Here are 2 innovative concepts that take the culinary experience to the next level:

It’s not trendy enough to just eat sushi, now we need to design the seaweed wrappers too!
Japan’s Umino Seaweed Shop has created rolls of nori (the seaweed that sushi is wrapped in) that are laser cut into designer patterns.

Five precut designs are available, each based on an element of Japanese symbology.

Custom coffees and text messaging have become an obsessive part of our lives. Now you can receive a message in your half –caf soy latte and kill two birds with one stone!

Seattle based cloud texting company Zipwhip, has created Textpresso, a machine that can not only send and receive text messages, but can print them in your coffee foam too!

Zipwhip has merged the espresso machine with an android app that has SMS capabilities, and installed a printer stocked with edible ink. It can print short messages in your coffee foam, to personalize your morning joe.

What will they think of next? Any ideas?

photos courtesy of Springwise

Time magazine recently ran a very controversial cover story about attachment parenting. The concept, introduced by Dr. Bill Sears, encourages parents to co-sleep, carry their babies in a sling close to their bodies, and breastfeed. The mother in the cover story is shown nursing a child who is about to turn 4, and the headline reads: “Are You Mom Enough?”

When our daughter was a baby, Dr. Sears was a prominent childcare author, as was Dr. Ferber, who wrote about sleep training. All of our friends were “Ferber-izing” their babies, and using his process of letting the children cry until they fell asleep, even if it took hours. His theory was that once they figured out that their parents weren’t coming to hold them or feed them again, they would learn to self-soothe and just go to sleep on their own.

As I poured through the volumes of child rearing books given to me when we were expecting B, I was struck by one thing. If you read enough of them, you will find one that agrees with what is comfortable for you as a parent.

We brought B home from China when she was just over a year old. Everything was unfamiliar to her. The sights, sounds, and smells were new, as were these 2 people who were to be her parents. In my opinion, it was more important for her to learn that we were there for her and would always take care of her, than it was for her to fall asleep alone. And boy did we pay for that! When all of the other parents were having quiet evenings together, and sleeping through the night, I was sitting in a rocking chair, softly singing (off key of course!) and offering bottles. This went on every night, all night. For a few years, I literally got about 3 hours of interrupted sleep per night.

I could hear the softest little utterance on the baby monitor, jump up from a deep sleep and run down a flight of stairs to pick her up, in what could well have set Olympic records for speed.  I rocked and rocked, and when my rear end became numb, I carried her around the house, hoping she would fall asleep. B slept in my arms, waking only if I tried to put her down.

Sometime around 6 a.m. Daddy would take over, and the two would snuggle up on the couch and fall into a deep sleep.
I would crawl to the gym and head off to work, only to return around 7p.m. to serve a “family dinner”, bathe her, read to her and start that whole nightmare all over again. It is amazing that I functioned, but mothers are invincible at that point.

Was it wrong to go through all that? Who knows? The road to becoming a parent was a long and emotional one, and I convinced myself that I was making up for all the lost time she spent without me in the orphanage.

I also assumed that this time was precious and short, and that soon she would not want me around.

I now have a sweet natured, smart and creative tween. Every night, I lay down with her as she falls asleep. She calls it our “mommy/ daughter bonding time.”

Earlier in the evening, when I ask about her day, I get very little response. “What did you do in school today?” I ask.  “Nothing” she replies.

“How was your field trip?” I ask. “Boring” she replies.

But later, while we lay together in her twin bed, she tells me all about the things that are going on in her life, and sometimes we giggle, usually at her father’s expense. She falls asleep pretty quickly now, and sleeps through the night.

Is it just as strange that I put a 12 year old to bed, as it is that someone else is breastfeeding a 4 year old? Not to me.

Just as no two children are exactly the same, there is no “one size fits all” method of parenting.  If it feels right, and the decisions are made with love and common sense, then I say, “Go with it.”

Am I Mom Enough?  Hell yeah!

Are you looking for a healthy, tasty salad that packs a ton of flavor? Look no further.

This Kale Salad has edamame and chickpeas for protein, and dried cranberries for a sweet touch. The zesty lemon dressing ties it all together beautifully.

Cleaning the kale takes a bit of work, but one bunch yields a lot.

Lemony Kale Salad:

For the salad:

Cut the ribs out of a bunch of kale, and chiffonade* it into small, narrow pieces.

Add a handful each of fresh mint leaves and fresh basil leaves, also chiffonade cut.

Toss in about 1/2 cup each of chickpeas and steamed, shelled edamame.

Add several cherry tomatoes, sliced in half, and a large handful of dried cranberries.

For the dressing:

Mix the juice of 1 lemon with several tablespoons of olive oil. Add salt, pepper, and about 1 teaspoon each of dried oregano and dried basil. Mix in a garlic clove that has been pressed but not chopped. Whisk the dressing well and allow it to sit to let the flavors develop.

Toss the salad with the dressing and enjoy!

*To chiffonade: stack the leaves on top of one another and roll them up. Slice the roll into thin pieces. Gently separate the strips.

Artist Victoria Selbach logged on to her computer one morning and discovered her Facebook account had been disabled due to “objectionable content.”  With no prior warnings or notification, it was puzzling. She filed an inquiry with Facebook, but received no response.

Selbach, an artist whose hauntingly beautiful and tasteful nudes were featured here previously, reached out to her network of realist artists, who rallied around her. They posted her dilemma on their own walls, with a link to her website. Selbach’s site traffic soared to more than 6000 hits over night.

“There is an incredibly supportive group of realist artists networking on Facebook. It really makes you think about how much we get from each other through the community we have created and yet feels quite bizarre to know how little ownership and control we can count on from what we have built. A visual artist’s Facebook page almost becomes a curated work in it’s own right, and certainly a journal of past and future opportunities, yet we don’t really have any ownership over it.”

It is a sad commentary on our culture, when fine art is considered objectionable, but someone’s drunken party photos are not.

A little goes a long way:

Neon worn with neon is a bit much. Mix one great intensely colored piece with something more subtle.

The 80’s are over:

Black can be harsh with strong neon colors and takes us back to the 80’s. To look completely modern, mix neon with white, grey, beige or denim, for a less jarring effect. Stripes can also be a great foil for all the strong color.

Softer is easier:

Head to toe neon can be overwhelming, but soft whitened versions of the same color family can work really well together. Try a soft pink with a neon pink, or a pale green with an acid green.

A little dab will do you:

Just a touch of neon in an accessory can be an instant update without making the whole outfit loud. Look for neon shoes, belts or bags as a great way to lift any outfit.

Neon nail polish is a short term commitment. Try a little on your fingers or toes for a fun, temporary trial on the trend.

We all know the obesity rate in the United States is climbing rapidly. This epidemic is attributed to over eating and under exercising, right? Well, maybe it’s more than that.

According to an article on the Co. Design website, it could be what we eat, not how much we eat that is having an adverse effect on our waistlines.

While the article acknowledges that Americans consume more calories than any other country in the world, it isn’t substantially more.

The average American consumes 3770 (!!!) calories per day and spends about 6.9% of their income on food. Currently 34% of the population is considered obese.

Just as a reference point, it takes 3500 calories to make a pound and the average salary in the U.S. is $46,326 per year. That means about  $8.75 per day is spent on food.

Comparatively, Italians eat 3660 calories per day, and spend 14.7% of their income on food. Italy’s obesity rate is 15%.

So what’s contributing to the difference?

It seems that Americans are obsessed with cheap food sources. In the 1950’s mechanized foods, such as canned, frozen, and fast foods were considered a sign of our country’s progressiveness. Cheap, processed foods became a source of pride for our nation.

Other countries held fast to their cultural traditions, and continued to enjoy their national cuisine. Using the freshest and finest ingredients to produce regional delicacies is far more costly than the pink slime consumed in our country.

Although it is clear that 3770 calories a day is way too much, especially when the average American is fairly sedentary, it appears that the quality of our food may play as great a role as the quantity we consume.

photo: Glasshouse Images

Most remarkable, were the two collections shown by Marc Jacobs; his own eponymous collection, staged in New York and the Louis Vuitton collection, set in a train station in Paris.

Both featured incredible hats designed in collaboration with milliner Stephen Jones.

For Marc Jacobs, Jones created colorful oversized hats, looking like those envisioned by the late Dr. Seuss.

The hats at Louis Vuitton evoked another era, yet were no less spectacular.

Although these are not conducive to day-to-day life, they set the stage for exploring the fantasy world of fashion.

While visiting a friend in the hospital this weekend, I was struck by a sign on a vending machine in the patient’s lounge. It read:

“The health risks associated with obesity, along with the increase in diabetes and heart disease are so substantial, that the Mount Sinai Medical Center has taken the lead and now prohibits the sale of high fructose beverages in our vending machines.”

The vending machine was filled with every flavor of diet soda you can imagine.  Do they really believe that chemically sweetened diet soda is better for you than the original versions? Many renowned researchers disagree.

A recent study from the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute and Harvard University found that the more soda a person consumes, regardless of whether or not it is sweetened with sugar or artificially sweetened, increases one’s risk for stroke.

A previous study, found an increased risk of stroke, heart attack and vascular related deaths in older adults who drank diet soda.

A 2009 Nurse’s Health Study of 3,256 women, found that those who drank 2 or more diet sodas per day had a 30% drop in kidney function.  Although there is no final word on the matter yet, it is thought that artificial sweeteners may scar kidney tissue over time.

The acid content in soda has been found to be harmful to tooth enamel. Both regular and diet soda contain phosphoric and citric acids, which promote carbonation, and eat away at tooth enamel, the main barrier to decay.

Drinking soda can lead to bone loss. The phosphoric acid in soda also causes the calcium in the bloodstream to be excreted more quickly than normal. The bones give up some of their supply, to keep the blood calcium level constant. This results in weakening of the bones over time.

Ironically, diet soda has been associated with obesity, since it is thought that the sweet taste sends the brain a signal, causing it to suggest to the body that high calorie foods are en route. When they don’t arrive, the appetite is increased, as is the “sweet tooth”. Another theory suggests that people believe that they are saving so many calories by drinking diet soda, that they indulge in other fattening foods.

Given the information readily available on the health risks associated with soda intake and artificial sweeteners, it is mind-boggling and irresponsible for a hospital to supply it to their patients and visitors.

What do you think?

photo: Glasshouse Images

My friend Amanda suggested that this recipe for Socca, a Middle Eastern flatbread, would be the perfect “unrecipe” for us. We just tried it, and we think she’s right!

This is adapted from Mark Bittman, who is the ultimate unrecipe chef.

Socca

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Combine 1 cup garbanzo flour*, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1 ½ cups of water in a bowl. Whisk until smooth and cover with a towel until it is the consistency of a thick pancake batter. (This shouldn’t take much longer than it takes to heat the oven, but can be left standing for several hours.)

Add enough olive oil to lightly cover the bottom of a 12” skillet.  Add 1 shallot, finely chopped and some fresh chopped rosemary, spreading it evenly in the pan.

Put it into the hot oven, until the oil smokes and the shallots start to sizzle (a few minutes). Add the batter and return the pan to the oven for about 40 minutes, until the batter has browned and the edges become crisp.

At this point, it should be easily  release from the pan. Cut it into wedges, and enjoy!

*Garbanzo flour, or chickpea flour, can be purchased at Whole Foods Market, or any health food store or Middle Eastern food market. It is gluten free.

What was most amazing to me, were the serious fashion faux pas, committed by some of the most admired people in the business. Let’s take a look, shall we?

Marc Jacobs, designer extraordinaire of  multiple eponymous labels, and Louis Vuitton, is possibly the greatest fashion influencer of our time.

His black lace shirt dress, with white cotton boxer briefs, is not likely to inspire others to follow in his Pilgrim shoe clad footsteps.

Beyonce, hailed by People Magazine as the most beautiful woman in the world, also donned see through lace in this Givenchy Couture Gown. Hey Bey, at least Marc wore underwear!  One day a peacock, another day a feather duster.

Coco Rocha, super model, wore a vintage Givenchy Couture “pant-set “in bright yellow and fucshia. It used to belong to Elizabeth Taylor, Um, Coco, didn’t anyone ever tell you that 2 wrongs don’t make a right? Pass it on to the Golden Girls, and don’t look back!

Diane von Furstenberg, in her own design. Puzzled by her choice? So are we!

Taylor Tomassi Hill, former Marie Claire fashion director, and artistic director at Moda Operandi, said it best today, when she took to her Twitter to offer her opinion on the evening. She suggested that people who dressed badly should be banned from the event for a year, and all ensembles would be subject to approval prior to being allowed to return.

Judging from this year’s selections, if Ms. Tomasi Hill’s idea took effect, it would be a very small, intimate event next year!