While I’ve never been one for New Year’s Resolutions, I do resolve to waste less food next year.

Image courtesy FoodandYou flickr photostreamFood waste has always been a hot topic in our household. One might think that my husband and I were raised during the Great Depression based on how we respond when good food is thrown out or wasted in our home (while neither of us lived through the Depression we both come from frugal Saskatchewan stock that valued not wasting food).

Eco etiquette: is wasting food a sin? Huffington Post

Our two sons went to Outdoor School with their classes this semester. One of the many things that left an impression on them was the focus on food and food waste. After each meal, every table group (of several children) would gather together all of the food left uneaten on their plates. The goal by the end of the week was to consistently make sure that there was no food gathered—zero food waste. (All four classes succeeded.)

How do we avoid food waste? For me, the most important step is to avoid purchasing too much to start in the first place. Even the smallest amount of meal planning can help individuals or households with buying only the food they will use in a certain time period. Composting organic waste means that leftover food is at least being put to good use. The City of Calgary’s Green Cart pilot will begin in March 2012 as four neighbourhoods try to collect their compostable food waste (that would otherwise go into the garbage) into green bins.

Simple lifestyle changes can reduce food waste Calgary Herald

In a world of abundance, food waste is a crime USA Today

I just discovered the University of Calgary Waste Management site, which shows an impressive push to work towards being a net zero waste campus. The same site has a wonderful checklist for anyone who wants to hold a waste free event.

Sometimes, of course, food should be thrown out for safety reasons. How can you be sure? You may want to visit the StillTasty: your ultimate shelf life guide site (or download its iPhone App), which lets you know when to keep and when to toss.

	American wasteland: how America throws away nearly half of its food (and what we can do about it) by Jonathan Bloom
	Waste: uncovering the global food scandal by Tristam Stuart

Our family is reading the Scott Westerfeld Steampunk trilogy: Leviathan, Behemoth and Goliath. It’s a great bedtime story for an older boy. An alternate history of World War I, there are daring adventures and dramatic cliffhangers which careen past like old movie serials. Simon likes looking at the black and white illustrations of steam powered tanks and battle armor. The main characters are Alek, an Austrian prince, and Deryn, a girl disguised as a midshipman in the British Navy. They travel across the world in an airship.

Steampunk is a literary and artistic movement that reimagines the Victorian world as if steam power were the main form of energy instead of electricity. Several children’s writers have played with the genre, including Arthur Slade with his Hunchback Assignments, meant for readers in grade 6 and up. Another Steampunk novel is Airborn by Kenneth Oppel, the author of the Silverwing bat novels. I read this when it came out and can’t wait to share it. This exciting adventure has orphaned Matt and wealthy Kate searching for strange flying creatures as they travel on an airship.

Simon and I travelled to Seattle for a Steampunk convention. First stop was The Museum of Flight, filled with World War I aircraft. Simon loved being the expert explaining to me how they all worked. This fantastic museum contains a comprehensive collection of historical aircraft, including a Sopwith Camel, a Spitfire, a Harrier Jump Jet and a Concorde. We toured the retired Air Force One plane for President Kennedy, which had a little dog door inside for presidential pups.

Like the Arts and Crafts Movement, Steampunk is partly a reaction to mass production, and homemade items are much respected. Some ladies spend months researching and sewing elaborate Victorian gowns. The men make shiny futuristic weapons. Oftentimes they start with Nerf guns as the base. The guns are “modded” with the addition of hardware parts, and are painted metallic colours. A significant part of the Steam convention is the costume show and tell, where you ooooh and aaaaah over what others have made.

We visited Seattle landmarks that would appeal to a 10 year old boy. We first saw the Frank Gehry Experience Music Project building from the Seattle Space Needle beside it. This undulating building contains exhibits about popular music and science fiction. We enjoyed the innovative technology In the Avatar movie exhibit. Next we went to the Pikes Place Market to check out the wall of gum. It smelled beautiful! After buying some Chukar Cherries, we headed to the Fremont neighbourhood. It’s a great place to walk around with lots of public art, including the Fremont troll sculpture tucked under a bridge. There are lots of places to eat, including an organic chocolate factory which offers tours and samples. Check out Walking Seattle by Clark Humphrey for some ideas.

Just north of Fremont is Archie Macphees. This is the place Simon talked about most when we returned home. It’s a joke shop full of more stupid gags than you imagine existed. Simon was especially impressed with the bacon items: bacon Band-Aids, bacon flavoured tooth floss, rubber bacon action figures, and bacon breath mints. On our last morning we went to a breakfast buffet and he ate a plate full of bacon. As we drove to the airport, he was already asking to come back to Seattle.

Kari

The premise for this rustic pie is so intuitively sound, so solid, I wish I had thought of it myself. What could be more comforting than sandwiching spicy Italian sausage and rapini between soft, smooth layers of mashed potatoes and baking the whole mass together until steaming hot? When I found this recipe it immediately resonated with me, a whole meal in a pan, replete with meat, veggies and potatoes!

Rapini is sometimes referred to as brocolli rabe and it has a more assertive peppery bite than brocolli. You may, however, substitute brocolli if you wish. Having made this a number of times and savouring each encounter with it, I cannot stop my imagination from inventing some new fillings to layer between the mashed potatoes: sauteed mushrooms and spinach, roasted tomatoes, a meaty beef ragout, thick stewed beans, leftover chicken, anything with a fair bit of solidity that will hold together when cut. Pile on the filling generously as the potatoes can dominate otherwise. Try the recipe as written first. Then, let your imagination carry you forward. Gattos are rustic, homestyle potato casseroles found in Southern Italian kitchens.

Gatto - Italian Sausage, Rapini and Potato Pie

4 pounds all-purpose potatoes, peeled and cut into large chunks; 1 cup Parmigiano cheese; 3/4 cup milk; 2 eggs, beaten; 2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil; 1 large garlic clove, finely chopped; 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes; 2 bunches rapini, stems removed; 2+1/2 tsp. kosher salt; 1 pound hot Italian sausage, casings removed; 2 tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into pea-sized pieces; 12 ounces asiago cheese, shredded; freshly ground black pepper to taste.

Put the potatoes in a large pot with enough cold water to cover them by a few inches. Salt the water well, bring to a boil over high heat and cook the potatoes until tender. Drain well.

Mash the potatoes with a potato masher, stirring in the butter, the Parmigiano cheese, milk and eggs.

In a large skillet, combine olive oil, garlic and red pepper flakes over low heat. When the garlic is fragrant but has not changed colour, add the rapini and season it with about 1/2 tsp. salt. Toss the rapini in the oil and cook over higher heat until tender. Cool and chop coarsely. Set aside.

In another skillet saute the crumbled sausage, continually breaking it up with the side of a wooden spoon until it has lost all its rawness. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Oil a 9x13 inch baking pan and spoon about half of the potatoes into the pan, pressing and smoothing this layer with your hands until it is even. Arrange an even layer of sausage over the potatoes and then an even layer of rapini. Sprinkle shredded Asiago cheese evenly over the rapini. Season with black pepper and then spoon the remaining potatoes over the top, again using your hands to smooth them into an even layer. Use the tines of a fork to draw decorate lines on the layer of potatoes.

Bake for about 40 minutes, until the top is golden. Let stand for 15 minutes before cutting into squares and serving. This dish reheats very well but should not be frozen.

Find more cold weather comfort with our help:

One of the reasons why I was interested in being more environmentally friendly was because I was interested in animals and their well being (there are a lot of animals in the wild, after all). So, it is a bit disconcerting when one discovers information about how having an animal companion might actually be bad for the environment.

I’ve discovered Carol Frischmann’s book Pets and the planet: a practical guide to sustainable pet care (636. 0887 FRI) at the library. Frischmann gives a detailed account of how to give your pets good care and still take care (or at least take the steps to take care) of the environment.

Cats

One of the problems is cats and cat litter. Cats themselves of course are not the problem. The problem is when people allow their pets to go outside, they often can injure and kill wildlife (cats and dogs can both do significant damage to wildlife, and vice versa). And while, as Alan Weisman’s poignant book The World Without Us mentions, cats can keep the populations of other introduced species such as starlings in check, they don’t decipher between our native songbirds and European house sparrows. To them, a bird is a bird, which is prey. Even if the bird gets away, cat saliva can infect the bird which may lead to an untimely death. So the best thing for both your cat and the other animals outside is to keep your cat indoors – this also extends the cat’s lifespan, as it keeps your cat safe from cars, coyotes, owls, other cats that can spread infectious diseases, etc.

Litter

As for cat litter – clay litters are ultimately not very good for the environment. For one, how we get the clay is by mining for it, which is hard on the environment. Clay litter is also not compostable or biodegradable, and contains silica which is potentially harmful for you if you breathe it in.There is also a risk (as with any clumping litters) of cat’s developing an intestinal blockage from licking the clumps off of their paws!

You can get pine litter (which is made from reclaimed sawdust from the timber industry.) This alternative is biodegradable, although you want to make sure that your cat does not react to the pine resin. Yesterday's News is a litter made up of recycled newspapers, although it doesn't have much in the way of odor control, and has parfum listed as one of its ingredients. Silica gel litter is recommended for cats, but fairly pricey, so I stick with pine litter.

If you have not had the pleasure of smelling or tasting a Meyer lemon, brace yourself for olfactory overload. With an almost perfume-like sweetness and floral soul, Meyer lemons come from warm, sunny places and will brighten your day immeasurably. It was nothing short of a miracle to find them on the shelves of Superstore this week, as I was led to believe, by Florida grocers, that Meyer lemons are not exported out of their southern homes. But, now they are! And you are the lucky shopper who can infuse your salads, marinades, teas, pies, pastas, cookies and grilled fish with its intoxicating essence. They are thin skinned and softer than your run-of-the-mill lemon, and with much more juice. I grabbed a bag and am already planning to restock my stash, having made some basil pesto enlivened with its juice. All my inner resources are at play conjuring up ways to incorporate Meyer lemons into my life. Lemon squares, certainly, and cheesecake topped with a tart lemon curd. Lemon juice will season my rice pilafs and quinoa creations. Salad dressings with nothing more than the lemon juice, a fruity olive oil, cracked black pepper and some sea salt. Squirted on grilled wild halibut. Zested into my Tuscan braised chicken and artichokes. Lemon meringue pie is a must. Even a Shaker pie, which never really appealed to me before, is on my list, if only for the pleasure of slivers of the whole succulent fruit tucked into a flaky pie shell. Sometimes for fun I just take a Meyer lemon out of the fridge and smell it. That's how much I love them.

Simply put, use a Meyer lemon much as you would use an ordinary lemon. But, try to feature its unique personality in as pure a state as possibile, letting it shine through without too much distraction. So, leave the garlic out of your lemon vinaigrette. Don't overdo the parmesan cheese that you rain over your fusili with lemon cream sauce. When life gives you Meyer lemons, make lemonade! Greek avoglemono sauce would be a fine idea right now. Make a ceviche with sweet scallops or fish filets and Meyer lemon juice. Roast a chicken doused with olive oil and lemon juice and zest, tossing the squeezed carcass of the Meyer lemon into the cavity of the chicken during roasting. Finish off your grilled salmon steaks with a cascade of the sweet juice and nothing more. Serve slivers of Meyer lemon in a tall glass of cold Perrier water. A rare Tuscan steak would turn heads with some of this juice as a fresh flourish. How about some lemon shortbread, the butter serving as a conveyer belt for a Meyer lemon experience? Your shoe would taste good marinated in Meyer lemon juice.

To showcase the insane lemon-ness of Meyer lemons, take the freshest of firm fish filets and douse them with lemon juice. The fish will "cook" in the lemon juice because of its acidity, a perfect plan when you have stellar lemons on hand. Jamie Oliver, a British chef with an appreciation for simplicty and freshness, agrees:

Peruvian Ceviche from Jamie Oliver's Jamie's America

14 ounces sushi grade firm fish, VERY fresh, pinboned, skinned and fileted; 1 red or yellow pepper, seeded and finely chopped; 2 green onions, trimmed and finely chopped; juice of 2 Meyer lemons or 3 regular lemons; 3/4 tsp. sea salt; 1-2 fresh red chiles, seeded and finely chopped; 8 sprigs fresh mint, leaved picked off of stems; 8 sprigs fresh cilantro, leaves picked; large handful of watercress, baby arugula, alfalfa or micro greens; extra virgin olive oil; freshly ground black pepper.

Cut your fish fillets into 1/2-inch cubes. Put these into a bowl with your chopped bell peppers and green onions, then cover and place in the fridge until you need them. in a separate bowl or screw top jar, mix together lemon juice, salt and chiles. Cover and cool in the fridge. Wash and dry your herbs and cress and keep them in the fridge too.

The ceviche takes only a few minutes to "cook", that is to say to let the lemon juice work its wonders and permeate the flesh of the fish. Pour the lemon mixture over the fish mixture and immediately mix it up. Leave to sit for a few minutes while you lay out the plates. Throw most of your herb mixture into the bowl with the fish and toss together. Divide the ceviche between 4 plates (or onto a bigger platter) and include a little of the dressing (throw out what remains). Sprinkle the remaining greens over the top of the fish. Drizzle some extra good extra virgin olive oil from a height, anointing the fish with a golden glisten and grind some fresh black pepper over it all. Enjoy.

A regular lemon has plenty of citrusy charm, but a Meyer lemon is exponentially more magical, with perfume, sunshine and freshness in one handy, yellow package. Take your nose and tongue to places they have never been and use these books as inspiration: