Crazy for Collards

Last week I received my first farm share of the summer and boy, was I excited. I knew it would mean that I’d ultimately have a friend or two over to help me consume a fabulous meal created from my recent bounty. I got a lot of greens in this share, which is good, because I LOVE GREENS. And I do enjoy collards even though I’d only had them for the first time just a few short years ago. And I’d never cooked them myself, but as I do enjoy a challenge I went to the internet for some guidance.

It seems as though it could go one of two ways: braise them in olive oil or boil them in water to death until they’re almost mushy. Since the latter was the only way I’d ever had them, I decided to go with that particular technique. After rinsing my greens well and draining them, I took several leaves at once, rolled them up cigar style and sliced them across in 1 inch segments.

Six slices of bacon cut up into pieces were heated in the pot until the fat was released. Next step, a large vidalia onion, chopped, was cooked until a little soft. Then in went the greens, some water to cover them, salt and a little bit of crushed red pepper.

After bringing to a boil, then turning down to a simmer, I went off to read War and Peace. Just kidding! But I did get a lot of other things done while they cooked away.

The recommended cooking time was about 2 hours but after that amount of time passed I still had a huge amount of water in the pot! I did have the lid on the pot for the first hour (not recommended) and clearly I could have used a lot less water. So I just let it cook away for 2 more hours until almost all of the water was gone. I feared by that point my collards would be a mushy slop, but they were still holding together well.

Easy, peasy to put together. Go ahead. Get involved in another project while you wait. You won’t forget about them on the stove. The smell will remind you that they’re there!

The finished product was indeed delicious and even garnered rave reviews from my boyfriend!

Beauty Trends

Last monday the crew and I dropped in on the International Beauty Show in New York. It’s held at the Jacob Javits Center which is walking distance from the Megabus drop off and pickup. Super convenient.

These are the styling chairs that I want for the new salon!

Once inside we spent some time perusing the vendors selling their wares, stopping occasionally to watch the platform artists display their techniques and tips. I was surprised to see that the show floor was about half as large as in previous years. However, beauty tools, styling products, spa equipment, skin care, furniture, gadgets, makeup and sundries filled the room and we had a great time sorting through it all, picking up samples and literature along the way.

This year’s trends continue to include lots of hair extensions. The clip in extensions that the client can apply at home were a very popular item.  It’s definitely a fun and easy was to add a temporary dimension or even a little splash of color to the hair.

The highlight of the day for us was watching Martin Parsons on the main stage demonstrate his amazing, graceful, hairdressing skills while delivering instructions for several simple updos that looked intricate and sophisticated. He clowned around on stage and had fun with the models and exuded his warm personality. He used the hairspray can as a prop at times which was funny, but the cloud in the room however was not.

Moroccan Oil, which has built an entire product line around argan oil, had a large presence at the show. They gave away a nice sample bag that’s perfect for the beach, but unfortunately it smells so strongly of vinyl I can’t be in the same room with it. And weirdly enough, it smells like perm solution to me.

There was an increase in the number of product lines touting organic and botanical ingredients. A formerly harsh treatment like hair relaxing has gone through some changes over the past few years and now there are several companies that claim to be able to relax highly textured hair with amino acids. The staff and I contemplated this and agreed that we would like to stick with our philosophy of holistic hairdressing which keeps hair at it’s healthiest by keeping it in its most natural state.

We left at the day’s end with nothing more than some new aprons and capes in a beautiful indigo color, and a new soy hair removal system for our eyebrow services.

We are so looking forward to using our new things and can’t wait to share our new techniques with you!

Annual Jack Dwyer Award Dinner

Last Thursday night I had the opportunity to attend the 11th annual Jack Dwyer Award Dinner. Who is Jack Dwyer? Jack was a marine, a 30 year veteran of the Troy Police Department, a long-time investigator in the District Attorney’s Office, and the former Undersheriff of Rensselaer County. He was also an outstanding citizen, involved in several community and charitable organizations. Jack was one of those people who always seemed to be there to lend a helping hand, and he was beloved by many.

In 2001, Jack lost his battle with cancer. Starting in 2002, his daughters, Nora and Susan Dwyer formed the Friends of Jack Dwyer Committee.  Each year, the committee honors a member of the community that exemplifies Jack’s charitable character, and hosts an annual dinner that raises money for the Capital District Cancer Resource Foundation. This year’s dinner was held at Franklin Terrace in Troy, New York, and the award was presented to Michael Cocca, owner of  Franklin Terrace, Franklin Plaza Ballroom, and Franklin Square Inn & Suites in Troy. To anyone who knows Michael, the reasons for him receiving this award are too long to list; for those that don’t know him, it would take more space than I have here. Suffice it to say that Michael is an honest, hard-working and successful businessman who always finds the time to help someone else in need. I wish there were more like him.

The food was excellent and it was a lovely time all around. And the chocolate covered strawberries and chocolate covered oreos were courtesy of Francesca Tutunjian. Yummy. Hearing Nora talk about her father brought tears to my eyes. And I’m sure everyone who attended the dinner, like me, was inspired by all that Michael Cocca does for others and for our community. I’m sure I’ll be going to next year’s dinner, and I hope that you do, too.

County Legislators Harry Tutunjian and Lou Desso, County Clerk Frank Merola, County Executive Kathy Jimino, honoree Michael Cocca, Troy Mayor Lou Rosamilia, Nora Dwyer, Susan Dwyer

Troy Night Out: Technicolor Kids

This gallery contains 12 photos.

Kids of all ages descended on downtown Troy this past Friday night for the monthly arts, music and culture festival that we call Troy Night Out. These little cherubs stopped by Indigo Hair for some bright splashes of color seen here, done with non-toxic pastels.  

Happy Birthday Sully Sullenberger!

This saturday, March 17th is the day to get your Irish on, but more importantly it is our mascot Sully’s Sullenberger’s birthday! He is an estimated ten years old.

Yes, he came with the name Sully, but the surname Sullenberger was chosen later in homage to the heroism of his namesake.

If you’ve met Sully you’d agree that he is quite puppy-like, and can be incredibly gentle, especially around children, yet is a fierce protector and watchdog.

Members of his fan club regularly stop by the salon to slip him a little cookie and he rewards them with unconditional love and the promise of an enthusiastic welcome at each visit.

The mail delivery folks in Troy are on top of their game!

Some would say that Sully can be a little spoiled at times. Does anyone know where I can find him a little irish knit sweater in time for his birthday?

sure signs of spring

Indigo Spa Expansion

Welcome to the new home of Indigo Organic Hair and Spa! This is the space prior to any demolition. Stay tuned for more changes as I document the entire process!

The 2nd Annual IndieCruise

Just back from my 2nd annual Indiecruise! So great to see everyone from last year, and make the acquaintance of some new indies. More fun in the sun, spa days and business focus sessions. I came away refreshed, energized and with a personal timeline and tools to help my business grow. And I got a little bit of a tan too. Unfortunately, I didn’t take a lot of pictures, but I’ll share what I’ve got.

First stop was Ocho Rios, Jamaica. We didn’t have a lot of time here, but my honey and I found a little place to kick back with a couple of Red Stripes, some superb jerk chicken and red bean soup. Then we found an open market where a vendor handstitched the names of my salon team on little straw bags. So cute!

Our next port of call was Grand Cayman. We found a beautiful beach, the water was the perfect temperature, gentle waves. I could have floated out there for hours. So different from East coast beaches. I tried to imagined what life here would be like if I didn’t get back on the ship…

My IndieBeauty colleagues are a group of talented entrepreneurs and working with them in the mastermind sessions was a privilege. The two days that we didn’t go ashore we roundtabled and asked of each other and ourselves what we needed to do differently to create the lives we want. DonnaMaria held us to our own personal standards and timelines to set this into motion. We also discussed unique attributes that help our customers connect with us and we worked on defining our brands.

I’ve got lots of work to do and it’s going to be a busy spring, but the best part is, I get to call all the shots!

caribbean bound!

Key West

snorkeling in Cozumel, Mexico(that’s me!)

I know it’s been an easy winter but I’m longing for warm, golden sunsets and azure water. Good thing my 2nd annual @indiecruise starts tomorrow! We’re headed to the high seas of the caribbean to network, mastermind and empower ourselves to the entrepreneurial spirit. Of course we’ll be stopping in Ochos Rios, Jamaica and Grand Cayman to unwind and who knows what else? My IndieBeauty colleagues are up for all kinds of fun. I’ve added a couple of photos from last year’s cruise. More to follow…

lunch in South Beach

summer rolls on a wintry night

A friend of mine brought summer rolls to a super bowl gathering recently that were fresh and delicious, though they didn’t pair so well with the chicken wings. It seemed so simple an idea that I thought surely I can do this and fill them with anything I want!

I picked up the wraps at my local asian market and they weren’t at all difficult to use. They are a hard flat tortilla-like disc made from rice flour and you dip them in water to soften them. It takes about 30 seconds. Seems to me they’ll keep forever in the cupboard.

I basically used the stuff I already had in the fridge from a previously aborted half baked idea to make a goat and sheep cheese fondue and use veggies to dip. (Turns out not to be good cheeses to make fondue with). Radishes, carrots, watercress, cilantro, snow peas and a scallion were diced up with my trusty hand chopper, which sat idle for the first 10 years that I owned it, now I seem to be using it all the time.

Once all that was all mixed up in a bowl I squeezed in juice from 1/2 a lime and gave it several spritzes of Braggs.

You can see by the pictures how delicious they look. I think I overstuffed mine a bit though. 

No cooking involved and hardly any calories! Except for the sauce you might dip them in. I used a hoisin dipping sauce that I also picked up at my local asian market.