Thanks to Eco My Party across the pond in the UK, there are alternatives to styrofoam plates and plastic cups and utensils. Not only are the products sustainable, but they’re ethically produced, fair traded and biodegradable. Even the packing they ship it in is totally recyclable, including the tape on the box. Check out the party essentials list:

• bamboo plates
• biodegradable balloons
• wooden cutlery
• compostable cups
• recycled paper napkins

Heck I’d get the bamboo serving bowls and use them all the time, not just for parties. From the Eco My Party site:

“Ethically made from organic bamboo, the bowls combine modern design with traditional bamboo craftsmanship. Each bowl is hand coiled and shaped by families living in rural communities in Vietnam, to supplement their farming income. The skill of coiling and carving bamboo bowls is a centuries-old craft unique to Vietnam.”

Via the fantastic MATTER blog.

Installment #1: for the clueless

None of us were born knowing what to do in the kitchen. And since Eating In is the New Eating Out, a lot of us are now faced with the frontier of food prep at home. Which is daunting but invigorating, once the tools and facilities are demystified. This is the first in a series of the demystification process that will hopefully speed up the arrival at the invigorating end of the spectrum.

At left, aerial view of the compass rose at Alamo Community College in Texas.

That Was Then

I admit it: when I was in my 20′s, I was still eating directly out of the pot I made the macaroni and cheese in. Why do more dishes than you have to? The kitchen was a place to fend off the hungries – get in, get out, nothing to see here.  Friends would come over and look at the dust on the stovetop and say, “Don’t cook much, do ya Becky?” Uh no. No, I didn’t.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say I’m a chef now, in my 40′s, but I do take a bit more civilized approach to eating at home. We’re not talking 12 piece place setting and doily civilized. We’re talking fresh, unprocessed food, sometimes creatively prepared, and eaten off a breakable plate civilized. (I have my limits.)

Live & Learn: Get it because you use it

Somewhere between the post-college life and now, I bumbled my way through what the heck you need in a kitchen. I made the mistakes of buying all the gadgets, even if I didn’t use them, because I thought that’s what I was supposed to have at the ready. And with everything that’s out there, it’s easy to think you might need it one day. Bad for the wallet, though. And the storage.

Thankfully CraigsList was invented and I offloaded what I rarely used. Then I rebuilt my arsenal of food prep tools by adding slowly depending on how frequently I needed it. The current collection is for meals we consume on a regular basis:

• veggie steamer: for the squash, broccoli and cauliflower we picked up at the farmer’s market that afternoon. We have a Sanyo EC503.
• blender: for fruit smoothies & soups (cream of sweet potato, mmm). We have a KitchenAid for the bigger volumes and a Braun handheld for the single serves.
• meat thermometer: to make sure the living things too small to see are no longer living
• spring loaded vertical chopper: for salsa ingredients like tomatoes and tear-free onion chopping. We have one from Pampered Chef.
• fine & coarse graters: we have Microplanes for cheeses & spices
• slow cooker: we use a Rival 4 quart for chili, pot roasts, stews – it’s fall, ’tis the season

The Basic Toolbox

Most of the above kitchen tool staples can be picked up at a local Bed Bath & Beyond, or online at Amazon. Other than that, a few knives and the usual appliances – dishwasher, oven, microwave, cooktop, fridge, freezer, and we’re good to go. For the once-a-year stuff, borrow it. Some places even rent kitchen wares used less often, like cake pans, for example.

It’s a jungle out there. You don’t have to spend a fortune, or go with super top of the line. Many of the tools we have are less than $100, and we’ve used them for years. Rule of thumb: if it’s got a motor and/or blades, best to buyer the higher end model. Equip yourself smartly. It can be done!

[where: 27518]

Kiss your phone books goodbye: yellow pages goes green

REGISTRATION OPEN: Oct 4 Dwell NextHouse Tour in Hillsborough

Hakatai has been importing and distributing glass mosaic tile since 1997. It’s great in mesh backed sheets for the wall between the countertop and the bottom of wall cabinets or a vent hood. No need for a backsplash – the whole wall *is* the backsplash.

It’s a nice color wash, plus a place to introduce patterns. Make your own gradients and blends right on the Hakatai website.

Buy direct from Hakatai online, from a dealer like Common Ground Green Building Center in Durham (Hi Paul & Dawn!), or in some cases from an individual kitchen designer like Eco-modernism.

Speaking of Common Ground, they carry a lot of green building supplies, including flooring, paints & stains, and countertop options. And they have a background in construction so they know what works and are willing to share. Highly recommended.

[where: 27701]

Pretty self explanatory redesign of an existing kitchen that was extremely cramped, inefficient, and isolated from the living area. This project is in a single story condo, and is currently entering the construction phase.

Online water conservation calculator from American Standard

Offgrid had a great article this week about things people can do to live greenly without resorting to cave dwelling or making your own shoes from animal skins you’ve carefully saved from hunting.

It drives home the valid point that a green house doesn’t necessarily look any different from a non-green house. Sure, we prefer a simple geometry, clean line design in our own work, but there are a lot of things that green up a house regardless of style.

• minimal eave overhang of 1′. More overhang is better – it shields heat gain in the summer and can lengthen the lifespan of siding and exterior finishes
• smaller is better: in 1977 the average home size was 1700 SF. Today it’s 2500. As we’ve said so many times, bigger = more to heat/cool, clean, furnish, collect crap. You can only be in one room at a time. If you use a room once a year, consider converting another room temporarily for that once a year use.
• kitchens should match how you cook. (This is where we come in!) If you’re a microwave, wolf-it-down-out-of-the-package type, don’t have a kitchen that has 3 ovens and takes up 500SF! And if you do like to cook at home, have a kitchen that has enough space and the right equipment to work for you.

The article also goes on to mention tips on insulation, renewable options, and natural ventilation. This section especially cracked me up:

What good are solar panels and recycled woods tacked on to a McMansion? Fact is, the sustainable homes of the future look a lot like those of the past.

Marina Bosetti over at Bosetti Art Tile makes custom, art nouveau inspired tile for home and garden application. Marina studied sculpture at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York & has been in NC since the early 90′s.

“Specializing in an ancient technique known as “cuerda seca” (meaning dry cord), our tile artisans lay out the design with a wax resist and create shallow pools of glaze that are contained within the waxed lines. Because we use red clay, our colors are warm and neutral. This cloisonné-inspired method intensifies the richness of the ceramic glazes and gives the tile a soft texture that makes you want to reach out and touch it.”

I hope to be collaborating with Marina on some new industrial motif tile for backsplashes and cooktop walls on future projects. Many of her current designs are floral, with sweeping curves.

For a kitchen, I can see an abstract, art deco influenced, geometric work theme for accenting the wall area between a cooktop surface and a vent hood, with a task light. I’m inspired by this GM Futureliner bus.

[where: 27603]

Yes. And by “eating well”, we’re talking

• Garlic butterflied shrimp.
• Mustard crusted salmon fillets.
• Raspberry clafouti.

I have no idea what raspberry clafouti is. And admitting that probably identifies me as a member of the Great Unwashed. But it looks delicious.

And Eric Ripert cooks all of this in a toaster oven. A Cuisinart BRK-200 Stainless Steel one. It has brick inserts and a removable stone. Cuisinart even makes a model with a rotisserie. Firing up this little baby wouldn’t run you out of the kitchen like a conventional size oven.

20 minutes to lunch.