Trying something new

I just finished reading Mark Bitman's Food Matters, and I'll be reviewing it for MNN. The book inspired me to try a few things, which I'll be writing a lot more about in the upcoming weeks. One of the things I was inspired to try was a recipe from Chef A - quinoa with sauteed mushrooms and onion. I'd never made quinoa before - it was very easy and really delicious. I'll be making this frequently.

Agave nectar, Michelle Obama and Earth Hour

Here are some things I've written about recently that I thought you'd be interested in.

I've been using agave nectar as a substitute for sugar in some places recently (like this peanut butter chocolate chip granola bar recipe). I wrote about agave today over on MNN - Agave nectar: a sweet alternative. Check it out if you'd like to know more about this natural sweetener.

By now, you probably know that the Obamas are planting an organic garden on the White House Lawn. Michelle Obama has been talking organic, local, and healthy lately, and I'm becoming a fan of the first lady. 

I've been completely fascinated by the comments people are leaving on my MNN posts about the subject and many other posts around the web. They are anywhere from highly enthusiastic to downright racist to highly nitpicky about the method that's being used.  It can be both infuriating and extremely fascinating at the same time. 

Over on Sustainablog, I've got a post about Making the Most of Earth Hour with some ideas that go beyond just turning out the lights. Remember, Earth Hour is this Saturday night. 

Tomorrow, I'll be reviewing a product for you that actually got me doing a little housework and I hope to have my next interview for you on Thursday.

Happy Monday!

I've lost a week

Running the book fair at my kids' school has been a lot of fun this week, but I wasn't able to be as on top of my writing as I thought I'd be able to be (I fancy myself Superwoman, you know, but in reality...).  I'll be back to posting regularly next week. I've got a book review and a cleaning product review planned plus I'll be going to the Go Green Expo this weekend. I'm sure I'll have plenty to say about that. 

And if my thinking is correct, I've been a bit calendar challenged lately, Adam Shake from Twilight Earth will be back with another guest post so put your thinking cap on - he's always got something to say that will make you go, "hmmmmmm."

If you're gearing up for St. Patrick's Day next week, I've got a slow cooker corned beef and cabbage recipe up over at MNN. Very easy and very tasty - see picture.

Have a great weekend!

Meet Becky Striepe

The people that I write with on various blogs and the people who I connect with through social networking sites are always so friendly and passionate about what they are doing. Even though I sit in my office alone most days, I have people out there that I chat with in various ways throughout the day that help me feel a little less lonely. And, no surprise, the vast majority of them are working on making this world a little greener.

I thought it would be fun to interview some of my fellow writers and environmentalists. My first interview is with Becky Striepe, a writer and an eco-friendly crafter. She's very talented with a needle and thread and makes fabulous reusable Lunch Kits (see picture below), pillows, cup gloves and other useful stuff.

Everyone, meet Becky.

What got you started on you green journey?
When I was in middle school, my folks bought me the book 50 Simple Things You Can do to Save the Earth. It's a really quick read, really empowering. I went through our cabinets pulling out spray cans that used CFCs, pestered mom and pop into recycling, and got them to aerate the showerheads and faucets in our house. It basically changed how I thought about the world around me.

What's one thing that anyone can do to make a difference for the environment?
Eat less meat and dairy. Even if you just replace a few meals a week with vegan ones, it can make a huge difference, and you don't have to feel deprived. It's just a matter of finding veggie meals that you dig.

Tell us some GOOD, green news.
I've been reading about and watching videos from Power Shift 2009, and it makes me all misty eyed in a good way. Seeing throngs of citizens and even politicians just - getting it, caring, standing up to make a difference - it's inspiring. It makes me feel hopeful in a way that I haven't in a long time. Maybe ever.

You're a vegan, right? Why? Would you be so kind as to point us carnivores to a vegan recipe you think we could enjoy? (no tofu, please)
I am! My eating habits have sort of evolved over the past decade or so. I went totally vegetarian at 16 and that's when I discovered the amazing Molly Katzen, author of the Moosewood Cookbook. That book really taught me how to think about cooking. Her recipes are all so fun and whimsical! They're full of substitutions and ideas for mixing things up. She was my first cooking hero, after my pops.

I gave up eggs and dairy only four years ago. At first it was for health reasons. I had insanely high cholesterol, despite exercising a lot. They wanted me to go on meds! At 25! There was just no way I was doing that. I cut eggs and dairy products out completely and three months later my cholesterol was normal. In learning about how to eat in this new way, though, I read. A lot. And the more I learned about how eggs and milk products get from farm to table, the less I wanted any part in it. Along the way, I picked up some more cooking heroes, like Isa Chandra Moskowitz from the Post Punk Kitchen and Jennifer McCann from Vegan Lunchbox.

It's so hard to choose one vegan recipe. How about a lovely Southwest White Bean Stew?

My go to for converting non-believers, though, is the noble cupcake. I can't recommend Isa Chandra's book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World enough. Even if you have no interest in veganism, these cupcakes will rock your socks. I promise!

Do you have a favorite quote?
When I went shopping for my wedding dress, my friend Liz gave me a little piece of paper to carry with me. It said, "DON'T PANIC." That just feels like all around good advice. Panicking never helped anyone.

Where can we find you on the web?

My website: http://glueandglitter.com/main
My Etsy shop: http://glueandglitter.etsy.com
My Cosa Verde shop: http://cosaverde.com/glueandglitter/
GreenOptions: http://greenoptions.com/author/beckyanne

greenUPGRADER: http://greenupgrader.com/author/becky/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/profile.php?id=720193727
Twitter: http://twitter.com/glueandglitter

10 easy ways to be more sustainable with St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day is in two weeks, and you don't have to be Irish to celebrate it. Fun story before I get to this week's 10 easy ways. This past summer when I was in Ireland, I looked up some family information. According to one of the sources I found, my ancestors on my mother's side kidnapped St. Patrick way back when. There's no way to know if this is true, but it's kind of cool (although I'm sure St. Patrick didn't think so).

Anyway, to make up for the alleged sins of my ancestors, I'm making it my job to green up the day that honors St. Patrick just a little bit. Here's ten easy ways.

1. Make that corned beef grass fed and that cabbage organic.
   
2. Cook that corned beef and cabbage in a slow cooker - it will save a little energy. (disclaimer: I have not tried this recipe, but I may.)
   
3. If you're going on a pub crawl, get your beer on tap instead of in a bottle (and order Smithwicks if you can - it's not greener; it's just the best Irish beer I know).
4. Skip buying a new "Kiss me I'm Irish" t-shirt, even if it's organic. No one's going to kiss you just because you're wearing it, and it's a waste to buy a shirt you'll only wear once a year.
5. You don't need the headband with the four leaf clovers bouncing on top  of it or the green plastic bowler hat. Don't buy cheap stuff you're just going to throw away the next day.
6. If you're planning a part at your house, send e-vites instead of paper invitations.
7. Read the story of St. Patrick to your kids from a book borrowed from the library.
8. Make Irish Potato Candy using all organic ingredients. I wanted to point you to a place where you could purchase some, but I couldn't find one.
9. I was able to find some organic, fair trade chocolates from Sweet Earth Chocolates, however. They have some chocolate, peppermint shamrocks if you feel the need to give someone chocolate on St. Patrick's Day.
10. Download Irish music instead of purchasing physical cd's. I highly recommend the traditional Irish folk music of Beyond the Pale.

Do you have any other tips for greening St. Patrick's Day?

Image: Statue of St. Patrick in St. Patrick's Cathedral, London

First Thursday: Bread pudding with whiskey sauce

Last night I participated once again in First Thursday over at Thursday Night Smackdown. This month's theme was romantic cliches. In other words - Valentine's dessert. Since First Thursday is all about testing the mettle of your cookbooks, I decided to grab a cookbook that's spine has never been cracked. I also decided since this was supposed be Valentine's-ish, I'd let me husband choose which dessert in the book I'd make. Then I'd make it as organic as possible.

A few months before Hurricane Katrina hit, my husband and I had gone to New Orleans. To tell you the truth, it's not a place I'm in a hurry to get back to. Maybe it was the creepy mannequin heads in our B&B room that had dusty wigs on them. But I did like the food. So I bought a New Orleans cookbook before we left, but I've never once used it. Until last night.

My husband chose bread pudding with whiskey sauce from The Best of New Orleans: A Cookbook for me to make. It wasn't too difficult to organic it up - bread, cream, eggs, butter, sugar - all easy to get organically.

The whiskey sauce was awesome. The bread pudding was just okay. But pouring the whiskey sauce all over the bread pudding made it very edible. I could have poured that whiskey sauce over my infamous chili cornbread pie from Susan Powter's Stop the Insanity cookbook that I made back in 1995 that still haunts my husband and me to this day, and it would have made it good (the dog wouldn't even eat the chili cornbread pie and looked up at us as if to ask if we hated her when we tried to feed it to her).

The bread pudding was just bland. And since the recipe said that the pudding could be eaten with or without the sauce (kids had to eat it without - the whiskey does not burn off), I would think that the pudding would have been stand alone good.

But this First Thursday was not a complete loss because now I know about whiskey sauce. I think it would be good on ice cream or drizzled over apples or just out of the pan with a spoon. It would be worth it to find a different bread pudding recipe and pair it with this sauce.

Working for Mother Nature

I've been writing for Mother Nature Network for a couple of weeks now. I thought I'd share a few of my food blog posts here with you. I post two or three times a day on the site, and I promise I won't bombard you with all of my posts. From time to time, I will let you know about a few of them.

First things first, though. What do you think of this groovy caricature they had drawn of me? That's just a sneak peak of it. It's a full body drawing.

On to some posts:

• Holiday food gifts: pumpkin bread recipe - this is the recipe I use when I make small loaves of pumpkin bread to give out as gifts. It's moist and flavorful, and if you're not careful you'll eat the whole loaf in one sitting.
  
• Restaurant review: Washington DC's Founding Farmers - I ate at this farm-to-fork restaurant in DC that I can't rave enough about.
  
• Tackling the bulk bins: brown basmati rice - I've started a feature on tackling the whole grains in the bulk bins. From time to time, I'll be cooking up something wholesome I've scooped from the bins, discussing what it is, and sharing a simple recipe that I've tested.
  
• 10 uses for unloved bread ends - You all know I've been trying to waste less food. The ends of bread are food even if we don't show them the love we show other food. I've got ten ways to use 'em up.

That's just a sampling of what I'm doing at MNN. I've posted dozens of other posts and you can see the entire list, here. I could use some feedback so if you read something that strikes your fancy, please leave a comment on the site. Once the site goes out of beta, I'll be writing more current food news posts in addition to what I'm already doing.

I can't believe I get to do this for a living.

White Bean Horseradish Spread for First Thursdays Over at Thursday Night Smackdown

I missed the First Thursday challenge last month on Thursday Night Smackdown. Each month Michelle challenges her readers to test the mettle of their cookbooks and issues a challenge in a certain category. For her orange food challenge, I made sweet potato fries. For her grilling challenge, I tried grilled pizzas for the first time.

This month's challenge was to make an appetizer. Last month, when we were in D.C., I picked up Recipes from an Ecological Kitchen by James Beard Award winner Lorna J. Sass at a used book store. It's an interesting cookbook because it was written in 1992 so there isn't any talk about everyone trying to be green. This was a cookbook written by a woman who has been part of the environmental movement before it was 

hip. I thought it was a great find. 

 

For the challenge, I made White Bean-Horseradish spread. It's really a dip. But there's no mayonnaise, sour cream or cream cheese in this dip. It's all healthy stuff - cooked great northern beans, prepared horse radish, a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, dried rosemary and salt. I suppose you could put this in the hummus category, but not really.

The dip was easy to make, but it's not something you can whip up at the last 

minute. The beans need to soak overnight, and then they need to be cooked for at least an hour and a half. But once those ten hours or so are over, it's a quick and easy recipe.

It's tasty, too. I did add a little more horseradish and salt than called for after tasting it, and if I make it again, I'll probably add more horseradish. It's an unexpected alternative to the normal party type dips you're used to. But that's okay because it's much better for you. 

My kids took one whiff of it and wouldn't go near it. Horseradish is potent stuff. I wouldn't have gone near it either as a kid. My husband thought it was bland. Like I said, I'd probably add more horseradish next time and probably a little more rosemary, too. But I liked it enough to put it in the "try again sometime with modifications" category. Most first time recipes end up in that category.

Leftover Turkey? Try My Turkey Pot Pie Recipe

Good Morning! Is your fridge stuffed with leftover food from Thanksgiving like mine is? In the past, we would eat some of it, but usually about two weeks from now, I'd be throwing a bit of it away. This year, I'm determined not to let that happen. I've talked about food waste before. In the U.S., we waste about 30% of the food produced in this country. If you consider all of the resources that went into making the food and all the energy that went into transporting that food, that is a heck of a lot of waste.

So I'm going to make sure that I use up the leftovers. I'll be making turkey, stuffing and cranberry sandwiches, turkey soup, potato pancakes, and my turkey pot pie. This recipe originally called to be done traditionally in pie crusts (which I still do on occasion) but an easier, very tasty way to do it is to make the filling and then ladle it over biscuits.

Turkey Pot Pie over Biscuits

Ingredients

• 6 tbsp. butter
  
• 1/3 cup flour
  
• 1/2 tsp salt
  
• 1/4 tsp dried marjoram
  
• 1/8 tsp black pepper
  
• 1 cup milk (I use 1% and it works fine)
  
• 10 oz. hot water
  
• 1 tsp. chicken bullion
  
• 3 cups cubed turkey
  
• 16 oz. partially cooked mixed vegetables
  
• biscuits

Directions

1. Melt butter in large saucepan
2. Stir in flour, salt, marjoram and pepper - cook until smooth, stirring occassionally
3. Slowly stir in milk, then water
4. Add bullion
5. Bring to boil, reduce heat and stir constantly until it thickens
6. Add turkey and vegetables, cook for 20 minutes - make sure turkey and veg are cooked through
7. Serve over homemade or store bought split biscuits

I challenge you to get creative and figure out how to use up all your leftovers yesterday. Don't let any of them go to waste. Give them away if you need to.

And the picture above really has nothing to do with this particular post. It's just my cat, sitting at the table last night, waiting for dinner to start. She seemed rather surprised when my husband pushed her off the chair and sat there himself.

Recipe for Sweet Potato Casserole

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I thought I'd share my sweet potato casserole recipe today, just in case someone is still searching for one. It would be easy to use mostly organic ingredients in this, however, once you see the ingredients you'll realize that it isn't a low fat or low sugar recipe. That's why I only make this once a year.

Sweet Potato Casserole Recipe

• 3 cups cold mashed sweet potatoes (prepared without milk or butter)
  
• 1 cup sugar
  
• 1/2 cup milk
  
• 1/4 cups butter (softened)
  
• 3 eggs
  
• 1 tsp salt
  
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

topping:

• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
  
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
  
• 1/4 cup flour
  
• 2 tbsp cold butter
  

Directions:

1. Beat sweet potatoes, milk, butter, eggs, salt and vanilla until smooth
   
2. Transfer to a greased 2 quart baking dish
   
3. Combine brown sugar, pecans and flour; cut in butter until crumbly - sprinkle over potato mixture
   
4. Bake uncovered at 325 degrees for 40-50 minutes
   

I usually boil and mash the sweet potatoes the day before Thanksgiving. I put the casserole together Thanksgiving morning and put it in the fridge. I take it out and let it come to room temperature about an hour before the turkey is done. As soon as the turkey comes out of the oven, I pop it in to cook. By the time turkey is carved, regular potatoes are mashed and the table is completely ready to go, I pop it out of the oven. YUM!

If you've posted a favorite Thanksgiving recipe on your website, please put a link to it in the comments.

A Pasta and Lots of Stuff Recipe from a Cheap Cookin' Mama as She's Trying to Waste Less Food

One of our mini-eco challenge takers, Cheap Cookin' Mama, cooked up a meal with stuff she had in the frig so she wouldn't waste it. It's a mixture of veggies from her garden, sausage, bacon and pasta. Nice job.

If you want to see the recipe and more pictures of the meal, go to Cheap Cookin' Mama's blog.

I Made Grilled Pizzas for First Thursdays at Thursday Night Smackdown

If you were to take a look at what is in my RSS feeder you'd get a pretty good snapshot of my life: writing blogs, environmental blogs, food blogs, and a few of my friends' blogs. One food blog that I love is Thursday Night Smack Down. The blogger Michelle loves to cook and on Thursdays she tries new recipes from one of her many cookbooks and blogs about them with gusto. She also has something called First Thursdays where she gives her readers a category, they cook something from a cookbook they own, write it up, and send her a link. I thought I'd play along this month.

I made something I've been meaning to make all summer - grilled pizzas. I used a pizza dough recipe from The Bread Machine Cookbook. It was a half white flour, half wheat flour recipe. I asked everyone in the house what they wanted on top of their pizzas - gave them a bunch of options. Know what everyone wanted? Yep. Sauce, pepperoni, cheese.

Not me, though. I took a suggestion from The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters (great cookbook!) and put pesto (made from my garden), fresh mozzarella, fresh sliced Roma tomatoes (from my garden), and ripped up basil (again - garden) on mine. I sprinkled a little Parmesan on at the end for good measure. Oh YUM!

I've never grilled pizzas before. My husband put the coals all along the rim of the grill so we could grill them indirectly in the middle. After rolling the dough (love, love, love my bread machine) into four small shapes (not exactly round), I cooked them on one side (two at a time) on the grill. Then I took them off the grill, flipped them, and let everyone put on individual toppings.

I put them back on the grill until it looked like all the toppings were cooked and the cheeses were melted. There's all four of them at the left. We served them with our everyday Chianti (the boys had milk of course).

I was a little concerned about the whole wheat in the crust turning the boys off, but no one seemed to notice. In fact, both boys loved their pizzas. Getting them involved in growing and making the food had really made them more open to trying things they otherwise wouldn't.

Since this was my first time making my own pizza dough and grilling pizzas, I'm fairly impressed with the outcome. I think I'll try some other dough recipes and experiment with other toppings, too.

Tomatoes Piling Up? Try This Fresh Pasta Sauce Recipe

It wasn't too long ago I was whining about my tomatoes never turning green. Now, I'm knee deep in Romas, Early Girl's (won't grow those again - blah), Brandywine Heirlooms, and amazing Rutgers. In mid-summer I took basil bouquets when I went to someone's house. Now I take tomatoes and sometimes have to come home with them.

I found a really good, simple recipe for a fresh pasta sauce that used up a whole basket full of my Romas along with peppers, basil, oregano and parsley all from the garden and cooked it up the other night.

Garden Fresh Pasta Sauce from BigOven.com was yummy and even my kids dug right in and said it was really good. It was such a joy to make a completely organic pasta sauce with ingredients fresh from the garden. Although making it took so much more effort than opening a jar, I really enjoyed feeding my family that night. I'm always amazed at how satisfying downshifting can be.

Note: I found the recipe as is too salty after I made it so I added a can of unsalted tomato paste to help. It ended up being too thick so I used my food mill to juice two Early Girl tomatoes (at least they were good for something) to thin it out. Next time, I'll half the salt and add more if necessary.

Tomorrow night, I'm going to attempt using my tomatoes to make pizzas on the grill. I'll let you know how it turns out. I'll be making the dough in my bread machine and letting each of us make an individual pizza.