GladRags Gab

Deanna Duke, who writes the blog, Crunchy Chicken, is being honored by her friends this month. This amazing woman started Goods 4 Girls and gave all of us who were floundering around, not knowing how to help, a great direction.  Goods 4 Girls collects cloth pads and sends them to school girls in Africa.  It's an amazing and wildly successful organization that GladRags is proud to be working with through our G4G Kit.  Her blog, Crunchy Chicken, is full of great info and inspiration and makes an entertaining read. She is committed to a better world and has the guts to speak her mind.

Deanna is a woman who can really turn thought into action. A Crunchy Tribute tells you how you can take some action too.  Our action for Deanna this month is a donation of four G4G Kits and we are putting the G4G Kit on 10% discount so you can help too!

Thanks Deanna for all your good work!

-Brenda 

I love excuses to get out in the woods in the dead of winter.  Skiing, snowboarding, sledding and snowshoeing (ok, what's the deal with the "s-" sports of wintertime?) are good reasons to get outdoors and remember that life is ok, even when it's incredibly cold and potentially dismal outside.  As long as you're geared up and surrounded by trees and snow, all becomes right with the world again!

I personally find snowshoeing to be just the goofiest looking endeavor.  Giant flip flops for the snow, especially when coupled with ski polls for leverage, can't help but make you giggle.  Goofiness aside, man do they stop you from sinking into the powdery stuff and make for a nice walk in the woods.  I do find the flopping to be a bit too loud (here's where cross-country skis really take the cake) but let's not be too picky…

Snowshoes can be rented for as little as $10 - good, affordable fun for the whole family.  PB&J and hot tea (perhaps wine for the grownups) round off the trip nicely and a view doesn't hurt either.

Here's to happy flopping!

-Diana 

I find myself thinking about food a great deal lately.  I started eating vegan about a year ago in an effort to be more intentional with the food that I was eating.  My sister gave me Omnivore's Dilemma for Christmas and now I fear corn (Michael Pollan writes about the over-abundance of maize in our packaged foods.  Santa (aka my mom) gave me a pressure cooker and now all I dream about is cooking beans instead of can opening them.

I want more.  More of less.

While on 43 Things I found this entry:

I'm backing off snobby, complicated cooking. Some of it takes too long, is too costly, or is just not as great as the recipe sounds.

Lots of fishes can be poached to perfection. So can eggs. The trick is to keep on the edge of boiling pot not boiling. And so many good sauces are now available commercially.

I'm done messing around with organic sugars and flavored sea salts and odd spices that cost 30 dollars a smidgeon. Simplifying and eating well should go together rather than be opposing forces.

I understand what this person is saying.  We get excited about climate change, we want to make change, so we go on an organic shopping spree.  Good effort, but just a bit more of the same, no?  My town, Portland, OR, is chock full of "foodies".  There is really good food here.  I like the care with which food is prepared, but it is just so over the top.  I find it to be interesting that even though many in my city no longer have to truly worry about the basics - food, shelter, water, and clothing - we still obsess over them all with fancy restaurants and culinary schools, LEED Certified millions of dollars buildings, purified water in sleek bottles, and designer cordoroys made of organic cotton.  I'm not sure we're really liberated from these basics if they take up so much of our time.  But I guess life is in the details, huh?

Even if not conscienciously, I really do have such high and unrealistic expectations of the luxuries that life should entail.  I wonder how long it would take me to unlearn that sort of outlook on life.  Even in my progressive, environmentally-minded community I do not seem to be able to find a truly simplified life.  We're all still United Statesians - buying, working, distracting too much.  Just el otro lado de la tortilla, or two sides of the same coin.

So, my question for anyone out there is - How do you feel about the organic consumer culture?  And what is the Decapitator trying to say?!

I'll be making Walnut-Cheddar Harvest Loaf, vegetarian gravy, brussel sprouts, and cabbage salad to take to Thanksgiving this year.  The Harvest Loaf is from the really old cookbook, Diet for a Small Planet . My copy was used when I bought it and now it is totally ratty because of all the use I've given it. The loaf makes a great entree for those of us not indulging in the big bird.  When I've got time and want to impress friends I wrap it in phyllo and it's quite a presentation. 

While I'm cooking I'll be thinking about all the things I'm thankful for this year.  My healthy family, my wonderful friends, the chance to have had three art exhibits this year, and all the wonderful women I know though working at GladRags - customers, co-workers, store buyers, brokers, suppliers, competitiors/compatriots.

Best wishes to everyone for a safe, happy holiday.

-Brenda 

 Walnut-Cheddar Loaf

45 min 15 min prep
2     tablespoons olive oil
2     cups yellow onions, chopped
1     cup black walnuts, coarsely ground
1     cup cheddar cheese, grated
2     tablespoons lemon juice
2     eggs, beaten
2     tablespoons nutritional yeast
1     teaspoon caraway seeds
1 1/4 cups cooked brown rice (1/2 cup uncooked)
    salt
    pepper
1. Preheat oven to 350.
   2. Saute onions in olive oil until translucent.
   3. Mix with remaining ingredients, salt and pepper to taste and put in an oiled loaf pan.
   4. Bake for 30 minutes.

Most of us have a drawer of plastic bags in our kitchen.  In fact, when I was in college there was a space between the refrigerator and where the counter and cabinets ended.  We would shove our shopping bags in there, in the thoughts that we would reuse them.  Alas, 2 years later when we moved out, we had hundreds of plastic bags.  I have gotten a little better and do reuse them and also try and use canvas bags.  

But what to do with those pesky bags that we always somehow end up with.  Well, we here at GladRags are all about reusing and recycling.  And I am all about the crafts.  So my new project for this winter is to create items from my plastic bag stores.   I have found various crafting opportunities for plastic bags.  The most obvious (to me at least) is needle crafts.  Knitting and crocheting can be done with just about any material that can be cut into strips.  Make a recycled plastic bag purse! You can also buy these sorts of plastic bag purses from other people who had too many plastic bags on craft sites like Etsy.  Want some more ideas?  This blog post on Craftzine.com has a whole slew of instructions for plastic bag crafts!  

And yes, that is a plastic bag rooster!

-jodi 

Tonight while my husband and I were cooking dinner we got on the subject of a recent opinion piece in our local paper,The Oregonian, in which our local right wing Bush sycophant columnist, David Reinhard,  was discussing whether or not waterboarding was torture. We both got so upset talking about it we had to calm ourselves down with some deep breaths and a beer. Fortunately the music we were playing was Michael Franti's most recent album "Yellfire". Bruce said, thank goodness for Michael Franti and we went back to making potato-leek soup knowing we aren't alone in this world of craziness we now live in.  

If anything ever happens to Bruce (perish the thought), I am going to hunt down Michael Franti and make him my own! If you don't know his music, find it, listen to it. He is a radical voice for truth and accountability and you can dance like crazy too. His song "To the East, to the West" could solve most of the world's problems. I looooovvvve him! 

 -Brenda

You know when you watch an enlightening documentary on some social ill - global warming, the state of US health care, violence in the US, political corruption - and you are all worked up about the injustice and just can't wait to do something? But wait, there was nothing IN that documentary about doing something; there was just a whole ton of stuff to bring ya down.

Well, I like Leslie Garrett's approach in The Virtuous Consumer better. In this book, Garrett gives readers the practical tools to take those much needed steps towards environmentally-friendly living. We know that global warming is a problem and now we're going to do something about it. But we didn't learn our bad habits in a day and they certainly won't be changed in a day. Garrett is patient with us and encouraging with her easy tips.

From 'Eco-Chic' to 'Celebrations that Save the Earth', Garrett schools us in sustainability. She even interviewed me about GladRags and other menstrual reusables (my name's in the index and everything). I'm one of her Virtuous Consumers Next Door and I, a bit to my embarassment, tell of wearing sea sponge tampons when I wore a dress to a wedding that didn't quite allow for - ahem - GladRags supporting underpants(!).

Read more about Leslie Garret on her site www.virtuousconsumer.com and pick up your own copy of The Virtuous Consumer - make me famous!

Blushing,

Diana

Not sure what to do with all those old plastic bags?

Have a pile of old magazine in the corner of your closet?

Or maybe a lot of empty Diet Coke bottles?

Well now is your chance to make all this trash into wearable art in the Junk to Funk fashion show.  Entries are being accepted until October 17th, so get to it!

This is another installation of how rad Portland is.  I love seeing events where people come together over not only their love for art, but also appreciation for the environment, sustainable living and recycled goods.  Nice work.

The actual event is at the Wonder Ballroom on November 17th.  Check them out: www.junktofunk.org  

-jodi nan 

We've always wanted a celebrity spokesperson for GladRags. I always thought it would be a woman but I'm pretty happy with Bob Dylan. Check out his video for us. Ok, well, it's not really for us. He'll sing for you too. 

Have fun,

Brenda 

So, my friend Miguel called me up Sunday whilst I was mid-move (new home is NoEPo with a deliciously quick walk to work).  He was letting me know that his vegan momma - of greater Dallas, Texas no less - had just picked up one of my most favorite books, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World!  Oh, how I envy her fresh vegan cupcake eyes.  When I bought this gem of a baking guide, I literally baked up 5 separate recipes within 7 days.  I feared a life of unsatisfying sweets as I embarked upon my vegan foray, but Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero showed me the way of cholestorol-free delight.  The smores cupcake is the most decadent one I have yet to bake, with a pho-buttercream frosting that puts every cow to shame.

Veganism is a fun challenge.  It requires creativity to find tasty culinary creations in a non-vegan culture.  This was one of my motivators for trying out the plant-based diet.  Luckily, Isa Chandra Moskowitz exists because she sure makes it fun!  Vegan with a Vengeance taught me not only how to spell 'vengeance' but also that Isa is probably the cutest, funniest cooking writer (and so clear - really good for the non-cooks, i.e. me, out there).  Her Post Punk Kitchen show is perfect for those requiring a visual and Isa just came out with a new one-stop vegan cookbook, Veganomicon. 

Mmm… cupcakes.

Paz,

Diana

Here's a sushi tutorial - vegan style: