Rained Out Bento

SATURDAY
It was a sunny Saturday, the kind of sleep-til-2 Saturday that so often draws college students into its lethargic grasp. Our heroine awakes to the sound of her cellphone buzzing beside her head-- too tired to sit up, she gropes about until her fingers close around the technological demon, and answers in a voice hoarse and muddled from sleep. 

It is time to wake up and go to the thrift store, her friend informs her, and she rubs at her eyes and makes a feeble attempt to sit up and look at her list of assignments to do. The never-ending scrawl of hurried after-class handwriting glares back at her, and she lies back down amongst her poké-pillows and stuffed animals, and apologises for having to miss the trip.

After hanging up, she drags herself out of bed and begins to attempt to memorise dialogues in far Eastern tongues, but the syllables are stranger than usual on her tongue, and she grows quickly frustrated with memorisation. Her head on her desk, our heroine falls into a light sleep, waking only when her phone, again, buzzed insistently in her ear. A familiar voice informs her that he has an extra ticket to go and see the Lord of the Rings in IMAX. Our heroine is instantly awake. She has seen the film many times, but never in IMAX. But the screening is in Virginia, and attending would mean skipping the trip to the Asian food market with the friends who had called earlier. 

And then, she is informed that this screening of the Return of the King is accompanied by a live orchestra and choir.

Food could wait. I got the hell off my desk (ten points for a Rocky reference!) and ran to the kitchen to start working. I had only 3 hours to make bento for Sunday, get dressed and clean, and fed in preparation for the most AMAZING EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE.

First thing I did was start a batch of rice. I used a rice cooker, because we have one and I like the ability to just turn it on and leave it alone until it's done. (*cough*lazy*cough*)

Finished product.

Then I got out a frying pan. Throughout the process of making the bento, I tried to use as few dishes as possible. While the pan heated up, I sliced up some stalks of asparagus-- three sets of three thin-ish stalks. After cutting off the tips and ends, I sliced the remainder into halves, so I had six bundles of about two inches of thin stalks. I put a little bit of EVOO into the pan, sprinkled in a tiny bit of salt, and dropped in the asparagus. While these were sizzling, I got out the sliced ham-- tore each slice into halves so I had six half-slices. When the asparagus was cooked (two minutes or so, with some intermittent nudging around with a spatula), I took it out and put it on a plate to cool a little and dropped the half-slices of ham into the pan for about two seconds, picked them out with chopsticks, and then wrapped them around bundles of asparagus stalks.

You can see our giant tin of rice on the floor!

The finished product was a little oily from the pan, and I should have let them dry a little on a paper towel to get some of the excess before I wrapped them up, but I didn't think of it in the moment, and I was rushing a little.

Then I sliced up a bell pepper. Simple, boring stuff- two portions, about six slices each. I liked the color a lot, and I'm drying the seeds now for my friend's garden.

There were a few extra slices-- I dipped them in ranch dip and nibbled on them while I wiped down the cutting board and knife. (I'm a sucker for peppers!)

Thus concludes 2 parts veggies/fruits for a proper bento! (I follow the more nutrition-based rules, instead of the aesthetics, althoguh keeping the 'colors' in mind made it easier to shop for ingredients.) At this point, S came over to chill in my apartment while waiting for A to answer her phone. I let my crazy Aristo friend in and then got back to work.

Because it was a breakfast, and the ham was just an accent on the asparagus (I didn't need it, but I'm aware not everybody loves asparagus stalks as much as I do), I fried two eggs to fill up the 1 part protein. I broke the yolk on mine and drained it out and ate it on the spot, because I prefer the whites anyway, and wanted my bento to adhere to my picky tastes without wasting food.

By this time, the rice had finished, so I whipped out my cute little onigiri shapers and made onigiri! I put pork sung into mine, and katsuo furikake into S and A's. A's were star shaped-- but I think I like the heart mold better, because things stick together better in it. Here they are!

Thus ended my bento rush. I packed everything away in tupperware or aluminum foil-covered plates and put them in the fridge and rushed off to put on pants and make myself look a bit more presentable, and not like I'd just rolled out of bed, promptly fallen asleep at my desk, and then caused a whirlwind of cooking smells in my kitchen. I also made a repeat of the previous day's sandwich and wolfed it down so I wouldn't get too hungry at the screening:

Awesomeness ensued.

SUNDAY
Our heroine awakes after an exhausting night of fun to, once again, the angry buzz of a cell phone. It is 9 o'clock-- time to get up and wash up in preparation for the lolita meetup in DC.

But wait-- it has rained outside, and the picnic may be cancelled after all! A later call confirms it-- there will be no picnic today.


Our heroine drifts back into sleep.


So yeah, no picnic today, but I ate the asparagus and pepper slices and my fried egg for breakfast, along with two onigiri. The rest I will feed to my suitemates, I suppose, or nibble on for dinner.


Even though there was no meet-up today, I am still satisfied. This has been a really good weekend, and I'm not at all upset about having to get back to my work before class starts tomorrow. I do feel bad that A didn't get to go to her first meet-up. ): I know she was looking forward to it, and S and I were ready to be her moral support... But I guess if it rains, it can't be helped, right? And I did make some yummy food. The asparagus recipe, especially, was really quick and easy, and I think I'll be making lots of it in the future.