Farm Sanctuary by Gene Baur

Last week, I mentioned that Brian went to hear Gene Baur, founder of Farm Sanctuary, speak at University of Pennsylvania Law School. I would have gone myself but during a work week, it's damn near impossible to get from northern New Jersey to Philadelphia in a timely fashion. Being the amazing person that he is, Brian picked up a copy of Gene Baur's new book, Farm Sanctuary. Not only that, the author also signed the book to both Brian and me, "Thank you for caring."

I was a bit alarmed when I first saw the wrapped package on my bed this weekend (with lovely wrapping paper from the dollar store, no less!). I thought maybe I had forgotten some obscure holiday and had no gifts to bear. No, it was just Brian being his usual awesome self.

I have not started reading it yet but I've been flipping through it and have already been moved to both smiles and tears by the stories and pictures of the animals on the sanctuary and of those still trapped and tortured on factory farms. I can tell that it's incredibly well-written and thoroughly researched so I urge you to pick up a copy to read.

Random Fridays: It's Raining Today

* New, live versions of Kristin Hersh and Throwing Muses songs at Daytrotter.

* Did you see The Savages? With a father in a nursing home and an arthritic dog in a wheelchair, it hit very close to my home so I cried through most of the movie One of the funniest, most relate-able moments was each time Laura Linney's character did aerobics to an exercise DVD. Yeah, that's also me. I've been to a gym once in my life and while I loved the elliptical and treadmill, I just can't justify spending that much a month to sweat when I can sweat in my house or on the street for a fraction of the cost. Lately, however, I've been bored with the DVDs I have to I've bought a few new ones.

I know a workout is good when I have the exercise music stuck in my head during my lunch break and the songs are from Karen Voight's Sleek Essentials, a 3-DVD set with cardio, strength training, and flexibility workouts. The cardio includes lower body toning section that will make your butt sore the next day. Cuing in the aerobics section is good but there are enough subtle differences in the moves from other DVDs I have to keep it interesting. Her weight routines are always unique and really work. The workout uses a foam roller and it's worth springing some extra cash to get it. Doing crunches and leg lifts while balancing my back on a foam roller made my whole body shake, it's that hard.

Kathy Smith's Peel off the Pounds Pilates doesn't quite live up to its name's claim. With only 20 minutes of very light, mostly low-impact aerobics and 10 minutes each of upper and lower body toning, I don't feel like I'm working out very hard. But that's actually what I like most about it. On days when I am too tired to workout or my repetitive strain injury is acting up, I pop this one in to get my blood circulating and I always feel better than if I had just done nothing for the evening.

The last DVD I picked up is The Firm's Burn and Shape. I love The Firm so I was excited about this 40-minute mix of cardio and strength training. Emily Welsh's cuing, however, isn't the clearest during the aerobics sections (a surprise, since an older DVD of hers has excellent cuing). The moves aren't impossible but they don't flow intuitively so it takes much longer to get the hang of it. I've only done it once, though, so I'm sure I'll catch on eventually.

Collage Video is full of all the exercise DVDs you can hope for.You can watch clips, read very helpful user reviews, and can return even opened DVDs if they are not what you're looking for.

* Finally, Win a vegan cookbook at Vegan Soapbox!

(picture courtesy of CED Magic)

Vinegar: It's What's For Dinner

Why not take the cattle industry's advertising trope and turn it on its head with a tale of an entirely plant-based and exceedingly delicious dinner...

Italian (by way of Asia) Marinated Grilled Tofu with Roasted Veggies (or, How to Save Your Meal When You Add Too Much Vinegar)

This past weekend, Brian and I made a simple and warm dish that featured some seasonal vegetables that are beginning to make their way into the markets now. Like many, my favorite seasonal produce is in the spring and summer months--sugar snap peas, berries, onions, peaches, nectarines so I'm very happy to be digging into all of those foods again. (For a list of when seasonal produce is available across different parts of the US, visit Sustainable Table's "Eat Seasonal" guide).

We also made the Italian Marinated Tofu from Veganomicon. It calls for a 1/2 cup of white wine in the marinade. Since I didn't have any, I thought, why not substitute some white wine vinegar. I like vinegary food but this was a bit much. Once I got the tofu going on my new Calphalon grill pan, which I love, I tasted a small bite and all I could taste was vinegar. Brian suggested adding a bit more tamari. I did and then thought, why not a little agave nectar too. Those additions saved dinner by cutting the bite of the vinegar and adding just a hint of salty-sweetness. Grilling the marinated tofu gave it a nice, pronounced crust and tender, flavorful interior. Having tofu steaks, as opposed to stir-fried cubes, also was a nice change of pace from how I normally eat tofu.

On a parchment lined baking sheet, we loaded up some roasted red potatoes and yellow onion wedges that had been tossed in a small amount of olive oil, kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. When the potatoes are crispy brown and and the onions are softened and a bit charred (this takes anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes at 475 degrees F, depending on your oven), we added asparagus, chunks of garlic and a few tablespoons of white balsamic vinegar. Yes, we still needed more vinegar. It's worth using the white balsamic as opposed to the usual darker variety. Once roasted, it's subtle and savory rather than hitting you over the head with--WHOMP! VINEGAR! It takes about 5 minutes for the asparagus to be ready and then your whole meal is done.

While we prepared dinner, I also cooked for Luckie, who had his usual turkey, rice, and veggies combo. The dog normally has carrots but since asparagus was on the menu, I gave him the snapped off ends of the stalk. He goes nuts for asparagus, can eat loads of the stalk.

Why no pictures of the final meal in its complete state? Because Brian and I are eaters before we are bloggers and we just started eating before the idea of taking more pictures occurred to us. Dessert was chocolate chip cookie dough soy cream topped with a maple french toast twist by Barry's Bakery. No dairy or eggs or funky preservatives and only one Weight Watchers point for each crunchy, flaky treat. That is living.

NOTE: This post is actually by Brian and me. I wrote the text but Brian took the pictures and we both cooked the meal. In other Brian new, he will be headed off to a talk with Gene Baur, president and cofounder of Farm Sanctuary this evening at 6:30 pm at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. It's hosted by the Animal Legal Defense Fund.

Blog Round-Up

I've stumbled across some exceptional blogs lately. I encourage you to check out each of them ASAP:

* My good friend and our first guest blogger, Sky Chari, is now blogging regularly at her new venture, Eats Well with Others. It's chock full of restaurant reviews and tales of being vegan amongst the aforementioned others.

* I came across Elaine Vigneault's blog after reading her balanced and reasoned comments in response to a particularly heated post on I Blame the Patriarchy. Elaine's post today, "Because They Can," led me to...

* Vegans of Color, which, after comments like the one that follows, I am so eating up.

I’m glad some people are looking at the socioeconomic implications of the meat industry. So much attention has been put on animal welfare, animal rights, health, and the environment in relation to vegetarianism and veganism. Few people — vegans included — are aware of, or choose to think much about, who is relegated to the killing floors, namely minorities.

*

Finally, today is the one year anniversary of my grandfather's death. I'm not so much sad as I am just shocked that I've lived without him for a year. It wasn't long after he died that I decided to stop eating land animals. I didn't think the two had much to do with one another until I remembered how my grandfather often was treated like another cog in the hospital industry's wheel. How he was prodded and poked and turned over at the ease of the hospital staff and was completely dependent on others for his life. This isn't to say there weren't quite a few great nurses and aides and doctors. After all my grandfather needed to be turned and jostled because he was so sick. It still made me feel sad and powerless, nonetheless. I can't help but wonder if the sadness I felt for my grandfather being just another sick person out of many opened me up to feel sadness for so many other things, including for the billions of anonymous animals we eat.

Well, a lot has changed for me during this year without my grandfather, except for the fact that I still miss him terribly.

Top 10 Reasons Going Vegetarian Doesn't Mean You'll Lose Weight

1. Scallion pancakes and faux boneless spare ribs from Veggie Heaven. The first item is fried dough. The second one is animal-free but still slathered in ruby red barbeque sauce, black charred soy skin, and it leaves behind a neon orange grease spot on white paper. Oh, and it has fake fat in it. It's really awesomely, junkily, and spookily delicious.

2. Soy cream.

3. Bread. Especially if you've not gone vegan and the bread is accompanied with butter and cheese. And even if you are vegan, Earth Balance ain't no health food.

4. Fried shrimp in General Tso's sauce at Kingdom of Vegetarians. And fried noodles, moo shu mock chicken, and wonton soup at Golden Empress Garden. Uh, yeah, Chinese takeout was my downfall when I ate meat and it's my downfall now that I don't.

5. Vegan cookies, especially Alternative Baking Company, Liz Lovely, and Brian's mom's oatmeal raisins.

6. Burgers, fries, and shakes at Foodswings. At least you walk it off getting back to the subway station, right?

7. Eating more avocados, more nuts, and more seeds.

8. Coconut milk in curry, coconut milk in your chocolate truffles, licking the coconut cream off your fingers after you open the can of coconut milk.

9. Eating more than the suggested serving size of tofu that is already dripping in oil when you eat from Whole Foods' buffet at 10 pm because you've just gotten out of cookbook writing class, are tired and hungry, and still have to trek back to Jersey. That the buffet is surrounded by the bakery selection doesn't help either. Because you do need dessert, right?

10. Speaking of even more desserts: cupcakes, chocolate, cake, doughnuts--all vegan and vegetarian now. All often very cutely stylized, and absolutely necessary after eating something salty.

So yeah, those are all the reasons I'm still in Weight Watchers and all the reasons I haven't lost any weight since going pescetarian and then vegetarian!

* picture is of me eating my portobello and brie sandwich--courtesy of Johnny Brenda's--at last year's Trenton Avenue Arts Festival.

There Will Be Typos

Because I really don't have time to post but I do have some stuff to say. Here's a small roundup of enjoyable and edifying links to hopefully whet your appetites as much as they did mine:

One of my favorite blogs, I Blame the Patriarchy (IBTP), has gone vegetarian! "Eating hamburgers and radical feminism are mutually exclusive."

IBTP links to a post on Gary Francione’s blog on the link between a certain faction of postmodern feminism and animal-welfarists. You know, the wink-wink Bust-reading/stripper-admiring kind, of which I was when I was like 19. Oh, and then there's a post on vegan strip clubs . Oy and vey. The hipsters make my head hurt even though I’ll be guiltlessly chomping on their vegan doughnuts when Brian and I head out to Portland, Oregon this June. Also, Brian and I think that only hipsters complain about hipsters...except for us. We complain but are not hipsters. We are thoroughly unhip and way behind the times.

Vive Le Vegan’s Dreena Burton has heaps and heaps of vegan recipes on Canada’s Food Network site. The chocolate raspberry truffle tart with coconut crust (swoon) alone is work a click or two over.

Finally, if you’re in Philly and looking for some tasty fast food, why not hit up the Viva Las Vegans food truck in University City. Actually, I cannot personally vouch for the tastiness of their goods as I have yet to eat there but Brian has. And he likes it.

Guest Post: Will Death Do Us Part? by Sky Chari

This is a guest post by frequent Mutual Menu commentator and my longtime friend, Sky Chari.

It's a question posed by many who have fancied themselves philosophers over the years: are married couples really parted by death or do our souls live on together for all eternity (assuming you actually liked each other here on Earth to begin with)? When it comes to my husband and I, however, the death in question is neither his nor mine but dinner's. It’s not like I didn't know he ate meat when we started dating, or even when I married him. It’s not like he didn't know that I was a card-carrying PETA member and vegan advocate. So, how the hell does this work? To be honest, I don't even know some days. It definitely helps that we keep a vegetarian home. I just couldn't stomach having meat around. That being said, I do let in the occasional pizza or Doritos (he's not exactly into health food). When I come home from volunteering at a sanctuary for abused and neglected farm animals, Animal Place, disgusted with how people could be so reckless with themselves, the planet, and the animals, well, I let him know in the gentlest way possible exactly how I feel. He's heard my speech; he's even seen Earthlings, for goodness sake. His response? It's just not his thing.Yeah, I could kill him. I mean, I don't get how people could have all the information and still make the decision to eat meat.

In my particular case, I couldn't stomach the idea of killing animals for food from an early age, and started my journey toward veganism at age 11. Ironically, when my husband was the same age, he had never even touched meat. Raised in a traditional Hindu home, he was actually brought up as a vegetarian! However, by junior high, he'd had too many birthday parties at McDonald's to resist the temptation, and once Pandora's box was opened, it was impossible for him to close.

Don't get me wrong, my husband is a caring, kind, and insanely intelligent person. But he also happens to be a creature of habit and proximity. The reason it's easy to keep a veggie house is the same reason I can't keep a veggie husband--he'll eat whatever is in arm's length. The less he has to think about his food, the better. Granted, he's got a lot of other stuff to think about, running a company and all, but this is something about him I will never understand. I care about every single scrap that enters my mouth. I want to know where my food is from and all the ingredients that are in it so I can best judge what its effect on my person will be. He thinks I'm nuts.

So, have we just agreed to disagree and moved on? Actually, no. I still prefer that he become vegan, and he still knows it. I learned a long time ago, however, that nagging will get me nowhere. I have given him the space to make this decision for himself, all the while keeping him well informed and letting him know that I want him to live a long life with me. After all, nothing will make you live longer than letting other beings live long as well. It hasn't been easy or instantaneous by any means, but this tactic is working. He has long stretches of vegetarianism, and for now that is good enough for me. We are not unlike most couples in that we have our differences and issues. But being able to negotiate this emotionally charged subject has actually helped us through a number of other rough patches. At the end of the day, it is everything else about him that keeps me with him and thrilled to be so. This one blip on our radar is pretty major, but it is only one blip after all, and we manage it—some days better than others. Should kids ever come into the picture (not on the radar at all right now), all hell could break loose. Until then, he's my more-vegetarian-than-not husband, and I love him...to death.

Sky Chari is a flutist and teacher in San Francisco, CA, USA. When she's not dragging her husband to one of the town's great vegan restaurants, you can find her curled up on her couch watching the fog roll in (or, more preferably, out).

If you would like to share your story or tips on how you navigate being a vegan, vegetarian, or ominvore who navigates "interdietary" relationships, please leave a comment or send an e-mail to mutualmenu@gmail.com. We would love to hear from you and possibly share your story. Thank you!