As I promised on facebook I have typed up the first recipe I made in response to watching Food Inc. I've been talking about this movie and accompanying book a lot. There are two important and pertinent issues to this recipe and the movie. One: The way the four major corporations have shaped animal farming and animal processing places tremendous risks to consumers. Two: The issue of immigration and undocumented workers is VERY complex, the U.S. agriculture CORPORATIONS depends upon unlimited cheap EXPLOITABLE labor (aka Illegal Workers); and the prices of food are distorted in part by this exploited labor force. Food is nourishment for the body and soul, information is noourishment for the mind and soul. Enjoy this recipe and read Food Inc.
Cheers!
Three Bean Vegetarian Chili
2 red bells peppers
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 cups organic vegetable broth
1-1/2 cups cubed peeled butternut squash
1 can no salt added tomatoes, undrained and chopped
1 (15oz) can pinto beans (I substitute black beans) drained and rinsed
1 (15oz) can cannellini beans drained and rinsed
1 (15 oz) can red kidney beans drained and rinsed
1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions
Doug’s recommendations:
I’m a ginger freak so I added 1/2 cup diced fresh ginger
1 teaspoon Garam Masla
1 MORE teaspoon of crushed red pepper
1 package of soy tempeh or 3 grain tempeh
Preheat Broiler
Cut bell peppers in half length wise. Remove and discard seeds and membranes. Place pepper halves, skin side up, on foil lined cookie sheet. Broil until blackened. Place pepper halves in a zip lock bag, let stand 15 minutes. Peel and chop pepper halves.
Heat Dutch oven over medium-low heat. Add onion, cooking 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in cumin and next 4 ingredients (including garlic) (and ginger if added) cook 2 minutes or until spices bloom. Add bell peppers (and tempeh if added), let tempeh rest in spices for a minute or two. Then add broth, squash, and tomatoes; bring to a simmer/ Cook 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add beans; simmers 25 minutes longer or until thick. Sprinkle with green onions
Friday, July 9, 2010
Monday, July 5, 2010
Independence Day - Thoughts
A post from a friend: Annie Marie,
"Yes, we did produce a near-perfect republic. But will they keep it? Or will they, in the enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom? Material abundance without character is the path of destruction." ~Thomas Jefferson
All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.
Thomas Jefferson
"Yes, we did produce a near-perfect republic. But will they keep it? Or will they, in the enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom? Material abundance without character is the path of destruction." ~Thomas Jefferson
All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.
Thomas Jefferson
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Perspective
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Heart is found following the Path
I thought I needed to hike up to my spot above the house. I have always felt a special presence of spirit here. Today was phenomenal. A very short, concise hike up and some photography and now I return with wonderful gems.
This is just too good to resist
Apologizing now for any misconstruction of statements. I don't understand the logic behind the apology in the first place. How about an apology to the environment, or even an apology to future generations? Dick Barton, WOW!
Friday, June 18, 2010
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Barton = tragedy in the first proportion.
When BP CEO Tony Hayward testified before Congress this morning, many expected to hear him apologize for the disaster his company has caused. Instead, GOP Congressman Joe Barton was the one saying he was sorry -- to BP.
In his opening statement, Barton, the top Republican on the committee overseeing the oil spill and its aftermath, delivered a personal apology to the oil giant. He said the $20 billion fund that President Obama directed BP to establish to provide relief to the victims of the oil disaster was a "tragedy in the first proportion."
Other Republicans are echoing his call. Sen. John Cornyn said he "shares" Barton's concern. Rep. Michele Bachmann said that BP shouldn't agree to be "fleeced." Rush Limbaugh called it a "bailout." The Republican Study Committee, with its 114 members in the House, called it a "shakedown."
In his opening statement, Barton, the top Republican on the committee overseeing the oil spill and its aftermath, delivered a personal apology to the oil giant. He said the $20 billion fund that President Obama directed BP to establish to provide relief to the victims of the oil disaster was a "tragedy in the first proportion."
Other Republicans are echoing his call. Sen. John Cornyn said he "shares" Barton's concern. Rep. Michele Bachmann said that BP shouldn't agree to be "fleeced." Rush Limbaugh called it a "bailout." The Republican Study Committee, with its 114 members in the House, called it a "shakedown."
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Monday, June 14, 2010
Orange stirrings
This morning I awoke at 4:00 a.m. in anticipation of my upcoming flight for my trip to Colorado. Too much time has passed since I was last in Colorado visiting Carmon and Don. It is of no surprise when I later learned that accounting for our time zone difference Carmon also awoke at 3:00. My dreams and mind started stirring at 3:00. Based on many years experience with Carmon I am certain Carmon and I share many unexplainable connections, in this case stirrings are collective rather than solitary. I struggled to stay in bed longer. Finally at 3:40 I succumbed to the stirrings and started to dress for the trip to the airport and ensuing flight to Denver, Co. Graciously Brian arose early to drive me to the airport. As we drove past the signs signaling our route to Terminal One I observed the sign indicating our nation’s current threat level. It displayed ORANGE. I rhetorically thought out loud the following questions, “Threat Level Orange, how can it be orange, isn’t it always orange?” Given that the last week or so I have been exploring my own anticipatory anxiousness over my upcoming trip I realize orange in this case is not what I think. It is an imposed perception or sense of fear to elicit cooperation for social perception and consciousness. Or perhaps I am wrong, I might even say my fear is elevated higher than orange, whatever color that may be. It is elevated because I fear the Gulf is in the throws of dying. The Gulf spill accident will be our nation’s Chernobyl. Once in one of many routine car conversations I had with Michael. We were debating some important topical issue and each of us were convinced the other was completely wrong. Truth is we both were always completely wrong. In frustration, Michael posed, “Exactly what color is the sky in your world?” Anticipating his strategy I refused to state a color which would land me squarely a casualty of his strategical question. Smirking broadly I replied, “Well the color of the sky in my world of course is called PERFECT.” Michael and I both instantly broke out in hysterical laughter. Once we caught our breathe Michael replied, “Very well played.” To which I smiled widely and said, “Thanks, I am quite pleased with myself.” Too which there was more laughter. Now returning to our car ride to the airport.
Brian asked, “What does orange even mean?” I have no idea. Orange is a color I love and has been a trend in my art for quite some time now. My orange is not the same as other individuals. My formula for mixing orange is my own secret process. It is part of my pallet of creative expression. Orange in my world is perfect, not an imposed state of fear.
I admit this is an old topic and not one I have pondered for some time. However I can all too clearly recall a day at work where I was convinced I would need to stop at the hardware store to buy plastic, tape, and batteries. Next I would need to stop by the grocery store to pick up a week’s worth of canned foods. Once arriving at home Michael and I would encase ourselves in the basement sealing ourselves off from the outside world with plastic, tape and fear. The source of this rational course of action? The threat of an immanent dirty bomb on our nation. Obviously this was before Michael’s passing.
Forward back to the present. I am sitting in Carmon and Don’s living room. I feel like writing. I snapped a picture on my phone and posted to my facebook page. I wrote as the text, I AM HOME. I am. The thought which spurred this urge to write was the realization HOME is a place and it also is a relationship. I AM HOME.
In August 2007, I made the remainder of Michael’s ashes into cast paper buddha blessings. Today I opened the notes I wrote during the drive out to Colorado that year.
Colorado travel notes from August 9 through August 19, 2007:
All roads lead home
Where is home?
Is home within me? It has to be within me.
Today while sitting in Carmon’s studio catching up on long overdue conversations and topics I observe the silk screen frames stored under Carmon’s studio table. I read names printed on the edge of each frame. I spot my name, doug, block lettered on the frame most likely a design or image Carmon and I collaborated on for the floor canvas and upholstered chairs I have. The conversation we are having and the conversations we will have this week are held in queue since 2007 waiting for me to arrive home.
Orange is the color of stirrings early in the morning calling me home, stirrings that I realize are collective and solitary. Carmon shares his poem and I experience home as relationship. I am deeply grateful for all my homes.
doug
Monday June 14, 2010
Carmon’s Poem follows:
In Some Ways However Small and Secret
In some ways, however small and secret
Each of us is a little bit mad.
Everyone is lonely at bottom
And cries to be understood.
But we can never entirely understand someone else.
And each of us remains part stranger.
Even to those who love us.
It is the weak who are cruel,
Gentleness can only be expected from the strong.
Those who do not know fear
Are not really brave,
For courage is the capacity to confront what can be imagined.
And you can understand people better if you look at them
No matter how old, or impressive they are
As if they were children.
For most of us never really mature,
We simply grow taller.
And happiness comes only when we push our hearts and brains
To the furtherest reaches of which we are capable.
For the purpose of life is to matter.
To count,
To stand for something,
To have it make a difference that you lived,
At all.
Author, Leo Ralston
Brian asked, “What does orange even mean?” I have no idea. Orange is a color I love and has been a trend in my art for quite some time now. My orange is not the same as other individuals. My formula for mixing orange is my own secret process. It is part of my pallet of creative expression. Orange in my world is perfect, not an imposed state of fear.
I admit this is an old topic and not one I have pondered for some time. However I can all too clearly recall a day at work where I was convinced I would need to stop at the hardware store to buy plastic, tape, and batteries. Next I would need to stop by the grocery store to pick up a week’s worth of canned foods. Once arriving at home Michael and I would encase ourselves in the basement sealing ourselves off from the outside world with plastic, tape and fear. The source of this rational course of action? The threat of an immanent dirty bomb on our nation. Obviously this was before Michael’s passing.
Forward back to the present. I am sitting in Carmon and Don’s living room. I feel like writing. I snapped a picture on my phone and posted to my facebook page. I wrote as the text, I AM HOME. I am. The thought which spurred this urge to write was the realization HOME is a place and it also is a relationship. I AM HOME.
In August 2007, I made the remainder of Michael’s ashes into cast paper buddha blessings. Today I opened the notes I wrote during the drive out to Colorado that year.
Colorado travel notes from August 9 through August 19, 2007:
All roads lead home
Where is home?
Is home within me? It has to be within me.
Today while sitting in Carmon’s studio catching up on long overdue conversations and topics I observe the silk screen frames stored under Carmon’s studio table. I read names printed on the edge of each frame. I spot my name, doug, block lettered on the frame most likely a design or image Carmon and I collaborated on for the floor canvas and upholstered chairs I have. The conversation we are having and the conversations we will have this week are held in queue since 2007 waiting for me to arrive home.
Orange is the color of stirrings early in the morning calling me home, stirrings that I realize are collective and solitary. Carmon shares his poem and I experience home as relationship. I am deeply grateful for all my homes.
doug
Monday June 14, 2010
Carmon’s Poem follows:
In Some Ways However Small and Secret
In some ways, however small and secret
Each of us is a little bit mad.
Everyone is lonely at bottom
And cries to be understood.
But we can never entirely understand someone else.
And each of us remains part stranger.
Even to those who love us.
It is the weak who are cruel,
Gentleness can only be expected from the strong.
Those who do not know fear
Are not really brave,
For courage is the capacity to confront what can be imagined.
And you can understand people better if you look at them
No matter how old, or impressive they are
As if they were children.
For most of us never really mature,
We simply grow taller.
And happiness comes only when we push our hearts and brains
To the furtherest reaches of which we are capable.
For the purpose of life is to matter.
To count,
To stand for something,
To have it make a difference that you lived,
At all.
Author, Leo Ralston
Dear Catherine, this poem has been on my mind
Pack nothing.
Bring only your determination to serve and your willingness to be free.
Don’t wait for the bread to rise.
Take nourishment for the journey, but eat standing.
Be ready to move at a moment’s notice.
Do not hesitate to leave your old ways behind – fear, silence, submission.
Only surrender to the need of the time – love justice and walk humbly with your God.
Do not take time to explain to the neighbours.
Tell only a few trusted friends and family members.
Then begin quickly, before you have had time
to sink back into old slavery.
Set out in the dark.
I will send fire to warm and encourage you.
I will be with you in the fire, and I will be with you in the cloud.
You will learn to eat new food
and find refuge in new places.
I will give you dreams in the desert
to guide you safely to that place you have not yet seen.
The stories you tell one another around the fires in the dark
will make you strong and wise.
Outsiders will attack you, and some follow you
and at times you will get weary and turn on each other from fear, fatigue and blind forgetfulness.
You have been preparing for this
for hundreds of years.
I am sending you into the wilderness to make a new way
and to learn my ways more deeply.
Some of you will be so changed by weathers and wanderings
that even your closest friends will have to learn your features
as though for the first time.
Some of you will not change at all.
Some will be abandoned by your dearest loves
and misunderstood by those who have known you since birth
who feel abandoned by you.
Some will find new friendships in unlikely faces,
and old true friends as faithful and true
as the pillar of God’s flame.
Sing songs as you go,
and hold close together.
You may at times grow confused
and lose your way.
Continue to call each other by the names I’ve given you
to help remember who you are.
Touch each other,
and keep telling the stories.
Make maps as you go,
remembering the way back from before you were born.
So you will be only the first of many waves of deliverance on the desert seas.
It is the first of many beginnings – your Paschaltide.
Remain true to the mystery.
Pass on the whole story.
Do not go back.
I am with you now and I am waiting for you.
Alla Bozarth-Campbell
Bring only your determination to serve and your willingness to be free.
Don’t wait for the bread to rise.
Take nourishment for the journey, but eat standing.
Be ready to move at a moment’s notice.
Do not hesitate to leave your old ways behind – fear, silence, submission.
Only surrender to the need of the time – love justice and walk humbly with your God.
Do not take time to explain to the neighbours.
Tell only a few trusted friends and family members.
Then begin quickly, before you have had time
to sink back into old slavery.
Set out in the dark.
I will send fire to warm and encourage you.
I will be with you in the fire, and I will be with you in the cloud.
You will learn to eat new food
and find refuge in new places.
I will give you dreams in the desert
to guide you safely to that place you have not yet seen.
The stories you tell one another around the fires in the dark
will make you strong and wise.
Outsiders will attack you, and some follow you
and at times you will get weary and turn on each other from fear, fatigue and blind forgetfulness.
You have been preparing for this
for hundreds of years.
I am sending you into the wilderness to make a new way
and to learn my ways more deeply.
Some of you will be so changed by weathers and wanderings
that even your closest friends will have to learn your features
as though for the first time.
Some of you will not change at all.
Some will be abandoned by your dearest loves
and misunderstood by those who have known you since birth
who feel abandoned by you.
Some will find new friendships in unlikely faces,
and old true friends as faithful and true
as the pillar of God’s flame.
Sing songs as you go,
and hold close together.
You may at times grow confused
and lose your way.
Continue to call each other by the names I’ve given you
to help remember who you are.
Touch each other,
and keep telling the stories.
Make maps as you go,
remembering the way back from before you were born.
So you will be only the first of many waves of deliverance on the desert seas.
It is the first of many beginnings – your Paschaltide.
Remain true to the mystery.
Pass on the whole story.
Do not go back.
I am with you now and I am waiting for you.
Alla Bozarth-Campbell
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Conversations this morning
This thought from the U.C.C. campaign occurred to me today while talking to Brian and Jan. Don't put a period where God places a comma.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Post food apocalypse converstaions
I am now struggling to re-learn which foods are most safe for me to eat. No nothing is wrong with me health wise like food allergies or celiac disease. I watched the Movie Food Inc. and now want to read the book. As a result of this film I decided to devote a substantial focus to this topic here in my blog. On facebook I started the conversation with some friends. What I am learning is shocking and upsetting. But then hey why not, education and being well informed are good things. My friend Marla Hanover has posted the following information. I will research this subject and report back here.
-Marla
The item I was telling you about, I didn't have the article in front of me, here is what it says "Manufacturers are protected by the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act, which allows them to keep vital information secret, even if the chemical in question is hazardous to your health."
The act was originally designed to protect trade secrets, but with so many chemicals being used in everything from household cleaners and furniture to baby bottles and the lining of some canned foods, the odds of you being exposed to toxicity in your own home are exponentially high.
There are some 84,000 commercial chemicals in use in the U.S. ... See Morealone, but according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 20% are actually kept secret.
I had my number wrong yesterday I said 112, actually 116 toxic chemicals are in the bodies of people of all ages, and some of those chemicals have been banned for more than two decades. So the question is what are we really feeding our bodies?
"We've only been able to regulate a handful of chemicals and we know very little about the rest." Lisa Jackson, EPA administrator...nice! -Marla
Here are links to the movies; Food Inc.
Movie Food Inc.
And a link to Fresh
Fresh the Movie
-Marla
The item I was telling you about, I didn't have the article in front of me, here is what it says "Manufacturers are protected by the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act, which allows them to keep vital information secret, even if the chemical in question is hazardous to your health."
The act was originally designed to protect trade secrets, but with so many chemicals being used in everything from household cleaners and furniture to baby bottles and the lining of some canned foods, the odds of you being exposed to toxicity in your own home are exponentially high.
There are some 84,000 commercial chemicals in use in the U.S. ... See Morealone, but according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 20% are actually kept secret.
I had my number wrong yesterday I said 112, actually 116 toxic chemicals are in the bodies of people of all ages, and some of those chemicals have been banned for more than two decades. So the question is what are we really feeding our bodies?
"We've only been able to regulate a handful of chemicals and we know very little about the rest." Lisa Jackson, EPA administrator...nice! -Marla
Here are links to the movies; Food Inc.
Movie Food Inc.
And a link to Fresh
Fresh the Movie
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
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