meat flakes!
if you thought that bacos were revolutionary, you will be flabbergasted when you try gyu toro flakes. the brainchild of hokkaido-based tokachi slow foods, gyu toro flakes are made from cows raised on “physiologically optimal feed” and are said to taste like o toro fatty tuna! i am sold!
imagine eating these sprinkled over some steamy rice, or scrambled eggs? rarrrr.
now i just have to figure out the website. from what i can decipher, you can purchase a 200g container for 2100 yen or about $19.91.
www.gyutoro.com! who knew?!!
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Lightsaber Chopsticks
Finally!
PicoCool - Lightsaber Chopsticks
And you know how I feel about chopsticks. They would be better if they weren’t made of plastic, but if you’re gonna reuse them instead of throwing away 25 billion disposable chopsticks a year, I am down.
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Disk of Sausage
I am truly, truly intrigued by this “disk of sausage” that I heard Duff Goldman of Ace of Cakes talking about:
I don’t even know if that is an actual picture of it - to be honest, I don’t think it is - but I really need to try it. The pic is deceiving because it looks more like a regular pizza, whereas Duff explained that the DOS is an actual 14 inch round slab of sausage mascarading as a pizza. They serve it at Gino’s East in Chi-town. Might have to take a trip there soon…
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Top 11 Things I Loved About Portugal Besides Being Robbed by a Gypsy
Okay. You guys all told me to be careful and that Portugal was filled with pickpockets but I didn’t heed your warnings. Why? The people all seem so nice and no one has ever tried to rob me before! Except for that one time at gunpoint, but all they got was my homephone (without the charging dock suckers!).
Anyhow, color me wrong for not listening to you. In a open and airy plaza of all places, I see a guy in shades look like he’s trying to touch my sister so I grab his hand to stop him. The surprise? He’s already holding her green wallet (the one that was in her zipped bag) in his hand!!! All I can do is squeeze superhard and yell at the top of my lungs.
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FOOD INC.: IT’S A MOVIE ABOUT FOOD
photo courtesy of the daily green
I woke up extra hungry this morning, and what did I see in my inbox? An invite to see FOOD, Inc.
As you all know, I’ve been having issues about what I eat - mainly not being such a food-whore and eating everything that lay in my path indiscriminately - so this should be good for me.
Peep the trailer —>
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another reason why queens is better than brooklyn: studio square beer garden in astoria
did you know that queens used to have roughly 300 beer gardens? how did that crazy robust selection get pared down to a measly 1?!!!
historians blame both prohibition and people being afraid to patronize places that celebrated german culture. luckily for us (largely due to the movie “beerfest”, we’re over that period of temporary insanity and ready to rock with a second beer garden opening in astoria this thursday! studio square is about 30,000 sq. feet and seats about 1,000 people. i wondered how the space, having such a large footprint, would be offsetting some of the enormous waste that it is sure to be creating and gave them a call. the friendly guy who answered the phone wasn’t sure, but he referred me to the owners, so i’ll be reporting as soon as i hear back.
while it’s not clear whether astoria’s existing beer garden, bohemian beer hall, is threatened by the new addition or not (if anything, they might be somewhat relieved at a second spot to clear up congestion? - okay, probably not), i’m hoping that if studio square does have more sustainable practices, us beerhugging nyc treehuggers can show it some love, carrot mob style.
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ditch the saran wrap with the reusable boc’n roll sandwich wrapper!
no matter how eco-conscious we say we are, it’s awful tempting to just throw our lunches in saran wrap, foil or sandwich bags when we’re on the run. and it’s even more difficult to avoid paper wrappers, plastic bags and other waste when ordering lunch at subway, quizno’s or your local deli.
image courtesy of iconocast
luckily, the folks at marca diferencia felt our pain, and created boc’n roll, a reusable, washable, wipeable mat that can be used to transport joey tribbiani’s favorite food. yes, the boc’n roll is named for the bocadillo (that’s spanish for sandwich) but it can just as easily be used to wrap up other snacks like cookies, crackers and burritos. try to steer clear of soup - it’s not that advanced.
the boc’n roll en acción:
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$28 a week and failing miserably
for all of you who have been inquiring about my $28 a week post, please cease with your pitying glances and offers to take me to lunch/donate leftover pita bread and hummus to me (unless it’s edamame hummus – my fave!)
i am happy to report that i am now gainfully gainpartly employed at codegreen solutions, and not so happy to report that i have been going over my allotted budget for 3 weeks straight now.
although it is difficult to pinpoint what exactly has been putting me over the edge, this 14K gold melting love ring that i bought from yayoi forest may be a clue. (in urkel-esque voice) did i do that?
in fact, i am ashamed to say that i have been relapsing to my piggish ways quite a bit since finding a new job. is it possible that what happened to alternative energy as soon as gas prices came down is now plaguing me on a much smaller scale?
luckily, although there were a few splurges here and there, i was able to eat nothing but 99 cent cans of corn and soup for about 3 days. note to anyone who is seriously strapped for cash – 1 can of soup can go a loooong way. don’t allow campbell’s to tell you that you can only make two servings. i successfully squeezed 5 large bowls of soup out of one tiny can by just adding water and salt. just be prepared to divvy up the already meager 7 pieces of carrot that come in a can a bit further.
in any case, i am going to do my best to get back on track being a responsible piggy. that being said, i’m amending “$28 a week” to “$33 a week.” wish me luck!
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free gmail stickers courtesy of google!
true, these stickers are made out of paper (i’ve contacted google to see if they’re recycled), but email reduces SO much of our paper use that we can afford to pay a little homage to it.
i am such a sucker for unicorns…
send your self-addressed stamped envelope (along with a note if you’re so inclined) to:
Send me some Gmail stickers already
P.O. Box 391420
Mountain View, CA 94039-1420
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recession stew
with my impending last day of work looming over me, my survival instincts have finally kicked in. gone are the days of multi-cheese purchases at murray’s. i’ll be sticking with kraft singles for the time being, or maybe even america’s choice (cringe).
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luckily, my favorite soup in the world, corned beef and cabbage stew, is also cheap as heck. a simple analysis proves that this brokeman’s broth is actually cheaper than an item off of the mcdonald’s dollar menu. behold:
cabbage (chopped up into big chunks): $1.29
corned beef: $1.89 for a can
noodles (wide, elbow or orrechiette): i purchased mine for 98¢, but they’ll usually run you a good $1.29 so let’s just use that figure
water: free
salt & pepper: free (from mcdonald’s when i stopped in there to ogle the dollar menu)
fill a large pot with 6 cups of water and bring to boil. then drop in the cabbage. after 3 minutes, drop in the pasta and cook for as long as the package specifies. lastly, drop in the corned beef, season with salt and pepper and cook for another 3 minutes.
the total comes out to $4.47, but will feed 6 people. 75¢ a head!
if you want to be really fancy, you can drop in some mini mozzarella balls or tofu.
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what to do with all those leftovers
i ☆ this idea from danielle spencer’s turkey-shaped jell-o® mold competition, but it’s just as easy to do without a turkey shaped mold.
just layer all of your leftovers in your favorite rectangular or round baking pan, sprinkle a little bit of shredded cheese between each layer to bind them all and bake covered with foil at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. you can even cut your meta-turkey into single servings and freeze them - homemade tv dinner!
other winners for your viewing enjoyment:
bubby’s matzoh turkey
kimchi turkey
califurkey roll
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food pyramid lunch box
brilliant!
thanks to http://labexp.blogspot.com/ for the images.
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i’m in love with a planter (to the tune of t-pain’s “i’m n luv wit a stripper”)
got the body of a potter
got a smooth, minimalistic silhouette, i see you
droppin’ low
comin down from the ceiling
to tha flo
yea she know what she doin’
yea yea yea
she doin that right thang
yea yea yea yea ea
i need to get her over to my crib and do that planting thang
cause i’m in love wit a planter
she droppin’ she drippin’ she usin’ (80% less water than a conventional planter)
she savin’ valuable floor space
i’m n luv with a planter
she drippin’ she swayin’ she swayin’
i’m not goin’ nowhere girl i’m stayin’
i’m in love with a planter
check out boskke’s new sky planter (minus the sad excuse for song lyrics) here.
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byob op: bring their own bags or pay
anyone who has shopped recently at euro furniture superstore ikea has noticed that the plastic bags there are not free. has that deterred people from using them? the short answer is heyl yah! 92% or approximately 64 million less ikea bags were used last year. talk about results!
not to be left in the dust yet again by the rest of the world (ahem: metric system), new york city mayor michael bloomberg has proposed a tax on plastic bags across our city. if the proposal passes, that means that you will save 6 cents on every bag you decide not to take at grocery stores and other retailers. it’s just the extra nudge that people who ask for a plastic bag for a stick of gum or a bag of chips (you know who you are) need to think, yes think, for a moment about whether or not they really must have a bag in order to carry their purchases home.
of the 6 cents, 5 cents will go to the city and 1 cent will go to the participating store as an incentive fee. officials estimate that the plan will generate $16 million a year for our city, which is not too shabby. what they may have forgotten in their calculations is that new yorkers are pretty good at taking action when they know their hard earned bucks are at stake. i estimate/hope that we will actually use less plastic bags even if the city makes less money.
here are some reusable bag options that i’m feeling right now:
baggu bags in a rainbow of colors. the muted jewel tones are very en vogue right now.
flip and tumble’s easy to roll up bags
greenworldbags are sturdy and come in fun patterns
skn has cute designs like tomato and blueberry and will plant a tree for every bag you buy!
shagbags come with cute pouches and have cinches to hold all of your belongings safely inside.
shoutout to dave h for hooking me up with the story.
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paperless recession specials
these deals are perfect for these uncertain economic times and you don’t even have to print them out! just text the paperless coupon to yourself and show the cashier on your cell.
free bean burrito or taco when you buy one at taco bell
free order of burgers ($15 value) with purchase of specialty drink in lounge at pop burger
88¢ falafel sandwiches at snackalicious
free pitcher of beer with 5 or more friends at wicked willy’s
deals courtesy of 8coupons.com
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why is this a site?
swyyne has always been an experiment for me. with all of the other super eco sites out there, i've been feeling like i want to contribute something just a bit different. so for now, here are my random musings.
look for stuff
feed yourself
