Erin at The Conscious Shopper posted this recipe for mac ‘n’ squash that I was really happy with. (Jason suggested a little more tahini and mustard next time, but I’m a fan of bland.) Being the non-experimental cook that I am, I’m always looking for recipes that help me use the veggies I have on hand before they go bad. Winter veggies in general, and squash in particular, are tough for me. I never liked the mashed squash I ate as a kid, and I’ve almost completely avoided the vegetable as an adult. But if I want to eat more locally (and thus more seasonally) I have to figure out ways to enjoy things like squash. So if you have any recipes or tips that you think might be useful for winter cooking, or even canning, send them my way.

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By the way, I just love The Conscious Shopper. And I wouldn’t expect it, since Erin’s a religiously conservative stay-at-home mom living in North Carolina—pretty much the complete opposite of me. But I love her writing style and the open, experimental tone of her blog. And while a lot of “green” blogs just advertise new products (kind of counterintuitive), she talks about her day-to-day struggles to be more efficient. It’s just great.

Having grown up in rural Maine, I still get a little thrill every time I go through a revolving door. (Escalators, too, but that’s a different story.) So I can’t understand why some people seem to avoid them at all costs. In my office building I’d say about half of the people detour to the regular doors.

But you know the signs some buildings put up—”To conserve energy, please use revolving doors”? They’re actually true.

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Each time we open a door, air is exchanged between the inside of the building and the outside. An MIT student group’s study showed that revolving doors exchange 8 times less air than swinging doors. They found that the average heat transfer when a swinging door is used was 267 BTUs (or 78 Wh, roughly the equivalent of using your laptop for an hour and a half). Of course, the effect is worse during extreme hot or cold, or on windy days, with the most effective use of a revolving door being when it’s both cold and windy.

Over time, those energy savings can really add up. And switching which door you use takes almost no effort. How often do we get handed a win that easy?

Big Belly solar trash compactors have been talked about a lot lately. The idea is that because they hold more trash, garbage collectors only have to pick it up one-fifth as often, thus saving gas (and the garbage collectors’ time). It sounds great, but I’m not sure the product’s quite there yet.

A couple years ago Big Bellies were put in down the street from where I work, and Berklee even sponsored one. Since then I’ve become disillusioned with them. For one thing, they quickly became even more disgusting than regular trash cans. I don’t know if it’s the compacting action or the relatively small slot for trash to fit into, but they get sticky and dirty, and even stain the sidewalk around them.

Ewww....

For another thing, you actually have to touch a handle to open the slot. Just think of all the germs passed from person to person on that grimy handle. *shudder* I can’t think of a more unsanitary design for an outdoor trash can.

A trash can just down the street, for comparison.

The city actually removed the two Big Bellies on Newbury Street recently, and you can still see the stains they left. The one on Mass. Ave. seems to be faring better—maybe it’s a newer model or was installed more recently?

The Berklee-sponsored Big Belly on Mass. Ave.

So while Big Belly promoters have their hearts in the right place, I don’t think it’s practical yet. Maybe if it was redesigned with a motion detector to open the slot? Or had a funnel or something to collect the water that drips out? Come on trash can designers, I know you can think of something.

Would it be weird to buy a house just to have chickens in the backyard?

Over on Berklee.net I interviewed Jonathan Feist about the chickens, ducks, and geese he’s raising, and it reminded me that I really want chickens. I don’t have a yard, so I have no place to put them right now. But if I had the space I’d definitely have city chickens. Maybe I’d even buy them a cute little Eglu to live in. (Or maybe not. It would probably get claustrophobic during our long winters.)

Jonathan and Debbie, named after his boss, Debbie Cavalier. Flattering? Photo by Roseanne Saalfield.

My parents have kept chickens forever, and growing up I could always count on there being eggs in the fridge. Of course, they actually have a farm with lots of space for chickens to roam. Even so, they have the tiniest ones possible: bantams. Bantams are adorable, lay eggs that are pretty big relative to their size, and are small enough to make a backyard coop seem roomy.

It’s just the next step in urban farming, as people look to eat as locally (and humanely) as possible. Most cities allow keeping hens at least, if not roosters. It’s illegal in Boston, but Cambridge allows it if they’re kept as pets (not for slaughter). Same with beehives. Now that’s a thought….

Of course, we probably have a few intermediate steps between growing basil and parsley on our porch and raising chickens, but I can dream, right?

The temperatures this weekend made us remember that we still need to do some caulking before winter. When we moved in last November it was much draftier than we expected, and we spent some time fixing the worst of it: caulking the living room and bedroom windows, weatherstripping the doors and replacing the old sweeps, adding v-channel weatherstripping for the living room windows, and putting flanges around the radiator pipes where they led to the cellar. There was still a bunch left to do when summer came, but we’d at least made it livable.

Jason helped his parents finish their house, so he already had some experience with this.

The people who lived here before us had obviously put plastic around the windows—it was almost impossible to get the sticky tape off the sills when we painted. I really don’t understand that. It’s just as easy to caulk as to put up plastic, nicer looking, more effective, and longer lasting (the tube says it’s supposed to last 30 years). I know some people don’t want to improve houses that they’re just renting, but it’s the tenant who has to live with the results—especially if they’re the ones paying the heating bills!

I was glad that it was so windy this weekend. As I was filling in a particularly large gap I could actually feel the air blowing through onto my forehead. Afterwards, no breeze. It’s nice to see such an immediate effect.

I’d never done anything like this before we moved here, so here are a few tips that I learned along the way. For more, here’s an instructional video I found.

• Wash and dry the area first, and scrape away any paint flakes.
• Use latex (or latex mixed with silicone) so you can clean up any spills with just a wet rag. And, unlike silicone, you can paint over it.
• Always move the caulk gun away from you to push the caulk deep into the gap for a better seal. This was a little awkward at first, but I found a lighter touch prevented all the starts and stops that made it glob around the nozzle.
• Run a wet finger along the seam to press it in and make a cleaner line.
• Laugh like a ten year old every time your significant other says the word “caulk.” Seriously. It makes the day go faster.