I loooove iced tea.  I think it stems from being infused with it on all fronts growing up.  From my step-mom’s big jars of sun tea all summer long to the powdered stuff my grandma made that my uncles loved so much, I drank almost nothing else during the summer months.  When I moved out, one of my first purchases was an iced tea maker.  My step-mom used to use one when we were drinking more iced tea than the sun could make and I’m still happy I have one for those sort of occasions.   You don’t need such a device to make really great iced tea though.  You don’t even need the sun.

I’ve spent this year experimenting with cold brewed teas.  Every now and then I throw some black tea bags (and one mint tea bag) into the iced tea maker, but I’ve come to really enjoy my refrigerator blends.  The process is as simple as you would expect.

1. Fill pitcher with cold water
2. Add bagged tea
3. Put in fridge over night.
4. Drink in the morning.

It’s just as good as any other method and has the bonus of being safer than sun brewing and offers a more delicate taste.

Of course most of the fun comes from choosing the tea.  I have a cupboard overflowing with enough tea to keep me busy for 20 summers.  My favorite so far is plain mint or jasmine.  I love the simple refreshing flavors.

You don’t have to stick with teas either.  One of my successful experiments this summer was a hibiscus vanilla tea made with dried hibiscus bought at Whole Foods bulk section and half of a vanilla bean.  This one takes a little longer to steep because the vanilla needs more time, but if you add a day or two to your steeping time any fruit, veggie or herb can add an extra kick to your favorite summer beverage.

There’s still quite a few hot days left, so try it and let me know what your favorite iced tea recipe is.

Remember back in grade school when everyone would come into the classroom and the teacher would ask you to share what you did on your summer vacation?  Sometimes he teacher would have you draw a picture and stand in front of the class.  Most of the kids talked about winning baseball trophies, visiting family members, or spending a weekend at the lake.  Some of them went more exotic places (like Europe or Hawai’i) and others stayed home and showed animals at the county fair.  I used to love that part of the first week back.  I guess I must like to talk about myself too much, but I really enjoyed hearing what my classmates were getting up to.  Maybe I also appreciated the brief respite before we dove back into real classwork.

I don’t get a summer vacation anymore, but I did kind of take a vacation from blogging this summer.  I didn’t plan on disappearing for so long, and I don’t want you to think I wasted all that time away.  Actually, I’m pretty proud of how I spent my summer so for the month of September, I’m going to have a mini-series of posts called (wait for it) “What I Did on My Summer Vacation.”  Starting this weekend I’ll be posting at least twice a week on some of my favorite adventures this summer.

So, what about you?  What did you do on your summer vacation?

Are you celebrating Earth Hour?  From 8:30 – 9:30 pm local time, participants will turn off their lights, symbolizing their commitment to combating climate change through tiny changes in their own life.  By now, some have already turned off their lights, and most likely, have gone to bed, but here in PST and most of the U.S., we’ve still got some last minute planning time.

In theory it seems pretty simple, but I didn’t even realize how addicted I might be to electricity until I the cold sweats started as I imagined myself sitting for an hour alone in the dark with nothing to do. I might get … bored!

So in order to diminish my ridiculous anxiety, here’s a compilation of ideas for Earth Hour.

• Stargaze: A few years ago I went to a stargazing program at Joshua Tree National Park. The ranger said they used to be able to see the Milky Way from the park, but now you’re a lot more likely to see the distant (190 miles) Las Vegas lights on the horizon.  Tonight, Sin City will be flipping the switch so hopefully desert stargazers will see something incredible.
• Cook: I’m assuming that if one is turning off the lights, any other electricity should be taboo, too, so turn off the oven and try a raw food recipe.  Rawmazing has a nice collection of raw desserts that won’t heat up your home.
• Visit a participating site: How cool would it be to see the Santa Monica Pier’s ferris wheel suddenly go black?  Or to stand under a dark St. Louis Arch?  A quick Google search or a story in your local paper will let you know what’s happening near you.
• Play an instrument: If you have any musical talent (or, like me, none, but own an instrument) you can easily pass an hour or more playing around.  If weather permits and your not playing a tuba, open the windows.  There is nothing I like better than listening to music drifting through my open windows on a dark evening.
• Journal: Grab a notebook and your beverage of choice, curl up in your favorite spot and really work on something you’ve been putting off.  Write down your plans and how your going to accomplish them.  List ideas for things you want to work on, but haven’t gotten around to.  Write the first paragraph of your novel.  When the lights come back on, get started on putting your ideas to life.
• Take a hike: Yes, I know that lights out is during the evening, but that doesn’t mean you can’t explore nature.  Check if your local park has any evening hikes scheduled.  If nothing else, walk around your block and see who else is celebrating Earth Hour.

I’m not sure which option I’m picking yet. I strongly suspect it will involve a “beverage of choice” and I’m not discounting “take a nap.”  What will you be doing this evening?

Did this week drag for anyone else? I didn’t think we’d ever get to Friday!

» I have no problem admitting that my Hollywood girlfriend is Keira Knightley. I love her; I find her absolutely charming & naughty & just all around amazing. But did you know that English doesn’t really like her? What is that about? Check that article out if you love Keira like I do; it’s chock full of interesting stuff. There’s another article from Vogue back in 2007 that’s also quite lovely, although it’s the photographs from that shoot that I love most.

» There’s still one toy made in America!

» Dan Merk talks about the importance of measuring your food over at his blog, Sweat.

» A friend of mine pointed this out to me: Out of Print Clothing. My kind of amazing! :)

» Ree Drummond has a fun, ice cream filled twist on the classic dirt cake.

» Stop sanitizing everything, will ya?

» Two cats, a lion, & a lamb. Perfect for the end of March!

There is very little I will not eat and, most likely, like. I’ve had some things that I could probably live without, but I’d be hard pressed to come up with a food that I hate. The stranger, the more exotic, the better.

So when at the beginning of a foraged foods class I attended last week, the instructor issued a disclaimer, saying we were trying all the food he’d collected at our own risk, I was thrilled. This isn’t just different food, but a food challenge. I was up for it and boy was the risk worth it.

The class was held at The Road Less Traveled, the coolest eco-store I’ve ever visited. It has a decent collection of eco-friendly home goods, kitchen equipment, baby stuff and an awesome green living selection of books, but the store really shines is in the classes offered. There are classes on embroidery, sauerkraut and kimchi, felting, sewing, urban gardening, solar cooking and OMG so much more. I want to take all of them.

Back to foraged foods. This was one of the first classes I’ve taken at The Road Less Traveled and it did nothing but make me more excited for future classes. Joel Robinson, an Orange County naturalist introduced us to some in-season edibles that can be found in our area. Joel started off by telling us a short snippet of the history of the Native Americans in the area. Living amongst the concrete wasteland and never-ending strip malls of Orange County, it’s easy to forget that there was a time when clusters of condos didn’t block the horizon. There was actually a period in this area’s history where people lived with the land instead of dominating it. Mindblowing.

Joel introduced us to a table of green leaves. Most of the plants looked like wilting weeds and, well, technically I guess many of them were. But they were edible weeds. These are the things we spend boatloads of money on every year to kill because they crowd out the more desirable crops and tarnish our pristine landscape, but the have as much value as any of the other plants we throw in a typical salad. In fact, we did make a huge salad filled with sow thistle, fennel, mallow and more. Delilah, The Road Less Traveled’s amazing owner, supplied sage pesto and acorn bread. We made tea from toyon and raspberry leaves and chewed on some carob for dessert. I may not turn to all the greens we tried for a lettuce standby, but the result of the days class was a pretty delicious and ridiculously local meal.

All the while, I kept thinking back to the book Into the Wild by John Krakauer. I don’t want to give anything away if you haven’t seen or read it, but there is a scene where a pretty bad mistake is made in identifying plants. So I know I am nowhere near the level where I can feel confident marching out into the wild to search for my own salads. Hopefully I’ll be able to meet up with some of the people from my class or take a hike with Joel and get more hands-on experience.

If you are interested in learning about wild edibles in your area, I would suggest you try to find a foraged foods or wild edibles class or contact a naturalist in the area for more information. I’ve taken classes before on wild edibles in Ohio so I know they exist elsewhere. Just make sure you’re getting more hands-on information than from just a book. Please don’t end up all Into the Wild, okay? I’d miss you.

Mother Earth News has a neat article on how to learn more about using wild edibles.

You can read more about Joel at Naturalist for You and Delilah on her blog, Project Small.

I’m growing a garden!

And the picture above is *not* from my garden.  Although I wish it was.  My garden consists of plastic pots filled with dirt so it’s still feeling pretty camera shy.  I live on the second story of a concrete-surrounded condo with a small balcony overlooking some more concrete.  In my ideal world, I would have a small plot of land behind my house where I could grow anything my heart desires and my tomatoes would look just as yummy as the one above, but my world is not yet ideal.  I’m not even close to putting down my own roots (I’ve moved four times in the last two years) so sticking anything else in the ground is not really wise.

My garden consists of:
- Roma tomatoes
- Serrano peppers
- cilantro (add some avocado, lime and onions to those first three and I can make some wicked guacamole)
- lettuce
- dill
- basil
- chamomile
- lavender
- catnip

I’m hoping I can keep at least half of these alive, as I am excellent at murdering green things.  I’ve been sneaking peaks out onto the balcony whenever I pass wishing I could do something to make my plants happier and humming this song.

Please send out well-wishes for my little plants.  I have big plans for them!

Do you have any experience with container gardening? I’d love to hear your successes (and failures).

Now I just need to stop myself from adding to my dirt collection until I can prove myself with this batch.

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent for Catholics.  For forty days, Catholics prepare for Easter, reflecting Jesus’ forty days of solitude in the desert.  They are asked to give up meat on designated days, live more simply, and deprive themselves of something distracting from God in their lives or perhaps add something to their daily lives that can enhance their connection with the divine.

Please don’t leave, yet!  I’m not going to get all preachy.  I grew up Catholic and work in about as Catholic an environment as you can so I can’t really escape the Lenten season.  My own spirituality is often pretty scattershot, but in the last few years I’ve begun to see a lot more value in the tradition I grew up in, even if I can’t see settling down and rejecting all other comers right now.  Lent is one of those things that I’m reclaiming this year.  I like the idea of sacrifice in a communal environment.  There is a spiritual connection, no matter what your orientation, of sacrificing something at the same time millions of others are going on the same journey.

It is interesting to me how many people choose to give up things like sweets, soda, and junk food.  A lot of these people may have ulterior motives (they can lose weight while serving God!) but it says a lot about how difficult it is to break ourselves away from food addictions.  How terrible is it if people need the hand of God to push them into quitting?  Everyone knows how bad these processed foods are for us, yet we need them so badly, after only forty days many Catholics are falling all over themselves to have a bag of chips.

This Lent, I’m also going the “eating better” route, half for rooting toxins out of my system and half for trying to be greener.  I’m committing to giving up refined sugars and red meat.  I’ve actually stumbled already by eating some chocolate my Mom sent me for Valentine’s Day, but it is chocolate from Mom so it hardly counts, right?  I’ve chosen the refined sugars because it is an addiction I can overcome and has literally been called a poison.  I chose red meat because it has the most negative impact on climate change of anything in my diet.  I’d also love to be 90% vegetarian one day, for the same reasons, and this is a great first step.

Food products aren’t the only thing Catholics are focusing on sacrificing.  I think it’s awesome that the Archdiocese of Washington (where else?) has created a Carbon Fast Calendar for Lent 2010.  The calendar gives one action a day to improve the environment.  Most people who are already environmentally friendly will have done a lot of the items on the list, but it’s great for those that aren’t so green.  For example, today’s tip is to turn down your thermostat a degree.  Another tip leads you to the New American Dream’s Wallet Buddy, which I’d never seen before.  The print-out (be sure to print it on scrap paper) lists questions to ask before buying a product.  I love the saying on it “Every dollar I spend is a statement about the kind of world I want & the quality of life I value.”  Now that should be printed on the inside of every wallet.

I don’t want to make Lent sound like it’s full of glorified New Year’s Resolutions, but a season of making changes to improve your life and your world as a community transcends religion.  I’ll be keeping up with the tips in the Carbon Calendar as well as working on my own Lenten sacrifices and sharing those experiences here.  If you’re observing Lent (or want to follow along without making it a part of Lent, per se) let me know how your journey is going!

Enjoy!

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All photographs are either mine or found via CC license on stock.xchng. Enjoy! :)

I’m hoping that, in addition to lots of writing, I can work out a new design for here – something that maintains a minimalist feel, but is a bit more polished over all. I know exactly what I want (or at least, I think so), but as I’ve no formal design or code training, getting there is always a bit of a challenge. I do wish I could simply hire one of my graphic designer friends (say, Nikki!) to create what I envision, but I can’t afford the rates they so richly deserve. Design & coding is hard work, & I can’t imagine that dealing with clients makes it much better. God knows I’m a perfectionist of the highest degree, & I’ve been known to spend hours working on CSS for a LiveJournal design that only I see. I would hate to have me as a client!

Design for me is always a challenge as it can sometimes be difficult to nail down just exactly what I want. I love design in general of all flavors – the minimalism seen at Zen Habits, the adorable art of Snailbird, the retro splashes of color favored by Nubby Twiglet, the classic styles & varied colors beloved by The Pioneer Woman. The “brand” over here is a little bit muddled, & I think that perhaps that could be the true issue here. Do I go whimsical? Artsy? Zen-like?

It’s funny; creating the logo & look of Zen & the Art of Teen Services was a cinch, but I really am having a rather difficult time nailing down a logo & true design for here. Ss are notoriously boring when it comes to fonts, & I just can’t seem to find one that really speaks both to me as the creator & to you, the readers, as to what this blog is really about.

At any rate, that’s what is on my mind today. Where do I take the design of this blog?

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All photographs are either mine or found via CC license on stock.xchng. Enjoy! :)

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All photographs are either mine or found via CC license on stock.xchng. Enjoy! :)