Spooky bento, part one!

Friday’s bento featured teriyaki chicken (the recipe for which I’ll be posting shortly) and something indicative of the season:

A carrot bat!

At least once a week, until Halloween, I will be creating a bento that somehow incorporates the spooky spirit of the season. Halloween is my absolute favorite holiday, and I thought that it deserved a little more attention from me this year.

 

So, what else have I got? Well, there’s the miso rice, the steamed veggies, and the teeny tiny peach cobbler. The miso rice is my way of using up shiro miso soup mix that I can’t really use for soup. I don’t care for shiro miso soup, but it’s great mixed into fresh rice!

 

The vegetables (carrot, peas, broccoli) were steamed by placing them in a covered bowl, on top of a wet paper towel, and nuking them for about a minute. It made the broccoli such an awesome green!

Sausage Bento – NWS?

Well, I’m finally back in the swing of things, and I made a tasty bento yesterday. It features two of my very favorite fall foods: pecan shortbreads, and spicy beef sausage.

Here’s a detail shot of the shortbread cookies, for they are quite attractive. More attractive than ground, pressed cow flesh, at least.

Top tier:

Skewered hot sausage slices on a bed of peas and tomato chunks

Pecan shortbread cookies

 

Bottom tier:

White rice

Stir-fried mushrooms

Pickle slices and tomato chunks

One of my favorite autumn foods – Pecan Shortbreads

As some of you already know, I live in a little slice of Hell called the American south. Autumn in the south is really just a sort of mild summer that lasts roughly three weeks. However, autumn in the south presents one pleasant thing: pecans. Oh, pecans. You taste so fucking nice. You’re especially good in shortbread cookies.

Here, as per usual, are your required materials:

2 cups all purpose flour (NOT SELF-RISING), sifted
1 cup butter (salted or unsalted, margarine may be substituted), soft
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup pecans, toasted and chopped*
An oven pre-heated to 350F

That’s it. No, really. That’s all you need. Now, let’s get started. Cream together the butter and sugar. What that means, of course, is to dump those two things in a big bowl and mix them together until fluffy.  Once that’s done, slowly add the flour and pecans. Once it’s all together, just roll the dough into small one-inch balls and place them on an ungreased cookie sheet. Smash them down a bit and put them in the oven for about 15-20 minutes, or until the bottom’s are a little brown.

*Now, about those pecans. Does anyone here know that nuts do not come off the tree pre-toasted? If you do, you’re a step ahead of many people. If you don’t know how to toast them, read on.

Required materials:

Nuts
Cookie sheet
Oven, set to 250F

Spread nuts of sheet (UN BLOODY GREASED). Stuff in oven. Leave until nutty smell escapes oven. Remove, cool.

Problem solved.  Unless you burned the nuts.

Hurk. Blargh.

Well, I’m over the stomach flu, now. Since solids and I didn’t exactly get along for eight days or so, I have no backlogged bento to show off right yet. Since I’ve gone so long without actually adding anything to my poor blog, I’ll be posting a recipe and a short article later on in the day.

For now, I’m gonna go rest my sore back and watch a program about gay rugby players.