Why we eat what we eat

Why don't we eat much meat?

This sums it up quite nicely: EDF's Meat Eater's Guide

Sweet and Sour Tofu Skewers

It’s still hot. You’re still hungry. How ‘bout more kebabs? (Note: The word kebab (also spelled “kabob”) should not be confused with the word haboob. Trust me, you don’t want to eat a haboob.)

(Adapted from Women’s Health)

1 package extra-firm tofu, drained, patted dry and cut into skewerable cubes

2 medium zucchini, cut into skewerable chunks

1 pineapple, cut into skewerable chunks

1 large red onion, cut into skewerable chunks

2 red bell peppers, cut into skewerable chunks

1 tbsp. maple syrup

3 tbsp. ketchup

½ tbsp. soy sauce

1 tbsp. rice vinegar

1 tsp. Asian chili sauce

8 skewers (soaked in water for 20 minutes if wooden)

1. Preheat grill to medium high and assemble skewers: tofu, zucchini, pineapple, onion, red pepper. (Use whatever order you want, as long as the skewerables stay on the skewers.)

2. In a small bowl, whisk together maple syrup, ketchup, soy sauce, rice vinegar and chili sauce.

3. Brush about half of the glaze on the skewered food and grill, turning occasionally, until everything is lightly charred and the vegetables are at least a little bit soft.

4. Brush the remaining glaze on the food and eat.

Lemon-Garlic-Marinated Chicken and Grape Skewers

It’s hot. You’re hungry. Here’s a recipe.

(Adapted from “So Easy”)

2 tbsp. olive oil

juice from 1 lemon

finely grated zest from 1 lemon (at least ½ tsp.)

2 cloves garlic, minced

¼ tsp. salt

skinless boneless chicken breasts, cut into skewerable cubes (the original recipe calls for 1lb. of chicken, but of course chicken never comes in 1 lb. packages…just use one package.)

8 skewers (soaked in water for 20 minutes if wooden)

1 ½ cups seedless green grapes

1. Combine olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, garlic and salt in a bowl. Whisk.

2. Transfer marinade to a zip-top bag and add chicken. Seal and squish to coat. Marinate in the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes (up to 5 hours).

3. Thread chicken and grapes onto skewers, alternating grape-chicken-grape-chicken, etc.

4. Preheat grill to medium high and prep with cooking spray.

5. Grill until the chicken is cooked through, about 3-4 minutes per side.

A Small Dose of Things I Learned

-We get NESN!

-Fingernails grow about three times faster as toenails

-The places where bats hibernate are called “hibernacula”

-Sugoi means incredible in Japanese

-SPF 15 blocks 95% of the sun’s rays and SPF 30 blocks 97% of the sun’s rays

-There’s such a thing as funeral college.

-Hailstones are loaded with bacteria called P. syringae, which causes water to freeze at warmer than normal temperatures. The bacteria uses hail to damage the cell walls of plants so it can eat the inside.

-An aggregation of whale sharks is called an “afuera,” which means “outside” in Spanish.

-To attract females, male alligators use their lungs to produce an infrasound that causes the male to vibrate, creating waves in the water just above his back.

-Wild hamsters exist, but there are only 800 or so left in France.

-Sprouts hold bacteria in their seeds.

-Olives and acai are “drupes,” or pitted fruits.

-In some species of lemur, males and females have different fur colors.

-A “gore” is a plot of land (usually a triangle) that, thanks to surveying error, is not part of any town.

-When kiwis were first imported to the U.S., they were called Chinese gooseberries. They didn’t become popular until they were renamed “kiwis.”

-Alzheimer’s patients tend to be more active at night and sleep during the day, a phenomenon known as “sundown.”

-When worker ants (of the species Pachycondyla chinensis) come across food that’s too big for them to carry alone, they go back to their nest, pickup another worker ant in their jaws and carry it to the oversized prize. The ant drops its helper next to the food and the two ants carry it back to the nest together.

-There’s a fruit called “dragon fruit.”

-The Nova Scotia Association of Architects celebrates National Beaver Day on the last Friday in February.

-Blind people can use echolocation to "see."

Crispy Chickpeas with Spinach and Italian Sausage

Pete isn’t a bean-lover. He is a bacon-lover. Well, guess what we discovered…when you dry chickpeas really well and then sauté them, they kinda taste like bacon.

(Adapted from The Minimalist)

2 cans of chickpeas, rinsed, drained and diligently patted dry with paper towels

1 lb. spinach

4 oz. Italian sausage, diced and de-cased

¼ cup sherry

¼ cup olive oil

1. In a large skillet, heat 3 tbsp. of olive oil over medium-high heat. When it’s hot, add the chickpeas.

2. Reduce the heat a tad (to medium-low) and cook, stirring the chickpeas and shaking the pan occasionally, until the chickpeas start to brown (approximately 10 minutes).

3. Add the sausage and cook for 5-8 minutes, until the chickpeas are crisp.

4. Remove the chickpeas and sausage from the pan and set aside.

5. Add the remaining olive oil to the skillet. When it’s hot, add the spinach and sherry.

6. Cook the spinach until it’s fully wilted and the liquid has evaporated.

7. Dump the chickpeas and sausage back in the skillet. Stir to combine. Serve. 

Ricotta-Stuffed Tomatoes

You know what really bugs/annoys/perturbs/irks me? Better yet, ya know what really gets my goat? When people don’t respond to an email until they have time to write a friggin’ book. I, quite frankly, would rather hear from you in small increments than in your semi-annual tome. And so I must confess: I’ve been procrastinating posting because I haven’t had time to do it properly. I am sorry. Screw proper-ness. Here’s a recipe:

(Adapted from Vegetarian Times)

4-8 large tomatoes

2 eggs

1 cup low-fat ricotta cheese

1 cup corn kernels

2 medium zucchini, 1 diced and 1 sliced into very thin slivers

Nino’s pesto (I just realized that I didn’t measure this. I’m guessing ¼ cup. Click here for the recipe.)

1. Preheat oven to 350° and spray a baking dish with olive oil.

2. Slice the tops off the tomatoes and scoop out the pulp, but don’t be too diligent about scooping—you want it to be a tomato, not a tomato-like vessel.

3. Combine the eggs and ricotta in a medium bowl and whisk until smooth. Add the corn, diced zucchini and pesto. Stir to combine.

4. Stuff the tomatoes with the ricotta mixture and top with zucchini slices. You will most likely have more stuffing and zucchini slices than you can fit in the tomatoes. Place the stuffed tomatoes and the extra stuffing in the baking dish. Top the extra stuffing with the leftover zucchini slices.

5. Bake for 45 minutes, until the filling is puffed up and slightly browned.

Things I Learned: 5/2/11 (The vacation edition)

-In World War I, the British and Germans had an unspoken breakfast treaty.

-Navigating by response (ie. doing what your GPS tells you to do) can cause one’s hippocampus to atrophy.

-Saltwater crocodiles kill their prey using a death roll.

-King crabs are moving into Antarctic waters.

-Hopewell Township, NJ is proposing a law that would limit conjugal visits between backyard chickens and roosters to 10 days a year and no more than 5 consecutive days.

-260 million years ago, there was a saber-toothed animal that only ate plants.

-Three to five million years ago, a giant rabbit species lived on the island of Minorca. It couldn’t hop and, because of its short ears, probably couldn’t hear very well.

-This is awesome.

-Henry Ford and Thomas Edison invented the charcoal briquette.

-The Imperfectionists is a real downer of a book.

-Honeybees can detect pesticides in pollen.

-An invasivore is someone who eats invasive species.

-Bubblegum flavor is a combination of vanilla, wintergreen, peppermint and cassia.

-McDonalds in Hong Kong offers a wedding package.

-Hag fish can die in their own slime.

-The penis of the Queen conch is so long and unprotected that crabs often eat it. It grows back.

-“The Imperfectionists” is a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad book.

-CO2 takes up more volume than O2 in our lungs.

-Each state in India celebrates the New Year on a different day.

-There’s a tribe in Africa that steals kills from lions.

-Soldiers guarding the tomb of the unknown soldier in Athens wear traditional attire, including skirts with 400 pleats to mark the 400 years of Turkish rule.

-The Dutch partake of “inter course,” a break between courses of a meal.

-The Swiss were the first to come up with a word for homesickness.

-Santorini, Greece used to be a ring-shaped island with a massive 1,000 + meter tall volcano (surrounded by water) in the middle. A long time ago, the volcano erupted and sank into the sea. The eruption was so big that the lava has been found in Iceland and ash has been found in the soil under the California redwoods.

-The eruption caused a tsunami that covered Crete (wiping out the Minoans), caused the Red Sea to part and caused the plagues…supposedly, the sky was dark for 2 days.

-A hippo’s mouth is half a meter wide.

-Steig Larson’s trilogy is the perfect antidote to “The Imperfectionists.”

-One month after the Olympic games (which were for free Greek men only), Greek women (virgins only) competed in the Heraea games. The women raced 160 meters in short one-shouldered dresses.

-In the ancient Olympics, men who cheated had their names and offense carved on a plaque below a statue of Zeus. Competitors spat on the plaques as they entered the arena.

-Cheaters always “met with an accident” on their way home from the Games.

-Winners of the ancient Olympic games got free food for life.

-When the winners returned to their hometown, they drove right through the town’s barricades because, if a town had an Olympic champion, the townspeople no longer needed a barricade to protect them.

-In ancient times, the motto of Kotor, Montenegro was “What belongs to others, we don’t want. What’s ours’ we’ll never give up.”

-Albarino is a yummy white wine.

-Croatians invented the ballpoint pen and the cravat.

-Continental Airlines SUCKS.

-A coypu is a web-footed rodent.