1. Get a free issue of Christopher Kimball’s new magazine.
Christopher Kimball left ATK/CI last year and he’s started a new magazine. It’s brand spankin’ new, and you can get a free first issue, no strings attached.
I obviously haven’t tried the magazine yet, but hey, it’s free, and I figure it’s worth a shot.
(Hat tip to reader Deb, who emailed me about it!)
2. Tech and Food Waste
Reader WilliamB sent me this article about how technology is being used in a variety of ways to help reduce food waste, from production, to restaurants, to homes.
(Want help for yourself? Here are my top ten tips to help you stop wasting food.)
3. Freezing greens is awesome.
Speaking of food waste…I bought a huge bag of spinach from Costco, and despite my best efforts, I knew we weren’t going to get through the whole bag before it went bad.
So, after I used about half of it, I picked out a few bad leaves, and put the rest in the freezer.
Frozen and thawed spinach is no good for eating, in my opinion, but in smoothies, it is a-ok.
4. Kindness matters
I talk about kindness a lot with my kids as a matter of course, but it seems like the topic has really come up a lot in the last week, especially because of Joshua and Lisey both having jobs now.
They’ve run into co-workers who aren’t kind, customers who aren’t kind, bosses who aren’t kind, and they’re needing to be kind in the face of that.
I’m reminded that being high up on the ladder, or knowing a lot or having many skills is somewhat useless if you can’t be kind.
I want my kids to learn and become skilled, of course, but more importantly, I want them to be kind, to care about other people’s feelings, to have compassion for others, and to be able to put themselves in other people’s shoes.
4. Attention, email subscribers!
I forgot to remind you of this yesterday….but if you want to enter the Ecobags giveaway, you need to leave a comment on the actual post. I can’t keep track of emailed entries, unfortunately.
So, click here and you’ll end up at the giveaway post where you can leave a comment to enter.
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And that’s all the miscellany for this edition! I’ll be back tomorrow with a menu post.
emberry
Friday 22nd of July 2016
This might be an unpopular opinion, but Christopher Kimball rubs me the wrong way and I'm more interested in CI and ATK without him! I wish him well in his new endeavors though!
Kristen
Saturday 23rd of July 2016
I did always think his column in the beginning of the CI magazines was boring. I skipped over it every time. ;)
Stephanie L
Friday 22nd of July 2016
Frozen spinach is great for chicken enchiladas and veggie lasagne.
What kind of jobs are they doing that they're encountering poor behavior they haven't already (presumably) encountered for years through sports and activities ( I know you homeschool)?
Kristen
Friday 22nd of July 2016
Well, they haven't been in customer service before, so, that's new. A customer came in the other day and told Joshua he sucked at his job, even though Joshua was being polite and attentive. And then after Joshua politely explained that he was new and was learning every day, the customer tried to humiliate Joshua by asking him fish questions that Joshua wouldn't know the answers to.
We're lucky that no organized activities we've been in have given him quite such rude treatment as some customers do. ;)
Suz
Friday 22nd of July 2016
In one way it's good to have those experiences now, while the kids live at home and have you to help them process the bad things - though still not fun! Looking back, I can see how my high school job as a waitress helped me differentiate how I treated people versus how they responded - sometimes there's just no correlation, and it's not about you. This helped me with my first adult job with a difficult boss. I actually think this lesson may be easier to encode while you're younger - at least for me; I think I would have gotten much more wrapped up about it as a young adult where I was very anxious to please at my first job, but I had those earlier experiences to remind me that people aren't always kind or reasonable, and that's OK (you live through it). Jobs in high school are useful !
Kristen
Friday 22nd of July 2016
Yep, I think it's nice to have a part-time job while you live at home...that way the bad experiences aren't at a 40 hours a week level, and you still have your parents there to encourage you and talk to you.
And it's great to learn these lessons when you're not depending on your job for rent. It's a less pressure-filled environment!
Willow
Thursday 21st of July 2016
If I know I have too much spinach, kale or bok choy, I make up smoothies and freeze the smoothies. Hmmm, I'm thinking I could blend up whatever I have and freeze it and add it to smoothies later like ice cubes. FYI: Lisey IS kind! Love her!
Kristen
Thursday 21st of July 2016
Yup, I do that too! I've made some pretty disgusting-looking green ice cubes to throw into smoothies.
I'm super proud that Lisey and Joshua are both being kind to customers, whether or not the customers are kind to them. Yay!
Joyce
Thursday 21st of July 2016
I want to thank you for turning me on to the Cook's Illustrated, Cook's Country and ATK. I am an old chick and I have learned so much about cooking from these sources. Frugal note - I bought the CI cookbook and several years worth of magazines at the thrift store. Score!