Comments ruth117 has made

It is something of a paradox that North Americans seem to be so concerned about the Rainforest destruction (to the point of being choosy about the ingredients in their box of comfort cookies) when we are the ones who have destroyed our natural ecosystems on our own continent with little remorse. The native prairies which were here before european invasion were amazingly diverse with some biodiversity counts being just as high or higher than the rainforest. However native prairie has almost all been plowed up and are now vast monocultures of corn and soy and the plants and animals they once supported have been reduced to the point that almost all of them are rare or endangered or extinct. The American bison and Burrowing owl are no less magestic and "cute" than the orangutan and the ferns. 

It would be easy to throw up our hands and do nothing. To say that we have wrecked our earth to the point of breaking and that there is nothing we can do to change. But there is something we can do and it has to be together!! We cannot just say to the people of Indonesia and Malaysia that they have to clean up their act and do nothing about our own environmental woes. If we threw out everything in our cupboards that endangered the earth in some way there would be very little in there and we would have done almost nothing to put the native ecosystems right. First of all we need to learn how to get what we need from the land we have now without ripping up more of it. Then we need to learn how best to obtain the nesecities of life (not the excesses!!!) from less land and then the natural systems can start to restore themselves. This is not an easy task but one we (as the human popultation) must do. It can start with making your first batch of homemade cookies and end with saving the earth!

Make your own Oreo's!! from Smitten Kitchen http://smittenkitchen.com/2007/05/my-kingdom-for-a-glass-of-milk/ I did a while ago and they were wayyyyyy better than the original!!

Homemade Oreos
Let’s talk about the sugar for a minute, shall we? This is a sweet cookie. A good, sweet cookie. Yet, if you think of an actual Oreos, the wafers are fairly un-sweet and actually on the slightly salty side, which contrasts with the super-sweetness of the filling bringing harmony, happiness, yada yada. If you want your cookie closer to that original, you can take out a full half-cup of the sugar. If you want to make the cookie by itself (as I did a while back for ice cream sandwiches), go ahead and use the full amount.

Makes 25 to 30 sandwich cookies

For the chocolate wafers:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 to 1 1/2 cups sugar [see recipe note]
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) room-temperature, unsalted butter
1 large egg

For the filling:
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) room-temperature, unsalted butter
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Set two racks in the middle of the oven. Preheat to 375°F.
2. In a food processor, or bowl of an electric mixer, thoroughly mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, salt, and sugar. While pulsing, or on low speed, add the butter, and then the egg. Continue processing or mixing until dough comes together in a mass.
3. Take rounded teaspoons of batter and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet approximately two inches apart. With moistened hands, slightly flatten the dough. Bake for 9 minutes, rotating once for even baking. Set baking sheets on a rack to cool.
4. To make the cream, place butter and shortening in a mixing bowl, and at low speed, gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla. Turn the mixer on high and beat for 2 to 3 minutes until filling is light and fluffy.
5. To assemble the cookies, in a pastry bag with a 1/2 inch, round tip, pipe teaspoon-size blobs of cream into the center of one cookie. Place another cookie, equal in size to the first, on top of the cream. Lightly press, to work the filling evenly to the outsides of the cookie. Continue this process until all the cookies have been sandwiched with cream. Dunk generously in a large glass of milk.

Burts Bees good but not in Honey!!!

I have tried several Burts Bees lip balms
-regular (comes in a small tin) hubby likes it because it looks more "manly" and doesn't smell like flowers or fruit
-coloured: very shiny pink but worked well
-honey: works but smells like strong perfume! Yuck!

Full disclosure: we live in the Canadian Prairies where our favorite saying in winter is "Its cold, but its a dry cold" which makes our location the perfect lip balm testing place!!On A review of natural and organic lip balms posted 10 months, 2 weeks ago 17 Responses

Love the Potluck!!

Our corporation loves the potluck approach with each person bringing a dish and everyone digging in! You get a great diversity of dishes so everyone can find something they like and don't need to cater. On How to green your office holiday party posted 1 year ago 1 Response

Dion just doesn't sell well

Having had to suffer through the Conservatives continued cuts to the environment and funding for wildlife programs I would have to say enough is enough. However Dion just cannot sell the Green Shift to save his life (I am predicting that the liberals will be going down in flames this election and Dion will be out of a job pretty quick after that!) He comes across as whiny, confused and weak, even to those sympathetic to the cause. The Green Shift may be "revenue neutral" to the government but Canadians realize that even though they will pay less taxes they will have to face continued price hikes at the grocery store, gas station and almost everywhere else.

I would not say that the environment is not on Canadians minds however. I just think that they will decide to vote NDP or green rather than liberal (the Liberals were the leaders when we signed the Kyoto accord and then did nothing about it for the rest of their time in office, we realize that they are all talk and no action!!) Elizabeth May (the Green Party Leader) has some great ideas and I hope to hear them all in the leaders debate next week. Should be fun. On In Canadian national election, economic worries trump environmental agenda posted 1 year, 2 months ago 7 Responses

butchering is different from hunting

Roz I totally encourage you to get out and see the rest of the story ie the Kill. I love getting out each fall for an annual deer hunt and am starting to get involved in duck/geese hunts. The butchering is a messy job but the end product is the key. I am a trained biologist who realises that just as we can harm the environment by reducing a species to extinction through habitat loss we are also creating habitats where certain animals thrive to the detriment of others. Deer and geese are considered "nusiance" animals by some and are vastly overpopulated in certain areas of the country. This overpopulation makes for tasty eating!! Ethical hunting means making sure that you are responsible for the animal that you kill, using as much of it as possible. Thanks for the great article, I'm sure it would taste great with venision and geese too!On If you're going to eat meat, you can't shy away from the whole beast posted 1 year, 4 months ago 41 Responses

Ice cream and gardening!!!

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2004/12/campers_dream_i.p ...
Here is another product that isn't too expensive (about $25) and you can get some exercise out of it too!!!

Other than that I still love gardening years after my dear parents made me spend hours planting, weeding, digging and harvesting. It may sound like child labour but I just called it fun! My favorite was "sneaking" in to the garden and digging out carrots and eating them with the dirt still on them (built an awesome immune system) and "stealing" pea pods for an afternoon snack. My mom pretended to get mad but I think she was secretly pleased!On One mother's tips for managing summer eco-dilemmas posted 1 year, 5 months ago 7 Responses

Aren't they driving to the grocery store too?

I have a community garden plot about 20 minutes from my apartment and yes I do drive to the plot. However it is on my route to work and often I will stop before or after work to pick a few weeds and gather produce for supper, much the same way I go to the store on my way home to get grocery's. I don't think it increases my carbon footprint any more to drive to my garden plot. In the fall/winter I don't have to take as many trips to the store because of all the veggies I have stocked up. PLUS all my plants are soaking up all the carbon they can get!!

Beyond environmental reasons I garden because I love eating stuff I planted myself with seeds I saved from the year before, I love the feel of soil under my nails and I love the feeling of joy as all those little plants pop out of the ground and start climbing for the sky! Everyone should get to have a hobby and mine just happens to be one of the most environmental out there!

Like snowflakes we are each frail but together we can stop traffic

Yeah for recipies

Thanks so much for the great recipe, its good to know I'm not the only one drooling over the seed catalogues!!

While I know it is a bit early to think of putting up tomatoes, the home-canned tomatoes in the above recipe got me thinking. For the past two years I have simple gathered up my overabundance of ripe tomatoes gave them a quick rinse and stuck them in the freezer. Whenever a recipe calls for canned tomatoes I just grab 4 or 5 of them, dunked them in hot water to peel off the skins, chopped (very roughly, they almost disintegrate in the heat as it is!!) and threw them in the pot. It is probably the easiest way to preserve tomatoes for the home gardener/cook. And I am still eating my own tomatoes in a Canadian March!!

As for stray cats a good layer of mulch might work!On Warm up over a bowl of chili -- while planning your spring vegetable patch posted 1 year, 8 months ago 12 Responses