saucy recipes

There's a long story behind these recipes...in short, we recently found out through an Ayurvedic naturopath physician that my 13 year old son has pretty severe food allergies to lots of foods we eat. Luckily, his allergic reactions fall into the GI category therefore can be resolved by eating a modified diet.

Basically, he should not have gluten, soy, peanuts, dairy and chicken eggs. In solidarity with my son, I have decided to give up gluten, peanuts, and reduce my intake of processed soy products. As a pescatarian that doesn't eat a lot of fish, soy products have been my go-to protein. I am now trying to use healthy vegetarian protein choices, such as beans, lentils, and quinoa more often. Luckily, my son eats meat, which for a growing 13 year old is very beneficial to him getting enough protein. He is just happy that I can't tell him that he has to eat his tofu!

Over the last two weeks, I have been immersing myself in recipes that we CAN eat. We have re-started our CSA box after a spring hiatus as the doctor said we all should be eating more fruits and veggies. I thought we were doing pretty well, but apparently not quite enough.

One yummy meal we made the other night was based around Vietnamese rice paper wraps, which is perfect for a warm summer evening. We filled them with rice noodles, carrots, cabbage, spinach, basil, cilantro, protein (chicken for the kids and shrimp for the adults), and the following yummy sauces. We used to love Thai influenced peanut sauce, but given that we are not eating peanuts, I modified the sauce using roasted almond butter and it turned out amazing! I also created a delicious coconut ginger curry sauce to drizzle inside the wraps or as a dip.

We all loved this! It will definitely be repeated.

Thai Almond Sauce

(To be used in place of peanut sauce—no peanuts)

2 teaspoons sesame oil

2 cloves minced garlic

2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger

1 cup water

2 tablespoons soy sauce (opt) or 1 teaspoon coconut amino (opt)

1 teaspoon ground coriander

2/3 cup roasted almond butter (no or low salt)

2 tablespoons maple syrup

3 tablespoons rice vinegar

1 tablespoon cooking sherry

2 teaspoons Asian chile sauce (opt)

In a small saucepan, sauté the garlic and ginger in sesame oil over low-medium heat. Add the water, soy sauce or coconut amino (if using either), and coriander and bring to a boil. Add the almond butter and turn the heat to low. Whisk well until the ingredients are smooth and combined. Mix in the maple syrup, vinegar, sherry and chile sauce (if using). Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.

Makes about 2 cups

Coconut Curry Sauce

1 14 oz can light coconut milk

2 tablespoons red curry paste

1 tablespoon tamarind paste

1 tablespoon fresh minced ginger

In a medium saucepan over low heat, whisk coconut milk and red curry paste until well combined. Whisk in the tamarind paste until combined. Add the minced ginger. Stir occasionally and continue to cook over low heat until reduced by about 1/3. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Makes about 1 ½ cups

Wonderful over rice or rice noodles & veggies

Coachella 2010

Todd and I are getting ready for our annual pilgrimage to Indio, California to worship the sun, palm trees, amazing friends and music.

Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival started in 1999 and aside from a 'bye' in 2000, has been going strong ever since. Booking the most up-and-coming as well as established and respected musicians, the festival now draws around 70,000 die hard fans every year to the lovely Empire Polo Fields outside of Palm Springs in Indio, California.

Ear and eye candy abound at Coachella. Aside from incredible beats, the lush, green, grassy grounds at the festival are also replete with amazing large scale installations, many of which appear at Burning Man. Performance artists, The Do Lab out of Los Angeles, create a mini world that could be called a post-apocalyptic circus with dancers, performers, DJs and glowing plant pods. Cyclecide also makes an appearance at Coachella bringing their bicycle-powered rides to the masses. My favorite sculpture so far was Big-Rig-Jig, a wonder of physics and scale by artist Jeff Ross that appeared on the polo grounds in 2008:

People watching at Coachella is peerless. Southern California is not lacking in very attractive, fit, and stylish folk that all apparently attend the festival. Celebrity spotting is a sport here as well. In the VIP section, we've spotted Steven Tyler, The Hoff, Adrian Grenier, Dita von Tease, Perry Farrel, and Elijah Wood, among others. I even high-fived a sort of incognito Danny DeVito (that rhymes!) outfitted in maintenance overalls and walking with the janitorial crew. It is also fun to spot the musicians who also congregate in the VIP section before and after their sets.

The best part of the trip for us, however, is the crew we go with. Over the years, we have curated quite a posse of creative, intelligent, positive, loving friends that connect up from all over the country to share this experience. Every year, the weekend gets better and better even though we all wonder "how this year could possibly top last year" (and yes, those quotes are on purpose, because someone says it every single year). We have come to realize that each and every person contributes in a way that cannot be matched and for that, each person is in his or her own way, a Legend. 'Legend' has become the individuals in the posse's calling card.

Half of the fun of the festival is the part that we call "Nochella," which means the times were we are not at the festival. Instead, we are creating an amazing experience at the large house we rent for the week. About half the people are DJs, so we have constant incredible music. Two friends are setting up the tiki bar room to be a 24 hour karaoke club. I set up a photobooth in the garage for secret-yet-not-secret photos. We have also created a system of "poolside servers," in which everyone takes turns with a partner to work the pool for an hour at a time, preparing and delivering drinks, snacks and food. Everyone works a little and the rest of the time, one gets food and drink service while chilling by the water or taking a dip. It's a brilliant way to enjoy the pool with your friends!

Costumes and participation rule the school with a Thursday night theme party (last year was Wack Hats, this year it's Wack Face Paint). Vintage Palm Springs attire, such as caftans and tunics are encouraged during lounge time.

A full report will be expedited upon return, but in the meantime, a show of photos from previous years are presented below.

Photobooth & snuggies:

photobooth friends:

photobooth interspecies love:

photobooth cat baths:

costumes:

relaxing:

all day loungewear:

evening loungewear:

Imperial Stormtroopers: amazing outfits:

friends everywhere:

backstage with Adam Freeland:

chillin' at the pool:

VIP section and Tommy Lee:

That's how we roll. Legends: posse UP!

wtf

I am having a serious case of laughing out loud all by myself.

This is a highlarious experiment to find out what's on forefront of the collective conscious. Go to Google and start typing in various questions and see what pops up.

Here's what people are wondering about today:

Why can't I own a Canadian?! Seriously, people?!

Why does my belly button smell?! ok. that's just gross. But I think I can answer your question. Maybe you need to get off the computer and take a bath.

And finally:

Why don't girls like me? Because you ask dumb ass questions to Google like it's some Magic Eight Ball. Plus your belly button smells and you want to legalize slavery by acquiring a Canadian or two.

Seriously intriguing.

Seattle Hip-Hop Meets Watts Noir

Seattle's prodigal son, Ishmael Butler from Digable Planets, returns to the scene with Shabazz Palaces. The production and lyrics are super interesting and a nice detour from the ego-centric party sounds that are happening in hip-hop.

Check out this beautiful noir video set and filmed in Watts:

fashion inspiration: BIBA!

1964 mail order. art nouveau. big hair. little eyebrows. 17,000 gingham dresses.

BIBA!!!

BIBA, the iconic 1960's clothing line relaunched its brand with a young designer, a show in 2006 LDN fashion week and boutique with a hot London address. The new threads are beautiful, however I am much more inspired by the original designs created by Polish born designer Barbara Hulanicki.

Created as an antithet to the 1960's geometric and graphic mod fashions, Hulanicki brought dark, earthy and muted colors to the fashion scene, as inspired by her Auntie and by funerals: blackish mulberries, blueberries, rusts and plums.

Hulanicki described her customer base as 'postwar babies who had been deprived of nourishing protein in childhood and grew up into beautiful skinny people: a designer's dream. It didn’t take much for them to look outstanding.’ BIBA girls were ‘fresh little foals with long legs, bright faces and round dolly eyes.’

Genius marketing and branding by Hulanicki and her business partner and husband, Stephan Fitz-Simon, helped quickly create the BIBA phenomenon. Every single product carried the art deco black and gold logo, which was reconstructed according to the product carrying it. The look and feel of the brand carried over to everything from clothing to wallpaper.

BIBA's star crashed back to earth almost as quickly as it rose. Soon after opening the mega department store, Big BIBA in central London in 1974, the fiscal and organizational challenges proved too much for the young entrepreneurs to bear. Investors came in to buy 75% of the company, which led to loss of creative control by Hulanicki. The brand she and Fitz-Simon created fell under aesthetic tackiness as money took precedence over art. She left the company in 1975 and the store was almost immediately closed by the British Land Company.

The magic of BIBA carries on, as nostalgia to the 1960's generation and as inspiration for today's fashionistas.

And for faithful reader, B:

awful earworm

"I Can't Dance," by Phil Collins. you're welcome.

2009: a retrospective in photos

Happy 2010!