Get Thee Behind Me, Seitan

There was a barbecue at work. I at two hot dogs and a chicken part--thigh?

The Meat and Potatoes Vegan

I used to be a real meat-and-potatoes person. Now I'm just potatoes.

When I launched myself into a plant-based, whole foods diet in April, it felt like jumping off a cliff, abandoning my friendly staple foods, fearful because I needed to learn a whole new way of eating. Like a toddler in a non-childproof house, all my psyche heard for weeks was "No. No. No. No! Get off that! Don't touch that! Get out of there." I entered upon what was for me a very steep learning curve.

I used to be an excellent cook for things like chicken and dumplings. Your basic meat and potatoes fare. So I started checking out vegan cookbooks in the library: The Asian Vegan, The Vegan Mediterranean Diet, Vegans Go to School, that sort of thing. My library fines have gone way up as I stare at the lists of ingredients in bafflement. There are literally hundreds of cooking ingredients I have never heard of, new staples in each type of cuisine that I really have no idea where to obtain.

My husband is a lifelong vegetarian and his favorite food is rice and lentils. I haven't even seen that in a cookbook. It's too easy.

I just mainly shop at Fred Meyer. About five hundred square feet in the corner of Fred Meyers is devoted to health foods, right next to the produce section, where I buy ninety percent of the foods I eat. I can get whole wheat bread without that horrible caramel coloring or raisin juice that is often used to give bread a uniform fake brown color and unpleasant flavor. I can get all you can eat nuts, seeds, dried fruits, quinoa, oats, and so forth from the bins. I can get freshly ground peanut butter and Mori-Nu tofu and Silk plain soy milk in aseptic packaging.

But I don't know where to get all these weird foods. I guess I'll learn, like I've learned everything else, step by step. In the meantime, there's always rice and lentils. And potatoes.

No Sense of Irony in Iran

During the events leading up to the 1979 revolution in Iran against the Shah, people would stand on the rooftops and call out, "Allah-u-Akbar, Allah-u-Akbar!" in defiance of the regime.

Currently there are many people with opinions against the current regime, gathering in numbers on the rooftops again and calling out of the windows, again shouting, "Allah-u-Akbar!" For some reason the Islamic Republic takes exception to this, arresting whoever they can catch, for imprisonment, possibly for execution.

How can these power-corrupted "Islamic" officials possibly object to the Name of God, "God is Most Great," in the mouths of anyone?

Creamavera Soup

Generally I need one hour minimum of cooking to feed myself each day. Preparing meals from fresh, whole foods takes more time [not counting if you cook ahead.] It also takes more creativity. Today, an hour was all I had, having done my errands on the way from Eatonville to Tacoma before going to work.

With one hour before I needed to leave for work, I invented this soup, inspired by a package of fresh basil leaves that were not quite as fresh as when I bought them. [That's the danger of splurging on exceptional produce such as fresh basil--it's too special to use, so it can go bad.]

Creamavera Soup:

8 small red potatoes, eyes removed, diced
3 carrots, diced
2 slices onion, chopped
1 large package fresh basil leaves, chopped up
1 lemon: cut up and squeeze juice into soup at the appropriate time
1 large tomato, diced
1 bag fresh spinach leaves
1 can beans such as navy or pinto [but not black beans]*
2-3 cups plain Silk soy milk
1 cubic inch turmeric root, ditto ginger
2-3 cloves garlic, peeled
a healthy shake of each: oregano leaves, ground cumin, dill, ground coriander, sea salt to taste

In two cups boiling water, cook diced carrots, potatoes and onion until soft. Meanwhile back at the ranch, grate turmeric, ginger, and garlic with a palm-sized grater. Stir into cooking vegetables. Chop fresh basil and stir in. With a potato masher, mash cooked vegetables in pot until some are mushy. Stir in rinsed can of beans. Stir in soy milk, seasonings, squeeze in lemon juice, and add spinach leaves. Simmer some more until flavors have blended and spinach has softened to a bright green. Serve garnished with raw diced tomatoes. Yum!

* If you previously had the time to have already cooked your own beans, instead of opening a can, great!

A Light Cast Into the Heart

I have been studying the Kitab-i-Iqan, the Book of Certitude, by Baha'u'llah, and reflecting on the different types of knowledge. A lot of knowledge is obtained by drudgery, by book learning; some by the school of hard knocks; but sometimes one receives a sort of sudden illumination, a sense of certainty. One hears a statement and knows it is true.

This happened to me the day I was listening to my friends Jay and Kristina talk about their switch to a vegan diet. My thoughts were protesting, reminding me of my deep emotional attachment to meat and dairy foods, and I voiced the opinion that I could never give them up. I think that to continue spending a lifetime saying goodbye to each of my favorite foods in turn, as if they were my closest friends, would have been emotionally painful and have made me very ill, indeed.

I think that is when I had this illuminating flash, this realization that I was allowing mere emotional attachment, however compelling and powerful, bar me from acknowledging what I knew at heart was true. I thought: "this is ridiculous!" and the next morning, in a state of near terror, I began putting my new understanding into practice.

Many mornings after that, fiercely and doggedly cutting vegetables for a stir-fry [all I ate in the first two weeks was stir-fry] I mentally chanted this verse:

"Hal min mufarajin, qayrullah. Qol sobhanullah, hovallah. Kollon abadon lahu, va kollon be amrahi qaymun," each silent syllable an emphatic flash of the knife as I desperately sliced up carrots, celery, and any vegetation I could think of.

"Is there any Remover of Difficulties save God? Say: Praised by God! He is God! All are His servants, and all abide by His Bidding." ~ The Bab.

Every stroke of the knife valiantly striving to sever my attachments to food.

Quoted in the Kitab-i-Iqan: "Knowledge is a light which God casteth into the heart of whomsoever He willeth." ~ Baha'u'llah.

Food, Fellowship and the Fourth

One of my prime unacknowledged concerns on changing to a whole-foods, plant-based diet, was actually lack of fellowship. A fear of being left out. There is a fellowship in sharing food. I stopped looking forward to potlucks: I was afraid of being tempted to eat non-healthy food, concerned about having to pick through food to see if it contained meat, and no telling about dairy foods. Worried about having to defend my newly-discovered truth.

An image occurs from potlucks at Neah Bay, at the United Spiritual Gathering Councilfire: people picking at food, "does this have meat in it?" I thought vegetarians must be the ultimate Picky Eaters. When I was growing up, we were encouraged to eat whatever my mother made, to accept anything from tripe to fried smelt, even during the period my mom decided fish don't need to be cleaned. [Darn good thing my mom could cook, most of the time.]

Now I've separated myself from the vast majority of humankind, not by something such as language or race or hair color that I can't help, but by something I had the audacity to choose: diet. I think anticipation of this was one reason I resisted becoming vegetarian for so long.

Pearl and I decided to have a barbecue today, so we went to the store and stocked up, mostly on vegetables, and fired up the barbecue. My favorite fire-starters made from an egg carton filled with sawdust and then melted parafin, are in Eatonville, but we got by. I started the coals, put on water for corn and made coleslaw with red cabbage, carrots, onion, shredded turmeric root, the juice from a small lemon, coriander, and vegenaise.

We had a huge tray of prepared fruit which Pearl swears she will finish, sliced up an English cucumber and a tomato, got out the whole wheat buns, and she threw on her meat burger. I decided to try grilling a large Portobello mushroom, and I wasn't disappointed. I had to change my shirt, it was so juicy. Ample food, a stunning view of Mount Rainier from our deck, which is shaded in the afternoon, mutual respect for our different diets, and plenty of fellowship.

Happy Independence Day.

I'm Going West

How to play the children's word game, "I'm Going West" [as I learned and remember it]:

Round One:

Player A says, "I'm going west, and I'm taking a [some object, for example, a wooden spoon.]"
Player B: "I'm going west and I'm taking a [some different object, for example, a vacuum cleaner.]"
Follow with however many players.

Round Two:

Player A says, "I'm going to take my wooden spoon and I'm going to make some cake with it."
Player B: "I'm going to take my vacuum and vacuum my living room."

Round Three [this is where it gets interesting]:

Player A says, "I'm going to take my wooden spoon and vacuum the living room, [plus whatever other activities of other players.] "

Player B: "I'm going to take my vacuum and bake a cake."

This sounds prosaic but can lead to ridiculous and hilarious results. Also, one has to be careful when using any live creatures, particularly humans. We've passed a lot of hours at different times with this, especially on car trips.