kimmykimmykokonut

This past weekend my husband and I went to Sasquatch Festival in central Washington. It was my second time at this festival and I loved it both times, even though last year there was a freak hail storm and this year there was a freak wind storm, causing the mainstage to shut down for a few hours. But really, who cares when there’s great music on 3 stages, the Columbia River and it’s impressive gorge to stare at and great people watching to do. I love how music can bring together all types of people from the freaks to the geeks and everyone inbetween. This year there was only 2 days, apparently to be more environmentally conscious. It was fine with me b/c I had to work on Friday so we just set up camp Friday night and slept well for 2 long days outside. Life’s hard when you listen to music and nap in the grass.
So, a quick rant about their enviro-consciousness. What a great step, reduce carbon by purchasing carbon credits and reduce the 3 day festival to 2.
BUT WHAT ABOUT THE SIMPLE STEPS THAT WERE OVERLOOKED?
There were absolutely ZERO recycling bins, the garbage was overflowing and trash was everywhere. The people who were desperate enough to pay $10 for a beer weren’t going to walk all the way over to the entrance and hand their can to the one recycling tent in the whole place. That’s effort, that means missing bands, walking, possibly losing people. People don’t want to think at concerts. This recycling tent had a good idea: they were allowing people to buy stuff by turning in their cans. I got on a little kick and in an hour I had 275 cans/bottles to turn in to buy Matt a pair of organic cotton jeans. But SERIOUSLY for me to get that many cans—this was pure garbage picking. Why couldn’t there have been a recycle bin next to every garbage can? I like to think most people in our country have an instinct to recycle if the option is there in front of us. The recycle tent had good intentions but they overlooked the fact that most people were just throwing their recyclables in the garbage and didn’t care about the little tent way over there, if they even knew about it. Plus these people ran out of most of their stuff by the end of day 1. If they want to give an incentive for people to garbage pick, there should be one on day 2………… and they shut down their tent at 6pm..but the music went until midnight–so that’s 6 hours of music and drinking and eating and there is NO WHERE to recycle since they shut down. No options. That’s just stupid.
So shame on your sasquatch. Buying carbon credits is nice, but look around at the simple ways to reduce your footprint—jeez. Also, what about generating some solar power off that giant roof that is the main stage? We’re practically in a desert with plenty of sun. Harness that mother! I saw for the first time windmills in the distance, get in on that!

Enough of my rant, let’s talk music.
Saturday we enjoyed Mix Master Mike from the Beastie Boys, I was introduced to Ozomatli who totally rocked–think reggae latin world beats with horns! Viva Voce was kinda wah wah indie style……….. which I only have so much patience for. We left that stage to check out Electrelane and they were great: 3 indie rocker girls: bass, keyboards and drums. Really unique style. Manu Chao was by far the best show of the day. Nonstop dancing. Manu is so cute in his late 90′s european fashions and he has soo much energy. He pumped the crowd up more than Arcade Fire could even hope to. Bjork was fun and kooky and very entertaining, but it was 11pm and I was falling asleep. Has she ever been on Sesame Street? I think she should do something with the muppets. She’d fit right in. I loved watching her dance to her own music. Her heart was right out there on her poncho.

Sarah Silverman was the host but I think she introduced 2 bands and I never saw her again. I don’t think she even came on stage on Sunday. They promoted her so seriously and there was no mc replacement. Either that was her act or she’s a total bitch. Either way, I don’t care.

Sunday was the day of the winds so we had to pick and choose the last few artists and missed Interpol and most of the Beastie Boys to see Michael Franti with Spearhead and it was worth every second. He has a great stage presence the music is great and he’s political! His messages were great and the whole crowd danced. That’s my kind of concert. The other performers who stuck out to me were Smoosh, two teenage sisters with their own indie punk grrl style and Blackalicious with fun freestyling tunes and a great beat.

This concert always has an amazing lineup and the venue is the best that I’ve ever been to, despite hail and wind–it’s always worth it.

So I have started a food blog to keep those of you who are interested specifically in my food world separate from my personal life…or you can have the double dose and RSS them both and feel like you are in my head all day long.

http://www.kimmykokonut.com

Enjoy it, I’ll be posting a lot of my final culinary school days as well as my adventures with cultural manipulation…you read it right. the most current project is kombucha, but i’m going to start some tempeh manana.

So for those of you who don’t know, I take circus classes. My class along with some SANCA students and some professionals will be putting on a benefit show this weekend at Magnuson Park in Seattle. It’s going to be wonderful and I will be in all three shows. After regretting not doing a solo last year, I’m sucking it up and will be doing a solo and a doubles routine with a friend. There will be live music for both Saturday shows, the afternoon is kiddie friendly and the evening show will be more adult oriented. More details about the show can be found at our myspace here.

Ever since Matt took me to Teatro Zinzanni 3 years ago, I have fallen in love with circus arts, particularly aerial business like rope, tissu, trapeze, hoop. Rope was what sucked me in, seeing an amazing routine at Zinzanni. I felt like I was up there and I was no longer content to watch and cheer. I needed to be up there, feeling the rope between my feet, making the crowd ooh and ahh. After a year of letting my desire develop, I talked Matt into taking a SANCA class with me and I couldn’t get off the rope. At the time they didn’t have any classes solely on rope and I was referred to Lara Paxton, founder of Circus Contraption and the Aerialistas. I can’t seem to stop taking classes and my body has enjoyed the workout…I haven’t seen ab definition on me since I was on the wrestling team.

So, if you’d like to see how my abs have developed or want to support two super cool charities or join the auction and try to buy one of my amazing vegan cakes at the cake walk or for any other reason you can think of, come on down!

So today I sold my car.
I am sad but liberated at the same time.
I learned how to drive on that car, pumped gas that was 97 cents a gallon, went 5 times across the country with it and somehow even off-roaded on forest service roads. I used to be so dependent on my car, especially living the American culture of have about a 30 minute drive commute to work (which is horrible and I don’t recommend a commute of over 15 minutes).
Anyways, a haiku to my car:

Teal escort, my friend
We’ve been down many great roads
Here’s to your new path

I’m out of poetry practice. Hopefully my car performs well for it’s new owner and I can move forward gracefully, remembering how loyal a car she has been. I have outgrown her living in a major city, especially since we moved so close to school and downtown. I’m in a car maybe twice a week for circus class and occasionally work. It wasn’t practical to pay insurance and struggle to find a parking spot and move the car every few days to avoid a ticket. Now she’s got somewhere more exciting to go than just sitting in a parking spot collecting pollen. Can you tell I’m trying to rationalize selling my car? My only car? For 46% of my life I have relied on her to get me out and about.

Let’s all have a moment of silence as I release my attachment to Baby.
We are one step closer to Peru now.

I’ve always loved sourdough but my appreciation for it has grown so much since I have captured the yeast that lives in the air and my new pets make me very happy. I had a hard time at first, then once I relaxed about the sourdough I’ve realized it’s not very hard to mess up. As long as they get fed, they are happy. I’ve been experimenting with different recipes and haven’t found a bread recipe I am very excited about yet, but my blueberry pancakes this morning were divine. Not too thick, not too thin and just a hint of sour. I’m going to try a new recipe for pancakes tomorrow and I’ll post the winning recipe here.

There’s a lot of online info about making and maintaining sourdough, so I won’t try to be wordy and redundant. Basically, I throw away (or make something like pancakes) with about half of my starter, then replace the missing volume with equal amounts of flour and warm water, stir, and let it sit at room temp for 5 hours or overnight. It can be kept in the fridge indefinitely but it will go dormant if not fed (dump half, add flour/h20 mix, sit at room temp, refridge) once a week. It’s a nice excuse to make pancakes on the weekend because I hate to throw out the yeast babies that work so hard for me.

To make the starter, I recommend looking at a few online resources and then just getting a feel for it. I basically just made a 1 cup batch of flour and water and left it at room temp with a linen or cotton cloth over the top and fed and stirred it every day for a few days. The more this is done the sourer it will become. I want mine really sour; I think I am used to the store bought “sourdough” where they add the vinegar and it has a kick to it. Hopefully I can get my sourdough to that point naturally.

Here’s to using the environment around us to support and nourish our bodies!
I think the most beautiful thing about sourdough is that it is muy “terroir”; yeast is slightly different in every location, so homemade sourdough tastes unique to it’s location.