You might recall that my husband and I had no Thanksgiving plans other than packing and unpacking. Thank god our friends had a sweet surprise in store for us.

I am really not a carrot cake fan. Not at all. It's quite possible that I hold a childish resentment against it for dressing up a vegetable as dessert (I tend to look at zucchini bread with the same jaundiced eye, truth be told), but more than that, I just never had a carrot cake I liked enough to make it myself or voluntarily choose it for dessert.

Enter Catherine and Jeff. Since they were stopping by after their Thanksgiving feast, we thought we'd offer them a Prosecco nightcap, a cozy chat, and a tour of our new home (still in a state of dishabille). To our surprise, Catherine showed up with a sizable hunk of carrot cake just for us. My husband tore into it right away, but I held back since I was still digesting my Thanksgiving frozen pizza and, as I mentioned, I'm not a real fan of the beta carotene-enriched cake.

After our guests left, I snagged a small curious bite before packing the cake up for the night. And then I had another one. And another one. The frosting had none of that off-putting sourness that some cream cheese frostings have. On the contrary, it was sweet and rich, perfectly complemented by a topping of addictive pecans. Also, there was a happy lack of raisins, an ingredient I always have to eat around. (Give me oatmeal chocolate chip or give me death!)

Not that long ago, Catherine got me all okra obsessed; now she's achieved a carrot cake conversion via her grandmother's recipe.

The following morning, we finished our hunk of Catherine Carrot Cake with steaming cups of Earl Grey tea, the perfect complement. Now it's all gone, and I miss it.

I guess I'm gonna have to make some more.

Delicious Carrot Cake

Serves: 12

Ingredients:

For the cake:
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs (or equivalent egg substitute)
3 cups grated carrots

For the icing:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 stick butter
1 1-pound box confectioner's sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

Preparation:

For the cake: Preheat oven to 350. Butter and flour three round cake pans. Sift together all dry ingredients. Add oil and stir well. Add eggs one at a time, stirring after each to mix well. Fold in the carrots. Pour batter into prepared cake pans and bake 25-35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

For the icing: In a large bowl, beat the softened cream cheese, butter, and confectioner's sugar. Stir in vanilla. Once cool, ice the top of each cake, placing one on top of the next until you have three tiers, then ice the final top and sides. Sprinkle nuts on top.

Holidays are the ideal time for big family dinners followed by days of leftovers. But by this time, you may have eaten your fill of turkey sandwiches, turkey soup, turkey chili, and turkey casserole. After a few days of eating all things turkey -- and pie! -- I have an urge to dig into either pork or beef. As an added measure, I like to make it a bit spicy to wake up my palette. So if you're also a bit tired of holiday leftovers, Pork and Pumpkin Coconut Lemongrass Curry may be just the antidote you're looking for.

As an Italian girl whose blood flows with as much olive oil as hemoglobin, I am not a confident curry maker. But after a trip to the market where the butternut squash was beautifully stacked and the organic pork shoulder looked so tempting, I decided these were the perfect curry ingredients and so gave it a try. Because I didn't have a recipe on hand, I was forced to shop with just my imagination as a guide.

It seemed to make the most sense to pick up some lemongrass, which has such a lovely fresh flavor, along with cilantro, coconut milk and green curry paste to go along with my pork and squash. If you are not a cilantro fan, you could just as easily use Thai basil.

Once I got home, I wanted to make the cooking process as easy as possible, so decided to let my blender do most of the work. This is the type of meal that simmers on your stove for a good hour or more, but making the dish itself is fairly quick. If you like to use a crock pot, you could easily pull this meal together in the morning and then let it simmer all day.

Whichever route you take, the result is a rich, aromatic and flavorful bowl of curry goodness -- just the remedy for turkey leftovers.

Pork and Pumpkin Coconut Lemongrass Curry

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 cups butternut squash or sugar pumpkin
1 medium onion chopped
2 lbs pork butt or shoulder cut into 1-inch cubes
1/8-cup finely chopped lemongrass
1/2 cup cilantro or Thai basil
1-inch chunk of ginger peeled and cut into pieces
2 large garlic cloves
1 large or two small shallots, or 4 green onions (only the white part)
2 Tbsp fish sauce
4 Tbsp water
2 Tbsp green curry paste
1 can coconut milk
2 1/2 cups water to cover the meat
Salt

Preparation:
1. Sprinkle salt on the pork cubes and set aside.

2. Heat a large stew pot on high. When the pot is nice and hot, add the oil and then carefully drop the pork into the pot, leaving at least a 1/4-inch space between pieces.

3. When the meat carmelizes on one side, turn each piece over and brown the meat on each side. Note: If you do not leave room between the individual meat pieces, they will steam instead of sear. This means you will probably need to brown the meat in two batches.

4. When the meat is browned, place all of it in the pot along with any juices that have collected.

5. Add the onion, stir it in, and let it cook for about 2 minutes with the meat on medium heat.

6. Add enough water to the pot to cover the pork and then scrape the bottom of the pot to incorporate the browned bits.
Note: If you are using a crock pot, you would now start to put all the ingredients into the main basin. Just put everything in (including the curry paste mixture and pumpkin) and then simmer for 6-8 hours on low.

7. Place the lemongrass, cilantro or basil, ginger, garlic, shallots, fish sauce, curry paste, and 4 Tbsp water in a blender and blend until everything is fully chopped and incorporated so you have a runny paste.

8. Stir the paste into the meat and simmer for at least a half hour (although preferably an hour) with the cover on.

9. While the meat simmers, peel the butternut squash or cooking pumpkin and then cut it into 1-inch cubes.

10. Add the pumpkin to the meat and continue to simmer until the pumpkin is soft.

11. Serve over rice.

When my friend Karen asked me if I was interested in taking a trip on the Napa Valley Wine Train, I thought she was joking. She's a rather sophisticated woman-- one who lived in the Napa Valley for ten years. She must know something I don't. Or someone. That someone turned out to be Ryan Graham, director of the Wine Train's wine program-- an old friend of Karen's from her time at the infamous Bistro Don Giovanni.

My initial reaction was snobbish. I'd always considered the Wine Train as a gimmicky tourist attraction, upon which the locals would never ride or, at least, openly admit to riding. Sort of like the Disneyland Railroad, but with alcohol.

I thought about it for a moment. What's so wrong with that? I have always had a soft spot for trains, and I have a great thirst for wine, so I viewed this offer as a blending of two of my favorite things, rather like an old Reese's Peanut Butter Cup commercial in which a fellow randomly carrying an open container of peanut butter collides with a guy who has recently exposed his chocolate bar to the elements.

I accepted the invitation, of course.

The Napa Valley Wine Train, brainchild of train buff and Rice-a-Roni inventor Vincent de Domenico, began its run in 1989 on tracks that were originally laid in the 19th Century to bring tourists up to the resorts of Calistoga from Vallejo. The tracks in Calistoga have long been ripped out, but the remaining thirty-six-odd miles enable diners to take a pleasant, 3-hour trip from Napa town to St. Helena and back.

Upon arrival at the train's reception center, I wandered about the room, observing my fellow guests milling about, talking among themselves, or simply sitting on one the many available couches with the slightly glazed-over look that comes from having been exposed to too much sight-seeing over too short a time. Apart from two little girls racing about the room, shrieking and giggling, the room felt quiet and mildly uncomfortable.

There is a wine bar in a far corner of the room which offers up tastes of local vintages and not-so-local beer: Budweiser, Coors Lite, and Miller Genuine Draft. My initial, San Francisco-style reaction was one of shock. Where were the local brews? I looked around the room again and understood. The beer selection seemed, in a sense, a subtle way of telling its often out-of-their-element visitors, "See, we're just like you. We're not snobs, we just happen to live in the most famous wine region in the nation, so relax."

Before boarding the train, we were treated to a brief orientation by an affable, gravelly-voiced gentleman named Mike. Two wines were passed among the guests to sniff and taste. Well-acquainted with the general sense of intimidation that wine-tasting has upon the general public, Mike wiped away any perceived snobbery of wine enthusiasts in both his manner and his approach to tasting, even going so far as to make fun of people who sniff corks. "Why the hell would anyone sniff a cork? You're only going to smell cork. Corks are only presented to you at the table so you can tell if the wine has been stored properly." People laughed, relaxed a lot, and were now primed and ready for their wine-filled, three hour lunch through Wine Country which, in the minutes immediately preceeding Mike's presentation, might have seemed like slightly hostile, foreign territory.

Once through the reception line, where each group of guests is photographed by a Wine Train photographer, we boarded the train and were shown to our seats in the Vista Dome, a beautifully restored 1940's rail car. Surrounded by rich, red upholstery, white damask linen, and vintage silver flatware, we were poured glasses of Domaine Chandon Brut. If anything, I was feeling louche.

Our Bulgarian waiter was charming. As he stood at our table describing our luncheon options, I sat and listened, sipping my wine. I nodded a bit as he spoke, but stopped upon remembering that head signals are reversed in his native country. A nod implies disagreement, while a side-to-side shake implies assent. Or so I've heard. So, apart from letting my lips meet my champagne glass, I stopped moving my head entirely.

Soon after the train left the station, the stories of my lunchmates began. Off to my right was the restaurant where the Mondavis were told they could not bring their small dog. (The restaurant is, not surprisingly, no longer in existence). Off to the left, where a group of revellers (among whom my table companions counted themselves) mooned the Wine Train years ago, en masse. The Wine Train does, after all, have a reputation for offering breath-taking views.

At the start of the first course, the train stopped for a few minutes. I asked if one of the managers who stopped by our table for a visit if people were boarding. "No", she replied, "just stopping to pick up a few supplies, that's all." I looked out the window at the Safeway and understood. I was somehow pleased by the fact that I was sitting in a moving restaurant. One that ran an errand or two as I sat, drinking my wine.

As the train resumed its journey, slowly rocking from side to side on its way, I marvelled at the waitstaff, who managed to make carrying plates of hot food and, even more impressive, trays of drinks, looks effortless. The service was efficient, friendly and wonderfully at-ease. It was even suggested that we take a break between the main course and dessert to stretch our legs and tour the rest of the train. We pass through the early-20th Century Pullman dining cars where three and four-course meals are served, the on-board kitchens, and the Silverado Car, where one has the option of selecting from an à la carte menu, or not at all, to the Tasting Bar, where we sampled a few local dessert wines before making the slow walk back to our table for coffee and dessert. On the journey back to our table, I noticed that many of the people who looked uneasy prior to boarding now looked incredibly relaxed.

The food was, sadly, fair-to-middling. For example, the Crêpe Rosettes stuffed with smoked salmon were mostly crêpe, with minimal participation from the salmon.

The Roasted Beef Tenderloin Wrapped in Bacon With Shallots, Leeks and Roasted Garlic in Chimichurri Sauce was well prepared but, as the name might suggest, it was a rather convoluted affair. There was not room enough on the menu to mention the mashed potatoes or the carrots which competed for space on the overcrowded plate.

For dessert, I opted for the Calvados Apple Crisp with Vanilla Gelato. While the flavors were spot on-- just the proper hint of Calvados, the presentation destroyed what should have been a wonderful dessert. What arrived at our table merely looked like a cup of vanilla gelato, with no indication of what lay beneath. Crisp topping needs room to breathe. A complete smothering in gelato resulted in a cold mush with a texture approximating that of granola left too long in milk.

My sense is that-- and I may be shot for saying this-- Chef Kelly MacDonald is playing to a tourist audience, and rightly so. But I was left with the impression that the menu is an interpretation of what might play as "fancy"-- as gourmet-- to the tourist trade, which is doing no one any favors. The Napa Valley is home to some of the finest produce in the country. As a chef who proudly uses only fresh, local produce, it would do credit to himself and to the people visiting for the first time, to showcase that bounty in the simple, straightforward style of the valley through which the Napa Train takes its ride and from which it takes its name.

My criticism of the food aside, I had a fantastic time. A leisurely three-hour lunch in a beautifully-restored train car travelling at 18 mph through some of the most fantastic, autumn-colored countryside this region has to offer with a bottle or two of excellent, local wine selected from a well-crafted, affordable wine list to be drunk in hilarious company?

Yes, please. And I would do it again.

Whenever I visit a foreign city, I like to be blatantly touristy on my first day out by taking a narrated bus tour around town. I find it an excellent way of getting a general overview, a broad sense of the place. The Napa Wine Train is a great way to introduce visitors to the Valley, or yourself, for that matter, without having to fight the terrible traffic jams, especially in high-season. To borrow a jingle from a depressing and struggling national bus company, leave the driving to them.

Of course, it isn't driving, it's conducting or something. However trains work. I don't really want to know because, to borrow another jingle, there's something about a train that's magic. And I should like to leave it at that.

Instead, I suggest you follow the advice of this sign, found on the train:

Ride high, and enjoy.

The Napa Valley Wine Train Station is located at:

1275 McKinstry Street

Napa, California 94559.

For Schedules and reservations, call:

1-800-427-4124

So by now, you've gone shopping, gathered your wares, and hopefully if you are reading this, you are well along in the cooking process (if not, get off the computer and get busy!). But what do you do if it all goes horribly wrong...?

Ok, I’m not trying to be doom and gloom here. And I'm not talking about familial relations, you are on your own there. But in the food and feast arena, it is nice to be armed with a few helpful hints when you are juggling a minimum of six different dishes in the kitchen. Something is bound to not be perfect. So what do you do?

First of all, relax. There is a solution to every problem. Take a deep breath, a big swig of wine, and read on...

I burnt the turkey!
If you are left with an overcooked, dry turkey (which you probably won’t realize until it’s nearly too late) there’s not a whole lot you can do except try to mask it with moisture. My solution: Make gravy! Or at least more gravy than what you put out on the table.

First of all, if you’ve burnt the skin, no worries, just pull it off and discard it. Carve the turkey as you normally would and slice the meat into serving pieces. Put it in a large sauté pan. Thin about 3 cups of gravy with chicken stock and pour it over the meat. It should be enough to coat and barely cover the meat, but if not, add more. Simmer gently over low heat and serve it out of the pan.

Next year, consider brining your turkey to keep it moist and succulent. And set a kitchen timer.

My turkey is raw!
First of all, if you have a meat thermometer, use it! Before you take that turkey out of the oven. Stick it in the meaty part of the thigh, not touching the bone. It should be 165F to be fully cooked.

If you don't have a thermometer, and you've already started carving your turkey before realizing that it’s still gobbling, then never fear, you can still finish cooking it. First of all, the dark meat takes longer to cook than the breast, so chances are the breast is cooked perfectly. If not, stick the entire thing back in the oven until the juices from the thigh run clear when pierced with a knife.

If the breast is cooked (after you've carefully checked it with a small incision), and if you've stuffed the turkey, remove the stuffing, and put it in a roasting pan. Carve the legs and thighs from the turkey, and add those to the roasting pan, cover with foil and put it back in the oven for at least 30 minutes to cook through. Meanwhile, you can remove the breasts, carve them, transfer them to the serving platter, and tent with foil while you wait for the legs and stuffing to finish cooking.

My stuffing is all mushy!
I like my stuffing to be crispy on the outside and nice and moist on the inside, but if yours has gone a bit too moist, and hasn’t crisped up nicely, then simply spread it out on a baking sheet and stick it back in the oven (around 400F should do the trick).

I have lumps in my gravy!
It happens to the best of us and more often that you’d expect. The best thing to do is just put it through a fine-mesh sieve, although if you are like me and you use the neck to make a delicious turkey stock base for your gravy and then add the shredded neck meat to the final product, then you’ll lose the meat shreds. But you will still have all the flavor, and none of the icky, floury lumps.

I overcooked the vegetables!
If you’ve overcooked your broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, greens, or peas, just add some chicken broth and a little cream and puree it into a soup. Seriously. No one wants to eat mushy vegetables, but soup on the other hand is delicious. If the soup seems watery, boil a few potatoes and puree those into the soup as well. If you’ve already mashed all your potatoes, then stir in a scoop. Some grated Parmesan adds a bit of flavor too.

For overcooked Brussels sprouts, heat your oven to 450F and spread them out on a baking sheet. Drizzle with a little olive oil and roast them in the oven to brown and crisp and dry out a bit. OR, chop some bacon and fry until crisp, transfer to a paper towel. Add the Brussels sprouts to the pan and fry in the bacon fat over high heat to brown and crisp the edges. Transfer to a serving bowl and toss in the bacon. If that doesn’t work, compost them and start over with something else!

Where are the cranberries!?
As many times as you have been to the store, you are likely to forget something. If you remember in time to call one of your guests before they arrive, have them pick up a bag of fresh cranberries as it’s super easy to make: Put a bag of cranberries, 1 cup of orange juice and 1 cup of granulated sugar into a saucepan and cook over medium heat until the cranberries pop and the mixture thickens, about 10 minutes. Let cool to room temperature and serve.

If that doesn’t work, you can use other fruits to make a tangy side for your turkey. Saute some sliced apples or pears in a little butter, white wine, brown sugar; simmer some frozen cherries with orange juice and sugar to taste; or just pull out a jar of chutney.

Hopefully some of these tips will solve the worst of your problems. And if anyone else out there has new and interesting ways to make the most out of a kitchen disaster please let me know! I hope everyone’s feast turns out amazing, over-the-top, and delicious.

Happy thanksgiving.

Listen to Vitamins on KQED's Forum.
Aired on KQED 88.5FM Mon, Nov 26, 2008 -- 9:00 AM

Vitamins
For some, taking a multivitamin is as much a routine as combing one's hair or brushing one's teeth. But are these pills effective or even necessary? Are they really the foundation of a healthy diet or just another gimmick? This hour on Forum we talk vitamins.

Host: Dave Iverson

Guests:
Bruce Ames, professor emeritus of biochemistry at UC Berkeley
Candy Tsourounis, professor of Clinical Pharmacy at UCSF, School of Pharmacy
Leah Vachani, nutrition consultant at Elephant Pharm

How do you know the recipes you find online are any good without trying them? Do votes or comments make you more confident? If you've wondered about "user submitted" recipes, you're not alone.

Recently I was invited to a taste test of recipes submitted online. The culinary social network CookEatShare held a cooking contest and brought together a number of restaurant chefs and food professionals to cook and judge the recipes. I wasn't a judge, but I did get to try all the dishes.

What a surprise! Some recipes that sounded terrible ended up being terrific and others that sounded great really missed the mark. I guess this proves that you can't necessarily tell a good recipe without cooking it. I'll let you know which ones were my favorites and then you can follow the linked recipe name to get the ingredients and preparation details.

While it didn't win any top prizes with the judging panel, TomCo's Yogurt Pumpkin Pie was my favorite recipe and it also received the highest number of reader votes. I can honestly say this was one of the best pumpkin pies I've ever eaten. It had an almost cheesecake-like texture and a crunchy cinnamon nut topping that was irresistible. The executive chef from Draeger's markets who tested the recipe said it was very easy to make.

The winning recipe of the contest was Cranberry Yogurt Relish. The chef testing the recipe wasn't sure if the cranberries were supposed to be dried or fresh, so she used a combination, but I believe the size of the bag, 12 ounces, was a dead giveaway that the recipe meant fresh (that's the standard size of fresh bags of cranberries). Judges agreed that the author of the recipe might not come from California since she used, gasp! canned peaches. We all thought this recipe sounded less than ideal, but it was surprisingly good. It was fresh and creamy and had a nice tang from both cranberries and yogurt.

Finally, despite its ridiculously long name, I liked the Chesapeake Memories Sausage and Oyster Dressing with Red Quinoa and Crispy Apples. This dressing has lots of traditional ingredients like sausage, sage, onion and celery and some unusual ones such as English muffins, rosemary, quinoa and sun-dried tomatoes. I particularly liked the texture. Quinoa in dressing, who knew?

Here's hoping all your holiday dishes are winners. Happy Thanksgiving!

Tue, November 25, 2008
The California Report
Host: Rachael Myrow

Mobile Food Bank
Food banks across the state are struggling with longer lines and fewer donations this holiday season. But one Central Valley food bank will soon have a unique way to deliver fresh produce to rural communities.

Reporter:
• Sasha Khokha

Listen to the program

KQED Radio News: Mon, Nov 24, 2008 -- 5:30 PM

The Holidays and Food Bank Demands
This is the official start of our end-of-the-year holidays and is always the busiest time of year for food banks and soup kitchens. In the midst of a dire economic crisis, local food banks say they're seeing unprecedented demand for hot meals and groceries.

Host: Kelly Wilkinson

Guest:
Lynn Crocker, Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo counties

Listen to the program

Listen to Thanksgiving 2.0 on KQED's Forum.
Aired on KQED 88.5FM Mon, Nov 24, 2008 -- 10:00 AM

Thanksgiving 2.0
KQED talks with local Bay Area chefs about new twists on the traditional Thanksgiving meal and listeners call in to share their new traditions.
Host: Scott Shafer

Guests:
Charles Phan, owner and chef at The Slanted Door
Douglas Keane, chef at Cyrus
Joey Altman, chef at Miss Pearl's Jam House
Annie Somerville, chef at Greens

Looking ahead at this week, it would make perfect and predictable sense for me to contribute yet another Thanksgiving-themed piece to the steaming, teeming masses already out there. However, I will not.

I am not being obstinate. I am moving. After five+ years in the same tiny (albeit well-appointed) San Francisco apartment, my husband and I are relocating for the suburbs where he can have a five-minute bike ride to work and I can have a larger-than-life kitchen while ferreting out fresh food finds. So, taking advantage of the 8 days off Stanford gives their professors, we are talking boxes and bubble-wrap, not turkey.

I'll tell you something, it's a singular feeling to be eschewing all things yam and cranberry, while all around me discussions of brining, side dishes, and three kinds of stuffing abound. For a San Francisco foodie, it's partly lonely not to be spending the next four days plotting out how to shop, cook, serve, and digest a massive feast, but mostly, it's rather liberating.

There are few times when a happy cook can be made to feel more inadequate than around the holidays when each fish tale of festal feed becomes more elaborate than the next. I would even venture to say that Thanksgiving is more daunting than Christmas because everyone is making the same general things: potatoes (of a sort), cranberries (in some manner), side dishes (varied but consistent), stuffing (too many arguments to list) and a big ass bird (non-negotiable). How will yours stack up? And what obscenely creative measures will you take in dealing with the resulting leftovers?

The questions swirl around the blogosphere, "Is the turkey heritage?"

"Is the cranberry sauce gelatinous?"

"Are the yams sweet potatoes?"

And everyone's favorite: "To brine or not to brine? That is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the dried and tough flesh of unbrined meat or take arms against a sea of relatives and by brining juicify them?"

On that last one, the wisdom seems to change every year. Personally, I've never had a refrigerator large enough to hold bird and brine and I've also never done a side-by-side taste test to judge the relative merits of each.

Instead of answering any of these questions in my own kitchen and instead of ingesting pounds of tasty, seasonal, and cockle-warming victuals, I'll be unloading boxes and sneezing through thick reams of dust. Next year, I'll be back cooking in my upgraded kitchen but this year, my DVD player will do the basting and carving.

The House of Yes: If seeing them around the holidays makes you remember how infuriating your family can be, Parker Posey's creepy family dynamics will make you realize what "dysfunctional" really means.

Piece of April: I haven't been able to take Katie Holmes seriously since she joined up with whackjob Tom Cruise, but some people seem to like this "quirky" movie about a young slip of a thing preparing dinner for her dysfunctional family in her tiny New York apartment. I predict food catastrophes.

Home for the Holidays: One more movie about the travails of having a dysfunctional family and then I'll stop, I promise. This one features a long-suffering Holly Hunter, sibling rivalry, a difficult daughter (Claire Danes), and a gay brother (Robert Downey, Jr.) bringing home a "friend" (Dylan McDermott) to meet his family. Shocking, indeed! Bonus elder set: Geraldine Chaplin, Anne Bancroft, and craggy Charles Durning.

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving: You can't properly celebrate a holiday until you've seen Eeyore-ish Charlie Brown almost ruin his. Besides, toast and popcorn is just about in line with what I'll be eating this year. I just wish these recordings had the old Dolly Madison commercials.

The Thanksgiving Visitor: Not as much of a tear-jerker as Truman Capote's other holiday story, A Christmas Memory, but it's still quite sweet to see the relationship between Buddy (young Capote) and his elderly relative, Miss Sook. Also, Geraldine Page as Miss Sook is quite fantastic.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles: Three words: "Those aren't pillows!"

Son In Law: It's a chance to see Carla Gugino before she was Karen Sisco, Tiffani Thiessen when she still had the "Amber," and Pauly Shore when he was (sort of) relevant. It's also a chance to see how a pure farmer's daughter becomes corrupted by Southern California -- tattoos, spandex, and roller blades, oh my!

Thousands have lived without love, not one without water.
-- W. H. Auden

Like the earth itself, our bodies are 70 percent water. This also happens to be the proportion of our water supply that the agricultural industry consumes to bring food to our tables. No conversation about sustainable food systems can exclude the topic of water.

While water wars seem like the concerns of distant communities, experts predict that towns across the US will also soon be struggling to provide clean, affordable water to their citizens. An award-winning documentary, Flow, one of the post powerful and elegant films in the recent 3rd I Film Festival, tackles the complex issues embedded in a simple glass of water. From Bolivia to India, from Michigan to our very own California, access to water is being contested.

Water shortages affect California deeply. Earlier this summer, our governor declared the first statewide drought in 17 years, and municipalities across California have been urged to reduce their water use by 20 percent.

Ask any farmer or rancher or fisherman about water rights or water health, and you'll tap into the complex, heated politics of water. It's also a critical issue for environmental health: In nearly every state, citizens' groups fight threats to the safety of their drinking water, local watersheds and groundwater.

Follow the money to find some of the most critical struggles over water around the world. European-based, multinational corporations that specialize in privatizing municipal water systems, such as Suez and Thames, and beverage companies like Coca-Cola and Nestle, which owns 70 brands of bottled water in North American, have enormous amounts of money at stake in tapping into free water for their own use while selling expensive water back to their consumers. As the race to find clean water is nearing its peak, poor communities in Asia, Africa and Latin America are arriving at their communal pumps or wells to find, quite literally, that corporations have locked up their water supply. Dams, privatization, and pollution have immense ramifications on all forms of water on every continent. If you think wars over oil are tragically absurd, wait until you see citizens arming themselves for a sip of water.

Flow helps viewers understand some of these basic issues. Even more importantly, the film shows how courageous individuals, dedicated researchers, innovative business people, and organizations large and small all contribute to the Blue Revolution. Director Irena Salina interviews a wide variety of people around the world who have implemented real, workable solutions to benefit rather than exploit small municipalities. Even the credits at the end of the film highlight delightful ways companies and community groups work together to guarantee clean, abundant, affordable water for all. Among the most memorable inventions were the unique ultraviolet system developed by <a href="Waterhealth, a company based in Irvine, California, that encourages the formation of locally controlled micro-utilities along with public health initiatives, and the brightly colored PlayPump, which harnesses the seemingly endless energy of kids to bring up water.

A simple (and fun!) solution to a complex problem.

Flow will be playing next week at the Red Vic Movie House. It's only engaged for two evenings, though it truly deserves a wider run in many other theatres. Since it may be a while before the documentary is picked up for wider distribution, I highly recommend that you set aside some time next Sunday or Monday evening to see this important, inspiring film. It's a superb example of a well-made documentary, and its message cannot fail to move every person who sees it. Every one of us drinks water, and everything single thing we touch, let alone all that we consume, depends on the flow of water.

DOCUMENTARY
Flow: For Love of Water
Directed by Irena Salina
Red Vic Movie House
Sunday, November 23 (2:00, 4:00, 7:15, 9:20)
Monday, November 24 (7:15, 9:20)
1727 Haight Street
San Francisco, CA 94117
(415) 668-3994
Map

ACTIONS

What else can you do as an individual to help ensure abundant, clean, inexpensive water for all?

Drink tap water
-- Stop purchasing bottled water at home, at restaurants and on the road. The water bottling industry has effectively little regulation, and as the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has stated: "Many people do not feel comfortable drinking tap water, so they buy bottled water instead. The truth is that city water is much more highly regulated and monitored for quality. Bottled water is not. It can legally contain many things we would not tolerate in municipal drinking water."

-- Carry your own water bottles or collapsible cups. Flatterware has a 12-ounce cup that can hold either hot or cold drinks and then folds flat when empty. BPA-free water bottles are available from Watergeeks Laboratories, a company that create new products for consumers that will help "turn the global water crisis upside down" by tapping into tap water. If you dislike the taste of tap water, invest in a filtration system for your faucet or purchase a simple, inexpensive filtering pitcher.

Conserve water in your kitchen
-- Install an aerator in your kitchen faucet. EBMUD offers free conservation devices. Water agencies in most cities offer educational materials and similar incentives for water conservation. Check the website of your local water utility company for more information.

-- If you own or manage a multi-unit residential building in San Francisco, order a Water-Wise Tenant Kit for your tenants. If you're a tenant, contact your property manager and convince them to obtain one for all the renters in your building.

-- If you have a dishwasher, run only full loads. More recent models tend to be highly water efficient, but do check to be sure when you buy a new one. If you have an older one in your home, instead of rinsing the dishes before loading them in, scrape the food directly into your compost bin or trashcan to save water. If you wash by hand, avoid letting the water run while you wash. Use a large bowl, bin or even the pot you cooked in to hold wash water, and then rinse with as little water as needed.

Support water conservation in restaurant kitchens
-- If you own a restaurant, train your employees to use techniques of water conservation that are appropriate for a commercial kitchen. Chicago-based Greening Restaurants shares information at their website. SFPUC commercial customers are eligible for a free evaluation, which includes a consultation tailored to their businesses, free water-saving devices and rebates on plumbing upgrades.

-- Look for the Thimmakka seal of approval on your favorite neighborhood restaurant or market. By helping ethnic restaurant owners adopt sustainable practices while remaining profitable businesses has already saved over 10.8 million gallons of water. Ajanta in Berkeley, tin's Tea House Lounge in Walnut Creek, and La Cocina's kitchen in the Mission District have all benefitted from Thimmakka's expertise to help them transition to sustainable practices. If your local restaurant doesn't already take part in Thimmakka's programs, encourage the owners to contact the organization or send a referral yourself to the nonprofit's outreach administrators.

Support dry farmers
-- Buy produce from farmers who have learned to grow profitable crops without irrigation. Produce labeled "dry-farmed" refers to fruits and vegetables that are not irrigated after planting. Certain crops weather these dry conditions better, such as grapes, potatoes, and tomatoes. Dry farming generally intensifies their flavors, so like with many sustainable practices, it's as good for the palate as for the planet.

-- If you shop at a farmers market and if it's not too busy, ask your favorite producers about some of the water issues they face and learn about the ways they're able to conserve water on their land. Those who can employ dry farming methods are helping to save millions of gallons of water in our state. (View a slideshow of Little Organic Farm, including David Little's dry-farmed potatoes.)

-- To learn the basics of dry farming, including both benefits and challenges, read this detailed overview from the Soil and Health Library. As the writer, a not unbiased farmer in Australia notes, when "the methods of dry-farming are understood and practiced, the practice is always successful; but it requires more intelligence, more implicit obedience to nature's laws, and greater vigilance, than farming in countries of abundant rainfall."

Educate yourself about local water laws
-- For those more interested in the colorful history of water in our state, browse the archives of the fascinating exhibit at the UC Berkeley Library on Liquid Gold: California's Water.

-- With agriculture consuming the vast majority of our water supply, California's politicians, policy makers, agricultural industry and large corporations that will have the most effect on water supply. As a concerned and informed consumer, learn about water laws. The National Technology and Science Center, a department of the Bureau of Land Management, has created an informative page summarizing California's water rights system, a dual system that incorporates Spanish pueblo rights into the riparian doctrine.

Support the Human Right to Water
-- Sign the petition to encourage the United Nations to expand its Universal Declaration of Human Rights to include Article 31: Everyone has the right to clean and accessible water, adequate for the health and well-being of the individual and family, and no one shall be deprived of such access or quality of water due to individual economic circumstance. The actions of individuals -- in other words, all the things that you can do above -- are more important and effective than any petition, but recognizing water as a right is one of the ways we can voice our concerns. If Article 31 were passed, it would go far in setting a valuable framework for guaranteeing access to water. If the UN considers owning property, holding citizenship, working for a living, receiving an education, enjoying the arts, and resting in leisure, as rights that we all hold by virtue of being human, then surely drinking clean water should be included in their Universal Declaration.