Recycling Within Your Home!

So as most of you know we are buying a house!! It's very exciting and we can't wait to move in! As this is recycling month, and I'm trying to do this house process as green as possible, I need some help from you! What are some ways that you BUY recycled household products? For example, we need some good furniture, where are some good 2nd hand places to buy furniture? Also, where do people buy used household products? Are there quick simple ways for me to recycle things I already have into useful items for our new home?? I would love some feedback on how to use recycled items in my new home!

Recycling Month!!

This month I want to focus on recycling! This month's newsletter talked about what can go in your curbside recycling, but what do you do with everything else? The paint, oil, bed frames, dry cleaning plastic bags, plastic grocery bags, etc. Below are some great resources to help you recycle those odds and ends. E-mail me, comment on here or on Facebook about your recycling questions or needs. Or share your great ideas of how, when and where you recycle!

• www.earth911.org- You can search for what recycling sites are available in your area and what they accept.
• www.metro.org- (this is for the Portlanders sorry) Metro services the greater Portland area. They set up drop off sites in different locations, where they will literally come and take the old paint and oil (or whatever you're recycling) out of your car and recycle it for you, for FREE! They also have resources listed on their website for specific places to recycle, and ways to reduce your waste.
• Most cities will list on their websites places where you can recycle certain items (and most of the time they are free.) For example: www.Portlandonline.com will tell me what curbside services recycle, where I can recycle my paints and oil, etc.

Matt's Local, In-Season Birthday Dinner!

I'm sure many of you have wondered, "does Brianna actually do all this stuff she preaches?" Well, to ease your minds, I'm going to give proof that I do actually practice what I preach! So for Matt's Brithday Dinner he said, "all I want is corn," so I tried to plan a great fall meal that went with corn...well it actually just turned into this:)

First Course:
Butternut Squash Soup

Second Course:
Pear and Spinach Salad (adapted from a recipe in Oct. 2010 Vegetarian Times)
Super easy and yummy!
- 1 Bosc Pear
- 3 T. Fig Jam
- 2 oz. Brie
- 1/8 c. red onion
- 1 t. Lemon juice
- 3 c. Spinach
- 1/8 c. Chopped pecans

Cut pear in half and scoop out core, replace with fig jam. Bake the pears face up at 375 for 10 mins, then add brie cheese and bake until cheese is melted and browning. Divide the spinach on two plates, sprinkle red onion and pecans on spinach. Add the pear and drizzle dressing on top of it all (1 T. fig jam + 1 T. Olive oil + 1 t. lemon juice, whisk together.)

Third Course:
Spinach Tortolini
Quick easy dish using red onion, spinach, olive oil, garlic and some parmesan cheese!

Forth Course:
Matt's Amazing Grilled Corn
Enough said.

Fifth Course:
NY Cheesecake & NY Blackberry Cheesecake
Brianna's Homemade cheesecake NOT!!! I cheated and got these from Papa Haydns! But it was local, and supported a local business!