Growing my own private stash of mushrooms…right in the open! November 12, 2008

What the heck????

It’s another one of those odd things I get  in the mail…..a mushroom log. Not that it looked like much when I opened the box from Gourmet Mushrooms….as you can see it’s just a kinda scuzzy looking little loggy thing….but supposedly, if you run water over it, put it back in the bag, wait a few days, shitake mushrooms will begin to grow….that the log has been innoculated with mushroom spores, that can be grown on a kitchen counter, a desktop, anywhere inside really…and all you need is water.  How easy is that?

 

 

 

Now look at it...sprouting...things!!

Here’s what my log looks like almost a week later…..I’m growing shitakes, baby…my own private stash! The kit instructions say I can expect to harvest maybe a pound of the fungi…in mushroom speak, the crop is called a “mushroom flush”. And for those of you who want to grow mushroomw outdoors, there’s an outdoor kit too, even one that grows the cute, (very expensive IF YOU FIND THEM IN A MARKET) morel mushroom. 

“CREATE AN EARTH FRIENDLY, SUSTAINABLE, ORGANIC MOREL MUSHROOM GARDEN & GROW MORELS IN YOUR BACKYARD “
The indoor kits are $19.95…Great gift idea for a gourmand, or even a child who likes to watch things grow…AND you get to eat the mushrooms later! What’s not to like?

Muhammed Ali alert!! October 15, 2008

Get a front row seat...

The “Greatest of all Time” has a huge, loyal fan base….and besides being, well, the greatest of all time, Muhammed Ali has also led a fascinating life, and people love him.  I found that out bigtime today, when a copy of the just released

 ESPN’s “Ringside Ali” DVD was sent to me….and because I really don’t care much about boxing, I subsequently gave it to the guy who heads up our edit department. You would have thought I gave him a bar of gold, or, like my reaction would have been to a pair of Jimmy Choo Shoes had someone handed me a pair….ecstasy, ok? “Oh, thank, you , thank you, thank you, I am his biggest fan ever!”, or something like that, and I got a bear hug. A big one.

Sooooo, given the positive reaction, I thought this would probably make a good gift idea for Ali fans, and sports fans in general. And it does look pretty cool really….fifteen of Ali’s greatest fights, and a 3 and a half hour ABC Classic Wide World of Sports documentary on Ali….it’s a four disc set that sells for about 35 bucks. Who knows? Maybe you’ll get a bear hug too….

Cool (and affordable) website gift suggestions! December 8, 2007

OK, who doesn’t love a real summer tomato in the middle of winter…if you could get one, that is. And now you can. My Momma likes to send me clippings from the Birmingham News, and while I get an awful lot of comics she thinks are funny(and they are Momma, they are), this one I really like…just as she thought. Blackjack Gardens in Birmingham is offering Their greenhouse tomatoes for sale and shipping this year. They are greenhouse grown, not hydroponically, but in an “organically rich medium of topsoil, leaf mold, compost and sand”. And without pesticides, natch. $45 for 5 lbs, plus 9 bucks shipping. Not a cheap gift certainly, but if you know a foodie, maybe a memorable one.

Ok, and I feel like I’m cheating on this one…the Today Show had the lego IPOD dock/speaker yesterday, but I did a little further legwork for you on this website….called The Sarut Group…and they have some really wonderful smaller gifts, or maybe stocking stuffers..though I’m not sure they’re cheap enough for that, but that depends on the wallet of the giver. You know.

Check out this cute little doggie leash…one of many patterns, and they a couple of eat dog collars for the dog lover…or a doggie cake server.

And I ordered one of these hairbrushes for my niece for Christmas. I love it!!