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Alternatives to wrapping paper

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gifts

In our house we celebrate both Christmas and Chanukah. That is a whole lot of gift giving, which can mean a whole lot of gift wrapping. It bums me out each year to see the clear garbage bags filled with holiday wrapping paper. This year I’ve been trying to reduce the amount of paper we use to wrap gifts. For Chanukah, we give one or two gifts a night. I’ve been putting them unwrapped inside a pretty gift bag. Lindsay doesn’t seem to notice or care that they aren’t wrapped. She’s just interested in what’s inside the bag. In fact she saw the bag today and asked why there was nothing in the Chanukah bag (her comforter wouldn’t fit in it).

Neil asked what I planned to do with the presents for Christmas. The gift bag obviously won’t work, so I’ve been looking at ideas online for gift wrap alternatives. Here’s what I found so far. Please feel free to add suggestions.

  1. Use fabric to wrap the gifts. I’ve gotten some fabric bags over the years when I’ve purchased something at a fancy shop. I always hang onto them because it just seems a waste to throw them out. (I’m convinced that I have a form of mental illness when it comes to throwing things out, but that’s a whole other post). I think putting some of the gifts in these bags would be pretty. If I had more time, I would even consider sewing a few bags from all the bits of fabric I have.
  2. Use the funny papers to wrap kids presents. If your paper has a comic section, this can be a nice option.
  3. Old calendars can be cut up and used to wrap smaller gifts.
  4. Wallpaper
  5. Old maps. NYC subway maps are free
  6. Kid’s artwork. If you don’t want to use their drawings, have them decorate paper grocery bags with stickers, drawings, glitter, etc.
  7. Pillow cases from mis-matched sets of sheets

Here are some factoids that might give you some more incentive. I pulled them off the California government website.

  • An estimated 2.6 billion holiday cards are sold each year in the United States, enough to fill a football field 10 stories high.
  • More household waste is produced between Thanksgiving and New Year’s than any other time of the year–about six million tons of added waste nationwide.
  • Half of the paper consumed in the U.S. every year is used to wrap and decorate consumer products.
  • About 40 percent of all battery sales occur during the holiday season. Consider purchasing rechargeable batteries instead of single-use household batteries. In 2006 alone, more than 40 billion single-use batteries were sold worldwide.
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    Bad Meat in School Lunches

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    Picture 2

    Check out this segment on CNN about the meat that is served in our children’s school lunches. They refer to the chicken as “spent hens” that even the fast food chains consider sub-par. It’s inexcusable that for what many children is their only meal of the day is such low quality.

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    Harvesting Herbs

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    parsley

    It’s finally starting to get cold here and I wanted to save some edibles from my garden. On the left is lemon verbena and on the right is flat-leaf or Italian parsley. I washed all the leaves and they are on this wire rack to dry. I put the parsley in the freezer to use it in sauces. I dried the lemon verbena to use as tea. It makes a wonderful tea mixed with mint leaves. You can also chop up the leaves and put them into baked goods.

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    Why to eat grass-fed beef

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    I just watched the movie Food, inc., which I recommend to everyone. If you haven’t had the time to read Omnivore’s Dilemma, it condenses the information well. If you already know about most of the issues, as I did, it renews your commitment to buying the most local and naturally raised food available.

    I was talking about the movie with a friend the other day and we were specifically talking about organic and bio-dynamically raised meat. I have to admit that this is something that I haven’t incorporated into my diet as much as I could/should. We usually order Bell and Evans or Murray’s chickens from our butcher, but have had some suspicions about the veracity of the being the real deal. (other butcher’s we’ve gotten them from have had Murray’s tags on the chickens and our butcher’s doesn’t) I bought an Eberly chicken, which Neil roasted on the bbq last night. It was flavorful and delicious. They come shrink-wrapped, so it’s impossible to substitute some factory-farmed chicken for one of theirs.

    My friend mentioned a local bio-dynamic angus farm called Grazin’ Angus Acres. I am lucky enough that they come to my local farmer’s market every sunday. Below I put a blurb from their website that gives some information on why to eat grass-fed beef over corn-fed beef.

    Ultimately it’s healthiest for you, the animals and the planet not to eat meat, but if that isn’t an option for you, switching to grass-fed is a much healthier and humane option.

    Health Benefits of Eating Grass-Fed Beef:

    Safety:  Because humans are omnivores, our stomachs are highly acidic. Meanwhile, the pH of grass-fed cattle is normal.  If Grass-Fed Black Angus happen to be carrying bacteria in their normal pH environment, our highly acidic stomach bath offers real protection.  Contrast that with corn-fed cattle…  Corn turns what is typically a normal pH environment into a highly acidic one.  Consequently, corn-fed cattle often require antibiotics in the feed to keep them from being sick, which generates its own set of concerns for human health.  Further, if corn-fed cattle carry bacteria (e.g. E-Coli) that is thriving in their now acidic environment, the acids in our stomachs offer little, or no, protection against it.

    Omegas: Grass-fed meat has been shown to have a 60% + increase in omega-3 content, as well as a more favorable omega-6 to omega-3 ratio.  Both fatty acids are essential and must be obtained from food.  It is important to maintain a balance of omega-3 and omega-6 in our diets, as these two substances work together to promote health.  That balance is adversely affected when cattle are fed grain. Specifically, a grass-fed diet produces a 2:1 omega 6:3 ratio.  “Why should I care?” you ask…

    Consider that omega-6 promotes inflammation, blood clotting, and tumor growth while omega-3 does the opposite.  Dietary experts estimate that current eating habits in America lead to an omega 6:3 ratio of about 20:1.  Grass-fed beef is a huge step in the right direction.

    ProVitamin A / beta-carotene:  Beta-carotene is a fat-soluble vitamin &  antioxidant that is a safe dietary source of vitamin A.  Vitamin A is important to normal vision, bone growth, reproduction, cell division and cell differentiation.  Grass-fed beef has a 10-fold increase in beta-carotene levels vs. grain-fed.  Taking vitamin A supplements can be dangerously toxic – but, we can eat all the beta-carotene possible and the human body will only convert the amount needed to vitamin A.

    Vitamin E / alpha-tocopherol:  Vitamin E is also a fat-soluble vitamin / antioxidant that protects cells from the effects of free radicals (which have been reported to contribute to cancer and cardiovascular disease development).  Grass-fed beef increases alpha-tocopherol levels three-fold vs. grain-fed beef.

    Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA):  Numerous health benefits have been attributed to CLA including reduced carcinogenesis, atherosclerosis, onset of diabetes and body mass.  Grass-fed cattle have been shown to produce 2 to 3 times more CLA than grain-fed cattle.

    IT’S NATURAL! Nature had it right all along.  The sun’s energy grows the grass that is harvested by the cattle that are harvested by us.  Grass-fed is how it was meant to be; it’s how our human construct was prepared to capture the nutritional value of meat.  The industrial machine – feeding cattle corn in confined areas – has destroyed what nature intended.

    Begin to enjoy the benefits of local Grass-Fed Black Angus today!

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    Unseasonably Warm

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    Almost every year we can expect our first frost by the end of October and by the end of November the ground is pretty well frozen. It is now December and not only have we not had one single frost yet, it is over 60 degrees fahrenheit this morning. I am definitely not a fan of the cold, but this doesn’t seem right.

    When I went out to let the chickens out this  morning, even the worms felt that spring was in the air. In case you’ve never seen it, here is some worm lovin’. Don’t you just love their lack of commitment as they keep their heads (?) in their respective holes?

    worm sex

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    Thanksgiving gone, now on to Christmas

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    photo

    This is the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center as I saw it last week. It fits in oddly well into its New York City surroundings. Actually it reminds me of a Buddhist temple in a weird way.

    I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving. We chose to stay in Brooklyn this year and celebrate with friends who invited us over. We didn’t have to get into a car because they live a few blocks away from us. On Saturday morning we were going for a walk and noticed how relaxed everyone on the street looked. And then it dawned on us that these were the folks who didn’t pack into their cars and drive a zillion hours to visit relatives. We had the relaxed glow all weekend as we ambled around our neighborhood going to the movies (Where the Wild Things Are) and the playground.

    After we bought our movie tickets, we still had some time so we decided to go for a walk to a nearby toy store. We are in the midst of figuring out what to get Lindsay for Hanukkah, Christmas and her birthday. It’s a tough time of year that can easily turn into a feeding frenzy of gift giving and opening. We want the gifts to be meaningful and useful, instead of the kind that get 1 hour of play and then forgotten (and worse, thrown out). While we were looking around I noticed these stickers. No, they aren’t a joke! They are made by Dover, who usually publishes wonderful, and often educational, books and coloring books. I think I need to write them a letter. What are we teaching here?? And no, there aren’t overweight kid stickers included in the book.

    fastfood

    We also watched the movie Food, Inc. over the weekend (actually the night before Thanksgiving!), but that will be another post.

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    Hang It Out to Dry

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    Today’s tip is about saving some energy and energy dollars by hanging your clothes up to dry. Clothes dryers are one of the biggest energy suckers in the home. A typical dryer can use somewhere between 1800-5000 watts, which is about 2-3 times more than a dishwasher, or vacuum cleaner. You can figure out how much energy your home appliances are using here.

    Laundry that has dried outside has a wonderful fresh smell you never get with the dryer. But it isn’t always practical or possible to hang your clothes outside. I have a very short clothes line outside, so I choose the heaviest items to hang out there. You know the towels or the mattress pads that tumble endlessly in the dryer? They dry in almost the same time outside and save a bundle of energy that way. Sometimes the towels can dry a little stiff, but you can toss them in the dryer for a couple of minutes to soften them up.

    IMG_5541

    If you don’t have outdoor space, you can get a bit creative in where to hang your laundry. Before buying a house, my sister used to have a line outside her apartment window. I often hang jeans up on our baby gates. In our laundry room (which used to be our darkroom when I first moved into this apartment) I hang a lot of shirts and other items up to dry. The fabric lasts a whole lot longer than if it was run through the hot dryer and it dries overnight without a care or practically a wrinkle. Some people hang lingerie to dry on their shower curtain rod.

    Get creative! The less clothing that goes in the dryer, the less energy you will be using. Your clothes will last longer, so it’s a win-win situation.

    Check out my sister’s insanely pretty clotheslines!

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    Homemade Ravioli

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    Back in July, my husband gave me a KitchenAid stand mixer for our 10th anniversary. I know most people get one of these when they first get married, but back then I couldn’t imagine having such a huge appliance in my tiny Brooklyn kitchen.

    I really love baking, so I’ve been having fun kneading bread dough and mixing batter for cupcakes. We decided to get a pasta rolling/cutting attachment, which has turned out to be a lot of fun. There is something so satisfying about feeding dough into a machine and having flattened sheets come out. Then you feed the sheets in and long strings drip out. I pretend I’m very sophisticated making pasta, but the reality is that I’m just playing with the grown-up version of a playdoh extruder.

    Although I’ve been really swamped with work for the past 2 weeks getting ready for a photo shoot, I decided that I absolutely had to make ravioli. We had some extra ground beef/ground turkey mix from dinner, so I flipped through my book The Complete Book of Pasta and Noodles for a recipe. I chose to make meat and ricotta with basil filling.

    meat-ravioli

    Meat and Ricotta with Basil Filling based on recipe from The Complete Book of Pasta and Noodles by The Editors of Cook’s Illustrated Magazine.

    1 T olive oil (evoo)

    2 minced garlic cloves

    1/2 lb of ground meat. You can use different combos such as ground beef with pork. I had beef/turkey mix on hand.

    1 c. ricotta

    1/3 c. grated parmesan cheese

    1 large egg yolk

    1/2 c. minced basil leaves (I used the last basil I had growing in a pot)

    1/2 t salt

    freshly ground pepper

    Heat the garlic in olive oil until fragrant. Add the meat and cook on med-high until the meat browns and the liquid evaporates. Break up the pieces as it cooks. Drain off the fat and let cool a bit.

    In a medium mixing bowl, add the cooled meat and the rest of the ingredients. You can keep the mixture in the fridge overnight if you like.

    I made a basic pasta dough of 3 large eggs mixed into 2 cups of flour. I always try and sneak some whole wheat flour into my cooking. I only added about 1/4 cup because I didn’t want the dough to get too heavy. You can  mix your dough in a food processor, by hand, or with the dough hook of your stand mixer. If the dough looks crumbly, add water 1 T at a time until it comes together. You don’t want to add too much in case it gets sticky. I made the dough before the filling because it needs to rest for about 1/2 hour before you start rolling it out.

    Now comes the fun part. When the dough is ready, you roll it out in thin sheets. Drop teaspoonfuls of the filling about an 1-1 1/4″ apart on the dough, fold over and seal. It took me a couple of tries to get my technique down. At first I was getting a lot of air trapped in with the filling, but then figured out how to press it out before I completely sealed the raviolis. I trimmed them into squares using a pizza wheel. I’m pretty darn happy with how they turned out. I’m going to experiment with different fillings, because really, how can anything surrounded by dough be anything but tasty and satisfying?

    meat-ravioli2

    meat-ravioli-3

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    Tuesday's Tip

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    river-rock

    I’ve been thinking a lot about the small things we can do that add up to a big impact. That is what has made me want to post some ideas hopefully once a week. In any case, I’ve chosen tuesday as my day. The idea of these tips is to spark awareness and not guilt. I think we sometimes get caught up in how bad so many different things are that it’s hard to think of the small things we can do to chip away at the problem.

    So, these are my guilt-free tips. If you have any ideas of your own *please* email them to me and I will post them when I can.

    Today’s tip is to lower the water usage in your toilet. A family of 4 typically uses 100 gallons of water a day, and the toilet is the biggest factor in the water consumption.

    Ideally we would all have low-flow toilets, or the cool dual-flush ones that have a different amount of water to flush #1 and #2. If that’s not an option (remember, don’t feel guilty!) you can reduce the amount of water in your tank. This reduces the amount of water used per flush, which adds up pretty quickly.

    When I was a kid, a lot of people put a brick in their toilet tank. The mass of the brick would reduce a brick-size mass of water in your tank. That’s the idea I’m working with today. The only problem with using a brick is that it begins to deteriorate in the water, which can cause problems with your pipes.

    Instead of a brick, you can use a number of different objects. I love to go on hikes and nature walks, so my objective was to find a river rock. When we stayed with friends up in Woodstock, NY there were plenty of beautiful, smooth river rocks near their house. River rocks are great because their surface has been smoothed over by years of water flowing. They won’t deteriorate in your tank and cause problems.

    If you can’t find a nice river rock, another solution is to take a plastic bottle or jug that is about 1 liter in size. Fill it with pebbles and seal it. The pebbles weigh it down, so it doesn’t float around and interfere with the workings of the toilet.

    Of course, there’s the old saying, “If it’s yellow, let it mellow. If it’s brown, flush it down.” If you and your family are up for this (mine is not), you can save a lot of water by just not flushing as often.

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