I started this blog over three years ago and in that time, I don’t think I’ve done exactly a stellar job explaining why I focus on food. The short answer This quote comes from the introduction to a section on food in the book Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming, […]
food waste
Drawdown: A Book that Just Might Save the Planet
The bad news on the environment is as unrelenting as a California wildfire. We’re well over 400 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (scientists consider 350 ppm safe). A 2012 report from the World Bank describes the world as “barreling down a path to heat up by 4 degrees at the end […]
15 Ways to Reduce Waste in School Cafeterias
Recently a concerned mom asked me if I had any ideas to reduce waste in school cafeterias. When my email back to her grew longer and longer, I realized I had better just write a blog post on the topic. The school year may have ended (or will end soon) here in the US but […]
How to Prevent Your Sourdough Starter from Taking over Your Life
I’ll teach a sourdough starter webinar on Wednesday May 3rd from 4 pm to 4:30 pm Pacific time. You can watch it directly from my webinar page. Open the webinar up in YouTube and ask me questions in real time through a chat window you’ll see to the right of the video. If you can’t watch […]
Vegetarian Chili
I have tried to make good vegetarian chili many times over the years—and have consistently failed. Instead of hearty and filling, it had always turned out thin, soupy and unsatisfying. We eat lots of soup and I love it—when I intend to make soup. But I don’t like chili soup. So I consulted the expert cook […]
Minestrone Soup
I love to cook not-written-in-stone recipes. Add a bit of this, a scrap of that, taste as you go, repeat. For the batch of minestrone soup pictured in this post, I used celery, carrots, a bell pepper and potatoes that I had on hand and bought some parsnips and a turnip to reach the three […]
How to Store Produce Without Plastic
Read aloud in a Brad Pitt drawl: The first rule of food waste is: you do not buy too much food. The second rule of food waste is: you do not buy too much food. In an ideal world—one in which you have time to shop a few times a week at a local farmer’s […]
A Reorganized Recipe Index
The recipe index on this blog gets constant, steady traffic. I had originally organized the index into an alphabetical list but as I added more recipes, it became a bit unruly. I’ve reorganized the index with categories like “Ferments, beverages,” “Bread and sourdough” and “You can make that?” so you can more easily find what you’re […]
4-Step Meal Planning
Several years ago, I walked into my therapist’s office, sat down and said “If C goes away to college at age 18, I have 4,372 more dinners to cook.” If you feel overwhelmed by the thought of cooking dinner every night, I suggest you avoid making a similar calculation. Instead, I urge you give meal […]
18 Waste-Busting Ideas for Thanksgiving Dinner
I’m on a panel for a food waste Twitter chat November 15, 2 to 3pm Eastern. You can follow along with the hashtag #foodwastechat and you can find me on Twitter at @ZeroWasteChef. Also on the panel are Dana Gunders of the NRDC, the Save the Food Campaign and Sustainable Table. I hope some of you […]
14 Benefits of Cooking
Yes, cooking requires time. But I’m not advocating a five-course meal every night. Dinner can be very simple: rice and beans with a side salad; a quick stir-fry; revamped leftovers. I don’t cook anything very elaborate. I simply try to eat a healthy diet—one devoid of processed food. (Read this post for 18 time-saving tips […]