Feisty Bento #381: The End

*evil laugh*

MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!  As impressed and smug and self-pleased as I was with putting jamon Serrano in my bento (scroll all the way down) a while back, I think I topped that.  I mean, jamon Serrano is still more expensive than lobster - $23.99/lb. - but I think more people will instantly recognize the sheer ludicrousness of my putting lobster in my bento.  That's 3 lobster tails up there, too, so it's crazytown up in there! 

Top tier: baked mac & cheese (Alton Brown's recipe) in two left tiers; grape tomatoes from my CSA
Bottom tier: ULTIMATE LOBSTER SALAD... topped with lobster claws and a bit of chive (which is also in the salad as well)

I'll be posting the recipe for the ULTIMATE LOBSTER SALAD on Feisty Foodie in just over a month.  (With school and all, I write the posts as they happen, but schedule them for down the line, so you are never without posts!  Aren't I nice?) 

This bento set is a Lock & Lock set; each tier is 470ml, so together, it's 940ml, way too big for me for lunch.  Not that I couldn't have eaten all that, but I'd rather not, if I plan to achieve my goal weight.  So I ate half of everything - some tomatoes, one section of mac & cheese, and a lot of the lobster salad, then repacked it... for dinner.  Since I had to take the bus straight to school after work, instead of going home, then driving to school. 

I'm a little bored of complaining and whining about my car situation, aren't you guys tired of listening to me?  I have to say, though, again, a HUGE thank you for all the love & support and comments that came through from y'all offering solutions and suggestions.  They are REALLY appreciated.  I plan on trying to go this Saturday, after class, to get the tire looked at (by the same people who put it on), and to see about a new battery.  Maybe for the battery. 

My boyfriend, patient person that he is currently being, came up with a pretty creative solution to the issue, because I need to use the car.  He owns a ... I don't know what you call it.  Portable jumper?  It was purchased to use for a boat that occasionally had trouble turning its motor.  So it's basically a thing that you hook up to your battery that jumps it, that doesn't need to be connected to another car.  So I don't need another person. 

Basically, for the time being, when I need to use the car, I need to jump it using this thing, then pump my tire, then I can use it.  It's so absurd, that I can't help but laugh.  What else can you do?  I mean, now that the initial annoyance and frustration has worn off, it's really quite amusing that acquiring this vehicle, ostensibly meant to make my life easier, has now created so much trouble, headache, and aggravation... I'm just going to laugh it off.  No other choice.  :) 

I'm hoping that I am able to get to PepBoys on Saturday afternoon and everything will be taken care of and done with.  Ignoring cost for now, and doing what needs to be done. 

Thanks again for bearing with me as I failed the test of "Can Yvo keep her cool as her car falls to pieces?"  lol

On a bright, happy note: I went to J&J's for a "bbq" on Labor Day (and yes, I took pictures of all the food, and that post will come also on Feisty Foodie, in a month), and they gave me something they'd picked up especially for me in China.  :D

I'm not sure you can see it clearly - the lighting was not the greatest this morning - but it's a rabbit, with a moon above it.  Some of you - maybe - will get the reference.  Most of you probably won't, but that's okay.  It's a different part of my life, mostly in the past now, not bad, just past.  I LOVE it, it's totally adorable and will be rocking this soon :) THANK YOU to J&J again for the extremely thoughtful and lovely gift!!! 

And in other news... you may have already seen this.  Maybe not.  I want to thank the 15-20 people who sent me a link to this article in the New York Times about bento packing.  Hahaha.  It's a great article and covers a lot of angles - definitely not all of them! - but it was nice to see that it didn't focus solely on children's bentos, or charaben (the cutesy bentos).  Some of my favorite bento bloggers were featured.  A great read for any of you out there who like to read about bento... which should be any of you reading this right now, since I (sort of) talk about bento here, lol. 

Alright kiddies!  Chins up!  Heads high!  Smiles in place!!!  Don't let other people bring you down as you struggle to get up!  Remember that! 

Think outside the lunchbox~!!!  ;)

Feisty Bento #380: Seriously FML

That was lunch.  A big container of Stew Leonard's New England clam chowder.  I ate half of it already, so the remainder was the perfect size for lunch.  I went to the Elevated Acre to sit and watch the boats go by while I ate.  Actually, I studied for my English quiz, but y'know, same thing. 

But I added lobster.  See, Stew Leonard's is this giant supermarket that's about 30 minutes away from my home.  I had a terrible end of week last week - as anyone who read the last two posts knows - and I just was freaking out and then I saw this on the Midtown Lunch forums: lobsters for $3.99/lb.  Uhh, hi?  I managed to convince my boyfriend that we should go; it didn't hurt that porterhouses were on sale for $3.99/lb. as well.  So I bought 5 lobsters and we spent 2 hours in there walking around and buying stuff.  Final total: $120, which isn't bad considering the amount of stuff we got.  However, I later went to Trader Joe's (to get eggs, because I have yet to find a place that beats their egg prices, except that once at the Asian supermarket where it was $2 for 3 dozen eggs...), and realized that some of the things at Stew's was priced similarly to Trader Joe's, but slightly more expensive.  Doh!!!  I have to remember my prices!  Oh well, it was fun walking around when you can see things like:

Creepy doll, far left, girl reading healthy food book, man in cow costume waving to everyone.  And behind me, a family listening intently to the story, eating french fries.  I mean that was their entire lunch - they sat right next to us, and ordered like 5 orders of fries for 5 people, and maybe 2 hot dogs. 

We had a good time though; the store is really large and kind of walks like a maze, you almost have to walk through the whole thing to get to the end, and there's a ton of good food.  The container of soup I bought is $5, but really good - actually I've mentioned Stew Leonard's before here and here - cuz I really like going there, but rarely do.  Because 30 minutes isn't far, per se, but it's not close, either. 

This seagull started freaking out when I tried to take his picture as he stood in front of me.  Guess he thought I could actually shoot him with my camera, har-har-har...

So, the most wonderful thing happened!  Thus the title of this post.  Well, that's sarcasm for you.  I'm flabbergasted by the whole affair, actually. 

I mentioned that I now have a vehicle.  Last semester, I took public transportation straight to my school after work, which kills lots and lots of time (I get to school very early this way), but there's no very good nor direct way for me to get from my apartment to my school via public transportation.  It would probably take an hour or an hour and a half, while driving only takes 10-15 minutes.  20 if there's traffic. 

Now that I have a vehicle, I go home first, walk the dog, eat dinner, clean up a bit, you know, do things that are semi-productive as opposed to sitting on my butt at school, waiting for class to start.

Last night, I got in the car to go pick up my CSA on my way to class. 

I turned the key in the ignition.

Grrr, then silence.
Grrr, then silence.
Grrr...
THEN ABSOLUTE SILENCE.

Nothing.  It wouldn't even grind a little.  I did what I normally do when I have trouble starting a car (this has happened in the past; when I was younger, I used to start my parents' car for them and as the car got older, it had issues with its starter).  But it wasn't giving me that funny lil noise like the starter went bad. 

Obviously, I was having battery issues, but I didn't leave any lights on or anything battery draining! 

I sat there in shock, really, because it was just that point where I laugh and say "Seriously?  Are you kidding me?"  I had one of those teetering on the brink of being terrible day yesterday, so this was just pushing me towards the edge.  I tried again.  And again. 

Someone came by and gave me a jump; he pointed out that my battery had corrosion on the top, so it was the battery.  Which isn't an expensive fix by itself, but added to everything else just makes me throw my hands up in the air and think, WHAT THE F???????  Is this car cursed or what?  None of these problems a short 4 months ago, before I took ownership of the damn thing!!! 

The worst part is that I switched bags before I went to the car.  I wanted to go to class anyway and risk it; if the car didn't start after class, at 10pm in the middle of nowhere, I could still take the 1.5 hour route home, at least I wouldn't miss what was the first instructional class for the semester in this class.  (Last week was just talking about the professor's expectations, etc., what was required of us - one of those things being ATTENDANCE.)  But because I'd switched bags without thinking this would be a possibility, I left my MetroCard (for the non-NYers... it's basically a transit card that you put money on and swipe when you get on the subway or bus; I have an unlimited card, so forgetting it at home is not a choice) in my other bag, plus I only had like $3 on me.  I had to go back upstairs to get the card, but I couldn't leave the car running on the street!  AND I STILL HAD TO GO PICK UP MY CSA SHARE. 

I let the car run for 10 minutes, then ran upstairs and ran back down.

Grrr.  Grrr.  Total silence. 

Totally dead. 

I sat there, shaking with fury and anger.  Not at the world, not "Why did this happen to me?" and not even at myself for being so stupid to go upstairs.  It wasn't stupid.  It was reasonable because I couldn't get home without my MetroCard.  I was just angry and upset and I couldn't keep hold of my emotions any longer; the day took its toll on me.  I almost started crying.  Almost. 

A minute later, I looked at the clock and realized that it was 7:50 and I needed to pick up my CSA share before they shut down for the night at 8 pm.  I ran out of the car, grabbed my grocery bag and nothing else, ran to the train, swiped the MetroCard I'd just liberated from my apartment, and didn't stop running until I got to the CSA pickup spot at 8:01.  It's actually pretty far from the train station, but because I ran, I cut down the time drastically.  Hah!  That running paid off as training for this!  I grabbed my veggies and turned to go home. 

Class starts at 8:10.  There was no way I could take public transportation and get there in any normal amount of time.  I might get there... just as class was ending.  What was the point in that?

So I went home, calmed myself down a little bit, and decided that if I couldn't be productive and go to class, I would do something else productive. 

I made bread crumbs by hand from a baguette I'd bought from Stew Leonard's that already hardened. 
I baked mac & cheese (and didn't take a picture of the finished product, oops). 
I made the ultimate lobster salad and packed it for lunch.  (Initially I was just making it, thinking it would be good, but it turned out to be ultimate, so a recipe is forthcoming.) 
I caught up on some writing.

I did not, however, touch a drop of schoolwork because the mere thought of school made me sick to my stomach.  I didn't miss ANY classes last semester, and even though I had a totally valid reason, it just really upset me.  I had to distract myself from my missing class.

Sigh.

Think outside the lunchbox!  And if you have a working car, just for going from point A to B, that you want to sell for less than $1,000... let me know.

Sigh.  More car troubles.  More money down the drain... and I apologize for talking about money so much lately, I know it's tacky.  My bad... it's just what's on my mind the most lately. 

Feisty Bento #379: Thank you

Just the sight of that bento makes me extremely happy.  The colors aren't quite as balanced as they could be, but it's so bright and happy, well-lit (because it's actually SUNNY in NYC for once!), that I have to smile.  And the long weekend!  Yay! 

Top tier: parsleyed potato salad; dill salmon (broken up because I was in a hurry and had no time to try to cut it neatly); zucchini & fresh corn sauteed with butter, topped with basil
Bottom tier: mini-caprese salad (fresh mozzarella, cherry tomatoes, and basil); watermelon

I went home after work, got home at 6:30, and managed to whip up this entire meal and leave for class afterwards at 7:45, got home from class at 10:15, washed the dishes, and was in bed by 11:30.  Exhausting but I was pleased with the effort and the ability to be super productive instead of being a lazy lump.  Nice. 

I was asked to review this book (associate link).  I like the abundance of photos and it's a very quick flip-through book, with lots of ideas.  Since I'm the kind of person who rarely makes things exactly according to recipe, I appreciate the book as just 'suggestions' and not stuff I'd actually have to follow closely - especially in bentos where they used natto (fermented soybeans), which I've tried and can't imagine most Americans (myself included) eating too happily unless they grew up with it.  But for those who want to follow the instructions exactly, a lot of it might be a bit of a problem for them.  A more comprehensive review can be found here - Pikko has a firm grasp of why she does and doesn't like the book. 

I mentioned in my last post about my car issues; unfortunately, since it was really noisy at work, I couldn't concentrate and I didn't clearly express my thoughts (which I rarely do, anyway, but y'know...).  So I want to thank you all for your responses! and add a few more details.

I've looked at the tire, and there's nothing stuck in it - no nail, no chunk of whatever causing a slow leak.  It actually leaks quite a bit, within 24 hours it goes from 30-35 lbs. (the inflation is measured in pounds of pressure per cubic inch, I think, but definitely pounds of pressure per something) to 20.  So while that's actually a valid guess as to the problem, it isn't the problem.  I almost wish it was, because that would make it a simple fix!  I think the rim might be dented somewhere I can't see (because I've looked at that as well), and the air is leaking such.  So it's fixable, but annoying as all hell and I wonder why the guys at Pep Boys (where I bought the tires 2 months ago) didn't tell me that.  I will, however, be going back to ask them what gives, because it didn't even occur to me that perhaps the tire is defective, so thank you for that, Mrs. Flabby & SkippyMom. 

As for the bent axel, it's a slight bend that makes it unsafe to drive at high speeds or for long distances.  I don't go far and it suffices... and no, it's not still bending/bending more as time goes on.  It's just enough to make it impossible to align the wheels, and the treads wear down unevenly.  But not a HUGE deal - no one's been like "Look you can't drive that car, it's not safe." 

The windows are power; the gears or whatever are stuck.  To fix it requires opening up the door, and doing whatever to fix up those little things in there, but that seems like such a minor detail that I don't want to spend the extra money to fix it.  I don't want to spend any money on the vehicle actually - I didn't want to spend the $200 for the tires + oil change (oil change was technically free), either! 

Thanks for all your help and advice guys.  I really REALLY appreciate it.  The car is just to get me through the next 5 months, and then hopefully things will change and I can get rid of it.  (It was a free car, so I'm not complaining at ALL about that, and it's a tremendous help- I wouldn't have been able to wash the dishes after class if I'd had to take the bus to the train to get home!  I'd have gone home and tried to go to sleep right away, because it'd have been 11:30 or so!)  I sincerely just don't want to throw money down into the toilet because at this current point... I have no extra money to play with considering the plans I have for the near future.  So, suck.  Yep.  (And last night: another $220 on vet bills.  Hooray.) 

Sigh.

Have a FABULOUS long weekend everyone!  Thanks again for coming through for me and helping me out!!! 

Think outside the lunchbox! 

Interim Post

The internet hates me today, and I'm kind of starting to hate it, too. Hmph.

I swear I made and brought a bento last week - pretty sure it was Friday - and I took pictures, got them all prepped and uploaded them, I could see them sitting in my account, and now they are gone. I did this twice already and am thoroughly annoyed without the patience to try again. I will post it when I can figure out why it isn't working or, if not why, just make it work again. Ugh.

(I also had a bento yesterday. That will get posted as well. Promise.)

I need a nap. And a Snuggie. Hehe.

In the meantime... think outside the lunchbox.

Feisty Bento #378: Not in a good mood

I survived school this past Saturday... 6 hours of torture, one with a maniacal sub (yes, we had a 'sub' on the first day of class) who asked us questions like, do we know who Galileo or Copernicus or SIR ISAAC NEWTON are... and do we know what calculus is... uh... anyway... 

The above is chicken tacos & elotes, minus the flour tortilla - not because I ran out, I still have! - but because I was feeling lazy.  I smashed the lid on top cuz I'm crazy like that. 

So, a bit about school.  My schedule right now is Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, 8pm-10pm, and Saturdays, 9am-3pm, in addition to working full time.  Last semester, I had the same schedule, minus Saturdays.  I took public transportation the entire way and it added like 4 hours to the commute.  Seriously.  I live a 10-15 minute drive away from school; via public transportation, it took an hour, hour and a half most nights to get home.  What the hell? 

This semester, because of my increased hours, I now have the use of a vehicle to transport me to and from school.  I don't need anything fancy, though I do have a gas-guzzling monster - I named it The Beast - except for one problem.  The vehicle was 'fine' - a little rattly at high speeds, but it worked, y'know - until the semester started.  All of a sudden, despite the fact that I put two new tires on it, the front driver's side tire goes flat almost immediately.  So everyday, directly prior to using it, I must pump the tire.  I foresee this being an issue: both for a time crunch and when it gets cold, you think I am going to want to stand there waiting for the stupid thing to fill? 

I seriously don't understand why this is happening.  I've been told the front axel is bent, but that shouldn't affect the tire being flat or not.  I don't understand, really.  It's been pissing me off, and I've been considering doing what I swore I wouldn't do when I got the vehicle: put money into fixing it a little bit so that it'll be a little less frustrating to drive.  But in that case, if I'm going to get part of it fixed anyway, I might as well also fix the window (driver's side doesn't close all the way, meaning when it rains, it rains on me, and when it's cold, it'll be FREEZING in the car), and fix the axel, too, right? 

Only... this costs a pretty penny, and Yvo doesn't have any more pretty pennies!  What with the recent spate of vet bills (I'm not complaining; I will pay to have her be healthy; when I adopted her, that was the promise I made to her and to myself: to always take care of her, to always love her and treat her the way she deserved to be treated, and to be the best pet owner I could possibly be; and to always find a place where she could live with me - if a possible living arrangement did not allow for her to live with me, that possible living arrangment no longer was a possibility, understand?), school expenses, living expenses, life being expensive... I just don't have the money to just throw into a vehicle that may or may not be used for much longer. 

Okay.  I'm sorry.  I'll stop.  This came out a lot grumpier than I intended it to - I meant only to ask if anyone wanted to fix my car for me! lol or knew what was wrong with it - or something along those lines - but seriously, I am about to flip out on someone at work.  Multiple someones.  I am seriously annoyed right now.  This is a place of work, I don't understand how two people can sit there and just converse all day and not do ANY work, and no one says shit to them.  It seriously is pissing me off right now and I have to leave my desk before I go over there and scream at them to SHUT THE F* UP.  Excuse me.  But if you really do have any suggestions or thoughts about the car situation, speak up.  Thanks.

Think outside the lunchbox!!! 

Feisty Bento #377: Repeat

I start school tomorrow.

My schedule forthcoming is such that I may be packing bento 6x a week (ideally; really I just mean that I will need lunch 6x a week). 

This really is the same bento as last time: chicken tacos, elotes.  The cilantro is chopped up, is the only difference, but still delicious (to me... I know some of you don't like it!). 

Think outside the lunchbox!

Feisty Bento #376: Homemade Mexican Bento

People often ask me what I think about - or maybe I just like to pretend everyone cares.  Anyway, ideas swirl around in my head, and I pluck at them sometimes, adding a notion, a lil twist of that, this, or the other... and every once in a while, one will feel ripe, I'll squeeze it a little, then harvest it and implement it.  And every once in a while of doing that, I stumble on something so great, that even I'm surprised, though I've been cultivating the idea for a while.

Honestly, this wasn't a long cultivated idea (I came up with it on Monday evening), but it worked so well with such minimal effort, I'm impressed.  And I am my harshest judge, so I was surprised. 

In the left box is chicken tacos - flour tortilla, a quickly cooked chicken thigh sliced up (seasoned with salt/pepper/red pepper flakes when I cooked it), topped with cotija cheese, a relish/salsa type thing, and tons of cilantro.  Cuz I love cilantro, it just brightens up everything I eat. 

In the right box is corn freshly cut from the cob, mixed with cotija cheese and cayenne pepper.  Yep.  Elotes! 

BF and I went to yet another ballgame on Sunday.  He wanted to get nachos from El Verano Taqueria, while I waited on another line for something else.  He also picked up elote (corn on the cob with cotija cheese and cayenne pepper), took a bite, liked it so much he told me "I want to keep eating!" and I told him he could eat the whole thing (it was meant to be shared with me, lol).  I was pretty surprised he liked it so much, actually, since I've seen him eat corn on the cob... maybe never?  He always cuts the kernels off the cob and eats it with a fork.  (It's a long story, but rest assured, there's a totally sane reason for this.)  Also because it's slightly spicy, and BF is really not into spicy food, nor 'fussy' foods, which corn covered in cheese/cayenne/mayo certainly would seem so to his palate.  Whatever.  He liked it. 

The next night, I was wandering through a supermarket, browsing, and I stumbled across cotija cheese.  I've been looking for this casually for ages, so when I saw a 12 ounce wedge for $3.59, I picked it up without thinking too much, grabbed corn on the cob, and discovered this place also had flour tortillas!  (It was an Asian market, and I generally only see the corn tortillas.)  So I picked those up as well, and realized I could and should make a [real] Mexican meal! 

The chicken tacos was just a random cobble of what I had on hand - I'd serendipitously cooked two chicken thighs the other day completely plainly, intending to do I-didn't-know-what-yet with, and here it was! 

Happy deliciousness.  The relish/salsa was a leftover mixture from a restaurant meal that I remade at home - meaning, I took what was there, and mixed it up with some other stuff, and came away with something even better.  Good stuff made better. 

An excellent lunch, yes?  I will be making this again for dinner, for myself & the boyfriend tonight.  :) 

Think outside the lunchbox!!!

PS I'm not a fan of Trader Joe's chocolate soy milk; it tastes extremely chalky, especially as you near the end, blegh.  And the corn I brought for lunch, I didn't use mayo, but it was still very good.  I'll use mayo next time - I only took it off the cob for ease of eating at work.  Mmm.  ;)