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It was dinnertime in the pasture the other evening, around 6 p.m. I noticed the calf in the foreground drinking mom's milk, then, after I'd snapped a few photos, I saw the calf in back, too, just having his dinner.
Sweet little things. I've written before about how attached the calves and their mothers are to each other. It must be hard on them when their children go away to college.
When the one in front pulled away, he had a milk mustache.
(Go check out The Ark for more Friday animals.)
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Now with naked cucumbers!
The best foods men aren't eating, including this.
Mark Bittman does Everything veg.
Also for men: What you guys should eat every day.
Except be sure to watch this before taking the advice in number 7.
And Best Life says men should eat these 8 foods every day.
Looks like meat prices will be going up. Try this instead.
Except for the misleading headline, this is a good article, especially now that blackberries are ripe.
Cilantro pesto, an idea whose time has come.
My husband swears by iced coffee now. He even got a special iced coffee carafe. I have to say, it doesn't smell as awful as brewed coffee. (I gave up coffee a few years ago, and there's nothing like a reformed coffee drinker for finding coffee revolting. Oh well.)
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Chocolate: Mother's little helper.
When you're blue, there's nothing like chocolate to cheer you up. On Sunday morning I made Double Chocolate Coconut Muffins before Daughter Number Two left for college, thinking something cheerful was in order. They were so chocolatey I almost did a happy dance right in my kitchen.
St John's Wort, move over. Prozac, you're so last decade.
Chocolate is what we need more of around here.
And here's why:
British researchers used brain scans to investigate subconscious reactions to the confection and found that the pleasure centres of chocolate lovers' brains lit up more strongly in response to the food than those who are less partial.
I used Green & Black's industrial strength, 72% baking chocolate. (You can see it scattered on the cutting board.) American tastes may prefer a less intense chocolate. Or not.
Read on to see how to light up your brain.
Continue reading "Wednesday Food Blogging: Double Chocolate Coconut Muffins" »
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From now on, this blog will be powered entirely by body heat.
Expect intermittent blogging.
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Well, I'm glad that's over. It's the hardest thing I've ever done, taking my daughter to the airport, leaving her at security, trying not to let her see me cry.
I hugged her, turned around, and noticed an elevator with an open door. Blinking away my tears I dashed inside, found the control panel and jabbed at a button. Unfortunately it was the alarm button.
I eventually got away, negotiated my way out of the construction at Terminal 3, and onto the M25, which, during the middle of a bank holiday weekend, wasn't the usual stop-go, five-lane conveyor belt. Good thing. And a good thing my car knows the way home by itself; mopey as I was behind the steering wheel, I could have ended up in Watford.
These last few days Daughter Number Two and I have been overly polite to each other, each of us knowing our mother/daughter relationship was about to change drastically. I've been through this before, and I know darn well things are never the same after they leave home.
But on Friday I found myself snapping at her over silly things, instinctively recognizing a good mad would make it easier to say goodbye. That didn't last; by Saturday we were friends again, painfully polite friends.
The truth is, I've been dreading this day for 18 years, ever since I brought her home, counted her toes, and imagined her leaving for college one hazy day in the future. I've been actively mothering at least one child for 22 years, and now I feel like I've been laid off a job I loved.
Worst of all, that awful term "empty nest" now applies to me. Will someone please come up with a better description? I may have post-parenting blues, but I'm not a damn blue jay.
My inner psychologist, who sounds a little like Bob Newhart, is telling me it's time to concentrate on myself now, restart my own life that somehow got left behind these last few years of intensive teen rearing. And I will, maybe tomorrow.
But tonight I just want to mope a little more.
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(Update: Myers' article is now available in its entirety here.)
A record of the gourmet’s ongoing failure to think in moral terms, The Omnivore’s Dilemma helps one to understand why no reformer ever gave a damn about fine dining—or the family dinner table either.
In this month's The Atlantic article "Hard to Swallow" B.R. Myers superbly takes apart the arguments of so-called gourmands (known pre-Foodie revolution as "gluttons"), chiefly Michael Pollan, who see no moral conflict in eating meat:
But the idolatry of food cuts across class lines. This can be seen in the public’s toleration of a level of cruelty in meat production that it would tolerate nowhere else. If someone inflicts pain on an animal for visual, aural, or sexual gratification, we consider him a monster, and the law makes at least a token effort at punishment. If someone’s goal is to put the “product” in his mouth? Chacun à son goût.
I've often wondered why people who are outraged by such acts as those performed by Michael Vick and his friends think nothing at all of similar acts of torture inflicted on other animals.
Some people, usually those in the under-twenty age bracket, when they first realize what actually happens to cows, sheep, pigs and chickens before they are transformed to beef and pork, are moved, briefly, to become vegetarians. It lasts about a week or two, then societal pressure urges them to forget what they've learned and rejoin the meat-eating fold. (Dare I compare this sheeplike-mentality to herd-like thinking?)
I've often wondered why human society insists on conformity when it comes to meat eating. Those of us who eschew meat are often viewed with suspicion or outright scorn. We're accused of being moralistic, "preachy", self-righteous. Others greet the news that I'm a vegan with an abject, yet honest, apology: "I just love meat/cheese/chicken too much to give it up. Sorry!" A few just ignore it, the way Michael Pollan ignores any "ethical heartburn" he feels from eating once-thriving animals.
B.R. Myers explains why that is so, why people like Michael Pollan can utterly ignore some reality—scientific research which says that animals are capable of feeling pain and forming attachments, for instance—in deference to his own reality: he enjoys eating meat. No amount of moral soul searching is going to change that, not even a month spent as a disgruntled vegetarian.
But Michael's a true gourmand: factory farmed meat turns him squeamish. All those feces!
Then again, Pollan does not like what he sees; he senses that cows raised in such unnatural conditions cannot possibly taste good.
He must think organic animals come without a colon, and certainly a brain that allows them to feel the pain of the knife.
But it's statements like this, I suppose, that get us vegetarians, and B.R. Myers, whatever his food preference, labeled as preachy. Reason and morals are for wusses like Epicurus; real gourmands, on the other hand, are concerned about other things. Primarily, their mouth.
Feces, anyone?
(Thanks to Gina, who emailed this article. You must have an Atlantic subscription to read beyond the first page. While you're there, click on the sidebar article Nasty, Brutish and Short, also by B.R. Myers. Yes, the same B.R. Myers who takes aim at literary fiction here.)
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(I know it's not Wednesday. But I was hanging out with wild animals yesterday, and that was before I even got on the M25.)
Comfort in a bowl.
This was one of the first vegetarian recipes I ever made, back when my daughters were picky toddlers, and I couldn't afford a cookbook. I cut the recipe out of some long forgotten magazine, and though that scrap of paper was lost, this is one recipe that's easily committed to memory. Over the years it became a family favorite. Even after I veganized it, Rigatoni and Broccoli is still Daughter Number Two's most requested meal.
It fits the definition of comfort food perfectly—creamy, hot, and pasta-containing.
So, with DNT's departure for college only 3 days away, I made her favorite tonight, Rigatoni with Broccoli. And for even more comfort in a bowl, I made FatFree Vegan's Southern Banana Pudding, served with some Soyatoo whipped cream.
Now we have that stuffed, comfortable feeling.
Continue reading "Wednesday Food Blogging: Rigatoni and Broccoli" »
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These geese have heard about the giant nearby, and are running in fear.
These tiny cricket players, on the other hand, have no idea that a giant lurks just over the fence.
This man, his Alsation dog, and two very small morsels children take a break from hunting the giant. Little do they realize they're sitting next to a giant doughnut.
This blurry man and his equally blurry dog have caught the giant's scent. The hillside trembles as the giant quakes in fear!
The giant runs away, his gonads bared vulnerably.
His escape is foiled by a relative newcomer to the giant genre, Homer Simpson, holding aloft a large doughnut.
Combat ensues, and the Cerne Abbas Giant limps off the field, his tiny chalk head nowhere to be found.
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One of the things that's so cool about England (and all of Europe, for all I know) is that you'll be driving around, minding your own business, and then you'll come upon something totally stupendous. Like this fourteenth-century abbey, located on the grounds of a boys' school, that looks like it belongs to a Harry Potter film.
Milton Abbey, from the back.
The abbey was never finished, but somehow survived total destruction during the Dissolution. It now serves as the chapel for the school.
The front of the abbey, with a tiny car for size comparison.
Nearby was the village of Milton Abbas, which lacks the crowded, ramshackle appearance of most English villages.
Milton Abbas, one thatched cottage after another.
This is due to the fact that it was a planned village, created after the owner of the Abbey tore down all the houses in the original village, flooded it to make a lake, and relocated everyone to this community planned by the landscape architect Capability Brown.
It's scenes like these that are why I insist on getting off the main roads as often as possible, and why I always bring along a copy of The Rough Guide to England everywhere I go. And why I still use a map instead of a sat nav. Our GPS device has no idea that I'd rather see thatched cottages than service stations along my route.
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We have oft heard rumours of a giant stalking these hills of Southern England.
Must find out more.
Off to Dorset.
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It's bad enough being at risk for a genetic illness. It's also no fun to fear losing your job due to an illness.
But to lose your job, and your benefits, just when you need them most, is unconscionable.
Yet that's how the US military treats its members.
For more than 20 years, the armed forces have held a policy that specifically denies disability benefits to servicemen and women with congenital or hereditary conditions. The practice would be illegal in almost any other workplace.
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Here's Michael Klare writing about a report submitted to the U.S. Department of Energy by the National Petroleum Council, which was "widely praised for providing a balanced approach to the energy dilemma", the dilemma being the difficulty of extracting "tough oil", the hard-to-reach oil reserves buried deep underground:
Again, the numbers involved are staggering. According to the NPC, an estimated $20 trillion in new investment (that's trillion, not billion) will be needed between now and 2030 to ensure sufficient energy for anticipated demand. This works out to "$3,000 per person alive today" in a world in which a good half of humanity earns substantially less than that each year.
It's just a thought, but how about we invest a trillion or so in renewable energy sources instead?
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Bird brain? Not likely.
Maybe it's time for people who use the expression "bird brain" to eat some crow:
A University of Auckland study has revealed that New Caledonian crows can use separate tools in quick succession to retrieve an out-of-reach snack.
The birds were using reasoning that was more commonly seen in great apes and humans, the New Zealand team reported in the journal Current Biology.
I don't mean literally eat crow, of course. In fact, maybe people should rethink their strategy of eating high on the food chain. If crows are this smart, can chickens and turkeys* be far behind?
Still not convinced birds are your intellectual equals? Watch this video. (via)
*I tried to search for an article on the intelligence of turkeys, but all I got was information about Turkey's intelligence service.
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The dog wanted me to take her photo out in the sun this afternoon. She tells me I don't blog about her nearly enough anymore. After some thought, she decided the flowers would make a nice backdrop; she's right.
Right after I took this photo, a huge ominous cloud covered in the sky, coming out of nowhere. I'm used to rapidly changing weather, but this was weird.
It's too bad I'm not a science fiction writer; the whole thing would make a great premise.
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I'll fight you for that crumb.
I've been on a quest for the perfect no-bake cookie for a long, long time. When my daughters were young, they attended a co-op preschool in Ohio. At school events, parents would bring in these delicious, simple little bites of chocolate and oatmeal. But no one ever provided the recipe, since, apparently, everyone had it but me.
At a vegetarian restaurant in Columbus, I tasted the best no-bake cookie ever. Very chocolaty and scrumptious. It put those well-intended co-op moms' best efforts to shame.
I was determined to create such a monument of cookie perfection. But as they say, my mileage varied. I could never produce the same result in my own kitchen, following first one, then another, recipe.
Yesterday Daughter Number Two accomplished the impossible: A perfect no-bake chocolate-chocolate oatmeal cookie. (Two! Two! Two chocolates in one!)
She took a recipe from the internet, added here, subtracted there, substituted where appropriate. When I tasted the results, I insisted she tell me exactly how she accomplished this miracle that had eluded me so long. Here's what she did:
Continue reading "Thursday Cookie Blogging: No-Bake Double Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies" »
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When your pantry staples include black beluga lentils, a delicious salad is only 20 minutes away.
We've had a lot of potato salad this summer. When I saw these small Piccolo potatoes at the store, I decided once more into the potato salad bowl I'd go. Of course my favorite is Dilled Potato and Green Bean Salad, but I've made it so many times this summer even I'm bored with it.
Pantry staples to the rescue.
I've had these black beluga lentils for a while now. They're similar to green French (le puy) lentils, and really shine in dishes where their texture and color can be appreciated. When I made a salad with them once, I thought my dinner guest was going to lick her plate. Also, a while back I made a warm potato salad using green lentils, which prompted my daughter to help herself to seconds, and then thirds, until between us we finished the bowl.
So I used these beluga lentils and the lovely golden-fleshed potatoes, ending up with a dish that's a bit more substantial than regular potato salad, and a bit more exotic.
While I've never envied people who include caviar in their diet, I sure wouldn't mind finding beluga lentils on the menu more often.
Recipe below, and don't forget to check out the Recipe Index.
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Last week we had wall to wall coverage of foot and mouth disease, whereas this week it's more like raggedy rug coverage. But now we have an outbreak of the far deadlier e. coli, which has already killed a woman in Paisley.
And the list of animal diseases continues : We're bracing for bluetongue which is expected to arrive from the Continent any day now.
Don't believe what you hear about McDonalds. One couple have been eating there every day for 17 years, and lived to tell the tale.
Elizabeth Edwards has given up tangerines. She should do the math first.
Paperback Writer has a nice allegorical response to the letter that I linked to the other day. It involves a bakery, so it's food news.
Homemade soda pop. I like me a good glass of root beer occasionally, served over Swedish Glace ice cream.
This list of Top Ten Vegetarian Friendly Ball Parks almost makes me wish I were a baseball fan.
Foodie posted a video explaining how they animate food.
Check out this factory farm map. Looks like Rhode Island is your best bet.
This article has a very corny headline, yet it actually contains useful information for people worried about their eyesight.
A church mission to Honduras, the second poorest country in the Americas, reveals how nutrition can make a difference.
The Food Packaging archive, via U.S. Food Policy. And more good stuff here.
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From the front page of The Independent:
Bush's lethal legacy: more executions.
The US Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales - Mr Bush's top legal adviser during the spree of executions in Texas in the 1990s - is putting finishing touches to regulations, inspired by recent anti-terrorism legislation, that would allow states to turn to the Justice Department, instead of the federal courts, as a key arbiter in deciding whether prisoners live or die.
The US is already among the top six countries worldwide in terms of the numbers of its own citizens that it puts to death. Fifty-two Americans were executed last year and thousands await their fate on death row.
While he was governor of Texas, Bush killed 152 prisoners during his "spree of executions". As president, he hasn't had quite so much fun, though he's hoping to make up for it with his accomplice Alberto riding shotgun.
Will someone please make this man go away? Both of them. Bush and Gonzales. And Cheney makes three.
Impeach the trio.
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