I want to believe

The news is now calling the Gulf Coast oil spill the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history. This has led me down a very negative train of thought, not only about the current disaster, but what will happen in the future, for both the U.S. and world.

I want to believe that this has been the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history.

However, looking at what we have done already, I think we may have done worse (at least so far). From the deforestation in the early 1900s, to current impacts of sprawl, to water mismanagement in desert areas to pesticide use to greenhouse gasses that are contributing to global warming. I guess we don't count these since they are more intentional? Or maybe because they happen over a long period of time we're used to them...


I want to believe that the oil spill will remain the worst environmental accident in U.S. history.

We will see worse accidents, probably in our lifetime. While it's not inevitable, I think it's likely. We flirt with technology before we know how to control it, the government lets industry progress while the government doesn't have the technology to clean up the mess. We want to bury nuclear waste in mountains that will remain radioactive for years. We want to increase the number of nuclear plants. We want to get oil and coal from environmentally sensitive areas. It's true that our technology prevents disasters from happening on a daily basis (in this country), but the point I'm making is we're human. To err is human, and human error will certainly be behind the next accident. It doesn't matter if it's 99.99% likely that something won't happen. The low risk is outweighed by the magnitude of the potential disaster, since disaster only needs to strike once.

I want to believe that our government change regulation to prevent future disasters.

But I think that public relations firms and lobbyists that represent industry will continue to be the louder voice, and cause the politicians and public to believe them and what they say they're capable of. Industry has billions of dollars to get us to see their side, the environment and people supporting it don't have it, even though the benefits we receive from the environment certainly outweigh those we have gotten from industry.

I want to believe that our government will support our technological future.

I mean several things by this. The government needs to invest in renewable energy progressively. Remember walking on the moon? That was a 10 year goal thought impossible by many. If we seriously invest in renewables and couple it more efficient energy usage, there will not be a need to increase the oil supplies available to us. It seems like every renewable plan I've seen is so far in the future and so small in scope that it never materializes into immediate action. A 20% goal of renewables in 20 years doesn't even compensate for increase in energy use at the current pace. The U.S. government hardly invests in renewables. Worldwide spending on renewables is 38 billion a year (by the way, China invests more in renewable energy than the U.S.). Second, government needs to invest in public transportation with the same vigor it invests in highway and road projects. Part of the reason public transportation is not popular is that in many areas it is still a pain in the butt. Transportation is a huge part of our energy use. Along these same lines, we need tougher energy standards for appliances. High efficiency products often already exist from their development for other countries. They just don't always get to the American consumer. Anyone wonder why that might be?

I want to believe that our government will change regulation to reverse global warming.

I am so skeptical about this. I believe that many politicians realize the threat of global warming but try to balance scientific reasoning with other political concerns. Unfortunately, the environment does not care about political concerns, you really can't half stop global warming. Please listen to science!

I want to believe that ordinary people can affect change.

This is a hard one. I want to affect change, badly. But with the oil spill I think, there's only two types of people that had the power to prevent this disaster: the officials at BP and politicians. Everyone else can yell and scream all they want but we still would have been at the mercy of these people. I am surrounded by people who study the environment and we were powerless without others taking action from our research. And again, we do not have the millions of dollars that lobbyists and public relations firms have to make it sound like what they do is not that bad, or to get everyone else to question whether global warming is actually happening. And, sadly the environment has become a one party issue and is not enough of a priority for most people to vote just for that issue. But we can't live apart from the environment, and so I don't see what we can do other than vote for it. Vote in referendums for tougher regulation, and vote for green politicians. We haven't been paying off our debt, the price we pay the pump is not the true price of oil. The most change I can see most people affecting is their own. That isn't something to scoff at, but we need more.

For meringues, fourth time's a charm!

Normally I find meringues too sweet, but a few years ago I tried Trader Joe's Chocolate Meringues and fell in love. Of course since I loved the product it must have been discontinued, at least our Trader Joe's has not had them for about 6 months. I have tried some other meringues but they just haven't been as good.

I have been feeling more inspired to make meringues since we got an awesome stand mixer for our wedding, it whips egg whites into stiff peaks in just a few minutes. Above is my culinary triumph (I found the recipe here), the fourth time I made the meringues was a charm. I didn't know how to make meringues and was doing it all wrong. The first time I tried them, they came out too soft. It turns out I didn't let them dry out, and I probably used sugar that was too course to dissolve. And apparently you can only add the sugar 1 tablespoon at a time or the batter will become too moist (I don't pretend to know why this happens but I've decided to follow the rule). The last two times I tried to make meringues they came out like crackers. So the egg white part is very important. One, you cannot use pasteurized eggs, the heat damages the protein so it doesn't stretch as much. I tried this shortcut with the egg whites in a carton. Also, after separating the egg whites they have to sit at room temperature for a half hour. This also lets them expand more than they would if they were cold. Other things that meringues are really sensitive to: fat. Any fat and the eggs won't whip up. This means ditching an egg white that gets even a little yolk in it, and it means no plastic mixing bowls, since they can absorb fat. Anyway, if you have the patience for all of this, I highly recommend it, it was "easy" the fourth time, and I am also excited by how simple and cheap the ingredients are.

I also made a few other things this weekend:

Veggie pepperoni, a great high protein snack (recipe in Vegan Vittles, good cookbook too). I sliced it with the slicing blade in my food processor, which made the pieces thinner than I could slice.

Cinnamon granola with almonds and coconut, also yummy.

Wild mushroom risotto. The picture does not do it justice. We should've doubled the recipe because there wasn't much left it was so good!

What's Attractive

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

What does this picture remind you of? If you’re a dork like me, it reminds you of biology. Yep! There is a hypothesis that animals that are more symmetrical have better genes, and studies show that people with symmetrical faces are healthier. We humans are more likely to find other people attractive that have more symmetrical faces. Bill Clinton, George Clooney and Kate Moss are just a few people with super-symmetrical faces. Of course we aren’t that special, animals often prefer symmetrical members of the opposite sex. This functions evolutionarily because an animal choosing a symmetrical mate passed those better genes to offspring, whereas an animal choosing an asymmetrical mate with poor genes was less likely to have those genes survive in their genetically-poor offspring. So we’re left with animals with genes that find symmetry more attractive than asymmetry.

What blogging means

Since I've just started this blog, I've become more interested in what other people blog about. So, I scrolled through some on blogger, to what I assume would be a random sample of the variety of blogs out there. What I've come across: lots of family blogs, as well as several fashion/art, cooking, personal journal-type blogs, then to a lesser extent some technology, political, religious, budget living, and then a few random other things. To some extent these aren't surprising, I think a lot of people would agree family first, cooking and fashion are also things some people think about on a daily basis (although so are many of the things not blogged about as much). I am surprised by the lack of work blogs. While I don't expect people to talk about fights with their coworkers or the big deal that's about to go down, I am surprised that people don't say a little about what they spend at least 8 hours of most days doing. And while I think some of it may deal with privacy concerns, I also think that a lot of people do not consider their jobs blog-worthy (or meaningful maybe?). I also know that while I like my work, after spending all day working I often would rather spend my time thinking about something else.


I've also tried to think about what interests me and what I've written about so far. So far, a cooking day, a health post, a random post about Austin, and another random post about my day. So far, pretty random. Then I start thinking about what I'd like to write and I came up with this: a variety of cooking/food, entertainment, friends & family, news/politics, science/green living, status updates, and then random things that come to me. That's the new plan, trying to distribute posts fairly evenly across these topics. Stay tuned to see how it goes!

Sunday rituals

http://www.chemexcoffeemaker.com/

In spite of not having to be anywhere Sundays, I think I actually plan them out more than any other day. Maybe I like the control , maybe it helps me feel prepared for the week ahead. I often feel like without a plan the day can just slip by. Unless I have something more exciting planned my Sundays are pretty predictable. I usually spend a good hour doing nothing but being a bum a drinking coffee and doing whatever. I head to school, often around 11 when npr news just happens to be starting so I can listen to it while I check fish or prep a pcr. I spend about a half day working, then I come home, do a little tidying up or whatever else needs to get done and then call my parents, cook dinner (again around  6 when npr news is on again), then head to yoga at 7. When I'm back I usually take a shower, talk to Charlie, and then I will read or watch an episode of something before going to bed. If this type of day feels boring I can always do something else instead, but usually the calmness of this day is usually a prescription for a start of a good week. I especially have found the yoga to be great, in the past I've gotten too focused on everything thing that needs to happen that week and it can create a lot of anxiety. Speaking of yoga, I had not gone in two weeks and today it kicked my butt. I didn't think two weeks would make such a difference but I felt like a big bowl of noodles by the end!

Food day

So today was definitely food focused. In between cooking I did get some work done (went to school and did two PCRs! if that makes no sense you'll have to wait til later for an explanation). I started this morning going to the Athens Farmer's Market. It's still a little early in the growing season here in Athens so there was not as much fresh produce as I hoped for. I was hoping since it was an early spring here there might be more but I think it will be another month. I still got some apples, herbs, and mushrooms. Since cooking heats up my apartment and this is probably one of the few cool days we have left, I was inspired to spend the rest of the day cooking.

 I bought these oyster mushrooms today. Before I moved to Athens I'd never seen fresh oyster mushrooms. These made me excited because the Vegan Planet cookbook (the recipes are tasty but very involved) has a vegetarian recipe for faux New England Clam Chowder. I love clam chowder, but live nowhere near the ocean, and the cream base isn't exactly healthy either. So in this recipe, the oysters mimick the texture of the clams (they did a good job replacing the clams too). The main flavors that make this soup more seafood-like are old bay seasoning and kombu (a type of seaweed).

While the idea of seaweed weirded me out a little, I decided to try it anyway. You don't have to eat the kombu anyway, most recipes I've seen use it for flavoring (like you would bay leaves or cinnamon sticks).

Instead of cream, the base is vegetable stock with soymilk, miso, pureed potatoes, celery, and leek (though I used red onion). While you could never mistake it for a cream base (I mean come on), it still makes a very tasty thick broth that I think is a good substitute for all of that saturated fat. The flavor really did remind me a lot of clam chowder and I was very happy with the result, though I might up the amount of kombu next time.

To accompany the soup I made an herb bread (also from Vegan Planet) that was OK. The bread is fine but I can't tell that I put herbs in it at all.

Now this final picture is the reason I am probably awake. For Christmas Charlie got me Jacked Up Java Brownie Mix, which I can't believe I didn't make until now. So these brownies have chocolate, coffee, and guarana, and each brownie has the same amount of caffeine as a cup of coffee. I won't be shy, I know my chocolate, and these brownies are amazing! Fudgy and very chocolately, with bits of coffee bean and chocolate chunks. Perfect! Any calories I saved by making the healthy soup I used eating these brownies.

Will brushing your teeth give you cancer?

We have all been raised to give those pearly whites a good brushing. But as it turns out, toothpaste often has carcinogens in the ingredients. The chemical triclosan is a chemical commonly found in soaps, makeup, antibacterial gels, and yes, toothpaste. It is a dioxin, a group of chemicals known to bioaccumulate and can increase risk for thyroid problems, diabetes, and certain cancers. Triclosan is among 80,000 chemicals that are commonly found in household products but go relatively unstudied, according to a new report by the President's Cancer Panel. Other common offenders the report highlights include formaldehyde,  bisphenol a, and the pesticides that are used to produce nearly all conventionally produced foods (most pesticides are also very long-lived in the environment and in our bodies).

What seems the most messed up about this to me is how little these chemicals are labeled. Since I work in a lab every day, each chemical is labeled with its own hazards and we keep a material safety data sheet for them. How often do you seen a carcinogen label on your products? Instead, there's tiny warning labels at the bottom after everything else you've read. And with a lot of cleaners, even if they say to wear gloves and a mask, who does that? That's why I've switched to cleaning primarily with natural cleaners: namely, baking soda, vinegar, lemon juice, etc. Works decently, plus they're cheap!

So how do your products rate? See these links for cosmetics, produce, and cleaners. My advice is brush responsibly!

Austin, how I love thee

Last week I visited Charlie in Austin. This is a picture from the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, which promotes using native plants. And really, shouldn't Texas look like Texas? Anyway, Austin is such a great city, the favorite I've lived in. Just a few reasons why:
-No real winter
-Flowers and plants are in full bloom in March
-The city embraces a bat colony
-Kayaking and waterfalls in the city limits
-Public transportation that is affordable and near our house
-The city encourages conservation
-Did I mention the weather?

And not to mention, going to school, falling in love, getting married, and oh yeah Charlie is still in Austin.

Hello!

So if you haven't heard from me lately, I'm sorry! I've realized I'm really bad at keeping in touch. And given that I have wandered around six states in the last 10 years, I have resolved to at least keep everyone updated on what is happening with me. Since Charlie still lives in Texas and I'm going to school in Ohio, most of the time when I'm trying to catch it's catching up with him. Luckily this will change in August when I will be moving back to Texas!