Popcorn Bento

You know how I am about naming my bento...so lack of a better one...this one's called popcorn! Now this isn't just any popcorn, it's Ladyfinger Popcorn, this is the smallest of the hulless, and I made it stove top. If you want to see how I made it, you can check my food blog The Tiny Skillet where I posted my grandpa's secret to make the most of the kernels pop!

A lovely persimmon takes center stage, with a grape tomato and green grapes gathering close by. Basil flower want in on the fun. Kalua pork is here and there, and showing off my new silicone cups, in green is my orzo pasta salad with spinach and feta, in red is POPCORN :D All on a bed of baby greens!


Just something to wind you down a little...

Enjoy the rest of your week! I hope I can. Tomorrow we are have our annual Tiger Trot fund raiser, at the elementary school I work for. The kids run as many laps as they can. Lots of loud music, running, laughing and scraped knees...that's where I come in!

I will try to remember to take some pictures!

Old Bento #2

Here is another bento I had posted on my other blog The Tiny Skillet . I will bring them over to The Tiny Bento here and there, or now and then!
This is probably as "cutsie" as Maranda would let me get(for now). I got a set of six flower cookie cutters that range smaller to bigger. The watermelon radish is the smallest. I tried to cut the pickled daikon radish in a small circle for the flower center, but just could find anything to do it with.
Under the radish flowers is some steamed rice with furikake sprinkled on it. To the right of that are fried spam and cucumber flowers, broccoli could of been placed a little better. Strawberries and red grapes with the only small pick I have (for now). Baby carrots with circles (flower buds) of daikon radish (the smallest circle I could do for now).



This was one of the first container that I got with just bento in mind.
It is so hard to get much bento anything around here. I got the idea to use this from Target thanks to Debra of hapa bento. I had also bought an all blue one for Maranda . They work quite well for a bento lunch, just leave the spoon out. Sometimes I will use the smaller container and sometimes not. So there you have it. Thanks for looking!

Tropical Bento

I know everyone is into Fall and Halloween right now, but since we don't see any color change in Florida I decided to do what is close to home! I have a lot of shells and flamingos and even some palm trees in my decor. Okay I know, but it is coastal living! Next I am working on incorporating shells into a bento, besides shell pasta!

I found these adorable glass picks at a Florida inspired store. I can find a use for these palm trees and flamingos in many things. Just picture them stuck in some tropical appetizers sitting out on the lanai next to the pool!
Or stuck in an olive or lychee in a martini!

I have snap peas, tiny clementines, starfruit, large grapes, natal plum, and smoked salmon cucumber and goat cheese on whole grain baguette!

Bottom layer is saffron rice, smoked salmon and gouda butterflies, (thank you so much Jenn for the beautiful butterfly cutters) and sugar snap peas.

How about this background?

Just a glimpse, of what my husband picked up this weekend. He can fix most any watercraft. It's in rough shape, but he figured why not? For that price he couldn't pass it up. He is playing redneck with his brother (in the back) and good friend drinking beer in a boat that is now a lawn ornament. No offence to anyone!

I first caught them standing around our friend's vintage Bronco engine with the hood up! I had to laugh, because we would always drive by this house where they were always leaning over the bed of a pick up truck drinking beer...like every time we drove by they were out there doing this! I thought it was funny...
Ya'll have a wonderful weekend...ya hear!

Bento, Thrift Shop, and Farmer's Market

Our farmer's market is downtown Sarasota, and it's not too far for us to drive, but we don't go downtown too often. When we do go we like to stop at other places downtown, like Whole Foods and The Women's Exchange. So I will share my bento that has some of our farmer's market, and Whole Foods finds, (but not the thrift shop's)

The sandwich is wrapped in a black and white checkered deli wrapper, and fried rice in the pink cup, and carrots(my go to always have on hand color splash). All the rest is fruit. The tiny tangerines were so good and no seeds what-so-ever and the raspberries are almost as big! I have quenepa and muscadine grapes tucked in, all on a bed of green leaf lettuce!

The Women's Exchange is a large thrift shop that is non-profit. All the proceeds go to charities, and the workers are volunteers. Needless to say the shelves are loaded for a great cause.

All sorts of knick knacks, chotchkies, and trash to treasures colorful finds.

These two dishes are for baking apples. Clever huh? I've never seen this before and I grew up in apple country!

I love vintage dishes. I have a few sets of some from the fifties that I love to use. My mom gave me the set that we had when I was a kid, it has little aqua star bursts on it. Anyway a lot of these are just good china or basic everyday, nothing too exciting this time that I was interested in.

I like to see if I can spot a little piece here or there that I might be able to use as a prop for one of my blogs! I didn't have that much time because of the fruit in the car.

My farmer's market find!

I was thrilled to see some quenepa, or mamoncillo, also called Spanish lime.

You don't always see the dark muscadine grapes, mostly it's the green ones. I have never eaten one fresh before (they use it in wine a lot). You eat it sort of like you would a concord grape. It reminds me of the flavor but more earthy and not as tart. You don't eat the skins, they are a lot tougher, but I liked to chew all the goodness out of it.

Thanks for tagging along with me. More fun to come!

Adai-Lentil Crepe Bento

Again I wish I could come up with such whimsical name for my bento, or say that I was inspired to create an edible piece of , like so many of my bento making friends do. I used what I had left from my adai-lentil crepes or dosa. I posted how I made them here on The Tiny Skillet. They were full of flavor and very filling and healthy. I try to fill every nook and cranny...I scour my fridge, using all the little tidbits before they get lost forever...

I wanted to use my enoki mushrooms before they got soft, so I think it worked well here. Shaved carrots for color, champagne grapes, tiny mushroom patties, grape leaf rolls, feta, olives, carrots, and some Hello Panda biscuits with choco cream (our favorite). Sometimes you need dessert.

From in my front yard, this was early morning. As I was walking to go inside I...

...saw a row of these cactus blossoms almost ready to open. I'll try to get an after picture next time!
They guava looked so pretty when I cut it open I just had to share it with you (is that wierd?).

Yum-Yum Bento Box ~ inspired butterfly bento

Yes, it's been awhile since I've posted and I am trying to keep up with all my bento blog friends out there. I feel especially bad because it took me so long to post about the book that I won from Lia on her blog Bentolicious. She was one of the first ones to post a comment when I first started doing bentos on my The Tiny Skillet blog. She was so kind and encouraging as so many bento bloggers are. I was absolutely thrilled that I won this bento cookbook it was my first one.

Written by Crystal Watanabe and Maki Ogawa. I knew Crystal or Pikko as she in known on her blog, from her blog Adventures in Bentomaking. I was excited to find out she was writing this book. (my first bento book) She is a whizz with the nori, I have never seen anyone that can cut nori like she can. I was flipping though the book for the umpteenth time, and thought...I could do this.

I had some bamboo rice and some cooked ground pork well seasoned with soysauce, oyster sauce, ginger, garlic and all the good flavors of Asian foods, that would work perfect for this. So I used a butterfly cookie cutter and celery for the body and I could use a lot of help for the antennae.

... a little tomato bits for decoration in the wings. Carrots, celery, and grapes! I sent along some dipping sauce for the veggies.

Thanks Lia and all you bento friends out there!