Course one // Grilled kabobs slathered in middle-eastern muhammara sauce [tofu, lemon, mushroom, red onion] Course two // Heather's quinoa with a twist [corn, kale, pan-seared chicken with pesto and roasted cherry tomatoes] / Big Sur Bakery rolls [flax, sesame, oat, sunflower, amaranth] Course three //Mini buttermilk berry milkshakes / Grandma Young's Springerlies [ageed German … Continue reading Best of 101 Cookbooks (plus Grandma Young’s Springerlies)
Author: paladin1787
Lovely international reporting
Students in a Chinese classroom seem happy to learn English, or at least happy to be together. (Creative Commons-licensed photo by yewenyi) Yesterday the New York Times featured an informative and fun-to-read story about outlandish edicts put forth by China's legions of untrained local officials. Sharon LaFraniere did a great job reporting on a nation-wide phenomenon … Continue reading Lovely international reporting
A 101 Cookbooks Thankgiving
This is three vegetarian courses, all served family style, all from 101cookbooks.com, one of my all-time favorite websites. Course one // Thai-spiced pumpkin soup / firecracker cornbread [corn kernels, red pepper flakes] Course two // Hazelnut and chard ravioli salad ["Plump raviolis tossed with toasted hazelnuts, sauteed ribbons of chard, and caramelized onions ... finished … Continue reading A 101 Cookbooks Thankgiving
World Traveler
Course one // Dubai: Sesame seed-coated falafel with tahini yogurt dip Course two // Thailand: Thai-spiced grilled salmon [Salmon wild, sustainable-fished, from Alaska] / complimentary literature about sustainable fishing Course three // Grand Cayman: Griddled pineapple and mango on toasted panettone [sweet bread] with homemade Chantilly cream [organic cream] (For those of you following this, … Continue reading World Traveler
Clout City
Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley speaks at a celebration for a building's LEED certification. (Creative Commons-licensed photo from the Flickr account of the Center for Neighborhood Technology) Move over, Tribune, there's another watchdog in town. No one seems to follow the mayor's corruption (yes, I said it) more intently than Mick Dumke of the Reader. … Continue reading Clout City
zing»»subtle
Course one // zing: Onion tarts with goat cheese Course two // strong: From-scratch roasted tomato soup [organic tomatoes, cream] Course three // mild: Local, organic chicken blackened on a grill Course four // subtle: Bread pudding and whiskey sauce (Bet you just can't wait to hear what this is all about... a few more … Continue reading zing»»subtle
GreenTown story on Chicagotalks
Toronto's city-wide recycling and composting program is one of the best in the world, and the head of their program came to Chi-town to talk to our waste engineers at a sustainability conference. Here's my story, which is headlining today on chicagotalks.org.
Grains of winter
Course one // Butternut squash and apple soup Course two // Wild rices with chili powder, cayenne, green onions / minted organic quinoa / organic plain yogurt Course three // From-scratch pumpkin pie [organic pumpkin, organic cream, organic brown sugar] (The next several days I’ll post menus I’ve created. At the end of the series … Continue reading Grains of winter
School
So school. Class equals pointless stories, demonstrating to older people things I've known for several years now. Not that it's not fun, sometimes, to do what I like to do without any responsibility to readers or repercussions that would deal direct blows to my livelihood. It's like playing a game. Except that, like playing Zelda … Continue reading School
Seeing Green
Course one // Olive oil and kale smashed potatoes [skin-on red potatoes, organic california olive oil, Parmigiano-Reggiano] Course two // Spinach quiche [Jarlesberg cheese, organic spinach, organic eggs, organic half and half] Course three // Pistachio pudding—or—green tea and mint ice cream / Wheatgrass shots (The next several days I'll post menus I've created. At … Continue reading Seeing Green
Cheese and cream
The next several days I'll post menus I've created. At the end of the series I'll clue you in as to why. Course one // Insalata Caprese [local heirloom tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, organic fresh basil, organic california olive oil] Course two // Goat cheese ravioli with tomato cream sauce [organic tomatoes, cream] / Parmigiano Reggiano … Continue reading Cheese and cream
BrandonSmith.com
Is now mine. For my entire life (okay, the twelve years the internet has been mainstream) I didn't have any hope I'd actually own my name's domain. There's a pro football player with the same name, as well as several other quasi-famous people. I thought they'd be all over the bidding wars, life savings in … Continue reading BrandonSmith.com
Bobby Kennedy, Jr. liveblog transcript
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spoke at my school this morning, at an environmental conference. Had to post a stock photo because I don't yet have a camera... I ate breakfast with him before his speech, basically a preview of the kinds of things he was gonna say, then live-blogged the speech itself on twitter.com/greenletters. The … Continue reading Bobby Kennedy, Jr. liveblog transcript
Summer 2008 work
Here are four clips published summer 2008 in the Wilmington (Ohio) News Journal. For more representative samples of my work, see the this page. May 21, 2008 — A feature describing how kids learn about life on the American frontier. Oxen had to pull their bus from the mud. — June 21, 2008 — At first … Continue reading Summer 2008 work
Light green, dark green, in between? Off the deep end?
Someone recently asked me this question: Do you think we should change our lifestyles to be more environmentally friendly? Or are you more dark green, like we should drop everything we're doing and start completely over, radically changing our entire lives? Or are neither of those solutions? The questioner is a smart cookie, and loves … Continue reading Light green, dark green, in between? Off the deep end?
Photography
I uploaded my recent art photos of an abandoned building to my Flickr account. You should check them out.
Spike in soup kitchen attendance
60 Minutes may be following up on its January segment on Wilmington. They had a producer here yesterday who witnessed the free lunch at the soup kitchen... Here's my story on the increase in soup kitchen attendance.
Busy, busy, busy
One reason I haven't updated this in a while is that I've been busy... looking for an apartment in Chicago (the city I'll call home for at least two years to come), looking for a job in Chicago, visiting a friend who was recently diagnosed with Leukemia, and getting classes and financial aid squared away … Continue reading Busy, busy, busy
Today’s story
Today's story of mine in the paper is called "Domestic and sexual assault victims struggle to find attorneys." Pretty self explanitory. It's a sad story. I don't have time to process the PDF for you this morning, but the piece had above-the-fold placement on page 1. Here's the link to the web treatment.
Uncle Sam, here’s $38.8 billion. I want $9.6 billion of that back.
Tuesday's paper headlined my story on two dentists indicted on tax fraud charges. (Here's the PDF, but it doesn't have all the content the web treatment does.) Sounds supremely boring, right? That is, until you slog through a dull-as-nails 29-page indictment. Then you find juicy tidbits, such as the following details that federal prosecutors allege: … Continue reading Uncle Sam, here’s $38.8 billion. I want $9.6 billion of that back.
Brandon Smith 