I was recently on one of our beautiful Channel Islands here in Santa Barbara. Santa Cruz is protected now by The Nature Conservancy from further use, thankfully and will remain a gem in the pacific and home to many endangered species.
On the island, like here on the mainland, water conservation is a major issue. There are signs posted in the bathrooms and kitchens at the field station asking us to conserve water – for the record, I did my part by not taking a shower.
Beyond being a little feral and not bathing, there are other ways to save water, like not flushing when you pee – OR, just go outside, which is the best seat in the house anyway. Here’s a great site that supports the use of the great outdoors as a means of relief. There are rules to follow (i.e. exposing yourself in public is bad), so make sure you check it out before you take it out.
Not so fun fact: According to the United States Geological Survey, each flush is an average of 3 gallons. YIKES!
When it comes up in conversation, I generally take the stance that I don’t like the crockpot. While this isn’t completely true, it’s much quicker to say than the real story I’ll share with you here. In short, I’m really not a fan of shredded beef (typically what you end up with after slow cooking all day), I don’t do stew, and it breaks my heart to hear stories of people experimenting with this method of cooking for the first time and expecting a delicious meal of meat and vegetables, but instead ending up with a pot of drab colored stuff which both looks and tastes like meat and vegetables at the same time. That said, we have one of these contraptions at my house, and it does get used. I’m just very particular about what goes into it. The “recipe” below was a shared with me by a long time family friend (thanks Scott!) when I was in college, busy and broke. This very simple hearty meal is still in our fall/winter rotation. These slow cooked country style pork ribs can be served over rice or potatoes, but my favorite is to turn it into pulled pork sandwiches.