give us this day, our daily bread

We returned Sunday from a 4 day trip to northern Washington, where Sal attended a work-related conference and I tagged along, because hey, why not. More specificially, he attended Kneading Conference West, the purpose of which is "to inspire and educate novice and professional bakers, grain growers, millers, wheat breeders, wood-fired oven enthusiasts, food entrepreneurs, food writers, and anyone who loves to eat hand-crafted breads."

So basically, three straight days of talking about bread, literally morning, noon, and night, and Sal could not have been happier if he had been baked right into a loaf of artisan bread. He was so gleeful at the end of every day that he probably could've powered the entire city of Las Vegas with his excitement. And now there is talk of milling our own flour and (finally) building that earth oven we've been talking about for years.

While he spent his days at the conference, I spent my days writing and exploring the area around Mount Vernon. The last time we were there was with the Albino and Mr. T for the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, (hence the picture up top). Even without the fields of rainbow flowers, the area is actually quite lovely and the little downtown area is also very charming. On one of my driveabouts, I ended at Bay View State Park, and another, discovered a really great park on a hillside overlooking the valley and enjoyed a wee picnic of cheeses and crackers while reading a book. Not quite the excitement of a conference about bread and baking, perhaps, but a lovely few days of R&R. I can do with a little less excitement at the moment, anyway.

Super behind on bento postings, but here are the last few. The rest are on the daily bento page, as always. (I just realized that I've had pretty much the same lunch for the last several meals. Hmmm, perhaps time to change things up.

9/6 lunch, Lunchbot Duo

• herb roasted turkey breast
• steamed broccoli
• Jazz apple slices
• cucumber slices
• carrot sticks
• strawberry
• sunflower seeds

9/6 snacks, Lunchbot Pico

• Jazz apple slices, cashews (morning snack)
• hardboiled egg, carrot sticks, cucumber slices (afternoon snack)

9/10 lunch, pink Natural Lunch

• herb roasted turkey breast
• steamed broccoli
• carrot sticks
• pear slices

9/18 lunch, origami squares

• herb roasted turkey breast
• steamed broccoli
• carrot sticks
• Honeycrisp apple slices
• dried cherries

post-it perfectionist

North Head Lighthouse @ Cape DisappointmentOn the advice of a friend, I assigned myself the task last week of letting myself make mistakes.

I mean, obviously I make mistakes all the time, because I'm A) human, and B) not perfect. Duh. I am biologically wired, however, to try to be perfect at everything, and only years and years of tamping down that dictatorial little personality streak like a 1980s South American despot has made it possible for me to be okay with just being okay. Hooray for maturity!

However. When I am under a lot of pressure and facing mounting tasks with unforgiving deadlines and high expectations, my inner dictator seizes the opportunity for a military coup of the State of Brittney. I'm in the midst of just that sort of period at the moment, in which work and website business pressures are combining to make me twitch a bit with the effort not to Be The Best At Everything by trying to accomplish all my responsibilities at once. Hence the advice of a friend for a little radical reverse psychology, to not just not be perfect, but to actually let the mistakes happen.

She may secretly be trying to kill me.

Last week, I was at the office late, trying to get out the door but with three separate piles that each needed to go to three separate people, and three separate post-its to be written. It's a good thing I was in the office alone, because as I was rewriting each of those notes, I had to bust out laughing at myself. Yes, you read that right:  I was rewriting post-its. As in, I had done a first draft, edited for mistakes and clarity, then rewritten them so that they would read well and fit nicely on the selected post-it size.

I, um, may have some work to do on this not-being-a-perfectionist thing.

(Yeah, the picture above has nothing to do with anything, I just love it. The pics from our daytrip to Cape Disappointment are posted, by the way, as promised.)

breakfast, Lunchbot Pico:

• oatmeal (with butter & maple syrup in the condiment containers), not yet cooked
• raisins, to mix in the oatmeal
• peach slices

lunch, Lunchbot Duo:

• Sal's Amazingly Wondrous Wings (the very last of the batch made on Saturday)
• wee potatoes
• celery sticks
• carrot sticks
• tomato
• dark chocolate and dried cherries

god forbid i ever run into nathan fillion

another new box, but this one isn't really my faultSo here's a little story about how the internet is awesome.

In a neat timing of coincidence, I received an email from the founder(!) of Lunchbots on the same day I did my bento presentation at work. She was writing to tell me that she liked the lunches I'd put together using the Lunchbot Duo and wondered if they could post one of the pics on their Facebook page.

I may have squealed in nerdy delight.

It was kind of like running into a celebrity at the coffee shop. Not even a really huge celebrity, but just someone you recognize and like. And then you're standing there waiting for your hot chocolate with whipped cream (SHUT UP I LIKE HOT CHOCOLATE OKAY) and you're thinking, "Holy crap, that's...!" but you don't want to be one of those total losers who gets all stupid at any brush with fame, so you try to affect a totally chill attitude and you're all, "...'sup, dude?", but inside you're all, "OMGOMGOMG". You know, like that.

So I waited to email (I hadn't even posted my pictures from that day yet, which happened to feature the Lunchbot as part of the demonstration) and thanked her for asking and said yes of course and that it wasn't really necessary to send me a box but if she really really wanted to, here was my mailing address. Hee. And then two of my lunches* appeared on the Lunchbots Facebook page and I was sort-of internet famous for a day and thus the circle of life was complete.

(*That description of the food isn't quite right. I think what she's calling tofu is actually roasted red garnet yams, cut into flower shapes, and those aren't wontons, they're gyoza, which means it also wasn't a vegetarian bento. But she was right that it was delicious :)

So that is the story of how I acquired my second Lunchbot, the Pico, which is the same as the Duo except smaller (350 mL instead of 500 mL).

I had a very pretty breakfast this morning featuring the Pico, but like a moron forgot to take a picture. So here, have a picture of the two Lunchbots together.breakfast, Lunchbot Pico:

• oatmeal (once I've prepared it, it'll go back in that side with everything mixed in); little salt container tucked in the side for the egg
• dried cranberries with a small vial of maple syrup underneath
• not-very-molded egg half
• cantaloupe, braeburn apple slices, red grapes

lunch, Lunchbot Duo:

• smashed roasted sweet potatoes
• smoked sausages
• another not-very-molded egg with peas as gap fillers
• cantaloupe, braeburn apple slices, red grapes