Doing my homework

Earlier in the week a coworker of mine was complaining about gas prices and she mentioned her frustration with the fact that we are not doing offshore drilling. Of course I totally disagree with offshore drilling but didn’t feel I had enough information to explain or debate with her. I decided to educate myself on the subject and thought you guys might be interested.

-Currently there are 33 millions acres of land, offshore, that is open to drilling and has not been explored.
-In addition to those acres there is 68 million acres of land in the lower 48 that is open to drilling and has not been explored.
-The majority of that acreage has been environmentally approved for exploration.
-The acreage that George Bush and John McCain want to open up is areas that are environmentally protected areas.
-If we do start drilling in those areas it will take at least 10 years before that oil shows us as gas at our pumps
-It will reduce the cost of gas by 2 cents per gallon.
-Bush has filled the Strategic Oil Reserve to 97.5%, approximately 700 million barrels, and refuses to open even a small percentage of the reserve to the public even though it has been paid for by the taxpayers already. The SOR is the fullest it has ever been in US history.

Think about who stands to benefit from the price of oil being so high.

“We have two oil men in office so of course the price of oil is going to go up. If Coronal Sanders was the president and the price of chicken went up we would know why.” Bill Maher

Obviously we cannot count on the government helping us out of this crisis. Alternative energy sources is really the only long term solution. In the mean time here are some tips to save on gas-

-Fill up in the morning. Gas is denser when it is cool so you will get more for your money.
-Stay above a half tank. Gas evaporates so the more air in the tank the more evaporation.
-Keep your tires aired up to maximum PSI. You will get better gas mileage.
-Remove non-essential items form your trunk. Weight increases the amount of gas you use.
-Keep your engine tuned up and replace your air filters regularly.
-Drive slower and avoid quick starts and stops. Don’t floor it.
-If you are close to your destination ride a bike or walk. With the money you save in gas you can buy an ipod which makes walking much more fun.
-Carpool
-Combine errands into one trip.
-Take the bus. It’s cheap and you can read a book while someone else deals with the driving.

Pesto

I mentioned a few days ago that eating less meat is a great way to do something positive for the environment. Well, a friend of mine emailed me and mentioned that she doesn't know many vegetarian meals and asked for some of my favorites. Of course, I am happy to share them, hopefully you will try them and let me know what you think.

Walnut-Basil Pesto is a favorite in our house. This recipe is based off of one from "The Omega Diet". It is healthy due to all of the "good" fats from the olive oil and walnuts. But more than that it tastes great and is super easy. You don't need much pesto to flavor your pasta so this recipe will make enough for at least two meals. You can freeze whatever you have left and then just leave it on the counter for a few minutes to defrost the next time you want to use it.

Walnut-Basil Pesto

2 cups packed basil leaves

1/3 cup of olive oil

1/2 cup walnuts, roughly chopped

2 small cloves of garlic, minced or crushed

1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Place basil, walnuts, garlic and salt into a food processor and pulse a few times. Once all the ingredients are chopped turn the food processor on and stream in the olive oil. Blend until finely chopped and well combined.

2. Just before serving add about 2 tbsp of hot pasta water from the cooked pasta to the pesto. (Only add the pasta water to the pesto that you plan to eat right away. Separate any pesto that you want to save for later).

3. Mix it with pasta and enjoy. My favorite pasta to eat this with is tortellini but it is also great on whole wheat pastas, the strong flavor of the pesto covers up much of the wheat flavor in the whole wheat pasta (if that bothers you).

I usually serve my pasta with garlic bread and salad and then plan to have roasted veggie sandwiches later that same week because this pesto is great on a sandwich. I will post pictures of the sandwiches later. I hope you like this pesto recipe.

save some trees

yes, we all recycle and try to do "our part" as much as we can, but can one simple change make a big impact?

from "good:"

*the website changethemargins.com is calling for printer owners everywhere to take the simple step of, well, changing their margins from the current luxurious standard 1.25 inches to a the more modest .75 inches. It may sound like a small change, but if everyone in the nation did it, we’d save a little less than a Rhode Island’s worth of trees every year. Does tinkering with Word’s cumbersome preferences scare the fonts right out of you? Don't stress, it's easy and you won't be able to tell a difference.

Changing your margins in Microsoft Word:
Go to “File,” then “Page Setup.”
Once on “Page Setup,” click the “Default” key, and you’ll be offered “Do you want to change the default settings for the page set up? This change will affect all new documents based on the normal template.”
Set each margin to .75 and save some trees.