txrad puts all this effort into making hamburger buns and ketchup and we continue using Boca burgers. So today I am trying another veggie burger recipe involving black beans and black-eyed peas.



I probably should not deviate too much from a recipe right off the bat, but I looked at several recipes and would see something in another that I liked even though the basic recipes were similar.

The 50/50 combo of peas and beans is what I hope works out. Also threw in a dash of Liquid Smoke.



So far, so good. The mixture was a bit sticky but fairly easy to make into balls to chill for 2-3 hours. Looking forward to seeing how these taste tonight.

The recipe said it makes six. I decided to make four since our homemade buns are a bit larger than some store-bought buns.

After getting that cleaned up, I decided to bake some muffins. There weren't as many blueberries in the freezer as I thought, so these are a mix of blueberries and raspberries.



Oh my gawwwd!! Breakfast anyone?

Witchay Woman stopped by just a few minutes ago with a whiskey plum cobbler made by the hubby we call "Alton II."



That was the good surprise.

We have a wonderful piece of her art on the wall above our fireplace and had lately noticed what we thought was some charcoal dust around the base of the matting.


She said that's fairly common and while we were discussing it, she asked to take the painting off the wall. Doing so revealed another surprise, and not a pleasant one.





The paper on the back of the frame is damaged, so that black stuff on the matte may well be mold and not charcoal. We will be needing to head out to a frame shop and get this re-matted and I'm just very happy we caught this before more damage was done.

And we need to figure out where this moisture is coming from and correct that problem. Ugghh. More joys of owning a home.

It's hard for me to believe it's Thanksgiving again already! Seems like we were just driving up to north Austin a few months ago for the annual tradition of a thali at Swad. But off we trekked again today on the 23-mile trip to our little slice of India. No tofurkey for us!


I actually took this photo as we were leaving. There was no line when we got there, and the food was delivered fast today.




Ahh yes, dear friends. This is heaven. Those puffy breads are pooris. Underneath there was a crunchy papadam, and some other kind of moist bread adorned with fiery jalapeños.

I have a batch of muffins in the oven as I'm typing this. I normally use lemon yogurt in the preparation of blueberry muffins. I noticed the color in the yogurt was much darker than usual and I assumed it was blueberry yogurt. I have used that before but lemon is better.

As I continued to mix it with the egg, sugar and oil, I noticed the color was way off, even for blueberry. Upon inspection of the container it wasn't blueberry after all. Someone in this house bought something called "Chocolate Underground." Interesting name. Is that just off exit 69 on the Fudge Freeway?

Not sure who goofed up, but let me say I'm not the primary shopper in this house.

Muffins, anyone? They actually look and smell fine!

With txrad being gone for a week, I'm having to be on my own again with meal preparation. And I would prefer to avoid the frozen entree route, or getting take-out, as much as possible. This is difficult when you work all day and then have to go out to the store after work for ingredients.

We got a recipe from Food Network way back around 2003 or 2004 which was whipped up by Sara Moulton on her show. It's an easy casserole, and doesn't exactly constitute "cooking" since all you do is dump a bunch of things into a bowl to make a sauce and then layer it between cheese, chips and sour cream, and then bake it.

We lived on this once or twice a week for several years until we burned out and moved on to something else.

I decided to go back to this recipe tonight and cut it in half so that it's a meal for one with leftovers for one... that will be Friday's lunch.

You know how sometimes when you cut a recipe in half, it completely changes the texture, flavor, and whatever, and turns out to be a shit meal? That was my concern when I got this thing assembled.

It appeared that I had gone too heavy on the layer of tortilla chips and too light on the tomato sauce. So in the end, before going in the oven, I poured some Stubb's BBQ sauce over the top....something we had never done in the past.

I sliced up an avocado to accompany this casserole, except you can't really save leftover avocado very easily, so I ate the whole thing. I guess it was pretty good and exceeded my early expectations.

I love science!

Something in dark chocolate seems to help protect the heart, and now researchers say they have identified the molecular mechanism by which a compound found in cocoa can guard against the damage of a stroke.

The compound, a flavanol called epicatechin, triggers two built-in protective pathways in the brain, according to a report published online last week in the Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow & Metabolism.

I've been curious to see if anyone had compiled any lists of vegetarian-friendly cities and towns in the US, and I ran across this list. Interesting!


I have a book around here somewhere that has a list of vegetarian restaurants by state, and although it's outdated, I was not surprised by some of the cities on this list. Norfolk, for instance, is not a place that would immediately come to mind when thinking vegetarian cuisine.

Salt Like City did surprise me. Asheville being #1 in the list of small cities was also a surprise.

My only complaint about this list is the inclusion of Santa Monica in the list of small cities. On the one hand, it is a small city. But when I think small city, I think Asheville, Eugene, Athens, but not Santa Monica -- a small city in a county of 10 million people.

File this under "Learning Experiences."

I sent txrad out for Thai food today. I took about a quarter of his rice and half of the veggies & tofu in red curry and he threw it in the blender.

He got the plate; I got the spicy shake. (He also poured a little of my shake on his plate.)

I took one sip and it set my throat on fire. I poured half that glass back into the take-out container and refilled the glass with milk. I can drink it but it's still spicy as hell, and I happen to love spicy foods.

What a sensation! That was enough spiciness to make my bones all snap back into place.

I can't not laugh at this.

Want to lose weight? Forget exercise, even the kind you get from parking your car and walking into Taco Bell. Instead, use the drive-thru. Reaching out to grab the bag must burn some calories!

Well, not literally, since we're both vegetarians and have been for about 18 years. But we just walked out on the patio and scared away a rather large opossum. Txrad said, "those things scare me." I replied, "Not me; they're tasty."

Yes, I have eaten opossum as well as armadillo and a few other critters. I despised deer meat. It's way to gamey for my taste. And as for turkey, I could only handle the white meat. I hated the dark meat. But if my recollection is true, I thought opossum and armadillo made great BBQ meat.

So, Question of the Day: What's the most exotic meat you've ever eaten, and did you like it?

The guy who prepared the armadillo and opossum was the dad of my cousin's cousins in small-town southeast Arkansas. He'd do this big BBQ every July 4th and I was probably 11 or 12 when I tasted those delicacies. He also offered up some rattlesnake, but I politely declined.

This might be one of the most beautiful op-ed pieces I've ever read.

Not from turkey though. We had our traditional Indian thali with an appetizer of Arlo Guthrie's Alice's Restaurant on the way to lunch.

Why not give this a shot, eh? You and I agree on the death penalty. Prove to me that you are serious about troubling issues.

I have been seeing this advertisement, placed by Americans Against Food Taxes, every night on cable networks. It grated on my nerves the first time I saw it and I get more irritated with each subsequent viewing.

This fictional mother and her kids are shown driving through a neighborhood where families might be struggling to put food on the table, a foreclosed home, and then an "out of business" store front, finally arriving at her nice 2-story home in a well-to-do neighborhood, while driving a new car. I just don't buy the premise that she is indeed concerned that "those pennies add up."

I simply smell a Republican or a Libertarian who likes things just the way they are and has whatever selfish reasons for being opposed to a tax on sodas. If the average American soccer moms with the 2 1/2 children and the lovely homes on a bucolic suburban street are genuinely concerned about paying a soda tax, I'm quite sure they can find painless ways to offset the tax. How about adjusting the thermostat on the air conditioning one degree, or reducing the time the kids are slurping those sodas in front of the television by 30 minutes a day. Unplug a few gadgets in the house which you rarely use. Not only will you more than offset the soda tax, you'll be reducing your carbon footprint. Perhaps I'm asking too much.

The advertisement might have been more effective if the fictional family appeared to be living near the poverty level, driving a 15-year-old car, or taking the bus because they have no car.

On the other hand, perhaps it would be less effective because we don't really care much for seeing poverty in action. And some, including me, might wonder why a family barely squeaking by would be squandering money on sodas in the first place.

Another gripe I have is the way the soda tax proposals are being framed as a way to reduce obesity. Yes, it might work in a few instances, but that is clearly not the point, and it's a bad marketing move. It would make far more sense to frame it as a way to curtail tooth decay.

The fact that sugar-free sodas would be exempt also chaps my ass. The point of the tax is to raise billions of dollars in revenue from a non-essential product. If you are adamant against the tax, you can choose to opt out. And you know what? You'll be better off if you do! Sodas are not part of the food group pyramid and they have no positive health or nutritional benefits, even of they are sugar-free and caffeine-free. (At that level, I argue, what's the fucking point?! The only thing that isn't a big fat zero is the cost of it!)

Nevertheless, people with the financial means to buy sodas would continue to do so -- especially the addictive sodas with the caffeine -- and many people who are struggling financially would probably drop these unnecessary purchases. Many probably have already. And they will not suffer as a result, even if they cannot afford healthy, all-natural fruit juice. Why? Because there's absolutely nothing wrong with drinking water.

If we are serious about finding creative ways to pay for health care reform, or any of the dozens of other urgent needs in this country, we're going to have to buckle down and realize there is no free ride. We can do this in a variety of relatively painless ways, pennies here and pennies there, with all of us in this boat together, contributing in our own ways for a huge societal benefit, or we can fight and argue against any and every tax, regardless of how much or little it might affect us personally.

I am steadfastly against sales taxes on essential grocery items: dairy and soy products, grains, bread, beans, fruits and vegetables. However, we could makes huge strides in achieving and paying for universal health care by placing a small tax on non-essential items: processed foods, items packed with artificial flavors and colors, and candy! In doing so, we as a people would be promoting healthy responsible behavior while still allowing people the freedom to buy crap, if they can afford it. For those who can't afford it, they shouldn't be buying crap foods.

Whatever route we choose to go, you can bet your ass someone with a vested financial interest, particularly at the corporate level, isn't going to like it, and they will fight it. We must resist those fights.

Progress doesn't just happen; it requires an investment. It isn't free, nor is it cheap. But it is essential if we are to survive and prosper in the long run.

John Mackey, CEO of Austin-based Whole Foods Market created a stir back in 2007 when it was revealed that he had been posting to a Yahoo financial forum under a pseudonym, promoting the financial strengths of his stores during a takeover of rival Wild Oats. That was pretty stupid and it called into question his sanity ethics, not to mention his maturity.

Wackey Mackey had gone and done it again, this time under his real name in an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal concerning health care reform.

It's not so much what he said that has me pissed off as it is the fact the he went out of his way to write an article about the direction he believes we need to go for health care reform. Had this piece been written by the CEO of Walgreens, Citigroup, or John Deere, I would not have cared in the least, nor would it have been the least bit surprising. If I had a Citigroup bank account or credit card, I would not be rushing out to close the account. I wouldn't cease shopping at Walgreens (although I shop there less than once a year on average anyway) and I wouldn't suddenly be trying to sell my John Deere to buy a Cub Cadet. (I have plenty of other reasons for the latter, however.)

John Mackey is the CEO of a supermarket chain which began here in Austin by appealing to the local back-to-nature hippies and others who sought organic and natural foods. Obviously this remains their targeted customer -- people who are likely to be quite left-of-center politically, and have quite a knowledge about the health consequences of processed foods and unhealthy ingredients. We tend to read labels and avoid those items which don't meet our own personal dietary standards and preferences. I say "we" because I have been a Whole Foods shopper, off and on, for over 12 years. In 2007, I worked directly across 6th Street from the flagship store and headquarters. Believe it or not, the store is a big tourist attraction.

For him to write an opinion piece of this nature is not unlike the remorse I'd feel after working hard to elect a member of the Green Party to Congress, only to have that person start voting in lock-step with Republicans. Wacky Mackey has apparently forgotten the proclivities of vast numbers of his clientele. In addition, I could argue he may have forgotten his own humble and struggling start in business.

In 1978, twenty-five-year-old college dropout John Mackey and Rene Lawson, his twenty-one year old girlfriend, borrowed $45,000 from family and friends to open a small natural foods store called SaferWay in Austin, Texas (the name being a spoof of Safeway). When the couple was evicted from their apartment for storing food products in it, they decided to live at the store. Because it was zoned for commercial use, there was no shower stall, so they bathed using a water hose attached to their dishwasher.

Two years later, John Mackey partnered with Craig Weller and Mark Skiles to merge SaferWay with their Clarksville Natural Grocery, resulting in the opening of the original Whole Foods Market on September 20, 1980. At 12,500 square feet (1,160 m2) and with a staff of 19, the store was quite large in comparison to the standard health food store of the time.

Less than a year later, on Memorial Day in 1981, the worst flood in 70 years devastated the city of Austin. Caught in the flood waters, the store’s inventory was wiped out and most of the equipment was damaged. The losses were approximately $400,000 and Whole Foods Market had no insurance. Customers and neighbors voluntarily joined the staff to repair and clean up the damage. Creditors, vendors and investors all assisted in helping the store recover, and it reopened 28 days after the flood.

Or perhaps he believes, as a result of that experience, that everyone else in the country with inadequate or no insurance can get the voluntary helping hand from friends and neighbors. Who knows. But based on one idea he promotes in his opinion piece, it sure sounds like that is his belief.

Finally, revise tax forms to make it easier for individuals to make a voluntary, tax-deductible donation to help the millions of people who have no insurance and aren't covered by Medicare, Medicaid or the State Children's Health Insurance Program.

So, that's like a voluntary taxation for providing health coverage. Can we do the same with our military budget? I would like to opt out on a few things there, buddy.

Hopefully a lot of CEOs just like him would be compassionate enough to exercise some stock options and maybe voluntarily donate $100,000 or more to a worthy cause. And yeah, these people who financially need no help would get yet another tax write-off while those struggling with every penny earned would be praying for compassion and hoping for the best.

Blow that out your ass, Mackey, along with your embedded advertisement to encourage more folks to shop for natural and organic products (where? Oh, Whole Foods of course!) and a blatant promotion of how great the benefits are to his workers.

At Whole Foods we allow our team members to vote on what benefits they most want the company to fund. Our Canadian and British employees express their benefit preferences very clearly—they want supplemental health-care dollars that they can control and spend themselves without permission from their governments. Why would they want such additional health-care benefit dollars if they already have an "intrinsic right to health care"? The answer is clear—no such right truly exists in either Canada or the U.K.—or in any other country.

Rather than increase government spending and control, we need to address the root causes of poor health. This begins with the realization that every American adult is responsible for his or her own health.

Unfortunately many of our health-care problems are self-inflicted: two-thirds of Americans are now overweight and one-third are obese. Most of the diseases that kill us and account for about 70% of all health-care spending—heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes and obesity—are mostly preventable through proper diet, exercise, not smoking, minimal alcohol consumption and other healthy lifestyle choices.

Recent scientific and medical evidence shows that a diet consisting of foods that are plant-based, nutrient dense and low-fat will help prevent and often reverse most degenerative diseases that kill us and are expensive to treat. We should be able to live largely disease-free lives until we are well into our 90s and even past 100 years of age.

Many of our health care problems are not self-inflicted. Ever heard of automobile accidents? Ever heard of pedestrians or cyclists being slammed by a vehicle? Ever seen a hospital bill for weeks of intensive care?

Eating healthy and natural foods is a great thing and I highly encourage it. After 18 years of a vegetarian diet, txrad and I really haven't had any significant illnesses during this time, other than an occasional allergy due to local pollen, and that was several years ago.

But in March of 2007, txrad did have an accident resulting in a concussion. He spent two days in a hospital for observation mainly. They did brain scans and x-rays, and determined that he also had some fractured ribs, but there was nothing they could really do. It required rest and weeks of recovery at home to heal.

He was unemployed at the time -- had been for over three months. And despite the fact that he was still covered by insurance (incidentally from the advertising agency directly across the street from Whole Foods in downtown Austin), he still has about $3,000 in unpaid medical bills which were not covered by his insurance. He is also still unemployed. He is nagged daily by calls from collections attempting to get their hands on the funds. And his previously decent credit rating has probably been reduced to nothing.

Nice system we have here. And thanks, Mackey, for being so understanding.

We are all responsible for our own lives and our own health. We should take that responsibility very seriously and use our freedom to make wise lifestyle choices that will protect our health.

Gee, maybe if we had made the "lifestyle choice" to take the money we spent at Whole Foods Market through the years and instead, invested it in an interest-bearing account -- all $10,661.28 -- txrad's bills would be paid and we'd still have a nice health cushion. How stupid of us to have not thought of that option. (Yes, I do have a screen shot of a Quicken report I just pulled to back up my figure.)



There is already a "Boycott Whole Foods Market" group on Facebook. At the time I'm writing this, it already has 7,702 members. I'm one of them. A lot of people are pissed off about this. And that should start to worry the stockholders if this impacts the chain's profits which have already been battered somewhat by the recession.

I am in the awkward position of saying I have no desire to shop at Whole Foods while simultaneously being a stockholder in the company. And I hope to someday have an opportunity to vote on replacing John Mackey with a new CEO, one who doesn't quote Margaret Thatcher as a prelude to a piece which basically puts him or her in direct opposition to so many of those who have supported the business through the years.


Blueberry also had a nice rant which is where I found the link to the WSJ piece.

So... party #2 at kona ranch was a much larger affair than party #1 a few weeks ago when there were only six of us. And I really got on a roll yesterday morning making all kinds of dips from scratch. One thing I have learned (and I guess you learn something from every party) is to make a check list of everything you prepare so you won't forget to serve something.

I found the ginger tofu dip in the fridge after almost everyone had left.



At least I didn't forget to make margaritas!

For the past month I have been on a health kick. Or I should say mini-health kick. At least during daylight hours. The evenings are another story, like night & day.

For 18 years I have adhered to a vegetarian diet which sounds healthy enough, but I really don't eat much in the way of fresh foods... raw fresh foods. We prepare pizza once or twice a week, we have 2 or 3 vegetable casseroles in our lineup, and then our veggie burgers with txrad's homemade ketchup, homemade buns, and potatoes he slices for the oven fries. Almost everything we eat in the evening is fried or baked!

Lunch is worse. We often take the easy route on weekdays, when I'm working, and have a microwaved frozen veggie entree. There are clearly worse things we could eat, but there are certainly better things as well. The frozen entrees are pretty expensive considering the portion sizes and the ingredients. And they usually have excess sodium.

I started walking 2 or 3 miles a day on May 18th and the end of today will represent four weeks of walking. If I stick to my plan today I will have walked 70 miles in a month.

This walking regimen has resulted in an increased appetite. I've started boiling up some oatmeal for breakfast and topping it with a sliced banana. The first couple of times I think my body -- specifically my intestinal tract -- went into shock. Without going into detail, let's just say I think my body was asking, "what the hell IS this you're feeding me??"

Now that mind, body, and spirit are all getting along better (oatmeal, banana and gut are all slapping each other on the back going "Hey dude, nice to see ya!"), I'm ready to ratchet things up a notch. I keep hearing about the importance of five servings of fruits and vegetables each day and I'm ready to give that a whirl. Ketchup doesn't count as a veggie in my book. Ketchupgate taught me that. If only cheese counted as a fruit or a vegetable -- life would be grand!

Five servings of raw fruits and veggies is my agenda. Now that I have the banana thing under control, that leaves four to go, and this is not as easy as it seems. It's been so long since I have pondered eating anything raw, I'm having trouble naming five things!

Apples! There's an idea. Now three more! Umm...

Leafy greens! The salad I often crave could easily take care of the remaining three veggies. I just need to add a carrot and... what else?

Oh screw it. I'm too lazy too make a salad every day and I know it.

I have a better idea. All this slicing, dicing and chopping is going to take time. Let's just throw all that stuff in a juicer...carrot, apple, beet, celery, and DRINK it.

So, what's on your plate? Do you get your five servings of fruit and veggies each day?

The ranks of the unemployed just increased by two after this absurdly stupid stunt in which a couple of employees at a Dominoe's shot this video and uploaded it to YouTube.

I just wonder how stupid people can be. Did they not have a clue that retribution would be swift? The woman shooting the video probably didn't realize just what an understatement she was uttering when she said this:

"I think our boss lady may be coming out here soon."

They have been fired today. And thanks for giving gay people another bad rap, assholes.

I walked into my home office this morning and saw txrad reading a food blog, in this case a Vegan Called Bacon, and the photo caught my eye. It's vegetarian sausage. txrad makes veggie sausage but I've never seen him arrange his for presentation in this manner.

Honestly, could I get excited about eating something which appears to be a Great Dane dump?