Fw: Compassionate Cooks Food for Thought - February 1, 2006

February 2, 2006

look nikki...chocolate-----Forwarded Message----- "info" Feb 1, 2006 4:36 PM ebbrewpunx Compassionate Cooks Food for Thought - February 1, 2006

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: COMPASSIONATE COOKS NEWSLETTERFebruary 1, 2006

Valentine's Day GiftsJoin us in February's Cooking ClassFood Lore - ChocolateRecommended YumminessWhat I KnowCompassionate Quote

VEGETARIAN COOKING DVD - GOOD FOR THE HEARTThe reason we made this DVD was to get in people's hands the information so sorely lacking in the public media. With a grassroots marketing campaign (READ: No marketing budget), we have done a fair job of making this happen. However, the time it takes just to get one magazine to review it or one distributor to carry it is lengthy and arduous. With your help, we can spread the word of health, compassion, and good eats! This Valentine's Day, would you consider giving our DVD to a friend, co-worker, or family member? Would you help make it accessible to others by purchasing one and giving it to a library, a school, or a community center? Would you be willing to buy a copy and go to your local video store, book store, or health food store and ask them to stock it? If you have answered "yes" to any of these questions, we would like to thank you by offering it for 10% off the retail price. This is a gift that truly has ripple effects. (See below for the perfect gift pairing!)

Special Heart-Friendly Price: 10% off DVD

DEMYSTIFYING TOFU & TEMPEH COOKING CLASS: FEBRUARY 25TH, 2006Join us for one of our most popular classes! We are proud to have witnessed many people arrive at our classes "hating tofu" and leave devoted fans of this delicious & versatile food. We will also debunk myths sprouting up against the innocent soy bean and enjoy a taste test of different brands of soy milk. Join the Compassionate Cooks at our Vegetarian Cooking Class on February 25th (from 10:00 am-1:00 pm) when we demonstrate five delicious, nutritious dishes, including:*Tempeh Reuben Sandwich*Tofu Filet with Spicy Cornmeal Crust*Better-Than-Chicken Salad*Tofu & Vegetable Stir-Fry with Peanut Sauce*Chocolate Cheesecake

Register online

FOOD LORE - CHOCOLATE!People sometimes assume that if you're vegan, you "can't" eat chocolate. Their assumption is no doubt based on the fact that they're primary experience with the stuff has been in milk chocolate bars, chocolate milk, and hot cocoa. I am here to tell you that chocolate is a plant-based food loaded with good stuff (like antioxidants and yumminess). I so desperately want to debunk myths that chocolate isn't "vegan" that I even created a resource sheet called ALL ABOUT CHOCOLATE on my website. BRIEF HISTORY: The tasty secret of the cacao (kah KOW) tree was discovered 2,000 years ago in the tropical rainforests of the Americas. The pods of this tree contain seeds that can be processed into chocolate. The first people known to have made chocolate were the ancient cultures of Mexico and Central America. These people, including the Maya and Aztec, mixed ground cacao seeds with various seasonings to make a spicy, frothy drink. Later, the Spanish conquistadors brought the seeds back home to Spain, where new recipes were created.

NUTRITION: There have been many studies linking cocoa and dark chocolate with health benefits. They both contain a large amount of antioxidants and may keep high blood pressure down and reduce the blood's ability to clot, thus the risk of stroke and hart attacks may be reduced. The darker chocolate with the most concentrated cocoa will be the most beneficial. When cow's milk was added - either as an drink or as in milk chocolate - the benefits are negated. So, once again, plants provide the nutrition - NOT animal products (unless you're a newborn calf or a carnivorous lion, but that's another story). For human animals: stick with the plants, including chocolate!

WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH WHITE CHOCOLATE? FYI, white chocolate isn't really chocolate, because it doesn't contain any part of the cocoa bean except the fat (the cocoa butter). But white chocolate lovers swear by it for eating and cooking.

RECIPE: Easy (as Pie) Chocolate Cake - nothing beats this cake in terms of ease, speed, and scrumptiousness.

RECOMMENDED YUMMINESS: CHOCOLATE GOODNESS!

I can't think of a better Valentine's Day gift than a (discounted!) Compassionate Cooks DVD along with a (discounted!) box of oh-so-scrumptious organic chocolates from Allison's Gourmet. Talk about love! Allison's has graciously offered 10% off to those Compassionate Cooks rs who buy a cooking DVD. Actually, their offer isn't conditional; we just think the two go together so well!

To receive your 10% off and make someone very happy, use this link, order by February 9th, and enter this special discount code (CC26) when checking out. It's that simple!

WHAT I KNOW

I have some very good (vegan) friends who are raising their daughter vegan as well. She is almost three now, and her favorite book is Victor, the Vegetarian. She asks to have it read to her every day - though she can recite the whole story herself. She is just starting to understand what it means to not eat animals or their milk or eggs, as explained very eloquently by her parents: "The cow's milk is for her babies. We don't want to take the milk away from the babies." Pretty simple if you ask me, but to some people, it's actually considered radical to tell the truth. I had someone ask me once, very innocently, "so if you had children, would you impose your viewpoints on them and not feed them meat?" My head reeled, as there were so many ways to answer that question.

First of all, parents impose their viewpoints on their kids all the time. It's called raising children. I don't know of many people who actually raise their children with values that don't coincide with their own. And as for the choice not to feed children meat, I can't think of a more consistent message to give to children. I grew up learning that my dog was worthy of loving but the bodies of animals who covered my dinner plate were worthless - or, rather, killed for me! Fortunately, by the time I heard that disturbing justification, I was desensitized enough not to notice. I was (implicitly) taught that the bird with the broken wing who was lucky enough to fall in my yard was worthy of saving, but the chickens and turkeys who "give their lives for us" were valuable only in so far as their flesh was tender and juicy.

It is such a joy to watch my friends give consistent and compassionate messages to their daughter, aware though they are that we live in a culture that doesn't support these messages of truth but that encourages instead messages of domination and control. My friends have a wonderful sense of humor that has been passed onto their daughter, and we've had so much fun making up new words to animal-unfriendly songs. "Baa baa black sheep, have you any wool? Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full; One for the master, One for the dame, And one for the little boy, Who lives down the lane" becomes instead: "Baa baa black sheep, have you any wool? Yes sir, yes sir, but it's not meant for you. I have none for the master, None for the dame, And none for the little boy, Who lives down the lane." You have to sing it to appreciate the beauty of it! The little piggy who had roast beef (a little human projection there?) has roasted veggies, and the teacher doesn't actually kick Mary's lamb out of the school, as she does at the conventional ending of that nursery rhyme.

Seriously, though, I grew up singing "A Hunting We Will Go,The Bumblebee Song" ("I'm squishing up a baby bumblebee..."), "Three Blind Mice" ("They all ran after the farmer's wife, who cut off their tails with a carving knife")! Granted, I was taught some nice songs about eency weency spiders climbing up water spouts and about a mouse who ran up and down a clock, but I have to say even in those years when I didn't know these songs were reinforcing the lowly status of animals, I was none too thrilled singing about the old woman who swallowed a fly and sundry other animals. It really grossed me out!

Some people label as "politically correct" any attempt to reframe the familiar. Every message we teach to children becomes part of them, and any attempt to teach children compassion is not, in my mind, politically correct, but it is correct. I recently watched a video of my (non-vegetarian) niece sing Thanksgiving songs whose lyrics included "Grab a turkey and stuff him in the oven." It broke my heart. She didn't even understand what she was singing, but it reinforces the fact that she is fed turkeys. But then I thought of my little 3-year-old friend and how she will never have to go through a painful period of realizing the animals she was taught to love are actually the animals who suffer so much just for her pleasure. There is no greater joy than watching her process the actions of Victor, the main character in her favorite book, who saves lambs from being killed for his supper. "Auntie Col," she'll say as she pets our cats, "we love the lambs. We don't eat them. Read it again." There really is no greater joy.

"I worry about Fern. Did you hear the way she rambled on about the animals, pretending that they talked?" Mr Arable chuckled. "Maybe they do talk," he said. "I've sometimes wondered.I don't think it's normal. You know perfectly well animals don't talk.Maybe our ears aren't as sharp as Fern's," he said. ~Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

Compassionate Cooks is dedicated to empowering people to make informed food choices and to debunking myths about vegetarianism through cooking classes, nutrition courses, farmed animal sanctuary tours, lectures and workshops, cooking DVDs, and our upcoming 30-Day Veg Challenge.

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"Well, since you really wanna know. Quite simply, a missile defense shield is a net, made of magic, held in place by pixies. That's what it is, we have 70 pixies ready to go.. they're all wrapped up in special kevlar lining. They're in a bunker in Colorado ready to go up there and defend our country! And that's how it works, and it costs a lot of money folks. That doesn't cost $100. That's what a box-cutter shield would cost, that's what you guys seem to be wanting."

David Cross