Style: Shauna Moustache

Graphic designer and artist Shauna Moustache has been known to be stopped on the streets of her San Francisco neighborhood by visitors wanting to take photos of stylish and hip Mission dwellers. An eye for unconventionally tasteful outfits and a desire to make this world a more esthetically pleasing place make this Iowa native a prime candidate for Progressive Pleasures. And guess what? She's also a vegetarian, an urban biker, a composter, a recycler extraordinaire, a DIY master with a green thumb -and she makes the most delicious pad thai.


Which are your favorite pieces and why?
Tough question. My favorite furniture items are probably my antique bed frame, which I purchased from Zonal in Hayes Valley, and my loveseat, which I got from Mickey's Monkey in the lower Haight. The loveseat came with matching arm covers that my Grandma made into pillows.

Sofa Mickey's Monkey: shoes: Painted Bird; Peacock: Mickeys' Monkey

I got my favorite pair of boots from a vintage store in Brooklyn. I spotted them in a window display and it was love at first sight. It took me a day of internal reflection to overcome their sticker shock, however, proof that used doesn't always mean cheap.

Pants : Painted Bird, Shirt: Thrift town, Boots: Beacon's Closet, Brooklyn, NY

About a year ago I found a bag with oversized sheet music printed on the front and back. It was in great condition when I bought it and has since deteriorated with my love and daily use.

What percentage of your wardrobe is used?
80%? I tend to buy underwear, socks, and pants new. The majority of everything else that I own …including furniture, kitchenware, and decorative items… is used.

Shauna's colorful closet

Why do you shop used?
• Hunting for amazing, unique items is fun
• To support establishments that save amazing, unique items from going to the dump
• Old stuff is made better
• No wasteful packaging
• To lower the harmful production of items that already exist
• It's more affordable
• You don't have to deal with nasty food courts, teenagers, or a nauseous mixture of perfumes

"The record player was my dad's in the 70's!"

Do you use stuff for other purposes?
I drink wine out these adorable little non-wine glasses that I bought used in Shasta (CA). The guy who worked there said that the glasses were originally jam containers. Reusable packaging!

Hiking in style (flannel from a flea market in Berlin, Germany)

Do you mend or discard?
Finding an amazing article of clothing and having to leave it behind because it doesn't fit is a common thrifting scenario. I got a sewing machine to fix this problem. If I don't love an item enough to alter it within a few months I try to find it a new home. If it's just a hole or a missing button, I mend.

Where do you shop?
The Alemany flea market is a gold mine. And if you can mask your excitement about the unbelievably low prices, you can typically bargain for cheaper.

I mostly shop at Thrift Town, Mission Thrift, Clothes Contact, and The Painted Bird. They all have their own unique charms and are walking distance from my house. Mickey's Monkey and The Apartment are my favorite non-clothing, second-hand shops. I also love stumbling upon the garage sales that pop up in the Mission every weekend.


Do you have a favorite city or town for vintage/thrift store shopping?
Thrifting in small towns is one of my favorite things to do on road trips. Small town thrift stores are very hit or miss but they are always less expensive and picked over than ones in the city. Plus, you can get a pretty good sense of the town by seeing people's second-hand items.

Small town score

My favorite city to thrift in is Portland (OR). The Bins is the mother ship of the Goodwill there and if you have the patience to sift through mountains of unorganized castaways, you can leave with treasures that cost a buck a pound.

What are your suggestions for recycled gift ideas?
When I lived in Portland (OR), my friends and I would host "naked lady" parties. These were potluck-style gatherings where we would bring all of our amazing clothes that we'd never wear again and place them in a pile on the floor. Then we would simultaneously attack the pile, quickly trying on potential new items before all of the good stuff was gone.

When everyone finished, we would eat and go around the room displaying our finds and learning stories about the item from the previous owner. We would donate all of the leftover clothes to a local women's shelter.

What are your tips to earn karma points?
I think being mindful about how your personal consumption impacts the environment is a good start. Some suggestions are: buy organic food (it lowers the amount of pesticides going into the earth and your body), shop local (it decreases the petroleum used to transport goods and supports your neighbors), bring your own to-go containers when you shop and eat out, compost, share, bike.

You can admire Shauna's work on her website and you can run into her on Saturday mornings at the Noe Valley Farmers' Market, purchasing organic goodies from Happy Boys Farm.

The Ethical Giver: Homemade Spreads

Make a big batch of spread (hummus, veggie pâté, baba ganoush, tapenade... You can find recipes here) and fill cute reused/thrifted jars with it. Give those around as a presents.

Summer Splendor

It's the end of the Indian summer in San Francisco. In order to give a last hurrah to those colorful, beautiful summer vegetables that gave me so much pleasure all summer long, I had a Goodbye Summer apéritif party.
Apéritif, a French word which means "stimulate the appetite", consists of snacks and drinks before a meal, not unlike Spanish tapas. For a simple apéritif, you nibble on little things like nuts, olives, crackers, for a more elaborate one, you have an assortment of amuse-bouche, spreads, small salads. There are specific aperitif drinks like Pastis (an anise-flavored liquor typical of the south of France), but you can also drink wine, liquors and martinis.
I chose to make apéritif dînatoire, a big casual dinner, out of it. To do this, just lay everything out on a table in your nicest dishware, whip out the fancy silverware, and let your guests enjoy.
Bon appétit!

***Menu***
Grilled fennel and apple in orange marinade
Double layered potato with Cannellini bean-caper purée
Orange and Green soups:
Carrot ginger soup, Zucchini-anise soup
Assorted spreads :
Hummus, Baba Ganoush,
Kalamata-Red Pepper Tapenade
Tomato pesto
Tomates à la Provençale
Tomates en crudités
Zucchini linguini
Basil Peaches

Grilled fennel and apple in orange marinade

Grilled fennel and apple, carrot ginger soup, zucchini anise soup

This was a hit, and it looked very pretty.

Ingredients
1 bulb of fennel, thinly sliced
1 apple, thinly sliced
Marinade
1 orange
1 lemon
1 tbsp pastis
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
½ cup olive oil
salt
pepper

Mix all the ingredients for the marinade. Add the thin slices of apples and fennel. Let soak for at least 30 minutes, but you can also leave it all day.
Arrange fennel flat on a baking pan. Top each slice with a slice of apple. Drizzle with remaining marinade.
Bake in the oven for 30 minutes at 350˚.
Present the dish on a large flat plate, and, for decoration, add small fennel leaves.
You can eat it hot or cold.


Double layered potato with Cannellini bean/caper purée


Ingredients
2 yellow potatoes
1 long orange-fleshed sweet potato (yam)
Purée
2 tbsp capers
1 1/2 cups Cannellini beans
2 tbsp chopped parsley
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
½ tsp pepper

Cut all the potatoes in 1/5 inch slices. Align the sweet potatoes slices in a flat oven dish. Top with potatoes slices. Brush with olive oil, salt and pepper.
Bake in oven for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, blend together the ingredients for the purée.
When the double layered potatoes are baked, align on a flat dish and top with a dollop of bean spread.




Orange and Green soups

These two colorful soups were a great addition to the dinner. You can enjoy them cold, but I preferred them warm. I presented them separately, one in a small martini glass, one in a simple small glass, but you can also pour both soups in the same glass, without mixing them, for a beautiful bi-color effect.

Carrot ginger soup
1 lb sliced carrots
1 cup onion
1 cup chopped celery
2 tbsp chopped ginger
5 cups vegetarian broth or water
2-3 tbsp lime juice
2 tbsp oil

In the oil, put carrots, onions, ginger and celery. Sauté until soft. Add 5 cups of broth/water, heat, but don't reach boiling point, then simmer for 20 minutes. Blend in food processor until creamy. When serving, add lime juice.

Zucchini anise soup
4 medium size zucchini
1 medium size potato
1 tbsp of ground anise
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
3 cups of water
Cut potatoes and zucchini in small squares. In a pan, cook all the ingredients in water, until everything is mushy. Blend with a hand blender.
NB: you can also add Pastis for a more anise-ey flavor.

Spreads

I love making batches of spreads and keeping jars of homemade hummus, baba ganoush, tapenade, etc. in my fridge to eat for breakfast, and any time I need a quick fix. I also use them in lunch sandwiches, or bring them at picnics or potlucks…
Offer them around in cute second-hand jars and your friends will love you forever.

Adapted from Didi Emmons' Vegetarian Planet (one of my favorite cookbook)


Hummus

The good thing with bean spreads is that if you combine them to cereals (a slice of bread, a rice cracker…) you have complete protein, which means you can keep those muscles of yours nice and strong.
It's also delicious with apples.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons tahini (raw or made with toasted sesame, depending on your taste)
2 tsp minced garlic
¼ cup olive oil
2 cups garbanzo beans
1/3 cup lemon juice (or more, if you want like it citrussey, I often press one lemon and one lime)
2 tbsp minced shallot
2 tsp ground thyme
2 tsp ground sumac
½ salt (if the sumac is mixed with salt, cut the salt that the recipe calls for)
1/3 cup water (or less, depending on how thick it is)
Purée in blender until creamy.

Baba Ganoush
Easy and delicious
Ingredients
1 large eggplant
1 ½ tahini
1 large garlic clove
1/3 cup minced shallot
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
2 tbsp olive oil
½ smoked salt
¼ pepper
3 tbsp chopped cilantro

Bake eggplant in oven (cut in half, pierce skin, and bake face down on a slightly oiled pan until soft. It might take 50 minutes, or more. I like to bake it in advance (the day before, in the morning…) so I don't have to wait there until it cools down.
Mix everything except eggplant in blender. Add eggplant, mix well. The taste can be a little strong and disappointing at first, but let it sit and you wont believe it.
(You get MANY social points with this one.)

Kalamata-Red Pepper Tapenade
1/2 cup kalamata olives, pitted and cut
1 red peppers
1 Tbsp. capers
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 lemon, juiced
1/4 tsp. dried thyme
1/2 tsp. dried parsley
2 Tbsp. olive oil
Pepper, to taste

Bake red pepper in the oven at 350 for about ½ hour. When it's limp and can be peeled off easily, take off the skin. Cut in strips.
Combine all the ingredients, in a blender or food processor. Pulse until combined.
(I found this recipe here)

Oven baked tomatoes: 2 recipes
Tomates à la provençale and Tomato pesto.
12 firm tomatoes (early girl, roma…)
Herbes de provence
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper

Additional ingredients for the pesto:
4 cloves of garlic
½ cup of pine nuts
2 tbsp of nutritional yeast (for cheesy taste and creamy texture)

Preheat oven at 300. Cut tomatoes in half and dispose, cut side up, on a large, oil-coated oven pan. Add 2 garlic cloves. Sprinkle with herbes de Provence, salt, pepper and olive oil. Bake for an hour, but take out the garlic after 30 minutes.

Use half of the tomatoes for the pesto. Let them cool for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, roast the pine nuts in an oiled pan. Mix all the ingredients: roasted and raw garlic, roasted pine nuts, tomatoes and nutritional yeast in an electric blender.

Serve the tomates à la provençale, hot or cold, flat on a plate.


Zucchini linguini
This is simple, delicious, pretty, and pleasantly crunchy.

Ingredients
4 zucchini
salt, pepper
olive oil
1 lime

With a peeler, peel the zucchini lengthwise, to the core, into thin, long strips. Sauté these in a pan, in several batches, one handful at a time, adding salt and pepper to taste. If you don't want to use too much oil, you can throw in some water (not much) to finish the cooking process. They will stay crunchy (if you don't overcook them).
You can eat them warm or cold.
Drizzle with a little lime juice.

Mixed heirlooms tomatoes

Slice tomatoes of different kinds and colors, arrange on a plate and drizzle with olive oil, salt, pepper, balsamic vinegar (optional) and basil leaves.
I grew up fed on garden vegetables and cannot eat those bland things shamelessly sold as "tomatoes" without feeling depressed. Some California farms, thankfully, grow heirloom tomatoes, very ancient varieties, which are so good that the best way to savor them is raw. Sprinkle with sea salt and balsamic if you wish, and do not forget the olive oil: fat allows your body to absorb lycopene.


Basil peaches
5 juicy peaches
2 tbsp Agave syrup
½ cup water
10 basil leaves, cut in small strips

Cut basil leaves in small strips (Roll up the leaves and slice). In a small pan, heat up water and agave syrup. Cut peaches in pieces. In a big bowl, mix all ingredients. Let sit in the fridge for at least ½ hour, serve cold.

Raw day! Ginger Lingui-veggie Salad

(version française)

Lately, I have been into veggies cut in linguini-like shapes. It makes for a beautiful, original presentation, and it is pleasant to eat.
Basically, you chose a long vegetable (carrot, cucumber, zucchini) and, armed with a peeler, you shave it horizontally until you are left with a pile of long, and soft-but-crunchy bits. You can also use leafy greens: just cut long strips in the leaves (flatten the leaves on the cutting board, take the hard stem out, and run your knife through the green part.).
This salad is a result of this current shape obsession.

For better results, let it marinate for at least an hour in the refrigerator. I usually let it sit for a whole night. The veggies soak and taste delicious, and they don't get soggy, but remain good and crunchy.

Ingredients
1 cucumber and 1 tsp of salt
A bunch of leafy greens (chards)
2 long carrots
1 cup of mixed nuts and dried fruits/berries*
4 shiitake mushrooms
mixed sesame seeds

Dressing
1 1/2 inch ginger, peeled
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 orange, juiced
1 lemon, juiced
1 tbsp miso
1 tsp tamari
1 tsp mirin
1 tsp rice vinegar
½ tsp agave nectar
2-3 drops of hot sauce

With a peeler, shave the cucumber lengthwise to make long, soft strips. Put in colander and mix with 1 tsp of salt. After at least 30 minutes, rinse the salt with cold water and press to eliminate all water.
Shave the carrots just like the cucumber and cut the chard leaves into long strips. Take the stem out of the shiitakes and cut them into strips. Add cucumbers, nuts, dried fruits, and sesame seeds. Mix.
Liquify miso paste into a tbsp of water. Mix all the liquids in a bowl. Grate the ginger and add to the sauce. Mix well and pour over salad. Mix well, and let it marinate for at least an hour.

Presentation
Put it on a plate and sprinkle it with a blend of sesame seeds.
I accompanied it with a zucchini carpaccio (slices of raw zucchini marinated in a balsamic-garlic-olive oil dressing) and slices of heirloom tomatoes and avocado (sprinkled with the same balsamic dressing).**

Verdict
It was delicious, my guest was really excited about all the nuts and the dried raisins and berries saturated with the gingery dressing.
Popularity points: +4.
Karma points: +4.5 *** All of this was organic, I biked to the store, I didn't use energy for cooking, and most of the ingredients were local (it's easier for foodies to have good green karma in California!), but some stuff came from far away like the hunza goji berries, and probably the almonds (since you can no longer sell unpasteurized almonds in California, these raw nuts had to be imported from somewhere else), the Mirin, I guess... But it's a pretty good score!


*make your own mix according to your tastes. I chose a ready-made raw trail mix sold in bulk at Rainbow Grocery. If you want to make it a raw salad, make sure your nuts are not roasted.
** The salad was Asian-inspired and the sides were Italian. It's pretty but next time i'll make sure I have a coherent theme and include something more in tune, like green papaya strips with peanut sauce...
*** Karma points go from -5 (negative karma, you'll burn in hell, get reincarnated into a battery chicken or get dumped really bad) to +5 (total holiness!).

Style: The cook-poet and her wardrobe.

Yasmin is a San Francisco-based poet, comic book artist and cook. Her tasteful aesthetics are reflected in her wardrobe, her living environment, her graphic art and her cuisine, a subtle mix of flavors and colors, that please the eye and the palate.

Meet the keeper of Grand Canyon dresses, American Pride dessert plates, vintage Rolodexes and very un-PC books.

Yasmin and her second-hand kitty, Parsnip the Little Cashew.

Shirt: Thrift Town; Jeans: Crossroads; Princess bed: Craigslist

Which are your favorite pieces, and why?
I have several favorite pieces.
I love my mermaid scarf, a memorabilia from an aquatic show in a theme park in Florida, in the 50's. The scarf illustrates the different numbers in the show, and ladies in bathing suits posing as mermaid. It looks really gay. I found it at a thrift store in Berkeley. I have hung it in every place I've lived for the past ten years.

The amazing Mermaid Scarf

Florida mermaids

I guess I have geographic inclinations: I have a growing collection of state plates and an amazing, hand-sewn, Grand Canyon dress, probably made from a sheet or curtain fabric.

Proud to be a State plate

Proud to be a crock pot owner
Grand Canyon Dress: Mars, Berkeley

I also have an original 1950's UC Berkeley library card catalog, that I bought from a furniture maker who buys old items and refurbishes them. I was going to use it for art, but now I want to keep it as furniture. I also love vintage Rolodexes, that I use for art projects, or as decorations.

Books, vintage Rolodexes,
and a library card catalog purchased via Craigslist.

My bicycle was also bought used for very cheap and a friend did some work on it.
And last but not least, my favorite piece is my second-hand kitty, Parsnip the Little Cashew, a former stray cat who was saved from the pound.

Yasmin and her used bike.

Sweater and shoes: Thrift Town, San Francisco
Collar: Montreuil flea market, France

I love finding old, out of prints, nicely-made, books. Books written in a particular moment and wouldn't be considered interesting by today's standards. Books from the 1910's, the 1940's, are interesting time capsules. The content is very colonial, outrageously not PC but funny to read. I own "I went to the Soviet Arctic" by Ruth Gruber, "Our wonderworld", a 1918 textbook about the world and its peoples, written in a very colonialist way, "Vogue's book of etiquette", a 1948 manual on how to talk to servants and shoeshine boys.
"For men lonely" (1947), a guide to twelve women's colleges, how to harass and pickup on women who chose to go to college.
"The modern home medical adviser", mostly for women, about taking care of their family. There is weird stuff about sexuality and masturbation, homosexuality, but also tuberculosis.

What percentage of your wardrobe is used?
I would say 75%.

The cook in front of her second-hand stove and salvaged cast iron pan,
wearing an embroidered gingham shirt.

Why do you shop used?
I find nice, well made clothes for less expensive. The vintage pieces I find are very well sewn, from the 50's, in a very nice fabric. They don't fall apart, they last. They are inexpensive, but not cheaply made.

Yasmin at her salvaged desk,
drinking tea out of her vintage dish ware.
Her comic book, Maid's Room, is an illustrated poem about Paris' minuscule servants' bedrooms and their dwellers.

Do you use stuff for other purposes?
My books are for research and inspiration purposes for writing, I get a sense of a certain writing style.
I make new clothes out of old clothes, like this collar that I made from a recycled sweater, when I was living in Paris. I needed new clothes but was too poor to buy anything, so I made them.

Do you mend or discard?
Things that need repair, I try to repair or take it to a seamstress, if it's an important piece.

Sweater and scarf: Goodwill.

Where do you shop?
I go to Thrift Town, which I find cheap and interesting, mainly for clothes and cookware. I also like Goodwill. I sometimes go to Crossroads, for work clothes. I found my Grand Canyon dress at Mars, in Berkeley.
I found interesting pieces, like my State plates, at garage sales.
For furniture, Craigslist or the streets have provided me with invaluable treasures.
For art supplies, I shop at Urban Ore in Berkeley, Scraps in San Francisco (Scrounger's Center for Reusable Art Parts), or the East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse, in Oakland.

Yasmin's chocolate love cake, on a plate bought at a garage sale.

What are your suggestions for recycled gift ideas?
I reuse paper for cards or wrapping. I also buy used cake pans and bake my friends' birthday cakes.

What are your tips to earn karma points?
Two of my everyday choices to be environmentally responsible are:
1. Riding my bike to run errands rather than taking public transit or borrowing a car. Even though sharing a car and riding public transit are already steps in the right direction, when I ride my bike I get exercise and burn no fossil fuels.
2. Borrowing and lending. We don't need to own one of everything. It's more economical and environmentally responsible to share something useful than buy your own. For example, a car, a book, a large cooking pot, gardening tools, camping equipment, etc. -- when you're not using them, someone else could be. When we share and lend eachother things for free, we lessen our own consumption in the process.
The public library is a great example of responsibly sharing resources, and on an individual basis we can do the same with our friends and property. The key is making sure we return things in the same condition we borrowed them, so that people will trust one another.


Yasmin runs a catering business, Calico Pie, an ethical, green-based business that supports sustainable agriculture, small businesses, fair wages, and good food. You also can taste her fine cooking at San Francisco's Queer Food For Love dinners.
Yasmin's comic books can be found in San Francisco boutiques: Needles and Pens, the Curiosity Shoppe, or online, on Etsy.com.

The Ethical Giver

Ideas and tips for creative, progressive, low impact and thoughtful gifts.

This idea comes from Yasmin (read her interview in the Style section):
"I reuse paper for cards or wrapping. I also buy used cake pans to bake my friends' birthday cakes".

Yasmin's chocolate love cake, on a plate bought at a garage sale.

Where to shop? San Francisco

Thrift Town 2101 Mission St (@17th)
Community Thrift 623 Valencia St (@17th)

Mission Thrift
Painted Bird
Shauplatz (791 Valencia, bet. 18th and 19th)
Idol Vintage (3162 16th St)

-All along Haight Street

Work clothes:
Buffalo Exchange
Crossroads (they have lots of stupid new stuff, though, so watch out)