Calling all Catalogs! Stopping mail order madness!

This Saturday finds me addressing what has been a serious problem: Mail Clutter!! I have a nice little desk built into the kitchen but it was hidden beneath piles of catalogs, bills, statements, flyers, and magazines. It also housed the microwave and toaster. Because I would pass it as I entered the house each day, it had also become the drop spot for keys, purses and gloves. Ugh. Not a nice way to treat a desk, is it?

Well it's been quite a lengthy process of getting it to a workable state but I am really liking the results. I moved the microwave to the shelf above the recycling station, hoping that the distance will help discourage its use as well. I did splurge on a beautiful stainless steel tea-kettle so I would stop nuking my tea each morning. (Although it is a little aggressive on the whistle, like steam engine rolling through the mountains aggressive...Oh well. I'd never sleep through it!)

A tea kettle seemed to be such a grown and sexy purchase that I promptly ran over to the tea aisle in Target and bought Tazo Zen, Green Ginger, Refresh, China Green Tips, Cucumber White, and Rest. (I know, I know...save to spend, spend to save? But its all for the Kitchen Apothecary...but THAT's another story!)

BTW, if you are a Sleepytime fan, Chamomile groupie, or new to liquid herbal wind downs at the end of stressful days, you have to try Tazo Rest! It gets the job done, good and cozy in 30 min.

"A lulling blend of rose petals, valerian root & citrusy herbs.

Tazo lists ingredients as: Lemon balm, rose petals, honeybush, orange peel, lemon myrtle, lemon verbena, licorice root, lavender, valerian root, natural flavors, ginger, orange essence oil and Chinese geranium oil."

I then put the toaster in the give-away pile, for as much I a make toast, I can use the oven. This cleared so much space and I was giving in to what the desk wanted to be: A DESK! I am still working on the aesthetics of it, but I moved my computer to the desk and its all happy too now that its no longer on the dining room table!! So, I'll post some photos when I really get it together, but the main thing I did today was to call all these catalog folks and stop the mailing of all these catalogs!!

I can run back and forth to the recycling center all I want, but why not reduce the amount of paper coming in???

With about 20 1-800 calls, I have probably single-handedly saved quite a swath of forest somewhere. I have to be content knowing that all of the items can be found on-line and are there whenever I need them. Plus this is a reminder of the clothes buying sabbatical I am on (until I lose about 20-30 lbs...but THAT's another story!!)

In the meantime, I leave you with some loving links to handle your own mail clutter and/or obsession with mail order catalogs, plus overall organizing, simplifying, and most importantly, developing new (good) habits:

Real Simple
Simple Organized Living
Zen Habits: Simple Living Manifesto: 72 Ideas to Simplify Your Life from Zen Habits Blog

Peace~

Reduce food waste - Make Frittatas!!

One way to be more responsible for the planet is to reduce food waste. As I tried to increase my fruit and veggie intake, I would go get all this marvelous produce and declare everyday salad and smoothie day. Sometimes I would do very well at this (Did I share my green smoothie recipe yet?) and other times I would cringe as I cleaned out the fridge and bag after bag of liquified unidentifiables would go in the trash (I had not started my little compost thing...but THAT's another story!).

I decided to take a tip from our friends in France (or at least the beautiful people that get written about all the time who are from "Frahnce", you know the ones...always biking with a monster baguette and a mini farmers market in their basket, pedaling through the countryside? Sigh. One day.) Anyway, as I understand it, some folks have several trips to the market as part of their weekly routine instead of the weekend grocery shopping "a-thons" that would have me navigating two overflowing carts through Meijer.

But the best Earth-Saving Tip I received was about two years ago from my friend in food, Angela Newsom of People's Kitchen Detroit. We were together at one of the Cook Eat Talk community conversation sessions that the Detroit Food Justice Task Force hosts where community members gather to cook a fresh local healthy meals together, talk about what impacts access to fresh and healthy food in that neighborhood, and break bread together (a revolutionary act in and of itself.) Angela was demonstrating how to boost the nutritional content of breakfast or brunch with an easier-than-an-omelette frittata. As she whipped up this lovely, puffy, cheesy dish for 30 people in 30 minutes, a swirly eco-friendly light bulb went off in my head.

A new use for leftovers which re-purposes them in a very exciting way that doesn't have diners thinking "not this again!" that does not require a lot of skill or time.

Since making this discovery, I have served up frittatas featuring:

Spinach, Rotisserie Chicken, and Parmesan Cheese
Red Skin Potatoes, Asparagus, and Cheddar
Green, red, and yellow peppers and ham
Broccoli, Onions, and Tomatoes
Black Beans, Chicken, Cheddar (served with salsa, avocado, and sour cream)

Really whatever is "left"...(Left over, left from dinner, left from cleaning out the fridge but is not ready for compost)

If you have already discovered this joy, please share your recipe ideas. My only tips are:

Start out as you usually do to make scrambled eggs for however many you are serving. Pour into a heated pan with butter or olive oil and cook on LOW heat. As it cooks, gently push eggs around as they set so as not to burn the bottom.



For this particular frittata, I am using red onion, peppers and tomato which I sauteed in some garlic herb butter. Then added a good size spoonful of organic cream cheese to make a nice filling.


Turn on your oven broiler to LOW. When the eggs seem to be set on the bottom, spoon your filling over the top, evenly distributing it and make it look good! Artfully arranged! Inspired!! Sprinkle with (in this case) parmesan cheese. Pop it in the broiler for about 4 minutes (just keep checking on it, I haven't got this recipe part down yet...) It will puff up and you will just KNOW when its ready!



Sprinkle with fresh herbs (Parsley in this case) and serve. (Note to food stylist, turn plate to feature the frittata and NOT the seemingly gargantuan turkey sausage please.)

And there ya' go.


Since I am a relatively newbie foodie and you may not know the culinary greatness that is in your midst, I added a little Food Network Backup (plus I am trying to make this as interactive as possible and cull all the resources we have at our fingertips!)



Hope you enjoy this form of RRR!
To Reduce food waste recycle leftovers by reusing what's left in tasty, exciting, fun ways.

Peace.

The Growl

When my mom started getting sicker, and was spending more time admitted to the hospital than at home, I noticed I began to have the strongest cravings for red meat. French dip sandwiches to be specific, but I would have gnawed the leg off a cow just as happily had one been within reach. The first time I remember it happening, I was on the couch watching TV and debating if I was going to go to an impromptu artist's gathering I had been invited to. (I rarely go out now, I think I have grown accustomed to being at home and have allowed my inner social-awkwardness to thrive...but THAT's another story!) Anyway, I became aware of a deep snarling hunger spot deep inside by belly, like I had never eaten anything ever in my whole entire life! It felt like a hole that had been created by snatching something up and out of me. I'm serious! And it had to be fed red meat.

Now I haven't been a big red meat eater for decades now, but in the past, presumably when my iron was low, my car would navigate itself through a Wendy's drive through and a voice from Beyond would order a double. I had been doing some of that leading up to what I shall call The Growl, but it seems The Growl had grown, advanced out of a state that could be sated with half a pound of ground round. Now, The Growl needed something solid, something it could really tear into, something medium-rare!

Back on the couch, I had decided to go to the artist's party so I needed an appetizer to bring. While I made a list of things to pick up from Trader Joes (The ultimate "Food To Bring To A Party and Impress The Hell Out Of Everyone There" store), I sat combing my mental file cabinets for places or people who would be able to drop a French Dip sandwich in my mouth in about 30 seconds. Frustrated, I decided I would find something at TJ's to appease The Growl and ventured into the November night.

As I drove down Woodward Ave, a large red and white sign caught my attention. In bold neon words, the "Sign of the Beef Carver" was visual music to my eyes. I remember exclaiming out loud in the car, alone, "Now THEY will have a French Dip!!" Surely my tires squealed as I whipped up in the parking lot and frightened a number of elder diners who were slowly coming and going from their regular dinner haunt.



Sure enough, no special order request required, right there on the everyday menu board: "French Dip". I ordered and leaned over the glass counter to watch it being prepared, hoping not the drool on the pie case. After I paid for it, I devoured it in the parking lot in about 3 minutes.

I'm not proud of this. But I'm very curious as to what is going on with me.

The next time The Growl surfaced, it was in the days leading up to taking my son to college. I kept rooting around for what would fill it, and found that just any old thing wouldn't do. This is not a hunger to be taken lightly. It came on suddenly and strongly and I just felt hollow. I tried drinking water becuase I had read something that said most hunger cravings are really about being thirsty...not in this case. The water dropped into the cavernous reaches of The Growl and puddled pitifully at the bottom.

This time, my beau had been tooling around the internet looking at healthy food videos and came across one that questions pure veganism or vegetarianism (Which I went on and posted below since I know ya'll gonna' ask!)




This video prompted me to do some research as to the red meat craving and what it might stem from. It made me think The Growl was coming from some nutritional deficiency so I decided to try bone broth. That's what I set out to do, and proudly marched up to the meat counter at my local grocer demanding "Bones! I need bones, I am making broth!" The butchress, unimpressed, let me know that Monday's are bone days (it was Thursday)

Not to be thwarted, I ended up making some really good soup. Stay tuned for the next entry about The Growl where I will share my recipe for sorta-homemade chicken soup.

peace.

I remember I used to sew...

Do people sew anymore? I mean, I know there is sewing of a sort being done somewhere to keep us in cheap goods that tear after the first wash and, probably in that same sweat shop, designer clothes that sport four and five digit price tags. But I'm referring to sewing for the family, as a means of sustainable simple living. Does anyone do that anymore?

My grandmother, Lottie Isabelle Wright Johnson, taught me how to sew when I was really little. She used to make her own clothes and her children's clothes and later, from the worn out parts, she would make beautiful quilts. She always said she wanted me to know how to sew so when I had a little girl I could make her all kinds of nice little dresses. As with all things with me, it was an off and on love affair but I did become a pretty good seamstress. In Home-Ec class (yea!! Remember that???) I made a beautiful 2-piece madras-striped skirt and tank top that I wore off to Florida for spring break in 1984, that double breasted coat-dress pattern however remains unfinished.

The dress above was from my first entrepreneurial endeavor "Chameleon" (Clothes as unique as the people who wear them). This was to be a clothes customizing business but I felt we should move into ready-to-wear clothing design as well. I got a subscription to "W" which was the fashion industry paper, and carried around a sketch pad full of stick women wearing bolero jackets and lean wrap skirts. I was very proud of that dress above. It was my first (and last) Vogue pattern. And although it was marked "easy" there never has and never will be anything easy about a Vogue pattern!! Anyway, I also was expressing my Coco Chanel side by choosing to do the center of the dress in lace instead of a solid fabric. (I was under the heavy influence of Prince and Vanity 6 at the time and had just gotten beyond going to clubs in lingerie and trench coats...but THAT's a story for another day.) I stayed up all night trying to figure out the workings of that lace inset!! But, I got it and "The Dress" had a very healthy social life.

I sewed for my wedding as well, made detachable trains for my bridesmaids dresses, made the flower girl's dress, AND my former mother-in-law's red peau de soie suit (uhm hmm. I did.) After my grandmother died, I inherited her sewing machine and I made matching outfits Cedar Point (how juvenile!) and a cute polka dot maternity outfit for me that made me look more like a clown than anything, but by the time the kids came along, I was too busy to sew...never did make all those little dresses Gramp wanted me to. Her machine ended up somehow "left by mistake" in the basement of one of my old addresses (I think my ex did that on purpose...I never could prove it and never found my sewing machine.) and my fledgling sewing business came to a halt.

I did buy another sewing machine as soon as the divorce was final and had some delightful times recycling blue jean legs into matching skirts for me and the daw-daw. I still have mine, she outgrew hers...but who knows, it might be around here soemwhere.

Unearthing that pattern got me to thinking about sewing and sustainable living for the urban farm girl. I'll have to explore more.The memories sure have me in stitches!!

It's been a while...

While I've never been "regular", I haven't been writing lately (this time) because my mom, who I had been taking care of for the past 4 years, became increasingly ill with advanced dementia and ultimately made her transition on December 7. My world is upside down now and I rock back and forth between feeling lost, not knowing what to do with myself and not having the ability, motivation, or energy to do anything anyway. My father transitioned 3 1/2 years ago. My son just went to live full time on the college campus and my daughter lives with their Dad on the tail end of the country. My wonderfully supportive partner tries to ride this tide that is me and of course gets hugs and kisses of appreciation, unexplainable outbursts, tearful requests to be checked on during the day and demands that he go away and leave me alone in my "space". And that's on the good days. Bless him.

When I was laid up a while back with back surgery, I started this blog and it really helped during that time. I am again turning to my writing as a means of healing, exploration, and hopefully growth, as I attempt the ultimate Reduce, Reuse, Recycle for me...handling the accumulated history in what was my parent's home of 44 years, mine for 21 years and the past 5. I am happy to be here. The memories that surround me are comforting right now. At the same time, my parents were both collectors of all kinds of things and I too have pack rat tendencies, so this should be interesting. Hopefully it will be enjoyable and I'm certain we will learn a lot from Fred and Lottie Stewart along the way.

This is a new twist in the Earthseed blog, but after all we are seeds and will each eventually return to the earth in one way or another.

Peace and Blessings,

Lottie

‘Let the healing begin:’

‘Let the healing begin:’

Recycling Station set up in the Earthseed Headquarters

WHO? Me!!


WHAT? So, lately I have been getting a lot of input from the Universe around "Walking the Walk". This is an ongoing struggle to align theoretical babble with purposeful action. I decided to create a recycling station in the house finally so Mom won't keep "discovering" my treasure trove of tissue paper rolls and efficiently move them to the "trash where they belong." I went out and purchased some simple white milk crate type things from the local Ace Hardware and labeled each one accordingly: glass, paper, and plastic. Now I am ready to STARVE THE INCINERATOR!!

Although on second thought, realize I had forgotten the Divine gift left by the dumpster some years ago on my birthday: a bunch of orange milk crates that now house a variety of things I could probably "put away", like books and stuff - darn!! Coulda done this for FREE...oh well, at least the purchase supported the locally owned Ace Hardware instead of big box Depot or Lowes.

"Each Ace store is independently owned and operated by local entrepreneurs – hard-working, passionate business owners who are involved with and, many times, reside in the communities where their stores are."

BUT, it is in Ferndale...not Detroit.

So, another option for home improvement needs is Detroit Hardware. Another family owned and operated business located near the New Center Area. The have "Everything But the Kitchen Sink!"

But back to the lecture at hand:

I found this link to seeWHAT can be recycled. Hmmmm, I'mma need more milk crates!!


WHERE and WHEN to recycle in Detroit? (Because it ain't recycling if it sits in the crib!)

DROP OFF LOCATION & TIMES

MAIN LOCATION
Wednesday: 10AM-6PM
Saturday: 9AM-3PM
1331 Holden Ave
Detroit, MI 48202
313-871-4000
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EASTERN MARKET
First Saturday 10AM-2PM
Corner of Wilkins & Russell
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INDIAN VILLAGE
Second Saturday 9AM-1PM
Waldorf School parking lot /
Charlevoix & Burns
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PALMER PARK
Third Saturday 8AM-12PM
Swimming pool parking lot
_____________________

ROSEDALE PARK
Third Saturday 10AM-2PM
Christ the King Church
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CREEKSIDE
Fourth Saturday 10AM-2PM
Jefferson & Chalmers
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CLARK PARK
Fourth Saturday 8AM-12PM
Se Habla Español

Ok, lets see what we can do to STARVE THE INCINERATOR!!