Bento #43: The Lunch Formerly Known as Sandwich

We plead the 5th.

This once was an egg-salad sandwich on Kingdom-made bread.  It was so beautifully huge it had to be cut in half and then rearranged in order to fit in the bottom of the box.  But We were so very hungry that We ate it all up, om nom nom, before We remembered to take a photo.  Oops!

To compensate, We offer you this photo of fruit salad: mango and blueberry. 

The Kingdom is so excited that it's mango season!  We love mangoes.  Unlike some others, We are not allergic to mango peel, so, after cutting off the big cheeks of flesh, We get the joy of stripping the remaining bits off the skin with Our teeth, and gnawing on the pit until Our teeth are jammed with threads of mango fiber and we are a sticky, fragrant mess.

All Hail the Fragrant King of Summer!

Bento #42: Second Verse, Same as the First!

...a little bit louder and a little bit worse!

You are not mistaken.  That is an almond-butter and blackberry-preserves sandwich you see before you.

You also see a metal shotglass from Epcot's Mission: Space full of blueberries, some celery our friend S did't want, and some peanut dip.  Then there's the Unattractive But Spacious Office Mug full of green tea.

People are consistently amazed that We drink our loose-leaf tea...loose.  As in, "You just put it right in there?'  Well, er, yes.  It sinks right to the bottom--and sometimes, the shortest distance between two points, blah, blah.

Bento #41: PB&J--Or Rather, AB&P

Hooray!  Faithful subjects, rejoice; the King is back at work!

Let Us say that a paycheck cannot come soon enough.  Your Faithful King?  Is broke.  It is a poor Kingdom lately.  An impoverished Kingdom.  A Kingdom of No Bizzles.  The flow has ceased; the lettuce has died; someone has moved Our cheese. 

We thought about petitioning the UN for aid--but then realized that We must lead by example--and fortune helps Those who help Themselves.  Therefore, We are now doing some freelance editing.  Lo, it is tedious.  Lo, it is time-consuming.  But King gotta get paid, son!  So We are now back to packing a lunch.  But be warned: Our lunches will not be extravagant until that flow starts to come in.  Prepare to see Poverty Lunches.

To wit: Exhibit A.  Here is an almond-butter and blackberry preserves sandwich.  Kingdom-made bread.  Alongside, We have half a nectarine, some blueberries, carrot sticks, and a container of the ubiquitous spicy peanut dip. 

You know, We find that so many sandwiches benefit from being made on pre-toasted bread.  A little warmth, a little more stability--brilliant!  It must be said, Our love of toast is undeniable.  Fresh, hot toast, with sweet butter and perhaps a little jam?  Marvelous!  Hot toast points dipped in the yolk of a sunny-side up egg?  Citizenry, take note: this is the way to your King's heart.  And many sandwiches benefit even if the device is not put to its use until several hours later.  For example, it's a rare egg sandwich--fried, egg salad, it's all the same--that isn't better on toast, even hours later.  Even something that relies on crispness in all its aspects--the hallowed BLT, all three of whose letters must be crisp and perfect--will generally keep, if properly toasted and not overburdened with mayo, for at least an hour or two.

However.  We somehow erred in the construction of this particular sandwich.  We have found in past encounters that making a PB&J with toast contains the wet innards, preventing the premature soaking of the bread and the oozing of the vital fluids.  Meanwhile, said fluids generally help the toast retain a freshness, a vitality.  This, however, was not the case here.  The toast somehow dehydrated the inner workings of the sandwich while not actually getting any moister itself, with the result that the sandwich was a bit cumbersome to the teeth.  And what's more, the edges were positively stale.  How?  We are mystified.  Perhaps the fault lies with the preserves, which definitely do not have the soothing wetness of, say, strawberry jam.  It's not the bread--this is the Kingdom's daily, gold-standard whole-wheat bread, moistened with oil and sweetened with molasses--which also have a humectant quality.

Clearly, more research is indicated.

Bento #40: Lentils and Rice

Here is an interesting lunch in a box We don't think you've seen! Sadly, We don't have a full picture of it, but it's a cute little bento jar with the above two main compartments.  It works well when there are two sort of wet foods that you don't want to touch.

So, in the jar on the right, there is a lentils and brown rice combo.  It looks sort of unappetizing, but that's cheese melted over the top, and it's quite yummy.  It took Us a while to figure out what it tasted like, and cool or room-temp, this stuff tastes sort of like something we ate in Our elementary school cafeteria, We realize, and it triggers a long-ago taste memory that was hard to put down.  But there was a strange pizza-like device that tasted of tomatoes and a little spicy and with melted cheese on top and if those things had tasted good, they would taste like this rice dish does when it's cold.  That makes it sound undesirable.  Let Us assure yout that it is not.  It is very, very tasty.

In the right jar, there's a sliced nectarine with yogurt and a little bit of cane sugar. 

This was a good and desirable lunch, but We needed a snack before the gym (which is at the difficult-not-to-be-starving hour of 5 p.m.), or We were gonna die.  So We went to the hippie grocery for trail mix.  Yum.

And yes, We ate this in the car.  Don't judge.

Bento #39: Soup and Bread? Madness!

New lunch toy time!  For Our birthday, from Our friend B, we received a cute l'il soup thermos!  Awww.  Adorable!  We love it mucho.  Thanks B!

Because We very much wanted to use Our new toy, We had crock-pot split pea soup for lunch, with some homemade whole-wheat bread.  It was as delicious as you might imagine it to be!

Why, then, was this an exercise in being a crazy person?  Because We live in Sunny FL, and because it was 98 degrees outside where We ate our lunch.

See?  Cute park, nice shrubberies.  Far, far too hot for this meal--espeically as the thermos does in fact do its job, and the soup was nice and warm six hours after it went into the jar.  Ah, the things we do in this Kingdom for lunch.

Snack: Mr. Chicken

Our cousin bought us, as a b-day present, the always-cute Manga Cookbook.  Hooray!  Thanks, D!

We will post more on the book later as We make things from it.  For now, the book inspired Us to make an afternoon snack cute.  So meet Mr. Chicken!

We know it is kind of gratuitous to post just one egg and not a whole lunch or snackbox.  Forgive Us--it was Our first chicken egg! So to speak.

Snackbox: Egg 'n Crackerbiscuits

In this snackbox, which was consumed long ago and not quite reported here, We have a hard-boiled egg, two herbed crackerbiscuits, a carot cut into sticks, and a hideously overpackaged prune.  Okay, We're done mentioning it.  We're just saying.

On a more optimistic note, crackerbiscuits!  Once upon a long time ago, while making dinner, We rolled Our biscuit dough too thin.  We cut this thin dough into biscuit-type shapes and popped it in the nice hot oven.  When We checked on our biscuits fifteen minutes later, We thought, hm, this doesn't look right!  We gave it a few minutes more.  Eventually, we pulled the l'il guys out, lest they be burnt.

The result?  Delicious!  Crackerbiscuits are thinner and crisper than biscuits, but sturdy little devils and are soft inside.  If you stab one of the thin edges with a fork, they split nicely into the top and bottom halves, and can be made into little sandwiches or made to work more like a traditional cracker.  Otherwise, spread some soft cheese (or a slice of hard-boiled egg) right on top of the whole deal and have at 'er for a sort of rich toast-like effect.  Crackerbiscuits are excellent w/ soups, by the way; crisp like a cracker, yet they soak up liquid like bread.

Here's how We made these:

Basic Crackerbiscuits

• 2 c. flour
• 2 t. baking powder
• 1/2 t. salt
• 1/2 c. vegetable shortening (butter will work but will produce a more biscuity crackerbiscuit; We can only imagine the power of crackerbiscuits made with bacon fat)
• 3/4 c. milk (about--try adding not quite all the milk at first just to make sure)

Preheat the oven to 475.  An absolutely smokin' hot oven is key.  Stir or sift together the dry ingredients.  Rub in the fat.  Stir in the wet.  Knead a few times, just to bring it all together.  Roll to 3/8" or 1/4" thick on a floured board.  Thin is key!  Once they start to get to a half inch thick or more, you're looking at regular biscuit territory now.  Cut into desired shapes--We like squares, both for convenience and because it mentally suggests "cracker," but circles or hearts or whatever will work too.  Bake these for 8-10 minutes, then turn off the oven and leave them inside, door closed at all times, for 5-10 minutes more.  We think this process helps them crisp up somewhat.  This may be Our imagination.

You can put all sorts of good things in your crackerbiscuits.  As suggested before, alternate fats would be good.  We have yet to try olive oil, but We bet it would be good!  These particular crackerbiscuits have about half a teaspoon each of dried parsley, basil, and thyme.  A rich soft cheese rubbed in with the fat might be good.  Pepper is great.  Finely chopped olives and sun-dried tomatoes are really lovely here.  You could put sesame seeds or sea salt or egg wash or whatever you like on top of your crackerbiscuits before baking (butter, while delicious, will make the crust soft, remember!).  Enjoy!

Bento #38: Egg Salad

Aren't you all proud?  Posting a lunch on the same day We ate it!  Many Kudos to Us.

Egg salad on homemade bread, carrots, a little hidden yellow bear w/ a mixture of plain yogurt and salsa to dip the carrots in (surprisingly good.  Try it w/ a jar of salsa and a tub of sour cream sometime if you do not believe Us), and in the back, two of the shameful single-wrap prunes rescued from Our Cousins.  Water in the bottle.

Not a fancy lunch, but hey, beggars can't be choosers--and in this time of sparse bentoing, you should be glad for any lunches at all!  We are.