Movie Review: Star Trek Into Darkness
Capsule review: I liked it and will see it again, though I'll probably re-watch Star Trek more.
Edit: I've now seen it twice, and while I still have some of the gripes I had after one viewing, I can definitely say it's a good movie and I enjoyed it greatly. Perhaps I'll explain more about my change of heart in the Spoiler area.
And now we get into Spoilers. Serious ones. So, some obligatory Spoiler Space Into Darkness…
Still with me?
Okay, we'll start with the good, and there's quite a bit of it. The movie's production values are incredible. JJ Abrams can make a movie. The cast is once again terrific, and Benedict Cumberbatch happens. There's action. There's drama. There's more than a little bit of humor. All very nice.
And now, a bunch of bolded headings. Because bloggers who succeed use bold font in some places. And I'm trying to prove that not all bloggers who bold are successful.
Khan! But not the shouty part.
Of course, as you doubtless know, Cumberbatch is playing Khan, of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan fame. Except he's younger and doesn't chew quite so much scenery and fails to quote even once from Moby Dick. (Though the fact that I intend to never read that book makes my analysis suspect.)
I liked the idea of using a young Khan, and seeing him in action. Of course, we see a bit more about his physical prowess than his mental awesomeness, which is more alluded to than anything else. Except for one nice monologue in which he lays out why his plan is superior and so the other guy might as well just do things his way. The physical stuff is fairly awesome, though, and his dismantling of a cadre of Klingons was pretty sweet.
Dem Bones
Funny side note: I once worked for a manager likely to be named Worst Guy I Ever Worked For by myself and basically everyone else I know who's worked for him. He had English as a second language, and many of his sayings continue to be part of my lexicon. His favorite attribution of someone he didn't like was "that dem guy." Which was a close cousin to his saying for when the software crashed, which was "dem ting crapow!" (In proper tech-company jargon, I now call such an event a DTCO.)
None of this has anything to do with anything, and I'm sure bloggers who succeed don't rathole like I just did. Whatever. Back to on-topic.
Karl Urban is once again delightful as Bones, coloring his speech with, well, colorful metaphors, though not in the Star Trek IV way. Probably my favorite line in the movie has Kirk tiring of McCoy's continual references to all things country life.
Kirk, and the reason I liked the movie
I also continue to be impressed with Chris Pine's portrayal of Kirk. The main reason I like this film is that it's a vehicle for developing Kirk. It's a character film disguised as an action film filled with fan service. (Which is my main gripe.)
But Chris Pine really plays Kirk well, bringing a brashness, but also a likeability to the character that's totally Shatner-like, but then filling it in with acting chops that are very un-Shatner.
Uhura speaks Klingon?
Somebody needs to do a cut of Uhura speaking to the Klingons in this film and compare it to Valkress in Star Trek III speaking to Commander Kruge. I swear it's the same voice, and Zoe Saldana's lips definitely didn't match the Klingon she was speaking, and it didn't sound anything like her. Somebody do this for me, please?
So my gripe here is twofold. First, if I'm right, then this is a bit of sly fan service no one needed but I TOTALLY NOTICED AND I'M AWESOME IF I'M RIGHT!!!! Second, and here we're saying I'm wrong, and I'm never wrong, then they're headed dead into the Fire Swamp! Seriously, though, why was it so obviously dubbed?
(Side note: Original Series Uhura didn't speak a lick of Klingon. Which is a bit strange in hindsight.)
Star Trek into Dunk Tank
Why did we hide the Enterprise under water? Because it was wicked cool. And you know what? I'm good with it. Yes, the science-y part of me thinks that a ship not designed to go under water couldn't go underwater, but then Scotty steps in and says the whole notion of hiding underwater is insane. So I'm good with that.
Cold Fusion
I have to admit that I love this. They dropped a "Cold Fusion Device" into a volcano. It's cold, you know, and volcanoes are hot, so it freezes the volcano. Totally. The reason I like it is because I'm confident that the writers absolutely knew it would drive some Trekkers batty. It would prove that New Trek is not Star Trek. So they stuck it to them. Love it.
(It took me two films to be okay with this one. Because: physics.)
Srsly. Teh fan service.
Enuf already, JJ! We know you like Trekkers/Trekkies. Stop trying to appease them!
I understand fan service. I understand making references to a beloved film. But the problem with endlessly referencing what's generally (and correctly) regarded as the best Star Trek film is that it makes your film look a bit silly by comparison. I'm actually trying to think of one of the callbacks to the original film that actually worked in this one and coming up empty (Edit: found a couple). So I'll just go through the list of the ones I can remember:
"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."
In Khan, Spock first quoted this by way of passing command of the Enterprise to Kirk even though he wasn't the captain anymore. It's then used in the heartbreaking "Spock dies" scene, when Spock explains that his sacrifice was "logical."
In this film, it's used to explain why Spock was okay with dying on whatever planet he was ready to die on at the beginning. I'm not going to try to remember the planet's name, because who cares?
The Khan Reveal itself
Okay, so I'll admit that when I saw Khan, I had no memory of Khan from the original series. I was nine years old, so what do you expect? But the Khan reveal in that film was effective because you had a bit of excellent exposition by Chekov and Khan. Why? Because Captain Terrell didn't recognize him. (BTW, Chekov never met him in the original series. Trivia!)
But in this film, Khan reveals himself…to the fans. His revelation to the characters hits them like a ton of, well, nothing. You can hear crickets chirping in the background, because they don't know anything about him. If only Data was around to do a bit of exposition for us. Or if only there was an android crew member who could help out.
Oh. Right. There was. Also, a ship's computer which would doubtless have some record of him somewhere. Instead, we get a Nimoy cameo (which I actually don't object to) to replace any number of more obvious ways for Spock and Kirk (the new ones) to learn about Khan.
Now, I do get that keeping Khan's true nature hidden was absolutely necessary to the plot's development, but if your plot requires plot holes in order to hold together, you've got problems.
Wheeeaaaton!!! I mean Khaaaaaaaannnn!!!
You see the problem here, right? It was funny when The Big Bang Theory made references to Khan, with Sheldon doing the Moby Dick quotes and screaming his enemy's name. It was awesome when The Shat screamed "Khaaaan!!". It was incredibly lame when the Vulcan dude got all emo and did his sad impression of Shatner's awesomeness. This should not have happened. I actually had to stifle a laugh. I'd be shocked if Zachary Quinto was okay with that scene.
BTW, JJ, can we please get a New Trek movie without Emo Spock? Please?
<someone> goes into the reactor to save the ship
This one is sort of okay in a way, but only functionally. Emotionally, there's just no way in the galaxy to put the kind of depth of feeling into Kirk's self-sacrifice that Spock's had in Khan. First of all, Spock sort of stayed dead. Second, we'd spent a five year mission with Spock already. Even if it was only 79 episodes. But to those of us who saw The Wrath of Khan in theatres, Spock's death destroyed us. Even George Costanza was affected (start at 1:38):
The only thing that really saves this is that even though I had not even the slightest worry that Kirk would actually die (on account of the magic Khan-juice from earlier), Kirk thought he was going to die. And since I'm seeing this is a character movie, it still works for me.
Redshirt and the look
No, I won't gripe about this one. It's awesome. I loved that the redshirt thing happened in Trek 2009, so I didn't expect it here. But Chekov's look when Kirk told him to put on a red shirt was priceless. BTW, read Redshirts. It's awesome.
Tribbles
Okay, I'll give JJ this one. I always loved "The Trouble With Tribbles," so using one as a guinea pig was a nice touch. But it doesn't reference Khan, so it also doesn't really count.
And by the way, was there ever any question that the tribble would be resurrected? It really takes something away from Kirk's sacrifice when you totally already know he'll end up alive at the end.
Another bolded heading because of no particular reason
Aaannd I'm out of things to write about. You may be wondering, with my list of gripes, why I'm still recommending the film and claiming to have enjoyed it greatly. The answer is simple:
It's because I saw it twice. The first time, I was distracted by the references. I failed to take the film for what it actually was and kept comparing it to The Wrath of Khan. It failed at every comparison. The second time, I was able to set aside those things and just enjoy it. And enjoy it I did.
It's kind of like reading a really good book and then seeing an adaptation of it that's a good movie but not particularly faithful to the book. As long as you're holding onto the idea of a good movie adaptation having to be slavishly faithful to a book, you won't like it. But if you can let go of that idea, you can still enjoy the film. In this case, if you're thinking of it (and you could be excused for doing so) as an adaptation of The Wrath of Khan, it doesn't work. But as its own film, it's terrific fun. (BTW, for my thoughts on film adaptations and good and bad examples of them, click on this absurdly long hyperlink.)
One final gripe is that Star Trek Into Darkness is basically the same movie as we had three years ago. The next one needs to go in a different direction. I expect it'll still be flashy and brilliantly acted, but I'm hoping for some better writing and a severe lack of connection to original series ideas.
What about you? Have you seen it? Did you notice the bad Klingon dubbing? Please tell me you did. I'm dyin' here!
I'm a bit short on book reviews these days, because my Library2Go loan expired for What We Talk About When We Talk About God, and Wool is just pretty darn long. But it's tremendous, and I'll finish it in the next week or so.
Book Review: Heir to the Empire, by Timothy Zahn
I kind of suspected that the NOOK Daily Find for May the Fourth (Star Wars Day) would be an Expanded Universe book, and I was delighted when it was Timothy Zahn's excellent Heir to the Empire, a book that kicked off an explosion of Expanded Universe offerings, many of which I subsequently read before I really discovered that reading is awesome. So I credit these kinds of books with fostering a love of reading I didn't really know I had.
(I'd be remiss if I failed to also mention the Star Trek: The Next Generation novels. I read a couple of dozen of them while still maintaining that reading sucked.)
While we're on the topic of Star Wars Day, can I just point out that when I was a kid, we had a Star Wars Day. It was called all days named Today from 1977 through high school. Okay, it actually never ended. Still going.
I think I'll start off by pointing out that there is a fault to Heir to the Empire, and a glaring one at that, in that the book isn't really a self-contained story. Instead, it's the first of a three-part book disguised as a series. So if you were going to just read the first one, don't plan on getting any kind of nice resolution out of it. Instead, it's a bleeping cliffhanger. Just grab all three books and enjoy.
That being said, the book (and series) has an interesting list of things going for it. And the really interesting part is that it's basically everything we didn't get in the prequel films: interesting characters we actually care about, fun references to the original series, a villain you almost want to root for, and a good story to put them all in.
Seriously, name me an interesting character from the prequels. Can't do it, can you? Okay, maybe I'd give you Jango Fett. Sort of. But stacked up against Grand Admiral Thrawn, Mara Jade, and Talon Karrde, he's downright boring. Okay, so it's obvious that characters in a novel have more chance at development, but even allowing for some balance-shifting for that, Heir wins out hands down.
Grand Admirial Thrawn, the blue-skinned-red-eyed-bad-mutha who might have saved the Empire had he been at the Battle of Endor, who studies the psychology of his enemies through their art. Mara Jade, Force-trained, dangerous and not a little bit sexy even on the printed page. Talon Karrde, who's everything you liked in Han Solo before he got all lovey-dovey with Leia (and I'm not faulting him for that, because who wouldn't?). And this is without even mentioning a certain loopy Jedi Master who's easily more interesting than any of the Jedi introduced in the prequels.
Even the peripheral characters are interesting, and it's really a crying shame that neither the prequels nor the animated Clone Wars series ever mentioned the Noghri or the ysalamiri.
I haven't even really discussed the plot of the book/series, but it's really quite simple: Five years after Return of the Jedi, the Empire isn't gone, and the New Republic has some growing pains to go through. Grand Admiral Thrawn is marshalling what strength he has in order to overthrow the New Republic. Awesomeness ensues.
I really can't recommend the series highly enough, though I should warn you that there are some concepts and events that don't fit in particularly well with the prequels. Pardon me if I don't cry overmuch about it. Actually, it just makes me hate the prequels all the more. Lucas had a well to draw from here, and he didn't do it. He went with second-rate characters and a third-rate story and first-rate CG and called it good.
Fortunately, my imagination has first-rate CG, so reading a story with the other two ingredients also first-rate, it's all good.
And that's all I have to say about that. If you're a Star Wars fan, you'll love the series.
Next up, I'm not sure. I'm determined to knock off another 13 in '13 title, and I think Wool is going to be it. But it's a long one. So maybe I'll finish up What We Talk About When We Talk About God first.
Oh, and I'm also writing up a few thoughts about the new Star Trek movie now that I've seen it twice. There's a lot I didn't like about it, and while I was a bit negative about it at first, it's growing on me.
Book Review: Fool Moon, by Jim Butcher
My sister tells me that this is one of the more expendable books in the Dresden Files collection, but even as a standalone work it's still plenty of fun. Nice, gruesome fun. As you might guess from the title, this one involves werewolves, and introduces four kinds of them: werewolves, Hexenwolves, lycanthropes, and loup-garou. All nasty bits of work of one type or another, and each gets to see some action in this book.
Harry Dresden is once again thrust into some pretty deep waters after a grisly murder gets him involved with the Special Investigations division of the Chicago Police Department. The evidence indicates werewolves, but which kind? Along the way, Harry runs afoul of basically every kind of them, though not without finding unexpected allies in the mix.
I'll be curious to see if Harry manages to get himself so badly beaten up in the rest of the series, because he really takes his licks in this one, and we get a glimpse of what it looks like when a wizard runs out of magic. I kept expecting there to be a cheap Eragon-style magic storage device lying around somewhere, but Butcher expects his wizard to solve his own problems.
The thing I'm digging about this whole "found a new series to read" thing is that there are twelve more books out there, just waiting for me to pick them up (and another one due out this year). I'm going to take my time and enjoy each new volume, since I've got another couple of series in which I'm waiting for the next volume or have recently finished the latest. True, they're all Orson Scott Card series (Pathfinder, Mithermages, Formic Wars, and the Shadow series), but still. It's nice, sometimes, to be a late adopter.
Next up, it's Heir to the Empire, my Star Wars Day pickup. And I've got What We Talk About When We Talk About God in progress. One of these days I need to get back to my 13 in '13 list. Falling behind!
(Take a look at that list for me and tell me what I should read next. Yes, I know. Wool. Totally need to get back to that one.)
Book Review: The Trouble With Physics, by Lee Smolin
The good news: The Trouble With Physics is a good book. Unfortunately, it's also three books. One of them is an extremely engaging and interesting overview of the history of Grand Unification and an introduction to the main problems of modern physics. One of them is a like-watching-paint-dry overview of String Theory. And one of them is an interesting if not thrilling treatise on the nature of science and the problems with the way it's currently done, particularly the troubles with the tenure system in universities.
Rather than dwelling on the not-so-great parts of the book, I think I'll focus on what I did like. But first, let me point out that I'm not sure if it's possible to have a layman-accessible treatment of String Theory. I'm reasonably well-versed in physics, and I just didn't get half the crap Dr. Smolin was talking about. But then, I'm a bit out of date. (I've actually been toying with the idea of reading and working my way back through my old Tipler Physics book from college. That'd be fun!) 
But back to the good stuff. As I indicated, the first part of the book was extremely engaging, so much that I NOOK-gifted it to my dad. He ran out of steam before I did and ,I think, gave up on it. But it really was interesting. What are the fundamental problems in physics that String Theory attempts to answer? More than that, what are the problems that any Theory of Everything needs to address? Here they are:
Problem #1: Combine General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics (Quantum Gravity)
This is the reason String Theory exists. How do we combine General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics? Einstein went to his grave attempting to unify them through Unified Field Theory, but failed. Any number of other approaches have been tried, so far without success.
Problem #2: Make Quantum Theory Make Sense (Make it provide a picture of reality absent our interaction with it)
How to even sum this one up? Well, how about letting Jim Al-Khalili (author of the excellent Paradox) explain the Double-Slit Experiment.
(And here I expect my niece to stop reading and start looking for more videos.)
So yeah, the problem here is that Quantum Theory is weird. Make it make sense!
Problem #3: Unify all Particles and Forces
Maybe you're aware of the Standard Model of Particle Physics, and that there are sixteen particles in it (not including the Higgs Boson) that explain basically everything except gravity? Well, we need to be able to unify them all into one particle or force. Including the Higgs and gravity (and maybe a graviton). Not there yet.
Problem #4: Explain the Free Constants in the Standard Model
The Standard Model is all well and good and useful, but it's littered with constants, the values of which we basically have to find experimentally. A Theory of Everything should predict these values.
Problem #5: Explain Dark Matter and Dark Energy
Visible matter and energy make up about 4% of the universe. The other 96% is something else, and we simply don't know what it is. Is it all those angels that can sit on the head of a pin? Maybe a big Universal Landfill? We just don't know yet.
Smolin goes on to discuss not just which questions need answering, but also what a new Unification theory should look like. And it's these three things:
- It should be surprising. In other words, we shouldn't see it coming.
- It should lead quickly to new insights.
- It should offer predictions no one would have thought to make before.
Smolin holds String Theory up to the Five Problems and to the three requirements of a Unification theory and finds it wanting. (Small wonder, since he's an advocate of the competing Loop Quantum Gravity.) In fact, he finds that it only has the potential to deal with Problem #3 (Unification of the Forces and Particles).
I'm not qualified, really, to judge his judgment, so I guess I'll have to take his word for it. But something I'm definitely with him on is the idea that other approaches should be tried, and scientists should be free to pretty much tackle the problems any way they want without fear of being ostracized for it.
I really don't have it in me to discuss much more about the book. I tend to prefer Short-Topic Science books, and I'm not sure a book about String Theory will ever fit that description. This one certainly didn't, though if it'd just been the first third of the book, I'd have given it high marks.
Ultimately, I'm happy with a science book if I learn something. And in this case, I learned a bit about M-Theory, the history of attempts at unification, and supersymmetry, and I'd be remiss if I didn't include this quote (which you'll get if you understand supersymmetry, or at least know that it proposes partner particles for the ones we know about, but with either a preceding 's' or a trailing 'ino'):
Not only are there squarks and sleptons and photinos, there are also sneutrinos to partner with neutrinos, Higgsinos with the Higgs, and gravitinos to go with the gravitons. Two by two, a regular Noah's ark of particles. Sooner or later, tangled in the web of new snames and nameinos, you begin to feel like Sbozo the clown. Or Bozo the clownino. Or swhatever.
Two other quick (and minor) gripes before I go. Most of the time with a NOOK Book, if you click through to an endnote, there's a corresponding link in the endnotes back to where you came from. Not in this case. If I clicked through, I was stuck. At least with a print book, I could keep my thumb in my place. This needs to be fixed when the book is updated. Speaking of which…
My other gripe is that it was written before the LHC came online at CERN, and it doesn't therefore contain any references to the recent findings about the Higgs. I can't fault the book or the author for this, because that's just how time works. If it'd been written later, it might have had that content. But then it wouldn't have been a couple of bucks on the NOOK Daily Find. So I guess it's more of a gripe against spacetime.
Most important of all, of course, is that this book was on my 13 in '13 list, so that's one title shorter. But I've got to get hopping if I'm going to finish the list.
Right now I'm reading Against Calvinism (though I've shelved it for a few weeks), Fool Moon, Heir to the Empire, and What We Talk About When We Talk About God. I figure Fool Moon will be next up. Stay tuned.
A Typical Week of Cooking Dinner, Part 5: Mmm…burgers
(Edit: This is part five of a five-part series on cooking, so you can skip to parts one, two, three,and four if you like.)
Early warning here: I'm changing my plans. Pork Chops aren't happening this week. Swimmer Dude is going to be away, and my lady and I are gonna get dinner and a movie. So unless you beg me, there's going to be no recipe for tomorrow. (And I just realized I forgot to change the title before I posted this. Oh well.) For that matter, there really isn't one today. It's burgers. Who needs a recipe?
All right, the fact is that there are things to say about making the perfect burger. And it all starts with picking the right beef.
No, I'm not talking about making sure you source Organic or grass-fed beef. Both of which are great ideas, don't get me wrong, and I do both of them. Instead, I want to emphasize that you should get the 80% lean beef.
(Queue shocking turn of events music.)
Yes, this me again, advocating the consumption of fat. Now, part of my reasoning here is that I think a burger should be cooked well done. I'm willing to go pink on a steak, but all the little critterz are on the outside. A burger has them ground all through it. (Even organic beef has bacteria in it. I know, I looked it up. Actually I didn't, but I'm fairly sure about this. Feel free to chime in if you think I'm wrong.) I want it cooked!
The problem is that a 95% lean, well done burger serves as a pretty decent hockey puck stand-in. At 90%, you could pull off a juicy and well-done burger, but you're walking a fine line. Lose your concentration and you've again got a clay pigeon. Hockey and skeet shooting are both fun, but they lack the mouth feel that a nice, juicy (and well done) burger has. And neither goes particularly well with bacon and guacamole.
Yes, I'm using fatty beef, then topping it with fatty guacamole and fatty bacon. I may even whip up some homemade Chipotle Aioli and throw that in there. Four, four, four kinds of fat! Oh, and don't forget the Pepper Jack!
My pro-tip for getting a burger evenly cooked, that is, done in the middle but not charred on the edges, is to shape it into what might be mistaken for a middle-school pottery class ashtray, not that middle-schoolers would even make such a thing (though we totally did in seventh grade shop class). I press the center down nice and thin, but keep the edges fairly beefy. And yes, I really just did that.
In our generally gluten-free existence (my knees don't like gluten, quite apart from any Paleo considerations), we tend to go the Lettuce-Wrap route with our burgers, and I'll just warn you that a guacamole bacon burger is exceedingly messy in a Lettuce-Wrap configuration. But so worth it.
One more small tip: Season those suckers! Seriously, bust out the salt and pepper and go to town! Don't waste a nice, fatty burger by making it bland.
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I think we've covered burgers, don't you? Quick fact: The average son of Seth can consume two half-pound burgers in an evening and still ask for me to make fruit smoothies. Swimmer Dude can flat out eat.
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Okay, I'm going to go fire up the grill.
A Typical Week of Cooking Dinner, Part 4: Meatballs? In Soup!?
(Edit: This is part four of a five-part series on cooking, so you can skip to parts one, two, three,and five if you like.)
Normally I like to keep soup pretty simple, trusting in the flavor to sell it even though a basic chicken soup isn't anything complicated. Making my own stock certainly goes a ways toward solidifying that flavor. But since I have a ton of time on my hands these days, I've gone for a bit of a more involved soup, though the list of ingredients is still pretty simple:
Italian Meatball Soup with White Beans
- 1 large Onion
- 4-5 Carrots
- 3-4 stalks Celery
- 3-4 cloves Garlic
- 1-2 pounds Bulk Italian Sausage (pork)
- 1 15oz can Great Northern Beans or Cannellini Beans
- 2 15oz cans stewed tomatoes (or one 29oz can)
- 1-2 red bell peppers, roasted
- 2-3 cups chicken stock
- chopped basil and other herbs, either fresh or dried, to taste
Onion, celery, and carrots are a standard soup base (called "mirepoix"), so I don't think they even count. Garlic…duh. Doesn't count. So it's really just meat, beans, and the soup base, made of pureed tomatoes, peppers, and chicken stock.
Speaking of which, did you finish your stock yet? If not, just do like I told you the other night. Get it out of the fridge and put it on medium-high heat. Add a roughly-chopped onion and carrot, plus a few smashed cloves of garlic, some bay leaves, and a few crushed peppercorns. Let it simmer while you start prepping the soup.
Directions:
- Finish your stock! (see above)
- Chop your onion, celery, and garlic (I go fine on the onion and celery and half-fine, half-coarse on the carrots. And I add extra carrots until I think I've got enough).
- By the way, I generally start with the meatballs and prep veggies while they cook. But if you're worried about the multitasking, go with this order.
- Crush your garlic and give it a nice chop, or squeeze it through a press if you must (you feel more cheffy if you crush it and chop it).
- (Any leftover bits of onion, carrot, and garlic can just get added to the simmering stock.)
- Make your meatballs and start browning them in batches. Remove to a prep bowl. Alternatively, just brown the sausage like any other ground meat. It's still good, just not as nifty. Or you could brown the meatballs in a skillet and start your veggies in a pot. But I don't like to miss all the wonderful browned bits of meat, so I prefer the one-pot method.
- After the meat is browned and removed, add your veggies and a nice three-finger pinch of salt. Any browned bits left in the pan will be essentially deglazed here.
- While the veggies are softening, throw your tomatoes and peppers in a food processor and puree until smooth. (I wrote a bit about roasted peppers yesterday.)
- Add a splash to a half-cup of wine of your choice (red/white/both) to the veggies when they start to stick (or really at any point).
- Before the wine is totally cooked off, add the pureed tomatoes and peppers. I understand there are compounds in tomatoes that only get brought out by alcohol. Not sure what they are, but evidently they do their best work drunk.
- Rinse your can of beans (or two) and add them to the pot.
- Add some chicken stock, a ladle-full at a time (helps to have a strainer handy through which you can pour the stock).
- Add the meatballs and any additional stock, to your desired thickness.
- Add any chopped herbs. I like basil. And chives.
- Once everything is bubbling, turn it down and simmer for as long as you like. I like to give it an hour or so to develop flavor, but as soon as the veggies are soft, you're good. I'd give it a minimum of twenty minutes or so.
This has become one of Swimmer Dude's favorite dishes, the same boy who claims not to like tomatoes and hates the smell of chicken stock. Cooking is transformation!
Seriously, I think the meatballs sell it for him. Who doesn't love a meatball?
Well, my soup's simmering, and I'm going to go watch a dumb movie or play a Word or two, or maybe finally write up that review of The Trouble With Physics. I could do ANYTHING right now!
What about you? Have a favorite soup recipe to share? And pro-tips?
A Typical Week of Cooking Dinner, Part 3: Tacos Give You Prep Time!
(Edit: This is part three of a five-part series on cooking, so you can skip to parts one, two, four, and five if you like.)
Okay, so yesterday was Chicken. And I burned it a little. It was still good. (If you want the whole meal plan for this week, check it out.)
So tonight it's tacos. Why am I even writing this? Because tacos are pretty idiot-proof, aren't they? Brown some meat, season it, then serve with your favorite fixings.
This is absolutely a "let the cook rest" kind of meal. Much like Thursday's burgers. Not much really to it. And yet we're still here. Why?
Well, because tomorrow's Italian Meatball Soup is rather more complex, so you may want to get a few things done early. In fact, you could prep the whole meal tonight and make it super easy tomorrow. But where would the fun be in that?
In fact, there's really only one thing that needs to be done tonight for maximum ease tomorrow.
No, it's not the chicken stock. Which I already mentioned how to finish in my last post. (But that I'll revisit tomorrow.)
One of my little culinary secrets is the power of roasted sweet bell peppers. I add them to everything. Well, everything within reason. (They didn't make the cut for those Pumpkin Brownies.) But to add an extra dimension of flavor to a soup, you really can't miss. Go with a yellow pepper if you want to keep the color light. But if it's chili or another tomato-based soup (say, Italian Meatball), go with red.
In terms of technique, there is almost literally nothing to it.
- Put the peppers in a hot oven (400+) for a half-hour or so (in a baking dish or at least some foil).
- When the outside is nicely charred, remove and cool. (Throw them in the fridge for later use.)
- When completely cool, peel the charred skin off. It's a bit messy, but not difficult.
- Remove the stem and seeds, trying to reserve as much of the juices as possible, then throw all the flesh and juice into a food processor.
- Puree!
That's it. Add that to almost any tomato sauce and it becomes better. Plus, they smell so good!
I'm using two of them for my soup, so I've got two in the oven right now.
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If you don't have the time to cook that I have, I actually do recommend finishing that stock tonight. Go back to the previous post for my instructions.
Also, you may want to roll up your nice Italian Sausage into small meatballs tonight. That's a big time-saver, but something I'm glad to do while listening to Baseball Today or something. (While my stock is finishing.)
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Okay, so a couple of quick things about my taco recipe, which I'm totally not sharing. Again, brown your meat and season it, then serve it with fixings. Enjoy.
But, before you get there, can I just recommend that you add half a chopped onion to your meat? Even if you're not a fan of onions, they really do add a lot of flavor, and if you start with the onion and then add meat after they're soft, you honestly won't even know they're there. I know because my son doesn't like onions and he's never once picked one out of a taco.
One other thing is that I want to plug Frontera All-Natural Guacamole Mix. It's basically a green salsa that you add to mashed avocado, but it's really good. I'm seriously bummed when we run out of it.
Aaaand One More Thing is that I've discovered the secret to perfect avocados! First, plan ahead and buy them when they're hard. Then let them soften up on your counter for a few days. When they're just right, throw them in the fridge until you're ready for them. I've had them last two full weeks in perfect condition. Awesome!
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And that'll do it for tonight, I think. Lob me a question or comment if there's anything cooking-related you'd like me to answer, and I'll do the very best I can with it.
Oh, one more thing! My friend and fellow pavement pounder asked me the other day for a good Beef recipe. For that, I must recommend Michael Ruhlman's Braised Short Ribs. I've made them twice and they're outstanding.
A Typical Week of Cooking Dinner, Part 2: Monday is "Chicken…Good!"
(Edit: This is part two of a five-part series on cooking, so you can skip to parts one, three, four, and five if you like.)
Every now and again we start the week without a chicken dinner. Those times make me sad. Because Chicken Good!
There's nothing quite so comforting as a nice, whole roasted chicken. But if that's somehow too intimidating for you, allow me to lay out my much more complicated Chicken Pieces Dinner.
(BTW, here's the Roasted Whole Chicken Recipe – Wash it with water, pat it try, put salt on the it. Lots of salt. Maybe some pepper. Roast it for about an hour at 425. If the cavity fluids run clear, it's done. If not, wait a little longer, or use a probe thermometer and make sure you hit 165. Take it out of the oven and let it rest for ten minutes. Then eat it. It's really very challenging.)
So yeah, we're going Chicken Pieces here, namely nice bone-in, skin-on split breasts and whole legs (that's a drumstick still attached to a thigh).
Now, if you're somehow tempted to try and reproduce the awesomeness of my chicken with factory farmed, frozen, boneless, skinless, tasteless Tyson chicken, DON'T. Forget the whole issue of factory chicken farming being a crime against nature. Your chicken will suck. No other way to put it. And if you're used to such suckiness, you may not even realize it sucks. And that makes me genuinely sad. And just a little bit superior. I judge you for your bad chicken. Repent!!!
Leave the bones in. Leave the skin on. Eat the skin. If you think you don't like it, it's because you've never had it done right. Unless you're one of those "I don't like bacon" people. We're never going to see eye to eye in that case. But then you're probably not that interested in food that tastes good I guess. (If that came across as passive aggressive…tough rocks, pal.)
Incidentally, did you know chicken skin is made of PROTEIN? Despite what the legacy of the Low-Fat craze would have you believe, there's nothing unhealthy about eating the skin. True, it's got a nice layer of fat under it, but if it's a responsibly-raised bird, that fat is actually good for you.
By the way, if you happened across this post without reading Part 1, you may want to double back and check it out. If not, then here is the list of ingredients for my incredibly awesome…
Chicken Pieces With Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Salad
- Bone-in, Skin-on Chicken Breasts and Whole Legs - three of each
- 3 Sweet Potatoes (I like Japanese Yams, but any variety will do)
- Salad Greens and other veggies for salad
I didn't include salad dressing because, well, you've got to bring something to the table here. (Ba-Dum-Dum…Laugh Track.)
BTW, this is six pieces of chicken for three people. True, one of them's a growing boy, but even so I'm looking at deliberately having leftovers here. One split breast is more than enough for an average adult, and two legs should be sufficient for the growing boy. The rest is leftover for, er, leftovers and making stock. Adjust if you don't want leftovers. But do make the stock. (Instructions included in this post.)
Prep (an hour or so before dinner time):
- Get the chicken out of the fridge. With a whole chicken, this is much more important, but here it probably doesn't matter so much. But take it out fifteen minutes or a half hour early anyway. (BTW, culinary jargon alert! This is called tempering the meat. Helps ensure even cooking.)
- Scrub the sweet potatoes, then wrap them in foil and throw them into an oven at 400 or so. This is the longest-cooking ingredient.
- Prepare the salad fixings and set aside.
- Pat the chicken pieces dry with a paper towel and place them on a raised-edge cookie sheet, the easier to transport them to the grill.
- Season generously with a mixture of salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, and sage. How much of each? Just start with a tablespoon or so of salt and sprinkle everything else on until you've got a good mixture. It's going to be tough to screw up. Fine! Try a half-teaspoon of everything after salt. Maybe go a quarter on the sage and paprika. I just dump it all into a little prep bowl and mix it with my fingers.
- More on the seasoning: Season on all surfaces. Go hog wild here. If you overdo it, you can (gasp!) strip off the skin and just eat the meat with your salty fingers. With repetition, you'll get it dialed in just right. And tastes vary, so my mixture, while perfect in every way, may not meet with your diminished capacity for appreciating my perfectness. This is an understandable and completely unacceptable flaw in your personality.
Pause. Seriously, you should now do nothing for a bit. Those sweet potatoes are going to take a while. Probably close to an hour, depending on their size. Your chicken will take maybe a half hour to cook. So go play Words With Friends or something. BTW, challenge me. I dare you.
The nice thing here is that if the sweet potatoes are done early, they're wrapped in foil and therefore can't complain effectively about being done early. It's a very muffled sound anyway, and if you turn the oven off and just leave them in there, they'll eventually shut up.
Technique
Now this is where it gets tricky. You could go the safe route and just throw your chicken onto a baking sheet (something with sides) with a cooling rack in it. Your sweet potatoes could easily be moved to a lower rack. They'd be fine, though again they tend to complain about you moving their desk again. And you could pretty much just fire and forget (though watch for fire!) here, putting them in at 425 or so for about a half hour. Turn them if you want at some point, but it's pretty idiot-proof. The problem is that, like the Whole Chicken, it'll generate just a sliiiight bit of copious amounts of smoke.
Which is why I like to go with a grill-roast technique. And it may take some trial and error. But here's how it generally works. And by works I mean you may lose a leg or two. Of the chicken, of course! True, my chicken is worth an amputation here and there, but it's not strictly necessary or anything. You people are so dedicated!
- Turn the grill on full blast. And here you're now realizing that I'm using a gas grill. It's true. I sometimes use charcoal but the gas is so blasted (again with the fires and explosions with you!) convenient. So I'm sure you could do this with charcoal, but I don't have good instructions for you. Sorry.
- After it's up to heat (mine's around 500 when ready), throw the chicken on, skin side down. Now leave it alone, but without actually leaving it alone. I don't know, grill casual! (somebody please pick up this reference!)
- With your grill tongs (if you don't have these, you've begun grilling without the proper tools), flip the pieces to the other side after three or four minutes. This is why you don't walk away, here. Because if you're paying attention, you don't really need to know how long they've been going. Flip them before they burn, but after the fat has started to render.
- Did I mention you shouldn't be closing the grill top yet? No, I didn't. Don't. Otherwise these babies are going to go all Hindenburg on you. Oh, the humanity!
- While we're on the topic of the immolation of poultry, remember to have a glass of water handy, or even a spray bottle to quench those pesky chicken fat fires. You don't want your meal tasting like combustion.
- After you've gotten a good crisp on both sides, turn off half the grill. Or at least all the way to low. Again, trial and error. If you can go just to low and have no grease fires flaring, do it. Otherwise turn that burner off. You're now finishing the chicken using indirect heat. Much like you would do just roasting it in the oven. Only all the smoke is outside.
- Move all pieces onto the cool side of the grill and shut the top.
- In twenty-five minutes or so, your chicken should be ready. Check the skin. If it's not crispy enough in a particular place, feel free to give the pieces a quick stop on the hot side to crisp it up.
I like to let the meat rest a few minutes before serving, just to allow it to cook a bit more, just in case I didn't quite get it done. Of course, you can always reassure yourself by checking the internal temperature of your biggest piece and making sure it's 165 or better. Again, there may be some trial and error here. If you find one of the pieces is underdone, then that's the one you'll be using for chicken soup at a later time (we're doing a different soup this week).
Serve with your sweet potatoes and salad. I guess I could also point out that I called an audible here tonight while I was shopping. I decided we could use an extra side dish, so I made some quick roasted broccoli. Cut it into small-ish florets, toss with olive oil, salt and pepper (be generous), and roast at 450 for 10-15 minutes, or until it gets some char to it. Yum!
One more thing here: I burned my chicken. Should have turned off that side of the grill instead of just turning it down. It's not a complete loss or anything, just one piece destined for leftovers and stock-making. Most of the other skin is still good, though. No meat was grievously burned, thanks to the protective and delicious layer of skin. Which I unfortunately burned. You win some, you lose some. We'll file this under error, as in trial and error.
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Now you've enjoyed your amazing chicken. You wonder why you didn't cook this way always. I get it, but you're not done. No, you've got work to do for Wednesday! That's another little secret here, that you rarely cook for just one day. You're making stock! Yes, you are! Seriously, it's not that hard! Check it out:
Put the bones in a pot. Cover them with water by a couple of inches. Apply heat until the water starts to move but doesn't boil. Meanwhile, turn the oven on to 185-190. When the water is hot, turn off the burner, slip the pot into the oven, and go to bed.
Seriously, go to bed. It's not going to boil over, because the temperature's too low. It's not going to burn, because it won't evaporate that much. It's just going to suck every bit of flavor out of those bones and into the water. It's going to break down connective tissues and give your stock body. It's going to turn into one of the most healthful things you eat this week. That's right, stock (sometimes called bone broth) is fantastically good for you. And it's really cheap and (as you see) really easy to make. Once you start making it, you have a hard time believing everyone doesn't.
BTW, take it out when you get up for breakfast and let it cool on the stovetop until you head to work. Then pop it in the fridge (put a lid on it) until Wednesday night. It'll probably congeal nicely, which is ever so cool and lets you know you made the most of all that connective tissue.
If you're not following my menu, you may want to finish the stock without me. Which means bringing it back up to a simmer and adding some aromatics. Throw in a quarter to a half of a medium onion, roughly sliced, a chopped carrot, several smashed cloves of garlic, some fresh parsley (which was missing from the shopping list but isn't absolutely necessary), a bay leaf or two and some crushed peppercorns. Simmer for an hour or so. I generally do this while doing the prep for whatever soup I'm making. So my stock is ready right when it's needed.
See you tomorrow night for nice, easy chicken tacos, plus some prep for Wednesday's Italian Meatball Soup.
Wait, what's that? You've got leftover sweet potato? Turn it into breakfast!
Pumpkin "Brownies"! (original source recipe)
- 1 cup almond butter
- 3/4 cup mashed pumpkin, squash, or sweet potato
- 1 egg
- 1/3 cup honey
- 1 tsp baking soda
- pumpkin pie spices (ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg), to taste
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips
Mix everything together and pour into a greased 9x9 baking dish. Bake for 25 minutes or until the middle is no longer soupy. Garnish with freshly-whipped cream if you want dessert instead of breakfast. This is pretty much the one Paleo-ish baking recipe we've consistently enjoyed. I also like to pour it into a waffle iron, excluding the chocolate chips and subbing maple syrup in for honey, and not adding it until I've buttered the finished product. Yes, I know butter isn't Paleo. But it's butter!
A Typical Week of Cooking Dinner, Part 1: Planning and Shopping
(Edit: This is part one of a five-part series on cooking, so you can skip to parts two, three, four, and five if you like.)
Our schedule is interesting right now, because the Pancake Eater (who doesn't get so many pancakes now that we're mostly grain-free, so we'll call him Swimmer Dude) has swim practice from 6pm-8:15pm, which amounts to our having dinner after 8:30pm every night except Friday (earlier practice).
The Fair Elaine works out in the evenings, so I come home from work between 5:30 and 5:45 and take the boy to practice while she goes to the gym. Her workouts are often long, so I have a bit of alone time. Sometimes I catch a movie, sometimes I zone out to a video game. Sometimes I grab my Dad and play the short course over by his house. (Need to do that again soon.) And needless to say I do some reading here and there.
Mostly I just cook, though. With a bit of slacking off mixed in. Because at this point I've got most things we regularly make down to an art. So I thought I'd give all my legions (both of them) of readers a window into what goes into producing the restaurant-quality food my family enjoys. (I exaggerate.)
By the way, as the title of this post suggests, I'm going to milk this topic for the better part of a week. I figured I'd do a post for each dinner, maybe even with pretty pictures of the food.
But first, a post about planning the menu. For me, that usually means a long, drawn out family conference on the way to church. I ask, "What's anybody want for dinner this week?" Requests pour in from one or both of the other family members, and then I quickly override them and tell them what we're having.
Actually, the truth is that we tend to be somewhat predictable. In the summer, we're good with burgers and tacos once a week, so that only leaves three more meals to plan. In the winter, keep the tacos and substitute in chili earlier in the week. In the winter, we generally roast a whole chicken every week, then use the leftover meat for soup, made with fresh chicken stock from the carcass. In the summer, I tend to grill chicken pieces more often, and I likewise make stock for either soup (which sometimes seems strange in the summer) or to use in sauces and for pan-seared veggies (never underestimate the power of good chicken stock to make veggies pop).
So for my example week of cooking, we'll assume it's summer, but that we're okay with soup on a hot day.
I should also point out that I generally don't shop for the entire week. And I'll point out why in a bit. But first, the menu:
Monday
- Grill-roasted chicken breasts and legs (or drumsticks)
- Roasted sweet potatoes
- Salad
Tuesday
- Tacos
Wednesday
- Italian Meatball soup
Thursday
- Burgers
Friday
- Garlic-Sage Brined, Pan-Roasted Pork Chops with Pan Jus
- Garlic rice
- Roasted cauliflower
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You'll notice that I slipped in some simpler meals with the more complex ones. Though the complexity is drastically reduced by a little planning and prep, as you'll see.
Something to notice here is that if I only want to shop for Monday-Wednesday, building in a simple, low-prep meal on Thursday allows me to hit the market for Thursday and Friday provisions, and also allows me to easily squeeze in a bit of prep for the more complex Friday meal.
So assuming I want to do just three-day shopping, here's the Sunday shopping list:
- Bone-in, Skin-on Chicken Breasts and Whole Legs - three of each
- 3 Sweet Potatoes (I like Japanese Yams, but any variety will do)
- Salad Greens and other veggies for salad (beets!)
- 2 pounds Ground Chicken (or other ground meat. We have loads of grass fed beef in the freezer, so this is optional)
- Lettuce, Tomato, other taco fixings
- Avocados and Guacamole Mix (we like Frontera All Natural Guac Mix)
- Cheese, if you're inclined (Pepper Jack if you're man enough)
- Taco seasoning (I make my own, but not everybody's that awesome)
- Tortillas or chips, if you're so inclined
- 2 large onions
- 6 carrots
- Bunch of Celery
- Head of Garlic
- 1-2 pounds Bulk Italian Sausage (pork), depending on how meaty you want the soup
- 1 15oz can Great Northern Beans or Cannellini Beans
- 2 15oz cans stewed tomatoes (or one 29oz can)
- 1-2 red bell peppers
If you've already got a reasonably well-stocked fridge and pantry, the list is even smaller. And notice that nearly everything on the list comes from either the meat or fresh fruit/veggie section of the store. And the non-fresh items could be bought in quantity, making them both cheaper and more likely to already be in your pantry.
It's a couple of bags of groceries. (I won't say it's cheap, since I'm assuming good-quality ingredients here.)
Of course, you could add the Thursday/Friday shopping without too much more trouble:
- 4 Pork Chops (I go for center-cut bone-in chops, but you could go with something less gooderer)
- 1 Shallot
- 1 Onion
- 1 Carrot
- Head of Garlic
- 1 Lemon
- Head of Cauliflower
- Rice (white Jasmine is my preference)
- 2 pounds Ground Beef (I like 80% lean for burgers, and I'm right about it. Fat is good.)
- Leaf Lettuce (we go bunless, and grean leaf lettuce is by far the best lettuce wrapper)
- Bacon (But you already had some, didn't you? Oh, you're out? Of course you're out. Get more.)
- Cheese you already had if you wanted
- Avocados unless you've got leftovers from tacos
(Yes, guac for the burger. I'm again right about this.)
Personally, I'd split the shopping up, because I wouldn't want to let the chops or beef sit in the fridge for more than about three days. Might as well buy them fresh. And since burgers are a quick meal with little prep, you can afford to get out shopping on Thursday.
Also, the list would be pared down for Thursday if you planned a little better and got basically everything but the meat on Sunday. And your Thursday shopping would be more quickerer, to a greater degree.
(I like to put English in it's place. Anyone see what I just did there?)
In both my shopping lists, I'm assuming you've got a reasonably well stocked spice rack, with such staples as garlic powder, pepper, salt, onion powder, paprika, cayenne, sage, thyme, marjoram, and those kinds of things. You'll use them over and over when preparing fresh and delicious meat, so do yourself a favor and stock up. Better yet, grow some herbs. But still have the spice rack as a backup.
I'm also assuming you've got a bottle of red and a bottle of white wine. You'll need them. Don't drink? Me neither. But you're missing flavor if you skip the wine in your cooking. And don't buy cooking wine. Ask a helpful person what they'd get to cook with. Look for a decent wine that's on sale. I always taste whatever I buy, and so far they all taste dreadful to me, but I wouldn't skip it in a soup or sauce. You shouldn't either.
Aaaand I'm assuming you've got some olive oil. Or other cooking fat. Just don't go with anything in a clear bottle. It's basically poison.
Let's see, anything I missed? Fire away if there's anything you think I needed to address, and I'll either update it here or post a clarification. Who's cooking with me? (Seriously, you could do this, only on a one-day delay. Might be fun!)
I guess I should also clarify that I like to do some experimental cooking on weekends. So if I'm going to try Wine-Braised Beef Short Ribs, it'll be on a Saturday. Sunday we kind of pitch-patch, and maybe go out for lunch. For obvious reasons, we don't generally eat out during the week.
Okay, that'll do for now. Drop me a comment if you're so inclined. And you are inclined! You're downright angular!
Book Review: The Vegetarian Myth, by Lierre Keith
I've recognized something: I have a dreadful tendency to pick books specifically to bolster whatever opinions I already have. I'm certain I'm not alone in this, and I really do strive to challenge myself by reading if not drastically-opposed views, at least something that hits things from a different angle. But I'm generally more inclined to find easy agreement with something that confirms my current thinking.
I feel so much better now that I've confessed that.
Not that many years ago, I was basically ready to give up on meat. Well, except for ribs. I always said I could be a vegan as long as I could still have ribs. And bacon. But I never quite flipped this switch, despite reading two books that sold the vegan or at least vegetarian diet.
But now that I'm back into the meat-eating fold, and veering toward Paleo/Primal, I've been doing a bit of reading on the subject. Along those lines, I watched a video online a few weeks ago, completely unrelated to diet in any way (like a movie trailer or something) and saw a "related" video titled "The Vegetarian Myth." Watched. Then got the book.
The Vegetarian Myth: Food, Justice, and Sustainability, by Lierre Keith, is challenging, well-written, and basically devastating. The titular myth is that the vegetarian/vegan diet and lifestyle is the best answer for making humans healthy, preventing suffering, and saving the planet. Lierre Keith argues that it fails on all three counts. In fact, she points out that a vegetable and grain based diet is actually bad for humans, does nothing to prevent animal suffering, and has terrible environmental consequences.
Of course, she isn't arguing that factory farming and CAFOs (Concentrated/Confined Animal Feeding Operations) are a good thing. But she rightly points out that the same annual monocrops that factory farming is based on are the foods vegetarians flock to: grains. Keith points out that agriculture is the single most destructive force we humans have come up with, and I have to say I find her arguments compelling. She also makes a few other arguments I'm not completely with her on, like the destructiveness of patriarchal monotheism (though it has its faults).
Much of the argument about vegetarianism being unhealthy for humans runs quite counter to what you generally hear from nutritionists and even the food industry. Which should actually be a clue that it's not too far off. Having just read Why We Get Fat, I now understand the argument against consuming grains, and I won't repeat any of it here. But reading Keith's description of her steadily deteriorating health while following a vegan lifestyle makes me regret that I ever flirted with the idea of eating an animal-free diet. Especially given how much healthier I've become since eliminating most grains and leaving the skin on chicken.
For me, the real eye-openers were the sections about agriculture's effects on the environment and Keith's arguments about how eating a responsible diet including animal products is better for animals. I'll write a few words about that latter argument first.
The argument basically says that if you're eating a plant-based (grain and bean heavy) diet and telling yourself you're eliminating suffering and death, you're kidding yourself. Because agriculture takes a vibrant ecology, filled with all kinds of flora and fauna, and replaces it with a monocrop. All that death is on your plate. The natural cycle of life is that some animals eat plants, other animals eat those animals, and (gasp!) the plants eat everything that's left behind. Manure, carcasses, etc. So even plants eat animals. And if you don't use natural fertilizer (manure) for your monocrop, you use industrial fertilizer, created with copious amounts of fossil fuel. And watering your monocrop destroys wetlands and river habitats. All that death is on your plate.
And this doesn't even bring up the harmful human effects of U.S. Agriculture, the surplus of which causes starvation in other countries. That's right, starvation. U.S. Grain is sold below market price in other countries, driving local farmers out of business and into hunger. To say nothing of the fact that that grain isn't good for humans to eat anyway. (For all the bad press red meat gets, high consumption of grains is strongly correlated with increased heart disease. Yeah.)
I remember making black-bean burgers and thinking I was doing something good for myself, for the planet, and for animals. But now I'm done with fake meat. (For that matter, I'm way over fake "Paleo" bread. Blech.) Now I source meat either from farmers I've actually met, or from a reputable market that pulls from local and sustainable sources. Yes, I pay a premium for it. But it's better for me, better for my family, and better for the planet than cracking open a can of beans, mixing them with spices and gluten, and pretending to eat meat. And a grass-fed beef burger is so much tastier!
Now, I'm certain that there are any number of vegetarian sites out there that thoroughly debunk everything in this book (and then other sites that debunk the debunking). But that's the internet for you: an answer to everything. I don't tend to suffer from information overload paralysis in cases like this. In the case of my current eating/exercise, the results are all I need. I work out incredibly hard, and yet my joints feel better than they have for several years. Including the years in which I ate like a bird and gained weight. And I prepare that locally-sourced meat myself, spending some of the best time of my day putting good food on the table for my family.
I'll leave you with a quote from the book, and please check below for the video I referenced and a link to a lengthy podcast interview with the author. BTW, highly recommended.
No one told me. No one told me that life is only possible through death, that our bodies are a gift from the world, and that our final gift is to feed each other. No one told me that soil was the beginning place, made of a million tiny creatures who turned this bare rock into a cradle. No one told me about my real parents; I learned about photosynthesis in seventh grade, but no on told me it was a lullaby.
And no one told me that civilization was a war, that agriculture was the end of the world. I was told that eating those foods, those annual monocrops, would save the world. So I ate. I was always hungry, but I believed that righteousness and justice would have to be nourishment. I made it be true. Body and brain wore down, day by day. To the very last hour of my vegan life, I made it be true.
Link to Lierre Keith on ForeverFit.TV.
Next up, it's the long-awaited and very uneven The Trouble With Physics, everything you wanted to know about String Theory but were fortunate to avoid. I also picked up Heir to the Empire for the Star Wars Day NOOK Daily Find. Takes me back a few years.