french fall flavors bento

 

Today's bento includes a buttery sauté of mini zucchini, a mini sandwich of salmon salad atop French Puy lentil salad and a sweet French macaron combo of fig and pumpkin flavors. Our parsley is really flourishing in the garden right now, and I find myself heading outside to clip off a green, fringed mini bouquet quite often...

brie, turkey tartine bento, autumn explorations

 

Hi friends! Today's bento features a toasted sourdough tartine layered with turkey, brie and sharp-sweet green apple. A colorful bed of kale sautéed with garlic and brightened with a bit of lemon (our trees are full right now!) also inside.

 

I found this wonderful fox/kitsune figurine from a Japanese ceramicist a few years back, and I love his tawny autumnal coloring and clever little face:

 

 

So far November has offered brilliant skies and ideal weather for putting in the winter garden (rainbow chard, kale, some new-to-me Italian greens called Cavolo Broccolo Spigariello) and also Siberian iris and a few new camellias, of course--I'm addicted!

 

Some images from our drive to Freestone and Sebastopol this weekend, where we visited Wildflour Bakery for great breads, scones and bucolic relaxation in its always changing kitchen garden:

 

 

 

 

Apple growing on an espaliered tree

 

 

 

 

At Rose and Thorn, we loved visiting with these beautiful creatures:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See you again soon...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

curried noodles soboro bento

 

Hello and happy October! Today's bento evokes the golden, spicy tones of the new season with curried noodles (more about those in a minute), grilled zucchini, harvested after becoming huge in the garden, a heart-cut pumpkin spice pastry and a mosaic of sweet grapes.

 

Curried Noodles with Turkey Soboro

 

Sauté minced ginger, shallots and garlic in canola oil, add ground turkey and shavings of Japanese curry (such as Golden Curry brand) and Vietnamese style curry powder, toss in a sliced yellow or orange bell pepper. Set a pot of cold salted water to boil, blanch carrot slices and chopped, peeled sweet potato, remove. Add noodles and cook until done, drain. Combine noodles with curried turkey, carrots, other veggies and adjust seasonings--adding more of the curries if desired and for additional heat, sriracha sauce. Toss in bias cut scallions and enjoy!

 

 

October has swept in cooler mornings and some rainy nights, and a newly ambered light even on the sunniest blue skied days...