insert clever title here

this has nothing to do with today's post, I was just fondly remembering our trip to the tulip festival awhile back with The Albino and Mr. T.It's a busy week ahead, including a Wednesday-Work-From-Home-Day in the office instead. I actually have a presentation that morning (hence the reason I have to go to the office) as part of an office-wide meeting. Tomorrow is an off-site executive work retreat, and I took next Friday and Monday off. In other words, some added disruption to my already cracktastic schedule. I'd say that the change in routine keeps things interesting, but I don't actually have a routine so it's quite interesting enough as it is. At least "boring" isn't a word that in any way applies to my job.

We spent the weekend generally avoiding responsibility and opting instead to do things we wanted to do. I spent most of my time in the studio, working on revisions and later, doing some collage work, while Sal bottled his latest batch of beer and started a second batch of sauerkraut. Oh, it's a fermenting frenzy over here at Hall House. I know he's a qualified chef and everything, but there are days when I suspect he's just randomly sticking stuff in a jar to see what happens.

Now that the studio is finished (I know, I still need to get those pictures up), we're ready to get the attic eave closet doors done. Finally! And in fact the only reason they're getting done is because we won't be doing them, but rather, hiring someone to do them. Otherwise, we'd both be drawing Social Security before they'd get done. We got a personal recommend for a local carpenter who specializes in cabinetry. We've given him some leeway on the design so I'm excited to see how they turn out.

lunch, Ms. Bento:

• Sal's Whatever's In The Fridge Soup -- chicken, Swiss chard, potatoes, carrots, onion, golden chiogga beets, celery, garlic, mushroom broth, oregano, thyme
• homemade ciabata and a Babybel cheese
• pineapple with pomegranate seeds as gap fillers
• cashews, dried cherries, and yogurt covered raisins

greater than the sum of the parts

We were both off from work yesterday -- OCI was closed for the holiday, I took a vacation day since our time off together is so rare -- so no bento yesterday. Since Sal was home, I was treated to him making dinner, which was both good and bad. Good, because obviously. Bad because it made me wish for the millionth time that we got to enjoy more meals together. But mostly good.

We had some cabbage to use up (mainly because I'm not a huge fan of cabbage, so I never think of things to use it in) so he asked me what I thought about a soup. Cabbage soup? Um, no. Well, he said, it would have potatoes (good) and some onion (also good), and hamburger (what?). Did that sound like something I would eat? Well frankly, no, but he's a chef and it's been many a meal that he's made for me with ingredients that sounded incredibly unappealing together or that I don't like much that he somehow does his magic cooking kung fu to and voila! Deliciousness. So I told him sure, I trusted that he'd make something better than what it sounded like and I'd at least try it.

Glad that I did. The soup that sounded unappealing (and probably doesn't look very tasty on camera, either) turned out quite yummy. Hearty and flavorful and not-cabbage-y at all. Just the thing for a gray, rainy day.

lunch, Ms. Bento:

• Un-cabbage-y Cabbage Soup (cabbage, lean hamburger, red onion, new potatoes, beef broth, secret herbs and spices)
• peas and carrot sticks
• Jonagold apple quarters and a satsuma
• a bit of Sal's very special carrot cake (carrots, pineapple, coconut, raisins, and walnuts with a Swiss buttercream/cream cheese frosting)

signs that it's been a long week

When we were visiting them at Christmas, Sister related a little story about the Fabulous Miss M having lost her temper the day before with her mom and, in searching for the worst thing she could think of to call Sister, angrily declared her a "Doodie poodie whack-a-noodie". As one does.

We laughed about it the whole time we were there and for the rest of vacation, it was a running joke between Sal and me. Then we both headed back to work and I forgot about it.

Until this morning, on my way to the office. Some jerk who'd been riding my butt since the 405 interchange sped up to pass me, then changed sharply back into my lane to take the same exit I was headed for, practically clipping the corner of my car and making me hit the break in alarm. It's a good thing my window and his weren't rolled down, because I'm pretty sure if he'd heard me bust out with an angry "Doodie poodie whack-a-noodie!", he would've laughed his jerk ass off.

lunch, Ms. Bento:

• fettucine with marinara
• carrots and steamed broccoli
• satsuma and kiwi half; Sal's homemade mango gelees, chocolate caramels, and apricot-walnut nougat

when you throw down the gauntlet to the universe...

...it responds with a resounding, "HAHAHAHAHAHA I CAN BREAK YOU FOOLISH ONE." Did I say something yesterday about our Not-Resolution to reset boundaries and reclaim time from the crushing maw of obligation and responsibility? I came home last night with my neck, shoulders, and back gnarled like an ancient oak tree, eyes tired, ready to lay my head down and sleep until spring. But there was website clients' work to be done, cats to be fed, dinner to make, bento to pack, dishes to do. Well and other things, but considering dinner was sort of thrown together and I skipped the dishes entirely, those other things obviously didn't get done. That'll teach me about taking an extended vacation, egad.

However! I successfully whittled down those 216 emails to 150, of which only about 50 are left to respond to or follow-up on. (Note to future self: plan a work from home day the first day back from vacation since you're going to spend it dealing with email anyway.) It was orientation at the school today so Sally had a 9 to 5 day instead of his usual noon to midnight day (yes, really), which meant we could at least eat together and spend some time together. Curled up on the couch half-asleep, but still.

Also, when did we turn 87 years old?

lunch, Ms. Bento:

• baked potato with sour cream, cheddar, and monterey jack
• steamed broccoli (for the potato)
• Bosc pear slices, satsuma orange, and more of Sallly's "bento animal cookies"

these memories we make, these bonds we forge

Had the best, best weekend. Sister arrived Friday evening for one of our famous Girls' Weekends, in which much sleeping in is accomplished, much delicious food is consumed, much conversation is shared, much laughter is heard, and much fun is had.

While eating pizza in our PJs Friday night, we caught up on our most recent goings on, squee'd about the creative room, talked excitedly about decorating ideas for the Fabulous Miss M's room when the time comes to give her my old furniture and convert it from a nursery to a little girl's room, and rounded out our healthy meal of pizza with big bowls of Tillamook Mudslide ice cream. As one does.

She got a Droid X for her birthday in August, so I showed her some neat features and applications she hadn't yet discovered on her awesome new tricorder phone. Including Swype, which I seem to be on a personal mission to evangelize about because hello, it is brilliant. We practiced with it by texting and Google Talking until a late bedtime.

We got up late (a real luxury for her!) and were treated to a brunch of potatoes O'Brian thanks to Chef Salvatore. We'd had some different ideas for how to spend our day, including knocking around with a bit of window shopping followed by a spot of lunch someplace. But since it was drizzly and foggy out, we opted to stay in and do arty crafty things in our comfy clothes. Which was lovely, because it gave us some time to really visit and enjoy just being together. (I mean, we obviously would've done that no matter what, but it was nice to do so without any other distractions.) We both love that kind of gray, misty weather, which is why we're sisters, because we both understand that the proper thing to do in such weather is to be cozy and have fun.

I worked in my art journal while she made a card for a friend's birthday, then worked on a neat little collage piece for herself (that I unfortunately forgot to snap a pic of). When we were done, we weren't quite ready to quit playing with art supplies, so we played around with watercolors and crayons for a bit and then markers and pens. Grand fun all around.

We headed to New Seasons to get nummy smorgasbord-type items for the evening's activity of movie watching. By eight o'clock, we were snuggly ensconced on the couch in our PJs with blankets and cuddly cats, the coffee table spread with more food than two people could possibly eat (though we were going to do our best to put a big dent in it). We hugged and kissed Sally goodbye (who was off to meet a friend at the neighborhood bar for drinks) and then proceeded to watch Auntie Mame (the Rosalind Russell version, of course!), which Sister had never seen. I KNOW RIGHT. Obviously, that tragedy had to be corrected. And then we started her indoctrination into Pushing Daisies. She loved it, which I knew she would, and is well on her way to another fandom that we can share.

We slept in again this morning, and again were treated to brunch made by Chef Salvatore (omelets this time), which we ate while squeezing in one more episode of Pushing Daisies before she had to go. Goodbye came too soon, but it was so, so wonderful to get to spend some quality time together and we're very thankful to Guy and the Fabulous Miss M (and Sally!) for making these Girls' Weekends possible.

So it's back to the grindstone today with many urgent tasks needing to be done. Aren't Mondays always like that? Mine are, at any rate.

lunch, Ms. Bento:

• garden vegetable soup
• rainbow carrot sticks, hard boiled egg wrapped in a French sorrel leaf, honey peanut butter in the cup for dipping the carrots and apple
• Pinova apple slices, dark chocolate covered raisins

Also, I posted the next round of entries about the work we did on the library and guest & creative room. Because both write-ups were about refinishing the floors, the text is the same for both but the pictures obviously aren't.

guest & creative room, part 02: refinishing the floor

PHOTOS

library, part 02: refinishing the floor

PHOTOS

remembering our accomplishments, one step at a time

As promised this weekend, I've begun posting write-ups and picture galleries of the work we did a couple of years ago on the library and guest (& creative) room. It's been interesting looking back through pictures and remembering all the work that went into those rooms. And a challenge to remember the particulars, the hang-ups and obstacles and delays. Which is why I've been documenting our home improvement projects here, so we'd have a record of all the work that went into it. Note to self: that record is much more complete when you don't wait three years to write it down.

Anyway...part 1 of each of the projects (basically the "before" pictures) is now up for your reading pleasure and entertainment:

guest & creative room, part 1: getting started

library, part 1: getting started

When I wasn't busy skimming through old photos on my computer and trying to remember exactly what we did three years ago, Sal and I managed to fit in an excursion to the Portland Opera for a matinee performance of Hansel and Gretel. One of his co-workers helped cater a function for the opera and received two tickets as a thank you. She wasn't able to go so she offered us the tickets.

After the show, we went for dinner at Pizza Fino in Kenton, and what started as dinner after the show before heading home became a three course meal lasting a few hours. We haven't been out to dinner like that for a couple of months so it was lovely to converse over a wonderful meal in a nice but relaxed atmosphere.

Lunch today consists of Saturday's leftovers, namely chili. Saturday was a series of downpours, some of them downright biblical, so it was the perfect day to break out the crockpot to make that chili I'd been thinking about last week. It's probably the best chili I've ever made so I'm glad that we made a huge batch.

lunch, Ms. Bento:

• chili: chili and kidney beans, several red and green peppers of various degrees of hotness and sweetness, onions, garlic, tomatoes, beef, seasonings of spicy deliciousness, with a garnish of (melted) cheese cubes
• small mixed green salad, with radishes and rainbow carrots and a small container of dressing tucked in
• Honeycrisp apple
• orange cheesecake made by Chef Salvatore

Unrelated to anything, other than being cool news on an otherwise ho-hum Monday, I see that scientists have successfully created a "mini big bang" at the LHC.  How indescribably cool is that? (It'll take weeks (months? years?) to analyze the data, but one of the things they hope to find is evidence of the Higgs boson particle, otherwise known as "the God particle" (despite scientists' preference otherwise).) They generated temperatures of ten trillion degrees and created sub-atomic fireballs. Sub-atomic fireballs, you guys! You don't even have to be an astrophysics geek to get excited about that.

bento-versary!!

Today marks one year since I officially renewed my bento obsession with bento 2.0 baby!, resulting in about 130 bento lunches and breakfasts in the last year. It's safe to say, I think, that my plan has been a success. I've eaten out for lunch only a handful of times, stopped my (very bad) habit of not eating at all during the day, cut down on lunch expenses, eaten better, felt better, refined my bento routine, and converted a few people to the bento way of life along the way. I've even had a few pretty lunches here and there.

If it weren't the first of the month -- the busiest time of my very busy life -- and if I had my act more together, lunch today would have a bit more panache (and be a tad less monochromatic) to mark the day than simply using the same container as my lunch from a year ago. Then again, that wouldn't really be in keeping with my way of bento-ing, where pragmatic takes precedence over picturesque. Still...there's always room for a few carrot shapes!

lunch, Ms. Bento:

• garden vegetable soup, with a julienned carrot lattice" and heart and star carrot cutouts for garnish
• wraps: herb roasted turkey breast and cream cheese in a flour tortilla
• heart and start carrot shapes, grapes

1,600+ food items filling our lobbySpeaking of food and doing very good things, our office just completed a month-long canned food drive for the Oregon Food Bank and we were, as you can see, mightily successful.

pumpkins from the decorating contest that ProcrastiGirl handpainted with the company mascotOur office is divided into teams so to make things interesting, the food drive was actually a competition among the teams to see who could bring in the most items, with a prize for the winner at the end of the month for the winning team. We also challenged our vendors to try to beat us, and as a result, we ended up with over 1,600 food items.

And finally, just randomly...a week ago, I was on my way home late after an especially stressful day, rushing to pick up my CSA before the deadline and thinking about all the things I needed to take care of when I got home afterward. As I got onto the freeway, I remembered I needed to put gas in the car lest I be stranded on I-5 NB waiting for Comet in busy Tuesday evening traffic. So it was right back off the freeway at the next exit, wading through traffic to a gas station and waiting for the busy attendant to get to me, all the while thinking, "and miles to go before I sleep".

We'd had some impressive storms throughout that day and the three or days before, with dark, dark clouds and rain that came down in a torrent, relentless. But as I was sitting at the light waiting to get back on the freeway, the sun had come in under the the clouds as it was setting, lighting everything up -- including the array of trees in many colors in front of me -- against a backdrop of sky so dark blue gray that it was almost black. A reminder when I probably needed it to be mindful of the now and not to lose sight that life is happening in this moment, and this one, and this one.

the rain to the wind said

I took yesterday off to spend some time on writing and holy crap, did I ever pick a great weekend to do it. We've had the most terrific series of storms rolling through since Friday night, feeding my mood to be curled up at home and be all author-ly. Have we forgotten how much I love bad weather (as long as I'm not in it)? No? Okay, moving on.

Because this weather also makes me ridiculously nest-y, I also spent a hilarious amount of time working on plans for the project I alluded to last week. Which I wouldn't have thought possible, since autumn is already the time when I get downright Martha Stewart anyway, but with a fun and exciting house project on the horizon? Cranked up to eleven, you guys.

Don't worry, I'll spill the beans soon since I won't be able to keep it a secret. But first, I need to get some updates done on this here website about house projects we've completed. So look for more tales of home improvement gone ludicrously awry and pictorial evidence thereof to tide you over until the project gets underway and you'll have a whole new round of entertainment.

lunch, Ms. Bento:

• pork roast and root vegetable stew -- beets, parsnips, rutabaga, kale, rainbow chard, onions, and tomatoes (we had some produce to use up, in case that wasn't obvious)
• baked potato with a bit of sour cream and garlic-dill cheese curds
• orange sections; pears and bananas cooked with cinnamon and brown sugar (a sort of quickie pear-banana sauce) with walnuts for garnish

The rain to the wind said,
'You push and I'll pelt.'
They so smote the garden bed
That the flowers actually knelt,
And lay lodged--though not dead.
I know how the flowers felt.
          — Robert Frost

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.

and now you'll have that song in your head all day

So if you missed my squeeing yesterday, the new Tired Pony CD is now my favorite thing in the wide world. This morning when I first got in the car and the radio came on, I actually got impatient with whatever was playing because it wasn't Tired Pony, as one does. I might -- might -- have a tendency to be all OMG I LOVE THIS THE MOSTEST OF ALL THE THINGS when I have a new shiny thing. It does not, however, make me any less right.

I took a couple of days off so it's back to work after 4 days out of the office. Well 5, actually, since I worked from home Wednesday. My time off was to take some time for writing stuff, which has now morphed into a marathon of cutting 50,000 words from my word count. So check that out if you're interested. Meanwhile, Sal brewed yet another batch of beer this weekend, so we can now say we have 99 bottles of beer on the wall. I really need to get him to update the brewing section of this site so you can read all about his adventures in homemade alcohol...

Anyway, as I say, back to work today. I may have a new bento convert, so I should've actually gone to some effort with lunch today, but eh, I'm lazy. I now have two coworkers who are part of my daily lunch unveiling. It's like an art exhibit opening at a gallery! Hmm, perhaps I should start cultivating a bohemian lifestyle and a predilection for wearing household items as strange hats.

lunch, Ms. Bento:

• fajitas -- strip steak, green peppers, torpedo onions, saucy deliciousness
• flour tortilla, sharp cheddar
• coffee cake (which has a delicious mix of spices and a layer of pears) made by Sally
• Reliance grapes

Also, RIP: my pink strawberry sidecar, which broke when Sal accidentally dumped over one of my bento organizer bins. :(

a feeling of fall in the air...

It's not even September yet and already it feels like fall. Last week's heat wave came (thankfully) to a halt with the cooler weather of the PNW that we know and love, and it seems like the switch has been flipped into fall, even if the calendar doesn't say so. This happens to me every year, the feeling that fall is coming by the end of August, and with it, a deep-seated drive to get the winterizing done before the first frost in September.

Which is hilarious, really, because if we get any frost at all, it won't be until November/December, and we have months of warm weather and beautiful days ahead of us still. What can I say, 27 years in Wyoming, those old instincts die hard. But the vine maples do start changing right around this time, so it's not entirely without premise that I would be sensing that autumnal feeling in the air. Although I did hear on the news last night that we're not done with the heat yet...another 90 degree day coming up tomorrow, supposedly....

Regardless, a roast/stew in the crockpot yesterday seemed just the thing. And I did a bit of baking to use up the zucchini and summer squash that've been in our share for the last few weeks now. So I'm ready for fall, even if the mercury has decided to make a few more jumps upward.

lunch, Ms. Bento:

• stew: potatos, carrots, onions, green & royal burgundy beans, chard, and tomato with a pork shoulder roast
• onion sesame crackers and some gouda
• fresh-picked blackberries* (with a few leaves of greens for contrast)
• homemade zucchini bread

*We had a wonderful, wonderful family weekend with Sister, Guy, and the Fabulous Miss M, which included berry picking at a nearby farm. More about that hopefully tomorrow, when I have a couple of pictures that we took together.

(NOTE: I fixed the issue that was making the small pictures unclickable. Now when you click it, the small image above should open up a larger version.)

weekend fun, then back to the grind

I purposefully chose the Ms. Bento this morning as a motivator to get myself out the door at lunch and eat at the park. I haven't had a chance in awhile to do that. It's so easy each day for me to get to a point where I just can't get away and end up eating at my desk, so sometimes I just have to Have A Plan. And the only way I could drag myself out of my comfy bed this morning, after such a fun weekend, was to promise myself that I would eat lunch at the park today, dammit.

lunch, Ms. Bento

• stir fry -- kale, rainbow chard, bok choy, onion, garlic, chicken, broccoli, snow peas, peanuts, secret special sauce ;)
• jasmine rice
• half a Jazz apple (the other half, along with some blueberries, served as breakfast)
• chocolate covered raisins

So Cat arrived Friday evening and we headed over to Screen Door, which was her suggestion. She'd heard about it online somewhere -- she has a love and fascination for all things Southern -- and we'd never been there, so it was perfect. Always love trying a new place, but especially with someone who's as interested in a new culinary adventure as we are.

There was a half hour wait, so we walked down the block for iced tea/coffee until our turn for a table came up. We were lucky to get a table on the patio, and the evening was just absolutely PNW perfect: mid-70s, no wind, sunny with a few high clouds. So glad it wasn't hot, because I just have no appetite in the heat and nothing on the menu would've sounded good to me. When she was here this time last year, we were in the midst of 100 degree temperatures, and it sucked.

Unhampered by heat, then, we proceeded to order a gazillion different things: hush puppies and fritters, corn on the cob and buttermilk fried chicken, and a banana and caramel and shortbread pie thing that we probably would've sold ourselves into indentured servitude for. Sally had to work, so we decided early on we'd start a box of leftovers to take home for him, which freed us up to oder so many dishes...win/win!

We rolled out of there stuffed and content and headed home to relax and visit until Sally got home. We probably could've talked well into the wee hours, but since we were planning to spend our Saturday in the Gorge, we decided to be responsible adults and turn in for a good night's rest.

Saturday started out cool and overcast, then cleared and warmed up later, which seems to be the pattern for the last week or so. Cat had never been to the Gorge, nor seen Multnomah Falls, so we decided this had to be rectified immediately.

So we spent the day on a leisurely drive on the Historic Columbia River Highway, stopping at different view points and landmarks along the way, as well as each of the falls that lead up to Multnomah. While we were up on the ridges portion of the highway, there was no wind at all -- unusual for the Gorge -- so it made the stop at Vista House in particular especially nice.

We stopped for a picnic at Wahkeena Falls, then on to Multnomah at last. Which...well, the sky had cleared and it was a beautiful day by then, but we were reminded why we've never been there on a Saturday at the height of tourist season. HOLY CRAP! People everywhere, and the bridge across the falls was packed, and it eliminated any desire we normally have to linger and enjoy the view the way we usually do when we're there. Despite the hordes of people, however, we did still get lots of beautiful pictures.

We kept going east to Hood River, where one of Sal's former students had recently opened a bakery and he was hoping we'd be able to stop in for a bit. Except he couldn't remember the name. So Cat and I both googled madly with the vague clues for some hint of what the place was called and where we'd find it. Thank goodness that man has passengers with unstoppable google-fu or he'd never find anything....

But find it, we did. Unfortunately, the bakery was closed for the day, but he could see someone (not his studen) inside working some dough. He didn't want to disturb them, but Cat and I insisted that we knock on some windows, find a back door, something. Which earned us designations as rabblerousers, like that was a bad thing. Joke's on him.

We were let inside and got an after hours tour of his former student's bakery, met both her and one of her pastry chefs, talked about the challenges of opening a bakery in a small town, providing product for less traditional-pastry-educated palates, the differences between East Coast and West Coast, and the surprising things that do and don't sell. It was a great experience to see the effect of Sal's work, and how much he inspires his students, and how much they look up to him.

We ended up back at home later than originally planned so scrapped our original dinner plans and instead (thanks to the gracious suggestion of Cat, who is the most thoughful house guest imaginable), opted for pizzas from Pizza Fino and a homemade salad. We were able to eat outside on the patio, then once the mosquitos drove us inside, changed into our jammies and curled up on the couch to visit until bedtime.

Her departure on Sunday morning came all too soon, but such is the way of things when you have a dear friend visiting. We're so fortuante to have friends who visit as often as they do, and who welcome us for visits, too. Now if we could just get that whole "independently wealthy" gig going so we didn't have to limit ourselves to weekends in between job obligations, we'd be able to make those visits far more frequent....

site news, artwork, and a strawberry theme

Still working on adding things, so keep checking back. We hope to have Sal's beer making adventures up soon, and then I'd like to tackle updating about the house projects we've completed in the four years since the old site was last updated. Including! Pictures from converting the spare room into a library! And of course we're blogging here on the main page regularly. With non-bento posts, even!

Speaking of bento madness, I've just completed an additional page of the site called, funnily enough, Bento Madness. (You can find it in the Smorgasbord dropdown menu.) The new page explains a basic overview of what bento is, how I got started doing it, my own personal bento philosophy, and rules I've made for myself in packing them, as well as two photo galleries that can be viewed as slide shows.  So if you're one of the people new to my obsession with all things bento, perhaps that will make Teh Crazy a little bit clearer.

The first photo gallery contains all of my bento pics since bento 2.0 baby! began, and will include new pics as they're posted. It's interesting to see the evolution of my lunches since my revitalized interest began...well, interesting to me, anyway. (Note that the gallery is actually split into two pages, so they're viewed in two separate slide shows.) The second gallery includes pictures of each of the boxes I use and a short description of each, including its volume. It can also be viewed as a slide show.

Breakfast:

• Oregon strawberries! (if you missed it, read my ode to Oregon strawberries! from yesterday)
• mini sidecar with plain honey yogurt and a dollop of marionberry jam

Lunch:

• stir fry -- onions, scallions, lemongrass, turnips, chicken, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, kale, bok choy, sesame seeds, peanuts, and secret sauce, with more peanuts for garnish
• jasmine rice
• Oregon strawberries! in one half because I just can't get enough, orange creme cheesecake made by Sally in the other half...a bit on the decadent side, but on Mondays, you're allowed a bit of decadence

The weather is beautiful today so I made it a priority to get out of the office for lunch and eat at my little hidden park nearby. Haven't done that in far too long; time to get back in the habit. My day is always better for it.

Another thing I haven't done in awhile: my little notes in my lunch. The quote in my lunch today:

Each life converges to some centre
Expressed or still.

This is the first line from the poem Part One: Life -- LXI by Emily Dickenson. I incorporated this line into a piece of artwork for my office as a gigantic reminder to myself every day I'm there of where my real center lies. (More pics of that artwork to come...I'm thinking it's time for another photo gallery that groups our various creative endeavors in one place.)

stir fry deliciousness

We had some kale, bok choy, and turnips from our share to use up before tomorrow's new share arrives, so we did a stir fry for dinner last night. When we use the wok, we use Sally's burner that he heats the big kettle with for brewing beer, since A) it gets the kind of heat a wok needs, and B) we don't an overhead vent for our stove. That means doing it outside, which is fun.

For those of you not living here, however, you may not know that this has been one of the coldest, wettest springs in a long time, and June has broken all kinds of records for rainfall and low temps. Yesterday was no different -- gray and damp though it wasn't cold, just cool. Our timing was perfect, though, because we happened to be outside with the wok between drizzle spells. And it was the perfect weather for curling up on the couch with hot bowls of stir fry and rice and catching up on our Netflix discs (the end of Season 5 of Weeds, in this case).

Anyway, today's bento benefits from golden stir fry deliciousness.  Too bad my cameraphone does it little justice.

Breakfast -- cute animals sidecar:

• honey vanilla granola
• mini sidecar with plain honey yogurt and a dollop of strawberry jam

Lunch -- Ms. Bento:

• stir fry -- onions, scallions, lemongrass, turnips, chicken, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, kale, bok choy, sesame seeds, peanuts, and secret sauce
• jasmine rice
• fresh mango in one half, Fuji apple slices in the other half with fresh blueberries as gap fillers

important obligations kept me up late

Cobbled this together very late last night, thanks to the Lost series finale extravaganza -- four and a half hours, y'all! And still processing everything that happened, and how it all ended. But my preliminary reaction is that I really liked it. I can't wait to do a straight-through marathon once all the DVDs are available (and I guess I better get crackin' on adding to my library, since I currently only have S1 on DVD; though perhaps I'll spring for the complete set instead of collecting the rest of the seasons individually....).

Anyway, thank goodness for leftovers and for a whole ton of random vegetables that needed to be used up. Oh, and a chef husband who can figure out a way to combine those random vegetables into something yummy.

Ms. Bento:

• super vegetable soup -- tomato & stock base with pearl barley, Swiss chard, fava beans, zucchini, asparagus, onions, shallots, garlic, carrots
• spinach wraps with cream cheese and black forest ham
• 1st half: onion sesame crackers, Babybel gouda; 2nd half: homemade brownie bites

insert clever title here

Well, despite my thought last night, in the midst of a mini-Armageddon, that I would have to scrap a bento for today, I ended up awesoming to the nth degree and making one after all.

Ms. Bento tiffin:

• broccoli & cheese baked potato (fresh steamed broccoli, cojack cheese, yellow heirloom potatoes)
• more steamed broccoli (to add to the potato), carrot sticks, and a whole lotta honey peanut butter since I'm a bit low on protein otherwise
• Sundance navel orange sections in one half, yogurt and dark chocolate covered raisins in the other

leftovers save the day...again

Another training to teach today. And somehow, my otherwise mostly-free-of-meetings day filled up with meetings. Wtf, over? Sigh. Sometimes I think my main job is attending meetings and all of my other responsibilities are just to fill the time in between (and before, and after, and late into the night...).

These are the days, more than any others, when I am so grateful for the fabulousness of leftovers.

• fettucine with a marinara from the freezer -- Sal made it last fall with the last of the tomatoes from the garden, some thyme and rosemary from our herb garden, and some onion and mushrooms from our bin at the time; it made a huge batch so we froze the extra and it made for a pretty quick and yummy dinner last night and for lunch today
• salad of mixed greens and rainbow carrots, with a simple vinaigrette in the little container
• Sundance navel orange in one side, molasses cookie cut up in pieces in the other half

lesson learned

A very pedestrian bento today, but considering it was thrown together in a little over 5 minutes (not counting egg cooking time), it's more impressive than it looks. Leftovers, leftovers everywhere....

• homemade beef stew (the last of the leftovers from the coast)
• brown rice packed around a hard-boiled egg (a large instead of a jumbo so I didn't bother molding it)
• orange sections and green grapes in one half, baby carrots and honey peanut butter for dipping
• small containers of soy sauce (for the rice) and salt (for the egg and stew)
• organic chocolate bar from Moonstruck (this will mark the fourth time I've packed this particular bar in my lunch, so we'll see if I actually get around to eating some of it)

Since I was off last week to write, I didn't do any bentos at all, even though I thought about at least doing them for lunches since I have a tendency to let time get away from me when I'm writing. Sure enough, that's exactly what happened all week, and I didn't end up eating as well or wholesomely as I could have or should have. I mean, I didn't eat a bunch of junk food (key words: "a bunch" :), but I also didn't fix a nice meal for myself and went for long stretches without eating (i.e., I'd forget to eat breakfast & lunch, and then suddenly be ravenous at around 9 PM).

It was actually a good thing, because it made me realize that if -- no, WHEN -- I'm writing full-time, keeping a regular routine of bentos will help me maintain consistency and healthy eating. It's such work to get into and maintain that writing groove that my tendency is to not want to break from it for any reason. When things are flowing, you want it to last as long as you can...like catching that perfect wave and riding it all the way to the end (she says, as if she knows diddly about surfing...).

So I know I'm not going to stop and make myself something, and will in fact just heat whatever's in the fridge or (as happened last week, when the fridge became increasingly bare) scrounge whatever I can find and call it good -- crackers and some grapes, or a leftover sausage and a carrot and piece of chocolate, or juice and toast (examples of "meals" I ate last week). Random combinations that are just whatever's easily at hand and doesn't require any real effort. If it's occasional, that's fine, but not day after day.

So I figure if i have a lunch all ready to go, put together the night before just like I do now for work, then I don't have to break if I'm on a roll, but I'm still getting all the benefits of eating something filling and well-balanced.

Poor Ms. Bento...

Poor Ms. Bento, feeling a little neglected. Awww. Don't worry, Ms. Bento, I still love you and your brother, Laptop Lunch. It's natural to feel a little neglected when new siblings enter the family, but I love you all the same, I promise. You're still the best at soups and stews and keeping things warm. Like today! See how good you did keeping my comforting lunch nice and warm for me on this rainy gray day? You're a good little bento, yes you are.

• homemade beef stew, with curls of carrot and scallion (leftover from sushi making) for a bit of color
• carrot and celery sticks, tortilla rolls, and a little container of honey peanut butter for dipping (with carrot "supports" underneath so it's at the same level of the rest of the food)
• Sierra Gold tangerines, pineapple chunks, and raspberries in one half; dried mango slices, chocolate almond clusters, and dark chocolate covered raisins in the other half

Taken today with a regular digital camera from work instead of my cameraphone because I forgot to charge it. I may have to break down and start taking these with my regular camera since they look so much better than with my phone.  My mom surprised me with a new camera for my birthday, so it would be a good excuse to start using it. Our old digital camera -- a refurbished Fuji we got in 2003 -- is a 1.5 megapixel, which makes it an Etch-A-Sketch by today's standards. Though it sure has hung in there well. The one she got me is 10 megapixels and has a ton of neat features, including a food setting, but I haven't had time to play with it much yet. May just have to do that....

Open, sesame! (sorry, couldn't resist)

I must be needing nutrients from green veggies, because that's pretty much all that's in today's lunch. That, or it's what I had in the fridge. ;)

Actually, we got the cutest little bunches of baby bok choy in our bin Monday, and though I didn't feel like going to the store to get some other veggies to round out the colors/flavors a little more, I decided to do a quick stir fry thing so I could use it.

Oh, and! I toasted my own sesame seeds! So yay, I have...basic cooking skillz, I guess?

• baby bok choy, spinach, broccoli, and pea pods stir fried in a bit of soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, and Worcestershire, with the aforementioned toasted sesame seeds for a little nutty flavor
• jasmine rice to mix in and the remainder of the sesame seeds sprinkled on top
• minneola tangelo sections, Enterprise apple slices, and green grapes
• chocolate Pocky for a little treat