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The Readers Blogs
This is the unofficial blog aggregator for reading about what other vegans are up to. Below are the posts, to find out where they come from and how this site works click here.
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February 08, 2010 08:09 PM
A brand new Whole Foods store opened near my job last month. There was already a Whole Foods just a few minutes from my apartment, but this one was huge, it was new, it was special. I had to go. And there I was on the opening day...
in. complete. awe.
It is gigantic, it has agave nectar and brown rice syrup on tap. There is a pub inside of it, and a prepared foods bar that rivals no other that I have seen.
That first day was kind of crazy, so I grabbed my favorite craving, the avocado sushi. But when I work full days I spend my lunch hour there, which is only once or twice a week...but I look forward to it all morning.
I have to tell you though, I feel a little guilty. It feels a little wrong, walking around this place which undeniably caters to vegans, and provides plenty of vegan options and products that are hard to find elsewhere; but also shamelessly supports the idea of the organic/humane/natural/grass-fed meat movement.
I know a lot of people who are into this movement. And I am not trying to offend any of them because I know many of them read my blog...and there are probably some who I don't even know read my blog. So my point, will be brief. Eating meat, no matter what kind, still perpetuates the demand for meat. I also know people who completely refuse to shop here altogether, and even protest it.
So what is a vegan to do? Whole Foods is so convenient, makes so easy to find vegan oddities, and frankly, has a delicious selection of prepared foods.
Vegan mac-and-cheese with maple mashed sweet potatoes and steamed veggies
Braised seitan with sage roasted veggies and squash, grilled asparagus, fennel orange salad, and steamed kale
It adequately filled our "junk food" craving this past weekend also:
Raw macaroons. Yum.
For more information on the "humane meat myth", pop over here.
That being said, I am curious. What do you do? Even if you aren't vegan, I'm curious. I'm not a Whole Foods bunny, mainly because I think everyday things are too expensive, and I don't support their stance on meat. In fact, I am usually the first to suggest a local, non-chain, but there is only one around here, and it is painfully even more than Whole Foods. So I will buy things like umeboshi vinegar and vital wheat gluten; things I know I can't find at my grocery store.
I want to know your opinion. Vote!!
Stay tuned for later this week! I'm going to celebrate my 100th follower with a giveaway!!
February 08, 2010 06:05 PM
Jag tror att det var journalisten Magnus Linton som myntade begreppet "köttnationalism" som beteckning på vår svenska självbild som ytterst djurvänliga. Detta drag i den svenska diskursen om djur-människa-relationen är ständigt närvarande, inte minst i tjatet om att Sverige har "världens bästa djurskydd".
Och det är kanske inte så konstigt. Nationella symboler verkar ju kunna användas till att legitimera det mesta - från idrottsevenemang till folkmord. Det skulle snarast vara förvånande om ett politikområde som djurskyddet uppvisade fullständig immunitet mot intrång av nationella diskurser och symboler.
Ur ett kritiskt djurrättsligt perspektiv finns det förstås alla skäl att ifrågasätta bilden av svenskt djurskydd som något unikt och högtstående. Så här har jag skrivit om saken annorstädes:
Köttnationalismen fyller med andra ord den viktiga funktionen att förskjuta problematiken med behandlingen av djur någon annanstans, ofta långt bort. Det är ett ideologiskt grepp som fritar den egna gruppen från skuld, eller till och med helt osynliggör den egna gruppens handlingar.
Framför allt skyms frågan om de egna matvanorna under ett täcke av veklagan över "de andras" okänslighet för djur. Det är de långa djurtransporterna inom EU som pekas ut som ett problem, inte den svenska konsumtionen av djurprodukter. Det är judars och muslimers koscher- och halalritualer som gör att djur lider, inte Svenssons köttätande. Och så vidare.
Det finns mycket att säga om detta, och jag hoppas kunna ge en bredare bild av den svenska köttnationalismen i min avhandling. Här kommer bara två exempel från tillkomsten av den nu gällande djurskyddslagen.
I förarbetena till den svenska djurskyddslagen från 1988 konstateras att svenskarna är särskilt djurvänliga:
Här lyfts den egna gruppens positiva egenskaper fram på ett direkt sätt och placeras tydligt i förgrunden. Vårt folk bryr sig verkligen om ickemänskliga djur. När det däremot gäller problem på hemmaplan är formuleringarna mer försiktiga och vi:et skjuts i bakgrunden:
Här är det de enskilda djurägarna som är problemet. Speciellt de ägare som lider av något personligt problem. På andra ställen i förarbetena exemplifieras detta med psykiska problem och alkholism. Det är alltså psykiskt sjuka och alkoholiserade djurägare som utgör ett problem - alltså ett litet fåtal dårar och suputer som avviker från normen. De människor som står för det största lidandet - alla helt vanliga konsumenter av djurprodukter - syns däremot inte i texten.
Ett annat problem i texten är den abstrakta teknologiska utvecklingen som förändrat djurens miljö. Återigen blir de verkliga aktörerna osynliga - de bönder och jordbruksföretag som har fattat högst konkreta beslut om att rationalisera produktionen, bedriva hårdare avel, införa minimala bursystem och så vidare. Teknologin framstår i förarbetena till djurskyddslagen som en opersonlig, abstrakt kraft som bara har drabbat samhället, människorna och djuren som en blixt från klar himmel. Kapitalistiska och speciesistiska motiv nämns inte. Kött-, mjölk- och äggkonsumenterna som betalar för produkterna, och därmed för de teknologiska förändringarna, syns inte heller.
Ett annat, djupt obehagligt, exempel står Föreningarna djurens vänners riksorganisation för. I sitt remissvar om djurskyddslagen gav de ett helt oförtäckt exempel på den djurskyddsliga rasismen:
Återigen förskjuts skuldbördan bort från den svenske konsumenten av djurprodukter. Det är människor inflyttade från andra länder som är problemet. I dessa länder bryr sig ingen om ickemänskliga djur, och därför måste vi som har djurvänligheten i vår folksjäl uppfostra de invandrade grupperna och skydda "våra" djur från hotet av deras seder.
Sådana direkt rasistiska och obeskrivligt korkade uttalanden är förstås inte helt vanliga att stöta på. Men de måste ändå förstås i ett sammanhang. De blir möjliga just för att det redan finns en stark nationalistiskt och rasistiskt laddad symbolvärld i djurskyddsdiskursen.
Allt språk är baserat på skillnader. För att "vi" ska kunna vara "djurvänliga" måste någon "annan" utpekas som "djurplågare". För att vårt köttätande ska förbli acceptabelt och stå bortom all kritik, måste någon annans agerande mot djuren brännmärkas. Dessvärre står nationalistiska och rasistiska stereotyper alltid till hands som användbara verktyg för att genomföra denna symboliska förskjutning.
Och det är kanske inte så konstigt. Nationella symboler verkar ju kunna användas till att legitimera det mesta - från idrottsevenemang till folkmord. Det skulle snarast vara förvånande om ett politikområde som djurskyddet uppvisade fullständig immunitet mot intrång av nationella diskurser och symboler.
Ur ett kritiskt djurrättsligt perspektiv finns det förstås alla skäl att ifrågasätta bilden av svenskt djurskydd som något unikt och högtstående. Så här har jag skrivit om saken annorstädes:
It is in fact curiously common for politicians and corporations to make out their own country’s animal protection regulations and welfare inspection systems as being among the best – if not the best – in the world. By this move, the problem of animal "abuse" tends to be discursively located outside our own field of responsibility. "We" are not cruel to animals – "They" (the foreigners) are.
As argued by discourse theorist Teun van Dijk, elevating the good qualities of one’s own group is a typical functional move "in the overall strategy of ideological self-interest, which appear in most social conflicts and actions (e.g. in racist, sexist etc. discourse)" (1998 p. 33).
The recurring episodes of public and mass-media panic over the treatment of nonhumans in other parts of the world may be seen as symptoms of such ideological displacement. I believe animal rights advocates have yet to realize the extent to which the reproduction of speciesist relations is dependent on such discursive processes of "othering". The persona of the abnormal, cruel, foreign “animal-abuser” often seems to be a crucial condition of possibility for the normality of the everyday oppression of nonhuman animals in our own backyard.
Here, we could well speak with [Slavoj] Žižek and say that the common displacement of cruelty onto a foreign Other functions as a fantasy scenario that suppresses the political and ethical significance of our own speciesist practices. For the welfarist outlook to maintain its hegemony, ideological fantasy has to fill out the "the empty space of [its own] fundamental impossibility” (Žižek 1989:126). The fantasy of the Other’s deviant and cruel nature provides precisely the kind of lacking element that can allow the Self to reconstitute its identity as “normal” and “animal-friendly".
(Svärd, P. 2008. "Protecting the Animals? An Abolitionist Critique of Animal Welfarism and Green Ideology", i Sollund, R. (red.) Global Harms: Ecological Crime and Speciesism. New York: Nova Science Publishers.)
Köttnationalismen fyller med andra ord den viktiga funktionen att förskjuta problematiken med behandlingen av djur någon annanstans, ofta långt bort. Det är ett ideologiskt grepp som fritar den egna gruppen från skuld, eller till och med helt osynliggör den egna gruppens handlingar.
Framför allt skyms frågan om de egna matvanorna under ett täcke av veklagan över "de andras" okänslighet för djur. Det är de långa djurtransporterna inom EU som pekas ut som ett problem, inte den svenska konsumtionen av djurprodukter. Det är judars och muslimers koscher- och halalritualer som gör att djur lider, inte Svenssons köttätande. Och så vidare.
Det finns mycket att säga om detta, och jag hoppas kunna ge en bredare bild av den svenska köttnationalismen i min avhandling. Här kommer bara två exempel från tillkomsten av den nu gällande djurskyddslagen.
I förarbetena till den svenska djurskyddslagen från 1988 konstateras att svenskarna är särskilt djurvänliga:
I vårt land har djurskyddet en bred och djup förankring i människors medvetande. Som en viktig del av vårt kulturarv ingår att djur skall garanteras skydd. (Prop. 1987/88:93, s. 14)
Här lyfts den egna gruppens positiva egenskaper fram på ett direkt sätt och placeras tydligt i förgrunden. Vårt folk bryr sig verkligen om ickemänskliga djur. När det däremot gäller problem på hemmaplan är formuleringarna mer försiktiga och vi:et skjuts i bakgrunden:
Den svenska djurhållningen har dock i allmänhet präglats av goda förhållanden för djuren och en god djurskötsel. Detta allmänna förhållande utesluter emellertid inte att det även inom vårt land förekommer missförhållanden, t. ex. att djur vanvårdas för att deras ägare av olika skäl inte kan sköta om djuren på ett tillfredsställande sätt. Det finns också all anledning att vara observant på utvecklingen inom den moderna djurhållningen som i vissa fall förändrat djurens miljö i negativ riktning. (Prop. 1987/88:93, s. 15)
Här är det de enskilda djurägarna som är problemet. Speciellt de ägare som lider av något personligt problem. På andra ställen i förarbetena exemplifieras detta med psykiska problem och alkholism. Det är alltså psykiskt sjuka och alkoholiserade djurägare som utgör ett problem - alltså ett litet fåtal dårar och suputer som avviker från normen. De människor som står för det största lidandet - alla helt vanliga konsumenter av djurprodukter - syns däremot inte i texten.
Ett annat problem i texten är den abstrakta teknologiska utvecklingen som förändrat djurens miljö. Återigen blir de verkliga aktörerna osynliga - de bönder och jordbruksföretag som har fattat högst konkreta beslut om att rationalisera produktionen, bedriva hårdare avel, införa minimala bursystem och så vidare. Teknologin framstår i förarbetena till djurskyddslagen som en opersonlig, abstrakt kraft som bara har drabbat samhället, människorna och djuren som en blixt från klar himmel. Kapitalistiska och speciesistiska motiv nämns inte. Kött-, mjölk- och äggkonsumenterna som betalar för produkterna, och därmed för de teknologiska förändringarna, syns inte heller.
Ett annat, djupt obehagligt, exempel står Föreningarna djurens vänners riksorganisation för. I sitt remissvar om djurskyddslagen gav de ett helt oförtäckt exempel på den djurskyddsliga rasismen:
Det är även viktigt att bestämmelserna om bedövning av slaktdjur inrangeras i djurskyddslagen, då det till Sverige inflyttar allt fler och fler människor från sådana länder där humanitet mot djur är fullständigt okända begrepp. (Prop. 1987/88:93, bilaga 2, s. 107)
Återigen förskjuts skuldbördan bort från den svenske konsumenten av djurprodukter. Det är människor inflyttade från andra länder som är problemet. I dessa länder bryr sig ingen om ickemänskliga djur, och därför måste vi som har djurvänligheten i vår folksjäl uppfostra de invandrade grupperna och skydda "våra" djur från hotet av deras seder.
Sådana direkt rasistiska och obeskrivligt korkade uttalanden är förstås inte helt vanliga att stöta på. Men de måste ändå förstås i ett sammanhang. De blir möjliga just för att det redan finns en stark nationalistiskt och rasistiskt laddad symbolvärld i djurskyddsdiskursen.
Allt språk är baserat på skillnader. För att "vi" ska kunna vara "djurvänliga" måste någon "annan" utpekas som "djurplågare". För att vårt köttätande ska förbli acceptabelt och stå bortom all kritik, måste någon annans agerande mot djuren brännmärkas. Dessvärre står nationalistiska och rasistiska stereotyper alltid till hands som användbara verktyg för att genomföra denna symboliska förskjutning.
February 08, 2010 04:20 PM
The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet by Alicia Silverstone
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
While I'm not a fan of books that tout veganism as a diet I make myself read books like this and (ugh) Skinny Bitch so I can critique the content instead of just making a judgment on the title alone. That said, I will say The Kind Diet is a beautiful book: full color
February 08, 2010 11:33 AM
I'm so happy to share that between online and offline donations, Jodi has raised over $600 for these bulls in less than 3 days! :)This is from one of the latest updates from Jodi: "I am forever grateful to all of you! These cows are just the sweetest - and I think they know something's going on. Yesterday Dan was walking by them, and Spotty Friend was just staring at him intently. Dan told him that we are doing everything we can to save them - and he look at him and let out the longest "MOOOOOOO" ever! :)"
There are many kind and generous people of the Vegan Etsy, EtsyVeg, CFE and EFA teams donating proceeds from their Etsy stores towards this cause. These stores are filled with some wonderful goodies so if there was a time to buy things from them, it is now!
I'll keep updating this list as new people join in to contribute a portion or all of their sales so please keep checking in.
thisisit.etsy.com - donating 100% of sales on both 3rd Feb and 10th Feb
oooohshiny.etsy.com - donating 50% of the sales through 13th Feb
veganosaurus.etsy.com - donating 50% (or more) of sales through 13th Feb
mvegan5.etsy.com - donating 10% of sales through 15th Feb
holisticallyheather.etsy.com - donating 100% of sales through 13th Feb
aktie9.etsy.com - donating 100% of sales through 13th Feb
lolalynn.etsy.com - donating 75% of bracelet sales through 13th Feb
leandogpottery.etsy.com - donating 20% of sales through 13th Feb
kimbascritters.etsy.com - donating 50% of sales through 11th Feb
AuntFlosPads.etsy.com - donating 100% of sales through 13th Feb
dragonhouseofyuen.etsy.com - donating 10% of the next baby hare sale from her store
Karramandi.etsy.com - donating 20% of the next sale from her store
jenoconnell.etsy.com - donating 20% of sales through the end of Feb
silentlotus.etsy.com - donating 25% of sales through 13th Feb
vegandogslife.etsy.com - donating 100% of sales through 12th Feb
February 07, 2010 06:40 PM
I’ve been eating some variation of Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s Puttanesca scramble for breakfast almost every day for the last 4 months or so. This morning I was ready to branch out into a world full of new scramble recipes. I thumbed my way through Vegan Brunch looking for a good scramble recipe and decided to give Isa’s Basic Scrambled Tofu a try. But, true to form. I only loosely stuck to the
February 07, 2010 04:58 PM
On Friday evening I went with Sonja to my favorite Asian Grocery, United Noodles, to stock up on curry, rice, and of course, noodles.
After grocery shopping, we drove a couple blocks over to Hard Times Cafe and hung out for a couple hours.
I ordered the burrito grande and she ordered a chocolate chip pancake and biscuits. The burrito was huge, and I could only finish half of it. It wasn't as good as last time, Hard Times food is fully dependent on the person cooking it. I tried Sonja's pancake, and it was awesome. I think I have only had pancakes there once.
Of course, I couldn't leave without dessert. They had a good selection, different than anything they have had before. I got a chocolate brownie cookie filled with peanut butter and topped with chocolate ganache. Totally awesome. It was very large rich, but because I had just had a healthy and oniony burrito, and we were there for 2 hours, I managed to finish it.
My mom made cookie dough on Friday night so she could bake cookies today and bring them to work tomorrow. Letting cookie dough chill for a couple days makes it awesome. Add a little sprinkle of sea salt and your good to go. Here is the recipe for my favorite chocolate chip hazelnut cookies.
Wednesday is my birthday, and I am super excited. It's going to involve lots of good food, and other things that I can't wait to tell you about.
Have a happy super bowl Sunday. Bake some cookies!
February 07, 2010 04:35 PM
I hasten to add that this isn't actually boring, it acquired the tag in question when I was a student with limited cooking facilities and ended up eating the stuff several times a week. This made enough for two helpings, most of my day's food intake given that I was working from home. Just enough for it to be nice and not boring. Maybe the fact that I poured some leftover wine into it helped...
Ingredients:
A pan of stock, either from a cube or from swilling out yeast extract jars. You know, the ones that don't have enough stuff in to scoop out and spread on toast but it seems wasteful to bin!
A tablespoon Bisto (powder not granules)
A tablespoon tomato puree
Three largeish carrots
Three sticks of celery
Half an onion
Half a normal tin of chopped tomatoes
Swill the yeast extract jars out with warm water. Stir slowly into the bisto. Add the tomato puree. Top up with more water and bring to the boil.
Chop the carrots, celery and onion and place in the boiling stock. Add the tomatoes. Turn the heat down and leave to simmer until the liquid has thickened and some has evaporated.
Eat with pasta. You don't need me to tell you how to cook that.
Ingredients:
A pan of stock, either from a cube or from swilling out yeast extract jars. You know, the ones that don't have enough stuff in to scoop out and spread on toast but it seems wasteful to bin!
A tablespoon Bisto (powder not granules)
A tablespoon tomato puree
Three largeish carrots
Three sticks of celery
Half an onion
Half a normal tin of chopped tomatoes
Swill the yeast extract jars out with warm water. Stir slowly into the bisto. Add the tomato puree. Top up with more water and bring to the boil.
Chop the carrots, celery and onion and place in the boiling stock. Add the tomatoes. Turn the heat down and leave to simmer until the liquid has thickened and some has evaporated.
Eat with pasta. You don't need me to tell you how to cook that.
February 07, 2010 03:30 PM
Sadly I don't have my mother's dumpling-making talents! Anyway, this is what I was eating on Saturday - I had a 'crash' day where my body tried to recover all the energy used and not topped up over the past week, so although this made three or four helpings I ended up eating the whole lot...
Ingredients
A pot of stock - see the previous recipe for how I make this
One large potato
One sweet potato (or another normal one - I had these because they were on special offer)
Three large carrots (good way to use up frost-damaged ones)
Half a tin of tomatoes (leftover from the other day)
Beans, probably the equivalent to a normal tin - I used chick peas and butter beans from the freezer though.
Three cloves of garlic.
Basically you 'make' this by putting the lid on the pot and leaving it to simmer for an hour! You can also add pearl barley, pretty much any root vegetable, or indeed onions except I didn't have one to hand...
Ingredients
A pot of stock - see the previous recipe for how I make this
One large potato
One sweet potato (or another normal one - I had these because they were on special offer)
Three large carrots (good way to use up frost-damaged ones)
Half a tin of tomatoes (leftover from the other day)
Beans, probably the equivalent to a normal tin - I used chick peas and butter beans from the freezer though.
Three cloves of garlic.
Basically you 'make' this by putting the lid on the pot and leaving it to simmer for an hour! You can also add pearl barley, pretty much any root vegetable, or indeed onions except I didn't have one to hand...
February 06, 2010 11:13 PM
photo borrowed from Seattle Magazine
I obtained some last-minute tickets to this week's sold-out debut of H3 by Grupo de Rua in Portland. This is the group's first US tour. The choreographer is Brazilian Bruno Beltrão, whose hip-hop and street dance fusion style of dance is not what I usually take myself out to see. I was feeling adventurous, and I trusted the group that brought them to Portland (White Bird's) judgement. The cheap, last minute tickets helped convince me too. This performance was part of the White Bird "Uncaged" series, where they brought in contemporary artists from around the world to non-traditional spaces around Portland.
The performance was in the Bison Building in NE Portland. The old, converted warehouse was a great space for this unusual piece. My friend and I chose front row seats, so we were only ten feet away from the floor-level stage. I could see the sweat dripping off of a dancer's nose at one point, and all of their breathing and movement sounds were that much louder, which really enhanced the experience. Keeping in mind that I spent ten years of my childhood dancing classical ballet, and am also a theatre nerd, here are a few things that really struck me about the performance:
Use of lighting: The simplicity of the space and focus on movement was enhanced by the minimalistic use of lighting. There were very few colored lights, which were used for a short period of the 50 minute performance. Most of the lighting came from white lights above and on light trees at the sides of the simple stage. There was also a light cord around the stage that was at one point the only light source. At another point in the show, one of the dancers brought one of the light trees on stage and was moving it around while others were dancing. Several times in the show, the illumination was partial, with only a few low-set lights on the light tree showing only parts of the dancers.
Use of music and sound: The first half of the show was done either with no additional sound or with a street-sound soundtrack running through it. This gave a very raw feel to the energy of the dancing, and also helped emphasize the sounds of the dancers. The second part of the show had some music which enhanced the particular sections of the performance very well. A particularly intense section had sounds that startled the entire audience, almost as if they were mimicking a gunshot.
Contrast between rage and awkwardness and sudden movements with control and grace and flow: As a dancer, I notice things that perhaps the normal concert-goer may not. I was not sure what to expect from this performance, I had never seen a professional hip-hop group, and I had no idea what kind of street dance came from Rio De Janeiro. What struck me was the fact that many of the movements that the dancers were doing were not what I was used to seeing on a stage. They seemed jerky, and awkward at times. Watching more closely, however, I could see how much control was put into the unusual movements. Each fall and each hesitation was very clearly controlled and planned. Even just listening to the landings of the dancers, I could tell that they were purposeful, despite how odd the angles were, and how fast some of the dancers landed. In the second half of the show, there were a lot of movements that I felt carried a lot of rage, but were simultaneously controlled and graceful. It was terrifying to watch the dancers dance through what seemed like a fight scene.
Amazing sense of body and space: There were moments when I was afraid the dancers would run into each other. The amount of energy that they had on a fairly small stage was amazing. At one point, two dancers were dancing in unison, with no music, and with their backs to each other. This shows, of course, the use of their feet and breath as indicators to the other dancer. But the fact that they could come so close and interact almost like a mirror was astounding. Fellow theatre kids may recall a partner game where neither leads, but you must act like each other's mirror. When they did this with dance on the stage it was breathtaking. The intricate movements that they mimicked, and the way they interacted also reminded me of another theatre game, machine. Where the movements of one person trigger the movements of another. Even with only two dancers, the coordination of movement was amazing. Another example would be the segments that included some or all of the dancers running backwards in circles together on stage, coming close but never running into one another. Simply the sound of feet moving so quickly and the suspense and worry that the dancers would collide made my heartbeat quicken. The third example, and probably the one that impressed me the most, was the cases where dancers would run at each other from across the stage, leap, and in mid-air interact, and then continue in their own direction. They grabbed each other by the waist, clapped hands, etc.
Body language: This falls under the bizarre but controlled movement category, but I found it especially striking. The rooster-like head movements, and some that made me think of angry horses, or gorillas ready to fight were very impressive. They contributed to the raw feeling that I felt throughout the show. It was so alive and so honest but simultaneously it was flawlessly choreographed and executed with so much control and strength.
Each dancer had their own forte that was very visibly used within the piece, which I find is unfortunately underused in many parts of the dance world. The fact that each dancer had his own niche in the machine of this show spoke wonders both about the choreography and the way the troupe works as a whole. Overall, I was very pleasantly surprised to find an amazing dance piece that absolutely blew my mind both for artistic and physical reasons. If you get the chance, I highly suggest seeing them, especially if you have history with dance or theatre, this piece is very captivating.
February 06, 2010 08:48 PM
February 06, 2010 08:35 PM
The acoustic version:
February 06, 2010 06:13 PM
This is the second part in Azrael's story: the story of her ill-fated kittens. Difficult to post about but here it is.
Azrael had two litters of kittens before I had at least enough sense to realize that I should get her spayed, because no one else was going to do it. Both were litters of three kittens. One of these litters was very lucky; my neighbour on the first floor adopted all three of them. She named them Alfie, Pogo, and Katya, the black, grey, and tabby ones respectively in the first two photos.
The other litter was not so lucky. Two of them, who I had named Tycho and Tibs (short for Ti-Boutte which roughly translates to Lil' Tip, because the very tip of his tail was white), were quite friendly and would come upstairs for food, and even come into the apartment. Their faces will always haunt me. Tycho was a beautiful light grey short-haired tabby, too curious for his own good, while Ti-Boutte and Traynor, the third brother, were adorable kitten-sized balls of long-haired brown tabby fluff, as playful as their brother if not as bold. Tycho and Tibs were both killed by cars while they were kittens. In both cases I heard the terrible news secondhand from neighbours.
Traynor, the most wary of the trio, never became comfortable enough to venture into the apartment like his brothers did. If he had, I would have kept them all inside and adopted them, but, misguidedly in retrospect, I didn't want to leave him outside "alone" without his brothers so I didn't keep the other two inside. What I should have done was actively catch him using a trap, while he was still a kitten. He stopped hanging around as much as he got older and his brothers were gone, and stopped using the insulated shelter box I had made for Azrael and her kittens during the winter. I don't think I saw him again for about a year, until unspayed Possum (whose story will be the third in the series) showed up on the block.
Traynor, nearly two years old, then reappeared, and got back into the habit of eating at my and my downstairs neighbour's windows. By this point, I had smartened up and Azrael was an indoor-only cat. When I saw Traynor back in the neighbourhood, I decided to catch him and give him a home and medical care, like I should have done the year before. The transition would certainly be difficult for him as an older feral cat, but with other cats to interact with and human caregivers prepared to give him as much time and space as he needed, it would be infinitely better than following the path of his brothers, older relatives, and so many others. I borrowed a trap from a friend who did TNR, asked the downstairs neighbour not to feed him as much so that he would be hungry enough to go into the trap, and spent the last month I was living in Montreal going out at strange hours of the night and morning, setting the trap and trying to catch him. It was a difficult, sleep-deprived and busy time as I tried to both finish my Master's thesis and catch Traynor before I was to move back to Ottawa.It didn't work. He entered the trap one night, ate the food, and the trap did not go off. I hadn't placed the food dish far back enough, and he was able to eat from it without stepping on the metal plate that activated the trap. As I watched silently from a distance, heart pounding, I hoped I would be able to just try again, and that having gotten food from the trap once, he would be more likely to go in next time. But when he turned around to exit the trap after eating, he must have stepped on the plate because at that moment the trap went off. Facing the exit and already on his way out, he was able to escape before the trap closed, and after that traumatic experience he would not go into the trap again. This is where a drop trap might have helped, had I known about such things at the time. With Possum off the street and spayed, he had already been coming around less, and the continued presence of the trap and myself didn't help that. By the time I was to move back to Ottawa a couple of weeks later I had only caught an unfortunate raccoon one night (whom I promptly released of course; set traps should not be left unattended for more than 10 -15 minutes or so at a time). I left with a heavy heart knowing that as a Montreal feral his life was likely to be very short and very difficult. I hadn't succeeded in helping him any more than I did his brothers the year before when I was much more ignorant of what I ought to do...
These are some of the results of domestication - abandonment followed by generation after generation of short, painful lives. This is happening all the time because humans view nonhumans, even the ones we supposedly love such as cats and dogs, as our property. Even people who are trying to help often have bad judgment, as I clearly did when I first became involved with the neighbourhood cats. This cycle is not going to stop while humans continue to consider animals their property, whether it's as objects to use or as "things with feelings", rather than as true members of the moral community who ought to be taken seriously and should not be exploited for financial gain, nor for emotional gain.We can all help by taking animals seriously and going vegan, educating others about veganism, and providing care for domesticated nonhumans in need.
Next time I'll continue with the story of Azrael's transition to an indoor cat. This part will have a happy ending, at least.
February 05, 2010 06:49 PM
Speciesist Compartmentalization
Compartmentalization is the separation of persons (including nonhuman persons), things, ideas, attitudes, or behavior into categories or compartments. Sometimes it is epistemically rational to compartmentalize (e.g. biology); other times it is epistemically irrational to compartmentalize (e.g. race or species prejudice).
Speciesism (like racism, sexism, and heterosexism) is the epistemically irrational prejudice of favoring one or more species over other species without a morally relevant characteristic providing justification. From the standpoint of irrational, unjustified prejudice, ignoring the morally relevant characteristic of intelligence in preventing certain classes of humans from obtaining an education is the same as ignoring the morally relevant characteristic of sentience in exploiting and killing nonhuman animals for food, clothing, research, and entertainment (all of which are unnecessary). Speciesism is one form of irrational, prejudiced compartmentalization.
An example of speciesist compartmentalization is when we pet and love a dog while a pig’s full body and head rotate over a fire pit. Why isn’t it the other way around? Better yet, why don’t we pet and love both the dog and the pig?
Other examples of speciesist compartmentalization are single issue campaigns. Why do we protest and publish “open letters” about fur, but ignore leather? Why do we have high-profile protests against seal “hunts”, aerial “hunts”, and canned “hunts”, but quiet down significantly about fishing and so many other “hunts” (all of which are unjust, one-sided, and cowardly)?
Since single issue campaigns are cases of speciesist compartmentalization themselves, such campaigns obviously reinforce prejudiced compartmentalization. Because of this alone, we should avoid them. If we insist on protesting an animal circus or a fur shop, we should make unequivocal vegan education front and center of the protest. If we publish an “open letter” to Johnny Weir, it should be an open letter to go vegan and reject the exploitation of all animals, not just cute furry ones.
Diseases and Symptoms
In addition to single issue campaigns being counterproductive by strongly reinforcing speciesist compartmentalization and confusing the public (most of “the public” sees the inconsistency better than the activists do), they are useless in that they address the symptoms of speciesism without addressing the disease of speciesism itself. As such, single issue campaigns, when they are at their “most effective” (a pathetic scene to be sure), act as temporary relief from one of the many symptoms of speciesism. As soon as the campaign is over, things go back to “normal” because there was never any treatment of the underlying disease of speciesism.
The only way to address speciesism as a disease is through vegan education. When people take animal interests seriously enough to embrace veganism, speciesism has been at least mostly eliminated in their case, and they no longer contribute to the thousands of varieties of symptoms. To use a metaphor I used in a far more comprehensive essay on single issue campaigns, Picking the Low Hanging Fruit: What’s Wrong with Single Issue Campaigns?, the tree of speciesism has been cut down for vegans and it no longer produces the “low hanging fruit” that single issue campaigns address: fur, foie gras, animal circus attendance, zoo attendance, and on and on.
Two Paradigm Shifts
There are two paradigm shifts people experience, each one reducing speciesism: first, embracing personal veganism; second, embracing abolitionist principles. Embracing veganism means rejecting speciesism in attitude, thoughts, speech, and behavior. At a minimum, it is avoiding the exploitation of animals and use of animal products in one’s life. Embracing abolitionist principles means rejecting single issue campaigns and welfarism and engaging in vegan education instead. Veganism is the personal manifestation of a commitment to eliminate speciesist prejudice and take animals’ interests seriously. Abolitionism is the public and political manifestation of a commitment to eliminate speciesist prejudice and take animals’ interests seriously.
Compartmentalization is the separation of persons (including nonhuman persons), things, ideas, attitudes, or behavior into categories or compartments. Sometimes it is epistemically rational to compartmentalize (e.g. biology); other times it is epistemically irrational to compartmentalize (e.g. race or species prejudice).
Speciesism (like racism, sexism, and heterosexism) is the epistemically irrational prejudice of favoring one or more species over other species without a morally relevant characteristic providing justification. From the standpoint of irrational, unjustified prejudice, ignoring the morally relevant characteristic of intelligence in preventing certain classes of humans from obtaining an education is the same as ignoring the morally relevant characteristic of sentience in exploiting and killing nonhuman animals for food, clothing, research, and entertainment (all of which are unnecessary). Speciesism is one form of irrational, prejudiced compartmentalization.
An example of speciesist compartmentalization is when we pet and love a dog while a pig’s full body and head rotate over a fire pit. Why isn’t it the other way around? Better yet, why don’t we pet and love both the dog and the pig?
Other examples of speciesist compartmentalization are single issue campaigns. Why do we protest and publish “open letters” about fur, but ignore leather? Why do we have high-profile protests against seal “hunts”, aerial “hunts”, and canned “hunts”, but quiet down significantly about fishing and so many other “hunts” (all of which are unjust, one-sided, and cowardly)?
Since single issue campaigns are cases of speciesist compartmentalization themselves, such campaigns obviously reinforce prejudiced compartmentalization. Because of this alone, we should avoid them. If we insist on protesting an animal circus or a fur shop, we should make unequivocal vegan education front and center of the protest. If we publish an “open letter” to Johnny Weir, it should be an open letter to go vegan and reject the exploitation of all animals, not just cute furry ones.
Diseases and Symptoms
In addition to single issue campaigns being counterproductive by strongly reinforcing speciesist compartmentalization and confusing the public (most of “the public” sees the inconsistency better than the activists do), they are useless in that they address the symptoms of speciesism without addressing the disease of speciesism itself. As such, single issue campaigns, when they are at their “most effective” (a pathetic scene to be sure), act as temporary relief from one of the many symptoms of speciesism. As soon as the campaign is over, things go back to “normal” because there was never any treatment of the underlying disease of speciesism.
The only way to address speciesism as a disease is through vegan education. When people take animal interests seriously enough to embrace veganism, speciesism has been at least mostly eliminated in their case, and they no longer contribute to the thousands of varieties of symptoms. To use a metaphor I used in a far more comprehensive essay on single issue campaigns, Picking the Low Hanging Fruit: What’s Wrong with Single Issue Campaigns?, the tree of speciesism has been cut down for vegans and it no longer produces the “low hanging fruit” that single issue campaigns address: fur, foie gras, animal circus attendance, zoo attendance, and on and on.
Two Paradigm Shifts
There are two paradigm shifts people experience, each one reducing speciesism: first, embracing personal veganism; second, embracing abolitionist principles. Embracing veganism means rejecting speciesism in attitude, thoughts, speech, and behavior. At a minimum, it is avoiding the exploitation of animals and use of animal products in one’s life. Embracing abolitionist principles means rejecting single issue campaigns and welfarism and engaging in vegan education instead. Veganism is the personal manifestation of a commitment to eliminate speciesist prejudice and take animals’ interests seriously. Abolitionism is the public and political manifestation of a commitment to eliminate speciesist prejudice and take animals’ interests seriously.
February 05, 2010 06:11 PM
...that make me happy.1. Free orange slices from a coworker2. The beginnings of Dashing3. Decaf lemongrass green tea4. Pandora.com5. The smell of my Jungle conditioner
February 05, 2010 05:44 PM
We haven't blogged in FOREVER. Eeps. Sorry. That's going to change soon. Mostly it's because I used to do all my blogging while at work (productive use of company resources mmmyes), and now I've changed positions and am super fucking busy during the day, and pooped when I get home. I promise though, we'll be better. XO!
Well with that out of the way, I wanted to point y'all in the direction of some awesome things going on this month.
First of all, on February 12th there's this awesome Vegan Valentine's Dance thingy being put on by a bunch of great people and featuring food from TONS OF PEOPLE including the fabulous ladies at both Sugar Beat Sweets and Fat Bottom Bakery! The price is a little steep but you get lots of free shit and since everyone vegan in the Bay Area knows each other, you're bound to see at least a couple peeps and guzzle beer at the same time! Also I've been to a different event in that same building, and I gotta say, the Brower Center is like California in that it knows how to party. It's pretty and big and super awesome.
Speaking of Valentine's Day and baked goods, the next San Francisco Vegan Bakesale is the following day, February 13th! Come stock up on sweets for your
Speaking of bakesales, check out Fat Bottom Bakery's review of the first ever East Bay Vegan Bakesale, complete with photos of cute people and dogs, here! (I'm the hottie in the blue hoodie and braids.)
February 05, 2010 11:23 AM
One of those things I invented as I cooked and OMG were the results amazing! It has Italian, Mediterranean, East Asian and Indian flairs all mixed in. I think I outfusioned myself with this one. :D
Spicy Hummus Ravioli in Mint Coconut Milk Sauce
For the Spicy Hummus:
Quick-soaked, drained and cooked Chickpeas
Toasted Sesame Seeds
Smoked Chipotle Tabasco Sauce
Asian Super Spicy Chilli Paste
Olive Oil
Coriander Powder
Raw Garlic
Lime Juice
Nutritional Yeast (if available)
Salt
Blend everything together adding a little water at a time until it reaches a creamy consistency. I determine ingredient quantities by the "taste and add and taste and add" method.
For the Whole Wheat Ravioli:
2 C Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 t Salt
3 t Oil
Water
Mix the flour and salt together. Rub the oil into the flour. Add a little water at a time and knead well into an elastic-y dough. Cover and keep aside.
Bring a large pot of water to boil, add salt and let it continue to boil. Start preparing the ravioli on the side.
Pinch off large balls of dough and roll them out thin like tortillas/chapatis. Use a circular cookie cutter (or the edge of a steel tumbler) and cut out rounds. Take one circle and spoon a bit of the hummus into the centre, cover with a second circle. Carefully seal the edges. You can make little twists all around the side for extra safety.
Prepare all the ravioli and then put them into the boiling water gently. Cook for about 20 minutes on a medium flame. About 5 minutes into the cooking, stir carefully so that they don't stick together or break. Do this a few more times through the cooking process. And start preparing the sauce on the side as the Ravioli boils.
If a couple of the Ravioli's break during the boiling process try not to fret. I used the cooking water as a stock to make soup the next day. :)
For the Sauce:
Big bunch fresh Mint Leaves
Thick Coconut Milk (about 1 Cup)
Green Chillies
Pepper
Salt
Blend everything together into a creamy sauce consistency.
How to proceed:
Pour a bit of the sauce into a glass baking dish. Place the ravioli in layers and pour the sauce between each layer. And top it off with the rest of the sauce.
Bake in a regular oven at 200 C/ 400 F for about 40 minutes or in a microwave in the convection+micro mode for 20 minutes.
Serve hot, garnished with grated carrot.
Enjoy! :)
For the Spicy Hummus:
Quick-soaked, drained and cooked Chickpeas
Toasted Sesame Seeds
Smoked Chipotle Tabasco Sauce
Asian Super Spicy Chilli Paste
Olive Oil
Coriander Powder
Raw Garlic
Lime Juice
Nutritional Yeast (if available)
Salt
Blend everything together adding a little water at a time until it reaches a creamy consistency. I determine ingredient quantities by the "taste and add and taste and add" method.
For the Whole Wheat Ravioli:
2 C Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 t Salt
3 t Oil
Water
Mix the flour and salt together. Rub the oil into the flour. Add a little water at a time and knead well into an elastic-y dough. Cover and keep aside.
Bring a large pot of water to boil, add salt and let it continue to boil. Start preparing the ravioli on the side.
Pinch off large balls of dough and roll them out thin like tortillas/chapatis. Use a circular cookie cutter (or the edge of a steel tumbler) and cut out rounds. Take one circle and spoon a bit of the hummus into the centre, cover with a second circle. Carefully seal the edges. You can make little twists all around the side for extra safety.
Prepare all the ravioli and then put them into the boiling water gently. Cook for about 20 minutes on a medium flame. About 5 minutes into the cooking, stir carefully so that they don't stick together or break. Do this a few more times through the cooking process. And start preparing the sauce on the side as the Ravioli boils.
If a couple of the Ravioli's break during the boiling process try not to fret. I used the cooking water as a stock to make soup the next day. :)
For the Sauce:
Big bunch fresh Mint Leaves
Thick Coconut Milk (about 1 Cup)
Green Chillies
Pepper
Salt
Blend everything together into a creamy sauce consistency.
How to proceed:
Pour a bit of the sauce into a glass baking dish. Place the ravioli in layers and pour the sauce between each layer. And top it off with the rest of the sauce.
Bake in a regular oven at 200 C/ 400 F for about 40 minutes or in a microwave in the convection+micro mode for 20 minutes.
Serve hot, garnished with grated carrot.
Enjoy! :)
February 04, 2010 05:53 PM
Shareable, a website that "tells the story of sharing,” invited me to write a how-to article for their site and I seized the opportunity in the hopes of inspiring similar efforts in other communities.
Read the article: How to Throw a Community Swap Meet
February 04, 2010 03:42 PM
[Click here for the German version~ Deutsche Version hier]
…with more bread. I know, but I can’t help myself. There’s nothing better than a fresh slice of bread. Call me carb queen.
Crispy and still warm
This bread is slightly dark, has a crispy crust, and it’s smoky. No, I didn’t burn it, I added smoked spelt and chipotle powder.
I have written on this blog about grünkern before: unripe, smoked, and then dried spelt berries. Grünkern is not available outside of Germany I guess, but apparently you can get something very similar in many countries. It is called freekeh, farik, or green wheat and is basically the same as grünkern only that it is made from unripe wheat berries. You can buy it at Middle Eastern stores or online and grind it into flour yourself, if you have the possibility. Of course you can substitute whatever flour you have on hand (wheat and spelt is best) and add a little more chipotle powder to the dough for similar results.
Grünkern. Grün means green.
Smoked Spelt and Chipotle Bread
100 g smoked spelt, ground into flour*
400 g German Type 1050 wheat flour**
350 g water
10 g fresh yeast or 3 g instant dry yeast (1 t)
10 g salt
1 t chipotle powder (1 1/2 if omitting the smoked spelt. Substitute mild smoked paprika, if you think it might get too spicy.)
* Use whole wheat or whole spelt flour instead
** This is similar to first clear flour (but first clear flour has a higher gluten content), use first clear flour or 50% whole wheat and 50 % bread flour instead.
Instructions: Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, knead for ten minutes until the gluten is well developed and the dough isn’t sticky anymore. Add more flour or water, if necessary. Cover and let rise for one hour or until doubled in size. Preheat the oven to 250°C (480°F). Shape the dough and let rise for 45-60 min, or until doubled in size again. Brush with water and sprinkle with spelt or corn meal. Transfer to oven, reduce temperature to 200°C (400°F) and bake for 45 minutes, or until nicely browned.
Filed under: Auf Deutsch, bread, German recipes, vegan Tagged: bread, food, recipes, vegan
February 04, 2010 02:57 PM
Nothing short of the Universal Access to all knowledge
http://www.norelpref.com/media/slack3/FeelANewSensation.mp3
http://www.norelpref.com/media/slack3/nothingToDoWithYou.mp3
February 03, 2010 06:23 PM
Not only was my phone out of batteries all day, I’d also managed to leave the charger at home. Mind you, I did have a secondary wall charger, but I took that one home during the move earlier this week, because I couldn’t find the regular one that I had at home. Then, to top it off, I’d also managed to leave my keys in the office. Hot.
Oh. And my wireless headphones went silent, because I hadn’t charged their batteries in days, but had been using them with my ipod on the way to and from work (40 minutes each way total time from door to door), as well as for about an hour or so before sleeping to get myself to sleep easier. Also, I almost left my hat on the train.
All was not lost, however. I noticed that I left my keys behind when I was still at the train station that takes me back downtown on express (at the 168th street A stop, which goes 168th st, 145th st, 125th st, 59th, 42nd, 34th, 14th, then West 4, which is where I need to exit to get to work. It’s really not that much of a bad trip, especially when I have a book with me to amuse myself.
I also managed to snag the downtown train just as it was pulling into the station, so there was barely any waiting to speak of. Best of all, I found my keys in the office, sitting right where I’d left them, put them back in my bag, and went back to the subway station to catch the train home. Still better is that I have an unlimited pass to ride the subway, so none of these rides cost me anything extra. And of course, best still is that when I do get home, it’ll be nice and warm, I have a fridge that’s reasonably stocked with food, and I’ve got some lovely new spices to put away, because Puppy went to replenish my stocks the other day.
All in all, not a failure of a day.
Oh. And my wireless headphones went silent, because I hadn’t charged their batteries in days, but had been using them with my ipod on the way to and from work (40 minutes each way total time from door to door), as well as for about an hour or so before sleeping to get myself to sleep easier. Also, I almost left my hat on the train.
All was not lost, however. I noticed that I left my keys behind when I was still at the train station that takes me back downtown on express (at the 168th street A stop, which goes 168th st, 145th st, 125th st, 59th, 42nd, 34th, 14th, then West 4, which is where I need to exit to get to work. It’s really not that much of a bad trip, especially when I have a book with me to amuse myself.
I also managed to snag the downtown train just as it was pulling into the station, so there was barely any waiting to speak of. Best of all, I found my keys in the office, sitting right where I’d left them, put them back in my bag, and went back to the subway station to catch the train home. Still better is that I have an unlimited pass to ride the subway, so none of these rides cost me anything extra. And of course, best still is that when I do get home, it’ll be nice and warm, I have a fridge that’s reasonably stocked with food, and I’ve got some lovely new spices to put away, because Puppy went to replenish my stocks the other day.
All in all, not a failure of a day.
February 03, 2010 01:31 AM
February 03, 2010 12:00 AM
Animal Matters is a weekly radio program on 90.1 KZFR in Chico, CA. Sarah Downs, your weekly host, discusses topics regarding the creatures who share their planet with us. You’ll hear interviews, information, and opinions from your host and the listeners in the Chico area. Tune in to KZFR 90.1 in Chico or www.kzfr.org every Tuesday at 5:30pm.
http://www.caringconsumer.com/resources_faq.asp
http://www.caringconsumer.com/resources_faq.asp?pf=true
http://www.peta.org/actioncenter/testing.asp
http://www.hsus.org/animals_in_research/
February 02, 2010 09:43 PM
I've been nominated for an honest scrap award by Penny at Scottish Vegan Homemaker and DJ at Skint Vegan- so thank you both!The rules of the award are simple:
1) Thank the lovely person who has nominated you and link back to them. Thanks again both of you! :)
2) Tell your readers 10 honest things about yourself.
3) Link to other blogs you feel embody the spirit of Honest Scrap and whose blog you find brilliant in design and/or concept.
So here's my honest scrap.
1- Pink Wafers are my latest food addiction! I've just discovered some of them are vegan(I'd always assumed they contained milk) so I'm making up for lost time, and am shovelling into some as I type!
2- I'm trying to grow my hair for my wedding(and to enjoy after it as well!), and as long as it looks nice and healthy, I'd like to get it down to my waist. Much easier and lazier than that traditional bride-to-be ritual of going on a diet and having a goal weight!
3- When I go shopping I tend to tidy things up- must be because I'm frustrated at people leaving stuff in a mess at their backside at work!
4- Hubby-to-be Jay is my toyboy at just 27- I'm 30 this September. And I do not feel nearly that old!
5- I love gently massaging Fudge the cat's front paws, and he loves having them massaged and puts them in my lap to be done! This makes Jay jealous as he also loves receiving foot and hand massages and asks if he'd get his done more often if they were covered in fur and he purred!
6- Despite being a vegan, I love all things vampire-related, from Buffy to Twilight to Anne Rice, and I watched Count Duckula, the Vegetarian Vampire duck when I was a kid! I'm currently reading the Sookie Stackhouse Mysteries series by Charlaine Harris(which the True Blood TV series was based on). I like werewolves too!
7- I honestly never imagined myself getting married- always thought I'd end up a crazy cat lady spinster type!
8- I have lots of things in the cupboard that I've bought for trying out a complex recipe I've read somewhere, and never got round to doing yet. I usually manage to squeeze in the recipe just before it's due to go past it's sell-by date!
9- My handbag carries a lot of nonsense, from a variety of medicines to an umbrella to a book currently being read and sometimes if I'm near the end, the next one in case I finish the first one before I get home, but I'm not taking anything out and making it lighter because I carry all these things "just in case" and if I do, I'll probably regret it!
10- I have a great memory for trivia and can often answer obscure questions on game shows etc, but anything important I'll probably forget!
My nominations are
Darmok The Green -
Kitchen Dancing -
Skint Vegan -
Scottish Vegan Homemaker-
Half Pint Pixie-
Two Vegan Boys-
February 02, 2010 09:21 PM
I'm eating my way around the world again!
Where to next? Barbados? Belize? Brazil? How about Britain? I was wandering around Asda on Sunday afternoon when I was struck by an overwhelming desire for pie. It was four-thirty at that point, so I knew I was out of time for getting anything made for that night, but it got me to thinking about one of the most famous working class dishes to come from old London Town - Pie and mash with parsley liquor. You traditionally eat this in one of the many Pie and Mash Shops dotted through South and East London, or if you like, you can plump for stewed eels with chilli vinegar. (I know, I know... )
The pie and mash are pretty self-explanatory - the pie is traditionally a minced beef pie though you can now get vegetarian pies too, the mash is mashed potato - but the real authentic touch is the liquor. The base for the liquor is usually the water held back from stewing the aforementioned eels. (Sorry... I just threw up in my mouth a little there.) It's used to make a clear gravy made green by the addition of copious amounts of fresh parsley. There's no describing it really, you'd just better see for yourselves.
There. Pretty green, right? It divides cockney pie-lovers in the same way marmite/vegemite divides the rest of us - you either love it or hate it. The addition of a tablespoon of malt vinegar to the recipe is optional, but offers a bit of tartness to take the stodgy edge off all that carb-laden goodness. Initially I was like 'Oh! I'd better make a mock mince pie!' But then I remembered my dad waxing lyrical about some amazing spicy bean pasties he'd had from some shop in Manchester and my craving for pie became a craving for spicy bean and cheezly pie. So, that's what I did. I used pre-rolled puff pastry to make my pie-cases and lids. I filled my pie with cajun-style baked beans and grated cheezly. The recipe is so simple it's insulting, but I'm going to list it anyway!
PIE (enough to fill 6 individual pie cases)
Pre-rolled sheet of puff pastry
1 tbsp cooking oil - I used carotino
1 large onion, finely diced
1 banana shallot, finely diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 rib celery, diced
1/2 green pepper, diced
1 tbsp sundried tomato paste
1 tbsp cajun-style seasoning
1 tsp hot sauce
1 tsp vegan worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp liquid smoke (optional)
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 can baked beans
1/4 cup water
1/3 cup grated mozarella-style cheezly or other melty-style cheeze
Glazing mix - 1 tbsp soya milk mixed with 1 tbsp cooking oil
Method: Preheat the oven to GM6/400oF/200oC. Heat the oil over a medium heat in a heavy-based frying pan. Fry the onion and shallot for 5 minutes until translucent. Add the green pepper and celery and fry for another 10 minutes until veggies begin to soften. Keep a close eye on your veggies to ensure they don't burn, reducing the heat and adding a splash of water if necessary. Add the minced garlic, tomato paste, cajun style seasoning, hot sauce, vegan worcestershire sauce, pepper and liquid smoke. Fry for a couple of minutes stirring constantly to stop the seasonings from sticking. If necessary (at any point) use some of the water to deglaze the pan. Then add the can of baked beans and the rest of the water before bringing to the boil. Turn down immediately, and simmer for about ten minutes, stirring occasionally. In the meantime, line and trim your well-greased pie cases and cut out circles slightly larger than the circumference of your pie cases for the lids. Spoon your filling into the pie case until 3/4 full. Then sprinkle some grated cheeze on top. Moisten your pie rim with water and put on your pie lid, pressing down around the edges to seal. Brush the pastry lid all over with the soya milk-oil mix. Make a hole in the middle of the crust to allow the steam to escape and pop into the oven for 20-25 minutes - until the crust is golden brown. Serve with mashed potato, mushy peas and parsley liquor.
PARSLEY LIQUOR
4 tbsp vegetable oil
1 heaped tsp plain flour
1 1/2 cup water (I use the water held back from boiling the potatoes for the mash)
1/2 tsp bouillon powder
4 tbsp fresh or dried chopped parsley
1 tbsp malt vinegar (optional)
Metal Whisk
Method: Heat the oil in a small saucepan over a high heat. Sprinkle the flour over the oil and start whisking. Whisk until the roux becomes a smooth golden paste, then add the potato water, whisking constantly. Once the roux and liquid are well combined you should have a translucent sauce the consistency of gravy. Remove from heat and add the remaining ingredients, stirring thoroughly to combine. Pour over your pie and love... or hate!
'Allo, me little cocksparrer!
February 02, 2010 09:00 PM
...that made me smile today.1. LOST Season 6 speculation, and the party at Bill's tonight to watch the premiere2. Jon Stewart3. Asian pears4. Plum blossoms5. My Sugar Beat Sweets t-shirt
February 02, 2010 02:03 PM
With morning coffee comes lackadaisical googling. This morning's web-meandering led to some interesting finds, including the following:
It's apparently Meat Week, according to a CBS News article ("Carnivores, Delight: It's Meat Week") about the goings on concerning it in NYC. "We know it is stupid," the NYC event's organizer admitted.
I'm wondering how other vegans feel about (and deal with) food-related gatherings (involving family, work or friends) where animal products are part of the feast. Is it a non-issue for you? Do you grin and bear it, but try to minimize the number of occasions that come up? Do you sit silently, or do you take the opportunity to educate others about animal exploitation? Do you Do you defer questions that may be asked until after the meal? Do you altogether avoid participating in meals where animals or animal products are consumed?
I'm looking forward to hearing about your different experiences!
It's apparently Meat Week, according to a CBS News article ("Carnivores, Delight: It's Meat Week") about the goings on concerning it in NYC. "We know it is stupid," the NYC event's organizer admitted.
Meat Week was conceived by two bored coworkers in Tallahassee, Fla. Back in 2005, Erni Walker and Chris Cantey were using a word generator on Cantey's Web site that came up with the "holy combination" of "meat" and "week." [...] Now the gospel of meat overindulgence has spread across the country as 16 cities have organized chapters venturing to barbecue restaurants from Jan. 31 to Feb. 7. -- with some locations drawing as many as 70 meat eaters a night.OK, the eye rolling was a given with this one, but what actually caught my attention in the CBC article was when they continued by saying that
[i]n fact, many participants at Meat Week are vegetarians. The draw for many is the communal, family-style environment that is the hallmark of many Southern-style barbecue restaurants.I find it difficult to wrap my head around a reality where people who eschew animal products and who would purportedly be "appalled" by an event completely devoted to eating as much animal flesh as one can stuff into one's stomach would be drawn to its "communal, family-style environment". Could I be wrong or should I assume that the event's founder was being facetious?
"That's why a lot of vegetarians come out, even though they are appalled by what's going on around them," Walker said.
I'm wondering how other vegans feel about (and deal with) food-related gatherings (involving family, work or friends) where animal products are part of the feast. Is it a non-issue for you? Do you grin and bear it, but try to minimize the number of occasions that come up? Do you sit silently, or do you take the opportunity to educate others about animal exploitation? Do you Do you defer questions that may be asked until after the meal? Do you altogether avoid participating in meals where animals or animal products are consumed?
I'm looking forward to hearing about your different experiences!
February 02, 2010 01:55 PM
- Gluten-free pizza topped with jerusalem artichokes, garlic, and olive oil
What started out as a small pantry challenge, ended in a very delicious, moist, and fluffy gluten-free pizza and bread dough. Whith the help of my grain mill I was able to turn lots of untouched grains into flour, which ended up in a gluten-free pizza dough.
As a frequent bread baker I am quite fond of gluten and would never have thought that a gluten-free pizza could be equally good. (Yes, I know, the usual tiresome prejudices.) But this was. And the crispy crust paired up so well with the toppings: olive oil, garlic, and thinly sliced jerusalem articokes. Because made I way too much dough for our two person household, I used the remaining dough for a gluten-free loaf, which also came out pretty well:
gluten-free bread
When I searched online for gluten-free bread and pizza recipes, I realized that many recipes call for three or four eggs to replace the missing gluten. Usually, when a recipe calls for four eggs, I turn around and look somewhere else. But researching gluten-free baked goods made me aware of a completely awesome egg replacer which I have never used before: psyllium husk. It works similar to flax, but has stronger binding abilities. I was able to find a box at an Indian market. (German health stores only sell whole psyllium seeds and not husks.) The husks look like this. Usually they are used as a laxative, but these little seeds also have miraculous binding qualities. To repalce four eggs, I whipped up one tablespoon of psyllium husk powder with one cup of hot water and 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Slimy, but working:
Psyllium egg replacer
Gluten-free pizza crust and bread recipe
(makes one large pizza crust and one loaf of bread, loosely based on this recipe.)
Update: A reader suggested to add some sugar to the dough to avoid bitter undertones in the finished pizza crust. If you feel like it, you can add a tablespoon or two of your favourite sweetener.
110 g Milchreis, ground into flour. Yield: 2/3 c *
45 g amaranth, ground into flour. Yield: 1/3 c**
117 g millet, ground into flour. Yield: 3/4 c
157 g Harina P.A.N. (1 c)***
70 g cornstarch (1/2 c)
70 g gluten-free flour mix (1/2 c)****
1 T ground psyllium husk ++
1 c hot water
2 T olive oil
2 2/3 c lukewarm water
10 g salt
42 fresh yeast (or 14 g [0.5 oz] instant yeast = 2 envelopes)
* Milchreis (“milk rice”) is a rice used for rice pudding. In Germany it’s a staple in most households. It’s a short grain rice. You can use glutinous rice, arborio, or any other sticky short grain rice instead. Use regular white or sweet rice flour, if you don’t have a grain-mill.
**Quinoa works, too.
*** Use masa harina instead.
**** I used the gluten-free flour mix which I have previously used for muffins. Fell free to use a store-bought gf all purpose flour mix.
++ ground from 2 T whole husks, in a coffee grinder
In a large bowl, combine all flours and mix well. Pour the psyllium husk powder into your food processor. Add hot water and olive oil. Pulse until everything is well combined and has thickened up (see picture above).
In a large bowl combine remaining 2 2/3 cups of water and yeast. Stir and pour into flour mixture. Add egg-repalcer mixture and salt. Use a hand-held mixer to blend the mixture properly. The dough will be more like cake batter than like bread dough. Cover the bowl and let the dough rise in a warm place, for about 30 minutes.
Grease a round pizza pan (28 cm [11inch] in diameter) with olive oil and scoop out 1 1/2 cups dough into the pan. Spread evenly and set aside.
For the bread, pour the remaining dough into a loaf pan (make sure to grease it very well) and sprikle with sesame seed. Set aside the loaf pan and let the dough rise for 1 hour.
Spreading the dough.
Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F) and prepare your pizza topping. We used three jerusalem artichokes, sliced very thinly. The wonderful flavour of those starchy vegetables goes very well with this kind of crust. But of course you can use any topping you like.
Spread the dough with olive oil. Slice 3 cloves garlic very thinly and sprinkle on top. Slice the jerusalem artichokes very thinly and place on the dough. Season with salt, pepper and more olive oil, if you like.
Preparing the pizza.
Bake for 25 minutes until the crust is golden brown. Serve immediately and don’t forget to bake your bread. 200°C (400°F), 45 minutes until golden brown. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, remove and let cool on a rack.
This stuff is good!
February 02, 2010 11:48 AM
First and foremost, I feel as though I owe the people at McDougall's foods a huge apology. They sent me one of the nicest box of samples I have ever received, and it has taken me until now to review it. Sorry guys. Thing is, I've been busy eating their soup.
It really is the perfect time of year for soup, and frankly, I don't really like making it, so the many boxes that graced my doorstep one November evening were a welcome addition to my kitchen.
This is the good stuff, not only because it comes in pretty boxes instead of cans, but its better for you. To show you why, I conducted a face off between the lentil soup and a can of lentil soup that has been migrating around my pantry for a few months.
The first thing you'd notice is that McDougall's is larger. However, they both contain two "servings" of soup. Check out the nutrition information:
Canned
The canned soup has more calories, more fat, more sodium, more sugar, less fiber, and less protein.
Don't get me wrong, it isn't exactly a low-sodium food, but it definitely has less than its canned counterparts without tasting like water. Oh, did I mention that yet? That it tastes good too?
I set out to tasting it right away, which was made convenient by the pristine white bowl they sent me.
Yes, we eat in front of the TV
I set out to trying the minestrone first, which has always been one of my favorites. I love the veggies along with the beans and the pasta...its just perfect. McDougall's version did not disappoint.
Please try to ignore the embarrassing background of the garbage/recycling
The next day I wanted more soup. With my pretty white bowl all dirty and in the dishwasher, I had to improvise and use one of my own green bowls. This time we went for black bean, with a few cubes of avocado for good measure.
Definitely try avocado in your soup, its a nice addition, especially for black bean. This soup was perfectly hearty and warm...what black bean soup is best known for.
While they didn't send me this, I also took the liberty of trying their instant soups at work one day, and it was another version of their black bean.
The flavor in this, was really good. I couldn't figure out what it was at first, then I remembered that it was black and and lime. Definitely had a lime-y-ness to it. Unfortunately, soup was just not made to be powdered and instant. It was okay, but it just didn't come together completely. Bits were still crunchy, and it there was goopiness at the bottom even though I mixed throughout eating it. Not bad in a pinch, but not a staple either.
By now, we've tried almost all the soups, but of course, I had to leave you with the classic: Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup...with McDougall's Chunky Tomato soup, of course.
Just as good as it looks, made with Follow Your Heart Cheddar, dunked in warm chunky tomato soup, this was a perfect meal at the end of a long week.
So if you are in the market for some convenient soups, give McDougall's a try. I know I have seen them popping in at my local Giant and Wegman's, which is nice and the weather is cold!! They're made from a group of people focused on wellness, and as far as healthy packaged soups go, they are pretty tasty too.
February 02, 2010 03:30 AM
I was hesitating to put this recipe here since it really has nothing to do with Japan. But whatever, I eat it in Japan, therefore it's relevant.
I wake up super crazy early for my job (5:30 people!). So I'm not really much in the mood for doing anything, the easier breakfast the better. I came up with this recipe off of several different ones that I'm sure some of you have come across.
It's super flexible, so have fun with it!
Ok, so basically it's oatmeal, but I don't cook it. Now, I think oatmeal is not a raw food (correct me if I'm wrong, so even though I don't cook it, it's not raw). Anyway, the basic idea is to soak oatmeal for at least an hour or two possibly over night. Then rinse it and drain it for about 10 minutes. Then add any fruits, nuts, or dried fruits you want. It's good with a nice crispy green apple. But apples and fruit in general is super expensive here and I'm also lazy to chop stuff. So I kind of ran with that basic idea...
I start soaking my oatmeal while making dinner. That way if I'm not to tired I can prepare this whole thing the night before, otherwise I just let it soak overnight. I soak it with a few dried fruits, especially ones that might benefit from plumping back up like blueberries and cranberries. Then I rinse and soak it, the same as above. Then I add it to my food processor with a couple bananas and sometimes a tablespoon or so of peanut butter and process. I like to leave mine a little chunky. Then I pour it into a container. Add nuts or other fruits or dried fruits and mix. I often add sunflower seeds and walnuts. This keeps in the fridge for about 3 days! So there you go, I have three days breakfasts made in less than 10 minutes. Then in the morning I just scoop out as much as I want and since it's been pretty cold, I stick it in the microwave for just a little bit (40 seconds). The bananas make it sweet enough that I don't need to add any sugars. And I get in a couple fruit servings as well as some good Omega 3s. Also, it keeps me full throughout most of my morning.
There are some many other ways you could make this, like adding a fruit jelly or flax seeds. I also had some left last Friday, so for dessert I added 1 Tablespoon of cocoa powder and about 2 Tablespoons of maple syrup and instantly had a 'healthy' dessert!
Alright, I'll try to post something more relevant to Japan next time.
--Pamela
I wake up super crazy early for my job (5:30 people!). So I'm not really much in the mood for doing anything, the easier breakfast the better. I came up with this recipe off of several different ones that I'm sure some of you have come across.
It's super flexible, so have fun with it!
Ok, so basically it's oatmeal, but I don't cook it. Now, I think oatmeal is not a raw food (correct me if I'm wrong, so even though I don't cook it, it's not raw). Anyway, the basic idea is to soak oatmeal for at least an hour or two possibly over night. Then rinse it and drain it for about 10 minutes. Then add any fruits, nuts, or dried fruits you want. It's good with a nice crispy green apple. But apples and fruit in general is super expensive here and I'm also lazy to chop stuff. So I kind of ran with that basic idea...
I start soaking my oatmeal while making dinner. That way if I'm not to tired I can prepare this whole thing the night before, otherwise I just let it soak overnight. I soak it with a few dried fruits, especially ones that might benefit from plumping back up like blueberries and cranberries. Then I rinse and soak it, the same as above. Then I add it to my food processor with a couple bananas and sometimes a tablespoon or so of peanut butter and process. I like to leave mine a little chunky. Then I pour it into a container. Add nuts or other fruits or dried fruits and mix. I often add sunflower seeds and walnuts. This keeps in the fridge for about 3 days! So there you go, I have three days breakfasts made in less than 10 minutes. Then in the morning I just scoop out as much as I want and since it's been pretty cold, I stick it in the microwave for just a little bit (40 seconds). The bananas make it sweet enough that I don't need to add any sugars. And I get in a couple fruit servings as well as some good Omega 3s. Also, it keeps me full throughout most of my morning.
There are some many other ways you could make this, like adding a fruit jelly or flax seeds. I also had some left last Friday, so for dessert I added 1 Tablespoon of cocoa powder and about 2 Tablespoons of maple syrup and instantly had a 'healthy' dessert!
Alright, I'll try to post something more relevant to Japan next time.
--Pamela
February 01, 2010 05:43 PM
For the record, the apartment we moved into is a prewar. The ceilings are extremely high, the detail on the walls and floors are fairly nice, and the walls are extremely thick. Some of my friends asked me for pictures of my new digs, so I obliged yesterday, when Puppy and I got cracking on setting the thing up. It was so much work, but it was well worth it, in my opinion.
The other thing about moving that I've noticed is that your entire life is pretty much on front street. All those little things that you thought you'd forgotten about in the recesses of your house come back to haunt you, and all the people helping you to pack have a pretty clear view of your dirty laundry (be it literal or metaphorical). It's a weird experience, because rarely does every intimate thing you own come up for scrutiny.
It was OK though, because the friends helping us to move have known us a long time, and don't really judge. They know how many spices I have hiding in the nooks and crannies of my pantry. They're well aware that I own many pairs of shoes. Seeing six large garbage bags full of clothing didn't manage to shock anyone at all.
Then there was all the stuff that you'd been meaning to fix, but never got around to. I decided to get rid of all such things, because if I haven't done so in two years, what makes me think that I'll do it now? Nothing at all. Out the broken clothes, electronics, etc. went. I also did a serious thinking about the dishes that we actually use in day-to-day life. The ceramic plates and such went away, to be replaced by the stainless steel dishes we use all the time. The glass tumblers were replaced by stainless steel as well.
I guess that ideally, I'd be OK with living in one apartment for many years, and not have to do this. However, having this forcible move thing going down means that I need to take stock, and seriously consider what needs to come with me, and what can be left behind. I'm happy to say that I managed to get the stuff I really did want, and leave behind the rest.
January 31, 2010 10:39 PM
Oh that sign… that place
That sign… that place brings back so many fond memories. It is one of the symbols that represents the Eug and many happy times and memories for us. If you are ever in Eugene you MUST try Mommy’s Falafel. Don’t let it being in a gas station scare you. That is all part of the charm. I believe before coming to Eugene the owners had a restaurant and they have plans for opening a stand alone restaurant in Eugene. Right before we moved they updated the food area (which you can see a little bit of in some of the pictures below) and made it pretty cool looking. But, even before that it was still awesome. This is probably one of the greatest finds in the history of personkind. Beats having to make do with chips or cookies or finding places such as Subway or Quiznos in a gas station any day of the week. Not to mention the owners are a family and extremely friendly.
Here is me waiting for our food to be done. 
That huge smile is partly because I knew that I soon would be having the deliciousness that is Mommy’s Falafel and fries which when combined with a soda/pop (depending on your preference 
) is the Falafel Combo. We are a fan of having them add hot sauce and highly suggest you do as well.
But the smile was more so because of the company that I had (Wozzie). Finding/eating tasty food is awesome but sharing the experience with good company is what makes it really great and awesome and takes it “Over the Top” (Pretty awesome movie that you should check out. Trust me ). If you have that always make sure to take advantage of it and appreciate it.
For some reason they always gave me the messy sammie
and always gave Wozzie the neat sammie.
Hmmm…
Tagged: comfort food, Eugene, falafel, reviews, sandwiches
January 31, 2010 09:19 PM
I love Earl Grey tea. It's a light, refreshing cuppa with an irresistible twang of citrus thanks to the addition of bergamot oil to black tea. I'm not a strong tea drinker (unlike Skint Vegan Dad) but I still like a tea to taste of what it says on the packet. So, I've decided to selflessly embark on a quest to find my favourite brand of Earl Grey - one I feel I could confidently recommend to anyone. In the past I've drank some good, some bad and some that was just a bit... well - meh! So I shall rate future brands accordingly. I will re-visit some truly egregious brands again in the name of fair play. My reports will be sporadic, as they will depend entirely on how quickly I get through a box of tea. Leaf tea trumps bag. Any questions? Good! Lets start, shall we?(Disclaimer: I'm buying these teas with my own coin, for my own drinking enjoyment. Nobody is sending me boxes of teas to review because, quite frankly, if you've ever read any of my product reviews before, why would you want to let me near any of your products? )
Brand: Duchy Originals Organic Earl Grey - the Prince of Wales' brand.
Steeping time: For a relatively flavourful cuppa 5-8 minutes is my recommendation. Mash the tea-bag on the way out. Otherwise you might end up with a milky cup of water.
Colour:
Warm amber and with a swirl of soya milk it retains that warmth of colour, no greyness in sight.Flavour: Unmistakable citrussy aroma that leads to disappointment upon first sip. The scent is not backed-up by the flavour which falls short. Only the faintest whiff of orange. Very delicate - too delicate for me.
Verdict: Will it be Good?
Bad?
I think in this case, we'll go for 'Meh!'.
A perfectly nice cup of tea once steeped for long enough, but not flavourful enough to be a serious contender in the Earl Grey stakes.NB: I am looking for a good cup of Earl Grey - I know that Lady Grey tea has a far more pronounced citrus hit due to the addition of lemon to the bergamot oil, but as I drink tea with soya milk I prefer the more delicate zing that Earl Grey offers. Any suggestions as to which brand of tea I should try next from my little British chums would be much appreciated!!!
Well, this is exciting! The search for the perfect cuppa has begun...
January 31, 2010 07:26 PM
Azrael was born semi-feral outside my apartment building in Montreal in the spring of 2003, during the first year my now-ex and I lived there (this was before I was even vegan). She is a sweetie, and a somewhat neurotic cat. She's quite nervous around humans, the (partial) exception being that she generally trusts me. So when I say she's a sweetie, basically she's my sweetie but tends to appear skittish and/or aloof to other humans. Her nickname is Zella.
She's usually gentle with humans and doesn't lash out at them (i.e. the vet -- she just sits scared and immobile while being examined), but most of the time prefers to run and hide when there are strangers around. Even with me, she loves getting petted but only on her terms, in her familiar "safe" places and situations. She sometimes lets my partner pet her as well, but in even more limited situations. Her story will be long, since it also includes stories of her family members who were not as lucky as she. This also makes it one of the more difficult of this series of blog entries for me to write about. For these reasons I'm just going to start with part of her story now, and continue it next time.
As a long-haired brown tabby cat, Azrael has a bit of the appearance of a Maine Coon cat, except that she's tiny (only 6.6 lbs) while Maine Coons are normally in the 15-20 lb range. Sometimes I joke that she's a "miniature Maine Coon". Since she's so thin, she's been tested more than once for FIV and feline leukemia, and the vets always check her thyroid, but their conclusion is that there's nothing wrong with her, that she's just a naturally skinny girl for some reason.
Azrael's mother was a black cat who may have been fully feral (I was never able to get close to her). We nicknamed her Blackie (I know, very original). As far as I know, she moved on once her kittens were old enough to be on their own. Azrael's father was a sweet stray white cat who was probably abandoned at some point, who lived around the building and was fed by two sets of neighbours on the first floor , and then also by me when he started showing up at my window (it was pretty startling the first time, to look over and unexpectedly see a face looking in the window!). One couple downstairs would put out a shelter-box for him in the winter. To be honest, I can't know for sure that he was Azrael's father, since a litter of kittens can have more than one father, but he was definitely the father of several of her siblings as they were all-white as well. He also got along better with the kittens than male cats are typically thought to, hanging around and getting along with them long after their mother had moved out of the area.
I called him Whitey (again with the originality!). Whitey had runny eyes and greasy-looking dirty tail fur, basically looked like a grizzled old alley cat, and he also happened to be a very nice guy, enjoying getting petted as well as getting food. Unfortunately the couple downstairs, who I later learned called him Casper, didn't take him in since they had a cat who didn't like other cats. I was also in that situation myself as my feline friend Alan who moved out of my parents' home with me was still living with me at the time. That fall Whitey stopped coming around, and I later learned that he was killed by a car. Unfortunately this is going to be a common refrain in my stories from that neighbourhood, especially with respect to Azrael's relatives.
I have to say that at that time I really had no idea what I was doing as far as helping cats goes. Simply putting out food for stray cats and hoping for the best is not the way to help cats, it's a way to give oneself warm fuzzy feelings, perhaps. I'm certainly not saying *not* to feed stray and feral cats, but in order to help them, food and water are not enough. Spaying or neutering and getting the cats indoors, if at all possible, are also essential, especially in urban areas. Some cities have programs for spaying and neutering stray cats at low cost or even for free, and occasionally you may also be able to find a sympathetic vet who will do these surgeries at reduced cost if you explain the situation. It pays to ask around. Borrow or buy a live trap for catching the more feral cats, or make your own drop trap.
Azrael had four or five siblings, and as they grew up they started climbing the spiral staircase of the fire escape like their parents, to ask for kibble that I would put out on the windowsill for them. Three or four of them were white cats (I'm not quite sure in retrospect if the shyest white one was actually one or two different cats), two of whom were relatively friendly at the window. The last sister of the bunch was a light grey tabby. Azrael and her friendlier brother and sister, nicknamed Whitey Jr. and Pita (short for Spanakopita -- don't ask why, I'm not sure myself), were the most common visitors to my windowsill. Gradually, though, fewer and fewer of the siblings came around, and I will never know if any of them were adopted by neighbours, whether they moved out of the area, or whether they were killed by cars. I hope for the former, but the latter was really more likely in that neighbourhood, with the traffic and narrow side streets constantly lined by parked cars on both sides. I can't help but think that I could have prevented whatever horrible fate at least some of them must have met, if I had had the sense to catch them all and keep them indoors. (I would also be living with about two dozen cats now, but that's another matter...)
As the kittens grew up, Azrael became the most frequent visitor at my window, and eventually the only one left among her siblings. She got into the habit of having me pet her while she ate, and to this day she prefers eating this way. It seems like she feels safer, whereas without me there, she's more likely to be bothered by one of the other cats, or a noise, and so to suddenly "lose her appetite" and run away without eating. Food is generally not a big interest or motivator for her, compared to other cats, and she's very sensitive to being disturbed. This is certainly one of the reasons that she's so thin. So, I always stay with her at feeding time, petting her and trying to keep the other faster-eating cats from nosing into her dish or circling her and sniffing at her tail (Thor does this regularly; he knows it will upset her and she'll run away leaving her dish open so that he can move in), and encouraging her to eat more than she would have otherwise.The funny thing about how she runs away when another cat bothers her at the food dish is that she's one of the more dominant cats in the household. If one of the younger cats is goofing off near her, they might get a Look that stops them in their tracks and causes them to take off in the other direction, knowing that a swat in the face won't be long to follow that look. She also absolutely hates when other cats fight, and upon hearing hissing, growling, or other sounds of fighting, will come running from wherever she is to break up the fight. More than once I've seen her leap off one of the highest platforms on the floor-to-ceiling cat tree and go running off to break up a fight. I call her "the enforcer".
In general she gets along relatively well with most other cats though, and although she's mostly solitary she has been known to sleep next to Thor, Jasmine, Julius, and up until recently Fred, on occasion throughout the years. She doesn't like Fred these days, since the two most recent additions, Wade and Seymour, have upset the heirarchy lately. Fred, accustomed to being the alpha male before the newcomers arrived, has been upset that he no longer seems to be the dominant male, and is taking it out on other cats, one of them being Arzrael. (I kind of wonder if he started bothering her because she would come to physically break up the fights he was picking with Hanna Harriet not long ago, which maybe gave him the impression that she "started it" with him...) So for now, Fred dominates Azrael, Azrael dominates Wade and Seymour, and Wade and Seymour dominate Fred, making a strange circular situation that will hopefully resolve itself soon! It's sad to see Azrael scrunch up, flatten her ears on her head, and hiss at Fred when he comes near her, when up until recently they used to sleep next to each other on the bed.
Next time I'll continue with the story of Azrael's transition to becoming an indoor cat, and the unfortunate story of the kittens she had before that happened. Azrael's relatives, as well as EssPee's (whom you'll meet later) were a big influence on the development of my views against domestication and the concept of "pets". It's another form of exploitation, like the use of animals for food, clothing, and other purposes. If you're not already vegan, please consider taking animals seriously and going vegan. And if you have the ability to do so, please consider adopting an animal in need, like Azrael once was, from a shelter, rescue group, or off the street if there are strays in your area. Check out my other posts or the links in the sidebar for more info about veganism and animal exploitation, and be sure to check back here for the next part of Azrael's story.
January 31, 2010 06:39 PM
Now if I was a sensible young lady, there would be lots of pictures of all the goodies Shane and I bought at yesterday’s vegan bake sale for Haiti. But since it’s me, I ate everything except one muffin before I could take pictures:
But it’s a damn fine muffin! It’s a cranberry almond muffin and it’s moist and delicious 
We also got a gluten free coconut lime cupcake, a green tea cupcake, zucchini bread, and two kinds of cookies. Hey, I had to stuff my face, it was for a good cause! The bake sale was at the Animal Rights Coalition in Minneapolis and they raised $580 for the animals of Haiti, yay!
-Kala
January 31, 2010 04:49 PM
These are the sites in which I obtained my information for today’s program:
http://www.pcrm.org/health/veginfo/vsk/what_about_milk.html
http://www.goveg.com/factoryFarming_cows_dairy.asp (Note: within this site are links to numerous other pages with more and more information. Instead of posting all the links here, I’ll let you find them.
http://www.vegforlife.org/earth_protect.htm
January 31, 2010 04:27 PM
I had hoped to be able to post a new dress, but I ran out of matching thread and used the last bits of my white marking pencil and we are snowed in. The dress I’m currently working on has a total of 12 darts and nothing is showing up on the dark purple. So, instead we get to look at some lovely pattern goodness. This marks the end of my pattern buying before my No Spender Bender starts tomorrow. I can’t believe I’m already going to use up a free pass, but I am bidding on a couple eBay auctions that end on Feb 2. I bid on them before I made the decision to use Feb 1 as my start date.
This first pattern is the dress I’m currently working on, in a dark purple twill. The jacket will match and I hope it will be a 4 season dress.
January 29, 2010 08:34 PM
Come out and indulge in some of the finest vegan sweet treats Atlanta has to offer while helping support those devastated in Haiti! All proceeds will be going to Doctors Without Borders/MSF USA.Criminal Records is located at 1154 Euclid Ave NE in Atlanta's Little 5 Points Neighborhood (12-4pm). I'll be there with vegan treats from my cookbook that is currently in production Quick and Easy Vegan
January 29, 2010 07:48 PM
Not together though, because that would be gross! First, apple butter:
Delicious homemade jarred apple butter, nothin’ better! This was a gift from a friend, I’ve never canned anything and am kind of scared to try, I’m lucky to have such talented friends! Today I had it on an english muffin on top of a bit of peanut butter and it was yum-tastic.
And now banana pudding:
It’s not really pretty, but it sure is tasty, and I don’t even usually like banana pudding! I used this recipe from the Affectionknit blog, a vegan food/crafty blog that I love. The only change I made was that I mashed the banana right into the pudding instead of having them sliced at the bottom. Super easy and makes just enough for 2 small servings or one large serving.
-Kala
January 29, 2010 02:36 PM
What could possibly be a more stereotypical image of animal rights activists in pop culture than that of their demonstrating outside a fur store? For almost 20 years, groups like PeTA, as Prof. Gary L. Francione recently discussed on his Abolitionist Approach website ("The State of the Movement"), have been mangling perceptions of animal advocacy horribly by nurturing this stereotype, while singling out the fur industry as particularly worthy of the ire of those who take the interests of nonhuman animals seriously. But is the fur industry really any more worthy of such ire? As one advocate recently pointed out Twitter, for instance, 'fur' is skin and hair while 'leather' is skin. To obsess over people's wearing of fur while turning a blind eye to others' wearing of leather (which is much more common and involves so much more loss of life) seems odd and illogical. Furthermore, as Prof. Francione often points out when discussing anti-fur campaigns, considering that a large percentage of those who wear fur are women, fur becomes a convenient and sexist target. After all, when's the last time you saw PeTA demonstrators bombard a leather-clad biker with paint-balls?
Single-issue campaigns are problematic on many levels, not the least of which is that in focusing on this or that thing, other equally relevant issues get sidelined or marginalized. The impression given is that the object of the single-issue campaign in question carries more ethical significance. Sometimes, the very focusing on a single-issue can even lead advocates themselves to get a little lost--to lose sight of the wider or broader reasons that campaign may have been deemed important. This all becomes so tricky in a morally schizophrenic and speciesist society where we already have people categorizing some nonhuman animals as "pets", some as "food" and some as "pests". It becomes tricky in a society where many are drawn into believing that the consumption of flesh is more ethically troublesome than the consumption of animal products like milk or eggs, and then choose to eschew one for the other and convince themselves that they're making a huge difference in the lives of those nonhuman animals.
Somewhat telling (albeit somewhat less significant when looking at the big picture) is that with all of these years of anti-fur campaigning, PeTA hasn't even managed to effect any sort of tangible and permanent change in the general public's thinking concerning the wearing of fur. A recent article in the UK's Telegraph ("Why Fur is Fashionable Again"), for instance, discusses the resurgence in popularity of wearing "vintage furs", but as the editor of Red fashion magazines states in it:
I think the wearing of any fur at all, vintage or otherwise, anaesthetises the wearer. You’re only one gold card away from a new fur coat if you’ve bought an old one.Ironically, another industry insider quoted in the article--one who admits to wearing so-called vintage fur--actually nails the problem with single issue campaigns and the resulting confusion from their mixed messages quite effectively, saying: “I can’t understand people who’ll [...] eat supermarket battery chickens, and then give me a hard time for wearing fur.” Where does this confusion come from? Animal advocates engaging in the sort of welfarist campaigning that either a) flat-out condones certain forms of animal exploitation (e.g. Erik Marcus applauding Jonathan Safran Foer, a promoter of "happy meat"-- see here and here) or b) lauds wee incremental changes to small segments of a wider-scale problem (e.g. HSUS spending so much money from its supporters to pressure restaurants to use cage-free eggs rather than educating consumers about not consuming eggs or other animal products in the first place).
More recently, the organisation Friends of Animals posted an open letter on its website to figure-skater Johnny Weir, in response to a New York Times article describing an outfit he wore at the US Figure Skating Championships as including fox fur. Priscilla Feral, Friends of Animals' President wrote:Please consider that there’s nothing pretty about the fox that suffered and died to trim your outfit. The beautiful fox was likely anally electrocuted, or may have had its head bashed in, only to serve as decoration for someone’s performance.Feral announced on Twitter yesterday that "Johnny Weir's NEW decision to not perform in real fur at Olympics--victory for Arctic foxes, lynxes,wolves- free-living animals in nature." Um, OK... But what of the leather skates that Weir will inevitably wear, not unlike the skates worn by most professional figure skaters? Why all the fuss over one bit of skin and hair worn by a celebrity athlete, while ignoring that he and most of his fellow-skaters customarily wear skin (and otherwise consume animals)? Considering the several postings on the Friends of Animals website, the numerous tweets from Feral and others, the supposed faxes sent off hither and thither (including one to his costume designer, as reported here) and the claim that Weir's decision is somehow a "victory", one is left to wonder if the victory is more in terms of the publicity generated for the group than one for nonhuman animals.
If you buy fur, no matter what size piece, or which animal it comes from, you’re supporting an industry that has no respect for animals.
So? From this mini media blitz, the public is left confused about the ethical significance of wearing one part of one animal's body rather than another's. Where Weir himself is concerned, he's no further ahead in terms of having had his conscience shifted; the reason Weir touted as being behind his decision to forgo wearing the fur is that he's purportedly received "threats" concerning it since the blitz started. Where is the victory here? All I see is a lost opportunity to earnestly educate people about the exploitation of animals and to educate them about veganism. (Check out Gary L. Francione's blog post from earlier today on the Weird story.)
The truth is that whether one chooses to wear leather, fur or silk, animals are exploited and treated as though they're ours to use. Whether one eats flesh, milk, eggs or honey, animals are exploited and treated as though they're ours to use. It seems to me that the most straightforward, simple and honest message that we can deliver as members of the "animal movement" is this: The only way to remove oneself from the cycle of suffering into which billions of nonhuman animals are enslaved and slaughtered every year is to actually remove oneself from the cycle altogether. When we start playing fast and loose with the term "ethical" or obsessing over single-issue campaigns, we lose sight of advocating for the most logical means by which to attain the best-case scenario for nonhuman animals. Instead of spreading (or implying) the misleading message that it's worse to consume one animal product over another, why not advocate for veganism?
January 25, 2010 10:16 AM
Qua's Guide to the Music of Argentina
Ok I was asked about music in Spanish, and really my area of expertise is Argentina! So I thought I would make a wee post.... and it got kind of long! I should just stop now before it gets out of hand :) Artists are organised roughly by genres, and I linked to example songs on youtube. I could just keep doing this forever, haha, but I think I have the main artists :) Umm also it's difficult to pick my favourites. If you would like more information about an artist, please let me know. I didn't want to write paragraphs here! It's already long enough! Feel free to share. Enjoy :)
Tango (so much could be written, I'm not going to do it, these are just some that I like!)
Anibal Troilo Sur
Astor Piazzolla Libertango
Carlos Gardel Volvió Una Noche
Roberto Goyeneche Naranjo En Flor
Adriana Varela (a more recent example) Con La Frente Marchita
Folk
Mercedes Sosa Balderrama; Gracias A La Vida; La Flor Azul
Divididos con Ricardo Vilca en Tilcara Guanuqueando
Eduardo Falú Zamba de la Candelaria
Jorge Cafrune Que Seas Vos
Atahualpa Yupanqui El Carrero
Beatriz Pichi Malen (Mapuche singer) Kadü Wallëng
Punk
Flema Siempre Estoy Dado Vuelta; Vahos Del Ayer
Todos Tus Muertos El Feretro; Gente Que No; Andate
2 Minutos Ya No Sos Igual
Ataque 77 No Me Arrepiento De Este Amor
Metal
Hermética En Las Calles De Liniers Gil Trabajador
Almafuerte A Vos Amigo; Triunfo
Rata Blanca El Sueño De La Gitana
v8 Destruccion
Horcas Vencer; Esperanza
Rock
Divididos Haciendo Cosas Raras; Cielito Lindo
Las Pelotas Muchos Mitos
Los Piojos Ruleta
Bersuit Vergarabat El Baile De La Gambeta; El Tiempo No Para
Catupecu Machu Plan B; Viaje Del Miedo; Cuentos Decapitados
Pappo's Blues Sucio y Desprolijo
Los Redondos (Patricio Rey y sus Redonditos de Ricota) Ropa Sucia; Rock Para Los Dientes
Charly García No Voy En Tren
Andrés Calamaro / Los Rodríguez Mi Enfermedad
Fito Páez Al Otro Lado Del Camino
Soda Stereo Música Ligera
La Renga La Balada Del Diablo Y La Muerte
Erica García Positiva
Gustavo Cerati Déjà vu
León Gieco El Imbécil; Para La Vida
Pescado Rabioso Todas Las Hojas Son Del Viento
Reggae/Mixed
Sumo / Luca Prodan Regtest; El Ojo Blindado; Mejor No Hablar De Ciertas Cosas
Ska/Mixed - This stuff seems to be quite popular in Argentina, not sure how much it does for me but thought it should be part of a write-up on Argie music :)
Kapanga Me Mata
Karamelo Santo Nunca
Los Auténticos Decadentes Corazón
Los Fabulosos Cadillacs La Luna
Cumbia Villera
Piola Vago Tevez villeando Ha this is mostly for novelty :) But cumbia is very popular in Argentina. You go out into the provinces, in the middle of nowhere, and if there's only one radio station for the next 100km it will be cumbia :)
January 24, 2010 07:16 PM
Hey, it's been a while! I had a good Christmas and New Years in Chicago and Vermont. I skied a lot, went sledding a lot, and played in the snow A LOT. One night in Vermont, we got a record breaking 33 inches of snow. It was light, fluffy, and perfect for playing and skiing in.
On New Years Eve, my dad and I gave blood (he did, I tried but couldn't) and got a bunch of free First Night buttons. We spent the afternoon and evening going to shows. My favorite was, once again, Garrett Brown .
Got stuck as usual and came home four days late. It was all good though. No place I'd rather be stuck.
Yesterday morning, on a warm and rainy January day in Minnesota, I ran a 5k through St. Paul. I ran with my mom and people from her work. Afterwords, we went to Day by Day Cafe and had hash browns and tofu scramble. Super yummy and a good option for a St. Paul vegan breakfast.
Asian Chili
On Friday night I made this Asian Chili. I wanted something spicy, and I was laking ingredients and this is what I came up with. It is based off of the Pan Asian Chili from The Vegetarian Chili Cookbook.
Ingredients
3 tablespoon safflower oil
1/2 brick extra firm tofu, cubed
4 scallions, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon ginger powder
1 tablespoon chili garlic sauce
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon agave nectar
2 cups frozen broccoli
1 8oz can tomato sauce
1 cup salsa
2 tablespoons tamari
1 can kidney beans
1/2 cup water
Cilantro and toasted sesame seeds, for garnish
Cooked jasmine rice
Directions
1. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large pot over high heat. Add the tofu cubes, flipping occasionally until golden on all sides. Remove from the pot and place on a paper towel to drain.
2. Add the remaining tablespoon of oil, turn down heat to medium-high, saute the carrots and scallions until slightly caramelized. Add the garlic, ginger, chili powder and stir to coat.
3. Add the broccoli, tomato sauce, salsa, agave nectar, tamari, chili-garlic sauce, kidney beans, and water. Stir and let simmer until the carrots are tender. Stir in the tofu.
4. Serve over the jasmine rice, and top with sesame seeds and cilantro.
Have fun!
Anyway, tomorrow is my first day of my senior year of high school (sort of. ha.). I'm super excited. Hopefully I will get around to posting more, though I'm kind of busy for the next couple of weeks.
January 24, 2010 06:51 PM
Larry, demonstrating the muddy state of the pig yard
Patches is 12 years old, and suffers from the usual indignities that come with old age: arthritis, and greater difficulty in getting around. She spends most of her time in the smaller pig barn, which is where most of the older pigs prefer to hang out.
It rained quite a bit this past week, so the pig yard was a mess. A boot-sucking muddy mess.
Patches had left the barn after being hassled by one of the other pigs, and she just couldn’t get herself back to it. Normally she can, but not only does she have arthritis, she has some weakness in the rear legs, and the mud makes it a thousand times more difficult.
In other words, she needed some help.
So, we have: a 500lb pig (I’m guessing at the weight), who is arthritic and weak in the rear legs and we also have a muddy quagmire of a pig yard. And we have Dave and four women. We might be strong, but we’re still kind of puny.
The mud was cold, and she was shivering. Dave got an old burlap bag or something of the sort, that he rolled up so we could use it as a sort of sling. This was all so much more difficult than you might imagine. First, Patches was laying in a way that didn’t have her rear feet under neath her, so we had to shift her to the side a bit and back her up so that she was facing the right way and had her legs under her. By sheer chance we were able to get the towel under her belly. Of course for a second we had Dave’s leg under her as well! Thank goodness not much of her weight was on his leg!
Once we had the towel under her belly, we tried lifting her rear end up. Two of us on each end of the towel. This didn’t work all that well, so we then got it behind her, sort of under her butt. Sheryl on one end of that towel, me on the other, Dave directly behind Patches using all his strength and his body too to help push her along, all of us slipping and sliding in the mud. Amy and Lisa were to her front, directing her toward the barn, motivating her with cantaloupe bribes , and keeping the other curious pigs away.
I wasn’t sure we’d be able to do it for a while, but then suddenly we got Patches standing up! Even then it was difficult, because the mud would suck us all in, and at the same time it gave us no purchase. She had a hard time lifting her feet out of the mud, but of course we were all having that problem. She slowly would take steps forward, and when we finally got to the area closer to the barn the ground was solid, our system collapsed, the towel slipped, and Patches was half laying down again.
We all rested and regrouped, and Patches was trying again before the rest of us. We quickly put our backs into helping her stand up, and damn if she wasn’t up and moving again in a heartbeat. Much easier on solid ground!
She got into the barn, mostly with Dave’s help by then, and laid down in a pile of hay, comfortable and dry again, and I’m sure quite exhausted. Her leg muscles were quivering from the exertion. So were the rest of ours.
I can’t remember the last time I have been so covered in mud! Dave actually had to change before finishing the rest of the chores with us.
Some people might hear this story and wonder how much Patches is suffering, or question the quality of her life. The truth is this: Patches has arthritis and she is on meds for that. She is not suffering, and normally she can get around, though with increasing difficulty. Her time is slowly drawing to a close, as all life does, but the end is not here yet, it is not yet her time. We’ll keep helping her, fighting with her and for her; getting muddy is nothing compared to what I would do to help these animals.
Patches on 12-25-2009.
Meanwhile, Terry was on her way to a vet hospital about 3 hours away. A cruelty case in NC where the animals were starving to death and living without shelter, where piglets had frozen into the mud and died, ended up with the judge giving all of the animals back to the person who neglected them so severely. A couple of them were sick enough that their “owner” considered them worthless and therefore allowed them to be rescued; after spending a week at the vets, those three are home now at Poplar Spring.
Helping Patches reminded me of helping Wilbur, back when he struggled so mightily to stand and walk. And both are testaments to the strength of will that we all have to survive. To live.
January 24, 2010 04:38 PM
I was inspired to join the No Spender Bender by the lovely ladies over at http://vintagemission.blogspot.com/ and http://inkyknits.blogspot.com/. They started on Janurary 1, so I’m late to the party. I’ll be joining February 1. My goal is to rey to limit unnecessary spending. I’m going to follow the rules to are floating all over the internet. I will give myself a pass on consumables, as long as they are needful. A new lipstick is fine if I run out, but not if I just want a new color. The same goes for sewing notions. I typically don’t buy matching zippers and buttons when I buy fabric online or without a project in mind. The No Spender Bender rules do not apply to anything bought for use no my hairstyling clients. Most of the rules allow for 3 free passes, as well as deals just too good to skip. I will add another rule, I get a free pass if I sell something of equal or greater value first. I will also be making an effort to control the clutter in the house. Since I will be trying to avoid online window shopping, I plan to use that time to go through the kids’ old toys, my closet, the basement, ect.
January 24, 2010 12:15 PM
Well, it had to come to this eventually. I'm making my own chocolate bars. Or rather chocolate stars.
It's not hard, but it does take a little practice. You need to get a good feel for how the chocolate changes consistency as it tempers, and you need to be able to work pretty fast. Also, each chocolate will have it's own idiosyncracies, so you may need to adjust the tempering temperatures by a degree or two. Also, all chocolates taste different, so you have to play around with various chocolate: cocoa butter: sugar ratios until you find the one you like and that works with the particular chocolate that you use. But the basic idea is that you temper chocolate, and then pour it quick quick into a mould (I use silicon muffin cases). Tempering chocolate gives it that snap and sheen (untempered chocolate is fudgy, tempered chocolate snaps). For the dark chocolate I use, I heat all the cocoa butter+ half the cocoa liquor + all the sugar in a double boiler up to 115F, then remove it from the heat and stir in the remaining cocoa liquor in an double cooler (what I've decided to call it when you fill the bottom pot with cold water instead of simmering water) while stirring like mad. Then when the molten chocolate reaches 83F, pop it back on the double boiler for a few seconds (until it reaches 85F) and then add whatever flavours you want and pour it into moulds. A much better explanation of tempering chocolate is here. I mostly just practiced until I got it right.
Key 1: the chocolate should never, ever come into contact with water. Like with gremlins, water = disaster.
Key 2: this takes practice. Luckily, few people complain about having to eat slightly mistempered chocolate. And you can always turn botched batches into cakes or brownies. Many of my friends have said that they are willing to "eat as much chocolate as it takes" for me to get to the point where I can make the perfect chocolate bar. I have such selfless friends.
Key 3: you cannot make good chocolate out of cheap or bad chocolate. You need good ingredients or you might as well just melt a bunch of chocolate chips and pour them into moulds. Meh. If you do that, please don't tell me about it. It will hurt my soul.
I use raw cocoa liquor and cocoa butter that I order from here. I like the way raw chocolate tastes, and also like that I can order the cocoa liquor and butter separately, which lets me actually mix the chocolate to the taste and consistency I want, instead of just tempering pre-mixed, pre-sweetened chocolate.
My proportions:
80g cocoa liquor, chopped very finely
20g cocoa butter, chopped very finely
20g sugar, ground up a bit in a mortar and pestle
Though I usually make about 600g total at a time. Sometimes it's nice to use vanilla sugar, sometimes not. This makes a fairly dark and bitter chocolate that can go with salty things just as easily as it can with sweet, which I prefer. For something smoother, use 60g cocoa liquor 40g cocoa butter, and 30g sugar. For kid-friendly batches, I use equal amounts chocolate liquor, and cocoa butter, and I blend a few sundried bananas into the cocoa butter (about half as much banana as cocoa butter), then use about 50 g of sugar for every 100g of the cocoa liquor/cocoa butter/banana mix, depending on the sweetness of the bananas and the sweet tooth of the child. I like to use granulated sugar, just slightly crushed so that the resulting chocolate has a bit of a grainy texture from the sugar. I also like that the sweetness is slightly uneven. If you want perfectly smooth chocolate, use icing sugar (reduce the amount slightly).
In the chocolates above, the ones with roses are marbled with sesame fun. Sesame fun is 1 cup of toasted and then ground sesame seeds, 1 tsp vanilla, 1 tbs sugar and a good pinch of salt all mixed together and then 1/2 cup of melted cocoa butter added to it. If you a) use ready made tahini or b) skip the cocoa butter, it will be too runny to set. This is more like semi-ground sesame crumble held together with cocoa butter. It should not be spreadable, runny or oily like store bought tahini. Also, these are not filled chocolates (making filled chocolates does not amuse me, so I refuse to do it). It's a marbled chocolate, but with tahini marble instead of white chocolate marble. To be honest, I really don't like white chocolate much. I make it for other people from time to time, but that's about it. Ahem. So... to make the tahini chocolates, get a batch of dark chocolate ready to go, and have your tahini filling ready. Pour a layer of dark chocolate into the mould, then add a dollop of the tahini marble and marble it through the dark chocolate with a chopstick. Pour a layer of dark chocolate on top, and drop a dried rose onto it. You have to work pretty fast, so make sure that everything is laid out beforehand. Well tempered chocolate should set almost instantaneously. In fact, a good way to check if your chocolate is tempered is to drop a wee bit of it onto a dry plate. It should harden to a nice glossy chocolate "button" in a few seconds. If it doesn't, chances are that you haven't tempered the chocolate properly.
I also made a batch of olive oil chocolates sprinkled with vanilla salt. Other combos I've made: thyme and toasted pine nuts, ancho chili and vanilla and pumpkin seed, vanilla and salt, garam masala, rose, gold, frankensence, myrrh (can you tell what I did for christmas?), roasted cumin, black pepper and mace and nutmeg, ginger.... and of course just plain (which truth be told, is my favorite). And some others that I don't remember just right now. I've also made a few different vegan white chocolates, since people seem to like white chocolate.
For white chocolate:
80g cocoa butter
30-50g vanilla icing sugar (depending on how sweet you like your white chocolate)
40g powdered coconut milk
Melt the cocoa butter over very low heat. Stir in the other ingredients. Pour into moulds. I like to add 1/2 tsp cardamom to white chocolate. You can also add 1 tbs matcha powder and have green tea chocolate, which is lovely. In that case, omit the cardamom, and add a few drops of almond essence. Depending on the brand of coconut milk powder you use, your white chocolate may or may not taste like coconut. I use coconut milk because the consistency of white chocolate made with powdered soy milk (at least anything I've found in the UK) can only be described as "gross". So there. I've said it. White chocolate made with powdered soy milk is yuck, and I refuse to participate in it. For white chocolate with cool texture (I think of this as "adult" white chocolate), you can blend a mix of almonds and cashews, about 50g, to a powder (NOT a butter), and then blend them into the melted cocoa butter. This is especially nice with the green tea flavour. I've also done this with saffron, which was bloody amazing. You have to extract the saffron in warm cocoa butter beforehand, like pot, only legaler. It makes orange chocolate. Yay!
Finally, don't use slave chocolate. People shouldn't suffer for your sweet tooth, and chocolate is a luxury good, so please don't whine about having to *gasp* actually pay someone for the hard work they do to grow, pick, and process it. There is nothing romantic about using slave labour to make goodies for your sweetheart.
January 23, 2010 09:43 PM
I apologise to readers for not mentioning my engagement earlier, as I was engaged in November, I actually thought I had, although Penny did mention it in a reply to one of my posts! Jay proposed after he went shopping while I'd been at work, and said he'd bought me an early xmas present, then gave me this box...
...Which had this card inside...
He had looked at rings, but wasn't sure what style I'd like, so he wanted to take me shopping to pick my own. So I chose this ring, which is tanzanite(Jay's birthstone) with diamonds on white gold...
:) :) :) :) :) :) :D !!!
We haven't set a date yet, although we would like to get married ASAP, and are currently looking into the details(venues, dresses, honeymoon destinations...). It's going to be a small and intimate wedding, close family only, in a registry office because we're both atheists, and we're going to go for a meal after it(vegan of course!).
I've been looking at dresses, and so many wedding dresses have silk in them, but I have seen a few I've liked that don't and are vegan-friendly. This 100% polyester number from Debut @ Debenhams is my current frontrunner , although they didn't have a size 12 in stock. I tried a size 10 on, which I liked although it was a little too small, so I'm really hoping the 12 fits and I'm not, as I often irritatingly find to be the case, a perfect size 11!
A close runner up, which was a perfect fit and also my mum's favourite out of everything I'd tried on, was this dress here, also Debenhams Debut. I'd highly recommend a look in Debenhams Debut to vegan brides to be as they have a lot of non-silk vegan-friendly fabrics in their collection.
BHS is also worth a look as they have lots of animal friendly fabrics too, although nothing I tried on was a good fit on me- but that doesn't necessarily mean it'll be the case for everyone, as I should mention that I wear an unusual bra size anyway. I did see lovely shoes there though!
Back with more wedding gossip soon!
Yours excitedly,
Kris xxx
...Which had this card inside...
He had looked at rings, but wasn't sure what style I'd like, so he wanted to take me shopping to pick my own. So I chose this ring, which is tanzanite(Jay's birthstone) with diamonds on white gold...
:) :) :) :) :) :) :D !!!We haven't set a date yet, although we would like to get married ASAP, and are currently looking into the details(venues, dresses, honeymoon destinations...). It's going to be a small and intimate wedding, close family only, in a registry office because we're both atheists, and we're going to go for a meal after it(vegan of course!).
I've been looking at dresses, and so many wedding dresses have silk in them, but I have seen a few I've liked that don't and are vegan-friendly. This 100% polyester number from Debut @ Debenhams is my current frontrunner , although they didn't have a size 12 in stock. I tried a size 10 on, which I liked although it was a little too small, so I'm really hoping the 12 fits and I'm not, as I often irritatingly find to be the case, a perfect size 11!
A close runner up, which was a perfect fit and also my mum's favourite out of everything I'd tried on, was this dress here, also Debenhams Debut. I'd highly recommend a look in Debenhams Debut to vegan brides to be as they have a lot of non-silk vegan-friendly fabrics in their collection.
BHS is also worth a look as they have lots of animal friendly fabrics too, although nothing I tried on was a good fit on me- but that doesn't necessarily mean it'll be the case for everyone, as I should mention that I wear an unusual bra size anyway. I did see lovely shoes there though!
Back with more wedding gossip soon!
Yours excitedly,
Kris xxx
January 23, 2010 09:28 PM
This is a ridiculously short post but I was craving this like crazy the other day and was so super happy once I finally had it to nom down on.
I love several of the selections that Imagine Foods has for their soups and nothing beats their creamy tomato soup when you are looking to dip a hot off the skillet grilled cheese sammich. The “cheese” of choice for these, for me, is always Tofutti. While most would go with the American slices, my palate adores the Mozzarella for this comfort food.
So, anyway, silly easy and not much to tell but everyone has a comfort food, ya know. Tell me, what’s yours?
NOM.
Tagged: cheeze, comfort food
January 22, 2010 03:37 PM
Igår pratade jag om "Framtidsvisioner för djurrättsrörelsen" på Djurens Rätts föreläsningsserie i Stockholm. (Mer info och länkar till kommande föredrag här.) En del som inte kunde komma eller inte bor i storstadsdjungeln har undrat om föredraget kunde filmas och läggas ut på nätet. Och filmas kunde det, tack vare en ideell insats i Djurens Rätt Stockholm. Tack för det! Nu ska mina powerpointbilder klippas in också, så det blir begripligt för den som tittar, men det kommer på nätet vad det lider.
Anyhow, det var inte det jag tänkte säga nu, utan bara det här:
Eller annorlunda uttryckt: Det är ni som är konstiga, det är jag som är normal.
Anyhow, det var inte det jag tänkte säga nu, utan bara det här:
"Vegetarianism is often regarded as an eccentric moral view, and it is assumed that a vegetarian must subscribe to principles at odds with common sense. But ... the opposite is true: the rule against causing unnecessary pain is the least eccentric of all moral principles, and that rule leads straight to the conclusion that we should abandon the business of meat production and adopt alternative diets. Considered in this light, vegetarianism might be thought of as a severely conservative moral stance."
— James Rachels, Created From Animals: The Moral Implications of Darwinism, 1991, s.212.
Eller annorlunda uttryckt: Det är ni som är konstiga, det är jag som är normal.
January 21, 2010 05:40 PM
Gary Francione: "Violence treats others as means to ends rather than as ends in themselves. When we engage in violence against others -- whether they are human or nonhuman -- we ignore their inherent value. We treat them only as things that have no value except that which we decide to give them. This is what leads people to engage in crimes of violence against people of color, women, and gays and
January 21, 2010 05:39 PM
If there is anything to get things moving concerning speciesism, it is pointing out the bizarre division between animals who are institutionally used as companions and therefore granted a higher value in being kept alive than in being killed, and those whose value is realized in their being transformed into what is considered food as quickly as possible. A division which Gary Francione has
January 21, 2010 04:33 PM
MySQL is the most popular open source database solution, with approximately 1/3 of the market share. Oracle is one of the most popular commercial database solutions, with nearly 1/2 the market share. Oracle didn’t get where they are today by being stupid, and pissing off those currently using MySQL by saying “LOL WE PWN MYSQL 1USERZ! NOW YOU HAVE TO BY ORACLE!!!!!!1111″ isn’t going to make the MySQL users reply with “Well, shucks! I guess we need to buy Oracle now.” They would more likely reply with “STFU WE’RE FORKING MYSQL INTO OUR OWN PROJECT!” MySQL is open source. People will continue to use and maintain it even if Oracle makes a sad attempt to kill it. If Oracle tries to pull some shit with the MySQL patents, then they’ll just convince current users to migrate to PostgreSQL.
I suspect Oracle will continue to offer MySQL, probably re-branding it. They will most likely take on MySQL support and the proprietary sales, as many customers pay for that service.
Remember SCO, the failing company that went all Machiavellian about their alleged proprietary software being incorporated into Linux? Remember what happened to them? That’s right. Oracle doesn’t suffer from being a failing company run by idiots. They wouldn’t be where they are now if they did. They won’t make the same mistake SCO did.
January 21, 2010 09:27 AM
Episode 38 a/b – Current Events, Blackwater Case, Bullshitatarianism Abounds. In this new episode I touch on Tweet with care, US HIV ban ends, dolphin smart, new airline hoopage, condoms cancel rapture reservations, imprecatory prayers, Praying for Obama’s death, Gitmo scare tactics, CIA hired Blackwater for assassinations, Vanity Fair?, sexist journalism, Michael Leiter’s timing faux pas, cognitive infiltration, Obama Admin ball droppage, Haitian earthquake, compassion takes a holiday, Blackwater case dismissed in US, Iraq government says bye bye Blackwater, Mollie Katzen, more bullshitatarians, the flexitarian falacy, music, e-mail and more. The show ran long and had to be divided up once again. You can listen to the show via the player to your right or click the links to download 38 and to download 38b. Please get involved in the 1 Million Mad March. For more to come, visit 1 Million Mad, see our site.
Scientists say Dolphins too smart to mistreat!
Why does this Vanity Fair article hate the women of Twitter?
White House Defends Absentee Terror Head
Obama Staffer Called for Government infiltration of Conspiracy groups.
January 20, 2010 10:41 AM
It's been a long time. The last blog I posted was back in July. Wow, that was quite some time ago. I've come back to blogging because I miss it. Yes, my life will be insanely hectic for the next 9 months as I prepare myself for graduation, but that doesn't mean I have to give up on what makes me happy. Blogging made me happy for the 1 year that I dedicated myself to it. It was so much fun and it helped me learn a lot more about what it is to be vegan and how to be a healthy one at that.
Ok, enough chatter. Here are a few things that I've eaten lately:
Grits and Kale/tomato/garlic tofu scramble:
Close Up Shot:
Sauteed Seitan Over Rice
Ok, enough chatter. Here are a few things that I've eaten lately:
Grits and Kale/tomato/garlic tofu scramble:
Close Up Shot:
This is definitely one of my favorite things to eat for breakfast. Grits are amazing AND filling. I didn't feel hungry again for many, many hours. Plus, you can't go wrong with kale, tomatoes and garlic.
Sauteed Seitan Over Rice
When I first started cooking seitan I thought it was horrible. I followed someone's recipe and found it to be completely YUCK! That's right! Com-plete-ly YUCK! I gave up on it. Few months later, being the open person that I am, I decided to give it another go. I used Isa Moskowitz's Simple Seitan recipe from VEGANOMICON and I have never had a problem with it since. Thanks, Isa.
Israeli couscous w/ Spinach and Tempeh:
MmMmMm... So good:
The Holidays:
Garlic Infused Seitan Roast w/ carrots, broccoli, mushroom:
My plate assembled:
No Recipes this post, but I am having a much anticipated Vegan dinner party at my good friend Rob's house on the 31st. There will be plenty of pictures and I'll definitely throw some recipes at you. I may even have video footage for you all!
-Lee
This was very good. It was one of those "I just got home from working all day/throw something together really quick because I'M STARVING" dinners. Not a complete dinner but it was midnight and I just needed food.
The PIZZA:
Now that my good friend Heather lives in town again it gives me the opportunity to cook with someone. She's not vegan but is very interested in learning about the lifestyle and is open to trying just about any food I throw at her. This pizza was simple. Red pepper tomato sauce, sliced sun dried tomato Tofurkey Italian Sausages, thick slices of mushroom and topped off with Daiya Vegan Cheese. The melting was pretty good, but what got me was the taste of Daiya. Absolutely delicious. Won't mind using this every time I make pizza. Ialso sprinkled some Athens Seasoning on the crust for a little extra somethin'.
MmMmMm... So good:
The Holidays:
Thanksgiving was a bust. I didn't cook anything! I just went to my sisters house and filled up on my brother's magical alcoholic concoctions. My family was pretty upset that I didn't bring anything that I could eat. I really should have. I have no excuses. However, Christmas was much different. I made myself Christmas dinner for the first time. I was very happy with it! Even my family was eating my food.
Mashed Garlic Red Potatoes w/ Kale, Green Onion:
Garlic Infused Seitan Roast w/ carrots, broccoli, mushroom:
My plate assembled:
No Recipes this post, but I am having a much anticipated Vegan dinner party at my good friend Rob's house on the 31st. There will be plenty of pictures and I'll definitely throw some recipes at you. I may even have video footage for you all!
-Lee
January 19, 2010 11:25 PM
Kevin Sorbo (aka hercules) & Elizabeth Reaser, shooting at Alexanders on 30th, North Park
Aside from my busy veggie adventures with opening the San Diego location of Nature’s Express, I’ve been doing some black market catering. Well not really, but I have had the opportunity of a lifetime. There’s this new TV show, and the lovely lead actress just happens to be a vegan. Since the show is being filmed right here in San Diego, they needed someone to provide on set food for the actress, Elizabeth Reaser, playing the role of Bella.
When this first fell into my lap, I thought it was a one time gig. Turns out they needed more vegan goodness then I had dreamed of.
The show revolves around Bella, an early thirties woman who is trying to find ‘the one’. She meets a fortune teller that tells her she has one year, or she’ll never be getting hitched. the catch is that she has supposibly already met the one. So like most single women out there, she starts a list. The Ex-List. Each episode is centered around Bella reconnecting with a former ex boyfriend. Not a terrible idea for a sitcom.
So whats a vegan actress to do when a scene calls for food, and there’s no way she’s bitting into something thats not vegan? Well, she gets a personal vegan chef to cater her every acting bite! How darn cool.
Tea Platters in the wonderbread factory
I’m not sure if I should be posting these pics, but oh well. It’s too fun to not write about. I’ve done about 10 different dishes for the series so far, and up until 2 weeks ago, I didn’t even feel comfortable taking pictures on set. So far I’ve done vegan eggs benedict, penne a la vodka, chocolate cakes, thai stir-fry, cookies, gourmet dinner for 2, omlettes tea platters and a carpacchio salad. I know that doesn’t sound like much, but it’s not just one plate each. Every time they shoot a scene they film the shot from 4 different angles. Which means the food has to look the same every time. So for the one vegan chocolate cake, I needed to make 6. And so on.
There is usually a ton of leftovers, that everyone wants to take home, or I end up bringing to the treehouse kids. Lucky vegans. Its crazy to think about how much time, and energy go into a single 23 minute episode. From Hair & make up to lighting and sound. It really does take a lot of manpower. It was so great to see all the beautiful places in San Diego turned into a TV sitcom. Newport beach, Cool restaurants and pubs, and my favorite, the mission Hills nursery.
In the end, the show started getting bad reviews, and CBS decided to cancel it. The Ex List had a total of thirteen episodes whom all aired on French-Canadian television in 2009.
Elizabeth went on to star in the motion picture Twilight, playing the role of Edwards’ ‘mother’. And I returned to dividing my time between Ritual Tavern, and Nature’s Express, yet again.
In the time of 2 months I received 5 paychecks from FOX studios. After hanging them on the fridge to show my personal A+, they will be framed, and saved in the grandkids box. Gold star for me.
January 19, 2010 02:09 PM
This one isn't quite a statement, as much as it is an observation. It's a culmination of so many different questions, that it's hard to pinpoint it to any one of them, which is why I've tagged this one with so many of the questions. To be honest, I've been uncomfortable with addressing this issue for a while now, but I figured that I'd better, or else I'm letting the issue get the better of me.
Before I move forward, it may help to give a bit of background on my own journey to veganism. I was born and raised as a vegetarain. My mother would take the family to various vegan potlucks. I knew what veganism is from a very early age. I may not have known their full reasons for it, because as a kid, people mostly feed you platitudes like, "I'm vegan because animals are my friends." To a 10 year old, this is not only condescending, but also unhelpful.
My own reason for being vegetarian didn't come to light until I'd questioned my mother about it, who later on thought it over, and came back to me with, "We don't like to kill animals. It's not right." "Oh, so that's why dairy is OK, right?" "Yeah, exactly."
It was the best I had at the time, and I went about my life blithely unaware of the intricacies of it. Finally, I heard Bob and Jenna Torres, of Vegan Freak fame, go through and explain it in terms that made sense to me. It clicked in my head, but not completely. It had to sort of percolate in there, and I had to make the leap when I was good and ready for it. When I did, there was no turning back. It's been one of the easiest decisions I've ever made.
Notice what I said there. Easiest decision that I have ever made. Not my husband. Not my parents. Not someone screaming angry slogans at me in the streets. The decision that I made, after weighing the arguments in my own mind, and coming to my own conclusions.
At the end of the day, you're going to have to live your life on your own terms. If you're comfortable with what you're doing, then there's really not much I can do to change that. If you're not comfortable with what you're doing, you might want to examine why.
Either way, realise that I have extremely limited mental real estate. At the end of the day, I haven't got the time to judge you. You're doing a fine job of that on your own.
Before I move forward, it may help to give a bit of background on my own journey to veganism. I was born and raised as a vegetarain. My mother would take the family to various vegan potlucks. I knew what veganism is from a very early age. I may not have known their full reasons for it, because as a kid, people mostly feed you platitudes like, "I'm vegan because animals are my friends." To a 10 year old, this is not only condescending, but also unhelpful.
My own reason for being vegetarian didn't come to light until I'd questioned my mother about it, who later on thought it over, and came back to me with, "We don't like to kill animals. It's not right." "Oh, so that's why dairy is OK, right?" "Yeah, exactly."
It was the best I had at the time, and I went about my life blithely unaware of the intricacies of it. Finally, I heard Bob and Jenna Torres, of Vegan Freak fame, go through and explain it in terms that made sense to me. It clicked in my head, but not completely. It had to sort of percolate in there, and I had to make the leap when I was good and ready for it. When I did, there was no turning back. It's been one of the easiest decisions I've ever made.
Notice what I said there. Easiest decision that I have ever made. Not my husband. Not my parents. Not someone screaming angry slogans at me in the streets. The decision that I made, after weighing the arguments in my own mind, and coming to my own conclusions.
At the end of the day, you're going to have to live your life on your own terms. If you're comfortable with what you're doing, then there's really not much I can do to change that. If you're not comfortable with what you're doing, you might want to examine why.
Either way, realise that I have extremely limited mental real estate. At the end of the day, I haven't got the time to judge you. You're doing a fine job of that on your own.
January 18, 2010 11:46 PM
Edward
Edward was a neglect case. A woman had him as a pet in her backyard, and left him without food or water in the winter. She actually instructed her pet-sitter to not feed him. “He can just eat snow,” was the comment. The pet-sitter called the authorities to report the neglect, and Edward was rescued, and came to live at Poplar Spring Animal Sanctuary.
He’s quite the character, and in the winter through the spring, when he displays constantly, he tries to get the attention of various chickens (hens or roosters, he doesn’t seem picky!) and especially the guinea hen, Angie. He loves Angie, but alas, she pays no attention to him!
His dance is pretty interesting. You’ll see him shaking his tail feathers, which makes a little noise as well. He can also rattle all of his plumage, which has an interesting sound. Edward will turn in a circle, perhaps so we can see his dance from all angles! I don’t know what is the norm among peacocks, I only know what I’ve seen Edward do. Though there is now a second peacock, Arthur, living at the sanctuary; he’s younger than Edward, you can tell by the shorter tail, and so far I haven’t seen him display.
Arthur
Here is Edward’s dance:
January 18, 2010 06:44 PM
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January 18, 2010 06:19 PM
I’d say life has become absurdly hectic, but that implies I can recall a time when it wasn’t.
Dino and I have been living on Roosevelt Island, just between Manhattan and Queens, wedged in its own little surrealistic world on the East River. When we moved here, I was making absurd amounts of money. Since then, I had my contract end, had one job that I got laid off from a month later, and now I’m working as a private tutor, picking up any random tech work I can find. I’m not making nearly as much, but I am much, much happier. Dino has continued to work at Sacred Chow, and we’ve managed to scrape by month-to-month. Anyway, the long and the short of it is, we cannot afford our current apartment. We’re in the process of moving to Inwood. I’m going to miss the wonderful view of Midtown Manhattan and the river from my window, but apart from that, I’m looking forward to paying 1/2 of the rent I’m paying now.
I’m continuing to look for adjunct teaching positions. Some time soon, I plan on going back to get a doctorate in Mathematics and teach full-time. I’m still working on various coding projects as well, and I’m writing a book on abstract algebra.
I’m still going to Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village. Apart from various protests, my political activities have been put on the back burner until things settle down and we get our finances in order.
The holidays were lovely, and 2010 holds much promise to be a good year.
January 18, 2010 04:23 PM
For the win, Pizza dough from Publix rolled out and topped with my special tomato sauce, ultra sweet peppers, onions, artichoke hearts gimmie lean vegan sausage and follow your heart cheese. Needless to say after this we were completely stuffed.
January 17, 2010 06:21 PM
We live in a world of cause and effect. [1] Every act we carry out in our lives – from deciding on our life’s path to scratching an itch – is caused by prior events ranging in significance from our birth circumstances to the whirl and buzz of billions of neurons generating a decision. Within such a world, there are various genetic, social, and environmental determinants of our thought, emotion, speech, and action, many of them far beyond our control.
But can we play a role in this continuous causal process? Can we avoid being virtual automatons molded by resourceful advertising agencies, public relations firms, mass media, pundits, and others? Can we take charge of our lives and assume more responsibility for designing and implementing who we are and are not? Of course we can, and recognizing our starting point and the on-going influences in our lives can help us self-determine our character, habits, and behavior as we go forward.
The Birth Lottery
All sentient beings, human and nonhuman, are born into the world as we are and through no choice, cause, or fault of our own. As such, who we are – who you are – is overwhelmingly dependent on the birth lottery. Despite this fact, most of us live our lives as if we somehow "earned" the situations, abilities, rights, and privileges we accidentally inherited. Even more arrogantly, most of us live as if those who we exploit in our food, clothing, and other choices deserve none of the rights and other benefits we inherited, and even more so, deserve the enslavement, brutality, and premature death that we inflict on them through blithe or callous choices.
Part of the reason for such moral weakness is that we have evolved as self-protecting, egocentric, and greedy organisms. We are genetically designed to think, react, speak, and act in ways that serve us or our species. Whatever genetically-caused altruism we were born with, it very likely evolved only to the extent of its adaptive benefits or at least to the extent that it was harmless to our species.
Since we did not cause our genes to evolve the way they did, we are not responsible for the resulting aspect of our natural inclination toward self-centered injustice and violence. But merely being aware of our genetic conditioning can help us in overcoming it.
Social Conditioning
All human beings, and most non-human beings, are also born into a social world inhabited by other individuals and institutions that mold our attitudes, thoughts, emotions, and actions. Who we are – who you are – is dependent, to a far lesser extent than the birth lottery, on specific social conditioning. [2] We are also strongly influenced by genetics to conform to our social environment and to be easily molded by others, especially in our youth. Indeed, humans are likely the most socially dependent animals on Earth. This social dependency is both physical and psychological, and while it is greatest while we’re young, it lasts our entire lifetime.
Social conditioning is often so strong that people equate it with morality itself. Ranking fourth on Kohlberg’s six stages of moral development, many people define behavior as “morally good” if and only if it leads to social approbation and “morally bad” if and only if it leads to social rejection. As a result of this confusion between social conditioning and morality, the massive atrocities that humans have collectively engaged in throughout history, from genocides to brutal enslavement to animal agriculture, can be largely explained by social conditioning, both individually and collectively. [3]
As an example, many people feel good criticizing or ridiculing veganism because it is socially acceptable to be an outspoken speciesist in a way that it is not acceptable to be even a mild racist (despite these two prejudices being identical in substance). If these people lived in a society that took speciesism as seriously as racism, they would find such speciesist behavior deplorable. The average speciesist attitude of today, if it were a racist attitude, would consist of treating a race of people as an expendable and renewable resource, and breeding and slaughtering them by the billions annually. The violence associated with average speciesism is far worse than the violence associated with extreme racism.
Natural Authenticity
For some of us, genetics favoring social conformity are not as strong as in the majority of people. We are naturally inclined toward existential questions about authenticity and self-definition. We’re open to not only considering paths less traveled, but taking those paths with enthusiasm. We realize that, because we live in a world of cause-and-effect, we can make choices enabling us to define meaning in our lives and implement our definition – to make our lives and character a continuous and improving work of art.
Self-Definition
While it may be more difficult for people who are starting with a strong genetic disposition for social conformity, or who have been habitually conforming for decades, it is possible for almost anyone to break free of social conditioning. It is never too late, as Bertrand Russell once said, to “hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.” It is never too late to define or re-define ourselves; to look critically at the habits that make up our existing character, including destructive and defeating paradigms; to aspire toward improved character and personal growth paradigms; and to implement our self-definition to become stronger, gentler, more self-reliant, and happier people.
A Continuous, Lifelong Process
There are at least a few metaphors that describe the process of defining, implementing, and re-defining one’s character. We can look at our life as a continuous work of art: molding clay; sculpting stone; or painting a canvas. It is said that Michelangelo commented about the statue of David that he saw David in the stone and carved away everything that was not David. We can look at our life as a building, continuously being improved: designing it; re-designing it; remodeling it; renovating part of it; adding an addition. We can look at our life as computer software: envisioning its purpose; designing the program; re-designing the program; writing the program; running the program; de-bugging the program.
Whatever metaphor we use (or don’t use), the point is that we are responsible for ourselves from the examination and visionary stage to design to implementation and re-design. Yes, we live in a world of cause and effect, but we can choose the causes that mold our character – our collection of habits and behaviors – and that makes all the difference between being a virtual automaton molded by advertising and public relations agencies and others in our amoral, consumerist culture versus being an autonomous, self-reliant, self-defining person who regularly questions the status quo in a continuous effort of improvement.
A Natural Effect
After spending sufficient time examining our origins, social conditioning, character, habits, and behavior, we begin to realize, among other things, how the birth lottery and social conditioning – 100% pure luck – has entirely created our starting point. In realizing our fate along with the fate of billions of other sentient beings – whose lives are as important to them as our lives are to us – we see ourselves in them. We see that ultimately, pure luck is the only difference between us and “them”. There, but for the turn of fate, go I. We begin to deeply empathize with other sentient beings who, at a very fundamental level, are no different from ourselves – they all strive, often desperately, for life and comfort. And because we have the power to question and change ourselves and our behavior and habits, we embrace veganism and give a strong voice to those innocent “others” who, through no fault of their own, were not born with the ability to join us in fighting for their freedom from the tyranny of greed and ignorance.
_______________
Notes:
[1] See Determinism in Human Behavior and Its Implications for Advocacy in this blog.
[2] The birth lottery, because it determines our species and genetics, where we are born, when we are born, and who our parents and teachers are, is far more of an influence on us than social conditioning, per se.
[3] Enslavement, genocides, and similar atrocities seem to be far more a direct product of social conditioning than genetics, per se. Genetic evolution explains why we are a violent species in general and so easily influenced by social conditioning, but it is the social conditioning itself that leads to widespread social acceptance of atrocities. Atrocities are not universal phenomena among humans, but occur frequently in reaction to certain political and social conditions.
But can we play a role in this continuous causal process? Can we avoid being virtual automatons molded by resourceful advertising agencies, public relations firms, mass media, pundits, and others? Can we take charge of our lives and assume more responsibility for designing and implementing who we are and are not? Of course we can, and recognizing our starting point and the on-going influences in our lives can help us self-determine our character, habits, and behavior as we go forward.
The Birth Lottery
All sentient beings, human and nonhuman, are born into the world as we are and through no choice, cause, or fault of our own. As such, who we are – who you are – is overwhelmingly dependent on the birth lottery. Despite this fact, most of us live our lives as if we somehow "earned" the situations, abilities, rights, and privileges we accidentally inherited. Even more arrogantly, most of us live as if those who we exploit in our food, clothing, and other choices deserve none of the rights and other benefits we inherited, and even more so, deserve the enslavement, brutality, and premature death that we inflict on them through blithe or callous choices.
Part of the reason for such moral weakness is that we have evolved as self-protecting, egocentric, and greedy organisms. We are genetically designed to think, react, speak, and act in ways that serve us or our species. Whatever genetically-caused altruism we were born with, it very likely evolved only to the extent of its adaptive benefits or at least to the extent that it was harmless to our species.
Since we did not cause our genes to evolve the way they did, we are not responsible for the resulting aspect of our natural inclination toward self-centered injustice and violence. But merely being aware of our genetic conditioning can help us in overcoming it.
Social Conditioning
All human beings, and most non-human beings, are also born into a social world inhabited by other individuals and institutions that mold our attitudes, thoughts, emotions, and actions. Who we are – who you are – is dependent, to a far lesser extent than the birth lottery, on specific social conditioning. [2] We are also strongly influenced by genetics to conform to our social environment and to be easily molded by others, especially in our youth. Indeed, humans are likely the most socially dependent animals on Earth. This social dependency is both physical and psychological, and while it is greatest while we’re young, it lasts our entire lifetime.
Social conditioning is often so strong that people equate it with morality itself. Ranking fourth on Kohlberg’s six stages of moral development, many people define behavior as “morally good” if and only if it leads to social approbation and “morally bad” if and only if it leads to social rejection. As a result of this confusion between social conditioning and morality, the massive atrocities that humans have collectively engaged in throughout history, from genocides to brutal enslavement to animal agriculture, can be largely explained by social conditioning, both individually and collectively. [3]
As an example, many people feel good criticizing or ridiculing veganism because it is socially acceptable to be an outspoken speciesist in a way that it is not acceptable to be even a mild racist (despite these two prejudices being identical in substance). If these people lived in a society that took speciesism as seriously as racism, they would find such speciesist behavior deplorable. The average speciesist attitude of today, if it were a racist attitude, would consist of treating a race of people as an expendable and renewable resource, and breeding and slaughtering them by the billions annually. The violence associated with average speciesism is far worse than the violence associated with extreme racism.
Natural Authenticity
For some of us, genetics favoring social conformity are not as strong as in the majority of people. We are naturally inclined toward existential questions about authenticity and self-definition. We’re open to not only considering paths less traveled, but taking those paths with enthusiasm. We realize that, because we live in a world of cause-and-effect, we can make choices enabling us to define meaning in our lives and implement our definition – to make our lives and character a continuous and improving work of art.
Self-Definition
While it may be more difficult for people who are starting with a strong genetic disposition for social conformity, or who have been habitually conforming for decades, it is possible for almost anyone to break free of social conditioning. It is never too late, as Bertrand Russell once said, to “hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.” It is never too late to define or re-define ourselves; to look critically at the habits that make up our existing character, including destructive and defeating paradigms; to aspire toward improved character and personal growth paradigms; and to implement our self-definition to become stronger, gentler, more self-reliant, and happier people.
A Continuous, Lifelong Process
There are at least a few metaphors that describe the process of defining, implementing, and re-defining one’s character. We can look at our life as a continuous work of art: molding clay; sculpting stone; or painting a canvas. It is said that Michelangelo commented about the statue of David that he saw David in the stone and carved away everything that was not David. We can look at our life as a building, continuously being improved: designing it; re-designing it; remodeling it; renovating part of it; adding an addition. We can look at our life as computer software: envisioning its purpose; designing the program; re-designing the program; writing the program; running the program; de-bugging the program.
Whatever metaphor we use (or don’t use), the point is that we are responsible for ourselves from the examination and visionary stage to design to implementation and re-design. Yes, we live in a world of cause and effect, but we can choose the causes that mold our character – our collection of habits and behaviors – and that makes all the difference between being a virtual automaton molded by advertising and public relations agencies and others in our amoral, consumerist culture versus being an autonomous, self-reliant, self-defining person who regularly questions the status quo in a continuous effort of improvement.
A Natural Effect
After spending sufficient time examining our origins, social conditioning, character, habits, and behavior, we begin to realize, among other things, how the birth lottery and social conditioning – 100% pure luck – has entirely created our starting point. In realizing our fate along with the fate of billions of other sentient beings – whose lives are as important to them as our lives are to us – we see ourselves in them. We see that ultimately, pure luck is the only difference between us and “them”. There, but for the turn of fate, go I. We begin to deeply empathize with other sentient beings who, at a very fundamental level, are no different from ourselves – they all strive, often desperately, for life and comfort. And because we have the power to question and change ourselves and our behavior and habits, we embrace veganism and give a strong voice to those innocent “others” who, through no fault of their own, were not born with the ability to join us in fighting for their freedom from the tyranny of greed and ignorance.
_______________
Notes:
[1] See Determinism in Human Behavior and Its Implications for Advocacy in this blog.
[2] The birth lottery, because it determines our species and genetics, where we are born, when we are born, and who our parents and teachers are, is far more of an influence on us than social conditioning, per se.
[3] Enslavement, genocides, and similar atrocities seem to be far more a direct product of social conditioning than genetics, per se. Genetic evolution explains why we are a violent species in general and so easily influenced by social conditioning, but it is the social conditioning itself that leads to widespread social acceptance of atrocities. Atrocities are not universal phenomena among humans, but occur frequently in reaction to certain political and social conditions.
