Out sick

I've got some sort of cold thing going on which has rendered me slightly incoherent with a fever and a lot of coughing. I have a lot of things I would like to write about, just not enough energy. The last two nights I've fallen asleep on my laptop.

Emma, on the other hand, has the flu of some sort. She has a high fever, headache, stomach ache, cough, sore throat and diarrhea. So, we are just having a grand ole time over here.

I'll be back to posting once I can string a few thoughts together worth reading...

PW Cooks winner

Now, before I tell you who the winner is of the, apparently highly coveted book, The Pioneer Woman Cooks, I wanted to tell you that if you didn't win this time around, you'll have another chance soon. You see, Ree emailed me after I announced this giveaway and has offered an additional three! books for another giveaway.

So, if you didn't win this time, don't go away crying. I'll be doing a second giveaway in mid-November for the three cookbooks, so you'll have another opportunity to get a crack at this very awesome book.

Okay, now the moment y'all have been waiting for....

The winner is #4: Kelsie

Go figure, out of about 445 entries, the chosen one is #4. Oh, the fates. Anyway, Kelsie, send your contact info to crunchychickenblog@gmail.com. Congratulations!

As for the rest of you, keeps your eyes peeled for the next giveaway :)

Going candy free for Halloween

Mostly out of laziness and mostly as part of a social experiment, we are pretty much going candy free for Halloween. What does that mean? It means that, instead of offering up a ginormous bowl of candy for trick-or-treaters, we'll be letting the kids pick from a bowl of toys, small games, art supplies, pencils and puzzles. Some of the items will be gently used from our kids (and have been in the recently created donation bag) and some will be new.

Yes, I understand there's a carbon footprint on the new toys, and specifically, who know where exactly they came from. But, I bet there will be squeals of delight when kids will get to choose from playdoh, race cars and the like. Yes, we will have some candy on hand, mixed with less sugary treats, but it won't be as immediately available and will be offered mostly to the older kids who probably won't want some of the things we have on offer.

Why are we doing this? Just to spice things up because kids get enough candy during their Halloween outings that they certainly don't need any more from us. And who needs to contribute to the excess consumption of HFCS and fat particularly when childhood obesity is on the rise? Anyway, we'll see what a success or failure this will be and I'll report back.

Are you doing anything different this Halloween?

Quiet on the set! and other distractions

Hoo boy! I've been getting behind on my bloggy work mostly because of a variety of things going on around here. With Emma's sixth birthday party last weekend, a book club meet-up this weekend (Henry James' short stories), Halloween coming up and all the work, school and other Halloween parties to deliberate about and whether or not I'm going dressed up as Frida Kahlo, a geisha or a creepy vampiress.

As a result, I haven't been working on other things. Namely the book club and other projects I set up for this here blog. But, no fear, I will be getting to them soon enough.

Mostly I've been busy this last week with the first day of filming of Mission: Sustainable, preparing materials for the family makeover and planning for the next shoot. The first day of filming went really well. We had clear weather, which was important, since we were filming outside for the first part of the day working on different sequences and other scenes that will be used in the intro to the show.

We also shot some scenes of us arriving at the house to do the makeover as well as those of us doing the makeover looking through the house for, what I call, egregious acts of carbon consumption. I wasn't as nervous during the shoot as I thought I would be, probably because we were on the "set" for a few hours doing random filming before I was on the spot, explaining what I'd found. I won't go into details (you'll have to wait to watch the pilot for that), but suffice it to say that I have plenty of material to work with.

It's still up in the air exactly how the my portion of the makeover will be filmed. I'm hoping we can film an additional sequence, but we'll see if we have the time for it. Either way, I've got a number of things I want to focus on to help this family reduce their carbon, plastic, petroleum and paper consumption. And, more importantly, reduce their exposure to dangerous chemicals.

We've got some planning meetings coming up and filming next weekend, so I'll have more to report in the next couple of weeks. Phew!

Stay tuned!

Pioneer Woman Cooks book giveaway

If you've read The Pioneer Woman's blog, you've seen the recipe section of her site and probably have fallen in love with the not only the recipes, but the pictures and everything else related to her life on a cattle ranch.

Ree was kind enough to send me a review copy of her new book, The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl, a luxuriously, picturesque book that there's not enough adjectives to describe. This book, which comes out today and lists for $27.50, includes several of the recipes on her blog as well as a ton of new ones, all including the same sort of step-by-step pictures and instructions that you've grown to love. In addition there's a bunch of pictures from around the farm and information about the family (like, did you know that Marlboro Man's real name is Ladd?).

If you are not familiar with her blog (and, if not, have been under a rock?), then I urge you to go check it out if you are at all interested in life in the country. I must warn you, however, that her blog and life is not a sustainable existence so don't expect any stories of living off the land. This is a true working cattle ranch.

From the book description:

After years of living in Los Angeles, I made a pit stop in my hometown in Oklahoma on the way to a new, exciting life in Chicago. It was during my stay at home that I met Marlboro Man, a mysterious cowboy with steely blue eyes and a muscular, work-honed body.

A strict vegetarian, I fell hard and fast, and before I knew it we were married and living on his ranch in the middle of nowhere, taking care of animals, and managing a brood of four young children. I had no idea how I'd wound up there, but I knew it was exactly where I belonged.

The Pioneer Woman Cooks is a homespun collection of photography, rural stories, and scrumptious recipes that have defined my experience in the country. I share many of the delicious cowboy-tested recipes I've learned to make during my years as an accidental ranch wife—including Rib-Eye Steak with Whiskey Cream Sauce, Lasagna, Fried Chicken, Patsy's Blackberry Cobbler, and Cinnamon Rolls—not to mention several "cowgirl-friendly" dishes, such as Sherried Tomato Soup, Olive Cheese Bread, and Creme Brulee. I show my recipes in full color, step-by-step detail, so it's as easy as pie to follow along.

Since having this book lying about the house is going to prove rather dangerous given the type of recipes included (read: not at all low-fat), I've decided to do a book giveaway. This would make a fantastic gift for the holidays since it's such a beautiful book and has a ton of tasty recipes that are perfect for family gatherings.

To enter the book giveaway, just add your name to the comments of this post. You have until Friday, October 30th, at midnight PST to sign up. I'll announce the winner this weekend.

Independence Days book review

Sharon Astyk's new book, Independence Days: A Guide to Sustainable Food Storage & Preservation, is out November 2nd and would make a great holiday gift (for those of you buying gifts). If you've been reading her blog, Casaubon's Book, you'll know that she means business about local food and sustainability. I've got a copy of the book in my hot, sweaty hands because I was lucky enough to be able to include a recommendation blurb on the back, which also includes the following description:

Independence Days tackles both the nuts and bolts of food preservation, with tips on how to bulk buy and store food on the cheap, canning and dehydrating techniques, as well as a host of broader issues. In addition, it focuses on how to enjoy a delicious, high-quality pantry diet year-round, how to preserve food on a community scale, and how to reduce reliance on industrial agriculture by creating vibrant local economies.

Better food, plentiful food, at a lower cost and with less energy expended, Independence Days is for all who want to build a sustainable food system and keep eating—even in hard times.

The book includes chapters on food storage, food preservation, root cellaring, season extension, dehydration, recipes, canning, fermentation, medicinal application and creating and using community resources. It also includes a couple of my recipes, so I can't complain. My complete recommendation on the inside cover reads:

If you have any interest at all in where your food comes from, Independence Days is the perfect book to start with. Sharon Astyk makes a compelling argument for taking charge of your food security and is thorough in her coverage of food storage and preservation techniques including delicious recipes to get you started. But, make no mistake about it, this well thought out resources is more than just a food storage and recipe book - it is a call to arms to really think closely about the food that gives us sustenance and how it gets to us.

So, if you have any interest in food issues, sustainability, food storage and/or preservation, go order or ask for it from your library already!

Hottest eco-blogger nominations

Given the popularity of the Hottest Men in Climatology from the other day (based on all the hits I'm getting from Universities around the country), and the suggestion from a particular Farmer's Daughter, I'm going to run a "Hottest Eco-Blogger" poll next week.

You may have noticed that the Huffington Post is currently running a Hot Farmers slideshow complete with submissions. And, I've done two years of Craziest Environmental Blogger (aka the Environmental Nutjob Award), so this doesn't seem too far off in left field. And it's Friday, so what the hell.

The difference this time around with the voting is that you guys will be nominating eco-bloggers and then voting on them next week. I'll have two categories, one for men and one for women, so make sure you include in your nomination a couple of each gender if you like.

How do I nominate someone?
Leave a comment on this post adding who you want to be included as the hottest eco-blogger. And add a link to their blog, just in case I don't know who they are, so I can thoroughly embarrass them next week :)

Will there be pictures?
Hopefully. I will try to contact the final list of people asking them to submit pictures of themselves (with a short summary blurb and background), otherwise I'll try to find one from their blog. If I can't get a picture of them, they may not be included in the voting.

I already have one Facebook nomination for Greenpa, but only a few of us know what he looks like. This may be our opportunity to reveal the man behind the Little Blog.

Can I nominate myself?
Of course you can! Get that self-promotion going!

How will the list be narrowed down?
Assuming I get inundated with nominations, I'll pick them dependent on the number of times they are mentioned as nominees. Again, if I can't get a picture of them, they won't get listed. And their blog has to be predominantly eco-related. Otherwise, it will be somewhat arbitrary. Sorry, this isn't the Academy Awards.

You have until Monday night (10/26) at midnight PST to submit your nominations!

Bottled water is best

I've come to the hideous conclusion that we are all being duped about bottled water. I first was made aware of the bottle water issue when the City of Seattle stopped providing bottled water to its employees, stating that it was for financial and environmental reasons.

But, I have since learned that it's really just part of a nationwide conspiracy trying to put the bottled water industry out of business. Sure, the water in the bottles was really just municipal tap water, the same as that which came out of the sinks, but don't they realize the pipes in those old city buildings are probably contaminating everyone? The same reason why they shut down the fountains in so many Seattle Public Schools?

Bottled water is actually a cost savings when you think about the health care costs of dealing with lead and arsenic poisoning. So, why are people targeting the bottled water industry? An industry where 90% of the companies are small, family-owned businesses? It doesn't make any sense to me especially when buying local and supporting small businesses is inherent to our economic survival.

Anyway, I hadn't thought about the water bottle issue recently until last night when I was enjoying the den of inequities on Facebook, when that annoying Bill McKibben hanger-on, Ruchi, intruded my bliss and Facebooked a message to Beth Terry, of Fake Plastic Fish fame, about some scurrying going on in the comments of her blog. Not one to miss out on the hubbub, I checked out Beth's post. And, wouldn't you know it, it's about bottled water.

After the eye-rolling stopped long enough so I could actually read her post, I started going through the comments, which were filled with the usual pap, high-fiving comments in agreement that the "big" business bottled water industry was bad.

Before I get too far, let me back up and say that I don't drink much bottled water. Really, none, if I can help it, mostly because I'm cheap and don't like to pay for something I can get for free. But, I just don't get the whole crucifixion of the bottled water industry. And then, I started reading some rather informative arguments by a commenter from the IBWA. Now, I really do feel for people who suffer from Irritable Bowel With Anal-leakage (IBWA), because that has to be an uncomfortable condition to live with, so, right off the bat, he had my attention.

He argued (among other strong points that you'll have to read in the comments of the original post) that, "blogs like yours should encourage more recycling and not discourage consumption of water — in any form. Water is fundamentally good for all people. We live in a busy world and have bottled water there when you want, regardless of what you are doing, is always a plus. If people are going to a vending machine, what should they buy? What item in the vending machine is not made of plastic? Since it all must be recycled, why pick on the healthiest beverage available, namely bottled water?" Damn straight. Why pick on water when there's plenty of other mean beverages out there?

After much pondering on the matter, I decided to state my change of view on drinking bottled water. In fact, his other, convincing arguments changed my whole opinion on plastic consumption altogether. Well, it's easier to understand my point of view if you just read the response I posted in the comments:

Normally, I just drink tap water. I think it tastes great. When I’m at home I drink straight from the tap since I don’t like the filtered water from my GE Profile fridge because the water is too cold. When I’m at work I drink the water from the kitchen sink. I am generally never at a loss for cups, mugs, or portable containers to fill said water from the tap.

But, after reading all these compelling arguments from Tom, I’ve decided that, perhaps, I’m going about it all wrong. So, starting tomorrow, I’m going to start drinking bottled water. I want to help support family businesses. And, now I’m really scared that I’m going to get H1N1 from the kitchen sink at work. I heard that Fiji water is the best, so I’m going to try to find out where they sell it in my area. I don’t believe it’s a family company, but the bottles are really cool.

In fact, I’m so excited about drinking bottled water and its positive effects on my life and others, I think that the health benefits of drinking bottled water alone are not enough. Because of this, I’m going to not only recycle the bottles when I’m done drinking the delicious, chlorine-free water, but I am going to eat them. I suspect that the extra fiber in the plastic bottles will help contribute to my overall bowel health. Which is always a positive in my book. Does anyone know if digested plastic will clog my pipes?

I’m thinking that just plain water in the plastic bottles isn’t good enough, so I’m also looking for a company that sells liquid plastic in plastic bottles to help quench my thirst. Does anyone know if such a product exists? I don’t need flavored liquid plastic, just plain liquid plastic will do.

I’m so excited about the thirst quenching satisfaction that my new lifestyle will afford me, I’m not sure I’ll be able to sleep tonight.

So, I hope that, you too, decide to drink more bottled water. And consume more plastic if you can. Because bottled water really is the first, true, thirst mutilator.

Hot men of climatology

There are plenty of lists floating around out there stating who is the hottest this or that. Who are the hottest green models and the hottest green actors and so forth. But, what about the people who really matter, the ones doing the climate research, not the celebrities?

Because of this, I wanted to write a post about the Hot Men of Climatology, but when I went a huntin' for hotties, pretty much what I found were older men sporting a lot of hair or none at all. And, the only hot thing going on was more related to warming temperatures than chiseled abs. But, I've found the up and coming (well, under 50ish) "hot" men of climatology for your review. Let me know if I missed any :)

First up is Michael Mann a, relatively speaking, sprightly 43-year-old climatologist. Michael is an author of more than 80 peer-reviewed journal publications and has attained public prominence as lead author of a number of articles on paleoclimate and as one of the originators of a graph of temperature trends dubbed the "hockey stick graph" (not to be confused with the "hockey mom graph").

The graph received both praise and criticism after its publication in an IPCC report. In 2005 he was appointed Associate Professor at Pennsylvania State University, in the Department of Meteorology and Earth and Environmental Systems Institute, and Director of the university's interdepartmental Earth System Science Center. If you like your men with degrees in Applied Math, Geology and Geophysics, Michael fits the bill.

Next up is Caspar Ammann, a 40-year-old researcher from Switzerland. Caspar is a climate scientist working at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and is interested in the reconstruction of natural climate forcings, natural climate variability, coupled modeling of natural and anthropogenic climate change, and data/model intercomparison. In other words, he studies past and present climate changes.

He has a Ph.D. in Geosciences and his research centers around the climate of past centuries and millennia and how this information can help to understand what elements of future climate might be predictable as well as what potential environmental and ecological impacts are to be anticipated given various climate change scenarios.

Rasmus Benestad is a physicist by training and works as a senior scientist at the Norwegian Meteorological Institute and the Oslo Climate Group. He earned a Ph.D. in Physics from the Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics department at Oxford University.

Rasmus' recent work has involved research on regional climate and seasonal predictability, but his past experience also includes ocean dynamics/air-sea processes and cloud micro-physics. In addition, he is the author of the book Solar Activity and Earth's Climate.

Rounding out the list is hottie, Gavin Schmidt, a climatologist and climate modeller at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. In 2004 he was named as one of Scientific American's "Top 50 Research Leaders" for the year. In addition to his scientific work he is a founding member and one of the contributors to the climatology blog, RealClimate.

Gavin is a computer climate modeler who works on developing large-scale models of the atmosphere-ocean climate system. He has worked on understanding climate variability both in past climates going back as far as 55 million years ago and forward to the possible future climates.

Whew! Now, even though it seems totally sacrilegious to do this, this post is just begging for a poll....

Who's the hottest climate change scientist?


Update: Ooh! I have a late entry. Unfortunately, I can't add him to the poll, but wanted to introduce you all to him.

Julian Sachs is a paleoclimatologist working right here at the University of Washington. He has a Ph.D. in Chemical Oceanography from MIT and his research interests include the evolution of the tropical Pacific climate and the El Niño-Southern Oscillation since the last glacial period.

He also works on the development and application of organic geochemical and stable isotopic techniques in paleoclimatology and oceanography. I'm pretty sure he can melt a few icebergs while he's at it too.

On pins and needles

Well, after being on pins in needles for the last several days waiting to hear the results of who is in the top ten in Project Green Search and going to the finals in L.A., it appears that I have not made the top ten. On one hand, I'm disappointed, but on the other, I'm actually very relieved because now I can focus on all the other stuff happening right now, primarily the filming of the show, Mission: Sustainable, and some other fun stuff I have in the hopper. Plus, since I don't like to sugarcoat anything, I have the feeling that the actual finals are going to be even more in disarray than the project has been so far.

I don't know yet who all the finalists actually are, but apparently the online voting was merely something to keep us busy for a week since they didn't seem to use any of that information in picking the finalists. Which totally makes sense and I hope if they hold this contest again they drop the notion altogether because it really just ended up stressing out the contestants and was irrelevant in the end. I'm just sorry I bothered you guys relentlessly to vote when it didn't matter. And, by not making the final 10, I'm also not contributing a third of a ton of CO2 by flying to L.A.!

Anyway, good luck to the finalists!

In more serious news, a good friend of mine is undergoing a kidney transplant today. He has been battling polycystic kidney disease, a genetic disorder, that has managed to ravage his kidneys. So, at the tender age of 35, he is getting one of his brother's kidneys, who luckily is a match. Unfortunately, his mother just recently passed away from the disease and any child he would have has a 50% chance of inheriting this disease as well. There currently is no cure for PKD, so if you are interested in learning more or donating you can visit the PKD website.

So, please spread good thoughts about both him and his brother today. I'm wishing for an easy surgery and recovery for both of them.

Freeze Yer Buns Challenge 2009

Holy smokes! It's nigh time for the third annual Freeze Yer Buns Challenge. The first year we had great participation and last year there were tons of you giving your thermostat the finger, so this year I'm expecting even more frozen crunchy bottoms.

Because of the economic situation, most everyone is tightening up their purse strings, plus heating costs (oil, natural gas and electricity) aren't exactly cheap, so you have even more incentive to hop on board the chapped cheeks express.

This year, as per usual, we'll all share hints and tips for keeping the thermostat low without really freezing our buns off. For those of you who use a form of heating without a thermostat, you are still invited to play. The challenge for you is to use less fuel.

Since I know a lot of you can't commit to as low temperatures as others, it's just fine if you pledge to drop it down one degree or so from where you usually keep it. Even that makes a huge difference. You'll find that, as the winter wears on, you'll be able to drop it lower as you adjust to the new, lower temperatures. So, if you don't want to take the icy plunge, don't feel like you have to drop it 10 degrees right away.

To sign up for the challenge, add a comment to this post and pledge what temperatures you will keep your thermostat. I'm wimping out this year and pledging for 65 day and 58 night. You are more than welcome to meander through the posts from last year's challenge if you want to know what you're in for.

As in the first year, this year's challenge mascot is the Arctic Seal. That roly poly little snow covered baby seal needs our help. Help prevent his extinction by preserving the Arctic environment by using less energy, reducing the amount of CO2 added to the atmosphere and stopping global climate change.

How low can you go?

All dressed up...

And nowhere to go. Well, filming was cancelled this weekend due to some issues with equipment. I was hoping to have a report of how the first day of filming went on the green makeover show, Mission: Sustainable, but, alas, not this weekend.

We will start filming next weekend and will wrap up mid-November. In the meantime, we had a cast member meeting, which was helpful, since we went over a lot more details of the production, got a chance to meet our camera guy and some other people who had been added to the production team.

One thing I did notice, that I hadn't before (since we were all sitting down), was that the producer, and four cast members (all females) are all 5'10" and over. So, there's clearly some weird Amazonian element to it. I think Becky is actually taller than me, which is very unusual. So, I think the four of us will be a green force to be reckoned with.

In lighter news, voting for Project Green Search ended Friday night, much to my relief. They are going to announce the 10 finalists sometime Sunday. I'll be back to my normal posting tomorrow!

Putting on my knee pads

Today is the day I bust out the knee pads and start groveling for 5 star votes. It's also, thankfully, the last day you can vote for me on Project Green Search. It might look like I'm near the top, but I'm still lagging behind in votes and can be easily bumped.

Now, some of you might be wondering why I am even bothering with such a contest, that it goes against a lot of what I oftentimes discuss on this blog regarding society's beauty ideals. But, that's not the point or the case with Project Green Search. They aren't looking so much for a model, but for someone who is passionate about environmental causes, someone who isn't just pro-environmental because it's trendy and someone who is educated on the issues.

Unfortunately, modern society works through media representation and the best way to send a message is through the media, whether by print, TV or otherwise. You can only reach so much of a broad, general audience online. People going to sites like ours have to be interested to hear the message. Print and TV, on the other hand, is more of a "push" technology, exposing ideas to people that might not otherwise hear them.

Okay, so now that I'm done boring you to tears, I would love if you would vote for me. I promise you that, if I make the top 10, you'll be getting all sorts of fun posts about it :)

Voting is fast, easy and does not require any personal information. To vote, click on this link. Run your cursor over the five gray stars at the bottom of the orange frame surrounding the main picture. When the stars turn from red to gold, the vote has been cast.

If you are a Crunchy Chicken reader, please help me take my work on educating the masses to the next level. Cast your vote. It will only take a few seconds and your vote matters!

And, I'm done nagging you. Thank goodness.

Autism - it's the mother's fault

According to the latest research done by the CDC, 1 in 91 children were said to have autism. For boys, the number was 1 in 58. I'd say that number is almost too low, based on my experience in our school.

Kids with autism often have trouble communicating and socializing, and can exhibit repetitive, rigid behavior. Autism has no known cause and no cure, in spite of the murky theories and therapies out there. The end result is that nothing has been shown to cause autism. But with such high rates, there's got to be something at fault? The modern consensus is that autism has a strong genetic basis, although the genetics of autism are complex and are not well understood.

Fifty years ago society would more often than not have blamed the mother for being over-controlling, unloving, or any other myriad of bad mothering. In fact, this sort of blame was referred as the "refrigerator mother" hypothesis of autism promulgated by Leo Kanner in 1943. In a 1960 Time Magazine interview, Kanner described the mothers of autistic children as "just happening to defrost enough to produce a child." Nice. [1]

It wasn't just Kanner who was pushing this theory, Bruno Bettleheim gave it widespread popularity and his articles, written during the 1950s and 1960s, popularized the idea that autism was caused by maternal coldness toward their children. Both he and Kanner seemed to ignore the fact that these same mothers had other children who were not autistic.

Today, if you suggested this sort of blame to a mother of an autistic child, you'd be lucky if you left that exchange with your body intact. Well, maybe I'm projecting here. But it shows that we are still, decades later, grasping at straws as to the root cause of autism. Is it genetics, environment, thimerosal, other neurotoxins or a combination of some of those?

The refrigerator mother theory, which has been widely discarded in the United States, still has some support in Europe and is largely believed in South Korea to be the cause of autism. WTF? Someone needs to be bitch-slapped. As the mother of an autistic child (granted, a very high functioning one), I can not even begin to express how disgusted I am by this. But, then again, maybe I'm just a cold, heartless Frigidaire.

Project Green Search Nag Alert!
And, because I'm a frosty ice queen, I'm going to be bugging you all week. If you haven't voted for me in Project Green Search, what are you waiting for? Get over there now and give me some stars - the more the better!

Voting is fast, easy and does not require any personal information. To vote, click on this link. Run your cursor over the five gray stars at the bottom of the orange frame surrounding the main picture. When the stars turn from red to gold, the vote has been cast.

If you are a Crunchy Chicken reader, please help me take my work on educating the masses to the next level. Cast your vote. It will only take a few seconds and your vote matters!

And, while you're at it, Tweet about it!

Mission: Sustainable starts filming

I'm so excited!

Not only is production starting up for the green makeover reality show, Mission: Sustainable, produced by ReGeneration Productions, but I'm going to be one of the three consultants doing the makeover in the pilot episode that starts filming this Saturday. As you may remember, I'm the Personal Care Consultant cast member on the show, which means that I cover pretty much everything from laundry detergent to body products, cleaning supplies, pet care and beyond.

I'm also excited about working with the other cast members, particularly Becky Selengut, our local food guru. She is a trained chef who spent three years studying under Jerry Traunfeld at the Herbfarm Restaurant and is the co-author of the Washington Local and Seasonal Cookbook. She's currently working on a new cookbook on sustainable seafood when she's not writing for her blog, Chef Reinvented, or Twittering.

Over the last few months, I've gotten to know her pretty well and I can't wait to work with her since she has the same totally warped and crude sense of humor as I do. Which means that, most likely, we'll be attempting to top one another in the insanity department during the "discovery" phase of the show. This also means that there's high probability that it will be very entertaining. I don't know the other cast members as well yet, so I'm looking forward to finding out more about them, too.

What's even more exciting is that the family that we are doing the makeover on has small children, so I'll be able to focus on the kids as part of the makeover as well. Along those lines, although I already have a large arsenal of activities in mind, what are your favorite suggestions for how to teach kids to live green?

Project Green Search Nag Alert!
And, because I'm going to be bugging you all week, if you haven't voted for me in Project Green Search, what are you waiting for? Get over there now and give me some stars - the more the merrier!

And, while you're at it, Tweet about it! Don't make me beg!