Fair Trade Gifts

There are so many things that inspire us from what items we sell to the stories of the women and men who produce those items. Here is a list of things that inspires us!

Uniqueness

Oversized Flower Shoulder Bag

Quality

Rustic Personalized Wooden Serving Tray

Beauty

Heritage Long Necklace

A Joy for Life

Nutty Squirrel Birdhouse

Style

Red Sseko Sandals

Our Producers!

Have a great day – Dawn

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Banana Chocolate Chip Bread by Recipe Girl

1/2 cup butter, at room temperature (1 stick)
1 ¼ cups granulated sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup sour cream
2 large eggs
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 2 medium)
1 tsp vanilla extract
6 ounces chocolate chips (mini chips are best)
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour one 8×5-inch loaf pan.

2. In large bowl, cream butter and sugar together with an electric mixer. Add baking soda, sour cream, eggs, bananas and vanilla. Blend well. Stir in flour and chocolate chips, just until combined.

3. Pour batter into loaf pan and bake 40-50 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Yield: One loaf

Serve up this truly delicious fair trade chocolate chip banana bread on our one of a kind Ceramic Fish Platter!

Happy Eating! Dawn

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Today I’d like to share with you some of my most favorite fair trade products from Seven Hopes United.

As it turns out I like all of the Eva Hand Painted items; I find the colors very appealing. My favorite of these items is the Eva Hand Painted Tiffin. Can’t you just imagine a picnic on a perfect summer day with these?

I first learned about felting a few years back when I started knitting. I’ve never done it myself but I really like the look of it. And this Handmade Felt Pear Birdhouse is just darling and makes for a great gift for your mom or a friend.

I’m a sucker for scarves. I think that they are the perfect accessory because they can dress up any outfit. This Shibori Cotton Scarf in blue would be a nice pop of color with a little black dress!

Okay purses are another one of my weaknesses. They too can make an outfit. And since I tend to wear a lot of black I like colorful accessories. The Colorful Leather Clutch from India looks beautiful against any outfit!

31Bits really makes lovely jewelry. I have come to really like the Ugandan paper jewelry over the years and again I am drawn to the many different colors that are used in these items. Here is the 31Bits Raffia Twist Bracelet, braided and a rainbow of colors!

I hope that you enjoy these too. There are so many more wonderful items to choose from but these are just a few of my favorites.

Have a great day – Dawn

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Here’s a little taste of summer for you! Strawberry shortcake is a sweet and simple little treat that works for summer or any day that you can get strawberries from your grocery store or local farmers market.  This recipe is so easy you can whip it up before friends come over or you can have it for a tea party themed birthday party or even as a quick dessert after dinner one evening.

What To Do

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F.
2. In a medium bowl, combine the dry ingredients: 1 cup all-purpose flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, ½ cup turbinado raw cane sugar, and one pinch kosher salt.
3. In a small bowl, combine the wet ingredients: 1 large egg, ¾ cup low-fat Greek yogurt, and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.
4. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Spray with cooking spray or grease 6 cups of a muffin tin, then pour in the batter equally to the 6 cups (or 7 or 8, for slightly smaller cakes). Lightly spray the tops of the cakes, then bake for 15 to 20 minutes until the tops are lightly browned. Let stand in the muffin tin 1 minute, then remove to a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes.
5. While the cakes bake, wash 2 cups strawberries, and slice them into a medium bowl. Stir in 1½ tablespoons sugar and 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar, then let stand until serving, stirring occasionally.
6. Make the whipped cream, using whipping cream or coconut milk.
7. Chiffonade the mint (following this video).
8. When ready to serve, cut the cakes in half. Spoon over strawberries, top with whipped cream and fresh mint, and top with the remaining half.

For a fun way to involve your guests in your party, place whipped cream in one small sea stripe capiz bowl and strawberries in another and let friends pile on both with a little mint!

Happy Eating! Dawn

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Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day – Dawn

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Annie’s Eats: Chubby Hubby Cupcakes

INGREDIENTS

For the cupcakes:
3 cups cake flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1½ cups fair trade sugar
1 cup malted milk powder (I happened to use chocolate malted milk powder)
5 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tbsp. fair trade vanilla extract
1¼ cups buttermilk, at room temperature

For the filling:
8 oz. fair trade bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup heavy cream
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1½ cups coarsely chopped pretzels

For the frosting:
3 sticks (1½ cups) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup creamy peanut butter
4½ cups fair trade confectioners’ sugar, sifted
Pinch of coarse salt
2 tsp. fair trade vanilla extract
3 tbsp. heavy cream

To garnish: 
Mini pretzels drizzled with melted chocolate

DIRECTIONS

• To make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Line cupcake pans with paper liners. In a medium bowl, combine the cake flour, baking powder, and salt. Whisk to blend and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter on medium-high speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Gradually add in the sugar, about ¼ cup at a time, mixing for 1 minute after each addition. Blend in the malted milk powder. Beat in the eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl and mixing well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients and mixing each addition just until incorporated.
• Divide the batter between the prepared liners. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 18-20 minutes. Allow to cool in the pans 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
• To make the ganache, place the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Add the cream to a saucepan and bring to a simmer (or warm in the microwave). Remove from the heat and pour the hot cream over the chocolate; let stand 1-2 minutes. Whisk together until a smooth ganache forms. Whisk in the butter 1 tablespoon at a time until completely incorporated. Let stand at room temperature, whisking occasionally, until slightly thickened.
• To fill the cupcakes, use the cone method to fill the cupcakes part way with ganache. Top off each ganache center with some of the chopped pretzel pieces (or a few pretzel M&Ms). (You don’t need to replace the cake tops for these cupcakes but you can if you would like.)
• To make the frosting, combine the butter and peanut butter in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on medium-high speed until smooth. Mix in the confectioners’ sugar and salt. With the mixer on low speed, mix in the vanilla and cream just until incorporated. Increase the mixer speed to medium-high and whip until light and very fluffy, about 4 minutes. Transfer the frosting to a pastry bag fitted with a plain round tip (I cut put the frosting in a freezer bag and cut a corner without a tip; I think it would have been better with a tip but this actually worked out fine.) Pipe a swirl of frosting on top of each cupcake. Garnish with a chocolate drizzled pretzel.

Avoid being covered in flour, as I was when making these cupcakes, by wearing one of our super cute Recycled Flour Sack aprons.

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Since I attended a baby shower yesterday I thought it would be fitting to share with you a fair trade gift guide for baby showers.  I always recommend buying off a person’s registry because those are the items that the person definitely wants.  However, the gift ideas below are fun and fabulous, give back and would perfectly compliment any gift!

The Pink Woven Basket from Senegal is a great way to store baby’s toys and blankets.

The Tree of Life Metal Wall Art is a perfect fit for the bedroom of either a baby boy or girl.

LIttle Toms, I can think of nothing cuter to put on baby’s little feet! And for every pair of Toms that you buy you are also improving the life of a child.

Organic cotton and fair trade, Under the Nile pjs are darling and comfy.

Enjoy – Dawn

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Fashion! I just love it.  For a brief time in my early 20s I lived in New York City, the Bronx specifically.  The year following my college graduation I volunteered as a 6th, 7th and 8th grade teacher.  Let’s just say that teaching was a remarkably difficult (did I also mention that I moved there in late August of 2001) and a remarkably profound year, but that’s a different story for for a different day.

One of my most favorite things to do while I lived in New York was to check out what the women were wearing.  I grew up not caring much about fashion or how I dressed, in large part because I wore a school uniform until I was 18.  But living in NYC changed all that.  The clothing ranged from way laid back to way high fashion and I loved every bit of it and learned a lot too. On one very long train ride from lower Manhattan to the Bronx I ended up on the train with a woman wearing the coolest laid back outfit (a colorful Mexican inspired skirt with a zipped up sweatshirt…I thought ‘how cool is that’?). I promptly tracked down a similar outfit that weekend!

Now I’m head over heels in love with fashion, though my outfits don’t always show it, and I love putting outfits together in my head.  Today, I wanted to bring you a fair trade outfit idea that comes from the jewelry of Seven Hopes United and the clothes of the UK’s People Tree.

I like to wear black a lot, it’s flattering and elegant and always chic.  This outfit would be great for work and you could wear a colorful little cami underneath, I would wear pink, or forgo it too, the blaze doesn’t seem to be too low-cut.  The earrings are simple but lovely and the bracelet adds just enough pop of color to brighten things up.

Sterling Silver Heart Earrings

31 Bits Penelope Bracelet

Black Stripe Hannah Blazer

Brooke Ruched Pencil Skirt

Happy Tuesday & I hope you enjoy! – Dawn

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My New Year Resolution! To focus on the ability of the human spirit to triumph even at the greatest odds.

For the past several years I have had the privilege of working with refugees and asylum seekers who have persevered even under the most unimaginably difficult conditions. And I have, additionally, heard the stories of success of countless women, men and children who have been able to lift themselves out of poverty because of fair trade practices.  These stories give me hope and help me see my own potential so much more clearly.

It’s just one resolution but it is big one and I would like to incorporate this thought into all that I do.  Keeping the best of humanity in mind will affect how I treat strangers, what stores I buy from, what types of products I buy and how I treat myself and my loved ones.  We humans are imperfect but we are still capable of greatness and are still capable of creating a world in which all of us are able to triumph.

And I am proud to say that I work for Seven Hopes United, a business that embodies the idea that if given the opportunity our sisters and brothers in the developing world can succeed even against all odds.

Wishing you and yours a very happy 2014 – Dawn

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On New Year’s Day my family traditionally ate pork sausages with sauerkraut.  The pork represents progress because pigs push forward rooting themselves in the ground before moving. And I am not entirely certain if the sauerkraut held any deeper meaning than our love for its taste.

Another traditional New Year’s Day food are cakes and pastries especially round cakes.  The roundness signifies the old year coming to a close and the new one beginning with promises of a fresh start.

There are my two favorite foods for New Year’s Day.  And of course another very famous one hails from the south of the country, the menu of greens and black-eyed peas.  The greens represent dollar bills and the black-eyed peas coins.

Do you have a favorite food that you eat on the first of the New Year?

And may I also add a few of my favorite picks from Seven Hopes United that I think represent fortune and luck and which perhaps you’ll consider making a part of your New Year in 2014.

The Tagua Earrings in Soft Grey remind me of black-eyed peas and look like some of the old coins I’ve seen at museums!

Start the year of right with a healthy salad alone or shared with friends and family.  The beautiful Mango Wood Salad Bowl conjures the image of a less healthy (but still delicious) round pineapple upside down cake.

And finally, this festive green Knit Flower Headband summons images of the greenbacks of dollar bills!

“Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each New Year find you a better person.” — Benjamin Franklin

Happy New Year’s Eve! Dawn

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