The time has come for backyard adventures, for glorious dirt-digging and sowing seeds and dreaming of all the bounty to come. Last year I went all out, utilizing a variety of small-scale garden techniques to maximize my plantable ‘acreage’, without sacrificing the play space for the beasties. It was mostly successful and so much fun, and if you’re interested you can read all about my endeavors here, under ‘Flora’.

But this year . . . this year I’ve got my hands a little full! So I’ve had to scale it back a bit, which is very hard for me to do (but also good practice). This year I’m keeping things mini and manageable – that’s my mantra! I’m hoping the lightened load will free up some time for other outdoor activities of a more aesthetic nature.

So what am I doing then? Well, first things first I planted out my red raised beds!

Couldn’t get rid of my shadow, so I went with it. Peace!

And what did I include? This year I focused solely on my favorites: tomatoes and greens (and some beets for the husband) (and some winter squash because last year was such a squash fail) (okay, so maybe not *solely*, but mostly ‘matoes and greens, yum yum) Specifically:





I’m soooo excited!!! I’v been on a greens binge and pillage the Farmer’s Market each weekend, so I just can’t wait to be picking the goodies out of my own back yard! Mmm, yes yes, it’s gonna be a good summer.

And as you can see in that picture, my fragile asparagus actually [barely] survived the savage scratching of those surly hens. Just when I thought it was a goner (grrr birds!), a single shoot shot up in late spring. So it’s not dead, yay!

And the strawberry patch is also back in full effect. All my propagation really paid off. In fact, here’s the little dude that I featured in the propagation article last year:





Back in the boxes my seeds are starting to sprout. The beets keep popping up another each day, the tomatoes are just now starting to break ground, the kale and the collards are filling in nicely . . . and the pac choi already needs to be thinned!





And that’s about it for veggies this year. Mini and manageable. Of course there’s always the fruit trees and berry bushes and the herbs on the patio. But this year there’s no massive pea patch, no spiny experiments, no potato tire project. Until next year, oh yes, next year . . .

And now I leave you with the cutest of cuteness, a teeny tiny brand new pumpkin plant, still wearing his seed hat:





What about you my friends? What are you growing this year?

Just a quick reminder my dears, this coming Friday is Bike To Work Day – the third Friday in May. This is, of course, in honor of bike month which spans the entire month of May. And serendipitously, all of this relates to the Monthly Mission this May, to drive less!

Alas, I work from home so I won’t be able to participate directly. *But*, I will be sending Damian off on his bike that day, and I encourage – no, beg! – each of you commuters to do the same. And if you’re interested in other events, you can see what’s going on for the rest of the month in your city, here. I must say – I’m jealous! (I’ll be thrilled when Waits is ready for something like this)

Just a friendly reminder from your favorite eco-cheerleader (that’s me!) Happy pedaling!

Hello my dears! It’s the weekend once more, and here in p-town it’s HOT and SUNNY and GORGEOUS! I hope your weekend is as lovely as mine promises to be. But in the midst of getting out there to enjoy the season, don’t forget to stop by for comments, critiques, thoughts, support, and suggestions.

So what’s on your mind this week? What’s got you fired up and excited for life? What do you want to learn about? And what do you want from Bonzai Aphrodite? More food? More fashion? More farm?

As usual, the Feedback Forum will remain here at the top of the page all weekend, so if you’ve got an idea or a question or you just want to introduce yourself and say ‘Oi!’, you can stop back by any time. This is your community, so get involved and have your say!

I hope the weekend leaves you inspired and refreshed!

Two of my favoritest people on the planet recently married each other. I love it when that happens!

It was a gorgeous afternoon, sunny and warm with a mild ocean breeze. An easy evening full of friends and laughter, and music late into the night. Thank you Tommy and Kelly. And mazel tov!








I wore :

• Vintage Minidress: secondhand, and it’s handmade!
• White Cotton Tights: from the amazing Sock Dreams
• Black Cardigan: from Nordstrom, ages and ages ago
• Red Flats: also from Nordstrom, also ages ago

Waits wore his own little wedding number. In case you can’t tell, that’s an ‘All Dressed Up’ tux onesie. He also had matching black booties, not pictured. He’s already got mad style, eh?

Photo booth!

Yeah, they’re everywhere: here here here here and here, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg (cheezeberg?) But I had to add my own interpretation! After having such success at cracking the Alfredo code, it seemed liked the next logical step.

Now for those of you unfamiliar with vegan mac, let me tell you a little secret: you can’t make ‘not-cheese’ actually taste like cheese. It’s just not gonna happen. So before you chow down you need to know what to expect. Mac ‘n cheeZe is a delicious, ooey-gooey comfort food casserole that’s *reminiscent* of mac ‘n cheeSe. It hits all the right nostalgic buttons – super rich and thick and creamy – and sooo much healthier than the real stuff (of course it’s kinder too!)


Ingredients:
1 lb pasta of your choice

medium white onion

1 tablespoon cooking oil

1 tablespoon cooking wine (I used dry vermouth)

2 medium Yukon Gold potatoes (*must* be Yukon Golds!)

1 cup nutritional yeast

1/2 cup Earthbalance™

1/2 cup raw cashews
1 can coconut milk
 (my secret ingredient!)
2 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon black pepper, plus more to your taste level

1 teaspoon miso

dollop of Dijon mustard

1 cup bread crumbs, or more


Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350.

Chop the taters and place in a small pot, covering with water. Boil until tender, 15-20 minutes.

In the meantime, cook pasta according to directions, but leave it a little al dente. While pasta and taters are cooking dice your onion. Place a pan over medium heat and add the oil. Sauté the onion until glassy, then reduce the heat to low and add the wine. Continue to cook until the wine reduces and the onion has browned (NOT burnt! be careful!) Drain the pasta while the onions cook down, and then set it aside.

Place all the ingredients, including the taters and onions, into a food processor or blender. BLEND!

Pour the blended sauce over the pasta and toss to coat. [There will be a lot of sauce and you probably won't need it all. That's okay! It stores well and is great as a chip dip, over baked potatoes, served with artichokes, etc] Transfer the saucy pasta to a casserole dish, add a bit more sauce depending on how ‘wet’ you like it, and cover with bread crumbs. Bake until browned, about 20-25 minutes.

NOM!


So, everyone seems to have their own version of vegan mac. Do you make one? What’s your secret ingredient?

It’s no great secret that I love to color my hair. I’ve written about my many adventures with various hair dyes, and how I came to settle on my current product of choice, Manic Panic. I have no illusions about the ‘natural’-ness of my obsession, but it’s a huge part of who I am and not something I’ll soon give up. So I found my compromise in Manic Panic – it’s vegan, non-toxic, and veggie based. And that was good enough for me.

That is, until I got pregnant. And suddenly I was much more interested in keeping things completely natural (no way was I going to stop dying my hair all together, the horror!) It seemed the perfect time to play with henna, that strange plant powder I’d always eyed but never tried. And so I began experimenting.

‘Henna’ refers to the ground leaves of the plant Lawsonia inermis. These leaves contain the lawsone molecule, which is responsible for imparting that classic dark red dye. To be clear: there is only one color of henna. Anything claiming to be ‘black henna’, ‘brown henna’, ‘blonde henna’, etc, is a compound containing more than the actual plant. Be wary!

In order for the dye to be effective, the lawsone must be liberated. The leaves are purchased dried and ground, and then mixed with acid to coax out the pigment. Common acids are lemon juice, tea, or vinegar. The wet mix is then set aside overnight (6+ hours) while the lawsone renders.

Henna paste after mixing with lemon juice and refrigerating overnight.

Looks like just the kind of thing you’d want to rub into your head, right? Let me tell you, the first time I tried it I was pretty skeptical. It smells funky! And I was sure it was going to turn my hair some horrible shade of green. Just look at that stuff!

But I slopped it on and rubbed it in. They say to let it sit for an hour or so, but I left it for over five (I always do with hair dye). It smelled like earth and dried in crusty brown clumps. My skepticism continued.

This is what my hair looked like prior to the treatment, faded reddish with dirty blonde roots (the shame!):

And after many many hours of musty odored and mud clumpy head, I rinsed it out – certain that it hadn’t done a thing. But I was wrong!

It’s pretty, no? It’s definitely red! And I gotta say, I’m impressed!

So I’m a henna convert now. I used it all throughout my pregnancy (I find that lemon juice acts as a better acid than, say, vinegar). It has great lasting power and barely fades; you need to fix your roots before you ever need a color boost. And of course the best part – it’s completely natural, just a single ingredient!

We even used it to decorate my belly at my baby ‘sprinkle’! (henna dyes skin as well, lasting 1-3 weeks depending on the quality)

That said, I gotta be honest . . . I lasted about 7 weeks postpartum before going back to the old stuff. What can I say, I’m a sucker for bright colors!

So what about you guys? Have you ever henna-ed? What do you think?

Oi oi! I’m back, and man it’s great to be here! And it’s gonna be a great weekend too, don’t you think? So if you remember, here on BA the weekend means it’s time for comments, critiques, thoughts, support, and suggestions.

So what have you been up to for the past few months? Any awesome projects you’ve got cooking? And what have you missed most here on Bonzai Aphrodite? Something from the food? The fashion? The farm?

As usual, the Feedback Forum will remain here at the top of the page all weekend, so if you’ve got an idea or a question or you just want to introduce yourself and say ‘Oi!’, you can stop back by any time. This is your community, so get involved and have your say!

Have a splendid spring weekend, full of fresh blooms!!

I’m *so* excited to share this tutorial! The hardest party about home-brewing kombucha is getting your hands on a SCOBY – it’s either too costly or too hard to find – and I think that’s what stops a lot of folks from getting in on the game. But this is really easy and it really works, which means homemade kombucha is accessible to all!

I’ve written about kombucha in the past, what it is and also how to brew it. I was an avid aficionado until I got pregnant, at which point I decided to play it ‘better safe than sorry’ and put my operation on hold. Unfortunately, during my ten month hiatus my poor SCOBY went kaput!

Now wee Waits is here and I’m ready to re-enter the kombucha arena. I missed it! I missed the DIY satisfaction of it, the mad scientist aspect of it, and the probiotic action of it. That enigmatic elixir does my body good, and I wants it! So here’s what I did :


1. Buy a bottle of RAW, unpasteurized 100% kombucha (no fruit juice added). You will also need – a glass bowl, caffeinated (green or black) tea, sugar, a small towel or wash cloth, a large rubber band, and a glass jar with a plastic lid.





2. In a large, clean glass bowl, place 2 tea bags and 1 tbsp of sugar. Add 2 cups boiling water and allow the tea to steep for 10 minutes.





3. Remove tea bags and stir to make sure sugar is dissolved. Allow to cool a bit, then add the entire bottle of store bought kombucha.





4. Cover with the towel and secure it with the rubber band. Place the bowl in a warm dry place (I put it on top of my fridge) and forget about it for 2 whole weeks. No peeking!

— 2 weeks later —

Take the bowl down and uncover it. OMG, you totally grew a SCOBY!








Store your SCOBY in the fridge, in a clean glass jar with a plastic lid and floating in the extra liquid. Brew kombucha according to these directions. ***Always handle the SCOBY with very clean hands!!!





Good luck!

There’s a bit of a meme floating about the internets right now, with vegan bloggers posting mini food diaries. Anyone who’s been vegan for more than a few days has faced the question, “So what DO you eat?!” (by the way: answer). These little 3-day food diaries are a great way of de-mystifying veganism. The truth is, we eat the same ol’ stuff as all of you omni’s out there. No biggie.

At this very moment I’m on a crazy elimination diet for breastfeeding, in hopes that it may help relieve the Wee Mr. Rebhal of some of his gas pains. So my current diet is not very balanced, or interesting. And last weekend we celebrated Damian’s birthday (we do birth weekends – sometimes entire birth weeks – instead of piddly birthdays), which was also not at all reflective of what I normally eat. So I’m going all the way back to last week. And actually, I was away from home visiting family, so even this is not my standard fare (it’s much more carb-heavy, and MUCH more sugar, than I usually eat). But oh well, so you get to see how a vegan eats when traveling!


Wednesday, 28 April 2010

• Breakfast – Kasha (buckwheat groats) with Earthbalance™, salt, and agave.
• Snack – Whole wheat toast with peanut butter and agave.
• Lunch – Tomato soup with olive oil + rosemary + sea salt crackers. Side salad with tomato, cucumber, and avocado, with Goddess dressing.
• Dinner – Split pea soup. Sourdough with dipping oil (lemon olive oil + balsamic vinegar). Big salad with black beans, corn, tomatoes, black olives, hearts of palm, and pepitas, tossed in vinaigrette.
• Dessert – A couple squares of dark chocolate. Peach herbal tea.

Thursday, 29 April 2010

• Breakfast – Sourdough toast with peanut butter + agave (2 pieces). Earl Grey tea with almond milk +agave.
• Snack – 2 blood oranges.
• Lunch – Big salad with brown rice, tomatoes, carrots, guacamole, and grilled tofu, with tahini dressing. Fresh made veggie juice with carrot, beet, and celery.
• Snack – Coconut chocolate chip cookie.
• Dinner – Half an artichoke. Moroccan lentil soup. Vegan cesar salad.
• Dessert – Apple pie.

Friday, 30 April 2010

• Breakfast – Oatmeal with almond milk + agave. Peach herbal tea.
• Lunch – Veggie sammich with roasted red pepper, onion, tomato, cucumber, green onion sprouts, and avocado, on whole grain bread. Small green salad with balsamic. Side of grilled fingerling potatoes with ketchup.
• Snack – Peanut butter chocolate chip cookie. Decaf frapuccino, from Starbucks (*had* to try the new vegan fraps!)
• Dinner – Thai food! Panang curry with tofu. Yakisoba noodles with mixed veggies.
• Dessert – 2 chocolate chip cookies.

Here’s ‘the assignment’ from Vegan.com. For other 3-day food diaries, check out the girl who started the meme, and this response, and also this one, and this one. And of course, there’s always the Livejournal community, vegan_foodblog.

Are you veg*n? What does a typical day of eating look like for you?

On the first Monday of every month, we take on a ‘mission’ – a shift or habit or inspiration – to work on together. There’s strength (and support) in numbers! On the last Thursday of the month, we reconvene to see how far we’ve come.







I’m baaaaAAAAAck! Did you guys miss me? I sure missed you all! Today Waits is 2 months old exactly, and I can’t believe how quickly the time has passed. Ain’t he a cutie-pie? Maternity leave has been a total blast, but now I’m sooooo excited to get back to blogging!

And how better to jumpstart our community, than with a challenging new MMM?

High atop my vintage Schwinn, ‘Althea’. Summer 2008.

#11


Let’s talk transportation. We all know that gas-powered vehicles are an environmental nightmare, but it can be hard to break out of such a convenient (and let’s face it – comfortable) habit. The truth is, if you really want to cut your carbon footprint, transport is key – in terms of impact it’s second only to going veg*n.

So in honor of springtime and the sunshine that it brings (perfect for vehicle-free transportation), I challenge you to rethink how you get around. Could you alter your errands to stay within a bike-friendly zone? Could you jog around your neighborhood instead of driving to the gym? Could you walk to work, or to the coffee shop, or to the drug store? Could you do your grocery shopping with a friend, for the company *and* the car share? Could you catch the bus to school? Could you ride the subway to dinner? Could you set up an office carpool? Could you rollerblade to brunch?

As you can see, the possibilities for change are endless. And they really add up!

Personally, I do own a car. But I do the vast majority of my ‘moving’ by other means. I do my grocery shopping daily, by foot (while walking the dogs). I walk a lot actually, and it’s a great way for Waits to experience the world. I used to ride my bike everywhere, which gave me an even greater range, but that’s out until this baby gets a bit bigger.

These days my car averages 1 tank of gas per month, almost exactly on the nose. I fill it up around the 1st, and it takes about 4 weeks to get down near ‘empty’. So my personal goal for this MMM is to cut that in half. I intend to use only 1/2 a tank of gas this month! If I can make that my standard I’ll be sittin’ pretty, don’t you think?

Damian and I rockin’ the bike helmets. Safety first! haha. Summer 2008.

The bike basket during an afternoon of errand-running. Summer 2008.

So, what could *YOU* do to curb your emissions in the transportation arena? And do you choose to accept this mission??