Carbon Offsets

Carbon Offsets are essentially eco-friendly services you can buy from various companies to offset the amount of greenhouse gases and other environmentally unfriendly waste you produce each year. Most, if not all, of these qualify as charitable contributions that you can deduct from your taxes.

I'd like to start buying offsets this year, but I have a few concerns:

-Am I getting ripped off? How transparent can any company actually be about how much they are doing based on your contribution. I guess all those rip-off charities have made a bad name for the good ones, but one cannot help but wonder.

-Is it going to be an excuse for me to not do more on my end to consume less energy? This is a valid concern because, while it is nice to be able to pay someone to take the CO2 I produce out of the air, maybe if I am producing so much I should suffer the consequences and just turn on the AC less. I'm not one of those people, though, who thinks we should abandon capitalism and live off the grid. A little smart capitalism like carbon offsets is better than no offsets at all, right? And it isn't as if I can go out and build a wind turbine or plant a grove of trees all by myself.

-What unintended environmental consequences may result from offsets? Anyone who has done any research on renewable energy development knows the politics and controversy surrounding the efficacy of these methods.

Do any of you buy carbon offsets? If so, what companies or organizations do you use and why?

Intelligent design: Joseph Joseph

Joseph Joseph is a British design company focusing on kitchenwares with intelligent uses and storage.

Their folding colander has made a number of web appearances. It flattens to store easily with the rest of your cutting boards and things.




Speaking of cutting boards, the Dual boards are incredibly space saving and useful. One side (wood) for dry things, the other side (plastic) for wet. They could be a little bit less expensive, but they sure are pretty.



The best item in the catalogue is actually still being developed. Nest is a collection of mixing bowls, measuring cups, a colander, and a juicer that stack perfectly together. They are so fun and colorful that they make me want to abandon all of these things presently existing in my kitchen in favor of one of these sets. Talk about intelligent design.

Check out the details at Dwell Magazine.

Heliotrope, Decatur

This is the first of a series of green design posts. I have a few articles in the works, but I'm waiting for my custom-made coffee table to come in and my apartment to be photo-ready before I finish them.

Today, I want to talk about one of my favorite stores, Heliotrope. Its kind of like a toy store for adults, where you can find cool housewares, furniture, and quirky fun things. They have a good selection of earth-friendly goods, including picture frames made of sustainable wood, soy candles, and re-usable shopping bags.

Here are a few things I found today:



The Artala Can is a biodegradable trash can. The sticker on the inside says that it completely degrades in a landfill. I kind of think that if these weren't so planet-happy, they'd still be really hot. Also available in Red and Ocean.




The Ada Occasional Chair is perfectly proportioned, modern in design, and comes in a really pretty blue-on-grey fabric. I'm going back next Friday, when they have their big sale, to buy one, because it would be the perfect addition to my (modern-in-form and vintage-in-color-palette) living room.

DIY Room deoderizer sachets/bug repellants

I've been trying to bug-proof my apartment lately in the greenest way possible. With all of the spiders that I try to repel or kill, constantly inhaling Raid will probably eventually kill me. Instead, I developed the following sachets, which also keep my rooms smelling fresh and floral.

What you need:

Unbleached tea bags*
Baking soda
Dried lavender**

How to assemble them:
1. Open tea bag.
2. Using a spoon, put about 1-2 Tbsp of baking soda inside tea bag.
3. Put another 1-2 Tbsp of dried lavender inside tea bag, as well.
4. Hold the open end closed and shake up to mix
5. Fold the top of the teabag over and insert the other end to lock. Alternatively, you can sew these up or twist and tie with a ribbon.

I put these in various corners around the apartment, but you can also put them in a decorative dish, under the sink, above the stove (to catch cooking odors), or even in the refrigerator.

*The empty kind that you fill with your own loose tea--I get mine at the local farmer's market. I'm sure Whole Foods and similar stores have them, as well. Use the kind made of paper, not cheese cloth-type material because you don't want the flowers and baking soda to fall through.
**You can experiment with different flowers. I buy these in bulk and they are known to repel spiders, so I chose to go with them.

French toast with nutter butter and blueberry compote

I'm allergic to peanuts, so I missed out on years of gooey, sticky-mouthed goodness until I discovered soynut butter. To me, because I don't know any better, it is just like the real thing, but most people think it is good in its own right.

As I was planning my meals for today, I realized that I was only left with 3 slices of bread. I'd been planning on having French toast with blueberry compote (see previous post) for breakfast, and a soynut butter and blueberry compote sandwich later in the day. Instead, I combined them all into one meal. The recipe is easily veganized if you use the French toast recipe in Vegan with a Vengeance instead of mine.

French toast with nut butter and blueberry compote
Serves: 1

For the French toast:
3 slices of multigrain bread
2 whole large eggs
Vanilla extract
Oil for frying

1 Tbsp nut butter of your choice (I used no sugar added soynut butter)

For the blueberry compote:
1.5 cups fresh blueberries
2 tsp arrowroot
2 tsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp sugar

1. Beat eggs in a bowl. Add a dash of vanilla extract.
2. Place bread in bowl and allow to soak.
3. Heat frying pan on medium-high heat with oil. Place bread slices in frying pan and fry until done on both sides.
4. Spread each slice of French toast with nut butter.

To prepare the blueberry compote:
1. Combine all of the ingredients over medium heat.
2. Crush blueberries and stir mixture until it simmers for several minutes. It will begin to thicken. Take off of heat and drizzle over French toast.

Enjoy!

Blueberry Lemon Creme Cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World!

I have been eyeing these cupcakes since I got the book. The Lemon-Blueberry combination is one of my favorites, especially because I like very tart flavors. This cupcake really delivered, and is perfect for summer--not very sweet at all (the entire recipe used a grand total of 2 cups of sugar, I think, which, while it is diabetes waiting to happen, is much less than the other recipes).

The best part of this recipe was making the blueberry compote, which I have many plans for the remainder of. This morning, I had some in my yogurt with fresh blueberries--it added just the right touch of sweetness, and the cooked blueberries just burst in your mouth. The recipe uses arrowroot, which made me pretty happy because I've had some for a long time and never really had a chance to use it.

The recipe uses the basic yellow cupcake, and adds lemon zest, juice, and extract. The cupcakes are a beautiful golden color, and very porous. I used a pastry bag to puncture and fill them with the buttercreme directly, rather than removing the middle, filling it, and putting the top back on, as the recipe suggested. Too much buttercreme on this cupcake would overpower the delicacy of the cake itself, in my opinion. The whole concept is about subtle flavors--even though the end result looks pretty bold.

Mind you, by the time it got to assembling these things, we just wanted to eat them, so they are not the prettiest, but they sure were delicious. Next time, I will avoid the extra dallop of buttercreme on top, and simply drizzle on the compote.

Here's a cupcake sliced open.


And, after we devoured them, the plate looked like this:

Blueberries and Fiddlehead Ferns

It has been quite a while since my last post. That kitchenette in my old place was not so conducive to food preparation, but I have a real kitchen (hooray!) now, so here are my latest food shenanigans.

Whole Foods had giant flats of blueberries on sale, so I bought some to enjoy with some plain yogurt. Somehow, I have managed to have about a cup of blueberries every day for a week without running out.


This morning, I tried some in my French toast (recipe below). The blueberries were warm and delicious, without being syrupy.





I also found some darling fiddlehead ferns at Whole Foods. They were fairly expensive ($12/lb, though they are fairly lightweight). I used to think these looked sort of freaky (like green snails), and so this was my first time trying them.

A couple of things about the fiddleheads. You can't just blanch these things. You have to cook them in 2 changes of water, because they can otherwise make you sick. You should also clean them well. The fiddleheads

They have an odd flavor--its kind of creamy, if a green vegetable can be described that way. I was a little bit ambivalent about biting in, given what they look like, but they are pretty delicious. I thought the best way to serve them would be as bright green color accents in a pasta salad.

So, some recipes:

Blueberry French Toast
Serves: 1

2 slices of bread (I used a thick-cut multigrain, though challah would work well, too)
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup fresh blueberries, washed and dried

1. Soak the bread in the beaten eggs, making sure to be fully absorbed on both sides.
2. Heat a frying pan on high heat. Place bread in frying pan. Reserve some of the egg.
3. With a butter knife, make x's in the bread. Place one blueberry in each x. Pour the rest of the egg over the top of the bread.
4. Fry on both sides, being careful that the blueberries don't come out while flipping.
5. Serve with maple syrup or powdered sugar.

Fiddlehead Fern pasta salad
Serves: 8

2 cups whole wheat fusilli (or another pasta)
1/2 cup fiddlehead ferns
1 cup of mix and match veggies from your store's olive bar. I got marinated, pitted olives (chopped), marinated sweet read peppers, baby pickles, and marinated mushrooms from Whole foods.
4 Tbs rosemary grapeseed oil (see recipe below)
1 Tbs vinegar (I used rice vinegar)
1/2 cup crumbled feta
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Cook the pasta al dente, drain, and store in a big glass bowl in the refrigerator.
2. Clean and cook the fiddlehead ferns in boiling water. Drain, and cook again in a fresh pot of water. This should take about 10 minutes. Drain and let cool in the refrigerator.
3. Slice the olive bar veggies and feta into small pieces. Toss them, with the liquid, into the pasta bowl.
4. Toss in the grapeseed oil and vinegar with the pasta, and season to taste.
5. Add in fiddlehead ferns last.

Rosemary grapeseed oil

I used grapeseed oil because it has a very light flavor.

Take 1 bunch of fresh rosemary (washed) and put it in a saucepan with 1/2 cup grapeseed oil. Turn the heat to medium and allow the rosemary flavor to infuse the oil. When it starts popping or frying, turn the heat to low and let it continue to heat until your kitchen smells like rosemary.

When finished, remove rosemary pieces (or transfer them into a bottle with the extra oil for storage--the flavor will continue to deepen over time).