Go raw for Thanksgiving
Mandarin salad:
2 to 3 bunches spinach (about 12 C tightly packed)
3 mandarin oranges
1/2 C dried cranberries
1/2 C pistachios (optional)
3/4 C orange juice
1/4 C olive oil
1 lemon juiced
2 T agave nectar
1 T apple cider vinegar
1 clove garlic
1/4 t sea salt
pepper to taste
In salad bowl first four ingredients; dress with last eight ingredients vigorously stirred together; may be marinated a couple of hours before serving.
(No)turkey:
2 cloves garlic chopped fine
2 T fresh sage
2 T rosemary
2 T fresh thyme
2 C (480 ml) walnuts soaked 12 hours and drained and rinsed
2 C (480 ml) almonds soaked 12 hours and drained and rinsed
1 T organic unpasteurized white miso
1 large onion chopped very fine
6 stalks celery chopped fine
1 C (240 ml) parsley sprigs as garnish
1 C (240 ml) cranberries as garnish
Place garlic in food processor and process well. Add sage, rosemary and thyme, processing well. Add walnuts, almonds and miso one at a time and process well. Remove to bowl and stir in onion and celery. Place on a sheet of teflex, form into an oval loaf shape. Dehydrate for 6 hours. Remove and turn loaf over, removing teflex sheet. Dehydrate another 4 to 6 hours. Garnish with parsley and cranberries.
Mashed potato yams:
1 C cashews soaked 4 hours and drained and rinsed
2 C cauliflower roghly chopped
1/4 C filtered water
1 T lemon juice
1 T agave nectar
1 clove garlic
1 t sea salt
pepper to taste
Process in food processor or vitamix until smooth and creamy.
Cranberry sauce:
2 C fresh cranberries
1/4 to 1/2 C agave nectar
1/4 C orange juice fresh (about 1/2 orange)
Combine all ingredients in food processor or blender and blend until well mixed.
Hemp nog:
4 C water
2 bananas
1 C hemp seeds
1/4 C dates (no pits)
1 T maple syrup or agave nectar
1 t vanilla extract (non alcohol)
1/4 t nutmeg
1/4 t cinnamon
Combine all ingredients in high speed blender and blend until smooth.
Mushroom gravy:
3/4 C mushrooms
1/2 C filtered water
2 T almond butter
1 t lemon juice
1 t nama shoyu or Braggs liquid aminos
1 clove garlic
1/2 t sea salt
1/2 t sage
fresh pepper to taste
In high speed blender, blend all ingredients until smooth and creamy.
Stuffing:
Herb bread:
1 1/3 C oat groats and whole wheat soaked overnight, sprouted for 1 to 2 days, to make 3 C.
3 C zucchini peeled and roughly chopped
1 avocado
1 T fresh herbs (thyme, rosemary, sage)
1/2 t sea salt
Combine all ingredients in food processor and process until smooth. Spread onto teflex sheet or waxed paper, spread evenly. Dehydrate at 105 for 3 hours. Flip and remove teflex. Dehydrate additional 3 hours.
Stuffing:
Herb bread
2 C celery finely sliced
1/2 C carrots, finely sliced
1/4 C dried apricots finely chopped
1/4 C dried cranberries
1 T fresh herbs (thyme, rosemary, sage)
1 T olive oil
1/2 t sea salt
black pepper to taste
Combine all ingredients except herb bread together in mixing bowl. Place on teflex sheet and dehydrate. When herb bread is flipped, flip stuffing mix. When herb bread is done, slice into bit sized pieces and mix with stuffing ingredients.
Meat(less) pie:
Crust:
2 C cashews soaked 4 hours and drained and rinsed
1 C golden flax seeds ground in coffee grinder or high speed blender
2 T nutritional yeast
1/4 t sea salt
Combine in food processor and process until thoroughly mixed. Spread evenly over pie plate.
Filling:
2 C zucchini roughly chopped
1 C walnuts
1 C mushrooms roughly chopped
2 stalks celery roughly chopped
1/4 t sea salt
1/8 t nutmeg
1/8 t rosemary
1/8 t sage
All ingredients except zucchini until well mixed and mostly broken down. Add zucchini and process until broken down and well mixed. Do not turn into mush. Fill pie crust. Dehydrate at 105 for 20 to 24 hours.
Onion tarts (or may be made as a pie):
Begin by dehydrating 3 medium finely diced white onions at 105 for 12 to 24 hours.
Crust:
2 C cashews soaked 4 hours and drained and rinsed
1/2 C golden flax seeds ground in coffee grinder or high speed blender
2 T nutritional yeast
2 T olive oil
1/4 t sea salt
Combine in food processor and process until thoroughly mixed Use plastic wrap to line 4.5 inch tart pans (any size or pie pan) with removable bottoms. Dehydrate in tart pans at 105 for 2 hours.
Filling:
1 1/2 C cashews soaked for 4 hours and drained and rinsed
1 1/2 C filtered water
3 T agave nectar
1/2 t sea salt
Blend together until smooth and creamy. Add onions and hand mix thoroughly. Add filling to tart crusts (very full) and dehydrate 4 to 16 hours--size of tart pans determine amount of dehydration.
Pumpkin pie and whipped cream:
Crust:
1 1/2 C almonds
1 1/4 C shredded coconut, ground into powder in coffee grinder
9 small dates or 4 large dates (no pits)
3 T agave nectar
1/4 t sea salt
Copmbine almonds and coconut powder and process until powdered. Add dates, agave and sea salt and process until mixture formsa ball. Place dough into pie pan. Refrigerate.
Filling:
2 C raw pumpkin pulp
1 C young coconut meat
3/4 C pitted dates
1 t fresh grated ginger
1 t vanilla
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t cloves
1/4 t cardamom
Process or blend until smooth and creamy. Pour into crust. Refrigerate at least 2 hours.
Whipped cream:
2 C young coconut meat
4 T coconut oil
4 T agave nectar
2 t vanilla extract
Blend until smooth and creamy.
Raw pecan pie:
Crust
1/2 C almonds soaked 12 to 48 hours and blanched
1/2 C walnuts
1 C raisins
1 t cinnamon
Process with S-blade until dough forms into ball. Press into 9 inch pie plate
Filling
1 C pecans soaked 6 to 8 hours
1 C dried mission figs soaked 3 to 4 hours--discard water
2 bananas
1/4 C honey dates
1 t vanilla
1 t cinnamon
1/4 t nutmeg
Process pecans, figs, bananas and dates in food processor using S-blade. Add vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg and mix well. Pour into crust. Chill.
And a week is not complete without noting the craziness:
Those clustered around Barack Obama, from Madeline Albright to Hillary Clinton to Dennis Ross to Colin Powell, have no interest in dismantling the structure of the imperial presidency or the vast national security state. They will keep these institutions intact and seek to increase their power. We have a childish belief that Obama will magically save us from economic free fall, restore our profligate levels of consumption and resurrect our imperial power. This naïve belief is part of our disconnection with reality. The problems we face are structural. The old America is not coming back.
--Chris hedges (quoted by Chris Floyd)
So we might ask, what is the difference between JP Morgan, Enron, Carlyle Capital, LTCM and Bears Stearns--or for that matter Washington Mutual and Lehman Brothers? Why did our government and the Fed see fit to ignore signs of conflicts of interest and malfeasance on the part of JP Morgan and facilitate the takeover or rescue of Bear Stearns, Washington Mutual and LTCM, while Carlyle Capital, Lehman Brothers and Enron were allowed to implode? Certainly all were very highly leveraged, and all were heavily involved in the mortgage securities/derivatives market. Could the difference simply be the counter parties involved?
--Geraldine Perry
[W]ar is always a win-win proposition for the corporate-militarist state that has devoured the American Republic. Even if the particular conflict itself ends badly or inconclusively, it always engenders vast profits and increased power and privilege for the corporate-militarist elite--and the temporary managers they graciously allow the American people to "choose" from a rigorously sifted, highly circumscribed menu of "viable" candidates. So it doesn't matter if this war or that war is "ill-conceived" or "badly managed" or a "serious mistake" or "the wrong war at the wrong time," or if its public justifications are based on lies or ignorance or arrogance, or if it bankrupts the treasury, beggars the citizenry, and destabilizes the world. The small, golden, coddled circle still reaps dividends of profit and dominance.
--Chris Floyd
As long as individuals can stand up outside of the tribe and claim Americanism as their own, the right is revealed as weak, because it is their own lies about themselves that they cannot stand. Proof in the form of our existence is enough to make them angry. This is why, as Digby wonders, they keep getting madder as they keep gaining power. They are not really after a conservative agenda in terms of policy; they are not even after power, really. They are after a complete and utter subjugation of the American consciousness to their tribal mentality. And they will not stop until they get it. Hence, the culture wars. And now, the real wars. And unfortunately, I don't think they are done.
--Matt Stoller--quoted by digby (1 2)
The age of Lincoln / Orville Vernon Burton
The Civil War in the United States / by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels
Drawn with the sword: reflections on the American Civil War / James M. McPherson
Love and theft: blackface minstrelsy and the American working class / Eric Lott
A shattered nation: the rise and fall of the Confederacy, 1861-1868 / Anne Sarah Rubin