Yahoo! Answers

Photo by karl17
Fall is my favorite time of year. The weather cools down a bit, and if you live in an area with actual changes in weather, the leaves are turning beautiful shades of brown and gold. I’ve mentioned before that I’m an obsessive knitter, and in the fall I remember all those huge projects that I squirreled away. I go on an annual project-finishing binge, resulting in completed wooly garments to keep me cozy in cold weather.

I’m also a big fan of fall foods. I pull out my cookbooks and experiment with different soup recipes. Some are successes, some are spectacular failures, but they all at the very least warm the house up and give it that fantastic “someone’s-been-cooking” aroma. (As a side note, last year’s winning soups were the chicken soup with a zing – the zing being jalapeno, ginger, and garlic – and a gluten-free beer cheddar soup.) On the subject of seasonal foods, I love pumpkin lattes, muffins, and pie. What is it about the gourd family served sweet that makes it so irresistible?

Speaking of gourds, driving around town and seeing all of those pumpkin patches leads me to the high point of fall in our house: Halloween. It’s my favorite holiday, and I love going almost too far with decorations, costumes, and candy. Whether we’re setting up our entryway as a dungeon, crime scene, or scaffolding complete with a guillotine, the neighborhood kids get a kick out of the décor. They come for the gore, but they tell their friends about the full-sized candy bars.

We try to do fun, creative costumes, and it’s sometime challenging to gauge whether a costume will be weather-appropriate, given the fickle nature of fall weather. Let’s face it: No matter how awesome a couple’s costumes might be, the most convincing Captain Kirk costume won’t keep his Orion slave girl warm on a chilly Halloween.

What’s your favorite thing about fall?

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Photo by notlob86
My daughter and I went to Filoli Gardens over the weekend to take some pictures. She had a project to work on for her photography class and I was testing out my new digital camera. My daughter used her 35mm SLR camera because part of the project includes processing and developing the roll of film. I used a digital camera that has a few bells and whistles but is basically a travel/personal model-not a fancy, high-end digital SLR.

Once I got home, I uploaded my pictures and performed a few enhancements with software, such as cropping and adjusting the contrast, saturation, etc. I was really happy with the pictures in general (although I’m still getting used to the macro feature), and as I glanced over at my once-cherished Minolta X-700 (I know, it’s an oldie!), I wondered if I would ever need to load another roll of film again.

Of course, I’ve yet to see my daughter’s photos. She is a much better photographer than I am and she’ll probably do some creative things during the film-development process.

Still, I’m wondering if using film makes any difference for someone like me-an amateur photographer who may benefit from being able to snap away and delete the mistakes without worrying about the cost of buying and developing film.

What do you think? Any die-hard 35mm film fans out there? Do you have any preference between digital and film?

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Photo by ralphbijker
With the current state of the economy and rising cost of everything from fuel to fun to fashion, I’ve been taking a pretty close look at my budget, and one thing is clear: I spend way too much money on food. With working full time, teaching an evening class, working in my pottery studio, and cultivating a social life, I juggle a pretty busy schedule.

I’m rarely organized enough in the morning to bag myself a balanced lunch, and cooking a healthy, inexpensive dinner for myself is usually the last thing I feel like doing after a long day. Instead, I usually dine out or grab something on my way home, which can really put a strain on the wallet (not to mention the waistline!) This week, I thought I’d root around Answers to see if I could cook up some inspiration for optimizing my weekly food budget, and maybe even get some basic-meal ideas I could keep handy at home.

• When shopping at the grocery store, Holly suggests skipping the processed foods and offers some recommendations about which natural ingredients give you the biggest bang for your buck.

• Paul makes a really good point about avoiding grocery shopping when you are hungry. Studies support the idea that hungry shoppers tend to spend more and make less sensible decisions on what to buy. Eat beforehand and shop with your brain, not your stomach. He also suggests avoiding the grocery store when you are angry or depressed-those shoppers tend to buy more sweets and indulgent items, and find it more difficult to make healthy food choices.

• Silly’s-gone-C-r-A-Y-Z saves cash by buying foods in large quantities and repackaging them into smaller servings. Cooking an entire ham at once yields meals for the entire week and is a lot cheaper than cooking individual portions every day. A little planning can pay off big-time.

• Bringing lunch to work instead of hitting a restaurant is certainly a wise money-saving practice. Jeffrey P recommends packing it up the night before so you’re not rushing to try to take care of it in the morning. He also keeps grab-and-go items like canned soup, crackers, and fruit on hand to make putting together a healthy lunch a little easier.

These are some wonderful ideas that make a great jumping-off point to start me on a healthier eating pattern, both fiscally and nutritionally. What others can you suggest?

How do you maximize your food budget to make the most of your dollar while still eating well?

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Photo by Sailing Footprints Real to Reel
It’s 5:00 and you’re headed home. Very likely, in traffic. And if you’re like me, you’re thinking about what you want for dinner. But you really don’t want to go out to eat again – it’s not healthy, it’s expensive, and homemade food is so much tastier. But… you’re tired. You’ve had a long day, and likely so has your partner. It looks like another night of take-out pizza, burgers, or tacos.

So how can you make more homemade meals and minimize inconvenience? Lists and routines. It sounds simple, but my mother taught me that it takes a month of repeating a specific behavior to ease it into “routine” status.

I’ll admit it seems simplistic, but it’s true. The lists help, and when I started living on my own, the lists saved me. I start by writing down my basics on a grocery list. My staples are milk, eggs, yogurt, bread, bananas, tomatoes, rice, and oatmeal. When you make your list of staples, think about the things you eat all of the time, and those foods that supplement other meals. That’s the beginning of the list.

When I’m planning meals, which I generally do once a week before grocery shopping, I consider the weather, seasonality of ingredients, my cravings, favorites, and recipes from a couple of cookbooks. While you’ve got the cookbooks in front of you, add the ingredients to your list, considering any items you might already have in the fridge. We stick Post-Its to the fridge listing what ingredients we have.

We usually do most of our cooking prep on Sunday afternoons, meaning, we throw together 3-4 meals and stick them in the freezer. It’s not a glamorous Sunday afternoon, but two hours in the kitchen usually means terrific meals later in the week. Also, it’s surprisingly fun having your partner as your chef (or sous-chef)!

How do you balance busy schedules and home-cooked meals?

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Photo by alykat

In my last blog entry, I talked about spring cleaning your interior spaces. So this time around I thought I’d tackle the great outdoors. Or in my case, the lack of great outdoors.

Spring is indeed a time for new growth, and I’d love nothing more than to surround myself in green, flowering things. But my front yard is concrete, I don’t have a backyard or deck, and my apartment boasts only two small, incredibly dingy windows, which spend the better part of the day shaded by the large brownstone across the street. It is clearly not the optimal scenario for growing things. What’s a frustrated urban gardener to do?

It looks like a lot of you aspiring green thumbs have similar restrictions, but are making it work. I’ve unearthed tons of fertile advice from Answers users on using containers to grow vegetables, herbs, and even edible flowers.

Some urbanites live in such close quarters that the only place to “grow” is up on the roof, that is. Rooftop gardens and green roofs are springing up all over metropolitan areas, and could even possibly help to save energy and keep buildings cooler.

Of course, if you don’t even have access to a roof, there are plenty of options for bringing a bit of spring to the tiniest indoor space. Birdie_001, for example, shares a method for forcing bulbs in a dish, and Valkyrie’s question elicits some great ideas about creating a plant terrarium.

For my situation, window planter boxes seem like the best way to go. Apparently, there are many plant varieties that thrive in window boxes, even veggies and herbs, so I’ll have lots to choose from.

And I think I’ll take HelloLPN‘s advice and add a coat of varnish to the inside of the boxes to help prevent rotting, especially through the moist and muggy New York summer. Garden Doc MG also shared a great tip about using polymers in the soil to help keep my plants hydrated even when I’m less than diligent about my watering schedule.

Thanks for all the great suggestions—now let’s get out there and grow!

How do you exercise your green thumb when you’re surrounded by concrete?

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!