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What’s In Season Now: August Edition

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August, the eighth month; a time when there is no longer any denying that what stands just on the other side of these long, hot days is autumn. The year is two-thirds over. And, I loathe to admit, in many locales so is the growing season. Last week the ripening of my tomatoes came on in earnest. Just in time, as a sick and demented cosmic plot twist would have it, for me to leave town for 5 days. While it’s a time, as I mentioned in both On Inheritance and Cooking Up History recently, I look forward to with great gusto every year it’s also a time when I’m forced to face the truth. Unlike July when what awaited me on the other side of long, hot days was more long, hot days all that awaits me now is autumn. And, as much as I love falling leaves, back-to-school, pumpkin pie and knobby sweaters I hate — yes, I said hate — the dwindling period of yet another growing season. Even if it will be filled with some of the year’s most satisfying meal prospects.

Unfortunately for some areas — especially those in the deep south and the southwest — where the weather is too hot even for heat loving varieties this is already largely a reality. But before we go feeling too sorry for them, or them for themselves, remember those locales will have a second growing season just as the rest of the country is laboring the get the most out of the end of their first and only. So if you’re in a location where much of the summer’s bounty is taking a back seat to killer temperatures, hang in there and check back in next month when the availability of local produce will pick back up by leaps and bounds in your area. Just don’t stop visiting your farmer’s markets in the meantime, there is still plenty to find there.

And for the rest of us; what can we expect to find gracing farmer’s stands this month? Look for heat loving produce and those items that require a long growing season to be ripening by the bushels in August. Peaches, those tasty tomatoes we’ve been discussing and peppers of all varieties — the hotter the better if you ask me — as pictured will all be available in many places, but alongside them you’ll probably also find sweet corn, okra, plums, melons, cucumbers, figs, nectarines, eggplant and apricots.

Until next month, Happy Farmer’s Market Shopping!

Gung hay fat choi!

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During the time that The Mascot and I were living in Vancouver, BC, we always got caught up in the excitement of Chinese New Year. To be honest, it was hard not to; with over 30% of Canada‘s Chinese population living in Vancouver and its surrounding cities, the cultural influence was everywhere. The time of year that this was most apparent was at Chinese, or Lunar, New Year. Every year around this time, the stores in our predominantly Asian neighborhood would be full of the traditional foods, decorations and gifts that make this annual celebration so vibrant and special.

One such offering that has always intrigued me are the “lucky” money packets, which are traditionally bestowed upon unmarried recipients to ensure wealth for the coming year. The envelopes, called “Ang Pow”, are always red in colour to symbolize prosperity and ward-off evil. A lovely and very unique example of Ang Pow are these by Qipao (above). Unlike most rectangular packets, these are in the shape of Cheongsam, the traditional fitted Chinese garments. And, it’s not just their eye-catching shape that makes these Ang Pow different; each one-of-a-kind envelope is upcycled from greeting cards that would otherwise be tossed away!

A slightly more traditional (but no less clever) version of Ang Pow are these DIY ones from Katwrite’s shop (above), featuring the image of this year’s Chinese Zodiac Symbol – the Tiger. Kat of Vancouver was inspired by traditional Chinese paper-cut art when she created these intricate cards to enclose your monetary gifts. A gift for the environment, too, they are available as a printable PDF to eliminate extra packaging. (Tip: go green and remember to print your cards on recycled or eco-friendly paper!)

Another DIY project perfect for Chinese New Year decorations is this stunning set of luminaries by Prudence Octavia. Each luminary is created by layering two unique, hand-cut designs over a heavy vellum sleeve. Don’t be scared-off by the apparent complexity of the project, though; all of the intricate work is done for you. The completed luminary sleeves are flat-packed and carefully wrapped for easy shipping from Hong Kong. Once you receive them, all that is left is to wrap them around a votive candle and fasten with the enclosed adhesive. It’s easier than learning to use chopsticks!

Like I was, Heidi of Burnaby is another British Columbian caught up in the excitement of Chinese New Year. After a recent wander through Vancouver’s colourful Chinatown, she returned home inspired by all of the unusual and exotic items that she saw. What came from that inspiration was this skein of hand-spun and hand-dyed yarn (above), created in honour of the upcoming celebrations. The beautifully varigated vegan yarn, which is available in the Quo Vadis Handspun shop, comes complete with a little Chinese coin for luck.

Finally, I would be remiss if I let you go without a little something sweet at the end of this week’s article. Fortunately, for all of us who ate more than our fair share of dim sum this morning (ahem), this treat won’t go straight to your waistline. Cleverly upcycled from lambswool sweaters and packaged in a hand-stamped “take-out” box, Anne Potter’s felted fortune cookies make a cute gift or decoration all year round. The “cookies” are available for purchase in Anne’s shop and can contain either an assortment of fortunes, or your own custom messages. Stuck for something to say? “Gung hay fat choi!” is the traditional Chinese New Year’s greeting, meaning “may you become prosperous”.

Heaven

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Please welcome our newest columnist, April Meeker of Secondsister Jewelry and Suaviloquy.

Her column is about atypical guift guides – she’s going to go beyond “Gifts for Him” “Gifts for Her” and “Gifts for Kids” and find the perfect thing for “when you’ve finally completed your dissertation” – “congrats on your new job even though it was your third choice” – “I’m so happy you got promoted instead of that other guy.”

Well, those are the kinds of gift guides *I* would write if this were my column, but it’s not. April will probably choose other themes, but I guarantee you they won’t be pedestrian.

Do you have a tricky gift-giving situation coming up? Leave April a comment below and just maybe the next edition of Gift Guides will be about you!

::
Erika

Why the French are getting all the credit is an enigma to me. After all, they didn’t invent the macaron. No, the Italians should be getting the accolades for that bit of genius.

Macarons came to France in 1533 with the pastry chefs of Catherine de Medici, wife of King Henri II. Then there was some business about nuns making and selling them and creating quite a stir. The nuns made simple macarons, no fancy flavors, no double cookie with a filling. (Above photo by Chelsea Victoria.)

A bunch of time went by with people making simple almond cookies. Then in the 1900’s a guy named Pierre Desfontaines (not the author) was working as a pastry chef for Laduree Passterie and decided to take two macaron cookies and sandwich them with ganache.

And the modern macaron was born.


photo by Louis Beche

Then a bunch more time went by and I was born. And a little more time went by until I discovered my passion for macarons. What a shame all those wasted years.

If you have yet to sink your chompers into these morsels, just know it needs to become a life list item. They are little pieces of pure heaven.

And they offer a little something for everyone. I’m personally partial to the traditional flavors, chocolate and pistachio topping my go to choices. But macarons come in flavors that circle the globe. There’s wasabi, passion fruit, green tea, peach, rose, orange blossom, mint, pumpkin, coconut, chili chocolate, honey and praline, just to name a few.

So now that I have you all almond buttered up and salivating, I’ll tell you where you can get them. I buy my macarons, locally from a little French passterie in San Diego named Opera. But sometimes I think I’d like to ship some to a friend for a birthday or a baby, or even a hello there, I’m thinking of you. A girl’s gotta share the love.

I found a pastry chef in Austin, Texas who is in the business of shipping her goodies. Soraiya Nagree used to be a chemical engineer for a bowling ball company. Luckily for all of us macaron junkies, she left that job to attend the Le Cordon Bleu school and follow her true passion. She and her husband Azim opened Luxe Sweets and the rest is tasty history.

“It is a simple truth: food made from scratch just tastes better. The colors, the textures, the smells, and of course the flavors – nothing is better. We started Luxe Sweets because we wanted to create delicious treats which capture all the flavor and taste of home-made food. Every one of our delights has been made by us, by hand. They may not look all the same, but that’s the part we like best. Because it means that every single product has been made for you by a person – not some machine.” -Soraiya

I’m new to Try Handmade if you haven’t noticed. I’m going to be writing the gift guide column. I’m pretty good at shopping. In fact, if there was an Olympics for shopping, I’d take gold, for sure. So for this first post, I wanted to feature something that I personally would love to get as a gift.

I recently threw a big party and I served macarons for dessert. They were a hit. And they are so pretty they double as décor.


photo by secondsister

Bet cha can’t eat just one. And if for some reason you are on some silly diet and you can’t indulge, then by all means buy Chelsea Victoria’s print and feast with your eyes.

Stress-Free Challenge.

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Some good advice from Claire & Me Designs.

We’re constantly being reminded that we’re living in a stress-filled 21st Century, then on the other hand we’re being slated for being stressed out. The truth is simple: stress happens. We just need to get better at coping with it.

We’re either ‘Too blessed to be stressed’ (the very idea of that is just utter garbage to me) or we’ve to ‘Keep calm and carry on’ (which works in the short term but is never a long term solution.)

I don’t have the answer to a stress-free lifestyle but it has become very apparent to me that stress is a Big Problem. After all, the newspapers are obsessed with it and it’s causes. Pharmaceutical companies seem to be making billions off the back of it. And we’re seemingly becoming more and more stressed out.

And I have reached the conclusion that filling your walls full of inspirational, quirky and fun stress-boosting posters might help. Such as this cute illustration by Laura George.

In all seriousness, though, it feels like we’re either doing too much or not enough with ourselves, our lives, our goals, our commitments.

We’re trying to juggle our happiness and meanwhile keep everyone else happy.

We’re smiling and nodding at the boss, telling them that yes we can do that bit of over time, all in the hopes of them furthering us up the career ladder.

We’re wives, mothers, fathers, husbands, girlfriends, boyfriends, daughters, sons and so on trying to deal with those relationships that life throws at us unprepared for and to ‘learn on the job.’

We’re crafters trying to push our latest project into making amazing sales. We’re photographers, dreamers, writers, intellects, artists and academics all looking for our break, our way into the World and for that penny-dropping moment of complete bliss and happiness.

Happiness seems like the anti-thesis to stress; wherever stress is, happiness is not. It’s like stress walked into the party and happiness walked out with it’s chin up in the air and a snooty snort as it passed stress as if to say; “Pft, I’m out of here! I’m not sticking around for any more of your drama!”

I definitely believe that happiness can be achieved in this life. I have experienced material happiness (as in the short-term burst of pleasure you experience when you buy something new for the first time) and I have experienced natural happiness (that long lingering and memory making happiness you get from wonderful life experiences) so I know this can be achieved. I also know that the majority of people in the World will have experienced the feelings I have described above – so happiness is real. It’s not some mythical creature that lives in a cave. It can happen to you.

There are no rule books on combatting stress (okay, well, not counting Chicken Soup for the Stressed Out Soul and all those like-wise books, of course) but there are techniques you can learn to avoid the impending doom of stress.

Again, here I go with the advice;

Befriend someone older than you. Most of my older friends have a much more laissez faire attitude towards life than I sometimes do. Like when I worry about wrinkles, my Gran will tell me; “You don’t have any wrinkles! Don’t worry about those things in your 20s, enjoy yourself!”.

Those who have more life experience just don’t care about life. In a good way. And spending time in the company of those who don’t sweat the small stuff will definitely have an effect on you. You will soon learn to loosen your grip on what does and what doesn’t matter – and wrinkles at 25? Perhaps, but what can I do? And does it really matter? Life your life without vain anxieties.

One time, while watching a programme about water-skiing my Gran (who can’t swim, let me remind you, but went down various water slides on a holiday in Spain when I was 8) advised me to “try things” in life. “I wish I had done that,” she told me, pointing to the screen where a terrified looking woman was being prepared for her first water skiing adventure. “You should do that.” Umm, while I don’t think I will take up water skiing just yet I think I will take her words to heart. Don’t sweat the small stuff, listen to your elders and heed their advice.

Do something you love every weekend. It doesn’t have to cost loads of money. What do you love? How can you do this for as little cost as is possible? Fill your weekend with things you love; eating chocolates and staying in your pyjamas all day? Doing housework while blaring music full volume? Taking pictures of old couples sitting on benches in the park? And if something does cost you some money, don’t STRESS about it – just let it be. You can make more money but you cannot buy a new heart (which will be in the firing line if you stress any more.)

Remind yourself that being a person is hard and you’re doing a good job. You’re not a terrible person. You’re not doing everything wrong (I go through these paranoid trains of thoughts about 1000000 times a day.) You’re not letting everyone down. You’re not disappointing your parents – and if they’re not happy with you, don’t sweat it, they’ll get over it and if they don’t? Well it’s still not worth stressing out over.

Get professional help if it’s needed. There are some things that need a professional. There is a lot of negative association with therapists, but if they work for people – how can someone say that is a bad idea? I have no stigma or issue with therapists. They provide a service and the process of therapy can really heal people. A lot of creative people suffer with mental health issues and it’s no laughing matter. Get help if it’s what’s required.

Knit happens. Knitting and other crafty projects can be very relaxing. Take on something relatively simple, something that won’t annoy and frustrate you and call it your Stress-Free Challenge. Whenever you feel the stress building up, take out the crafty project and work on that.

Take a chill pill. For years many have told me to “take a chill pill” and although I hate the sentence and every other emotion it drums up, it’s still true. Take a chill pill. Cool off and forget about things that don’t matter. If someone is being an opinion pusher and it’s stressing you – so what? They won’t change their minds about their opinions just because you’re right – in their minds they’re eternally right. Let it be.

Take time for a break. You make time in your day to eat, to visit the toilet, to do the basics so you can make time for a proper break in the day. It’s also very, very, very important that once you complete a huge project or task that you take some time out after it’s completion, stand back and take a deep breath. Appreciate that the hard part is done and now you can relax…until the next big thing.

Tea Time

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A recent tweet on Urbanite Jewelry‘s Twitter feed reads: “Time to catch up on tour de tea…I’m behind like a mo fo! Life is crazy busy right now!” For Krista Leben, jewelry designer/event organizer/business owner/world traveler, “crazy busy” is an understatement. In the time that I have known Krista, she has never had just one thing on the go, and yet always seems to find the time to get everything done with style and grace. Keeping up with so many projects and still managing to make time for herself must be no easy feat, so you know that if anything gets added to Krista’s already-packed schedule, it must be very important.

Lovely repurposed vintage teacup bracelets by Stay Gold Mary Rose.

That is exactly the case with Krista’s “Tour de Tea”. A passionate foodie, Krista is on a personal quest to sample the 70 varieties and flavours of tea in her collection. To that end, she is drinking one per day and blogging about it. As she can’t share the taste experience with us, she provides dreamy Polaroid-style photos of each tea with a brief description of each. It’s almost as good as being there to taste for ourselves.

As I write this, Krista has sampled and logged 58 teas from her collection. Her favourites so far have been a stand-out Swedish tea called Soderblanding (a complex blend of black tea with floral, citrus and vanilla notes), which Krista picked up on a trip to Stockholm, and the Raspberry Ginger Zinger green tea from Edmonton’s Steeps. They haven’t all been winners, though; an intriguing blend from My Tea Mix turned out to be better in theory than in practice. With ingredients like Chinese Wolfberry, ginsing blossoms and rock sugar, it turned out to be more of a treat for the eyes than the tastebuds.

Upcycled vintage teacup pendant light by Mostaza Seed. Such a bright idea!

I asked Krista about her preferred method for brewing tea and she was gracious enough to share these tips with us:

Don’t Use Boiling Water: While this seems totally counter-intuitive, it’s actually bad to steep your tea in boiling water because it can burn the tea. Boil your water, then take it off the stove (or out of the microwave) and let it sit for a minute or two. Then add the tea to it after it’s cooled. You’ll have sweeter, more flavorful tea that’s less likely to get bitter.

Don’t Over-Steep Your Tea: Most tea only needs a few minutes to steep in water. If you’re brewing your tea more than 5 minutes, you’re likely to end up with bitter tea. Different types of tea need less steeping, too. In general, white tea needs the least amount of time to steep, with green tea needing a bit more and black tea needing the most. But even black tea doesn’t typically need more than 5 minutes, so don’t leave your tea in the water too long!

Do Use Loose Leaf!: While the quality of bagged tea has improved greatly in the past couple of years, the flavor and complexity of loose leaf tea can’t be beat. Loose leaf tea is more expensive than tea bags, but is still super affordable and is easy to prepare. Just buy yourself a tea ball or spoon from a kitchen store, put about a teaspoon per cup (250 ml/8 oz) in the ball/spoon and brew just like you would a tea bag!

Keep your tea hot to the bottom of the pot with this modern wool felt tea cozy by Argyle Street.

Krista also mentioned that it’s important to be aware of the shelf-life of your tea. Just like herbs, it’s best to buy your teas in smaller quantities, store them in airtight containers and, for maximum flavour, use them as soon as possible. While drinking “expired” tea won’t be harmful to you, it will taste stale and lack some of its original flavour profile, as Krista found out with some of the older teas in her stash.

One-of-a-kind vintage teacup ring holder by W.Ho Made It.

You can keep up with Krista’s “Tour de Tea” on her blog and via her Twitter feed. To see her stunning line of handmade jewelry online, visit the Urbanite shop. I am personally looking forward to the day when I can venture out to Ottawa to meet my dear friend in the flesh. Over a pot of tea, of course.

“York, England” earrings by Urbanite Jewelry.