Feisty Bento #364: Off for vacation

A simple bento but totally delicious. 

Sauteed bean sprouts and another slice of my zucchini & potato gratin (the second to last slice! boo). 

I can't wait to eat this.  *chomps down*

I took this photo this morning after I got off the bus.  If you look closely, I color-accented red - everything else is black & white.  I just liked how things lined up, though in the photo the back building looks like it's glowing... it looked much cooler in real life (not glowing). 

Maybe it's glowing because as I got off the bus and looked up (most NYCers don't look up quite as often as you'd think, whatwith all the tall buildings... people looking up are tourists.  With cameras? DEFINITELY tourists... lol)... I noticed that I could see the humidity waves.  I'm sure you all think I'm crazy, even though when it's really hot, you can see the heat waves in the air - it makes everything in front of you ever so slightly blurry and sometimes you can see the lines of heat! - but I swear, I saw the moisture hanging in the air, just thick, blurry, like I was looking through lenses that had the teensiest bit of petroleum jelly rubbed over the lens.  It was SO GROSS. 

So I was complaining about the rain last month, and now suddenly it's like someone just cranked the humidity dial.  But not the heat!  I mean, it's not cold, but it doesn't feel hot.  Does that make sense?  It's not sunny, just sticky and gross and uncomfortable out. 

But this is part of the price we pay to live in NYC... one of the greatest cities in the world.

On another note, I am taking the next two weeks off from work, so no bentos.  (And I was just starting to get back into the swing... sorry!)  Posts will continue to be going up on Feisty Foodie (I've been working like mad to catch up and get ahead of schedule here so I wouldn't leave you guys in the lurch! so be sure to check over there every day!!!), so you won't be totally alone here. 

I'll be back on August 3rd.  In the meantime, be sure to poke through my archives!!!  I love comments & feedback, and there are a lottttt of posts where I have neither... ;) 

Think outside the lunchbox!!!

Feisty Bento #363: Holy Awesome!

Hehehe... my day is awesome! 

Aside from my funny parking adventures (fitting my massive SUV in a space that turned out to be only 2-4" longer than my vehicle) and my awesome everything, I went to pick up some groceries to round out my CSA and because I had something specific in mind that I wanted to make tonight.  As I was walking back to the subway station, I passed by another Asian supermarket (that I don't like going to because it's a block closer to the subway and is more packed/crowded but not always in a good "high turnover" way, and it's very crowded in its layout... although last night I discovered they renovated and changed the layout to be more open, so...) that had those Golden Rainier cherries for $2.99/lb.!!!  Not SO much cheaper, but really, 25% cheaper!  :)  So I picked up a small bag but it turned out to be like 1.75 pounds... ah well!  Now I have delicious cherries for a snack tonight, yay! 

This bento makes me happy.  It should make you happy too. 

The last of the roasted beets & cipollini onions; sauteed bean sprouts; two slices of zucchini-potato gratin. 

I expect to be super full from this bento later!

Think outside the lunchbox!!!

Feisty Bento #362: But I guess it does get better

Do you know what those are?

No? 

Try the best cherries in the world (Golden Rainier cherries), and my breakfast.  $4 a lb. makes them not so cheap, but hell, 1 lb. does me fine for breakfast and they are so good.  Lightly sweet, gently bursting with their wonderful flavor... I feel they're often overlooked.  Ah well.  Mmm.

I have two pics of today's lunch.

This is to show you from the side my tweak of the zucchini-potato gratin that I made last week and wanted to boost a little.  It's thicker this time because I had two zucchinis instead of just one, and I added some extra ingredients between the zucchini & potato layers.  How delicious does that look???  God I love being part of a CSA!!!  Recipe will come soon I promise!

The full bento. 

Two slices of zucchini-potato gratin; roasted cipollini onions & roasted beets, just thrown together though they weren't roasted together (concurrently but not together).  It looks like not that much, right?  But I was super full after eating this actually... not uncomfortably so but just a touch before that.  Very odd because I didn't think I'd be completely full.  Guess the potato (and cheese) really do something for that :)

Think outside the lunchbox!!!

Feisty Bento #361: Not sure it gets better than this

A quickie meal I threw together and the leftovers went into a bento. 

Cornmeal crusted pan-fried dover sole, roasted broccoli (I didn't use garlic this time and instead used my own combination of ingredients! so yummy!).  Dill tartar sauce on the side.  So delicious. 

Thanks to everyone who helped me look for the numbers!  It was actually a numbering mistake on my laptop - I don't have all of my bentos on one drive (boo, I know) - so the folder was mislabeled.  Sorry for making you go through that!  And Cindy - you're right, I did 170 twice even though one of those posts doesn't have 170 in it (since it's listed as a double-post)... so weird, right??? 

Think outside the lunchbox~!!!

Feisty Bento #360: Uber delicious

I'm not sure how this happened, but my posts don't match up with my computer.  ie, this is #359 on my computer but here it is #360.  Has anyone noticed a missing number?  If so, please tell me!  This is going to drive me nuts until I figure it out!

Left: 3 slices of a zucchini-potato gratin I made but want to tweak a little before I post a recipe, plus it's CSA stuff :)
Right: whole grain bread with turkey & ham, mayo & mustard

More playing with color accent.  My camera is a Canon (SD 1100 IS, if you care about such things), and most of the newer Canons have it.  I think even my old one had it, though not the one before that, which was an SD 100, though.  My bento bag sitting on some paperwork at the office.

On Saturday, I went to my sister's house to play with my nephews, relax, catch up & gossip with my sister.  She made these ribs using a BBQ sauce from Williams-Sonoma - maple-something - but it was too sweet for me.  The ribs were smoky and juicy, but the sauce itself - and I love sauce! - was just a tad much.  She wasn't offended :P

We also had steak because my brother in law rocks the cash-bar.  (Anyone who gets that joke... you must be older than me.  lol.) 

Our entire spread - sauteed broccoli, kielbasa, and a super salad I made, but that's also CSA stuff, so stay tuned :)

My dog thinks she's a cat.  She likes to jump onto my windowsill (from the armchair that's in front of it first... she isn't that cat-like!) and stare out the window.  It was probably more fun in our last apartment, when we lived facing the street in a corner apartment.  I'm still in a corner apartment but my windows face the back/side so she doesn't have people to look at it really... although sometimes she stares at other people's windows and growls at them. 

She looks so regal.

HAHAHAHAHA I caught her at just the right moment... she looks like she's about to attack, right?  Or bite/chomp down?  Nahhh, she's yawning. 

So if you follow my Twitter or are friends with me on Facebook, you probably saw I posted briefly about Keywee being sick.  I took her to the vet, and while the jury is still out and we're not out of the woods yet (and how many other corny metaphors can I use?), I'm hoping things are OK.  I am monitoring her (going straight home after work to make sure she's ok, keeping an eye on her, etc.) and making sure she's eating, pottying, playing, being a normal dog, basically.  She hasn't wanted to play for a little bit now, so I'm a little anxious to see how things play out, plus she tends to get very depressed if I give her any sort of medicine or treatment she doesn't want- I've been dropping ointment into her ears (for a separate, unrelated issue), so she's been very angry at me and depressed as well. 

So please keep a good thought for her... I'd rather not go into the details of why/how/what happened that she requires monitoring and care, if you know, then you know, if not, we'll keep it that way (sorry!)... but please send some good thoughts her way, or, if you're so inclined, pray for her to be OK.  Thanks!

Think outside the lunchbox!!!

Feisty Bento #359: One last time

Last one... pasta with CSA veggies topped w/goat cheese

Think outside the lunchbox!!!

Feisty Bento #358: Repeat of the CSA Bento!

It's more of the same as yesterday.  And tomorrow will be the same, too. 

Pasta with sauteed veggies, goat cheese.

So last night, in a fit of rage and anger over this entire week and its goings on, I left my apartment and took a long walk over to Citi Field.  When the season began - or even last year, when I'd purchased my first Sunday plan - I casually remarked that I could walk to the stadium, if I wanted.  People scoffed and doubted me.  Well.  It took me 30-40 minutes, not a bad walk at all.  Suckers.  You're all wrong! 

And I took some pics, which could use some processing, but I was in a rush and uploaded them this morning straight. 

As you approach the stadium from the LIRR platform

Closer up... here's the signage.

The Globe - this is the best pic I caught, but it would be better if I cropped it slightly to cut out the lamp on the left side of the pic, which I'll do tonight. 

The other side... was trying to get the US in the pic, but you can see Florida and just a bit of the rest.  Just how the world is tilted at this time of year (ha... nerd joke!) I guess.

Slightly further away. 

An attempt at a shot of the moon as I was on my way home, but it was hard to keep my hands steady in the super dark park.  Ah well. 

Nice pictures, eh?  I'm being a little sarcastic.  I know I can take better... I just have to practice, but it gets frustrating sometimes for me.  I won't go into that right now though, I need to leave.  Haha.

Think outside the lunchbox!!!

Feisty Bento #357: Yay CSA Bento

Yes, the day after my CSA pick up, I always have something new to eat!  This is just spaghetti sauteed with a bunch of leafy green veggies and then topped with a bit of goat cheese.  Details to come on Feisty Foodie per usual.  Pretty yummy. 

So I was playing with my camera recently and decided to learn how to play with the "color accent" feature.

With my oversized reuseable grocery tote's orange accented, on my messy office desk. 

Also on my messy desk.  Still orange (though what you see is actually red). 

Regular picture, full color.

With the yellows highlighted (didn't come out so well... boo)

The purplish-pink.

The green.  Not sure - which one do you like best?  Full color?  Haha.

These are all random photos taken from behind my office building.  If you're very observant, you'll know what building that is on the left.  If not, oh well, it's not like it's that awesome.  Or awesome at all, I'm just a dork who finds these things amusing. 

Think outside the lunchbox!!!

Feisty "Bento" #356: Sooo Not a Bento

Yup, another not-bento.  I was tired!  There's too much sandwich stuff stuck in the fridge and not enough non-sandwich stuff!  Sue me! 

Brownies (from a box) with dried cherries sprinkled in, and a turkey+ham+pepperjack cheese sandwich on whole grain bread with mayo & mustard.

Think outside the lunchbox!!!

Feisty "Bento" #355: Not a bento

I went camping this past weekend, and wound up being the 'lucky' recipient of many of the leftovers, including whole grain bread and cold cuts (we made sandwiches to take on our hike).  So today's lunch was a simple sandwich, whole grain bread with hickory smoked ham, roasted turkey, American cheese, mayo & mustard. 

I'm so tired at least I still made lunch?

And for those who have commented before on how fastidious and anal I am with regard to my bentos lacking a divider yet looking like they are neatly divided, my dog did this today:

She ate her bowl of food neatly down the middle.  I don't know why or how she even did that.  It amazed me so much that I had to snap a photo (ignore my horrible dirty floors).  Wild. 

Think outside the lunchbox!!!

Feisty Bento #354: Martha Stewart Owes Me Money

 

Here is a color-accent photo of my darling baby.  I didn't know how to use the function properly (still don't, not exactly) when I took this photo, so the color it had picked was yellow, as you can see a bit in her ears and in the background.  Ah well.  I just like the photo. 

Whoa, it's been over 2 months since I posted a two-tier bento. 

Top tier: broccoli slaw with some homemade dill yogurt; roasted fennel
Bottom tier: Collards quesadilla

Unfortunately none of those items wow'ed me much so I'm not going to bother posting any details just yet.  You'll see them in one of the CSA updates on Feisty Foodie though.  :)

SO I HAVE A RANT AND I HAVE BEEN PRETTY GOOD ABOUT NOT RANTING ON FEISTY BENTO (I think... correct me if I'm wrong!)...

Remember that brand new toy I bought?

I am going to return it.

What is that?

Or that?

Closer up.

So, it's staining and I don't cook at the rim, I don't understand it.  Apparently, enameled cast iron gets stains sometimes.  Fine.  That's all fine and dandy then.  I've Googled it and it happens to all brands.  That is fine. 

But you notice something in this picture?  The top of the pot, the rim so to speak... is un-enameled cast iron.  It's raw.  I've read the care instructions over and over again, and it simply says to not use metal utensils, hand wash thoroughly, blah, blah, blah, I do/did those things.  However, it says nothing about drying it thoroughly (I tend to let my dishes and pots/pans air-dry). 

What's the problem?  You don't see where this is going? 

Cast iron + water = RUST

This is why I wanted an enameled cast iron pot - so I wouldn't have to deal with rust!!! 

Can you see it in this picture?

This one?  (The lighting was a bit hard; I wanted to use natural light but it wasn't that sunny this morning, I will take more pictures if it's sunny when I get home.)  That's the underside 'rim' of the lid, which is also un-enameled.

Do you see these horrible, ugly, pitted rust marks???

WHAT THE FARTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT?  I didn't buy enameled cast iron so I could have stuff that's a pain in the ass to keep clean!  I only used it 3 times, too, which makes this complete bull-poopy! 

I'm returning you, and a big F U to the Martha Stewart Collection of enameled cast iron!  I'm warning you all, if you're low-maintenance like I am - ie, like low-care items for the most part because let's face it, I'm a busy freakin' girl and don't have time to hand dry all of my pots and pans regularly! - then do NOT buy these pans.  Martha Stewart owes me $65.03 (that's including tax)!!! 

Grrrrrrr.  Now I have to lug this heavy pot back to Macy's to return.  It was bad enough lugging it home in the rain, now I have to lug it BACK in the humidity!? 

Boo.

Think outside the lunchbox!!!