only where did this little bugger get my t-shirt?
love quinoa? qui? moi?
2014
04.15
04.15
About ten years ago, my friend Daisy was recounting to me how someone brought a quinoa salad to her annual pot luck, and we both laughed at the fact that this person probably wouldn’t get a subsequent invite.
For in its infancy of common culinary popularity, quinoa – with its grainy mouth feel and faint whiff of wet hippy – did not come to mind when one thought “party dish”.
Well I take it back. Either quinoa has grown up or I have grown up (but still look the same), but in ten years, it has become a common side or salad base in my house. And never better than in the form of a breakfast fritter as devised by my very talented husband.
Starting with this recipe at Taste.com.au, B adapted the socks off of it to create a breakfast fritter that I demand on an almost weekly basis and will definitely be having this coming Easter weekend.
QUINOA CORN FRITTERS
makes between 8 and 10 fritters
130g (2/3 cup) cooked quinoa
1 egg
6 spring onions, chopped
100g cooked sweetcorn
3 teaspoons of black onion seeds
½ tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
35g (1/4 cup) plain flour
Oil for frying
In a medium bowl, mix everything but the flour and oil until well combined. Mix in the flour (mixture might be a bit stiff).
Heat the oil in a frying pan. Make golf-ball sized portions of the batter, flatten and fry for about 2 minutes each side, then drain on a sheet of kitchen roll before serving.
Serve with bacon to rousing appreciation…
top ten for men
2014
04.10
04.10
For the gentleman who doesn’t want a pin cushion that his spinster aunt might also have, or to share his toys with his lady friend, here are ten sewing supplies with a thoroughly masculine slant.
You need them…
1. Because it’s time to start sewing… LITTLECLOUDS wrist pin cushion
2. And you want your tools to look like tools… FISKARS rotary cutter
3. Because even the most manly of men can’t resist a tiny tool… LABOUR & WAIT thread snips
4. Or a fabric that is just for him… ALEXANDER HENRY mr stache fabric
5. Because the black version is always the more manly option… MERCHANT & MILLS bespoke tape measure
6. And that apron might mean you forge iron in your spare time… RYUICHIRO SHIMAZAKI aprons for men
7. Because not all scissors are created equal… GINGHER bent handle scissors
8. And because mistakes will happen… CLOVER seam ripper
9. And pins will be dropped… MERCHANT & MILLS pin magnet
10. And it can all be disguised or kept out of sight from potentially mocking eyes… STACK-ON metal tool box
he’s sew popular
2014
04.08
04.08
Despite the obvious masculinity seeping from my well-scrubbed pores, you more manly types out there may be reticent to take me seriously when I tell you to learn to sew…
But what if the epitome of manly men’s fashion says it? Because they did…
I loved it when I discovered that GQ not only did a full 10 Free Ways to Improve Your Style, but that “Learn to sew” was number 1.
Even if it is just to replace a button, knowing your way around a needle and thread is a life skill worth investing in (and would be more handy in an emergency or on a desert island than, say, mixology).
You don’t need a shed or heavy or expensive tools – just a needle, some thread, a yen to mend and that handful of buttons that have popped off your shirts… oh, and the internet for instructions.
klaus in the haus
2014
04.02
04.02
So last week I am banging on about Klaus Haapaniemi and now I am just going to brag, because – ta dah! – my little piece of Klaus arrived.
Via my obsessive googleathon of his work, I luckily and happily came across Klaus’ contribution to Wilkintie.
Based in Australia, these now semi-defunct champions of letterpress seem to have the rights to this rabbit, and a slew of amazing work…
from a handful of other favourites of mine.
Once a letterpress print subscription service for kids (genius idea), they managed to rouse the inner-child of some serious art folk, including the likes of Tim Biskup, Niels Oeltjen and John Copeland.
And while the original subscription service seems to have disappeared, numbered 8×10 inch limited edition letterpress prints, including the Rabbit by Klaus Haapaniemi, are all still for sale in their Wilkintie etsy shop at a very affordable price.
With a flagship store around the corner from my house, I had to go to Melbourne for my piece of Klaus. Go go Global Village!
so hip, so haapaniemi
2014
03.26
03.26
Google Image Klaus Haapaniemi and you’ll get a raging nose-bleed of gorgeous, peppered with a couple of portraits of the man-pixie himself.
Study the individual images and I defy you not to be impressed by the level of detail, the use of colour and the discreet whimsy.
Dive the depths of his imagination and that audible gasp you hear… that’s the sound of your lungs collapsing.
Let me step back a minute.
Klaus Haapaniemi is a Finnish artist and the name behind Klaus Haapaniemi & Co, the design firm and mini fun factory that cranks out collabs the way a Kardashian cranks out selfies.
My earliest clocking was via the Taika series for Iittala and specifically this tin.
Journey through pop-up restos and ceramics via wall stickers and scissors and milk cartons, iPhone covers and cushion covers to today, where everything in his flagship shop is carefully divine.
With Finnish folklore sited as the main inspiration, I am glad I wasn’t raised in Finland, where floral spiders, floppy-eared antennaed bunnies and swirly-teeted ponies would have been the cast of my nightmares.
Instead, as a full-fledged adult with the capacity to be seduced by the sweetly disturbing grotesqueness of it all, I am in awe, and Klaus takes his place with the rock stars of my design world by being both super-talented and by sharing affordable versions of his genius.
