emmmmma's Profile

Egg + Avocado is one of the world's best flavor combinations...

I've started organizing my books by color, though in different subsets of books. It's the compromise that makes it possible for me to have my books and my partner not to feel that the house is descending into cluttered chaos (partner's ideal would be to have closed cupboards for books and not too many...mine is to have open shelf after open shelf covered in books filling the whole house). So organizing my books, including cookbooks, by color is a nice middle ground between a book-lover and an aesthetic-minimalism lover.

It's actually looks much nicer and more calming, and since I still have the books by general topic, the "rainbow" isn't overwhelming or too cutesy. It just looks less messy, but I don't think your first thought on seeing the shelves is rainbow. So I think we have a happy median.

Re: Bananas. All Cavendish bananas (the usual yellow ones) are are extra susceptible in monoculture production; not just the Chiquita brand ones. That's because the banana is effectively a "clone" plant, where all of the fruits are 100% genetically the same (similar for potatoes, and each type of apple). Because they are clones, they get a higher dose of fungicides because if one plant is infected, they all get infected (see: Irish potato blight; demise of the Gros Michel banana); and they are particularly susceptible to pests for the same reason -- hence the super high amounts of pesticides & fungicides used on them. As Emmi indicates, however, a lot of these problems are reduced when more mixed crop systems are used (agroforestry, permaculture, etc.).

That said, I think the reason bananas don't end up on the list is because of their thick skin. I still try to buy organic bananas, though, (usually grown at high altitudes to reduce the need for fungicides), because the pesticides and fungicides used on them are particularly harmful for the plantation workers. Really horrible.

For more info on these: I highly recommend Dan Koeppel's book "Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World" for a discussion of the banana over time; it's a really interesting read. For more info on apples and potatoes, Michael Pollan's "Botany of Desire" is a good place to start (though I can't remember if he specifically addresses the clone aspect of potatoes).

I should also add that paper books can last a lot longer than our computer devices that have been designed to become obsolete and disposable.

I can still read my paper books from when I was a kid. The stuff on that Apple 2GS that my parents had at the time? Pure landfill fodder.

You can't forget the "trash" end of a product when thinking about its impact on the environment.

Alas, I abhor cream cheese appetizers. I wish I liked them, because they always seem so fun, but then I taste them and I'm grossed out. It's only recently that I've come around to plain cream cheese on a toasted bagel, but that's the extent of it. I can't even handle cream cheese frosting. Totally a fan of spreadable Kefir and Labneh, though. Weird, right?

I can't stop staring at the wine glass full of grape jelly. What is going on in the picture?

My in-laws have some sort of magic spray for their white carpets. It removes red wine immediately and with zero stain. This would be a more helpful comment if I had any idea what it was...

I always wonder what happens to all of the food that doesn't make it into the cute cuts. I mean, what happens to all the cheese that falls outside the edges of the cookie cutter? Does it just get thrown out? Or does the parent just take a really ugly lunch of all of the left over bits that don't make it into the kids' cute lunches?

I just pop a whole (unpricked & uncut) eggplant onto a dry pan (or on my cast iron griddle). You keep the heat relatively low, and then you walk away. A bit later, when that first side has mushed down nicely, come back and flip it. When the whole eggplant is brown and soft (after a couple of flips onto uncooked/unbrowned sides), then you can cut into it and scoop out the cooked eggplant. It's a super low-effort and low-maintenance way to cook eggplant for dips, and there is very little to clean up (it occasionally drips a bit, but barely).

I recommend a bit of butter and some vanilla. (You have to eat your applesauce warm, because the butter feels weird if it's cold, but it's super tasty warm!).

So funny. My hippie mother gave me carob chips, too. But I LOVE them still. It is such comfort candy for me now. No doubt because chocolate wasn't forbidden, it was just that we bought carob instead. Love love love carob covered almonds, especially.