For D. Matson

Thanksgiving Cranberry Bread
From Recipes for a Small Planet

a 5" x 12" loaf of 12 slices

1 slice=approx. 5 grams of usable protein
11% to 13% of average daily protein need

1/4 cup butter
2/3 to 1 cup honey
2 eggs
1 cup orange juice
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 cup milk powder (1/3 cup instant)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup chopped nuts
2 cups of fresh whole cranberries

(1) Cream the butter and honey; beat in the eggs and orange juice.
(2) In a seperate bowl stir together all of the dry ingredients (not the cranberries); add them gradually to the liquid mixture. Fold in the cranberries.
(3)Turn the batter into an oiled and floured loaf pan. Back at 325 degrees F for 1 to 1.25 hours.


I've never actually made this recipe. It sounds good though. D. Matson saw my recipe post for Kitchen Sink cookies and requested this recipe. I'll try it soon.

Green Festival

Mark and I went to the Green Festival today. I hadn't been for the two years. It's a pretty intense event - so many people, and things, and information. It can get a bit overwhelming. Plus, the hippie quotient is pretty high. I'm better at co-existing at sometimes than others. If I'm not feeling good about how I'm living, the sight of a long-haired, tie-dyed, vegan hippie, triggers even more self-loathing and guilt. It brings up all of the coulda, shoulda, woulda's. I could've joined a commune. I should be a vegatarian. I would've been a good farmer. You get the idea. But, today, it's ok. I've even been actually looking forward to going to the green festival for several weeks now. Specifically, I was looking forward to being reminded that I have many good choices in the market place (most of the festival space is taken up by "green" vendors) and to seeing two of my favorite authors speak.

Mark dropped me off just in time for me to catch Paul Hawken speak. (He parked the car three blocks away and walked back in the rain.) Paul Hawken wrote The Ecology of Commerce which was a hugely influential book my freshman year of college. His book basically inspired me to create my major in Environmental Economics. The idea is that the marketplace doesn't have to be at odds with the environment. It can be used as a positive force. I can choose to use my money in ways that don't harm the earth - organic, reused, donations - and that if we each do that, it will make a huge difference. And it has. The number of sustainable choices we have has grown tremendously! His talk today was based on his new book Blessed Unrest, about the massive movement of social justice and environmental non-governmental organizations in the world. It's way bigger than the Catholic church. Definetly a source of hope. We're not as well organized as the church, but we're just getting started.

The other speaker I was excited to hear was Lynn Twist, author of The Soul of Money. This was a hugely influential book for me in 2002, when I started fundraising at CGF. It's a little harder to summarize her talk. The idea is that we're trapped by money, something we created. Scarcity is a myth and there's enough to go around. I highly recommend reading her book. I got a lot out of it.

Other things from the festival:
Shelter Books - cool books on building sustainable housing
Presidio MBA - a master's degree in sustainable business
Honest Kids - yummy beverages, disposable containers, but organic
Seeds of Change - certified, organic chocolate - and they gave me two bars!
San Francisco Green Map - a map of school gardens, green schools, special trees, and labyrinths, among other things
Living Crafts - great new magazine that features craft projects that I actually want to make, many are kid-friendly
Renegade Lunch Lady - from the Organic Valley vendors, who make excellent chocolate milk, I got a little booklet about Chef Ann and her work in school cafeterias
The Pachamama Alliance - a group that Lynn Twist helped start, that works to protect the Amazonian Rain Forest by partnering with the local peoples. I really like their idea of the new moon program. I'll probably incorporate something like that into my goddess gatherings. (and I have a problem with hippies?)
Green Clean - they don't have a website, but they're our cleaners (Yes, we have cleaners. It's worth it. Trust me.) and they do an excellent job without all of the chemicals
And the best for last...
Save a Snowman - I LOVE THIS!

The punchline - After a day being green, nothing sounded better for dinner than some good Soul Food. So, I took Mark to Hard Knox Cafe where I had some of the best EVAH fried chicken. So good.

Good in Bed

That got your attention!

It's a book I just finished tonight by Jennifer Weiner. I laughed. I cried. I winced. I savored. It was a thoroughly enjoyable book. Seriously, if you haven't read it, check it out. She also has a blog, called SnarkSpot, where she writes about writing, being a mother, being pregnant, and news in general. Oh, and she also wrote In Her Shoes, which was made into a movie a couple of years about starring Cameron Diaz. I haven't seen it yet, but it's in my NetFlix queue. I'll wait to read the book first.

I read this book thanks to the book club I'm in. We've been meeting for about a year. I haven't read the book for every month, but I have read more and different things than I would have chosen for myself. Plus, it guarentees that at least once a month, I get together with my ladies to connect.

Photossss

I got a new camera last week! It's sooo awesome! It's a Canon Powershot G9. My favorite thing about it so far is that it does great close-ups.

This is the same flower with my grubby fingers for scale. My camera is a mere 1 cm away!

AND I'm posting a few photos on my photoblog, for the first time in a year and a half. There's a little bit of a back log, so some of the photos are from 2005. In about three weeks, it'll get to photos from my new camera. Check back regularly. Maybe I'll keep it up for awhile.