Just Hungry

One of my favorite foodie blogs is Just Hungry. This is the perfect blog to visit if you have thought about trying to cook Japanese food but don't know where to start. The recipes are all very authentic and cover a huge variety of food types (from the Japanese food you're probably familiar with to things that you didn't even know existed). There are even guides to help you cook rice properly, make your own tofu, or understand the plethora of different types of rice.

Sukiyaki - One of my favorites!

A closely-related side project is Just Bento. I for one get board of packing a sandwich every day for lunch - and this is a great alternative to that. There are some great [healthy] ideas on the site, and not just for what you would assume to be specifically Japanese foods.

Spring vegetable bento with jumping fish - so cute!

And just in case you prefer actual cookbooks to online blogs, there is a Just Bento cookbook!

Rockhopper Penguins in Rehab

Have you ever wondered what is actually involved in cleaning up after an oil spill? I found this slide show on the BBC News website to be very interesting. I hadn't even heard about this recent oil spill!

According to Wikipedia:
On March 16, 2011, the Maltese-registered freighter MS Oliva ran aground on Nightingale Island, spilling tons of heavy crude into the ocean. The crew was rescued, but the ship broke up, leaving an oil slick that surrounded the island, threatening its population of rockhopper penguins.  Nightingale Island has no fresh water, so the penguins are being transported to Tristan da Cunha for cleaning.

Beginning the Lenten Season

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday. That means the beginning of a 40-day period (Lent) in which Christians traditionally refrain from eating meat (not including fish) on Fridays and some people decide to deny themselves of something as a form of penance to God. Many of us can remember the difficult time I went through when I gave up chocolate for Lent in high school. Although that did serve as an act of reverence to God (it is extremely difficult to do when you normally eat chocolate multiple times a day), I wanted to give up something this year that would be an even more surefire way for me to grow as a person and develop my faith.

So, I decided to give up watching T.V.

Yes, I know. 40 whole days without television. 46 including Sundays. Although I won't be watching any shows or movies at home, I will allow myself the opportunity to go see a movie at the theater if it so happens. Thinking back on my lifetime at all of the time I have spent watching T.V., it is really appalling to think about all the ways I could have used that time instead. I saw a commercial a while ago that mentioned the amount of time that Americans spend commuting to and from work in their lifetimes, and I was horrified. But really, I can do a lot more about my lifestyle choices at home than I can about my commute (in the short term). We'll just have to see how successful (or unsuccessful) I am!

These are some of the exciting things I hope to do instead of watching T.V. over the next two months:

• Spend time with my dog, family, and friends
• Clean the house
• Read my current book: Ethics for the New Millennium by the Dalai Lama
• Exercise more
• Brush up on Spanish and Japanese

• Read the New Testament of the Bible
• Pick up a new hobby
• Bake new kinds of desserts
• Do a better job of keeping in touch with old friends
•  Make lunches at night for work

And here is some interesting information from Wikipedia about Lent:

• Ash Wednesday gets it name from the practice of placing ashes on the foreheads of adherents as a sign of mourning and repentance to God. Ashes were used in ancient times to express mourning.
• In the Catholic Church, Ash Wednesday is observed by fasting, abstinence from meat, and repentance—a day of contemplating one's transgressions.
• The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer — through prayer, repentance, almsgiving and self-denial — for the annual commemoration during Holy Week of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus (Easter).
• "Lent" initially simply meant spring (as in the German Lenz and Dutch lente) and derives from the Germanic root for long because in the spring the days visibly lengthen.

Photo of Pope Benedict: roblisameehan

Sustainable Seafood Consumption

Figuring out how to be an environmentally-conscious consumer is important, but let's not kid ourselves --- it's also complicated. Especially when it comes to seafood. Some fish species are best to buy farm-raised, others are recommended wild-caught only, and some just shouldn't be consumed at all because of the state of the fisheries.

Salmon farming is a great example of this problem. So we don't want to over fish the wild populations of salmon, so why not just farm them? Well, farming can actually harm the wild populations in some cases. Crowding together fish in such a small area causes diseases to become epidemics, where as in the wild the diseases would be kept at low levels by predation on the sick ones. Huge groups of farmed salmon infected with sea lice cause wild salmon to have a higher likelihood of catching the parasite, with greater amounts of sea lice being transported to waters around the farmed salmons' cages. So not only does the farming hurt the local environment because it produces so much waste contamination in the water from the huge masses of fish that would not normally be there, but it also hurts the wild salmon by infecting them with parasites. You can learn more here.

Poor baby salmon. :(

Since we all want our descendants to be able to enjoy these species once we are long gone, but realistically, there is no way for us to research all of this intricate information on all species of fish we purchase at the grocery store or at a restaurant, I'd like to encourage the world to take advantage of the following tool. The Monterey Bay Aquarium has created a sustainable seafood guide to help consumers purchase wisely. Through either an online guide, printable pocket guide for your wallet, or mobile guide for your smart phone, the vast majority of the work is done for us. I can just whip out my phone if I am thinking about purchasing some fish at the grocery store, and the guide will give me a good idea as to what my best options are. Even some grocers that tout themselves as more environmentally conscious, like Whole Foods, still offer seafood options labeled as "Avoid" by the Seafood Watch Guide -- so as consumers, we have to be conscious of this all the time. Fish are yummy, so we might as well keep them around as long as possible and try to avoid population collapse.