alicia bay laurel

Quinoa (pronounced “KEEN-wah”) is a good-tasting high-protein grain of the same family as amaranth.

Here’s how to make a simple vegan dish I like:

Steam a variety of vegetables together until fork tender. Tonight my mixture is: three broccoli crowns cut into branches, three broccoli stems, peeled and cut into ½ sections, one big carrot, scrubbed and cut into ½ sections, one big parsnip, scrubbed and cut into ½ sections, one big yellow onion, peeled and cut into 1 inch sections, and two yellow patty-pan squash, washed and cut into bite-sized pieces.

Some other possibilities are brussels sprouts (stemmed and cut in half), zucchini (washed and cut into ½ inch sections), string beans, washed, ends trimmed off and cut in half, crookneck squash, washed and cut into ½ slices, red or white cabbage cut into bite-sized pieces, or cauliflower, broken into flowerlets.

Set aside the steamed vegetables and save the cooking water separately.

Quinoa is cooked at a proportion of one part grain to two parts water. One cup of dry quinoa makes enough for two generous servings. For three people, for example use 1½ cups of quinoa and 3 cups of water.

Measure the dry quinoa into a large strainer and let cold water run over it until it stops bubbling. Place the quinoa into a pot (use a 2 quart sized pot for 2-4 servings) and measure the vegetable cooking water into the pot. Place the cover on the pot, bring it to a boil, and turn the heat down very low and let the quinoa cook until all of the liquid is absorbed (10 to 15 minutes).

Turn the quinoa out into a large festive serving bowl, pour the steamed vegetables on top of it and toss gently. At this point you can season it according to your preference, or let each person season his or her own portion. I like a little extra virgin olive oil and Bragg’s Liquid Aminos on mine, but others might prefer tamari, gomasio, toasted sesame oil, sea salt, or parmesan.

Tags: recipe vegetables vegetarian recipes vegan quinoa

Friday 26 February 2010
Francesca Fiorentini (an Italian voice-over actress with a major film resume)
The Indypendent

[this is a section from the center of the article]

As a dweller of the planet that inspired such a film, I want to register a complaint. Having been overwhelmed with the seemingly sincere message of biodiversity and resistance to injustice, I can’t escape feeling morally cheap when then encouraged to collect all the Avatar characters in McDonald’s Happy Meals. After selling our heartstrings for over $2 billion, don’t we earthlings deserve a bit more?

Beyond generalities, we might do well to take a closer look at the parallels between this film and this world. For instance, who are the Na’vi of this planet, those protagonists of the story we are brought to root for, believe in, and admire? They are those who, as you read this, are embattled in struggles for their land and livelihood.

They are the Cofán, Siona, Secoya, Kichwa and Huaorani of the Ecuadorian Amazon who are knee deep in a landmark lawsuit against oil-giant Chevron for the dumping of more than 18 billion gallons of toxic wastewater into rainforest rivers for more than 26 years. Dependent on the forests and rivers for survival — fishing, hunting, and small subsistence agriculture — the more than 30,000 inhabitants of the region now face high levels of cancer and birth defects, and many have been completely forced off their ancestral land.

They are the people of Cabañas province in northern El Salvador, who in 2008 successfully prevented Pacific Rim Mining Corp. of Canada (homeland of director James Cameron) from continuing their gold mining operation in the area. Organizations like the Environmental Committee of Cabañas say that the consequences of gold extraction, which requires the use of toxic materials like cyanide and 30,000 liters of fresh water per day, could be drastic in a country where merely a third of the water is safe to drink and thousands die each year from waterborne diseases. Pacific Rim is now suing the Salvadoran government under the Central America Free Trade Agreement for $100 million, and anti-mining organizers have been met with violent threats and assassinations. Last year three leading organizers were shot and killed: the first found in a well, the second killed in front of his daughter, and the last eight months pregnant. Though fearing for their safety, residents of Cabañas continue to protest the company’s actions, some holding signs that read simply “Yes to life.”

They are the Dayak villagers of Landak in the Indonesian rainforest and the people of Kararata in the pristine forests of Papua New Guinea, both facing displacement due to the spread of palm oil plantations. They are the indigenous Penan of the Malaysian island of Borneo, fighting industrial logging on traditional burial sites; sacred land like the gelatinous forest of the Na’vi’s Tree of Souls.

The list, unfortunately, goes on.

And in a time of dramatic climate change, swine and bird flues, and food and water scarcity thanks to the pollution and other consequences of the mining, logging, and agricultural industries, we might remember that this world’s Na’vi have been history’s greatest conservationists. Maybe they don’t ride dragons and their aesthetic appeal didn’t go through test audiences, but the indigenous of this planet have long understood the providing and regenerative nature of the Earth when treated with care.

Read the whole article.

Tags: environment biodiversity environmentalism petroleum green hunger pollution corporategreed industrialpollution conservation corporations movie avatar oscars indigenoustribes rainforest injustice famine displacement marketing chevron amazon

A lovely vegan soup for a cold January day.

One pound green lentils, soaked overnight, drained and rinsed well
One large yellow onion, peeled and cut into large pieces
Two large carrots, scrubbed well and cut into thick slices
Five cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
A bouquet garni cotton cloth bag containing one bay leaf and sprigs of parsley, oregano, and basil leaves
One pound whole grain pasta (brown rice pasta for gluten-free eaters) cooked and drained according to the directions on the package.
Four heads of broccoli (about 5 or 6 inches across the heads), rinsed, cut into bite sized pieces, and steamed until fork tender. (Peel the stems before you cut them into cubes)
1 and one half cups good quality marinara sauce
3 tablespoons of olive oil

Place the lentils, onion, carrots, garlic and bouquet garni in a slow cooker (Rival Crock Pot, for example). Cover with pure water plus one inch. Turn the cooker on high until the soup boils, stirring occasionally so the lentils don’t stick to the bottom of the pot, then turn it to low and leave it on for eight hours (overnight) or until the lentils and vegetables are very tender. Remove the bouquet garni bag. In a large soup cauldron, gently blend all of the other ingredients with the lentils and vegetables.

What I like about this soup is that the broccoli is freshly steamed and the pasta is cooked al dente, rather than either being boiled to mushiness in the soup, and the olive oil has not been heated, other than by adding it to the soup at the end. The other thing I like about this recipe is that the lentils, having been soaked and rinsed, are much less likely to give you gas, even when combined with broccoli.

Each bowl of soup can be optionally enhanced according to the tastes of the person to whom it is served, with seasonings such as ground black pepper, hot sauce, Bragg’s Liquid Aminos, sea salt, or grated parmesan cheese.

I like to make extra and freeze it for a quick meal later in the month.

This soup could be lovely served with hot bread, a green salad, and/or an entrée, but, personally, I find one bowl is a whole meal for me.

Tags: recipe soup vegetarian recipes vegan lentils minestrone broccoli oliveoil crockpot bouquetgarni pasta marinarasauce

What happens when you allow corporations to run our government?

What you get is plunder. And I have to say this, the American people have to understand that there is a huge difference between free market capitalism, which is a good thing because it makes us more efficient, more prosperous, and more democratic, and the kind of corporate-crony capitalism which has been embraced by this (Bush) White House.

The reason they shouldn’t be running our government is because corporations don’t want the same thing for America as Americans want. Corporations do not want free markets and they do not want democracy. They want profits and the best way for them to get the profits too often is to use our campaign financing system which is just a system of legalized bribery, to get their hooks into a public official, they use that public official to dismantle the market place, to give them monopoly control, and then to privatize the commons, to turn over our Treasury, our air, our water, our public lands, our wildlife, our fishery, the shared resource of our society that give context to our community, that connects us to our past, that are the source of our values and our virtues and our character as a people, and we are turning that over, for profit, to these corporations.

We have to remember this, legally corporations cannot do good things. They cannot do true philanthropy, they can’t do things that are good for our country or for our community. When you see Wal-Mart bringing bottled water down to the Katrina victims, they’re not doing that to be good guys, they’re doing it because they think that over the long run the public view of them will be enhanced and that that will enhance their shareholder value and their dividend distribution. If they have another reason for doing it, any one of their shareholders can sue them and they will win that lawsuit. It is called wasting corporate assets. It is against the law in this country for a corporation to turn itself into a philanthropy. And if they’re caught doing it their board members will be punished and their shareholders can sue them.

We want corporations to be this way, to focus narrowly. We don’t want them to turn into philanthropies because nobody would invest in them. We want them to focus narrowly on shareholder value.
BUT, we would be nuts to let them anywhere near our government because we designed them to plunder and that’s what they’re going to do to us if we let them run our country. That’s what they’re doing now. That’s why from the beginning of our national history, our greatest political leaders, Republicans and Democrats, have been warning Americans against the domination of corporate power.

Teddy Roosevelt, a Republican, said that America would never be destroyed by a foreign enemy, by an Osama bin Laden, but he warned that our Bill of Rights, our Constitution and our treasured democratic institutions would be subverted by malefactors of great wealth who would steal them from within.

Dwight Eisenhower, a Republican, in his most famous speech ever warned Americans against a domination by the military industrial complex. Abraham Lincoln, the greatest Republican in history, said during the height of the Civil War in 1863, “I have the South in front of me and I have the bankers behind me and for my country I fear the bankers more.”

Franklin Roosevelt, during World War II, said that the domination of government by corporate power is “the essence of Fascism.” Benito Mussolini, who had an insider’s view of that process, said essentially the same thing. He complained that Fascism should not be called Fascism; it should be called Corporatism because it was the merger of state and corporate power.

What we have to understand in this country is that the domination of business by government is called Communism and the domination of government by business is called Fascism.

Our job is to walk that narrow trail between free market capitalism and democracy, holding big-government at bay with our right hand and big-business at bay with our left. And in order to do that we need an informed public that is able to recognize all the milestones of tyranny. To do that we need an aggressive and independent press that is willing to stand up and speak truth to power, and we no longer have that in the United States of America.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
New York City – May 2, 2004

Mr. Kennedy acts as Chief Prosecuting Attorney for Riverkeeper. He also serves as Senior Attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council and as President of the Waterkeeper Alliance. At Pace University School of Law, he is a Clinical Professor and Supervising Attorney at the Environmental Litigation Clinic in White Plains, New York. Earlier in his career Mr. Kennedy served as Assistant District Attorney in New York City.

Tags: environment politics commons bribery katrina georgewbush investment democraticparty fascism lobbyists green communism barackobama robertfkennedyjr environmentalist franklinroosevelt corporations abrahamlincoln banks corporatecampaigncontributions freemarketcapitalism america americans walmart publicrelations philanthropy stockholders shareholders republican teddyroosevelt dwighteisenhower benitomussolini

I spoke yesterday with Tom McNalley, a jazz guitarist who has deep, long-standing roots in the Haitian community in Los Angeles and is involved in rescue operations there. I asked him which of the charitable organizations most deserves our financial support during recovery from the earthquake. Without hesitation, he recommended Partners in Health. They have offered free health care in Haiti since the 1980s. They have 11 hospitals that are still standing, because they are outside of Port-Au-Prince. They employ an all-Haitian hospital staff.  Donate here.

Tags: earthquake healthcare haiti relieforganizations tommcnally standwithhaiti partnersinhealth tommcnalley

Meg White of Buzzflash interviews John Perkins, author of the bestselling “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man,” and author of a new book, “Hoodwinked: An Economic Hit Man Reveals Why the World Financial Markets Imploded—and What We Need to Do to Remake Them.”

Tags: politics protest economy freetrade buzzflash future barackobama interview fairtrade globalization franklinroosevelt recession corporations thirdworld fdr capitalism johnperkins economichitman hoodwinked predatory stockmarket corporatepersonhood imf worldbank bankregulation

Here’s a fabulous video of the Beatles' song All You Need is Love sung and played by people all over the world, together, to raise money for medicine to fight AIDS in Africa.

Starbucks Coffee produced this project, and offered to donate a dollar for every singer or instrumentalist that collaborated on this video (over the internet), to purchase AIDS medicine for patients in Africa.

It recalls the wonderful Playing for Change videos. I wonder whether the people who made the Playing for Change videos were involved in this project. They are not mentioned on the Starbucks newsletter about the video.  Anyone out there know?  Please email me.

Tags: love aids africa youtube playingforchange starbucksloveproject starbucks beatles allyouneedislove charity weareallone

Here's an eggnog so healthful you can drink it all year long!

For each serving add:

1 cup unsweetened hemp milk, chilled
1 peeled ripe banana, cut into 1 inch sections
1 tablespoon agave syrup
A pinch of nutmeg (more if you like)

Place in a blender jar and whir until creamy and smooth.  Serve in festive glasses.

Salud!

Tags: recipe vegetarian recipes vegan holidayrecipes christmas eggnog holiday hempmilk banana agave