Wednesday Morning Sampler Platter, 07.22.09

That's my local paper (4.00 / 5)

that the Gillibrand story is in. I'll try to put my ear to the grapevine and see if there's any more to it. I thought the same thing--same ole, same ole.

This is my first comment, but I read here all the time.

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by: fastpages @ Wed Jul 22, 2009 at 13:17:49 PM UTC

Thanks! (4.00 / 4)

And welcome to La Vida Locavore, fastpages!

:)

Coming soon to a Philadelphia near you!

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by: JayinPortland @ Wed Jul 22, 2009 at 13:30:26 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Thanks for the welcome, (4.00 / 3)

I just called the Senator's office (got the machine) and asked for bill numbers on the "legislation."

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by: fastpages @ Wed Jul 22, 2009 at 18:37:47 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

last night I invited myself to dinner (4.00 / 5)

with 2 friends...one of whom is a "budget hostage" here on PA. We were talking about food and she noticed yesterday at lunch that the vending machines were light. People eating crap because of money...

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by: LeeN @ Wed Jul 22, 2009 at 15:21:27 PM UTC

Richland is an interesting case (4.00 / 4)

Many people probably know that it grew almost overnight from a sleepy farm town of about 200 to a modest city of 25,000 or so. The Army needed a place to house civilian workers on the Manhattan Project, or at least that part of it being conducted on the Columbia River in eastern Washington, so on a Friday afternoon the CoE started rolling in, they laid out streets over the weekend and by Monday morning prefabricated houses were being put up and stores and schools and the like were being built. I spent the first 15 years or so of my life in one or the other of those prefab houses.

But it started about 40 years before that as a farm town, so it's interesting to see Richland mentioned in a farm story nowadays.

I have succumbed to the Twitter craze. @Omir55

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by: Omir the Storyteller @ Wed Jul 22, 2009 at 15:54:12 PM UTC

re: Gillibrand (4.00 / 4)

I got the press release. I'm glad she cares about the issue. Very glad. But if it's just a ban on trans fats (admission: I haven't fully read the press release so Im not sure) then that's not enough. Manufacturers just replace it with palm oil and go on their merry way, and that's bad too.

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

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by: Jill Richardson @ Wed Jul 22, 2009 at 15:54:48 PM UTC

The press release says very little (4.00 / 3)

besides the ban on trans fats and junk food, upping Fed reimbursement amounts for school lunches, and upping the exercise children get. I'm trying to get the text of this legislation to see what this all means. I'm very ambivalent about my Senator already, I haven't found her to be very deep on policy. Any policy.

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by: fastpages @ Wed Jul 22, 2009 at 18:41:46 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Here ya go (4.00 / 2)

from her Sen page:

http://gillibrand.senate.gov/n...

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by: nycstray @ Wed Jul 22, 2009 at 23:08:44 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Yesterday was a mixed bag (4.00 / 3)

It should have been a really good day. Any day I get a new laptop should be a really good day. But, in reality it was hot and cold:

* The reason I got a new laptop (which I'm typing on right now) is that the old one died. I'd been using it for about 4-5 years so this was not totally unexpected, but it happened at a most inconvenient time, when (1) I needed to be online to work from home and (2) I didn't really have the money to replace it. So, the credit card takes another hit. Goody.

* On the other hand, I have a new laptop! It's a slightly older model (but then, aren't they all?), but sufficient for what I want to do with it. I may have to spend a day getting rid of all the annoying, stuff-I'll-never-use software HP loaded it down with, though.

* The tomatoes have overgrown their supports. From here, we're in uncharted waters. But since I'd never grown tomatoes before, we were already there. And the plants are continuing to put out fruit! My daughter said one of the cherry tomatoes had ripened already, but she eated it. And the peas are still putting out, and the flower garden now has nasturtium blooms.

* It's cloudy and cool today, which won't do much for getting the tomatoes ripe. On the other hand, it's nice for working from a non-air-conditioned house.

* The doctor said I had to exercise more. Well, duh, like I don't know that. What I need to do is figure out when.

* The sourdough starter was sent to glory with a rousing rendition of Taps on the lip trumpet. It still smelled like bad diapers, and I didn't want to take the chance.

* So, I decided to try a different approach. Thinking back to a recipe I remembered reading in The Joy Of Cooking, I mixed two cups of whole wheat flour with two cups of milk. The milk was cold, and I should have let it warm up a bit, but even so this morning the batter had turned into a nice spongy mass that looks and smells promising. I guess we'll see next week. (Turns out I remembered the recipe wrong; JoC says to add 1 part sugar for every 2 parts milk and 2 parts flour. I forgot the sugar, but it seems to be doing quite nicely without, so I'm not going to try to put it in. It might grow a bit slower, is all, I would think.)

The rest of the day was a mix of things that went right and things that . . . didn't. So hopefully today will be a bit better.

I have succumbed to the Twitter craze. @Omir55

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by: Omir the Storyteller @ Wed Jul 22, 2009 at 16:15:13 PM UTC

Went to sourdough class last night (4.00 / 3)

the book I bought at the suggestion of the teacher (same method we learned) was Nancy Silverton's The Bread from the La Brea Bakery. Has good clear instructions and such. Easy to read and covers everything including feeding and care of your starter, temps of room, flour, water, etc!

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by: nycstray @ Wed Jul 22, 2009 at 20:02:08 PM UTC

[ Parent ]