KIOSK HELLO

Hey, could this be the paper balloons?

WPIX “cov­er­age”

I am chuck­ling at the idea of it.…

Oh dear Mass­a­chu­setts, what you have you become? When we vis­ited your state and saw all of the Sub­aru Out­backs zip­ping around we thought for cer­tain we were deep in friendly ter­ri­tory, how were we to know?

It’s a good wake-up call to any­one who voted for Obama… time to get engaged once again and stop com­plain­ing that what we are get­ting from “the Man” is not enough or rip­ping on the short­com­ings of the party. It’s a huge improve­ment over what we had the 8 years prior and you bet­ter not for­get it. Sure, I have some prob­lems with the heath care bill, who doesn’t, abor­tion not being included being one BIG prob­lem I have;  no pub­lic plan and my being forced to dance with the big providers being another. How­ever, get­ting out on the dance floor for the first time in so many years one can not expect Sat­ur­day Night Fever moves, you have to develop a good hustle.

From a strictly visual and super­fi­cial view­point this is what I see: Scott Brown: brand­ing that looks like most crappy generic con­sumer pack­ag­ing, ie: fami­lar to the main­stream man, a pol­ished “every­man” atti­tude, he’s edu­cated and he dri­ves a truck!, a team of daugh­ters, one of which was OMG on “Amer­i­can Idol” sur­round­ing him, as well as a dot­ing wife and the required bunch of red faced white guys stand­ing behind him. Martha Coak­ley: brand­ing that matches Obama, neu­tral with just enough design, no cute girls sur­round­ing her but a bunch of stale aca­d­e­mics who get their duds at Talbots/Brooks Broth­ers at best and she looks like she is address­ing The NYU Law Review, a valid orga­ni­za­tion but fairly dry. This is Cast­ing 101. Where is the pizaz Dems? Which angle gives the couch pota­toes more to bite into? Who gives the Democ­rats their style direc­tion? Who are they reach­ing out to, the acad­e­mia and the “higher-educated”? I hate to say it but that’s not the major­ity in any coun­try and it is even less of the major­ity in the United States where sadly “higher-education” is not for all.–$$$$–(Hopefully com­mu­nity and trade col­leges soon come back to life.)

Now, I am not say­ing an image over­haul will win elec­tions and change pub­lic view. But I am say­ing that becom­ing part of the image means the image changes. We need to become a part of the image to make it change, to make it cur­rent to get it in gear. That’s one of the many ways to tackle chang­ing things from “the same old…”.

Regardless…clearly it’s time once again to get engaged and involved. We have had a year off and we have been rest­ing on our lau­rels. We are com­ing back to the States next week and if we get a few peo­ple in on it with us we’d like to do more than make combs and posters sup­port­ing our party of choice. But we need help to get the ball rolling. So please, let us know if you are in it to win it, not just one elec­tion but the big pic­ture too. We have an inde­pen­dent busi­ness to run and all we do is work work work but WE and YOU have to find the time TOGETHER to make it happen.

Thanks for lis­ten­ing and think­ing and doing. If not some­thing with us do some­thing on your own but please don’t just complain.

In my beau­ti­ful balloon…

A friend sent me these pic­tures from her New Years… our paper    bal­loon lift­ing off to space, so lovely.

Lis­ten, 2010, the year of lis­ten­ing. Let’s all lis­ten more. Let’s have less talk­ing, more lis­ten­ing. Less churn­ing, more longevity. Less fluff and more good stuff. Less work and more fun. It’s a good round num­ber to enjoy and roll around in.

Happy 2010 everyone!

Ear com­pli­ments of Bor­dalo Pin­heiro, Portugal

A Happy New Year!!A feast after a feast, i really enjoyed my yummy hol­i­days and now i am  lit­tle  afraid to weight myself…  any­way, I would like to share  some tasty ideas to  eat dried tuna from Por­tu­gal ! First of all, i tried the way Alisa recommended,slice very thin then put some olive oil and fresh thyme.  It was very good and per­fect with beer or dry white wine.  Then, i have noticed that i know this taste… yes, we have a very sim­i­lar smoked tuna in Japan that’s why the taste was so famil­iar with me. So i tried it with some Japan­ese dishes and it came up so good!

I put some slice of dried tuna onto Ramen instead of sliced pork.  As you see, the tuna sliced turned into brown­ish color since it is being in the hot soup broth and get slightly cooked, then it brings out smoky deep fish fla­vor into the soup. Unnnn, it is soooo good!  In addi­tion, it is per­fect top­ping for not meat eater !

Then, i had Ochazuke with dried tuna which came up unbe­liev­able deli­cious!!! Ochazuke is one of easy & quick late night meal. Nor­mally, we use over cooked cold rice, put some top­ping as Nori or Konbu sea­weed, pick­les, salted fish egg or fish and Wasabi.  Then pour some green tea or Hoji tea onto it. This time, i put some Nori, flaked dried tuna, Nozawana(Japanese green leaf)pickles, ground sesame seed,Wasabi and put some soy-sauce then poured Hoji tea all over the bowl. Wow… when i poured tea, very good fish fla­vor spread around! Again, the hot tea slightly cooks the dried tuna so the color turns into brown­ish and tex­ture gets softer then brings out so much fla­vor !  wow, it was the best Ochazuke ever i had!

A Yummy New Year !!!

When I was a kid, my mother knew what to do with me on a win­ter­day like this, after hav­ing played around in the snow. She got me to pull out a rug on the yard ( ok so I wasn’t a tod­dler ), flip it face down and beat the crap out of it with a rug beater. I can’t think of a more organic way of clean­ing that rug. I’m sure today’s chem­i­cals kills or burns off more of your scary bac­te­r­ial fauna, but this way has so many side ben­e­fits: you get a healthy out­door work­out and you release a lot of that aggres­sion built up Xmas shop­ping ( or not shopping-stress ).

I just had a order from some­one with ‘hunger’ in their name — they ordered the tremont nail sam­ple set, which reminded me of a tale we were told as kids in Swe­den: How to make a soup out of a nail (no not the one on your fin­ger, silly). It’s a won­der­ful tale of how resource­ful you some­time have to be to make ends meet, but it’s also a tale hit­ting close to home of what we are doing. Hit­ting the nail on the head so to speak… Thank you dear you for let­ting us make you some soup! Hope you liked it! We sure did have fun cook­ing it!

Once upon a time a tramp was mak­ing his way through a for­est. He had not seen a house for many an hour, and he won­dered where he might find shel­ter for the night. He thought to him­self how nice it would be to warm up in front of a fire, and to have some din­ner. But the sun was sink­ing, and there wasn’t a cot­tage in sight.

Just then he met an old woman out gath­er­ing branches and twigs for kin­dling. “Hello and good evening!” said the tramp, glad as he could be to see her.

“Good evening,” said the woman. “Where are you from?”

“Here and there, far and near,” said the tramp. “I’ve seen the world, and I’m on my way home.”

Is that so?” said the woman. “And what is it you want hereabouts?”

“Well, I could use a place to stay for the night,” he said.

“Just as I thought!” said the woman. “You had bet­ter keep on going, for my house is not an inn.”

“My dear woman,” said the tramp, “it is shame­ful to be so hard­hearted and cross. We human beings are sup­posed to help each other when we can.”

“Help each other? There’s a good joke. Who do you sup­pose will help me? I haven’t even got a scrap in the house! No, you’d bet­ter be on your way,” she said.

But the tramp did not give up so eas­ily. The old woman kept on com­plain­ing about her own trou­bles, and the tramp kept on urg­ing and argu­ing, until at last she said all right, he could sleep on the floor if he wanted to.

He thanked her for her kind­ness. “Rather be warm on the hard floor, than shiver and freeze out­side the door,” said he. This tramp had a quick wit and was always ready with a rhyme.

As soon as he got inside the house, he could tell that the woman was not as poor as she pre­tended to be, only stingy and greedy.

So he asked her in his most polite and pleas­ant man­ner for some­thing to eat.

“How do you think I can feed you when I haven’t had a bit of food myself all day long?” said the woman.

But the tramp knew bet­ter. He said: “Noth­ing all day long? Poor old granny, you must be starv­ing! Bet­ter lend me a pot, then, and I shall make din­ner for both of us.”

“You’ll make din­ner!” said the woman. “How will you make din­ner if there isn’t any food?”

“Leave it to me,” said the tramp. “I’ve learned things on my trav­els that most peo­ple have never even heard of.”

The old woman won­dered what it was all about, so she let him have a pot.

He poured in some water, put it on the fire, and blew with all his might to get the flame going strong. Then he took from his pocket an ordi­nary nail, set it on the palm of his hand, turned it around three times, and dropped it into the pot.

The woman watched the nail sink down to the bot­tom. “What’s this going to be?” she asked.

“Nail soup,” said the tramp, and he began stir­ring the water with a stick.

“Nail soup?” asked the woman.

“That’s right, nail soup,” said the tramp.

The old woman thought she had seen and heard just about every­thing in her time, but mak­ing soup with a nail–well, that was some­thing new!

“If you want to learn how to make it,” said the tramp, “just watch me. Then you won’t ever again have to go all day with­out a bite.” He went on stir­ring the soup, and she watched as hard as she could.

“You know,” he said, “I have been mak­ing soup with this same nail for over a week, so our soup may be rather thin. Of course, if one had a speck offlour or sifted oat­meal to add to it, then we could be sure of a good meal. But,” he said, “we’ll have to do with­out it, and not think twice about it.” And he kept of stir­ring the soup.

“Wait, I might have some flour some­where,” said the old woman. She went to fetch it, and it was the finest sort.

The tramp sprin­kled the flour into the soup and kept on stir­ring, while the woman stared first at him and then at the pot and then back at him again.

“It’s com­ing along,” he said. “It’s almost good enough to serve for com­pany. Add a few pota­toes and a bit of salted beef, and it would be a dish fit for gen­tle­folks,” he said. “But we’ll have to do with­out it, and not think twice about it.”

The old woman thought for a while, and then she remem­bered where she might find some pota­toes, and even a bit of beef. She got them and gave them to the tramp, and he kept on stirring.

“This will be a grand soup,” he said. “It’s not every­one that gets to taste such a grand soup as this!”

“You don’t say!” said the woman. “Is that so! And just imagine–all from a nail!”

“All it lacks now is a lit­tle bar­ley and a drop of milk. Then we could invite the king to have some, if we wanted to.” said the tramp. “This is what the king him­self eats every evening–the king’s cook told me so.”

“Dear me! The king him­self!” cried the woman, slap­ping her knees.

“But we’ll have to do with­out it, and not think twice about it,” said the tramp.

The woman went to look, and sure enough, she did have some bar­ley; and there was also milk, as much as was needed. The tramp stirred and stirred and stirred. Then sud­denly he stopped and fished out the nail from the steam­ing kettle.

“It is ready,” he said. “Now we’ll have a feast, just like the king and queen. Except, of course, when they eat this kind of soup, they always have a sand­wich with it, and wine. And a table­cloth on the table. But we’ll have to do with­out it, and not think twice about it.”

Well, by this time the old woman was begin­ning to feel like quite a grand lady. She thought that if the king and queen had it that way, then she and the tramp might as well have it the same. She hur­ried to the cup­board and got out the wine bot­tle, glasses, cheese, but­ter, smoked beef and veal. The table could hardly hold it all.

Never in that old woman’s life had she had such a good time, and never had she tasted such rich soup–and to think that it was all from a nail! They ate and they drank and they danced around the room, and then they ate and drank some more. And when they finally got sleepy, and the tramp was going to lie down on the floor, the old woman said: “No, no! Such a per­son must have a bed to lie in.”

“It’s just like the sweet Christ­mas,” said the tramp. “In all my trav­els I have never met a nicer woman.” And he lay down on the bed and fell fast asleep.

When he got up the next morn­ing, the old woman gave him cof­fee and a bun. And before he said good-bye, she handed him a bright sil­ver piece. “And thank you for teach­ing me how to make soup with a nail,” she said, “because now that I know how, I shall always live in comfort.”

“That’s all right,” said the tramp. “It’s easy if you remem­ber to add some­thing good to it.”

Then the tramp went on his way, and the old woman stood at the door, watch­ing him go. “Such peo­ple don’t grow on trees,” she said.

(Retold by Harve Zemach, Fol­lett Pub­lish­ing, Chicago, 1964) — From http://www.soupsong.com/snail.html

We are fill­ing up the store with small smaller hol­i­day items — even­tu­ally they will make it on to the web­shop in one way or another, but for a few days you will have to come in to get them. With a bit of luck, you’ll catch us mak­ing glögg — mulled wine the Swedish way.

Yuki’s Amaz­ing X-Mas Shop

Yuki is back with more vin­tage finds this year. Some things are new, but even more amaz­ing: her stock­ings are so good your stuffers will be bet­ter that your best friends. And don’t miss the prezels!

Sea­sons Greet­ings from Ming

Ming made a card that we had to print up. She is cur­rently in Swe­den and is prob­a­bly hav­ing that glögg right now.  With gin­ger­bread cook­ies and soon with Lucia buns.

Sugar. In a stick. Swirly. For the kids.

This health rocket is back! Pure sugar with a dash of pep­per­mint gets beau­ti­fully stuck in any sofa or car seat after a rendez-vous with your kid’s wet tongue.  Lovely!

Plas­ter Blaster

There are a whole lot of these Por­tuguese creche fig­urines. Baby J is there, half a band , Mary,  Joe is fish­ing (or some of his friends). Some men of the cloth and lot’s of women car­ry­ing food, don­keys, cows and of course lit­tle lambs!

Oh there are more things, but I’ll keep post­ing later. It’s just the begin­ning of the season.

Yuki is set­ting up her x-mas shop as I write this. Amaz­ing stuff!

Alisa&Marco gave me beau­ti­ful pack­age of tinned sar­dine from Por­tu­gal when they got back from their trip. They are too beau­ti­ful to open, so i just kept them on a dec­o­ra­tion shelf in my kitchen for a while. How­ever, i have been think­ing how it  tastes  like? So, I decided to open the pack­age very very care­fully, for sure! i am keep­ing the paper. I tried the sar­dine in lemon, wow ! it is so deli­cious! You can see that they use very good qual­ity of olive oil, there­fore it is rich but not too oily. Then, a sand­wich idea came up with me so just tried it and it was sooooooo good! please try this!

it will be five layers

A:mayo

B:mustard

C:crushed sar­dine

D:sliced cucum­ber

E:sliced hard boiled egg

some salt & pepper