Homemade yogurt - If I can do it, so can everyone
February 29, 2008
Posted by CindyW in : Opinions & Thoughts , 8 comments
I can pour milk into cereal without spilling. Sometimes I can manage to make oatmeal without it boiling over. And, I can even put together a fruit salad. Yes, clearly I am a very accomplished chef.
But now I am proudly adding homemade yogurt to my virtually non-existent cooking repertoires. The best part is: if it is within my capability, a real kitchen maven can do it blindfolded and with both hands tied to the back.
Ingredients:
- organic milk (best whole milk. “drink whole milk, just less of it.” - Michael Pollan? Sounds about right)
- yogurt culture (it really means yogurt. To start with store bought yogurt is fine. I used my friend’s homemade yogurt to make the first batch)
Tools:
- a pot (small or big depending on how much you want to make)
- a wooden spatula
- a cooking thermometer (or you finger, when you have done it 100 times like my friend)
See, I told you it is that simple.
Steps:
- Pour 1/2 gallon of organic milk into the pot (or more if you’d like)
- Fill your sink or a large container with cold tap water (about 1 & 1/2 inches)
- Heat milk to boil while stirring (it takes like 3 minutes and milk boils over FAST)
- Turn down the heat to low and continue to stir for 2-3 minutes
- Remove the pot from the stove and cool it in the sink or the container that has cold water, until the milk is about 120 F (takes a few minutes)
- Pour the milk into a container where you want to store the yogurt
- Add 1 teaspoonful of yogurt culture (to 1/2 gallon milk. No need to be super accurate, you can adjust up or down)
- Lightly stir
- Wrap a bath towel around the container (to keep it warm for a while, so I was told)
- Leave it where it is not easily disturbed for at least 6 hours (let it meditate. Kidding. Apparently frequent moving/giggling/shaking messes up the process)
- Leave in the refrigerator overnight
- Enjoy
Though 12 steps are listed, the real work takes only about 10 minutes. Now that I have done it a few times, I wonder why yogurt making always seemed like a complicated undertaking to me. In fact the process is quite forgiving. When I accidentally put it a little too much yogurt culture, the yogurt is still quite edible, just a bit more tart. Another friend has informed me that if the same culture is passed from one batch of yogurt to the next for too many generations, the yogurt turns a little too firm at same point. Need genetic diversification? 
Now I am totally embolden by the simplicity of making yogurt, I may try my hand in homemade cheese crackers (thanks Crunchy Chicken, for the recipe pointer). Most likely to be a disaster (not low esteem, just low expectation). Will report back.
CindyW
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Doomsday Ark for Seeds
February 28, 2008
Posted by CindyC in : Opinions & Thoughts , 2 comments
Most of us are pretty familiar with the story of Noah’s Ark but on Tuesday, a “doomsday Ark” opened to protect food crop seeds. In the event of war, natural disasters or impacts of climate change, this Arctic Mountain vault (located in a remote region of Norway) will secure “biologic diversity for future generations,” according to the Norwegian Prime Minister.
Source: Global Crop Diversity Trust
This Svalbard Global Seed Vault can withstand natural disasters and even nuclear war. This vault is a backup to the 1,400 other seed banks around the world, some of which have been destroyed in floods or war. Countries can keep their seeds in the vault free of charge. Temperature in the vault is cooled to -0.4 degrees, which can preserve seeds for up to 1,000 years.
I guess it’s good that there’s a place to protect our food crops but it makes me sad to think we even need such a vault to ensure continued biodiversity.
CindyC at Organicpicks
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Junk food galore
February 27, 2008
Posted by CindyW in : Opinions & Thoughts , 6 comments
My parents are here visiting. Mom being mom, within an hour of her arrival she pointed out that my kids seemed to be less enthusiastic about eating their vegetables than junk food, say, Annie’s bunny crackers (yeah, I am kind of a sucker for these crackers, though I know that they are not much better than gold fish crackers).
Naturally I defended myself, “mom, that was a brilliant observation. But show me a kid that does not like junk food.” Mom snapped back, “uh, you and you sister when you were kids.” Hmmm, she must have selective memory. Not so, she explained that she almost never brought home any junk food. Come to think of it, she was right. Boy, was I deprived as a child.
My mom never hesitates to enlighten me that I am responsible for my children’s eating habit. Sadly she is right. Since I am totally gaga over my local farmer’s market, my kids get a whole lot of vegetables and fruit. But they do have a taste for junk food. As Green Bean has mentioned in one of her posts, organic junk food is still junk food.
Opening the pantry, I have to admit that there are quite a few bags of junk food – cheese puffs (but baked), cheese crackers, rice crisps, and Annie’s bunny crackers. The common theme clearly is crunchy, salty and cheesy
Hmmm, maybe she’s got a point. I am the one that brought junk food into our house and into my children’s lives.
It’s my fault? Wait, it’s my fault?
After much hand wringing, I have decided to cut out most of them, except the cheese crackers. I LOVE cheese crackers. No, no, I cannot participate (well, not yet) in Crunchy Chicken’s Project No Waste. Gimme back my box of cheese crackers.
I will only get cheese crackers from now on, no other junk allowed. Whew, that was a really hard decision! Hate when my mom is right.
On a second thought, perhaps I can make my own cheese crackers. The other day, I heard an interview with Michael Pollan (I love his rational and calm disposition). One of the things he said about junk food rang true. He said that eating junk food once in a while was not that big of a deal. Just make sure that you make it out of scratch. Now how many of us would make French fries from fresh potatoes every day? Not many, because it is a lot of work.
So perhaps I can learn to make my own cheese crackers. It would save the packaging as well. Cheesy, salty and crunchy recipes, anyone?
CindyW
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The amazing solar power
February 26, 2008
Posted by SeanS in : Opinions & Thoughts , 2 comments
The Sun supplies an average of 174 watts of power to every square meter of the Earth’s surface. That’s 89 petawatts worldwide – nearly 6,000 times the power used by all human beings. The total amount of fossil fuels used by humans since the start of civilization is equivalent to less than 30 days of sunshine, and the total estimated remaining fossil fuel resources add up to less than 39 days of sunshine. So why are we still driving in gasoline powered cars, living in homes heated by natural gas, and using electricity generated from coal? Why aren’t we making more use of our most abundant, cheapest, and greenest energy source? Because it turns out that transforming that energy into something we can use is rather difficult, and until recently the low efficiency and high cost of solar cells was prohibitive. But that’s all changing, and there are some exciting new developments in photovoltaics.
A solar cell works basically like this:
- Sunlight hits the solar cell
- Photons in the sunlight knock loose some of the electrons within the solar cell
- These “freed” electrons then flow through the solar cell, producing electricity
The problem is that many of the photons are either absorbed by, reflected by, or pass through the solar cell without knocking loose any electrons. The first solar cell, built by Charles Fritts in 1883, was only 1% efficient. This means it was only able to convert 1% of the incident light energy into electricity. Skip ahead a hundred years, and the efficiency of the most advanced (and expensive) solar cells had only increased to 17% - still too low and too costly for anything but satellite applications. But in the past twenty-five years we’ve seen that number increase to over 40% in the laboratory, and mass produced cells are now in the 10%-15% range. The general trend in efficiency is upward, and the general trend in cost is downward.
One focus of recent research has been to develop cheaper ways of producing the silicon necessary to build conventional solar cells. Currently it takes over two years for a solar cell to produce the amount of energy it took to make the silicon it contains. But new methods of silicon synthesis such as electrolysis in molten salt promise to reduce costs, and new methods of machining and thin-film deposition promise to reduce the amount of silicon (and thus the total cost and energy) needed to fabricate solar cells. Nanocrystalline cells use extremely thin layers to create flexible solar cell “sheets.” Organic solar cells use thin films of polymers to create flexible and potentially biodegradable cells.
Other research has focused on increasing efficiency. Research into multijunction gallium arsenide cells has produced the highest efficiencies to date – as high as 40.7%. These cells consist of 20 to 30 thin layers that are able to extract energy from the full spectrum of sunlight. This technology could eventually produce electricity at 8-10 cents per kilowatt-hour – about the cost of electricity today.
These are just a sample of the many exciting developments in photovoltaics. And as the need for energy independence and clean energy production rises, one thing seems clear – the future of solar energy is indisputably bright.
Sean, gearhead at large
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A Green Dilemma
February 25, 2008
Posted by CindyC in : Opinions & Thoughts , 3 comments
As more people become environmentally conscious, unexpected dilemmas and questions come up. Do I buy local or organic? Should I support carbon offsets? Is biofuel really a good thing? All good questions with no one “right” answer so we all do the best we can when making choices. However, a recent court ruling make me wonder what to do when no one is in the wrong?
According to this reported story, one neighbor sued the other because their redwood trees blocked sunlight to his rooftop solar panels. The California Solar Shade Control Act prevents homeowners from shading more than 10% of neighboring solar panels between the hours of 10am to 2pm; the law exempts trees existing prior to solar panel installation. After six years of legal fights, a judge ordered the tree owners to cut down several of their redwoods; the owners will not appeal as they’ve run out of energy and money to continue the legal fight.
Although this incident seems extreme, there is no apparent good or bad guy. The solar panel owner wants to maximize his solar input and his investment. The tree owners are not against solar power but feel that trees are a valuable part of the environment too. I’m not picking sides, other than the one that believes laws should aid in the practical implementation and resolution of the dilemmas we all face.
What do you think?
CindyC at Organicpicks
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And you spent your lottery win on that?
February 22, 2008
Posted by CindyW in : Opinions & Thoughts , 3 comments
I usually put on a headset and listen to my favorite podcast or music while running. But yesterday, somehow I misplaced my headset somewhere, probably in my pile of unmatched and holely socks. In a bit of hurry, I decide to lace up and run without it.
Big mistake!
Without music or podcast to distract me, I actually paid attention to my running route. Well, a mile into it, I passed by a neighborhood convenient store, with the huge sign outside – Lottery $176 million. When you put a foot in front the other for about 35,000 times, occasionally your mind just starts to drift into a bizarre place, totally out of control.
What would I do with $176 million?! My first easy “decision” was never to work for financial reasons again. All good, right? Would I build a big house, green architecture, of course? After a bit of internal debate, I decided against it. There really wasn’t any need.
Kids’ education, retirement, my parents, yeah, all mundane and boring stuff.
At mile 3, I settled into a grand vision: I would donate most of my lottery winning. Where to? You ask. Well, I knew there were like thousands of organizations out there that badly needed funding. But I had to stay focused – so it was decided that most of my donation would go to environmental organizations. Yeah, I was clearly getting carried away. But running on concrete roads can get quite borings now and then. So indulge my fantasy lottery game. Here it goes:
$20 million to Ocean Conservancy - our ocean is in so much trouble right now. A new research has shown that more than 40% of our ocean has been seriously damaged by human activities
(image: courtesy of NPR. Notice, there is hardly any low impact areas left.)
$10 million to Monterey Bay Aquarium – They are doing such a fantastic job educating the kids (and adults) about our ocean. And we visit quite often.
$10 million to Green Peace – I know their approaches have generated quiet a bit of controversy over the years. But while we were sitting here reading and complaining about Japanese illegal whaling activities in the Antarctic whale sanctuary, Green Peace was out there on the choppy waters and trying to stop the fishing vessels.
$10 million to Sierra Club – I’ve always been a big fan.
$10 million to The Nature Conservancy – Love their pragmatic approach. Get things done.
$10 million to National Wildlife Federation – I was brought up with tremendous amount of fascination with wildlife and the notion of co-existing with them. It is a huge failing on our part that our children are handed extinct wildlife species year after year.
And of course the local environmental organizations, such as Acterra and Save the Bay.
Oh, how can I forget Humane Society? Its members courageously put the hidden camera in the Chino Slaughter house and revealed the horrifying reality of industrialized beef.
At this point, I was at mile 5 or whatever. How much money have I given away? When I was huffing and puffing, I could not tally the numbers right, not even the straight-forward adding. Sigh. But I definitely entered into the endorphin-induced state of exhilaration. My fantasy took a life of its own. Yay, my favorite organizations were all getting funding from my big lottery winning. The Ocean Foundation, Environmental Defense Fund, Rainforest Action Network, etc., etc.
By the time I got back to my front door, I had managed to give away all my lottery winning (maybe more since I lost track of the numbers). You probably all think I am nuts. Strange things happen to sound minds (at least most of the time) when you pound the concrete for the 35,235th time.
I gotta find my headset for my next run. Or, wish me luck if I ever decide to buy a lotto ticket
CindyW
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A Cute Way to Recycle Sweaters
February 21, 2008
Posted by CindyC in : For Kids , add a comment
A couple of weeks ago, CindyW talked about her hording guilt and received some great ideas on how to use or reuse items. Last week, I read about a cute idea on recycling sweaters- by making them into soakers. To be honest, I didn’t know actually know what a soaker was – until my mom-in-law enlightened me. It’s basically a diaper cover – usually home made until the advent of the plastic ones.
Rather than using new material, soakers were often made from wool – as it is absorbent, breathable and often help in avoidance of diaper rash. A mom in Sacramento combined her artistic inclinations and the virtue of recycling and made this idea into a small business – Babycaper. All of the Babycaper soakers are made from recycled sweaters and hand sewn by owner, Majica Phillips. These soakers are unique, creative and look like wonderful baby shower gifts!
And if you are crafty, I also found a “recipe” to make your own baby soaker. So the next time you wear out a favorite sweater, try it out!
CindyC at Organicpicks
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Romancing farmer’s market
February 20, 2008
Posted by CindyW in : Opinions & Thoughts , 4 comments
The national buy love day, aka Valentine’s day is finally behind us. A few friends of mine have always told me that I am not the romantic sort. Is it because I don’t care much for the heart-shaped diamond-dotted pendant from Kay (as in “every kiss begins with Kay jewelers”)? Is it because I think Valentine’s day is nothing but an entirely disingenuous inane commercial excuse? Is it because I inconveniently pointed out that the beautiful bouquet arrangements they received had made growers sick and the land poisoned? Probably all of the above.
But that’s okay, because I define romance a little differently.
Romance, to me, encompasses love, excitement, yearning and the feeling of loss. It is everywhere if you allow yourself to feel it. And yes, it is in the farmer’s market I visit weekly.
As I said goodbye to the organic apple guy in my local farmer’s market last weekend, I felt this tinge of loss – of the honey crisps, the pink ladies, the Fujis that would not present their delicious selves until the fall, of the ruggedly handsome apple farmer who would always throw in extra free apples into the bags of shoppers, and of the bits and pieces of geeky “apple talks” (for instance, the scar-looking rings on top of Newton Pippins are caused by coastal fog).
Least you accuse me of being distracted by the good looks of the apple guy, I had the same pining for my tomato girls as they put the last batch of heirloom tomatoes in my basket last fall. It struck me that my love fest with the tomatoes had come to an end. But I also knew that in a few months, these two lively tomato girls would be back again, bearing the most delectable fruit to appease my yearning.
To me, the seasonal loss and pining is in itself a jigsaw piece of the romance of life. What’s the value of gain without the knowing of losses? In June when the first batch of tomatoes spill their glorious colors and aroma, it will make all the waiting worthwhile. Then comes the excitement, exhilaration and gratitude. Sigh…
Call me crazy, but that to me is romantic.
While I am at it, here is a quick list for my version of romance:
- Living an uncluttered simple life
- Eating and savoring with the season
- Seeing the world through the eyes of a child
- Experiencing nature in all her elements
- Spending time thinking, feeling and absorbing
Of course, I can’t stop without constructing a list of kitschy unoriginal commercialized anti-romance:
- Living a cluttered, burdened, and unexamined life
- Spending hard-earned money and precious spare time on buying short-lived products
- Subscribing to “romantic” ideas that are sold to us by product companies
- Trashing our living environment, with or without awareness
What are on your romantic and anti-romantic list?
CindyW
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High-pressure shower head is my right?
February 19, 2008
Posted by CindyW in : Opinions & Thoughts , 4 comments
Read this interesting story on my local paper this weekend: During the winter break, the housing authority at Stanford University sneaked into the dorm bathrooms and swapped in low-flow shower heads. The nozzle swap was intended to save 12 million gallons of water annually. The result? After a letter-writing campaign, a newspaper editorial and a number of students’ meetings with Stanford officials, the housing authority backed down and promised to retrofit the dorms with higher-pressured nozzles.
(courtesy of www.thedailygreen.com)
The forcing-green-upon-thee approach was clearly misguided. And if the housing authority did not actually test out the shower heads before their sneak attack, it should be chastised for wasting resources and students’ time. Still, though I have no knowledge how unbearable these particular low-flower shower headers were, I suspect there was quite a bit of not-in-my-backyard syndrome here – conserving natural resources was the right thing to do as long as it doesn’t impact me.
Perhaps it is a reflection of all of us, so accustomed to our must-have comforts. We must shower 15 minutes once or twice a day. Who among us don’t know people that need to the shower to “wake up”? And sadly we can’t imagine any other way. But with the impending water crisis, we won’t be imaging other ways for very long. “Our results (regarding water supply) are not good news for those living in the western United States,” wrote the team led by Tim Barnett, a climate expert at Scripps Institution, part of the University of California at San Diego. The water supply crisis is projected to arrive in the next twenty years. Barnett continued to say that, “there’s not much we can do to change that. We’re going to have to adapt our infrastructure and some of our societal needs to fit the way the world is changing.”
The following map is from the U.S. Department of Interior’s Water 2025 report. It shows which western cities are at risk for water crises and conflicts.
Sooner or later, we will all either have low-flow shower heads or stop taking luxurious 15 minute shower.
As a leading education institute with innovative thinking, perhaps Stanford housing can device new interesting ways of getting students involved in saving resources. Cap and trade resources (water, electricity, parking space, etc.) anyone? It’s actually not so far-fetched. The school I went to had a bidding system for classes, pretty fair based on years of practice. Each student was allocated 10,000 points at the beginning of registration. We could allocate the points and bid for the classes that we were most interested in. Perhaps Stanford can cap total resource usage points and students can bid for the resources most important to them, be it water, electricity, or parking space.
CindyW
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Consumers Say No to Packaging Waste
February 18, 2008
Posted by CindyC in : Opinions & Thoughts , 3 comments
A recent poll conducted in 48 countries show wasteful food packaging as one of the fastest growing environmental concerns for consumers. Half of the respondents were willing to give up convenience packaging, like resealable containers or plastic packaging that can be used to cook the food. Unsurprisingly, less respondents, about 30%, were willing to forgo packaging for hygiene or safety concerns. The survey also indicates that consumers are beginning to demand recyclable alternatives to Styrofoam alternatives, like paper, cardboard and glass.
And the retailers and manufacturers are beginning to respond to consumer demands. Demand for eco-friendly packaging and waste reduction strategies have increased. For instance, Wal-mart recently announced plan to reduce packaging by 5% and Target is looking for ways to reduce PVC in products and packaging.
We consumers, who care about reducing packaging waste, need to do our part by changing our buying habits. The EPA has a short and easy tip list on how we can help. Also, check out our friend at FakePlasticFish; she is a great example of the conscious consumer at work!
CindyC at Organicpicks
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