Almost Potato Week

I'm a huge Vampire Diaries fan. And the season 3 premiere is coming up this week. I had some grand plans, only one of which has made it to reality thus far. This bento is MINE.
I created the ribbon and blood drop out of blanched red pepper. And I added baked some Sophie's Kitchen vegan breaded shrimp (frighteningly realistic actually).
It was almost too cool to eat! TVD bento: pineapple, orange cherry tomato "vampire" (with the closest thing I had to Ian Somerhalder's signature hat), blanched spinach, steamed broccoli, edamame, vegan breaded shrimp, rice.
Ryan & AJ's lunches: brown rice w/veggies; vegan breaded shrimp; edamame; steamed broccoli; pineapple; lemon cookie; potato leek kale soup (w/side of smoked salt).

The
boys

deci-

ded

that

this

week

would

be

"potato

week"

because

we'd

gotten

lots of

local

potatoes

from

our

CSA.

Soup

yester-

day, Alton Brown potato salad today.

Ryan & AJ's lunches: potato salad; Gardein crisp tenders; green beans.

But potato week didn't quite go as planned. I pulled out these yummy spinach tofu quiches from the oven and popped in a baking sheet full of sweet potatoes wedges. Half way through, the oven promptly turned off and displayed an error code. Now, I love my new oven to bits, but according to the GE website, all error codes are proceeded by the letter "F", and all mine as showing was a red "5". Go figure. So I abandoned the sweet potato fries (yuck, half-cooked sweet potatoes? Hopefully the squirrels enjoyed them from the compost). Luckily I still had some rice in the rice cooker from the night before...
Ryan & AJ's lunches: garlic broccoli stir-fry; spinach tofu quiche w/cheddar Daiya cheese; rice.

By the next morning we'd solved the oven malfunction...by turning off the circuit breaker for the entire house (yes, we tried the individual ones for the kitchen first, but it was unsuccessful).

Ryan & AJ's lunches: mashed purple potatoes; blanched spinach w/peanut sauce; simmered shiitake mushrooms; edamame.

a hike & lunch

On saturday Ryan & I went on a guided hike along the Bay Circuit Trail in Andover, MA sponsored by L.L. Bean, with the Bay Circuit Alliance chairman Alan French. It was great to learn some of the history of the trail, and plans for the future.

We began with a walk up Holt Hill with views to Boston and its suburbs.

























Ryan's lunch: cucumber salad; blanched spinach; edamame; simmered shiitake mushrooms; rice.

My lunch was essentially
the same, minus the
rice, with added orange
slices. It was nice to
finally have weather
warm enough to be
able to enjoy lunch
outside.




After lunch Ryan still wanted to hike a bit more. We took the bog trail at Ward Reservation, which is basically a floating boardwalk down to a pond. We spent a lot of time watching a snake make it's way through the bog beside us.

Book Review: Bento Boxes

Bento Boxes: Japanese Meals on the Go, by Naomi Kijima

I got this cookbook for my
birthday. I was so excited.
Not sure how many vegan
recipes would be inside, I
kept my expectations low.

While every recipe has a full
color photo, I was more
impressed by the variety of
vegetable side dishes. Usually
when I look at bento photos I
am looking for "eye candy".
But while the photos are nice,
the simple recipes are even better. Plenty of vegan fare, and lots that is easily veganizable. I'd say 1/2-2/3 of the recipes in the book can be animal-free with simple substitutions or omissions. Pretty good for a Japanese cookbook printed in Japan. Even the English grammar and spelling are good!

The first section is heavy on meat and seafood. But later sections contain easy donburi, rice casserole, rice ball, fried rice & noodle recipes that often use tofu or can do just as well with the meat elements omitted. I chose to make substitutions in most cases such as tofu, tempeh, mushrooms, or soy meat analogs. I especially appreciated a few recipes designed for a rice cooker (my favourite kitchen gadget). The bento helpers section in the back of the book has over a dozen vegan ideas using various beans, seaweed, vegetables...even peanuts.

This cookbook is strictly about recipes. There is minimal introduction or other text, no bento making tips, no kyaraben (charcter bentos). What it contains is traditional Japanese bento fare.
There is a very brief blurb about measurement conversion in the beginning, and 3 simple soup recipes on the last page.

If you're vegan or vegetarian and not confident changing recipes a bit on your own, then this may not be the bento cookbook for you. But I am very pleased to add it to my collection.

Restaurant Review: Imperial China

Chinese restaurants
are a dime a dozen,
but this one stands
out in the local crowd.

Located on route 9 west
in Framingham, MA (also
with access from route
30 via the plaza next door) it is convenient, centrally located, and tasteful. Though you can certainly order take-away, you'll probably want to dine in.

We often end up here
on Mother's Day, which
we did again this year.
There is something for
everyone: both Chinese
& Japanese menus, with
a lot to choose from.
Service is always friendly
and the vegetables crisp
and tasty.













There are lots of options for vegetarians on the Chinese menu, though I always re-ask about ingredients. For example, the Szechuan bean curd is made with pork. I always double check about things like that and fish sauce.

My husband always orders
the General Gau's vegetarian
"chicken" off the very front
of the menu. It's a bit too
'realistic' for me, though spicy
and always served with lightly
steamed broccoli.

I personally prefer the General
Gau's vegetarian "beef", also
located on the very front of the
menu. I enjoy the texture of
wheat gluten dishes, and this
always includes a nice mix of
chinese vegetables in a light
sauce.

Ryan always requires an
order of sushi. He usually
gets kappa maki (cucumber)
and oshinko maki (pickled
daikon) and shares a few
pieces with me. The sushi
menu isn't large, and I
wouldn't come here if I
was just in the mood for
sushi, but it's adequate.




We always order a dish of
mixed vegetables, like the
Buddha's delight. Anything
with baby corn and broccoli
is a hit with the boys. Ryan
insisted that he try "every
kind of vegetable" in the dish.


And I can never get enough
pea pods! I don't hesitate on
Mother's Day to order a
dish that is almost exclusively
stir-fried pea pods with some
water chestnuts added for an
extra crunch.



And we always need at least
one tofu dish. AJ and Nate
love spicy fried tofu. I love
the addition of what I believe
are some portobello mushrooms
that make the dish very hearty.
There were certainly no
leftovers of this to take home!


Imperial China does not have
a website or online menu, but
there are a few reviews on Yelp
and on Restaurants.com.

The dinner concluded with
the standard fortune cookies,
or "Pac Man cookies" as AJ
calls them, and orange
wedges, along with a pink rose
for me on Mother's Day.