Environmental Enlightenment #3 (Support Sustainable & Socially Responsible Companies)

I'm banning all Nestle products.

I've been on somewhat of a documentary binge lately. A while ago I watched Tapped which was a film about the bottled water industry and it's detriment to society and the environment. The star of the film was Nestle who owns a wealth of bottled water companies and 5 of the largest in the U.S. (Deer Park, Poland Springs, Ice Mountain, Arrowhead and Perrier). Then a month or so ago I watched Flow: For The Love of Water which asks the all important question: Can someone own water? Think about it like this; Would you pay someone for air to breathe? You need air to live just like you need water to live. Why would you pay someone for water when you can turn on your sink and get it for free?

Organic Vodka

Until recently I didn't know that organic vodka existed. A couple months ago I walked into my local liquor store and there happened to be a woman inside giving out samples of various alcohols. She had me sample a citrus flavored vodka and then told me that it was organic. It tasted smooth and less harsh than any other vodka that I had previously tried. So I picked up a bottle of Moon Mountain vodka.

How is vodka organic? Well it turns out that Moon Mountain vodka is made from organic grain. You can learn more about their brand here. Just last night I tried their Wild Raspberry flavor which was equally delicious!

Environmental Enlightenment #2 (Recycling)

Recycling facilities and programs are different for each area. I can only speak for the area that I live in, which is Chicago. A while back Chicago had a blue bag program which failed miserably. The idea was that everyone could purchase blue garbage bags, fill them with their recyclables and then throw them in the garbage can with the regular garbage. The garbage men would then load everything onto the truck and sort blue bags from regular garbage bags. Sending the blue bags to a recycling facility. There are a few problems with this. Sometimes blue bags would rip open and mix with the regular garbage before they could be sorted out. Also, who wants to reach into a truck full of garbage bags to pull out the blue bags? Gross.

Bloody Mary with Bacon Vodka

This is my first culinary related post and I figured that as such it should somehow involve bacon. I recently stumbled upon a recipe for bacon vodka. You can find the recipe here:
http://www.browniepointsblog.com/2008/01/20/homemade-bacon-vodka/
(I always try to give credit where credit is due). The suggestion is made to try using it in a Bloody Mary. This intrigued me. So I fried up some bacon, waited for 3 weeks and just today filtered it. I tried it in a Bloody Mary and it is delicious! There are so many different recipes out there for Bloody Marys and some of them have some out there ingredients. I've tailored my own Bloody Mary recipe and adding the bacon vodka to it makes it perfect! Here is my Bloody Mary:

Environmental Enlightenment #1 (Reusable Bags)

My first step towards becoming more environmentally friendly was reusable bags. Easy enough, right? Well, not for everyone. People have told me that they often forget to bring their reusable bags with them to the store. I did this too at first. It's a habit that takes some getting used to and now I try to keep some bags in the car at all times. Still, I rarely see people in stores with reusable bags when I go out to do my shopping. Yet I see them for sale in just about every grocery store. Usually for $1 a bag. Not bad! I've seen reusable bags for sale at big chains like Target, Home Depot, Walgreens and Forever 21 (just to name a few). Even at places that sell the reusable bags it seems like the cashier is always thrown a bit off balance when I present my own bag. Again, I think it is the habit of bagging in paper and/or plastic that is imprinted into our brains.

The Purpose

I'm starting this blog as a place to document my experiments regarding cooking, gardening and becoming more environmentally conscious. I feel like my lifestyle is constantly changing as I become aware of new options and endeavors and I wanted a place to share my progress (as well as stumble upon other people moving in the same direction or have them stumble upon me). This is by no means a "diary." I already have one of those. It's private and handwritten (just the way I like it).  I just want to share information that I have come across that has been making an impact on my life recently. For starters there are a few books/magazines that have been very helpful. Such as: Fine Cooking, Chicagoland Gardening, Grow Great Grub and Sleeping Naked is Green. I'll go through each one and let you know what I've found to be useful.