Last Night's Dinner

Another gathering with good friends

Appetizer by Ken

My Beef Curry with Bamboo shoots and Thai Basils

Soy Sauce Chicken by Grandma W

Beautiful Fruit Tart by Parker

Enjoying my dessert with a cup of expresso

A delicious meal and a good time!

*****

Thank you for a lovely evening :)

Grassroots Green

I spent most of my weekend at Great Lakes Folk Festival 2010 in downtown East Lansing. It was a lot of fun and a rich experience -- music, culture, food, art, and people -- all came together. The new addition to the festival this year was the Grassroots Green program. The program was meant to encourage people to think about sustainability.

The Green Arts Marketplace featured creators and vendors of products that reuse and recycle; such as aluminum can jewelry, T-shirt quilts, furniture, pop tab purses, metal sculpture, food packaging bags, and many more.

The festival also featured a local and sustainable foods area, books and presentations with themes of sustainability and children’s activities that incorporate recycled and natural materials.

Local and Sustainable

Green Kitchen Stage
Featuring food demonstration, canning, fermentation, vegan & raw food, beekeeping, green smoothies from the garden, and more.

Demo: Putting food up through canning

:)

Fermentation Demo - Sauerkraut

Beekeeping Presentation,
by members of the Center of Michigan Beekeepers (COMB)

It was quite fascinating!

Finally, we got the honey.

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For more information, please go to MSU Museum web page.

The Pertfect Pie

Another nice evening with friends, and their families.
Great food and good company.

Dinner is served.

Caipirinha (Cachaca, sugar and lime)

Vegetable Tempura

Grandma W cooked the best tempura! Tasty, light, and crispy.
Fresh leaves from her garden,
basil, parsley, chrysanthemum, and shiso -- with perfect batter.
Not your regular tempura!

Braised beef cheek, with shiitake mushroom, gobo, carrot, and taro

Spinach, soy sauce mixture, and toasted sesame seeds

Malaysian chicken curry

Granma W's strawberry pie
Fresh, local, and organic strawberries.
With whip cream made from fresh organic milk.

Really really good!

My pie queen :)
Thanks to her delicious cooking, we had such a good time!

French press to go with a piece of pie

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The boys :)

Upcoming "Grassroots Green" at Great Lakes Folk Festival

Annually, Great Lakes Folk Festival -- held by Michigan State University Museum -- showcases the traditional cultural treasures of the nation's Upper Midwest and a sampling of the best of traditional artists from around the country and the world. This year, the unique fusion of arts fair, music festival, county fair, multi-ethnic festival, hands-on activity workshops and celebration of cultural heritage will be held Aug 13-15, 2010 in downtown East Lansing.

As part of summer celebration, I always look forward to this event, and has a great time enjoying the richness of music, dance, arts and culture from across America and around the world. But I am excited to learn that there is a new addition to the existing programs and activities of the festival. This year, the Michigan State University Museum will host a variety of tradition-bearers who carry on traditions that help restore, conserve and revitalize the planet.

Presentations, demonstrations and activities that feature citizen groups and individuals who engage in green occupations, environmental activism, organic gardening, recycled arts and folk wisdom—will share information, ideas and activities that will help us consider the environment in the ways we live. The Grassroots Green Program will offer an array of ways in which people are choosing the green life in several areas throughout the Great Lakes Folk Festival grounds.

Among those is Green Arts Marketplace -- the venue where craftspeople making functional and beautiful art and objects from recycled materials will be featured, the first of its kind in the area! Here are a few examples of arts that will be shown and sold at the event:

Artists
- Blue Moon Soap, Michelle K. Corbeil
- Broom Winder, Henry Tschetter
- Brown Joey Designs, Cori Thackery
- Cangles, Shannon Rose, Jewelry made from aluminum cans
- Carla Iansiti, bags from recycled food packaging
- Clamored, Jaclyn Dreyer
- Empty Nest, Lisa Portenga, typewriter ewelry
- Forest Concepts, Sara Jo Cash
- Jay Prosch-Jensen, metal sculpture
- The Little Craft Closet, Nichole Drysdale
- Mecca, Marcy Gruzien
- Recyclica: repurpose driven design, furniture from skiis
- Rewoven Designs
- Rico Oeste, recycled furniture
- Runaway Creations
- recycled wine bottles
- Rocknrecycle Purses, recycled album covers
- Sarah Roemer- Hand Made, recycled pop tab purses
- Second Life Studio, Kate Hetzel
- Shrunk Woolery, Jessica
- Smittens, Susan Cappon
- Sweet Plum Vintage, Cara and Karen
- Tin Aviary, Zabby Cox
- Too Cool T-shirt Quilts, Andrea Funk
- Weird Sisters Fine Arts Studio, Robert Fitzke

Other Green Vendors
-Pisat Solar-Smart Car
-Solar Circle
-Solar Works, LLC

See you there!

NOTE: All the information, as well as the logo artwork courtesy of MSU Museum web site. Republished with permission.

1st Birthday

It's a party to celebrate Kinley's 1st birthday!

Kinley loves Tinket Bell, so her parents - Carri & Ryan,
had a lovely Tinker Bell party for her.
Cakes are from Pirate and Princess Bakery.

Chocolate, and coconut cupcakes..
They are so cute and delicious.

And Kinley has her very own cake.

She definitely loves the cake!

Happy 1st Birthday Kinley.

Dinner and Jazz

It's JazzFest weekend in Old Town Lansing. I got together with my friends, Lynne and Beth, having dinner, catching up, and enjoying the magic of Jazz. It's Lansing JazzFest's 16th year. This two-day FREE music festival brings national, regional, and local acts to an audience of roughly 15,000 people from across Michigan and nearby states.

We had a light dinner, Beth cooked up a nice pot of Zarzuela -- a Catalan stew-like seafood soup with fish and crustaceans, that resembles the French bouillabaisse and the Italian cioppino. The soup is light and delicious. we had ciabatta bread to go with the dish, along with olive antipasto.

And we really enjoyed Beth's roasted beet salad, with crumbled gorgonzola cheese, and pecans.

After dinner, we headed out for some Jazz music. It was a beautiful night in Lansing Old Town.

At the end of the night, we made a visit to our favorite Mama Bear's Cafe, for latte and sweet treats. So glad they're opened late for JazzFest goers.

Eclair, mini pacan tart, and keylime pie

Brownie and 7-layer bar

Taste of Thai

I've known, and eaten at Taste of Thai Restaurant since before my son was born. He is now 14, and also has a craving for Pad Thai from the place quite often. Though I cook my own Thai food most of the time, there is time when I just want someone else to do the cooking for me :) Taste of Thai always does a great job making me, and my son, happy with delicious authentic Thai food.

Chicken Sate, served with Peanut Sauce and Cucumber Relish

Vegetable Egg Rolls, served with Sweet Chili Sauce

Tofu Tom Yum (Hot and Sour) Soup

Taste of Thai's Owner, Yao,
with my favorite Pork Drunken Noodle - extra extra spicy!

Taste of Thai's Chef,
with my son's favorite Beef Pad Thai -- medium spicy

Tasty Curry Sauce

Taste of Thai is located just across the street from MSU campus,
at 1105 E. Grand River Ave, East Lansing, MI 48823
(517) 324-0225

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Ruth (from St. Johns) and Karlena (from Williamston) enjoying their Thai dinner. It's their first visit at Taste of Thai, and they were happy with their experience. For sure, I know that food portion is generous, price is reasonable, and satisfaction is always delivered.