Since the Mr. and I moved into a new place with an extra-large garden last year, we decided to step up our gardening game. This past spring, we added a few new veggies to our repertoire, including some spaghetti squash we picked up on whim. About halfway through the summer, the squash was growing like a superweed, and before we knew it, we had a workbench piled high with spaghetti squash. Yet, being an incredibly lazy and easily intimidated vegan, I continued to ignore the growing mound of Italian squash, instead cooking the more-familiar green and yellow zucchini. Until this weekend.

Feeling confident from our first successful attempt at refinishing (polishing? waxing? sealing? I’m not quite sure what you’d call it.) our concrete floors, I decided to try another first, and cook up an Italian squash for dinner Friday night.

I was a bit flummoxed when I first carved the squash open; silly me, I thought the flesh of the squash should actually have a thin, spaghetti-like shape, um, naturally. Not so! The inside of a spaghetti squash kinda resembles a pumpkin: some fleshy goodness just below the rind, with some seeds and a weird stringy mess in the middle.

Luckily, cooking spaghetti squash is super-easy:

* You can bake it either whole or halved.

* If whole, place it in a roasting pan and pop it in the oven at 375 degrees for an hour. After it’s cooled, slice it in half, length-wise, and scoop out the stringy/seedy innards. Then, scrape the prongs of a fork through the flesh; this will cause it to fall away from the rind, in a stringy, pasta-like formation. Once the rind is scraped clean of the pasghetti/flesh, you’re done! Serve warm: with a little margarine and salt/pepper, with pasta sauce, or with a veggie combo. Google “spaghetti squash recipes” for some ideas.

* Alternately, you can slice the squash in half before cooking, in which case you can scrape out the innards while the squash is room temp. Way easier, right? (Plus, if the squash is home-grown, this will also tell you whether any little buggers wormed their way into your dinner *before* you prepare it!) Then place the squash halves in a cooking pan, rind-side up, and cook at 375 degrees for 45 minutes. When it’s done, scrape the squash flesh, length-wise, with your fork, and it will fall away in the aforementioned spaghetti-like formation.

You may also want to save and roast the seeds, which allegedly taste like (and can be prepared similarly to) pumpkin seeds. My squash only yielded about 30 seeds, not enough to prepare at once, but I’m going to keep saving them up until I have a cookie sheet’s worth. It’s kind of a hassle, separating the seeds from the stringy pulpy mess, but it’s worth a try – especially since pumpkin seeds sell at $4 to $5 a pound!

So, now I feel awfully silly, dancing around all that Italian squash for months, because I was too lazy to try out a new veggie.

Pasghetti food porn after the jump:

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Winter’s coming, winter’s coming. There’s a chill in the air, a snap in the wind, a bite in the morning dew-turned-frost. Can’t you feel it? Winter’s coming!

For all of Mother Nature’s blustering, though, the surest sign that FSMas is round the corner comes not from the cold weather, but from the grocer’s cold storage section:

Silk Nog! And Pumpkin Spice! Happy holidays, my long lost friends! My, how I’ve missed you.

Shane and I did some Halloween shopping on Saturday, and on a whim, I peeked in the big box store’s “dairy” section. (We were just round the corner, picking up some booze and chips. *shrug*) Lo and behold, one lone row of Silk Soy Nog! Even though yesterday was a wonderfully warm fall day, I knew then that winter wouldn’t be far behind.

Tonight we’re supposed to get our first frost.

Tomorrow I’m sending Shane to Wild Oats to pick up some Pumpkin Spice.

Maybe later this week I’ll make some Spicy Three Bean Soup.

Yup, it’s that time of the year.

So, tell me veg*ns: you’re stuck on an Arctic island, and you can only have one case of Silk. Which do you choose: Soy Nog or Pumpkin Spice?

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Tagged: veganmofo vegan veganism vegetarian vegetarianism blog swarm october food carnival lost silk silk nog soy nog pumpkin spice soy milk winter fsmas fall flickr photos

About

The easyVegan Link Sanctuary is a near-daily roundup of animal and environmental advocacy news, action alerts, carnivals, events and resources. This link roundup is meant as a jumping-off point for you, the reader, to take further action and learn more about the issues presented here. I link, you decide!

If you have a link you’d like included, please drop me a line at easyvegan [at] gmail.com – or leave it in the comments! Feedback is also appreciated, particularly as it relates to the links included below. I’ve tried my best to identify and name any speciesism, sexism, racism, classism, homophobia, sizeism, etc. which may appear in the resources below; if, however, I’ve overlooked something, please leave a note in the comments. It’s not my desire to fight one form of oppression by engaging in another.

Action Alerts

ACORN: PLEASE HELP ACORN STOP THE ATTACKS
John McCain’s attack on ACORN is shaping up to be the most vicious of the 2008 election. The problem is, we will have to suffer the consequences – to ACORN, to the communities in which we work, to our democracy – long after the election is over. We need your help, and we need it now.

Alaska Wilderness League: Stop Lame-Duck Attack on Bristol Bay
Alaska’s Bristol Bay is an American treasure. This federally protected area is home to the world’s largest sustainable wild salmon fishery – truly, one of the last remaining sanctuaries for wild salmon in the world. The Bureau of Land Management wants to leverage the final months of a lame duck presidency to open this land – 2 million acres in all – of our shared public lands to mining and development. Short term, risky mineral development will never exceed the value of Bristol Bay salmon. It could forever destroy the fishery. Tell the Secretary of the Interior that Bristol Bay must be protected for future generations.

Center for Biological Diversity: Don’t Allow Coal Companies to Annihilate Streams
The Environmental Protection Agency is on the verge of approving a proposal that would allow coal-mining companies to dump mining waste directly into flowing streams, filling in the streams entirely and destroying all the life in them. Since 1983 the Stream Buffer Zone rule has prohibited mining within 100 feet of flowing streams, but now the Bush administration and the Office of Surface Mining are trying to push through an under-the-table, last-minute effort to remove this protection.

Farm Sanctuary: Update on the Biggest Campaign for Animals in U.S. History
With less than two weeks to go, California’s Prop 2 is at the top of Farm Sanctuary’s priority list. We have been a leading supporter of this initiative from the very beginning, and we know that passage of this modest proposal will impact not only the lives of 20 million animals living in California, but also the future direction of factory farming.

Ocean Conservancy: Urge President Bush to Protect U.S. Pacific Waters
The Administration is poised to protect a vast region of the Pacific Ocean – an area three times the size of Texas and larger than all our national parks combined. It’s up to each of us to make sure this plan for the Pacific becomes a reality and that full protections are put in place for these valuable, pristine, and unique ocean gems. Please urge the President to create the world’s largest marine conservation area, and tell him that these ocean gems must have full protection.

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Shane and I are finishing our concrete floors today (and given that we’ve owned the house for just over a year, it’s our first time maintaining the concrete, so we’re about as fast as molasses, natch), so no vegan mofo recipe post today. I do, however, believe I have just enough time to fill out this vegan survey from Vegan Soapbox while I wait for the floor finish to dry.

1. What was the most recent tea you drank?

Fennel seed. I’m usually a green tea gal, but fennel’s supposed to help with IBS. TMI!

2. What vegan forums do you post/lurk on? If so, what is your username? Spill!

I’m more of a lurker, though I tend to skulk around blogs moreso than forums. I usually go be the oh-so-creative “kelly g.,” with a link to either easyVegan.info or Smite Me!

3. You have to have tofu for dinner, and it has be an Italian dish. What comes to mind first?

Lasagna, but using the tofu like noodles. The dogs love it. (Me, not so much – I’m not big on tofu. *ducks*)

4. How many vegan blogs do you read on an average day?

I have about 100 blogs in my reader, but I tend to rotate through individuals blogs, as well as subject matter (animal rights/welfare, food blogs, environmentalism, feminism, current events/politics, GLBT issues, POC bloggers, etc.). In the AR sphere, currently I check Invisible Voices, Animal Person, Elaine Vigneault, Vegan Soapbox, That Vegan Girl, Superweed, The Veg Blog, PPK, Vegans of Color, and Green is the New Red most often.

5. Besides your own, what is the most recent one you’ve read?

Vegan Soapbox, obviously – that’s where I got this veganmofo post idea, duh ;)

6. If you could hang out with a vegan blogger that you haven’t met, who would it be, and what would you do?

I’m a recluse. I don’t usually socialize with anyone who doesn’t walk on four legs.

Not to suck up to our carnival host, but Isa seems pretty kickass. Of course I’d beg and/or pay her to help me bake some vegan cupcakes, and then we’d take over the world. Muahahahaha!

7. If you had to base your dinners for a week around one of the holy trilogy – tofu, seitan or tempeh, which would it be?

Tofu, because tofu and I are experienced.

8. If you had to use one in a fight, which would it be?

Tempeh, because I could probably poke someone’s eye out with a tempeh strip, dontchathink?

9. Name 3 meals you’d realistically make with that tough protein of choice!

Oh jeez, I dunno. I don’t think I’ve ever cooked with tempeh. So…all three recipes would probably be dog food in the end. My dogs aren’t fussy; one of many reasons I love the little buggers.

10. What’s a recipe in vegan blogland that you’ve been eyeing?

More than I can count, but vegandad’s Creamy Mac and Cheeze dish springs to mind.

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About

The easyVegan Link Sanctuary is a near-daily roundup of animal and environmental advocacy news, action alerts, carnivals, events and resources. This link roundup is meant as a jumping-off point for you, the reader, to take further action and learn more about the issues presented here. I link, you decide!

If you have a link you’d like included, please drop me a line at easyvegan [at] gmail.com – or leave it in the comments! Feedback is also appreciated, particularly as it relates to the links included below. I’ve tried my best to identify and name any speciesism, sexism, racism, classism, homophobia, sizeism, etc. which may appear in the resources below; if, however, I’ve overlooked something, please leave a note in the comments. It’s not my desire to fight one form of oppression by engaging in another.

Action Alerts

Environmental Defense Fund: Take Action to Support Marine Conservation
President Bush is considering whether to designate two of the most spectacular and pristine marine areas—the Central Pacific Islands and the Mariana Trench—as national marine monuments. Together, the new reserves would make up the largest protected area on Earth. They would protect largely uninhabited island oases in the Pacific Ocean with millions of seabirds, rare sea turtles and fish.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA): Tell Harpeth High School to Nix ‘Donkey Basketball’ Game
Harpeth High School in Kingston Springs, Tennessee, plans to host a cruel “donkey basketball” game this Monday, November 17. Donkey basketball games are miserable for the animals involved. Hauled around in cramped and stuffy trailers, the donkeys are denied proper exercise, and food and water are often withheld before games in an effort to prevent unsightly “accidents.”

Public Citizen: Tell AIG: You Deserve a Refund!
Our country is facing its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. AIG, an insurance giant, recently received $123 billion of taxpayers’ money to rescue it from bankruptcy. But even though AIG executives knew their company was in danger of going broke, they continued the party, leaving taxpayers to deal with the hangover. This is despicable! Just days after the government announced an $85 billion loan to the company in September, AIG decided to pay for a $444,000 week-long retreat at a posh California resort for its top-performing insurance agents.

The Sierra Club: Emergency Protections for Grand Canyon Threatened!
Last month the Sierra Club won a tremendous victory when it stopped uranium mining exploration right next to the Grand Canyon. But now the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is proposing to reverse that victory by repealing the regulation that gives Congress the authority to protect these public lands from mining. The BLM is only giving the public 15 days to weigh in, so please help us hold on to this important victory.

The Sierra Club: Don’t Repeal the Stream Buffer Zone Rule
Last week the Office of Surface Mining (OSM) issued a final recommendation on stream buffer zones, proposing to essentially repeal the Stream Buffer Zone rule which has given our waters legal protection from mining waste for three decades. The rule, which prohibits mining within 100 feet of streams, is the last remaining legal impediment to the highly destructive practice of mountaintop removal coal mining. The Environmental Protection Agency has one last chance to reject OSM’s recommendation and protect our waterways.

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Though there are some yummy varieties of tofu or soy jerky available (Turtle Island’s Tofurky Jurky is my personal favorite), they tend to be rather expensive – and for good reason! When you’re talking dried goods, whether it’s fruit leather or soy jerky, it takes a good amount of raw ingredients to make a dried product.

Consider, for example, these rolls of fruit leather I made:

That’s one whole pot of strawberry applesauce, folks!

So there are incredible savings to be had for those veg*ns who are willing to make their own tofu jerky. Plus, the flavors are only limited by your imagination!

The basic process is pretty straightforward:

1. Start out by pressing your tofu (like a vegan mofo, yo!);

2. Then cut it up as desired: you can cube it, slice it into long strips, or something in between. (In the photo below, you can see that I went with stubby strips for today’s recipe.)

3. Next, make your marinade. There are a number of recipes out there – Google, for example, “Tofu Marinade recipe” or “Tofu Jerky recipe” to get started. Some involve liquids, while other marinade ingredients are spice-based.

4. If you really want the tofu to soak up the flavor, you can combine the sliced tofu with the marinade in a Tupperware dish and let it marinate in the fridge overnight. This step is strictly optional, of course.

5. Combine (or transplant) the tofu and marinade into a baking dish and pop it in the oven. The temp will depend on how much tofu you’re cooking; how much of a hurry you’re in; and how dry you want your jerky. The baking temp/time can range from 100 to 300 degrees and 3-10 hours. If you want to play it safe, cook slow and low. It’s hard to burn tofu at 100 degrees! Always cook uncovered; if you want your jerky bone-dry, cook with the oven door slightly open, at least near the end of the cooking cycle.

And, that’s about it. As I type, my tofu jerky is cooking at 300 degrees, and it’s been in there for about 4 hours. I’ve steadily been upping the temp, though – I want this dish done before bedtime! I’m not completely drying the tofu out, though, as this dish is for the dogs. Literally – my babes are spoiled. But if you’re looking to store your jerky for an extended period of time (not something I really recommend, since tofu is available year-round and thus not really worth preserving like, say, home-grown produce), make sure you dry it completely. This means cooking it on low – maybe 100, 125 degrees – all day, and then some. Maybe even with the oven door ajar.

I’ve included some marinade recipes after the jump. These are meant for one brick/pound of tofu, so if you’re baking more, adjust accordingly.

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About

The easyVegan Link Sanctuary is a near-daily roundup of animal and environmental advocacy news, action alerts, carnivals, events and resources. This link roundup is meant as a jumping-off point for you, the reader, to take further action and learn more about the issues presented here. I link, you decide!

If you have a link you’d like included, please drop me a line at easyvegan [at] gmail.com – or leave it in the comments! Feedback is also appreciated, particularly as it relates to the links included below. I’ve tried my best to identify and name any speciesism, sexism, racism, classism, homophobia, sizeism, etc. which may appear in the resources below; if, however, I’ve overlooked something, please leave a note in the comments. It’s not my desire to fight one form of oppression by engaging in another.

Action Alerts

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU): Protect Your Right to Vote vote_button_1
Recently, Attorney General Michael Mukasey told voting rights advocates that the “smooth” running of the election was the Department of Justice’s highest priority. With one of the most important elections in our lifetime only two weeks away, keeping the promise is critical. Yet, despite the ACLU’s repeated requests for the DOJ to take action to protect voters and stop suppressive tactics, the Department has yet to live up to its commitment.

DawnWatch: LA Times Prop 2 piece by Karen Dawn — 10/21/08
As the election grows close and California prepares to vote on Proposition 2, which is bound to have an enormous national effect on animal welfare, the Los Angeles Times today, Tuesday October 21, ran my op-ed on the issue in its Blowback section.

DawnWatch: Tuesday 9:30am Eastern, WPFW hour with Karen Dawn and Thanking the Monkey 10/21/08
WPFW, Washington DC’s Pacifica Station, has been wonderfully supportive of animal issues of late. During my recent trip to DC, we did a segment on their Friday drive time news about that weekend’s national animal rights conference. And Gloria Minott also interviewed me separately, on Metro Watch, about my upcoming visit to Poplar Spring Animal Sanctuary.

DawnWatch 2: Access Hollywood and Alicia Silverstone’s Animal Acres visit
On Sunday, October 19, Access Hollywood aired a delightful segment on Alicia Silverstone’s visit to Animal Acres for the annual gala. It is not to be missed. Most importantly, please thank the show for the segment.

International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW): Thank eBay for Banning All Trade in Ivory
Victory: eBay has just announced that it will be instituting a global ban on the sale of elephant ivory products. eBay’s decision was announced just hours before the release of IFAW’s latest investigative report showing Internet trade in wildlife poses a significant and immediate threat to the survival of elephants and many other endangered species.

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Though the “City of Fountains” may be Kansas City’s official nickname, Kansas Citians are also fond of boasting that they live in the “Steak Capital” of the world. Indeed, Kansas City’s Wiki entry claims that the city is home to over 90 BBQ joints – and that’s just on the Missouri side (!).

So it was with much trepidation that the Mr. and I relocated from Rochester, NY to Kansas City in 2002. While it’s not exactly NYC, Rochester is a relatively liberal area, with some decent options for veg*ns: Wegmans, a popular grocer, has a large natural foods department (and, ugh, cruel egg farming practices); there’s also Lori’s Natural Foods, located by the MCC Henrietta campus; the Natural Oasis Cafe, which is all-veg, all-the-time; Organic Alley Cafe, which is bills itself as both green and veg-friendly; Dogtown Hots, which offers a multitude of vegan options; as well as a whole host of restaurants and markets that hawk veg*n wares. “Whatever will we eat!?” we fretted up till moving day.

Happily, Kansas City is much more veg-friendly than you’d think. Instead of a natural foods department, Kansas City boasts two natural foods stores – Whole Foods and Wild Oats (which have since merged, thus reducing the total number of stores in the area). There’s also a thriving farmer’s market community, as well as more than a few vegetarian cafes and restaurants.

Since Shane and I live in the sticks, we haven’t yet had a chance to sample all the local veg*n businesses. Hopefully this roundup will give us a much-needed kick in our lazy veg*n asses, eh?

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In The New York Times, “Farm Boy” Nicholas Kristof “Reflects” on time spent murdering innocent, sentient beings:

Then there were the geese, the most admirable creatures I’ve ever met. We raised Chinese white geese, a common breed, and they have distinctive personalities. They mate for life and adhere to family values that would shame most of those who dine on them.

While one of our geese was sitting on her eggs, her gander would go out foraging for food—and if he found some delicacy, he would rush back to give it to his mate. Sometimes I would offer males a dish of corn to fatten them up—but it was impossible, for they would take it all home to their true loves.

Once a month or so, we would slaughter the geese. When I was 10 years old, my job was to lock the geese in the barn and then rush and grab one. Then I would take it out and hold it by its wings on the chopping block while my Dad or someone else swung the ax.

The 150 geese knew that something dreadful was happening and would cower in a far corner of the barn, and run away in terror as I approached. Then I would grab one and carry it away as it screeched and struggled in my arms.

Very often, one goose would bravely step away from the panicked flock and walk tremulously toward me. It would be the mate of the one I had caught, male or female, and it would step right up to me, protesting pitifully. It would be frightened out of its wits, but still determined to stand with and comfort its lover.

He goes on to say,

So, yes, I eat meat (even, hesitantly, goose). But I draw the line at animals being raised in cruel conditions.

How very generous of you, Mr. Kristof.

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About

The easyVegan Link Sanctuary is a near-daily roundup of animal and environmental advocacy news, action alerts, carnivals, events and resources. This link roundup is meant as a jumping-off point for you, the reader, to take further action and learn more about the issues presented here. I link, you decide!

If you have a resource you’d like included, please drop me a line at easyvegan [at] gmail.com – or leave it in the comments! Feedback is also appreciated, particularly as it relates to the links included below. I’ve tried my best to identify and name any speciesism, sexism, racism, classism, homophobia, sizeism, etc. which may appear in the resources listed; if, however, I’ve overlooked something, please leave a note in the comments. It’s not my desire to fight one form of oppression by engaging in another.

Action Alerts

DawnWatch: Shocking hen footage on ABC prepares us for California’s prop 2 — 10/13/08
With California’s Proposition 2 aimed at banning battery cages for hens, as well as crates for veal calves and sows, Dan Noyes’s ABC 7 report showing undercover footage from a California egg farm could not have come at a better time.

In Defense of Animals (IDA): Did You Know That Your Tax Dollars Still Fund Nicotine Experiments On Animals?
Since 2002 alone, the NIH has spent at least $16.5 million to conduct nicotine experiments on pregnant and newborn animals. This appalling figure does not reflect the total cost of all nicotine research on animals, which numbers far higher, but only that which focuses on nicotine’s effect on fetal and newborn development.

In Defense of Animals (IDA): Help Send Lucky to a Sanctuary!; San Antonio Zoo elephant is held in cruel isolation
Lucky desperately needs your help. She’s a 48-year-old female Asian elephant who has been living alone at the San Antonio Zoo in Texas since the death of her companion, Alport, almost one year ago. Female elephants are intensely social, making her solitary confinement especially cruel.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA): Texas Couple Allegedly Leaves Their Chained Dog to Rot! Demand Justice!
PETA has closely monitored the heartbreaking case of Shepp, the German shepherd whom Corpus Christi residents Daniel and Norma Luna allegedly chained and left to rot for over a month without food or water. According to news reports, Shepp—whose undersized collar had become embedded in his neck—had been left lying on the concrete driveway for so long, struggling to get up, that he developed a large wound that exposed the bone in his shoulder. Although Shepp was taken into custody by local officials, he reportedly did not survive.

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) / The Cancer Project: USDA National School Lunch Program Petition
On October 9 we took a monumental step forward to protect our kids. The Cancer Project, PCRM’s affiliate organization, filed a formal petition with the U.S. Department of Agriculture demanding a halt to the distribution of hot dogs and other processed meats to our nation’s children through the National School Lunch Program. These products have been shown to increase the risk of cancer in adulthood.

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