Mercury, arsenic, and lead - oh my!

Need one more reason why we need to develop green energy for the U.S.? Environmental Spill Disaster Devastates Tennessee. Approximately 500 million gallons of coal ash sludge has broken through a holding pond at a coal-fired plant.

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Easy Turkey Chili

Yum, nothing says hearty-winter meal quite like chili!  Here is a tasty and easy recipe I use, making it in a crock pot, which cooks in the flavor, nice and slow.  This is a double batch.  We eat half over several days, and I freeze the other half.  It makes a great, easy meal for a party.  I've served this straight out of the crockpot at a party putting onions, shredded cheese, sour cream, and crackers on the side as a "build-your-own chili bar."  It was a real hit!

Here's what you need:

2 pounds ground turkey

4 (10.75 oz) cans tomato soup (or just purchase the BIG size, 55oz. which is usually cheaper and then I use the whole thing).

4 (15 oz) kidney beans, drained

2 (15 oz) black beans, drained

1 medium yellow onion

1/4 cup chili powder

2 teaspoons red pepper flakes

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon ground cumin

2 pinches ground black pepper 

As with all my cooking, I use organic with as many ingredients as I can.

1.)  Brown turkey in skillet until cooked evenly, drain.

2.) Combine all ingredients in slow cooker and mix well.

3.) Cover and cook in the slower cooker on the 6 or 8 hour setting.

Serve with freshly shredded sharp or medium cheddar cheese, sour cream (or organic plain yogurt as a substitute),  and crackers.

The recipe also includes onion.  I like to brown the onion right before serving and add it in, mixing it up in the chili.  Or, you can simply cut it and serve it on the side to add on top, or cut and throw in the chili at the beginning, prior to slow cooking.

Enjoy!

Snow, Rain, Snow

The weather has been so strange here.  We have record amounts of snow in December.  I don't mind the snow, I just hate the freezing cold - like a cold weather warning of -20 degrees with the wind chill.    Even though we've had a lot of snow, we've still had some super cold days.  The opposite happened over Christmas.  It was chilly on Christmas day, and then got progressively warmer.  It got into the mid 40's, the snow started melted, a dense fog rolled in, and then it began to rain.  In some spots of the yard, the snow was melting away completely.  In the front yard, we can now see a flower bed that has been covered since early December.  Last night the temperature dropped and we got several more inches of snow overnight.  It took Tim and I an hour to clear the driveway this morning.  Some spots had drifted to 2 or more feet, which our little snow blower just can't get through.  So between me shoveling and Tim snow blowing we got it done.  I'm glad some of the rain melted the snow away because otherwise I wouldn't have been able to lift the snow on top the huge pile accumulating at the bottom of our driveway.  Here is a picture that shows how the snow melted away from the flower bed, but is a gigantic pile at the end of the driveway.  If I were to be standing behind the big pile, you'd probably only see my face, the pile is about 4 feet tall.  I'm interested in what the rest of the winter will bring!

Snowshoeing

Today we went snowshoeing at the Ledgeview Nature Center in Chilton.  It was a nice day for it.  The sun wasn't out, but it was warm and not snowing or raining.  We went to the Ledgeview Nature Center this past summer for an annual event they have called the Fall Harvest Fest.  We decided to go back since we saw on their website that they have snowshoeing.  We enjoyed our time!  We were out there for about 1 hour and it was fun!  Toward the end I was getting pretty tired, realizing that we were going mostly uphill was mentally defeating!  I'm looking forward to getting out on the snowshoes again.  We got our WI state park pass for Christmas from my Mom and Dad like I asked, so we hope to get to a park where we go snowshowing, and attempt to bring the dogs with us. Snowshoeing is fun!  I've lived in Wisconsin my whole life and have always complained about the winter.  I figured I'd better find a reason to enjoy winter, and I think snowshoeing is it! -L

MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

To our friends and family and blog visitors -  MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

We hope for a happy holiday time with family and friends, and a peaceful 2009!

"You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist." -Indira Gandhi

Delicious Shrimp Dip

Ready for a tasty, calorically sinful shrimp dip recipe?  Try this (makes a BIG party sized batch):

Mix together until smooth and creamy:

24oz. cream cheese (lowfat is what I use)

1 - 6oz. can tiny shrimp with liquid

2 - 6oz. cans tiny shrimp, liquid drained

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 medium onion

1 fresh lemon squeezed

Refrigerate.

Serve on whole wheat crackers, or your favorite cracker.

Say "yum!"

The World's Largest Dump: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

I know that I've posted on this before, but I think it's so important for people to understand this.  Here's the story: Floating in the Pacific ocean is a massive island of trash. Now, researchers have decided to map the size, content, and density of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

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A simple idea...

Although some people might describe me as a little on-edge (admitedly I have been in the past!!!), I truly feel that over the past couple of years I have just calmed down. I think most of this is thanks to Tim, who is the yin to my yang! For my level of anxiety, Tim has just that much calmness! I think it's finally rubbing off :) I feel more relaxed. I was just thinking how many people I know are caught up in the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. They aren't "done with their shopping", they have so many parties to attend, they dropped $200 on gifts for ONE child...and all of it sounds like work, rather than fun. How miserable, living your life caught up in the expectations of everyone else. My mindset is that we should just keep it simple. Life doesn't need to be complicated and stressful. Let's volunteer ourselves for Simplicity! We should live our lives in a deliberate fashion, in which we make educated choices that are based on what is best for not only us, but for the people around us and the environment! The more simple we are, the better off things will be - at least for me. I don't need to spend a lot of money to feel happy. I don't need to be stretched in several directions in one time, meeting the demands of everyone but myself. I will take life at the pace it delivers, always trying to remember that life is best when it's SIMPLE! -L

Subway Reefs

Subway Reefs - what? I just read an article at NY Times about how we are destroying cold water reefs, which are necessary reefs for sealife reproduction and habitat. Here us humans go destroying things again....but wait?!?! We have a solution. It might sound weird, but what if we sink a bunch of old subway rail cars in the ocean, giving back the sealife a habitat. Apparently after some scientific study the state of Delaware decided to drop 48 old rail cars in to the ocean. I'm being a skeptic about this, but I think that there are probably chemicals galore on these subway cars from paint, etc. But, who am I to judge this to be a bad idea? I'm not a scientist afterall. Well, now Delaware has another problem since they dumped these rail cars into the ocean - growing pains. The good news is that the sealife is actually increasing! However, the area where the rail cars are has a growing traffic problem with fisherpeople. Commercial fishers are are dragging nets across, and their nets are tangling with local anglers who are MAD! Surprisingly, someone must have asked some questions about the asbestos found in the old rail cars. State and Federal officals state that asbestos is not a threat to marine life, and has to be airborne to pose a threat to us innocent humans. Yes, and haven't they also said that DDT was safe, only to change their minds after our countries symbol, the eagle, starting dying off at a rapid pace - directly related to DDT? Yuk! I am so disgusted by the idea of dropping human junk into the ocean. Although the ocean DID need repair, is this really the most reasonable solution? I have an idea, let's put all our old cars, ships, airplanes, buses, and other forms of public transportation in the ocean too. Then we can watch the poison take over the sealife, while we continue to consume it and wonder why we are dying of cancer and other diseases.

I hope you can sense my sarcasm here, I'm feel a bit cheeky today! :) But seriously, doesn't this just seem absurd?! Funny thing is, the place this is all taking place is appropriately called "Slaughter Beach, Del."

Due North!

Tim and I just returned from a little escape to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  I have been to the U.P. before, but wasn't there long enough, nor was I quite mature enough to understand the true beauty that the U.P. has.  Where we went was a very northern area of the U.P. - the Keweenaw Peninsula.  It was just amazing!  Pretty much the entire time we were there it was snowing, but it was a light, gentle snow fall - lake effect.  The peninsula has Lake Superior on the west, north, and east side.  We spent time outdoor snowshoeing as well as spending time in the Houghton/Hancock area.  My favorite areas that we visited was the north west and north east side of the peninsula.  It was so beautiful!  Since the population is smaller, taking in the scenery was easy...we didn't have to fight for a picture, and we rarely crossed paths with other people on the road. When we did, they were locals and usually raised their hand to wave.  Some day, when we achieve our dream of having a homestead, we would like to make it in the northwoods (WI or MI).  The Keweenaw Peninsula was surely a fit for our goals. To the right are some pictures from our travels of the Lake Superior area.  Our trip was the perfect scenery of snow, trees, water, and peace.  -L

Getting excited about what we don't know!

Hi everyone!  It seems like a lot of the eco websites and blogs I read are a lot of doom and gloom.  There is no doubt in my mind that we are doing bad things to this planet, but we have to remain hopeful for improving our ways, as well as remain hopeful for that which we do not know.  I was recently reading the December issue of National Geographic and they had a snippet about some of the fieldwork that is being done by scientists, archeologists, and the like.   I read about a group of scientists on the island Vanuatu (which is in the South Pacific).  Over 5-months 150 scientists went over the island studying species.  Over 10,000 species were found, 2,000 of them may be completely new to science.  It is quoted by French mollusk expert Phillippe Couchet that "80 percent of the world's species remain to be discovered."  What an amazing thing to think about since most of the animals, plant life, etc. we hear about are going extinct!  Hopefully we can continue to discover WITHOUT harming natural habitats.    Reading that article made me hopeful for what our future here on earth holds.