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From Our Blog Archives
Can cooking with friends help stop global climate change?
Mon, May 04, 2009
from Alison
Over my kids’ spring break, I headed into New York City to visit with my parents and spend a few fun-filled days enjoying theater, museums, great food and new neighborhoods. One of our adventures included a visit to the American Museum of Natural History and a stroll through its Climate Change exhibit. It proved to be an educational and worthwhile outing as my kids learned about ways to help stop global warming.
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The Shared Kitchen
Thu, May 07, 2009
from Shannon
When my friend Suzanne called to ask if she could cook over here while her kitchen was being torn up, I was thrilled. After all, I had blogged in the fall about how great it was to cook in my friends’ kitchens while ours was being remodeled. I had about two weeks at least of feeling kitchen-less, but also found it a great way to get to know neighbors better. It was the night before her son’s birthday, and he’d requested Pumpkin Cupcakes. Their family cooking team came over, and the whole house soon filled with a spicy pumpkiny delicious smell. We tasted one cupcake together (just to make sure it was ok) and the rest went to school with him the next day.
If you have a friend whose oven is broken, whose fridge is being replaced, or who otherwise doesn’t have her kitchen all together, think of it as a great reason to invite her over to yours to cook.
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A Sink for All Purposes
Mon, May 11, 2009
from Alison
A few weeks ago, my kids and I visited the Tenement Museum on the lower east side of Manhattan. This fascinating tour took us through several apartments in a virtually intact tenement building, providing a glimpse of the gritty difficulties of newly arrived immigrants.
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Co-Living
Thu, May 14, 2009
from Shannon
A woman I met at a brunch last weekend mentioned she, her husband and 5-year-old had just moved into co-housing. Right next to the gorgeous Arboretum, the co-housing is 40 units of different shapes and sizes for all kinds of people in Madison, Wi, each individually owned by a person or family. It takes an idea from Denmark and makes it work for today’s over-sized American lifestyle.
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Cooking for Cinco de Mayo
Wed, May 20, 2009
from Alison
While shopping in my local grocery store the morning of May 4th, the neat rows of tomatillos, plum tomatoes, avocadoes and limes were just too much to walk past – a sure testament to in-store merchandising!
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Composting Together
Fri, May 22, 2009
from Shannon
My latest learning adventure in cooking and gardening is composting. I’d always meant to do it. Saving food scraps to create homemade vegetable garden fertilizer always seemed like a wonderful idea to me. I’d save money and make a much better use for the coffee grounds, eggshells and citrus rinds filling my trash. But it took two neighbors to get me moving on it.
Suzanne’s husband Mike went to pick up three composters for them, us, and our neighbor Kristin. We would start this project at the same time, and hopefully learn together. Our county has a once-a-year composter special, where they offer discounted bins to residents. It’s such a big draw that the next day’s newspaper had a story about the epic traffic jam the compost-buyers created. I’ve now noticed all over our neighborhood, these compost bins are in more backyards than not, a testament to doing a little bit to make the environment better. Kristin took a class on composting and will be our “expert,” but I’ve already found it’s easy, our trash bins are less full and I can’t wait for it to “cook” enough to make my veggies and herbs grow even more beautifully.
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