I recently finished Zero Waste Home by Bea Johnson, of zerowastehome.com. This is a book about reducing the amount of waste you produce. It was much more useful to me than Plastic Purge was. The author comes off as extreme, but in ways that are refreshing and helpful to people who are already very into sustainable living.
New York Day 1
I’m in New York for the week! I’ll be posting some pictures of my travels (probably mostly of food).
Airport Udon
Got udon at SFO, it was surprisingly better than I expected.
Plastic Purge Book Review
I recently finished Plastic Purge by Michael SanClements. The end goal of the book, as suggested by the title, is to help you reduce the amount of plastic in your life. But on the way, there is a bunch of other information: the history of plastics, plastic recycling, types of plastic, etc.
Blender woes
I bought a blender from someone on Craigslist a while ago (very convenient! I highly recommend Craigslist; there’s even a free section). It was meant to replace a very low-quality, very hard-to-clean food processor. There are a few blended things I make (hummus, falafel, soymilk) that justified a slight upgrade, but I didn’t want to spend a ton of money.
At this point, I can’t even definitively say that the blender is better than the food processor. It does have a glass pitcher and takes longer to smell like burning plastic 🙁 but it doesn’t chop things as finely. Hummus is a struggle; falafel and soymilk don’t get ground finely enough to be even close to correct.
I discovered that the food mill (I don’t have the very useful tripod stand) works great for hummus, but it won’t work for harder things (like falafel, where the chickpeas are still raw) and it seems that the question of the safety of aluminum cookware is still undecided. What is the most versatile tool for my blending/grinding/chopping needs that isn’t electrified, will last forever, and/or can be bought used?
Ideas:
- Mortar and pestle (my sibling finds this very suitable)
- Handcrank food/Grain mill
- KitchenAid stand mixer with grinding attachment (would also replace bread machine)
- Suggestions?
San Mateo County Fair
J and I went to the county fair last weekend. J already wrote his review.
I was mostly interested in going for the crafts and animals. Of course I’ve gone to county fairs before when I was growing up, but I haven’t been since I’ve gotten more into crafts and heritage stuff (which includes livestock breeds!).
There was the requisite quilt competition, along with homemade clothing (not much), and crocheted and knitted items. I was excited to see a group of spinners (the Elkus Ranch Spinners) and a sustainable living section!
Pita, Falafel, and Hummus
We made our own pita bread, falafel, and hummus! It was a great meal!
FabMo and craft plans
J and I went to FabMo‘s fabric sale today! FabMo is a creative reuse non-profit that collects and sells craft items that would otherwise be thrown away. Many items come from the San Francisco Design Center, so FabMo has tiles, fabric samples, rug samples, buttons, etc. It’s awesome!! Look for creative reuse stores in your area! Here is a list of some around the country. I also know of Austin Creative Reuse in Austin, Tx.
The sale today was for larger pieces of fabric (>1 yd cuts) and rug. There was quite the selection. I have a few projects I’ve been looking for fabric for: linen undershirts (should be good for summer!), linen shirts, linen pants or shorts, and mayyyyybe a wool suit (I’m not an advanced enough sewer for this but I can dream!).
Here are the fabrics I bought:
Kinesis Advantage 2
I got a fancy new (well… refurbished) ergonomic keyboard! It’s the Kinesis Advantage 2 QD.
Mozzarella Pajeon
Kinda weird, but tasty.
