25th January, 2012 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
The Statesman had this article today that states that last night’s rain had little effect on the drought in Texas:
Last night’s storms brought much-needed rain to Central Texas but did little to ease an ongoing drought or to raise lake levels.
The rains overnight helped replenish streams and helped ease fire concerns, but a long-term period of showers and storms will be needed to break the drought.
“If we go through another three weeks of no rain, it’ll all go away,” said Pat McDonald, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. Central Texas needs as much as 13 inches of rain to reach normal rainfall levels, McDonald said.
The article also noted:
Lake Buchanan is currently about 23 feet below normal January levels and about 30 feet below its full level …[we need] 10 to 20 inches of rain … to return the lakes to normal levels.
24th January, 2012 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
I made these vegetarian calzones yesterday and they were the tastiest thing I’ve made in awhile. I got the dough recipe from Epicurious here but made up the filling recipe.
Ingredients for Crust
- 1 1/2 cups warm water (105°F to 115°F.)
- 1 envelope dry yeast
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 4 cups (about) all purpose flour
Ingredients for Filling:
- 1 small package pre-sliced mushrooms, cut into bit sized pieces
- 1 onion, diced
- 1 large bunch swiss chard, leaves roughly chopped with stems removed. Chop stems into 2 inch pieces
- about 2 cups shredded mozzarella
Pour 1 1/2 cups warm water into large bowl. Stir in yeast. Let stand until yeast dissolves, about 5 minutes. Mix in oil and salt. Add 3 3/4 cups flour, about 1/2 cup at a time, stirring until blended. Turn dough out onto floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic, sprinkling with more flour if sticky, about 10 minutes.
Place dough in oiled large bowl; turn to coat. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rise in warm draft-free area until doubled, about 1 hour 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, saute the diced onions on medium high heat for about 1 minute, seasoned lightly with salt. Add mushrooms and swiss chard stems and cook until onions are browned and mushrooms and stems are softened (about 8 minutes). Add swiss chard leaves and stir everything together, and cook till leaves are just wilted, about 2 minutes.
Position 1 rack in top third and 1 rack in bottom third of oven and preheat to 400°F. Dust 2 baking sheets with flour.
Punch dough down. Knead on lightly floured surface until smooth, about 1 minute. Divide into 4 equal portions; shape each into ball. Roll out dough balls on lightly floured surface to 9-inch rounds. Spread 1/3 cup cheese mixture over half of each round, leaving 3/4-inch border. Cover cheese on each with 1/4 of veggie mixture. Fold plain dough halves over filling, forming half circles. Pinch edges of dough firmly together to seal.
Using spatula, transfer 2 calzones to each prepared sheet. Pierce tops in several places with small knife. Bake calzones 15 minutes. Reverse baking sheets and bake until tops of calzones are golden brown, about 15 minutes longer.
This makes 4 very large calzones, so really it’s about 8 servings. Below is a picture of a leftover half I had for lunch today. Delicious!
23rd January, 2012 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
I know Carsi posted before about making her own veggie broth, but it’s been more than a year since she wrote that post, plus I tried it for the first time this month, and ventured into making chicken broth as well, so I thought it’s good timing for a review.
First of all, why would you want to make your own broth?
1) It’s green because by not buying broth in a container at the store, you’re not wasting all that packaging
2) It’s also green because you’re using resources (vegetable scrapes or a chicken carcass) that otherwise would go straight to the trash or compost bin
3) It has no preservatives
4) It tastes really good
5) It makes the whole house smell nice
6) Chicken broth and veggie broth at the store are pretty expensive, and even more expensive if you want organic. Last time I checked, a container of organic veggie broth cost about $3.
Using Carsi’s tips here, I made one batch of veggie broth a few weeks ago. It’s so easy to save up the scraps to make this – I just store a gallon Ziploc freezer bag in my freezer, and pull it out every time I know I will be cutting up veggies. Any onion ends, onion peels, carrot ends, thick stems of greens, garlic peels, etc. go into the bag after being cut into no larger than 5 inch pieces. The bag then goes back into the freezer to wait for more scraps, and once I have a full bag worth, I have enough to make broth. I’ve simplified the process a little by just dumping the whole bag of frozen veggies in a large pot, covering with water, bringing to a boil, and then lowering to a simmer for about 40 minutes. Once it’s strained and cooled I put it into small reusable containers and store in the freezer till I need them.
Inspired by the success of the veggie broth, I made chicken broth as well. Earlier in the week I had purchased a whole chicken, and after it was cooked and I had gotten most of the meat off, I saved the whole carcass, including any skin and the wings, in a Ziplock bag in the freezer until I had time to make my broth. When the time came, I followed these instructions, using the first method and adding a handful of frozen veggie scraps from the freezer. I covered everything with water, brought to a boil, and the reduced the heat to simmer for about 4 hours. It was really easy and really flavorful.
remains after making broth, ready for the compost bin
20th January, 2012 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
I saw this article in the Austin Business Journal today that says that the city of Austin is launching a pilot program to encourage its downtown employees to choose an alternative means of transportation versus driving their own cars to work each day. At first when I read the story I got really excited because I thought it was open to all downtown employees, but it’s only for City of Austin employees.
If you are a City of Austin employee, though, it sounds pretty amazing: the article states that in an effort to reduce downtown congestion, ”The city will pay participating employees $50 per month for leaving their cars at home and is aiming for 20 percent participation among its downtown workers. The city will also provide a free Capital Metro transit pass, personal commute advisors, guaranteed rides home for emergencies and trip reduction training classes.”
19th January, 2012 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
The City of Austin is still offering rebates on composters to residential customers who downsize to a 32 gallon garbage bin and take a free composting class. The rebate is good for 75% of the cost of the compost bin, up to a $75 value. Classes are scheduled for January 24, 25, and 28 and February 1 and 4, but you must register first for the class. Learn more about the classes here and learn more about composting here. You can learn about my experience composting and getting the rebate here.
19th January, 2012 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
The Statesman has an article today about the Sierra Club appealing 4 coal plant permits granted by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), stating that TCEQ did not allow public comment as they should have, or require a technical report. Here’s part of the article:
The environmental group [Sierra Club] is appealing permit amendments approved Dec. 16 by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality that allow increased emissions from the plants, in East and Central Texas, during periods of planned startup, shutdown and maintenance.
The issuance of the permits is “invalid, arbitrary and unreasonable,” according to the lawsuit filed in state District Court in Travis County.
The lawsuit comes as coal plants across the state apply for permit amendments for emissions produced during startup, shutdown and maintenance, which were not previously regulated, said Ilan Levin, an environmental attorney representing the Sierra Club.
Environment commission spokesman Terry Clawson said the agency has not received the lawsuit and will not comment on it, but he said the four permits questioned in the lawsuit were issued legally.
Coal plant operators were required to apply for the amendments to authorize increased emissions by Jan. 5, 2011 . The four plants involved in the suit, all owned by the state’s largest generator, Dallas-based Luminant Generation Co., applied for higher emission ceilings and were approved in December.
“We were surprised to find out that, really, just by trolling the agency’s website, that right before the holidays, the TCEQ had issued these permits to Luminant without any public notice or any sort of opportunity at all to file some formal comments,” Levin said.
Levin said more plants could still be getting permits without going through public review and that he and the Sierra Club will look for other plants getting similar treatment.
Not all power plants seeking changes to air pollution permits are required to go through a public process, Levin said, but these permits are for a large enough increase that public notice is required.
The four plants would be allowed to emit at least 11,206 tons of additional particulate matter, a pollutant linked to heart attacks and premature death, the suit said.
The application for the plant northeast of Austin near Rockdale authorizes 958 additional tons of particulate matter, more than a sixfold increase over current startup, shutdown and maintenance limits, according to the lawsuit. That would more than double the plant’s 2010 particulate emissions, according to state data.
The lawsuit also says the environment commission “failed to conduct a Best Available Control Technology analysis,” which pushes plant operators to adopt cleaner — and often costlier — processes and equipment.
You can read the whole article here.
17th January, 2012 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
I tried out this recipe last night and was pleasantly surprised at how good it was. Sometimes blended soups can be too baby-foody, and this soup was fairly watery in consistency but it tasted really great. It was also pretty easy to make and doesn’t require a lot of oversight while it’s cooking. If you have an immersion hand blender that makes things even faster and easier. It’s also a great recipe to use up greens (like beet or turnip greens) that are sometimes hard to use up. For mine I used collard greens.
I will admit though that it’s not entirely vegetarian as I used chicken stock rather than water, which I think made the soup. Reviewers had noted they used vegetable broth rather than water and credited that substitution with giving the soup flavor, so I decided to use some home-made chicken stock I had on hand. I think veggie stock would be just as good too though, just so long as it’s flavored well. Also note that the original recipe calls for 6 cups of water, but I only used 4 cups of stock. I think 6 cups of either water or stock would make it way too watery.
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 fennel bulb, trimmed and chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1 pound mixed dark leafy greens such as collard and beet, coarse stems and center ribs discarded and leaves chopped
6 cups water (or for more flavor, use about 4 cups of veggie or chicken stock)
3 cups baby spinach (2 ounces)
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Directions:
Heat oil and butter in a 6-quart heavy pot over medium heat until foam subsides. Add fennel, onion, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and lightly browned, 7 to 8 minutes.
Add leafy greens (but not spinach) and water (or stock) to pot and simmer, covered, until greens are tender, about 30 minutes. Stir in spinach and cook, uncovered, just until wilted, about 1 minute.
Purée soup in batches in a blender (use caution when blending hot liquids) until smooth, then return to pot. Stir in cream and lemon juice and reheat over low heat. Season with salt.
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Creamy-Fennel-and-Greens-Soup-358114
I didn’t take a picture but Epicurious had a nice one on their website, above. It’s not super filling though, so I made some biscuits and sweet potato fries to eat with it. Very tasty!
Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Creamy-Fennel-and-Greens-Soup-358114#ixzz1jl5g8xrZ
13th January, 2012 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
On Monday I stopped by Barley Swine with Carsi after work for dinner. Located at 2024 S. Lamar, Barley Swine is owned by the same person who owns the Odd Duck trailer also on South Lamar. (Right now the Odd Duck trailer is closed and may or may not re-open in the Spring. I really really hope it reopens! Read more about that here.) While it was open, I had stopped by the Odd Duck trailer for dinner at least 5 times, and LOVED it, so I was excited to try Barley Swine.
Barley Swine was similar to Odd Duck’s food offerings in many ways. As with the Odd Duck, local ingredients are the focus, and plates are rather small – you’re encouraged to get 2-3 plates per person in order to be full at the end of a meal. An obvious dissimilarity between the two though is that Barley Swine is a sit-down restaurant, while Odd Duck was a trailer with cute outdoor seating and BOB. Barley Swine was cozy inside and a nice low-key place to go with friends. You’re seated at cocktail tables or long 6 person tables, so if you go with a date you may end up sitting at a 6 person table next to a stranger, but that makes it easier to see what other people in the restaurant are ordering.
We each had a beer, and I don’t know much about beer but whatever I had was from Austin and came in a cute glass. The waitress was extremely knowledgeable about beers, and very friendly and prompt overall.
For dinner, I had a shrimp dish that, unfortunately isn’t on the on-line menu now and I can’t remember what all was in it. It was very fancy but, as I expected, was rather small. I think it was about $10. Here’s a poor quality picture:
I also had the spiced goat cake, which came with some delicious cauliflower, for $12. The goat cake was interesting and this plate was more substantial. Here a picture of that dish (in the background are Carsi’s chickpea fritters):
Since Carsi’s a vegetarian and I wanted to try the max number of plates (I knew she would share with me) I ordered non-vegetarian plates although normally I would be drawn to the vegetarian dishes here. Carsi’s fritters were tasty but I wasn’t blown away. They cost $8. She also had the beet salad, which although this is a bad picture of it, was the best of the four dishes in my opinion:
This dish had tasty little roasted beets, fresh cheese curds, salted pistachio, grilled fennel, and some greens that I think had been baked because they were very crisp and delicious. It was a really nice flavor combination and was worth the $8.
I appreciate that Barley Swine uses local ingredients, and I appreciate that they serve unique and interesting dishes, so I will probably go back there with my husband sometime soon. It’s just that after being spoiled by the Odd Duck trailer, which had pretty similar-type dishes but at a noticeably lower price (and the lower price makes sense as a trailer isn’t going to have the same type of over-head costs as a sit-down restaurant), it seemed slightly over-priced. But everything we had was good and it was fun to try something new and know we were eating local food. For a special night out, give it a try!
12th January, 2012 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
The Statesman today reports that City Staffers may alter the bag ban draft proposal a 3rd time, after getting more input. There are two main changes. Unlike the 2nd draft, which would have called for a non-reusable bag ban to go into effect January 2013, the 3rd draft pushes that back slightly to March 2013 (the first draft called for January 2016). The 3rd draft would also have a $1 per transaction fee in the interim before the ban goes into place, rather than a 10 cent per bag fee (2nd draft) or 25 cent per bag fee (1st draft). I think both changes are reasonable. There’s no need to drag the switch out till 2016, but having it go into effect March 2013 rather than January 2013 isn’t a big switch. Further, I can understand store owner’s concerns that a per bag charge for the interim will be cumbersome to implement, and that a per transaction charge for those who forget their reusable bags will be more efficient – it still gets the point across without making things complicated. Staffers are also considering adding back in some few exemptions to the ban that were in the first draft, including bags for prescription drugs and restaurant carryout bags, due to concerns about privacy and food safety.
A final draft should be ready by the end of this month, and council will vote on it in March.
Read the Statesman article here.
11th January, 2012 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
Austin Climate Protection Program sent me an email today with “5 Sustainable, Achievable Resolutions for the Busy and Cash-Strapped,” which offers some great ideas to try for 2012 to be a little kinder to the environment. It’s a really thoughtful list with links to resources, so I thought I would share it here:
- Leave the car at home one day a week. If you rode public transportation or carpooled (or walked, or biked, or skateboarded…) to work once a week, you’d reduce your CO2 emissions by almost 2,000 pounds per year, save hundreds of dollars in gas annually, and feel great about your contribution to reduced traffic and improved air quality across Central Texas. Visit the Commute Solutions website for ideas and resources.
- Learn to compost. Take a first step toward becoming a Zero Waste household by attending one of Austin Resource Recovery’s free composting classes. The classes are part of the City department’s composting rebate program, which challenges Austinites to complete a free composting class, downsize to a 32-gallon trash cart and purchase a home composting system. Austin Resource Recovery curbside customers who do these three things are eligible for a rebate of 75 percent off the cost of their new home composting system, up to $75. Visit Austin Resource Recovery’s website for details.
- Adjust the indoor temperature this winter. Turn your thermostat to 68 degrees or below. Reduce the setting to 55 degrees before going to sleep or when leaving for the day. For each 1 degree you turn down the thermostat in the winter, you’ll save up to 5% on your heating costs!
- Replace a patch of thirsty turf grass. Commit too stop watering your stressed lawn. The drought continues, yet Austin is still dumping a lot of our precious water onto turf grass lawns. This year, take a fresh look at the area around your home and imagine how your new landscape will look with plants that are more likely to survive without extra water on your part. City of Austin Water Conservation has other drought survival tools at its website.
- Join a CSA. A CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture program, is an arrangement you make with a local farm: You subscribe up front, they provide you with local produce for a week, a month, or a season through a convenient pickup or dropoff system. It’s a delicious way to reduce the distance from the farm to your plate. Edible Austin has a list.
My husband and I are already members of a CSA (Johnson’s Backyard Garden) and we compost, plus we keep our house pretty cold (56 when we’re not there and 63 at night) but our front and side yard are all grass (the back yard is woods), and I stopped riding the bus in the fall as I had several appointments in the middle of the day that I needed to drive to from work, and then I got busy during the holidays and needed to run errands during my lunch hour. I’ve mentioned before on this blog that the cost of riding the Express bus in Austin is similar to the cost of paying to drive into work each day, which is unfortunate, but their suggestion to just try to leave your car at home one day a week is more manageable and I’m going to try and incorporate that into my routine.
Learn more about the Austin Climate Protection Program here!
10th January, 2012 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
Last week’s JBG veggie box contained dill, fennel, green onions, spinach, collard greens and turnip greens, all of which could be used in this recipe from epicurious. I changed the recipe below to fit what I had on hand, using collard and turnip greens rather than kale and chard, and leaving out the mint and regular onions (I only had green onions). It turned out really well, was great for using up veggies that are in season now, and was pretty healthy. Plus I used my own home-made vegetable broth for this recipe (See Carsi’s write-up for making your own veggie broth here. The broth was very easy to make, and considering it’s made using parts of veggies you would otherwise throw away/compost, it’s a lot better than having to pay ~$3 for veggie broth at the store).
Here’s the epicurious recipe:
4 cups water
8 cups (or more) Light Vegetable Broth or good-quality canned vegetable broth (such as Swanson), divided
1 cup (scant) pearl barley (about 6 ounces), rinsed
1 teaspoon (scant) fine sea salt plus additional for sprinkling
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil plus additional for drizzling
3 cups chopped onions
8 cups coarsely chopped stemmed kale leaves (about one 7-ounce bunch)
6 cups coarsely chopped stemmed chard leaves (about one 7-ounce bunch)
5 cups spinach leaves (about 5 ounces)
3/4 cup sliced green onions
1/2 cup chopped fresh dill
1/2 cup chopped fresh fennel fronds
3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
1 to 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 7-ounce package feta cheese, crumbled
Bring 4 cups water, 2 cups broth, barley, and 1 scant teaspoon sea salt to boil in large pot. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until tender, about 40 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat 2 tablespoons oil in heavy medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions, sprinkle with sea salt, and sauté until golden brown, stirring often, about 15 minutes. Add sautéed onions and remaining 6 cups broth to pot with barley. DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 day ahead. Cool, cover, and chill. Rewarm before continuing.
Add kale and chard to soup. Simmer until greens are tender, about 15 minutes. Add spinach, green onions, dill, fennel fronds, and mint; simmer 5 minutes. Add 1 tablespoon lemon juice. Season soup with sea salt, pepper, and additional lemon juice, thinning with more broth, if desired.
Divide soup among bowls. Sprinkle feta cheese over, drizzle with oil, and serve.
But wait! What’s that delicious-looking little roll in the background, bringing visions of Red Lobster to your eyes? It’s a cheddar dill biscuit, which was pretty easy to make with a food processor and made the whole meal more filling. I had more dill to get rid of, and these biscuits helped me use up a little more. This is also an epicurious recipe:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into bits
2 oz coarsely grated extra-sharp Cheddar (3/4 cup)
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
3/4 cup whole-milk plain yogurt
1/3 cup whole milkp
Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 400°F.
- Pulse flour, baking powder, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a food processor until combined. Add butter and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add Cheddar and dill and pulse until just combined. Whisk together yogurt and milk, then add to food processor and pulse until dough just comes together. Spoon 12 (1/4-cup) mounds of dough about 2 inches apart onto an ungreased large baking sheet and bake until puffed and pale golden, 12 to 15 minutes.
The soup was really easy to make once all the veggies are washed, and I think it’s a good recipe to make on a weekend and then eat leftovers of for the rest of the week. Making my own biscuits was fun but a little more work than usual for me (I usually would just buy some crusty bread at the store to go with soup), so I don’t think I would get around to making these ever during the week, but for a nice meal on the weekend when you have time to relax in the kitchen, it’s a nice touch. We also had some rutabaga pie for dessert (recipe here) to use up the rutabaga from the box, which was surprisingly delicious but unlike any pie I’ve ever had before. All in all a great vegetarian/local meal!
9th January, 2012 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
KUT has this story about a solar plant in Webberville, which just began operating, making it the largest operating solar plant in Texas. The City of Austin has a 25 year contract with the plant to buy all the energy it produces. Here’s an excerpt from the article:
The city of Austin unveiled the solar farm today, which is supposed to generate 30 megawatts of energy each year – enough to power about 5,000 homes.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) expects challenges meeting energy demands if the summer proves to be as hot as 2011. Trip Doggett, chief executive of the state’s electric grid operator, says he can’t say the Webberville solar farm will be able to solve those challenges.
“I would say every little bit helps,” Doggett said. “This is not a tremendous magnitude of additional megawatts, but every little bit helps.”
Despite the relatively small energy output, the Webberville solar installation is the largest in Texas.Austin Energy has a 25-year contract to buy all the power from the plant which will help the city along in reaching its goal of getting at least 30 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020.
9th January, 2012 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
The Statesman had this article last Friday stating that after receiving input from retailers, residents and others after releasing the first draft (which would have the total one-use bag ban go into effect in 2016), city staffers have released a new draft bag ban, which moves up the ban of non-reusable bags to 2013. Here’s an excerpt:
The City of Austin might ban disposable plastic and paper bags at checkout counters three years earlier than originally planned.
A revised draft of the ban, released Friday, moves up the date the ban would take effect to January 2013 from January 2016 .
The new draft would require retailers to charge customers 10 cents per disposable bag — paper or plastic — from June to late December, as a precursor to the outright ban. Under the old draft, retailers would have had to charge 25 cents per disposable bag from January 2013 to late 2015 .
A city commission will discuss the revised draft Wednesday. Austin Resource Recovery, the city department that wrote both ban drafts and oversees trash and recycling, also plans to hold a public meeting Jan. 23 to gather feedback.
The changes reflect input from retailers, residents and other advocates since the first draft was unveiled last month, said Austin Resource Recovery Director Bob Gedert. Some wondered why the city couldn’t enact the ban sooner than 2016. And retailers, as well as advocates for low-income people, complained that the 25-cent interim fee was too high.
The draft could be changed again before the council votes on it in March , Gedert said.
I didn’t attend the public meeting about the first draft, I only read about it in the Statesman, but it sounds like city staffers were convinced that there is a lot more support for the ban than against, so they came up with something that moves faster toward a total ban. Exciting!
6th January, 2012 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
On Monday I had a great time checking out Elizabeth Street Cafe for the first time. I don’t really follow the Austin food scene very closely, and didn’t realize that this restaurant, owned by the same chef who brought us Lambert’s and Perla, had just opened, although I did immediately recognize that an hour wait for a table at 2PM on a Monday seemed unusual. After putting our name in for a table and doing some research online about the place, I was a little hesitant because even though people seemed eager to get into the restaurant, the reviews on yelp were so mixed. But my husband and I wanted to try something new, so we walked along South First St for a while to kill time while we waited for a table to open up.
After our wait for a table, things went pretty smoothly with the wait staff, which was impressive considering how recently the cafe opened. Ushered to our table, I had the weird feeling I was in the old building that Bouldin Creek Coffee house used to be in. Turns out I was right, although they’ve spruced the place up so much that the formerly quaint/dilapidated coffee house was hardly recognizable at all. They’ve really decorated it well and I would go back just because it’s so pretty. But on to the vegetarian food!
As you can see from their menu, there’s some vegetarian choices but not a huge amount — the French-Vietnamese cuisine is fairly pork focused. But they did have a few things to choose from, and I picked the #49, roasted mushroom and grilled tofu bun. At $12 it was a little overpriced, but the veggies in it were extremely fresh, the presentation was done well, and I really enjoyed my meal. For dessert we had the caramelized banana pots de creme. At $8 I thought it was also slightly overpriced, but it was really delicious and I would get it again, so maybe the price isn’t that far off. All in all it was a really great meal and a nice, memorable way to spend the New Year’s holiday with my husband. Probably not the best place to go when trying to help the environment by eating meat less often (the best of pork smells wafting towards you from every corner), but still some pretty good vegetarian choices.
4th January, 2012 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
One of the Daily Green’s suggestions for 2012 New Year’s resolutions was to try and cut down on junk mail you recieve:
Each year, 19 billion catalogs are mailed to American consumers. All those catalogs require more than 53 million trees and 56 billion gallons of wastewater to produce — and many of us don’t even know how we got on so many mailing lists! So grab that stack of catalogs piling up on your coffee table and clear out the clutter. Visit CatalogChoice.org to put a stop to unwanted catalogs. Within 10 weeks, your mailbox will be empty of unwanted catalogs. A less cluttered mailbox means less pollution, less waste and less of the pollution that causes global warming.
So I checked out CatalogChoice.org and signed up. It was really fast and easy and allows you to pick which catalogs you don’t want to receive. I knew off the top of my head that I’d been getting a lot of West Elm and Victoria’s Secret catalogs even though I’ve never ordered from one of their catalogs, so I added those in there. Sounds like a great service!
30th December, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
Last week I tried out the grilled tofu at Lavaca Teppan. Located at 1712 Lavaca Street, this modernly decorated and very clean restaurant is a nice addition to that area of town. This was probably the fourth time I’ve been to Lavaca Teppan since it opened, and I’ve always thought the service has been excellent, and the food tasty. Not the best Japanese food in Austin, but still very good. They have a small menu, most of the items are a meat that has been grilled with vegetables and served over good sticky white rice. On my recent visit I tried the grilled tofu and vegetables, and wasn’t disappointed. At first it tasted like it may have been a little too salty, but they served the dish with a delicious ginger sauce that, once poured over my meal, balanced out (or overpowered) the saltiness and really made the meal. I would be happy just eating a bowl of rice and that ginger sauce, it’s that good. It was very filling but I didn’t feel like I had overeaten after the meal, so I think in the future I’ll stick with this dish when I visit. All in all, a great vegetarian meal!
29th December, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
Last Wednesday the EPA issued the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, the first mercury standards in the US. Here’s an excerpt from the EPA announcement:
EPA estimates that the new safeguards will prevent as many as 11,000 premature deaths and 4,700 heart attacks a year. The standards will also help America’s children grow up healthier – preventing 130,000 cases of childhood asthma symptoms and about 6,300 fewer cases of acute bronchitis among children each year.
“By cutting emissions that are linked to developmental disorders and respiratory illnesses like asthma, these standards represent a major victory for clean air and public health– and especially for the health of our children. With these standards that were two decades in the making, EPA is rounding out a year of incredible progress on clean air in America with another action that will benefit the American people for years to come,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “The Mercury and Air Toxics Standards will protect millions of families and children from harmful and costly air pollution and provide the American people with health benefits that far outweigh the costs of compliance.”
This will have a big affect on Texas, which has more coal plants than any other state. From CBS:
Texas environmentalists are cheering new federal standards announced Wednesday that will force coal- and oil-fired power plants to reduce mercury emissions and toxic pollutants or shut down. Power industry leaders, however, said the pricey changes could lead to layoffs and undo strain on the state’s grid.
Texas, which has 19 coal-fired power plants — more than any other state — and plans to build nine more, is among the few states still adding coal-fired plants. It also releases more air pollutants than any other state.
The new standards have an estimated price tag of $9.6 billion, ranking them among the most expensive in the Environmental Protection Agency’s history. The new rules were unveiled in Washington by EPA administrator Lisa Jackson.
“This is big. Texans shouldn’t be living with the health risks of mercury and other pollutants,” said Tom “Smitty” Smith, director of the Texas office of the consumer activist group Public Citizen.
“The only thing more shocking than the large amounts of toxic chemicals released into the air each year by coal and oil fired power plants is the fact that these emissions have been allowed for so many years,” added Ilan Levin, associate director of the Environmental Integrity Project.
According to Levin’s group, Texas is the nation’s top power plant mercury polluter, with its coal-fired power plants emitting 16.9 percent of the total U.S. mercury air emissions for 2010. The Department of State Health Services has issued fish consumption advisories for 300,000 acres of Texas lakes, according to advocacy group Environment Texas.
American Electric Power, the parent company of AEP Texas, has already spent $7 billion to reduce emissions since 1990 in the 11 states it serves, said Gary Gibbs, AEP Texas’ manager of environmental and governmental affairs.
He said the company isn’t opposing the new EPA regulations, but rather the time frame. Under the new rules, companies are given three years to decrease emissions of mercury and other toxins, and can apply for a fourth year to install equipment.
28th December, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
The Huffington Post has gathered several ideas on way to reuse your holiday wrapping paper, including ironing paper on a low setting (courtesy of Martha Stewart), shredding paper to make decorative padding for fragile items you’re shipping (courtesy of Instructables), and making decorative bows out of strips of paper (also Instructables). You can also save your holiday cards for next year and make gift tags out of them (Martha) or try to make small gift boxes out of them( craftypod).
I also found this earth 911 post about why you shouldn’t use wrapping paper to begin with, which would have been helpful if I had posted it before Christmas, but it still is good to keep in mind for birthday presents, Valentine’s Day presents, etc. The highlight is this:
It can often be difficult to find a location to recycle your wrapping paper because of the materials are typically non-recyclable.
- Wrapping paper is often dyed and laminated.
- It can also contain non-paper additives, such as gold and silver coloring, glitter and plastics.
- It can be very thin and contain few good quality fibers for recycling.
- It usually has tape on it from the gift wrapping.
Thus, the article encourages you to reuse materials (for example, gift bags, newspaper, tissue paper that items are shipped or packaged in) when getting your presents ready.
27th December, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
Did you buy a real Christmas tree this year and don’t know how to dispose of it? Good news! If you’re a Austin garbage customer (like a home owner or home renter), just put your tree out on the curb on your regular trash day and the city of Austin will pick it up. If you aren’t a regular Austin garbage customers, for example if you live in an apartment, you can take your tree down to Zilker Park. Either way, your tree will be turned into Dillo dirt or mulch, rather than sent to a landfill. Check out more information from the city’s website here (info on curbside recycling) or here (info on Zilker Park recycling).
20th December, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
This depressing news, courtesy of the Statesman, does not include all of the additional trees that were lost in the wildfires of this year:
The current Texas drought has killed as many as 500 million trees 10 percent of the state’s forest cover and the end is not in sight, according to the Texas Forest Service. Some of the hardest-hit areas are in Central Texas.
The numbers are preliminary, the first results from an unprecedented statewide survey of tree mortality across 63 million acres of forest land this year.
They don’t include trees lost to drought-induced wildfire — an estimated 1.5 million trees burned in the Bastrop Labor Day fires alone — or trees that have succumbed to heat and thirst in urban areas.
Though the estimated range of dead trees varies widely — from a low of 100 million to a high of 500 million — the visible evidence of the die-off is still “very shocking,” said Tom Boggus, director of the Texas Forest Service. “It’s a significant change in the landscape.”
And the stress of the past year of record-setting heat, high winds and low rainfall will continue to take its toll on living trees, whether or not the drought continues as forecast for at least another six months, because they have been too weakened to survive.
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