Oh the cookbook addiction!

Gave into temptation and bought a new vegan cookbook. I had my eye on Vegan Lunch Boxes, and on The Urban Vegan (I read her blog), but they both have faux-vegan processed food which I don't like. (a) Because I can only buy a lot of those things at the health food store, and I'm way too cold-resistant to go that far (7 min walk) in the winter. Seriously. I don't even go to the library across the street. ALL outdoor activity ceases once we reach 5 degrees C.

And (b) some products we don't have at all in my store, and I don't have a car so I'm not going any further.

And (c) I just don't want to eat a lot of processed food. Yes I'll buy bread and cereal and spaghetti sauce. But if I'm going to buy processed food, I'll buy a whole meal (hummus), or as a treat (vegan cream cheese, ice cream). Not as stuff I have on hand at all times, for any recipe.

Anyway, so I bought The Supermarket Vegan because it's based on 2 things: (1) food you can get at a suburban grocery store, and (2) not very processed.

I tried it tonight. In minutes I found two recipes I could make using the ingredients I have on hand, even though I haven't done a big shopping trip lately; I made them both, and was done, and cleanup done, within an hour. (I like to make big pots of things to eat over a couple days.) I made chilli with pasta, and curried orzo.

...Yes I know I'm the only vegan who read this blog. But I... I needed to shaaare. Probably a good book for people who want to make more vegetarian or vegan meals, but without having to buy kooky ingredients.

Old Men in the Balcony... at the Haiti concert

I'm watching the Haiti concert stuff on fastforward while I do my finances. Jennifer Hudson is on now, and it's the best performance so far. But that's probably not just a factor of her talent, but that in 2008 her mother, brother and nephew were murdered. This has got to be someone who understands tragedy. She chose to sing "Let It Be."

...Why does Brad Pitt look like the Unabomber?

I have to admit that Justin Timberlake and Whoever did justice to "Hallelujah" but it's a song I associate with romantic relationships, and not really with country-wide devastation. Or like Madonna singing "Like a Prayer." It feels like... each artist flipped pulled out the Songs to Sing in Tragic Times folder, and Stevie Wonder found "Bridge Over Troubled Water" in there, while Justin had to choose between "What Goes Around Comes Back Around" and "Hallelujah."

Madonna could have done better. Something from the "Ray of Light" era, methinks.

Beyoncé kinda blew it. She started with a pretty rendition of "Halo" but changed the lyrics from "Baby I can see your halo" to "Haiti I can see your halo." ...I don't know. Kinda cheesy.

Sting probably has lots of good stuff in Tragedy Folder, esp from The Police. He pulled out a good Guilt Song.

Denzel Washington could be reading from the phone book and I'd feel like I need to give money to someone. What a great voice.

Wyclef is doing "By the Waters of Babylon." Good choice. Sadness.
Oh and now he's doing the "enough of the moping" upbeat song thing. Finally! I'm so depressed.


***
Sting's song:

How can you say that you're not responsible?
What does it have to do with me?
What is my reaction, what should it be?
Confronted by this latest atrocity

Driven to tears

Hide my face in my hands, shame wells in my throat
My comfortable existance is reduced to a shallow meaningless party
Seems that when some innocent die
All we can offer them is a page in a some magazine
Too many cameras and not enough food
'Cos this is what we've seen

Driven to tears

Protest is futile, nothing seems to get through
What's to become of our world, who knows what to do

Driven to tears