taste of fall

click to see the full gallerySal had a cooking demonstration to do at the annual Apple Tasting festival at Portland Nursery yesterday, so ProcrastiGirl and I spent some time there to show our support. Oh, and there might have been apples (and pears).

His demo involved making mini apple tarts (which are kind of pretty much the best thing ever), in which he sautees fresh apples with a bit of butter, spices, vanilla, and Grand Marnier and then pipes it into pretty little tart shells. The part where you gobble them up greedily while they're still hot and bubbly? Entirely optional. BUT I DEFY YOU NOT TO. (He also had samples of a pear coffee cake to try, which caused ProcrastiGirl's eyes to roll to the back of her head...so, yeah.)

click to see full galleryAfterward, we wandered around the various tents and displays, and we snacked on apple streudel and caramel apples, and took pictures with scarecrows, and filled bags with a variety of fresh apples and pears at $0.89/lb. Seriously, 50 varieties of apples and pears. I took some beautiful pics, which you can see here. It was a perfectly perfect Pacific Northwest kind of thing to do on a perfectly perfect Pacific Northwest kind of day.

So there's a bit of yesterday and fall in my bento today, in the form of a Spitzenberg apple, which was supposedly Thomas Jefferson's favorite apple and is the variety he grew at Monticello. Your fun apple fact for the day.

breakfast, pink natural lunch:

• half an herb & cheese bagel (w/foil as baran, which yes, breaks my rule about disposables, but it was necessary and since it's recyclable, I'm okay with it)
• cream cheese in the cup
• half a Spitzenberg apple

lunch, ms. bento:

• broccoli cheese soup Sal made Saturday night*; contains cheese, broccoli, potatoes, squash, onions, red pepper, and tumeric (hence the vivid yellow)
• sourdough bread; rainbow carrots, with carrot stars for garnish
• half a Spitzenberg apple; grapes, dark chocolate-covered raisins

*We had a series of downpours over the weekend (though it cleared nicely in time for Sal's demo on Sunday), the type of days when you have to turn on the lights during the day because it's so dark out there. In other words: perfect. So fo course I was craving soup to suit the cold and rainy weather, and Sal was very sweet to oblige.