Irish Flag Stir-Fry

I have chanced upon the best stir-fry combination of all time. All you need is:

-rice
-a sweet potato
-broccoli
-part of an onion
-black beans (optional)
-green or red pepper (optional)
-sugar
-honey
-salt (optional)
-pepper (optional)
-olive oil
-20 minutes

Before we begin please note that this dish is so named because of its prominent colors and not because of any affiliation with or significance to Irish culture.

All right so first you boil some water and start cooking the rice. Next, cut a sweet potato up into bite-sized pieces, heat some oil in a frying pan and put the sweet potato pieces in there. Cook it at about 70% heat. While that's cooking cut up the broccoli and the onion into biggish but edible pieces and dump that into the pan too, all at the same time. Turn the heat down to 50%. Now put a tablespoon (that's the smaller one I think) of sugar and a few squirts of honey and some pepper and salt if you'd like in the pan and mix it all around. Cover it with a pan lid.

(If you have a red or green pepper and want to eat that, this would be the time to add it to your concoction. I'm just saying that because peppers are so popular these days...)

Wait five minutes and dump half a can of black beans in there if you so desire. I'm a big fan of beans so I always add them to any kind of stir-fry dish I make. You don't have to, though. Another option is kidney or garbanzo beans; both would be equally delicious. Keep the pan covered.

Wait another 5-10 minutes, maybe adding some other spices like ginger, curry, garlic and/or cumin, and then you should be all set.

Sticking It to the Organic Man

In case you thought you were "sticking it to the man" by buying organic, you're not. An interesting post from "Vegan Dad" on who actually "owns" organic.

http://vegandad.blogspot.com/2009/06/food-for-thought.html

News Flash (Jane)

Being Very Lazy the VLV editor in chief (aka the VLV,) invites guest appearances from any and all who feel so compelled. Drop a comment, send a carrier pigeon, or hit the VLV up via email... anything but Facebook messaging. The VLV HATES Facebook. But yeah, whatever floats your boat. All submissions are welcome, even if all you eat is meat. The VLV promises, this is an Equal Opportunity, open minded vegan blog ;-)

VLV, Soap Box Style

At risk of turning this beautiful, orange corner of the interwebs into a confessional, the VLV must unburden her guilty conscience. She neglected her duties to this blog, and you, the most wonderful readers in the entire world, for more than a month! For this, she is truly, deeply, very sorry.

And, during that almost-two-month span there were nine, yes, N-I-N-E whole days she was not vegan! Gasp. However, for this she is most definitely NOT sorry. In fact, she’s going to take this opportunity to hop on her soapbox.

Side note: have you seen MILK? If not, you should. It solicited a whole river of tears from the VLV. Anyway, there’s a scene where the main character gives a speech from a box labeled “soap.” The association is now firmly logged in the VLV brain, along with the image of a certain 7th grade science teacher in his, er, “hipster” jeans and never-changing plaid shirt.

But we digress… The VLV was not vegan because she was traveling. People she didn’t know were cooking for her, opening their hearts, and offering friendship, tomato chickpea casserole with ricotta and goat cheese, chicken salad, and fried potatoes with hotdogs (served with a fine French wine, I’ll have you know). Never one to refuse gifts, the VLV happily set aside her eating ideologies, although she did skirt around the beef stew.

People become vegetarian and vegan for oh so many reasons; physical, environmental, ideological, financial, moral… all of these causes stem from a desire to do “good,” to decrease suffering, increase health, help our planet, etc. But this does not make vegetarians and vegans “ better,” or more moral than other people. And, in the humble opinions espoused on this page, these reasons definitely do not excuse rude behavior.

Flawmio's Wednesday Mini-segment: APPETIZERS TO WATCH

I stood at the kitchen counter eating a whole grapefruit. Initially I had thought it to be rotten; it had been sitting in the catacombs of my fridge for the last two and a half weeks, and part of the yellow skin had turned brown. But it was only a speckled, birthmark-like brown, not a furry or malevolent brown, and so just as I was about to toss it into the trash I reconsidered.

"Here, I'll just open it and settle this once and for all," I told myself. Miles Davis and John Coltrane played their trumpet and saxophone, respectively, in the background. I took my sharpest knife and sliced it vertically, and saw a flawless thicket of golden pulp. Then I cut it sideways and got the same result, and finally carved it one more way, to make six perfect juicy wedges. Don't judge a book by its cover, friends: the grapefruit was still good.

I took my box of Domino sugar and poured it all over the grapefruit, then began the feast. I had a sore throat and could not believe how good the grapefruit's copious, tart discharge felt when it flooded my esophagus. With each piece, before plunging it into my gigantic mouth I dipped it into my plateful of sugar particles that had missed the first time. By the time I finished the entire fruit I was crying tears of intense, bitter joy. O Grapefruit! There was stickiness on most of the exposed parts of my body. Juice ran down from my forearms to the insides of my elbows, from my mouth down my neck, onto the floor.

I paused to catch my breath, wishing I had another. I recalled a fruit stand three blocks away. This would be a night to remember.

You are What You Eat, and Some People are Rude

The VLV has a (possibly hazardous*) habit of checking her email on her walk to work. This is why, on Wednesday, she walked in to the office in a sour mood: the first thing she read, bleary eyed and at the corner of University and 17th, was an accusing link, emailed by, well, someone. No greeting, subject, or explanatory prose.

Simply this: teen vegetarianism is linked to eating disorders. And apparently,

“Many young "vegetarians" continue to eat the white meat of defenseless chickens (25% in the current study) as well as the flesh of those adorable animals known as fish (46%), even when they are butchered and served up raw as sushi.”

(Side note: fish are not cute, except for Nemo, and no one can eat him, for obvious reasons.)

In a very thoughtful change.org post responding to the study, Julie Neumann brought up the following subtle, and crucial point:

“In a society that encourages inhaling mass-produced junk food on a daily basis, conscious eating is rare. Very few people actually contemplate what they put in their mouth or how it will affect their body. Such blind consumption contributes to a slew of health issues, including an obesity, heart disease and diabetes. To be aware of where your food came from, to consider the impact it will have on your body, is exceptional. At its best, this attitude leads people to adopt a vegetarian diet. At its worst, this awareness contributes to a destructive mental illness.”

Food for thought. After all, we literally are what we eat.

*The VLV had a college professor (also here,) who claimed that the best way clear a path for oneself and avoid the dodging, we-both-move-left, we-both-move-right game when walking through crowds of oncoming strangers is to not make eye contact. The on comers, invested in not slamming into an oblivious person who walk around looking at their toes, will then steer to one side allowing the toe-gazer to continue straight along her charted course.

Of note for those who want to try this at home: at the time of this lecture, the professor in question was 6+ feet tall, and had a clown’s fro of gray curls.

Also of note: To minimize hazard and the ever-present bruises on her legs, the VLV asks you to please not try this in Union Square between the times of 8am and 9am on week days, as she will be walking through and checking her email. The hazard-free success of the no-eye contact strategy depends on one party (you) trying to make eye contact.

Old Dan Tucker's Marinade

A good way to cook meat or tofu:

marinate + steam-fry

A. Slice your meat/tofu in bite-sized pieces and put them in a bag or bowl. Add:
1. Soy sauce
2. Olive oil
3. Vinegar
4. Mustard
5. Pepper
6. Salt
7. Honey
8. Sesame seeds
9. Nutmeg
10. Ginger

B. Shake it up

C. Put it in a frying pan and cook it at about 60%. Cover that shit up with a lid or a big plate and in 8 minutes it'll be done.

D. Good things to eat it with: broccoli, potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, asparagus, mushrooms, cauliflower, rice

E. Flawmio says: Oh hello. It is best to cook this dish while listening to old-time folk music. My mother Nastio used to play the fiddle while Uncle Ghoulzio served this one up. As a young boy I would perch at the table tapping my feet, scrutinizng a word-search, while she played and Ghoulzio crooned:

Old Dan Tucker was a fine old soul,
Buckskin belly and a rubber ass-hole,
Swallowed a barrel of cider down,
And then he shit all over town,

Marinade! Old Dan Tucker,
Marinade! Old Dan Tucker,
Marinade! Old Dan Tucker,
Came too late to get his supper.