Omelets: How to Deal with the Aftermath

While I am trying to incorporate as much locally grown food into my diet, I'm also trying to eat up all my leftovers, something I've been bad at in the past. The problem with leftovers is that I get tired of eating the same thing over and over again, but there's one foolproof way to make them into something new and satisfying: omelets.

A good omelet starts with good eggs. Austin has a backyard chicken craze, and I know a lot of people raising chickens in town. One happens to be my next door neighbor Ryan. If Julie is a classy Renaissance woman, then Ryan is a mountain man on crack. He has raised pigs, ducks, and calves, slaughtered them, and roasted them -- all in his backyard. His backyard. I'm just happy to keep a basil plant alive, while this guy has pretty much maintained a farm. He also throws really great parties, and when the apocalypse happens, I hope I still live next door to him because he will not only help us survive but provide beer as well.

Anyway, he has a number of chickens roaming around our yards and has graciously shared some of the eggs. Take a look at 'em:

I know that second photo isn't very good but take a close look at that yolk. It is bright orange. If you examine a factory farm egg's yolk, it will be a pale yellow. It's the difference in nutrients. True free range chickens get a lot more nutrients than factory farm chickens, and it's the lovely yolks that make farm-fresh eggs taste so good.

Here's the final product:

 

I topped it with leftover tomato-caper sauce and shaved parmagiano. Inside is leftover avocado. I added green beans from the other night, making for a hearty lunch. 

Choose Your Own Apocolypse!

I'm not the only crazy person out there!

Texas Will Secede and Then We'll All Die of Swine Flu

Texas has been in the news a lot lately.

First, our brilliant governor Rick Perry made a joke (or was it more serious? I think so) about Texas seceding from the nation at large because of Obama's stimulus plan.

Despite all the bad sports references, David Faris properly assessed the situation in his op-ed piece Don't Mess With Texas--Get Rid of It. In the event that Texas does seceed and Austin stayed with the larger liberal U.S., I think I'd have to move (as much as I wouldn't want to). Options would be: Portland, Madison, San Francisco, Asheville, New York, possibly Decatur/East Atlanta.

Then there's swine flu. Good grief. I live approximately 80 miles from San Antonio, the location of Texas's 6 cases of swine flu. I'm not about to start wearing a mask, and I think this is just another example of media hooplah. But let's not forget that I'm uninsured and tend to be a conspiracy theorist.

So maybe Texas should seceed and quarantine all cases of swine flu. In which case, I'll hop on the next flight to Portland.

[If you think I'm kidding, read this: Texas Secede!]

Conspiracy Theorists, Prepare

Yep. The apocalypse is comin.

Also, a SXSW recap is coming.

Saving the Suburbs?

I'm pretty much convinced that our American way of life will cease to exist within the next century. Hopefully, it won't be as desolate as Cormac McCarthy's depiction in The Road. Or as bad as those Canadian crackpots (or as I like to think of them, prophets) claim in the documentary The End of Suburbia.

But it looks like I'm not the only crazy one out there! New York Times blogger Allison Areiff has posted, not one, but two entries on saving the suburbs. I'm not sure such a feat is possible, but Ms. Areiff has offered some seemingly viable alternatives.

And props to KRDB Architects in Austin for getting a mention in the second post.

However: I still think the apocalypse is coming, folks. We need to learn how to garden.

More on the Food Issue

The New York Times has published a few op-eds on the future of agriculture and food in this country. (Read them here and here.)

I keep thinking that in the next 50 years, the United States must become more agrarian simply to survive. Sometimes I play out a scenario of an environmental and economic apocalypse that destroys life as we know. Not life itself. People will keep living, but we won't be living this way. It's more than gardening, recycling, changing our lightbulbs. It's systemic. And we've got to do more.

If you're interested, take a good look at the Food Democracy Now website and read some of Michael Pollan's books. I think we can actually make some changes through grassroots politics. But we've got to do something.