer dill or parsley)
1/2 teaspoon sugar
Salt & Black Pepper to taste

1. Add a dash of salt to the water and bring it to a boil. Add the sliced carrots, and cook for about 10 minutes, or until they are just tender.

2. Strain the carrots and let them drain. (If you are into making your own broth stocks, you can strain the cooking water into a bowl to save it.)

3. Mix the vinegar, oil, herbs, sugar, salt, and pepper in a bowl. Add the carrots and toss with a spoon until the carrots are well coated.

4. Refrigerate until ready to eat!

Sandwich Bento (#4)

Leftovers and sandwiches adorn today's bento. I hung out with my best friend yesterday: cleaned house, got pedicures, went grocery shopping, and showed her the latest nonsense I've been into (sushi making of course :P).

We found some crabsticks while running around town, which prompted a session of "roll-play" in my kitchen that evening (ahahaha). I discovered that it was much easier to roll the sheet when there was a firm ingredient in it. We also gave hand building of sushi a try, but didn't have much success. Too much rice was made, resulting in the leftovers in the bento today. Not sure how well the refrigerated sushi will hold up, but here's to experimentation!

I made buns for sandwiches as well yesterday. We have a bread machine and I'd like to try to use it more often. The problem is that we don't have a good way to slice the bread. So I figured I could make dough in it and make rolls and buns for sandwiches and such for now. I used a recipe with wheat flour, so I can't quite tell if I over browned them in the oven or not. Nevertheless, they made a yummy looking chicken sandwich!

In my attempt to be creative, I ended up arranging some carrot curls, cheese, and smoked sausage on toothpick "skewers." Here is a close up:

Bento #1

I finally did it. I created a blog about food (aka succumbed to the trend of creating a bento blog). I hope to make this a place to compile and share my creations and cool ideas that I find along the way. I'm terrible with cameras, but I have vowed to make an attempt at including pictures with my posts (however awful they may be), and do what I can to become a better photographer. (LOL...I can dream, can't I?)



So today we have bento #1, the first official bento for this blog. I will admit that the creation of this bento was a bit of an ordeal, being that it was going to be photographed and displayed to the entire online community.In all seriousness, I did lose a bit of sleep trying to plan it out in my head. (I'll get over it eventually >.>) Today's creation is a "Sushi Bento." It consists of veggie sushi, chicken stuffed bun, and a onigiri with carrot & sesame furikake. I had been wanting to make sushi for about a year or so, but was unable to track down the necessary ingredients until recently. We need more culture in the Pandhandle of Texas! I will probally be sticking to vegetables in the sushi for now until a.) I get better at making it, or b.) I move somewhere that has better access to fresh fish. Putting sushi in a bento probably won't be a norm unless due to the prep time required for it. I got up extra early today though so Art Guy would have special bento for lunch. I made the chicken buns the day before completely from scratch, dough and all. I'm gonna look into adapting the recipe for bread machine use, cause I can't see myself having enough time to babysit bread dough all day long on regular basis. I wanted to decorate it a bit, and being the girl that I am, I want to make everything cute and pretty. But this is Art Guy's bento, and not mine. So I thought I could still make veggie flowers as long as they weren't too girly. Here's my attempt at more "manly" flowers:



Not to bad, eh?

Sadly, I don't own a "real" bento box yet. I use a Lock&Lock plastic box, which is nice because it seals well and the lid easily clips on and off. Apparently there is a Lock&Lock box with removable dividers, but our wal-mart doesn't seem to carry those. More info on Lock&Lock here: www.heritagemint.com