unpeeled and an appeal

This will be a quick post, since it was No-Cook Wednesday. Actually, that is becoming a misnomer. Last Wednesday I didn't want to eat leftovers, like I've eaten every Wednesday for about a year, so I made my funny little pear-inspired dish. Tonight, I decided to roast my garnet yam because I knew Mister wouldn't want to share and I also knew I wouldn't be motivated to do anything with it when I was already preparing a meal. My dinner ended up being an interesting progression of "courses." While the yam was roasting away (cubed, tossed with olive oil, 30 minutes at 450, stirring once at 15 minutes), I ate the last three bites of Monday's Broccoli with Beef and had a slice of bread with Earth Balance. Then, after waiting only long enough to prevent blistering the roof of my mouth, I went for my roasted yam bits. So good!

I didn't take a picture because they really weren't that attractive. I cubed the yam too small and kind of burnt the hell out of half the pieces. But I believe my future holds many more of these happy little tubers, so maybe next time they'll be prettier. That leads me back to where I was going when I started writing - No-Cook Wednesdays are undergoing a little renovation. I have decided to devote them to all the foods I like but Mister won't eat (tempeh, eggplant, yams, squash) and all the foods I want to try that I don't think Mister will eat (primarily squash). Along the way, perhaps I will come up with some fun cooking-for-one recipes that I can make into a separate section in my imaginary cookbook and give me inspiration for any future out-of-town engagements Mister has, rather than eating cereal for dinner like I used to. I believe a new name is in order - unless anyone can suggest something better, I think we'll go with One-Serving Wednesdays.

Finally, the appeal. This wool thing is really tearing at me. I still have not decided if I think wool is "too cruel" to be worn, but I don't want to go ahead and buy a wool coat just to decide halfway through winter that I DO think it's wrong and then be stuck with a wool coat for another half-decade. Currently in my possession (between me and Mister) are two wool coats and 3 leather jackets and more than a few pairs of leather shoes. If I end up "taking the plunge" and making a lifestyle out of this October Experiment, I will not get rid of those things because I already own them. By now, I have done a decent amount of research about vegan clothing and various alternatives. I am definitely of the school of thought that there is no harm in "using up" what I have and then replacing those items with cruelty-free items when the time comes.

I did a lot of digging for wool alternatives in particular, since I did not get any follow up responses to my post yesterday and I need to resolve this for myself sooner than later. I think the time is drawing near for me to write my "reasons I am not [yet] vegan" post, because a lot of those reason are already coming out (and because October is nearly over). In any case, today's research leads me to these conclusions:

1. The reason only vegans buy vegan shoes and clothes is because they are ugly. If they are not ugly, they are far too expensive to be a realistic choice for most of us.
2. The only wool alternative mentioned by any of the dozens of sites I visited was polar fleece. Like I said yesterday, you would just about have to set the rest of my clothes on fire to convince me to wear that. It's just not my style.
3. If I see the word Hemp one more time, I might give up.

As with any paradigm/belief system, those who follow want to attract other followers and help them to see the truth they have found. Unfortunately, it's normally easier to preach to the choir than the detention hall inhabitants. I have gone to countless vegan "fashion" websites, as well as general cruelty-free lifestyle websites and discussion boards, but I see the same thing everywhere: some regurgitation of what I read on PETA's graphic Save The Sheep site. If I can't get on board with them, you won't win me to your way of thinking by telling me the same things in a different order (and not even changing the words - F for plagiarism). The other thing I see everywhere is the Gospel of Polar Fleece and Cotton. Despite all the great things about both of these materials, even the people promoting them as vegan-friendly alternatives to wool will admit that polar fleece is only really warm if you layer it with other materials and it's only wind-proof if you put a shell over it, and that most cotton garments have at some point passed through the hands of sweatshop labor...which does NOT equal cruelty-free in my book.

So my appeal is this: Can someone point me to a non-PETA referenced/based discussion on wool and alternatives to wool that won't make me look like a hippie?

at last, my love has come along..

My lonely days are over
And life is like a song
At last, the skies above are blue
My heart was wrapped up in clovers
The night I looked at you
I found a dream that I could speak to
A dream that I can call my own
I found a thrill to rest my cheek to
A thrill that I have never known
Oh, yeah when you smile, you smile
Oh, and then the spell was cast
And here we are in heaven
For you are mine
At last

Today marked the anniversary of my second blissful year of marriage to my best friend and love of my life. Ironically, when I woke up this morning, it was gray and pouring rain, just like it was two years ago. I was running ahead of schedule (how many brides can say that?), had collected everything I needed the night before so that I wouldn't have to rush in the morning. All I had to do was shove Angst into his box (kitty carrier) and stumble through the rain to my car with him and all the other stuff I was taking. Oh, and don't forget the umbrella! I finally get out to my car and the remote entry wasn't working. Prepared to hit the killswitch on my car alarm the minute I pop open the door manually, I turn the key in the lock. No alarm. When I turn the key in the ignition...nothing. So about an hour later, after much swearing and pouting, Angst and I and all my stuff have been reloaded into Mister's truck and we're on our way to the beauty salon. At noon on the dot, the rain stopped, the clouds cleared and it was a beautiful sunny day, the wet spots on the road the only indication it had rained at all. Everything went beautifully until about two hours before the ceremony, when my husband's taxi breaks down and they have to get another one and they're still 45 minutes away from the church. Miraculously (obviously), he got there on time and commenced to making me the happiest woman on earth. And he still does, every day.

In any case, there isn't a whole lot of romance you can affect on a Tuesday evening after you've both just worked a full day and it's 8:30 pm. So Mister greeted me at the door with kisses and smiles and while I was putting down my bag and taking off my jacket, he disappeared into the bedroom and came out with gorgeous long-stemmed red roses. They smell so good (and so edible, to Angst) and roses are my favorites (I know, it's cliche, whatever) and red is my favorite color. I'm such a lucky little wife. After more smiles and kisses, I got to work on dinner. We both have off from work this Friday, so we're going to have a date and celebrate for real then. Tonight, we had Chickpea Stew with Fried Polenta and this time I didn't overpulvarize the stew/sauce:
Also, we had some fun accompaniments, resulting a gorgeous (and delicious) still life:
When I was at Whole Foods on Sunday, since I was just picking up olives for the sake of eating them and not because I needed a specific kind of olive for a specific recipe, I decided to get a few of all the different kinds we've never had before. It started with these amazingly emerald green olives, then some very plump purple olives, and I know we've had them before, but these other green olives are just so good, and I'll grab some mezze mix Greek olives while I'm here... So we sampled them with dinner. It's a shame I can't remember any names...the emerald green ones were very oily and mild in flavor, which was in total contrast to the plump purple ones that were SO flavorful and bitter that I forgot for a moment that Balsamic vinegar is not made from olives.

Regarding the newest challenge of ethical decision making: I appreciate the feedback I got on my last post, specifically pointing me towards www.savethesheep.com, another PETA project. I really like it when people not only share with me their own opinions on matters like this but also provide resources that (I assume) helped them to make up their minds. I took quite a while to plod through that website and other links provided, and as always, found PETA's photojournalism to be shocking and in generally poor taste. I understand the point is to show the absolute brutal truth in the cruelty experienced in probably the vast majority of industry-related animal farming, but there is a very good reason people look at PETA fanatics the way they do: it seems like a cult. The tactics are very much the same - evoke a very strong reaction to something in order to win people to your point of view. And it works - after all, exposure to PETA propaganda and videos were what caused my first go-around with veganism in 2003.

The information on savethesheep.com and various other sites it linked to was somewhat helpful, at least in clearing up a few things regarding the treatment of wool-producing sheep and wool-harvesting procedures. I learned a few new and horrific vocabulary words, like mulesing (I'm not going into it on a full stomach - you can look it up if you're interested). However, there is a vital piece of the puzzle missing for me still. PETA has taken the time and extraordinary effort to put together a list of "cruelty-free" brands and vendors of various vegan things (leather alternatives, things of that nature) and at several points they praise the wonderful synthetic materials used in goods made at "value" stores like TJ Maxx, Marshalls, etc, as well as Victoria's Secret and other "high-end" retailers. The piece that's missing is people.

I have mentioned before that my primary reason for becoming a vegetarian was actually related to how the meat industry exploits and harms people, though I do find the mistreatment of the animals in question abhorrent as well. But what really helped me make my mind up was knowing how many more people we could share our food with if we just stopped feeding it all to the cows we breed and raise just to kill and use to overfeed our grossly overweight nation. Believe it or not (though, if you're reading this, you probably believe), there actually is enough food in the world to feed all the people of the world, but instead, we're feeding it to livestock that won't live much longer anyway. So when PETA pushes for the purchase of synthetic materials sold in the stores on their special "cruelty-free" list, it makes me wonder if PETA has forgotten that Humans, like Bees, are also animals and also should not be mistreated or exploited for other people's gain. If you took that list apart, you would probably find more of those shops purchase goods made in sweatshops than you'd be comfortable with. I don't care if I sound like a fundamentalist, God-made-man-to-rule-over-the-earth-and-everything-in-it ignoramus - I still think it's important to prevent cruelty to people who are treated about as well as these factory-farmed animals, and if that means wearing wool from a sheep rather than a cotton shirt stitched in the 11th hour of labor by a 12-year-old, well then I guess I'm just not a PETA spokesperson.

Nevertheless, I welcome more of your thoughts on how to be
1. warm
2. ethical/compassionate
3. stylish - I am NOT wearing polar-fleece or any of that other fuzzy crap and puffy coats should not exist outside of the juniors department of {insert store name here}.

So please, if you have insight for me, leave me a comment!

bees and cows and sheep, oh my!

Okay, so maybe there isn't the same sense of fear as there would be when confronted with lions and tigers and bears, but these gentle creatures offer a more cerebral challenge. While the wild beasts of Oz may threaten physical danger, our honey-producing, leather-wearing, and wool-covered friends threaten our paradigms and ethical stands.

I had some great responses to my honey-flavored ramblings. A few helpful readers pointed me in the direction of some other resources I had not found in my own hunt for answers as to why honey was not considered vegan. And though I still needed some time to ruminate on that information before coming to realize that I do, in fact, find so many things wrong with the human consumption (and by necessity, burglary) of honey, I'm going to push my luck and appeal for help again.

It is a gorgeous autumn in Philadelphia. I have more or less given up on believing weather forecasters, because I really think they employ only slightly more science than native Americans who raised their eyes to the clouds and said "I think it will rain." I also put absolutely NO faith in a book written hundreds of years ago and its alleged ability to foresee the weather this winter. Nevertheless, whether we get the super-cold-and-snowy winter everyone is screaming about or not, it really does get very cold in this part of the country.

A few years ago (actually more like five or six), I got a beautiful black lambswool cashmere coat for Christmas. Not only is it beautiful and stylish, it is extremely warm when the winter wind blows. It is also starting to show its age - the lining is beginning to tear and I noticed some "balding" spots where the seatbelt rubs against my coat when I'm driving. If I don't replace it this winter, I will probably have to do so by next year. The urgency, however, to replace my coat comes from the going-on-now Macy's coat sale. When I visited the website, I found a couple of beautiful and warm and comfy looking wool coats for what I found to be a reasonable price.

This, of course, raises the conundrum about how ethical (or not) it is to rob sheep of their wool in order to craft a coat to keep me warm for many winters to come. I am not wasteful. I wear my clothing until it is threadbare or faded beyond what could vaguely pass for professional. I wear my shoes until they have holes in them or are broken in some other way. I drive my cars until they don't go anymore. If there is even enough leftover from a meal I've made to pass as a single-serving side dish, I will put it in tupperware and save it for later. So believe me, my stuff lasts. Like I said, I have had my current wool coat for 5-6 years. I also have a leather jacket that has lasted me a decade of winters and isn't even close to quitting. Unfortunately, it's not quite warm enough for January and February.

Admittedly, I have not done any research into this yet. If I don't hear back from any of you, I will do my usual google nonsense, but if someone already knows a compelling reason why I shouldn't buy a new wool coat this winter, I would love to hear it. Currently, I just can't see the harm - after all, it grows back. Obviously, there is something at least a little exploitative about stealing the fur off an animal to make clothes for me, but unlike silk or leather or a fur coat, which actually involves killing the animal who "supplied" the material, the sheep lives to bleat another day. I guess that is what keeps me from feeling bad about wearing wool.

So if anyone has some insight they would like to share with me, I would really appreciate it.

On a lighter note - I made Stir-Fried "Beef" with Broccoli and Peppers for dinner tonight. The steak strips were so much different stir-fried than they were in that funny Irish stew I put them in last time. I couldn't tell if they were saltier or if that was the soy sauce I sprinkled them with while discovering that my wok has decided (without consulting me) that it no longer wishes to be non-stick.