my sister and i got our heads together and made you a very special holiday pack, including items designed by each of us. cozy into your super-soft tee or tank, warm up with a pot of tea and get into a thoughtful frame of mind for writing your holiday cards while listening to the lost and found. need more than 12 cards? order more in sets of 12 in the store. this package includes:
• 1 i heart gp tank [black or white, womens sizes] or tee [black only, mens sizes] of your choice
• 1 signed copy of the lost and found cd, named in npr’s best music of 2011
• 1 4oz bag of how we love loose tea: earl grey tea with rose petals and lavender [contains caffeine]
• 1 4oz bag of still loose tea: peppermint, lemon verbena, rose petals, lavender [herbal]
• 1 variety pack of 12 holiday cards from parlato design studio
the complete hp+gp holiday pack: $45 + postage standard shipping is $10.95 domestic, $27.95 to canada / mexico, and $45.50 international, in USD.
our paypal button defaults to domestic shipping—you will be contacted if international shipping is required.
this holiday special is available for one week only!
order anytime during the week of december 5 – december 9, 2011 [that’s until 11:59pm ET, december 9, 2011]; all orders will ship december 10 by priority mail. once it’s done, it’s done!
click on thumbnails above to see all options for tanks & tee.
slanted is a german design and typography magazine, issue 15 of which deals with experimental type, as pictured above. see the whole profile at underconsideration.com
printing
if you’re anything like me, you’ve been thinking about using white ink for years, and just haven’t had the right project or client who will go for it. well, technology has heard about our white ink desires and improved digital printing technology to make it possible at affordable prices. my friend nick carranza wrote it all up for print magazine, complete with setup and paper stock suggestions: c-m-y-stop there? time to think about white ink
sometime last year i tried out making preserved meyer lemons, and they rapidly became one of my favorite flavors to keep on hand for seasoning all kinds of food. meyer lemons just reappeared in the farmer’s market, and they’ll be around all winter. enjoy them fresh while they’re ripe, but try making preserved lemons early in the season so you can try them out, and then you’ll know if you need to make 4-6 more jars to keep through the summer.
preserved lemons are really simple to prepare. you’ll want some quart-sized canning jars, preferably wide-mouth, a good amount of coarse sea salt, and about 8-12 lemons for each jar.
meyer lemons, quartered and salted
some people like to cut the stem-ends off their lemons, but since i like to use the whole thing, i left the ends on. since i’m using meyer lemons, which have thinner skins anyway, i slice from the non-stem end lengthwise to the stem end without cutting all the way through. turn 90 degrees and make a similar cut, so you have a quartered lemon that is attached at the base. if you work over a plate, you’ll be able to collect any juice to pour in the jar later.
you’ll always end up with some seeds, but this is a point where i try to remove any i can get to. once you’re ready, pour salt into the quartered lemon, coating all interior sides, close the quarters and place it in the jar. as you work, you’ll want to jam the lemons together, packing them as tightly as you can to release juice and eliminate space for air.
i worked with 11 lemons total, and my jar was about full with 8 of them inside. i zested the last 3, since they’ll just be used for juice [reserving the zest for other projects] and juiced the remaining lemons into the jar to submerge the preserved lemons and add a tablespoon of salt. place in the pantry for a couple days, and then into the refrigerator for about a month. once a the peels have softened and the salt and acids have worked the lemon oil from the skins, you’ll have a deeply flavorful addition to all kinds of meals.
preserved meyer lemons, packed in a jar
some say to wash the lemons of their salt before use, but i just chop up the whole thing and forego salting the dish i’m making instead. one of my favorite ways to enjoy them is to top chicken or fish with chopped preserved lemon and oil and then broil. here are some other ways to use preserved lemon:
it’s that time of year again, and the store is stocked with colorful, festive holiday cards, gift tags and thank you cards. choose your favorite style and write thoughtful notes to family, friends, clients & colleagues. all cards are blank inside so you can personalize a note, and all are printed sustainably on neenah environment 100% post-consumer waste paper with matching vellum-finish envelopes.
holiday cards for 2011
choose your favorite design, or go for a variety pack!
• cheers!: set of 12 cards, 4″ x 5.5″ with matching envelopes at 4.375″ x 5.75″
• snowflakes & bluebirds: set of 12 cards, 4″ x 5.5″ with matching envelopes at 4.375″ x 5.75″
• retro snowmen: set of 12 cards, 4″ x 5.5″ with matching envelopes at 4.375″ x 5.75″
• variety pack: set of 12 cards [4 of each style], 4″ x 5.5″ with matching envelopes at 4.375″ x 5.75″
set of 12 cards & envelopes: $8includes shipping
gift tag special: 3 of each style [set of 12]: free with each set of holiday cards!
gift tags
dress up your gifts with festive gift tags designed to match your holiday cards!
gift tag variety pack: 5 of each style [set of 20] = $5 per set / includes shipping
thank you cards
say a resounding thanks to the people who make your day, week, or year fantastic!
• variety pack: 3 of each style [set of 12], 5″ x 3.5″ with matching envelopes at 5.125″ x 3.625″
it’s tricky to address cranberry sauce from a local perspective, because while cranberries are native to north america, they tend to be grown in northern states above the sunbelt. you won’t find them in farmer’s markets around los angeles, and most other fall berries have just wrapped up their seasons. so what’s a person to do about a tart berry sauce for thanksgiving?
while you might not be able to use fresh berries on a seasonal diet, lots of local producers of cherries, raspberries, blackberries, and some blueberries also make dried berries, which are perfect to simmer with seasoning and spices for a comparable compote to cranberry sauce. adding the fact that pomegranates are currently in season, there are some great, deeply red antioxidant flavors to use here.
cherry and citrus relish
1 vidalia onion or red onion, chopped
1 tb canola oil
juice & minced zest of 2 medium oranges
1⁄2 cup pomegranate juice
1 cup water
1 cup red wine
1⁄2 tsp cinnamon
1⁄2 tsp cardamom
1⁄2 tsp allspice
1 tb sugar or honey
2 cups dried cherries
1⁄2 cup pine nuts
sauté onion over medium heat in 1 tb canola oil until translucent, 5 minutes. add orange & pomegranate juices, water and wine, cinnamon, cardamom, allspice and sugar. bring to a boil, add cherries, reduce to medium heat and simmer covered 20 minutes. check liquid levels periodically and add water as needed.
remove from heat and toss with orange zest and pine nuts. serve hot or chilled.
variations
– substitute a mix of dried berries to your liking
– substitute dried blueberries, or add in chopped dried apricots & plums
– process or chop dried berries before cooking for a more uniform consistency
– use a mix of dried, toasted & chopped nuts instead of just pine nuts
with thanksgiving around the corner, you might want to start giving thanks to family, friends and clients. craft magazine has a nice write-up on these letterpress fill-in thanksgiving cards.
i’ve made a lot of variations of savory pumpkin and mixed vegetable pies. when considering the recipes for the thanksgiving guide, i wanted to incorporate sweet potatoes, and i thought i’d work with a version that uses a simple breadcrumb crust rather than a full pie crust. you can pick your favorite type of bread, but i’ve tried to keep the carbs lower by using sprouted rye [i love both trader joe’s and alvarado bakery’s sprouted rye breads]. i think a whole-grain sourdough would also be really tasty.
roasted pumpkin and sweet potato
start by roasting the pumpkin and sweet potato. i like to use cinderella pumpkins, because they have deep red-orange, juicy flesh. i also like to cut them lengthwise along the grooves for roasting in slices. cut the sweet potatoes in half lengthwise for roasting as well. roast 45 minutes at 300º on an oiled baking sheet, turning the slices halfway through, but leaving sweet potatoes cut-side down. when finished and cooled enough to handle, cut the pumpkin away from the peel and scoop the sweet potato away from the skin into a bowl. cut into large chunks and mash coarsely with a fork to break up and incorporate. this should not be in any way uniform, just break up the pieces so they can be mixed with other fillings and baked.
sauteed onions and garlic
while the pumpkin and sweet potato are roasting, prepare your onion, garlic & spice sauté. i chose a cumin-coriander-chili spice mix, but this is the time to pick your favorite flavor profile and saute them once the onions are translucent.
savory pumpkin pie ready to bake
preheat oven to 325º. when all the fillings have been prepared, add onion sauté to the mixing bowl along with 2 eggs and parmesan cheese, and stir in with a form to incorporate. toast the 2 slices of bread and blend them into bread crumbs in the blender. use butter or oil to grease a 9″ baking dish, spread the breadcrumbs along the bottom and shake them up along the sides to coat [it’s not critical to get a thick layer on the sides of the dish, just do what you can]. add the pumpkin filling and spread with a spoon into a level pie. bake at 325º for 1 hour.
savory pumpkin slice
savory pumpkin pie
1⁄4 cinderella pumpkin, cut into 1” sliced sections
2 sweet potatoes, halved
2 medium onions, chopped
2 tb butter
4 cloves minced garlic
2 tb white wine vinegar
spice mix: 1 tsp each of cumin, coriander and chili powders
2 eggs
1⁄2 cup parmesan cheese
bread crumbs made from 2 slices whole grain bread
roast pumpkin and sweet potato on an oiled baking sheet at 300º for 45 minutes. cut pumpkin flesh from peel, scoop flesh from sweet potato skins, and roughly chop each into a mixing bowl. mash with a fork to mix potato and pumpkin. turn oven up to 325º.
sauté the onions with butter, 3 minutes. add garlic and vinegar and simmer on low heat, covered, 20 minutes. uncover and add the spice mix, sauté 1 minute more, remove from heat. add sautéd onions, eggs and parmesan to the bowl. stir with a fork to mix through. grease a 9” baking dish and spread bread crumbs over the bottom. add the filling and level the top. bake 1 hour at 325º.
variations
– add mushrooms to your onion sauté
– substitute feta cheese or any hard cheese for parmesan
make it vegan
– substitute olive oil for butter
– substitute vegan parmesan [make your own!]
– substitute ener-g egg substitute for eggs
– add additional bread crumbs to pumpkin filling
– add mushrooms to your onion sauté
parlato design studio 