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How To Store Fresh Herbs and Greens (for Quality and a Lengthy Lifespan)

People swear by myriad methods for keeping greens lively and fresh. I’m sure each has its merit, but this one has never let me down. So give it a try if you don’t already have a tried and true technique.

But first, a note: prep the greens ASAP after purchase, ideally the same day. There is usually residual water on the greens that seems to speed up their deterioration.

How To Store Herbs and Greens for Maximum Freshness

  1. Wash the GreensSeparate the leaves and rinse as well as possible. I use a salad spinner and often let the bowl and strainer fill with water as I’m rinsing the leaves. Then I give the leaves a little swish in the water before lifting the colander out of the water and letting them drain.
  2. Dry ThemI swear by the salad spinner for this. I give the leaves a spin and dump the water, and then do it again. Then I move the leaves around a little with my hand and do it a few more times. They are still a little damp afterward but have no beads of water remaining. It’s perfect. And fast.If you don’t have a salad spinner, get the greens as dry as possible any way you can. My first alternate choice is to shake the leaves over the sink, lay them out on a tea towel, then roll up the tea towel and give it a gentle squeeze.
  3. Store in Airtight Container with Something to Absorb the Moisture.I usually line the container with a paper towel, put a paper towel or two in between layers and then lay one on top. I don’t have fresh greens around all that often (I live in the desert, after all) and I don’t use paper towels for hardly anything else, so it doesn’t bother me. If you’d rather use something more environmentally friendly, maybe use a tea towel instead. (I’d love to hear what alternatives you come up with!)
  4. RefrigerateKeep greens refrigerated at all times so that they maintain their crispness. I have no scientific explanation for you here, but in my experience, herbs and greens left out at room temperature for even 30 minutes can go irreversibly wilty. Then again, my room temperature is likely a good bit hotter than yours. Lucky you.

One Final Note

This method works for a small bunch of herbs or a large head of lettuce; just choose an appropriately-sized container and you’re all set. And, as an added bonus, everything is already cleaned and waiting for you when you need it. Overall a pretty big win, I’d say.

…and you?…

What do you do with fresh herbs and greens? Think you’ll give this a try?

Tips for Tackling the Paper Pile

I’ve always been bad about letting papers pile and pile and pile. And pile. And pile. 

I’d say I’m letting you in on a secret, but it’s not really a secret. If you know me, you’ve probably seen my piles. Lurking. Stretching. Towering. Do you remember that poem about Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout? Well, had I been Silverstein’s muse, that piece would have been about paper.

Finally, a year or two ago, two major things helped me kick the habit: Creating a tight system, and changing the habits that kept me in piling slavery. This isn’t to say I’m not still tempted to pile, or that I never get behind. But whereas I used to never see the end of my papers, these days I regularly do. For me, that’s some serious progress.

This week I’m working my way through a good-size pile of junk I got behind on over the summer. So I thought I’d take the opportunity to share some of the things that have helped me slay the piling beast over the years. (I’ve also included my paper work-flow at the end.)

For all my fellow pilers…

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How to Make Brown Rice (Without Measuring)

brown riceLast week: Beans. This week: Rice. Sounds like the first year of my marriage.

But seriously. Rice is remarkably easy to do. So why do we just continue to use boil-in-bag (which serves, what, one sixteen-year-old?) instead of making it from scratch?

For many years I avoided rice because I wouldn’t remember how long it took to cook, or thought I’d burn it, or just didn’t want to bother. Even after I felt confident with white rice, I still shied away from cooking brown rice (which I prefer) because I wasn’t sure I would cook it all the way or didn’t want to wait forever.

Actually, I don’t know if it was any of that at all. But for some phantom reason, I never wanted to bother with rice.

Then one day I discovered Saveur‘s technique for “perfect brown rice”. Though it had rice and water amounts listed, I quickly realized there was no real need to measure either of them. And with the technique having a degree of difficulty on par with boiling noodles, I knew the rice preparation could go on in the background while I prepared the rest of dinner. Without me having to fuss with it. That’s a win, my friends. But would it work?

I’m happy to say that it does. And elated to share it with you!

cooked brown riceSaveur’s Brown Rice Method (Boil It!)

This is stupid easy, you guys. If you make rice, you’ve gotta try it.

You’re going to need a pot, some water, and some brown rice. Simple, right?

  1. Put a generous amount of water in the pot and boil it. Saveur says to use 12 cups. I can’t be troubled to measure. So I fill my large-ish pot 2/3 full. It’s fine.
  2. Rinse brown rice in colander or sieve. Just give it a good rinse. Use however much you want. If you’re feeding a family of four, first time around, think “about a cup”. If you want more, make more. I’m telling you, this method is awesome. No need to overthink it.
  3. Once water is boiling, add the rice. Set a timer for 30 minutes. (Leave the pot uncovered.)
  4. When the timer goes off, drain the rice. Let it sit for 10 seconds or so in the colander and then…
  5. Put it back in the pot and cover with a tight-fitting lid. (The steam is going to finish cooking the rice.) Set your timer for 10 minutes.
  6. When the timer goes off, you’re done. Ta-da!

Quick Recap

Boil some water. Add some rice. Drain after 30 minutes. Return to pot for some additional steaming.

And that’s how you make brown rice without measuring!

…so…

Think you’ll try it?

For Kindle: Get Notified of Free and Recently Reduced-Price Books with eReaderIQ

If you have a Kindle, one of the things you probably love about it, perhaps even the main thing, is the free and inexpensive content.

But eventually you discovered that in order to find that content, you had to sift through countless romance novels and other drivel you couldn’t care less about. But nevertheless, digital book prices are on the rise; what’s a reader to do?

Wouldn’t it be great to have someone else sift through all of that and just give you the good stuff? To make sure you don’t miss out when a book you want goes on sale? To tell you when that reference volume is finally released in Kindle format?

This is exactly what eReaderIQ does. If you read books on Kindle or a Kindle app, I think you’ll like knowing about this. (And I’ve done lots of linking below to help you get to exactly the page you’re interested in.)

What does eReaderIQ Do?

eReaderIQ tracks 3 major Kindle Book Happenings:

For each of those three happenings, you can either browse related titles on the site or sign-up for email notifications. (You don’t even have to create an account!)

Browsing

Browsing options vary depending on which of the three happenings you’re perusing. But each has robust filtering and sorting options, letting you look for just what you want. (How much do you want to pay? How big must the savings be? Want to see only things that have a high rating and lots of reviews? You got it.)

Email Notifications

Email Notifications are my favorite thing about eReaderIQ. And there are tons of options for them as well.

  • For free Kindle titles, they offer a daily digest email letting you know everything that is new in this category. And you can choose to get notified of only genres that interest you, which dramatically pares down the email. Some days the list can still be long, but a quick scan will make sure never miss a free offering.
  • For price drops, the email notifications work a little differently. In this case, you sign up to get notified when a specific title drops by an amount (dollars/cents or percentage) you specify. I got a notification this week that Veronica Roth’s Divergent had dropped to $7.29. Score! Even better, eReader IQ now has button for your toolbar that will automatically take you to the notification sign-up page from any book page on Amazon. That way, when you’re searching around and find a title you’d like, but don’t want to pay that price, you can just click the button on your toolbar to get notifications set up. Holla!(In the case of the toolbar button, it automatically signs you up to receive a notification if the price ever drops, even by a penny. If you cut & paste the ASIN in yourself, you have more options.)
  • For new-to-Kindle titles, you can sign up to get notified when a title you’re waiting for arrives on Kindle. Simple enough, right?

Another Nifty Tool

eReaderIQ has another tool worth mentioning: the price-history viewer.  The “1-click Viewer” is a button you drag to your toolbar, that, when clicked from any Amazon book page, takes you to a page on eReaderIQ that delineates the price history for that title. This page lets you know if the price has ever been lower (or higher) than it is right now, making it easy to see if you’re paying top dollar or “best-price” (as they vendors say out here). They also make a buy/wait suggestion, though I’m not sure how they come to it.

Final Thoughts

I’ve been using eReaderIQ for over a year now, and while the site-design is on the bare side, the value of the service and the fact that they don’t send unsolicited emails the rest of the time have made me love love love them. If you read anything in Kindle format, bookmark this post or their site for easy reference next time you’re looking at new books.

Do you know anyone who might want to know about this? Share it with them using the buttons below. (And thanks in advance for doing so!)

Farther Vs. Further

Today’s post is dedicated to my mom.

My mom was an English teacher for many years and remains very loyal to those roots, always noting misuse of phrases and punctuation and encouraging people to use them correctly. Which often puts me in the middle of a tiff between the grammarian mom and the linguist husband. I agree with both and tend to side against whoever is being more dogmatic about it.

But among all the gaffes that bug my mom, I think mistaking farther and further are near the very top of the list. Because they get misused SO often. Professionally.

In my opinion, whatever kind of English you want to use when u txt ur bff is fine. But if you want to present yourself well on occasion, it’s good to know how to correctly use words and phrases. And at work you should always make the added effort, because your misuse becomes a reflection of your company. And if you desire any upward mobility, you should probably care about representing your company well.

As for farther and further, they are misused so often that it’s very difficult to “catch” the correct way to use them. So what is a person to do?

Consult Grammar Girl, of course!

If you’re interested in a more exhaustive whole farther/further explanation, check out her article on it. Here we’re just getting down to the nitty gritty basics. And if you remember nothing else from this riveting post, please at least walk away with this:

Farther and further are not interchangeable.

If you remember this, you can always look up the specifics when you’re stuck.

The Difference Between Farther and Further

The difference between farther and further is that one refers to metaphorical distance (as in to discuss something further) and one refers to physical distance (as in the mountains are farther inland than where I live).

So which is which?

  • Farther refers to physical distance.
  • Further refers to figurative distance.

I use Grammar Girl’s memory trick to keep them straight: “farther” has the word “far” in it, and “far” refers to physical distance.

In that light, “further” becomes this kind of other word (since “fur” doesn’t seem to directly relate). And this helps me remember that it’s used for figurative or metaphorical situations. “Further” doesn’t relate literally like “farther” does.

What if it’s not obviously physical or metaphorical?

I can’t say it any better than Grammar Girl:

The quick and dirty tip is that “farther” relates to physical distance and “further”  relates to figurative distance. If you can’t decide which one to use, you’re safer using “further” because “farther” has some restrictions, and if you tend to get confused, try using “furthermore” instead of “further.”

…what about you?…

What’s your history with further and farther? Were you already distinguishing between them? Do you notice when others use them incorrectly?

How to Cook Dried Beans (and Use Them Like Canned Ones)

I’m not sure how something as incredibly simple as cooking beans got the reputation of being nearly impossible, but I plan to do my part in remedying that. Cooking beans is a good skill for anyone’s cooking repertoire, and it’s super easy. Several steps, but super easy.

In this post I’m going to walk you through the steps to prepare dried beans that you can portion out, keep in the freezer, and then pull out and use like canned beans. But first…

Why Bother With Dried Beans?

Canned beans aren’t particularly unhealthy and are cheap enough that it doesn’t always seem “worth it” to use dried. And honestly, I still use canned from time to time in a pinch. But here are the three reasons I’ve chosen to stick with dried beans most of the time:

  • It saves a little money
  • I can control the taste (yum)
  • It is substantially better for the environment

And really, it was the last consideration that did me in. I’m not the greenest person on the planet, but I do think that we should all make small steps toward being more environmentally friendly as we are able. So to do my part in that, as I discover earth-friendly choices that are within my grasp, I try to change.

In the case of beans, I looked at it like this:

  • It takes a factory to make cans
  • It takes a factory to recycle cans (or worse, a landfill to bury them)
  • Factories (see above) emit all kinds of waste
  • As do shipping vessels (note: cans are heavier and take up more room than bags)
  • Whether cans get thrown away or recycled, more resources are required to haul cans from my house than the alternative (and if I buy in bulk, the impact is reduced even further)

I’m sure there is much more to consider, and perhaps some of that is faulty reasoning, but I’d still be shocked if using canned beans was better for the environment.

And really, cooking with dried beans was well within my grasp. So between the environmental considerations,  the cost savings, and the superior taste of making them myself, you can see how I was hooked.

How To Cook Dried Beans

Ingredients and Implements

The only things you MUST have are a large pot, water, beans, and a spoon. I also recommend salt. You can add additional things for flavor, and I’ll get to that, but the above is really all you need.

Oh, but you do need a little bit of time. The first couple of times you do this, I suggest two things: do it when you’ll be home for a long chunk of time, and don’t plan on using them for dinner that night. After you’ve done it a few times, you’ll be able to use the beans the same day as you cook them without stressing. (I’m a pretty big fan of gaining confidence with one thing before adding it to something else. I’m also not a big fan of stress.)

(I’ve included time estimations in the summary at the end.)

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