I like vintage phones. We bought a phone from 1960-something for my husband’s office–it works great–and ever since, I have been looking for a red wall phone for the kitchen. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to find one that would work, so at last I turned, as I always do, to the Internet. I was pleased to find that there are plenty of retro red wall phones available. For example, check out this phone from Red Candy:

This one is my favorite. Unfortunately, it seems to only be available in the UK and it is out of stock until April. Then there is this one:

I originally found this phone on Smith Gear for $50, which is too much for a phone. But it is so cool–there is even a volume control on the handle. With a little poking around, I found what looks like the same phone on eBay for $32. Much better.

This Crosley phone is also nice. It is a little fancier than the others, more like something you would find in an office. You can get it at Amazon for $47.

And finally there is your basic red Golden Eagle Electronics phone. They may not be as cute as the others, but they are the cheapest for $9 from Phone Merchants. These phones are reliable and have been around forever.

The advantage of buying a new phone that looks old is that it works with our modern phone lines. But still, they don’t quite have the charm of the originals…

The above clip is from The Daily Show. First it very effectively–and hilariously–demonstrates the problem with the credit crisis and then it has a devastating segment about how ruthless Bank of America is at charging fees on credit cards. Basically, Bank of America comes out looking less reasonable than a loan shark. (Skip ahead to 4:56 if you just want to watch the Bank of America segment).

The Daily Show is talking about Bank of America’s credit card, but I want to talk about my experience with it as a bank. Bank of America is one of several big banks I used when I was younger. At the end of my time with them, I was constantly being charged fees. I was charged to talk to a teller in person, if I called the banking line more than a six times in a month, and one time for exchanging some rolled coins for cash.

The last straw happened like this: We deposited a paycheck on a Friday. On a Saturday, we bought something–I don’t remember what, but it was covered by the paycheck. Bank of America held the paycheck until Monday but pushed the purchase through first so that we were technically overdrawn on our account. Then they charged us a $50 fee for being overdrawn.

Of course, we should never have been overdrawn. We put the money in the account and THEN we purchased something. But Bank of America would not refund the fee, so I marched down and took every penny of my money out of that bank. I haven’t been back since.

That was 7 years ago. These days, I use a local bank. Since switching over, I have never once been charged a fee that I felt was unfair. I can talk to as many tellers as I like. I can call the company whenever I need to. And my checking is free–really.

Not every small bank is as good as mine. You have to look into how convenient they are–do they have enough ATMs? Can they accommodate online banking?–and how stable they are–how long have they been in business? Are they FDIC insured? But assuming that we are talking about a normal, small-to-medium-sized bank, I think they are a better choice than a big corporate bank like Bank of America or Chase. Here’s why:

1. The Money Stays in the Community. People who live around you are more likely to be dealing with your money. That means that by putting your bank into your community, you are enriching where you live. Local jobs, local money. Personally, I would rather my money stay in the place I live than have it go to Wall Street where some banker will put it in commodity trading where it can help perpetuate a system I find unstable and immoral.

2. Fewer fees. Of course it depends on the bank, but you are not as likely to be nickled-and-dimed by a local bank as by a big one. Why? In order to compete, small banks often focus on customer service, which means fewer fees.

3. Conservative Practices. You really have to prove your income to get a loan at my bank. But on the flip side, during the banking fiasco last year, there wasn’t even a hint of my bank struggling. No layoffs, no branch shut downs, nothing. A well-run small bank tends to take fewer financial risks because they can’t afford them. So when times are rough, they keep going. This is good for peace of mind.

4. Friendlier. The girl who opened our account still works at my branch, which means she has been there for at least 7 years. I see her sometime when I go in. And if I wanted to say hello to her, I would not be charged for the privilege. You will not find this kind of thing at your Bank of America mall kiosk. Not that there aren’t nice people working at those banks, but the bank doesn’t care about them sticking around and they don’t care if the customer likes them.

Banking is complicated and obviously, I am not a financial expert. However, it angers me to see big banks mistreat people. If that’s how they are going to be, let’s all take our business elsewhere.

Like me, David van Alphen liked prefab modern sheds like these for his backyard, but couldn’t stomach the $11,000 price tag. So, as he explains on Design Milk, he decided to make one himself by converting this old barn in his backyard:

To this modern studio:

He even drywalled the inside and added windows, air conditioner, and other touches. The end result looks great! And all for $3,000–much cheaper than the $11,000 prefab version.

I love these Helvetica cookie cutters from Beverly Hsu. They are very cool.

Beverly is looking into making the cookie cutter to sell–you can get on her mailing list if you are interested. (Via Sunset.)

As you can see, my Valentine’s Day roses are getting a bit peaked. I could throw them out, of course, but why would I do that when rose petals are so useful? So I will try rooting one of the white roses and then I will turn the rest of the roses into rose water.

Rose water is an insanely simple thing to make, and a great way to recycle the Valentine’s bouquet when it’s done. You end up with a great smelling, edible, soothing liquid that has all kinds of great uses. For example, you rose water can be used:

1. As A Skin Toner. Rose water is a natural, gentle, and free skin toner, great for sensitive skin.

2. To Make Linens Smell Nice. A spritz of rose water on lingerie, sheets, etc. can add an extra sweet-smelling touch. I have also heard of people ironing with rose water, although I have never tried it.

3. In The Bath. Put rose water directly in the bath or add it to bath salts.

4. In Desserts. Rose water is used in a lot of different desserts, from Rose Water Panna Cotta to Poached Pears in Rose Water to ice cream.

5. As A Drink. You can put it in cocktails (recipe coming soon) or put it in non-alcoholic drinks like lemonade.

OK, so how do you make rose water? Here’s the recipe:

Rose Water:

Ingredients:

3 handfuls of rose petals, roughly the petals from 1 dozen roses
1 liter water

Directions:

Put water and petals in a pot. Turn the stovetop to medium low heat and bring to a simmer. Continue to simmer the water on low heat, making sure to keep it under a boil, until the water has reduced by half and ther is a sweet rosey smell coming from the water.

Strain the petals from the water. Let the rose water cool and then transfer to an appropriate bottle for safe keeping. That’s it!

How do you use rose water?

ETA: It is possible there are pesticides on the roses, especially if they come from a florist. If this concerns you, do not eat the rose water.

Kristin from Pomme Frites has a clever way to enhance photography–make your own reflective umbrella light.

To do so, she “took a dollar store umbrella and sprayed the underside with white spray paint, then clipped the umbrella and a lamp onto Tom’s mic stand.” The light points up at the umbrella, and that in turn reflects the light evenly over the object being photographed. Not bad! (Via Craft)

I saw this in the grocery store and had to buy it. It is flowering kale and it is lovely. Here it is from the side:

As far as ornamental greens go, this one is both a pretty border for the garden and a practical vegetable to grow. Kale is very versatile. You can fry it, roast it, boil it, or–in this case, at least, since it is unusually tender for kale–eat it raw. This particular kale tastes like cabbage, which makes sense because kale is closely related to cabbage.

Here’s a great recipe for kale from Orangette: Boiled Kale with a Fried Egg and Toast.

I haven’t done any cross-stitch in years, but I might come out of retirement for this Mr. Darcy Cross-stitch Pattern from The Time Is Now. Mr. Darcy, as you literary nerds out there know, is the love interest from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. A description from the book:

“Mr Darcy soon drew the attention of the room by his fine, tall person, handsome features, noble mien; and the report which was in general circulation within five minutes after his entrance, of his having ten thousand a year.”

As the site says, “now you can stitch him onto your pillows, your laptop sleeves, or your wall coverings! A DIY gentleman.” $7. (Via Rare Bird Finds)

If you have watched any cooking programs on TV lately, you have probably noticed sous vide even if you didn’t know that was what it was called. Sous vide is a slow cooking method that combines vacuum sealing with a kind of low-temperature water poaching. The idea is that the food is cooked for a long time at the exact right temperature, leading to two advantages:

1. Accuracy. The reason food gets overcooked is because we’re cooking it at temperatures much hotter than we want the food to get to, and sometimes we lose control and the food gets too hot. With sous vide, this is impossible. You set the temperature where you want the food to go, and it stays there for as long as you need it to.

2. Tenderness. The food, especially meat, comes out extremely tender with sous vide cooking. Why? Low temperature and long cooking times always mean tenderness, but in addition, the meat is sealed in a plastic bag, so there’s no oxidation occurring during cooking. The meat holds in its juices.

Chefs also love sous vide because, although the temperature has to be maintained, the cooking time doesn’t have to be exact. You can leave food in a sous vide oven for hours and it will stay the same. So if you are in a busy kitchen and someone orders a steak, you simply pull a perfectly done filet out of the machine, pan sear it for texture, and bam, you’re done.

To do sous vide at home, you can either buy a $449 machine or you can make one yourself. We tried DIY sous vide this weekend, and it worked out wonderfully. It turns out that home sous vide is easy and well worth the effort.

However, you do need some equipment, as follows:

A vacuum sealer. We have a machine that does this, but you can also use a pump, like this guy did.
A digital thermometer. An essential part of the modern kitchen.
A large pot.
A lid or basket to keep things from floating.
A frying pan.
Spatula
Tongs (optional but helpful)

For the food itself, we needed:

2 filet mignon steaks
salt
pepper
olive oil

We wanted the steaks to be cooked medium, which is 135 degrees. How did we know that? A chart telling cooking temperatures came with our thermometer, but you can also look it up online or in cookbooks or just ask someone. Meat cooking temperatures are common knowledge.

So we had our target temperature. Now it was time to try sous vide.

First, we put salt and pepper on each side of the steaks, just like you normally would. Then we put the steaks beside each other–but not touching–in a vacuum sealer bag and sealed them up.

Next, we set up our “high-tech” sous vide water oven. We filled a pot with warm water. Then we hooked the digital thermometer to the side of the pot so that the temperature gauge was sitting in the water but not touching the pan. We did this by extending it with a clip that comes with the thermometer. You can also use a black metal paper clip.

We put the stovetop on medium low and set the temperature on the thermometer at 135 degrees. Then we waited for the water to reach that temperature. It took about 10 minutes. When the temperature had reached 135 degrees, we put the vacuum-sealed steaks in the water.

Of course, they floated. That wasn’t good because the meat has to be immersed in the water and yet not touching the bottom of the pan (the bottom is hotter than 135 degrees). So, I took a vegetable steamer and put it on top of the pot. It pushed the steaks down so that they were immersed in the water. You can also use a pot lid flipped upside down.

Sous vide takes a long time. There’s no exact time table here because, as I said before, you can have the steaks in the water for hours and they will stay at your required temperature. We waited an hour, which turned out to be fine.

The only tricky part of DIY sous vide is monitoring the temperature. We wanted to keep the meat between 134-135 degrees. To do this, we set the stovetop on the lowest temperature and the alarm on the thermometer at 136 degrees. When the temperature got that high, the alarm went off and we added 1 cup cold water to the pot. This brought the temperature down to 134 degrees. It took the water 10 minutes to raise the two degrees again, the alarm went off at 136 degrees, and we added another cup of cold water. We did this every ten minutes and it kept the steaks right around 135 degrees.

After an hour, we took out the steaks. They looked exactly like boiled meat. It was time to sear them to get a good crust.

Why sear at the end of the cooking process and not the beginning? If you seared the steak at the beginning, the crust would get soft and weird in the vacuum-sealed bag. With sous vide, you cook the meat from the inside out.

To sear, we put approximately three tablespoons of oil in the frying pan, heated it up, and dropped in the steaks. We cooked each side for about 30 seconds to 1 minute, or until there was a nice brown crust. The end results?

This was one of the tenderest steaks I have ever eaten. It was perfect. I would absolutely do this again, maybe even this week with another easy-to-overcook meat: pork chops.

So in summary: Vacuum seal, get the water to the temperature you want the meat to be at, stick the meat in, monitor the temperature, and sear. The end result? Perfectly cooked meat.

ETA: There is some concern in the comments about this giving you botulism. As I said in the comments, I do not think this is an issue for the following three reasons:

If you are still concerned, please don’t use this method.

Having grown up in a rural area, I have heard about mushroom foraging all my life. The consensus: you have to know what you are doing–some mushrooms are deadly poison–but if you do, you can get a good haul of wild mushrooms to eat.

Yes, but I never realized just how big a haul until I read Justin’s account of mushroom foraging. He and a friend ended up with nine pounds of mushrooms from just one trip:

I see mushroom ragu in his future.