What are you reading, NPR confused about trends

(Screen shot of npr.org taken 2/10/11 at 9:35am)

Between yesterday and today NPR completely shifted its take on trends and trend forecasting. Yesterday Linton Weeks wrote an interesting article about trends and how the idea of trends has really only come to light over the last 50 years, and in that time period we've seen trends come and go. Fashion changes and as products become trendy they fall out of populous favor. The article's final conclusion is that once a product hits trend status, it's over. Ubiquity decreases allure.

Then, today, Ilya Marritz wrote a piece about the Pantone color system and how the company sets the trend forecast for the color palette of new products. They hire designers and whisk them away to a secretive white room in Europe to develop and influence the color trends for the next year. The article ends with this gem, "But if designers disregard the trend, they risk irrelevance — just about the worst thing imaginable for any label." Disregard and become insignificant.

So here's my take away...
Article 1: If you're trendy people will ignore you.
Article 2: If you're not trendy people will ignore you.

Great! Thanks for clearing that up NPR. Well done. I'm going to stick with what I love. It's not what you wear, it's how you wear it. Own your style and people will follow, trendy or not.

Garden to table: Eggplant {Recipe}

Eggplant harvest! Last spring I planted a variety pack of eggplant seeds and was really happy and surprised by the results. Eggplants of all different shapes and sizes started appearing. So fun! I had a few big harvests and as a result we've been eating eggplant with eggplant for weeks now. I tried making roasted eggplant, babaganoush, sweet and sour eggplant, but this Thai basil eggplant recipe is by far my favorite. I made a big batch for friends and the wok was practically licked clean!

Thai Eggplant Basil Dinner
(from thaitable.com)

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 bunch Thai basil, leaves picked from the stem
1 tablespoon sugar
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 eggplants
2 chili peppers

Slice the eggplants into irregular shapes for easy turning in the pan. When it is sliced into a small disk, it tends to stick to the bottom of the pan and makes it difficult to flip or turn.

Chop garlic and slice chili peppers. Pick the leaves from the stem of the Thai basil.

Heat a pan or wok over high or medium high. Add oil, chili peppers and garlic. Stir until the garlic turn golden brown. Add eggplant and stir. Add a cup of water and cover the pan or wok with a lid. Keep the lid close until the eggplant is cooked. It should take about 5-7 minutes before the eggplant is done. The eggplant turns from white to translucent when it is done. Almost all of the water should have been evaporated at this point. If the eggplant is still not cooked, add a little bit more water and keep lid closed until the eggplant is ready. Add fish sauce and sugar and stir. Add Thai basil and quickly stir to heat the basil, so that it retains it color. Turn off heat immediately.

Serve hot with rice.

Buyer Beware: Shrinking packages

Good has a great infographic on the amazing state of American goods. If you're paying the same price for a product as you were last year, odds are the product itself has gotten smaller. Thanks big business! I'd love to pay the same money for less reward while still earning the same amount of money. Isn't this partly why Egyptians are rioting?