[image sources, clockwise from top left: design fetish, sugar2sugar, kuali, bbc, guidespot, chick*pea, gabriel teas, martha stewart, apple creek herb farm]

When I was 8 years old, I made my mother a heart-shaped cake for Valentine’s Day. This cake marked one of my first forays into the world of baking. That fact, coupled with my making it without any assistance, resulted in an end product not without its fair share of mishaps. In addition being riddled with weird air pockets throughout, the cake was oddly spongy and chewy. I think there might have even been some bits of baking powder that weren’t properly sifted in. Essentially, it was “gross”, to use the vernacular of my 8 year-old self. Nevertheless, my mother consumed it with gusto and praise, as she did with pretty much every project my brother and I attempted. Her adulation, though admittedly largely undeserved on that particular occasion, stayed with me, encouraging me to keep it up. My nasty heart-shaped cake would later transition into a lifelong hobby (improving considerably along the way, thankfully!). I’ve been baking ever since, even working as a professional baker at a natural foods store, making a friend’s wedding cake, and cooking up all sorts of delectable baked goods while serving as manager of a bed and breakfast.

For the loved ones in your life, I offer a considerably less daunting food gift than the cake-tastrophe I baked my mom so long ago. Today’s small measure proposes crafting up batches of infused sugars. From your parents, siblings, or significant other to a valued co-worker, trusted friend, or even a life-saving babysitter or hairdresser (or, in my case, a neighbor with a chainsaw who helps you chop up the trees that fall all over your long, dirt road during a snow storm!), infused sugars are perfect for saying “you make my life better, richer, sweeter.” They’re a snap to make, cost quite little (using ingredients you quite possibly already have on hand), and bear a shelf-life far greater than a bouquet of fresh flowers (which have their place, too!).

If you know your recipients palate, you can craft the sugar to their liking. Otherwise, if you’ve got a general idea of their characteristics, use that as a starting point and assemble their sugar accordingly. Traditional parents or grandmother? Think vanilla. Girly-girl girlfriend? Lavender or rose. Intrepid foodie? Star anise, clove, or fennel. The following list (after the jump) includes several ingredient suggestions for infused sugars that I’ve had great success with:

CLICK HERE for the rest of the post, Ashley’s ingredients and infused sugar recipe after the jump!

read more …

images above, clockwise from top left: skinny laminx, tea brewery, gayane teapot, green teas chatter, trip advisor, repro depot, about.com

I grew up largely in the southeastern United States. Accordingly, I’ve been known to harbor certain “southern” traits-the use of the word “y’all”; a profound and enduring love of the film Steel Magnolias, not to mention an ability to quote it when the situation merits (I have used Clairee’s line to Ouiser “You know I worship the quicksand you walk on” many, many times on a widely varied body of individuals); and a penchant for black tea. No meal was complete without a pitcher of mom’s super sweet iced tea growing up. It didn’t matter if we were sitting down to Tuesday night’s dinner or the Thanksgiving meal. If we were eating, we were also drinking sweet tea. We downed it with thirsty devotion, as though it was the only beverage available; on many occasions, it was.

I don’t remember when the shift to hot black tea occurred (an ex-boyfriend and his British mom might have had something to do with it), but I do recall moving away from cloyingly sweet tea when I started becoming interested in health and nutrition (and became aware of the fact that heart disease and Type 2 diabetes run in my family). While I left the heavy sugar behind, I retained an appreciation for Orange Pekoe, embracing all of its kin along the way. Most mornings now find me with a mug of hot tea in hand. As January is “National Tea Month”, today’s “Small Measures” acknowledges the importance of tea, tea time, and all of its attendant pleasures.

Tea has multitudinous benefits. We’ll begin with the obvious, health. Research from Brigham and Women’s Hospital , along with Harvard University, indicates that the amino acid L-theanine found naturally in tea bolsters the body’s immune system. Drinking five 20 ounce cups of black tea daily for 2-4 weeks showed an increase in both immune system defenses and resistance to disease, the research revealed. Specifically, consumption of tea showed a significant increase in the presence of gamma delta T cells, the body’s first line of defense against disease and infection. As if that weren’t enough to fire up the kettle, this link provides more clinical research on the multifaceted benefits of tea. I’ll drink to that!

CLICK HERE for the rest of Ashley’s “Time for Tea” post after the jump! *Click here for the D*S Teapot roundup to go with your tea*

read more …

I don’t know if it’s the recent prolonged cold spell, or simply the usual drab, dullness of winter, but I can’t seem to get enough citrus in my life these days. I’m not alone here, either. Studio Choo’s recent Citrus & Rosemary post, along with Grace’s nod to the puckery fruits bear witness to just how enamored many of us seem to be lately with all things citrus. Even the New York Times’ own Mark Bittman recently posted this recipe extolling the unparalleled flavor of the brightly colored orbs (with a hint of tarragon, no less-genius!). [image sources, clockwise from top left above: typecraft, fine cooking, cookthink, cooking light, the daily green]

And for good reason. Winter is peak time for a number of citrus fruits. From clementines to honeybells (I hate to pick favorites, but, if backed into a corner and forced to choose camps, I’d choose honeybells), grocery stores and produce stands are currently offering a veritable orchard of citrus delights. I’m just as large an advocate of eating seasonally as I am eating locally, and the season for citrus is right now. The nutritional profile and flavor of offerings from Temple oranges to Honey tangerines are top tier. And so, today’s small measure is all about enjoying, and whenever possible, extending (via home canning) the deliciousness of winter citrus.

My husband and I both have family in Florida. Mine recently festooned us in person with a smattering of everything from meyer lemons to grapefruits and kumquats, while his just shipped us our annual allotment from a neighboring orchard. Suffice to say, we’re awash in a world of citrus. To use up our glorious orbs, I made this Roasted Orange Tart. I’ve squeezed fresh juice for breakfast. I’m considering a citrus trifle from this lady . I also padded around in my p.j.’s earlier this week and created a Triple Citrus & Star Anise Marmalade.

As a participant in the ongoing year-long “Can Jam” challenge hosted by blogger Tigress in a Jam (as well as Tigress In a Pickle ), I knew I needed to concoct something citrusy anyways. Each month, Tigress (or her participants) choose one seasonally available ingredient to render into a canned item. This month’s selection was the general category of “citrus.” Lucky me. I’ve got everything I need on hand, and then some. The sweet and sour blend is perfect for hot buttered toast, the anise giving it just the perfect hint of licorice-y sweetness and intrigue. You could also plop a dollop into thumbprint cookies or even spoon some over roasted chicken.

In the meantime, I’ve still got that mountain of citrus to contend with. Any suggestions you might have would be immensely appreciated!

CLICK HERE for Ashley’s Triple Citrus & Star Anise Marmalade recipe after the jump!

read more …

I’ve long worshipped at the altar of “busyness”. I have running, ongoing lists of things I’d like to, and intend to, complete. Lists for house projects, lists for garden and landscaping projects. Reading lists. Essentially, all manner of lists for filling up my free time. For as long as I can remember, I’ve felt uncomfortable if I wasn’t “doing” something. If it helped the planet, or my community, or my friends and family in the process, even better. And then I met my husband, who worships at the diametrically opposed alter of “slowness”, accompanied by its first cousin, “idleness.” [image credits, clockwise from top left: the washington post, popmatters, dullog, wikimedia, sign post tours, amazon]

Never one to rush through anything, he helped me learn the beauty in being aware of each experience (instead of my customary pining for the past or longing for the future), of reducing my pace enough to really see what’s occurring around me, to enjoy just simply “being”. Part and parcel of his approach includes relishing idleness-not over-planning life, simply taking the time to notice the trees, along with the forest. I couldn’t have hoped for a more perfect foil.

And so, today’s small measure celebrates the decidedly low-fi activity of nothingness, of loafing, of absently whiling away the minutes and hours. The pursuit of inactivity is seriously maligned in today’s do-more, be-more, see-more, go-more culture. “Idle hands are the devil’s tools”, courtesy of one Geoffrey Chaucer (Tale of Melibee), is a mindset so deeply ingrained in modern society that many of us feel guilty for having a long, ambling lunch, or taking an impromptu nap, or simply seeing where the day takes us.

“The Art of Doing Nothing: Simple Ways to Make Time for Yourself” by Veronique Vienne is full of insights, suggestions, and tidbits for embracing intentional loafing. From meditating to taking a long bath to staring pointlessly at the sea, Vienne engages her readers to find merit in simply “being” instead of always “doing.” In Tom Lutz’s
“Doing Nothing: A History of Loafers, Loungers, Slackers, and Bums in America” , we learn about inspirational do-nothings, from Thoreau to Oscar Wilde to Kerouac.

As for myself, I’ve learned that my finest bursts of creativity occur when loafing about. The long, lingering cup of tea whilst watching the sun rise over the ridge behind my house, the extended rocking chair session on the front porch, the purposeless gazing at the creek across the road from my mother’s house-when my focus isn’t anywhere but on that which is right before me, my mind seizes the opportunity to move freely around and about its nooks and crannies, folds and membranes, surprising me with unplanned, unprovoked, unintentional delights.

CLICK HERE for the rest of “Constitutional Rights (Or, The Art of Loafing)”, more on the walking “constitutional” and the Cloud Appreciation Society’s manifesto after the jump!

read more …

I’ve mentioned before in this column about my penchant for preparation. I’m fond of things like keeping 5 types of organic food flavorings in my pantry, just in case the mood strikes me to bake something with anise or almond or vanilla or citrus extracts or mint. I have a lint roller in my guest bedroom, one in my undergarment drawer, and yet another compact version my purse, just in case a stray hair from the 7 animals that live indoors with me works its way onto my clothing. There is always a blanket in my car’s trunk, just in case I should break down en route to my mother’s house high up in the mountains some cold winter’s night. I’m a perennial girl scout, always prepared.

And so, it was with no small amount of surprise that I found myself completely unprepared for what has been dubbed, (with questionable affection, I might add) the recent “snowpocalypse” that swept through the eastern U.S. the week before Christmas. Usually on top of my game when it comes to all things preparatory (see above), the snow and it’s ensuing accumulation and subsequent power outage caught me totally off guard. What was supposed to have been 3-10-inches of the wet, white stuff grew exponentially into 17. We lost power for 4 1/2 days and were trapped on our property for 6, barricaded in by trees and a Subaru engulfed in snow on the knob on which our house sits.

During those cold, cold nights (when I became a supreme devotee of our wood stove, not to mention received my master’s degree in the art of snow melting), I appraised what we could have done in advance to make the whole scenario a bit more bearable. Short of retrofitting the house with solar panels, radiant heat flooring, and wind turbines (someday, hopefully…), a few small measures of winter weather preparedness would have been worth their weight in gold (or, perhaps more aptly, BTU’s and joules).

Gathered from sources such as FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) and
the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) , the following steps towards winter weather preparation can help you achieve a modicum of comfort (not to mention peace of mind) should you lose power during a cold season storm. What does all of this have to do with design, you might be wondering? Well, for me, design doesn’t just encompass decorating our homes more expertly or crafting our gifts more cleverly. It engulfs our entire lives, the totality of their direction, from our homes, to our gifts, our actions, our choices, and beyond. Good design is about creating lives of purpose and mindfulness and beauty, made manifest in products as diverse as a gorgeously re-upholstered armchair, a thoughtfully cooked meal, a lovingly made ceramic mug, or a sturdy, durable hand crank emergency radio.

CLICK HERE for the rest of “Winter Preparedness-Beating Jack Frost” after the jump!

read more …

When I was growing up, Christmas morning didn’t officially commence until my mom, brother, and I were gathered around the tree, still in our p.j.’s, with trash bags ready to accept the imminent paper carnage. We tore through the packaging, desperate to see what Santa had brought, stuffing the wrapping into the waiting trash bags, which grew fuller by the minute. It was glorious and exciting and ultimately, really quite wasteful. [image credits above, clockwise from top left: ms living, greater goods online, the patchworkdress, green your decor, ms living]

If I’d only known then what I know now, I’d have approached my family’s gift-wrapping free-for-all a bit more mindfully. During the stretch of days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, Americans add an additional 6 million tons of waste to our already taxed landfills. More waste is produced during this period than at any other time of year. I’m finding myself increasingly inspired by those individuals who appropriate or reconfigure “waste” into something useful and beneficial. Most notably, William Kamkwamba of Malawi has enthralled the industrialized world by building a windmill in his village, generating electricity in the process. Using discarded bicycle parts and junkyard pvc, along with indigenous organic materials, Kamkwamba performed the ultimate DIY-project. One man’s trash truly is another man’s (and his village’s) treasure. You can read about his inspiring design, and ecological, sensibilities in his book The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind .

Knowing that trash is an abstract concept (What designates something as trash, really? It never really goes away. When does it become “trash”?), I’ve worked over the past decade at reassessing my holiday gift-wrapping (among other waste-generating habits), striving to make it as sustainable as possible. While the holidays are now upon us, if you’ve yet to wrap up a gift or two, consider these alternatives to the “haste makes waste” mentality of my youth after the jump!

CLICK HERE for the rest of “It’s A Wrap-Alternative Gift Wrapping” (including Ashley’s gift wrap ideas) after the jump!

read more …

I am decidedly the opposite of a hoarder. Upon my death, or during my lifetime, you’ll never find a houseful of gathered up this’s and that’s, Collyer Brothers-style . To the contrary. I’m a bit of a compulsive discarder (much to my husband’s chagrin). If I’m not using it, wearing it, eating it, or otherwise, to the thrift store, needy friend, recycling bin or compost pile it goes. I’ve always been this way, wanting only things of purposefulness and usefulness in my life. Which is why I have never been a fan of “stuff.” I hang onto people and pets that I care for with ferocious devotion, but a shirt that’s been gathering dust in my closet? Gone to Goodwill (or to my younger dear buddy, Rachel, who benefits mightily from my discarding proclivities). A book long read and never again cracked? Sold to the bookstore. [image credit above, clockwise from top left: blogher, tomate d'epingles, aid for africa, oxfam america, modern urban living]

This approach of mine is especially relevant come December. When considering gifts to give and receive for the holidays, I’m always on the lookout for items of usefulness, for myself and for others. In at attempt at preventing the accumulation of unused stuff, I look for gifts that will actually be used and will in some capacity enhance and enrich the life of the recipient. To that end, I often give gifts of time and experience. Sometimes that manifests as a tactile experience for the recipient, while on other occasions that might translate to a gift of usefulness, purposefulness and enrichment to a truly needy person, given in the recipient’s name. I’ve adopted a manatee for my father and his wife (especially meaningful to them, as they are Floridians), planted trees in my grandmother’s name in South America, and made a family-wide contribution towards the purchase of animals to provide families in developing nations with products to sell, thereby generating a steady income flow. I’ve bought a gift certificate for an all-natural pedicure for my mother at a nearby salon, as well as a gift card to a book store for my grandmother, complete with the promise of coffee and chatting to accompany our literary foray.

If you’re looking for a gift idea this holiday season (and beyond) for the person who truly has it all (or who, like me, prefers not to have it all!), consider a gift given in their name to one of the following organizations:

Changing the Present : A broad storehouse of charitable giving organizations and gift options related to specific topics, from “Basic Needs” to “Community”, “Health & Safety”, “Environment” and “Opportunity.”
Kiva : Kiva connects people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty.
Heifer International : This organization is committed to ending world hunger and global poverty, as well as promoting environmental stewardship, through a variety of initiatives.
Oxfam : Oxfam works with international communities to improve the lives of the world’s poor.
Trees for the Future : One of my personal favorites, Trees For the Future improves livelihood and degraded lands by planting beneficial trees.
Save the Manatee : Co-founded by Jimmy Buffet, this organization works to protect endangered manatees and their aquatic habitats.
Operation Eyesight : A remarkable endeavor, dedicated to eliminating avoidable blindness.

CLICK HERE for many more “stuff-free” gift ideas from Ashley after the jump!

read more …

In this month’s Saveur magazine, an article on holiday baking traditions in Sweden mentions a Christmas-related old wive’s tale. According to legend, if a visitor leaves your house during the holidays without enjoying some food or drink, the Christmas spirit will leave with them. To ward off the departure of holiday happiness and cheer, the Swedes have developed a litany of sweets and beverages (including a number that incorporate saffron, to represent the return of the sun after the long, dark, cold winters the country is known for), baked and brewed on a variety of days during December. Any wive’s tale that couples sugar and spice with everything nice is completely fine by me. [image sources, clockwise from top left: williams-sonoma, sunset magazine, pinch my salt, little birdie secrets, bhg, country living]

To that end, today’s Small Measure is about welcoming holiday cheer into our homes in a simple, easy, and delectable way-via the cookie exchange. When I first heard of cookie exchanges, just out of my teens, I was not impressed. It sounded a bit too frou-frou and dainty for this lady, who rode dirt bikes and climbed trees in elementary school, messed with skate boards in middle school, and has been enamored with all manner of dirt and ruggedness ever since. Well, hindsight is always 20-20. If only I’d begun my cookie exchange foray sooner, I could have been enjoying assorted and sundry morsels much earlier in life.

For those of you unacquainted with the concept, a cookie exchange is essentially a potluck based on trading cookies. Guests bring several dozen home-baked goodies, attempt to avoid overlaps by indicating what they’re bringing before the event, trade items, nibble on snacks, imbibe a cocktail (or two!) or some other beverage, catch up on each other’s lives, and go home with a wide selection of cookies to eat later, share with family and friends, surprise the office with, give to an elderly neighbor, etc. Cookie exchanges allow me to save money otherwise spent on baking so many varieties of cookies, have some relaxing time with friends in advance of the holiday madness, and come away with enough baked goods to get my house through the entire month without really needing to bake again.

CLICK HERE for the rest of ashley’s post and her tips for your holiday cookie exchange after the jump!

read more …

Several years ago, one lazy Saturday afternoon, I headed to a nearby book store, grabbed a stack of cookbooks, my favorite interior design & cooking magazines, and a hot, frothy cappuccino and settled comfortably into a café chair for a lazy, idle sip and read. I’d been sitting there for some time, lost inside the pages of some beautifully photographed book, when I suddenly felt the presence of someone standing directly beside me. I looked up to see a man holding a plate with a brownie on it. He placed the plate in front of me, said “This is for having the best eyeglasses in the store,” and then walked away. [images above, clockwise from top right: happy cavalier, ethical style/sweet beets, illustration plus, twin muses]

To this day, I recall the generosity of that stranger with absolute clarity. His gesture was truly one of those random acts of kindness, one with no perceivable expectation of return. As Thanksgiving draws closer, the Small Measure I’d like to share with you this week is simply that of expressing and practicing gratitude. I was so dumbstruck by my brownie-bestower’s gesture that I neglected to thank him for the unexpected happiness he brought me that day, and all of the subsequent times I’ve thought of him and his actions.

Given the opportunity, and a mailing address, I would have sent brownie man a thank you note. I’m of the mindset, thanks to conscientious parents and grandmothers with a serious penchant for thank you notes, that no kind deed should ever go unacknowledged. To that end, I keep a large wooden box upstairs in my office, expressly devoted to stationary. From thank you notes to condolences, from postcards to note sets, the box holds a medley of paper goods, always at the ready for whatever occasion should present itself.

CLICK HERE for the rest of Ashley’s “Express Yourself-Practicing Gratitude” post after the jump!

read more …

I don’t know about you, but I didn’t grow up “green.” My mom, brother, and I lived a rather typical, suburban lifestyle, eating packaged foods, driving our minivan all over town, and throwing mostly everything in the trash without a second thought. During my sophomore year of high school, however, I had a most auspicious encounter at a friend’s house. Built by her parents over the course of several years, my friend’s log home was simple, rustic, and elegant. It was there I was first introduced to the practice of giving simple, handmade gifts for the holidays (I visited her place for the first time the day after Christmas), to tofu hot dogs (she might have also been the first vegetarian I’d ever met), to backyard chicken-keeping (her mom to this day owns a thriving local free-range egg business), and to the art of composting. That visit left an indelible mark on me and factored heavily into the person I would become and the interests, concerns, and practices I would later adopt.

As an adult, I now make (or bake-my favorite!) a large quantity of the holiday gifts that I give; I am mostly vegetarian (eating a bit of fish a few times a week, and almost exclusively local seafood, at that); I both keep chickens and have written an upcoming book on the topic, “Keeping Chickens;” , and I compost everything I possibly can. I was surprised to learn recently that by composting for one year, it’s possible to save an equivalent amount of CO2 produced by your washing machine in 3 months. With composting, not only can I do more to prevent the production of harmful greenhouse gases (like methane-created when waste trapped in plastic garbage bags breaks down in landfills with no oxygen circulating around it), I get to reap the rewards in spades months later with rich, nutrient-dense soil to use in my garden, hanging baskets, and containers. Compost is loaded with potassium, nitrogen, and phosphorus, minerals desperately needed by plants to not just survive but thrive. It also plays a key role in balancing alkalinity and acidity levels present in soil, making it more hospitable to growth. Furthermore, compost works to retain soil moisture, so important as more and more areas experience both long and short-term drought during growing seasons.

So, whether you’re a pavement-pounding urbanite or a forest-dwelling denizen, compost glory can be yours. You don’t even need a yard to compost! A very close friend of mine lives on the 8th floor of an apartment building in Center City, Philadelphia. She successfully composts all of her kitchen scraps in an apartment composter. When the compost is ready, she either spreads it over her houseplants, or carries it a block over to an open lot, where she tosses it for future fertile soil (albeit someone else’s!). If you’ve never composted before, there’s no time like the present to get into the mix. Fall is a really wonderful time to get your compost going. As annual plants and vegetables die, branches fall from trees, and leaves gather on the ground, collect them, along with your kitchen scraps, and transition them to your compost area.

CLICK HERE for the rest of “Home Compost-Piling on benefits” (and tons of home composting tips!) after the jump!

read more …