Tuesday, October 26

The re-use part of the 3 Rs

It's frustrating, when you look at clothing catalogs and say "ooh! that's so cute . . . . and a bazillion dollars" (I'm looking at you, J.Crew and anthropologie!) I love their clothes. Love them. I do. But I'm fresh out of college, don't have two dimes to rub together, and (sometimes) I feel bad asking my parents to buy clothes for me. Particularly if these clothes aren't for any future job I may obtain, but just some fun t-shirt. 

Which leads to either selling my organs on the black market (which probably wouldn't end well for me) or finding some other creative solution. Hence, my post on my other blog the historian about this amazing tutorial I found via say YES! to hoboken, that creates graphic t-shirts using freezer paper.

The great thing about crafting is that you can use things you have around the house, like freezer paper, fabric paint, and an old t-shirt that needs a bit of a boost. The thing that I like best about being "green" is that it helps you think outside the box, finding new ways to re-purpose things, from left-overs to clothing, to building materials!

Tuesday, October 19

Dream Green Kitchens

Everyone with a computer does this these days, but as a recent college grad still living at home with my parents one of my favorite things to do is dream about my future apartment. Now, I know that I will be inevitably disappointed because I'm sure my first "grown-up" apartment is going to be about the size of a closet, but a girl can dream! Here are some of my favorite kitchens (from Design*Sponge and Apartment Therapy) and some of my favorite green kitchen products!


I'm increasingly drawn to monochromatic kitchens that are clean and relatively clutter-free.  I love the open shelving, or even floating shelves that show the stacks of dishes. I also love deep farmhouse sinks, like the one in Julia Child's Paris kitchen in Julie & Julia. I also love farmhouse tables, and butcher block countertops (which are wonderfully cheap, but apparently very difficult to maintain [according to my mumsy, they stain and mark up very easily, but I don't care, they're lovely])


That being said, I make exceptions to the monochromatic rule when I see things like chalkboard walls and amazing, graphic tile work that's bold and simplistic.
 











And, alright, this isn't a full kitchen, but I'm in love (LOVE!) with this tea shelf. Everything is together, it's clean and functional (my favorite!)


Also, I love the storage for all these spices. I love how they look stacked up together, and how neat and organized it is. As long as you can identify all of the different spices. 


As for some green kitchen things, here are a few things I'm in love with.

-My Bodum french press
from here
French Presses are great for a variety of reasons. First, they make a damn fine cuppa joe. You can use any sort of coffee you want, as long as it's coarse ground (Starbucks will grind your beans for free when you purchase a bag of your favorite blend. Mine is the organic Yukon blend. It's bold, nutty, and just plain delicious). Beyond it being tasty and versatile, it steeps the coffee like you steep tea. You boil the water on the stove (or in an electric water boiler) so you use a lot less electricity than regular coffee makers that have a hot plate and must boil the water itself and all that jazz. One of the downsides is that the coffee cools quickly, but I'm planning to knit my press a cozy to combat that. Also, it doesn't use filters, which eliminates the need for even recycled, unbleached filters!

My French Press is metal, but Starbucks/Bodum (and other companies) now offer presses made from recycled plastic!

-CredoBags

I don't have any CredoBags, but I want them SO badly.  They feature reusable bags of all sorts: produce bags, bulk bags, everyday shopping bags, lunch bags . . . you name it. They offer 100% cotton, muslin, and 100% organic cotton fibers, and are really just incredible. They aren't horribly expensive and seem like they would last for a long time.

-Reading is Sexy coffee mug

  I love this mug. I first saw it in a picture on We Heart It, and spent forever hunting it down.  It's made from 100% biodegradable corn plastic. I've asked for it for Christmas, and I hope (oh, how I hope!) it shall be mine.












Of course there are all sorts of green kitchen products. Wooden spoons, cast iron skillets, anything from William-Sonoma (well, not anything, but it's an amazing place where dreams come true). 

What are your favorite green kitchen appliances? And what's your dream kitchen?

Sunday, October 17

Bridal Showers, Continued

For my sister's bridal shower, I also made the amazing pumpkin waffles from over at one of my favorite food blogs, Smitten Kitchen. I'll let you discover the recipe over at her site, and go on to tell you about the midnight snack I made for the bachelorette party that followed, an absolutely delicious (if I do say so myself) carrot cake! I didn't really photograph the process, or the finished product because the homemade icing needed to be refrigerated straight away, and when we went to eat it . . . well, I was drunk. Photos weren't happening. But I will say that it was a wonderful, smooth carrot cake with fantastic flavor, and I highly recommend it. The recipe makes one double layer 9-inch cake. I've linked to the original site, and put the exact recipe up here, with my own personal notes.

Carrot Cake
(from Tom Hudgens, author of The Commonsense Kitchen

for the cake:
1 ½ cups walnut halves and pieces
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cups safflower or other vegetable oil
1 ½ cups firmly-packed brown sugar
4 eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
½ teaspoon finely-grated orange zest
about 4 cups peeled, thickly sliced carrots

for the frosting:

1 pound cold cream cheese
finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups sifted powdered sugar

Butter two 9-inch cake pans; fit the bottoms of the pans with circles of parchment; butter the parchment, then lightly dust the pan with flour, tapping the pan to remove excess flour.
(at first I thought this meant butter both the pan and the parchment. It doesn't. Just butter the parchment, or there's waaay too much oil on the bottom)

Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Scatter the walnuts on a baking sheet, and toast lightly in the oven, about 8 minutes, or until they are fragrant; the nuts should not visibly darken. Let the nuts cool, then lightly rub off the excess outer papery skin from the nuts. Keep the oven at 325 degrees.


Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. In a large bowl, whisk together the oil, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, and orange zest until smooth.


Using a food processor, pulse the toasted walnuts to a fine meal (if you're like me and don't particularly like nuts, just pulverize those suckers. you won't taste them, I promise!). Add the nuts to the large bowl with the oil mixture. 

Put the peeled, sliced carrots into the bowl of the food processor, and process until the carrots are reduced to a uniform, fine mince. Measure out 3 ½ cups of ground carrots, and add to the large bowl with the wet ingredients and nuts.

Whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, without overmixing, just until the batter is uniform. 



Scrape the batter evenly into the prepared pans (weigh the filled pans to ensure even distribution), place in the center of the oven, and bake for about 30 minutes (it took us about 45 minutes, but our oven runs cold. Just be prepared that it may take longer), or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.







Let the cakes cool for 10 minutes in the pans, then turn the cakes out onto a rack. Peel off the parchment, and let the cakes cool completely before frosting. (IMPORTANT! The 10-minute waiting period is COMPLETE crap. I waited 10 minutes to the second, and it was an utter disaster when I tried to remove the first layer. Rather than one lovely layer, I had three different pieces! Definitely let your cake cool all the way before you remove it from the pans. As I said to my mother as I mixed up another layer, THIS is why I buy extra of all the ingredients! [if it was just my family, I would've iced the pieces back together and called it good, but this was for company])






To make the frosting, put the cold cream cheese into a medium bowl. Using a wooden spoon, work the lemon zest, juice, and vanilla into the cheese until uniform, then add the sifted sugar in 2 or 3 additions, stirring the frosting until smooth. (Wooden spoon, my foot! I used a hand-held mixer, and it came together super easily. You're already making your own frosting. Don't make it any more difficult than it has to be!)


To frost the cake, put a dab of frosting in the center of a large, attractive plate. Center one of the cake rounds on the plate, and apply an even layer of frosting to the top. Place the second cake round atop the first, and apply an even layer of frosting to the top. Use the remaining frosting to cover the sides of the cake. Cream cheese makes a soft frosting that doesn’t lend itself to squiggles or other decorative elements; it is beautiful on its own, just smoothly spread on the cake, with a thread of lemon zest visible here and there. Chill if you’re not serving the cake right away. Let the cake come back up to room temperature to serve.


 

Sunday, October 10

Rain Showers and Banana Muffins

I love all the rain we've gotten these past few weeks. I know some people don't like it to be grey and dreary, but I think it makes everything look so vibrant! Plus, it has two fantastic benefits:

1) It will make the leaves change colors more vibrantly
2) It's a good excuse to curl up with a mug of hot cocoa or tea and some backgammon!

I've also had the pleasure of hosting my sister's bridal shower recently. She's getting married in December, and while it seemed like forever away in the summer, things are snowballing quite nicely now, and I'm getting really excited!



I'm not really used to hosting things (I think the last thing I planned was my 13th birthday party), but I knew I wanted the shower to be pretty low key, but still elegant. I wanted it to have an autumnal feel, with seasonal foods that would be tasty and filling, with only some subtle decorative touches like beautiful orange roses from the grocery store. I'm planning to break up the components into a few posts, starting with the real crowd pleaser (other than the cinnamon scones, which I bought at the grocery store, and thus they don't count).



--Banana Bread with Cinnamon Crumble Topping--
(adapted from Bakesale Betty and Bon Appetit 2008, adapted into muffins by a comment on the site)*

For bread:


1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour   
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup mashed ripe banana (about 3 medium bananas)   
2 large eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup water


for topping:


2 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. group cinnamon
2 1/2 Tbsp. packed dark brown sugar




 -Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F
-In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.


-In a large bowl, whisk together the banana, eggs, oil, honey, and water.
-Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and stir well. 

 

-Scoop batter into muffin tins (either greased or with muffin cups) until each well is about 2/3 full. 
       *I recently figured out that an ice cream scoop works incredibly well for this purpose. Who knew?




-In a small bowl, mix together topping ingredients. Sprinkle evenly over each muffin.
-Bake for 25 minutes 





I love this recipe for a lot of reasons. In terms of practicality, it's great. You don't need to pull out a mixer, just a spoon will do the trick, and you only dirty one measure cup and set of spoons! If you can't already tell, I'm one of those messy cooks.


Also, you can make this recipe as organic/not organic as you want and it's still pretty foolproof. Organic bananas? Go for it! Farm fresh eggs, easy!  I've just gotten into organic flour recently . . . . I'm mostly into organic fruits, vegetables, eggs, and meats, but flour IS made from grain and such a staple of our diet that I've tried to bring that into my family as well. Also, I highly recommend organic, un-dyed paper cups for the muffins. Not only eco-friendly, but a nice rustic touch, don't you think?




*I KNOW I got this from a blogsite, it's just been so long I've forgotten which one. If anyone remembers, please please tell me and I'll credit them properly.


All photos by me!
 

It's that time of year!