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Yay for orzo! Since I’ve had a seemingly endless supply of cherry tomatoes from my garden, this has been my go-to recipe for a quick (15 minutes!) lunch. I love how fresh this recipe is — and the feta makes it a good mix of tangy and sweet. It’s also really scalable (and for whatever reason, seems to be pasta-hater approved!). Although, seriously? Who hates pasta?!? :(

Cherry Tomato & Feta Orzo with Dill – {for 1!}

Ingredients

• 1 TB olive oil
• salt & pepper
• 2 TB fresh dill (or 1 tsp of dried dill)
• 1/4 tsp lemon zest (orange or lime zest works too!)
• 1 cup of golden and/or regular cherry tomatoes
• 1/3 cup orzo
• 1/2 cup feta cheese (2-3 ounces)

Directions:

1. Start boiling water for pasta.
2. Mix together oil, salt, pepper, and chopped dill (dried dill works fine too) in a medium bowl.
3. Cut tomatoes in half and add to the oil mixture.
4. Cook orzo in pasta water as directed, usually about 8 minutes.
5. Drain orzo and mix with the tomato and dill.
6. Crumble feta cheese into the orzo and tomato and mix
7. Eat!

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You can also add random ingredients to this one fairly easily, such as: 1/4 English cucumber, chopped; 1/8 red onion, chopped; substituting 1/2 TB oil for balsamic vinegar etc.

Alternate title: Mooooooo! Another year, another Blog Action Day…

“Now in its third year, Blog Action Day is an annual event that unites the world’s bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day. Our aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion.”

I wouldn’t consider myself an expert on environmental change, but one thing I’m fairly expert-ish at is being a vegetarian. After reading both Food Matters (Bittman) and In Defense of Food (Pollan) this summer, I was reminded again how utterly insane meat consumption — and in turn its affect on the environment — has gotten. Americans eat about 200 pounds of meat, poultry and fish per capita per year (and this excludes dairy)!  So who’s eating my 190 pounds? (As a recent pescatarian, I probably eat about 10 pounds of fish a year.) And we eat twice the global average. Obviously, some of that statistic is slightly skewed from other Western nations, as developing nations can’t afford to eat as much meat, but their consumption has doubled in the last 20 years.

So I guess we could probably all agree that it would be smart to eat less meat. As Americans, we’re getting double our daily protein requirements.

3 Ways To Eat Less Meat:

1. Eat more beans. Black beans are a staple in many Latin American countries, and are an excellent source of protein to boot.
2. Don’t go cold turkey. Ahhahaha… sorry about that. Anyway, I’m all for balance. Swearing off meat entirely isn’t for everyone, and if you don’t replace it with something you’ll probably just give up. So try being a “Monday, Wednesday, Friday” vegetarian by only eating meat a few times a week.
3. Think Asian. Asian countries have some amazing ways of creating brilliant meatless food, originally out of necessity, but now a huge part of their cultures… think bean curd (China), tofu (Japanese for bean curd), chai pow yu (Vietnam glutony stuff).

See how I cleverly got on my vegetarian soap box for Blog Action Day, and didn’t have to actually make any personal changes? :) I need a challenge… anyone?

I checked out Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking from the library and ended up making crepes last weekend. Yums! I turned into a total crepe-fanatic while in Greece last year. I even had a crepe routine… which consisted of stopping in at a cafe every afternoon for a cappuccino or coffee freddo and a banana and Nutella crepe. And you wondered why I was so crazy about the 30 day shred after my return ;)

Although there are probably a lot of great crepe recipes out there, I really loved the simplicity of this one. After putting all the ingredients in the blender, you just put it in the fridge overnight — and voilà it’s ready in the morning… other than the “making them perfectly thin” part. Next time, I think I’ll try savory crepes.

This is another guest post by the Soybean. It’s been a while since she did a guest post — clearly she’s been busy with some mundane things… such as petting the Obamas’ dog, Bo! Sigh…
I think I may be coming down with something… and it would have to be Potomac Fever. The Washington Design Center’s Fall Design House has the theme of Potomac Fever, which they define as “the disease one catches after coming to D.C. and seeing all the things this great city has to celebrate – history, political power, eclectic neighborhoods, culture and art.” I’d have to concur!

Great theme and an amazing house. I had the chance to visit last week and spent a good hour wandering through the house, admiring the designs and snapping pictures. It was a quick Metro trip from Georgetown (blue or orange line to Federal Center). For those unfamiliar with the DC Design Center’s Design House, it’s a “Street of Dreams” concept, but each room is created by a different designer …and of course there’s a focus on STYLE rather than EXPENSE. You’ll have no “Oh look, there are three TV’s in the bathroom” moments here.

I loved the mood boards the designers displayed in the entry way. It was nice to see the thought process, materials and color palettes. Even though each room represents a different district or neighborhood, as a whole it, feels very natural and the rooms transition well. Let the tour commence.

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Earlier this year, while reading the Sunset magazine, I found an article on backyard gardening by Willi Galloway, West coast editor of Organic Gardening magazine. I’ve been hooked on her gardening blog — DigginFood — ever since! So I’m excited for today’s guest post, written by Willi.

We love having chickens, but I definitely recommend carefully considering all the benefits (free eggs! great fertilizer! cute chicken antics!) and the drawbacks (cleaning the coop, feeding and watering them in the pouring, freezing rain) before your get them. So here are a few things for you to consider:

1. Know the rules. Before we got our girls I checked out the Seattle Municipal Code that covers keeping chickens. I learned that because our 6500 square foot lot was above average size, we could legally keep four chickens (lots 5000 feet and under can only have three) and that roosters aren’t illegal. We luckily don’t live in a neighborhood with a homeowner’s association, but if you do, check the bylaws before you buy birds.
2. Be sure you have enough time. All in all taking care of a small flock of chickens is not a ton of work. Jon and I agree that it falls somewhere in between keeping a goldfish and a cat. But consider this: chickens wake up at first light and need to be let out of their coop soon their after. You must also tuck them into bed at dusk to protect them from predators. They need fresh food and water every morning, and clean bedding about once a week, and a couple of times a year you need to clean out their whole coop and run and give everything a good scrub. Before you get your birds, I recommend talking with your family about how you will split up the chicken care so it doesn’t become an issue later.
3. Make nice with your neighbors, especially if you like to travel. Before we got the chickens, I let our immediate neighbors in on the plan. I told them we were placing their coop far from their bedroom windows and would be giving them lots of free eggs. This worked like a charm, and my neighbor Elaine even told me that she loves hearing my chickens in the morning (and I thought I was the only one!). Since chickens need to be taken care of twice a day, every day it makes planning to go away for the weekend slightly more complicated. We’ve dealt with this by teaching five families on our block how to watch the girls and paying them with fresh eggs.
4. And finally… I will tell you something that no one told me. Chickens poo a lot. Like twenty times a day. They tend to leave their slippery deposits in inconvenient places around our yard, including on the deck and the arm of our beloved sun chair. This, um, habit of theirs certainly shouldn’t be a deal breaker, but I wanted you all to know.

Thanks Willi!  After a little research, I found that the “urban livestock” ordinance in Portland, Oregon allows a maximum of three chickens and zero roosters.  :)  When I eventually accomplish #73 — buy a house (which quite frankly is NOT happening this time around, thanks to my globetrotting) — I want chickens! and maybe a goat or a bunny… or a pony!  Anyone else still want a pony?