Monthly Archives: March 2011
Chocolate Chip Cookie Brownies
| March 31, 2011 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Recipe |
Can’t decide if you want to make cookies or brownies? Well now you don’t have to. These are to die for and easy to make. Warning: They are very rich.
- 1/2 cup butter, melted
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 4 tablespoons butter, softened
- 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 egg
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- chocolate chips
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Grease an 8×8 inch pan.
- Start with the brownie layer
- In a medium bowl combine melted butter and cocoa and stir until cocoa is dissolved.
- Add sugar and mix well.
- Add eggs one at a time and stir until well combined.
- Stir in vanilla, flour and salt until you no longer see any flour (do not overmix).
- Spread in pan.
- Now move on to the cookie layer.
- In a medium bowl cream butter, brown sugar, and sugar until smooth.
- Add egg and vanilla and mix.
- In another bowl mix flour, salt, and baking soda.
- Add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture. Mix until the flour is blended.
- Add in chocolate chips (just eyeball how many you want).
- Scoop the cookie dough on to the brownie layer (you can spread it or just leave it in blobs).
- Cook for 25-30 minutes or until edges are done and the middle doesn’t wobble when you shake the pan.
- Let cool and then enjoy!
Beyond Earth Hour
| March 27, 2011 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Conservation, Green Living |
Just because the lights are back on doesn’t mean we should stop working to help the planet. Small steps really do add up and if we all do our part we can make this planet a better place for all of us and many generations to come.
What did you do for Earth Hour and what steps are you going to start talking for the planet?
Earth Hour 2011
| March 26, 2011 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Conservation, Green Living |
Tonight all over the world people will turn off their lights for one hour. This mass action is in celebration of the third annual Earth Hour. Earth Hour is not meant to help end climate change, no one believes that turning your lights out for one hour will reduce c02 levels any meaningful amount. Earth Hour is an awareness campaign. It’s meant to make us think about our planet, the people in it and what we can do to make it better.
This year the World Wildlife Federation (WWF) is encouraging people to go “beyond the hour” and continue small actions all year round. You can visit the Beyond the Hour website to add your actions so we can watch everyone’s actions add up.
Of course not everyone thinks Earth Hour is a good idea. A libertarian group has started the Human Achievement Hour. Here is what they have to say about Earth Hour.
“Observers of Earth Hour want world leaders to “do something” about pollution and energy use. What this means is that they want politicians to use legal mandates and punitive taxes to prevent individuals from freely using resources, hindering our ability to create the solutions and technologies of the future. Instead, the Competitive Enterprise Institute asks you to spend that hour with your lights *on* in celebration of Human Achievement Hour.” -Competitive Enterprise Institute
This is not what Earth Hour is about. Earth Hour is not a political movement. It’s a group of people coming together with many different ideas for how we can help the planet. Technology will play a big role in the future of our planet, no one is wanting to “hinder” it’s creation.
Do you believe Earth Hour is a worthy idea and one that will help the planet or just a political movement that will just hurt economic growth?
If you would like to celebrate Earth Hour be sure to check out my post An Hour for Earth for tips on what to do with your hour.
Posts Around the Web
| March 25, 2011 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Uncategorized |
It’s late and I need to get to bed so I thought I would share some articles I have written lately on other sites.
The first is some positive news for Oklahoma, a ‘gray water’ bill has past the House and is moving on to the Senate. It’s great timing with the terrible drought we are currently experiencing.
“Lawmakers in Oklahoma have approved a bill that will allow for private use of gray water systems. The bill creates a permit exemption for gray water systems that use less than 250 gallons of gray water per day. The bill defines gray water as untreated household wastewater that has not come in contact with toilet waste or water from a kitchen sink.” -read more
This week on the Green Phone Booth I shared tips on taking small steps to living a zero waste lifestyle.
“Ditch paper towels. Paper towels are a waste of money and resources. Old t-shirts are great for cleaning and real hand towels work just fine for drying your hands. Skoy Cloths can also be helpful when ditching this habit.” -read more
Over on GoodBlogs I looked into bpa-free plastic and if it’s really safe.
“It’s been known for a long time- since around 1936- that BPA mimics estrogens. Studies have shown it can cause health risks such as promoting human breast cancer cell growth. As these risks become clear bpa-free plastics have been showing up everywhere. But is that enough to make the plastic safe? Turns out it may not be.” -read more
Hope you enjoy these articles. I will hopefully have something new up on here tomorrow. And I will be announcing the winner of the Yogi Bear DVD!
World Water Day
| March 22, 2011 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Conservation |
Clean water and proper sanitation are huge issues facing much of the world. Today we join together to bring awareness to these issues. Here are just a few facts you can share on Facebook, Twitter, and to your friends today.
- The water and sanitation crisis claims more lives through disease than any war claims through guns.
- Diarrhea is the second leading cause of death among children under five. It kills more young children than AIDS, malaria and measles combined.
- An American taking a five-minute shower uses more water than a typical person in a developing country slum uses in a whole day.
- Every 20 seconds, a child dies from a water-related disease.
- Less than 1% of the world’s fresh water (or about 0.007% of all water on earth) is readily accessible for direct human use.
If you have a blog post about World Water Day please add it to the linky below.
Is Nuclear Energy Green Energy?
| March 21, 2011 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Energy, Green Mom's Carnival |
It’s important to first know what has been happening at Japan’s nuclear reactors. Here is a video from CNN that helps explain.
As you can see even when we plan for disasters things still can go wrong. I talked about this last week and the Green Mom’s Carnival decided we needed to have an emergency carnival to talk about these issues. And as always we all have a lot to say.
Diane at the Big Green Purse reminds us that it wasn’t that long ago the US had a disaster cause by our use of often dangerous forms of energy. She also shares three big mistakes we make when it comes to energy.
Deanna of Crunchy Chicken talks about being in the path of radiation if the near by plant has a large leak. She asks us if nuclear energy is really worth the risk. Do you know if you are also in the path of a nuclear plant? You can find out on Greenpeace’s website.
Karen of Best of Mother Earth talks about how detached we are from what’s going on in Japan. And wonders what she would do if a disaster like Japan’s happened here.
Betsy of Eco-Novice shares several different positions by different people on nuclear energy. She also talks about how we can all help by reducing our use of energy, no matter where it comes from.
Jennifer of Puddle Jumping in DC asks on Care2, “do we need nuclear power to stop global warming?” She talks about an analysis by Environment America which states we need to cut power plant emissions by around half over the next ten years. She goes on to talk about the fact that it often takes that long just to build a nuclear plant.
Jennae of Green and Gorgeous not only talks about the tragedy in Japan but also shares many ways we can help the people of Japan.
Harriet of Climate Mama talks about how we often overlook the everyday poisoning that is coming from our use of fossil fuels. She talks about how she and other environmentalist still believe nuclear may need to be an option to get us to a green energy future.
And last but not least, Tiffany of Nature Moms Blog tells us what we can do if we are in the path of radiation.
Take Action
Now that you have read what’s going on and our views on the issue here are somethings you can do.
If you agree that nuclear power is not a green form of energy, tell congress to end nuclear power.
No matter your views on the issue is we can all agree what is happening in Japan is tragic. You can donate to help the people of Japan by using the button on the right side of this blog or you can text REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10 to the American Red Cross. You can also give to the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance by visiting their website.
Save the Bears with Yogi
| March 16, 2011 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Animal Welfare, Conservation |
The Yogi Bear movie will be coming out on DVD on March 22nd. One lucky read will be able to win a copy of the movie. Check the end of the post for details!
Warner Brothers has teamed up with the Sierra Club, National Parks Conservation Association and Leave No Trace to bring fun adventure tips to your kids. Click on the widget below to check them out with your kids and also check out the trailer for the movie.
Giveaway
1. Post your e-mail!!!!! Every time people forget, you can’t win if you don’t leave an e-mail address. (if you have a blogger account that has your e-mail that works as well, or if you fill it out in the info, just somewhere please!)
2. Let me know what your favorite item to pack in a picnic basket, this is the mandatory entry.
3. Enter by March 24th at 11:59 p.m.
Extra Entries (post separate comment for each):
1. Blog about the giveaway, post link.
2. Post on Twitter, post link.
3. Add me on Twitter @retrohousewife5, leave username in comment.
4. Follow me, let me know which way you are following. (Google, NetworkedBlog, E-mail, other)
5. Add my button to your site. (the button and code are on the right side of the page) Be sure to leave a link for where you put the button.
6. Subscribe to the Retro Housewife Goes Green newsletter.
6. Like Retro Housewife Goes Green on Facebook.
Remember post a separate comment for each of the above ways to enter! They will only count if they are separate.
*This giveaway is sponsored by Warner Brothers. The prizes comes from them. I was not paid for this post.
Sunflower Butter Cookies
| March 15, 2011 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Real Food, Recipe |
Peanut butter cookies are my favorite cookies. I started making them as a just a very little kid with my grandma. Making and eating these cookies are some of my best childhood memories. Sadly I haven’t had peanut butter cookies in years due to a possible peanut allergy. Thankfully I finally tried making some with sunflower butter and they are wonderful! They taste a bit different but very close and so good. Here is the recipe I used.
Sunflower Butter Cookies
Ingredients
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sunflower butter
1 egg
1 1/4 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt (I did a bit less than 1/4 because the sunflower butter is pretty salty to me and I had salted butter)
Optional: Chocolate chips, my husband likes chocolate chips in his but I’m a purist when it comes to these cookies and like mine plain.
Directions
- Cream butter until soft and smooth. Add the sugars and cream again. Mix in the sunflower butter and an egg.
- Mix together the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt). Stir into the sugar/butter.
- You can stick this in the fridge for a few hours if you want but I always skip this step as I want cookies right away when baking!
- Preheat oven to 375′F.
- Roll (or use a cookie scoop) dough into balls and place on cookie sheet. Flatten the cookies a bit and use a fork to make crisscross patterns.
- Bake until light brown, about 9 to 10 minutes. Cool on the cookie sheets for about a minute or they will break when you try and take them off. Let them finish cooling on a rack.
- Enjoy! Warning if you eat to many of these at once you will feel sick.
This is my post for What’s Cooking Wednesday. Yes I know it’s Tuesday but I already posted this when I saw this was happening tomorrow. 
Also posted on Made It Monday.
Learning from a Tragedy
| March 13, 2011 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Energy |
I was having trouble sleeping on Friday night so shockingly I was on Facebook. I started seeing comments about Japan so I turned on Al Jazeera and watched as the tsunami hit. The images are so heartbreaking and just continue to pour in. And Japan just keeps getting hit, last I heard they have had over 250 aftershocks over 5.0.
The current big threat is coming from their nuclear power plants. There was an explosion this morning and it looks like two of the reactors maybe -we are getting mixed reports- having partial meltdowns. They are dumping sea water on the reactors to try and cool them down, this is being called a “hail-mary” as it will make these reactors un-useable.
While I watch this very tragic event my one hope is that we can take one thing from this, that nuclear power is not a good energy option. If a wind turbine gets hit in a natural disaster it just stops working or worse case it falls on something. There would be no fallout or major clean-up.
There are other problems with nuclear power like the waste but these tragic events show us the biggest risk that comes with this form of power. I hope we will learn from this and not look to nuclear for a clean energy option.
With all of that being said, my thoughts and prayers are with the people of Japan. If you would like to help with recovery you can text REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10 to the American Red Cross. You can also give to the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance by visiting their website.
Blog for Money
| March 12, 2011 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Uncategorized |
A friend of mine shared with me a new site called GoodBlogs. I was a bit skeptical at first, the site says you can get $20 for each of your blogs that gets enough votes to make it to the first page. I went ahead and tried it and quickly made it to the first page and got money delivered to my Paypal account.
The best part of the site is the blogs are awesome. I have read so many great articles and I’ve met some very nice people. $20 isn’t a lot for an article but it’s a fun, easy way to make a little extra money and read other great blogs.
Click here for my profile. If you join let me know so I can follow you.
