You are currently browsing the monthly archive for November 2008.
Be Nice isn’t just a cool site with organic, original shirts, but Marine and I have also created a Be Nice blog to keep people up to date with what’s going on with the two fresh chics and their biz.
You can get to it from, http://ubenice.com or go directly to the blog at, http://www.ubenice.com/blog/.
A girl can never have too many blogs.
-Cara
Let’s ring in this season with this lovely Christmas duet featuring Cyndi Lauper and The Hives.
Ho Ho Ho. Bring it Christmas, I’m ready.
:]
-Cara
The Last Time I Made Them
It been a hot second since I’ve done a recipe and with the Holidays upon us (and today being Thanksgiving), it’s baking time. These Organic Cheesecake Thumbprints are a sweet delicacy. I love them.
What You Need
4 ounces organic cream cheese, make sure it is room temperature
1/2 cup organic sugar
1/4 teaspoon sea salt, plus an additional pinch
2 large, organic, free range egg yolks
1 1/2 teaspoons organic sour cream
1/8 teaspoon pure organic vanilla extract
2 sticks (1 cup) organic unsalted butter at room temperature
2 cups all purpose organic flour (I recommend King Aurthur Flour’s organic all purpose flour)
What To Do
In an electric mixer bowl using the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese on medium speed until it looks light and fluffy, about 3 to 6 minutes, stopping every 30 seconds or so to scrape the sides of the bowl and let the motor rest for a second.
Once light and fluffy add 1/4 cup of sugar and a pinch of sea salt and beat 3 to 5 minutes until smooth. Add one egg yolk, sour cream, and vanilla; beat until smooth again. Transfer to a small bowl, and refrigerate for an hour.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, with the oven racks in the upper and lower thirds. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper and set them to the side. In the bowl of the electric mixer use the paddle attachment to beat the butter and remaining 1/4 cup of sugar, on medium speed, till everything is good and mixed, for about 1 to 2 minutes I’d say. Don’t forget to scrape down the sides of the bowl now and again. Add the rest of the sea salt (1/4 teaspoon) and egg yolk; beat till mixed. Put the mixer on low and gradually add the flour, mixing until it is just combined.
Take a level tablespoon of the dough and roll into a ball about 30 times or until you are out of dough, placing each on a prepared baking sheet, about an inch apart. Use your CLEAN thumb and make an indentation in the center of each ball, this is where the magic gets put into each mini cheesecake.
Bake the thumbprints for 10 minutes, then remove them from the oven. Make another indention, rotate the baking sheets, return to the oven. Bake for about 7 to 9 more minutes or until the edges of the cookies turn golden brown. Once done remove from oven and place on a wire rack until completely cooled.
Take a teaspoon and fill the center of each cookie with about one teaspoon of cream cheese filling, in a hill shape. Put the cookies back in the oven, baking them until the filling is firm, about 7 to 8 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Put them in an air tight container, layered between wax or parchment paper in the refrigerator for at least four hours before serving and to store any leftovers.
Happy Thanksgiving!!!
-Cara
The Environmental Intelligence Unit BBC game represents fun times with flash saving the world…
It has been awhile since we’ve had an eco game…Brittish based no less.
Good times.
-Cara
Marine and I have just launched an awesome eco, green, super fresh, organic t-shirt company, “be nice”, and thankfully just in time for the Holidays. : P You can check out our web site at http://ubenice.com . The designs are original and we do the screen printing in our very own Spanish Harlem 5 floor walk-up.
We are just starting out, and doing it all manually, which it turns out is a lot of work. :] We definitely put a part of ourselves into each shirt we create. I even invented two of the colors, one is a soft blue used on the “benice” shirt and the other is a rich green I use on the “Certifiably Organic” shirt.
I’ll miss the shirts, but it is cool knowing someone is out there wearing something you put your mojo into. That should be our slogan, “For some good ass mojo, buy yourself a super fresh shirt”
Be nice.
-Cara
Music times are good times.
-Cara
I received an e-mail yesterday from Becky Verhey on behalf of FilterForGood stating, “Since you wrote about the recyclability of Brita filters, I wanted to give you a heads up that Brita will announce today that it is offering a recycling solution for its pitcher water filters. ” She goes on to talk positively about Brita water pitchers, “…it would take 300 standard 16.9-ounce bottles of water to replace just one Brita pitcher filter“. I wonder if they use any PVC in the making of their filters. I will send them an e-mail and ask.
Here is the information you need, beginning in January 2009, Brita pitcher filters can be dropped off at participating Whole Foods Markets or mailed to Preserve (another company I wrote about), who will recycle 100 percent of each Brita plastic pitcher filter casing collected for use in its line of recyclable household goods.
I have the Ultramax Dispenser and like it. I can also be riddled with less guilt now that I can recycle the filters. I was saving them already to send to FiltersforGood, who were collecting them from people to make a point. Now, hopefully I can just bring them down to the Whole Foods on 14th and have them recycled. I wonder what Whole Foods is going to do with them. I don’t trust that corporation. I worked for them for over five years when I was a kid in Chicago…long story…
I am glad Brita figured something good and I think FilterForGood is fresh for fighting the good fight.
Nice work.
-Cara
Disclaimer: I just need to say I feel weird about Brita and FilterForGood partnering up. I can’t believe the people at Brita are caring for caring’s sake. I guess in the end if there is change for the better… I am not sure…
This video wins best student film I’ve seen in a long time.
We need to think about our connectivity to each other and the Earth.
-Cara
Use the Pencil, keep the pencil, until the end.
Do the green thing.
-Cara
I’ve been watching movies more than usual, for example tonight it was Blue Vinyl. I know I talked about it before, but it is worth bringing up again. It is an amazing movie, done by a really smart, funny woman, Judith Helfand and Daniel B. Gold, the awesome Director of Photography. It you have never seen it, buy the DVD from the Docurama and watch it, then give it to someone else, then someone else, etc. It needs more attention. Also, for information and support resources for organizing a public or targeted screening of BLUE VINYL contact Molly Ramey at Working Films mramey@workingfilms.org or (910) 342-9000.
Here is where you go to keep up to date with what is going on in the world of PVC, My House is Your House. Judith Helfand is also director of the prequel, “A Healthy Baby Girl“, which I have yet to see.
Let’s get the soy chips and dip and get this party started. : P
-Cara
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed is a documentary by Ben Stein I watched tonight. I am not going to review it here, but I recommend siting through the whole thing as there are super smart parts worth waiting for.
In the film when they talked about the complexities of a single cell, the intricacies, functions, the work that happens they show it with this super fresh animation. I guess the nerd in me loves any animated double helix. The movie makes one point that really resonated with me…simply put, what goes on inside a cell may be partially controlled remotely. :] I am explaining it poorly I’m sure, but even if that isn’t what was said…how cool is the idea? That all your cells that work together, the creators of proteins, which control our very being’s existence, may be remotely controlled??? That our existence is more than just our own to control. That we have no concept of our true greatness and the existence of an even greater entity than ourselves within ourselves. It is illogical and unscientific to only believe in yourself.
Look around, it is amazing.
-Cara
Just because it makes me smile.
-Cara
Well planted, not uprooted.
Well embraced, never lost.
Descendants will continue
The ancestral rituals.
Maintain oneself:
TE becomes real.
Maintain the family:
TE becomes abundant.
Maintain the community:
TE becomes extensive.
Maintain the country:
TE becomes prolific.
Maintain the world:
TE becomes omnipresent.
Therefore,
Through self contemplate self,
Through family contemplate family,
Through community contemplate community,
Through country contemplate country,
Through world contemplate world.
How do I know the world?
I tz’u
Like this!
-Lao-Tzu
Hmmm…I have been hitting the videos in the blog a lot lately, short and sweet. You know I have been chilling after all this working I’ve been doing lately. :] I need to get focused and organized. I have some projects on hold and my awesome, super fresh blog has been neglected… I need some inspiration.
I think it’s crazy after a year of working for me and just being in this world, how doing others’ work takes up so much time. I am not saying that in a negative way. The distraction is welcomed. I don’t know if you all know this, but the world is a very crazy place when you have the time to really take it in. It does help not losing faith during this unknown journey that is your life. I fight doing things just because others tell me it is the way it is. I do what I do because I think it is the right thing to do.
I seek balance.
-Cara
I can’t remember if I’ve ever wanted to hear a person’s speech after they realized they would be the next U.S. President, and I know I’ve never listened with hope. These are two of three very amazing things that happened tonight.
Hope is an awesome thing.
-Cara
Amendment 2 is an initiative on Florida’s November ballot that if passed would limit the rights of both homosexual and heterosexual couples to form civil unions and domestic partnerships.
Gay marriage is already banned under Florida state law, but the initiative’s authors want to go a step further. The initiative states that “no other legal union that is treated as marriage or the substantial equivalent thereof shall be valid or recognized.”
Amendment 2’s supporters say that their intent is only to define marriage and not affect civil unions, but if so, then why include the “substantial equivalent” language in the initiative?
A similar initiative passed in Michigan in 2004, and as a result the state’s courts prohibited public employers from recognizing domestic partnerships for the purpose of awarding health benefits. The ruling affected teachers, nurses, professors, fire fighters, policy officers, and government employees.
Pledge to vote no on Amendment 2!
Why take away anyone’s right to health care among other things? My native state is a rough place that way for no other reason than that it is the way it has always been.
Sign here.
-Cara
Target: EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson
Sponsored by: Sierra Club
For the past 30 years, the Stream Buffer Zone Rule has prohibited mining activities within 100 feet of perennial or intermittent streams, which serve as habitats to a vast array of aquatic life and provide drinking water to local communities.The Office of Surface Mining (OSM) is proposing to rewrite this rule to eliminate the buffer, giving mining companies access to mine through streams across the Appalachian region.
We cannot let our environmental protections be dismantled. Please tell EPA Administrator Johnson to reject this proposal.
Just spreading the word.
-Cara
The Day After An Inconvenient Truth 
What Did You Say?