cooling noodles bento

 

Today's bento is made to counter the heat wave we are having currently in Santa Rosa: chilled rice noodles with shallot-chili dressing, shrimp, snap peas and shitake mushrooms. Local green figs and super sweet cherries for dessert.

 

Enjoy the weekend!

 

 

hello summer!

 

Excited that summer is here! Bright veggies and cavorting cucumber pups in today's bento.

Check out the artichoke plant, looking regal in our vegetable garden:

 

 

Have a great weekend!

 

green papaya salad bento

Hi friends! We've been having fun with different versions of green papaya salad this week--Jamison being very handy with the peeler and julienning piles of supple papaya slices...and I've been experimenting with dressings that vary the proportions of fish sauce, lime, chilies, basil and shallots. Today's bento features a bed of tart-spicy salad topped with peanut and shallot flavored shrimp. Brightly colored and fun rice crackers from Mekong Market, our fav local spot for Vietnamese cooking needs, add their texture to a light and refreshing lunch.

 

Happy cooking!

simple sandwiches bento

 

Happy Friday! Celebrating the soon to arrive weekend with a picnic-y bento: egg and salmon salads, watermelon and cherries. Happy cooking, friends!

 

 

thank you bento&co!



Today's bento celebrates a beautiful box I received this week as part of the Bento&Co 2013 Bento Competition--was thrilled to open a box of carefully packed, beautiful bento items. This stylish box by Hakoben is probably my favorite of the lovely items shared. Thanks so much Bento&Co for sharing generously and promoting "bento love" through your very fun and well-organized event!

 

Inside the bento: brown rice, steak slices tastily marinated in a garlic-soy-yuzu sauce, daikon flowers and garden-picked shiso and Japanese cucumber, along with pink ginger pickles. A donut peach ends lunch on a juicily sweet note.

 

Happy bentoing, friends!

dill blossom bento

 

 

Happy Friday! A Scandinavian-inspired bento with open faced sandwich featuring chived cream cheese, smoked fish, and garden dill and sunny dill blossoms. Young Gravenstein apples have started to fall from the large tree in our yard....green and very tart. We look forward to a harvest later in the summer of sweet ones, reputed to be wonderful for baking.

 

Have a lovely weekend....