Good Weekend
Here I am with my favorite dog sitting on the couch (otherwise known as Pluto's bed).
First, I report on the vegan cheese and chocolate party. I baked a vegan chocolate cake from a recipe in the Moosewood Book of Desserts. It was kind of fun: you mix all the ingredients right in the pan and vinegar and baking soda is what made it rise.
So I took the cake, along with the nasty "cheese" ball.
Aside from my cake, the only handmade things were a quinoa salad (of course), some lentil and carrot ("pulled pork") stuff on crackers (pretty tasty), and some roll-up things made from fake pepperoni, fake cream cheese, and olives. The very rotund provider of the roll-ups was so proud of his fake pepperoni that he brought the packaging to show everybody what a great find he discovered.
OK, I'm not picking on people who want to eat a plant-based diet. I have huge respect for that, and have myself been eating less meat with an eye to the environment. I appreciate their passion for the cause. What I don't understand is why they want to eat this crap that mimics meat. I adore vegetarian Indian and other Asian cuisines in which their food doesn't pretend to be meat.
But the biggest part that bothers me, other than the identity politics of their choice of food being the mainstay of their identity, is their total disconnect about the way in which they are choosing to eat is a total sell-out to corporations. The place was littered with all kinds of expensive fake food (some of which, like the "cheese" ball, tasted like ass) in way too much packaging. Plastic tubs of plastic food.
I can't really claim to be a foodie because I am no longer a very good cook. But I have long been a proponent of real food, as outlined in Michael Pollan's rules for eating. He says, "Don’t eat anything your great-great-great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food."
So here are all these naturalists, environmentalists, permaculturalists, and other supposedly "woke" people picking up all the packaging and reading what is in the disgusting "cheese" ball and avocado mayonnaise. They scan the 30 ingredients and as long as it doesn't say anything about animal parts, they are satisfied. But those ingredients, such as texturized vegetable protein, are not good for you and many of them are things I avoid because they aggravate migraines and cause other problems.
At least I was able to pass and was not called out as a Flesh Eater. I do a lot of passing in this city of identity politics. It's self-preservation.
Later in the evening, Emily's husband, Greg, and one of his buddies played music for us. Greg is supposed to be a Johnny Cash cover band, but they only did two of Cash's songs. Greg has a wonderful, deep, Johnny-like voice and they were good musicians. It was fun. Nice people.
Today Jason took the dogs out again, for which I was very grateful because I had scheduled some things with friends.
Pam came over and we did some great work (I humbly think). We had a good discussion (no arguments!). We have decided to go back to our rune work, which I am happy about. We had previously made a collage of Raido, and today we galdered and charged them. Amusingly, Pluto decided to join us and went and got his stuffed cobra out of the toy box. We processed around the living room with Mr. P (otherwise known as Nidhdog) before he went out with Jason.
We had a lovely discussion about Raido and the Web of Wyrd and the vegans. Something was itching at me regarding the vegans, and I think we got to the bottom of it. Their hearts are definitely in the right place. But their brains haven't quite caught up to their hearts if they can't see that the highly processed fake meat is not a good choice environmentally. Pam correctly said that their ignorance is a cut in the Web. If we are going to survive as a species, we need to be more conscious about holding the Web of life--the connections between us and the choices we make, the connections between people, and the connections between people and nature.
I don't know. It all felt rather profound. And it felt really good to be back in a good place with Pam. She is a difficult person, but precious to me in many ways.
This afternoon I went over to Erin's and worked with Rodney on the food forest web site. I assured him that any criticism from me is coming from my editorial training and is not to be taken personally. Emily was afraid that I would be too critical and hurt his feelings. I think Rodney's ego can take it. He was very nice to work with and at some point he will give me access to the web site to do my thing. Yay!
Looking at a week ahead with way too many medical appointments. I am avoiding my family's house because of germs. And it's supposed to get very cold later this week. Oh, Wisconsin!
First, I report on the vegan cheese and chocolate party. I baked a vegan chocolate cake from a recipe in the Moosewood Book of Desserts. It was kind of fun: you mix all the ingredients right in the pan and vinegar and baking soda is what made it rise.
So I took the cake, along with the nasty "cheese" ball.
Aside from my cake, the only handmade things were a quinoa salad (of course), some lentil and carrot ("pulled pork") stuff on crackers (pretty tasty), and some roll-up things made from fake pepperoni, fake cream cheese, and olives. The very rotund provider of the roll-ups was so proud of his fake pepperoni that he brought the packaging to show everybody what a great find he discovered.
OK, I'm not picking on people who want to eat a plant-based diet. I have huge respect for that, and have myself been eating less meat with an eye to the environment. I appreciate their passion for the cause. What I don't understand is why they want to eat this crap that mimics meat. I adore vegetarian Indian and other Asian cuisines in which their food doesn't pretend to be meat.
But the biggest part that bothers me, other than the identity politics of their choice of food being the mainstay of their identity, is their total disconnect about the way in which they are choosing to eat is a total sell-out to corporations. The place was littered with all kinds of expensive fake food (some of which, like the "cheese" ball, tasted like ass) in way too much packaging. Plastic tubs of plastic food.
I can't really claim to be a foodie because I am no longer a very good cook. But I have long been a proponent of real food, as outlined in Michael Pollan's rules for eating. He says, "Don’t eat anything your great-great-great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food."
So here are all these naturalists, environmentalists, permaculturalists, and other supposedly "woke" people picking up all the packaging and reading what is in the disgusting "cheese" ball and avocado mayonnaise. They scan the 30 ingredients and as long as it doesn't say anything about animal parts, they are satisfied. But those ingredients, such as texturized vegetable protein, are not good for you and many of them are things I avoid because they aggravate migraines and cause other problems.
At least I was able to pass and was not called out as a Flesh Eater. I do a lot of passing in this city of identity politics. It's self-preservation.
Later in the evening, Emily's husband, Greg, and one of his buddies played music for us. Greg is supposed to be a Johnny Cash cover band, but they only did two of Cash's songs. Greg has a wonderful, deep, Johnny-like voice and they were good musicians. It was fun. Nice people.
Today Jason took the dogs out again, for which I was very grateful because I had scheduled some things with friends.
Pam came over and we did some great work (I humbly think). We had a good discussion (no arguments!). We have decided to go back to our rune work, which I am happy about. We had previously made a collage of Raido, and today we galdered and charged them. Amusingly, Pluto decided to join us and went and got his stuffed cobra out of the toy box. We processed around the living room with Mr. P (otherwise known as Nidhdog) before he went out with Jason.
We had a lovely discussion about Raido and the Web of Wyrd and the vegans. Something was itching at me regarding the vegans, and I think we got to the bottom of it. Their hearts are definitely in the right place. But their brains haven't quite caught up to their hearts if they can't see that the highly processed fake meat is not a good choice environmentally. Pam correctly said that their ignorance is a cut in the Web. If we are going to survive as a species, we need to be more conscious about holding the Web of life--the connections between us and the choices we make, the connections between people, and the connections between people and nature.
I don't know. It all felt rather profound. And it felt really good to be back in a good place with Pam. She is a difficult person, but precious to me in many ways.
This afternoon I went over to Erin's and worked with Rodney on the food forest web site. I assured him that any criticism from me is coming from my editorial training and is not to be taken personally. Emily was afraid that I would be too critical and hurt his feelings. I think Rodney's ego can take it. He was very nice to work with and at some point he will give me access to the web site to do my thing. Yay!
Looking at a week ahead with way too many medical appointments. I am avoiding my family's house because of germs. And it's supposed to get very cold later this week. Oh, Wisconsin!