San Francisco Giants Bento

San Francisco Giants Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Today in downtown San Francisco there was a big parade in celebration of the San Francisco Giants winning the 2010 World Series. I didn't really follow the team, but it was hard not to get caught up in the excitement. And since they hadn't won the World Series in over 50 years, it was a really big deal. So here is my SF Giants commemorative bento. It contains spinach ravioli, one of which is meant to suggest a baseball glove, and is holding a spherical "baseball" made of a hand-molded quail egg and purple carrot strips. I also made a cap from a halved hen's egg and cheddar cheese, covered in nori. The rest of the bento contains steamed broccoli, purple cauliflower, carrots, tomato, grapes and sliced persimmon. The orange flag picks are a gift from a bento pal and fellow SF Giants fan. I don't know if they were meant to be Giants pennants, but they did come in handy today!

Caprese

Homegrown Lemon Boy tomatoes and Applause tomatoes, with homegrown (by my neighbor and transplanted by me) sweet basil. Fresh mozzarella. Fresh cracked pepper and olive oil drizzled on top. Is anything more refreshing and cool than caprese salad and a cool beverage on a warm summer evening?

Garden bounty

Can you guess what this lovely basil will become? hint: in combination with ripe tomato... and with fresh mozzarella and fresh cracked pepper with a drizzle of olive oil...

OK, not just a hint ~ it's no secret that I love caprese salad, and it ranks as one of my favorite all-time salads.