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Letter from California (Part II)

Posted on April 9, 2015July 17, 2015by Anne-Marie Bonneau

Dear Reader, In my last letter, I wrote about the water conservation measures I have taken at home as the mega-drought here in California rages on with no end in sight. Although I am happy to have incorporated these practices into my daily life—I find them easy enough to do—ordinary citizens like myself do not consume the […]

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Reels of melting of chocolate in their plastic pac

Reels of melting of chocolate in their plastic packaging by putting them in a pot of hot water have been making the rounds. Heat, plastic and food do not mix! ☠️😵 Heat speeds up the leaching of toxins present in plastic into the food. But there are easy, plastic-free ways to melt chocolate.

You can use a microwave (ours doesn’t work) or a makeshift double boiler—a large bowl sitting on a small pot of boiling water. Add chocolate to the bowl and melt. Just make sure the bottom of the bowl sits above the water and not in it.

I used my melted chocolate to marble a couple of loaves of banana bread. Divide the batter, stir chocolate one half, alternate adding the batters to loaf pans, swirl with a knife and bake.

Strawberry blueberry galettes with semolina pastry

TP TEA in Cupertino is now on the list of Silicon

TP TEA in Cupertino is now on the list of Silicon Valley businesses that allow customers to bring their own mugs—or stylin’ @bettybobaco reusable glass and ceramic tumblers!—to fill with boba in order to avoid the single-use plastic. So much nicer to drink out of than single-use plastic.

Over 50 businesses are now on the list of restaurants, cafés and bulk stores that allow—encourage even!—customers to bring their own containers to fill, avoid throwaway takeout containers and reduce waste. (Link to the full list @svreduces.)

And if you'd like to start a similar initiative in your town, come to the next @usreduces and find out how to do it. (It's pretty easy!)
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#bobateahouse #byoc #byocup #reusereduce #reusables #reuserevolution #reusablecup #wastenotwantnot #sustainablelifestyle #wastefreeliving #plasticpollution #plasticpollutes #plasticfreeliving #plasticfreelifestyle #breakfreefromplastic #plasticisfossilfuel #lesswaste #lowwasteliving #intentionalliving #slowlivingmovement #artofslowliving #zerowastejourney #zerowastelifestyle #zerowastetips #zerowastechef #climatecrisis #siliconvalleyliving #svreduces

Focaccia is a blank canvas to decorate with food s

Focaccia is a blank canvas to decorate with food scraps that might otherwise go to waste. I embellished this whole wheat sourdough focaccia with an onion—including the greens—and a couple of radishes that I found rolling around in the bottom of the crisper. I found a spoonfull of capers in the refrigerator and tossed those on too.

Use your favorite focaccia recipe. This dough contains:
✨ 125 grams leaven (i.e., active starter)
✨ 350 grams whole wheat flour
✨ 150 grams all-purpose flour
✨ 375 grams warm water
✨ 12 grams course salt (plus more for sprinkling)
✨ 3 tablespoons (40 g) olive
oil, divided (1/3 in dough, 1/3 in pan, 1/3 on dough surface)

At the end of the bulk fermentation, I place the dough in the prepared pan and do an overnight cold proof, pull it out, let it sit for a couple of hours at room temperature, dimple, decorate and bake at 425°F for 25 to 35 minutes, or until the focaccia is golden brown.

Prevent wasted food and eat amazing bread!

🚨New recipe alert! Oatmeal chocolate chip cooki

🚨New recipe alert! Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with a sourdough flax egg🚨

I've been posting cookie recipes on my blog recently because a) I figure that while ChatGPT can spit out recipes, it can’t test them so for now I still have a job and b) I like cookies. Swipe to see what the chatbot came up with for a sourdough cookie recipe BUT bake at your own risk! I haven't tested that, only my recipe below.

3 tablespoons unfed sourdough discard, 100 percent hydration
1 tablespoon ground flaxseed brown or golden, finely ground
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup old fashioned rolled oats
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon kosher salt
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons butter, softened dairy or vegan
¾ cup packed brown sugar golden or dark
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon molasses
1½ cups semisweet chocolate chip pieces

1. Make a sourdough discard flax egg by combining the sourdough discard and flaxseed meal in a small bowl. Set aside to thicken for 10 to 15 minutes. Preheat the oven to 375°F.

2. In a medium-size bowl, sift together the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

3. In a large bowl, beat together the softened butter with a hand mixer on high speed until creamy, about a minute. Add the sugar and beat until creamy. Beat in the sourdough discard flax egg, vanilla and molasses.

4. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Mix in the chocolate chips.

5. Drop the dough by rounded tablespoons onto ungreased cookie sheets, 2 inches apart. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown. The centers will still be soft. Rotate the trays halfway through baking.

6. Allow to cool on the cookie sheets for 2 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack to completely cool. Store in a container for a week or the freezer for up to six months.

Remember to save this recipe!

Bringing home intact strawberries in a container r

Bringing home intact strawberries in a container rather than mushed strawberries (i.e., jam) in a plastic produce bag.

Your area’s food laws may differ but here in California, if I (gently) dump baskets of berries into a container or jar and return the baskets to the vendor while I’m at the booth, the vendor can reuse them. The baskets have increased in price over the last few years so vendors are happy to have them back. If I take the baskets home and later return them, the vendor can’t reuse them unless they first steam them with a very expensive piece of equipment that no one owns. The thinking behind this law is that the baskets become contaminated in our homes. So, if I return them to the vendor after bringing them home, they will recycle them, which is often more like wish-cycling.

Some of these went into strawberry-rhubarb galettes, some went into soda and some went directly into tummies.

What's your favorite strawberry recipe?
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#berryseason #eatseasonal #farmersmarkets #supportsmallfarms #reusables #reusableproducebags #jars #wastenotwantnot #sustainablelifestyle #packagefree #plasticfreeliving #plasticfreelifestyle #breakfreefromplastic #plasticfreejuly #plasticpollutes #plasticisfossilfuel #lowwasteliving #slowfoodmovement #slowlivingmovement #artofslowliving #zerowastejourney #zerowastelifestyle #zerowasteliving #zerowastetips #zerowastekitchen #zerowastechef #climatecrisis #thereisnoplanetb

Sewing helps reduce textile waste through repairin

Sewing helps reduce textile waste through repairing clothing or, if it can't be repaired, upcycling that garment into something useful.

Sometimes sewists can help reduce "waste" they may find on the side of the curb, like this electric Singer sewing machine I recently stumbled across. It needed a little bit of work but otherwise was in very good shape. These things were built to last.

I was very tempted to snag this but I have one sewing machine and two sergers and not much room for another machine and I'm sure it's long gone now anyway. I may walk over after I post this and see if it's still there though...

What is the best thing you've found on the street?
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#upcycledclothing #upcycler #upcyclersofinstagram #sewist #sewistsofinstagram #dumpster #dumpsterdiving #dumpsterdive #consumerism #frugal #thriftlife #thrifter #breakfreefromplastic #plasticfreeliving #plasticfreelife #lowwaste #simplelifestyle #sustainablelifestyle #slowlivingmovement #artofslowliving #zerowastejourney #zerowastelifestyle #zerowastemovement #zerowastehome #zerowastetips #zerowastechef #thereisnoplanetb #loveearth

Before I used one (and for a little while after...

Before I used one (and for a little while after...), I had a pressure cooker phobia. I worried I would blow up the kitchen. Now I can’t imagine cooking without one.

My pressure cooker cooks beans and legumes to perfection quickly—saving time and money (bulk beans usually cost less than canned), consumes less energy, helps keep the kitchen cool (less cooking time and also the heat doesn’t escape), requires less water to cook food (not much water escapes either) and I can walk away from it while it does it’s magic.

This secondhand pressure cooker cost $15 at the thrift shop. I’m using it with my induction cooker here, which saves even more energy!

Do you use a pressure cooker (or Instant Pot)?

Feed stale bread to tummies not trash cans! Stale

Feed stale bread to tummies not trash cans!

Stale bread makes delicious, package-free breadcrumbs. You can blitz pieces of dried bread in a high-speed blender or grate them by hand. After grating up a hunk of dried bread, I transformed the crumbs into crunchy garlicky bits in a few minutes.

For every 1/2 cup of breadcrumbs, use a tablespoon of olive oil, 1 large clove of garlic and if using, a pinch of salt (or to taste). Heat the olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Add the smashed garlic and stir often until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Remove from the pan and reserve for another dish (or just eat it immediately...so good!). Add the breadcrumbs to the oil and stir constantly until they turn a rich golden color, about 4 minutes. Sprinkle on salt if using. Remove the breadcrumbs from the pan to stop them from cooking and use immediately or allow them to cool and store them in a jar in the refrigerator for several days.

I sprinkled some of these on a kale salad tossed with wheat berries, chopped preserved lemons, fresh lemon juice and olive oil. Delicious! Because preserved lemons are so salty, I didn’t salt the breadcrumbs. These also taste great sprinkled on pasta dishes, vegetable side dishes or soups.

What is your favorite way to cook up every scrap of stale bread?

Sheet mulching the yard continues. "Weeds" covere

Sheet mulching the yard continues.

"Weeds" covered with cardboard covered with mulch helps suppress them. Depending on what you're growing, you might also add a layer or compost but the California native plants I've planted don't need it. They thrive in poor soil (we have clay).

Along with lots of rain, the atmospheric rivers this year resulted in lots of so-called weeds. Weed is in the eye of the beholder, however. The bees and ladybugs are pretty happy with all the weeds but the neighbors, not so much.

Last year, someone in the neighborhood complained about our weeds to the city, which issued us a warning to remove the weeds or have them removed. I envisioned lawnmowers destroying the tiny native plants out there so we pulled all the weeds. This year, I'm not pulling/sheet mulching the entire yard at once—I don't want to suppress all the weeds quite yet—but I'm doing enough to show progress 🤫 The native plants are filling in more now and providing habitat for the insects. These plants will eventually take over the yard and most of the weeds.

The cats (ours, the neighbor's) like to supervise in the yard or from the sidelines, sitting on sacks of mulch. Half-filled bags also make good seats for working in the yard.

We fill our free burlap sacks with free mulch from the city. Gardening doesn't have to be expensive—or involve piles of plastic.

If you garden, how do you reduce plastic and save money?

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