I first heard about Cathy Erway’s new book, “The Art of Eating In: How I Learned to Stop Spending and Love the Stove”, as I sat down to another Tuesday-night-post-soccer-practice meal at a local Mexican joint where the food comes to the table so quickly that it has me wondering just when it was cooked (as in, before I got there?) and as I was explaining to my husband my need to purchase a Staub Dutch oven that has a charming little escargot topper on the lid.  That is to say that when the esteemed AltCon publisher asked me if I wanted to review “The Art of Eating In”, I was hungry.
Like Cathy Erway, (photo of CE, at left), I spent many happy years eating my way through New York City and remember many of those meals as delicious “events” rather than simple repasts.  I can recall my fellow diners with ease, and can even conjure up memories of some flavors of the best meals I had in Manhattan.  In fact, I can remember eating very few bad meals in New York.  So I was suspicious when I read that Erway had given it all up, from the street vendor, to take-out, to the crisp linen-lined tables of the finest restaurants, to pursue her experiment in “eating in.”  For two years?  As Erway herself puts it, this was a little “like not not drinking the tap water in Mexico.”  Potentially dangerous territory, to say the least.

But abstain she did, from eating out, that is.  And to her credit, Erway taps many unusual resources to enrich her experiment such as underground supper clubs, freeganism, pot-lucks and cook-offs.  Her chapter entitled “Getting Dirty,” in which she raises the curious question of “what all [her] friends had against eating garbage”, was almost enough to create a “gut reaction” in me.  She eats alone and with friends and family.  She eats traditional fare and the new and unusual. And she cooks up a storm amid relationship troubles, moving house, beer and wine hazes, working, family responsibilities and many of the ups and downs of a young woman living in New York.  And she pulls it off, with creativity, courage, humor and aplomb.  I mean, just how many people have the patience (or the need, really?) to braise beef cheeks for six hours and then move on to cooking live lobsters procured in Chinatown (which somehow gives them an added mystery).

A tasty cook-and-tell, “The Art of Eating In” is satisfying as part memoir, part manifesto and part cookbook. Erway learns plenty along the way, and so will her readers, not the least of which is that with a kitchen and a little imagination, anyone can cook up some wonderful possibilities. Learn more @ theartofeatingin.com and find where to buy here.

Today is one of those, spring is in the air kind of days.  The sun’s smiling, pink and red buds dot bare limbs, and happy daffies are popping up on fresh green lawns.  Life feels shiny and new.

What’s in store for spring for our 2-legged sprouts?  Check out Organically Grown – affordable, one hundred percent certified organic cotton threads — kind to the planet, and comfy for the kiddies.

My personal faves — Free Range Chicks and unisex Preserve bodysuits ($12) with padded hangers; My First Adventure romper & matching bib, ($24); Take Me Home 3-piece ensemble, ($36); and a set of 3, Organic Lion bodysuits — all for only $20.

find the spring line @ shoporganicallygrown.com

We happened by the Mavea booth at last weekend’s Go Green Expo in NYC and were duly impressed with their line of cool looking, affordable water pitchers.  Since roughly 85% of all U.S. households have hard drinking water, products like the Mavea Elemaris pitcher allow consumers to make fuller use of their tap water and avoid buying expensive and environmentally harmful bottled water.

The Mavea pitchers have some nice features:  they’re easy on the eyes and fit easily into most fridges; they direct fill from the tap through the top so you aren’t removing the top all the time; the filter lasts for about 40 gallons, is fully recyclable, doesn’t leak any carbon filter material or need pre-soaking, and takes out all the bad stuff but leaves in essential minerals.

Another nice feature is a built-in Smart Meter to let you know how long the filter’s been in use, the volume filtered and the hardness of your water.

It’s interesting to note that Mavea is an American division of Germany-based parent Brita, (in the U.S. the company sold its Brita line to Clorox years ago) so they’ve been innovators in water filtration for a long time.

You can buy the Elemaris pitcher @ amazon.com $29.95