green

This post is a response to the Show us your (plastic) trash challenge at Fake Plastic Fish: collect and document all your plastic trash for one week. Simple enough.

This experiment ran from 5/13/09 - 5/21/09, during which time I set aside most of my plastic trash (a few items went straight to the bin before I’d had a chance to photograph, but are noted below):

One week's worth of plastic trash (recyclable)

Recyclable Plastic

• 1 large container for strawberries
• 1 tofu container
• 1 empty okonomiyaki sauce bottle
• 7 newspaper bags: we get daily home delivery, and they’re bagged almost every day. We do use the bags for cat waste, so while the bags in the picture didn’t get tossed this week, relative equivalent bags did.
• 1 peel-and-remove seal from a carton of milk

Not pictured: two plastic produce bags

One week's worth of plastic trash (non-recyclable)

• 1 plastic liner from pasta box (liner thrown away, box recycled)
• 1 tofu peel-off top
• 2 packages for purchased travel chopsticks and carrier
• 1 takeout bowl and lid
• 3 condiment cups and lids
• 1 outer bag for yakisoba
• 3 yakisoba individual serving bags
• 1 outer packaging bag for okonomiyaki sauce
• 1 frozen pineapple package
• 1 tsukemono bag
• 13 feminine napkins (not pictured!) and wrappers
• 2 2-serving veggie burger wrappers
• 1 strip of plastic from a bag of tortillas (removed to open the package)
• several stickers from oranges, bananas, bell peppers

Not pictured: 10 wrappers from individually wrapped pastries for a party I hosted; 1 large bag for garden mulch; 1 outer wrapping from a multi-pack of paper towels

59 total items.

Results
While tossing things into the recycle bin instead of trash is second nature to me and I have a background hum of trying to purchase items without excessive packaging, I’d never really stopped to measure just how much plastic I’m acquiring in the first place. I was surprised at how prevalent plastic is in packaging. Less surprising is the fact that there’s more plastic in convenience foods (like the pastries) and wet foods (like tofu).

I don’t buy huge quantities of convenience foods, but the ones I do buy are precisely because they help save me time: veggie burgers, frozen fruit, tsukemono, condiments, tortillas. I’m not sure I’m willing to give these up just yet.

Harder, I think is, is resolving how to purchase wet groceries without plastic. There are sometimes glass alternatives, but that’s not always the case. Will need to mull that one over.

I also think that one week isn’t a realistic indicator of total plastic consumption. There are many bottles, containers, and packages that are currently being consumed or haven’t yet been opened just lurking on my shelves, so I plan to monitor this moving forward (albeit a bit less rigorously than this).

Still, here are a few of the things I’d like to change moving forward:

• Although this wasn’t a high-volume week for these, I do tend to use plastic produce bags for wet items like lettuce, small items like bean sprouts or mushrooms, or bulk items like oatmeal. I’ve typically recycled or reused these bags, but I’d like to explore re-usable mesh drawstring bags as an alternative.
• I’d also like to explore alternatives to disposable feminine napkins. I’m not a fan of tampons, but the pads generate lots of waste each month. I’m not sure how I feel about menstrual cups.
• Why do I not buy pasta and flour in bulk? I don’t know! There’s really no reason I shouldn’t do so.

All said, this was an interesting experiment. I encourage you all to try the challenge and track your plastic trash for a week or more! The results may surprise you.

This little guy was performing his morning ablutions in our back yard this morning, here pictured licking and combing his belly fur.

[click images to embiggen]

Our home butts up against a hillside, so occasionally we get critters in our back yard. They don’t often linger, but this particular fox seemed utterly at home, apparently content to sit and enjoy the morning sun. I was moving from window to window, trying to snap photos as it strolled along…

[click images to embiggen]

...and catching itself a snack for breakfast

Yeek. There was another squirrel chittering from the wire above as the fox nabbed and shook its prey. The fox’s fur was standing on end–you can see his tail has gone boosh–and the squirrel had just stopped struggling when I snapped the last photo. The fox then turned and trotted off into the hillside to enjoy its meal.

The squirrel on the wire climbed down and sniffed around the area where the attack had occurred. To investigate what happened? To remember the fox’s scent? Not sure, but it was all sort of sad.

The fox returned a while later, carrying a significantly smaller furry carcass in its mouth. Ewww…

Christmas doughnut.

New toy!

Are there any more presents for us?

Ted and I stayed home this Christmas, which means we hosted our traditional Christmas Eve open house. This year the forecast was for cold, wet weather so we thought chili might be a good dish to serve our guests.

Now Ted is typically the chili chef in this household, but because of scheduling he couldn’t prepare it in time for Christmas Eve this year. I’ve never made chili before, and Ted was fuzzy on details, so I went in search of a recipe I could use as a starting point. I found one touting itself as “The Best Vegetarian Chili in the World” — how could I go wrong?

Recipe Source: The Best Vegetarian Chili in the World by calead910

Notes and Substitutions: I diddled with this recipe a fair amount: omitted the celery, but added extra onion and an additional orange bell pepper; added about 3/4 of a habañero pepper for extra kick; pumped up the cumin and added an extra clove of garlic and an extra bay leaf; mis-read the recipe when shopping and bought only one package of veggie ground, so supplemented with a bit of soyrizo (soy based chorizo); even with the smaller amount of ground, it was looking a little lacking on the beans side, so I added and extra can of black beans.

We served this up with some shredded cheddar cheese, chopped red onions, sour cream, and cornbread.

Verdict: I really liked the way this turned out: very hearty, and tasty, and spicy (but not sear-your-lips-off spicy; the other seasonings added complexity and depth to the heat). I think I preferred the accidental ratio of more beans/less veggie ground. Ted is dubious about the garbanzo beans. I think they add good texture and mouth feel, but Ted thinks they don’t look right (although his objection is not strong enough to stop eating it. heh).

It was really simple to prepare and seemed to be a crowd-pleaser to boot. Definitely adding it to my regular menu rotation… yum!

Each December, a small cul de sac in El Segundo transforms into Candy Cane Lane–a neighborhood where all the houses are festively decorated to celebrate winter and Christmas. It’s great to bring a mug of hot cocoa and stroll the street, taking in the lights and music and dropping in to say hello to Santa. Here are a few shots from this year’s visit - enjoy!

Santa and Rudolph hit the links

Tropical Frosties

RAWR!

Chilly flamingoes

Reindeer runway

Trees grow a little different here

Late Jurassic/Early Sinterklaassic fraternization

Screening at Santa’s Theater

Santa in the isolation chamber

Beautiful.

Whoops - they seem to have been BoingBoinged… lower quality version on YouTube here

It’s been getting chilly lately, and a big bowl of steaming udon sounded like the perfect remedy.

Recipe Source: Me just screwing around.

Notes and Substitutions: I didn’t have any of pre-packaged udon with seasoning packets, but I did have a bunch of ingredients that might work well: soy sauce, ginger, shiitake mushrooms, kombu, scallions, spinach, and tofu. I just kind of threw things together in hopes of making something edible.

Verdict: It was… ok, but just so. Adding chili pepper really helped boost things a bit, but the broth was a bit bland. Still, it was hot a filling and the individual ingredients were pretty yummy.

I really need to learn how to make better vegetarian dashi so I can make last-minute osoba now and again without resorting the packaged stuff.

From the folks at Rolling Dog Ranch

I love tortilla soup, but most restaurants and recipes use a chicken base, so I searched for a recipe online with the intent of either finding a vegetarian version or making one meatless. Part of the allure of this particular recipe was the short cooking time, and the ingredients sounded tasty, so I prepared a double batch for a Wow we hosted recently.

Recipe Source: Emeril Lagasse

Notes and Substitutions: I used the poblano pepper for this recipe. Substituted veggie broth for chicken broth, veggie chicken strips in place of real chicken. I also added a a little extra garlic, a can of corn kernels for a little more chunkiness, and used bagged tortilla chips instead of homemade (but only because I was running behind; I’d probably prefer the latter). Topped with avocado and the chipotle crema, which is so tasty and so easy to make. After having a taste after the 20-minute simmer, I confess to being a little disappointed — there was certainly something missing. But after adding the final ingredients–cilantro, lime, and a bit of the Essence seasoning–really made everything come together beautifully.

A few notes for next time:

• wear gloves when cutting the chili peppers;
• add black beans as well, and maybe pump up the spices a little to compensate;
• try baking the tortilla strips as well as frying to see if baking is an option;
• blend half the soup to make the base a little thicker.

Verdict: Quick, hearty, and flavorful. I was slightly skeptical about getting good flavor our of a 25 minute simmer, but was pleasantly surprised. It got thumbs up from all who tried it, and we’re definitely adding it to the regular soup rotation.