Are your eggs fresh?

One day we hope to be raising our own chickens for fresh eggs but for now we try to always purchase our eggs from our local farmers market. On occasion I need to run to our local market and grab a dozen. I never really thought twice that they wouldn't be that fresh. Thinking they were organic and cage free we should  be pretty much in the clear. Well I am reading of course another cookbook that I have had around for a while and thought I would finally look through The River Cottage Family Cookbook. Another fantastic cookbook with great information and photography.  Well I stumbled upon a section on eggs and started reading on how to tell if your eggs are really fresh. You gently set them in a bowl of cold water and they should lay flat on the bottom. If the egg stands on its point at the bottom then it is a couple days old. But if it floats to the top of the water it  means don't even think about cracking it open, it is old.  When an egg gets older I guess the white shrinks and the egg fills up with air. Pretty interesting, so I decided to try it on the eggs I just purchased at a really popular market here and most of them stood on point at the bottom, but a couple floated to the top! So now the fresh egg test is going to become a habit of mine before we use any of them. Maybe you should check yours out and see what you find:)

Spring Cleaning Time

  Spring is here,  but not here in Southern California brrrrrr. So as soon as this rain stops and the sun comes out it is spring cleaning time in our house. My usual cleaning supplies are always eco friendly and as natural as possible. This year I am going to start attempting to clean our home naturally and make our own cleaners. I am on somewhat of a no waist kind of kick and am trying to eliminate how much packaging we throw out. That is a another post to come....
Back to spring cleaning, to help me get started I purchased a book called  The Naturally Clean Home: 150 Super-Easy Herbal Formulas for Green Cleaning.There are so many recipes using natural ingredients, including herbs and essential oils for pretty much every room in your house. I am so excited to try it out, maybe it will make cleaning more fun than it already is:)


      

Skillet Cooking

 I am so enjoying cooking in my cast iron skillet and am constantly looking for new recipes.  I found a cookbook The Cast Iron Skillet Cookbook: Recipes for the Best Pan in Your Kitchen that  has some really good recipes.  Even though I don't eat meat I enjoy cooking it for my family.  We usually roast a whole organic chicken but found this simple recipe in Mad Hungry: Feeding Men and Boys, another great cookbook.  It was a big hit! Cooked in half the time of a whole chicken and was super easy:)  I LOVE cookbooks, so if you have any recommendations for some good cookbooks let me know.    

                                                                                             

Do you know where your fish comes from?

We tend to eat a lot of fish in our home, so we really try to make a conscious effort to eat sustainable seafood.  I feel it is so important these days to really know where your food comes from and how the food is being caught.  There is so much illegal fishing right now that is harming the ocean floor and killing endangered species. And these days we have so many outlets for us to get information from that it is easy for us to stay on top of important issues.  One great website that I love is Monterey Bay Aquarium seafood watch  which has so much information for you.  There you can download a wallet pocket guide for your region that advises you on what fish to eat and which ones to avoid.
 There is also an application that you can download for your phone as well.  I use mine all the time when I am out shopping or even out to dinner.  So check it out and log on to  Monterey Bay Aquarium seafood watch website so you can find out more about the best fish to eat right now.

Ice Cream Heaven

This was one of our finding's this last weekend in Ojai, and oh my goodness this ice cream is so yummy! The kids and I ate the whole thing!!  So here is another great find that I wanted to pass on. Henry's Frozen Delight is their website so you can see where they are selling in your neighborhood. I promise you will love it:)

Ojai

Ojai happens to be one of my favorite places to visit. It's a quiet little town nestled in between the Topatopa mountains just east of Santa Barbara and north of Ventura. We are so lucky to live close to Ojai that we try to go to the farmers market on Sunday's.  It's such a beautiful artistic and eclectic place that I absolutely LOVE the vibe there.  I just wanted to post a few pictures of one of my favorite places and if you ever get a chance I would highly recommend a visit.





                    












View of the beautiful Ojai Valley

Valentines

So Landen's school's Valentines party is over and he had such a good time. He was so excited to see that he had so many friends that gave him Valentines Day cards.  Which we also bought as well.  Went to good old Target and got Mr. Men Valentine cards to give to all his class mates.  So where does the eco come in.....  because what are we going to do with all the cards?  Well we will at least recycle them, but I was wondering if there is another way to go about giving out Valentines Day cards that would be a little more eco.  Maybe next year we can be a little more crafty  (which I really struggle with, there is no Martha in this house! ) and try to make them from substainable materials.  If anyone has any easy crafty ideas on what we should maybe try next year that would be great. At least now I have a year to plan for the next Valentines party:) As for Giles and me, we really don't do too much for Valentines Day.  We do exchange cards that I keep, but I am betting I will be getting some local chocolate strawberries:) 


Happy Valentines,  Courtney

Local Produce

Every week we get a box of local produce from a company called Abundant Harvest Organics and a lot of the time I really am not sure what to make with the produce.  That is what I love about it though, is really having to dig into my cookbooks and get creative to find recipes.  I have to say that truly I am lucky so far that my kids will eat pretty much anything that I cook.  The only thing that I can't seem to get passed them is peas! But that is okay I have to let them have one veggie they absolutely won't eat:)  This last week the box was full of fennel.  Now I have cooked with fennel before and I don't remember really caring for the licorice flavor too much.  So I was in search of a good recipe that the family could eat that had fennel in it.  I absolutely love the cookbook by Mark Bittman,  How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Simple Meatless Recipes for Great Food (thanks again to Alina ).  I found such a easy simple recipe using bulgar wheat, onions, homemade chicken stock, dill and a little whole milk.  It was delicious and so easy to make, and I know for sure I will be making it again.  Every week I love talking to my friends and seeing what we are all going to make with our wonderful local produce.  I would love to hear from you about some of your recipes for veggies that are in season now.  I just got a new veggie box with Leeks and I still have some purple cabbage from last week. Any thoughts??

Happy Cooking,   Courtney

Bottled Water

Do we really know where are bottled water comes from or where all the plastic goes when we throw it away.  I recently came across a documentary called Tapped that I think you should check out.  It really opened my eyes on the whole bottled water industry.  In our home we try to stay away from plastic bottled water and filter our water as an alternative.   Now I realize that I should also be concerned about what is in the bottled water and where it came from.  A report came out recently from EWG What's In Your Bottled Water - Besides Water?   I feel both the documentary and the EWG report is definitely worth taking a look at!  It's amazing that we as consumer's can be so mislead at times.

Happy Filtering,  Courtney

Great Find

  My next adventure has been exploring the use of the old fashion cast iron skillets.  I have never used one before and actually was really kind of scared of them.  It was when I had lunch over at my neighbors and watched her cooking in her skillet that I saw how easy they are to take care of and the food tasted really good.  I thought that I would take the plunge and try one out.  Usually I would head over to William Sonoma's and take a look, but I thought that maybe I would look for one second hand.  Thinking the eco way, off to the the second hand shops in Ventura I went.  And there it was, the skillet I was looking for without a trace of rust.
Not only did I find the perfect skillet but I saved money as well. With the skillet home - seasoned and ready for cooking I am ready to put it to the test.
Since I am new to the whole cast iron thing I would love for any advice on working with this type of skillet or any recipes that you would love to share.
Happy Cooking, Courtney

Books

So I am one of those that never hesitates to buy my kids a book if they want one. We have so many books about Thomas, Trucks, Disney and the occasional Ballet book for Skye. But there are these wonderful books that we discovered that my kids absolutely love and keep wanting me to read. They are the Green Start books. They are easy to read and cover great topics from baby animals to the five senses and also about being little helpers. They also have wooden puzzles and cute storybooks and plush box sets. It is always fun to find books and games Search Amazon.com Books for green start books that are made from recycled materials and also teach about about being environmentally conscious.

No more Ziplocs!

Search Amazon.com for lunchskins® sandwich bagLunchSkins Reusable Sandwich and Snack Bags Set - 3 Pack - Red Apple, Navy Shark, Green Dots
I am a user of plastic sandwich bags and have been trying to eliminate them from the house. Even though we reuse our bags after a good wash, we still find ourselves throwing them away! My girlfriend gave me some of these adorable reusable snack bags as a gift and I absolutely love them. They come in different sizes and patterns and can be used for almost anything. They are called Lunchskins and I think you should check them out at www.lunchskins.com