if you build it

Tomorrow's my turn at the Build-A-Thon, last chance to throw down a donation! Well, ok, that's not true... Capital District Habitat will most certainly accept your generous support whenever you'd like to give it up. But if you donate today, through my page, then I'll feel like a rockstar.

A big thank you to everyone that has already helped. I've hidden the names on my public donations page, but I do see each and every one of them when you donate, so thank you thank you. Your support means a lot to Habitat and to me.

(Photo: Blitz Build 2007)

bridal shower part II: favors

For the favors, we used little jars of honey from a local bee farm & tea samplers. I missed the farmers market that I wanted to go to, so I found two huge jars of local honey at our co-op. I use jars like these for my spices and thought they were the perfect size for a little bit of honey, so I picked up some more. Filled them all with honey (yes, it was sticky) and labeled them. I picked up a few boxes of tea (Irish Breakfast, Indian Spice Chai, Lemon Green Tea and African Rooibos Red Tea) to mix & match.



As a side note, I sewed up the sides on my machine using an old needle and I used the same method I do almost any time I have an assembly line set up: sew down one side, backstitch and then immediately sew down one side of the next envelope without cutting any threads. So you end up with a long sewn-together chain of whatever you are working with... headbands, yoga slings or tea sampler envelopes. Make sense? Like in this strangely-memorizing video. Long story short, I started sewing all of these favors and realized it actually made a really sweet bunting sort of banner... I'll post it on flickr soon if anyone cares.

bridal shower part I: paperie

My big sis is getting married soon(!), and we just hosted her bridal shower this past weekend. I made-believe that I was an aspiring stationery designer and put these little diddies together.

I did all of the printing on the bad-ass all-in-one printer that I got for my birthday. The invitations were printed on postcard paper and dropped in the mail with very unseasonable polar bear stamps (come on, the USPS doesn't make any flower stamps?).

The fill-in-the-blank notes were borrowed from from Mika78 (found via 100 Layer Cake) and redesigned a smidge to fit in. Those were printed two-a-page on woven linen paper and placed at every table setting.

I printed the favor tags on card stock and the honey jar labels on... well, labels. Obvi. But more about that in tomorrow's post..

oh, and happy (belated) earth day!

A roundup of films, books & resources on local, organic & healthy foods. Add your faves in the comments :)

Watch
Food, Inc. (watch for free at pbs.org)
Earth Days: The inspiring story of the modern environmental movement
Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution (watch for free at hulu)

Read
In Defense of Food & The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
Plenty: Eating Locally on the 100 Mile Diet by Alisa Smith & J.B. MacKinnon (so good, so good)
Slow Food Nation by Carlo Petrini
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
Grub: Ideas for an Urban, Organic Kitchen by Anna Lappé & Bryant Terry

Learn
Local Harvest (find farms, co-ops, CSAs & more near you)
Earth Day Network (take action)
10 Ways to Make Earth Day Mean Something
(Photo: Marcy Dam, August 2008)

healthier chinese food binge

Don't tell anyone, but... I like Chinese food. Greasy takeout Americanized Chinese food that comes in cartons and can be ordered by # at any time of the day or night. And I rarely order the "healthier" options on the menu. I like my Chinese food deep-fried and somewhat unidentifiable. Isn't that gross? Fortunately, I don't eat it much.

Even more fortunately, is that I found this recipe for a healthier version of sesame chicken. And it's actually delicious! Adapted from Martha's recipe. We used tofu instead of chicken, because we felt like it.
Ingredients
3/4 cup brown rice
1 package tofu, cut up into chunks
1/4 cup corn starch
2 egg whites
sea salt and ground pepper
3 tbsp honey
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tbsp sesame seeds
small bell pepper, cut into slices
green beans (as many as you'd like)

Directions

1. Begin cooking the brown rice as you normally would.
2. "Dry fry" the tofu. This is my new favorite method, guaranteed to prevent you from serving a nasty, mushy tofu mess. You just add tofu to a skillet and cook until golden on all sides. No oil! Dry frying will get the moisture out, which makes it easier to marinade and get that flavor in the tofu.
3. Mix together corn starch and egg whites. Remove tofu from heat and coat in the corn starch mixture, seasoning with salt and pepper. Throw the tofu back in the skillet and heat up until a little crispy. Add in bell pepper slices and cook until tender.
4. In a bowl, mix together the honey, soy sauce, garlic and sesame seeds. Add to skillet.
5. Steam your green beans.

Serve sesame tofu with brown rice and green beans. Feel pretty good about it.

(Serves at least two hungry people, probably more.)

my new bag

Promised I would show you some pictures of my Moop bag...
I've brought it with me on two business trips, a bike ride and many an errand & stroll about town. I superlove that I can wear it as a shoulder bag & as a messenger bag. That may be one of my favorite features.

And the last thing I'll say about Moop is: it's a small, handmade business and they sew all of their bags right in their freakin' awesome Pittsburgh studio and and and the bags are made to order plus Wendy included a nice little thank you note.

on asparagus (& salmon with pineapple salsa)

I love asparagus.

We had some the other night to accompany our salmon with homemade pineapple salsa and risotto. The risotto was from a box, the pineapples were from a can but all things considered, it was a perfect gourmet Tuesday.

ain't no mountain high enough

Spring 2010 is off to a good start.

this week on tumblr

A few recent favorites from my tumblr...

(via amykathryn)

(behind the bar: chelsea + tec petaja’s “magic juice” via Design*Sponge)

(dinner out via ellenitza)

(Good morning, bier. via Friday Puppy)

This Saturday at 7:45am, Wolff’s Biergarten is televising the Manchester United vs Chelsea soccer game. They are serving Brunch & a 1/2 Liter of Beer for only $9.94 until 9:30am.

Now, I’m not much of a soccer fan. Nor do I ever really want a beer at 7:45am. And tomorrow morning, I plan to be waking up in our tent in the Adirondacks. But somehow, for some reason, this is really tempting me.