the music box keeps the marquee positive between shows
after a week of admin mondays, i’m jumping back in with lots to do. if you’re a student and you’re going to student portfolio day, i’d be happy to review your work!
despite having done my taxes weeks ago, i had been catching up with straggling details right up until last friday when i noticed that my menacing list of things to do had finally been finished. so, today i get to enjoy the first admin monday i’ve had in months—cleaning, organizing & getting ahead, both in the office and in the garden. i’m hosting my monthly biznik mixer, but if you’re looking for more design fun, the LA design events, april 2011 wrap-up is ready for your plan-making at LAist.
here’s what i’m doing
tuesday, april 19, 5:30-8pmLA east-side mixed up biznik mixer at the griffin in atwater village. take this tail end of over-castedness to cozy up to one last fireplace before we go strictly patio until november.
bikes take to downtown streets by the thousands for cicLAvia, april 2011.
i hope a lot of you are somewhere in this picture. for me, this is a changeover week, finishing up a lot of straggling projects ready to go to final, and starting up all the new ones next in line. but i’ve got time for some fun, if you do too, check out this week’s round-up for LAist. among other things, i’ll be checking in on one day for design on wednesday.
my sister gets the itunes trifecta: a banner ad, the first spot in new & noteworthy, and #1 in top charts!
there’s a whole lotta gretchen in that screen grab! better yet, it’s in the itunes store, on amazon and barnes & noble, so if you want it, you can buy it digitally or in hard copy starting today. or, check out her tour dates, buy a copy in person and get it signed.
what else can i add, i am super-proud of her on this very exciting day! here’s to you, girl! ♥ ♥ ♥
a reform school filled with avid food traders. image: gregory han
this past weekend, my friend, writer & sustainable food business strategist, emily ho organized the first LA food swap, calling for home-cooks, preservers and general diy-foodie-types to bring their artisanal wares to a small, informal food trading event. i have been wanting to do something like this for awhile, but never got to organizing, so i’m really glad she made it happen.
my offerings at the LA food swap: garlic confit, mixed citrus marmalade, dandelion vodka, blood orange / lemon verbena vodka
when i first heard about the event, i researched a few seasonal preparations and got to work on the ones that would need the most time, namely the vodka infusions. i took a long walk foraging hundreds of dandelions for a 3-week infusion that turned out quite nicely [though it was hard to tell along the way]. i had been curious about this slow-cooked marmalade, so i decided to modify it by using a mix of citrus: cara cara, navel and blood oranges, meyer lemons and pink grapefruit. finally, i made something i always have on standby, garlic confit.
emily made some deliciously deep red beet fettucini, an dried & ground mandarin zest seasoning, and foraged pink peppercorns. this is just one example of the great ideas you get at a food swap—of all the things i’ve been doing with citrus peels, drying & grinding them into powder hadn’t occurred to me [though i do stick the dried zest in a pepper mix and throw it in a mill]. wonderful!
marmalades, chocolates, lemonades, arancelli, and extracts!
just a sample of what some of the many table and benches looked like. i was lucky enough to entice 2 food traders into awarding me with a bottle of that arancello, the rosemary lemonade concentrate, and yonder at the end of the table, some lemons & grapefruit.
a group shot of all my new friends
so, here’s what it comes down to. i arrived with 11 jars of confit, 12 jars of marmalade, 2 jars of blood orange / verbena vodka & 3 jars of dandelion vodka. i traded them for [left to right] a bottle of arancello, garlic bread, a jar of pickled carrots & jalapeños, rangpur lime marmalade, pickled multicolored heirloom carrots, 2 lemons, strawberry-grapefruit marmalade, 3 avocados, peach marmalade, a grapefruit / fennel tincture, a jar of cherries, lemon curd, beet fettucini, spicy salsa, brown butter cookies, lavendar oatmeal scrub, 4 cheese & artichoke biscuits, rosemary lemonade concentrate, and 3 oro blanco grapefruits. not included in this photo are a few arugula plants, quince, lemon rosemary cupcakes and a bowl of foraged herbs, basically the leftovers of what we had that we traded in order not to take our own items home.
beyond all this food stuff, i got to meet some really nice people who value food traditions and want to connect over it, which has been wonderful. everyone repeatedly asked when we’d be doing it again, and the tweets following the event were full of excitement about using new food items. to see more photos and get the official word, visit LA food swap & sign up for emails on the next swap. let’s keep this event full of great people, energy and ideas! in the meantime, enjoy their official write-up: our first food swap, or my own recap at LAist: an old-fashioned good time: the 1st ever LA food swap.
a couple weeks ago, i spent a warm pre-spring afternoon foraging for dandelions. i just heard that my friend, emily, had set up the first LA food swap and i immediately signed up, planning out a few seasonal food projects i could share and trade with others. a recipe for dandelion jelly i found last year made me think i should try some kind of dandelion infusion, so i set out with my scissors and a cloth bag and got to collecting.
once i got home, i cut the base of each flower off, and separated the petal cluster from the surrounding leaves, and dropped each into a jar. as i worked, i noticed that dandelions have a scent that somewhat resembles banana, which made me wonder just what flavors will bloom in this process.
it’s been about 2 of the 3 suggested weeks, and the flavor has developed, though i’m not sure what it’s developed into. it has a very interesting floral flavor, which has been aided in part by the addition of some honey. another week should do it, then i’ll thin it out with some soda and find out what we’re dealing with here.
some other infusions i’m experimenting with include blood orange, which is outstanding, and has the distinct flavor of blood oranges, rather than just a general orange flavor. i’m also working with lemon verbena, which has just grown several shocks of fresh leaves. this extraction is very flavorful and should make some fantastic cocktails. finally, i’ve had lemongrass infusing for 2 weeks, and while it finally has some color, i’m not sure the flavor is anywhere near what i’d expect of lemongrass. perhaps this would be better as a simple syrup. i’ll give it another week, but i’m not sure alcoholic infusion is its best use.
my confirmed contributions to the LA food swap is a chunky, slow-cooked, mixed citrus marmalade [including navel, cara cara and blood oranges, meyer lemons and pink grapefruit], and garlic confit [slow simmered garlic cloves in canola oil for all kinds of savory uses]. if the dandelion liqueur works out, i’ll bring some bottles to trade, or make a mix of the well-matched successful infusions. and if i think of something else to make, i’ll try it out, but so far that’s all i’ve got.
i just got back from a weekend in the eastern sierras and death valley, with a matinee at the amargosa opera house. i’ve also been on a bit of a blogging hiatus, so it’s time to change that and jump back into the swing. good thing i’ve got just the thing for that.
what i’m doing:
wednesday, march 23, 6:30 – 8:30pmshine: the entrepreneur’s journey screening at blankspaces, FREE with rsvp! a short documentary produced by biznik, stories of solopreneurs and indie pros and how they got started, how they keep going & why they do what they do.
parlato design studio 