The Story of Stuff.

I'm gonna show this to the Pyrate today when he gets home from school.  I hope that this will impact him in a way that motivates him to participate more cooperatively with things like... making sure to put the darn re-usable grocery bags back in my car so that the next time we go shopping, we don't have to use those awful bags that cause such a horrible mess in the oceans he wants to work in as a marine biologist when he grows up.  He and his 13 year old mind sometimes has bigger fish to fry, such as this month's crush, or how dope that olly was that he impressed his friends with.  I can't tell you how many times we get to the store and I look in the trunk and there's no bags.  grrrr!
Anyway, I digress.

Below, there is a video that I received in my email inbox this morning in celebration of Earth Day.  Please, please PLEASE watch it.  It's 20 minutes out of your day.  Just 20 minutes.  But if you allow it to sink into your brain, perhaps you will be changed inside and an awareness... an awakening will begin to occur inside of you.

It's a short film about our non-sustainable way of living... it's about our planet and all our stuff.

Now, I know some of you will say that one person doesn't make a difference.  But I want to tell you that this is a lie, and I love you but it's lazy and irresponsible to drink that koolaid.  Please let me tell you very quickly, of a very personal example of how much of a difference you can make.

A few weeks ago I watched the film Food Inc. and one of the things I immediately decided that day is that from now on, when I buy milk for the pyrate's breakfast cereal, and baking, (i don't really drink it otherwise), I would only buy organic milk from cows not treated with rbst or rbgt (hormones to make them  produce unnaturally vulgar amounts of milk to get more milk from less cows to save money on backend expenses and boost profits).  The first time I looked for organic non-treated milk on my local grocer's dairy shelf, 3 weeks ago.   I looked closely at the labels of all the milk cartons and bottles.   I almost accidentally picked up one brand because it had a little shield printed on it where it said something like, "There is no evidence to show a difference in the milk from cows treated with rbst's or rbgt's".
Yes, just like that, the real message in tiny letters, the hormone initials in bold to trick you into thinking it's a hormone free brand.
On the contrary it was just the opposite, trying to belay the fears of the consumer should they take the time to actually pick up the container and squint to read what it really says.    I always tell the pyrate, that we are striving to be a SUCKA FREE FAMILY.  He enjoys saying his mama don't raise no fool... and the Austrian?   He, with his small European mountain village sensibility, chuckles with amusement at both of us.
So, anyway, thanks for your patience, and let me get to the point,  there was only one lone brand there on the shelves, from Iowa... yes, all the way from Iowa.  Did you know California is one of the nation's biggest producers of  fruits, vegetables, and dairy products that supply a great deal of our country and the demands of others as well??? Yet the only organic milk on the shelf came from thousands of miles away.  So begrudgingly, I bought it, even though I'm also on a local foods kick, because it's more environmentally sound, and even though it was a little more expensive. I felt a little discouraged and wondered if these big companies would even care whether or not I buy their poisoned milk when everybody else is too lazy to care.  But I stood my ground and bought the more expensive out-of-state imported milk to let these companies know that they can't have my money.
BUT WAIT!  Here's the punchline!  Last week I went to the same store and we needed more milk, so I went over to the dairy section and was to grab the same Iowa brand.  It just so happened that there was a store employee there stocking the milk shelves and she overheard the pyrate and I discussing how ridiculous it was that there was no California produced organic milk available.  The stock lady butted in our conversation suddenly with a cheerful smile, and informed us that she just filled an entire shelf with organic milk from California cows with no hormone treatment.  She said this was a new shipment and the first of its kind that she'd seen in that store from not just California dairies, but from SOUTHERN California dairies all within 100 miles of our neighborhood.
My little consumer stand for what I believe in DID make a difference, when added together with others in my community who obviously also made some sort of a stand and boycotted the milk from hormone treated cows!!!  This was an exciting moment, and I'm just talking about a carton of milk here in one store, in one city.   There is so much more to be done.

I don't want to waste a moment more of your time with my babbling on about milk.  This video is not about milk, it's about living.  Please, do me the favor and watch this video all the way through to the end with an open heart, then afterwards share this blog with your friends on all your social network accounts, through your emails, and however else you can.
Please share it with your children because it is their world that is being affected, so they should be involved, like the pyrate, who is, for example in charge of recycling, composting, and making sure the doggone re-usable grocery bags get returned to the car for the next visit to the store.
Make a difference in your own life and that of those you care for and share what you know and do something about it.
Just scroll to the bottom of this page, and stop my music player then come back here and click the"story of stuff" link below to start the video!
Much love, and Happy Earth Day!!  Brig

the story of stuff




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Cook 'n Dine with Brig Feltus

What happens when you learn how capitalism has completely corrupted the way we eat in this country?  You buy less processed foods.  You stop feeding your kids fast food.  You start educating yourself, and you try to cook more.  You buy fresh produce and meats from the supermarket and prepare them yourself. 

Are you safe then?  Well, no, it seems the horrifying truth is no.  Even if you do these things you are exposing your body to foods riddled with pesticides, genetical engineering, chemical fertilizers, hormones, and antibiotics.  That's just for starters.  The horror story gets worse because beyond these very tangible and obvious crimes against humanity, we are purchasing meats that come from animals raised in the most atrociously unnatural conditions in the name of mass production and high yield.  Animals are being fed foods they would never normally eat because those foods are cheaper, and because those foods manipulate the animal's metabolism, making them grow faster... up to 3 times what they would have without any manipulation. 
Produce is plucked green and unripe before the sun has gifted it with the nutrients, color, and flavor, just so that it can survive its journeys to far away places where that produce may not be growing at that time of year.  It's often treated with chemical gases once arrived, so as to create artificial ripeness.  This is why fruit from a tree in your yard tastes so different from fruit bought at your local big chain supermarket.  
We eat this food without knowing... thinking if we cook fresh food, we're doing good by our families... not understanding the growth hormones given to animals is being ingested when we eat them and our children are reaching puberty at younger and younger ages because of it.... not understanding why when we buy fruit in the grocery store the flavor is so hit and miss.... not understanding that there is very little if any research to determine what the consequences are to eating genetically engineered foods.... meanwhile cancer, diabetes, autism, immune disorders, and hundreds of other ailments continue to plague us and we don't know how we get them.

I'm only so far talking about those of us who try to do good. I don't even want to get into what's in all the packaged foods and fast food we eat in this country.  Why the hell are we in such a hurry anyway?  Greed is killing us.  It's the other name for capitalism and convenience,  if you really think about it and it's killing us one bite at a time. 
I am always outraged at the way you can walk into a grocery store and there can be two seemingly identical items on a shelf, sometimes from the same corporate source, one says 'organic'  the other not.  The organic is always more expensive.  It's preposterous.  Why, after all should it cost more to get your food the old fashioned way, with less chemicals, less pesticides, less interference in general?  Shouldn't it be if we mess with it less, it would be cheaper?  Wouldn't it make sense that if the produce grew an hour drive away, it would cost less than the one imported from South America???  Well, unfortunately, the way our food system is set up, there's no way for organic to compete on a large scale.  So we reject it.  Throw our hands up and give in to the poison... We are literally drinking the koolaid and we don't even realize it. 
So what then?  What happens when you realize this?  Well, in my case, I had the opportunity to live in other countries where the food systems are not all about capitalism. 


They might be fascinated by our bright colors and shiny flashy labels, but back home in their countries they do things a little differently than we do.
When I was living in Germany 13 years ago, there was perhaps one or two supermarkets in the cities I lived in and they weren't very popular.  Why not?  They were not needed. They were really just a novelty you could find in the really big cities where there were a lot of Americanized amenities.  That's what they call it... Americanized.... Shameful...

But again, those stores were novelties, mostly marketed towards homesick expatriots living there or poor souls who somehow thought anything Americanized was cool. 
The average person didn't go there.  It wasn't not as convenient, as inexpensive, as fresh as what they could find right outside the door to their home...
Each little neighborhood... I'm talking about a couple of blocks square... had a butcher who got his meats from the farmer who raised it, somewhere within 30-50 miles on the outskirts of town, and he received it whole and cut it into the various cuts of meat himself on the premises and sold it within the same week... each had a produce stand (or two) where you could buy fresh fruits and vegetables grown nearby... yes, they still had bananas from south america and such, but the majority of the produce came from a farm close by... and if it was out of season, they didn't have it.... simple as that... I remember thinking to myself I must be tripping off of culture shock or something because I could have sworn that the vegetables tasted better and I didn't understand at the time why... each neighborhood had a bakery with fresh baked bread and such.... and if you wanted things like cereal or other packaged foods you'd go to a store that pretty much only sold that kind of stuff... even there, was no frosted flakes, cocoa puffs, cap'n crunch, or honey bunches of oats.... there were different sorts of whole grain cereals, oats, grits, wheat meal, muesli, and the occasional granola... there you could also buy your dairy products which came from a farm which was, again within 30-50 miles of the city you were in... Cheese could be bought there too, but you could get that fresher and better quality at the cheese monger in your neighborhood.  All of these would be within easily 5 minutes walking distance and everyone owned one of those rolling market baskets that fold up like an umbrella.  People didn't even often drive to get to these places. 

It was customary to buy only what you'd use in the next couple of days and that was fine because you knew that at any time, on your way in from work or school you could stop through and pick up fresh items.  
Foods didn't have to be advertised as organic because it was the law that they be that.  They didn't need not to be because the farmers could manage to keep up with their livestock... enough to supply just the butchers in their town, and not an entire country.  By the way the entire country is smaller than the state of texas...

Did you  know that in America there used to be several dozen suppliers of meat?  Now there are about a handful... yes, actually less than 5 major meat suppliers in the entire country!  Do you know what that means?  These companies have streamlined the raising, feeding, and production of meat in this country in such a way that they can cost effectively supply a country that is probably 50 times the size of Germany!!!   You can imagine the atrocities without actually seeing them with your own eyes. 


In countries abroad, the way they produce their food is more sensible, safer, less expensive, and truly, truly more convenient and NO ONE IS COMPLAINING!  Yes, logistically it means they eat less animal products than we do.  We eat too much animal products anyway... feeding the greed in us... But the truth should hurt!

 Here, you can buy a cut of meat and there is no regulation that says they have to tell you if it has been treated, for example as some ground meats with fillers are, with ammonia... or to inform you of whether or not the meat is from a cloned animal.  Or whether the 3 lb chicken you're buying has been fed animal waste products mixed in its meal and  is really 2 lbs and the rest is salt water injected into it to make it look more plump.... (by the way, they're selling it to you by the pound and you're paying for that pound of salt water... basically paying to be lied to... )  Our regulations are in reverse.  There are regulations for those claiming to be organic but none saying that non-organic food producers have to disclose anything... Okay, they disclose "ingredients" but nothing about the processing, nothing about the growth, nothing about the pesticides, hormones or antibiotics... because we would be outraged! 


So what now?  In my case, I am now slowly weening my family off of non-organic eating habits.  We are shopping farmer's markets for produce when we can and buy from the organic section in the supermarket.  We're eating less meat because it's expensive to buy free range, grass fed, hormone free, antibiotic free animal products.  We also shop at small bodega type markets which we know buy their fresh foods locally within our state.  
I cook more often.  I seldom eat at fast food places anymore except in an emergency, and I try to hit up one such as Chipotle which is a known practitioner of sustainable foodsWe are not religious about all of this.  But everytime I buy food, I am conscious now.  I am aware now.  I don't ever put anything in my mouth without understanding the consequences.  It is a matter of awareness. 

And this is how Cook 'n Dine with Brig Feltus was born.  I wanted to share what I'm learning with people who would listen.  We're making it fun by visiting farmer's markets, watching films, cooking together, and then dining together. 

The first one was a great success, with a sold out attendance and raves afterward.  We went to a farmer's market, watched a film about farmers markets around the country, and then cooked a delicious Sunday Brunch style meal. 

This month, we'll be headed out early in the morning to a local organic farm that supplies fresh produce to high end restaurants and farmer's markets in Los Angeles county.   We'll be watching Food Inc.  and then cooking with the foods we bring back from the farm. 
If you are an Los Angeles local and any of this post inspires or moves you to make a change in your own life, please join us!  Let's learn together and spread this information to others that we love.  As corruption crumbles this obscene way of life all around us, just like in other living species, only the fittest will survive.  I don't intend to be among the feeble.  I intend to be among the strong, and  I'm starting with this small baby step and I hope you'll take it with me. 
Monthly sessions can be attended by signing up at brigfeltuscookndine@earthlink.net
You can also join our facebook group to stay in the loop regarding future events.
Co-Ed Cook 'n Dine with Brig Feltus group page on Facebook

I Gave Up Disposable Dining

About a decade ago, I started to collect depression glass during my phase when I was a new mother, and building my "nest".  There's something about functional nostalgia that I am drawn to.  Perhaps it's because I can remember my grandmother at some point having some of these dishes and I long to connect with her grace and hospitality.  Maybe it's kinda strange for this rock n' roll mom to be so into this stuff, but I decided a long time ago to just be who I am.  Back then I was a huge Martha Stewart fan and Martha had a thing for green depression glass.  I started to look for it at flea markets and on ebay in the beginning of 2000, and have been collecting green, lemon yellow and gold depression glass ever since.  My auntie Anita had a collection as well.  She had some green glass, but mostly milk glass and ruby red.  These dishes are very heavy and fair quite well for parties.  I pull them out whenever we have a lot of people over and my everyday dishes just won't do.  You can bid on pieces individually on ebay anywhere from pennies to a couple of dollars per item.  Sometimes they are sold in sets, sometimes by serving set, and sometimes you'll find a replacement piece such as a lid or a saucer... I don't think I've spent in total more than a couple hundred dollars on my collection.  I have enough to use for parties where I entertain up to a hundred or more people.  You might ask yourself, why I would use these for parties.  As I've said, they are pretty durable, I've only had a couple of them broken over the years. More importantly, to me at least, is the fact that I don't want to use paper or styrofoam plates.   I try to avoid the use of disposable paper and styrofoam whenever I can.  It's unhealthy for our bodies and for our earth and it's definitely more expensive in the long term.   Even for everyday dining, we don't use paper napkins.  Instead I've invested in cloth napkins and collected enough of them over the years to use them for every meal and toss them in with the laundry at the end of the day, to be washed each week with our laundry.  It is, I admit a way of living that takes getting used to.  It means dishes to wash.  But even for parties with a hundred people, we can get away with about 3 loads in the dishwasher, and/or recruiting friends to help wash and dry at the end of the night.  It's not that big of a deal, seriously.  And people appreciate the elegance and sturdiness of real dishes.  I enjoy taking people back to a time when hostesses were more graceful, actually cooked, and made an effort to show their guests that they care enough invest some time in their comfort.  I don't have the patience to be particular about pattern or brand, so long as they are good quality and in the colors that I like, I collect them.  Some people will prefer a uniform set.  But for me mix and match is the way.  I should be said the other kind of collecting takes a lot more time, patience, and willingness to pay higher prices. Antique and vintage dealers know that if you're looking for a particular brand or pattern to match what you're collecting, you'll pay more.  So I just look for certain colors, pattern, and quality of craftsmanship.   It adds a bit of funkiness to an otherwise fancy spread, to use mix match dishes in lovely jewel tone colors.  Perhaps that is the rock n' roll in me that thinks funky belongs with fancy.  Each year I choose a dish type to focus on.  In the last few years I focused on pitchers.  So now I have 6 depression glass pitchers that get used quite a bit for holidays at our house.  I also collect old silver as well.  I keep it stored in vintage flatware chests I found at the flea market, and polish it up for use on holidays when family and friends come through. 

I keep my much vintage dishes in an old pie safe (see below right), the rest in high cabinets, and only take them out when we have company. 

Some of the favorite things in my collection of dinnerware and glassware is my set of hand-painted artist signed blue clayware dishes from Tonalo, Mexico.    I found the set in a flea market many years ago and paid about $80 for something like 100 pieces, including place service for eight (dinner plate, salad plate, tumbler, tea cup/saucer, cocoa mug, soup bowl, small bowl), soup tureen, salad bowl, platter, coffee server, and more.   This is not about pretentiousness.  It's more about grace.  Every time I take them out to serve guests people get this pleased look on their faces like they are getting the royal treatment. Even the guys are flattered. They have no idea I paid less for the entire set of Mexican dishes than I would have paid for the same amount of not-as-impressive dishes purchased in the local Target.  I wouldn't trade them for anything in  a high end department store either.  I mix and match this set with my green depression glass and, as you can see in this picture,  1950's and 60's ceramic pitchers. 

If you love to entertain, investing in vintage will pay for itself.  Over the years the money I've saved on disposable ware alone has more than paid for what I've collected, and who knows how many trees I've saved. 

Giving a Tinker's Dam

 It's that time again.  The holidays are upon us and even though we should probably think about giving more frequently than just this once a year, it's a time to forgive yourself, revive the practice enthusiastically. 

If we go back to 1877, in the Practical Dictionary of Mechanics, Edward Knight puts forward this definition:

"Tinker's-dam - a wall of dough raised around a place which a plumber desires to flood with a coat of solder. The material can be but once used; being consequently thrown away as worthless."

This is a blog about worth and value in giving, but let me preface by saying that all of you out there who were planning on sending me an extravagant check in the mail as a holiday gift, I won't turn up my nose to it!  Don't you fret!!!  Just carry on with what you have planned!!! :)

In our house, over the last few months, I have quietly instituted a lifestyle evolution towards living a little cleaner, greener, and with more inner substance.  You won't find me doing any sort of massive conversion to some new extreme.  I am not interested in that.  There's something about extremes that just doesn't sit well with me.  I think if more people thought in terms of balance at the center of things,  instead of trying to right the boat by running frantically to the other end of the deck, the human race might even find a way to stay afloat.

So we've begun a whole slew of things... the Austrian is taking our master bath toilet apart this weekend because the water pressure in it hasn't been right in over a year, and we're wasting water with double flushes. (go ahead and breeze on by that mental image...) Long before the city ordained the new twice a week sprinkler allowance, we'd already cut back the watering of our garden and front lawn.   Last year, I stopped buying regular lightbulbs and started buying slightly more expensive, but longer lasting energy efficient bulbs.   We stopped using our air conditioning and heater except in cases where it was absolutely necessary...instead using ceiling fans, and alternately, extra blankets on the bed.   We stopped eating out so much, and the Austrian and I started visiting our local farmer's market every weekend.  I started reading labels on packaged foods, paying close attention to the ingredient hierarchy, and the ratio of the serving size to amounts of certain things like sugars, sodium, and saturated fats.  I've eliminated much of the prepared foods we were eating and replaced them with fresh foods prepared at home.  I don't even know why we were doing anything differently.  I am a hobby gourmet, and we were paying manufacturers to do things I can easily do at home, cheaper, tastier, and without a dramatic investment of time.  I eliminated the enormous amount of leftovers we were throwing in the trash due to our busy lifestyle, by purchasing disposable oven-safe, microwavable single serving containers and packing and freezing leftovers for the Austrian to take to work for his lunches.  The containers are made of recycled materials, and they are manufactured in a certified green factory and can be found in every Smart & Final store and most of those large outlets such as  Sam's Club and Costco.  I've had two yard sales this year, and gave away about 200 pounds of clothing to Goodwill.  We overhauled a small area in our home that was completely disfunctional and largely useless and turned it into a craft supply storage area... reducing the amount of clutter in my life by about 40%!
 

One of the greatest successes in the last year, (beside our eco-friendly self-produced wedding), was our christmas gift project.  I am being VERY generous when I use the word "our".   The boys were not really fully on board until the last weekend of production.

It might have been asking a bit much to get the Austrian, who I suspect to have borderline OCD, and the Pyrate who is probably sick of me and my big ideas, no matter how much he patronizes them.

But this stuff was not going to make itself!  We were on a tight budget, with wedding and trip to Mexico coming up in a few months, so we needed to use our creative resources and give in a very different way.

Once the guys got into it, they were very helpful and we were all very proud of what we'd done.  I spent 3 full weekends basically doing nothing but making the components of our christmas presents. We made several different things.The idea was to give things made with our own hands which had to be in some way useful.   We did some really cool stuff!
We made glass magnets decoupaged with art.

We decoupaged glass vases, framed mirrors, decorative platters, lazy susans, cigar boxes, and more.  I decoupaged wooden blocks and made block puzzles from images out of art magazines.  Grown-ups like to have them on the coffee table to fiddle with, and kids... well they love that there's 6 different images to puzzle together.


I made a beautiful jerk seasoning mix and layered the ingredients in the jar like a sand sculpture.  We made a seaweed mint footscrub, an oatmeal lavender milk bath, and little cones of individual cocoa mix and marshmallows.   Andreas designed customized labels for everything so that our gifts had a nice theme.

I purchased reusable grocery bags  and kraft paper (brown paper bag paper) for wrapping, from Nashville Wraps, an online company that sells gift packaging, including a huge and varied assortment of eco-friendly, recycled, re-useable products. 

We made our gifts, wrapped them in brown kraft paper, packed them in brown unbleached tissue paper, in reuseable grocery bags, and I can't remember the last time any gift I've given received such a response of gratefulness. 

NEWSFLASH:
People really like it when you do something thoughtful and actually give more than a tinker's dam instead of just going through the motions.  People actually get it when you've reached inside yourself and used your inner gifts for benevolence.

At a time when we probably should all be thinking more about how we spend our money... a time when we should be more conscious about how we consume... a time when we should be practicing less waste and more sustainable ways of living... getting creative in the way you give to others is the obvious move.  Not only is the gift more meaningful to the recipient, it is also profoundly good for your own mental, emotional, and yes, even physical health, to create and give.

So if you're a fantastic writer, write a short story and find self publisher online to print it, and give it as a gift.  If you're an artist, paint something and have copies printed, frame it and wrap it up in a bow.  You might think you're not very handy, or that you don't have the time, but those are excuses.  Giving is not giving if you don't get up off of something and give it.  Everybody has a talent for something.  If you're a handy household do-it-yourself-er, print up your favorite home improvement advice and anecdotes on nice paper, bound in a creative way and give it to all the homeowners in your life.  

If you write poetry, tell good jokes, bake great cakes, or even have great taste in music, there's super ways you can capitalize on your talent and use it for giving.   Frame a beautiful poem printed on parchment,  in an old frame and sign and number it.   Write a mini joke book.  Make a cake mix with all the dry ingredients for your most loved cake recipe and pack it up in a cellophane bag with instructions for what wet ingredients to add and how to bake it.   Make a list of must-have music and print it on card stock decorated with holiday regalia, add a personal note with holiday wishes and give it as a greeting card.
There are all kinds of great books out there if you want to try your hands at crafts.  You should, keep an open mind, don't start out too ambitious, don't get in over your head with something that will take months to finish.  And if you have many gifts to plan, don't choose something that you can't create in multiple fairly quickly.   

This year, we're going to step it up a notch with the edible goods, since I'm writing about food in my blogs.  I'm not completely committed yet to what all the goods will be, but there will be some sort of recipe booklet type inclusion, that, perhaps, I'll make available for sale after the holidays are over.

If you really feel that you just cannot create something, but you have a generous heart, that in itself is a talent!  Gather up some of  your friends and loved ones and plan a trip to your local rescue mission to serve a meal or deliver some cheer to children's ward at your local hospital.  Take books to read them, and boardgames to play.  This will be appreciated greatly by the staff and the patients alike!

You can find some really great books on crafting in my bookshelf in the right margin of the blog page.  All the books there are ones I have in my library and recommend!  So have fun, and remember to give from the heart!!!

All photos in this blog are taken by me, of items made by me, using recycled and re-purposed materials and cost very little money to make, but 3 weekends of my time, and a lot of love! 

Saturday Salvation

I love the weekends.  During the week, the Pyrate's at school, the Austrian's at work, and I'm doing my thing and we don't really get to share much quality time til the weekend.  Fridays, the Austrian is usually itching to go out and free his brain from work concerns.  So he's usually calling us up in the late afternoon, trying to get a commitment to some sort of activity such as a movie... Usually it's a movie he wants to see.  But when he called yesterday, I'd just finished cooking dinner, and it was an improvised creation... and it was a real masterpiece (if I might say so myself...), so when he called I was in the middle of feverishly writing notes on what I'd done, so that I wouldn't forget anything.  I couldn't talk to the Austrian about what movie we would see.  In fact, I was really not looking forward to stepping away to go to a movie.  I was sure I'd forget some aspect of what needed to go into this new recipe that I'd just created off the cuff.   So I apologized and told the Austrian he'd have to see a movie without me or wait until today (Saturday).  He was very understanding.  (Love you Bubba)  He and the Pyrate left me alone to my writing and the two hung out at the book store for 3 hours.

As if that wasn't enough love, when they returned, they presented me with Jamie Oliver's new book Jamie's Food Revolution.  Of course, I had to sit up late into the night and go through the entire book.  It's fantastic.  I won't be plagiarizing any of the recipes here, but it is a good cookbook for beginners, or those who feel uncomfortable about improvising with ingredients.  To do so, you do have to develop a sensibility about foods, their compatibility with each other, and their distinct personalities.  It's like a complex sort of astrology.  This book simplifies things down to using a few ingredients and becoming familiar enough with those to be able to use them in a hundred different ways successfully.  It's a wonderful book.

I was up until late into the night working on fine-tuning that recipe and it's up on the blog now.   I really think you should try it.  I've never had anything like it... the combination of the persimmons, the chili, the avocado... so good and so different!   Anyway, that's done.  Today I'll be planning next week's projects.  I'm thinking of going asian all next week.  Japanese, Indian, Korean, Thai, Chinese.... lol.... okay, I probably won't get around to all of that, but we'll see.... I was turned on to something new this morning during my studies... a Korean paste called gojuchang.   I can't wait to experiment with that this week... mm mm mm...

Saturdays this will be a regular part of my routine, so that on Sunday when I go to the farmers market, I can decide what specifically can be done based on what is fresh and available from local farmers.   It's a good way to do things, even if you know what you want to cook, be flexible enough that you're not bamboozled into buying something out of season because you were hell-bent on strawberries and cream in the wintertime, for example.  (what it takes to get strawberries in the winter time... you don't even want to know...)

This is, for me an important part of my agenda here... the idea that life is better when you eat close to the source.  I look forward to shaking the beekeeper's hand tomorrow when I see him and purchase a jar of honey that was harvested from his bees.  He loves to talk about his bees too and when he does, I find myself imagining him in his little "bee suit" with the netted hood, and it makes me smile...

I get a kick out of the cheese lady handing me a wedge of cheese that came from a cow from her farm....sometimes she can even tell me the cow's name.

And then there's the international grocery stores.  We have a middle eastern one and a asian one close by.   The asian one is owned by Koreans but they have a wealth of japanese ingredients available as well.  The woman who owns the store recently sold me a gas burner that I can use on the table for Shabu Shabu...a meal that I fell in love with because of a favorite restaurant in Hollywood.  I'd been in the store complaining that I want Shabu Shabu, but it's sometimes not convenient to drive into town and spend $100 on dinner.   The woman, who barely speaks english,  only understood Shabu Shabu.  The next time I came to her store, would you believe she walked me over to the butcher section and showed me that they now carry meat specially cut for use in Shabu Shabu, the ingredients for the sauces, and a very necessary burner for the table?   I was so grateful... She won my loyalty with that move... So cool!  I love small businesses. 

There is something very emotionally rewarding about getting back to a more basic way of doing things. In our efforts to make life more "convenient" we have isolated ourselves from the truth about everything that effects us.  We remove every aspect of the inner working of life from our forward consciousness and... well... out of sight, out of mind right?   We literally put our lives into the hands of strangers we don't know every day, without even asking a single question... without even investigating whether or not they are worthy. 

We assume the government will make sure all is good.  We are completely unaware.  We don't become aware again until catastrophe happens, epidemics of ecoli, mad cow, salmonella, cancer, liver disease, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, arterial disease, heart disease, and how many other horrors befall us because we don't want to have to know when, how, where and what things work.  We just consume and assume everything will all be fine.  But as we see now, things are not fine...and we are being drawn slowly back to reality because of it.  The truth always surfaces in the end. 

I feel like I'm preaching now, so I'll stop.  You get the idea.  We are comatose consumers.  In my house we are trying to change.  It's funny sometimes... the Pyrate and I will be in the grocery store and because he's been educated well about such things, he'll catch me... "Mom, what color is that?  Is that a natural color for bananas?"  or... "It might be cheaper, mom, but don't forget to see what they left out and artificially embellished to make it so cheap." 

I don't believe in any sort of fanaticism. (except when it comes to my music... be fanatical as you like about that... haha.)  I think we are best served when we use our intuition and our intellect in a balanced way.  So you won't see these things manifest in my living in extreme ways.  But at this point, if each person makes even small changes it will make a difference on a personal level and on a more universal level as well. 

So.  I'm off to go plan some loose ideas for recipes and arrange my other project for the coming week.  Then the evening with my beautiful men... Tomorrow I will post about my trip to farmer's market, and a list of recommendations for music, literature, and other artistic things... Have a fantastic weekend!!!

Etsy-Cool! Shopping Etsy

handblown vase on Etsy.com

One of my recurring craft fantasies is that I will get it together enough to actually produce enough original craft items to sell them.   Recipients of my craft items tell me all the time... "You should be selling these."

They don't understand... a lot of heart goes into the one piece.  I don't know if I could put that much heart into duplicates of the same piece.  So I do something different every year.  This summer when we got back from wedding/honeymoon and settled back into home life, I discovered that I had so much arts and crafts paraphernalia that I needed an official craft storage area to organize it all.  I had a lot of stuff before the wedding, but after?  I had arts and crafts stuff all over the place!  It was swallowing me up.  So we dedicated an area downstairs in our house.  Tore out existing cabinetry, and spent a couple hundred dollars at Ikea to purchase a closet organizing system of shelves, drawers, pull-out baskets, and more.  I now officially have a craft supply storage area!!!  Woo-hoo!!

Perhaps this will help me to focus long enough to create at least some limited edition collections of items that I can sell.

Meanwhile, I know it's not the be-all-to-end-all, but I'm admiring the artisans on the wonderful website Etsy where people like me... (well, perhaps people a little more organized than I)... sell their artistic creations.

stained glass nightlight

Etsy is a fabulous place to look for one-of-a-kind gifts of all kinds.  I've bought everything from gold jewelry to custom-made stationary.  They've even got artists and crafters from all over the world who re-purpose, recycle, re-use to their hearts desire.   The art of re-purposing is a hot arena these days with being "green" or more eco-conscious is the popular trend of our times.

 sushi usb flash drive 2 GB

For our wedding, I made crepe paper flowers, inspired by ones I found for sale on Etsy.  I bought victorian style wrist cuffs to give my bridesmaids.  I've bought handmade hats to give as christmas presents, and there's so much more!!!  Pottery, Gothic fashion, unique holiday decorations, custom formal wear, office accessories, linens, custom period costumes, custom electronic accessories!  You name it you'll find it on Etsy.

leather macbook case

Yes, perhaps someday soon, I'll get it together, y'all... But where to start???

 

Rosie O'Donnell's custom Munny Sculptures!

What's really cool is that the prices are usually very reasonable since you are buying from the person who created the item you are purchasing.  This is great because you get great customer service from most vendors, and a much more personal story behind the items you purchase.  I love objects with a story.  Here are some of my favorite Etsy products for this week:

my friend in alaska makes these hand knit crowns...

wooden iPod case

custom made in YOUR size

blossom lace earrings

made-to-order iPod docking station

100% cotton handmade baby beanie

handmade picture frame