July 18th, 2009 — Domestic Goddess
I hate wasting plastic bags when shopping for produce. Granted Whole Foods has veggie bags that are Bio Degradable, But not everybody shops at Whole Foods…. Enter “Happy Re-useable Vegetable bags” by Wonder Thunder. They come in Green, Blue and Red. In your set of four you will receive: Large, medium, small and herb bag. All sizes have a drawstring except the little one and are machine washable.
$20.00
July 17th, 2009 — Cooking
SERVES: 4
TIME: 15 minutes
1 tablespoon olive oil
8 slices vegetarian bacon (you can find good brands made with tempeh)
8 slices organic sprouted whole grain bread (like Ezekiel)
1/2 cup Vegenaise (or your favorite mayonnaise)
coarse salt
freshly ground black pepper
2 very ripe tomatoes, sliced
1 ripe avocado, sliced
1 head baby gem lettuce or 1 heart of romaine lettuce, leaves separated
Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat and cook the vegetarian bacon for a minute on each side, just enough to warm it through and get it a bit browned. Remove from the skillet and cut each slice in half.
Spread each slice of bread with a tablespoon of Vegenaise or mayonnaise, sprinkle with coarse salt and pepper. Layer the bacon, tomato, avocado and lettuce on four slices of the bread and then sandwich with the remaining four. Cut each sandwich in half and serve. – Goop
July 16th, 2009 — Cooking
Cool Raspberry Slices
Serves 8
What’s better than a sweet slice of watermelon on a hot day? How about a trompe l’oeil slice made up of cool, creamy ice cream? Mini chocolate chips make for seeds you wouldn’t dream of spitting out.
- 1 pint pistachio ice cream or frozen yogurt, slightly softened
- 1 pint raspberry or strawberry sorbet, slightly softened
- 3/4 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips
- Using plastic wrap, line a 3-quart metal or plastic bowl, leaving long edges or wrap overhanging the bowl’s sides. Freeze the lined bowl for least 10 minutes.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat pistachio ice cream at low speed until spreadable, about 20 seconds. Remove lined bowl from freezer. Using a rubber spatula, coat the inside of the bowl (about three-quarters of the way up the sides) with all the pistachio ice cream, making a 1/2-inch-thick layer. Return mold to the freezer until the ice cream hardens, about 45 minutes.
- Beat the sorbet in a mixing bowl at low speed until it’s spreadable, about 30 seconds. Beat in the chocolate chips. Remove the bowl from the freezer. Spoon the sorbet to completely fill the pistachio mold, using a rubber spatula to smooth the top. Return the bowl to the freezer until the sorbet has hardened, about 2 hours.
- To serve, invert the frozen bombe onto a serving plate. Lift off the bowl. Carefully peel off the plastic wrap. Immediately before serving, cut the bombe into slices.
TIP: You can make this treat up to two days in advance. Store, well wrapped, in the freezer, but wait to slice until just before serving. – Cookie Magazine
July 16th, 2009 — Books, Kids
“All right, Noah, dear. It’s time to leave,” says Noah’s mom. Noah has other plans. “No,” he says. And then says it again. And again. And each time, his nose get crazier and crazier. A shattered, red-colored No! matches his rage, while a small, cursive no encapsulates his blithe obstinance. That’s just for starters: Warburton features two nos per page, then quarters that into four nos, then nine. The goofy creativity multiplies along with the refusals—Noah says Nyet wearing a Russian hat, O-nay as a pig, Negative as a robot, Hon’-Ka-Zhi from a tepee, and even uses hieroglyphics and Morse code dots and dashes. The pastels of the watercolor-and-pencil art quickly explode into a colorful chaos that concludes with the entire cast of Noahs singing “Nooooooooo” in a chorus. It’s a lot of fun and will feel familiar to any parent up against a child’s tireless opposition, and kids (maybe) will recognize their own silly stubbornness. The educational use of various languages extends the book’s age range a bit, too.
Harper Collins Publishing
$17.99
July 16th, 2009 — Babies, Books
This amusing shower or new baby gift celebrates the ups and downs of breastfeeding and gives the rapidly growing number of breastfeeding moms something they can really use–a good laugh!
Of the approximately four million women who give birth each year, 70 percent will choose to breastfeed. This delightfully funny book helps those 2.8 million nursing moms laugh out loud, learn with unexpected tips and trivia, and de-stress during the most exciting new phase of their life.
$12.99
