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Zero-Waste Chef
No packaging. Nothing processed. No waste.

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Posted on October 10, 2016by The Zero-Waste Chef
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Book Giveaway and Discussion: Building a Better World in Your Backyard
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UPDATE: the giveaway has now ended. You can still UPDATE: the giveaway has now ended. You can still join the Zoom discussion with Paul Wheaton, one of the authors, on Monday, August 10th. For free tickets, go to my blog (link in profile). . Looking for something to read? . Earlier this month, Paul Wheaton’s people contacted me about doing a giveaway on my site for the book Building a Better World in Your Backyard, Instead of Being Angry at Bad Guys, written by Wheaton and Shawn Klassen-Koop. The authors believe their message is so important that they asked if I’d like to give away 200 digital copies of their book to my audience. . I had to read the book first. I just finished it. I loved it. . We have reason to be angry. If you don’t believe me, go read any reputable news site for five minutes and try to stay calm (10 if you have a fuse longer than mine). Read for an hour and you may feel we are doomed. Spend a few minutes reading this book chock full of practical solutions and you’ll feel inspired to roll up your sleeves and get to work. . From Indiebound: “Make a huge, positive, global difference from your own home. Prioritize comfort over sacrifice while saving thousands of dollars. Explore dozens of solutions and their impacts on carbon footprint, petroleum footprint, toxic footprint, and other environmental issues.” . Go to my blog (quickly) to get your copy (link in profile). I think all 200 copies will go fast. But wait, there’s more! . I’m very excited to have Paul Wheaton himself, The Duke of Permaculture, join me on Zoom on August 10th to discuss his book and work! Whether you snag a free copy of the book or not, please join us and bring your questions. The link for tickets is also on my blog.
My sourdough starter discard jar overfloweth . Thi My sourdough starter discard jar overfloweth . This morning when I opened the discard jar to add more after feeding Eleanor, I found it filled to the brim. So it’s pancakes for breakfast (it’s a hard life). . Other discard recipes on my blog: 😋 Chocolate cake 😋 Carrot cake 😋 Waffles 😋 Crackers 😋 Pretzels 😋 Pasta 😋 Vegetable fritters 😋 Pizza . If you saw my Madeleine story last week, I need to keep working on those. They were cakey like Madeleines but needed a little something to improve the flavor. So I’ll have to make them again. Oh no, more dessert! . The discard is not only good for baking, it’s an insurance policy should anything happen to your active starter (e.g., you accidentally eat it all). My daughter had a 3-month-old jar of discard that just sat in the refrigerator while I was marooned in Canada (usually it gets fed more discard and that keeps it happy but this one was full). It had developed a thick rubbery scoby-like top so Charlotte peeled that off and composted it. She pulled a spoonful of discard out of the jar, fed that in a new jar and within a couple of days, the starter was perky and happy. She’s been baking with it since then. But here is the question: Is this starter Eleanor since it’s a clone of her or is Charlotte’s starter a separate being? 🤔 . Link in profile for a list of my most popular and helpful sourdough posts.
Reducing plastic is not merely about aesthetics or Reducing plastic is not merely about aesthetics or even the ocean. According to the film, The Story of Plastic, of the 86,000 chemicals in use in the US, 187 are regulated. Plastic contains thousands of chemicals, many of which are known to be hazardous. . Today marks the end of @plasticfreejuly. Looking for motivation to keep going? In addition to Plastic Free July, follow @storyofstuff @breakfreefromplastic and @plasticpollutes. Get involved. Sign petitions. Raise awareness. Vote for candidates that support an end to oil subsidies (your daily reminder: plastic comes from oil). . 2020 is a spaghetti year (and every year going forward). We have to throw everything we have at the wall—our connected environmental crises—and see what sticks. . image credit: @breakfreefromplastic
Small businesses are dying. . According to data fr Small businesses are dying. . According to data from Yelp, 71,500 small businesses on its site have closed permanently since March 1st. And according to the New York Times, Black-owned businesses are hit hardest by Covid. . When you shop small, your dollars stay in your community rather than going to the offices of far-flung giant corporations. You help create jobs. The people who fill those jobs go on to spend their paychecks in the community. The community grows stronger. Oh and small businesses actually pay taxes unlike some online empires that, using various tax credits and deductions, pay $0 in federal tax on billions in earnings. That’s right, you and I each pay more federal income tax than some billion-dollar corporations. When we shop with these wannabe monopolies, we essentially say we’re okay with this system. . Small businesses are also more likely to fulfill your outrageous, subversive requests, such as “please fill my jar with chocolate chips.” This past weekend, the staff at @countrysun_naturalfoods was happy to fill my clean jars with bulk food. The woman who filled them didn’t act as though I was a complete weirdo and she thanked me for supporting the store, which I ride just a little bit out of my way to do. (I also get in some much needed exercise—win win). . I don’t want my favorite small businesses going under and increasing that Yelp statistic. As consumers, we have a lot more control than we often realize. Shopping small is often not only more pleasant, it’s also a small act of rebellion. . What are your favorite small businesses and where are they located? Please tag them if they’re on IG.
Free stuff by the side of the road, edition no 183 Free stuff by the side of the road, edition no 183 (at least). . This camper oven and refrigerator might be the coolest discarded items I’ve found riding my bike around the area (I realize coolness is in the eye of the beholder...). It dates back to the 1970s. I love the color. (I saw it on the corner of Lincoln and Bryant. It might still be there.) . Other stuff I saw on a short ride last night: a very solid wooden desk, a piece of plywood we might go back for (to paint for a photo background), two lamps (different locations), a large wooden picture frame, clothes, CDs, board games and probably some other things I’m forgetting about. . We reached peak stuff long ago. Many people, stuck inside surrounded by their stuff during Covid, are purging like mad. If you want or need something, you may be able to find it secondhand. And if you dumpster dive during Covid, follow the usual good hygiene—don’t touch your face and wash your hands when you get home.
Free plums on a free background. . I’m tying up Free plums on a free background. . I’m tying up loose ends in my book and needed to weigh 5 cups of chopped fruit yesterday. A generous neighbor came to the rescue and dropped off several pounds of plums from her tree (thank you Shaula!). If you have neighbors with trees that are currently raining down fruit, they may be thrilled to have you take some of it. Several of you have told me that you’ve had success asking your neighbors to harvest their trees. . If you don’t have neighbors with fruit trees, you might find fruit trees free for the picking at Falling Fruit (fallingfruit.org). I’m in East Palo Alto at the moment. When I entered the zip code into the Falling Fruit map just now, dots too numerous to count appeared. You can also search for free food of all kinds—or post your excess food to share—on @olio_ex or, here in the Bay Area, @olio_bay_area . As for free backdrop... The other day, I mentioned to Chandra that I could use more backgrounds for photos. But I hate to buy things for a blog and IG that encourage people to buy less stuff 🤷‍♀️ So Chandra cut up a piece of plywood that had been sitting on his wood pile in the garage and his daughter Zora painted it this lovely shade of blue, using excess paint. . The fruit wound up in a crumble (swipe to see that). Fruit crumble is a delicious and versatile way to prevent fruit waste 🍎🍏🍓🍑🍒🍐 . Total cost of this photo: $0 😉
100 days until the US election 100 days until the US election
Waste nothing beet pickles . In the old days, when Waste nothing beet pickles . In the old days, when I made beet pickles, I wrapped my clean beets in tinfoil to roast them, then tossed the juicy, messy tinfoil in the trash. The vinegar was store-bought and any beet scraps went in the compost (at least I composted...). . Today I roast the beets in a small secondhand Dutch oven in lieu of tinfoil, I make a quick pickle solution using homemade vinegar and I save all the beet scraps from prepping to make a small amount of beet kvass, a probiotic savory drink. There really is zero downside to cooking this way. . Link in profile for the beet pickle and beet kvass recipes.
We can’t clean up or recycle our way out of the We can’t clean up or recycle our way out of the plastic pollution crisis. Reduction is the only answer. In other words, we need to turn off the tap of plastic production. . During our Monday Zoom discussion about The Story of Plastic film, we talked about solutions to plastic pollution. I’ve included some of these in a new blog post: “10 Ways to Turn Off the Corporate Plastic Pollution Spigot.” (Link in profile for that.) Below is the short version: . 1. Join @BreakFreeFromPlastic 2. Get involved in Break Free From Plastic’s corporate campaign 3. Do a brand audit and send the trash back to the producers 4. Divest from fossil fuels (plastic comes from fossil fuels) 5. Break up with your bank if it invests in fossil fuels 6. Reduce your plastic footprint as much as possible 7. Support small, local, ethical businesses 8. Vote for candidates that support eliminating fossil fuel subsidies 9. Get involved in your municipality 10. Organize your own screening of The Story of Plastic . The blog post includes more information on each action item. . Image credit: @storyofstuff
When I returned to California a month ago today, o When I returned to California a month ago today, one of the first things I did was start some preserved lemons. . I chop up preserved lemons and serve them on the side of dal, or I’ll add the liquid to the dal if I’ve run out of the lemons. They also taste delicious chopped up and tossed in a salad, whirred into a tapenade-like spread or hummus or vinaigrette, sprinkled on roasted vegetables, added to couscous or tabbouleh... You need only a little bit as these salty lemons pack a wallop of complex flavor. . For this batch, I used 8 lemons. I stuffed 3 with salt and packed them into a flip-top jar, and then used the juice of a few more to cover the lemons. Usually I stop there. . This time, I decided to preserve the rinds of those juiced lemon halves. I cut each half into 4 pieces and put the pieces in an upcycled peanut butter jar with salt. As I packed these in the jar, I was able to squeeze quite a bit of remaining juice out of the lemons, but not quite enough. I juiced another lemon, cut those rinds up and stuffed them in the jar with more salt. All together, I added about 1 teaspoon per rind of a full lemon. . I then topped the cut-up rinds with the lemon juice and stuffed on top of everything a couple of lemon quarters with their pulp. I set the jars aside at room temperature and checked for mold every couple of days. A small amount white mold formed and I scraped that off and composted it. . A month later, the lemon rinds have softened and are ready to use. So I’ve turned compost into an expensive condiment for $0. Store-bought preserved lemons, while totally worth the price, will set you back about $8 for a small jar. At least. These will keep in the refrigerator for over a year but we eat them within several months. . For me, using up every last thing creatively to make absolutely delicious food is one of the joys of zero-waste living, low-waste living or whatever you prefer to call it. . Link in profile for the basic preserved lemons recipe.
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