It’s Easy Being Green

So I haven’t really announced to my readers yet that I’m getting ready to make a cross-country trek to a new home. I’m leaving Flagstaff, AZ after so many wonderful years and heading to Evansville, Indiana. I got a new a job there, the cost of living is much lower and I will have a long growing season to spur a quite productive garden. At least that’s my hope anyway! The drive is more than 1500 miles and we obviously can’t take perishable food on the road with us. So we’ve been dwindling down our supplies both in the cupboard and in the freezer. That’s led to some very uninteresting meals but also extremely low grocery bills. I knew we hoarded food for a reason!

Within our stash of food, we had several bags of frozen fruit. Two of those bags were a triple berry mix with raspberries, blueberries and blackberries. The third was a bag of strawberries. I’ve dipped into them on occasion to make one recipe or another but they were mostly unused. Not wanting to waste all those berries or give them away, we decided to whip up some quick batches of no-pectin jam. Pectin is that stuff you buy in the little box at the grocery store that gels up your fruit mix. I didn’t have any to begin with and really didn’t want to waste the gas driving into town for some so I found pectin-free jam recipes online (my canning book was packed away by my very efficient box packer).

My first batch of triple berry jam worked out great. I found a recipe that basically is nothing but 4 cups of fruit and 4 cups of sugar. Boil it until it gets to 220 degrees and then can it in sterilized jars. Pretty simple! But my next batch of strawberry jam wasn’t working out so good. After an hour of rapid boiling I could not get the temperature to climb above 203 degrees. Getting worried I headed to the world wide web to do some SOS searching on what to do. Luckily, I stumbled across Laura and Barb’s blog called My Sisters Kitchen. Their blog post on making jam without any added pectin informed me of a temperature correction formula if you’re above sea level. At 7500 feet, I definitely needed to correct down on a boiling point for my jam!

I quickly rushed back to my kitchen and began putting my strawberry jam into sterilized jars. Those two saved my day! I could have been waiting for strawberries to boil until they absolutely could boil no more and turned into some strange gooey concoction that would have made for a dish washing disaster! Check out their blog. They seem to have a lot of wonderful recipes and life experiences to share. I’m going to add them to my frequent list!

What have you done to avoid wasting food?  Have you found yourself making changes due to rising food prices?  Share your hints and tips with our other readers.  For some time we’ve been using a whole chicken right down to the bones for several meals.  For more on that, read The Art of Resourcefulness.

We are just 18 days away from the first official day of Spring, the Spring Equinox happening on March 20th this year.  In many parts of the country it seems the veil of Winter has been lifted already and we’re beginning to thaw out.  Is it just a teaser or has Spring really sprung?

If you happen to live in a warm part of the country, you might already be planning your first Spring garden party.  If so, how would you like to make a nifty drink dispenser that not only tastes good but can be composted when you’re done?!  Check out Elizabeth’s Drunken Watermelon on Tap for the super idea and instructions on how to put it together.  I guarantee this one will be a crowd pleaser at your next outdoor get-together.   If you don’t want to make the beverage alcoholic you can of course substitute it with another beverage.  Watermelon punch, lemonade or iced tea anyone?

I just stumbled upon a true recycled crafty project today. Someone in my area is making these purses out of Capri Sun juice pouches. They apparently recycle them by sowing them together into a bag. Now that’s an idea! Do you have a recycled craft project that others can try? Let us know about it!

I found the purses here if you’re interested in learning more about them.

This week our car decided it wasn’t going to start on a very random basis.  We had been out running errands all morning and decided to stop at Sam’s Club and stock up on our usual grocery staples like milk, eggs and bread.  When we got back out to the car 20 minutes later it acted like the battery was dead.  Perhaps it was karma coming back to bite me after I muttered a profanity at all the people fighting over who was in line at the only two check stands open.  After munching on fresh fruit and potato chips in the parking lot for half an hour, our roadside assistance showed up and jump started our car.  Home we went!

Once we pulled in, I turned off the car to see if it would restart.  As luck would have it, dead again.  I had a co-worker pick me up for the ride into town and I schlepped my battery to the auto parts store.  It tested ok (as it should since it was only a few months old) and they informed me it must be my alternator.  Fantastic!  I knew I was either looking at a very long weekend and close to $300 for one silly part or about $600 to have a mechanic do it for me.  I guess I was in vapor lock mode.  My girlfriend and I decided we would tackle the alternator together making the experience more fun with the two of us at each other’s side.  Four hours later we were steaming hot mad and hadn’t removed a single damn part.

We finally decided we were defeated and that the car was going to have be towed to a mechanic where we would shell out the insane amount of money to have a mechanic do it for us.  I reconnected the battery cables and thought why don’t I just try starting the car.  I did and it started.  We let it run for about 30 minutes while we got ready to head into town, not wanting to shut it off again until we got to the auto parts store.  We pulled into the parking lot and the helpful clerks tested our electrical system.  Their tests showed everything was fine.  The battery was great and the alternator was putting out plenty of juice so they told me to clean up the cables and battery posts.

We did just that and it only cost us $4.00 as opposed to at least $300.  We bought a battery terminal brush, mixed up a quick concoction of 1 cup warm water and 1 tablespoon of baking soda, grabbed the vaseline and headed to the garage.  As it turns out, making sure your battery has a good electrical connection is super easy and takes just a few minutes.  First, disconnect the negative battery cable from the terminal and set aside.  Next, disconnect the positive cable.  With a paint brush, wipe on some of the baking soda solution.  As it comes in contact with the battery acid buildup it will bubble and sizzle.  This is a natural reaction so don’t get worried.  After you let the backing soda neutralize all that buildup, wipe it off with a clean towel.  Apply the baking soda solution to the wire rings that clamp to the battery posts and wipe clean.  Use the battery terminal brush to help scrape the extra stuff off both the clamps and the posts of your battery.  Once you’ve cleaned all the surfaces, reattach the positive cable and then the negative cable to your battery.  It’s that simple!

I also ready many anecdotes involving pennies.  Supposedly if you place a copper penny near each battery post it will attract the corrosion from the battery acid to the coin as opposed to the posts and cables.  I haven’t tried that but I guess it couldn’t hurt.  What a weekend!  We grew together as a couple once more after getting seriously frustrated with our weekend’s car repair.  I guess we were technically successful though since the car is running again!

I had some fun today and put together a quick mini-movie to enter in El Polo Loco’s latest contest promoting their fresh, citrus marinated, flame-grilled chicken. The idea is that it’s a lot of work to get the same flame-grilled, citrus taste yourself and the results might not be so wonderful. I tried to add a little humor into mine. Watch it below! Head on over to watch the other grilled chicken videos.

So we’re just days away from another one of those fantastic consumer holidays, Valentine’s Day.  It’s always been a hard day for me to digest.  You’re an absolute schmuck if you don’t subscribe to the Valentine’s Day practice of getting your honey something special.  But at the same time, I hate feeling like I’m bowing into the pressure of some greeting card company sponsored holiday by showering my lover with gifts!  Hmm, what to do?  Give in because it’s always fun to give and receive gifts and besides, my girlfriend already knows I love her.  She hears me say it probably a dozen times a day but that’s another post.

Because Valentine’s is such a consumer frenzy, it’s hardly anything but eco-friendly.  But that seems to be changing a bit as the green movement gathers steam.  Sam’s Club has announced that they are now selling Fair Trade Certified roses.  These roses are sold directly from the farm to the store so there’s no middle man waiting for his cut of the profits.  However, these roses are grown in Ecuador.  That’s a major problem for me!  How much energy are we wasting just to get those damn roses to the United States?  Sure, we’re benefiting the children and villagers in Ecuador that work these rose farms but we’re doing little for the environment.  I guess it’s a good step but I’d rather buy roses at least grown stateside.  If there isn’t a rose farm in your neck of the woods you could purchase a different type of flower from a local grower.  After all, who said you need to bow down to the pressure of buying a dozen red roses for Valentine’s Day?  It’s over done!

Here’s some simple tips:

1)    Think homemade.  Make your own card this year by hand picking some scrap booking supplies.  It will mean a lot more to your significant other.

2)    Just like you might be conscious of the food your purchasing at the grocery store, be conscious of the flowers and chocolates your purchasing for Valentine’s Day.  Is there a small, local chocolate shop where you can pick up some cocoa delights?  You’d be supporting a small business and saving precious resources at the same time.  Is there a flower farm nearby where you can purchase locally grown flowers?  That too would save precious resources and support your local farmers instead of buying those awful roses transported all the way from Ecuador.

3)    Make a romantic meal at home using organic and sustainable produce.  If your community still has a farmer’s market going this time of year, see what you can put together.   You just have to spend a little extra time shopping instead of grabbing whatever is the first thing available on the shelves of your local store.

For the love oozing between the sheets, I personally enjoy TreeHugger’s guide on How to Green Your Sex Life.  They have all kinds of links to sustainable sex products and other fine things that might get you in the mood.  If you’re looking for some “hot” green underthings, you should check out Inhabitat’s Sustainable Skivvies Blog.  My comment was, who knew going green could be so hot?!

Now is the time that Arizona citrus is reaching its peak harvest season. When I lived down in the valley, there used to be citrus everywhere you looked. In the area of old Scottsdale where I lived, the home subdivisions were actually carved out of citrus groves in the 1950’s post-war building boom. The developers did a nice thing and tried to leave as many citrus trees as possible while they were building.

The neighborhood I grew up in used to be a grapefruit grove. So consequently at the high point of my childhood home we had 12 grapefruit trees surrounding us. It was a daunting task trying to figure out what to do with so much fruit. As a kid I used to sell brown paper bags full of grapefruit for $5.00 and the best days to sell were days when you knew there were a lot of tourists in town (Fiesta Bowl, Super Bowl, Parada del Sol, etc.)

We definitely couldn’t eat the fruit of 12 trees and there wasn’t much inspiration surrounding grapefruit either. Sure we would end up eating a few as a “breakfast treat” or at least that’s what my dad would try and convince us of the supremely sour fruit. I do miss the intoxicating scent of all the citrus blossoms in the spring though and the sight of hundreds of bright fruits adorning trees in your own yard. Now that I’m older, I do have to say that I’m a fan of citrus and miss the plethora of the harvest sometimes. And, since I’m on my quest for sustainability I’ve also discovered a lot of different uses for the warm weather fruit.

The December issue of Sunset magazine had a great recipe for homemade Rosemary Limoncello. Limoncello is an intensely flavored liqueur typically served as an after dinner drink on Italy’s Amalfi Coast and adjoining Sorrento Peninsula. This is the perfect time of the year to make this homemade liqueur in the desert southwest because of the availability of lemons. If you don’t happen to have good access to lemons in your neck of the woods, you can order direct from some citrus orchards out here. The recipe recommends using Meyer lemons because of their fragrance. But you can also achieve excellent results using Eureka lemons. A local Arizona citrus orchard is McClendon’s Select. The Limoneira Orchard in Southern California offers Meyer lemons through their mail order business. Ojai Citrus also does mail order with mixed boxes containing a variety of citrus choices. You could also get a nice variety of swing-top glass bottles to put your limoncello in for giving out to friends and family once it’s matured. To me, it sounds like a great and different way to enjoy this year’s citrus harvest. If you have a favorite recipe using the refreshing flavors of citrus, let us know about it!

Rosemary Limoncello

Courtesy: Sunset Magazine, December 2007 edition

You will need:

18 lemons (washed and dried)

one 4-inch rosemary sprig (washed and dried)

2 bottles of 100 proof vodka (750ml bottles of Stoli or Smirnoff)

4 1/2 cups sugar

1) Peel lemons with a sharp vegetable peeler, taking only the zest (top layer) and avoiding any white pith. Put rosemary in a 1 gallon glass or ceramic container with a tight seal. Add zest to jar.

2) Pour 750ml. vodka over rosemary and zest; seal container. Let sit undisturbed in a cool dark place for about 40-days.

3) On 40th day, in a saucepan, bring 5 cups of water to a boil and add sugar. Cook, stirring, until sugar has dissolved. Let sugar syrup cool to room temperature, about 1 hour.

4) Pour syrup and remaining 750ml. vodka over lemon-vodka mixture, stir and seal container. Let sit in a cool, dark place for another 40 days.

5) Pour limoncello through cheesecloth into a large spouted pitcher and divide among gift bottles. Limoncello will keep indefinitely in the freezer. Recipe makes 10 2/3 cups and will fill ten 8.5 oz. bottles.