Plums

Ripening in the garden.

Pink Saturday - Bento box

Pink Saturday - Beverly at the blog "How Sweet the Sound" hosts Pink Saturday. Let the color pink inspire you!

Do you pack a lunch for work? In today's economy, everyone's trying to save money. It's cheaper to pack your lunch than it is to go out, and it's often healthier to bring food from home instead of eating at restaurants or fast food. I've been packing my lunch for a few months now, but it's not very glamorous carrying tupperware bins of leftovers in plastic shopping bags.

Recently,  I found some cute items to glam up my workday lunches, in L.A.'s Little Tokyo neighborhood.

In Japan, a "bento" is a box lunch, packed to take with you to school or to work. A "bento-bako" is the actual box that the lunch is packed in, and in Japan there is a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and styles of bento boxes.

There are elegant bento boxes made of lacquered wood painted in traditional designs, perfect for a professional woman's lunch. There are sleek, understated boxes made for gentlemen executives. There are larger, stacked boxes intended for family-sized picnics. But more frequently, bento boxes are clever little plastic cases, nested with compartments and decorated with cartoons or anime. They're perfect for kids, and cool for teens.

At the little variety stores in the Little Tokyo plazas, they had lots of bento boxes to choose from. I chose this pink box with snapping locks on the side - it can easily hold a sandwich, or here, last night's roasted potatoes and a slice of frittata.

This pale pink triangular box stacks two separate compartments. You can pack a serving of rice in one, and meat or vegetable in the other.

Bento boxes are reusable, so you can cut down on waste like plastic bags and foil. A bento box may seem small, but food is packed in tightly so it doesn't get messed up. Compartments keep food from mingling, and edible dividers, such as slices of cucumbers, are used to keep food separate. Some boxes have small internal containers, or you can use small silicone muffin cups to nest items.

Or pieces of fruit in one, and cookies below - the fruit stays fresh and the cookies stay dry.

Proper nutrition is so important that Japanese parents have perfected the art of making lunches attractive to tempt even the pickiest children. Food is styled to resemble toys, flowers, or even cute cartoon characters.  Vegetables are cut into decorative shapes, and everything is put together inside to be attractive as well as appetizing. HERE is a gallery of pictures of pretty bentos.

I can't quite achieve that yet, but perhaps as I get used to carrying a cute lunch box, I'll learn how to make what's inside look cuter too.

For now, though, it's nice just to be more stylish - at a good price. Each of my bento boxes cost about $3. There were other shapes to choose from - oval, slender, or cylindrical. If you want to see more varieties, you can browse at this website HERE .

This little tote is so simple it's just a step above the traditional Japanese furoshiki, a square of cloth wrapped and knotted to carry a bento box. It cost $2. Quite a bit nicer than a plastic grocery-store sack!

For dessert, I slipped in a couple of pieces of Japanese candy! Have a sweet pink treat for Pink Saturday.

 

Wouldn't you like to make your workday lunches prettier? You can read more about bento boxes at THIS LINK.

Workplace quiz

Krazy Kat by George Herriman

 A friend shared some workplace frustration with me yesterday at lunch.

Friend A and Colleague B share an office and report to the same supervisor. Colleague B's primary duty is a task with a specialized piece of equipment that must be done 2-4 times per day.

Colleague B's equipment broke down this week, and she must do her task manually until it can be replaced. Her work has already backed up, so Friend A has to help. The Supervisor found two other departments in their organization have the same equipment, so she asked Colleague B to make some calls. She also got a quote on buying a new one.

The next morning, the Supervisor called in sick. B shut herself into her workspace, doing the task manually. Friend A asked -"What about the one at Department X, will they let you use it?" "What about the spare at Department Y?" Colleague B replied, "I called them and left a message but haven't heard back."

"What about the new one, when does it get here?"

"I think Supervisor ordered it but I don't know when it's coming." She continued processing the task manually.

So finally, Friend A did the following:

• called Department X, who invited Colleague B to travel to their worksite and use their equipment.
• called Department Y, who offered to deliver their spare to Colleague B.
• called sick Supervisor at home, to see if the new machine had been ordered
• when learning the order had not been placed, asked authority from Supervisor to do so and arrange priority shipping.

By the end of the Day Two, one day's work had been done at the off-site office; a loaner machine was in place for tomorrow; and a new machine expected Monday.

Colleague B is furious for Friend A's meddling in her business. Friend A is furious with Colleague B for her lack of initiative and passiveness.

What do you think? What would you have done, if you were Friend A? What would you have done if you were Colleague B?

Thematic Photographic - Signs that make us wonder

Carmi at Written, Inc., posts a photographic challenge each week called Thematic Photographic - this week's theme is "signs that make us wonder."

Just after I posted my first sign for this theme, I was driving in to work and traffic was backed up on our winding, two-lane mountain road. I was stopped behind a long line of cars, and I looked to my left and there by the side of the road was this sign someone had nailed to a tree.

Truly, a sign that makes us wonder!

How nice that a traffic jam allowed me time to notice it and to take a photo!

Thematic Photographic - Signs that make us wonder

Carmi at Written, Inc., posts a photographic challenge each week called Thematic Photographic - this week's theme is "signs that make us wonder." As Carmi says, sometimes a sign just doesn't make the grade. Participants post a picture of a less-than-stellar, funny or just plain sad sign.

Mine is just weird. I encountered this sign on a store front in downtown Los Angeles. I don't even know what it means!

Keep climbing

I still feel tender at the site of my incision. My gut feels....fine...but I'm hyper-aware of every movement.  I'm tracking my diet, actively choosing vegetables, fruits, and high fiber choices.

I walk every day, at least one mile, usually in the morning with Jack. The walk loops around and down, among oak groves, past viewpoints, and past rustic cottages. There is perhaps a 100 foot grade change from the lowest point of my walk to the highest point. I get tired more easily than I used to, but each morning I go out.

UPDATE: To Linda in comments - yes, although the eucalyptus trees are now frowned upon as being fuel for fires, there are several magnificent specimens here that smell heavenly - along with the smell of pepper trees, blooming oleander, and the sharp resin and herbal scent of native chaparral and sage. 

Along our walk we meet friends - other dog-walkers. Some we know well enough to stop and chat. Some we only know their dogs' name - but the dogs stop and play together. Some we know only to greet and keep walking. We say hello to other neighbors taking out their trash, or driving past on their way to work.

Lately it's been cool, damp and foggy - typical for L.A. in June. But once in a while, the sun breaks out.

I know it seems like an uphill struggle. But keep climbing toward the sun.

Here it comes

During the volatile days of early summer, at evening, the coastal fog is drawn up the canyon toward the warmer valley as though through a hose.  Here it is, tonight.

The housekeeping chronicles - Need and evasion

Not Oeuf and Eigh - but still a memorable couple

 As related earlier, [The Man I Love] and I are busy people who are fortunate to have found housecleaning help that fits our budget. We are particularly fortunate, since we are both incapable of consistently keeping a clean and well-maintained house.

Now that we have settled into our relationship with Oeuf and Eigh, our housecleaners for the past year, it has been a pleasure to come home to a clean house once a week, to count on minor repairs being done, and  - heavenly - to find even our laundry clean and folded neatly for us.

Really, it is a marvel, to find two people who are so willing to do so much for us, for such minimal cost.

Macarons

Ah, the macaron!

It's said that the French macaron we know today was invented in the 1830s by Pierre Desfontaines of the French pâtisserie Laduree. It is simple - two merinque discs sandwiched by a layer of buttercream, jam, or ganache.

L to R - Salt caramel, Rose, Sicilian pistachio, Sweet wedding almond, Earl Grey Tea, Caribbean chocolate

Macarons and other French pastries are popular in Japan, of all places, which may be why the Beverly Hills confectioner Paulette Koumetz has opened a branch of her 'lette Macarons in Little Tokyo in downtown Los Angeles. 

I just ate the salt caramel one. Mmmm!

Which one should I eat next?