Salmon in a Forest Bento

Salmon Forest Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Another TinySprite bento: this one comprised of our weekly standard salmon and rice. I used cajun spices which I mostly rubbed off of TS's portion. It fit nicely into the curve of this box, which is why I chose it. I packed furikake rice on the side, and topped with a broccoli tree, sweet potato flower shapes, and a mushroom-shaped radish. Fruit sides include: homegrown sunsugar cherry tomato, peach pie donut peach, blueberries, baby white homegrown peach, and dark red cherries. One of my favorite go-to, easy-make bento for a carefree summer day. Don't you just love those? ^_^

Hello Kitty Carnation Bouquet

Okay, I know this is not a bento, but since I didn't make a bento today this is what I am going to post. I wanted to make these Hello Kitty carnations I saw blogged here by zakka life. Isn't it cute? It would be so nice for MisterMan's teachers on the last day of school, I thought. This is Jessica's example: 

I read through the instructions and thought "pretty easy!" Well, yes, but for one thing. You need WHITE CARNATIONS. If you have been following me on twitter you know that I have been looking for these white carnations a couple days now. I have gone to every florist and flower vendor within a reasonable driving radius and guess what? Nobody has them. In fact, nobody has much of anything these days. I don't know if it has anything to do with the graduations, proms, weddings, etc. that all happen to take place in June but I have a sneaking suspicion it might. Or it might just be my lousy luck.

Well by today I am so sick of calling places and driving around that you'd think I would just give it up. Nope. I am determined to make these! So this means I either have to use white mums (not the massive double ones, which could possibly work, but the wimpy single ones) or colorful carnations. That's right: there are no white carnations but you can have one in any color of the rainbow you desire. I got to choose between red, maroon, near-black, purple, magenta, pink, yellow, green, orange, and bicolor combos of the aforementioned. *sigh* So I chose orange, pink and purple.

If you overlook the color issue, the making of these Hello Kitty flowers was pretty straightforward and successful. I used black buttons for eyes and gold buttons for noses (since I didn't have any yellow). I cut ears and whiskers from cardstock and added ribbon bows.

I neglected to buy floral tape, so I had to use wire to secure things, and even resorted to my trusty glue gun. Not sure if the hot glue will really hold til tomorrow; I think maybe I should have run out to get the floral tape. Another thing I would do differently is make the bows smaller; I know they look humungous and odd here, and while we're talking about the bows I probably could have used colored cardstock ears to match the strange colors I used for their faces. *eta: I colored the ears to match and it looks better :)

All right. So besides all that, I think they came out pretty well! So what happened when MisterMan got home and I asked him if he knew what they were? He said "Bears?" And when I asked TinySprite she said "Monkeys! With tails!" What?! Sweet boy of mine, when I threatened to toss the unrecognizable flower creatures out rather than embarrass myself by gifting them to possibly horrified recipients, he said "No! I'll just tell them it's HELLO KITTY, so they'll know!"

Oh, okay then. ^_^

Try it if you like! But make sure you can find the white carnations.

Slow-Cooked Pork Bento

Slow-Cooked Pork Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Today's bento contains some sliced pork, cooked in the slow-cooker, Okinawan style. Slow-cooking meat is easy and effortless, and you always end up with tender, moist, delicious meat. This recipe is no exception. It's sweet and rich, and the sauce is delicious over rice and veggies. Perhaps you've noticed we like to use all kinds of meat sauces over our veggies. In our house, such a tasty sauce will magically make ANY veggie desirable. Guaranteed. You should really try it with your little ones. Broccoli, choy, cauliflower, even sweet potatoes get dipped in sauce. You might be surprised at what they'll agree to eat!

3-4 pounds pork butt
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 inch ginger root, crushed
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup mirin
1/2 cup shoyu
1/2 cup miso

Combine all ingredients except the pork, mix well, put in slow cooker.
Place pork in slow cooker and cook on high for 4-6 hours or low for 8-9 hours, until tender.
Turn over midway through cooking to brown the other side.
Cool, then slice. Enjoy!

The rest of the bento includes a mixed rice onigiri which is hidden beneath a flower made of sliced radish, purple potato and peapods, steamed broccoli, and a hard boiled egg shaped into a bear face. I know it looks really weird, but I put nori dots in the eye and nose indentations, and a nori strip in the mouth, because I thought you would be able to see it better. Um, I guess I have to change the settings on my camera since a few of the last photos have had a lot of glare and intense brightness. You can't even tell I shaped it; but believe me -- I did, and it came out perfect too, no cracks or anything! Oh well. I'll try again tomorrow.

There's also a yellow carrot flower, white peach slices, a strawberry and some blackberries. All packed in my stainless steel Lunchbots box. This one has no dividers, but never mind; the silicone cups do well at separating the fruit from the rest of the meal. This nice compact box fits well in my boy's little insulated tote.

Oh, and I almost forgot: this one qualifies for Hapabento's BOMB contest for Flowery Bento, yay!
Happy bento!

Children's Day Bento

Children's Day Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Children's Day (こどもの日, Kodomo no hi) is a Japanese national holiday which takes place annually on May 5, the fifth day of the fifth month, and is part of the Golden Week. It is a day set aside to respect children's personalities and to celebrate their happiness. It was designated a national holiday by the Japanese government in 1948. (Wikipedia)

I don't know about you, but when I was growing up we called the 5th day of the 5th month Boys' Day and the 3rd day of the 3rd month Girls' Day (Hinamatsuri). So May 5th always makes me think of boys, kabuto, and koinobori. To celebrate this holiday I made a boy from a halved hard-boiled egg decorated with nori features and wearing a purple carrot kabuto (military helmet). The koinobori is made from the other half of the egg dyed with beet juice and cut into a fish shape with my small paring knife. I cut the scales with a straw cut lengthwise in half, and the eye with another straw. It's flying from the pole by rice sticks.

The rest of the bento has pasta tossed with my homemade arugula pesto and roasted grape tomatoes, steamed broccoli, carrots, strawberry and grapes. This cool bento box has a raised lid so the boy can look out the window with his carp to greet MisterMan at lunchtime. Happy Children's Day to all kids everywhere! ^_^

*for arugula pesto:
2-3 cups arugula alone, or mix in some basil if you like.
1/2 cup roasted hazelnuts
1-2 cloves garlic (depends how garlicky you like it)
Process, and gradually add olive oil (about 2/3 cup) to desired consistency.
Also add 2/3 cup grated parmesan, process until smooth.

I toss with pasta, or use as sandwich spread. Yum!

Hearts, Flowers & Tiger Bento

Hearts, Flowers & Tiger Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

I decided to make a double celebration bento: Chinese New Year and Valentines Day, so here's my effort.

Along with shoyu chicken in lettuce, this bento has roasted broccoli and sweet tricolor peppers. For detail interest I cut some sweet potato and pink carrot flowers. The fruit section contains the mini mandarin tiger decorated with pieces of red grape for Chinese New Year, and strawberry hearts. More red grapes underneath. The facial details took the LONGest! But it turns out that grape skin is pretty good for this purpose. You just have to cut it away from the flesh so that it lays flat enough to stay on the surface. I was happy to keep it all in the fruit family for the decoration, for taste's sake :)

This festive paper and heart doily are a gift from a bento friend, and I found this sweet dessert mini fork just for this occasion. It's kinda frilly and flowery, but my 6 year old boy won't mind! He still loves the lovey-doveyness of Valentines Day :D

Teriyaki Salmon & Pink Heart Rice Bento

Teriyaki Salmon & Pink Heart Rice Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Today's bento has teriyaki salmon on a lettuce wrap, with a roasted sweet yellow pepper vase of roasted pencil asparagus. Two red radish heart details make it eligible for the RED contest at hapabento's blog!
I also made a pink heart riceball using beet. On top of it I place a carrot sakura blossom with peapod and sesame seed detail. As an aside, I thought I would try to make pink rice during cooking by throwing a washed, peeled raw beet into the rice cooker. Maybe some of you have tried this before? I thought all the beet juice would come out and soak into the rice while cooking. Ha! What I ended up with was a nice cooked beet sitting on top of a nice batch of rice-colored rice! So I had to dye the rice afterwards, in a small bowl with the chopped up cooked beet and a little extra water.

Fruit side has blood orange slices, red grapes and kumquat halves. I put nori detail on them, which sounds weird, but kumquats have a strange taste -- kind of tart / a bit sweet -- anyway, so what's a little nori gonna do?

You'll also notice new utensils I got as a gift from a dear friend! It's keroppi, and his little face is stamped on the fork and spoon! So cute, thank you!! I have more too... and you will see them in the near future... ^_^

Three Flowers Bento

Three Flowers Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

This round bento box always seems to call out for flowers, for some reason. It's also my favorite "box", because the food seems to look nice with minimal effort at arranging.

MisterMan has chicken lettuce wraps, red (Bhutanese) mixed rice with furikake, sweet potato maple leaves, purple and gold cauliflower, romanesco, yellow pear tomatoes. Fruit section has satsuma mandarins, strawberry, blackberry and raspberries. The lavender flowers are steamed purple potato with steamed purple carrot centers.

These purple potatoes seem to be different from the black-skinned purple potatoes I get from the farmers market in that the flesh is much lighter in color. Both types taste just the same as regular potatoes (to me), and perhaps next time I'll cook both together to compare. Maybe you have noticed that I like purple hues... if there is a purple food to be had, you can be sure I will be determined to obtain it :)

New Flower Cutter Bento

New Flower Cutter Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Yeah, it's the hand-cut metal flower cutter with internal flower cut-out... and I love it!! I used it to cut satsumaimo (Japanese sweet potato) and regular sweet potato flowers. There is also a yellow carrot flower, peapods, purple and yellow cauliflower, cherry and pear tomatoes, and purple carrot skewer. Main meal is leftover pasta with sausage and mushroom, onion and peppers. Fruit side has the sweet green plum, strawberries and grapes underneath.

We spent the day at the Autumn Moon Street Festival in SF Chinatown, and got back late, and it was too dark in the house so I had to take the pic outside on the patio... so this explains the stray twigs and grass (no time to sweep for a neat photo).

I did get more hand-made vegetable cutters... and I will post about them when I get around to using them. One in particular is quite large, and I need to find a vegetable with enough girth to use it!!

My new hand-cut double Flower Cutter

This is how the cutting edge looks. The flower petals are crimped and soldered to stay in place and connected to the little center flower. It's so cute and supercool at the same time! They had lots of other designs and I will definitely want to go back for more :)

And here's how big it is. The cutter itself is attached to a sturdy "handle" to allow for easier pressing!

Pretty Pink Bento (Bento #200!)

Pretty Pink Bento (Bento #200!), originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

TinySprite's bento had: nitrite-free ham, cream cheese, roasted red pepper and spinach rollups, honeydew nectarines, broccoli, carrot stars, tamagoyaki with spinach, strawberry, blackberries, yellow pear tomatoes, and champagne grapes. Oh, and cheese flowers right on top!