"The Perennial Plate" online series about local food

I discovered this great online video series about eating local foods, called The Perennial Plate, of videos via Lee Zukor at the blog Simple, Good and Tasty. This episode gives some lovely ideas for how to use that stuff in your CSA box! I'm going to try the pickling chard stems, the fennel slaw, and making the pesto with carrot tops (I did not know they were edible!!!).

Shop local during the recession

As I was driving home, I heard a story on MPR about how some predict that Wal-mart and Costco are going to do well this Christmas because of the recession. That ticked me off. I will continue to buy from local artists or businesses so that what tiny fraction of the wealth I have to spread around goes to people who live here or make things here.

Coming up after Thanksgiving is the No Coast Craft '08 Craft-0-Rama, Friday Dec 5 and Sat Dec 6, 9-5, at the Midtown Global Market. On Sat. at 2 there will be a team competition called the Craft-a-thon! There will be four-person teams and their challenge will be to take the material given them and "upcycle" them into something on the spot. I may have to go just for that. It's free to browse, and of course there are all the yummy things one can eat at the market, especially the sweet and savory pastries at The Salty Tart.

The Craft-o-Rama vendors are listed here. I like these tote bags made from recycled vinyl billboards at Drive-By Bags, especially a yellow one. One of the artists who will be featured is Amy Rice. I love her work and I'm seriously thinking of buying something, although the big pieces really aren't in my budget; I'm hoping she has some smaller prints at the event. We saw a show of hers at Cafe Barbette and fell in love with her stenciled paintings on wood and metal.

The New Standards

The New Standards is a group I saw last year at the Dakota. They are totally awesome, as the kids say. The group is a collaboration between John Munson (bassist/vocalist, of the bands Trip Shakespeare and Semisonic), Chan Poling (grand piano/vocals, maybe best known as member of The Suburbs, but also a composer for Theatre de la Jeune Lune among others), and Steve Roehm (muy hot on the vibraphone).
Ana, Jose and I went to see a free show they gave as part of the Walker's Free First Saturday activities. The guys are phenomenal live--we were treated to a mix of the songs on their CD, and some new songs. The parents bopped along to songs they knew, and the kids were almost as much fun to watch as the band. They opened with a cover of Lucinda Williams' Essence (!) with one "judicious edit" for the youthful audience, and went on to perform songs by Beck, David Bowie (or was it Mott the Hoople?) Curtis Mayfield, Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks, and The Replacements. Also new to me was their arrangement of Outkast's "Hey Ya" (the kid next to us said "I know that song!") that had the beat of the original, but also went to town on those great chords shifts of the two "Hey yas" (such a simple lick, but so gorgeous). They put a different spin on the "shake it, shake it" with Munson almost whispering the lyrics. I hope they are about to release another recording. I'll definitely try to see them again at their next gig in town.