Wednesday, November 19, 2008

No Animal Food

A good retort for the dreaded comments about how humans are made to eat meat...

"The gorge of a cat, for instance, will rise at the smell of a mouse or a piece of raw flesh, but not at the aroma of fruit. If a man can take delight in pouncing upon a bird, tear its still living body apart with his teeth, sucking the warm blood, one might infer that Nature had provided him with a carnivorous instinct, but the very thought of doing such a thing makes him shudder. On the other hand, a bunch of luscious grapes makes his mouth water, and even in the absence of hunger, he will eat fruit to gratify taste."

-R.H. Weldon in "No Animal Food"

Monday, November 3, 2008

we're growing!

We had 17 people at our November potluck yesterday! Woo hoo! I think that's the biggest at one meal since we started getting together last February.

Unfortunately, yours truly forgot her camera but we had quite the spread... I'm surprised we didn't have people lying on the kitchen floor rubbing their bellies after dinner! The menu included Indian spiced potatoes, Balsamic glazed beets, Lentil stew, spicy chickpea and vegetable casserole, wild rice paper rolls, mashed potatoes and veggie gravy... and Benz Balls, Apple Crisp and fresh Honeycrisp apples for dessert!!

I happen to have a photo of the Indian spiced potatoes on file, so here it is with the recipe:


4 large potatoes
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp coriander seeds
2 tsp mustard seeds
2 Tbsp sesame seeds
½ tsp turmeric
1 tsp fresh chilli, chopped
2 tsp lemon rind
2 Tbsp lemon juice
salt and pepper (to taste)

-Peel and chop potatoes, then boil until cooked but not too soft (let cool)
-Heat oil in frying pan, cook cumin, coriander, mustard for about 1 minute, stirring
-Add sesame seeds, cook for another 1 minute, stirring
-Add rest of ingredients, stir
-Add cooked potatoes, heat and stir