mummies for my honey

I saw this idea on Facebook, only using regular size hot dogs. Regular sized hot dogs might have been easier and more uniform.  I think of them as the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker a la Rub-A-Dub-Dub fame.

The Mister said they looked like three Bedouin mummies.

Happy Halloween!

Elegant Bento

At home lunch on Monday consisted of teriyaki salmon, sauté shiitakes, sushi rice, and garnishes.

A staid and delicious meal to start what would be a chaotic and painful week.

The positive: I'm back in bento again. Big time!

Pinwheels and Piles of Berries Bento

My Daisy Totoro box has one of those heat vents. I'm sure this will come in handy with hot dishes like noodles and teriyaki.

But for a nice Spring day I made some roll ups or wraps or whatever you like to call them - you know basically a tortilla sandwich.

I call them pinwheels because that is how I roll, sista!

And we have a lovely pile of berries to go with the pinwheels. Whee!

I'd be lion if I didn't tell you how much I loved my lunch today.

Cute!

Welcome 2012 bento

Happy lucky wild fun yummy hopeful daring and altogether pleasant new year to you!

This at home bento was yesterday's Martin Luther King Jr. birthday/federal holiday lunch.

Rice balls with a miniature pickled plum. Just add hot water miso soup with tofu. Teri-chicken, kale, black pepper omelet, rainbow cherry tomatoes, and radishes with their tails.

Kokku Sushi Take-Out

Sake Sunday and sushi take-out have met. We went to our favorite Japanese restaurant this Saturday only to discover they no longer serve lunch on the weekends. Terrible! So were started to list off the alternatives and figured we give a try to the one we have never been to, Kokku Sushi. A read "fast food" sushi place.

It had people in there for a lunch hour. Well, that's a good sign. And it has been around for awhile. Another good sign. I ordered combination sushi (a California roll and five nigiri), combination tempura (five vegetable and five shrimp), and two bowls of miso soup.

Came home and plated it up in Mum bento boxes and various little plates.

It was edible. The soup was a little salty. The tempura was a little soggy (probably a by-product of being take-out). The sushi was, well, I'm still alive with no GI problems, and the sushi rice was quite good.

The sake was excellent, of course, served up in my new dragonfly jug and cups that Santa left for me under the tree.

Round and Round We Go Bento

This is a lovely little two-tiered round bento that closes with a Velcro-type strap.

I made twin snacks for him and her. She gets the carrot jewel ring and he gets the pickle (filled with sake).

Both have sushi rice with carrot butterflies and flowers. (It's monarch butterfly season here on the west coast.) Included as well are teriyaki beef and marinated seaweed salad. Portions are small and snack-like.

Those chopsticks on the left are shaped like the chocolate-dipped cookies, Pocky! (Because I'm a kid at heart!)

..where we stop, nobody knows!

Ray of Light Bento

Leftovers, sigh, leftovers. 

This couldn't have been any better. From a Kai Lana Sushi and Seafood lunch with the addition of tiny red tomatoes and a hardy white wine.

Ooo OooLaLaLa, Bento for Two

"You got me and I got you." Country Joe and the Fish

Teriyaki chicken thighs, two radish mice, rice and mini ume, purple pepper butterfly with Brussels Sprouts in brown butter, and a carrot mum. 

Black & Gold hot sake.

No emoto eating bento

I didn't want to stand in the kitchen and eat a whole pot of rice, but I was going to.

I didn't want to stand at the fridge and eat all of yesterday's leftovers either.

I guess they call this emotional eating when you eat and eat to block out an emotion like sadness.

I'm sad and happy too, but mostly sad because time marches on, and it's great to be 25 years old and you can go anywhere and do anything and your whole life is the future. But you can be sad at 25 because of hormones or your partner doesn't love you as much as you want or your job sucks.

So you think when I'm older, I'll have my sh*t together. I will. I love the people that love me back. I'll do  the things that are fun. I'll have employment that is right for me.

And if you're smart, that is what happens. Things work out for you because you work on them. Hey life isn't easy. It takes a little concentration.

And now I have the partner, the job, the lack of drama (ahhhh!) and I really can't climb mountains anymore (literally) because my joints kinda hurt, but Hey I'm Still Standing! Yeah.

Only. Only. Now I'm old.

Bentoin' all week with you

Monday ! Tuesday ! Bento Days!

Leftover panko chicken and stuffed peppers, and vegetables and brie and crackers.

Mixed salad, chicken sausage and rolled omelet, carrots and tomatoes and hummus, cookies and candy.

Wednesday ! Thursday ! Bento Days!

Tomatoes and mangoes chunked, hummus and peanut butter with bread sticks and kumquats.

Heirloom tomatoes and cottage cheese and a carrot star and thinly sliced radish, pecans and orange slices and bell pepper and carrots and strawberries

Yay!

President Kitty bento

The left side of this bento is leftover from yesterday's romantic lunch. The blue cat is guarding my riches as she has pork and shrimp dumpling in her toes, and the fried chicken has been renamed as "OMG! This Is So Good!" Likely to become my Go-To take-out food.

The right side of Madam President Kitty bento box is roasted peanuts, chocolate-covered raisins, a strawberry, some wild wasabi wonton chips, and two small squares of a seaweed snack that taste salty and nutty.

The flowered teacup is filled with orange spice tea.

So as Hello Kitty purrs, "A Happy Presidents' Day to all my friends and felines!"

The Quiche Purse Bento

Rice balls with sesame oil, and egg and cheese mini quiche inspired by hapa bento, and fresh organic berries, radishes, grape tomatoes, and assorted nuts round up this Sunday snack purse of a bento.

I think of painting the purse and then I cannot decide. What would you do?

Happy First Sunday of 2010!

ps. I'm working on my Foodie Judy blog. Come visit and tell me what you think of the new template.

orange bento

oh no egg salad bento

One egg was used. Cut in half and yolk removed. Bottom half of white mashed together with yolk, mustard, and mayo. Toast was cut in an egg shape and cracked in the middle. Sesame eyes and carrot beak on the face, and it is all laying on a bed of baby greens mostly red and green oak leaf lettuce.

Saturday's Snack

Kiwis, pears, watermelon (my own), pomegranate seeds, double cream Gouda, and pretzels turned out to be a nice snack on a cloudy day.

I made a landscape bento with rice, sausage, egg, strawberries earlier in the day that didn't work out visually. It tasted good, and I ate it without photos.

The Sausage Was Good

Breakfast for Lunch

The lessons I learned making this bento, my my, I will tell you.

After feeling like a pile of crap for many days, I awoke to a slight headache and full of energy. The headache went bye bye after a nice hot shower, and I was ready to begin the day.

The first order of busy-ness was a pomegranate. Now everybody knows that seeding a pomegranate is a zen-like experience. It might also be helpful to be stoned. But rather than fall down that slippery slope first thing in the morning, I decided to let my *yawn* first blush of the day ease me through the task.

I cut open the monster (the pomegranate was as big as a grapefruit) and the puddle of blood oozed out on the cutting board. I cut each half again in half again and rub the jewels into a container, all the while jabbering on to The Mister about my plan of the day.

I want to do a Cute Bento, I said. Of course, that is a redundancy, I continued, hahahahah.

He said something like huh-ehh (fart).

Yes, I said, a Cute! Bento.

Hmmm. An acute bento, he said. Sounds like a disease.

So we were off and running as they say of the day. Many of my favorite bento artists were using pomegranate in their daily bentos the week I non-commissioned. Inspired by my growing stash of shiny gems, I envisioned using my new pink single story box and filling it with breakfast food that I have been craving.

Really pink and girly with no Halloween-y to detract.

Then I thought well maybe a couple of ghouls with big eyes hiding in the back, but everything else - pink bows and pink elephants and pink flower cups.

Lesson 1. Keep the creative process open.

Maybe the french toast could look like an old dead tree, I thought. That would be cool. Like the trees in OZ that threw apples at Dorothy & Co. With eyes and mouths and arms. And if I have an old dead tree, I might as well have a graveyard. Yes indeed the bento was being transformed.

What I didn't expect were the owls. They were ghouls poking their heads up from the ground. When I went to put eye on them, they became owls. You can't see the wings, but that doesn't mean they don't have them.

Lesson 2. Working with Nutella is a bitch.

Since this was to be a edible bento by me for me straight away, I wanted my eggs hot. Cold eggs are okay, but today they had to be hot, or at least warm. So I had to be quick with photos plus no stress on the details and perfection. Ah yes. The heat of the eggs melted the Nutella which was also the glue that held the eyeballs on the owls and they started to slide down.

Meanwhile The Mister started to bug me. Not now, I cried. I've put too much into this piece!

Oh the Drama!

In the end I had to change lenses. Nutella on everything. Yuck! But I ate my Breakfast for Lunch bento and it was really good.

Lesson 3. The unexpected pairing that was superb - pomegranate and bacon - yum!

Oh and the milk bottle (bats eyelashes) that's maple syrup.


Now for a couple of blog items:

I have a giveaway in progress. You must go here to enter. Please do. The more, the merrier.

I have a new Flickr group, Bentoland, and I'm the only member. I tell you that is sad! I know there are lots of bento groups out there already, but I'm really open to suggestions to make this a fun adventure!