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At Home
The Epoch Times
November 20 – 26, 2008
EarthTalk
Dear EarthTalk: Can you recommend some sources for toys and other holiday gifts that are both safe and not harmful to the environment? —Tracy Gately, Marblehead, MA Given the massive recall of toys contaminated with lead last year, let alone all the other bad news about chemicals seeping out of just about every other conceivable type of consumer item, it’s no wonder that people are nervous about what might be inside the wrapping paper this next holiday season. Luckily, growing environmental concerns—and consumer demand— means that plenty of safe and green-friendly items are available for those willing to do a little more than just walk around the closest shopping mall. For kids’ items, Oompa Toys (oompa.com) is hard to beat. The Wisconsin-based company offers thousands of child- and Earth-safe items. On Oompa’s easy-to-use Web site you can buy products ranging from toys, dollhouses, and stuffed animals to learning games, musical instruments, and art supplies to kitchen play accessories, kids’ furniture and tricycles, and many items made with organic or recycled materials. Another interesting online source for kids’ toys is Washingtonbased Earthentree (earthentree. com), which sells dozens of pull toys, rattles, stackers, and other goodies to stimulate young hands and minds. All of their products are handcrafted by “fair trade” (fairly compensated) artisans in India using sustainably harvested wood and natural vegetable-based dyes. Hazelnut Kids (hazelnutkids. com) specializes in natural, earthfriendly wooden and organic cotton toys for kids and babies, and even offers gift-wrapping with recycled and recyclable paper. For grown-up gifts, EcoArtware (eco-artware.com) sells a variety of items made from recycled and natural materials, from bath and kitchen accessories to pet products
Architectural Styles: The Victorian
By ADAM MILLER
Kansas Epoch Times Staff
PLAYING IT SAFE: Consumers are demanding toy products that are safe and earth-friendly. PHOTOS.COM
to jewelry, including many handmade items. Everybodygreen (everybodygreen.com) is another good source for green-friendly jewelry. The company’s No Plastic charm bracelets are made with corn starch-based resin, natural herbal tea dye, and recycled brass. For those holiday parties you might be attending, wine aficionados might appreciate a bottle of Boisset Family Estates’ Yellow Jersey pinot noir (yellowjerseywine.com), which comes from France in a 100 percent recycled (and recyclable) plastic bottle. Looking for fair trade arts and crafts? Gifts with Humanity (giftswithhumanity.com) sells clothing, home décor, jewelry, and more from artists in Asia, Africa, and Central and South America. Organic Bug (organicbug.com) also sells fair trade items and other natural and organic products from clothing to home décor items to travel accessories. Other Web sites worth visiting for fair trade and/or green-friendly
gifts include peacefulvalleygreetings.com, greenfeet.com, pristineplanet.com, gaiam.com, acacia. com, and vivaterra.com. A simple Google search for “green holiday gifts” will turn up many more. Another approach to the holidays, of course, for the sake of lessening one’s footprint and tightening the belt in a downturned economy, is to eschew traditional gift-giving in favor of donating to a local or national environmental group in the name of a friend or loved one. This can be accomplished by visiting the Web sites of your favorite green groups and making your way to their “Donate” page, or by visiting justgive.org or worldofgood. com (by eBay), both of which facilitate contributions to worthwhile charities. GOT AN ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTION? Send it to: EARTHTALK, c/o E/The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; submit your question at: www.emagazine. com/earthtalk.html; or e-mail us at: earthtalk@emagazine.com.
A Turkey of a Day
By JOYCE L. FAIOLA
In my family, the focus of Thanksgiving has become the gravy—thick, velvety quarts of ambrosial turkey gravy. The kind you dunk your Parker House roll into, the kind your mashed potatoes drown in, the kind you sip the morning after instead of your cup of java. My mother is a gravy master, black belt level. I’m admitting now that I’ve never attempted to make gravy except my canned broth version, which puddles around my insipid Swedish meatballs. How can I dare try making gravy with such a gravy legacy? One of my sisters has a gravy addiction. She almost OD’d in Paris on all the legendary sauces and gravies. Rumor has it that she even dipped her room service croissant in a side of gravy that she smuggled in, rather than the usual strawberry preserves. The day after Thanksgiving, we all huddle around the stove and watch as the leftover gravy slowly transforms from its congealed blob into that hallowed liquid. No one says a peep; we’re all like dogs in a kennel at overdue feeding time. Salivating, we sit and wait for the platter to make its way to the table. Then all at once, 10 giant
spoons clash like cymbals as we fight over the first spoonful of gravy. The mealtime conversation focuses on—what else? Gravy. Ah, that’s how life is when you live to eat. The other serious part of Thanksgiving dinner is the desserts. I’m not talking about a few pies, but a tabletop full of who-can-outdo-whom desserts. This year, I’m not up to making anything. My mother seems to wait for this one day each year to bake herself into a frenzy: pumpkin, date, cranberry, chocolate cream, pecan, grape nut—all her favorites in one big sugar-laced buffet extravaganza. Yet even with all those sweets and the box of leftovers I usually cart home, somehow, the next
day, I find myself in some sort of trance as I pick out, pay for, and eat three cinnamon doughnuts before I even make it to the car. It must be the holiday stress. Instead of feeling full at Thanksgiving, it makes me feel old. It used to be that every time I walk in the door, my father would regale anyone within earshot that I’m ... ahem ... cough ... a certain age over 40. He waves his arm in my general direction and I feel like a horse waiting to have its teeth inspected. Now the passage of time is being marked in a rather unique way. During the holidays, we all sit around and critique the previous years’ videos. Special attention is paid to who had more hair, more flab, and the most attractive clothing or best-looking ex-husband. Every time the camera ungraciously zooms in on someone’s backside, we utter a collective sigh. While viewing a Christmas holiday video of a few years back, I admitted, “Golly, I was so fat, look at that double chin.” To which my cherubic 7-year-old niece assured me, “You still have a double chin, auntie.” Guess who’s getting coal in her stocking this year? Humorist and freelance scribe Joyce Faiola is a consultant/ designer for the hospitality industry and lives in Connecticut. Her e-mail is JLFaiola@Juno.com.
When most people hear the word “Victorian,” they think of grand, old homes with beautiful architecture and vibrant color. Although the term actually refers to a period of time between 1840 and 1900, when Queen Victoria ruled England, multiple styles of architecture are associated, such as Gothic Revival, Italianate, Folk Victorian, and the Victorian Queen Anne. During the Victorian period, industrialization allowed for new advancements in architecture and mass production of wooden and metal ornaments. Because of this, the Victorian era is considered by many to be the beginnings of modern architecture. Generally, Victorians are built from the inside out, where the outside of the home reflects the structure of the interior rooms, which are often fancifully shaped and laden with nooks and crannies. Indeed, Victorians portray an exterior geometry like no other style. With their ornate designs and details, these homes, for many, imply a high realm in status and lifestyle. According to John Ruskin, the inspiration for early Victorian architecture—Gothic architecture—was so powerful it embodied moral truths and possessed a respect toward all that is natural. Ruskin, a Victorian writer, art critic, and philosopher—who was also associated with inspiring the Arts and Crafts movement, which rebelled against the industrialization of the Victorian era—even suggested man’s spiritual aspirations could be invoked through European Gothic architecture. Others found similar inspiration in these structures. For example, in the mid 1700s, architectural innovator Sir Horace Walpole modified his country home using Gothic details, creating a Gothic Revival-style home, crafted after the medieval architecture seen in cathedrals. Due to the cost of using heavy masonry stones—rather than brick or wood—original forms of Gothic Revival were built sparingly throughout North America. Such American Gothic Revivals were usually reserved for non-residential structures, such as churches and government buildings. At the time, in American residences, two forms were commonly seen: the Brick Gothic and the Carpenter Gothic. Carpenter Gothic homes were famous for using lacey, wooden, exterior details, referred to as
VICTORIAN FOLK HOME: Between 1880 and 1910 people began transforming their ordinary folk homes into Folk Victorians. CAT ROONEY/THE EPOCH
TIMES
“gingerbread.” Later, between 1840 and 1885, the Italianate became the most popular American Victorian style. Also known as the “bracketed” style, the Italianate often included a flat or low pitched roof, a square cupola (ornamental tower), wide eves with cornices and brackets, and also tall, narrow windows. The Italianate reflects a time period—during the picturesque movement in the 1840s—when architecture split from classical ideals that were once associated with the English architecture and arts for over two centuries. American Italianates were designed to invoke feelings of rural Italy, and also to mirror the beautiful architecture used during the Italian Renaissance. Between 1880 and 1910, as railroads spread to small towns, mass-produced wooden details became available and people began transforming their ordinary folk homes into Folk Victorians. Usually L-shaped or square shaped, and encompassing a gabled front, Folk Victorians often boasted spindle details on front porches and used brackets under eaves. They were smaller, symmetrical versions of the grander homes seen during the Victorian era, homes the middle-class could
afford. And then along came the Queen Anne, the most elaborate Victorian style around. These are the homes many think of when referring to Victorian architecture, with wrap-around porches and rounded or square towers. Queen Anne homes often have polychromatic wall textures and highly decorative ornamentation. They are eclectic, majestic, and have an “anything goes” feeling to them, yet remain elegant no matter how uneven their shape. In the United States, these homes thrived in construction from 1880 to 1905. The Victorian era was one of great advancement in architectural styles and perspectives. Many homes were built during this period. John Ruskin was deeply interested in the preservation of old buildings and Gothic structures. He once stated, “For, indeed, the greatest glory of a building is not in its stones, not in its gold. Its glory is in its Age…” And so, it does not matter which style of Victorian is referenced. These great homes should be appreciated not for what makes them different in appearance, material, or shape, but for their historic integrity and powerful endurance through time.
Thanksgiving Dessert Recipes
Pumpkin Pie With Maple Whipped Cream
By SANDRA SHIELDS
Epoch Times Victoria Staff
After a big turkey dinner there is always room for pumpkin pie. Thanksgiving dinner just wouldn’t be the same without it. Add some character by drawing a turkey design on top with sour cream and milk before baking. It is simple to draw as it consists mostly of circles and a few straight lines. Choose a favorite pastry recipe and prepare the pastry a day or two ahead of time, and then keep it refrigerated until needed. Servings: 6 to 8 Pie ingredients: 1 can (14 oz) cooked pumpkin purée 3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar 1 tsp ground cinnamon 3/4 tsp ground ginger 1/4 tsp ground cloves 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg 1/2 tsp salt 2 eggs, lightly beaten 1/2 cup light cream 3/4 cup 2% milk, scalded Directions: Line a 9-inch pie pan with pastry. Flute edges and chill crust for at least 20 minutes before filling. Line the pastry shell with foil, fill with dried beans, and blind bake at 400 degrees F on the bottom rack of the oven for 10 minutes. Remove foil and beans and bake for another 10 minutes. Mix pumpkin purée, brown sugar, spices, and salt together. Add lightly beaten eggs and mix together until well blended.
DESSERT ANYONE? Pumpkin pie with maple whipped cream.
SANDRA SHIELDS/EPOCH TIMES
Add cream and mix well. Stir in scalded milk just until blended. Pour pumpkin mixture into the partially baked pie shell. Turkey design recipe: 2 1/2 Tbsp sour cream 1 1/2 tsp milk Directions: Mix sour cream with milk until smooth making sure there are no lumps. Pour mixture into the corner of a small Ziploc bag. Cut off the corner of the Ziploc bag to make a very small opening and draw your turkey design on top of the pie as follows: Make a medium circle toward the bottom of the pie. Draw another smaller circle
inside for the head. Make an arch above the medium circle, connect lines to the medium circle to make feathers, and add a scallop to the top edge of the arch. Add eyes, beak, snood, and feet. Smooth out any uneven edges with a toothpick. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour until filling is set. Cool and serve with maple whipped cream. Maple whipped cream recipe: 2 cups whipping cream 1–2 Tbsp pure maple syrup Directions: Mix all ingredients together in electric mixer on high speed until firm enough to hold peaks.
11/28/08