The Green Kitchen Gift Basket

The Green Kitchen Gift Basket is the perfect gift for the healthy gourmet cook. It features a collaboration of handmade products from five artists who met on Etsy (a website for handmade crafters), but who have never met in real life. This was a challenging but fun undertaking that has yielded great results. The Gift Basket features a vegetarian cookbook, wooden salad set, appliqued potholders and an appliqued apron. We packaged the items in an environmentally friendly basket woven from recycled grocery store bags. Kelli Coaxum (Kelliope) painted the basket with scrumptious veggies- reminding you to eat and live green. Information regarding each product and our entire team (Ex-Boyfriend, CanadianWoodCrafts, Kelliope, JMC, and Mathilde) is posted below.

If you would like to purchase The Green Kitchen Gift Basket, please visit our on-line store by clicking here.

The Apron

Mixed media artist Jacqueline Myers-Cho (JMCdesigns) has been creating, showing and selling her work for over twenty years. When creating, she uses whatever material the art needs; be it fabric, canvas, paint or paper. Her expert sense of design and craftsmanship is evident in the apron, which is created from a reclaimed embroidered curtain. The tab tops resemble giant belt loops that hold the apron tie in place. For added pizzazz, Jacqueline sewed vintage cornflower blue pom-pom fringe to the hem

Playing up the leaf patterned embroidery, Karla Anderson (Mathilde) appliqued a fuzzy felt pear to the apron front.

The Salad Set

The Salad Set has been carved from a very old bench that Barry Loewen (CanadianWoodCrafts) was asked to haul to the landfill. Rather than waste the beautiful wood by throwing it away, he took the bench home and has been recycling it into spoons and coffee scoops. The rich bold grain of the Douglas Fir complements the pieces carved from it. Barry has had a great deal of pleasure giving the wood a new home and purpose, and hopefully a long life as a useful utensil for someone. Kelli Coaxum (Kelliope) added the natural jute and wood bead loops so that the salad set can be enjoyed hanging on a kitchen cabinet or wall.

The Potholders

The potholders, are a collaborative effort from Kelli Coaxum (Kelliope) and Karla Anderson (Mathilde). Kelli supplied the base fabric for the potholders. The tan denim was found in a bag donated to a Girl Scouts summer camp where Kelli was the Arts and Crafts Director. She used a portion of the fabric for sewing demonstrations; the rest was forgotten about until now.

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Kelli cut the denim into squares and then shipped them to Karla to be appliqued. Karla chose a plump purple eggplant and a yummy yellow pepper cut from patterned calico fabric. After she hand and machine sewed them, the squares were shipped back to Kelli who then completed the potholders. To coordinate with the appliques and more importantly, to protect against heat, Kelli added a double layer of rich red burgundy terry cloth to the backs. The fabric used is pre-shrunk 100% cotton, so you don't have to worry about throwing the potholders in the wash.

The Cook Book

This cookbook is made from a recycled, hardbound book that came from a used book store. The pages of the book were pasted over with vegetarian recipes by Meredith Keller (Ex-Boyfriend), Kelli Coaxum (Kelliope) and Matilde (Mathilde). The book also includes some information about the environmental impact of the things we eat. Each of the pages has a splash of color with pictures of ingredients and some construction paper matting. The cut and pasted assembly of the book provides a lovingly handmade chic and makes the book more than just a handy refence in the kitchen, but also a work of art.

The book is broken into six separate sections. The first part provides information about diet and the enviroment. The pages discuss issues such as pollution, global warming, water conservation, air quality and water safety.

The second section of this book is full of recipes for breakfast and brunch foods. Highlights include vegan recipes for breakfast classics like pancakes and french toast.

The third section of the book has recipes for soups and stews. There's an excellent vegan chili recipe and even vegan recipes for traditionally creamier soups like potato leek.

The fourth section of this book has main course recipes. These recipes draw on inspiration from Italian, Indian and Asian cuisine, just to name a few. Creative use of fruit, herbs, seasoning and nuts makes these dishes delicious and colorful. A few choice selections include Savory Apple and Onion Empanada, Roasted Vegetable Salad with Mango Viniagrette and Broccoli Rabe Over Polenta. There is even a recipe for making your own seitan, from scrach.

The fifth section of this book has breads, baked goods and dessert recipes. Each of the recipes is either vegan or provides information on how to make a vegan version. Some favorites here include Rosemary Onion Bread, Mini Cherry Cheese Cakes and Vegan Chocolate Truffles.

The last section of this book has dips and sauces. There's a recipe for hummus and some very hot green curry sauce. There's even a vegan "cheese" sauce recipe.

Welcome

This blog was created for writing about the eco-friendly kitchen gift basket designed for the Etsy Co-Production Contest. Our team designed a gift basket with an eco-friendly theme. Our basket includes a salad set, an apron, pot holders, fridge magnets and a vegetarian cookbook. All of these goodies are packaged in a basket made from paper grocery bags. Our team consists of:
- Ex-Boyfriend
- canadianwoodcrafts
- Mathilde
- JMCdesigns
- Kelliope