Starting my own business?

Hi Friends! I am calling on your support, please. My Mom came to me this weekend with the terrific idea of starting my own business. The current idea is to have a business where I could go to people's houses and help them start gardens with and for their kids. I would help them get everything designed, planted, and ready with their kids. After that they would be in charge of maintaining their garden unless they wanted to pay for further consultation (but I wouldn't want to be their regular gardener).

A fun addition that I was was thinking about was that plant a theme gardens in addition to/instead regular vegetable or flower gardens. Potential theme gardens include: fairy garden, animal/zoo garden, Native American garden, A-Z garden, 6-plant part burrito garden, fort garden, etc. Any other theme ideas?

Also, I am hoping that you can help me with a name for my business/domain name. I really like the idea of "Let's Get Growing" as a business name. That name is not, however, available for a website domain name. Here are some potential website domain names that seem to be available:

gardeneducation.com
enchantinggardens.org
organicgardeneducation.com
kidgardens.net/org
organickidgardens.com
getgrowingorganic.com
getgrowingorganic.com

If you have ideas for a domain name you can test its availability here: http://instantdomainsearch.com/

Also, here is a template that I was thinking of for my website here. What do you think? Is it too childish and not professional enough?

I am completely open, and thankful for any suggestions for the name, website name, website organization, business idea, etc. of my potential future business.

THANK YOU!!!
xoxox

psychological spring cleaning...

As I prepare for the big 3-0 (!) I am trying to make it an emotional, spiritual, physical rebirth/celebration time, blah blah blah. I like this, and you might too:
http://crazysexylife.com/2009/start-your-psychological-spring-cleaning/

Mom's Noodle Salad with Spicy Peanut Butter Dressing

Dressing (wisk/blend together the following):
6 tablespoons peanut butter
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
1/4 cup broth
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1.5 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon minced ginger
some garlic
1/2 teaspoon cayenne

Cook: 8 oz. whole wheat linguine, and then cool with water

Cut veggies:
(chop like matchsticks) orange/red bell pepper and carrots
shredded cabbage
1/2 cup chopped green onions

For garnish: 1/4 cup chopped cilantro and 1/4 cup chopped peanuts

I want this...and I want it NOW!

Only 19 baking days left until my birthday...if you catch my hint...

Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Pillows
makes 2 dozen cookies

Chocolate dough:
1/2 cup canola oil
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
3 tablespoons non-dairy milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened dutch processed cocoa powder
2 tablespoons black unsweetened cocoa or more dutch processed unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Filling:
3/4 cup natural salted peanut butter, crunchy or creamy style
2/3 cup confectioner’s sugar
2 to 3 tablespoons soy creamer or non-dairy milk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a large mixing bowl combine oil, sugar, maple syrup, non-dairy milk and vanilla extract and mix until smooth. Sift in flour, cocoa powder, black cocoa if using, baking soda and salt. Mix to form a moist dough.

Make the filling. In another mixing bowl beat together peanut butter, confectioner’s sugar, 2 tablespoons of soy creamer and vanilla extract to form a moist but firm dough. If peanut butter dough is too dry (as different natural peanut butters have different moisture content), stir in remaining tablespoon of non-dairy milk. If dough is too wet knead in a little extra powdered sugar.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

Shape the cookies. Create the centers of the cookies by rolling the peanut butter dough into 24 balls. Scoop a generous tablespoon of chocolate dough, flatten into a disc and place a peanut butter ball in the center. Fold the sides of the chocolate dough up and around the peanut butter center and roll the chocolate ball into an smooth ball between your palms. Place on a sheet of waxed paper and repeat with remaining doughs. If desired gently flatten cookies a little, but this is not necessary.

Place dough balls on lined baking sheets about 2 inches apart and bake for 10 minutes. Remove sheet from oven and let cookies for 5 minutes before moving to a wire rack to complete cooling. Store cookies in tightly covered container. If desired warm cookies in a microwave for 10 to 12 seconds before serving.

Photo and recipe from: http://theppk.com/blog/2009/03/30/peanut-butter-pillows/

Lacey's Funny, Yummy Bread!

I don't know how she does it, but she is a genius! Lacey can make unbelievably delicious, crunchy-crusted (how often does this happen in homemade bread?), fabulous bread! This recipe is originally from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Hertzberg & Francois.

The idea is to make a wet dough (no kneading!), keep it in the refrigerator, and bake hunks of it whenever you want fresh bread – whee! Makes four 1-pound loaves.


3 c. lukewarm water

1 1/2 T yeast

2 to 2 1/2 tsp. salt (play with it – recipe called for 1 1/2 T, waaaay too salty!

6 1/2 c. flour (I used about 3 c. whole wheat and 3 c. bread flour, but you can play with it)

Put yeast and salt into warm water.

Mix in flour.

Let sit 2 hours.

Cover & refrigerate.


When you want a loaf….
Dust surface of dough with flour, pull up and cut off a grapefruit-sized hunk to bake.
Dust hunk with more flour, pull edges around to form a loaf. Place loaf on baking tray.
Rise 20 minutes while preheating the oven to 450° with an oven-safe skillet of water in the bottom of the oven for steam.
Dust loaf with flour, slash with a sharp knife.
Bake 25-35 minutes (depending on size of loaf). Make sure the water doesn’t run out!


Store remaining dough (covered) in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. The flavor will change and become more sour over time.

The coolest library website in the world!

Thank you to Lacey, Ryan, and Graham for all coming through and helping me re-find this website. Now that it is found I want EVERYONE to know about it:

Last year while I was searching for a very rare book at various libraries (if you want to know what book it was please ask me -totally hilarious story!) I ran across this website where you can type any book (or any kind of media) and your zipcode (actually the computer already knows your zipcode- scary!) into it's search bar and it will list every library in the COUNTRY (or even possibly the world -hence the name?) that has that book starting with the one that is closest to you. It will also tell you if the book is available, and you can set up an inter-library loan through the website (I may be mistaken about this last part).

I LOVE this website, and here it is: World Cat: http://www.worldcat.org/


Photo credit: http://www.artsjournal.com/bookdaddy/2008/07/

Vegetarian "Meat"loaf

I think that I am going to try this recipe tomorrow...

Ingredients

* 2 cups water
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 cup lentils
* 1 small onion, diced
* 1 cup quick-cooking oats
* 3/4 cup grated cheese (cheddar, swiss, jack or American)
* 1 egg, beaten
* 4 1/2 ounces spaghetti sauce or tomato sauce
* 1 teaspoon garlic powder
* 1 teaspoon dried basil
* 1 tablespoon dried parsley
* 1/2 teaspoon seasoning salt
* 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Directions

1.Add salt to water and boil in a saucepan.
2.Add lentils and simmer covered 25-30 minutes, until lentils are soft and most of water is evaporated.
3.Remove from fire.
4.Drain and partially mash lentils.
5.Scrape into mixing bowl and allow to cool slightly.
6.Stir in onion, oats and cheese until mixed.
7.Add egg, tomato sauce, garlic, basil, parsley, seasoning salt and pepper.
8.Mix well.
9.Spoon into loaf pan that has been generously sprayed with Pam (non-stick cooking spray) or well-greased.
10.Smooth top with back of spoon.
11.Bake at 350 degrees for 30- 45 minutes until top of loaf is dry, firm and golden brown.
12.Cool in pan on rack for about 10 minutes.
13.Run a sharp knife around edges of pan then turn out loaf onto serving platter.

Recipe taken from http://www.recipezaar.com/Really-Good-Vegetarian-Meatloaf-really-33921

THE violin has arrived!

We are in the process of trying to name it. Some ideas that come to mind: Velvet (or Velvet Vigoda), Phoenix, Philana. Any other suggestions of supremely awesome girl names are encouraged! We are looking for a name that represents the femininity, yet total fiery-strength and wonderful-uniqueness of this instrument, and the woman who previously owned her! Ideas?

P.S. I tried to upload a video of the violin being played by Graham, but it failed. Hopefully soon you will get to see the video!

The Baby Chick Story

I love this story with every little chamber of my heart. It is a true Mother's Day story, and has been on my mind all weekend. I hope that you enjoy it and pass it on too. Lacey and I went to visit our friend Jim and his girlfriend, Linda, in Santa Cruz this past Saturday. Jim and Linda had recently been to Hawaii and Jim told us of this amazing story from his trip:

One day when Linda and Jim were at the beach there were some chickens also running around the beach. One of the hens laid an egg on the towel of another beach goer. Jim immediately picked up the egg exclaiming that it was probably going to taste wonderful! Linda snatched the egg from his hand retorting, "Like hell you will," and promptly placed the egg safely into her bra. She kept the egg there for the three remaining days of their trip, through the agricultural inspection at the airport, and back home to Santa Cruz until she could purchase a real incubator for the egg.

The egg sat in the incubator for several weeks until Jim was able to convinced Linda that they would throw out the egg on Sunday, if the chick had not hatched. Saturday morning they came home to a broken eggshell in the incubator, but no chicken. Of course they were confused until they found that the chick had fallen out of the incubator, off of the dresser that the incubator was on, and into the trash can next to the dresser. Fortunately the trash can was full and made soft landing!

The chick is healthy and well, and SO cute. It is also VERY, overwhelmingly sweet! It gets sad when it can't be sitting/sleeping in your arms, or on your shoulder. I got to hold and enjoy this little, beautiful miracle! I am also hoping that Jim will let me have her! I think that a hen would go nicely with the rest of my zoo (please note the sarcasm in my voice).

Happy Mother's Day!

I made this soup with a ton of extra, raw garlic in it for my sick mommy today:
http://charkness.blogspot.com/2007/09/delicious-late-summer-harvest-soup.html

I love it! So simple, yet so awesome! I was walking around the farmer's market today with Graham, in need of some divine inspiration of what soup to make for my mommy, until finally the voice of the luscious zucchini and corn called to me and let me remember this recipe. Brilliant!

I must remember to get some cherries next time I go to the farmer's market though. They will only be around for the next month.

I just also want to note what a great weekend it's been (such a nice end to a very challenging work week)!

Big Dance, Lacey, THE violin, seeing our old friend Jim in Santa Cruz, old college friends, kambucha on tap, the baby chick story (everyone and anyone MUST come ask me about this story!), delicious zucchini/basil soup, beautiful farmer's market produce, Ananda, swing dancing to live music at the farmer's market, Macie, my birthday present earrings from Lacey, new friends, feeling like me again!

Thank you to my fans out there!

I just recently discovered that I had several unmoderated comments for some previous blog posts. Which means that I have friends who read my blog!! Yeah! I didn't think that anyone could find these mind-dribble ramblings, let alone be interested enough in them to leave a comment. Thanks to all my friends who read this site. I love each and every one (or two) of you!

इन सर्च ऑफ़ अ न्यू नतुरे नामे...

First of all, let me just start by saying that something is wrong with Blogger (because it couldn't possibly be user error!). When I try to type in my blog post title the words come up/get translated(?) into a bizarre language which resembles Farsi. Okay, whatever! If anyone out there in the blogosphere knows what's wrong please fill me in.

Okay, and now onto the real reason for the post: I am thinking of giving myself a new nature name for work. I'm looking for something that is beautiful and sweet, representational of me, and can stand alone as a name without "Cathy" next to it. Also, I'm looking for something that's not too cutesey-pootsey. Here are some ponderings:

Summer
Heron
Feather
Fern
Sierra
Skye
Sunshine
Cheyenne
Kai (ocean)
Poppy
Ginger (my Mom's name. humm...)
Aspen
Kamala (born of the lotus)
Kamalah (lotus)
Leilani (heavenly flower)
Coral
Orion
Kamaya/Kamea (precious one)
Elyse
Willow
Calanthia (beautiful flower)
Daisy
Butterfly
Ladybug
Coyote ??

Or perhaps this is just a list of names that I like. None of them seem to suit me. Any suggestions from the peanut gallery?