Flat Chat

flat chat

adjective
Definition: busy: extremely busy
e.g. "Sorry, mate, I can't help you - I'm flat chat."

Two weeks left in the semester; a stack of essays to mark; looming paper deadlines; grant applications; interviews; community meetings; animal rights townsville; planning a birthday party; planning rallies and meetings with government; weekly seminars; dinner invitations; Andy's home (!); friends visiting from overseas...

And so I leave you with a week's worth of food in one post.

First up, brussels sprouts. Andy's first experience with them, to be exact. I mostly followed the recipe from La Dolce Vegan which came highly recommended, and for good reason. These were damn good.
Indian-ish feast. Roasted cauliflower with four-seed sauce (based on three-seed sauce from VwaV but we had all the wrong seeds)--nigella, fenugreek, coriander and aniseed. Spicy Indian Rice (minus the toasted almonds) from Vegan with a Vengeance. And plain and sweet potatoes tossed with mixed spice and flour and roasted in the oven.
Cold weather lately has been calling for stew. Hence Andy's creation--it started as an amalgamation of three recipes from La Dolce Vegan and turned into something completely unique. It had red lentils, brown lentils, yellow split peas, potato, sweet potato, leftover roast cauliflower, cumin, caraway, nutmeg, tomato soup, veggie stock, and shallots. And perhaps more. Served on leftover spicy rice and alongside some sauteed Wombok.
Cold weather also makes napping on the couch a welcome activity. If only we all had the time!

Pesto scrolls. I woke up early last Saturday to bake these, so that I could bring them to the Animal Rights Townsville meeting. Unfortunately, my morning didn't go as planned, I didn't get to come home before the ART meeting, and I had to eat these all myself. What a shame. Puff pastry, broccoli pesto, and minced olives = perfection!
Another thing I made for the ART meeting but couldn't bring. Red Lentil Dip, based on the recipe from La Dolce Vegan, but with lots of changes. It had massaman curry paste, cinnamon, peanut butter, cumin, onions and garlic, red lentils, and tofu. Yummy, especially with vegan rice crackers.
For Andy's welcome-home, I made the 'Tease Cake' from Ultimate Uncheese. The bulk of this cake is made not from tofu or soy cream cheese, but from millet. It was surprisingly good. Instead of lemon I used orange, with a ginger cookie crust, and a topping of Maya Gold Ganache.

Andy wasn't hungry for dessert after travelling all afternoon, so I left it in the fridge... and when I came home from uni the next day this is what I found:
Another welcome home meal filled with things Andy didn't get much of on the island--spinach, sauteed with garlic, sesame and carrot; mushrooms baked with garlic and olive oil; and cumin lime baked tofu & broccoli.
And finally, I'll leave you with an update on the kangaroo culling in Canberra that I mentioned a few weeks ago. The government had originally agreed to relocate, rather than murder. Recently, they changed their mind and said they were going to massacre the kangaroo population. Unfortunately for them, animal rights activists and Aboriginal traditional owners are not going to take this lying down. Eight people were arrested after climbing the fence, starting a ceremonial fire and reclaiming their land. Read about it here.

Coming soon: Andy's birthday. We're having a fiesta!!

Variety is the spice of life.

To continue on my Andy-less breakfast binge I made muffins, an item that Andy does not like for breakfast. Since I had some carrots that needed using, I made Spicy Carrot Raisin Muffins from Vegan with a Vengeance. Instead of just raisins I used dried mixed fruit.

These muffins were tasty, but there was more carrot than batter—I think because my carrots were slightly larger than the ‘medium’ carrots the recipe called for. I hate that in recipes… I would much rather have measurements that I can choose not to follow than something so broad as ‘one small pumpkin’. Those are arbitrary. Anyways, the spices in the muffins were really good, but my silicon muffin cups mean I’ll never get big crunchy muffin tops.

For dinner that night I had a spicy southwest meal. I cooked up a batch of black eyed peas and turned them into ‘Spicy black eyed peas and rice’ from The Vegan Gourmet. This recipe was such a let down. It was just brown rice, black eyed peas, caramelised onions, and black pepper. It did, however, make a good base for some sautéed veggies smothered with ‘Mexican Chilli Gravy’ from Hot Damn and Hell Yeah.

Just spicy enough to make my nose run without leaving me too sweaty, this chilli is another winner from one of my favourite cookbooks. The Vegan Gourmet, however, has been a bit of a let down—though the appetiser section is really, really good.

Now, onto non-food things. The wonderful Alice (in Veganland) has passed along a blogger excellence award. Thanks, Alice! It's good to be appreciated! Now I get to pass along the award. There are so many excellent blogs out there, but I'm going to give the award to two deserving women...

• The Little One of The Potato Vine blog. Her political posts say exactly what I'm thinking but more, or they give me information I wanted to know. Her training posts are inspiring. And her vignettes about teaching confirm my future plans. No matter how busy I am, I check her blog regularly. Keep it up, The Little One!
• Amy from Iron Chef Vegan. In addition to posting photos of delicious looking food, both savoury and sweet, and in addition to being a lovely person who shared her favourite Chinese place with me, Amy's recent anti- anti-feminist rant was awesome!

And here's an infuriating article... Peta is negotiating with Australian wool farmers. If they phase out mulesing and breed bald-assed sheep in future, Peta will stop convincing people that wool is bad. Peta! Stop being so lame! Negotiating with the cruelty industry is not what we want! People need to stop using animals for our wants and desires (they're definitely not needs anymore!) and let animals exist for their own selves. Fuck.

But on a happier front, a really good new song has been released in Australia. It uses parts of Kevin Rudd's apology to the Stolen Generations, and a few other big-deal speeches in recent Australian history. It's a remake of a 1992 song by Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody, which is also very moving. Both versions give me goosebumps! Watch them, even if you're not Australian. They are good.

Armchair activism

I haven't been cooking much or eating lovely meals lately, so no food photos today. I haven't had a spare minute to think up an interesting argument about an issue that grinds my gears, so no rant today. Quite frankly, I have a headache and the sniffles, and I don't even want to be here. But I have to go to a meeting and a seminar, so here I am, misery and all. I won't bore you with my whinging, but expect some better posts in the (relatively) near future.

For now, I will leave you with three links. All are ways you can take a little bit of action without leaving the comfort of your computer chair.

First, you've all heard about what's going on in Tibet? (No? Click here or here.) Well, Kevin Rudd, the Prime Minister of Australia, is off to visit our largest trading partner in Beijing. K-rudd speaks fluent mandarin, so Get Up! is urging people to sign a petition asking Kevin to ask China to lay off a bit. Not Australian? That's okay. I think it makes a bold statement when international signatures are on petitions like that. "The whole world is watching, Kev, what're you gonna do?"

Second, another Get Up! campaign which is near and dear to my heart--Close the Gap. You may have heard that Indigenous Australians have a life expectancy which is nearly 20 years lower than white Australians. There is another petition, and again, international signatures are very powerful. But let's not forget about Oxfam's petition, which has been going for ages. Why not sign both?

Finally, animal export is a big problem in this country. Tens of thousands of animals die every year en route to the Middle East, and the ones who survive are slaughtered in incredibly inhumane ways. Several groups have been fighting to change the laws for ages, and finally the leading export company has been brought to trial. The case was thrown out on a technicality, but it was in appeal this year because a lawyer found that technicality was wrong. Well. Enter a WA politician who has decided to cancel the case. Read more about it at the Animals Australia site, and then sign their petition.

I hope everyone has a lovely long weekend, and if you've got the energy, leave the computer desks and do something fun! I'm predicting a day at the beach in my future....

Random.

I’ve been tagged by Lori over at Pleasantly Plump Vegan to give five random facts about myself. I’ve tried to make them as random as possible, and things that most people don’t know about me.

1. I own exactly five pairs of shoes. One pair, hot pink, strappy high heels, hasn’t been worn in about two years. Two others, pregan clog-style Earth Shoes and hard plastic flat sandals I got for free from a clothing donation box, are worn very rarely. I have a pair of sneaker-like Payless shoes that I wear for biking. But, 40% of the time, I wear flip flops, and 50% of the time I’m barefoot.
2. I have spent 160 hours under the sea (not counting snorkelling or swimming). I became scuba certified just before heading over to PNG for two months or hard-core diving, so I had to catch on quickly. I also learned to identify corals to genus level (some to species level). I haven’t been diving in over a year, since that trip.
3. I have two tattoos. One is on my front right side, just on the inside of my hip. It is the symbol for my astrological sign, Scorpio. I got that one in December 2005, and it took about 20 minutes of pain. The other is a jasmine flower, on my upper left thigh. I got that one in January 2006, and it took nearly three hours. I gave the tattoo artist creative licence on that one, and it came out really, really great. I want more, but probably won’t get them any time soon.
4. As cute as they are, I really hate green tree frogs. They make the most annoying noises when its damp out, and for some reason they love to croak just outside the bedroom window at about 5 am.
5. I usually sleep on my side or my stomach. But every morning, between 5 and 7, Nacho stands on my pillow and stares at me with her purr on in a big way. She stays there until I roll on my back, and then she lays on my stomach for a pat. I usually like it, unless she kneads and uses claws. She usually only stays for 5 or 10 minutes, but sometimes she falls asleep there until the sun gets really bright.

Since I’m posting random things, I thought I would put up some random food photos.

Here is some tofu dill salad, from Vegan with a Vengeance. I thought this was really tasty on sandwiches and wraps, but it was quite dry. Unfortunately, I used the last of my tofu mayo when I mixed it up, so I couldn’t add any to the mix. I think it was so dry because I used frozen tofu and it sucked up liquid like a sponge.

And here is a fancy pasta dish, which I invented by combining two recipes from Vegan Planet. Fettucini is tossed with sautéed strips of capsicum and zucchini, and then covered in a cannellini-balsamic sauce. This was really easy to put together, and really very tasty.

A few weeks ago, we got a pressure cooker. I’m still playing with the timing for perfectly-cooked beans, but it comes in handy. Except for last time I cooked kidney beans. I think the pot was a bit too full, and I must have let the pressure off a bit too quickly, because I ended up with red liquid squirting out of the lid. Lovely. Still, it’s quick and relatively easy, so I like it.

Pressure cooker tips from experts would be much appreciated, though.

Now for some random links. Well, not really random.

I posted about this last week, but I think it's worth mentioning again. 400 kangaroos are set to be culled (read: murdered) by the Australian government. In protest, Aboriginal Australians are teaming up with animal rights activists and making a pretty big statement, even offering to take the lethal injection on behalf of the kangaroos. Said one Aboriginal member of the Tent Embassy, "If you could see the kangaroos through our eyes, you would see how important this is to me," he said. "This cull is genocide, because these kangaroos are my brothers, they're my sisters, they're my aunties, my uncles and my babies." Peter Garrett has said this is necessary--what a freakin' sellout. This article also quotes an AR activist: "I've heard the Government saying the cull is for conservation, but it's not, it's about development." That's the key, I think, it's all about development.

In addition to being bad for kangaroos, the Australian government isn't so good for sheep, either. After selectively breeding sheep with lots and lots of skin, sheep farmers have found that the excessive skin around a sheep's bum is a breeding ground for blowflies. They lay eggs in the moist wool and the maggots then burrow into the sheep's body and slowly kill it. It's pretty gruesome, so to avoid that fate the sheep farmers simply slice off the excess bum skin. It's called mulesing, and they do it without any pain relief or bandaging up afterwards. Peta has been pushing for a while to get this practice changed, and now a few European countries are banning Australian wool until the practice is made more humane. I think the focus should be less on making it more humane, and more on getting people to stop using wool. Ending one bad practice will make people think they've solved all sheeps' problems, but really, the methods of dipping and shearing don't look very nice from a sheep's perspective. Anyways, sheep are an introduced species which are really not so good for the Australian environment.

Love is a warm muffin

The semester has started with a vengeance. This semester I’m tutoring for a first-year subject. For North Americans, aussie uni classes are split up into 2-hour lectures and 1-hour tutorials. Tutorials are small groups (10 to 20) where students are meant to discuss the readings and lectures. I’m leading two tutorials a week, but luckily I only need to prepare once!

The start of the semester just had to coincide with a crazy few weeks of field work. I have regular meetings in addition to community forums, morning teas, Sorry Business, and an upcoming trip to a nation-wide rally.

If I were living alone, I would be eating crap—cold leftovers, tinned spaghetti, soy ice cream. But luckily, when I get home late dinner is often cooked, or has at least been started. Like Tuesday, I got home just before 7 to the smell of something baking.

Andy made these carob muffins for me, even though he’s not a big fan of muffins. They’re from a mix, which I got at an organic shop a few months back when it was reduced to clear. The first ingredient is chickpea flour; they are dairy free, egg free, gluten free, low in fat and high in fibre.

With the leftover batter, Andy made a little slice, with peanuts mixed through and coconut on top.

Neither of us are huge fans of carob (I think it’s good, but I don’t think it tastes like chocolate at all), but coming home to warm muffins is such a nice experience! And, they have been great to bring to uni for a healthy snack to combat mid-afternoon slump.

The freshly-baked yumminess didn’t stop at sweets, though. Dinner was baking away in the oven at the same time—baked potatoes (and two cloves of garlic roasting away).

We had the potatoes topped with some leftover burrito filling, olive and caper tapenade, tofu mayonnaise, satay dip which was reduced to clear at the shop, and BBQ sauce. It may sound like a weird mix, but somehow it worked! The photo, however, did not, so I’ll leave you with a Nacho picture instead…

Updated to add the link to this article, about protests against kangaroo culling in the ACT. The reason I'm linking it is because AR folks are working together with Indigenous elders, which I think is just great!

It's so good

For vegans in Townsville, there is not much variety in vegan processed foods. One grocery store in town carries Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese. There is no vegan sliced or block cheese. And there is one brand of ice cream to choose from: Sanitarium So Good. Luckily, they’ve just come out with a new flavour: Coconut Mango Swirl.

When you see the ‘97% fat free’ label, you might think it’s not so good. Especially if you’ve tried their chocolate ice cream, which was more like frozen yogurt, in my opinion (good in it’s own right, but not ice cream). But the new flavour is creamy and rich, yet somehow manages to stay light and delicate. The coconut flavour of the ice cream is not overwhelming, but just tickles the taste buds. The mango swirls make for a surprising burst of mango flavour, with pieces of real fruit. Natural fruity flavours mean the ice cream doesn’t need to be overwhelmingly sweet.

Healthy as well as delicious, and great on its own, or alongside fresh mango or brownies: this ‘frozen dessert’ is the perfect antidote to a tropical vegan sweet tooth.

P.S. Kevin Rudd, Australian PM, has set a date for an apology to the Stolen Generation on behalf of the government. Maybe the police should apologize for the alarming number of indigenous deaths in custody, including the one on the Australia Day weekend. Unrelated, I know, but these are the things I contemplate while eating ice cream.

2 Fruit & 5 Veg

That's the recommended daily intake of produce in Australia. I think it's a bit low, but then, I'm a kooky vegan.

1. Look at this super ripe, red tomato. Andy was having mouth-gasms over this farmer's market find. "This is the way tomatoes should be!"How does one eat such a perfect specimen? Simply--on toast with salt and pepper.
2. From red to green... leafy greens. Spinach and tofu calzones, with a bit of red capsicum thrown in for colour and crunch.

3. Funny little eggplants, another farmer's market find. The man at the market told us they were good in stirfries, or cut in half and tossed in a salad. He said they grow on big trees. We put them in a stirfry, some cut in half and some left whole. They were disgusting. Maybe we got a bad batch, but they were so bitter and gross.4. Mahogany Eggplant, a recipe from Vegan Planet. Instead of just eggplant, I used some zucchini and carrot as well. Served with fluffy jasmine rice.
5. Pumpkin vindaloo, based loosely on a recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance. Lots of fresh mint on top, because the mint grows much quicker than the coriander.
For fruit? It's obvious...
1. Mango. Actually, coconut pancakes (from VwaV) with a fresh mango sauce. The sauce is just mango, about a T. of brown sugar, and a pinch of ground ginger.
2. Our fruity christmas bounty, a buttload of mangos for $6. We worked it out--25 cents a mango. Now we're talking! And you can't forget about the lychees. $6 for a "farmer's kilo" from the friendliest couple at the market. Nacho is actually yawning, but it looks like she's being very overprotective of her fruit. She loves pumpkin, but barely sniffs at mango.
And what better side dish to fresh produce than some left-leaning news? A friend sent me this article and I thought I would share. I think the most interesting part is towards the end, so don't forget to flick to page 2!

cancer

Read this article.

"Meat consumption in relation to cancer risk has been reported in over a hundred epidemiological studies from many countries with diverse diets."

I'm surprised, and happy, that the Sydney Morning Herald has published this.

Sex sells...

Aussie singer/actress Sophie Monk has put out this advertisement in conjunction with peta. (Click for more details.)

This isn't a new tactic. Peta has put out sexy ads featuring Alicia Silverstone and other celebs, and they use women wearing only lettuce leaves to promote vegetarianism. What do you think about using sexuality to sell animal rights?

I am torn on the issue. On the one hand, it is attention grabbing, which is the goal. It refutes the idea that vegans are all sickly and pale, or hippies. On the other hand, it's playing into patriarchal values--women's bodies can be ogled and used. To me, this is part of the same system of exploitation that allows meat-eaters to remain disconnected from the suffering they cause; how many vegans have heard the argument, "They're only raised for food". To top it off, they only seem to use models and actresses who fit into very narrow definitions of sexy. What about all the sexy veg*ns who don't fit into that cookie cutter?

So, are they simply playing the system by using the most effective ad campaigns there are, or are they supporting one form of oppression while arguing against another?

Update: Rather than replying to comments on other people's blogs, as I sometimes do, I'm responding here because I think the discussion is a good one. If you've left a comment, check back every now and then!