A few weeks ago I admittedly got pretty riled up when I heard about the Corn Refiners Association's (CRA) petition to change the name high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) to corn sugar. The CRA claims that the goal is to eliminate confusion for consumers, but the US food system cynic in me immediately figured it was a ploy to change the now-well-publicized, mouthful-of-a-name HFCS to something easier to read. Because, you know, one thing pro natural food people like me will urge people to do is buy foods where you can actually read the ingredient label.A few weeks ago I admittedly got pretty riled up when I heard about the Corn Refiners Association's (CRA) petition to change the name high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) to corn sugar. The CRA claims that the goal is to eliminate confusion for consumers, but the US food system cynic in me immediately figured it was a ploy to change the now-well-publicized, mouthful-of-a-name HFCS to something easier to read. Because, you know, one thing pro natural food people like me will urge people to do is buy foods where you can actually read the ingredient label.
I've been meaning to post for a while now about some utterly lovely pottery we've been enjoying. During a hunt for unique Korean style pottery, I discovered Grace Lee's Vancouver-based studio eikcam via Etsy. Lee creates beautiful pottery, jewelry, and photography, and her ceramics are lovingly handcrafted and styled with a vintage and earthy aesthetic using antique molds and distinctive glazes. And from a customer service perspective, Lee is wonderful; she was patient and cheerful while I waffled absurdly about color options before settling on this pretty little pair of turquoise dasik tea tumblers. I adore the (by American standards) petite size and styling of these tumblers (about 8 ounces); they're dishwasher and microwave safe (though I prefer to hand wash them) and I'm pretty sure that at some point I ought to get the matching tea pot.
Today, parent educator Hetti Wohlgemuth of Alphabet Soup 4 Parents takes a departure from parenting advice to recommend two stylish local finds:
Given my apparent talent for spilling black coffee, chocolate ice cream, and ketchup on myself, I don't like spending lots of money on clothing. For me, it's not worth it to ruin expensive clothes and it's good to tighten the spending belt when a bad economy threatens us. That said, I still like to shop, dress well, and look professional. Here are two Boston area shops to try that won't break the bank.
Thanks to Jules, now I know what to do with this week's abundance of zucchini from the CSA:
My friend recently gave me a zucchini from her garden -- a 20 pounder! I mulled over what to do with this massive gem; zucchini parmesan didn't feel original enough and I wanted to highlight the zucchini's tender and mild flavor. So here, inspired by the flavors of Greece, I've come up with a light but satisfying zucchini stack (served either as a side dish or entrée) that transports you to a happy place after a long day. I recommend enjoying this dish outside.
Though in general I advocate for less of the unnecessary, every now and then something material catches my eye and refuses to budge from my periphery. Such was the case last weekend when Laurel and I were in Porter Square, picking up some Japanese pastries and browsing Tokai. I circled away from these ridiculously cute Japanese panda mugs (note the adorable tail blob on the back of the mug) about five times, trying to convince myself out of buying them. Which of course meant I needed to buy them.
One thing I adore about the return of cool fall weather is baking. And this week Laurel and I busted out our first batch of fall cookies. We decided to try something new: the chocolate-chocolate chunk cookies from Lori Longbotham's Luscious Chocolate Desserts. Despite being a little concerned about the consistency while we were making them (the batter was rather loose, not like typical cookie dough that you can roll in your hands), the cookies turned out divine -- rich, chocolate-y, and distinctly reminiscent of its baked good cousin the brownie. I highly recommend you make a batch this weekend.
As I mentioned last week week, Laurel wanted a unicorn party for her sixth birthday. It suits me perfectly that she prefers small gatherings at home; we hosted a super fun unicorn party that was pretty low maintenance while still being utterly unicorn-tastic. Below is the how-to for pulling the party together. And thematically, you could swap elements to tailor the party to your child's interests (e.g., horses, dinosaurs, fairies, etc.). Enjoy!
Today, a handy tip from Heather, because tomorrow is Monday, which means you're probably doing laundry today. Which means you've probably got drawstrings gone astray in your laundry basket:
My four children may look like me, but they all are tall and thin like my husband. Fortunately for us, there's no shortage of clothing made with adjustable waists or drawstrings. And while I truly believe drawstrings are one of the greatest children's clothing inventions ever, my frustration grows every time I need to rethread the waistband of a drawstring that has lost its way (or been undone on purpose by one of my three 3-year-olds).
To celebrate Laurel's birthday this past weekend, it was all about unicorns and rainbows. I'll be posting a unicorn party how-to soon, but first, I wanted to share how I made the rainbow cake. I made two rainbow cakes -- one for her girlfriend party on Sunday and one for her family party on Monday -- and in both cases, the kids and grownups went berserk over it, with many grownups asking how I did it. Here's the tutorial:
Last week I took the time to cook something from my pre-parenting days. I was enjoying the mindful parenting/working epiphany that came by way of my internet vacation, and was mulling what to do with the copious amount of eggplant and potato from our CSA share. My first thought? The moussaka from Nick Stellino's Mediterranean Flavors.
A couple of weeks ago I hosted my mom's birthday party and asked my siblings to bring dishes for potluck. Since my family is so large, it's always fun to see what people bring, and for this event, they did not disappoint; to accommodate my mom's food preferences we prepared mostly vegetarian and the array of colors and flavors was fantastic. There was a lot of great food that day, but the dish I went back for seconds (and, admittedly, thirds) on was my sister-in-law Estelle's quinoa and black bean salad. I've heard a lot of talk about quinoa this year (it's a good source of protein and is high in fiber, among other things) but hadn't gotten around to trying it yet. Now I'm a total convert.
As a designer, it feels like a huge gift to have a daughter who digs crafts; we're always working on something, be it in my studio (when the sitter bailed yesterday, I taught Laurel to screen print!) or the kitchen (Laurel wants to be the next Ace of Cakes). This summer I thought it would be fun to have a creative project to chip away at once school was out. Check out my how to quilt with kids guest tutorial at Craft, which includes photos of what Laurel and I have come up with so far.
Today's Dear Boston Mamas question comes from @Rhoosting via Twitter:
Dear Christine, What are your recommendations for the best, hip backpacks for toddlers? I'm sure others would appreciate your thoughts, given that back to school season is upon us.
Even though we've been in our home for two years, we're still not completely settled, and one area of the house that troubled me for a long time was our dining room. We have one big wall and I had no idea what to do with it. A single sideboard seemed pricey while not filling the space and what I really needed was a lot of storage to accommodate the contents of Laurel's open bookcase (that was exploding with art supplies), and other platters and vases and things. I recently hit on the perfect storage solution and several visitors have since asked me for the specifics about our setup so I thought I would share it here.
The other week we received some zucchini from our CSA share and I immediately wanted to make these fritter-like zucchini rounds my mom used to make. I called my mom and she recommended using savory pancake batter instead of an egg wash (my original guess). I used my tried and true scallion pancake recipe and it worked amazingly; the centers of the zucchini became deliciously creamy while the edges remained firm -- a fine contrast to the salty deliciousness of the batter. I didn't think Laurel would touch these zucchini rounds because of her stance that zucchini is "disgusting!" but she gobbled about six rounds right off the griddle and came back for more later. Here's the easy how-to:
During my recent quest for non-tchotchke awesomeness for Jon's birthday, I was thrilled to discover Soaptopia (another lead from my pals at Cool Mom Picks; thanks ladies!). Operated by a team that clearly has a sense of humor (see the names of their soaps, for example) and is immensely passionate about natural body products (a quick tweet asking for man product recommendations led to an impressively thorough e-mail response about options), I pretty much think it's impossible to go wrong with anything from this online shop.
Next month will mark the second year of living in our not so new, new house, and we are just getting around to hanging things on the wall. Seriously. Part of the delay is attributable to uncertainty (and repeated testing) about where furniture should finally land, and part because some wall hangings required crafting. A couple of weeks ago I finally got around to assembling inspiration boards for my office and my workspace is now approaching a cosmic level of awesome. Read on for the how-to; these boards would be great in other areas of the home as well.
I'm a major proponent of tchotchke-free gifting and one of my favorite gifts to give is soap; it's useful, one can never have enough of it, and it can look like little works of art. Jon and I have a tradition of soap gifting around his birthday and this year I wanted to try some new brands. Following a query on Twitter, I was grateful to my friends Liz and Kristen at Cool Mom Picks for responding back with some of their favorite soap shops. The first place I put in an order at was Abe's Market.