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Where is The Whole Wheat?!

November 24, 2008 in general

Hello my loyal Whole Wheat readers! Thank you for sticking by me during this drought of posts. As you can see – I’ve been busy baking my own little bun in the oven. :-) I’m in my 30th week of pregnancy and it has been a great experience thus far.

However, my cooking has fallen by the wayside as many times food preparation has made me feel nauseous or I’ve simply been too worn out to deal with making a meal. This has been a really interesting experience for me as Brad has really stepped up to the plate and made much of our food. It has been very nice!

Even though the 3rd trimester fatigue is starting to descend, I think I will be able to start posting from time to time again. So please hang in there with me and we’ll get back to fun, healthy food – The Whole Wheat style – in no time. Plus for all you moms and potential moms-to-be, I’ll definitely do some round up posts of things I’ve found helpful during pregnancy and share how I deal with a little addition to the family too.

Thanks again for sticking around! There will be more soon! Happy Holiday season everyone!

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Friday @ Slow Food Nation Marketplace

August 29, 2008 in general

For lunch today I took a trip to San Francisco’s Civic Center to check out the Slow Food Nation Marketplace. This is a great event because its free and casual. There is a farmer’s market with wonderful vendors, a beautiful garden that volunteers helped plant in the center, and food stalls selling wonderful lunch & snack foods.

Honestly Slow Food Nation couldn’t be happening at a more beautiful time in San Francisco – its sunny & warm – very unusual for us but enjoyable and lovely! The setting for the Marketplace is the lawn in front of City Hall. Its a stunning backdrop and really just epitomizes San Francisco! (photo from iPhone on the go)

I found a few new favorite vendors while poking around the farmer’s market section. Believe me – this is just a few I stumbled on – so many are spectacular!

  • Grindstone Bakery: ancient grains, all gently stone milled, then made into exquisite loafs of bread & cookies. If you live in the Bay Area please try a loaf, you will not be dissapointed!
  • Beekind: honey straight from Sebastapol in Sonoma County. You wouldn’t believe the flavors and infusions! My favorite was the Chai Infused Honey – unique and delicious – would be amazing on ice cream.

I had a lovely chicken biryani from Vic’s Chaat Cafe for lunch. The yogurt sauce really just brought it all together.

And after my tour and enjoying the sunshine, I headed back to the office. If you get a chance, swing by the Marketplace this weekend. It runs 9-4p Friday thru Sunday.

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Introduction to Slow Food Nation

August 27, 2008 in general

This weekend kicks off an event I’m extremely excited about: Slow Food Nation!  Slow Food Nation is the “first-ever American collaborative gathering to unite the growing sustainable food movement and introduce thousands of people to food that is good, clean and fair.”  Its going to be an amazing weekend here in San Francisco!

First, check out the Slow Food Nation website for full details!

Chilaquiles @ SF farmers market on TwitPic Next, if you will be in the Civic Center area, go check out the Marketplace where you’ll find a farmer’s market and Slow Food Providers with tasty treats to buy.  You will find me at Primavera for sure – they make some of my favorite items in the bay area – especially their Chilaquiles, my favorite Saturday morning farmer’s market treat!

Some of my other favorite vendors will be around as well. Check these wonderful folks out if you have time! Market vendors: Blue Bottle Coffee, Massa Organics (best brown rice around), Bodega & Yerba Santa (wonderful goat cheeses by someone who loves his goats – ask to see the photos!),  and Far West Fungi.  There are so many outstanding vendors I can’t pretned to list them all but these are a few of my favorites.

Now onto eating!  If you make it to the market place – be sure to check out Slow On the Go to get a bite to eat.  Some top choices (though none will be dissapointing!) are Primavera, Out the Door, and Vik’s Chaat Corner.

Friday evening, you will find me volunteering at the Fort Mason Welcome Tent.  I will be at Guest Services all evening so please stop by and say hi if you will be around!

Saturday & Sunday the events I’m most excited about are the Taste Pavilions!  One fee gets you in to taste all kinds of delectable bites!  Find me at the Taste Pavillion on Sunday afternoon.

There are so many other wonderful events all weekend.  Please peruse the Slow Food Nation site and find something you would like to try!

I will do my best to post some photos and news from the event along the way!

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Disqus

June 16, 2008 in general

You might notice that commenting just got better here on the Whole Wheat!  Last week I attended a technology event here in the bay were I met the co-founder of Disqus.  He did a demo on their product and I knew it was just the thing to fill my need!

  • What does Disqus do?  Basically it allows for threaded comments.
  • Why is that cool? Because now I can reply to directly and you won’t think I ignored the awesome thoughts you shared with me!

Try it out – leave me a comment and let’s get this conversation started. :-)

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Another One Bites the Dust

June 10, 2008 in general

The life & times of a kitchen appliance probably won’t make a compelling biography, but I can assure you, there are few in my kitchen I simply cannot do without.  The primary suspect in this category is my high-powered blender.

I’ve had a Vitamix for over 11 years!  It blows my mind that a single appliance I use so often has held up so well.  Recently however, I have been hearing about the Blendtec Blender (www.willitblend.com) – it has 3 horsepower (instead of 2 for the Vitamix), a different container shape, and you don’t need extra containers for grains.  All fine and well but I loved my Vitamix so why would I buy a Blendtec???  Even if they have cool videos on their website and everyone online RAVES about them?

I bought one because my Vitamix broke Saturday morning. I shed a few tears, had some serious moments of panic & anxiety (yes ask Brad who I woke up because I was so distressed).  I finally pulled myself together and called Vitamix.  They let me know:

  1. I was out of warranty (7 years and mine is 11 years old)
  2. They figured it was my fault it broke (hmph.)
  3. It would cost $130 for the parts to repair it,
  4. AND take at least 10 days for them to arrive!  :o

10 days was the deal breaker.  This is a machine I use multiple times a day and you are telling me I need to pay half the price of a new one (slight exaggeration) and wait for 10 days!?  No thanks.

I did some quick research and within the hour had placed an order for a brand new Blendtec.  I should have it within a day or so – much more quickly than the 10 days from Vitamix.  And yes I spent just under tripple the price to repair my Vitamix, but I will have a warranty again and if I can’t stand this machine it will return to Blendtec and I will grovel and repair the Vitamix.

I’ll report in soon on how the Blendtec fares compared to the Vitamix.

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Method Home Marketing

May 29, 2008 in general

I’ve never kept it a secret that I love Method cleaning products! In fact I pretty much adore them!  I love the playful attitude, the great packaging, the wonderful scents – and primarily I love how well the products work!

Last night I was lucky enought to be invited to a focus group of sorts to talk about Method’s dish soap.  Honestly they couldn’t have asked me to participate in a better group because I have tried and had issues with the dish soap.  The current dish soap design:

  • is an awkward shape and slips with wet hands
  • clogs up at the top – all kinds of gunky dish soap piles up in the spout
  • is an awfully big bottle
  • hard to control the amount that squirts out
  • works great!
  • smells great!

So it works great and that should be enough, right?  Well it was a deal breaker for me.  I had to retire the soap to under the sink and I replaced it with a lovely bottle of Seventh Generation I have no complaints about – except that quite frankly, it isn’t Method.  When Method contacted me a few weeks ago and asked if I would participate I was only too happy to agree!  They even let me bring a friend – how fun!

I hadn’t participated in a focus group or marketing research group before.  It was so fascinating to see what types of questions they ask about thematic words, thoughts about cleaning products, thoughts about the brand, the bottle shape, etc.  FASCINATING!  I guess its a good thing I’m in marketing afterall, huh?  ;-)

No verdict was produced but they gave us a very generous goody bag with some of my Method cleaning favorites.  I was most excited to find a bottle of their new baby body & hair wash!  I don’t have any kids but I have another friend who couldn’t join the focus group who will be more than happy to test it out with his munchkins!

Why am I posting about this here?  Well I want to promote one of my favorite brands.  I love their eco-consciousness and their goal to be a different company with fresh perspective.  And I LOVE that they listen to their customers and what we think.   So give Method a try!  You can find them at Target and many specialty shops.  Or order online.  And let me know what you think. :)

Some of my favorties are:

  • the counter sprays (I love the holiday scents even though it is almost June!)
  • the Mint window spray
  • Little Bowl Blu’ – toilet bowl cleaner that makes cleaning a toilet *almost* fun
  • the new bathroom cleaner – even comes with a sponge – super strong on grime and soft on my body.

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