La Buena Vida ~ Fava bean salad

Another great recipe from La Buena Vida blog, sounds familiar ? Yes, I shared a wonderful recipe by Nicole Franzen in a previous post - roasted baby artichokes !  Well here's a simple, quick and refreshing salad of  fava beans with mint and mustard greens. Click on any of the colored links to visit Nicole's blog to be inspired her recipes and photos.

Ingredients

2 pounds of fresh fava beans
1/2 of a lemon
fresh mint
mustard or mesclun greens
parmesan cheese
sea salt & pepper
olive oil

Method

Remove fava beans from their pods. Bring a pot of water to a boil and add a pinch of salt. Add fava beans and cook till tender about 3-4 minutes. Shock fava beans in an ice water bath. Allow to cool then remove the outer shell of the fava bean. You will see the bright, vibrant green bean. In a bowl mix the juice of half a lemon, olive oil, sea salt and pepper. In a bowl add a few handfuls of greens, mix in fava beans, leaves of fresh mint, parmesan cheese, and dressing. Toss well and serve.

La Buena Vida blog

Ciaffi ~ eco paper goods

I think this small eco notebook would make a great little travel journal. The vintage image of the Eiffel Tower in the Exposition Universelle de Paris de 1889 definitely stirs the traveler in me. Ciaffi is full of so many  interesting eco paper goods. The creative team behind Ciaffi are sisters Mariana and Paula from Buenos Aires, Argentina. They use all kinds of recycled paper products for their handmade stationary.

Paula and Mariana use paper that is produced with bagasse pulp of sugar cane along with recycled ECF paper (Elemental Chlorine Free). The Parisian notebooks or journals are spiral bound and have a convenient pocket page at the front and back.

This lovely set of 12 handmade small envelopes with white folded note cards with rounded corners. The envelopes are made with kraft paper and have the Eiffel tower, Paris, a dove, a crown and a Parisian postal seal stamped on them. They come nicely packaged in a mini-corrugated box.

Or you may prefer to have 4 sets of  the 12  handmade small envelopes with folded note cards. The same envelopes made of  kraft paper with Parisian motifs stamped and folded white cards. Packaged  in a mini-corrugated box. A total of 48 envelopes with cards.

 

Ciaffi is only one of Mariana and Paula's creative shops on Etsy, they have three others. Branda is where you can find hand knitted items, Diasyflores for colorful stained glass work and MacraMe for unique macrame owl necklaces. Visit their blog The4inONE . Click on any of the colored links for more information or just to take a peek at their shops. Watch the fun video below for a little sample of their work.