A Bento, a Wedding and Spring Flowers

Hi everyone, I'm back!!
In the nurses office at the elementary school that I work at they have us call it the health room. I guess it's not legally a clinic because no doctor works there and of course we can't diagnose anything. We need to tell the parents that, (oh yeah we do) they always send thier kid in to see us for something that happened at home and wants us to do something about it.

Anyway we have a senior in high school that has an internship with us in the health room, because she wants to go into nursing. She would come in and eat snacks and her second lunch that her boyfriend's mother would pack for her. On my computer my screen-saver is a collection of photos and a couple are of my bento boxes. I like the kids to see what a healthy lunch looks like and how much fun it is to ear. Alysia saw my bentos and was intrigued and so I made her one...

It was just a small one because this was her second lunch, but she ended up eating the fruit and taking the rest home. I used the Longhorn pick because that was one of her favorite pigout places restaurants. I also had another little box with a salad for her. She was thrilled...and it is so simple. She said she never had rice noodles like this before. She thought my dumplings were scary.
Last Saturday we were in Grand Rapids, Michigan for my nieces wedding. Maranda and I were able to fly up for a long weekend. The weather was unusually cool for this time of year and it was even cold for them. The day of the wedding there were blue skies.

Not a good shot but the lighting was better in this one. I had to fight the back lighting of windows during the wedding (I was asked to video tape it for them) and here at the reception. This was just before the toast.

The tulips are usually in full bloom at this time...in Holland, Michigan I believe the Tulip Festival was moved up to this week because in the past they were almost done because it was too warm. Go figure Mother Nature!

These were in my sister's yard...

they had some beautiful purple full hyacinths decorating the chapel for the wedding.

A quick shot of my family without the kids. Me, dad, mom, uncle and aunt. Then cousin, younger sis, her husband, older sis, her husband and my cousin's wife.

The weeping cherry trees were almost in bloom, this one was outside after the reception. I'll bet it wasn't long after we left that they were in full bloom.

Back home in Florida this is what we woke up to...our San Pedro cactus in full bloom. It's a shame the blossom only comes out at night and then closes in the morning and that's it.

Hope you all have a wonderful Mother's Day!

Finally A Bento!

Not much new in the bento, but I picked up this cute little pear, so I had to make sure it made it in a bento. I found some silicone scalloped cups in nice bright colors, I used purple for this one.
Look how the pear is half red and half green! A Cesar salad on the bottom and I sent along some dressing and croutons. Almonds and walnuts, grape tomatoes, steamed snow peas, and some crab stick that she can eat in her salad. Yaki soba noodles with dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, tahini, ginger-garlic sauce, and sesame oil topped with black sesame seeds.

I picked up some Durian candy at the Asian market because I have never tried durian before. I have heard plenty about it and really would like to try it. I am one who seems to like strong flavors or different things that many don't care for, like Marmite, Dutch salted licorice, strong Cuban coffee, and all types of blue cheese.

Some of those you either love it or hate it not much in-between. Well when I first opened the bag I was surprised at how bad the smell was even though I knew it smelled bad, but I thought in candy you might not get the bad smell. I did like the taste, and it reminded me of something even though I couldn't tell you what. I did keep tasting it throughout the day though. I would still like to try the real thing!

We've been having such clear dry weather lately, the sunset on Monday night was so peaceful and (they seems so early now). I couldn't get over all the gulls that were there watching it too! :D Every once in awhile we will see this.

Hope to see you soon!

Elephant Bento

This adorable little heart shaped bento was sent to me from a friend of mine, and I love it. The color is so cheerful and it has two removable compartments in it, or out of it... Thanks Jenn! She was kind enough to share a few other bento accessories to help along a budding bento maker :-)
I really like the little elephant theme, she also sent an elephant cutter, and food divider (baran) with elephants, I'll be able to use those in a little larger bento.

Oh and check out the lid, I almost forgot! In the little insert I have seasoned noodles topped with black sesame seeds, grape tomatoes, and a sprig of peppermint. The other side there is chicken sausages, that cute little elephant sauce container filled with extra sauce, kiwi, and carrots (I have to learn more of what to do with carrots).

We decided to play tourists in our own back yard. My daughter and I have the summer off and yesterday was the first all sunny day in awhile. Venice is about 20 minutes south of Sarasota, a drive we make often.

We got an early start to avoid the heat that was expected and the crowds that appear when the sun comes out. First stop the beach!

It was so calm, the Gulf was flat! Just a perfect, beautiful day here! I heard on the news the other day, that the beaches in our area has a 1% chance of getting any oil on shore. The bad news is down in the Keys there is an 80% chance. It's such a shame with all the marine life that is so active there.

The sand is a little darker in Venice from all the fossils that are found here.

After the beach we hit the shell shops and souvenir stores. Then we went the next street over where they have some thrift shops, and antique stores. I found a vintage lime and lemon squeezer, and a bag of cookie cutters and it had some jello molds with it. I also bought a vintage egg cup, I love findinng stuff like this. Reminds me of my childhood. We'll see what I can do with them.

We had fun in this quaint little town with Italian influence. They often have art festivals and the shark's tooth festival. (This is the area you find fossilized sharks teeth). I'll do a longer post on my Aqua Sunday blog soon.

Didn't mean to get off topic but the bento was perfect for this day!

Have a great Friday!