Living Like Ed by Ed Jr. (whitelam books .txt) 📗

much of a cook. That’s more Ed’s department. But when I do feel the need to create in the kitchen, I have one dish that’s always a crowd-pleaser. I bake salmon in aluminum foil with some lemon juice and spices. It’s a poached salmon, and it’s really moist. Everyone—including me—loves it and thinks it’s delicious. And even better, it’s supereasy.

Rachelle’s Poached Salmon

I’m a person of excess, so the more garlic, the more pepper, the more everything, the better. And then, occasionally, for an Asian variation, I’ll skip the dill and instead use ginger and scallions and garlic to season the salmon.

1 pound (about 4) salmon fillets

2 lemons

1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill

1 garlic clove, minced

Salt to taste

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 375°F.

Tear a piece of aluminum foil that’s at least twice as large as your salmon fillets. Place the fillets in the center of the foil and fold up the edges of the foil around the fish, creating a basin.

Squeeze the lemons over the fish and distribute the dill and garlic more or less evenly over the fillets. Season with salt and pepper.

Bring the edges of the foil together over the fish fillets and fold the edges over several times to seal. Place the packet in a deep pan and bake in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes. When the salmon starts to flake, it’s done!

SERVES 4

         Being an actress in L.A.—just being in L.A.—there’s a lot of pressure to look perfect, to be thin and stay young and beautiful forever. It’s a struggle. The makeup, the skin-care regimens, the Botox—if there’s some serum out there that will make me look ten years younger but will kill me ten years faster, I might have to get back to you on that. My rational mind would say it’s crazy, but my L.A. mind . . .

Even with all that pressure and the many temptations, I don’t diet. In fact, I eat almost everything. Instead of adhering to strict rules, I exercise and eat a balanced mix of foods including lots of whole grains, lean protein, fruits, and vegetables.

In my opinion, the best way to maintain a healthy weight is to control the size of the portions you eat and to be aware of your calorie intake. As long as you burn as many calories as you eat, you can stay fit and healthy.

Eat Well, Live Well

It’s so obvious that you’re going to feel better eating the freshest, most healthfully prepared organic food that’s available to you. And there’s nothing better than that sense of satisfaction that comes from eating food you’ve grown yourself.

It also feels wonderful to get to know your local farmers—whether at a farm stand or at a farmers’ market—and to support their organic practices and support their local businesses.

You can do so much good for yourself and your community in that way. And you can do so much good for the world as a whole by growing trees and other plants, by cutting down on the distance food has to travel to your table, and by reducing the use of chemical poisons.

When you do buy things from a greater distance—especially from an underdeveloped country—you can choose to buy things that are fair trade.

You can also make much the same choices when it comes to clothing and hair- and skin-care products. You can choose to buy organic and buy local and buy fair trade. And you can choose to stay away from harmful chemicals and to be kind to your body and the environment.

The average distance that food travels from field—or ocean or orchard—to table is about 1,300 miles. That’s the average distance.

According to the EPA, gasoline-powered lawn and garden equipment, on average, produces 5 percent of the ozone-forming VOCs in areas with smog problems.

The oxides of nitrogen and sulfur dioxide released by lawn equipment react with water in the atmosphere to form acid rain.

It’s much easier—and much more environmentally friendly—to choose plants that are native to your area or that are native to an area like it.

Choosing the right plants for your garden is good for your pocketbook, too; by planting varieties that don’t need a lot of watering, you will be keeping your monthly water bill lower.

If you have 600 square feet of rooftop, nearly 375 gallons of rainwater would hit your roof for each inch of rainfall, enough to fill close to seven 55-gallon rain barrels.

There are an estimated eighteen thousand community gardens throughout the United States and Canada.

Healthy trees—and other plants—absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen, so they’re literally cleaning the air we breathe. They also filter water, prevent soil erosion, help retain groundwater, and provide homes for wildlife.

A typical lawn mower can be as loud as 95 to 100 decibels, and a gas-powered leaf blower can register 95 to 105 decibels. When it comes to composting, brown materials are high in carbon, while green materials are high in nitrogen. For the best compost, maintain a ratio of 50/50 brown to green material. In 1980,

the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) defined organic farming as a system that excludes the use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and growth regulators.

Organic agriculture is better for the soil and the ecosystem in which the crops and the livestock are raised.

The market for organic products worldwide is now valued at $28 billion.

There are more than 4,300 farmers’ markets held regularly in cities all across the United States.

It’s more land efficient, water efficient, and energy efficient to grow plant-based materials than to raise animals for meat; it simply takes a lot more land and water and energy to raise a pound of beef than it does to grow a pound of broccoli or a pound of grain.

A solar oven harnesses the sun’s energy. So there’s no additional energy required for cooking. Cooking in it is free, and eco-friendly.

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CLOTHING AND HAIR AND SKIN