bein' green!

First, a present from Courtney:

Courtney and I got together on Friday night to go see the silent film "The Mark of Zorro" (accompanied by live organ!) at my church, and she surprised me with this belated Christmas gift! I have been reading the book all weekend, and LOVE it. If you haven't read this book yet, find someone to borrow it from, find it at your library, or buy your own copy! The book is conversationally-written, a quick read, and full of well-researched ways we can all cut down on water, energy, garbage, and food waste. Changes I'm going to make now: unplugging the TV when I'm not using it, buying a corded phone and switching to voicemail (I currently have a cordless phone and answering machine,) and using bar soap instead of body wash. Oh, and I'm always trying to take shorter showers. :) (Key word there is "trying.")

And, as a vegetarian and consumer of largely organic foods, I'm already pretty green.

Speaking of food . . .

I cooked brunch for Dan and I yesterday. I realize I've taken a picture of almost this exact meal many times before, but I had to show my nearly-perfect hashbrowns. The trick? Screamingly hot cast-iron pan, screamingly hot safflower oil, and careful attention paid to shredded yukon gold potatoes. (Oh -- and a pinch of salt. That's all!)

I made a lemon merengue pie for Dan on Saturday as a special treat. I had the opportunity to test out my Christmas present from my dad, which I've named the "snot-nosed egg seperator." Action shot:

While a hilarious idea in theory, the device doesn't actually work that well. My experience was that the yolks fell down into the nose cavity, plugging the whites from flowing through, and then the yolks broke. Alas. Still, a funny conversation piece.

After returning to my classic way of seperating eggs, (passing back and forth between the shells, and/or using my fingers,) I did manage to finally finish the pie:

YUM!

Lastly, vegan valentines:

My first foray into "Joy of Vegan Baking." I'll have to make the recipe as writ next time, because these just are not quite right. Oh well. Cookies are cookies, in the end, and they still taste pretty good!