Fencl House, Tumbleweed Tiny Houses, (http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com)/I am baking a pizza rustica for a Memorial Day dish to pass party and think that the name is a bit too pompous..too fabulous for what it is. So, I am renaming it cold cut pie. The phrase "cold cuts" cold cuts of meat...(not even good meat if you are counting head cheese and olive loaf...or the bologne extravaganzas) is chilling...and quite degoulasse. However, anything rustica is chic and implies all things elegant but "back home" old country style. This thing is double crust pie (puff pastry from the grocer's freezer) that is rolled out and put into a 12" springform pan. The bottom layer comes all the way up the side of the pan and is filled with a mix of eggs, parsley, ricotta (the good kind...not watery...from Sauders), salt and pepper, shredded mozzerella and parm, and a chip chop of whatever you have around the house in the cold cut department. If i have ham around, that goes in too... Pack it into the base and smoosh it down so its solid. Then roll the second piece of puff pastry and place on top. Crimp and trim edges...and put an egg wash on the top. Bake at 350˚ for about an hour. Let it cool to room temp and you are ready to slice and go. So, I have a window of time to talk to you
I was fumpfering around on the internet and found this thread of ideas that have me so excited. Jay Schafer, The owner and designer of the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company creates these tiny houses (on wheels) that you can either buy entirely built, or buy the plans yourself. Turns out, there is this nascent group of people who want to combine living greener and saner, with good design out there making waves in this tiny house community. There is Dee Williams (nice write up by Rowdy Kittens) who is one of the thought leaders on living a sustainable and intentionally simpler lifestyle. Resource for Life talks about the Small House Society:
Mission. Our desire is to support the research, development, and use of smaller living spaces that foster sustainable living for individuals, families, and communities worldwide.
Overview. The Small House Society is a voice for the Small House Movement. The movement is the result of concerns about what we are doing to the environment, and what the environment is doing to us (wild fires, flooding, hurricanes), as well as a shifting economy. Some people just desire to live simply so that others can simply live. Because of this, architects and builders are now providing smaller housing alternatives. The increase in websites, books, and magazines about small houses reflect the movement’s growth. Small house dwellers include those who have moved into a smaller space or made better square feet per person use of the space they have. Members of our group might include families of five happy in an arts and crafts bungalow, multifamily housing in a variety of forms, and more extreme examples, such as people on houseboats and in trailers with just a few hundred square feet around them. Size is relative, and mainly we promote discussion about the ecological, economic and psychological toll that excessive housing takes on our lives, and what some of us are doing to live better. It’s not a movement about people claiming to be “tinier than thou” but rather people making their own choices toward simpler and smaller living however they feel best fits their life.
And another signal for this group "Simple Living" which Wikipedia frames up this way:
Simple living is a lifestyle characterized by consuming only that which is required to sustain life. Adherents may choose simple living for a variety of personal reasons, such as spirituality, health, increase in 'quality time' for family and friends, reducing their personal ecological footprint, stress reduction, personal taste or frugality. Others cite socio-political goals aligned with the anti-consumerist movement, including conservation, degrowth, social justice, ethnic diversity and sustainable development.
Like Anti-consumerism, simple living can be a reaction to Consumerism and Conspicuous consumption. Thorstein Veblen had denounced the materialistic society in The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899); Richard Gregg coined the term "voluntary simplicity" as one path to simple living, in The Value of Voluntary Simplicity (1936); E. F. Schumacher argued against the notion that "bigger is better" in Small Is Beautiful (1973); and Duane Elgin carried on the promotion of the simple life in Voluntary simplicity (1981).
Simple living as a concept is distinguished from those living in forced poverty, as it is a voluntary lifestyle choice. Although asceticism generally promotes living simply and refraining from luxury and indulgence, not all proponents of simple living are ascetics.
Any way you slice it, there is something really compelling about these small structures, the life they represest and the charm of that existance. Not on my act upon list...but to see Kity look at this stuff, I could see her building one of these some year at the new school. Not an impossibility at all.