Impossibly Easy Cheesecake

I found this recipe in a Costco cookbook and it really is impossibly easy! This is my favorite cheesecake recipe that I've come across because it doesn't have a crust. I've never really been a fan of the graham cracker crust. Also, the outer edge of this cheesecake will cook a little bit more than the rest of it giving it the appearance of a crust anyways.

The Beginning of the Indoor Garden

I determined that the best place for my plants would be near the front window. The next step was to find a table for the plants. My mom helped me out and found a sofa table that is the perfect height for the front window and that matches my current coffee table and side tables. (Yay mom!) The table arrived yesterday and I put it together today... all by myself!

Environmental Enlightenment #6 (Picking up litter)

Since my parents scolded a drive-by-littering I have become increasingly aware of all the trash in the streets. Add to this the fact that the snow recently melted revealing a nice coating of trash (mainly plastic bottles.) In all seriousness it makes me feel gross. It saddens me to imagine plastic bottles being tossed out of cars with the thought of...? I know that people care about their homes and personal space and it makes me very sad to think that those feelings don't extend any further than their front doors. Also, the recycling drop-off center for my neighborhood is at the end of the block. Come on people! Combining all these factors creates a perfect storm of annoyances for me. So instead of complaining, I decided to do something about it. I'm going to set aside some time each day to go for a walk (exercise, yay!) and pick up trash along the way. I'll end my walk at the recycling drop-off center and return home with any un-recyclables. Of course picking up trash involves some precautions for health reasons so I will be wearing plastic gloves. I did some research and discovered that latex is in fact biodegradable, but landfills don't necessarily create the best environment for decomposition. On the other hand (pun intended) there is a synthetic latex glove made from Nitrile which most recycling facilities are now able to recycle. I haven't decided which glove is the lesser of two evils yet, but I'm hoping to make that decision by tomorrow in order to get this show on the road!

Environmental Enlightenment #5 (Composting)

Once I started paying attention to everything that I was using and throwing away I couldn't help but feel bad about throwing food away. Generally speaking I try to save leftovers and eat them later, but there is always that food that doesn't get eaten. Besides that there is also food waste such as onion skins, peels, fat cut off of meat, egg shells etc that we can't use for eating purposes so it gets thrown away.

I started to research composting. It seems easy enough, if you're blessed with a backyard. However, I live in a condo on the third floor (no balcony either!) I first looked into vermicomposting. They sell plenty of kits (including the worms) and it sounds like a nice little ecosystem. I feed the worms and in turn the worms poop out glorious plant food.  I poured over dozens of reviews and came to find that many people had trouble keeping the worms alive. Apparently they can be pretty picky about what you feed them. Plus, I wasn't too comfortable with the idea of keeping a bunch of worms inside my home. If I had a backyard or balcony it might have been another story...

Environmental Enlightenment #4 (Natural Shampoo/Conditioner)

When I first started looking into alternatives for shampoo I came across the no 'poo movement. Yes, there is a movement of people out there who don't use shampoo at all. Instead you can use 1 tbsp of baking soda dissolved in water until it forms a paste. This mixture gets rubbed onto your roots. Really you should only be washing your roots and only conditioning your ends. After rinsing out the baking soda then apply 2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar (mixed with water) onto your ends. And, that's it! I spoke with my hairstylist about this method and she said it would work, but it wouldn't smell nice.

Beef Braised with Red Wine and Chocolate Mousse

The boyfriend loves beef. He also has a bit of a sweet tooth. So I came up with this menu for Valentine's Day dinner. This was my first time trying these recipes and they both came out great! The meat had so much flavor from the red wine and the chocolate mousse was nice and fluffy. I came across the beef recipe while watching Everyday Food on PBS and the chocolate mousse recipe is from allrecipes.com. Let's start with the main course (this recipe serves 2).

Butternut Squash Ravioli with Basil-Brown Butter Sauce

It turns out that I had some leftover squash after making the Apricot Squash Soup. I decided to try out a new recipe with it. I found this recipe at allrecipes.com which I use quite often. The original recipe called for sage, but I substituted with basil because I have a plant growing and I love to use it! This recipe is fairly easy, but time consuming. Since I only had half a butternut squash leftover I halved the original recipe. The original recipe served 8 and my list of ingredients below will serve 4.

My Green Parents

I've come to realize that my parents are the ones who "planted the seed" of environmentalism in my life. Although they haven't taken it as far as I have, they recycle and reuse whatever they can. More-so than anything else they despise littering. I went out shopping with them earlier today and on the ride home the car in front of us pulled over to the side, slowed a little bit and the passenger tossed a bunch of garbage out the window! My dad sped up next to their car, my mom rolled the window down and they both yelled out the following statements of disgust: "The world isn't your garbage can!" and "Litter-bug!" I have to say that I was pretty proud of my parents.

Apricot Squash Soup

Time for another culinary related post. This recipe was give to me by my mother and it's one of my favorite soups to make during the winter.

Ingredients:
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cups peeled and cubed butternut squash
1 can (15 oz) apricot halves in extra light syrup, drained
1 can (14.5 oz) chicken broth
1/8 tsp pepper
1 green onion, thinly sliced

Royal Caribbean Cruise Report

I just returned from a Royal Caribbean cruise yesterday and I figured that I would write a blog about my experience and how it related to my ever increasing environmentally conscious life. Before I go into more detail I just want to say that I won this trip by entering a contest. I didn't go out and plan specifically to go on a cruise. My dad has a saying: If it's free, it's for me.

Before I left I looked into carbon offsetting my trip. In Sleeping Naked is Green she talks about carbon offsetting her vacation because she was taking quite a few airplanes to different places. She also mentioned an article she came across on treehugger.com comparing the purchase of a carbon offset to the purchase of an indulgence from the Catholic church to get into heaven. You can read the full article here. The idea of carbon offsetting didn't fit my ideals. In my opinion, offsetting does nothing more than clear a guilty conscious. So I went on my vacation well aware that I was going to add to my carbon footprint without offsetting, but I took some steps to reduce it as much as I could. I owe a lot to Vanessa Farquharson for providing these tips in her book. I fully intend to write her and let her know how much her book meant to me. (I finished the book on the plane... a little sad that it ended!)