Sunday, September 7th, 2003

Time	Event
1:05a	jook, congee or rice porridge Jook(the Chinese name) or congee is a simple rice porridge the Chinese and lots of Asian cultures eat daily. It's a informal dish and most cookbooks don't include recipes for it but I have found some. There's sweet and savory versions. I went and got some glutinous(also called sweet) rice and using the recipe in Authentic Chinese Cuisine by Bryanna Clark Grogan tried it for the first time. It's almost like a Chinese version of rissoto and absolutely delicious. It cooks up creamy and bland just ready for personalizing with condiments. A Taoist book Scholar Warrior also recommended eating it and had specific foods you could add for Chinese medicine purposes. I added barley to mine. Barley supposed to be good for the blood and the kidneys. I also added some fermented tofu which made it creamy and almost cheesy, scallions(also good for the kidneys), preserved turnip(very high in iron) and some chili paste. I'm going to start eating it often. To make a simple savory rice porridge here's a recipe. 1/2 cup sweet rice (or a mix of sweet and short grain rice) or 1 1/2 cups cooked brown rice 6-8 cups of low salt vegetarian broth or water(I used vegetarian "chicken" broth powder) depending on the thickness desired A teaspoon of fresh grated ginger Bring the rice and broth to a boil. Then let the rice simmer uncovered for 1 1/2 to 2 hours or until it has thickened to a pasty porridge. For condiments you can add any of the following: a drizzle of sesame oil preserved Chinese turnip(it's salty be careful) hot sauce or vinegar preserved tofu(a fermented tofu product that's salty and funky) scallion soy sauce leftover tofu, tvp or seitan slivers of shitake mushrooms(good for the immune system) left over vegetables chile oil or anything else you want (2 Comments | Comment on this)
6:16a	Nutritional Value of Mushrooms? Does anyone know what the nutritutional value of mushrooms is? And if you also know this, I would be interested in knowing how it varies between different kinds - portabellas, shittakes, morels, etc. Current Mood: curious (3 Comments | Comment on this)
11:16a	Barnum & Bailey is coming to Pittsburgh I've posted once before in this community concerning the Ringling Bros. & Barnum & Bailey circus's coming to Pittsburgh, PA; but in leiu of the small number of replies I've gotten I'm posting yet again with this information. On November 5-9th the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus will be appearing in Pittsburgh at the Mellon Arena and I plan on being there to demostrate against their circus. For those of you who aren't aware, circuses, despite their friendly appearance, are cruel, hostile, and brutal enviroments for the animals performing in them. If you wish to learn more about the treatment of circus animals visit www.circuses.com or www.paws.com. Both sites offer information on the plight of the circus animal. If anyone in this community is from Pittsburgh or the surrounding area and is interested in helping me in my demonstrations, please contact me by leaving a comment or by e-mail (StarriPooh816@yahoo.com). I'm really hoping that I can enlist a large number of people willing to help and hold a decent demonstration. Thanks for your concern and I hope to hear from you soon. (Comment on this)
11:48a	Red spots? While this doesn't exactly correlate to vegetarianism, it is a health issue and it's concerning me a fair amount. Over the last few weeks, I've started getting a series of red spots all over my abdomen. It started with a few little spots running vertically along the side of my belly button, they were small and didn't really bother me much, but I didn't know what they were. I assumed they were bruises of some sort, since at the time I was sleeping resting my hands on my tummy and was having nightmares everynight for a week at the time, so I figured that because of the stress of nightmares I was applying excess pressure with my fingers and causing these (seemed probably at the time!). I stopped sleeping in that position, resting my arms at the side, and yet more of them appeared. The first ones got bigger and started to peel, too (they formed little white rings of dead skin that can't be flaked away, but it's still there), and still more of them appeared over the course of 2 more weeks. I have no idea what they could be caused by- I've started eating slightly differently (instead of whole-wheat breakfast cereals I'm eating Trix, I'm eating lots of peanut butter, I tried an "oat" bread, unintentionally lower intake of veggies, etc), I started taking a different birth control pill (but only for two weeks, and these have been appearing for 3), I've been stressed because I started school/lifesaving class and swim team (which I'm taking a hiatus from this month), but I've not done much else. Recently I've been getting rather sick, too. It started as a sinus/nasal/throat/tummy/aches thing, now I'm nauseaus, hacking, headachy and still a little achey, but not as severely. They look like hives, but they've lasted for 3 weeks without going away, unlike hives. I have an allergy to pet hair (cats & dogs), but we don't own any and the only time I'm exposed to them is when I'm babysitting, which I did only once the entire time. What the heck are these? They look like this, except they're on my tummy, and unlike hives they're not going away. I'm getting a little paranoid, they keep popping up- it seems like everyday I find a new one, and I don't know what they are. Help? Could they be an allergy, to food or medicine? Those seem the most likely, but I don't know... Current Mood: concerned Current Music: Hamasaki Ayumi - Powder snow (13 Comments | Comment on this)
12:54p	Has anyone tried the Morningstar corn dogs? How are they? (10 Comments | Comment on this)
2:41p	I've noticed that people are often asking about veggie "meat" products in here. So if everyone would like to fill this out, I'm willing to figure out what the most popular brands are for each. Thanks! If you've haven't tried some of these, just leave it blank. Please state your favorite brand (and type, if it isn't original) of... Burger: Chicken Burger: Chicken Nuggets: Buffalo Wings: Hotdog: Sausage: Corndog: Meat Crumble: Steak: Sliced Sandwich meat: Turkey: ...This is all of course referring to vegetarian substitutes, not the real thing. And I hope I'm not missing anything... Current Music: the sugarcubes (25 Comments | Comment on this)
2:51p	I just recently tried the "Good Dogs" and I thought they were so disgusting. Do all veggie hot dogs have that same taste? I was so disappointed. :( (11 Comments | Comment on this)
8:26p	better than cream cheese Oh my god! I bought some of this from my local supermarket tonight. I've just tried the garlic and herb version on some rye bread. It's so bloody nice!!!! Tofutti should be paying this community, because I bought the stuff as a direct consequence of reading people rave about it. The only previous thing I'd tried made by tofutti was their ice-cream at a cafe I used to frequent in Melbourne (Australia) and that was wonderful, too. My then partner and I then used to order the vegan chocolate cake with tofutti icecream -- he was dairy intolerant and I preferred the taste (I'm not vegan, but a little lacto-ovo vego, although more ovo as I can't really have dairy products at the moment due to other things.....). So, yes. Holy faux-cows! ;) (6 Comments | Comment on this)
8:30p	Thanks to all who let vent about McD's the other night and to those who responded with their support. I am now trying to figure out a way to actively ban "buger places" without being to wordy or "in your face" it. I was thinking of a small/medium T-shirt logo with something like "Fast Food Kills Slowly" but that seems a bit dramatic. Any thoughts or ideas? Whatever I come up with I'll try to post it so anyone could copy the picture/whatever and reproduce it at home for free. So please start thinking and Thanks in advance. (16 Comments | Comment on this)
8:42p	Heirloom Beans Does anyone know if its possible to purchase dried heirloom beans, specifically trout or european soldier? I've been buying the canned heirlooms from Westbrae and they are amazing, but my local stores don't have the dried varieties. My kitchen is small and really prefer for storage, economics, sodium, and taste to use dried beans rather than canned. I'm really hoping that someone has seen them at their local Wild Oats/Whole Foods/whatever, so I know that they exist and that some chains are open to the suggestion that they stock them. Either way, heirloom beans are really good and I suggest you try them. (3 Comments | Comment on this)
11:49p	What a great day! A friend and I campaigned for Dennis Kucinich at the Natural Products Expo today, and it was like we died and went to heaven ... Imagine this: an exhibition hall that is at least six solid city blocks, filled with endless aisles of beautiful exhibits from every natural foods/products company that you can imagine, all handing out free stuff. Everything from Amy's Kitchen to Tom's of Maine to Balance Bars to Stonybrook Farms to Boca to Terra Chips ... the list goes on and on. And even more new products that you can't possibly imagine! There's Sweet Leaf Sweet Tea; delicious sauces to put on tofu (like chipotle and orange ginger) from a company that just started a month ago; Linda McCartney's line of vegetarian frozen dinners ... Also, all kinds of organic pet food, yoga instruction, massages, candles, incense ... And best of all, we met some really cool people! Current Mood: ecstatic (3 Comments | Comment on this)

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