New Year's Revolutions

Crazy, crazy winter it's been, mostly warm, with car accidents and computer kablooeys thrown in.  Still driving a rental after being rear-ended.  Luckily, the other guy's insurance is paying for it all.  Wouldn't it be nice if I could trade in my half-paid for Matrix for a hybrid?  Still installing updates after Safari got "fixed" and new fan was put in.  At least it stops quitting, the computer is quiet and cool, and I figured out how to get it to print again (selecting a beta version of my printer - go figure).

Anyway, much good is in the works.  My Eco-Warrior students grew basil plants as part of their community service, so on MLK day, I brought our 42 herbs to a local food pantry and did a quick demo for about 20 people on how to care for their plants and cook a tasty simple dish with canned white beans, including take-home care sheets and recipe cards.  We gave away all 42 plants and cannellini beans and many joyfully leaned in to smell the basil.  Some people set New Year's resolutions to do more volunteer work.  If you're starting seeds, grow some extra herbs to give to food pantries, nursing homes, hospitals, etc.  Share the green!

One of my other many projects is helping collect rabbit pellet for the New England Cottontail Project.  The NE native species is very threatened, with the introduced Ohio species in far greater numbers.  The introduced species has a white mark on its forehead, which may amount to a single hair, or sometimes no mark at all.  With the rabbit pellets, graduate students at URI will test for DNA to determine species.  Volunteers like me stake out areas using flags and a GPS and collect specimens in sterile tubes with silica after it snows.  

I set one site up on Sunday, finding the GPS center-point fairly easily and setting out to mark 25 meters in four directions.  Walking that far, even in uneven ground, is nothing for me.  I walk over a mile to the bus three times a week.  Keeping a line straight as I measure and tag specific points while navigating through brush, thorny bushes, grape vine, and saplings in 20 degree weather is not.  I got hit in the eye twice.  I kept thinking about Blair Witch Project.  It took me an hour and I was cold.  

On Monday I set out with helpers to survey site number two.  After half a mile through steep pathways and over and under trees, we found our pathway blocked.  800 meters to go.  Getting back to the car, we drove to the back of an industrial complex and tried again.  Trash.  600 meters.  A third try down a narrow winding road with nice houses, 179 meters.  Then it was time to pack up for the food pantry.  I guess I will try again on Saturday, when it's supposed to snow.  But working full-time does not give me much "light" time.

Meanwhile, my producer and I discussed our upcoming tv show: The 100 Mile Lifestyle.  I may just do a parody of Blair Witch when we cover this.  That is, if we can get the camera out in the snowy woods.  2012 appears to have many changes in store.  Chinese New Year is early, January 23rd, the year of the Black Rain Dragon.   In China, dragons are not horrific monsters but wise protectors, especially of water and rivers.  I thought of the rain dragon as I gazed at the protected lake I was exploring, now icy in a single day.  The water I cross going to work often stinks and is posted with warnings not to fish there.  This new area I am surveying is reintroducing fish.  We need more rain dragons to make this happen.  (A great movie that shows this is "Spirited Away".) 

We all want prosperity, whether it's for ourselves, our loved ones, or the Earth.  Eating local foods is one way to encourage this, supporting the local economy, reducing our carbon footprint, and eating healthier for a better life.  This recipe can be made with pine nuts of sunflower seeds, with slightly different (but tasty) results.  If you're short on time or want a thinner wrapper, use refrigerated wonton wrappers in the specialty section of supermarkets or from a local Asian market.

Gluten-Free Option

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Money Bags

Taste of China Meets Greece

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Prep: 20 minutes  Cook: 20 minutes  Makes 48

Filling:

1/4 cup dried Asian mushrooms, reconstituted in boiling 

     water 10 minutes (reserve liquid)

6 oz. frozen spinach

1/4 cup pine nuts or sunflower seeds

1-2 tbs. oil

4 tsp. butter

1 tsp. dried thyme

1/8 tsp. pepper 

2 scallions, or onion, chopped fine

4 oz. local feta (such as Narragansett Creamery’s Salty Sea)

Celebrate the New Year, Chinese or otherwise, with this appetizer of prosperity.  The spinach in  these dumplings represents cash, with feta, pine nuts or seeds, and thyme adding a punch of flavor inside. You can by-pass using a bamboo steamer by placing a cookie rack on the bottom of a large stock pot with lid.  Use wax paper pierced with holes and brushed with oil to keep wraps from sticking.  You can even tie bags with a thread of green scallion for a nice little detail. 

Chop mushrooms very fine.  Sauté pine nuts or seeds in 1 tbs. oil, until lightly toasted.  Add spinach and mushroom liquid as needed, cooking down, about 10 minutes.  Stir in mushrooms, butter, thyme, and pepper.  When all is incorporated, stir in scallions and feta.  Remove from heat and let cool.

Dough:

2 cups flour (or Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour)

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1 egg

1/2 cup water

1 tbs. oil

Sift dry ingredients.  Beat egg, water, and oil in bowl.  Add to dry ingredients and knead into a stiff dough.  Cover bowl with a damp towel and let rest 10 minutes to activate baking powder.  Form dough into two foot snake and cut into 48 slices.  Roll each slice into a thin round, add a tablespoon of filling, gather dough edges, and twist to seal.  (Use a drop of water if money bags do not stay closed.)  Place dumplings in oiled bamboo basket or oiled, pierced wax paper on a cooling rack over simmering but not boiling water, 12-15 minutes.  Serve immediately.