I am loving the book wallpaper from Gemma Ahern and Russell Lewis’s dramatic apartment tour featured in the NYTimes. Put in the appropriate corner, it adds an aura of richness to a room.
The wallpaper is designed by Deborah Browness. It’s called Genuine Fake Bookshelf. Here it is up close:
A week ago, we bought a mushroom farm from Far West Fungi. It is going gangbusters. See:
It is a little hard to tell what’s going on here. The mushroom farm is a compressed loaf which you keep in a plastic bag to keep the moisture in. This picture is taken from above looking down into the bag. You can see quite a few mushrooms growing off the log. Here is a picture of it from the side:
This is the second mushroom farm we have purchased from Far West. We’ve been very happy with them both times. They cost $19.95 and you have a choice between oyster and shitake mushrooms–we like shitake.
The loaves are made from rice bran, sawdust, water, and mushroom spores that have been compressed together. All you have to do to grow the mushrooms is open and close the plastic bag according to the instructions, maybe spray them with water. It is the easiest thing in the world.
Here’s a few advantages to the mushroom farm:
1. You really do get a lot of mushrooms. We have had the farm for a little over a week and have harvested over a pound of mushrooms already. The last farm grew over 3 pounds of mushrooms–or $5 a pound for large fresh mushrooms. This one is looking even more promising. We’ve already made mushroom pasta sauce and a mushroom pizza.
2. You can grow them anywhere. I recently gave a mushroom farm to a friend who has trouble growing things in her dark apartment–plus her cats eat plants. Because the loafs don’t need light and are in a plastic bag, it’s a great way for her to grow her own food.
3. The mushrooms are clean and good quality. They are big and perfectly clean (no scrubbing with a mushroom brush) because there is no dirt involved.
And when you’re done with the loaf, you can throw it in the compost where, as the instructions say, “it will enrich your soil.”
Rachel wanted some pepper mills from Anthropologie, but didn’t want to shell out the $13 for them. So, she made her own from some $2 pepper mills she got at a thrift store. They went from this:
To this:
Great idea. I was lusting after a bright red pepper mill from Crate and Barrel for $30–maybe I’ll go this route instead.
Awhile back, I made a black and white bedspread for my guest room. Since the bedspread is black and white and the walls of the room are yellow, I looked everywhere for black-and-white pillows with a splash of yellow in them. When I couldn’t find what I was looking for (this happens to me all the time), I decided to embroider the pillows. But that was a lot of work, so I just made one pillow, which is now the sole decoration for the bed.
I wish I had thought of this far simpler solution: Coloring the pillows with a highlighter like Britt did at Cumbersome.
She got the exact effect I was looking for but with far less work.
The only concern I have is if you are going to wash these pillows, use markers/highlighters that can withstand the washing machine without running into the fabric. Otherwise, it’s a fabulously simple way to modernize a classical look.
I’m digging these green/turquoise bookshelves featured on Country Living’s website. I don’t know about the rest of the house–although the bedroom is kind of cool–but the bookshelves are awesome.
It helps that there is lots of molding and art on the bookshelves. The nooks and crannies make it all interesting and inviting. I like the yellow chair, too. (Via Apartment Therapy)
Last night I tried Midas Touch Golden Elixir by Dogfish Ales. It claims it’s from a recipe of the oldest beer in the world. Researchers excavated a tomb in Turkey thought to be the burial place of King Midas–this guy. In it, they found some 2,700-year-old drinking vessels with remnants of a fermented drink in them, i.e. this beer. Dogfish has reproduced the drink and I tried it.
The beer is made out of barley, muscat wine grapes, honey, and saffron. It is a full bodied and golden with a tinge of sweetness and 9% alcohol. It is exactly like a cross between beer and mead. It starts and finishes like beer and has a honey-like mead flavor in the middle. It’s pretty darn good.
The myth about King Midas is all wrapped up in alcohol. According to Mythology by Edith Hamilton, one day a drunk satyr named Silenus wandered into Midas’s castle grounds and passed out. Midas discovered him and entertained him for 10 days. Then it turned out that Silenus was part of King Bacchus’ kingdom, Bacchus being the god of wine, of course. Bacchus was so happy to have Silenus back, he told Midas he would give him anything he wanted. Somewhat stupidly, Midas said he wanted everything he touched to turn to gold, and Bacchus agreed. Then Midas discovered that he couldn’t eat and drink gold, so he begged Bacchus to take the gift away. Bacchus told Midas to wash it off in the river Pactolus. He did, and the river’s sand turned gold.
It’s a cool story and it’s nice to think that we’re drinking something so closely related to the god of wine. However, the tomb was later proven not to be Midas’s after all, so even if Greek gods existed, it’s probably not Midas’s ale. But now I need to try this 9,000-year-old Chinese ale.
I have often wished there were ways to organize trading food with the neighbors. It bothers me to walk past, say, a persimmon tree covered with orange fruit that the neighbors are letting go to rot. It seems an awfully big waste. But as someone with frequently overproducing plants, I understand how wearying it can be to harvest every bit of fruit from the branches.
The NYTimes has an article on fruit swapping sites like Neighborhood Fruit and VeggieTrader. You can sign up and find other people in your area to swap fruit with. It’s a great idea, although I didn’t see anyone in my particular area. Still, it’s early in the season.
The article also talks about local food trading groups, for example one started by Asiya Wadud, pictured above, who set up a neighborhood fruit exchange called Forage Oakland. I like how the article makes the food trading sound exciting and a little naughty. For example:
“For cooks, like Samin Nosrat, a cook at the restaurant Eccolo in Berkeley, free fruit is like a little kitchen miracle. She sneaks grape leaves to wrap sardines. Once, she stumbled upon so many fallen green walnuts on a sidewalk that she piled a bunch into a blanket she retrieved from her car, and made nocino, a walnut liqueur.
Ms. Nosrat calls it opportunistic cooking, which she means in the best way.
“It’s cooking from nothing,” she said.”
ETA: I don’t think it is okay to sneak into people’s yards and steal from their trees. I figured that went without saying but since the article does mention some people doing that, I will add: Always ask first.
(Courtesy Allotment Growing)
Right now I have a giant bowl of radishes sitting in my fridge and … I am tired of salads. There are only so many salads a person can eat.
Let’s face it, radishes are not the most versatile vegetable–they don’t cook very well and because they are so spicy, they stand out in a dish. So I decided to look around for other recipes, besides salads, that you can use radishes in. I found some promising options. Here they are:
1. Radish and Butter Sandwich
Cut the radishes into thin slices. Spread the butter on the bread. Fan the radish slices on top. Sprinkle with salt. Enjoy.
1. Place all the ingredients into a wide shallow pan along with enough water to almost cover the ingredients.
2. Bring up to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer gently for about 30 minutes, stirring from time to time, until all the liquid has reduced down to a few tablespoons of rich buttery syrup and the radishes are very tender. Serve warm (it reheats beautifully).Try it with fish, with meat, and even with bread and cheese.
3. Beef Tacos with Radish and Avocado Salsa
1. Heat broiler, with rack 4 inches from heat. Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil; set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, gently stir together avocado, radishes, cilantro, jalapeno, lime juice, and oil; season with salt. Cover with plastic wrap, pressing it directly against surface of salsa (to prevent discoloring); set aside.
3. Arrange steak on prepared baking sheet. Rub both sides with cumin; season generously with salt and pepper. Broil without turning until well browned, 6 to 8 minutes for medium-rare. Transfer steak to a cutting board; tent with foil, and let rest 5 minutes.
4. While the steak is broiling, stack and wrap tortillas in a dampened kitchen towel; microwave until hot and pliable, 1 to 2 minutes. (Alternatively, wrap in foil, and warm in oven in lower third, 5 minutes.)
5. Cut steak crosswise into 2-inch-wide pieces; slice thinly on the diagonal. Dividing evenly, place beef on tortillas; top with salsa. Serve with lime wedges, if desired.
I like this picture from Home Sweet Home of plates arranged like steam coming from a kettle. Charming! (Via Wide Open Spaces)
I came upon this bike in an electronics store and was enthralled. It is a regular 10-speed beach cruiser, only it has an electric engine on the back. You can kick it in and out at any point. If you’re going up a steep hill, it can do the work for you, or if you’re too tired, it can help you pedal back home. It goes up to 15 m.p.h.
As I am the last person in the world to put on a speedo and start training, this is a great option for me. There are problems, though: The bike costs $900. That’s a problem. Also, the charge in the engine only lasts a year, which doesn’t seem good enough considering the cost of the bike.
Luckily, I found another solution. This:
That is a similar electric engine that you can put on any bike, thus converting it to an electric bike. The engine costs $300, which is significantly cheaper, especially if you already own a bike.
I’m just not sure if it would work on the real bike of my heart, the adult tricycle, though.
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