"How Have You Been?"

I love it when my lunch talks to me.

Especially in a helfpul, slightly enabling manner.

This little bento is willing to bring me anything, anything! I could ask it for rubies, or a horse property in Kentucky. A new saddle! Or maybe this bento box has magic powers and could make it not be Monday.

As it is, it is bringing me 3 fat umeboshi and black sesame onigiri, soy sauce in the bunny, ginger pork meatballs, and veggies, with a nice pear tied up in the furoshiki.

What more could I want really?!

Octo-Dog Jim's Flamingo Vegas Gogo

(Props to Avie for naming the bento below!!)

Yesterday I wanted to make pink onigiri so I did my research on the internet. Found JustBento's description of how to color rice naturally and saw that it was good.

However I didn't think I could get the red cabbage grated fine enough to 'disappear' in the rice, and JustBento uses an implement I don't own - a kind of grating stick that really pulverizes the thing being grated. Looks like a great kitchen tool.

BUT: I went prospecting in the cupboard and found some 1000-year old red food coloring that must hark back to some elementary school project my boys did...I don't have the slightest recollection of buying it.

The result, from using too much of this probably radioactive chemical, is these hot-pink onigiri that remind me of Vegas showgirl costumes. Each of these excessively fat onigiri (I keep overstuffing the molds) has a lovely salty red umeboshi in its middle.

Here's the little Kitty Bento I made this morning:



Vegas onigiri, pork gyoza (also made yesterday), two little octodogs in space wondering how they ended up in Vegas hungover, cherry tomatoes, furikake for Vegas in the little pink bear? container, dipping sauce for the gyoza in Little Kitty, a green-tea mochi in the heart, a Lindor chocolate truffle, and a can of pink guava juice.

This particular brand of guava juice, or this lot perhaps, tastes a little like a high school locker room smells, much as I try to pretend otherwise because the can is so cute. It's an effort to drink it, but I manage because I am a mindslave to cuteness.

This Little Bento...

...in the "black sheep shopping trip" bento box, was so nice. It was satisfying but still I was able to go work out at the gym about 45 minutes after I ate it. It had two of my black sesame ume onigiri with sugar snap peas tucked around them, sesame kale, part of a chicken andouille sausage, home grown spicy sprouts, cherry tomatoes and a babybel cheese.

No dessert though, and I was feelin the need. I'm going to have to invent the 3-layer bento box with dedicated dessert compartment. Or maybe I could become less of a greedy sweet tooth!!

Message from a Bento Box

Several of my bento boxes have little speeches on them, and today's bento is an example:



This somewhat co-dependent sounding message made me wonder: Who is talking here?

How would the Japanese schoolchild, for whom this box was probably intended, interpret the speaker of this message?

Would it be Mom, offering to bring things? A generic 'friend' being helpful and solicitous? The offer invites someone to "write and tell me", so we can infer they are at some distance. It is also odd because -- who writes when they can pick up a cell phone?

Today I am bringing one of my umeboshi filled onigiri, mushroom cookies, grapes, peach, 2 blackberries, some sugar snap peas and a sliced up white radish. Kind of weird but I am facing a weird day: my summer class starts this morning (Philosophy of Religion! one of my favorites) and I have a meeting with an administrator who is going to ask me a big favor, and I want to say no, but am not good at that, not at all. So, grrr, a little nerve-wracked. I should ask my bento-person to bring me some courage.

Inarizushi or...??

5 a.m. this morning found me making my first attempt at inarizushi, those little pillows of goodness which have fascinated me since I first saw them on someone's bento blog.

I had purchased 'fried tofu pouches' in Madison WI at Brian's graduation, and froze them. Now they were thawed and ready. First I read a bunch of recipes on the internet and developed a sort of average idea from all the variations, mostly in sauce ingredients.

The tofu pockets first get rinsed in boiling water to wash the oil off, then poached in a flavoring sauce of soy, mirin, sugar, salt, broth, etc. Here is where a lot of differences come in.

Then they are drained and dried, then stuffed with sushi rice and whatever else you like.

So first off, my tofu pouches were more like blocks, so I think I bought the wrong thing. They had to be cut open with a knife, whereas the recipes all say "gently press open with your fingers", and there would have been no way to "fold over the end like an envelope after filling"; these brickies would just have broken.

However! I had fun toasting black sesame seeds for the first time - they pop like crazy!! and I also used my onigiri press for the first time.



This works really swell, especially if you remember to dip it in water between uses. I made some really honkin onigiri, each one having an ume plum in its middle; maybe they are too fat really - you might need a nap after eating one of these for lunch.

Black sesame tastes great but does present that dental hazard: the smile of black spots! That would really liven up my office hours. "Hello!" (big smile)-- Student leaves in a hurry...

Thursday Throw-Together Bento

I wasn't even going to make a bento for today - short work day, department heads meeting this afternoon cancelled WOO HOO one less morose discussion of budget cuts! But I threw this together thinking I might get hungry...must take care of baby.

It has: an Easter egg filled with nuts and mints, pink grapefruit sections, hard boiled egg, umeboshi onigiri, Thai coleslaw, and a chocolate in the lid. Lookit my new penguin bento belt:

How cheerful is that???

Spring Sunshine Bento

I see Blogger has decided this image should appear sideways. Can't figure out what to do about that so...

Yesterday the sun came out fiercely for awhile, and even though it was still frakkin cold (BSG technical term here), some students around campus wore a touch of summer. I saw: young lady in flip flops and a down jacket; young lady in Ugg boots, shorts, and a full length wool coat; young man barefoot and in shorts, with goose bumps and slightly blue knees.

This is a time honored ritual in northern Minnesota: Welcome Spring! We are uncomfortable in these summer duds but we are bull headed and dang it we are wearing them regardless.

My sideways bento has: gyoza which I made myself!, umeboshi onigiri, broccoli, home-made yogurt with also home-made cranberry topping yumty yum, and a nice big orange in the sunshine. In bento lid: a Fig Newton. Good times for a Monday!!

Bento Cowgirl

Jan's bento this a.m. is wrapped in my favorite 'furoshiki' which is really just a bandanna he gave me for my birthday a few years ago; it depicts a typical session of me riding one of my nice quiet horses. :)

His bento is:

Carrot-lime slaw (yummm), egg salad cup, grape tomatoes, and Savoy cabbage sauteed with sesame oil, a green onion, and some shreds of red pickled ginger; then hoisin sesame pork, a nice fresh umeboshi onigiri made late last night, chocolate oatmeal bite and marshmallow Peep.

Yeehah!!

Wootiwoot woot New Bentos!!

The killer-cute Koi bento and its little friend the Black Sheep Shinzi Kato arrived yesterday from the EBay seller TokyoSamurai, located in Fujisawa, Kanagawa, Japan. I highly recommend this seller because after I ordered these items TokyoSamurai refunded a chunk of my shipping because the online shipping calculator had overcharged me. It was a small amount and I would never have noticed, but I admired their attention to detail.

The Black Sheep fascinates me. A group of white sheep are near the top of the design, and one black sheep right and lower down. A caption reads,

It's a nice day!
Where are you going
Such Beautiful day?

Is this the black sheep talking to the group or vice versa? All around the edge of the top a line of text runs: "How about we go shopping today? We'll buy delicious fruits. How about you? Do you want to come? Sounds good! I will go to shopping!"

I love the endlessly looping shopping plans, and I love worrying about the black sheep: if she is making a friendly overture, will the white sheep really go shopping with her or will they ditch her in a cruel manner? Like, lose her in the mall?

In all it is an open ended story, my favorite kind. Anything could happen!

Today's bentos:

Jan has sushi I made last night (you have to imagine the cursing and swearing as I acquire this skill through painful epic failures one after another) with quail eggs jammed in there too, a ribbon of ginger and a froggy soy bottle; gyoza (frozen from the Asian market); salad, and a brownie.



I have an onigiri (plain, with an umeboshi on top), some sushi, gyoza, cucumber wedges, soy quail eggs, and red pepper strips. Me and the black sheep have a date later, maybe go shopping; it's a beautiful day.

When Life Sends You Lemons...

I had a feeling that shaping a hard boiled egg was not going to be easy for me. So when Mr. Egg cracked under interrogation, I had to turn him into a demonic dragon/PacMan with a pea for an eye. This should excite merriment among Jan's lunch bunch. Also a few quietly raised eyebrows as in "What is the matter with her really?"

He is resting on sesame noodles. Jan also has tuna-tofu miso burgers with key lime for squeezing over; salad leftover from last night; and sweet potato date bread with cream cheese hearts on top, and orange sections, for dessert.

This sweet potato bread is super. I've never made it before and got the recipe from Taste of Home, my all-time favorite home cooking type recipe magazine. If you end up with extra sweet potatoes I can wholeheartedly recommend turning them into a quick bread - this recipe is fast and they bring a ton of moisture (just like carrots in carrot cake). I had a slice with a glass of cold milk for dessert last night and it was perfect.



My bento has an umeboshi onigiri surrounded with carrot slices and a soy bunny; hard boiled egg with cheese hearts and a cherry tomato; sweet potato bread with orange sections and almonds. Not enough vegetables really but the bread takes up a lot of real estate. Maybe I'll pack some more carrots on the side.

Tuesday Bento: Arrgh Maties!

Jan has tuna-tofu-miso burgers from JustBento's recipe page. In the same container, wasabi mayonnaise and a key lime half. Then: mixed seaweed salad from the Asian store in Madison (yummm!), an umeboshi onigiri from Sunday evening's batch, along with a little soy bottle; carrots and snow peas with a baby cheese; and little chocolate 'mushroom' cookies with M&M's.

My bento has most of the same stuff but arranged differently:


I wish I'd bought a case of the little mushroom-shaped cookies! They are not only cute, but they have the right proportion of chocolate to cookie: about 2:1.:)

These onigiri are the best batch I've made so far. The salty plums give them a snap and the rice was just right for molding together. I had meant for this batch to last all week but some pirate is raiding the supply. Nervously looking sideways for someone to blame.

And yesterday I found a new place to burn excess money: www.furoshiki.com. Great history of the furoshiki (cloth wrap for bento, a gift, or anything else you want to wrap nicely in a pretty cloth) and of course a wide range of gorgeous furoshiki for sale. Care and tying methods also explained on the 'about' page. I ordered one called 'Rabbit Moon'. The image of a rabbit staring at the moon must have some significance because it turns up on so many Japanese things. To me it just stirs vaguely sad and lonely feelings but also makes me want to buy it...strange.

Hasty Bentos for Those who Sleep Too Long

I had a business dinner last night and since I lack social skills, these tire me out. So I slept way too long this morning and these bentos were thrown together at warp speed.

Jan's Mr. Bento above has baby carrots and little pickled sweet peppers stuffed with cream cheese, black bean jambalaya leftover from dinner 2 nights ago and brown rice on the side; Ak-Mak crackers and BabyBel cheese;, rhubarb crisp.

My (ta-daaa!) new bento called "Healing of Nature" has onigiri with soybeans in a radicchio cup, sugar snap peas, and a hard-boiled egg that was so hard to peel it's lucky I didn't shoot its brains out in the process. You always get That Egg when you're trying to hurry.

Anyway, Healing of nature, commence! I am more than ready.