One Chicken, Two Meals
Roasting a whole chicken is one of the easiest ways to make a delicious meal. And then when you’re done with it, you can get a whole second meal out of the carcass.
Most contemporary Americans go straight for the boneless chicken breasts when shopping for poultry, but not only are they expensive, those little cutlets are lacking in flavor and doomed to end up dry and mediochre on your plate. I recommend going for a nice big hunk of bone-in chicken, like wings and legs (great for the BBQ), and I’ma particularly big fan of the whole chicken. This is how most chickens come at the farmers market, and pound-for-pound it’s the cheapest way to buy a bird.
Roasting chicken is easy. You simply rub it down with salt and pepper, put it in a pan and throw it in the oven at 450 degrees for about an hour to an hour and a half. Don’t cover it, don’t stuff it (make sure there isn’t a bag of organs in there, though) – just put it in the oven and watch TV or something until an hour has passed. You can tell it’s done because the skin gets a beautiful golden brown color. Take it out of the oven, spoon some juice from the bottom of the pan onto to the top to give it a nice, juicy shine and let it rest for a couple minutes before diving in and carving it up. It goes great with potatoes and winter root veggies (throw them in the oven in a different pan while the bird is cooking), or with a salad in the summer time.
Once you’ve gobbled (clucked?) up the roaster, hold on to the leftover carcass. It’s still good.You can pick the extra meat off the bones and make a nice chicken salad sandwich with it, or put the meat aside and use it in a chicken soup. The rest of the carcass gets thrown in a pot – skin, bones and all – and boiled in several cups of water until you’ve got a nice broth. Don’t stir the chicken while it’s boiling – you want to leave it alone and get a nice, clear broth out of it.
Usually I use my chicken broth in chicken soup (broth, salt, chicken, onions and veggies – very simple and delicious). But you can also use it in sauces, polenta, stir fry or anything else that calls for broth. This time I made a nice borscht with it. (more…)
EPA Bags Eco-Fugitive in Florida
Last night the Associated Press released a breaking story about the shooting and capture of Larkin Baggett, a Utah-based chemical company owner who was wanted by the EPA for illegally disposing of hazardous waste. The EPA was tipped off about Baggett’s whereabouts after listing him as a wanted fugitive on the Criminal Enforcement section of their website, and found him in the Florida Keys yesteday where the manhunt ended in a hail of bullets. Baggett reportedly pulled out a gun when confronted by officials, who in turn shot him twice, arrested him, and brought him to a Miami hospital where he remains in critical condition.
It’s not easy enforcing environmental protection law, so back in December of last year Bush Administration EPA officials set up a webpage on the that features a saloon-style bulletin board of EPA Fugitive wanted posters. The fugitives include hazardous waste dumpers and importers of emissions-spewing vehicles and ozone-depleting chemicles, and grainy photographs of their two dozen sad faces are posted on the page along with short descriptions of their wrongdoings and last known whereabouts.
Baggett was the first EPA fugitive to be identified and captured using the Agency’s online list. When the list was first published back in December, environmentalists doubted that the digital wanted posters would help bring eco-violators to justice. Under the current administration, however, the EPA has been newly empowered and seems genuinely interested in enforcing environmental law. The story of Larkin Baggett may only be the first of its kind as the EPA enters into a new era of environmental protection by all means necessary (including the use of deadly force).
Seed Update
Look how big my seedlings have grown! It’s only been a week and a couple days since the little guys were just ova, and now they’re real live plants. Not all of them have grown to this size yet – the herbs and peppers are slower growers than the ones you see here (from left to right: cabbage, basil and brandywine tomatoes). Pretty soon it will be time to separate them out into larger containers to their little roots can spread out and their stems and leaves can get big and strong. Watching these teeny guys grow makes me feel like a proud mommy – I almost teared up when I saw the first little sprout push up through the soil. In a few short months I’ll be picking their fruits, chowing down and then saving their seeds for next year.
Not Terribly Green Meal (but yummy, nonetheless)
The other night Boyfriend and I made a tasty dinner out of a mix of some green but mostly conventional ingredients. This is kind of how all of my meals look these days, as I’ve been out of work and pinching pennies. Although there are lots of ways to save money while still eating green, I haven’t been leaving my neighborhood much (the little work I’ve been doing of late has been from my couch), and there isn’t a lot of organic and sustainable food in Bushwick (yet! – this weekend we had a great discussion about this).
Anyway, here’s the meal broken down:
The potatoes are from my local grocery store, and I picked them out because they were labeled “eastern potatoes,” which I assumed meant they were kind of local but I have no clue whether or not that’s true. I sliced them up and fried them in olive oil (pricey, but good for you) – a technique that I learned from my Step Dad, who traditionally makes these kinds of fries to go with big weekend bacon-and-eggs breakfasts.
The rolls, tomatoes and arugula came from the grocery store, and although the rolls were baked locally, the rest probably hailed from California or Mexico. (more…)
Emerald City
New York isn’t widely known as a “green city”. It’s overshadowed by Seattle, San Francisco and a host of European cities that have high-tech recycling programs and fancy compost bins, but the Big Apple is getting greener every day. Here are some of the cool green things that have been happening in New York lately:
Food!
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer recently released a document called “Food in the Public Interest,” which outlines a groundbreaking plan to improve human and environmental health in the City and puts a strong emphasis on promoting local food systems, farmers markets and urban gardens. A Brooklyn Healthy Food Campaign is also underway to promote expanded food access in the borough, plus there’s a Brooklyn Food Conference coming up in May. Finally, a Food Co-op has just opened its doors in the South Bronx, and there are about a half dozen other planned co-ops in various stages of development in Brooklyn.
Transit!
In the past couple of years, New York has added over 100 miles of bike lanes in its car-dominated streets, and recently I’ve noticed the addition in my own neighborhood where a few main thoroughfares have been painted with bike-friendly stripes. New York has the largest hybrid-electric bus fleet in North America, and although Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC effort to switch over the City’s entire taxi fleet to hybrids and electric cars by 2012 was shot down in court, there has still been a noticeable increase in hybrid taxis on the road. The Toyota Prius has also gotten pretty popular in town, and I feel like every time I go out I see one cruising around.
Recycling!
New York has the country’s largest recycling program, which requires all residential and commercial buildings to recycle paper, metal, plastic and glass. In 2002, the recycling program was essentially shut down due to budget problems resulting from the September 11th attacks, but recycling was restored in 2004 and in 2008 the City recycled over 6,000 tons of trash per day, up by about 700 tons daily from 2007. (more…)
Clean, Green Bum
I’m always looking for ways to cut disposable products from my lifestyle. I don’t use paper towels or tissues, having replaced them with dish cloths and hankeys. I use cloth grocery bags and try my best to avoid buying foods and other products that come in lots of packaging that can’t be re-used or recycled. I’ve even swtiched from tampons to the keeper. The goal is to never throw anything out, unless it’s going into my compost or recycling bins.
But there is one thing I’m just too chicken to live without – namely, toilet paper.
I have heard of people who use water and wash cloths to clean up after using the toilet, but I don’t really feel like joining them at this point in my life. In college, when living abroad in West Africa, I learned how to wipe like the locals – with my left hand. It didn’t take long before I’d made a habit of carrying little packets of tissues with me at all times just in case I had to “go”. I simply can’t give up the satisfying feeling of a dry bottom.
So in lieu of giving up toilet paper all together, I’ve done the next best thing: buying Marcal toilet paper. I’m not big on brand loyalty, but Marcal toilet paper is my very favorite, because even though they just recently started packaging their TP in fancy “gree-looking” wrappers, they’ve only ever offered 100% post-consumer recycled toilet paper. And it’s just as cheap as all the low-end paper products you’ll find in the cleaning aisle at the grocery store.
Brands like Scott and Kleenex usually don’t use recycled paper – and when they do, they charge extra and less than half of the paper comes from recycled sources. Recycled toilet paper may not be as soft as first-generation paper, but that’s a small price to pay for saving the planet, right? A much smaller price than, say, not wiping.
Start Your Seeds
This morning I checked my handy Farmers Almanac to find out when this year’s last frost will be, and it turns out that it’s in five short weeks – which means I’m a week late at starting my seeds! There was no need to fret – it’s better to start your seeds a little too late rather than a little too early – but I didn’t want to hold out too long so I got right to work and planted about 20 out of the 40 veggie, herb and flower seeds that I bought this year. Starting your plants indoors is relatively simple, and it only took me about 2 hours to get all my seeds in dirt. Here’s an overview of what seed starting takes: (more…)
Fancy Glassware
Look at these snazzy glasses I bought at Pier One. Or Ikea. They only cost $10 each. Can you believe it? What a deal.
Gotcha! I actually didn’t pay anything for these glasses, and they’re not even glasses at all – they’re jars. But I’m using them as glasses, because every time I buy glassware it ends up broken (thanks, Boyfriend), and it’s not worth buying new ones. Instead, we just look for peanut butter and jam and pickles and whatnot that come in glass jars, and when they’re empty we wash them out and use them for drinking. They’re free, durable, and sometimes even attractive. The big ones are good for water and the little ones work well when we’re treating ourselves to a cocktail or glass of wine.
So forget buying new glasses at the store. It’s a waste of time, money and resources. Next time you’re shopping for food, think about the container that it comes in and whether or not you can re-use it. Be cool like me and drink from jars!
Sausage for Dinner
This time of year pickins at the farmers market tend to be slim, but there’s still plenty there to make a tasty meal. You’ll find a host of meat, cheese and bread, as well as lots of pickled stuff, root vegetables, squash and hardy winter greens.
Last night I feasted on a well-rounded meal procured almost entirely from the Union Square Greenmarket. It included garlic and parmesan sausages from my meat guys at Tamarack Hollow farm, an acorn squash, swiss chard with garlic and boiled red potatoes. Salt, olive oil and fresh parsley came from my local grocery store, but all the big items were from small local farms.
It turned out to be a highly satisfying, seasonal meal with little to no guilt involved (except for the Budweiser I washed it down with). And it was easy to make – just quarter and boil potatoes, saute the snosages, sizzle up the chard in garlic, oil and a little water, and steam the squash with salt and butter. Follow these simple steps and you’ve got a hearty, well-balanced winter dish made of some of the most affordable farmers market fare.
