OTRTG Roadshow 12.08.11

Today I’ll be speaking to a friendly audience up the hill at the Yale Divinity School. The topic? Finding Your Own Way to Greenness: Tips and Tools for Greening Up Your Holidays. I will have a slideshow in Keynote, and business cards with a QR code to this page. Following is a summary with links to some of the topics I will cover.

SOME OF MY INSPIRATIONS

• First Earth Day 
• First Macintosh 
• Steven Chu 
• Michael Pollan 
• Renewal 

BUY NOTHING CHRISTMAS/OCCUPY CHRISTMAS

Buy Nothing Christmas was started by Mennonites on the Canadian West Coast in 2001.

Occupy has morphed this idea into a campaign to support local businesses and alternatives to corporate retailers. Check out the movement's Facebook page for more. One suggestion is to support local, independent businesses.

Etsy is another way. Etsy is an “online marketplace” to buy and sell things handmade, supplies, and vintage items. Etsy's mission is “to enable people to make a living making things, and to reconnect makers with buyers.” Its vision is “to build a new economy and present a better choice.” Its tagline is “Buy, Sell, and Live Handmade.” Buyers and sellers come from 150 countries, and Etsy sellers number in the hundreds of thousands. 

Here are some of my suggestions:

LOCAL MERCHANTS

• Atticus Bookstore and Cafe
• CitySeed Farmers Markets
• Devil’s Gear Bicycle Shop 
• Elm City Market Co-Op
• Foundry Music
• Group W Bench
• Hull's
• Katahdin Furniture
• Knit New Haven
• Trailblazer
• Willoughby’s Coffee and Tea

SHOPPING TOOLS

Good Guide 

Yelp 

A NIGHT ON THE TOWN

Farm to Table Restaurants

• 116 Crown
• Caseus 
• Claire’s
• Kitchen Zinc

Entertainment

• Criterion Cinema
• Long Wharf Theatre
• New Haven Symphony Orchestra
• Shubert Theater
• Yale Rep

Check out Info New Haven for current promotions for shopping downtown.

SHOPPING FOR GOOD

• 10,000 Villages 
• CAW
• Peabody Museum
• Yale British Art Center 
• Yale University Art Gallery
• Albers Kits 

REPURPOSING/VINTAGE SHOPPING

• English Building Markets
• Fashionista
• Helping Hands Community Thrift Store & Furniture Bank 
• IKEA Hacking
• Wiki-How

GIFTING FOOD

• For the scoop on chocolate 
• Local Harvest

FOR THE PERSON WHO HAS EVERYTHING

• Heifer International
• KIVA: http://www.kiva.org/
• Oxfam America
• Check out my last year’s post on 10 Worthy Causes. 

FOR SOME OF MY OWN PERSONAL GIFT IDEAS

Check out some of my other 10 Things Thursdays on a variety of topics from stocking stuffers, mementos for those who live far away, gifts for kids.

• 10 Random Things
• 10 Things to Stuff in a Stocking
• 10 Things to Wear
• 10 Useful Things
• 10 Things to Buy for the Cook
• 10 Things to Buy For Kids

CULINARY ADVENTURES

Check out this great tool: Google with recipe view 

And tales of my culinary adventures with:

• Hakurei Turnip
• Kohlrabi
• Nettle Soup
• Ramps

FOR MORE ON WASTE

American Wasteland: How Americans Throw Away Nearly Half Their Food 

CREATIVE WRAPPING IDEAS

Check out these and these

And for shipping something heavy, or to a rural area, learn more about If it fits, it ships!

In conclusion, as a new Seafood Watch Advocate, I handed out the Northeast version of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch pocket guide as stocking stuffers. Here is the link to the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Advocate Program.

Thanks to everyone who joined me on the road!

Meatless Monday: 5 Tips for Meeting Slow Food’s $5 Meal Challenge

Slow Food USA’s $5 Meal Challenge is this coming Saturday — September 17!

For those of you who haven’t heard (or may have forgotten), Slow Food USA is inviting people across the country to share — this Saturday —a healthy, affordable meal, at a cost of less than $5 a person.

Are you ready to meet the challenge? Here are 5 tips to help you on your way.

• Think beans or other legumes, and plan ahead so you can skip the canned version. Food critic and cookbook author Mark Bittman urges all cooks to do so.  Among his talking points for cooking dried beans vs. using canned ones are economy, variety, taste, and the fact that leftovers can easily be frozen for future use. All you need is time, so keep this in mind when mapping out your cooking strategy. Here is a link to my Split Pea Soup which appeared on the Meatless Monday site on April 12, 2010. 

• Eggs (off-limits to vegans, and the whites of which are allergens to some) are another inexpensive source of protein. Just make sure your guests are on-board before choosing to use them. The Incredible Egg site has scads of recipes You might want to verify that the eggs you choose are “Certified Humane.” 

• Use seasonal ingredients. For example: A fresh peach pie prepared while peaches are in season can be a “can-do” for this challenge, particularly if you make your own crust. One made with oil is the least expensive way to go. I bought a bushel of peaches for $18.95 last week, about 50¢ a peach. If I’d picked my own, they would have been even cheaper. $5.00 should just about cover the cost of your pie. Check out two of my favorite cookbooks for more ideas: Simply in Season, by Mary Beth Lind and Cathleen Hockman-Wert and The Art of Simple Food, by Alice Waters. The recipes in each volume are clear, relatively easy, and foolproof (in my experience anyway).

• Make a meal from what you have on hand. Use Google with Recipe View to help you find the perfect recipe. With this tool you can search for a specific recipe or main ingredient and then narrow your options by selecting the ingredients you do or do not wish to include, as well as the time available and any caloric restrictions.

• If you are cooking with friends, consider Stone Soup. Just be sure to start VERY EARLY, and you might want to omit the stones.

For more details about the day and the campaign, click here. You can pledge to take the challenge here. 

Good luck, and have fun. “See” you next Monday if not before.

I often blog on food or food issues on 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.”