Category Archives: Food and Wine

Mushpa y Mensa Super Summer Update

Hello Mushpa y Mensa Super Fans!

Yes, you see right, it’s Mushpa y Mensa’s Super Summer update, after a few months of silence. We are happy to say that in the last three months, Mushpa y Mensa have begun their “Gypsy Market Life”. Already, on this journey, we have met quite a few amazing people, like the folks at Seaglass Salvage Market, Brooklyn Arts Center, Beacon House Inn, and Satellite Lounge to name a few. We have also danced and tasted many sweet wines at the Duplin Winery’s Main Squeeze Music and Wine Festival, as well as met dozens of new, fun people at the annual Azalea and Strawberry Festivals in North Carolina. ;] We even partnered up with Wilmington’s Earth Day Alliance and enjoyed a wonderful Earth Day Celebration at Hugh MaCrae Park.

It’s been surreal so far.

It’s amazing what faith, love, encouragement, and a little help from our friends can do. In terms of our little cottage industry, we are, as you say, busting a hump. We are constantly checking ourselves on how we can make things better from our art, to our business, to our life.

We have actually just updated the “Photos of Our Peeps” page on Mushpa y Mensa’s site. We added a photo uploading tool, so you can upload pictures of you in our organic tees, wearing our amazing jewelry, hugging our lavender filled plush pets, or even just keeping your hands cool with one of our coffee cozies. :]

And in terms of our Art? Well we keep on bringing to life tons of ideas in our head. For example, we recently created 3.5 new shirt designs. A cool Octopus Olivia with an Anchor Tattoo on her forehead,as well as R6: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Replenish, Reflect, Reimagine inspired by Earth Day.

We also have new organic Pima cotton relaxed fit tops that are flying out of the truck. Here is an example of the Pima tops with one of our new designs, Argema Mittrei, a female moth. Lastly, we spruced up Robot Girl and added a cute heart. All these designs we print for the ladies, the gents, and of course the smallest people around.

Mushpa y Mensa have also been focusing on custom shirts that have been selling off Maya so fast we don’t even have time to list them on our Etsy shop!

Spread the art, spread the love.

A few questions answered…

Where can I find the Art Truck?

Follow us on Twitter @mushpamensa. We are constantly posting when and where we will be. There is also an events page on our site, www.mushpaymensa.com/events we keep updated, but Twitter is best for the most up to date information.

We are doing some art shows, markets and fleas, but are hunting to find good spots to park around town. We are partnering up with cool people like the folks at the Beacon House Inn on Carolina Beach and Satellite Bar and Lounge in Wilmington.

And for all the natives and people in the know, since we are new in town, feel free to hit us up at info@mushpamensa.com or our contact page with any ideas where to park, festivals to do or whether you’d like us to rock a party or event with you!

Are you going on the road anytime soon?

We want to explore the grounds of NC and the surrounding area, so we will keep the max to weekend trips. But worry not, we will definitely be making it into the mid-west and west-coast! Maybe even an occasional trip to NYC sooner than you think!

If you have any questions about anything, make sure to ask! We love to hear from you all.

Until the next super exciting Mushpa y Mensa’s and Maya, Magical Mobile Art Machine update we say good day!

With lots of love,

               Cara and Maria Emilia

                                                             a.k.a.

No Shipping??? Say What?

Gingerbread People Ornaments made from Recycled Plastic Bottle Felt

Yes, these cute, limited time only, eco-felt, naturally holiday scented (peppermint or cloves), so delicious that someone has already taken a bite off of their cute head and leg, Gingerbread Peeps tree ornaments, are coming to you free of any shipping charges from us here at Mushpa y Mensa. Not only are these little guys postage free, but everything in our shop is as well. Sadly, this fabulous sale ends December 31st, so get it while you can! :]

LIC Flea & Food Holiday Market

What you want another way to get free shipping? Come see us @LIC Flea & Food Holiday Market.  Not only do you get free shipping, but you can touch, see, smell, love everything before taking them home. You can feel the magic in person! :]

What? There’s more? Pictures with Santa? Yes. A fafillion artisans and culinary masters? Yes. Live jazz, DJs? Yes. The New York Cosmos soccer club (NASL Soccer Bowl Champions)? Again, yes. Bowling, Christmas trees, beer, wine and cocktails? Yes*5.

Just come!

Mushpa y Mensa

The Healthiest Dessert: Tofu Chocolate Pudding!

The yummiest, and healthiest dessert you will ever eat….

And you can make it in less than 5 minutes.

chocolate pudding tofu

-1 package of Silken Tofu

-1 tablespoon of sweetener (We like Stevia/Truvia. Adjust if you want more or less. I started sprinkling and kept adding until I reached about 1tbsp.)

-2 tablespoons of powdered cocoa (adjust as well…I started sprinkling and mixing until chocolatey goodness was reached)

-1 teaspoon of vanilla essence

Mix all ingredients in a food processor or blender….and boom! That’s it.
It was so good, that I realized that I should probably take a picture after I had finished it all!

-Mensa

Easy Hummus Yummus Recipe! (Without Tahini)

Sunday morning I cleaned my kitchen and realized I had a can of garbanzo beans in the pantry…So what can I make? Well what else but HUMMUS!

I looked up a couple of recipes and realized that one of the main ingredients, tahini (sesame paste), was not in my pantry…

So I IMPROVISED! And it turned out better than delicious!

This is an easy recipe for a home-made hummus. I usually eat it with carrots, sugar snap peas and crunchy anything. The combination is the best!

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Here it is:

-1 can of garbanzo beans

-1 lemon for its tangy juice (use less depending on your liking…I ❤ lemons!)

-salty salt (about a teaspoon or more also depending on your tastebuds)

– Olive Oil

– a little cumin

-1 tablespoon or so of pine nuts (These replaced the sesame seeds/tahini)

-1 clove of garlic

Add garbanzo beans (making sure you drain all the extra water from the can), about a teaspoon of salt, a good two tablespoons of olive oil, the garlic, a couple of “shakes” of cumin, and the pine nuts all in a food processor. You can also use a blender of course, as long as you blend it to a smooth consistency. I eye-balled the recipe, so amounts are about what I think I put in. A little more, a little less will only make it YOUR hummus recipe :]

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I tasted it and thought it needed a bit more olive oil, so as it blended I poured a bit more in to give it texture. I transferred it to my own tub and now I have hummus for the week!

And it only took about 10 minutes!

First time hummus making…a delicious SUCCESS!

-Mensa

Don’t Judge a Wine Bottle by Its Cover…Or Should You?

So of course you don’t want to judge a book, a person, or a wine by its cover, but we all do it to some extent. It’s a fact of life. (If you believe you don’t then more power to you.)

We recently bought two bottles over at Trader Joe’s, and I left there, like always, very happy. Great selection and variety for really affordable prices, and sometimes you might get really lucky and find some delicious gems without the outrageous price! Just sayin’…

But on our recent trip over there, we bought two particularly aesthetically pleasing bottles. Mushpa picked the Dearly Beloved I Thee Red Wine, which describes itself as having “aromas of dark cherry plum and spicy vanilla oak [that] vow to pair perfectly with bluberry, black currant and toasted vanilla bean flavors.”IMG_6696

I myself went for the Liberté Cabernet Sauvignon which “delivers an exceptional bouquet of blackberries, autumanl leaves and baking spices followed by opulent flavors of clove and marzipan.” Honestly I don’t know where they got the marzipan notes, but since I am no wine expert I will trust the house, Familia Nueva’s palate.

Both have exceptional art and depending on your style, your attention will go to grabbing either bottle off the shelf. The Liberté has a beautiful label with what I believe is an Alphonse Mucha’s Art Nouveau painting, which I particularly enjoy. When I first saw it, it reminded me of Henri Privat-Livemont poster for Absinthe Robette.

I really really like Art Nouveau…So beautiful!

The Dearly Beloved I Thee Red has an image of a skull formed of leaves and flowers surely influenced by indigenous mexican art which commonly uses skulls and skeletons in order to represent death, life and resurrection (and it is silkscreened onto the bottle!).

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I have to confess: I judged both bottles by their beautiful covers. I thought my lady in tan with leaves on her head would deliver a much more satisfying wine than the one with the skull. I’m sorry Mushpa, I apologize I judged your wine too harshly, thinking that for such wonderful art I would have to compensate by drinking a mediocre wine…

Oh how wrong I was!

The Dearly Beloved was spectacular! It filled my nostrils with sweet aromas and when I took the first sip it almost fooled me into thinking it was as sweet as dessert wine! So sweet…until you finish letting it go, and it delivers dearly with a beloved final kick. It had been a while that I had tasted a wine that I truly enjoyed!

And I must say that my Liberté was an alright pick. I am not going to judge it with fancy words because I am not an avid wine connoisseur, but I do have a palate and I know how to taste. I will say that next time I need to buy someone a gift, I would most definitely buy it again for the art! :]

I also ran into this amazing site called the Wine Proof Collective. They keep it real and part of their amazing journey to love and live wine is their Wine Projects, and they get artist and wine makers together to design some of the most beautiful wine labels I have seen! To put it in their own words: “these packages were not made to look good on a computer screen, but rather to be at home in a natural habitat. These wine bottles look best on the shelf, in your hands, in your refrigerator, and on your best friend’s dinner table.” And that, my friends is what art is all about- to keep it close, for your viewing pleasure.

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So to all artist, dead and alive, thank you for combining these two wonderful things together! And next time you are shopping for wine, and the bottle is more beautiful than what you expect the wine to be, I say don’t be scared and give it a try. It might surprise you, and if not, you might just have bought yourself a fantastical piece of art!

Cheers y Salud!

-Mensa