Content related to Cooking, Brewing, and Recipes
The hateful phrase “good enough” always feels like a cop-out to someone who strives for perfection in all aspects of her life, but I’m learning to live with it during what has been a very difficult year. Knowing I wouldn’t achieve a perfect Thanksgiving dinner, even if I tried, my goal shifted to something far more important: spending time with my dad.
Many people associate monosodium glutamate (MSG) with Chinese food, but it’s actually in a lot of what we eat, whether it is added to processed foods or naturally occurring in more umami foods, like cheese, fish, and mushrooms. While it gets a bad rap, recent studies indicate that it’s probably not the villain it has been painted to be over the years.
It’s been a long year, and I was feeling too burned out for resolutions (of which I usually make at least 10). But what if I made a resolution to have more fun… and backed it up with my own data on how to do that… and employed a color-coded spreadsheet? I’m embarking on something I’ve never done before: committing to one single resolution.
Years of backyard composting has biased me toward aerobic compost, so when I had the opportunity to tour an anaerobic digester, I jumped at the chance. I knew very little about the process other than the fact that it created a lot of methane, which was a concern of mine. Fortunately, the team at Ecotone Renewables was patient with my multiple questions on the tour.
Gardening is a constant teacher. I’ve pulled garlic mustard out of my yard pretty inconsistently over the years, but now I know better. Garlic mustard is an established, invasive weed in Pennsylvania that can seriously disrupt the lifecycles of native plants and animals. With time and diligence – and maybe a little culinary creativity – I may yet be able to banish it from my yard.
There is always a line between appreciation and exploitation when it comes to what we put on our plates, and as someone who appreciates rare and delicious foods, I try to be especially conscious of when I am stepping over that line. Ramps, much beloved throughout Appalachia, appear for just a few weeks every spring, but their growing popularity is also putting them in danger.
Cast iron pans are a fantastic investment for your kitchen and for your family’s health, but many of us aren’t using them correctly when it comes to seasoning, cleaning, or even following proper steps while cooking. Although I grew up in a family that cooked with cast iron frequently and have a few of my own, I am still learning too.
They say that low expectations are the key to happiness – and there is some truth to that. While I didn’t have low expectations for Italy, I tried to keep them realistic. As is the case when traveling, we encountered inconveniences, setbacks, and even some scary moments during those two weeks, but keeping perspective and flexibility helped us laugh about them, if only in retrospect.
It is impossible to travel without creating an impact, and the one I talk about most frequently is carbon footprint. Ecological impacts from travel can be significant, which is why if and when I do visit new places, I want to make sure that my other impacts can be positive ones, such as supporting the local economy and being a good cultural ambassador.
Our choices about transportation options while we were in Italy were influenced largely by cost, convenience, and carbon footprint. While driving added some complexity and stress (navigation, traffic, tickets…) it also enabled some off-the-beaten-path travel that represented some of our richest memories of the trip. This post examines the benefits and drawbacks of various travel modes should you find yourself in Italy.