Green Eating: The Rhubarb Story

Attempt number one at Greener Eating by using local produce was successful. I made Rhubarb Bread I from the Allrecipes website with a few alterations (I added 1/3 c applesauce for half of the oil, used 1/2 whole wheat and 1/2 regular flour and used only 1 c of brown sugar).

It tasted really good and the whole family ate it up. Scout did pick out the "squishy pink stuff"...so much for getting Scout on board with local eating.

I'm still on the lookout for a non-dessert rhubarb recipe but I can't bring myself to make rhubarb soup. We'll see if I can get Troy to eat pork chops with rhubarb chutney...that should be a fun challenge!

Rhubarb Bread I

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 2/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 cups chopped rhubarb
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon butter, melted

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Lightly grease two 9x5 inch loaf pans. In a small bowl, stir together milk, lemon juice and vanilla; let stand for 10 minutes.
2. In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups brown sugar, oil and egg. Combine the flour, salt and baking soda, stir into sugar mixture alternately with the milk mixture just until combined. Fold in rhubarb and nuts. Pour batter into prepared loaf pans.
3. In a small bowl, combine 1/4 cup brown sugar, cinnamon and butter. Sprinkle this mixture over the unbaked loaves.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a loaf comes out clean.

Gomms Go Green: An Update

I found a list of "easy" ways to reduce your family's impact on the environment. One of the first things they recommend is to eat locally.

Great idea right? It reduces the travel time, and therefore the carbon footprint, of the ingredients in your meals and it supports the local economy. Oregon is notoriously organic (psycho-hippy might be more accurate) so not only will the food will be fresher, it is likely to be more healthy or at least not so be-chemicaled.

I found a website for finding your locally grown/raised foods:

http://www.nrdc.org/health/foodmiles/default.asp

So I entered my information. So excited to find out what I can buy here or what new exciting things I will find to incorporate into our meals!

Where do I live? Oregon.

What season is it? Late April.

What amazing new locally grown foods will we get to eat for the next few weeks? Rhubarb.

Rhubarb.

What?!

OK so for the next 2 weeks I will be trying my darndest to figure out a recipe that meets the following criteria:

• My family will eat it
• It contains rhubarb as a major ingredient
• It isn't pie (not that I don't like pie but finding new sweet treats that are environmentally friendly isn't really the point)

Anybody got any ideas? I mean really...Rhubarb???

The Gomms Go Green

I've decided global warming is a bad idea and we should stop it immediately. We've taken drastic measures to go green. Here is a glimpse into our journey.

Step One: made the background of our website green.

Step Two: wrote a smug self-congratulatory Al-Gore-at-the-Academy-Awards-style blog post

Step Three: bought a couple of those green reusable bags from WinCo

Step Four: left said bags at home when I next went shopping but DIDN'T waste all the gas to go back home and get them.

Step Five: thought about teaching the kids the mantra of my grandpa "If it's yellow stay mellow. If it's brown flush it down" and decided I'd rather pay some guy a couple bucks to sprinkle plankton in the Pacific Ocean to offset the excess toilet water.

Step Six: felt superior remembering using cloth diapers on Random.

Step Seven: Read this (thanks Ellisa) and then felt superior remembering using disposable diapers on Savannah & Scout.

Step Eight: pulled out the dryer, removed the back and cleaned out the vent with the vacuum. No really...that's a good one.

Step Nine: Troy started walking to work...that's a good one too....and I'd really like to take credit for it but pretty much I'm just the cheer squad. Goooo Troy!

Step Ten: started bandying about phrases such as "carbon footprint" and "local provenance"

I hope this has helped you catch the vision of environmental consciousness.

In all seriousness...have any of you found ways to be more environmentally friendly without breaking the budget or recycling your kids in for a "greener" model?