Here’s some last minute tips for SF Outsidelands, happening this weekend in Golden Gate Park.

Prep:

- Check out the lineup and schedule and make a plan. There are a ton of amazing bands, many playing at the same time. Decide which ones are must see shows and then work around those times. It takes a while to move from one stage to another, so keep that in mind while you plan.

- Look at the map. It’s big and there is a lot going on. Get an idea of the layout ahead to save some time as you run between stages.

-Pack the night before. Gates open at 11am and it will take at least an hour to get there, even if you live in the city. I live 40 miles from SF, it usually takes me an hour to get there (and park) but I’m planning on a two hour trip. I don’t know about you, but I just want to grab and go tomorrow morning.

What to pack:

- Sealed bottle (max 1 liter) of water or empty reusable bottle. They will make you empty your bottle unless it’s factory sealed. You can add water any time at one of the refilling stations inside.

- Snacks. SF offers amazing food and this festival is no different, but the lines are long and the prices are high. Grab some snacks to cover you between meals.

- Layers! The forecast is sunny with highs in the low 60′s and temp dropping ten degrees in the evening. No idea about wind and no guarantee this forecast is accurate. Bring something warm for the late shows; you can use it as a cushion or pillow during the day.

Don’t forget sunscreen! It might not be that hot, but it’s full sun all day. Protect your skin or you will get burned.

Other tips:

- Camp out (as in watch the band(s) lined up before.) If there is a band you really want to see, you might need to get there early to ensure good seating. This is important for the big name acts at the end of the night, it gets really crowded and if you want a good spot you’ll have to put some time in. Hang out at that stage ahead of time and move forward as the crowd clears.  I’m pretty sure I will be parked at Lands End all day Saturday.

- Take public transit. Unless you already made parking arrangements, you will not find parking. Believe me, it’s hard enough to park in that area on regular days.

- Explore the City! SF is a great place, grab breakfast near Irvine street before you head in and grab drinks after the show anywhere in the city. Check out yelp for suggestions.

- Be green! Outsidelands does their best to stay green with a solar powered stage, recycling and compost bins. Follow along and bring reusable or recyclable containers for your snacks. And of course, don’t litter.

- Be careful, be smart! This is a safe place as long as you are smart. If you get trashed and wander off to a sketchy area, you are really asking for trouble. I know a lot of people like to party hard at concerts, but three days outside in crowds and funky weather is rough enough for me, I can’t add booze without burning out.  Don’t do anything that will end up messing up your experience.

Extra warning to people planning on stopping by Hippie Hill for mischief during your trip: There’s good odds you’ll get ripped off and/or busted. Everyone knows about the concert and will be looking for tourists to scam and police will be in full force and on the lookout for knuckleheads.


The following is a recipe for hollandaise so easy, you’ll feel like you cheated.

Super Easy Hollandaise

2 egg yolks
1 tablespoon heavy whipping cream
2 sticks butter
2 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
Dash of cayenne pepper

Cut butter into cubes and place into a microwave safe bowl. Microwave for about a minute and a half, or until completely melted. Add yolks, cream and lemon juice into standard blender, or  if using a hand blender, tall cup the with of the blender or high walled bowl. Blend for a minute until incorporated and frothy. While blending, slowly pour in butter, leaving any milk solids in the bottom of the container. Add salt and cayenne, taste and season more if desired. Serve right away.

How easy is that?!

Ok readers, I cranky and I’m not ever sure who I’m cranky with. You see, the last few times I’ve been to the supermarket I’ve been “praised” for knowing how to cook. I have also heard that I was a good girl or a good catch because I was domestic. This irks me for few very different reasons.

Many of the women in my social circle do not know how to cook and many of the women in my age range that I’ve met casually don’t know how to boil water.

How are these women feeding themselves?! Ok, I know that it is possible to feed yourself without ever touching your stove. But I question how well these women understand nutrition. Do you really understand what you are eating if you don’t know how it’s made, what it’s made with and where it comes from?  With obesity levels skyrocketing and more and more studies tying disease to chemicals in food, I wonder if there is a correlation.

It’s a fair argument to say that a person who cooks every meal could be just as unhealthy as someone who eats only prepared meals. I’ve cooked some horribly unhealthy dishes, but I don’t eat those every day. And I bet my butter laden French concoctions don’t compare to a Big Mac when it comes to sodium, saturated fats and preservatives.

I worry about the health of the women in my generation and the families they create. Remember the people in Wall-E? Sure that’s a little extreme, but it’s not impossible.

In general I’m a little sad for people who don’t know the basics of cooking because they are limited in what they can eat. You can’t eat something that a store or restaurant doesn’t provide pre-made. They are also losing out on the sense of accomplishment from a great meal you made yourself. This sounds sappy, but I’m a firm believer that homemade food tastes better because it was made with love.

If you didn’t grow up in a household with a parent who cooked and didn’t grow up watching PBS with cooking shows featuring Yan Can Cook or Julia Child (like me). Do yourself a favor and read more blogs like this, better yet read a blog less manic. One with regular recipes with lots of step by step instructions and pictures. Learn about the food around you, what’s in it and where the ingredients come from. Educate yourself so you make healthy decisions about what you eat, even if you choose live on pre-made meals.

Thoughts like the ones I just mentioned really piss off my inner feminist and make me feel cynical

Why is it assumed I would make a good wife and mother if I know how to make a meal? Does anyone who finds out I am a savvy couponer and cutthroat deal hunter think I would make a fantastic CFO?

I am for the most part torn on how modern domesticity falls on my feminist radar. But honestly, I’m not a hard-core feminist. I AM a strong, independent woman, capable of  supporting myself on economic and domestic fronts. And I am truly sad and a little disappointed for women who can’t make that claim.

Why is homemade and handmade “Trendy”?

I did mention I’m cynical right?

I love Craftzine and Martha Stewart is nobody’s fool. But I have to ask, why is something that was a necessity for so many generations now a trendy thing to do for the upper middle-class? Is it because food and materials are so expensive it has forced the poor to buy cheap, pre-made things – usually of poor quality? Did we screw over the poor with our funky, shabby-chic weekend projects?

Am I just a hipster douche for blogging about my made from scratch goodies or am I actually contributing something to the interwebs?

Update: tags were supposed to read “domestic 30something girl questioning feminism and her contribution to the internet slash world” but it got all jumbled

These are the recipes I tried out:

Fauxcotta

1/2 cup raw cashews
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves
1 lb extra firm tofu, drained
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt, or kosher salt
1/4 cup basil, parsley or herb of choice (optional)

Throw the first four ingredients in the blender and blend until smooth, crumble the tofu into the blender and add the remaining ingredients. Blend until desired consistency is reached.

Homemade Ricotta (dairy)

4 cups whole milk (1 quart)
1 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup buttermilk *optional – give you a creamier cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Slowly heat dairy in a nonreactive pot, be careful not to burn the milks. Just before boiling, add lemon juice and salt and stir. As it boils it should start to curdle, the longer you let it boil the firmer the ricotta will be. When it is the desired consistency,  drain the curds from the whey through a strainer lined with a few layers of cheese cloth. Set the strainer on top of a bowl and let it slowly drain and cool. Twist the cheesecloth and give it a little squeeze to shape the cheese and remove any extra liquid. Refrigerate and enjoy!

Other easy words are the ones the artist made up, like Lucubrious  or Pompitous.

Then there are words like abolitionist, proposition, compositions, procreation, statistics and hallucinatory – I think they might be unique, no one has proven me wrong yet.

So that’s why we made a tumblr blog! To share the insanity!! Add words you think are unique or disprove words already posted.

Today I planned a test run. I stayed local and sought out to earn the Stanford “All Right Now” badge  and test out a new camera lens in the Ronin Garden.

The test case was successful, I got my badge but maybe not as many good shots as I hoped. I need some lessons on how to work my camera

Wednesday I will attempt to get up early and train hop around the city (earning the BART badge) and check out some food, drinks, music and art. The goal is to collect at least 3 badges. Stay tuned for more.

I just got back from the SF Street Food Fest and man, I’m exhausted. There were a ton of people! I’m not sure how many, but enough for me to get my Super Swarm Badge and of course the street food badge, Ziggy’s Wagon.

I wasn’t able to try as many things as I hoped, I got there late and the lines were just to long to sample everything. But here is a sample of what I did try.

Purple Hibiscus: Scotch Egg

A Scotch egg is a shelled hard-boiled egg, wrapped in a sausage meat mixture, coated in breadcrumbs, and deep-fried. I could be wrong, but the meat tasted a bit like lamb. I do know the seasoning was just the right amount of spice. The outside was wonderfully crispy the inside moist and delightful, very impressive for mass produced street food. I am a little confused why a UK snack food was at a West African stand, but happy for the opportunity to try.

Flour+Water: Summer Melon with Duck Prosciutto and Lardo

This was a lovely simple dish with strong flavors. Again, I was supprised by the quality of the items. The melon was perfectly ripe and crisp. The clean flavor played nicely with the rich and salty cured pork fat (Lardo) and duck prosciutto. I never had prosciutto that wasn’t pork so I was excited to try the duck. It was very interesting, it tasted a little richer and gamey, but overall not bad.

Curry Up Now: Chicken Tikka Masala Burrito

Folks in the Financial District line up during their lunch breaks, sometimes for their entire lunch break, for one of these bad boys. I have to say, it wasn’t my favorite dish of the day, but it wasn’t bad either. The chicken was great, moist and well seasoned. But the rice was dripping in sauce and just a tad spicier than I would have liked. I also wish there were more pickles and onions, or something to break up the dense chicken and rice. I can’t imagine getting any work done after having one of these bad boys for lunch.

ClairSquares: Mini Squares

I had a bite of Clairsquare’s signature treats to cool my tongue down after the curry. This was the moistest shortbread I’ve ever tasted, it was delicious! A clairsquare consists of Irish shortbread topped with a layer of caramel and then covered in yummy chocolate. It was FAB! I do wish that the caramel was a bit more pronounced, with a hint of vanilla perhaps. I am pretty in love with my vanilla, so I’m very critical of other people’s caramel. On the plus side, they do not use trans fat or corn syrup in their treats, the high quality natural ingredients are noticeable in every bite.

Endless Summer Sweets: Funnel Cakes

First off, they should change the name to endless line. It took me an hour to get my cake, I had to shlep through two lines – one to pay and one to pick up and both were 30 minutes long. UG! Obviously it was a brilliant idea to have funnel cakes at this festival, but they really should have kicked the production into gear once they experienced the demand.

When I finally got my cake, it was perfectly brown and crisp with a light dusting of powdered sugar, fresh sliced strawberries and whipped cream. The cream was hand whipped, which is nice. But was scooped out of a 10 gallon bucket and oozed all over. I’m not sure if that was the desired consistency of the cream (half whipped and drippy) or I just got the dregs of the bucket (which I did), but it was very unattractive to watch them ladle out the serving. Again, it would have been nice to taste some vanilla or other seasoning in the cream, or have it whipped firm with little sweetener and cold – to contrast the super sweet cake, but nope.

The funnel cake was exactly like you would get at any fair and great quality if you put it in those parameters. But I just had some amazingly high quality street food and I was hoping for a knock my socks off dessert. Alas, nope. The first bite was exciting, but every bite after became increasingly gross, and I ended up dumping shortly after. I should have grabbed a cone from Bi-Rite.

a shot of the crowd

I’m so happy I could make this work. It was fun hunting down these deals and felt great unloading my packed trunk, knowing I paid next to nothing and will help many needy people.

Here is a great coupon in the Rite Aid circular, which you can pick up in the front of the store:

Grab a copy when you enter the store, tear out the coupon while you shop, grab one ACE Instant Ice Pack ($1.29) from the Travel Size isle and you have $2.71 to apply to the rest of your order. You can combine this coupon with a box of Colgate toothpaste and a printable coupon for another $.75 – $1 off PLUS $3 good on your next purchase.

It expires tomorrow (7/31/10), so act quickly!

I picked up another cold pack/toothpaste deal and a box of pasta, used one of my ‘bucks’, paid 7 cents and got 3 more ‘bucks’ back.

Feel like helping out? Here’s a link!

Coupons of the future

Inspired by the buck-a-day guy and attempting to save for my shiny new toy, I decided to pay more attention to my spending. I was happy to find out coupons have gone new millennium with websites like Cellfire and Shortcuts which link to your grocery store loyalty cards, thus saving you from clipping coupons and feeling like an old lady. There is even an app for it! Cellfire has a free app for the iPhone.

I tried out Cellfire on my trip to Safeway yesterday with a few of the ole timey clipped coupons as well and saved at least $50 on my purchase. I haven’t figured out my menu for the next week yet, so I just bought the basics, and I’ll end up making another trip later this week for meal specific items. But I picked up some ‘Catalinas’ while checking out, so that’s another few bucks off  in addition to future coupons virtual or otherwise.

What the hell is a Catalina?

While reading up on the coupon world, Catalinas came up often. I pieced together it was good, highly sought after by clippies (good nickname for them?), but was worried it was something store specific. Not quite.

Catalinas, nicknamed after the marketing company, are those machines next to the receipt printers at most grocery stores. They shoot off purchase specific coupons to be used on your next trip. If you buy the right combination of items you can even get free money (on your next purchase.) Neato!

There is some appeal in this game. With a little ingenuity and research, you can end up with a ton of dirt cheap items.  It’s also not impossible to get one or two items for free and occasionally, if you swing it just right, you might find a combination that nets you a few cents.

Here is a link for Catalina info.

Is it worth it?

I question if the time I’m going to spend researching deals before shopping is really the best use of my time, but I do think this is overall a very productive exercise. Saving money is always good and there is a sense of accomplishment when you see the savings at the bottom of the receipt.

More importantly, it forces me think about what I eat.  I eat pretty healthy, with the exception of the occasional bacon binge. And I spend a lot of time thinking about my menus, particularity the ones that I write about. But now I’m thinking a few meals at a time; what it will cost, how long it will last, what else I’ll be eating that week and how healthy is it overall.

The end result, I hope, will be a healthier diet of the same quality at a lower price. I’ll try to keep you up to date on the progress.

The original plan was to take part of the money from the deposit on my old apartment and buy the same or a similar machine as the one I’ve been using. But while researching prices and features I came across the Janome MB4, a super awesome semi-industrial embroidery machine. It is super sexy, in that automated embroidery machine kind of way. It does everything I want it to do, better than all the other machines I’ve been looking at. But, and this is a big but, it is 4 times more money.

Now I thought about it a lot: compared the upfront cost with it’s resale value, the time savings and efficiency, and figured it was very possible that this machine would eventually pay for itself. But, I just don’t have that kind of money.

So with a little sanity check from my mom, I decided to give it a year. I’ll buy the best one I can within the price range I afforded myself. In a year if I’m still going strong and have made/sold enough badges and whatnot to sustain this project, I’ll see about getting the big gun.

So please continue to buy my stuff, tell your science-y friends about the badges and keep giving me all your wonderful support. I really love making things, I’d really love to be able to make this an actual living one day. But at least, I’d like to continue breaking even on a larger scale.