The Secret Museum

The Perfect Roast Chicken

Today's Times lets the world in on a classic aspect of life in New York City: the search for the perfect roast chicken:

A reliable place to buy a good roast chicken has become an important quality-of-life matter for those too busy to cook. "I buy a chicken here every Sunday, and I eat it all week," Paul Griscom said at the Whole Foods Market at Columbus Circle. "I used to live close to Fairway, and I was nervous about moving away from those chickens. But the ones here are even better." At Whole Foods and elsewhere, the price of a whole roasted organic chicken is almost the same as a raw one.

Those Whole Foods chickens are pretty good; I've lugged one or two home from the 7th Ave. WF. But near my home, the only reliably organic roast chicken is about $15 for a whole bird, which is just a bit too rich for my blood.

So, I've been ordering whole organic birds from Fresh Direct (they seem a bit tastier than the Murray's organics one typically finds around town, but they run smaller, also), and working on my own perfect roast chicken recipe. Here's my favorite so far, for a 4-5 lb chicken:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
2. Cut two lemons in half and pierce the sides with a knife.
3. Break several sprigs of fresh rosemary into 4 inch lengths.
4. Stuff the cavity of the chicken with the lemons and about half the rosemary.
5. Coat the chicken with a light layer of olive oil, and then with a mix of sea salt and fresh ground black pepper.
6. Tuck sprigs of rosemary under each wing and leg.
7. Truss up the chicken.
8. Cover with foil and roast for about an hour.
9. Remove foil after the first hour.
10. Continue to roast until the poultry thermometer hits the right temperature; basting the chicken every 10 minutes or so with its own juices.

Home Insecurity: Emergency Empowerment

It's more than a little intriguing (laugh-worthy? impossible?) to wonder how we can teach New Yorkers to live without electricity for an extended period.

Via my friend and fellow home insecurity enthusiast, Patrick Di Justo:

Tuesday, February 15, As part of the Ready New York campaign, OEM has partnered with Empowerment Institute to develop All Together Now, a household emergency preparedness program. All Together Now aims to empower New York City residents to take practical actions to be prepared for any emergency. In building-, block-, or household-based teams, All Together Now participants follow a series of preparedness actions, such as how to create a Go Bag, how to live without electricity, and how to help neighbors in need.

All sessions will take place from 6-8 p.m:

Manhattan: Wednesday, Feb. 23, American Red Cross, 150 Amsterdam Ave. (66th & 67th)

Staten Island: Thursday, Feb. 24, Borough Hall, 10 Richmond Terrace (Borough Hall Court)

Brooklyn: Monday, Feb. 28, Borough Hall (Community Room), 209 Joralemon St. at Court St.

Bronx: Tuesday, March 1, Borough Hall (2nd Floor), 198 East 161st St. at
Concourse Village West

Queens: Thursday, March 3, Borough Hall, 120-55 Queens Blvd., Kew Gardens at Union Turnpike

The Gal from The Green E-Magazines

Last week I went to Verdopolis: The Future Green City with a comix-worthy dual identity: reporting for both Grist Magazine and WorldChanging. Seems to be working out, as I got sprightly dispatches off to Grist, and have luxurious time to think things through a bit more for WC.

Grist Dispatch One: Chillin' Verde

Grist Dispatch Two: Next and the City

Grist Dispatch Three: The Three Marketeers

WorldChanging Report One: To Feed the Future Green City, Invite the Earth to Dinner

WorldChanging Report Two (forthcoming): Having Your Heirloom Free Range Turkey and Eating It at Your Sustainable Table in Your Couture Green Jeans, Too

My cousin Laura

Systra remembered for work

Former mental health center director died Wednesday

By Michelle Wallar, For the Camera

February 12, 2005

Laura Systra devoted her life to improving conditions for people suffering with mental illness. From developing authentic relationships to fighting injustice when it crossed her path, she made an impression on people in Boulder County.

"I think one thing that was really clear and unique about Laura was her very keen willingness to see the very best in everyone around her," said Robin Bohannan, Boulder City Council member and executive director of Boulder County AIDS Project. "Not only did she see the very best, but she could draw it out of people."

Systra worked at the Mental Health Center of Boulder and Broomfield Counties for 25 years, starting as a receptionist and rising to executive director in 2003 and 2004. She also was a founding member of the AIDS Project.

Bohannan took a job at the Mental Health Center 20 years ago, and she and her supervisor eventually became best friends, Bohannan said.

"She was small in stature and very gentle," Bohannan said. "She was not at all intimidating, but she had a sense of self and power and certainty in the world about her calling, so-to-speak."

Systra, 57, succumbed Wednesday to breast cancer that had spread throughout her body. She was diagnosed in March, and her many visits to the doctor were a perfect illustration of how important relationships were to her, said Michael Covey, her husband of 25 years.

"She made relationships with all these people. The doctors, the people who checked her in, even the people who gave her the tubes for tests knew her by name," Covey said.

On one visit to the oncology office, Systra had a conversation about death with a nurse.

"The nurse just stopped working, pulled up a chair and talked for 20 minutes," Covey said.

Systra's parents were physicians and social activists, which influenced her, he said.

"She was willing to engage in conflict and support the underdog," he said.

When the couple's children were in elementary school, Systra took people with major mental illnesses to their school so students could understand they were real people, Covey said.

The couple's son, Daniel Covey, said his mother was more perceptive than most people. He remembers playing a game of Monopoly with his fiancee and younger brother when anger clouded the room. Systra, who was observing quietly, noticed what they did not, and she stepped up and outlined the cause of the tension.

"It was really hard at the moment," Daniel Covey said. "It was shocking, but she was really good at pinpointing what was really happening."

Tom Miller, president of the National Research Center in Boulder, met Systra more than 30 years ago and described her as extraordinarily compassionate and strong.

She used to say that if she could choose the way she would die, she would choose a lingering illness, Miller said.

"In my way of thinking, it gave her time to work it through," Miller said. "To understand it and to say goodbye."

Community members are invited to a memorial service for Systra from 5 to 8 p.m. Feb. 21 at the Boulder Theater, 2034 14th St. Attendees are encouraged to bring written stories or memories of Systra that will be put into a memory book.

Mac and Cat (also, Friday Cat Blogging)

Pushkin would like it very much if I'd pay a little more attention to him.

Push has a bit of a feline insecurity complex.

Froogling for a God

So okay, I get gps watch, flannel sheets, and even cactus.

But ganesh?

Water Insecurity

Late last year, Alan AtKisson, one of my co-contributors at WorldChanging, posted an essay on his own site that asked, "What is the biggest sustainability problem in the world?"

Not climate instability, poverty, mass extinction, or war. Apparently the answer is water:

A group called GlobeScan operating out of Canada recently surveyed (by email) an international sample of "sustainability experts," with assistance from the International Institute for Sustainable Development. Over 90% of respondents identified issues around fresh water planning and supply as "very important," with renewable energy and poverty next on the list. Concern about water had risen twelve points in two years in this group's survey...

It came to mind a couple weeks ago, when I saw this sign outside a coffee shop in Midtown East. Wonder how long it will be before more restaurants and cafes feel the need to market how safe and clean their water is?