140 small space solutions, a blogger meat and greet and a do-it-yourself ice cream store

A host of home furnishings and accessories for cramped quarters, hanging out in a swell steakhouse with fellow food bloggers and an ice cream/frozen yogurt/sorbet store that lets you design your own flavors.

Okay, show of hands. Who out there doesn’t have square footage issues? The clever welcome mat above, available at Manhattan’s Tiny Living, says it all for most of us. And it’s one of nearly 150 different items chosen for space-challenged homes and apartments in a recent New York magazine online Shop•A•Matic. There are collapsible measuring cups and nesting measuring bowls for the kitchen; all sorts of storage boxes, units and racks; stackable and foldable chairs…everything designed with a small footprint in mind. And honestly, not everything is strictly speaking a spacesaver—I mean, throw pillows and curtains? But it’s all charming. And while some shops featured are solely New York stores, others like Urban Outfitters, Crate & Barrel, CB2 and Anthropologie can be found elsewhere. There are plenty of online shopping opportunities too. Continue reading “140 small space solutions, a blogger meat and greet and a do-it-yourself ice cream store” →

Stuff we like: Totes, canvas and otherwise

Through the combined efforts of consumers and retailers, reusable tote bags are showing plastic bags the door. This is an update of a post I first wrote at WTF? Random Food for Thought.

Those awful plastic grocery bags are fading fast. On April 22 [Earth Day, get it?], the entire Whole Foods grocery chain went plastic bag-free. Grocery stores and general retailers alike are now selling reusable totes, usually for a buck or two, to encourage customers to just say no to plastic.

And China, not exactly a shining example of environmentalism, has banned plastic bags from the entire country. As of June 1, all stores, from the largest to the smallest, have gone bag-free. For the practical Chinese, it’s a matter of not wasting 37 million barrels of oil a year on bags. It was also a chance to polish their image for the Olympics. Whatever the reason, it’s good news for the planet.

The problems with plastic bags are many. First, they don’t biodegrade, as paper does. They photodegrade—which is to say that light causes them break up into tinier and tinier particles, but they never stop being plastic. According to a New York Times article [first brought to my attention by Kirsten over at Gezellig Girl], “Altogether, each year the country is estimated to use 86 billion bags, which end up blowing down city streets, or tangled in the stomachs of whales and sea turtles, or buried in landfills where, environmental organizations say, they persist for as long as 1,000 years.” And even if you recycle them, as more communities are now mandating, plastic degrades in quality with each recycling, so it’s not truly sustainable. Continue reading “Stuff we like: Totes, canvas and otherwise” →

Chicago’s Downtown Farmstand: A fresh stop for Chicago locavores and food lovers

Chicago just gets it. Quality of life, greener living, supporting local food producers… The latest proof is Chicago’s Downtown Farmstand, a city pilot program and downtown retail outlet for “edible local products, all produced within 250 miles of Chicago,” as their website says. Run by the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with Chicago’s existing local and sustainable food communities, the store just opened October 1. It promises “fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs in season; a full range of condiments, preserves, seasonings and other dry goods items; baked goods and other seasonal items as available.”

We visited this past weekend and found a wide selection of precisely that. Heirloom tomatoes from Illinois, pasta from an Amish community in Indiana… And this gorgeous partially baked pie made with cherries from Michigan, from First Slice Pie Café in Chicago, a self-funding charity that provides access to wholesome food for those living in poverty. We finished the pie in our oven at home and all but finished it off in one sitting [we did have company, I’d like to point out]. There were fresh herbs and produce, dried beans, jams, pickled mushrooms and more from small, independent local producers. One of our favorites, The Spice House, was well represented with a selection of dried herbs and spices.

There were some other surprises too, proving that pride for local food production knows no size. They carry Morton Kosher Salt and Bay’s English Muffins, for instance, both local favorites produced for decades right here in Chicago. And salsas and chips from comparative upstart Rick Bayless’ Frontera Foods.

For farmers and local producers, Chicago’s Downtown Farmstand offers an outlet besides the seasonal weekend Farmers Markets in the city. And even better, they don’t have to be on hand to make sales. But the store’s mission goes beyond selling food. Organizers say that it will “serve as a hub for the local sustainable food industry, offering educational programs and activities, including classes, discussions and seminars, designed to foster interaction between local growers/producers and Chicago residents and visitors.” The store will operate as a pilot program through mid-December this year; plans are for it to reopen full time next spring.

Chicago’s Downtown Farmstand
66 E. Randolph
Tuesday – Friday, 11am – 7pm
Saturday, 11am – 4pm

Cool tool: DIREKT Whisk

Don’t you love when you find a kitchen tool that not only works great, but is dirt cheap? This whisk is one of those tools. Unlike regular balloon whisks, which are great for mixing big bowls of stuff, this one concentrates lots of mixing action in a small area. Its flat mixing head makes it perfect for whisking something into shallow liquid in a sauté pan, for instance.

I’ve seen similar versions made of tightly coiled metal, but the business end of the DIREKT Whisk is made of heat-resistant plastic—that means it won’t scratch non-stick surfaces. Its long, curving stainless handle keeps your knuckles out of harm’s way. And at a mere $1.99 at IKEA, it’s a steal. Unfortunately, while they show it on their website, you can only buy it in the store—by the time you add shipping and handling to a two buck item, I guess they figure it’s not worth it. Although personally, it would be to me.

I used it a few nights ago when I was making a chicken and mushroom dish with a sauce. The sauce wasn’t thickening, so I browned some flour in a little butter and olive oil in a separate skillet. When I added water and started stirring, it immediately became a mass of tiny lumps. My first solution was to let loose with an impressive string of curse words [if you’ve read About Blue Kitchen, you already know that’s my first solution anytime something goes wrong in the kitchen]. When that didn’t work, I grabbed the DIREKT Whisk. In moments, it tamed the lumps into a velvety smooth liquid that I was then able to whisk into the mustard cream sauce I was making.

Okay, your turn. What modest little kitchen tool makes you glad you bought it [or made it, inherited it or got it as a gift] every time you reach for it? We’re not talking big ticket items here—no Viking ranges or even food processors. Just something basic and cheap but utterly indispensable for what it does for you.