island⁹⁴

After a bunch of googling around, I haven’t found an authoritative answer to my question: how are you supposed to set up and use your refrigerator’s food crisper—fruits and vegatables need different levels of humidity (which ones need what I wasn’t sure), and the little baffles are supposed to change that (which setting does what I wasn’t sure).

So it seems that Cooks Illustrated PDF seemed to give a half-way decent explanation of the proper settings and use:

• Opening the baffles for air to pass through lowers the humidity, which is fine for basically anything that needs to be kept cold (like some fruit: apples and grapes)
• Closing the baffles to stop air from circulating allows the humidity to rise for leafy vegetables.

But according to Cooks Illustrated, it’s all much more complicated than that—some produce like it warmer than the crisper may provide, like green beans, subtropical fruits, melons and herbs. So good luck if you have roommates.

During an AmeriCorps icebreaker, I matched my desire to learn vegan baking with someone who knew how. Who say’s icebreakers are worthless (well, I sometimes do). I got the following two tips:

Egg Substitute: Use an amount of water equal to an egg (maybe ~1/4 cup) and mix in tablespoon of ground flax-seed

Best Oil: Coconut Oil is the best oil to use for moistness and tastiness. Of course, it’s really bad for you, but who cares.

If salmonella outbreaks weren’t actually killing people the following statement might be a humorous farce of a murder investigation:

Investigators are seeing more signs that the salmonella outbreak blamed on tomatoes might have been caused by tainted jalapeno peppers…. Echoing federal officials, who said this week that tomatoes remain the prime suspect, the health officials said that tomatoes cannot be ruled out as the cause of the outbreak. Investigators have been collecting samples of another possible suspect, cilantro, though the herb is less likely to be the source, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing.

Other possible scenarios: salsa tryst, the tomato has an evil twin, the butler did it.

Dandy’s recipe:

8 medium tomatoes, stewed
1 jalapeno
4 green onion, chopped
1/4 bunch of cilantro, chopped
2 garlic cloves

In large sauce pan, stew tomatoes and jalepeno.
Remove stem from jalapeno.
Put into blender or food processor.
Add garlic.

Pour into pan.
Add 4 green onions and cilantro.
Simmer for 15 minutes.
Salt and pepper to taste.

My alteration:
Take all of the above ingredients, and just throw them in a blender (I use a can of whole stewed tomatoes rather than the fresh tomatoes—probably better fresh). Done.

Read a fun article about Breakfast Cereals via a comment on breakfast cupcakes, err, muffins.

Mostly I like the article because of all the industry definitions:

RTEC: Ready to Eat Cereal

inclusions: the industry term for all that extra junk like raisins, marshmallows and honey-coated granola clusters.

and random facts, like this one:

a serving of Cheerios has 10 milligrams more sodium than a serving of Doritos.

For a 32oz Nalgene Bottle (the standard biggish one) of clean water, the Oral Rehydration Salt quantities are:

• Slightly less than 1/2 teaspoon of Salt (0.43tsp. to be exact)
• 7.5 teaspoons of Sugar

(Personal note: when you’ve made it correctly, it should taste like minusculey-sweet saliva)

Adapted from Rehydrate.org’s ORS Recipe based on 1 liter of water.

And the wikipedia entry on Oral Rehydration Salts (ORS)

• 1-1/2 c. corn meal
• 1 c. flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 2 eggs (optional: separate and beat egg white until stiff)
• 1/3 c. oil
• 2 c. milk
• ~1-2 tsp. vinegar

via Rebecca

Info on Hemp Milk.

I just bought some of this (Manitoba Harvest brand, the chocolate kind) at Whole Foods. It’s not soy milk, but I’m not sure if it’s any better. I kind’ve got a bit of a choke in the back of my throat on the first sip, though after that it was pretty smooth.

I don’t know if it’s my empathy for the myriad of people I know stymied in technology quagmires for good causes or a desire to combine my love of good food with my job, but this is the result.

Download a printable PDF perfect for tacking to your wall or the wall of whomever makes technology decisions at your organization.

Update: The sandwich is on Unmediated.org

Update: The sandwich is on LOLnptech.org

Yesterday a subset of the gang skipped the blustery weather to bake and decorate Halloween cookies in Danielle’s inviting kitchen. Other than the predictable headache and infirmity from massive sugar intake, we had good times.