goat

Lately, I've been showing you ways to go green without spending money, since being eco-friendly isn't always about dollar bills. Sometimes, though, all it takes to get into the earth's circle of friends is to spend your money differently.
Google knows what I'm talking about. The Internet monster has switched up its lawn maintenance routine by abandoning a lawn-mowing service for a more holistic approach — the service of goats. To trim the fields at its Mountain View, CA, headquarters, Google has hired the folks at California Grazing to bring about 200 goats and goat-herding border collies to the office for a week to clear weeds and eliminate brush-fire hazards. The service costs about the same as mowing, curbs air and noise pollution (except a few bahhhhs), and eliminates gas usage. Would you consider doing the same at your home?
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• A panel of wine experts puts $12 and under wine to the test. — Boston Globe
• Try one of these taste-tested cornbread mixes to go with your chili. — San Francisco Chronicle
• What kitchen essentials are worth investing in, and which ones you should pass up. — Los Angeles Times
• Time-strapped? Here are some tips for conjuring up homemade soup flavor. — Chicago Tribune
• Lots of doors open for producers who sell to the exclusive French Laundry. — Washington Post
• Famed rancher Bill Niman is back with a new venture: raising goats. — New York Times
• If you've got 15 minutes, then you've got time to throw together Jamaican chicken. — StarTribune

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Here is yet another reason to avoid red meat. This is no joke but a reduction in livestock flatulence could possibly slow climate change. Or so says a recent study published in the medical journal The Lancet, in their special energy and health series.

Cows, goats and sheep produce methane gas when they pass gas - methane really is a gas! Experts suggest decreasing our global consumption of steaks and hamburgers by 10 percent, would cut the gases emitted by livestock that contribute to global warming. They strongly recommend limiting beef intake to an average of 3 ounces per day (that's about 90 grams) to prevent an increase in these gasses. We already know that diets high in red meat contribute to breast cancer, heart disease and obesity so now there is another reason to avoid red meat!

Next time you think about ordering a burger, or making a steak, think about your personal health and the health of the planet then change your meal plans accordingly. I don't know about you, but the concept of meatless Mondays has definitely stuck around at my house (even though it is sometimes meatless Tuesday or Wednesdays, but we have a thoroughly meatless day once a week).

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Toot! Toot!
That, my friends, is the sound of me tooting my own horn. A few weeks ago I bought some of the amazing goat butter from the folks at Meyenberg and loved it so much that I wanted to use it for everything. I had eaten it on toast, over pasta and on crackers, but at some point I decided, actually make that knew that I had to make shortbread cookies with it. Nevermind the fact that I had never actually made shortbread cookies, nor actually even liked them that much, neither of those things were going to stop me - I was going to make goatbread cookies (aka shortbread cookies made with goat butter)! To see how they turned out (toot! toot! I freaking loved them) and see the recipe that I more-or-less concocted on my own, read more

Trendspotting: Goat Cheese and Friends
Like I mentioned earlier, we ate a lot of cheese at the Fancy Food Show. But oddly enough, we ate more goat milk flavored items than cow milk flavored items. Now there's nothing wrong with goat cheese (in fact, I LOVE LOVE LOVE the stuff), but it seemed as if goat milk products far outnumbered cow milk products. And I know that goat milk has been a trend for a little while (in fact I'd seen a lot of these products before), but it was still surprising to see so many of them under one roof.

There were too many products to actually keep up with, but here are a few that garnered my taste bud's full attention:

• Goat Milk Butter from Meyenberg
  This was one of my favorite things at the show. It was a rich creamy European style butter but with a rich goaty flavor. I had to go back for seconds... actually thirds.
• Creamy Goat Cheese from the Vermont Butter & Cheese Company
  This was a nice and spreadable goat cheese that was available in three flavors: Classic, Roasted Red Pepper and Olive & Herb. I thought it might make a nice alternative to cream cheese in the morning, or tossed with pasta.

Four more and a photo gallery, so read more