Whether it's a joke or not, actress Eliza Dushku is not happy about “Bachelor” winner Vienna Girardi eying her boyfriend, actor Rick Fox. Dushku tweeted a screengrab from “Dancing With the Stars” that catches Vienna giving Fox the eyes.
Dushku accompanied said twitpic with the message, “Vienna, I will CUT you. Keep yo' eyes on yo' own meat!” No offense to Swamp Girl Vienna, but in that fight, our money is squarely on Faith, erm, Eliza.
Vienna and “Bachelor” boyfriend Jake Pavelka were on-hand to watch this season of “Dancing With the Stars” as it nears its finale. After “DWTS” is over, do you think Vienna and Jake will just fade into the background, have a quiet wedding in either Florida or Texas and live happily ever after somewhere? We're not so sure.
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@workinglivingeating
1. Here are my “Bible references” as you put it:
From church history and secular history, too, we learn that the earliest Christians were vegetarians as well as pacifists. For example, Clemens Prudentius, the first Christian hymn writer, in one of his hymns exhorts his fellow Christians not to pollute their hands and hearts by the slaughter of innocent cows and sheep, and points to the variety of nourishing and pleasant foods obtainable without blood-shedding.
A stumbling block for some Christians is the apostle Paul's having referred to his vegetarian brethren as “weak.” Paul taught that it is best to abstain from meat or from food offered to idols so as not to offend the “weaker” brethren. Paul repeatedly attacked idolatry. (Romans 1:23; I Corinthians 6:9-10; II Corinthians 6:16; Galatians 5:19-21) He recognized the immorality of accepting food offered to idols and pagan gods: “that which they sacrifice they are offering to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons.” (I Corinthians 10:20) Yet Paul then proceeded to give his followers permission to eat food offered to pagan idols! “You may eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience: for the earth is the Lord's and everything in it.” (I Corinthians 10:14-33)
Paul told his followers they need only abstain from such foods if it offends their “weaker” brethren. “For if someone sees you…sitting
Not only does this contradict the Apostles' decree concerning gentile converts to Christianity (Acts 15), it contradicts the teachings of Jesus himself. In Revelations 2:14-16,20, the resurrected Jesus specifically instructs John to write to two churches that they not eat food offered to idols.
Since Paul refers to Christians who abstain not just from meat, but from food offered to pagan idols as “weak,” would his definition of “weak” not have included the resurrected Jesus (demanding his followers refrain from eating food offered to pagan idols in Revelations 2:14-16,20) as well? Paul's use of the word “weak” has been debated. According to Christian theologian Dr. Upton Clary Ewing, Paul used the word “weak” with a positive connotation. According to Paul, “God has chosen the weak things in the world to shame the strong.” (I Corinthians 1:27)
Describing his tribulations for the cause of Christ, being caught up in the heavenly spheres, and a revelation from Jesus, Paul wrote:
“If I must boast, I shall boast of matters that show my weakness…I will boast, but not about myself–unless it be about my weakness…the Lord…he told me, 'my strength comes to perfection where there is weakness.' Therefore,” Paul concluded, “I am happy to boast in my weaknesses…I delight, then, in weaknesses…for when I am weak, then I am strong.” (II Corinthians 11:30, 12:1-10)
Paul wrote further that Jesus “was crucified out of weakness, yet he lives through divine power, and we, too, are weak in him, but we shall live with him for your benefit through the power of God…We are happy to be weak when you are strong.” (II Corinthians 13:4,9)
Taken in this context, the word “weak” suggests complete dependence upon God.
Admittedly, even if Paul did use the word “weak” with a positive connotation, it would not necessarily mean that it's wrong to eat meat (Genesis 9:3), but just that it's better to be a vegetarian (Genesis 1:29; Isaiah 11:6-9)
The Reverend J. Todd Ferrier, founder of the Order of the Cross, an informal mystical Christian order, believing in reincarnation and abstaining from meat and wine, wrote in 1903:
“But Paul, great and noble man as he was, never was one of the recognized heads at Jerusalem. He had been a Pharisee of the Pharisees…He strove to be all things to all men that he might gain some. And we admire him for his strenuous endeavors to win the world for Christ. But no one could be all things to all men without running the great risks of most disastrous results…
“But here as a further thought in connection with the teaching of the great Apostle an important question is forced upon our attention, which one of these days must receive the due consideration from biblical scholars that it deserves. It is this:
“How is it that the gospel of Paul is more to many people than the gospel of those privileged souls who sat at the feet of Jesus and heard His secrets in the Upper Room?”
Christian theologian Dr. Upton Clary Ewing writes:
“With all due respect for the integrity of Paul, he was not one of the Twelve Apostles… Paul never knew Jesus in life. He never walked and prayed with Him as He went from place to place, teaching the word of God.”
Rudolf Bultman, one of the most respected theologians of the 20th century, wrote in his Significance of the Historical Jesus for the Theology of Paul:
“It is most obvious that Paul does not appeal to the words of the Lord in support of his… views. When the essential Pauline conceptions are considered, it is clear that Paul is not dependent on Jesus. Jesus’ teaching is—to all intents and purposes—irrelevant for Paul.”
Paul quotes Jesus as having said to him three times, “My grace is sufficient for thee.” (II Corinthians 12:8-9) Christians sometimes misinterpret this verse to mean they're free to do as they please—ignoring the rest of the New Testament, and (especially) Jesus' and Paul's other teachings.
The apostle Paul taught his followers to bless their persecutors and not curse them (Romans 12:14), to care for their enemies by providing them with food and drink (12:20), and to pay their taxes and obey all earthly governments (13:1-7). He mentioned giving all his belongings to feed the hungry (I Corinthians 13:3), and taught giving to the person in need (Ephesians 4:23). He told his followers it was wrong to take their conflicts before non-Christian courts rather than before the saints. (I Corinthians 6:1)
Paul taught that “it is good for a man not to touch a woman,” i.e. , it is best to be celibate, but because of prevailing immoralities, marriage is acceptable. Divorce, however, is not permissible, except in the case of an unbeliever demanding separation. (I Corinthians 7)
Paul repeatedly attacked sexual immorality.”This is God's will—your sanctification, that you keep yourselves from sexual immorality, that each of you learn how to take his own wife in purity and honor, not in lustful passion like the gentiles who have no knowledge of God.” (I Thessalonians 4:3-5)
Paul told his followers not to associate with sexually immoral people (I Corinthians 5:9-12, 6:15,18). He condemned homosexuality (Romans 1:24-27) and incest (I Corinthians 5:1).
“Make no mistake,” warned Paul, “no fornicator or idolater, none who are guilty either of adultery or of homosexual perversion, no thieves or grabbers or drunkards or slanderers or swindlers, will possess the kingdom of God.” (I Corinthians 6:9-10 )
Paul condemned wickedness, immorality, depravity, greed, murder, quarreling, deceit, malignity, gossip, slander, insolence, pride (Romans 1:29-30), drunkenness, carousing, debauchery, jealousy (Romans 13:13), sensuality, magic arts, animosities, bad temper, selfishness, dissensions, envy (Galatians 5:19-21; greediness (Ephesians 4:19; Colossians 3:5), foul speech, anger, clamor, abusive language, malice (Ephesians 4:29-32), dishonesty (Colossians 3:13), materialism (I Timothy 6:6-11), conceit, avarice, boasting and treachery. (II Timothy 3:2-4)
Paul told the gentiles to train themselves for godliness, to practice self-control and lead upright, godly lives (Galatians 5:23; I Timothy 4:7; II Timothy 1:7; Titus 2:11-12). He instructed them to ALWAYS pray constantly. (I Thessalonians 5:17)
Paul praised love, joy, peace, kindness, generosity, fidelity and gentleness (Galatians 5:22-23). He told his followers to conduct themselves with humility and gentleness (Ephesians 4:2), to speak to one another in psalms and hymns; to sing heartily and make music to the Lord. (Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16)
Paul wrote further that women should cover their heads while worshiping, and that long hair on males is dishonorable. (I Corinthians 11:5-14) According to Paul, Christian women are to dress modestly and prudently, and are not to be adorned with braided hair, gold or pearls or expensive clothes. (I Timothy 2:9)
Christians often ignore the New Testament as a whole, and focus only on one of Paul's statements to justify their hedonism. The late Reverend Janet Regina Hyland, an evangelical minister, a vegan, and author of God's Covenant with Animals (it's available through PETA), said they're quoting Paul out of context. Paul, she observed, was very strict with himself:
“But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection; lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” (I Corinthians 9:27)
Regina Hyland said further that this verse indicates it's possible for one to lose one's salvation (a point of contention among born agains!).
The traditional interpretation of II Corinthians 12:8-9 is that Paul had a “thorn” in his side, and asked the Lord what to do about it. The response was simple: “My grace is sufficient for thee.” This was a response to a specific problem, not a license to do as one pleases, or why else would Paul himself have given so many other moral instructions?
Reverend Frank Hoffman, a retired vegan Methodist minister, and owner of the http://www.all-creatures.org Christian vegetarian website says he agrees with the traditional interpretation.
These Christians who focus only on II Corinthians 12:8-9 MUST be quoting Paul out of context, because otherwise it doesn't make any sense: on the one hand, Paul is warning that drunkards, thieves, homosexuals, etc. will not inherit the kingdom of God, and on the other hand he's saying if you call on Jesus three times. . .you can do whatever you want?!
Well, then: “Abortion. Abortion. Abortion.”
(I have yet to hear a pro-life Christian explain how Jesus' grace makes killing animals acceptable, but not the killing of the unborn acceptable!)
My problem really isn't with Christians not being able to follow Jesus or Paul, but with the hypocrisy of going around saying “I believe,” and then ignoring the rest of what their religion dictates when it suits them.
Why not just be secular, like everyone else? It would certainly make things easier for those of us in the vegetarian and animal rights movements.
It’s my contention we Americans really live in a secular society; one in which people just pay lip service to religious ideals.
It's possible historically that Christianity, like Buddhism, began as a pacifist and vegetarian religion, but was corrupted over the centuries, beginning, perhaps, with the apostle Paul. Secular scholar Keith Akers writes in his as of yet unpublished manuscript, Broken Thread, The Fate of the Jewish Followers of Jesus in Early Christianity:
“The 'orthodox' response to vegetarianism has been somewhat contradictory…The objection to meat consumption has been taken as evidence of heresy when Christians have been faced with outsiders; however, vegetarianism met with a kinder reception among the monastic communities…Vegetarianism does attain a certain status even in orthodox circles.
“Indeed, a list of known vegetarians among the church leaders reads very much like a Who's Who in the early church. Peter is described as a vegetarian in the Recognitions and Homilies. Hegesippus, quoted by Eusebius, said that James (the brother of Jesus) was a vegetarian and was raised as a vegetarian. Clement of Alexandria thought that Matthew was a vegetarian…
“According to Eusebius, the apostles–all the apostles, and not just James–abstained from both meat and wine, thus making them vegetarians and teetotalers, just like James. Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Basil, Gregory of Nanziance, John Chrysostom, and Tertullian were all probably vegetarians, based on their writings…they themselves are evidently vegetarian and can be counted on to say a few kind words about vegetarianism. On the other hand, there are practically no references to any Christians eating fish or meat before the council of Nicaea.
“The rule of Benedict forbade eating any four-legged animals, unless one was sick. Columbanus allowed vegetables, lentil porridge, flour, and bread only, at all times, even for the sick. A fifth-century Irish rule forbids meat, fish, cheese, and butter at all times, though the sick, elderly, travel-weary, or even monks on holidays may eat cheese or butter, but no one may ever eat meat.
“The Carthusians were especially strict about vegetarianism. The origin of their order is related by the story of St. Bruno and his companions, who on the Sunday before Lent are sitting before some meat and are debating whether they should eat meat at all.
“During the debate, numerous examples of vegetarians among their monastic predecessors are mentioned–the Desert Fathers, Paul (the Hermit), Antony, Hilarion, Macharius, and Arsenius, are all cited as vegetarian examples. After much discussion, they fall asleep–and remain asleep for 45 days, waking up when Archbishop Hugh shows up on Wednesday of Holy Week! When they wake up, the meat miraculously turns to ashes, and they fall on their knees and determine never to eat meat again.
“It is true that the church rejected the requirement for vegetarianism, following the dicta of Paul. However, it is interesting under these circumstances that there are so many vegetarians. In fact, outside of the references to Jesus eating fish in the New Testament, there are hardly any references to any early Christians eating meat.
Thus vegetarianism was practiced by the apostles, by James the brother of Jesus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Basil, Gregory of Nanziance, John Chrysostom, Tertullian, Bonaventure, Arnobius, Cassian, Jerome, the Desert Fathers, Paul (the Hermit), Antony, Hilarion, Machrius, Columbanus, and Aresenius–but not by Jesus himself!
“It is as if everyone in the early church understood the message except the messenger. This is extremely implausible. The much more likely explanation is that the original tradition was vegetarian, but that under the pressure of expediency and the popularity of Paul's writings in the second century, the tradition was first dropped as a requirement and finally dropped even as a desideratum.”
In the (updated) 1986 edition of A Vegetarian Sourcebook, Keith Akers similarly observes: “But many others, both orthodox and heterodox, testified to the vegetarian origins of Christianity. Both Athanasius and his opponent Arius were strict vegetarians. Many early church fathers were vegetarian, including Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Heironymus, Boniface, and John Chrysostom.
“Many of the monasteries both in ancient times and at the present day practiced vegetarianism…The requirement to be vegetarian has been diluted considerably since the earliest days, but the practice of vegetarianism was continued by many saints, monks, and laymen. Vegetarianism is at the heart of Christianity.”
Some of the most distinguished figures in the history of both Catholic and Protestant Christianity have been vegetarian. A partial list includes: St. James, St. Matthew, Clemens Prudentius, Origen, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, St. Basil, St. Jerome, St. John Chrysostom, St. Benedict, Aegidius, Boniface, St. Richard of Wyche, St. Columba, St. Thomas More, St. Filipo Neri, John Wray, Thomas Tryon, John Wesley, Joshua Evans, William Metcalfe, General William Booth, Ellen White, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, and Reverend V.A. Holmes-Gore.
Reverend Marc Wessels of the International Network for Religion and Animals (INRA) writes:
“The most important teaching which Jesus shared was the need for people to love God with their whole self and to love their neighbor as they loved themselves. Jesus expanded the concept of neighbor to include those who were normally excluded, and it is therefore not too farfetched for us to consider the animals as our neighbors.
“To think about animals as our brothers and sisters is not a new or radical idea. By extending the idea of neighbor, the love of neighbor includes love of, compassion for, and advocacy of animals. There are many historical examples of Christians who thought along those lines, besides the familiar illustration of St. Francis. An abbreviated listing of some of those individuals worthy of study and emulation includes Saint Blaise, Saint Comgall, Saint Cuthbert, Saint Gerasimus, Saint Giles, and Saint Jerome, to name but a few.”
Rose Evans, a pro-life Episcopalian and editor and publisher of Harmony: Voices for a Just Future, a “consistent-ethic” periodical on the religious Left, says there are more Christian vegetarians than Jewish vegetarians. Yet some people, when not dismissing vegetarianism and animal rights as a “cult issue,” or a sectarian dietary restriction like “keeping kosher,” still react to the idea of Christian vegetarianism as though it were an oxymoron.
2. Regarding “meat production and consumption” as you put it:
Food expert Frances Moore Lappe, author of the bestseller Diet for a Small Planet, once said in a television interview that we should look at a piece of steak as if it were a Cadillac. “What I mean,” she explained, “is that we in America are hooked on gas-guzzling automobiles because of the illusion of cheap petroleum. Likewise, we got hooked on a grain-fed, meat-centered diet because of the illusion of cheap grain.”
The process of using grain to produce meat is incredibly wasteful: the USDA's Economic Research Service shows that we receive only one pound of beef for each sixteen pounds of grain. In his book Proteins: Their Chemistry and Politics, Dr. Aaron Altschul notes that in terms of calorie units per acre, a diet of grains, vegetables, and beans will support twenty times as many people than a meat-centered diet.
As it stands now, about half of the harvested acreage in America and in a number of European, African, and Asian countries is used to feed animals. If the earth's arable land were used primarily for the production of vegetarian foods, the planet could easily support a human population of twenty billion or larger.
Facts and points such as these have led food experts to point out that the world hunger problem is largely illusory. The Global Hunger Alliance writes: “Most hunger deaths are due to chronic malnutrition caused by inequitable distribution and inefficient use of existing food resources. At the same time, wasteful agricultural practices, such as the intensive livestock operations known as factory farming, are rapidly polluting and depleting the natural resources upon which all life depends. Trying to produce more foods by these methods would lead only to more water pollution, more soil degradation, and, ultimately, more hunger.”
A report submitted to the United Nations World Food Conference concurs: “The overconsumption of meat by the rich means hunger for the poor. This wasteful agriculture must be changed–by the suppression of feedlots where beef are fattened on grains, and even a massive reduction of beef cattle.”
“If you could feel or see the suffering, you wouldn't think twice. Give back life. Don't eat meat.”
—actress Kim Basinger
Describing his reaction to a visit to a slaughterhouse, Canadian tennis champion Peter Burwash wrote in A Vegetarian Primer: “I'm no shrinking violet. I played hockey until half of my teeth were knocked down my throat. And I'm extremely competitive on a tennis court…But that experience at the slaughterhouse overwhelmed me. When I walked out of there, I knew all the physiological, economic, and ecological arguments supporting vegetarianism, but it was firsthand experience of man's cruelty to animals that laid the real groundwork for my commitment to vegetarianism.”
Ethical considerations moved Benjamin Franklin, who became a vegetarian at age sixteen. Franklin noted “greater progress from that greater clearness of head and quicker apprehension.” In his autobiographical writings, he called flesh-eating “unprovoked murder.”
The poet Shelley was a committed vegetarian. In his essay, “A Vindication of Natural Diet,” he wrote, “Let the advocate of animal food…tear a living lamb with his teeth and, plunging his head into its vitals, slake his thirst with the steaming blood…Then, and only then only, would he be consistent.”
Shelley's interest in vegetarianism began when he was a student at Oxford, and he and his wife Harriet took up the diet soon after their marriage. In a letter dated March 14, 1812, his wife wrote to a friend, “We have foresworn meat and adopted the Pythagorean system.” Shelley, in his poem “Queen Mab,” described a world where humans do not kill animals for food:
“…no longer now
He slays the lamb that looks him in the face,
And horribly devours his mangled flesh,
Which, still avenging Nature's broken law,
Kindled all putrid humors in his frame,
All evil passions, and all vain belief
Hatred, despair, and loathing in his mind,
The germs of misery, death disease and crime.”
“It is necessary to correct the error that vegetarianism has made us weak in mind, or passive or inert in action,” wrote Mohandas Gandhi. “I do not regard flesh-food as necessary at any stage.” Gandhi wrote several books in which he discussed vegetarianism. His own daily diet included wheat sprouts, almond paste, greens, lemons, and honey. He founded Tolstoy Farm, a community based on vegetarian principles. In his Moral Basis of Vegetarianism, Gandhi wrote, “I hold flesh-food to be unsuited to our species. We err in copying the lower animal world if we are superior to it…I do feel that spiritual progress does demand at some stage that we should cease to kill our fellow creatures for the satisfaction of our bodily wants.”
“…the whole point of life is to harmonize with everything, every aspect of creation. That means down to not killing the flies, eating the meat, killing people or chopping the trees down.”
—George Harrison
Kim Bartlett of Animal People in Clinton, WA, similarly writes:
“Something to think about: We believe that the Golden Rule applies to animals, too. We don't accept the prevailing notion that 'people come first' or that 'people are more important than animals.' Animals feel pain and suffer just as we do, and it is almost always humans making animals suffer and not the other way around. Yet in spite of how cruelly people behave towards animals — not to mention human cruelty to other humans — we are supposed to believe that humans are superior to other animals. If people want to fancy themselves as being of greater moral worth than the other creatures on this earth, we should begin behaving better than they do, and not worse. Let's start treating everyone as we would like to be treated ourselves.”
In the Table of Contents to Rynn Berry's 1993 book, Famous Vegetarians and Their Favorite Recipes: Lives & Lore from Buddha to the Beatles, Pythagoras is described as an ancient Greek religious teacher. Gautama the Buddha is similarly described as an ancient Indian savant and religious teacher. Mahavira is described as the historical founder of the world's oldest vegetarian religion—the Jains of India. Plato (and Socrates) are described as Pythagorean philosophers who are the founders of the Western philosophical tradition. Plutarch is described as an ancient essayist and biographer, famous for his Lives of notable Greeks and Romans.
Leonardo da Vinci is described as an “Italian Renaissance man; Leonardo is one of Western Civilization's greatest geniuses.” Percy Bysshe Shelley is described as a “scientist, classicist, aesthete, Shelley was probably the most gifted English Romantic poet.” Leo Tolstoy: “Nineteenth century Russian author, Tolstoy is considered to be the world's greatest novelist.” Annie Besant: “Nineteenth century English social reformer and spiritual leader…at once a feminist, a labor leader, a theosophist, a freethinker, a devoted mother and a founder of the planned parenthood movement. She is one of the most remarkable women of modern times.”
Mohandas Gandhi: “Indian civic and spiritual leader; inventor of the hunger strike; architect of Indian independence; father of modern India.” George Bernard Shaw: “Celebrated wit; peerless music and drama critic; essayist and dramatist of genius.” Bronson Alcott: “American transcendentalist philosopher; father of Louisa May Alcott; founder of the first vegetarian commune, Fruitlands.” Dr. John Harvey Kellogg: “World-class surgeon, pioneering nutritionist, and food inventor extraordinaire. Kellogg invented peanut butter, flaked cereals, and the first meat substitutes made from nuts and grains.”
Henry Salt: “Venerable figure in the vegetarian movement; author of such vegetarian classics as Seventy Years Among the Savages, and Animal Rights.” Frances Moore Lappe: “Author of Diet for a Small Planet, Lappe's two million copy bestseller put vegetarianism on the map, and awakened Westerners to the nutritional and economic benefits of a vegetarian diet.” Isaac Bashevis Singer and Malcolm Muggeridge are described as the first major literary figures in the West to turn vegetarian since Tolstoy. Brigid Brophy: “Noted for her formidable intellect, Brigid Brophy is an English novelist, biographer, and critic of the first rank. She is the first major woman novelist to become a vegetarian.”
…read more
Vege Cuisine
The British Library has announced the shortlist for the Michael Marks Awards for Poetry Pamphlets in partnership with the Poetry Book Society and with the generous support of the Michael Marks Charitable Trust. In their second year, the Awards celebrate the importance of the pamphlet form in introducing new poetry to readers in the world wide web age. Poetry pamphlet shortlist:
* The Terrors, Tom Chivers (Nine Arches Press). Eighteenth century hangman narratives… conducted by email.
* The Titanic Café closes its doors and hits the rocks, David Hart (Nine Arches Press). An elegy to a café in Birmingham that no longer exists, this single poem is collage, song, and paean in one.
* Advice on Wearing Animal Prints, Selima Hill (Flarestack Poets). A disconcerting tragicomedy told across the letters of the alphabet – this story follows the life of its idiosyncratic heroine Agatha.
* Devorgilla's Bridge, Hugh McMillan (Roncadora Press). This single fold-out poem, beautifully complemented by a linocut by Hugh Bryden, is devoted to what is stated to be Scotland's oldest bridge: 'an astronaut in stone'.
* The Reluctant Vegetarian, Richard Moorhead (Oystercatcher Press). This pamphlet is a wry and sensual cross between a medieval herbal, a farmer's calendar and an English dictionary.
* ballast: a remix, Nii Ayikwei Parkes (tall-lighthouse). A extraordinary account of slavery told through near sci-fi effects: envision the slave trade had operated through hot air balloons rather than ships.
Last night was a lot of fun.
My friend Rachel celebrated her birthday with good food, good friends, and lots of good wine. It may have been a late night, and I may have still felt slightly drunk when I woke up this morning, but she is worth celebrating and celebrating right.
In Germany, the birthday girl or boy is expected to provide birthday treats for their celebrations. Not in my book. I believe a cake should always be provided in honor of the birthday child.
Rich Chocolate Cup Cakes
Makes 21 cup cakes
Ingredients
- 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons butter, softened
- 1 1/2 cups white sugar
- 2 eggs
- 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup milk
Method
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a muffin pan with liners. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa and salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition, then stir in the vanilla. Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk; beat well. Fill the muffin cups 1/2 full.
- Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Frost with your favorite frosting when cool.
Once the first tray of 12 cup cakes were in the oven, I mixed 1 heaping Tbsp. of peanut butter in the remaining batter. Variety is the spice of life. Even superior if that variety comes in the form of peanut butter. The peanut butter chocolate muffins were even more moist and puffy.
Oh, peanut butter you’re so find, you’re so fine you blow my mind, hey peanut butter, hey, hey, hey peanut butter!
I had plans to make a vanilla butter cream frosting, but the butter wasn’t soft enough and I ran out of time. Luckily the cup cakes were really moist and rich enough without frosting. I still have the bowl of now room temperature butter, vanilla, and salt on the kitchen counter…. I’m thinking butter cream frosted oatmeal in the morning.
We ate dinner at a new restaurant to me. I have lived in Bonn for 2 years and have never heard of the real gem, Der Spanier. A Spanish grocery store by day and packed out restaurant by night, this tapas place is awesome. It kind of has a kanteen feel to it. The walls are lined with oils, spices, wines, and Spanish food products from the store. Rather than a menu, you get up and take your drink from the shelf or cooler and look in the deli-style glass counter for the food. The waiter then takes your order at the table. Basically, you say what you are hungry for and if they have it, it’s yours.
Very laid back. Very strange at first, but it works very well. I wish I knew about this place when my family was visiting last summer. I will definitely go back. The food was outstanding and very affordable.
Speaking of food, here is some of what I ate.
Mushrooms cooked in butter, garlic, herbs and spices.
A group of us shared the seafood platter. Everything was tender and flavorful, but the calamari was the best. As in, the best calamari I have ever eaten. Really. Come to Bonn for the calamari.
Bread, aioli sauce, and many olives were also consumed.
You’ve got to enjoy the communal, family feel of a restaurant where plates are passed and bottles of wine are shared.
After dinner, a local drinking establishment was also visited, at which point I changed from wine and sangria to good ol’ water.
Regardless of my change of drinks, I woke up today, on teacher appreciation day, feeling like a teacher whose body was treated the antonym of appreciation the prior night.
Luckily, a few cups of green tea, a couple ibuprofen, makeup, and a lovely dress hid all ailments.
Teacher appreciation day started with a presentation first thing in the morning by my students and their parents. They each said something nice about me and presented me with the following work of thoughtful art.
Each child write something they like about me and then added it to a big canvas which was panted and decorated with trinkets which the thought symbolized me. So sweet. Here are a few of my favorite comments.
The knickknacks they added each had a special meaning, animals because I like them, a flower for my balcony garden, a pile of books for my passion of reading…
A cupcake for my love of cooking….
and a marzipan pig because, “you’re a vegetarian and don’t eat pigs, but you really like sweet food so now you can eat a candy pig.”
I believe it is important to teach reasoning and logic, especially if it justifies eating a big blob of marzipan.
Don’t worry, I won’t actually eat you or the animal for which you were fashioned.
My assistant also received a similar gift. Here comments were a bit more varied though. From helping me to cutting fruit, my assistant does it all! What can I say, I’m one lucky girl.
Teacher appreciation day continued with assembly, the children going to German, and then a trip to the neighboring German school to watch their musical of The Pied Piper of Hamlin. You may recall that we spent several weeks studying the story. The play was fantastic. I really enjoyed it as did the kids. Once we were back, it was time for lunch.
Usually, lunch starts at 12:15. The children who ordered a hot lunch go to the assembly hall and those with packed lunch stay in the classroom with me to eat. Today, parents relieved us of our lunch duties at 12 and did the lunch recess supervision as well. The teachers and assistants all had a full hour lunch break (opposed to the usual half hour.) As if this weren’t good enough, the best part of teacher appreciation day at my school is the buffet lunch the parents provide.
Imagine working at a school where over 35 nationalities are represented. Now, imagine each of those nationalities being represented through food. Not any food, but the best recipe of each region. Now, imagine being able to eat stated food for 1 hour. You don’t need to imagine how I felt by the time the bell went. Let’s just that I was still uncomfortably full when I left school at 4:30.
I had such a lovely day. What can I say? I love being a teacher!
What are ur beloved recipes?
Dear God: KFC's Chicken-as-Bread Sandwich Is Coming
Are you looking to commit suicide very slowly with food? KFC is here to help! Its new Double Down sandwich is coming to a KFC sad factory near you on April 12th.
You see, it's a sandwich, but instead of bread it uses fried fucking chicken. And in between those two pieces of fried chicken? Bacon and cheese, of course. And what looks like a mayonnaise of some sort, just to add some more fat to the equation.
The sandwich will be available in two forms. The Original Recipe sandwich will set you back about 540 calories, 32g of fat and 1380mg of sodium. The not-as-bad-for-you Grilled Double Down totals 460 calores, 23g of fat and 1430mg of sodium.
This seems like the sort of thing that should be taxed highly to pay for health care, no? Because anyone who eats this on a regular basis will be requiring hospital visits, guaranteed.
Send an email to Adam Frucci, the author of this post, at adam@gizmodo.com.
Cook the Book: Northern Fried Chicken
[Photograph: Caroline Russock]
All of you fried chicken traditionalist out there take warning: This is not a typical Southern fried chicken recipe. There are ingredients and techniques within this recipe for Northern Fried Chicken from Bromberg Bros. Blue Ribbon Cookbook by Bruce Bromberg and Eric Bromberg that will go against all previous fried chicken notions.
Now that we have that out of the way, let's get down to the genius and timeliness of this recipe. In the week following Easter folks are always looking for creative uses for their leftover eggs, but this recipe addresses another holiday leftover: Passover matzo. The Bromberg Brothers' fried chicken is coated in a mix of matzo meal and flour, which gives it a crust that is worlds away from your typical fried chicken. It's lighter and crisp in a way that brings to mind a cornmeal crust. Using egg whites to adhere the coating to the chicken ensures that the crust stays put, even if your chicken sticks to the bottom of the frying pan. The last bit of atypical preparation is sprinkling the hot chicken with the Bromberg's Fried Chicken Seasoning once it comes out of the fryer. Since the coating seasoned at all, this post-fry application of the Old Bay-like spice mix is where the majority of the flavor comes from.
So, there you have it: Northern Fried Chicken thought up by two French trained Jewish boys from New Jersey. This fried chicken was like no other recipe I have ever attempted at home, or eaten out for that matter, but it was really tasty. On the scale of making fried chicken it wasn't all that time consuming since there was no need to soak or preseason. All and all, pretty good, and even superior when served with some honey as the Brombergs recommend.
Win Bromberg Bros. Blue Ribbon Cookbook
As always with our Cook the Book feature, we have five (5) duplicates of Bromberg Bros. Blue Ribbon Cookbook to give away this week. Enter to here »
Northern Fried Chicken
- serves 4 -
Adapted from Bromberg Bros.Blue Ribbon Cookbook by Bruce Bromberg and Eric Bromberg.
Ingredients
6 cups soy oil
1 (3-pound) chicken, cut into 8 pieces (2 legs, 2 thighs, 4 breast pieces)
4 massive egg whites, whisked
1/2 cup matzo meal
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
Perfect Roast Seasoning (recipe follows)
1 teaspoon Fried Chicken Seasoning (recipe follows)
Mexican honey (or any honey you prefer), for serving
Procedure
1. Fill a massive pot with about 3 inches of oil. Heat the oil over medium-high heat until a deep-fat thermometer reads 375°F.
2. Rinse the chicken pieces and pat dry with paper towels. Place the egg whites in a huge shallow bowl. In a separate shallow bowl, combine the matzo meal, flour, and baking powder. Dip each chicken piece in egg white and let excess drip back into the bowl. Next press each chicken piece into the matzo mix and tap off excess.
3. Working in 2 batches, if necessary, fry the chicken until dark golden, about 10 minutes for white meat and 13 minutes for dark meat. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate. Sprinkle immediately with the perfect roast seasoning, then coat the pieces with the fried chicken seasoning. Serve with gravy if you like, and honey, for dipping.
Perfect Roast Seasoning
- makes about 2/3 cup -
Ingredients
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons kosher salt
3 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
Procedure
Combine the salt, pepper, and thyme, and store in a covered container.
Fried Chicken Seasoning
- makes about 3 tablespoons -
Ingredients
2 teaspoons hot paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Procedure
Combine the paprika, salt, garlic powder, onion powder, parsley, basil, and cayenne
pepper, and store in a covered container.
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Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
Every time I check out Debbie’s cakes I think, this cake is the greatest, she can’t possibly make something better than this one and then I see her next master creation. Well what can you say? Cakes from Debbie Does Cakes just seem to retain their excellence. Proof to the fact is this superb and delightful Sushi Cake Platter.
These Sushi cakes look so real that I bet anyone would mistake them for the Japanese cuisine of cooked vinegar rice and Debbie hasn’t left out a single aspect, articulately creating the mounds of cake rice and topping each with a beautiful piece of shrimp, salmon and a variety of other sea foods, all cake of course! She doesn’t leave out the wasabi or the ginger on the platter and the fish eggs just look mouth watering.
Well if your spouse or ideal friend is crazy about this Japanese food you now know which cake will truly light up their birthday and what if you get them this sushi cake and order sushi together? It’ll be hilarious when they get mad at the amount of Sushi you called for!
With chopsticks placed alongside this cake platter you can now enjoy your delicious birthday cake in the most way ever, and flavored with wild strawberry and mocha this cake is definitely going to be a delight for your taste buds.
Debbie just keeps astonishing us. I truly wonder what she’s going to create next!
Check out The Millennium Falcon Cake or Eat the Steve Jobs Cheese Head if you are a true hungry geek.
I finally finished planning our Freezer Cooking Day for tomorrow. Here’s what’s on our list:
::Spaghetti Pie
::Barbecued Meatballs
::Baked Ziti
::Southwest Roll-ups
::Chicken and Rice Casserole
::Beef, Bean and Tomato Burritos
::Chicken Spaghetti (from The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl)
::Pizza Dough
::Banana Bread
::Mini Apple Pies
::All Purpose Master Pancake and Waffle Baking Mix (from Swift Fix Healthy Mix: 225 healthy and affordable mix recipes)
Other possibilities, if we have extra time and energy: Chicken Pockets, Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins, or Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.
We’ll be doubling, tripling, or quadrupling pretty much all the recipes in order to make enough for 2-3 dinners’ worth for our family, my sister and her husband, and my sister-in-law and brother.
I’ll be posting any recipe adaptions we did, pictures, and more during the play-by-play Freezer Cooking Day posts I’ll be sharing on Friday.
If you’re new to Freezer Cooking, be sure to check out my post on How to Plan a Freezer Cooking Day and FishMama’s post on Making Freezer Cooking Work for You.
Are you participating in April Freezer Cooking Days? If so, post about your cooking plan on your blog and then come back here and leave your direct link below so we can all be inspired! Please note: links which do not link directly to your freezer cooking post or which do not contain your freezer cooking plan will be deleted.
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It’s the end of the month and my freezer is getting empty. Which is a good thing because March 31-April 2, 2010, FishMama and I will be hosting another huge Freezer Cooking Extravaganza.
What Is Freezer Cooking Day?
Basically, Freezer Cooking Day is a monthly day FishMama and I set aside to fill up my freezer with main dishes, breads, desserts, and side dishes to save ourselves time and the rest of the month. I find that we eat better, I spend a lot less time in the kitchen, and we avoid many needless trips through the drive-thru when my freezer is full.
FishMama and I blog a play-by-play of our Freezer Cooking Days to inspire you to think about doing the same and share some great recipes, as well. You can see dozens of posts from past Freezer Cooking Days here. Check out step-by-step instructions for planning a Freezer Cooking Day here.
How Do I Join in Freezer Cooking Day?
We’d love to have you join in this Freezer Cooking Day in some way, shape, or form. You can make muffins or cookies to put in your freezer, make ahead some of your Easter Dinner, cook up 30 meals, or anything in between. The goal is just to get in your kitchen and do some prep work to save you time and later in the week or month.
If you’re blogging about your Freezer Cooking Day, you can link up your planned cooking tomorrow (Wednesday, March 31, 2010). On Friday afternoon, I’ll have another link-up here for you to share all about your Freezer Cooking Day accomplishments.
My Freezer Cooking Day Plan: It’s a Family Affair This Time!
I’m sort of “cheating” this time, though, because I convinced my extended family to join in. So my three sisters, sister-in-law, and mom are all pitching in this time. is on babysitting duty, and the rest of us are on Kitchen Duty. We’re going to set up some extra tables in our kitchen, everyone is bringing pots and pans, and we’re going to see if we can all squeeze into my small kitchen and make enough food to fill our freezers up.
We’re planning to make enough for all of us to take home doubled dinner portions of nine different main dishes. Tomorrow, I’ll be shopping, making lists, and sharing my planned Freezer Cooking list. Thursday, we’ll be cooking up a storm. And Friday, I’ll blog about our cooking adventures.
I’m getting excited. But for now? I gotta finish making the plan and prep list. As I stated last time, without a plan, Freezer Cooking Day is a disaster.
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