Meatless Monday: Labor Day Pains
Purple mountain majesties, amber waves of grain, we've got it all, but one of America's greatest natural resources is you. Yeah, you sitting in your lawn chair on the last day of summer. That's why we honor you today. Labor Day is more than a day off, it's a tradition dating back to 1882, a celebration of America's work force.
You want to be treated right on the job and you deserve to be. So do the people who grow our food. But our labor practices aren't always what we preach. You need only to see Robert Kenner's film Food, Inc. and read Barry Estabrook's expose of Florida farm workers to realize the food the comes to your table sometimes does so via labor abuse that'll kill your appetite.
We want food that's healthy, safe, delicious, responsibly sourced and, everybody's favorite buzzword, sustainable. Sustainability means committing to practices that help the environment flourish, now and for generations to come. The immigrant labor force caring for and harvesting our food deserves the same treatment. What's the good of clean, organic food if it's harvested in filthy conditions? Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser has said, "If there are organic tomatoes being picked by indentured servants, I'd rather not have the organic tomato."
Plants grow, that's their job. They're producers, literally making the fruit, vegetables, nuts and grain we eat from nothing more than dirt, sun, water and air. They get top performance evaluations, doing their work efficiently and well. We're not nearly so talented. We can't generate our own food. However, we like to eat. Fortunately, we have farm workers who bring the producers to us, the consumers. Their dedication puts many of us to shame. And for what? The glamour? The money? Video from the immigrant farmworkers group Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) reveals workers enduring hazardous working conditions and pay so pathetic you'd tell your boss to shove it.
Schlosser, Slow Food USA president Josh Viertel and other leaders in the fight for sustainable food have been working with CIW to take on Chipotle, McDonald's, Taco Bell, Burger King, Subway and other fast food giants, the ones who buy up most of the tomatoes CIW picks. They've been working to get the same things you want and feel are every worker's right -- a fair wage and living conditions that are indeed livable.
When we buy and eat food grown in ways that support fair labor practices, "It puts us on moral and ethical and aesthetic ground we can stand behind," says Viertel. "We think of responsibility as a burden we bear, but the deepest, most authentic pleasure comes from fulfilling responsibility. We have an obligation to do the the right thing, particularly when it comes to food. When you're supporting a system you believe in, the food tastes better."
Whether you're a CEO or under the thumb of a manager who makes Machiavelli look like Oprah, when it comes to choosing food that's truly sustainable -- for you, for the planet, for the people who bring it to you -- you're the boss. Happy Labor Day.
Southwest Corn and Sage Saute With Chili-Dusted TofuToo often we think of sage as an herb for hearty winter food, but it's abundant now and pairs beautifully with other major summer producers, corn and zucchini.
2 pounds extra firm tofu
1 to 2 teaspoons olive oil
1 tablespoon cumin
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 good pinch sea salt
juice of 2 limes1 tablespoon olive oil
3 onions
3 red peppers
1 jalapeno
3 zucchini
3 celery stalks
1 generous bunch sage
6 ears corn
1 pint grape tomatoes
sea salt to tastePreheat oven to 350.
Gently squeeze water from tofu. Blot dry.
Slice each blog of tofu into four equal slices, giving you eight tofu planks in all. Place on cookie sheet or in large casserole and brush lightly with oil.
In a small bowl, stir together cumin, chili ipowder and sea salt. Sprinkle spice mixture evenly on top of the tofu and bake uncovered for 30 miniutes.
Meanwhile, heat the tablespoon of olive oil a large soup pot, over medium-high heat. Chop onions, red peppers and jalapeno into small pieces (you can show off your knife skills or pulse with a food processor). Add vegetables to pot. Stir occasionally till vegetables soften, about 5 minutes.
Dice zucchini and celery. Add to onions and pepper mixture and continue cooking for another few minutes. Reduce heat to medium and cover.
Working over a large bowl, cut kernels off corn, letting juices drip into bowl. Run a knife along the corn cob to get every drop. Add corn and corn juice to pot, along with grape tomatoes.
Stir in sage, chopped fine, and season with sea salt to taste. Stir until heated through.
Tofu should be done at this point, fragrant, with a burnished finish. Squeeze lime juice over tofu. Serve it atop or alongside corn and sage.
Nice with fresh corn bread and a green salad. Serves 6 to 8.
Ellen Kanner: Meatless Monday: Listening To Your Broccoli
In an old comedy routine, Mel Brooks plays a therapist who advises his patient, "Listen to your broccoli, and your broccoli will tell you how...
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We had the most wonderful Monday meal - recipe below
ingredients:
3 lbs coleslaw
16 burger buns
jar pork or rib rub
11 lbs pork shoulder
a couple of big bags of chips
Brine shoulder 10 min per pound (salt honey water)
rinse
Rub with a good rib or pork rub (wrap in plastic)
place in fridge 1hr per pound
smoke on the grill (I use an offset smoker) charcoal and wood (low and slow) 175-220 degrees for 14-16 hrs
I started this at 6pm Sunday night.
at the 4hr mark (10pm) transfer to roasting pan cover with tin foil.
place back on the grill same temp.
ensure there is enough wood and charcoal in the grill to keep it cooking all night
go to sleep (if you start it early Monday morning then the go to sleep becomes go to work)
when you get up in the morning (6am) it is yummy but needs a little more.
with a baster suck up some of the juices insert baster directly into the shoulder (it will just slide in) and squeeze. (I do this in three locations).
recover w / tin foil
2-4 hrs to go
remove from grill
remove from pan
reserve juices
remove bone
pull / fall apart using fork.
yields 6.25 lbs
let 15 of your closest friends help themselves to it on buns w/coleslaw (chips on the side)
(spoon juice over meat or dip the buns)
yummmmmmmmy.
Next Meat on Monday brisket.
Chocolate hemp milk!
No soy for me.
For meatless days I do lentils or barley or black eyed peas. I've got a great curried shrimp rice salad too.
shrimp is meat.
Another regular vegan day here in our household, simple food, simple good clean lifestyle, kind of exciting in all its simplicity :-0.
Tofu is not in our ingredients of late, no soy products are and I'm "ok" with that.
Taking one day a week off of animal products is so good for our bodies & our planet I wish more people were willing "to take the adventure that is sent to us..."
Ditto here on the no soy.
I picked a huge basket of basil at my parents' today. They also gifted me with tomatos, cucumbers and fresh figs. I'll be making pesto tomorrow night and then pesto deviled eggs for lunch this week. With fresh cherry tomatoes, sliced cucumber and fresh figs. Now that's a lunch.
For pesto deviled eggs, just hard boil some eggs, cool, slice, mix the yolks with mayonnaise and pesto to taste. Then pipe or scoop back into the whites. You can sprinkle with a dash of paprika if you like. Yummy. For Halloween, just slice a pimento stuffed green olive across the equator and put it in the center for an "eyeball".
meatless monday is a good start. but how about a meatless month :)
That reminds me of my recipe for savory bread pudding...
8 ounces of coarsely diced French bread
1 quart of milk
3 beaten eggs
12 oz creamed corn
1 tbl chiffonade of fresh sage
1 lb of sausage (1/4" slices)
Mix it all together and bake at 350 degrees in a covered casserole until done. Note. I like to use a French style pork sausage.
PS. I bet my recipe tastes better. ;-)
milk is basically liquid meat - and involves plenty of suffering and environmental damage. Ditto eggs. What's the point of "meatless mondays" if people load up on the other animal secretions?
http://www
Soy and the Brain
John MacArthur discusses the effects of soy on the brain. ... most tofu during midlife had up to 2.4 times the risk of later developing Alzheimer's disease. ...
www.weston
That's not surprising because soy is estrogenic (mimics the estrogen hormone.) So, like many things, it needs consumed in moderation.
Yes!
So many vegans initially replace dairy products with soy products it does not take long to realize how much we as a nation over consume both.
I will have some nice juicy veal chops, thanks.
go figure with a name like Bruno
"Meatless Mondays" is another way to frame eating less meat.
Tofu is a challenge. I've tried baking it. Thanks for the recipe. Maybe we'll serve it instead of fish tonight to our guests -- it's a hard sell...
It has been a rarity that i've had great tofu dishes, but they do exist to my surprise. definitely a hard sell for me too.
The Chinese like to deep fry it. Kenneth Lo's old Penguin press book has an excellent recipe for poached oysters on top of deep fried bean curd.
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