Thursday, October 22, 2009

Vegan At Heart

Hi all -
Just a quick plug for a really awesome website that I heard about from the fabulous Jasmin Singer of Farm Sanctuary. I signed up for this right away:


Vegan at Heart is a free e-mail coaching program for people who are vegan at heart but not necessarily in practice. It’s for idealists and animal-lovers and treehuggers and health nuts and everybody in-between who wants to incorporate more compassionate, healthy, sustainable habits into their daily lives but who need a little more info, a little moral support, or just a little friendly kick in the pants.


AWESOME, right?? Who doesn't need a little extra help sometimes? I know that I do, although lately I think I've been doing much better. Since my last hideous falling off the wagon cheese binge, which involved a plate of macaroni and cheese big enough for 3 people, a quesadilla, stomach pains that made me cry, and a little silent prayer of apologies to the cows, I think I am back on track.

So check out Vegan at Heart with me and let's do something for the world and for animals.
Love, Starling

Thursday, October 15, 2009

hail, hail zoop.

zoop is gone.

i am six months a veg*n today, thanks to john darnielle, this beautiful goat in the photo, and farm sanctuary.

i didn't know she was gone until someone posted it on the mountain goats forums. she is greatly missed.

i was just telling one of the kids i work with about her, a sad and damaged, silenced child who is caught in a custody battle and probably identifies greatly with caged and hurt animals, and i told her a story about zoop the three legged goat with a prosthetic who can pose and prance and make people love her.

my kiddo was wide eyed. her eyes sparkled for the first time since i've started meeting with her and she half whispered, "i'd sure like to see a goat like that someday."

i told her i'd bring in pictures for her sometime, of zoop.
she said, "really? you really have them? i sure want to see a goat like that."

hail, zoop, you brought light to the eyes of even children you never met.

so much love.
rest in peace, beautiful spirit.

Monday, September 7, 2009

plum jam



plum jam:

a pound and a half of plums (this is not for a very large amount, just a small tupperware for you and yours)

1 tablespoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
4 tablespoons molasses
1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger
1/2 teaspoon cardomom
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon of cornstarch

- cut plums into small pieces

- stir molasses and all other ingredients together into a bowl until they are smooth and well-combined

- pour molasses mixture over plums and marinate overnight

- dissolve cornstarch in cold water

- start simmering the plums at medium heat and pour the dissolved cornstarch in, and stir, stir, stir. this i charge you: you must keep stirring.

- i cooked this for hours, probably 2-3. but you just want to watch the consistency and wait for it to become JAM! i used a spoon to take it out and test, cool it down and make sure it seems like the sort of jam you like to eat!

- eat that jam!

Saturday, September 5, 2009

the first of my plum dishes - Stone Fox Compote


stone fox compote (for yourself and your attractive loved ones)

ingredients:
about 2 cups of plums (i made a very small pan of this, just enough for two people and a bit left over)
a peach
1/4 cup raw sugar
4 tablespoons earth balance
dash of vanilla
teaspoon of cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon coriander
3/4 cup plain rolled oats

- preheat oven to 325. use a little baking pan for this, you can even use a loaf pan or a cake pan, it doesn't even matter. flexible baking is the way to go.

- cut up yer fruit in small pieces and mix them together. dump them in your pan.

- melt the earth balance and the raw sugar together, stirring so that it forms a syrup. add yer spices and stir, stir, stir.

- pour the syrup over the rolled oats and mix it together with a fork until it's all sticky and pat it down over the cut up fruit.

- bake for about a half an hour so that it gets nice and hot and stewy and delicious. we served this over vegan pancakes with a side of hashbrowns made very hot with sriracha and red onion for a contrast to the sweetness.

plums


plums
Originally uploaded by The Starling Tattoo
coming up this weekend:
some sort of delicious plum dessert, made with these little babies.

Monday, August 31, 2009

on belmont street

sorry for the hiatus, folks.
soon to return with thoughts, a recipe perhaps, and some love.
- starling

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

smear the walls with coconut oil



even though i am sick with the oregon plague, or possibly because of it, i felt an urge to cook last night, so i tried my hand at chickpea cakes! this is also going to be used for our tMG cookzine, hence the odd title, those of you who aren't into tMG. :)

i wandered around the internet a bunch and basically don't have the exact ingredients for anything, so i made up my own recipe, based on a couple that i found.

if i was to be honest with you, i would say that perhaps i got sick because of the following reasons:

1. i have been awful at making sure that i get the right things in my diet
2. i have been even worse at remembering to take vitamins and other nutritional supplements

so this is perhaps all my own fault.

i am now re-resolved to get back on track and be smart about what i am eating.

therefore, i give you my recipe.

Something For the Idols to Eat

a healthy pinch of thyme
a pinch of celery seed
a bit of white pepper to yer taste
a pinch of cayenne pepper
a clove of garlic
2 1/2 tbsp siracha

1 can chickpeas
1 half green pepper
1 half red onion
1 jalapeno pepper
a bit of fresh parsley

1 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp flour

olive oil
veggie oil for the fryin'


1. open up yer chickpeas and dump them into a colander and rinse em for all they're worth. get all the little shells off them and throw those away.

2. cut up yer green pepper, red onion, jalapeno pepper, garlic clove, and parsley nice and small, little diced delicious squares.

3. saute the above squares, excluding the parsley, in a bit of olive oil. i like to saute things until the edges start to get the tiniest bit black. you may not want to do it this long.

4. now comes the fun! mash the chickpeas! if you want to have not as much fun, you can do it with a food processor. if you want to have infinitely MORE fun, you can just put them in a stainless steel bowl, wash your hands really good, and do it with your HANDS. it's like playing with play-dough all over again. at any rate, mash them. you don't have to make them into puree or anything, some of the pea pieces can be left.

5. put the spices and siracha in with the mashed chickpeas. mix it up!

6. mix your cornstarch into a tiny bit of water, let it dissolve and then mix that in to the mashed chickpeas, add the flour, and mix it up!

7. add the sauteed squares of goodness and MIX. IT. UP!

8. let it sit in the refrigerator for at least a half an hour or until you're ready to fry them up.

9. shape them into little cakes and fry them in oil. i only did them in about an inch of oil in a deep skillet, and flipped them after about two minutes on a side. they turned out great, a little crumbly, but then we got lots of delicious tiny crumbles that were very crispy.

10. set the table with three extra places. you know who they're for.

11. dust your idols off. give them something to eat.