Interested in Solar Power?

Jenna and I just enrolled with this program (www.1bog.org) that helps people band together to buy solar panels and have them installed on their house. Once a group gets together, they are assisted in bargaining with local contractors and sellers to get a deeper discount and helped through the process of figuring out all the red tape. If you are interested in possibly getting solar on your house, read below and consider signing up. Here's what they have to say about what they do:

1 Block Off the Grid (www.1bog.org) brings people together to get solar on their homes at the same time. We negotiate on the groups' behalf and get each person a huge discount from the best installer. We make going solar simpler and more affordable for everyone involved.

What 1BOG does is organize people in a community to go through the process together. The experts from 1BOG have experience in the solar industry and can both negotiate pricing and vet the installers. Plus, since we’re not the ones selling you anything, you can trust that we’re always advocating for your best interests.

1BOG does all this work for you, from translating the tax rebates, to doing the technological research, to finding the right installer; we make the process easier, cheaper, and more comfortable (since everyone knows that everyone else is getting the same deal). During our first campaign in San Francisco, we were able to negotiate up to a 43% discount from retail.

Holiday Open House

Instead of our regular "Dinner on 12th" this month, we had our annual holiday open house last night. Many of our attendees from previous "Dinner on 12ths" were there and others that we hope will be able to join us at our table for future dinners. It was a lovely evening of food and merriment. It's wonderful and inspiring that at such a busy time of the year, people will take time out of their schedules to share some joy with friends. Thank you to all who came. And also, thank you to all who brought food for the Oregon Food Bank and for the Oregon Humane Society. We will be dropping off those donations this week.

Since food is one of the main themes of this blog, I thought I would share the menu for the open house...

Truffled baby potatoes
Smoked salmon and fried caper canapes
Raspberry-red pepper jam bites
Edamame hummus with veggies
Sundried tomato crostada
Curried cashews
Roasted garlic and onion jam bruschetta
Triple cream crostini topped with fried sage
Roasted vegetable and goat cheese empanadas
Tomato and sweet onion chutney canapes
Caramel apple shortbread tart
Gingersnap truffles
Caramel Brownie bombs (Debbie Orlando's incredible secret dessert!)
Coconut and white chocolate cookies
Oatmeal Caramelitas

Happy holidays to all and may this new year bring with it peace and joy for all around the world.

Peace,
Jenna and Jason

November 21, 2008 dinner

The last dinner was great. Jenna stuck with mostly local ingredients, even during a time when the farmer's markets are starting to hibernate for the winter. We had a full house again and a good time. Thanks everyone for being there. I took some pictures of the food and the folks.

I just finished a great book by Barbara Kingsolver called Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, where she describes her family's attempt to be "locavores" for a year, in other words to either grow or eat food produced from within a 100 miles of their home. Its a great learning experience and also a great read as Kingsolver is a well-known fiction author, having written The Poinsonwood Bible. I'd highly recommend it for anyone who is interested in local and good food.

A bed of nasturtium leaves was provided by our neighbor Stephanie.

Jenna made a cornucopia out of pizza dough as a way of celebrating the season.

A picture of the spread before everyone sits

down.

Here we are. See the conversation in action!

See ya next time.

Again we have a full table for our second "Dinner on 12th". In keeping with this beautiful season, our menu this month will have an autumn theme. Here is my tentative menu:

Goat cheese croquettes on a bed of nasturtium leaves**
Cornucopia of roasted root vegetables* with maple glaze
Butternut squash* bread pudding with leek cream sauce
Wheat berry salad with pistachios, pomegranates,
and cici beans
Something with pumpkin for dessert

* = locally grown
** = VERY locally grown -- i.e. from our friend/neighbor Stephanie's garden

Post First Dinner on 12th

“The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

The first Dinner on 12th was magnificent. Good friends, great conversation, fantastic food -- what more could you want? I am so appreciative for the folks that came by and look forward to having everyone back again, as well as new folks. Come to our next one! Make some new friends, connect with old ones. Don't forget to bring some good stories or maybe a joke or two.

I know this is a bit off topic, but I have another great video that I want to share. You've got to check this one out if you have any interest in psychology. Its a psychology video from the 1950s. Fortunately, I haven't seen a video like this coming from psychology in a while. Check it out and let me know what you think!

-Jason

Inaugural Dinner Menu

Well we actually have a full table already for our first "Dinner on 12th" gathering. That's so exciting! Here is the tentative menu, though I do reserve the right to change anything based on what is available at the farmer's market on Thursday...

Truffled purple potatoes** with shaved pecorino
Garlicky borlotti beans and sauteed beet greens*
Roasted beets* with smoked blue cheese* and walnut oil
Wild chanterelle* and sage* risotto
Apple* and pear* tart

* = locally grown
** = VERY locally grown -- i.e. from our friend/neighbor Stephanie's garden


We are looking forward to seeing several of you this Friday and hopefully many more of you in months to come.

A model for our dinner conversation

As a psychologist, I am well aware of the research showing that watching effective models leads to improved performance. In my search for ever increasing performance and effectiveness in my life, I decided to search for effective models for the kind of dinner conversation I hoped we would have at Dinner on 12th. Fortunately, the internet came to my rescue as I stumbled upon this video.

As John McCain recently said, "If I were a dictator" I would make sure that we discussed the environment and national security concerns at all dinners...just as see in this video. As such, this is an absolutely non-mandatory requirement to be viewed by all dinner attendees.

Welcome to Dinner on 12th

“The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

We are seeking community. Well that...and a darn good meal.

Food and friendship have been known to go well together. Each of us needs to eat and each of needs friends. So, we figured, we'd put them together.

We (Jenna and Jason) are interested in building more community in our lives and one of our efforts is to unite this with our love of food. Community is by its nature local. And often, so is the greatest food. So, we have set out to develop a stronger community, by sharing together in our local gastronomic bounty. This blog has been created to help organize one facet of that effort, our monthly community dinners.

What's this?

Dinner on 12th is the name for our disorganized, delicious, and sometimes decadent gathering of friends at our home for food and camaraderie. Each month, we plan to host one meal at our home. Food will be prepared by Jenna. Jason will eat it and compliment her. All we ask from our guests is to bring a willingness to share in our community, to expand your own community, and to bring a bottle of wine to share once in a while.

Dinners will be on fridays, once a month. Earlier that week, Jenna will post the menu. We ask that you let us know if you are thinking about attending a day or two ahead. This will not be a formal event, so no need to dress up or put on your Sunday best. Just a few friends and some good food.

This will be an old-fashioned sit down dinner. So for those who have ever been at our house, you know that our table seats about eight at the max. We want everyone to come, but if some week we have too many and exceed our capacity, we welcome you to come the next time instead.

So be looking for an email announcing the first Dinner on 12th, which will be held on Friday October 24, 2008.