They recently attended a wedding and we’re thrilled that they both carried Kayu for the special occasion!

Molly paired our Jen clutch with a Tart dress, Elizabeth Showers jewelry and Zara leather sandals for a sleek, sophisticated look.

Sally went for a bright and fun outfit with a color block BCBG gown, Elizabeth Showers jewelry and our Rachel clutch.

Thanks for featuring us ladies!

When my friend Ana Maria first told me about her new venture “Ring Cozy” I was intrigued. The concept of Ring Cozy is simple: a neoprene sleeve keeps your precious engagement ring safe when you’re being active. No more taking your ring off when you’re playing sports, doing chores or working with your hands. It’s such a simple concept but one that makes total sense.

I recently sat down with Ana Maria to find out more about how she got the idea for Ring Cozy and what keeps her inspired -

1) Tell us a little bit about your background. Why and how did you start Ring Cozy?

I’ve been coming up with invention-type ideas for as long as I can remember. Even before I was old enough to wear makeup I thought that all compacts should come with lights around the mirrors so you could powder your nose in the dark. I think that’s happened by now

With Ring Cozy, I had the idea after seeing that I was damaging my ring while working out. It was something that I could easily prototype on my home sewing machine and then figure out the rest. I also knew that I couldn’t be the only woman in the world worried about damaging her beloved ring! My guy paid good money for it and it means a lot to us symbolically … the least I could do was protect it.

2) Life before Ring Cozy?

We were living in London for my husband’s job and I was lucky enough to turn that move into an opportunity to explore my own interests outside of a 9 to 5. I took my passion for flea markets and started a web shop selling small vintage pieces that I bought at markets in Europe (that was too much fun). I simultaneously started dabbling in freelance photography and graphic design work which gave me many practical skills and tools for launching Ring Cozy.

3) Best/Worst part of your job?

Best: Meeting other women who share the same concerns about their rings while being active and hearing that Ring Cozy is their solution. I know that I’m not saving the world but in a small way Ring Cozy helps save something that is precious to someone.

Worst: The feeling of needing to be “on” at all times just because your work is on your laptop and your laptop is in your home.

2) Who/What inspires you?

People with a can-do attitude and determination to see the bright side of things. My parents definitely embody that and they inspire me to no end. Also, travel inspires me because it forces one to see and experience things differently. Even if it’s just a few hours drive from your hometown, there’s bound to be something that stands out and catches your attention.

3) Beyond Ring Cozy what fuels your soul?

Exploring. Exploring a new city, an antique store, a museum, a national park, you name it. There’s plenty out there to keep a curious mind going.

3) Favorite travel destination?
I’m going to cheat and do more than one:

The Coffee Triangle in Colombia for family and beautiful landscapes

Brugge, Belgium for Christmas in a Medieval town

New Orleans for the music and soul of the city

4) Describe your perfect day?

If it includes at least one long leisurely meal with good company then I am one happy girl. I guess that fuels my soul, too.

Find out more about Ring Cozy  and support Ana Maria on Kickstarter

Split Pea Soup

A good split pea soup is a beautiful and happy thing.

This version of split pea soup is not only satisfying, hearty and so good that you’ll go back for seconds but it is also incredibly easy to throw together.

If you have 10 – 15 minutes in the morning you can prep everything, toss it in the slow cooker, leave for work and come back to a perfectly cooked dinner waiting for you. Easy Peasy!

Serves 6 – 8

Gluten free

Nut free

Soy free 

Here’s what you need: 

2 cups dry split peas (430g)

1 cup onion, diced (105g)

1 cup carrot, diced (105g)

1 cup potato, chopped (150g)

1 cup green cabbage, chopped (70g)

1/4 cup green onions, chopped (20g)

6 cups veggie broth (1.5 liter)

1 tablespoon curry powder (8g)

1/2 teaspoon cumin powder

1 teaspoon red chili powder (4g)

1/2 teaspoon salt

Black pepper and additional salt to taste

Here’s how to do it:

• Place all ingredients into your slow cooker and stir to combine.

• Cook on low for 6 hours.

Toast a piece of sprouted bread, slap some tahini on it and you have dinner!

Molly & Luanne are cookbook writers, travelers & geeks. They are currently living in New Mexico on 5 acres of land, wrapping up their second vegan cookbook (they aren’t vegan elitists, I promise).  They pretty much sold everything they owned when they quit their jobs to move to NM. Now, they are in the process of selling / donating what they have left and making their move to Hawaii.

Check them out at boldvegan.com

Luckily my parents still live in Malaysia and I go back every year to visit them. It’s always fun catching up with family and friends, eating all my favorite foods and seeing how rapidly the place has changed. The city inspired me so much the last time I was back that I decided to shoot Kayu’s Spring/Summer 2013 lookbook there. I teamed up with photographer Ana Maria, who in a weird twist of fate is actually from California, and together we prowled the streets of Kuala Lumpur. I had this idea of a free-spirited woman traveling through Asia and seeing the city through her eyes. I’m thrilled with the final photos and hope you enjoy her journey as much as we enjoyed creating it.

Enjoying a cold fruit shake

Catching a ride on a scooter, also known locally as a "kapcai"

Exploring a colorful market

Enjoying a moment of solitude

Red Door

This is a teeny-tiny restaurant which serves the most delectable brunch. The place is filled with fun curiosities and the owner treats each plate like a work of art. Go early and be prepared to wait. It’s worth it!

Brenda’s French Soul Food

The line is insane but if you’re craving shrimp & grits this is the place to come to. We always order a plate of beignets to share and you can’t go wrong with their watermelon ice tea.

Minako Organic Japanese Restaurant

Minako is run by a mother and daughter team who craft authentic Japanese food. Fresh sushi, inventive vegan options and friendly service – what more can one ask for? Don’t forget to check out the jars of pickled ume on the way to the restroom.

Cafe Jacqueline

This place serves souffles of all types – seafood, mushroom, chocolate – and only souffles. Each one is lovingly made to order by Chef Jacqueline, a French transplant who has made it her mission to bring back the art of the souffle. The souffles are huge so be sure to share. You can even visit Jacqueline in the open kitchen to watch her hard at work whipping eggs.

R&G Lounge

We always order the same thing when we come to R&G – their famous salt & pepper crabs, fried rice and a side of greens. To really enjoy your crabs you’ll want to use your hands! They make some lethal and yummy cocktails too.

Kabuto

The best sushi in San Francisco. Enough said.

Hooker’s Sweet Treats

Don’t let the misleading name throw you off, this teeny cafe only serves sinful delights of the chocolate variety. I’m a big fan of their sea salted caramels.

Foreign Cinema

What could be more fun than sitting in an outdoor courtyard on a gorgeous summer night while a black & white film plays in the background? I love going for pre-dinner drinks at the bar attached and peeking in at the rotating art in the gallery space. For some after dinner entertainment pop across the road into Doc’s Clock for a game of shuffleboard.

Pizzeria Delfina

For the perfect thin crust pizza look no further than Delfina. I love the Margherita and their meatballs are pretty awesome too. If you have room for dessert pop into Tartine bakery next door.

Ha Nam Ninh

This is a hole-in-the-wall Vietnamese place located in the Tenderloin. Don’t let the humble exterior throw you off; this place serves the most incredible noodles. The key is to order the #25 Dry on their secret menu. It’s a heady concoction of shrimp, calamari and chicken paired with slippery rice noodles. Don’t forget to add the fried garlic they have in small jars on each table.

Nick’s Crispy Tacos

This place makes the most amazing fish tacos but it’s the corn on the cob I keep coming back for. It’s slathered with a peppery cheese sauce and is a meal in itself.

I have to have a cup (or two) of coffee everyday and am pretty luck to live in a place that has some of the best. Sightglass, Blue Bottle and Four Barrel are my favorites.

Bi-rite Creamery

One of my favorites things to do on a sunny afternoon is to sit in Dolores Park with a scoop of Bi-Rite salted caramel ice-cream. It’s a reminder of why the simplest things in life are often the best.

Bon Appetit!

Here I am hard at work. My husband helped me put up the picture gallery on the wall which hold some of my favorite press clippings. I love to wear kaftans while I work – they are super comfortable yet still look chic. This one is part of a small clothing collection Kayu is launching this year.

Who can complain about work in a place like this? I love this type of architecture. It’s very Californian – easy and light-filled.

Some material collected during my travels. I have a soft spot for batik prints and any type of weave. Now I just have to figure out what to do with all this fabric!

Some of my favorite reads. I met Iris Apfel in New York once. She was wearing her signature oversized glasses and a huge colorful scarf. I was blown away.

I hope you enjoyed the sneak peek into my world.

xoxo,

Jamie.

I recently caught up with Molly and her co-writer Luanne to find out more about cookbook writing, healthy eating and just what the heck is tempeh..

Bold Vegan is such an amazing and exciting way to look at vegan food. Can you tell us how it came about?

Molly & Luanne: It was a collaboration that came from wanting to provide bold flavors and new techniques of cooking to people who want to eat less meat.There are many people right now wanting to explore less meat in their diet and there are a lot of amazing vegan and vegetarian cookbooks out there. We wanted to offer recipes that were uncommon to this part of the world.

Some of the recipes in the book are really hard to find because they are so unique, like savory pan fried turnip cake with garlic and bean sprouts (Char Koay) — found sporadically or at night markets in Malaysia. We thought it would be fun to bring these rare recipes to readers.

At what age did you start cooking and where did you get your inspiration from?

Molly: I started shadowing my mom in the garden and then the kitchen at a young age, around 5 or 6. She has always been my culinary inspiration.  I was raised a vegetarian and it was important to her that I knew how to cook so that when I got older, food wouldn’t be an issue. When I was growing up there were nowhere near the amount of vegetarian and vegan restaurants and cookbooks as there are now.

When I was younger, I used to go to McDonald’s with my friends and I would order a cheeseburger with lettuce and no burger patty. My friends and the workers behind the counter looked at me like I was crazy. I remember the cashier having to call the manager because there was no button on the cash register to request that modification.

What is your favorite recipe from the book and why?

Luanne: They are mostly all my favorites. These are dishes that I grew up with in Malaysia and are not commonly available here. It brought back a lot of memories. I’m excited that people are able to experience a part of South East Asian food in their own homes through our book.

Molly: The stir fried tempeh with green beans in sambal sauce and coconut rice is one of the  best things I’ve ever eaten. That dish is like heaven in my mouth. Tempeh dishes in the US are often really bland. Indonesians however, know how to cook some tempeh! I am also really proud of the sambal sauce because it is traditionally made with shrimp paste and it’s difficult to make dried shrimp flavor without shrimp! It took me many hours in the kitchen to get it just right.

Did you discover any interesting ingredients while writing the book that you had not come across before?

Molly:  Lot’s! I had little experience cooking Asian food before my first trip to South East Asia in 2009. I arrived there and a whole world of food and new ingredients opened up. One thing I realized after the book was complete was that I didn’t use my oven for one single recipe. Everything is either steamed, blanched or pan fried.

What is the number one thing that people need to understand right now that they probably don’t know about a vegan diet and how eliminating meat and dairy can affect their lives for the better?

Molly: This is such an important question. If there is one thing that I want people to understand it is that we are all in charge of our own health. The human body is an amazing machine, capable of a lot and we are designed to be healthy. Our bodies are like cars, give them good fuel and proper maintenance and they will run well for a long time. So much illness and disease can be prevented and even reversed simply by eating a healthy plant based diet.

The Western diet is one that is nutritionally void. There is so much fuss about carbs, fat and protein when really, the most important thing for our health are Phytonutrients which come from plants. When people consume their calories from processed food, meat and dairy, they are setting themselves up for a lot of health problems. The good news is that this can be reversed by eating the right things. Bring on the green veggies, grains and beans and your health will start looking up.

The first step is realizing / awareness and then comes the learning / education which leads to implementation.

Any suggestions on how to get a meat lover to eat more vegetables?

Luanne: As a meat eater all my life, I’ve managed to reduce my meat intake drastically by adding a healthy dose of vegetables in every meal.  For me it has always been about adding, not subtracting like most diets. This is when the paradigm shift occurs. When you add lots of leafy greens, you feel good and you have better digestion and bowel movements. When you feel better, you wanna keep doing it. .

One thing I have noticed is how I feel after I eat a completely plant-based meal vs a meat one — I don’t feel lethargic or feel the need to take a nap after a plant-based meal. After doing this for awhile, you will notice the difference. Your body and palate changes and the meat requirement for every meal no longer becomes a requirement.

Will you be writing more cookbooks?

Molly & Luanne:  We are working on our next book now – A vegan cookbook geared towards meat eaters, due out later this year. We are super stoked about it! We had so much fun with our first book that we quit our jobs and moved to New Mexico to write the second!

Where can people find Bold Vegan?

boldvegan.com

You can order the eBook or printed version directly through the website.