“The inferior “others” have often been our own kind — Jews, African slaves, Aboriginals, American Indians, women and gays, to name a few.”

[Note: The title of this blog was extracted from the article: http://freefromharm.org/food-and-culture/dealing-with-carnistic-defenses-all-this-talk-about-animals-is-making-me-hungry-for-a-juicy-steak/

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Quite often I will run up against some block-head who will make a snide remark about my being a vegan or veganism in general. Comments are either made to my face, my blog or another blogger’s site that I have made comments to. Most of the time, I ignore the remarks because I know the person is trying to taunt me.  Feeding into their childish taunts doesn’t seem to make much sense. If I haven’t said it five times, I haven’t said it once, you cannot argue with stupid.  Besides, I think Forrest Gump said it best:  “Stupid is as stupid does.” 

And then today, I received the following article from from Free From Harm and learned there is a better way to handle such remarks.

Below is a snippet of the article that I received.  If you’d like to read the entire story, please click here:

 

Dealing with Carnistic Defenses: ‘All This Talk About Animals Is Making Me Hungry for a Juicy Steak!’

By Free From Harm Staff Writers | September 25, 2012 | Categories: Food and Culture

courtesy of Bizarro Comics, bizarro.com

Have you ever found yourself in a situation with someone who completely derails the discussion with a statement that goes something like this: “All this talk about animals is making me hungry for a steak!” or “All this talk about cows is making me crave a big hunk of cheese!”

Some of us would find this so off-putting, we would retaliate with something insulting and end the discussion then and there. But that’s actually the worst thing you could do. It’s exactly what these statements intend to do, that is, shut down the discussion. And their sincere passive-aggressive hope is that you will shut it down, leaving them with the last word.

So should you call their bluff?, ask them to admit to you and themselves that animals mean nothing more to them than a cheap piece of meat? Some would argue, it’s just not worth the energy to continue at this point. I completely disagree. It’s a golden opportunity to show the conviction you have in your beliefs and to point out to them what’s really behind such a statement. Because when they realize what’s behind it, I see them backpedalling.

Put aside your emotions for a moment and instead read between the lines at what someone is really telling you when they make such a statement and then find a creative way to respond that will take the higher ground and restore the discussion back to one that takes the interests of animals seriously.

http://freefromharm.org/food-and-culture/dealing-with-carnistic-defenses-all-this-talk-about-animals-is-making-me-hungry-for-a-juicy-steak/

…

 

Yours truly,

GE

 

Recipe: Vegan Butternut Squash Curry Soup

A follower of my blog (Kevin @ http://nittygrittydirtman.wordpress.com/) has asked me for the recipe to the soup I mentioned in yesterday’s post: 17 Inches.  I told him I didn’t have a recipe per se, because I just winged it. Generally, I do not follow recipes.  That said, I promised him I would try to recollect how I constructed the soup and post the recipe.

So here goes nothing…

Susan’s (slap-dashed) Vegan Butternut Squash Curry Soup

Ingredients:

• Diced Onion (I used Vidalia because it is all I had on hand)
• Curry Powder ~ eyeball it, I use the palm of my hand to measure
• Cumin ~ eyeball it, I use the palm of my hand to measure
• Oregano ~ eyeball it, I use the palm of my hand to measure (OPTIONAL)
• Coconut Milk (1 can – mixed well) ~ Optional NOTE: you could make this non vegan by adding heavy cream
• Celtic Sea Salt ~ eyeball it
• EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) ~ eyeball it
• 17 inch Butternut Squash – rough chopped (sorry, couldn’t help myself ha-ha!)
• Water (I used a full Zero Water Pitcher and then some ~ again, eyeball it)
• Fresh Cilantro ~ add at the end when the soup is finished

Method of Prep:

Gather all of your mise-en-place and equipment

Preheat Stock or Soup Pan

Prep your vegetables: dice onion; peel and rough chop BN Squash, chop cilantro (and set aside for garnish)

Once pan is heated, add evoo and sauté onions, toss in some Celtic Sea Salt (eyeball the amounts to your liking) and cook onions until translucent (I liked to wait until mine turn slightly brown).

Add spices: curry and cumin (or whatever spices you have on hand).  When you begin to smell the spices cooking, add the oregano, saute for another minute (careful not to burn) and then add some of the water, all of the chopped squash, and then the remaining water. NOTE:  If you add all of the water first, you may not have enough room for the squash, which is why I add some water, all of the squash and then the remaining water.

When the squash is mushy (past the point of fork tender); begin pureeing the soup, either with an immersion blender, regular blender or food processor (I used my blender pureeing the soup in batches). NOTE: You can either puree all or some of the soup – it all depends on what consistency you are going for.  I pureed most of it, leaving some texture.   While pureeing the soup, begin adding the coconut milk (or dairy) so as to temper it before adding it back into the pot.  It is important to temper your coconut milk or dairy, otherwise, could wind up with a disaster on your hands.  Ha-Ha!

Once you have pureed the soup with the coconut milk add everything back to the pot and simmer until the coconut milk and soup flavors blend together seamlessly.  Once the soup is heated through, be sure to taste it to see if it needs more salt, cumin, et-cetera and adjust the seasonings to your liking.

Serve with chopped Cilantro and toasted Ezekiel Bread.

If you have any questions or are not sure of my instructions, please contact me.  

-GiRRL_Earth