cha soba bento

Hi bento pals!  Lunch for Tuesday features green tea soba noodles with ginger, chives, yellow pepper, maitake mushrooms, chives and snow peas. Teriyaki eel with garlic buds and a slice of Japanese turnip pickle (with a bit of wasabi tobiko on top) also inside.

The turnip pickle in its pretty package:

Yearning for spring as I do this time of year, the bright pink pickle lends a welcome vivid note of color (I used a cherry blossom cutter for the floral imprint)

 Yummy teriyaki eel

Hope your week is off to a good start!

snowy day bento

For today's lunch, a bento with a Nordic inspiration that reflects the pretty new snow that blanketed our area overnight...

 I lived in Scandinavia for a few years and loved the tradition of decorative open-faced sandwiches there. In my bento version, toasted multigrain bread is topped with (from upper left): cream cheese, herring with dill sauce, cucumbers and fresh dill, salmon pate with dill and yellow pepper, salmon pate with a green apple heart, and finally cream cheese, herring, yellow pepper and more green, refreshing dill (can you tell I'm a fan of this herb?):

Red cabbage cooked with wild plum preserves and sliced kumquats, romaine, lady apples also for lunch.

We are putting out sunflower seeds for the birds and attracting a lively array of feathered friends--so fun to watch the parade of wrens, sparrows, chickadees, cardinals and even crows come to nibble, animating the pale winter landscape with their alert expressions and darting flights from seeds to tree branch and back again.

Here's a small "bird bento" of seeds in the snow!

tropical escape, cilantro pesto salmon bento

Hi bento pals! On this very cold and blustery weekend, we escaped to the tropical light and lushness of the U.S. Botanic Garden Conservatory, located near the Capitol. Wandering around the vibrant tendrils and bright exotic flowers of the Conservatory and taking in the tall green canopy of palms and other tropical trees was a reviving respite from the chill doldrums of January in D.C.

Walking against the wind, a view of the Capitol as we made our way towards our destination (the building to the right of the horse statue)...

The Conservatory

The light, bright space inside was rich with life and color...

In the Hawaii section of the Conservatory, lush native plants and a soothing waterfall...

In the Jungle, tropical rainforest plants luxuriate in a water-rich atmosphere (cool mists wafted through the space as we sat on a bench, gazing upwards) under a 93 foot glass dome:

Simply amazing orchids!

Jamison's image of some sunny yellow flowers in full bloom:

An awesome papaya tree:

Monday's bento features salmon with cilantro pesto--here's the dish, dinner edition:

To make the cilantro pesto:

Toss in your food processor or blender

one bunch of cilantro, leaves only

two garlic cloves

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

4 Tbs chicken or veggie broth

1/4 cup sliced almonds

a glug of olive oil

salt to taste

Blend to make a bright green, aromatic sauce.

Pour over your salmon fillets and top with additional slivered almonds, bake in 375 oven until done (about 10 minutes, depending on thickness of fillets), enjoy!

Lunch includes salmon in pesto, barley pilaf topped with Japanese ginger and baby eggplant pickles, green beans and a wonderful deep orange carrot variety found at Mitsuwa, stir fried. Kumquats, green apple and a soft jelly in a pretty iris-decorated wrapper also in the bento.

Still celebrating the new Year of the Rabbit...have a lovely week!