Green Festival 2011

Yesterday I attended the Green Festival in Chicago at McCormick Place. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was very excited! The festival took place on Saturday May 14th and Sunday May 15th, but I only went on Sunday. There were stages where people were giving talks, a music stage, an organic wine/beer garden, renewable energy booths, fair trade booths, organic food booths and so much more! I was a little overwhelmed at first, but we made our rounds, I snapped some photos and grabbed a bunch of pamphlets. I'll post some pictures here and talk about what I saw and also what I bought.

Chicken Cutlets with Bell Pepper Ragout

I received my June/July copy of Fine Cooking and as usual flipped through and drooled over all of the awesome recipes inside. One of the recipes that caught my eye was Chicken Cutlets with Bell Pepper Ragout. This section of the magazine provided some great seasonal recipes utilizing boneless skinless chicken breasts. The main ingredients for this recipe had me running to the grocery store! It combines chicken, tomatoes, bell peppers and onions. Sounds delicious, doesn't it?

Environmental Enlightenment #16 (Reusable Produce Bags)

I've been taking reusable grocery bags on my shopping trips for quite a while now and whenever I got to the produce section I always felt bad about having to use those thin plastic produce bags. I tried to rinse them out and reuse them, but at the most I could get two uses out of them. I had no idea that reusable produce bags even existed until I happened to come across an ad for them in a magazine. Right away I knew I had to have them!

To Buy or Not to Buy Organic

I loved this book and learned so much that I didn't know about food and how it is grown! The book goes into details about how foods are grown, what type of pesticides/chemicals are generally used and why organic foods are healthier. It also covers 12 foods to only buy if they are organic aka  The Dirty Dozen, because of the amount of pesticides used on their conventionally grown counterparts. What interested me the most was the fact that the author mentions "going beyond organic" by choose local and sustainable foods. This wasn't something that I had given much thought to previously. 

Environmental Enlightenment #15 (Know Your Meat)

I'm about 3/4 of the way through "To Buy or Not To Buy Organic" and already it has encouraged me to discover where my meat is coming from. I'll review the book in a future post, but I do want to say that it brought up a very good point about not only considering organic foods, but also considering local and sustainable foods. Those organic grapes from Argentina may not be worth all the fossil fuels used to transport them to your doorstep. Anyways, it got me wondering where my meat is coming from. So I did a little research...

Chunky Fresh Tomato Salsa

Today I decided that it was time to pick some cilantro and make salsa. My favorite recipe for salsa comes from Rick Bayless. It felt very cool to be able to pick the cilantro myself and use it while fresh! I can't wait until my tomato plant starts producing... for now I have to use store bought tomatoes. Although I am lucky enough to have a nice produce place close by. The following recipe makes 2 cups of salsa and don't forget to have some Mexican style chips on hand for dipping!

Mini-Farming Self-Sufficiency on 1/4 Acre

I finished reading the Mini-Farming book yesterday and I was very pleased by the 200 plus pages of detailed information! Reading this book made me want to throw on a pair of over-alls, grab a shovel and get planting. Unfortunately, as it stands right now, I don't have any "land." The indoor garden is it for now. Although I have made a bargain with my parent's for some of their yard space and I fully intend on applying some of the methods that I learned in this book when I transplant some things over there.