From the way some—okay, all—publications are covering LA’s mobile dining scene lately, you probably think we’re spending three hours per night waiting in line for tacos served with kimchi and an oDD prediLection for speLLing woRds with randoM capitaLiZed LetteRs. Not so, my fine foodie friends. Way before Kogi had a Twitter account, there was a groundbreaking mobile eatery providing not only sustenance, but education, as a type of organic intervention center-on-wheels. After spotting it all over town, I finally caught up with the frying oil-powered Green Truck for ReadyMade.

On a sunny weekday in Culver City I located Green Truck founders Mitchell Collier and Kam Miceli, just a few blocks from their solar-powered headquarters. I thought my timing was so good because I was straddling the transition between breakfast burrito and lunchtime burger (yes, I had both), but I also lucked out because they just happened to be doing the photoshoot for the article with David Hennessy. Who knew how many actual burgers it took to get that one perfect burger shot? Three. Regardless of how they looked they all tasted perfect to me.

Mitchell and Kam call themselves “all-food-itarians” and they love a good Niman Ranch burger just as much as their tofu burrito, a perspective I found overwhelmingly refreshing. Truck service covers a range of sandwiches, tacos and wraps but they can make just about anything you’d like if you hire them to cater your next event, which they’ve been doing a lot for photoshoots and festivals. Mitchell also introduced me to my first kombucha, which was a pretty excellent refreshment as I snacked on the “reject” fries (a russet and sweet potato combo).

While Mitchell and I chatted farmers markets—he was raised on an organic farm that raised pine trees, cattle, peanuts and watermelon—Kam cranked out the veggie burgers using their recipe. I’ve never made them from scratch and it seems pretty foolproof, but if you’re feeling hesitant, you can buy their frozen patties—and homemade Trucker sauce, which is like organic In-N-Out spread—on their website. You can read the article (and get the recipe) here: “Green Machine.” [PDF]

Green Truck co-founder Kam (with the apron on, above) will be speaking at Dwell on Design at the end of June, alongside the folks from gourmet wienermobile Let’s Be Frank (which is parked weekly at Silverlake Wine). On the other side of the thermometer, I hear Locali will be peddling organic snowcones on their Icycle, but this summer I plan to be chasing Coolhaus, an ice cream sandwich truck dispensing design and dessert with flavors like Richard Meyer Lemon and Mintimalism.

More great news that will have to tide me over until then:  Remember a few months ago I was anxious about big changes at ReadyMade which I thought might signal the end of one of my favorite mags? Well. I recently got word that Andrew Wagner—former editor at Dwell and for the past two years editor at the revamped American Craft (which I reviewed in last year’s Print)—is now the new editor-in-chief at ReadyMade. Their blog recently relaunched and you can take a tour of their new digs in Des Moines as well as meet all the staffers who are making it happen. Now I can’t wait to see the changes in store for the re-made ReadyMade.

There are a two simple rules for our gift exchange. First of all, we prefer anything used, pre-owned or old; preferably used and pre-owned by an old person. Who is now dead. Secondly, some element of the gift should be handmade. This part’s easy because we are ardent card-makers, and simply re-engineering the most recent J.Crew catalog into a compilation of tasteless double entendres—Beth’s specialty, not mine—counts.

But still every year, I want to up the ante, so this year I looked to a recent article I wrote for the September issue of ReadyMade about the amazing DIY silkscreening studio here in LA, FreshPressed. Jonathan Sample was your typical jaded graphic designer until he realized he was totally missing out the fun part of his job…the part that actually required making stuff. Banking on concurring trends of the ironic t-shirt movement and a resurgence of the hand-drawn aesthetic, he started FreshPressed to bring the seemingly-complex  world of silkscreening to the masses. Even the Photoshop-clueless can walk into FreshPressed, scribble something on a piece of paper and walk out with a hand-silkscreened t-shirt in about an hour.

I knew right away no silly new graphic by me could beat original vintage artwork created by Beth herself, so I dug up this circa 1987 museum-quality drawing Beth made of She-Ra, Princess of Power, riding her horse Swift Wind (yes, I had to look that up). After trying to manipulate and clean up the image myself, Keith (who has made several projects at FreshPressed himself) steered me towards the high-tech tools of tracing paper and a marker, and I recreated Beth’s masterpiece, scanned it back in and created an Illustrator file (something that Jonathan and his team can all do for you if you’d prefer).

When I got to FreshPressed Jonathan burned my screen after making sure the size and line thickness would work for what I wanted to print on. After picking out my paint color (pink, duh) and a few test prints, I was pulling the squeegie over Beth’s best gifts ever:

A t-shirt to show the world that she, too, possesses the power of Grayskull.

And a tote bag for toting around her sword when not in use.

This Friday, FreshPressed is having its first art show with work by local artists Kime Buzzelli, Sean Cassidy, Rory Wilson, Frohawk Two Feathers, and Andy Mueller. If you’re around, be sure to stop by and check out the digs so you can start envisioning your next gift. And here’s the ReadyMade article (with a studly photo of Jonathan for the ladies out there).