This Post is for the Birds

I can’t ignore them [birds] any longer.

My inbox is full of bird links from readers…

Here is one from Polly showing a nest of robins hatching, growing, and fledging. Every mom will feel a tug at her heartstrings at the conclusion, guaranteed.

Here’s a link from Louise to a 24/7 live video feed of a nest of eagles, atop a tree at the fish hatchery in Decorah, Iowa. 

and bird news…

The owners of the Fat Robin emailed to tell me that hummingbirds were spotted at their house on Monday. Its time to mix up a batch of hummingbird nectar and to put up my feeder. I had no luck last year, but I’m willing to try again.

and a birdday…

The Google doodle on my homepage on Tuesday honored the 226th birthday of John James Audubon, naturalist, best known for his tome Birds of America, illustrated with images of over 700 different birds. Those of you who live in New Haven can view an edition of this book at Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

and rare bird alerts…

Steve Martin is funny, and brilliant, and a sensational banjo player. I know it’s only Thursday and I had warned you that the freebies would be fewer, but birds are the theme of the day… Steve has recently released a new album, Rare Bird Alert. You can download a free song from the album here. 

and a hint I’ve been saving for the perfect moment…

They say dryer lint makes good nesting material. Try putting some out near your bird feeder.

In conclusion, consider this…

“Imagine if birds were tickled by feathers…” – Steven Wright 

I wish I’d thought of that.

Meatless Monday: How We Dined on Earth Day Eve

Happy Monday.

This meal tastes even better than it appears.

I took my own advice on Earth Day Eve. A sister and niece were in town and we celebrated with a special dinner. Since they were family, I was bold enough to experiment. 

The centerpiece of the meal was a Field Roast from the Original Field Roast Grain Meat Co. in Seattle — more specifically, the Stuffed Celebration Roast. This beautiful roast — filled at the center with a stuffing of butternut squash, apples and mushrooms — had caught my eye at Whole Foods. According to the Field Roast site, the history of “grain meat” begins with Mien Ching, a protein-rich substance, discovered by Buddhist monks in 7th century China who were on a quest for vegetarian meat. This evolved into Seitan in Japan, and finally, with the addition of European flavors, into Field Roast, as developed by Seattle chef David Lee in 1997.

The Celebration Roast carves like a meat roast, is high in protein, and has a delicious flavor. My omnivore husband even said, “I don’t miss the meat.” The company makes a variety of products including “Classic Meatloaf” and sausages. You can watch a video about “Meat Made with Wheat” here, or one of sanctuary chimps enjoying a feast here.  Field Roast has even appeared on the Ellen Degeneres Show. Guess I’m late to the game, but better late than never.

I began my meal prep by roasting parsnips (from Massachusetts) with carrots (from California), coated with olive oil, in my largest cast iron pan at 425°, adding quartered and sliced onions (from New York) and fennel (also from California) 20 minutes later. After 30 minutes total, I pushed the vegetables to the side, put the roast in the center, basted it with vegetable broth, and heated everything for 30 minutes more at 350°.

While the roast was roasting, I finally got around to making the vegan gravy from Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s cookbook Vegan with a Vengeance for which my friend Cher had sent me the recipe back in February. What took me so long? Every time I had thought of making it, I had discovered yet another missing ingredient. I always have on hand Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy’s requisite garbanzo beans, paprika, rosemary, thyme, and oregano. But I had to remember to shop for mustard seeds, ground cumin, ground coriander, and nutritional yeast. Once I had everything, the recipe was easy. It may not be much to to look at, particularly with the intentional lumps, but the flavor is fantastic, particularly on top of homemade mashed potatoes. 

Rounding out our Earth Day Eve meal was some fairly local cranberry apple sauce  (made with the last of my apples from Bishop’s Orchards in Guilford and a bag of Cape Cod cranberries from the freezer) and some microwaved frozen green beans.

Here is where I failed big-time. This part of the feast had the biggest carbon footprint of all. I had purchased Stop & Shop Nature’s Promise organic frozen green beans without reading the label. They came all the way from China! Who knew? Mea culpa. For penance I think a boycott and letter-writing campaign are in order.

I hope this post has inspired you to try something new. Have a great week. And please come back soon for more food news and culinary adventures.

I try to blog on food or food issues each Monday in support of Meatless Monday, one of several programs developed in the Healthy Monday project, founded in 2003 in association with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications. Meatless Monday’s goal is “to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of our planet.”

Love Your Mother (Earth): It’s Earth Day Today

Happy Earth Day.

On April 22, 41 years ago, the first Earth Day celebration was observed as a day of environmental activism, spearheaded by Senator Gaylord Nelson from Wisconsin.  

While it is true that that the Earth still needs our help and love, let's remember the great strides which have been made since the first Earth Day. Particulates in our air are greatly reduced. Our rivers are cleaner. Municipalities recycle. One group which has been very influential in bringing about positive change is Clean Water Action, founded in 1972 by activist David Zwick with funding from two fishing tackle companies. Clean Water Action drafted many of the most important parts of the original 1972 Clean Water Act.

Clean Water Action now has offices around the country. While it still works to protect America’s waters, its issues now include:

• Global Warming and a New Energy Economy
• Healthy, Safer Families and Communities

and

• Making Democracy Work

At Wednesday night’s New Haven Green Drinks, Roger Smith from the Connecticut office gave a terrific rundown of all the current programs and initiatives in our state. Go to “Explore Your Community” at the Clean Water site to find the campaigns in your area.

How will you observe this Earth Day? Consider making a small action step. Check out “A Billion Acts of Green” or my last year’s post for some simple suggestions.

Or have an Earth Day picnic. [Be sure to bundle up.]

Or, if you live in New Haven, get in training for Rock to Rock. 

There are so many places to go and things to do that I’m thinking of giving Freebie Friday a break so I have time to write about new friends and outdoor adventures.

I’m not going to make you go cold turkey though. In the spirit of Earth Day, here is a link to a slide show at the Nature Conservancy. 

Now, get outside! 

Happy Earth Day. Love your mother and your mother Earth.

Meatless Monday: Celebrating Earth Day

Happy Monday.

This Friday marks the 41st observance of Earth Day, a day of environmental activism organized by Senator Gaylord Nelson from Wisconsin. 

Inspired by a tweet from the Elm City Market, a community owned food co-op scheduled to open in New Haven this summer, I propose a sustainable feast to honor the day.

Strawberries are seasonal in CA in Feb.

If you live on the West Coast, your farmers’ markets are already overflowing with Spring produce — from strawberries to new potatoes and greens. If you live in New England, the pickings are slimmer, but at the last CitySeed market in New Haven, offerings included winter spinach, parsnips, radishes, and carrots. You may not be able to craft an entirely local feast, but even in New England you can certainly find one or two local ingredients to incorporate into your meal.

Elm City Market provided a link to a page on the Organic Valley site where Regional Earth Dinner menus are posted. 

Another excellent source for inspiration for Earth Day or upcoming spring holiday menus is Simply in Season, by Cathleen Hockman-Wert and Mary Beth Lind, which features recipes using locally grown seasonal foods. The book's sections are organized by the seasons of the year. This is one of my most treasured cookbooks. Its recipes are simple, foolproof, and delicious.

Happy holidays. Happy eating.

Have a great week. And please come back soon for more food news and culinary adventures.

I try to blog on food or food issues each Monday in support of Meatless Monday, one of several programs developed in the Healthy Monday project, founded in 2003 in association with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications. Meatless Monday’s goal is “to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of our planet.”

Freebie Friday 4.15.11

Worthy Things to Do, Listen To, or View that Won’t Cost You a Dime 

Welcome to the April 15 edition of Freebie Friday. It’s been a busy week, and with that extra post yesterday, it’s going to be a two-thing week.

Thing One: All you tax-filing procrastinators out there, in case you don’t already know it, you have a reprieve this year. You have until April 18th to get that postmark stamped on your envelope. For those of you who are racing to finish, here are 30 last-minute tax tips from SmartMoney. 

Thing Two: It is hard to believe, but the first manned orbit of the earth took place 50 years ago! Documentary filmmakers on board the International Space Station recreated Yuri Gagarin's pioneering 108 minute orbit and combined this new footage with archival footage, Gagarin's original mission audio, and a new musical score to create the film First Orbit, which was released on YouTube on April 12, the anniversary of the flight. You can watch it in its entirety here. For more information, visit the First Orbit site. 

Have a great weekend! 

FYI Why a piñata? Just like a blog link, until you open it, you won’t know what’s inside.

Early April 2011 News Roundup & Blog Updates

NEWS from ALL OVER:

The nuclear crisis at Fukushima has been raised to severity level 7, the highest level on an international scale overseen by the International Atomic Energy Agency, and on par with the disaster at Chernobyl. Members of the “Fukushima 50” gave their first interview. 

It is nearly one year since the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010. The owner of the rig is arranging to fly relatives of the 11 men who died out to the disaster site on the anniversary.  

Bolivia is poised to pass The Law of Mother Earth, granting all nature equal rights to humans. As part of a complete restructuring of the Bolivian legal system, heavily influenced by its indigenous Andean people, the country will establish 11 new rights for nature. Please read more here.  

The US Government did not shut down. While debate rages over where to make cuts in the budget, the military bands play on. 

MoveOn.org joined forces with Hungerfast.org, whose tagline is “fasting and prayer to protect vulnerable people,” to protest proposed budget cuts which “lack conscience.”  You can watch Moby’s video on 30,000 fasters here. You can sign on to participate here.

Members of the Boston Tree Party, a collaborative campaign to plant 100 pairs of heirloom apple trees in civic spaces across Greater Boston, held its Inauguration Ceremony on April 10th at the Rose Kennedy Greenway. You can read more about the group and its first event here.

There have been 516,216,260 views of Justin Bieber in the most popular YouTube video yet.

NEWS from NEW HAVEN:

Stop & Shop will open its doors for business at 6 am tomorrow on Whalley Avenue in the building formerly occupied by Shaw’s Supermarket. New Haven has been without a downtown supermarket since Shaw’s closed in March. Hundreds of carbon footprints will get a little smaller. An official opening ceremony will take place this evening from 5-7 pm with refreshments, entertainment, and prizes.

The Elm City Market, a cooperatively-owned supermarket scheduled to open this summer on the ground floor of 360 State Street, in the heart of downtown, has now signed on nearly 500 members.  

New Haven said farewell last week to Willis Diggs, a gentle giant beloved throughout greater New Haven. Willis was most recently a case manager at the Department of Veterans Affairs in New Haven. He had served as Facilities Director and Director of Operations at the Connecticut Food Bank, Executive Director of the Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen, and in a number of other positions in the nonprofit community. Innovator and entrepreneur, he brought out the best in everyone. Willis was a Vietnam War veteran and recipient of a number of medals, including the Purple Heart.

The Mitchell Dubey Family Benefit Show was held at Toad’s Place. Police have still not made an arrest in the killing. 

BLOG NEWS

I have had readers in 49 states. Mississippi is the one holdout. Know anyone there to whom you can send this link? The page views are climbing. Thanks for all your support.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Friday, April 22

Earth Day

Saturday, April 30

Rock to Rock Earth Day Ride [more in my 3.23.post].

Saturday, April 30

National Prescription Drug Take Back Day. Visit this site for a location near you.

That’s it for today. Please remember to return tomorrow for Freebie Friday when I hope to have a freebie or two for you.

Meatless Monday: A Post That Almost Wasn’t

It started with a photo I saw while flipping pages of a food magazine as I pedaled an exercise bike. The smiling Irish woman was proudly showing off her loaf of whole wheat soda bread. I read the recipe. It sounded easy, and I had the requisite buttermilk, open and in need of being used. Without yeast, no time was required for multiple risings. 

It sounded too good to be true, and somehow familiar. I left the magazine at the gym, and once home, I checked our dog-eared copy of Beard on Bread for an Irish soda bread recipe. Aha! I found it — Irish Whole-Wheat Soda Bread made with: 3 cups whole wheat flour, 1 cup all purpose flour, 1 tablespoon salt, 1 level teaspoon baking soda, 3/4 teaspoons baking powder, and 1 1/2 to 2 cups buttermilk.

James Beard held rock star status in my early years of cooking. Over the years I had amassed an impressive collection of his books. So confident was I in his wisdom that I would try a new recipe to serve to guests without hesitation. Here is James Beard’s preface to the soda bread recipe: “…Soda bread is very different from any other bread you can find in the world. It’s round, with a cross cut in the top, and it has a velvety texture, quite unlike yeast bread, and the most distinctive and delicious taste. Sliced paper thin and buttered it is one of the best tea or breakfast breads I know, and it makes wonderful toast for any meal…”

Irish Whole-Wheat Soda Bread fresh from the oven

How could I go wrong? I followed the directions carefully, kneading for 3 minutes, forming into a round loaf, making the cut in the top [too deep it turns out, but I don’t think that was a problem]. 35 minutes later I ended up with a golden brown loaf that sounded hollow when rapped, with a cross spreading open [too far as noted earlier]. It was, however, VERY heavy. 

I let it cool. I sliced it very thin. We ate some buttered with our meal. Tasty, but not bread as we knew it. I wrapped the remainder in foil and sliced some this morning for toast. It was better [online comments in recipe sites agree] and was a perfect vehicle for butter and jam.

I weighed what was left of the loaf — over 2 pounds! Eating the whole thing is going to require a lot of butter and jam. I then recalled James Beard’s love affair with butter. No wonder he found this “bread” wonderful!

I now know why the “Irish soda bread” which shows up in the supermarket for St. Patrick’s Day is made with white flour, sugar, butter, and currants. Traditional Irish Whole-Wheat Soda Bread is hearty fare, so hearty in fact that I almost didn’t blog about it. 

Here are a few hints if you decide to try this at home. This recipe is best made for a large group of forgiving friends. Be sure to make it a day ahead, wrap it tightly in foil, slice it VERY thin, have a working toaster, and stock up on butter and jam. If anyone is interested, leave a comment and I will post the complete recipe. 

Any leftovers can be left unwrapped until rock hard and then re-wrapped to become a perfect doorstop.

Have a great week. And please come back soon for more food news and culinary adventures.

I try to blog on food or food issues each Monday in support of Meatless Monday, one of several programs developed in the Healthy Monday project, founded in 2003 in association with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications. Meatless Monday’s goal is “to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of our planet.”

Freebie Friday 4.8.11

Worthy Things to Do, Listen To, or View that Won’t Cost You a Dime 

Welcome to the April 8 edition of Freebie Friday. With the potential for a government shutdown staring us in the face, the theme today has political overtones.

First off: Do you think you know the Constitution? The Constitution is being invoked right and left these days. Now might be a good time to test your knowledge, relearn what you may have forgotten over the years, or learn what you never did in the first place. You can determine your Constitution IQ with quizzes ranging from easy to expert at this site. You will be able to see your results and how they stack up against the rest of the country. [I did well on concepts but fell short on the details.] The site has a wealth of resources for teachers. If you find after taking all the quizzes that you could use a handy pocket version/guide to keep at the ready, you can order one here for free.

School vacations, spring road trips, and National Park Week are just around the corner. Although your first thoughts regarding a government shutdown may have turned to such themes as: When will my tax refund arrive? or Will there still be air traffic controllers? Have you considered what a shutdown means to the National Park system or the Smithsonian? These “non-essential” entities will be closing at midnight unless a solution is found in the next few hours. Perhaps it’s a good thing that my dream trip to Yosemite didn’t fall into place for this weekend.

If you are locked out, you will have to content yourself with the next best thing — a virtual experience. To find a particular park in the National Park system, visit this site. There will be a number of links for any park you choose.The Yosemite video tour is here. 

There are virtual tours for many of the current Smithsonian exhibits as well. The list of current exhibitions is here. This is the link to Set in Style: the Jewelry of Van Cleef & Arpels, now on view at the Cooper Hewitt in New York City.

It’s certainly not the same as being there, but I have a motive for sending you to these sites. Our country is rich with treasures. Someone has to preserve and protect them. I know it’s not spelled out in the Constitution, but if not the government, then who will do it? There is no question in my mind that this is tax money well spent.

Have a great weekend! I can smell Spring today and I think the forsythia is going to pop!

FYI Why a piñata? Just like a blog link, until you open it, you won’t know what’s inside.

Meatless Monday: A Mushroom Feast

Happy Monday everyone. Some of you have been asking what ever happened with my mushroom farm. I may have have gotten sidetracked by other topics, but I didn’t forget about the post I promised you. If you’ve been wondering about my fungi, your wait is over!

We got a good crop of mushrooms from our kit, and I celebrated them by making this delicious dish for a special Saturday night feast — Mario Batali’s Pasta with Oyster Mushrooms, Sweet Garlic, and Arugula — found online using Google search with recipe view. I searched for pasta and oyster mushrooms. After I checked that I had arugula and garlic, but not pumpkin, this recipe came up as the first result. Since I did not make my own pasta, my guess is that the difficulty level became easy rather than intermediate, that is unless you factor in the time and dedication required to grow the mushrooms in the first place [more on that in a future post]. I did have to run around the corner to buy some sweet vermouth, but the little extra effort was definitely worth the trouble. 

The mushrooms imparted a texture and taste reminiscent of seafood to the dish, and we could see how they acquired their name. The 5 star rating on this recipe is well-deserved, and it was very cool that we had grown the featured ingredient. Thanks Chef Batali. Thanks Back to the Roots. We are looking forward to the leftovers tonight…

Have a great week. And come back again soon.

I try to blog on food or food issues each Monday in support of Meatless Monday, one of several programs developed in the Healthy Monday project, founded in 2003 in association with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications. Meatless Monday’s goal is “to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of our planet.”

Freebie Friday 4.1.11

Worthy Things to Do, Listen To, or View that Won’t Cost You a Dime 

Welcome to the April 1 edition of Freebie Friday. Cooking was my original theme. This week's tip is so awesome — NO FOOLING!— that I had intended just one tip for you today — Google Search with Recipe View.

Here’s how it works. Search for a recipe or ingredient using Google, then select “Recipes” in the left-hand panel on the search results page. You can customize your search by filtering your results by ingredients, cooking time, or calories. What a great way to turn what you have on hand into a feast or to find a way to turn that daring purchase from the farmers’ market into something wonderful. An illustrated summary of all the features is here. 

If you would rather have Google’s executive chef walk you through the process, you can watch a short video on YouTube:

I used this tool last week when I had a giant cauliflower in the fridge and was in the mood for soup. I entered “curried cauliflower soup” into the search box and then filtered for recipes that DID include honey (which I had) but DID NOT use butternut squash, ginger, or spinach (all things I did not have available). I also checked “less than 60 minutes” and “less than 500 calories.” I was left with this recipe from food.com which boasted a secret ingredient — an apple. It was delicious and deserves all the stars and great reviews it has received.

Give Google Search with Recipe View a try. You’ll never again have to resort to cold cereal OR make a last minute run to the store for a missing ingredient. Have fun.


It's my blog and I have the right to change my mind. It's April Fools’ Day today, and those Googlers love this holiday. I'm turning today back into a 3-tip Friday. I can't pass on the opportunity to share this year's Google pranks with you.


First up, the one with the video. Go to google.com and note the small print under the search box. [Hint: it begins with the word “new” in red.] Click the purple words which follow the red “new” and you will be taken to a video about an amazing new feature for Gmail. After watching the video be sure to click the box indicating you want to give the product a try, because I'm sure you will!


The second prank is for font lovers. Enter “helvetica” into the Google search box and check out your results. 

TGIF. Keep your wits about you today. Have a great weekend! And be sure to come back for a new topic on Meatless Monday.

FYI Why a piñata? Just like a blog link, until you open it, you won’t know what’s inside.