Chai and soap for the holidays

Chai for the holidays
Chico Chai owner Sarah Adams has put the word out that her business’ annual Holiday Open House will take place on Sunday, Dec. 16, from noon to 4 p.m. “Come see the chai brewing, enjoy tastings of all the different chai blends and have your tea leaves read,” wrote Adams (pictured) in a recent press release.

The free, open-to-the-public event will be held at the Chico Chai kitchen at 1919 Park Ave. (next-door to Bacio Catering & Carry Out). Go to www.chicochaitea.com or call 519-3993 to find out more about yummy Chico Chai.

Thanks for the email
Seen on a T-shirt in the Bay Area by someone who identified herself as “a steady reader” of The GreenHouse:

GMO? OMG! WTF are we eating?!

Love it.

Keeping an eye on our neighbors
Orien Nelson and Michael Pike (pictured) were part of a small Nov. 27 protest near the Kinder Morgan “tank farm” at the Midway and Hegan Lane. Protesters were calling attention to the petroleum/natural-gas transporter’s proposed new pipeline from Edmonton to Burnaby, Canada, which would “potentially require dredging the Second Narrows channel to allow supertankers to access the Kinder Morgan terminal and carry the tar sands oil to U.S. and Chinese markets,” according to the Sierra Club, which also warns that “even more disturbingly, the pipeline would carry diluted bitumen from Alberta’s tar sands rather than conventional crude. Diluted bitumen contains a highly toxic and explosive soup of chemicals. An accident could potentially require the evacuation of large parts of the city, as happened on a smaller scale when an Enbridge pipeline sprung a leak in Kalamazoo, Michigan.”

Go to www.tinyurl.com/taroil to learn more about this controversial project.

Make it yourself for Xmas
I recently acquired a nifty book called Smart Soapmaking, by Anne L. Watson, at Lyon Books (121 W. Fifth St., 891-3338). I highly recommend Watson’s book as both a Christmas present and as a means to make lovely bars of homemade soap to give for Christmas. Its subtitle—The Simple Guide to Making Traditional Handmade Soap Quickly, Safely, and Reliably, or How to Make Luxurious Handcrafted Soaps for Family, Friends, and Yourself—really says it all. The 115-page book includes easy soapmaking recipes, such as ones for avocado soap and almond facial soap, as well as “Anne’s Longer-Lasting Soap,” featuring cocoa, avocado and shea butter, and palm and coconut oils.

Among the myths about soapmaking that Watson dispels in her book: “Soapmaking is difficult.” Wrong, she says. Using “tried and true” recipes is a sure-fire guarantee of success. Ditto for “Soapmaking is expensive,” especially when it comes to gift-giving; it’s actually “less expensive than hitting the malls for every event that comes along,” Watson reminds the reader.