Ideal Bite

I had family in from CA this month, and since there's way more to the Midwest than meets the coast-dweller's eye, I decided to retrace the path of one of our Chicago city breaks.

Best decision ever - two hours north, the lake was still there, blue and choppy like an ocean (thank you Lake Michigan, for being so impressive by the way), but with a different skyline framing it, dotted with old churches and breweries. Of course, we wandered through the Milwaukee Art Museum, home to the surreally floating Infinity Room and a current Andy Warhol exhibit. We had a few other possible destinations in mind, but everything changed when we got to the Lakefront Read the full post... 

Daylight Savings Time, you are so depressing. It's dark at 4:30 now, which just makes me feel sleepy. So, to help myself focus on the positive when it comes to the approaching winter snooze-fest, I've decided to hit the bath tub - the best antidote to a cold dark night - with my fave lavender-honey milk bath recipe. Other than the fact that it obviously smells like a dream come true, it's a winning combo all around - lavender is one of nature's best tension tamers, honey not only softens your skin but also absorbs its impurities, and you can always drink it if you change your mind about the whole bath thing.

Anyway, once you have the ingredients, it's super easy. Fancier groceries tend to carry dried lavender, but some smaller co-op style spots do too - I scored mine at True Nature Foods (a great Read the full post... 

I had this really great Tina Turner wig when I was a kid. I wore it practically every Halloween, whether I was going as a rock star, a cheetah, or a sad punky clown. Though I’m guessing it was pretty non-eco in terms of material, I did reuse the hell out of it. We probably all had something like that - some cherished prop that shows we were ace recyclers long before those colorful bins started appearing at the curb. Still, I could have been more creative. I could have made a wig out of cut-up mismatched socks, for example, or instead, gathered a bunch of shredded paper from my parents shredder and woven them together (excuse: no one knew what a shredder was in the '80s).

To help unleash that vast amount of creative potential, Andersonville's Green Genes is holding a recycled costume contest this Saturday from Read the full post... 

Where were you ten years ago today? I was in faraway city, in a relationship that seemed destined for greatness but that was soon to fail, with no furry friends to purr in my lap while I read the Bridget Jones Diary...and I had bangs. In short, I was basically unrecognizable.

We've all come a long way since then, haven't we? New homes, new family members, new 'dos. Some great successes, some great mistakes, all that brought us here - to Chicago, or wherever you're lucky to be living. And the same can be said for pretty much anything that's lasted at least a decade. Some wear and tear, but, so it seems, nothing we couldn't handle. So here's a little happy birthday wish to the Notebaert Nature Museum. For ten years, it's been helping Chicago families learn what makes this planet cool. From the butterfly haven with 1,000 flutterers, to the Read the full post... 

The UN's meeting about a global climate treaty, and you're invited. Sort of.

Chances are, you've probably heard that big stuff is going down in Copenhagen this December. While a flight to an onsite rally might be out of the question, a quick day trip over to a festival or march is totally doable. You'll be in good company - whether you're in Bangladesh (with school children planting 350 trees), Papua, New Guinea (they've got 8 events planned so far), or FL (they've got 44) - local organizers are coming up with creative ways to send a strong message to world leaders that we need to stop global warming, like, now. How? By reducing our CO2 levels to 350 ppm (instead of today's dangerously high 390).

Chicagoans can choose from 23 local actions, from a march against one of the area's biggest coal Read the full post... 

Full disclaimer: I'm not vegan. But, this weekend's Chicago Vegan Mania is right up my alley anyway, because it's like one-stop shopping for some of my fave Chicago foods. The lineup includes the Chicago Diner's veghead comfort classics, Soul Vegetarian's barbeque and mac 'n' cheese, and Upton Natural's Seitan Chorizo, and for dessert, Cru Cacao's organic truffles. Yep, it's all vegan, meaning it takes less energy and water to make it. In between bites, you can check out merch like Recycle Me's Eco Chick organic tees and campfire-ready marshmallows from Chicago Soydairy, while nodding along to live music from bands like Girls Rock! Chicago Camp alum Circular Convention.

Best part? Read the full post... 

It's a day of nines. Not as special as 9/9/09 of course, but that was a Wednesday and we do the Chicago blog on Tuesdays, so… I know, lame excuse, still, a bunch of nines is kinda a big deal in numerology. Let's see here…accomplishment, success, and satisfaction. Sweet. In celebration of today's awesomeness, here's a list of nine eco things to do around Chicago in the next few days:

1. Enter code BREAK0909 when you buy online and save 20% on Julia Failey's jewelry (pretty, whimsical designs made with recycled metal), plus free Read the full post... 

I recently moved - just 1.5 miles away from my old Chicago pad, but it feels like another world. For starters, I can't keep the fire alarm from going off every time I make toast and there's a handle on the shower that seems merely decorative - what's that all about? This type of stuff makes me wish I was a miracle handywoman, and could rebuild the whole place from scratch without breaking a nail. If I lived in that dream world, another thing I'd want to add to my new home: solar power. It's always seemed like this really daring move into an unknown world filled with concepts I don't entirely comprehend...like megawatt.

But, the nice people behind the Illinois Solar Tour get all that, and next Saturday, October 3, from 10 am-3 pm, they're gonna show us that it's easier to go solar than we might think. Read the full post... 

Or in my case, three, if I'm going to eat the cupboard's worth of apples I just picked before 2010...

This past weekend, some friends and I carpooled about an hour west of Chicago to Peceniak's U-Pick Apple Orchard. No bells and whistles here - just a nice family running a pretty farm. But what it lacked in cider donuts and hayrides was a genuine city break, and the opportunity to sit under a shady tree and chat with the farmers about everything from the problem of visitors picking from the non-ripe trees (they don't taste good) to the best pie pick (Golden Pearmains for sure). I searched high and low for Freedom, a Read the full post... 

There wasn't much that could have inspired me to go out last Thursday night: It was raining, cold (for a Chicago August), and I had already packed every wearable item in my wardrobe in mad preparation for this weekend's move. Yes, there was only one event worth braving the harsh elements, and the potential for embarrassment regarding my apparent lack of fashion sense: a four-course dinner featuring honey in every single dish at Province, an eco-rrific, LEED-certified resto in the West Loop. The menu started with spicy grilled peach salad, ended with blueberry/honey angel food cake with watermelon sorbet, and contained a steady supply of drinks in between (including a honey cocktail with North Shore Gin #6).

Why a whole meal dedicated to Read the full post...