Category: Reflections
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Pumpkin crumble bars and Northern Lights
It’s almost Canadian Thanksgiving and pumpkin is in the air. I’m visiting family this weekend and it’s as if Nora from Nora Cooks was speaking directly to me with her email about the Pumpkin Crumble Bars. On Thursday evening I made the pumpkin bars, using butternut squash instead of canned pumpkin purée. I roasted the…
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Objections and replies
Next week I’ll be a guest in a philosophy graduate seminar my friend and colleague, Samantha, is teaching on philosophy and food. The students will be reading the most recent draft of my paper, “Meat-eating as ideology and ‘meat-eaters’ fragility’,” which I’ve blogged about before. They’re also reading David Foster Wallace’s “Consider the Lobster,” a…
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Would you rather not think about it?
Recently I was out for dinner with a group of people when the person beside me said they’d “rather not think about” where their food comes from. The idea here is, if I don’t think about it I don’t have to change anything. But if I DO think about it, I might at least feel…
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Protein, even for dessert!
If you had to design a Vegan Bingo card, a great candidate entry would be “But where do you get your protein?” I don’t know anyone who has been vegan for any length of time who hasn’t been asked this question. And then there are the so-called chefs, such as the chef that catered an…
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Making a difference
It’s easy to get demoralized when you’re doing something that goes against what the majority of people do. Living a vegan lifestyle can be like that. I’ve experienced that sense of ineffectiveness lately. I decided that today would be a good day to (1) remind myself why I have chosen this path and (2) pay…
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The plant-based milk recall doesn’t mean we should reject plant-based milk
Anyone who uses plant-based milks in Canada is surely aware by now of the recall of various Silk and Great Value products — refrigerated oat, almond, and coconut milks — because of listeria contamination. I remember when I used to think that only animal products were susceptible to contaminants like e-coli, listeria, salmonella, and such.…
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Travelling while vegan: Brittany and Normandy — the struggle was real
Content warning: apparent griping about “first world problems.” For ten days I finessed my way through a triple-challenge. Brittany and Normandy are tough at the best of times. So that was challenge #1. Add to that being on a tour with omnivores, where for the most part the dining venue was organized and not up…
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Whom do you care for?
Bruges is a lovely town in Belgium, known for its beauty. Think well-preserved medieval buildings and quaint canals. It is also home to one of Europe’s oldest surviving hospital buildings, Sint-Janshospital, which is now a museum. The main hall where they used to care for patients has the grandeur of a church. It operated as…
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The ableism of arguments from intelligence
A friend to whom I recently recommended Ed Yong’s An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms around Us thanked me this week. He loved the book, and rightly so. It’s stellar, as I reported when I read it some time ago. And I was happy to have it brought back to mind.…
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Are vegan foods “highly processed” and is that an objection?
Earlier this week a friend tagged me in a post, suggesting a possible blog topic (thanks, Sam!). The gist was that they keep hearing complaints about how vegan foods are “highly processed,” and yet the Gusto vegan sausages they had for dinner didn’t seem to be. The ingredient list, which my friend included a photo…
Vegan Practically 