Alex Riley, you're my hero

On the menu tonight, some engaging telly on BBC three.


Tonight I was watching another installment of Alex Riley's "Britain's Most Disgusting Food." A show that does an amazing job at taking the somewhat boring, yet important, topic of food sustainability, health & safety... and making it humorous and engaging.

Yeah... he often sets up obnoxious stunts like standing outside of Lidl and covering himself in Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (aka HVO) to make the point that many of their products contain this dangerous heart-clogging fat. Yes, some of the points he brings up are glaringly obvious, but I found this episode to be a bit more clear and to the point... and of those points? It's all stuff people should know, that people should question what they put in their mouth, that they should wonder about the origin of their food.

He also highlighted the fact that a lot of companies are beginning to build sustainability into their business plans, and that there are some European laws that are protecting our health when it comes to hormones given to dairy cows. Apparently some of these laws are starting to come over to the States... in fact, it's good to know my home State of California already has a ban on HVO.

Again, watching shows like this just confirm what I've always preached, buying fresh, organic and local where you can, including meat & dairy.

GO ALEX RILEY! KEEP SPREADING THE GOOD WORD!

I Heart Rachel Ray

As a new "Stay at Home Person" I have become guilty of watching a lot of daytime TV. You know daytime TV... aimed at housewives, unemployed people, or folks who are in need of workman's comp. Luckily in Ireland we don't have all those obnoxious no win no fee attorney ads, we're just stuck with "MONEY 4 GOLD".

Anyways.... one show I have become addicted to and excited about is Rachael Ray. Yeah it's got the usual chat show dross, but it also has great cooking ideas, including ways to make a little bit of food go a long way... very important for a non-earner like myself.

So here's one I tried out earlier, her Butternut Bowtie Pasta Bake Fakeout. On the show she described it as a fakeout because she makes a golden "cheesy" sauce out of the much healthier butternet squash. Aside from just the health side of things, squash is also a lot cheaper than mounds of cheese. You can find the recipe here: http://www.rachaelray.com/recipe.php?recipe_id=2200

I changed it up a bit, cuz that's the beauty of food, there are no hard & fast rules. Rather than bowties I went with shells cuz I thought they'd be nicer in a fake macaroni & cheese dish... I also had no sage leaves, so I added a store-bought pesto to the sauce as well as dotted more pesto on the top of the bake. On the website Rach suggests sprinkling almonds on top, instead I added some nice sharp cheddar... to add to the "fakeout".

The results? Roasting the squash took a while, and there's a lot of dishes to cleanup - esp as I used a food processor (apparently you could use a potato masher). I did enjoy making a gorgeous golden sauce that didn't actually include cheese, but the end result was quite heavy & filling, and according to the boyfriend... bland.

I think it's worth trying again, personally I enjoyed it, but here's what I would change: I would use less squash in the sauce and more milk to make it thinner. It was HEAVY. I would also use a lot more pesto... or just a lot more seasoning. When eating, every time you hit a pesto pocket it was divine, the rest was just okay. If I'm feeling brave the next time, I might even add some Tabasco... which goes with everything... in theory.

YUM.

Oh and PS, if you have a veggie-loving cat like me, beware of leaving out your unused cooked butternut squash & husks. I got to wake up the next morning cleaning up golden orange cat barf. Nice.

And now, for something completely different

I love chopped up video. I love nostalgia. Hope you do too:



It's like video upcycling. Mwha ha ha!
Okay, overdoing it on the upcycling theme? Uh, yeah.

Cheap-Chic = Eco-Chic

Angela Scanlon, stylist extraordinaire (whom I have had the pleasure of working with via StyleNation & IMTV) recently appeared on rte's TwoTube - giving tips on staying stylish without parting with too much of your hard-earned dosh. And lucky for us, in another "being good to mother earth without even knowing it" way, many of the tips revolved around the whole upcycling/recycling of clothes buzz.

She's got a couple of tips for the spendthrift fashionista (and fashionistuds as well) including the Crafternoon Tea which I covered earlier. You can watch her talking about her trip to Temple Bar's SwopShop here: http://www.rte.ie/tv/twotube/movers.html
or simply read her tips on the rte website here: http://www.rte.ie/tv/twotube/anglespendtips.html

Check em out - Tanks Ange!

Dance on brother, dance on...

RIP Patrick Swayze

Patrick Swayze - Chippendale
Uploaded by tressage. -

By the way, you can watch Mr. Swayze in a previous entry here: The Greatest Story Ever Rolled

BACON IS GOOD FOR ME!

This is what happens when you bring "the good" into someone else's home. Proof that trying to bring the good is not appreciated by eveyone.

And now, a word from our correspondent

My bezzie mate Susie is also owner of a blog with a very similar slant to mine - we have often stated that we share a brain, in fact, I believe we said just those exact words in a Film Board application (shockingly, that film wasn't selected for funding...erm). We've even spoken about her possibly contributing to this blog from time to time. In the meantime I wanted to link to her latest post I discovered a moment ago as it truly fits the remit of this blog...

onwards & upwards - farming in the sky

and Sue... Woolly Pockets? Ummm... Gimme some of those bad boys! That could truly be the solution for mini concrete patches like ours. Imagine a wall full of flowers and lettuces! Imagine how happy that would make the bees!

Honey honey! How you thrill me...

Showing support for our buzzy buddies

It's widely known that bee numbers have been declining quite a bit in recent years. This is bad bad news for many reasons (namely growing food for earth creatures to eat!). There are a number of contributing factors in the suspects corner: climate change, pesticides, mono-agriculture... all the things that are unfortunately a way of life in modern culture.

Uggggg.

Last night I watched a good but disheartening documentary on the Beeb (no pun intended), "Who Killed The Honey Bee." It looked into the widespread phenomena of bees dying in their droves - known as colony collapse disorder.

I had a few favorite bits - including the profile of the bee exporters from Australia (imagine putting big aul boxes of bees on an airplane!) - the whole hierarchy of bee colonies, from the foragers to the 'cleaners' and of course the queen. But my absolute most favorite bit was the profile of the 'urban beekeeper' in London who has had no decline in his population for over 5 years. The logical explanation? Cities are actually filled with greenspaces and gardens planted with colorful flowers at all times of the year as opposed to giant mono-cultured farms covered in pesticides and a lack of plant variety.

Coincidentally, this morning I came across a locally produced doc about colony collapse disorder, which is about to hit the big screen at the Toronto Film Fest. Ooooh - it looks beautiful.


It nearly makes me want to try my hand at beekeeping when I somehow buy my dreamhouse with large back garden. *sigh* Until then, I'll have to just continue providing some much needed color to my local urban bees. I do get regular visits from some bit fat fuzzy bumble bees who seem enamored with my windowsill nasturtiums, busy busy violas and fushias who have returned en force since I re-potted them a few months ago. Oh and my newest project... the incredible growing clematis! Lahvely no?


And Below you cans see my Bumblebee buddy who came for a visit just this very morning.


Lets go bees! Come on the bees!

I'm Loving This Idea

http://www.sundancechannel.com/grainsofchange/

Living in Ireland I don't have the Sundance Channel, so I am certainly a bit late in discovering this program - especially seeing as it is already in season 2 - but the idea of it is pretty much along the same lines of what I'm hoping to achieve with setting up this blog...


It focuses on a handful of people who are spreading the good & sustainable food/lifestyle gospel. Sounds very very inspiring. Here's my favorite quote from one of the plow to plate ladies:

"Everybody can be an agent for change. It just starts with the desire to do one thing and then another thing, and the next thing you know you've created a whole shift in the way you think, and the way your community thinks."

The whole thing is sponsored by Kashi cereal company, and I love the little challenges, tips and recipes they include on the website. Later today I'll post one of the challenges here, and my attempt to try it out.