er.com/files/2007/02/how_to_green_your_dishwasher.php”>How to Green Your Dishwasher to learn more.) But before you jump the gun and make a hasty appliance purchase, however, first check to make sure that a repair isn't in order. How will you know? Check out Planet Green's series on when to repair (and when to recycle) old appliances. When it does comes time to replace your old-faithfuls look for the Energy Star rating, available for kitchen appliances including stoves, refrigerators, freezers, and dishwashers, then choose a sturdy model that will last.

4. Energy-Efficient Cooking
Preheating is almost prehistoric. Many newer ovens come to temperature so rapidly, they make preheating almost obsolete (except perhaps for soufflés and other delicate dishes). If you're roasting or baking something that's a little flexible when it comes to cooking time, you can put it in right away, then turn the oven off five or ten minutes early, and let dishes finish cooking in the residual heat. (Ditto for anything cooked on an electric stove top.)

Making as best use of the oven as possible –- cooking more than one thing at once, for instance — is also wise. For small dishes, using a toaster oven, or reheating in a microwave will also save energy; in fact, Energy Star estimates that you can reduce cooking energy by as much as 80 percent when using the microwave instead of the oven. When cooking on the stove, using a properly sized pot for each of the stove burners also makes a difference; on an electric stove, for example, a 6-inch pot used on an 8-inch burner wastes more than 40 percent of the burner's heat. Make sure all of your pots and pans have close-fitting lids, then use them whenever possible–including when you're bringing boiled water up to temperature–which helps reducing cooking time and keeps heat where it belongs–in the pan. Pressure cookers are another great way to save energy, reducing cooking time by up to 70 percent. Of course, the most energy efficient cooking means leaving heat out of the equation altogether–don't forget about salads, chilled soups, and other dishes that require little prep and can be eaten cold. There’s a large niche culture growing around the idea of raw food— don't be afraid to try something new!

5. Do It Yourself
Avoid purchasing pre-prepared, frozen foods, and make them yourself, at home; many meals are made to be frozen and reheated without any loss in taste or quality, so there's no reason to thaw and rehydrate frozen and dehydrated foods when you can skip these steps and buy and cook fresh. As an added bonus, you also know exactly what is going in to your food, and, if you're diligent about sourcing it, where it came from. This option also cuts out steps of your food’s lifecycle (and the associated energy in processing and transportation that comes from each step). If you have the space, take it a step further and grow your own fruits, vegetables, using your composted kitchen waste as fertiliser. Don't stop the DIY train there, though: you can clean your counters and hand-wash dishes with white vinegar and baking soda. Instead of shelling out for bottled water, get a filter pitcher or tap filter. You could even buy a seltzer siphon or carbonator to fizz your filtered water and flavour it with homemade syrups; we recommend the Soda Club or one of its contemporaries.

Awesome website of the week:

http://www.gbcsa.org.za/home.php

Green Building Council of South Africa

A green building is a building which is energy efficient, resource efficient and environmentally responsible- which incorporates design, construction and operational practices that significantly reduce or eliminate its negative impact on the environment and its occupants. Building green is an opportunity to use resources efficiently and address climate change while creating healthier and more productive environments for people to live and work in.

The Green Building Council of South Africa will lead the transformation of the South African property industry to ensure that all buildings are designed, built and operated in an environmentally sustainable way that will allow South Africans to work and live in healthy, efficient and productive environments.

Mission

To promote, encourage and facilitate green building in the South African property and construction industry through market-based solutions, by:

• Promoting the practice of green building in the commercial property industry
• Facilitating the implementation of green building practice by acting as a resource centre,
• Enabling the objective measurement of green building practices by developing and operating a green building rating system, and
• Improving the knowledge and skills base of green building in the industry by enabling and offering training and education

Food Joke:

A guy has celery sticking out of one ear, lettuce out of the other, and a zucchini up his nose.

He goes to the doctor and asks him what's wrong.

The doctor tells him, “Well, for one thing, you're not eating right.”

The Wickedfood Team

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Wickedfood Cooking School runs  classes throughout the year at its purpose-built Johannesburg cooking studio. Cooking lessons are run in the mornings and evenings 7 days a week (subject to a minimum of 12 people). The venue is also popular for corporate events and private functions – team building cooking classes, birthdays, kitchen teas, and dinner parties with a difference.

Our cooking courses are hands-on, where every person gets to participate in the preparation of the dishes. They are also a lot of fun where you not only learn new skills, but get to meet people with similar interests. For corporate groups and team building cooking classes, these events are a novel way of creating staff interaction or entertaining clients.