This time of year, I really like tea.  Like, a lot.  I like to make drinking it special, with pretty teacups, loose tea and my favorite personal-size tea pot.  I really, really love this tea pot:

image from here

It’s made by Bee House, and I got it from a place online called the Tea Table. I bought it well over a year ago (maybe even two years ago!) and I still haven’t forgotten the excellent customer service I received from Lori, the owner.  I’d order from her again in a heartbeat, and I really loved the tea samples I got there, too.  I’m still opening and enjoying new packets.  I have a LOT of tea (Y used to work for Cost Plus’ corporate office, and we got a great discount and a lot of samples), so I haven’t had a need to go back…but I digress.

Back to the tea pot.

There are a lot of imitations of Bee House design now.  I find myself feeling pretty protective of the real Bee House, especially considering the imitations aren’t as good of quality and they’re the same price.  Buy Bee House, people.  They come in all different sizes, and I want a bigger one so I can have my girlfriends over for tea.  Not that I ever do that, but if I had the tea pot, I totally would.  Right?  ;)

When I bought my tea pot, I also bought this adorable cup (it says “tea” on the side!):

image from here

I didn’t just run across Bee House in a store.  A few years ago, Y and I took a cross-country roadtrip, and we stayed at an awesome bed and breakfast in New Hampshire called the Silver Fountain Inn.  It was the best B&B either of us had ever stayed in, and the owner had Bee House teapots for each room.  I fell in love and googled “Bee House” as soon as we got back to California.

In other news, I’m looking for a fancy tea pot to match our wedding china.  Anybody seen anything to match this:

?? It’s Kate Spade’s Gwinnett Lane in Creme.

Who else loves tea?

I’m gonna go see what I can make happen with my products.

Image from here

Last week, Y sent me an email and asked if I would be interested in subscribing to a weekly box of organic and locally grown produce.  I had a few questions, but overall, I was like, “heck yeah!  Let’s do it!”

I might have been slightly over-confident.

We received our first box today.  I have to say, it looks delectable.  In fact, I can tell you that it is delectable, as I have already eaten three satsuma oranges.  The contents, however, are a little scary to a novice cook like me.  Here’s what we’ve got:

• 3 lbs Yukon Potatoes
• 2 lbs Satsuma Mandarin Oranges
• 2 lbs Red Jonagold Apples
• 2 lb Kabocha Squash
• 4 very large leeks
• 1 bunch of radishes
• 1 bunch of  green chard
• 1 Treviso Radicchio
• .5 lbs button mushrooms
• .5 lbs mixed baby lettuce

When I first looked in the box, I started freaking out.  First off, that’s a LOT of food.  And WTF am I going to make with radishes?!  Then I googled “Kabocha Squash” and started to freak out even more.  No recipes for a freakin’ Kabocha Squash.  Hell, I couldn’t even figure out what a kabocha squash is.  After a half-hour of googling and entering ingredients into allrecipes.com, however, I started to feel a little better.  My friend Lisa sent me a recipe she found for the Squash (which, as it turns out, is more like a pumpkin…?  I could go on about why they don’t just call it a pumpkin, but I’ll refrain), and I found a recipe for radish soup.  Three of the recipes I’ll be making this week are soups.  I’ll also be making a lasagna with chard.

I’m not really worried about eating the oranges or the apples–I’m sure we can handle that.  So that leaves me with: 2 very large leeks, .5 lbs buttom mushrooms, .5 lbs mixed baby lettuce and 1 treviso radicchio.  That sounds like something I might be able to handle…
But could someone please tell me what the hell a “Treviso Radicchio” is?!

 from Crate and Barrel

I fell in love with these glasses.  I tend to spill things, and these glasses are easier for me to balance (for some reason) than the typical martini glasses.  They’re also stackable, which saves a ton of space.  Last week I ran out and bought 12 of them (I might have gotten a little carried away), and I’m happy to share that they’re also cheap!  Each glass is only $1.95.  What a deal!

Another great thing for making a delicious lemon drop?

The rokz brand of sugar rimmers:

The yellow sugar hardens around the glass, so it doesn’t come off right away, and it tastes delicious!

Photo from here

I have always hated cooking. A few months ago, though, I finally broke down and agreed to at least try it.  Last night I finally admitted to Y (in front of witnesses, no less!) that I actually kinda like cooking.  Scandal!

This whole cooking business has definitely had a hardcore learning curve, though.  The other night, for example, I accidentally added the milk too soon while making carrot soup, and then put too much of it in the blender.  Needless to say, I ended up with soup all over the place.  Even still, the soup was delicious!  Thus, I am going to share the recipe with you.

This is from the Moosewood Cookbook.  Apparently they changed the recipe–this is the one from their original cookbook (I found it here).  I adore Moosewood.  As a vegetarian, I have a hard time finding recipes that aren’t tofu pretending to be chicken or beef.  I prefer recipes that just happen to be vegetarian.  Moosewood does a great job of that.  Highly recommended.

Moosewood’s Carrot Soup

2 pounds peeled or scrubbed, chopped carrots
4 cups stock or water
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 medium potato, chopped (optional, for heartier soup)
3-4 tablespoons butter
1 cup chopped onion
1-2 small cloves crushed garlic
1/3 cup chopped cashews or almonds

Choose one:
1 cup milk
1 cup yogurt or buttermilk plus a little honey
1/2 pint heavy cream
3/4 cup sour cream

Seasoning choices:
-2 pinches of nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon dried mint, dash of cinnamon
-1 teaspoon each of thyme, marjoram and basil
-1 teaspoon grated ginger

Place carrots, liquid and salt (and potato if you are using it) into a medium sized soup pot and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer it for 12-15 minutes. Let it cool to room temp.

Saute the onion, garlic and nuts in the butter until the onions are clear. You can sprinkle in a little salt to help draw the moisture out of the onions. Towards the end of cooking, stir in the seasoning combo of your choice.

Puree everything together in a blender until smooth (I deviate from her recipe at this stage. I dump the sauteed onions, garlic and nuts into the pot with the cooked carrots and use an immersion blender to puree. It saves dishes and energy).

Whisk in one of the dairy products. As I mentioned in the beginning, I often leave this step out until I’m just about to eat a bowl of soup. I’ll stir in a little milk, a spoonful of yogurt or some cottage cheese just before serving (and just after reheating, if I’m using the microwave).

Garnish with toasted nuts, some toasted bread crumbs or eat just as it is.

I chose to use vegetable stock, the potato, the milk, and the nutmeg-mint-cinammon seasoning.  DELISH.

Now, as a service to other cooking novices, I will publicly admit the idiotic things I didn’t realize before attempting this recipe:

• When it says “chopped,” it doesn’t mean, “put this in the cuisinart.”  It means chopped, as in big chunks.  This might help.  Sort of.
• When it says,”place carrots, liquid and salt…”, it does not mean every bit of liquid in the recipe.  It only means the water or the vegetable stock.  Now how am I supposed to know that?!  Apparently you shouldn’t bring milk to a boil, or gross things happen to it.
• Even though the blender has a little line for measuring things very close to the top, you shouldn’t fill it that full.  If you do, you will end up with things flying everywhere.

It might be helpful to have a hand blender.  I didn’t really understand the appeal of these things before, but now I kind of want one.  Does anyone else have one?

1. Link to the person that tagged you
2. Post the rules on your blog
3. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself
4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs
5. Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.
6. Let your tagger know when your entry is up.

Random things about me:

1. I have about twelve hundred nicknames for my cats and my dog.  They include (but are not limited to):

• Miles: Mao Mao, Tiny Cat, Angel, Angel Baby, Angel Baby Sweet Cheeks, Mower, Mowers, Dr. Miles Mao Fuzzlebutt, Fuzzle, Tiny Angel, Baby Cat, Babykins, Sugar Pot.  Some of those, specifically “Angel” and “Angel Baby” make Y want to vomit.
• Elvis Purrsley: Purrmaster Jack, Purrmaster Jerk (when he’s being bad), Little Guy, Kitten Cheeks, Little Kid, Mewers, Mewson
• Gwynnie: Gwynnie Gwynnie Cocoa Puff, Coco, Coco Chanel
• Peetie: doesn’t really have any names because she hates me (she was Y’s baby, so she has hated me from Day 1).
• Lulabelle: Lulu, Lula, Lu, Lu-Bear, Baby Bear, Pretty Lady, Big-Eared Dog, Wiggles, Wiggle-butt

2.  I am afraid of Suburbia. More specifically, I am afraid of the suburban lifestyle.  I am afraid of waking up one morning with a minivan and kids and having absolutely no idea who I am.  I realize that this could happen to me outside of suburbia, but for some reason I connect it to Suburbia.  I think it has something to do with the visualization of tract homes, and how nothing has any personality in those neighborhoods (photo from here).

3.  When I was a kid, I wanted to be a writer. In second grade, I won the “Young Author Award” for my book “Rats are OK.”  I was also a voracious reader.  I read more books than anyone in my fifth grade class and, as a result, won a dinner at Baker’s Square with my teacher.  Fancy.

4.  When I was a kid, I loved my dollhouse but I hated dolls.  I think this comes from my love of decorating.  My mom and I used to go to a store in Sacramento called the Elegant Dollhouse, where we would buy tiny furniture and tiny wallpaper and decorate the dollhouse.  I liked to rearrange the furniture.  Most of my love/inspiration for the dollhouse came from a book I read called the Midnight in the Dollhouse.  I outgrew the dollhouse around age 11 or so.  My mom packed the whole thing up for my kids.  It has working lights and was a hand-me-down from some neighbors.

5.  I have a black thumb.  I kill most plants.  I don’t mean to do it, but I am too lazy/forgetful to water them.  Oops.

6. I google anything and everything, all the time.  Generally speaking, I am a very curious person.  When I have a question, I really want to know the answer to it.  I’m never too lazy to get up and google something or write it down to google it later.  The iPhone has been a godsend in this way.  I can google things all the time now, and I don’t even have to get off my butt!

I was genuinely aiming to include a photo with each one of those.  That didn’t work out. Oops.

When I moved to San Francisco, I cleaned out a lot of my stuff and made some big fat donations.  When I was done, my apartment was filled only with things I truly cared about, and I loved it.  Disposing of unwanted clutter has since become a little bit of an obsession.  I am constantly filling up boxes for donations, and I only keep things I really like.  I rarely spend my money on things, and when I do, for the most part it’s on things I really want.  We don’t buy souveniers when we travel and we don’t keep things that don’t have a purpose.  As a result, I really like the things I have in my house.

When Y and I started registering for our wedding, I had the opportunity to put together a wishlist.  Things I’d wanted forever went on the registry.  Some of the things we received as gifts, and others we bought ourselves after the wedding.  As time goes on, I discover more and more awesome things.  A long time ago, I did a post on a personal blog about my favorite organizational items.  I had a great time creating the post (after all, I do love organization!), and I always meant to do another.

Tonight I made some carrot soup and used a few kitchen items that I love.  Because I’m always looking for new fun things, I thought it might be fun to share some of my favorite things with you guys.  So, I decided to start a new category called “Favorite Things.”  Every once in awhile, when the mood strikes me, I’ll share something I’ve found and love.  Hopefully some of you will love them too, or tell me about something even better!

Ryn totally just reminded me that I’m a slacker and I forgot to update about Twilight!  I got some very interesting comments on my last post, too, so I’ll respond to a few of them here.  Thanks guys!

So if you’ll recall, I liked Twilight, but I wasn’t too wild about the “message.”   I will say, it did seem to get a little better as the books went on (sort of), and I appreciated that Bella became a badass in Breaking Dawn.  The explanation that she was just not good at being human made me feel a little bit better, but still.  I still don’t like the message at all.  Bella is super weak and was saved by a man: vomit.  The plot here really isn’t that much better than the Cinderella fairy tales, is it?  Both Cinderella and Twilight feed on our deep-seated girlish desires.  I just wish our girlish desires were a little more mature.

I will admit, Edward is totally hot.  To be honest, I am a little disturbed by how hot I think he is.  I am obviously still a brainwashed high schooler somewhere deep inside!  That idea is far scarier to me than a vampire hell-bent on sucking my blood. ;)  This is the kind of romance that we women were raised to love, and the author does a really good job of feeding on all the things high school girls want: to be the envy of all the other girls, to be the sole desire of the hottest guy in school, to have him ignore all the other women that are constantly throwing themselves at him.  This stuff works!  It’s riveting!

I definitely liked the last book a lot more than the previous ones, even though it was kind of disjointed.  There are two main reasons for this: first, Bella and Edward finally consummate their love (after getting married!  Oh, how very moral!). This was SUCH A RELIEF to me, as crass as that might sound.  Throughout the first three books, I kept thinking, “PLEASE, just DO IT already!!!”  I was able to enjoy the last book a lot more because all that pesky sex stuff was out of the way.  Is that weird?  haha (on the same sex-related note, I think it’s kind of funny that these books are written by a Morman and are supposed to promote abstinance.  It was so clear to me that Bella would have jumped Edward’s bones in a heartbeat if he’d have let her!  That’s not exactly abstinence.).  The second reason I liked Breaking Dawn the most is that Bella was finally a badass and stopped being so pathetic.  I will admit, though, that Breaking Dawn was sort of weird.  Like I said before, it was kind of…disjointed.  I think I feel that way because Bella transitioned very quickly from child to mother.  It happened more or less overnight, which I guess seemed a bit rushed to me.

My issue isn’t so much with the idea of marrying young.  Some people definitely meet their partner early in life (like your friend, Kate!), and I’m totally down with that.  My issue is that Bella completely loses who she is in this series, and she has worth only after she’s married Edward and become a mother. Her whole life revolves around Edward from the very first book, and when he leaves, it begins to revolve around Jacob.  I know that it’s romance, and romance is interesting…but still.  It would have been nice to see anything about Bella that’s strong or worth respecting before the last book. I would be happier with future books, I think, now that Bella is a cool character who can stand up for her own damn self.

Betty suggested I check out Midnight Sun, which is on Stephenie Meyer’s website (the story of how this book was leaked is also on the website.  It’s totally sad, but I couldn’t keep myself from reading the leaked draft anyway).  Thanks Betty!  Midnight Sun is basically the first book, but written in Edward’s voice.  I definitely wasn’t ready to be done with the series, so I checked it out.  It clarified a lot of things about the first book and made Edward a lot less creepy.

Tahoebound pointed me to Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez’s comparison of Twilight and the Harry Potter series, and I have to say: I was fascinated with her analysis!  Alisa is obviously a very smart woman, and I think I’ll be subscribing to her blog to read more of what she has to say.  I totally agree with everything she said about Twilight, and it’s definitely a good read for those of you who read Harry Potter, too!

Now that I’ve totally criticized this entire series, I’m going to tell you the truth: I am not generally the sort of person who analyzes fiction.  For the most part, I read fiction for enjoyment, and I don’t really think that much more about it.  The sexism in this book really slapped me in the face, though, and it was impossible to ignore.  I got a comment from someone named J, who thinks I personalized the book and made it about me, instead of reading it objectively.  That might be true!  Who knows.  I studied psychology and women’s issues for years and I’ll admit to being somewhat of a militant feminist.  That being said, these kinds of messages aren’t healthy, especially when they’re being aimed at a seriously impressionable group (young girls). Young girls are already at risk of not thinking for themselves, I think it’s dangerous to spread these sorts of messages and stereotypes.  I would love for the coming generations of women to be more and more psychologically strong, and we’re not going to get there any faster when girls like Bella are idealized.  I may be personalizing the book, but my experience as a high school age girl was very similar to many other women I know.  I’d like to see young girls have better role models than Bella.

All in all, I thought the Twilight series was a lot of fun, but it wasn’t exactly good literature.  I got really sick of reading about Edward’s “smoldering eyes” over and over again.  Did that stop me from voraciously reading the next book?  Absolutely not!  Would I recommend these books to any adult capable of thinking for him or herself?  Totally.  I was highly entertained.

Thoughts?

(Edited to add: I haven’t seen the movie yet, but I totally want to.  No one will see it with me!)

J & P will be using these as thank you cards for their wedding.  The great thing about them, though, is that they can be used for more than just thank you notes!  They’ll be using them as regular stationery after all the thank you’s are done.  :)

Here’s the back:

It’s obviously far less exciting than the front, but I wanted to show you guys–I’ve been using this style for the past few projects I’ve done.  I decided to remove my logo from it because some people weren’t too wild about it.  What do you think?

I met J to give him the cards, and he was so sweet–he gave me this awesome custom-made cookie, which was a favor for their wedding!  How awesome is this!?  And it was delicious, too.  :)

Thanks so much for hiring me, you guys!  I *love* these so much, I wish I could use them for my own stationery!