Tessa's Profile

ebay

Chili with green olives and skillet cornbread!

Mashed potatoes made with yogurt (instead of milk or butter) were a chance discovery made by my house-mate a couple of years ago when she came home from working as camp staff toting a 2-gallon bucket of nearly-expired yogurt. In mashed potatoes yogurt creates a rich, tangy flavor - the combinations was was one of the best discoveries of that year, and it's been a consistent presence at my holiday table ever since.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! A friend of mine had one of these a few years ago, so when I spotted one at yard sale this summer I knew the treat I was in for. I separated mine (it had cloned a second onion, both huge - larger than my hand), and I've been experimenting with light and heat levels for them.

I do have one question. When I bought mine all the feathery foliage was dry and dead. The bulbs have seemed happy in my house the last few months, but they haven't produced any new foliage, even with experiments of more/less water or doses of fertilizer. Does anyone have advice on encouraging these odd little plants to grow?

Growing up near B.C.'s Okanagan I loved eiswein years before I would touch any other alcohol. The stuff's fantastic.

Wow. How many thousand for that baby?

It looks like a step up from the clear plastic we fastened across our windows for extra insulation when I was a kid. That stuff always wrinkled and created mind-bending distortion. The only good part about it was enjoying the normal views when we took the plastic down in spring.

I'd consider the bubble wrap idea if I needed a no-budget boost to my R-value.

Beyond materials, there's also the question of where your foam mattress will end up. About four years ago I toured the recycling and garbage processing facilities of Edmonton Alberta, at the time one of the most sophisticated systems of its kind on the continent (for the sake of our environmental future I hope the trash schemes in many other cities now surpass Edmonton, still if you're ever there I highly recommend the tour). Their system relies heavily on composting whatever will disintegrate, at their dump site as well as at the compost facilities. At their dump site the only recognizable substance was foam. Mixed into the disintegrating, amorphous sludge were sofa pillows, mattresses, pieces of foam still shaped like car seats or pool toys. It was striking and a little scary seeing how it almost refused to break down.

I like the shape and design process here immensely. The name seems rather odd to me, since it implies many languages' word for Library yet the shelves feel much more suited to light reading and knick-knacks than to serious book hoarding.

It's great to see one of Portland's many cob projects used on AT. Any thought seeking an editor from design- and construction-conscious Portland to contribute to your West Coast blogs?