good 'n planty

Inspiring post on ambitious dessert:

Chocolate Cakes with Red Beet Ice Cream and Toasted Walnut Sauce 

lovely color.

You may not be able to switch to completely organic foods, but here's a list of 5 common staples that will have the biggest impact on your health and without significantly impacting your wallet:

5 Ways to go Organic [via].

This time of year, I find several things indispensable:

1. My slippers, handmade by my sister. I swear having warm feet keeps me from turning on the heat till it's absolutely necesary (I haven't yet!).

2. Obscene amounts of pasta. I stocked up on every shape and length of pasta, and many cans of Reinzi whole tomatoes. Today I made a big batch of baked ziti, complete with homemade marinara and pesto- similar to this recipe, just so I wouldn't have to face the daunting task of dinner for a few nights.

 3. My library- beyond stacks of books, I love taking advantage of my library's large dvd collection. Late in the evening on a cold night when I'm left with little energy, there's not much more to do than curl up in a blanket and take in a documentary on Annie Oakley (or whatever you prefer).

Dishes won't seem so hard to tackle if you're drying them with these sweet dishtowels.  

Floursack hand-printed dishtowels, $12.00, indieNC 

[Via] 

Halloween isn't a big deal to me like it is to some people... maybe since I don't have kids yet, can't stomache horror movies, and prefer dark chocolate to candy corn. However, I don't turn down a chance to dress up and my neighbors throw a decent Halloween party, so I can still get into it.

Here are a couple "green halloween" links for ya:

If you're throwing a party, there's a lot of good advice here -although elsewhere on the site, they suggest putting leftover candy in the compost pile...which I think most gardeners would disagree with.

So far, every "green halloween" site I've found suggests going to a thrift store and dressing as a "hobo" or "hippie" and let's face it, that's been done. Readymade Magazine did a great piece on clever, cheap, and environmentally-friendly costumes a few years back- and although you have to enter some information to access the article, I'd highly recommend it.

If you do end up with a re-used, recyclable, or sustainable costume, be sure to enter it in the "green" category of this etsy contest by this friday (October 26th). The winner gets a $150 etsy shopping spree- kinda makes you want to dig in your recycling, right?

This is an article on turning your garden Goth. I'm all about the night-flowering blooms and carnivorous plants...even inviting bats is a clever idea...but I draw the line at snakes, so you may want to skip that part.

This awesome magazine did a beautiful article on black-colored blooms you will definitely want to check out.

 
Here are some Halloween gardening-themed ideas to get you started:

Garden Gnome
Scarecrow
Poisin Ivy
Or something truly frightening, like a cabbage moth.