Retro-posted from 5/22/2010- a Bento Picnic!

HB and I decided to have a picnic and I thought to bring my new bento box (and a box for HB) since I had just packed it. We ended up sharing the contents of both boxes. Together with a blanket and a big container of homemade mint iced tea, it was a great lunch. A good way to celebrate a lovely warm day.

This is my inaugural bento for the ELPH box!

Contents of Bento:

lid: cashews and a piece of chocolate fudge. Top tier: okazu with vegetables and quorn pieces in a sweet soy type sauce, sweet black beans (simmered with brown sugar and soy sauce), lettuce, carrot cutouts. Bottom tier: mixed white and brown short grain rices and SUPER CUTE CARROT ELEPHANT! Look! He has a heart coming out of his widdle trunk.

Here is a detail of my awesome charben attempt:

Can you tell I'm just so pleased with myself?

Here is HB's box, which is very plain looking. We shared the decor from the Elph box set.

Contents of bento: Carrots, hummus with red pepper, and onigiri on a bed of lettuce. The onigiri are stuffed some with Branston Pickle (mmmmm, I got addicted to this stuff when I lived in England) and some with Indian Garlic Pickle. For some reason, American food is not really served with relishes or pickles or things like in other countries. I mean, we have ketchup (ugh) or a dill spear, but it's really a different kettle of fish. Stuff like Branston Pickle or Indian pickles (I also like mango pickle) take time to prepare and are just jam-packed with flavor. They both made fairly decent onigiri filling, obviously not very Japanese-tasting, though.

We also had another side car

with more cashews and chocolate fudge. I think we also had a little bowl with some fresh (overripe) mango goo in it.

All in all, a great picnic, with lots of tasty, tasty foods.

4/28/2010- Lemony Spanish Chickpeas

Once again, the lemony Spanish chickpeas recipe makes an appearance. This time I actually consulted the recipe, from Moosewood Restaurant Celebrates, and it came out pretty good. The first time I made it, I cooked them for almost 3 hours at really low heat after caramelizing the onions really thoroughly. I have not had the chance to repeat that process, but the quicker-cooking version I made for this dish came out very tasty. It's basically a saffron and garlic-flavored tomato sauce with chickpeas and lemon juice. I like it because it satisfies my never ending craving for tomato sauces, but it's not Italianate. A little something different. If you would like to know how to make lemony Spanish chickpeas, you'll have to buy the book or check it out at your local library.

Contents of Bento: mixed short grain brown and white rice (2 parts white to 1 part brown) topped with a takuan sun. Festive! Spanish lemony chickpeas garnished with an asparagus spear.

So, a pretty plain bento, sun deco aside. But I wanted something I could nuke at work, and this seemed to work really well. Of course, the takuan stained the rice yellow, but that's ok.

4/24/2010- Tiny Pesto Bowties

I love the tiny pastas that Barilla sells. They were on sale at the grocery so I had to get some. They are absolutely perfect in bento boxes. They also cook really quickly.

Contents of Bento: Tiny bowties with pesto and capers, small breads, tomato bruschetta under the two cheese hearts, frozen cherries, carrot sticks. Two cheese people, who are clearly in love.

This is my lame attempt at charben. But I think it's kind of sweet. I tried something new with the bruschetta. I filled up the silicon cup, and then laid and tucked this plastic lacy sheet over and around it. (The plastic was from part of a wrapper around really fancy Brazilian bon-bons--don't ask.) I was hoping that the surface tension of the bruschetta would keep it neat and tidy. For the most part it worked! Hooray!

The people cut-outs were from tiny cookie cutters that I've had for a while. The heart cut-outs (of cheese and carrot) were free handed. I'm actually getting pretty good at those carrot hearts. They're really not that hard to do.

2/26/2010- Pizza Bento for Friday again

HB and I just spent a very long weekend away for my birthday. We stayed at the Vendue Inn in Charleston on the day and had a really fancy, delicious dinner at S.N.O.B. (Slightly North of Broad) which was in walking distance from our hotel. A really, really awesome trip. We also got to see AJ and US. I had never been to their home before, but it was a real treat. Yay trip! Yay birthday! Boo being home (by comparison)! and Boo School!

Friday before we left I packed another pizza-for-Friday bento.

Contents of Bento: 2 mini pizzas from Trader Joe's, plain penne as a barrier (Natural Baran!) between the pizza and the broccoli, 2 lady apples, lemon-headed septopus with carrot legs and smile, black sesame seeds for eyes. The side car is some delicious marinara sauce for the pizza, pasta, and broccoli.

The rare lemon-headed septopus is in the Octopode family, but naturally only has 7 legs rather than 8. It is shy, preferring coral reefs to the ocean floor, and has a special penchant for broccoli. Be sure to check your broccoli at the store in case there is an immature septopus hiding in the florets.

Since the penne is a natural baran, I'm also linking this to Hapa Bento's B.O.M.B. contest for March. The penne did a good job of keeping the moist broccoli off of the pizza. Everything else was delicious--I heated the sauce a little bit for max-tastiness.

1/28/2010- Scary Monster Spinach Knish

Another charben attempt. Everyone is shocked, I know. I had intended to just take this lovely spinach knish from the deli counter, but it looked sooooo monstrous in the box...well, the carrot decorations just got away from me.

Contents of Bento: Massively scary spinach knish monster with carrot fangs, eyes, and toes (feet-idies). Decorated (?) radish, pomegranate seeds, broccoli sauteed with garlic and soy sauce, red pepper spread in the pink silicon cup. It sort of looks like the monster's gore, or something.

I know this definitely doesn't qualify as "pretty," but I think it's pretty funny, so maybe that works. I suppose I should have put some of the "gore" around his mouth. I thought the yellow stains from when the knish was originally cooked looked fearsome enough.

I took the knish out to heat it. Everything else was deeeeeelicious. The broccoli was part of what HB made the night before for dinner. I have been up to my eyeballs in school work (3 projects due on the 30th. wtf??) so he has been bringing me a study dinner in my little office. Verrrry nice :D and prevents me from subsisting entirely on granola bars and tea.

1/27/2010- Taquito and Pig Bento

No, it's not Taquitos with Pork...there's clearly a Pig in my bento box. (At least, I hope it clearly looks like a pig...)

Contents of Bento: black bean and cheese taquito, split into two pieces, clementine. Black beans with salsa, carrot sticks, pomegranate seeds, 1/2 a prune (for purple color). Carrot flower decorations. Steamed broccoli with PIG radish, his eyes are a little askew in this picture, see below for a more glamorous shot. Side cars have salsa with a little yogurt and multigrain corn chips. The Bear of Salt is eying the pig. Good thing pandas only eat bamboo.

I didn't end up eating the side cars, because there was food at work from a breakfast party.

So, my little pig. Have a look at a closer shot:
awwww, look at 'im. He looks so mad. :D his snout is a slice of carrot, he is a radish (obvs.), and his nostrils and eyes are sesame seeds. The snout is held on by a little piece of an orange toothpick. Since I'm not making bentos for tiny children, I can put dangerous-choking hazards in them. He started out as a mouse, with big round ears, but then quickly turned into a pig once I realized I didn't have a good way to make his face look mouse-like. I trimmed the ears to be pointy-piggy ears. They're big and floppy, like some pigs are. Woo! First Char-ben attempt.