lotus events

cooking :: chinese jung

lotus events — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:17:11 +0000

As a young girl, I remember helping my grandmother make chinese jung in the kitchen – one pot of sweet jung and one pot of savoury jung (my favourite!). Traditionally made during Dragon Boat Festival, chinese jung is basically sticky rice with meat and an assortment of lentils, mushrooms, egg yolks and then wrapped inside a bamboo leaf before cooking for an hour or two on the stove.

I’m a purist when it comes to jung, favouring a simple blend of chinese mushroom and pork belly marinated in soy sauce and covered in glutenious rice. At first glance, making jung may seem a bit overwhelming, but these tasty packages are great to keep in the freezer and once you get a rhythm going, you’ll be surprised at how quickly the cooking pot fills up!

ingredients:
2kg bag of glutinous rice
1.5lb of pork belly ** optional
Soy sauce
1 package of dried bamboo leaves
string

optional: mung beans, chinese sausage, salted egg yolks, mushrooms (dried or fresh)

Makes about 15-20

step one (the night before):
Meat – Cut the pork belly into bite size pieces and marinade it in soy sauce.

Mushrooms – If you are using dried mushrooms like I did, make sure to soak these overnight.

Bamboo leaves – To prep the bamboo leaves, soak the leaves in a mixture of 1 tbsp of baking soda and boiling water for one hour. Rinse and soak in fresh water overnight. You will need 3 leaves per jung and a few extra in case it rips.

step two (the next day):
Take two bamboo leaves and fold it in half width wide and shape it into a cone.

step three:
Holding the base, scoop 1/4 cup of rice in the base followed by the pork belly and mushrooms. Try not to overfill as it will make it hard to wrap later. Scoop another 1/4 cup of rice on the top (you should have rice in the bottom and the top).

step four:
Here come’s the tricky part! Pat down the ingredients. Hold everything firmly and wrap a third leaf around the top of the opening to make the cone even bigger. Fold the sides into the middle and then fold down the top (see clockwise). (Don’t squeeze too hard as it may tear the leaves).

step five:
While you grasp everything in one hand, use the other to tie the entire package in string – Make sure you wrap it properly and double knot it as you don’t want it to spring open while cooking or have any of the rice leak out.

step six:
Put all the jung in a large stock pot and cover it completely with water. Bring to a boil and keep it at medium-low heat for 1 to 1.5 hours. Give it a good stir every once and awhile so that the jung on the bottom make it to the top.

Once cooked, unwrap, and eat! Also try them dipped in soy sauce! (can freeze up to two weeks, but the probably won’t last that long!)

the past 3 weeks

lotus events — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:17:28 +0000

It’s been a while. My 1 week break turned into 3 and although I’m not sure if I’m ready to take on a 5 day / week blogging schedule, I am happy to be back on here. To be honest, I was feeling a bit burnt out after Got Craft and earlier in April went through a small phase of self doubt and needed a change. One of the most important points that I took home from the blogshop Vancouver (more on that soon!) course is to step away from the computer and go experience life in order to create unique content. So what have we been up to? A little bit of everything! I’ll be sharing a few adventures and new finds on here soon. Right now, I need to work on the not so glamourous life of catching up on emails and list making.

Thanks for following along and stopping in!

shop crush :: Jess Quinn Small Art

lotus events — Wed, 01 May 2013 17:08:15 +0000

I was searching for egg cups on Etsy this morning and came across Jess Quinn Small Art. Using fabric, paint, and clay; she creates original works of art, handcrafted gifts, and small accessories for the home.

“Welcome to my shop, I am Jess Quinn and this is a collection of my own designs, made by myself, I draw, sculpt, sew and paint. I love using a variety of materials, The collection is fluid, always developing, most items are one of a kind, I hope you enjoy my creations as much as I have enjoyed making them.”

See more here: blog | etsy shop

thank you!

lotus events — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 17:49:09 +0000

Thank you to everyone that attended Got Craft? last weekend! Despite the last minute changes, we had another amazing event and owe it all to our amazing vendors for their flexibility and to our volunteers that went above and beyond to make sure that the transition to the new venue went as smoothly as possible. We also want to thank all of our followers for their words of support, retweets, likes, and emails over the past week. We truly was amazed by the number of messages that we received and how everybody was ready to lend a hand in spreading the word. The Got Craft? holiday show is scheduled for Saturday, December 14 and Sunday, December 15th. Vendor applications are available online here.

We’ll be taking a short trip to Toronto, ON tomorrow morning to work on another event. I’ll still be tweeting and instagramming (did I just make that into a verb?), but plan on taking a wee break from the blog to refresh and catch up on everything else. See you back here soon!

A big shout out to our ah-mazing sponsors: MailChimp, UPPERCASE magazine, Square, Spool of Thread, Scout Magazine, Poppytalk, and Locomotive Clothing.

image via [stu-di-o] by jeanie | rings by little wren designs

things to do at Got Craft? this weekend!

lotus events — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 15:37:41 +0000

A reminder that Got Craft? is taking place this weekend on Saturday, April 27th and Sunday, April 28th, 2013 from 10-5pm in the gym at Templeton Secondary School, 727 Templeton Drive, Vancouver (between Adanac and Turner Street).

Here are our top 5 things to do at the event!

Be one of the first 50 people through the doors on each day to receive a FREE swag bag filled with goodies from Got Craft? vendors and sponsors!
Shop from 75+ local handmade in all categories including jewelry, clothing, bath and body, paper goods, ceramics, artwork, plush, food, etc.vendors including!
Participate in a DIY workshop and make your own project to take home!
Purchase tickets to the Vancouver premiere of The Sign Painter movie taking place this June 7/8!
Have lunch from some of Vancouver’s best food carts including Varinicey Pakoras!

See you there!

****************

Got Craft?
Saturday, April 27th and Sunday, April 28th, 2013
10:00am to 5:00pm
Templeton Secondary School Gym
727 Templeton Drive, Vancouver (between Turner and Adanac Street)
$3.00 admission (kids 10 and under are free)

image via Mellifera Bees

guest post :: the little destination that could

lotus events — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 15:17:17 +0000

To celebrate our new home in the gym at Templeton Secondary School (727 Templeton Drive at Turner), we invited Vancouver East Village to share a post with us on what makes this neighbourhood such a great place to visit!

A few years ago, when people would ask where I live & shop, they could never seem to get a mental map of the area around Nanaimo & E.Hastings. Even many East Van folks seemed not to know. Then I’d say ‘you know, around Donald’s Market, (not the one on Commercial Drive)’. After a few moments they’d say ‘Oh, yeah, there’s not much around there…” It’s true, we had a plethora of vacant shops and the good ones were few and far between at that time. Well, things have changed a little. People now recognize that the (now named) Vancouver East Village is actually a chill place to eat and to shop.

Hastings Sunrise residents shopping for their meals love supporting our long time merchants like Wheelhouse Seafoods, Rio Friendly Meats and Donald’s Market, but there is more going on over here than food!

New endeavors like Tiny Finery, feature local artisans work in a bright & tiny location that is quickly becoming the go-to shop for gifts & cards. My City Photos offers unusual photo shoots and an outstanding quality of work. Black Rook Bakehouse and East Village Bakery, are directly across the street from one another and neither are to be missed. Walk towards the mountain views, past Pandora Park and downhill to Dundas where you’ll find Far Out Coffee Post, an amazing little neighbourhood gem of a cafe and lunch stop in a most unusual location at Templeton on Dundas. Into craft beers? How about free tastings at Parallel 49 Craft Brewery or Powell St. Craft Brewery, both walkable from the Got Craft?.

A big thanks to Vancouver East Village for giving us a tour of their neighbourhood!

Got Craft?
Saturday, April 27th and Sunday, April 28th, 2013
10-5pm
Gym at Templeton Secondary School – 727 Templeton Drive (between Turner and Adanac)
$3.00 admission

images 1 + 3 via Vancouver East Village | image 2 via Ryan Tessier for Vancity Buzz | image 4 via hummingbird604

got craft? :: NEW venue this weekend!

lotus events — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 01:40:18 +0000

Due to a fire at the Maritime Labour Centre last week, Got Craft? was forced to change locations for the show coming up this weekend. Thank you to everybody that has taken the time to email us with venue suggestions and messages of support! We are happy to announce that we have found a new home in the gym at Templeton Secondary School!

Got Craft?
Saturday, April 27th and Sunday, April 28th, 2013
10-5pm
Templeton Secondary School – Gym
727 Templeton Drive, Vancouver between Adanac and Turner
web | facebook | twitter

biz notes :: MailChimp

lotus events — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 16:15:56 +0000

We love using MailChimp’s simple and quick marketing system to create email newsletters for our upcoming events! Neither one of us come from technical / design backgrounds, so having templates guide us through the process of inserting text and images just makes the process that much more easy to understand.

5 tips when using MailChimp:

Grow your mailing list and collect names with a customizeable signup form that can be integrated to you website or facebook page.
Choose from dozens of pre-designed templates or build your own.
Send an email campaign to your entire list or categorize your list into groups and segment by interest, location, or activity.
Tracking! Free reports can tell you who’s opening and clicking your newsletters. Connect your Facebook and Twitter accounts to share your email campaign automatically and be able to track the activity by finding out who is tweeting and liking your email. Advanced stats are available via Google Analytics.
MailChimp provides a link to each of your campaigns to make it easy for people who have HTML or images disabled. It’s also great to resend to those that said they never received your initial campaign.

Set up a free account (up to 2000 names) and create your own MailChimp campaign here!

This post has been sponsored by MailChimp, an electronic marketing system created to help you design, send, and share email newsletters. Be one of the first 50 at Got Craft? on Saturday, April 27th and Sunday, April 28th, 2013 at the Templeton Secondary School gym – 727 Templeton Drive, Vancouver to find a special MailChimp surprise in your swag bags!

got craft? :: DIY with Spool of Thread

lotus events — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 20:28:10 +0000

Spool of Thread will once again be joining us at Got Craft? on Saturday, April 27th and Sunday, April 28th from 10-5pm in the gym at Templeton Secondary, 727 Templeton Drive in Vancouver (corner of Turner and Templeton).

After receiving quite a number of requests, Spool of Thread will be bringing back their super popular prize ribbon pin project for you to make! Got Craft? attendees can stop by their table and make a modern take on a prize ribbon using supplies straight from the Spool of Thread store.

Just in time for Mother’s Day, pin your prize ribbon on yourself or make one for someone deserving of a great handmade prize! Show off who’s number 1 for making such a cute pin! This DIY workshop is drop-in only, so no registration required. All supplies and instructions are provided and included with your admission fee.

got craft? :: venue change

lotus events — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 20:59:10 +0000

Update: NEW VENUE!! Got Craft? will take place on Saturday, April 27th and Sunday, April 28th from 10-5pm in the gym at Templeton Secondary School – 727 Templeton Drive, Vancouver (corner of Templeton and Turner in the Hastings Sunrise / East Village neighbourhood). See you there!

*************

We just received word that the Maritime Labour Centre will remain closed for an additional 11 days due to the fire in their office from last Thursday. We are currently looking for an alternate venue and are working very hard to ensure that Got Craft? will still take place this weekend. Any suggestions for a venue between 6800-7000 sq ft preferably in the Hastings Sunrise / East Village is greatly appreciated!

Thanks for the support! We ♥ our community!

image via bippity boppity boo