Netcycler: a new kind of Craigslist.

One person's junk is another person's treasure.

Truer words have seldom been spoken. So in that spirit, please click here to be redicredted to the netcycler website.

The idea is:
1. You sign up.
2. You post of list of stuff you'd like to give away.
3. You make a wish-list of things you'd like to swap for.
4. You find said-stuff, or people find your stuff and you arrange to meet and trade stuff or send it by mail!

I especially loved this as a pre-/post-move project...which I may be doing myself so I'm looking forward to trying the website out. Any thoughts?

Showing you just how easy bread is to make.

I think the title of this post pretty much sums it up: bread it easy to make. I've had this bread recipe for a little while and I've been making it every now and then. I wanted to post about it previously but I hadn't figured out how to add any value to it before I made it again today.

By taking photos along every step of the way, I hope to visually convince you that making bread can be extremely easy. I'm going to go as far as set a goal for this post as well: to inspire at least one person to make this bread! (So please let me know if you do end up making it.)

As for why I want to convince people to make bread, I have a few reasons.
First off, I believe that making food from scratch is something that everyone can come to enjoy and the more you do it, the more adventurous you'll want to be with your recipes and the more you'll like cooking.
Secondly, connecting with food can help us connect with the environment and learn more about food in general, how it's made, and what you're actually paying a company to do for you (for example, is it something you can do yourself and actually enjoy?).
Thirdly, making your own bread saves you the (mandatory) plastic bag that comes with it.
And finally, it's a fun and relaxing way of doing something handy, without too much time or effort.

Get your recipe from the 101cookbooks website and follow along.


Mix yeast and warm water, add some runny honey and let it sit until some bubbles form.


In the meantime, measure out your flour and oats.



Mix your dry and wet ingredients.


Place them in your pan and let rise.




About 10 minutes before your bread is done rising, preheat your oven.


And for the end result, you can bet it looks as good as it tastes.

Big thanks to Heidi Swanson for adapting and posting this recipe. Once again her website is: www.101cookbooks.com. And clicking the link will take you straight to the recipe itself.

Quick tip: Use up your products before you throw them away.

I'm going to keep today's post short and sweet. I got home from Helsinki today to find that one of our tubes of cream had been cut down to size. Although this concept was not in the least new to me (I think it's a pretty standard tactic) I had never thought to do it myself. So a big thank you goes out to Juha (who has been reading No Impact Man) for giving me this idea!

So today I say: Before throwing out your empties, make sure they're actually empty.




It might seem like a small difference, but every little bit helps. So if cutting open the tube gets you an extra 2 uses, and you have ie. 50 uses in total, then for every 25 tubes, you'll save one tube. Ideally, it'd be great to eliminate tubes, but if you're not there yet (and you're not alone) then might as well make the best of what you have!

Veggie recipe: Quiche aka. salty food pie.

A few months ago, my friend Mette taught me how to make a quiche, or as we refer to it "a food pie." Tonight I made the recipe again, and made the crust from scratch. If you're just starting out though and want to see how easy it is, you can also buy frozen crust, but either way, I find this quiche looks like it requires much more effort than it actually does ;)


I initially forgot to take a picture and dug right in. Sorry about that!


What you'll need:
- 1 egg
- 300g flour (you can try different combinations, I used about 100g of spelt and 200g of regular all-purpose)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons water
- basil, pepper, and whatever other spices you'd like to use
- 150g softened butter (not completely melted but very soft nonetheless)
- 75-100g of your favourite cheese (I used feta)
- A variety of veggies: onion, broccoli, leek, zucchini or any combination of them.

Preheat your oven to 180-200C.

To make the crust:
Soften/microwave the butter and stir in the flour. Mix until consistent then add a dash of salt. Stir in the 3 tablespoons of water and ta-da! Your crust is ready!
Spread it in your pan (You can use a pie pan like I did in the picture or a square 9"x9")

To make the filling:
Chop the vegetables and grate the cheese. Break your egg, beat it a little and add your spices. Add a bit of milk, stirring it in until you can lift the fork without getting that thick egg-y texture, but rather, a slightly more liquid-y feel. Fill the baking dish with veggies, top with the egg mixture and cheese.

Cook for about 40 minutes and enjoy.

New perspectives: Speak up!

Photo credit: here.

Some days I have the motivation to run a marathon (figuratively speaking), write tons of posts and talk to enough people to keep the idea going and have them inspire me in return. But since we're all human, that feeling can't always last forever without any interruptions. There are days that get you a little down and feel a little blue about the current state of things. Of course, this is a reality we deal with every day and it's ok to feel like that, so long as you don't let that feeling distract you for too long.

I'll give you an example. A few weeks ago, I ordered some stainless steel straws from www.lifewithoutplastic.com. My mom and dad brought them over from Canada because I saw them 2 weeks ago and I was really excited to receive my order of straws (along with some really great non-plastic food storage containers) as well as see my parents! I'm not proud to say, my straws are still packaged and sitting on my table...(I'll go unwrap them now!)