vietnamese treats bento

 

Hi there! Vietnamese flavors added delicate freshness to today's bento, with dishes from Santa Rosa's Simply Vietnam (we had a nice lunch there lunch yesterday with a friend). I took home spring rolls, delicious beef rolls with lemongrass

and grilled shrimp. All have hopped into the bento with edible flowers from the late February garden--bright violets and onion blossoms--and "flowers"of sweet kiwi.

 

 

 

 

Violets have naturalized in swaths of the garden...

 

 

 And trees are exploding into pastel bloom everywhere...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

mirin carrots bento

 

Hi there! A quick bento today with sliced yellow and purple/orange carrots braised in mirin and then lightly steamed, served up with dilled salmon salad and fresh-picked arugula.

Scenes from the garden--spring is on the way!

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

valentine's day crab pasta

 

Hope you celebrated a happy Valentine's Day! We made the day an opportunity to spend time together in the kitchen making a luscious seafood meal with local Dungeness crab.

 

 

...and also some beautiful rainbow colored linguine from Puglia:

 

 

 

 

Fennel, Tomato and Crab Linguine

 

For one pound of pasta, clean three Dungeness crabs and remove all meat from shells, set aside. Dice two large handfuls of grape or cherry tomatoes, and 5 garlic cloves. Chop an entire fresh fennel bulb. Saute all of these together in a large pan in a combination of olive oil and butter, season with freshly ground pepper and salt. When sizzling, add a pour of dry white wine, cook off. Add heavy cream to taste. Add crabmeat and gently combine with sauce. In a large pot, bring salted water to a rolling boil and throw in pasta, cook until al dente. Drain and combine with crab sauce in a favorite serving dish. I added an extra drizzle of extra virgin olive oil at the table, and a few more grounds of fresh pepper. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 







dungeness crab claw bento

              

                      Happy Friday! Garden greens including crinkled cress and arugula accompany a juicy Dungeness crab claw, avocado, and a mayo-ginger dip for today's lunch.

 

Wishing a safe and warm weekend to my East Coast, Nemo-affected friends!

 

chicken salad with spicy greens bento

 

A speedy bento lunch today made with roast chicken, a great item to have on hand for creating quick and nourishing salads. I tore some white meat into bite-sized shreds, combined with diced ginger and a bit of my favorite Japanese "roasted sesame dressing" and some scallions--fast and delicious.

 

The arugula in our garden is getting more peppery-hot by the week and that's in here too, along with a just-pulled French breakfast radish, yellow tomatoes, brocollini flowers and sweet dark blue blueberries.

 

 

Tied with a Japanese ribbon....

 

 

These darling coral-pink flowers just opened this week on a large shrub that had been until now nondescript...I love the surprises that emerge so colorfully month by month outside.

 

 

 

 

We transplanted "Goldie" the Meyer lemon today into her new terracotta home:

 

 

 

Some images from a recent stroll, with favorite things: cats and camellias. I'm eager to find a pink and white striped/variegated camellia of my own!