Author: Bunny Eats Design

Tofu Tuesday: Waiting for the strawberry plants

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Tofu the bunny loves strawberry plants and always checks to see if any strawberry leaves or runners have grown down to the height that he can reach. He will wait patiently below the strawberry plants for hours each day. Can you can see the two lower black holes of the planter are empty? That’s because Tofu pulls out the plants he can reach and gobbles them up. I thought I was being so smart putting the planter up high on top of a bucket. Tofu the bunny is smarter than I.

Monday Bunday: Paris House

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Oops. So I’ve gone and fallen in love with another New Zealand designer that sells to a wealthy overseas market. I am not a wealthy overseas market, but I was on the hunt for a new wallet and a new bag. Sharon Paris started her company about 6 years ago calls herself an artist, but I beg to differ. She may have a BFA from The University of Auckland, but this is fashion design. The products she puts out in design shops all over the world are made from soft Italian leather, double stitched and are fully lined. It is quality stuff, fetching quality prices. The the that makes the brand interesting are it’s quirky phrases. Not what you would expect from high end luxury items. More reminiscent of bathroom graffiti. Sharon was once heard saying, “Whenever they say it can’t be done, remind them they can make a jellybean that tastes exactly like popcorn.” I think it’s a nice insight to her determination and slightly random, surplus-to-needs brand. No one needs popcorn flavoured jellybeans. …

Meal Plan Week 3

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Eat your vegetables I’m an omnivore and while I adore meat, I know we eat too much of it. The Koala doesn’t like vegetarian food. He doesn’t say so, but you can tell by the way someone eats if they love it or not. There is a loop hole. He adores soup. A meat-free soup isn’t considered a vegetarian meal around here. So, this winter, I’m adding meat-free soups to our menu. It’s cheap, filling and a great way to enjoy the stunning bread that we’ve been getting. We are at Week 3 of our CSA subscription and I’m writing a meal plan each week  to help get through all this produce. This week our CSA box included: Vegetables only 2 bulbs of garlic (self certified organic) 4 kaffir lime leaves (self certified organic) Half a crown pumpkin (certified organic) 1 cabbage (conventional sprays) 7 carrots (conventional sprays) 2 broccoli (certified organic) 2 silverbeet (certified organic) 1 stick of rosemary Meal plan week 3: Mince and cheese pie with mash and creamy garlic* silverbeet* Pumpkin soup: Spiced pumpkin* kaffir lime leaf* and …

OOOOBY BOX WEEK 3

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To get more efficient in our grocery shopping this winter, we are replacing the 2 to 3 trips per week to the market, with a weekly CSA delivery. I plan on topping this up with a fortnightly trip to (or maybe even delivery from) traditional supermarket and a fortnightly trip to Nosh (a local gourmet food store). Local CSA project OOOOBY has a great concept and ethic and we are in week 3 of our subscription. This week our CSA box included: Vegetables only 2 bulbs of garlic (self certified organic) 4 kaffir lime leaves (self certified organic) Half a crown pumpkin (certified organic) 1 cabbage (conventional sprays) 7 carrots (conventional sprays) 2 broccoli (certified organic) 2 silverbeet (certified organic) 1 stick of rosemary Fruit and sweet vegetables There is no fruit this week as we’re trying out OOOOBY’s vegetable only box. We still have kiwifruit left over from last week so we aren’t entirely fruitless. I got an Add On of kumara sourdough instead of ciabatta this week for a change. For those not in kiwi-land, kumara is the Maori word …

Kale chips and a CSA box review for Week 2

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The Koala: “What are you making?” Me: “I’ve already eaten them. They were kale chips.” The Koala: “Kale?…Chips?!? What were they like?” Me: “Like dry, crunchy leaves. I ate the whole bowl.” The Koala was unconvinced and secretly glad there were no kale chips left. Even I’m not convinced, but I did eat all of them before I realised what was happening. A good way to get rid of an abundance of kale I guess. This recipe is easy and you might as well give it a try if you have kale. Maybe you’ll like it. Or maybe you’ll find that you ate the lot before you could decide if you liked kale chips or not. Just make sure you keep a close eye on these suckers in the oven because they can burn in a heartbeat. Kale Chips Makes a bowl enough for 1 or 2 as a snack Ingredients 1 bunch of kale 1 tablespoon olive oil A sprinkle of salt, paprika, and/or garlic salt Preparation Pre-heat oven to 170°C/340°F. Pick the leaves from …

Beetroot

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I loved the 7 baby beetroot we received last week in our CSA box. The colour was glorious and the flavour intensely sweet after cooking. I grated a couple of beetroot with carrot for a balsamic vinegar salad and roasted them chicken and again for a roast vegetable pasta. Roasted beetroot is by far my favourite way of eating beetroot but I almost had kittens the next day! Consider this a public health warning.

Tofu Tuesday: Tofu ♥ sunglasses

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Tofu basking in the sunshine. Again. This time with more style. I vaguely remember seeing a photo of me as a little girl with a pair of these. I’ve wanted heart sunglasses for a long time, so when I saw these adult sized ones in Laos last month, I snapped up a red pair. In hindsight, I should have bought a bunch of these in different colours instead of one pair.

Monday Bunday: Roby Dwi Antono

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Roby Dwi Antono is a talented illustrator from Indonesia. I feel like I’m looking into the twisted mind of an evil, lagomorph loving genius when I view his work. Roby’s work has been compared to well-know American painter Mark Ryden. Same style, different subject matter. Roby digs bunnies, Mark digs creepy girls. You can view more of his fantastical and macabre artworks at his website Lobilob.

Junk Food Day

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Next Saturday is Junk Food Day. Who knew that junk food needed it’s own day? I’m sure the fact that it falls on a Saturday this year will give us all a good reason to gorge all day. We’ve got a whole week to think about what naughty things we can gorge ourselves on. Some celebratory ideas: Have a junk food shared lunch or picnic Junk food quickfire challenge (cook/prepare something using junk food as ingredients) Invent a new junk food Junk up a healthy dish (bacon and potato chip salad) Make a home made version of junk food for dinner (burger, pizza, fried chicken, potato chips etc)

Bastille Day

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Tomorrow is Bastille Day and like any Francophile, I’m going to be celebrating by eating something French and listening to French music. It just so happens that French Onion Soup is on my bucket list this winter so that might be the ticket. What French things do you think you’ll get up to tomorrow?

OOOOBY BOX WEEK 2

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To get more efficient in our grocery shops this winter, we are replacing the 2 to 3 trips per week to the market, with a weekly CSA delivery of fruit and vegetables. I plan on topping this up with a fortnightly trip to (or maybe even delivery from) traditional supermarket and a fortnightly trip to Nosh (a local gourmet food store). Local CSA project OOOOBY has a great concept and ethic and we are in week 2 of our subscription. This week our CSA box included: Vegetables Half a cauliflower (conventional sprays) 1 big red kumara (certified organic) 8 carrots (conventional sprays) A huge bunch of red russian kale (certified organic) 7 baby beets (certified organic) Fruit 6 pink lady apples (conventional sprays) 10 gold kiwifruit (certified organic) Only 2 varieties of fruit this time, and while my list and email both suggested that I was to be gettting mandarins or tangelos, they didn’t arrive in the box. The weirdest thing in the box is: Kale. I’m looking forward to using it because for some reason it isn’t …

OOOBY BOX WEEK 1 – Review

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Our first week trial run of local CSA company OOOOBY was a success. Every single item from last Tuesday’s CSA box was eaten before the next box was delivered although for a moment it looked like we weren’t going to get through all the fruit. But a solid weekend of fruit eating got us through the lot. I picked up a trick via Youtube on how to prepare kiwifruit and having pieces of ready to eat fruit on a platter made it more enticing. It was so much fun peeling kiwfruit this way, once I started, I couldn’t stop. Last week our CSA box included: Vegetables 1 garlic (self certified organic) 1 red skinned turnip (self certified organic) 6 carrots (conventional sprays) 1 fennel (certified organic) 2 brown onions (certified organic) A couple bunches of silverbeet (certified organic) 6 agria potatoes (certified organic) 1 large bunch of Italian parsley (Certified Organic) Fruit 6 newstead gold apples (conventional sprays) 3 mandarins or naval oranges (BioGro certified) 9 green kiwifruit (certified organic)  Meals for week 1 included: Baked …

Swoon-worthy Dinnerware

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I swear drinking water or orange juice from a goblet tastes different than drinking out of tumbler. I’ve always noticed that the right bowl or plate makes a meal taste better. Even if it’s all in your mind, it’s there. When you’re eating a rustic meal in the country side of an exotic location, a banana leaf plate makes the experience authentic and delicious. When you’re eating at home, the right plate or bowl for the job makes all the difference. Since as long as I started dreaming about my own kitchen and dinner parties, I’ve wanted a slightly off centre dinner set. Something that is not too ornate or stuffy and has an earthy character. My ideal dinner set would frame a rustic and hearty feast. It would not suggest fine dining and it’s also not so busy that it competes with the food. Flatmates always leave kitchen items behind when they move out so whenever we cleaned out of a flat, we also moved the flat kitchen stuff that had been left behind …

Dietlind Wolf’s work is swoon-worthy

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I’m no food stylist but when you take photos for a blog, you can’t help but look at your food differently. Composition, light, props, colour, texture, shape and white space are some of things I consider when shooting my food. I cringe at the photos I took when this blog started in 2010. But they’ll stay up because they’re a reminder of how far I’ve come. Looking at beautifully styled food is inspirational rather than depressing and my favourite food stylist in the world is Dietlind Wolf who is based in Hamburg, Germany. Her work is truly swoon-worthy. I adore her use of organic shapes, groupings and interesting props from all sorts of places for editorial spreads. Please check out more of her gorgeous displays on her blog dietlindwolf.blogspot.com. Bonus: Check out tomorrow’s post on beautiful, organic and nature inspired dinnerware.

Lovely Leather: Mabel&Lou

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An update to my post last week on leather love, I just picked up a sweet leather satchel off Trademe. It’s a Mabel&Lou bag in a style I suspect is a few seasons old. It’s has a tooled/stamped pattern in the leather and a gorgeous lining in patterned purple fabric. The bag is pre-loved but in great condition and guess what? It may look small but it’s large enough to fit my iPad and deep enough to fit my SLR camera at the same time. My issues with not enough compartments has been completely solved. It has 7 compartments. That’s more than I know what to do with. I’m a meat-eating, leather-wearing animal lover. It my sound like a contradiction, but it’s not. Pre-loved leather is really the ideal for me. If I can give this bag a second life, better than it being forgotten in a wardrobe somewhere or destined for landfill.

OOOBY BOX WEEK 1

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CSA CSA is a way for locals to support their local food growers and producers but subscribing to a set price per season (or month) in return for a weekly delivery of produce. I’ve written about CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) in 2009. Back then I wasn’t in a hurry to sign on because of lack of control over what we received. 3 years on, I appreciate the concept more. CSA is a great way to get variety into your weekly meals with local, seasonal and organic produce. It connects local growers and their communities together in the most efficient way possible. CSA usually involves fruit and vege, but there is also CSA for meat and eggs, and CSF which stands for Community Supported Fishery. In the summer, I adore my walks two to three times a week to the various local markets to buy fresh food. But now that it’s winter, the days are short and cold and it’s dark by the time I get home from work. No part of me wants to leave home and walk …

Monday Bunday: Lapin Domes and Pedestals

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This resin collection by San Francisco designer Tina Frey are elegant and whimsical. Lapin is french for rabbit and these dome and pedestals are both classy and rabbity. I love their slightly askew, imperfect shapes. Like they’ve been designed straight from sketches or doodles. The smaller domes would be great as a butter dish and the larger ones for parties. You can view more of Tina’s work over at her website www.tinafreydesigns.com.

Local Leather Love

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A lady’s bag is an important item. I can’t stand bucket type bags with no pockets, especially having to rummage through a mountain of stuff when my phone is ringing. I love a bag that has plenty of pockets or compartments, even if I forget which one I put my phone in. My last bag purchase was a cute tan satchel that cost less than $20 on Trademe but also lasted less than 20 days. It wasn’t leather and the weak “faux leather” was just not worth fixing. Getting it fixed would cost the same amount as purchase. It was not a strong or a reliable bag. Once it broke, it needed to be carried around like a giant clutch. My bag before that was fabric and I finally retired it after 4 years of continuous duty. By the time I was done, the fabric was covered in lint and the lining inside torn to shreds. I had sewn it up many times (by my shoddy hand) and given it new buttons to make it extra …