Taking a Closer Look at The Bottled Water Industry

"60 million bottles a day... tossed into U.S. landfills, where they can take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade... producing those bottles burns through 1.5 million barrels of crude oil annually --enough fuel to keep 100,000 cars running for a year."

[excerpted from"Tap vs. Bottled–What Should You Drink?"]

Dear Reader,

Pardon me for taking up your valued time, but the issue of bottled water has grown to be such a huge environmental impact issue that I felt I could no longer ignore it and feel that I must make some effort to spread the word. Bottled water is basically a huge corporate profit center that has nothing to do with water purity and everything to do with the bottom line.

Find out the real story by reading any or all of these articles:

"Is America's $8 Billion Bottled Water Industry a Fraud?"
" Message in a Bottle"
"Aquafina labels to spell out source - tap water"

More general information about bottled water can be found here:

I hope you will join me in taking the Think Outside the Bottle pledge to opt for tap water over bottled water and support public water. Take the Think Outside the Bottle pledge here:

Weaning yourself off that bottle is easier than you think!
- If you dislike the taste or smell of your tap water, get a Brita or Pur home filter for your tap or refrigerator.
- Install a higher end home water filter system if you are really worried about water quality. Read more about all kinds of water filters here:
- Read your local water quality reports to separate fact from fiction. Check to see if yours is listed online.
- Travelling and want to bring water with you? Fill up a couple of sports water bottles from your own filtered water supply and either refrigerate or freeze them.
- Keep refillable sports bottles in your gym bag (check out Klean Kanteens) and refill them at the gym. It takes an extra minute and you can feel good about not creating another piece of landfill that won't break down for 1,000 years.

Thanks for taking the time to read this message and think about the issue.

Rebecca

What a Year!

It’s a year today since Lenny & I tied the knot (Our wedding occurred on the 21st of Adar on the Hebrew lunar calendar). Wow! I can’t believe it. Just wanted to dedicate today’s blog to my dear husband, without whose support and love I could not exist. You’re the best, sweets!

(He's pictured here with our 7-year-old son Zelig, entering the room through a bower of flowers at our wedding)
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So you might have noticed a significant gap since my last blog entry. Yes, the technical dilemmas persisted. The Toshiba portege mentioned in the last entry was doing OK until its network adapter card died. After that, no more internet access and I had to give up on the Toshiba too. YIKES!!!! Two laptops down in a month!

Without internet access, there was no more comparison shopping for a Mac on craigslist. I had to rush out to the Apple Store to just plain buy the new beast. Wow, have you been to the store in Manhattan? It’s right across the street from what used to be the Plaza Hotel, and is now a high-priced condo for people who have nostalgia for Eloise. After going to this store and experiencing the throngs of people clamoring for macbooks, iphones, ipods, and everything Apple, I thought seriously about making a stock purchase. I mean, this store is minting money! Check it out when you get a chance.

So, now an owner of a new & improved Macbook, I am slowly getting back into the groove. I had to leave the new computer for a week at the Genius Bar in Short Hills so they could do a data migration from the old computer. Good news, bad news. Good news? The data is all here. Bad news? It’s all here but no longer in folders. So when I opened up my photo library, instead of seeing dozens of neatly and logically organized files, there is just ONE BIG FILE. Called Photos. Oy vey. I don’t have the strength to go back to the Genius Bar in Short Hills, no matter how much shorter the wait is there. I think I will have to take the beast to Manhattan, brave the hordes, and find someone competent enough to actually migrate my data properly.

In the meantime, Your Personal Chef is very busy this week with clients and kids and cooking for lots of Shabbos guests. Keep me posted on what’s keeping you busy!

Best,
Rebecca

Disaster! Plus a raw vegan low carb icecream recipe

Wow. Sorry to be offline for so long, folks. Right before New Year's Eve my dear husband accidentally knocked over a rather large glass of water on my poor little ibook. As I watched in horror, too stunned to react in a sensible way, the screen changed from text and images to colored lines, and then went black. We tried to use the blowdryer, but it didn't do much good. I called apple support to figure out what to do, and they made an appointment for me with the Genius Bar people in the Apple Store in the Short Hills Mall, the closest location. Unfortunately, this being New Year's Eve, we had to wait until January 2nd to take the poor little waterlogged puter in for its examination. In the meantime, we experienced a near total blackout - Your Personal Chef got rid of television in 2002 and newspaper delivery in 1988. So for two days, our home was only connected to the larger world via the NPR news updates on our favorite radio station, 88.3 (it's a fantastic jazz station, the best in the country in my humble opinion). Since we are normally disconnected from all media every Shabbat (the Jewish Sabbath, from sunset on Friday until nightfall on Saturday) it was not completely startling. Frustrating, but yet another reminder of how incredible the internet is. So, dear readers, the Blog has had to wait while the technical difficulties were resolved.

The diagnostic team at the Genius Bar had a sad pronouncement - my hardworking little road warrior was not coming back. (sniff) However, they were able to download the hard drive, so at least I can reload everything onto the next one. So, Your Personal Chef is shopping for a used ibook or powerbook, and welcomes your opinions on where to find one. I am now connected via my old PC notebook, a Toshiba Portege 3110CT. It's a great little machine, extremely small and light, but without the capacity to upgrade its 256K Ram, it's essentially terminally slow in today's environment.

I have not posted a recipe in some time, due to all this messy technology trouble, so here is a quick and easy raw vegan low carb icecream recipe - enjoy and let me know how it turns out for you!

Raw Low Carb Ice Cream Base Recipe

ICE CREAM BASE:

2 Cups raw cashews (no need to soak)
3 Cups unsweetened almond milk
1 Cup Splenda
1/2 tsp sea salt (+/-)
1 whole vanilla bean
2 Tbsp raw unsweetened coconut flakes

Blend in food processor or Vitamix (I use a cuisinart) until very, very smooth, at least 5 minutes.

At this point, add any of the following to the base...

1/2 Cup raisins (not low carb, so factor that into your carb consideration)

Carob (about 2 Tbsp)
Cocoa nibs (a small handful)
Raw cacao powder mixed with cocoa butter
Strawberries, blueberries, etc.
Nuts

The exact quantity of each of the above ingredients will vary based on taste and the quality/moisture content of your ingredients, but I usually add anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 cup total volume at this stage in the game.

Let it blend just long enough to get everything mixed well, but not to puree the chunky addins.

At this point, it is best to 'pre-chill' the mixture. If you simply dump the mixture into the ice cream maker now, it won't set up properly, and it will be less firm than even soft serve. Place it in the fridge for a few hours, or if you've got to have that ice cream ASAP put the mixture in the freezer for about 10-15 minutes. You want it to be cool, but not to the point where ice crystals are starting to form. (SPECIAL NOTE: do not use the ice cream maker 'bowl' to do the pre-cooling. The base will freeze to the bowl, and the batch will be ruined.)

When the mixture is sufficiently cool, pour it into the ice cream maker, and let it go! After about 20 minutes or so, it should be ready! For Rum Raisin, add 1 tbsp Rum/whisky/other booze near the end of the process (alcohol retards freezing) TRANSFER to airtight freezersafe container for storage. When ready to use, allow fully frozen icecream to defrost at room temperature for at least an hour before serving.

Keep in touch!

Best,
Rebecca