Baby Environmentalism

Did your high school have Channel One News? Our's did and it was big deal, we could watch TV in class, it was so cool.  I remember watching one newscast on the plastic rings that come on six packs of soda and how ducks and other wildlife were getting caught in the plastic rings.  The reporter, it was John Norris I think before he became a MTV Veejay, told us to "always cut the rings before tossing them.

Here I am, umpteen years later and I'm still cutting the rings on my six packs.  One day hubby saw me doing that and asked me what I was doing.  I told him I was protecting the ducks and that I cared about the environment.  He laughed. 

Why did he laugh?  I never watched him do anything that was halfway conscience when it came to the environment. I was really proud of my meticulous ring cutting.  Think of all those ducks whose lives I was saving.

That's when I became really "aware" of the crap I was mindlessly just tossing away.  I was embarrassed.

I'm not saying that I'm hugging any trees (come on, I'm from Texas, we have to adhere to some stereotypes) but I am making an effort. Here are some easy things I've started doing:

1. Separating my newspapers/catalogues/flyers
2. Taking a canvas bag to the grocery store
3. Not individually bagging my fruit and veggies if possible
4. Returning plastic grocery store bags when I forget the canvas one

I also printed out this handy sheet from the City of Phoenix web site, Recycle List.  Do you do anything simple you'd like to share?

M Streets in the House

It's so funny, the neighborhood we lived in Dallas was called the M Streets, but tucked into these streets was one that stood alone; Kenwood.

Why would city planners put a K street in the middle of the M Streets?  Not being from Dallas, when hubby and I started looking for houses, we didn't realize that it was a big deal to live on an actual M street, not a K street in the middle of all these M's.  People on the M Streets had freakin bumper stickers that looked like those Euro-stickers with the country code on them, but they simply had a M on it.  So, feeling like the drama/band/goth/math club outsiders, we started calling ourselves the M-ish street crew.  But like a lot of outsiders, we were never organized enough to get a bumper sticker.

I went back to Big D this weekend to meet up with the girls to start shopping for Carey's wedding dress.  Do you want a peek?

Ha! Ha! Too bad.  This is all you'll get.

But if you go to Dallas and you're staying in the Uptown/Highland Park/Ross Avenue area, here's the places I recommend:

1. Gloria's on Greenville Ave
2. Cafe Izmir on Greenville
3. Mi Conzuelas on Main
4. Bread Winners on Hall
5. Times Ten on Skillman
6. Aw Shucks on Greenville
7. Luby's on Mockingbird
8. Campisi's on Mockingbird
9. Central Market on Lovers
10. Cafe Brazil on Central Expressway

Here we are at Times Ten:

Monday Meals...They're fast and easy

Come Monday, I'm always tired from the weekend and I'm actually excited to have at least one night a week where I know I can be at home.  The other thing that I love doing on Monday nights is trying one of the Gourmet Everyday recipes from Gourmet.  I've got a few staples that make the rotation quite often.

Spinach-Pesto Stuffed Salmon

I don't know when I came across this little gem, but it has a lot of flavor and it literally takes 15 minutes beginning to end. This is when I wish I was a food photographer. 

To throw this recipe together I picked up a mild salmon filet from Alaska Family Salmon.  I took 5 oz (1/2 a small package) of thawed spinach, mixed in about 1 T of pesto (tonight I used a tomato pesto) and mixed in a few pine nuts.  Season with salt, pepper and a little garlic and toss in the oven.  About 10 minutes later I serve it with green beans.

Aztec Roast Beef

This one is a crock pot recipe, but the prep time is almost nothing and the result at the end of the day is so good.  What I like about this recipe is that the levels of flavors is really rich.

To prepare this round roast, I use onions, garlic, red potatoes, 1 c strong coffee, 1 cinnamon stick, 1 T orange zest, 3 c beef broth, salt, pepper and garlic to taste.  Put in the crock pot on low for 8 hours for a 3 lb roast.

Let me know if any of these work out for you.

PC

Care Card is Here

Have you picked up your Care Card yet?  It's a discount card that saves you 20% at select retailers like Anthropologie, Artifacts, Lucy, Pottery Barn, restaurants and more.    The cards are part of a fundraising effort for Junior League of Phoenix and The Phoenix Board of Visitors.  The card will only cost you $50 and you'll be amazed at how fast you'll save more than that. 

Last night I ran by Fashion Square to start working on my fall uniform.   Wait.  Do you not know about my "uniforms."  I suffer from a very serious condition it's called Ohmygodidontknowwhattowearitus and I have to be careful or an attack can hit at any moment.  So, to cope with that I buy uniforms.  That's 3-4 britches and 4-5 shirts that all go from run around casual and can convert into cute going to have a drink wear.  So for each season, I get a new uniform and that way when I get an attack ohmygodidontknowwhattowear I go, "Hey Kee, just stick with the uniform.  Back to the savings, I saved $60 at Lucy (which covered my Care Card purchase and there's more to go.  I still have 2 pants and 3 shirts to look for.

If you want to get one, shoot me an email or you can contact the Junior League office www.jlp.org.

Happy Shopping