Sit Properly

I used to post on Live Journal a lot. There was a great community of devotees there and I provided a bit of comic relief. I wasn’t afraid to be a bit goofy. Sure, I’d post articles about how to chant better japa and some great Nityananda pastimes, but I’d also post stuff like goofy fake New Vrndavana tshirts (they’re coming soon).

And not that recipes are silly, but they were sort of random and out of the blue.

The recipe I posted was for vegan french toast. As devotees, we can’t have French Toast. No eggs, please. And I’ve never ever liked the banana-based recipes. Sorry, sorry!

Haribol!

That’s right, French TOAST! For eons now, we’ve been unable to partake of this *amazing* dish. Sure, our vegan friends have made it with bananas, but do you really want fried banana bread? Heck no!

So doooo what I dooooooo…..

Here’s the batter:
2 Cups soy, almond, or oat milk (not rice milk, it’s too thin)
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
3 tablespoons flour
a bit of vanilla and cinnamon if you like (and you DO like!)

Mix it
Put bread in it,
and fry the bread.

Offer it to Krishna!

Vegan French toast for you!

Love and kisses,
Bhakta Eric

Then, in March of 2006, the Sampradaya Sun ran an article by a “Staff Correspondent” about how Rice Crispies breakfast cereal contains beef (this may have appeared on other devotee news sites as well). I read labels like I should read Prabhupada’s books. I knew that Rice Crispies didn’t have beef or anything else nonvegan in it. However, I did know that I hadn’t had Rice Crispy Treats since I went vegetarian because the marshmallows used to make it contain gelatin (which is made from cow horns/hooves/ickiness).

In the recent Sampradaya Sun article Kellogg’s Rice Krispies… With Beef, they alluded that Rice Krispies contains gelatin. That is not true at all.

According to their actual article and to the Kellogg’s website, Kellogg’s Rice Krispies Treats cereal has gelatin, not regular Rice Krispies.

Srila Prabhupada once had Rice Krispies cereal and appeared to enjoy it:

Prabhupada: Chewra is there.
Pusta Krsna: Chewra also we can purchase.
Harikesa: Yesterday that puffed rice was Rice Krispies, cereal.
Prabhupada: That was nice.
Pusta Krsna: You like with peas?
Prabhupada: Yes.
Pusta Krsna: Peanuts?
Prabhupada: Not peas, that green… Yes, green peas.
Pusta Krsna: Fried.

>>> Ref. VedaBase => Morning Walk — October 6, 1975, Durban

Rice Krispies Treats Cereal is basically Rice Krispies Treats chopped up in a box. We can’t eat it because of the gelatin in the marshmallows used to keep it all together. However, we can make some very tasty Rice Krispies Treats of our own. Here’s the recipe.

1/2 cup sugar or fructose
1/2 cup light corn syrup
2 tablespoons margarine
3/4 cup peanut butter
4 cups rice crispies

Heat up the sugar, corn syrup and margarine in a big pot and stir often. After everything is melted and starts to boil, add the peanut butter until everything is fully melted together. Now add the rice crispies, mix again. After it’s all mixed, pour into a greased square glass dish and throw it in the fridge till it sets. Cut into squares, offer to Krishna. Jaya!

Both of these recipes have been tested by me many times. For the best French Toast, the thicker the bread, the better. Trust me. You don’t want thin soggy bread. No you don’t.

I’m not sure how to make the Rice Crispy Treats healthier. Corn Syrup and white sugar aren’t exactly the best things in the world for you. If someone would want to try using raw sugar and all natural peanut butter (not that it would help all that much), let me know.

I’ve got other recipes that I’m working on – ones for common spice mixes to take the place of store-bought spice mixes that contain garlic and onions and MSG. Mixes for chili, taco seasonings, etc. Those will be figured out shortly. Excited? Yeah, I bet you are.

I’ve come up with a few Proto-recipes that I’d like to try out. Here they are – fully Krishnatarian.

Chili Powder Recipe
3 Dried Ancho chilies
4 Dried Chipotle chilies
1 T seeds from Chipotle chilies
4 t cumin seeds
1/2 t whole cloves
1 t coriander seeds
1/2 t whole allspice berries
3 T oregano (preferably Mexican, but probably regular)
1 T sea salt
1/2 T hing

Remove the stems and seeds from the chili peppers. Tear the chilies into small pieces. Combine the chilies in a skillet with the cumin, cloves, coriander and allspice and stir continuously over low heat until there is a faint crackling noise and the fragrance of the peppers is perceptible. This will take about two minutes. Cool completely.

Combine above concoction with oregano, salt and hing in a spice mill and grind to a fine powder. Mix, then store airtight.

[updated Oct 27, 2007]

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Taco Seasoning Recipe

8 t Chili powder (from above, if correct)
2 t paprika
1 t cumin
1 t hing
1 t cayenne pepper (if Chili powder isn’t spicy enough)

Combine all ingredients in a jar with a tight fitting lid. Mix by shaking.

Note – there is salt in the chili powder.
[updated Dec 21, 2008]

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Pasta Sauce Recipe

3 pounds tomatoes, blended (preferably Italian, plum type)
½ cup olive oil
2 T vegtan butter
½ t hing
1 medium carrot, cut in 8 pieces
2 t sweet basil
1 t thyme
½ t oregano
2 t sea salt
1 T nutritional yeast
1 t turbinado sugar
½ t black pepper
½ cup of dry TVP (measured and then soaked in water for a min)
2 bay leaves

Heat oil and “butter” over medium heat. Add hing and fry for 30 seconds. Add carrot pieces and fry for 1 minute. Stir in the blended tomatoes and the remaining seasonings. Raise the heat and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 1 hour.

Remove carrot pieces and bay leaves.

Note – This is a play on the recipe in Higher Taste.

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Veggie Burgers

4 1/3 cups of water
1 tsp corn oil
1/2 cup soy sauce
3/4 cup chopped tomatoes
3/4 cup chopped carrots (boiled a bit to soften)
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp Italian herb seasoning
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
4 1/2 cups of rolled {no quick} oats

Combine everything but oats and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and add the oats. Stir well. Cook for 5 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Form or cut into patties and brown in oil with a pinch of hing in it.

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Again, these are proto-recipes. If anyone wants to try them, go for it. I’ll be doing that soonly myself.

Now all I need is a good stir fry recipe and something that looks like taco sauce and I’m happy!

Garlic and onions (and to a large extent, mushrooms) are considered low class, for lack of a better term, by many Sikhs, Hindus and Vaisnavas (Hare Krishnas). Basically, everything material can be placed into one of the “modes of nature.” These “modes” are: goodness, passion and ignorance. This goes for food as well.

It’s pretty cut and dry. Veggies, fruit, etc. are in the mode of goodness. Meats and icky things are in the mode of ignorance. The mode of passion is a bit of a gray area, but things like onions and garlic fall into that. Mushrooms, because they’re fungi, are in the mode of ignorance – though that doesn’t mean that we believe eating a mushroom is evil, just to be clear).

We are supposed to offer our food to Krishna prior to eating it. Cooking then becomes a ritual. We aren’t just cooking for ourselves, we’re cooking for Krishna. Think of it as cooking for a really important guest. When we cook, we try to think of what Krishna would like (as opposed to what we would like). That’s why we want to use the freshest, mode of goodnessest, ingredients. Also, we don’t taste the food prior to offering it. Big BIG pet peeve of mine when people do that. It’s just icky. Stop it.

Anyway, I use a few things with garlic/onions in them. Mostly powdered mixes. Like chili powder and taco seasoning. I also use pasta sauce. I’m trying to break away from such things. It’s MUCH nicer to not use mixes anyway, Krishna or not.

This is a really long introduction and I apologize.

I want to make my own taco seasonings and chili powder. Both would be fairly easy to do without garlic and onions. I’ve been looking around for some good ones and have found a few. I really want to do this. I want that everything I cook or warm up is offerable (in this case, minus garlic, onions and mushrooms).

Ok, so taco seasonings and chili powder is simple. But what about pasta sauce. Jeff will remember that I used to make a REALLY killer pasta sauce. But tomatos are so expensive. I’ll have to find another recipe. And veggie burgers. What about them? Sad, really. You’d think I’d know.

Mostly what I cook is Indian. But I like to eat things aside from Indian food. Like tacos, chili, veggie burgers, pizza and pasta. Wow.. carb-city! Oh! A good stir fry sauce would be nice too.

So – who can help me?

I need:
-Veggie Burger recipe
-Pasta sauce (marinara) recipe
-Stir fry sauce recipe

Anyone?

Huh-elp?

Last evening, I invited DJ over for prasadam. It was warmed up left overs from Janmastami, but it also served as my feast for Prabhupada’s appearance. I made all this food and wanted to distribute some. I need it to eat, of course, but what’s the point in making prasadam if you can’t share it?

I wanted to make rice to go with it, so I did, but since I only have two burners and was making three preps, I had to get a little creative:

I put the channa masala on top of the cauliflower/tomato sabji and the rice on the other burner. It worked out pretty well, actually. I was surprised.

And then DJ came over. It gave me a chance to serve out. Last year, at New Vrndavana I was serving out for nearly every meal. There was definitely a blissful quality to it, but there were times that I didn’t get to eat when I wanted to. Lesson in detachment. It was wonderful. Though maybe next time, I’ll see if I can get out of it.

Anyway, DJ ate…

And then we talked about religion. We talked about Christianity (he’s a converted Mennonite) and Vaisnavism. I read some Prabhupada quotes – especially the one… “Religion without philosophy is sentiment, and philosophy without religion is mental speculation. They should be combined, philosophy and religion. Then it will be perfect.” We talked on that for a bit. It was nice to agree. And it was nice to talk to someone about religion. I miss talking about Krishna consciousness. Sad lil ol’ me!

Right now I’m at work thinking that I wish I had the means to bake a cake to offer to Krishna on Janmastami. But I have no such means. And then I think that maybe I just want a cake. That maybe I’m so hungry that I’m tricking myself into thinking that I want to make it for Krishna, when in reality, I just want to make it for me.

Nevertheless, I wish I could make cake for Janmastami. But I can’t. Not even a little. I have a toaster oven and that doesn’t exactly make cakes, now does it (no, not even cupcakes).

So these are my lamentations. I cry rivers of sorrowful tears for the missing Janmastami Cake.

Oh today! Well, yesterday, really.

Since I’m vegan, I tend to remember things based upon what I was eating at the time.

Molly and Mandy dears slept in a bit so I trekked to Wild Oats to get water and some black berries. And then to Jamba Juice to get a smoothie. I walk back home… well, to Molly’s home, which is my home away from home till Thursday.

The troops were up and I shared some wonderful blackberries with Mandy. And then we went to Sage’s Cafe. Sage’s Cafe was amazing. Breakfast! It was most definitely on par with Macy’s Cafe in Flagstaff, which, if Nikki’s* reading is a big big deal, huh?

I got a Milk Shake! A MILK SHAKE! Being vegan, we love milk shakes more than you. Always. Teehee! And then I got Breakfast Tacos. They gave the burros at Macy’s a definite run for their money. Mandy and Wayde got flapjacks and Molly got nothing because of her poor lil tummy. *Happy thoughts for Molly’s tummy*

From the cafe, we went to Liberty Park and walked around a bit. We checked out a museum that’s in Brigam Young’s old house. Nice digs, sir. The museum housed Utah folk art. Some of it was really fun.

The museum was great. I bet there are places around where I live like this. But when you’re traveling, you tend to notice such things. I like little town museums.

In this park, there’s a little section with tiny carnival rides. Swings, Marry-Go-Round, etc. Without much thought, I, with the rest of them, got a ticket for the ferris wheel. Mandy and I climbed on and it spun us up. We got to the top and it stopped to let on other people. I nearly lost it. I had figured that heights would suddenly not bother me anymore because I flew and didn’t die. Smart Eric. At the top I grabbed Mandy’s arm and said “Serious, do me a favor, don’t rock it.” It must have been so incredibly difficult to not rock it. My request was silly. Why go on something like this if you can’t rock it a bit?

But suddenly I was ok with it. It’s not a amazing feat, of course. The ferris wheel was small. Really small. But I conquered it! Woo!

More walking around the park later….

And we decided that today would be a good day to go to the temple. The Krishna temple, I mean. So we drove the hour or so (thanks, Molly) to the temple.

It was Sunday, so the feast was on. We got there and they were finishing Nrsmha Prayers, the last prayers of the evening. Everybody filed out and I took some pictures of the deities.

And then I went downstairs to look at some books in the store and to take prasadam. I ate a bit and talked to this new devotee, Brandon and an Indian fellow a little younger than me named Sunil. Great people. So nice. And it was great to be around devotees. I was happy. Yay!

I bought about $120 worth of books. Including one for Jeff about Warfare in ancient India.

This temple has llamas and cows. So we went out and said hello.

Hi!

Oh and llamas…

And the Molly Lllama!

It was a much lovely day.

*Nikki is supposed to be out of cell and internet range/connection for two weeks while she works in Sequoia National Park in California. If you have a moment, send some nice thoughts/prayers her way. It can be a bit dangerous out there.

Have you ever just been in a quiet mood. It’s not really a bad mood. But then, it’s not really not a bad mood. But mostly, it’s just quiet. And I was quiet.

I think we skipped breakfast. It wasn’t till 11 or 12 that we actually got around to leaving the house. We headed, then, to an Indian restaurant downtown. Something “of India.” It was good. A little expensive, but really worth it.

After eating, we walked to the Zion bookstore that Ryan told me about. It’s three floors of new, used and rare books. Very fun. You’d think that I’d be burned out on bookstores… actually I thought that I would be. But I’m not. Just burned out on me running one, I guess.

I found a few old Prabhupada books and even a Bhaktipada book. But I purchased a little leaflet from the Sri Chaitanya Matha about the holy name. A lot of quotes from Bhaktisiddhanta and references from sastra. Great stuff. Only $1.

Keep in mind, this entire time, I’m hardly speaking a word. I think it’s bothering my guests, so I try to force conversation, but it’s just awkward, so I let it go.

After a stop at a Scottish store, we drive back home to wait for the Iceburn show. I’m pretty stoked about this. We watch a couple of episodes of Spaced and Mandy takes a little nap and finally we’re off.

The show is being held in the moronically named club called “The Venue.” The Canadian band Bowling for Soup is playing in the bar area, Iceburn, God’s Revolver and Stella Brass are playing in the first floor area.

Generally, I hate club shows. Just the idea. Sure, there can be great shows put on anywhere, but clubs just piss me off. And this one didn’t fail at that.

When we first attempted to go in, some no-dick security guards, fresh out of bootcamp, I’m sure, told me to empty my pockets. They told Mandy and Molly to empty theirs as well, but to no event. I had a pen in my pocket and no-dick told me “I’m going to have to keep the pen.” I honestly thought he was joking. He turned me around, opened my back, made some amazingly intelligent comment about me having a lot of notebooks and attempted to send me on my way. “Could I have my pen back?” “Find me after the concert.” “What? Are you kidding me? Oh that’s just ass.” And I walk away. Pissed.

I hate clubs. I hate security guards. Period. I understand that there isn’t a DIY venue in SLC, so in this case it was a necessary evil. But why do necessary evils have to be so fucking… EVIL?

So I lost my $4 pen to some poor little man trying to compensate. Thanks. Explode in hell.

Anyway, the show itself started with God’s Revolver. They do a sound check and we wait for more people to show up. At this point, there’s only 30ish paying. But as they filter in, it was something really neat to see. Most of the kids were 30 to 40 years old. Most of them were hugging each other like they haven’t seen each other in nearly a decade. For Stella Brass and Iceburn, they haven’t played together in about ten years. It explains a lot. It’s not just a reunion show for those bands, but a reunion show for the kids too.

I’m not usually a fan of reunion shows. 99% of the time they’re done for money, so they drag their wrinkled asses back on stage to pretend they’re still 20 years old. No thanks. But this show was quite the different case. I can’t begin to count the hugs. It was wonderful.

God’s Revolver played and they weren’t bad. The lead singer tried to pull off a stage persona, failed, but was really fun anyway. Tight band, sort of a rock & roll with lots of changes and stops. I dug it.

Right when Stella Brass started to play, a handful of really young kids come in. I think they’re with Iceburn. But it was great to see them. They were totally rocking out, but not in an obnoxious 8 – 10 year old way. They were sincerely into the music.

Stella Brass was good. You can tell that they had a varied career, a lot of different styles. Some were really my thing, others weren’t. The last song they played was brilliant. I’d love to get a recording of that.

For the first two bands, I hung back. But for Iceburn, I wanted to be up front. So I made my way through the 150ish or so kids and stood up front. Iceburn started with a sax intro from “Burn” or “Fall,” I can’t remember which. When they did this, the whole crowd fell silent. It was like some huge religious experience. Something big was happening here. And my god, it was. Without any stage banter, they went from song to song sometimes switching members, sometimes with a sax. They played through most of the Firon 12″ and then played “Poem of Fire.”

I then remembered just how hard it was to dance to something with constantly changing time signatures. But these guys were tight. They haven’t really played with this line up in fifteen or so years. It was like 1994, I swear. I figured that they were only going to do stuff from Firon, but they broke into “Iron I” (or is it called “Fe”?), played most or all of it and then went back into Burn/Fall. At one point they had to saxes on stage!

The whole thing was so worth it. It was even worth losing my pen over (though, it doesn’t excuse it).

I got some video of it. Here’s a clip from “Poem of Fire.”

If I was in a bad mood, this cleared it up. It was one of the best shows I’ve ever been to. Iceburn played for about an hour, totally kicking our asses. Amazing.

We came back to the house and mostly just slept. Highlight of the trip so far. Brilliant.

Now, as most of you know, I don’t eat meat or eggs or dairy. But I’m also quite against the idea of gifting such things to people. Even buying them eggy or meaty things, even if they pay me back, I just can’t do.
So, I’ve been following this comic on the web called “Totally Not Vegan.” Basically it’s about the trials and tribulations of being vegan is a pretty much nonvegan world. And it’s usually pretty funny.

Here’s this week’s:

(Click for bigger version)

I’m glad to see that there are other vegans who simply don’t want meat in their lives at all. Period. Just nothing to do with it. Hell, I don’t even want to sit down at the same table as a meat eater. It’s not a snob thing. It’s a gross thing.

I’m sorry, a dead animal carcass you’ve been gnawing on that’s boiled, fried, burned, cooked broiled is still a dead animal carcass. It’s gross. Stop it! Put it down!

Now, I’m not saying that I’m going to get up in your face and call you a murderer, that’s just… cliche. But I’m really not into being around meat. It creeps me out and honestly, saddens me.

So anyway, quick short little post cause I just read the Totally Not Vegan for this week and related. Though, if it were me, I wouldn’t have accepted it, especially with the blonde gal’s attitude.