Author: cpgrisold

This salad is courtesy of my friend J who made it last night and sent me a pic that looked so delicious, I asked for the recipe!

You will need:

– can of cooked lentils, drained and rinsed
– red onion
– celery
– cucumber
– carrot
– red and/or green pepper

To season (quantities to taste):

– Italian parsley
– 1 or 2 garlic cloves, crushed
– lemon juice (real lemon not Real Lemon lol)
– olive oil
– Club House Vegetable Seasoning
– S&P

Chop all the veg into small pieces, mix with the lentils, add the seasoning. Stir thoroughly to cover everything. Refrigerate overnight for best flavour immersion. Serve cold.

Yum!

x

You will need:

– Savoy cabbage
– 2 onions
– can of butter beans
– can of pigeon beans
– can of water chestnuts
– 900mL carton of organic veg stock
– 1/4 teaspoon each: mustard powder, coriander seeds, chopped cilantro
– S&P, chilli flakes (optional)

Sweat chopped onions in bottom of pot with a spot of oil. Add chopped cabbage, and a splash of the stock to deglaze the pan, cover and let cabbage leaves shrivel a bit. Then add the beans and chestnuts (all drained – chestnuts chopped in half). Pour in the stock, add your spices, and cover with water. Bring to boil for like 20-30mins, then switch to low-medium until the veg are all soft. Add S&P before serving, and chilli flakes if you find it too mellow.

This is not a powerfully-flavoured soup. Meant to just be a nice light Winter lunch; best devoured on those days-after-a-hangover when you’re trying to ease back into your proper healthy routine, but can’t really stomach too much. The Savoy cabbage has a sweeter flavour, I find, than mundane green cabbage. And the chestnuts provide a good texture contrast since they do not become soft like the beans.

Serve with bread & unsalted butter, and an English ale, unless you’re on a candida cleanse, or can’t be bothered to walk the 15mins to the LCBO at Bloor West Village, of course!

Enjoy,

x

This is such a cute happy song, guaranteed to cheer you up and make you dance down the street as you sing it to yourself in your head. Or maybe that’s just me. Click here to watch the video on YouTube.

Here’s the chorus:

Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag
And bury them beneath the sea
I don’t care what the people may say
What the people may say about me
Pack up your troubles, get your old grin back
Don’t worry ’bout the cavalry
I don’t care what the whisperers say
‘Cause they whisper too loud for me

Happytimes,

x

ps. Marge Simpson [to Homer] “That’s your solution to everything – go live under the sea!”

What You Need To Know About Bamboo & Hemp Eco-Wear

Last night my boyfriend asked me why I’d want to wear a piece of bamboo. Talking about eco-friendly clothing, I told him how Canadian designers are making more items from sustainable materials, such as bamboo, readily available to environmentally-conscious consumers. I wouldn’t be wearing a piece of bamboo, I said, but my new white t-shirt from Bamboo Clothes Canada is woven from bamboo fibre. And the Lark Wrap Dress I ordered from Passenger Pigeon is made from a bamboo/cotton knit. I’m getting one in black and one in a fun red print.

Not only is bamboo the world’s fastest-growing plant, reaching full maturity in three to five years, it is grown without harmful chemicals and pesticides. Often bamboo clothing is made from a blend of bamboo fibres and organic cotton. Unfortunately, organic cotton fields produce on average only three-quarters the yield of conventional cotton, and can cost up to 35% more in production expenses. Without the demand for and equal profitability from quality eco-friendly clothing, it is not surprising manufacturers choose the conventional route. Did you know that conventional cotton production is one of the leading contributors of chemical pesticide pollution?

If you’re like me and want to do your part to better our environment by lessening your contribution towards its growing detriment, then “eco-wear” may be for you.

Bamboo is not the only fibre used in the creation of ecologically-friendly fashion – hemp has been used for years to make rope, paper, food and clothing. It is the most durable nature fibre we have. Due to its relation to marijuana, hemp is often misjudged and ignored as a viable alternative to environmentally-damaging materials. Like bamboo, hemp is grown in an environmentally-friendly manner – chemical pesticides are not used, and minimal water is required.

There’s more to hemp fashion than “flower-child” flowing skirts and beaded necklaces – how about Organic Hemp Jeans from Rawganique, made with certified organic European hemp fibre. Oqoqo eco-friendly workout clothing made with, among other fibres, their “Hempcious” premium hemp fabric, can be found at lululemon athletica shops throughout Canada.

More Canadian designers currently using environmentally-friendly fibres in their clothing include Twice Shy, Grace & Cello, Lela Designs, and for that special little someone in your life, Sage Creek Canada designs baby clothes out of only 100% organic cotton.

When eco-shopping there is much to take into consideration – beyond just the lack of pesticides used in growing plants like bamboo and hemp. What about harmful dyes? The impact of transporting bamboo grown in China to North America, where it is manufactured into eco-chic apparel, is often overlooked. While I’d love to live entirely “everything-friendly,” I always return to my favourite quote from Machiavelli’s The Prince that basically says it’s bad to ignore the way things are for the way they should be – we can’t all live on Rawganique’s Denman Island. But we can make smarter choices.

Canadian designers Me to We: [Responsible Style] go beyond eco-wear by providing ethically-manufactured quality clothing and apparel for not only the environmentally-aware but socially-conscious consumer. Along with using 100% certified organic bamboo and cotton, Me to We uses sweatshop-free manufacturing and donates 50% of its profits to Free The Children.

Now that’s eco-fabulous.

(Article written by me. Originally published in Life Peak Magazine’s November/December 2007 edition. For more info on the magazine, click here. Some of the info on designers may be outdated by now. The article is posted on Coco Hobo: The Blog for writing example only.)

Namaste,

x

Half-legged men perched on the edge
of archaic wheelchairs
scattered along the sidewalk
or under the tattered awning
of the long-term care
perched, parched
crowing across the street to me
and that red-carpet restaurant

This is the gentrification
of Leslieville

This is the Gentry
fried

This is Carrie Bradshaw on crack
smoking with dire need outside Jimmie Simpson
crying stinging-hot tears
burning, browning
her leathery visage

And let’s not forget
the rat she found this morning
(in her yard or her bed,
does it matter?)

All’s fair at the fair of life
the Queen’s fare in the East
where you get what you pay for
once you cross Berczy’s bridge
that brown river

coursing, disappearing, trembling, returning

This is your gentrification of Riverside
not mine

That was our Gentry
long since fried

Leonard Cohen
could do them better justice than I

~ c.p.grisold