The Seasonal Bento

My lunch looks like fall, today: fluffy white rice; soft yellow-green sauteed artichokes, interspersed with golden-brown bits of garlic and garnished with a bright yellow lemon slice; dappled tan and Maillard-brown sausages, speckled with green inside. The most intense colors congegrated in the top container: deep purple and brown Nicoise olives, five dark green cornichons and two red waxen mini-wheels of Laughing Cow cheese.

Tomorrow's Bento

I've not been as remiss with the cooking as it may seem. For one thing, John has been doing a lot of cooking for us lately, including a lovely chicken dish with tomatoes, roasted red peppers, basil and orzo and a delicious by-the-Bittman bolognese sauce just a couple of days ago. For another, I've been mostly repeating old standards or rushing through too-simple-to-be-written-up dishes. Not that these are excuses.

At any rate, here are the contents of tomorrow's Mr. Bento, from top to bottom:

1. Cherry tomatoes with Laughing Cow cheese wheels
2. Artichoke hearts sauteed with garlic, anchovies and crushed red pepper flakes (next time, I'll add more garlic, dry the [canned] 'chokes more thoroughly and try to get a bit more caramelization going)
   
3. Garlic steamed rice (a new favorite: When making rice with a rice cooker, add a small head of garlic - this particular time I used about 9 cloves, peeled and crushed but not minced - to the rice and water, then cook as normal. The rice around the garlic develops a faint tinge of sweetness, and the cloves themselves remain whole but can be mashed wonderfully into the rest of it)
4. Boiled sausages with spicy suka (Filipino cane vinegar infused with garlic and chiles)