BlogHer - Today's Hot Beauty Meme (Pinch me, I'm Dreaming) - Comments

green beans and nog

JenB — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 02:17:37 -0500

First let me tell y'all... I believe green bean casserole is an American thing. When I first saw it, I near hurled. Those weird onion things? mushroom soup? Gah! I have never ever seen it in all my Canadian family travels. Maybe someone else has had a different experience or perhaps it is migrating north.

How about eggnog cheesecake? http://www.cooks.com/rec/search/0,1-0,eggnog_cheesecake,FF.html

Loves to you Lisa xoxo

www.jenandtonic.ca
contributing editor, World blogs :: Canada

Laurie, thank you but I think it's you...

Lisa Stone — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 08:14:16 -0500

... and the other women in this thread who make BlogHer such a wonderful space. I love your blog and I love having you here.

And the photo? Only one word for it: Hot! :)

Lisa Stone
BlogHer Co-founder
Surfette

Amazing, Powerful...

5resolutions — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 10:44:29 -0500

and beautiful photo of you. So glad you shared it!

Claire & Magali
5 Resolutions to Transform the Fashion and Beauty Industries

learning to love asymmetry

laurie — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 08:26:40 -0500

Lisa,

You have just outlined beautifully one of the reasons I love BlogHer so much.

I have really enjoyed all the threads about body image and learning to love how we look as we are. This has been an ongoing project for me, as an adult (with its own ups and downs). Both my sister and I had eating disorders as teenagers and, while we are both much healthier now, this is not baggage you leave behind easily.

Most days, though, I am happy to say that I see lots to like about how i look. Here's a photo of me, taken yesterday, post-chemo, squinting in the bright sun, wearing my new favourite t-shirt:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/38013780@N00/1438799975/

Thanks again for creating BlogHer and making it into such a wonderful space.

laurie
www.notjustaboutcancer.blogspot.com

green bean casserole recipe

coconutlime — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 15:43:16 -0500

I made this twist on the classic last night:

http://coconutlime.blogspot.com/2007/09/asian-inspired-green-bean-casser...

check out my recipe blog, Coconut & Lime, my cooking review/tips site Food Maven .

"Eat local" version of Green Bean Casserole

Lisa Stone — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 08:01:44 -0500

Nice Rebecca, thank you!

Now, about the bacon - my family makes them that way too, but I've always been told it's the southern roots. Seems like every region wants credit for that great idea ... :)
Lisa Stone
BlogHer Co-founder
Surfette

Green Bean Casserole and more

Cooking Up a Story — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 09:40:51 -0500

I did a story about a green bean farmer whose beans are canned a short distance from his farm using sustainable practices. Here's a link to the video:
http://cookingupastory.com/index.php/2006/09/07/green-green-beans/

The manager of the process (Sue Root) shared some green bean recipes. Here's a couple:
http://cookingupastory.com/index.php/2006/09/07/old-fashioned-green-bean...

I've always liked bacon (midwest roots, I guess) with my green beans. You could leave it out if you're not a bacon eater, but it would definitely change the whole flavor.

Enjoy!
Rebecca

Thank you Jane

Lisa Stone — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 09:33:07 -0500

Another use for nutmeg! It's the only time of the year I bring it out of hock, for ze eggnog, so good to see a unique use...

Lisa Stone
BlogHer Co-founder
Surfette

Sue Bob, this is great!!

Lisa Stone — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 09:31:32 -0500

Sounds delicious and like something even I could make! Thank you, thank you....

Lisa Stone
BlogHer Co-founder
Surfette

Read this: 5 Resolutions to Transform Fashion, Beauty Industry

Lisa Stone — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 09:30:07 -0500

Welcome to BlogHer Claire and Magali! I'm moved and impressed by the inspiration behind your blog -- for those of you who haven't visited, these women are providing an amazing view from inside the industry for young women.

Here's my favorite excerpt:

" 2: What You See Is Not What You Get
Stop comparing yourself to pictures in magazines. Seriously, stop it! You will never look as good as those models, because outside of the glossy universe, even the models don’t look that good. Thanks to the magic of retouching, the line between fantasy and reality is blurred just enough to make us all feel hopelessly insecure. Magali's B-cup bust was inflated to a D-cup for the cover of Cosmopolitan. Her waist has been trimmed, her teeth have been straightened, and her lips have been plumped-- all with a few clicks of a mouse. Perfection sells, and there are plenty of people buying. Here's the catch: there is no beauty product in existence that will work as well as Photoshop."

Brilliant - read this, everyone...

Lisa Stone
BlogHer Co-founder
Surfette

Green bean casserole

Average Jane — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 08:44:07 -0500

I actually like "regular" green bean casserole, but here's a classier version that I make sometimes to break the monotony: http://averagejane.blogs.com/average_jane/2007/09/average-janes-g.html

Green bean casserold???

suebob — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 07:38:58 -0500

Hey cutie pie,

The link keeps bringing me back here. I feel I MUST save the world from the horror that is green bean casserole. It is SUCH a mean thing to do to green beans!

I fucking hate green bean casserole with all my heart and soul. So I make green beans al limone - cook green beans in plenty of boiling water until just a little tender. Shock in ice water to preserve color. Just give them a dip in hot water right before adding sauce, or serve cold (which is how I love them best.)

Sauce:
1/2 shallot, very finely minced
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp dijon mustard
Mix these together.

Add 2 tbsp lemon juice and about 1 tsp zest. Then begin whisking in olive oil, bit by bit, until a nice, tasty emulsion is formed. I would say about 1/4 cup of olive oil more or less.

Taste. If it is too bitter, add some sugar to taste. Pour over cooked green beans and serve. You know, I just realized you could put sliced toasted almonds on top and that would make it more green bean casserolish.

The other thing I do with green beans is trim them and toss them with a little olive oil and roast them in a hot oven - 450 degrees or so for maybe 20 minutes until they get all brown and spotty. Then I sprinkle them with salt and eat them with my fingers like an appetizer. They are a little crispy and chewy and super yum.

Promoting Healthy Beauty

5resolutions — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 13:29:13 -0500

We recently joined BlogHer (one of those new body image blogs you mentioned). After doing outreach on body image issues and eating disorders for the last decade, it's been so encouraging to feel this powerful surge of smart, funny, and genuinely enlightening perspectives in recent years. Keep 'em coming!

Oh, and here's a picture of us speaking to students at Cornell. It's no glamour shot, but it's a favorite because it reminds us of the work we love:
http://5resolutions.blogspot.com/2007/07/little-intro.html

Claire Mysko & Magali Amadei
5 Resolutions to Transform the Fashion and Beauty Industries

Oh thanks! That is sweet!

Shannon Nelson — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 11:26:01 -0500

Oh thanks! That is sweet! It's not often that I get to be in front of the camera--I'm usually that mom snapping pictures of my kids every waking moment.

A Girl's Gotta Spa!
Makeup Minute
Beauty Pro

Shannon, you DO look great!

Lisa Stone — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 22:26:01 -0500

I think it's your 10,000-watt smile. Welcome!

Lisa Stone
BlogHer Co-founder
Surfette

Today's Hot Beauty Meme (Pinch me, I'm Dreaming)

Lisa Stone — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 21:42:50 -0500

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Can BlogHer Feature You and Your Recipe?
Calling all cooks! BlogHer is working on a holiday guide that includes recipes. We'd like your help with one in particular: Green bean casserole. Does your family have a special twist on this dish? Please blog, leave a comment on this newsletter with a link or vlog. If we like your idea, we'll promote your blog! Questions? Email lisa@blogher.com.

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

September 19, 2007

Hi everyone,

Pinch me, I'm dreaming. Since last week's newsletter, I've surfed incontrovertible evidence that the leading fashion and beauty meme for women ages 25-54 online is one I never dared hope for: Women are blogging by the hundreds that we look good in our own skins -- at least a damn site better than mainstream images of beauty icons lead us to believe. And we're fed up with being told differently.

Just ask us:

Jenandtonic: naked naked naked LOVE!
Body Impolitic: A Few Choice Links
Angry Fat Girlz: Eating With Integrity
The Shape of a Mother: Jake & Maggie
Queen of Spain: Bill Maher Can Suck My Tits, as cross-posted on The Huffington Post where she's racked up 126 comments so far.
Suzanne Reisman: The Swimsuit Brigade for Honest Photos

At BlogHer, we're witnessing a self-acceptance movement that is gathering momentum. The hot viral beauty meme among influential, tech-savvy women who blog is about how we actually look every day when we face the mirror. How we're working to embrace our real selves. And how sick and tired we are of being told otherwise by a media world and a vanity industry that uses computer technology to work against us by presenting increasingly distorted images of human females.

I confess, I dreamed of this day, but I couldn't have predicted so many women with everyday normal lives would use Web technology to "me-too" their outrage. These kinds of posts didn't exist when I first left CNN to join WebTV and Women.com ten years ago. At the time, I was a new mom and I joined weight-loss message boards as I tried to shed the fifty pounds I gained with my pregnancy.

Back then, questions and ideas about body image were tucked into sites like Women.com's own message boards and Prevention Magazine online. The uber-conversation was typically about a walking club, daily exercise and eating goals, etc., etc., but every once in a while someone would go off the reservation into more interesting territory: "Am I the only one who thinks women don't really look like the cover of [insert magazine name here]...." Online magazines like Salon's Mothers Who Think and Women.com's own Mary Peacock started to publish online articles on body image, with little reflection in the mainstream media.

Not anymore. Today, I see hundreds of women online publishing entire blogs devoted to their belief that women deserve to see images that look like we really do: Dimpled, wrinkled, scarred, fleshy, hairy and freckly. In July, BlogHer opened a Body Image Blog List, and in the six weeks since we have gained more than 100 blogs on the topic, one-tenth of the new blogs listed on our network during that time.

We're rolling our eyes at distorted images of women. At the same time, we're rolling our eyes at ourselves. This netroots movement about erasing and ending images that create self-doubt is rife with it. We women are struggling with the message that we must always strive to reach out to the mall, to the make-up counter, to the foundation garments department and to the plastic surgeon to achieve something other than what we are.

The younger we are and the less life experience we have, the worse our insecurity gets. I won't go into all the stories about the insecurity of young women about their bodies, but our expert editors cover it well on BlogHer, including Suzanne Reisman's recent report that MySpace and other sites frequented by teens and post-adolescents are undergoing a rash of airbrushing of every day pictures before they put photos on their My Space profiles or elsewhere on the internet.

This story is in progress, but the solution thus far for most bloggers on the topic seems to be not voting yourself off the fashion, beauty and bling island. Instead, we are cashing in on our life experience, all that we didn't know about our sexy selves in high school and what we've learned to celebrate in the flesh since. And we're talking to ourselves as much as we are encouraging other women online.

As BlogHer community member Jaycee wrote in response to last week's newsletter when I asked readers what advice we should give to the next generation of women to tape to their mirrors:

"Maybe instead of taping advice onto our mirrors we should tape up pictures of real women - women with curves and wrinkles. Non-Photoshopped women. And maybe we should stop buying those magazines that Photoshop women to their skeleton.

"Perhaps as well as taping these images to our mirrors, we should add them to Facebook too. We could start up a 'This is how women really look' Facebook group, or similar. I'm just saying Facebook because of the lactivist thing."

"...As for self-image advice? If you have self-confidence and self-esteem then image doesn't really matter.

"I know it's hard to build those two things and I wish I could take my own advice."

Well, I'll take your advice Jen. And pass it on, too. Given Facebook's recent ban on breastfeeding photos, I invite everyone to contribute to The Shape of A Mother, to Suzanne's Bathing Suit blog, and/or to post a favorite photo of yourself in the comments below.

Because, grrrl ... you look good.

Best,
Lisa

for Elisa, Jory and Lisa

Lisa Stone is a BlogHer Co-founder. Her personal blog is Surfette.. She promises NOT to write about body image issues next week.