Friday, July 24, 2009

Favorite Things #1

Happy Friday!

I am so excited to be writing this post today. I have stumbled upon the most beautiful knives ever. We are so lucky to have two of them! The company who creates them, New West KnifeWorks, is in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. It just so happens that I am photographing an incredible wedding in Jackson Hole next week, and I get to have lunch with Corey Milligan, who designs the knives. I hope to be able to photograph their place and put it on the blog.

These knives are spectacular - they are completely gorgeous, perfectly balanced, and cut like nobody's business. We have the requisite Henckles knives at home, and one Wustoff, which up until now I have thought were pretty great, but really, I had no idea what I was missing.

Here they are. They come beautifully packaged in leather sheaths:





The high carbon stainless steel blades are made in Japan by The Hitachi Company, and sent to blacksmiths in Seki, Japan to be ground and hand-finished:



The handles are just amazing. They were, up until this year, created in their shop in Jackson Hole, but recently, they have moved their handle finishing to Seki as well. The knives I am showing here are from the Fusionwood Chef Knives line. The photos simply do not do justice to these knives. They are truly works of art....

Santoku:


Chef 8:


We will also be posting more about these amazing tools on the Meals At Home Blog, in the coming weeks. Celeste and I are going to do some knife skills demos, so be sure and watch for that! Meanwhile, sans any official knife skills, here is Fred putting the knives to the ultimate test: The Cutting Of The Tomato...

Heirloom Black Krim Tomato from the garden (YUM - my favorite of the year!):



Slicing Like BUTTAH!



XOXOXO
Yvette

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Live From The Mar Vista Farmer's Market




It's been a while since my last post...I was ill with pneumonia, which put the brakes on everything, including the garden! Nonetheless, all is well and BTL is back in force!

The Mar Vista Neighborhood Council granted a Farmer's Market booth to the Green Committee, and I am lucky to be representing Beyond The Lawn today to answer questions about home vegetable gardens. With me today is GoSolar, Mar Vista. James and John founded this group with the goal of transforming Mar Vista into a 100% clean electricity community by 2018. They have started a community solar program for residents to organize purchasing / leasing for group solar discounts. There is an event on Saturday, July 25 at 6pm, at 12024 Venice Blvd. to kick off the program with Councilman Bill Rosendahl. Be sure to get there early as our fabulous local restaurant The Curious Palate is providing hors d'oeuvres!!



Also happening this week is the Water Wise Use Expo:

Learn easy ways to save water and money in your own home.

The CD11 Empowerment Congress Environmental Committee invites you to their Wise Water Use Expo. The event is co-hosted by the Mar Vista Community Council Green Committee & Venice Neighborhood Council Environmental Committee.

The event will be held on July 21st at the Mar Vista Recreation Center. Table presentations will begin at 6:00 pm and speaker presentations will be from 7:00 to 9:00 pm.

The evening is designed to further awareness of the drought crisis that we face as a community and provide information and tools to embrace water conservation. There will be three guest presenters who will then offer a panel discussion and Q&A.

Water conservation information tables will provide information, give aways and exciting water solution raffle items:

Aqua~Flo has donated a smart sprinkler controller
Ballona Institute has donated a $25 gift certificate for merchandise at the Shallow Water Nature Store in Playa del Rey
EcoRain has donated a Double Tank & Downspout Filter to infiltrate water from the roof via a downspout
Gardenerd has donated a 1-hour vegetable garden consultation
Gary's Greenery has donated 2 one hour home consults on sustainable landscape design
G3LA has donated 2 tickets to their Ocean Friendly Garden
Workshop
Ironweed Films has donated copies of the films “Running Dry” and “The American Southwest: Are we Running Dry?”
RainBud has donated a rain barrel
Kohler has donated a dual flush toilet and low flow showerheads
L.A. Rainwater Harvesting Program has donated an early adopter rain barrel hook up
Smart Faucet has donated two water saving faucets
Surfrider Foundation has donated an on-site landscape assessment and hands-on help
Sustainable Solutions has donated two Caroma dual flush toilets
Sustainable Works has donated a tote bag filled with eco solutions
Theodore Payne has donated a one year membership which provides a 10% discount as well as books on Theodore Payne and California Wildflowers
TreePeople has donated two tickets for their summer series at S. Mark Taper Foundation Amphitheatre in Coldwater Canyon Park


Guest presenters are:

Ed Begley, Jr. – actor, author and environmental activist. As environmental issues become more pressing, there are two possible responses: forget it and hope that government and corporations will figure it out, or take action yourself. In the “take action yourself” camp, a few individuals are leading the way. One such person in California is Ed Begley, Jr. Environmental lawyer and long-time friend, Bobby Kennedy, Jr. has said “Ed has a greater sense of social obligation than anyone I know. He’s like a West Coast cadet who gets up every morning and says ‘reporting for duty’”.

Kevin O'Donnell of thread collaborative, a sustainable design strategist and presenter for Al Gore’s Climate Project. Kevin was trained by Al Gore to give his An Inconvenient Truth slide show. As a member of the non profit group, The Climate Project, he presents customized versions focused on the relationship between buildings, landscaping and climate change.

Green Gardens Group LA (G3LA) – G3's focus is to change the paradigm of the beautiful Southern California landscape from the water and resource-guzzling gardens of today to the climate- and place- appropriate sustainable ideal of tomorrow. Their organization is devoted to educating homeowners, design professionals, and the local community in the latest eco-restorative landscape techniques and promoting the principles of low-impact development.

The Council District 11 Empowerment Congress was organized by Los Angeles City Councilman Bill Rosendahl to bring together the genius, the energy, and the commitment of our neighborhood leaders. The 11th District is bounded by Mulholland Drive on the north, the Pacific Ocean on the west, Imperial Highway on the south, and (roughly) the 405 Freeway on the east. It encompasses the distinct communities of Brentwood, Del Rey, Mar Vista, Marina del Rey, Pacific Palisades, Palms, Playa del Rey, Playa Vista, Venice, West LA and Westchester.



XOXO
Yvette