How To Host A Green Tailgate Party At Home

January 8th, 2012 by Valerie Reddemann

Are you ready for some football?

Football brings together three of my favorite things – people, beer and food. Now, while there’s nothing quite like being at the game, sometimes the best seat in the house is, well, at home. Aside from catching every play (and replays) from multiple angles, throwing your own shindig means you surround yourself with people you like, you don’t have to pay $8 a beer, and you can eat ’til your pants are ready to pop.

Here I’m featuring a tailgate party I put together with Greenfeet Design Guru Tina Glover (we affectionately call her Martha MacGyver as she can take a whole lot of  nothin’ and turn it into something fab). We set this up on my deck using items from both our homes as well as some ‘responsible disposables‘ available at Greenfeet.com. Keep in mind, you can do the same thing inside your home if the air outside is frightful.

Here are a few tips and ideas for throwing a successful tailgate party at home:

Tip #1

Get Organized

Decide your menu and theme at least 2 weeks in advance to give yourself time to shop, collect and delegate. Don’t forget the little things like bottle openers, ice and trash cans/recycle bins. Tina and I wanted to have a casual affair and focused our theme on the comfort of our guests which included comfortable surroundings and easy to eat food.

Tip #2

Decorate outside the box. Skip the cheesy sports decorations. Save yourself money and decrease your waste by first looking around your home for items you can pull together for a cohesive look. If you have a particular team color, look for pillows, lamps, rugs, blankets, serving pieces, accessories and other odds and ends to help create a color scheme. I recommend pulling them all into one area such as your tabletop so you can get a complete feel of what you have and what you need a few days before the big game. Ask your friends if they have anything you can borrow. If you MUST add in some team logos, keep it simple and reusable.

We settled on a simple fall color theme and brought together texture by using rugs as table runners, comfy pillows from the family room, throw blankets, stainless buckets, a bench from my front porch and our clay chiminea for warmth. We brought out my living room table as it’s big, square and sturdy. Plus the color and texture blended nicely. We even added in a few footballs to toss around at half-time.

Tip #3

Keep Things Simple

That goes for decorations, food and drinks. Don’t let any of it drive you crazy. I love the idea of hot dogs, nachos, pizza and snack foods like chips, pretzels and nuts. You can get creative with toppings and spice things up with presentation. We added in local Sierra Nevada brew and Santa Cruz organic spritzers since we like to keep the edibles as local as we can. We avoided hot wings and messy foods to keep things easy for our guests.

We utilized compostable kraft trays which can be used to hold individual servings, or you can use them scattered around the area filled with snacks and finger foods. We used pressed palm leaf plates to serve hot dogs (I LOVE these as they can be dressed up or down), compostable wood serving utensils displayed in glass canning jars and we grabbed a thrift store vintage candy dish from my kitchen to collect bottle caps to be used later for an outdoor art project.

Tina had the great idea of using a kraft tray as a candle holder. She placed the candles first then filled the tray halfway with popcorn. These worked great as centerpieces and the corn kernels caught any drips making for super easy clean up.

Our recycled paper lunch bags made simple containers for popcorn and we could recycle them in a snap. We chose recycled paper napkins, but if you have a small group, cloth napkins would be the greenest choice.

If you want to reduce the amount of recyclables you produce, consider getting a keg and sodas or juice in larger containers. Set up pitchers of ice water with slices of lemon for guests.

Tip #4

Delegate

By deciding on a menu before, you can have guests bring items you need. Since you’re organized, you’ll have serving pieces coordinated ahead of time so all that needs to be done is transferring from bag or box to serving piece and placed accordingly. It really does pay to take a few hours before to save you stress and time during your event.

Tip #5

Stage and Prep

If you are serving hot dogs, heat them just before guests arrive and keep warm. Have buns and condiments prepped and ready to plate. If you are grilling, utilize every inch of your grill. If your grill has the additional hot plate be sure to use it to keep hot dogs, beans, etc. warm instead of using the stove. Do what you can ahead of time so once guests arrive you can have fun and enjoy the game with minimal interruptions!

Tip #6

Plan ahead for clean up

Now that your team has hopefully won and guests are heading home, you don’t want to be faced with the monstrous task of clean up. This is where having trash and recycling bins clearly marked and strategically placed can help reduce your effort.

Clearly labeling trash cans, recycling bins and compost pails right at the party scene helps guests to help you with clean up. We recommend setting them next to each other for fast, proper disposal. If you are using reusables, have a big bin clearly labeled “dirty dishes” on it at the end of the line so all you have to do is pick up the bin and move it inside once the party’s over.

Too much food? Consider using our kraft trays or compostable bowls or plates covered with recycled aluminum foil to send guests home with leftovers.

Here’s to a successful tailgate at home. Got any ideas to add? Please add a comment to share.

Posted in Green Entertaining | No Comments »

Green Halloween Tips – Throw An Eco Halloween Party

October 29th, 2011 by Valerie Reddemann

Don’t let entertaining for Halloween scare the greenie out of you. Throwing a party with the earth in mind is a lot easier – and cheaper – than you think. All it takes is a bit of creativity and planning. In this post, I’m going to share a few tips and products from Greenfeet we used to create a party theme that’ll make the scariest of zombies grin from ear to ear.

1. Decide on the type of Halloween party you want to host. Here we chose a simple dessert party. Since Halloween is an after-dark affair, this was an easy choice. Keeping it to desserts accomplishes two things. First, it means less food. Most folks won’t have more than 1-2 pieces of pie, cake or servings of ice cream so it’s an easy way to keep the cost down.  Second, we didn’t need much space. As you can see by the table scape, we used my dinner table pushed up against my pantry doors. That left more room to mix and mingle.

2. Decide on your theme. We decided to stick with the Halloween sweet tooth idea and offered some traditional and not-so-traditional options for guests. We chose a simple chocolate bundt cake adorned with peep ghosts on toothpicks, a fruit topped cheesecake (displayed with a lovely brain-looking seasonal Celosia flower on top – berries served on the side), ice cream drizzled with lemon olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt (seriously, you HAVE to try this), root beer floats and a selection of candy corn and other goodies. Simple, easy and fast to prep. Bake yourself or pick up at the bakery – you choose based on time available.

I would kindly like to request that if you choose to use disposables, please consider compostable options. At Greenfeet, we offer a large selection of affordable, durable ‘responsible disposables’ to help you green up your parties and events. We used bagasse (rice straw) bowls and plates, compostable straws, cups and even napkins.  These are all very affordable and more earth friendly than traditional plastic or paper varieties (these are all tree free).

3. Display and serving pieces.  Keeping it green, we blended both re-purposed, new and as I mentioned above we used ‘responsible disposables’ into the mix. For our bundt cake we used our gorgeous Fire and Light cake pedestal in Twilight which is a smokey grey.  We’re going to be doing more with cake plates so stay tuned for an upcoming post…

Here the cheese cake is dispayed on a DIY cakestand – they’re easy to make using a pie plate and a candle holder. For height, we used a sturdy wide mouth vase turned upside down with the Fire and Light cake stand on top of it (you can see it behind the cheesecake). Look in your closets (or a friends) and pull together pieces you already own. The colors all melded together for a cohesive, yet eclectic look.

We used recycled cleaned out candle jars for the toppings. To get rid of candle residue, just pop your holders in the freezer and the wax will constrict popping right out when it starts to cool. We then washed them thoroughly and they make interesting holders for everything from utensils to treats.

4. Partner with a friend. My BFF  Tina Glover gets full credit for this display. She’s what I call a Martha MacGyver – give her 30 minutes in your house and she’ll make magic out of mish-mash. And that’s a VERY good thing! We blended some of her treasures with some of mine and Voila! Monster magic! The table runner we used was nothing more than a long strip of black felt I had left over from a craft project eons ago and tucked away for future use. I did pick up some LED lights which I’ll use for years  - I really love them as they are low heat and 90% less energy!

Oh, and I can’t forget to mention my 2 liter Frigoverre glass pitcher! Oh, how I LOVE this thing. It’s a customer favorite and I know why. Here we used it for root beer floats, but I use it for fresh squeezed juice, iced tea, chai, cider – you get the idea. The lid hermitically seals (watch the video on the product page) keeping odors out and freshness in. And, it looks great on the table as a serving piece. It also serves as a great vase for BBQ’s.

So, what do you think? See how easy incorporating green can be! I invite you to chime in with your party tips for a green halloween. We’ve only skimmed the surface here, so bring it on and have a BOO-tiful Halloween!

Oh, and if you have used Greenfeet products in any of your events, please send me a photo at val at greenfeet dot com. I’d love to share them with our readers and customers!

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Posted in Green Entertaining, Green Halloween | 3 Comments »

My Love Affair With My Klean Kanteen Stainless Steel Insulated Water Bottle

September 11th, 2011 by Valerie Reddemann

It’s really more of an obsession. I’m like that with certain products which you’ll see if you follow this blog.

For those of you who don’t know me, I’m the Chief Yoo-Hoo here at Greenfeet.com and consider myself a moderate to dark shade greenie. I say medium to dark because there are some issues I’m definitely really into – such as reducing my waste. Other things, like not shaving my legs or going vegan – well, not so much. I admire the heck out of people who do these things but I’m just too vain for hairy legs (I mean I’m a brunette and would look like a 6′ gorilla wearing makeup. See where I’m going with this?)  and well, I like chicken. And beef. And bacon. Enough said.

My obsession - the Klean Kanteen Insulated Travel Mug

Today, I want to introduce you to the Klean Kanteen Insulated Stainless Steel Water Bottle. Now, it’s been out for over a year and I’ve been pretty much obsessed with mine ever since. Since I’m on the go a lot, this mug is key to my goal of reducing my waste stream.

As you can imagine, we’re sent samples of just about every bottle on the market, and quite honestly, very very few ever make the cut with us. Why? Well, we’re sticklers for quality, testing, and performance. Our completely unscientific, but real world, testing found the Klean Kanteen keeps beverages cold for over 24 hours (keeping the lid sealed, of course) and hot beverages plenty hot for over 6 hours. I adore the wide mouth and how easy it is to fill and clean. The smaller sizes are great for packing soup to work or school and the stainless interior means you can use a metal spoon without scratching up the inside.  To be truthful, my main obsession is for coffee. I’m a coffee-o-holic and if I don’t get my piping hot two mugs of coffee a day, well, I can’t guarantee what will happen. Just ask my husband.

That said, I pretty much only use the Cafe Cap for my insulated Klean Kanteen. I have all sizes and all caps – I switch them out depending on activity and use. The Cafe Cap is used daily. It’s super easy to use (I can open/close with one hand so it’s great for driving) and the thing takes less than 2 seconds to pop apart for thorough cleaning. I’m super lazy and all about fast and easy (Notice a re-occurring them with me?) so if it’s difficult, fah-get about it!  I wanted to show people how dang easy the Cafe Cap is to clean so I talked Amy into doing a short video on it:

See! Told ya!

Now, here’s a tip that you may or may not find helpful. I love using fragrant dish soap. It makes such a distasteful chore somehow more tolerable. Anyhoo, I’ve found that if I wash my lid just before using that for a few minutes my coffee smells like lavender, or basil or whatever fresh picked doo-hickey I like at the moment. The point is, that makes me grumpy. So, to avoid grumpiness, I wash my mug and lid as soon as I get home in the evening. That way, it’s ready to go in the morning and smells only like my main obsession – my fair trade coffee.  Got questions? Comments? Want to share your obsession with your Klean Kanteen Insulated mug? Leave a comment.

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Posted in Product Reviews | 7 Comments »

Twin Oaks Envirope Green Living Hammocks

July 15th, 2011 by Valerie Reddemann

There are a few things in life that I am relatively obsessed with – gently swinging in my envirope hammock is one of them. And, I say relatively because if I admit my true obsession, I’d have to start seeing a therapist. I LOVE to swing.

I had heard about these hammocks years ago and how wonderful they were. Customers have confirmed the love affair. Made from recycled soda bottles, the fabric is made here in the United States and is some of the softest rope on the market. And, being from recycled plastic, it’s also naturally mold and mildew resistant and holds up well under the sun’s rays. How can you not love that?  They were (and still are) made by wonderful folks living in what’s called an intentional community here in the US.

Twin Oaks Sawmill

Hard at Work Making Oak Spreaders

The Twin Oaks Community is comprised of some of the nicest people I’ve ever had the pleasure of dealing with. I have yet to make my way to their factory in rural Virginia – quite frankly, I’m afraid if I show up and see all those hammocks, I may never want to leave!  Each hammock is hand twisted on their rope machines and the quality is unsurpassed. Let’s just say in the 8+ years we’ve carried their product, we have never had a quality issue. I find that impressive.

To make a quality hammock, you must control every step of production. It starts with a quality US made material, hand twisted on a rope machine and then attached to the solid white oak spreader bars. And, they’re not your run of the mill spreader bars. In fact, the white oak is grown right there on Twin Oaks property, hand harvested and milled in their own private saw mill.  The wood is then finished with natural linseed oil to guarantee years of use.

Twin Oaks Hammock Hand Knotting

Every hammock is hand tied and knotted

I don’t know about you, but knowing how a product I use is made makes me appreciate and care for it that much more. Each season, my husband lovingly (ok, maybe that’s an exaggeration – but he does so gently) assembles the Twin Oaks Hammock Stand and then proceeds to pull the enivrope family sized hammock out of its storage box and hook it to the stand. Rob tosses on my favorite Twin Oaks hammock pillow and then stands clear as I hop in with my Kindle in one hand and a margarita in the other.

Notice how I say we’ve assembled and unpacked the stand and hammock. That’s because to get the maximum life out of your Envirope hammock and stand, you are going to want to break it down as soon as the weather turns and store it away from the elements. It really doesn’t take long and it’s so worth it. I have to say, ours is 4 years old and both the hammock and stand still look brand new. If you get a lot of sun on your hammock (or it’s exposed to water), you’ll want to rub the wood with linseed oil at the end of each season to keep it moisturized to prevent cracking.

I suggest creating a sanctuary around your hammock. Potted plants, a water feature and if possible a small table where you can set a book and your favorite beverage. Trust me, once you swing a bit in your new envirope hammock you’ll find yourself longing for leisurely afternoons and cool mornings swinging your worries and all of life’s stress away.

For the envirope there’s either the single or the family size. We chose the family size hammock as all three of us enjoy climbing on, legs entwined, and talk the afternoon away while swinging  in the summer breeze. We needed the extra room! The single size is nice for smaller spaces or for those who enjoy a more cozy hammock experience.

Rope hammocks not your thing? We’ve got you covered! We offer other styles of hammocks made by Twin Oaks sure to bring miles of smiles.

How do you swing? Yeah, have fun answering that one!

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Posted in Product Reviews | 1 Comment »

Aeternum Bialetti Non-Stick Cookware. Best Non Stick EVER!

June 27th, 2011 by Valerie Reddemann

Nano-Nano!

I’ll cut to the chase…Bialetti’s Aeternum non-stick frying pan is the best one I’ve every used. Period.Bialetti's Aeternum Pan Set

This collection of non-toxic, non-stick cookware is different from anything on the market. There’s no teflon coating to scratch and no chemicals. Only pure delight when it comes to the way it handles in the kitchen. I’m a bit of a lazy cook in that I like fast and easy clean up and this pan met my expectations. Even my husband Rob couldn’t believe how great it performs – both on the stove and during clean up. Here are a few of the key points:

  • Features nano-ceramic technology – it performs like nobody’s business and is PFOA, PTFE and Cadmium free
  • Clean up is a *snap*. It’s non-stick cooking without the non-stick coating
  • This is just like using a Teflon pan with the exception that it’s healthier AND longer lasting (no teflon coating means longer lifetime for the pan. This sucker’ll last you decades)
  • It’s lightweight yet extremely durable. The silicone handle keeps things cool around your digits, while the aluminum core evenly distributes heat
  • At 10.25″ in diameter, this generously sized pan prepares dishes for 2-4 people (more if it’s a side dish). It’s a popular and versatile size and one you’ll reach for every day
  • Comes standard with a 5-year manufacturers warranty against defects. Bialetti is a recognized leader in quality (not to mention it features clean Italian lines and design)
  • See the entire aeternum collection here. More pieces will be arriving this summer!


My Best Pick For Non-Stick

Nano-ceramic is water based and made of titanium and suspended silicate micro-particles (the stuff glass is made of) and is one of the purest materials in nature. Yeah, it pretty much rules the roost in the cookware department.

The interior is cured at a very low temperature for durability and withstands temperatures up to 750 degrees. You’ll find it resists scratches and abrasions (I don’t recommend metal utensils) and you’ll love the way it feels in your hand. The handle also features a metal enforced hole for hanging if you prefer. This cookware is designed for stovetop cooking and not for oven use. That’s ok…I keep a few cast iron pans handy for frittata’s and other dishes that go from stovetop to oven. This one is what we reach for when we scramble eggs, saute veggies and other dishes and when I make slow cook sauces.

The white surface provides a fabulous cooking experience – you can actually see your food browning, sauteing or simmering. After having several of the Greenfeet staff give this pan a run, we put it out to some customers to try. All of our testers commented on how cool the pan was to use and quite frankly, we had a hard time tearing the pan away from them. Literally. I’m kinda sorry we didn’t film it and put it on YouTube.

Wrapping things up, the word on the street is the Aeternum line of cookware is the neatest thing since sliced bread. I’m sure there have been lots of other neat things since sliced bread, but it’s a pretty effective analogy. Greenfeet customer Jessicat mentioned in her review of the 12″ deep saute pan that “I have a good feeling about this cookware”. I couldn’t agree more.

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Posted in Smart Kitchen Tools | 12 Comments »

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