Mexican Yum Yum

Alright, I need to work on my recipe titles - understood. I'll take suggestions for a name...and we'll split the proceeds.

Here's the ingredient list: 

• organic short-grain brown rice, 
• 2 cans of organic diced tomatoes with garlic and oregano, 
• lettuce (sliced in really thin slivers), 
• any fake cheese (if you're vegan), 
• chili powder, 
• thyme, 
• salt, 
• cayenne pepper, 
• cumin, 
• coriander (if you have it).

Easy Peasy...

Pour the two cans of tomatoes (with juice) into a pot on HI heat. Then use the same two cans and fill them up with the brown rice (We are a family of five and I don't do measurements so you'll have to use some gestimations if you want to alter the servings). Pour the brown rice into the pot.

Fill the cans up with water...into the pot. Then add a tablespoon of chili powder (there abouts). A solid pinch of thyme, cayenne pepper, cumin, and a touch of coriander. Salt and pepper. Stir. Turn the heat down to just below medium (once the water starts boiling). Put on the lid and simmer for 50 minutes.

It should be a little more juicy than normal rice when it's done cooking. Spoon it to a bowl, sprinkle the fake cheese on top and then a little lettuce slivers - OH, YUM!

I made it up! Very good,  if I do say so myself.

I'm working up the courage for my next post...


    

WWSFD?

My first job - that required a tax form - was with Jerry's Subs and Pizza. I was fifteen and my parents filled out a work permit for me. My station was the pizza prep area - though other duties included washing dishes, wiping tables, sweeping, taking out the trash, refilling the drink station with ice...I preferred to be in the back because I didn't like to be seen wearing my Jerry's hat. After I was there a while I got to fill in on the grill. That was fun, I liked to use the two long spatulas to slice and dice the steak strips on the grill and mix them with the onions and green peppers for Philly cheese steak subs. The whole process seemed faster - more impressive - and somewhat theatrical...compared to docking the pizza dough and sprinkling on toppings. 

I met my first real-life vegetarian at Jerry's. Now that I think of it, yuck. What a job for a vegetarian. Pepperoni - everywhere, sausage crumbles, bacon bits, meat subs....She was several years older and therefore an object of - I confess - admiration and a bit of infatuation. I forget her name though. Really, I promise. She was a little bit of what became my stereotypical view of vegetarians. (The term vegan really hadn't hit the popular culture scene yet) She was an animal rights activist - I"m not sure how active she was, but that was how she described herself. I only remember two moments with the girl. One was when we were robbed by gun point after coming in the back door from taking out the trash (that's not really applicable at the moment so I'll leave the rest of the story for another time), and the other was when she was telling me about her thoughts on animal rights.

Even this second moment is very foggy as I try to pull it from my memory banks. The main thing I remember was my impression that the girl's position was illogical. I couldn't understand how she could compare the life of an animal with the life of a human. That's where she lost me and that's where I dug the ditch that separated me from vegetarians. I began associating all animal rights proponents and vegetarians with a belief system that I found to be illogical. I mean, just the thought that a dead dog on the side of the road - hit by a car or a dead human on the side of the road would generate similar emotions and reactions is up-surd, mystifying, and a tad bit disturbing, to say the least. Suffice it to say, my thought process (at the age of fifteen - and subsequently, I never revisited the issue) went...vegetarians are animal rights people, and animal rights people are fruit loops.

There are all sorts of other influences that have either deepened this stereotype or added another layer of nuance. I share the Church's teaching regarding the sanctity of human life and when I see our nation fund and support the degradation of human life while campaigns are in full swing to protect endangered species or rally my emotions for the cute and cuddly - it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. What ends up happening is I react in opposition... This is a flaw. It's just as illogical. 

So, I'm reading one of the several "Vegetarian Starter Kits" I received in the mail/ online. This one was put out by Mercy for Animals. It's got thirty-one pages of "recipes, tips, and info". Half of it covers cruelty to animals and how "factory farming" is bad for the planet and fosters unethical treatment of animals. Two pages tell about the health benefits of vegan eating and the rest are recipes. 

As I read the first fifteen pages - which are filled with some gruesome photos and tons of referenced sources - two things happen. First, I can't help but make note of the humanizing terminology meant to muster up deep pity and guilt over the mistreatment of animals - I've eaten and therefore condoned their abuse and suffering. I also can't help but notice quotes like: "According to animal behaviorist, Dr. Chris Evans, chickens are as smart as mammals, including some primates. He explains that chickens are able to understand that recently hidden objects still exist, which is beyond the capacity of small children." or this one, "Pigs have the cognitive ability to be quite sophisticated. Even more so than dogs and certainly [more so than] three-year-olds, says Dr. Donald Broom, Cambridge University". My alert goes up. What are they saying? I ask. Here they go again. A chicken deserves the same level of care and devotion and love....as my two-year-old child? They are out of their mind. Are they raising pigs up to the level of humans or are they lowering humans to the level of pigs?...on and on it goes. Then, I pause. 

Ok, I don't have any idea if those two doctors meant to imply these things or if there are animal rights activists or vegetarians out there with such a perverse trail of logic...but what I do know is that if buying meat in the grocery store required me to walk through the front door of a factory farm down it's aisles to the conveyor belt past the tanks and the hooks through to the packaging area to select my purchase...I'd walk out empty handed and feeling more than a bit nauseous. I can't think of anyone I know who would condone hurting an animal on purpose and without some cause - like protection or something. And in my little bit of time as a vegetarian and looking up information I can't see any examples of factory farming being humane to their product line - in their defense, they wouldn't be able to stay in business if they were. So, I've been faced with a conundrum recently. I've begun to question my preconceived ideas and conclusions...I certainly started this process with no moral or ethical reasonings...it was more of a lark really - a few health reasons maybe....but...I haven't fully ruminated - digested - processed...but I am fairly certain what St. Francis would do.   

      

John Keats was a Vegetarian...

5 days down...in three and a half hours. Today, I saw an Arby's. I pulled in and parked. I even entered and used the restroom. But, I'll have you know - I did not partake. It was a success for me - both because I am a long-time lover of their roast beef sandwiches and also because, on day 5, I did get a hunkerin' for something meaty.

Day three and four was easy peasy - as my kids say. I had no desire for meat. It wasn't that I was eating the cover shots of vegetarian magazines or books. Let's see...I've been eating almonds, raw carrots, kale, whole grain brown Basmati rice and a vegetarian chilli out of a box...Whoa, buddy...make your own. Tonight, in the face of my mental image of stacked roast beef slices layered between a bun...Thanks, Arby's...I had a tomato, avocado, and kale sandwich on 12 grain whole bread.

So the cycle is going thusly:
Day 1 - Shock or adrenalin filled Grrr...
Day 2 - Headache
Day 3 - Awesome - this is the best thing ever
Day 4 - I'm so sorry for all those ignorant meat-eaters - when will they see the truth...I'm so glad...then
Day 5 - I want me some bacon!

Have you ever seen the movie Multiplicity with Micheal Keaton? -----  Look down there, at the bottom of these posts...I think I put a clip. I like bacon like 4 likes pizza.

I know Keats (not Keaton, the actor - total coincidence - Keats, the poet) was a vegetarian because he would have used a perfectly crispy piece of bacon as a muse for an ode instead of some dusty Grecian urn.

Just think bacon. It's not bad to think it - is it? ...oh, I just thought about bacon on my avocado, tomato, and kale sandwich...low and deep ohhh mmmm

A Grecian Urn (full of Bacon...)
Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness,
    Thou foster-child of silence and slow time, 
Sylvan historian, who canst thus express
    A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:
What leaf-fring'd legend haunt about thy shape
    Of deities or mortals, or of both,
        In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?
    What men or gods are these?  What maidens loth?
What mad pursuit?  What struggle to escape?
        What pipes and timbrels?  What wild ecstasy?
Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
    Are sweeter: therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;
Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd,
    Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone:
Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave
    Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;
        Bold lover, never, never canst thou kiss,
Though winning near the goal - yet, do not grieve;
        She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,
    For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!
Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed
    Your leaves, nor ever bid the spring adieu;
And, happy melodist, unwearied,
    For ever piping songs for ever new;                                   
More happy love! more happy, happy love!
    For ever warm and still to be enjoy'd,
        For ever panting, and for ever young;
All breathing human passion far above,
    That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloy'd,
        A burning forehead, and a parching tongue.
Who are these coming to the sacrifice?
    To what green altar, O mysterious priest,
Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies,
    And all her silken flanks with garlands drest?
What little town by river or sea shore,
    Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel,
        Is emptied of this folk, this pious morn?
And, little town, thy streets for evermore
    Will silent be; and not a soul to tell
        Why thou art desolate, can e'er return.
O Attic shape!  Fair attitude! with brede
    Of marble men and maidens overwrought,
With forest branches and the trodden weed;
    Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought
As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral!
    When old age shall this generation waste,
        Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe                      
    Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,
"Beauty is truth, truth beauty," - that is all
        Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

- John Keats, vegetarian - an obvious conclusion