Life List Day 227 - Try Heirloom Tomatoes

I actually bought heirloom cherry tomatoes before, but they went bad before I got around to eating them because I used the prettier, red, perfect tomatoes I had on hand first.

Today, I bought a pack of heirlooms from Trader Joe's and made it a point to break into them right away.

Heirloom tomatoes, I learned from Wikipedia, are open pollinated, which is why - in the absence of cultivating for characteristics of what we define as tomato perfection - they can be kind of freaky looking.

I tried the greenish and the brownish looking one first. Not bad! They definitely tasted tomatoey - which I enjoy in a tomato - maybe not as much as I expected, but more than the supermarket ones I've been buying.

I'll try them again.

After all, don't ugly tomatoes deserve to get eaten, too?

Life List Day 14 - Save the World from Plastic Bags

Here is the mountain of nonrecyclable grocery bags I've amassed in just two months. It's scary enough how they're taking over my house - I shudder to think the state of our landfills. I used to pack my son's lunch in them every day, but now he buys the school lunch. So they just pile up.

Today, as my "thing to do" for my life list, I bought a half-dozen reusable bags from Trader Joe's.



Cute as they are - and I love the Hawaiian print! - I suspect I'll feel self-conscious at first asking the bagger to use them - especially at Vons where one simply doesn't do that sort of thing. It's all so earth mama. (But hey, at least they're not hemp.)

I feel good that I've made the switch to reusable, but I still need to come up with some way to use the pile of plastic bags I have. I feel too guilty throwing them away. Makeshift rain hats? Stuffing for pillows? Purse liners? I suppose I could get a dog so I could use them as pooper scoopers.

Anybody have any ideas?