Today was a nice relaxing day off. We did some grocery shopping, discovered that Costco sells a box of 12 qts. of Rice Dream, very convenient. We went to the antique store-looking for a new kitchen table and as soon as we walked in I saw it. It was perfect, a lovely white, round, sturdy thing. But it was already sold. Bummer. It rained a lot. We watched I Love Lucy. Andrew made baby bread. Okay, so it's a huge loaf of sourdough (right) but he used the same starter from the bread he made last week. That was the momma (left)
So, yes, a wonderful, rainy day inside. I made some pumpkin chowder for dinner-and that sounds harder than it was. Andrew's mom got it for us, this cute little package. I just threw it in some veggie stock and added "cream." It was good, it definetely filled our little apartment with pumpkinny aromas. So this, with the bread...oh the bread! It's so good. It's my favorite of all the bread he's ever made. I'm lucky. I also got him to make me some Andy Oven Fries tonight (there's a little garlic n rosemary baked with 'em).
I've been doing some reading lately too and I've reviewed three excellent books on Good Reads (www.goodreads.com/amabre)
Thanks and Have Fun Running the Country is adorable. It's children's letters to President Obama! They are really sweet, some of them are heartbreaking. It amazes me how much kids know about politics these days. When I was 10 I knew nothing. A lot of the letters address homelessness and advise Obama to help the poor. Some letters scold him for smoking. Some talk about all the fun they would have if they lived in the white house. One kid wants to fill some of the rooms with mashed potatoes and have a pizza carpet and a chocolate pudding couch.
The Face on Your Plate was good stuff. Interesting and just sentimental enough to turn omnis veggies and turn veggies vegan. I learned a lot about fish, especially. They're more complex than we give them credit for. We share 85% of our DNA with fish. They are not vegetables. We are not vegetarians if we eat them.
For the Love of Animals was awesome. In a kind of devastating way. It forces you to look back at the cruelty animals have suffered throughout history but it's redeeming in that it presents the series of events that lead up to the first animal welfare organization (SPCA). The writing is captivating. I can't believe I didn't know about Humanity Dick. As vegans, we all have to know about him. We also have to know about William Hogarth.
i still think of seafood as not the same as other "meat" for various reasons, but i was watching Spain- On the Road Again!, the PBS special with Mario Batali (sp?) and Gwenyth Paltrow (who is pescatarian, during the shooting of this anyway). Mario was making faces at her soymilk that she used to put in her tea and later that day they do a barbecue at the coast and they're picking what seafood to eat. well, she makes a face at the sausage they put on the grill and also when the guest chef cuts up a still-alive lobster (it made me squeamish for sure, i think throwing it into boiling water is much more humane-seeming) and throws it on the grill. Mario also mentions something about cooking a fish just like you would any other meat. gwenyth kinda makes a face here, but i just found it amusing that she was talking about the bad kharma mario was going to get for eating baby lambs, but how she doesn't think about the fish/lobsters/etc. just like i used to...
ReplyDeletesorry for the long, possibly confusing comment!