Spoiler alert! - Namely, for Peter Jackson’s King Kong (2005). Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

OK, so perhaps this post is six days late, but I’ve been busy enjoying the last throes of warm, sunny weather here in the Midwest. Plus, there was this minor matter called the presidential elections on Tuesday…maybe you’ve heard of it?

As I mentioned previously, Shane & I have a longstanding (three years now?…maybe four?) Halloween tradition: namely, we spend the day watching horror movies and scarfing junk food. This H-day was no exception, although we didn’t get though as many scary movies as we usually do; we watched three flicks, compared to the normal five or six. Probably because the first film, Peter Jackson’s King Kong, ran three and a half hours! Also on the roster were Identity and Untraceable.

Aside from some dreadful “primitive tribal heathen” stereotyping early on, King Kong is an incredible film. There’s definitely a strong (albeit most likely unintentional) animal welfare message underlying Kong’s story, and it’s handled beautifully by director Peter Jackson and actor Naomi Watts. Jackson’s Kong is the last of his (her?) kind, living a life of solitude and loneliness on Skull Island - that is, until Carl Denham (Jack Black) and crew arrive in order to film a movie. Leading lady Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts) is kidnapped from her ship by the island’s natives and sacrificed to Kong (cue awful stereotypes), presumably to keep the “beast” happy, content, and out of their camp. Kong, instead of devouring Darrow, initially keeps her as a sort of “pet.” (Kong is taken with her comedic vaudeville stylings, it seems.) Darrow soon escapes, but finds herself lost on a prehistoric island filled with rampaging dinosaurs and giant bugs. Kong, distraught at his only companion’s disappearance, tracks Darrow down, just in time to save her from two raptor-like dinos. Once Darrow is safe, Kong skulks off, injured both physically (from the battle) and emotionally (at Darrow’s desertion). Whether from fear or compassion (or, most likely, a combination of both), Darrow rejoins Kong.

Meanwhile, in the face of stampeding brontos and an angry Kong, Denham’s crew has abandoned their search for Darrow. Instead, they leave Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody) to continue the search for Darrow (with whom he’s fallen in love), while the crew heads back to the ship in order to set a trap (unbeknown to Driscoll) for Kong, who’s sure to pursue the pair. Driscoll manages to find Kong’s den, which is littered with the bones of Kong’s long-dead relatives. Darrow is asleep in Kong’s palm; the two, who have formed a reciprocal, interspecies bond, watched the sun set and then nodded off together. Driscoll wakes Darrow, and the two attempt to sneak away without rousing Kong. Kong awakes in time to see the two creeping away together, and in the ensuing scuffle, a hoard of bats stir from their cliffside perch and attack the trio. Driscoll and Darrow manage to hitch a ride on one of the bats’ backs, and Kong runs after them in frenzied pursuit.

Naturally, this is where the story becomes a tearjerker. Kong is tranquilized, captured and caged during his attempt to retake a regretful Darrow. Back in NYC, Kong becomes part of a grotesque monster display, wherein Darrow’s sacrifice to the beast is reenacted for the entertainment of “horrified” audience. Darrow, who during her time with Kong had come to recognize his humanity, intelligence and sentience, wants nothing to do with the circus act, so director/showman Denham hires a Darrow lookalike to play the part. Kong begins the show partially sedated; as he comes to, he initially starts at the blond actress: I know her! Kong reaches out to Ann - only to become enraged when he realizes that it’s an impostor. Now furious, he rips free of his shackles and storms New York in search of his Ann. On the streets, he scoops up any and every thin blond he can find, only to toss the women aside when he realizes they aren’t the ones he wants.

Performing in a small, low-budget vaudeville hall, Darrow hears the commotion and runs towards Kong while throngs of flee in the other direction. Once Kong is reunited with his Jane Goodall, the two enjoy a few brief moments of reconnection. Kong, who hails from a tropical island, has never before seen ice or snow, and he delights in skidded across a pond in Central Park with Darrow perched safely in his hand. This playful scene is interrupted by a hail of gunfire; Kong, though he hasn’t intentionally harmed anyone (and is in fact a captive slave in the city, there against his will), must be destroyed! You probably know the rest: Kong is pursued by the police and military to the top of the Empire State Building, from which he is eventually gunned down.

Kong dies for our stupidity, greed, selfishness and speciesism.

(More below the fold…)

Crossposted from yesterday’s VeganMoFo entry.

Shane picked up some Kalamata olives from Wild Oats’ salad bar yesterday, so I asked him (demanded is more like it!) to make me some olive bread this afternoon. Which was really a double bonus - yummy olive bread for me, plus a day’s rest from veganmofo recipes!

Shane adapted the “Classic French Bread” recipe in our Sunbeam Breadmaker manual to create this Kalamata Olive loaf. The original recipe lists a bunch of machine-specific steps, which I’ll skip; after all, if you already have a bread machine, chances are you know how to use it! And if you don’t have one, check out your local Goodwill or a family member’s attic - it’s a kitchen gadget no carb-loading vegan should be without.

Shane’s Kalamata Olive Bread

Ingredients

1 cup + 2 tablespoons water (75-85 degrees)
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 1/4 cups bread flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 1/2 teaspoons bread machine yeast
3/4 cup chopped Kalamata olives

(More below the fold…)

Update, 10/19/08: I left my squares in the fridge overnight, and the goo’s mostly congealed. Upon further reflection, I think I may have used too much egg substitute. The original recipe calls for six egg whites; I substituted for six whole eggs. So…maybe just use enough egg replacer for two to three eggs?

Either way, it’s super yummy.

————————

Today’s VeganMoFo recipe was really good, so I’m crossposting over here. Now, if you’ll ’scuse me, I do believe I’m about to lapse into a sugar coma.

I’m too tired to write an introduction, so without further adieu, Pumpkin-Applesauce Squares, via Deseret News. Made with slight modifications, as explained below. Enjoy! (I sure did.)

Pumpkin-Applesauce Squares

Ingredients

Egg replacer for 6 eggs
1 cup unsweetened applesauce [I used fresh-out-of-the-pot pumpkin applesauce]
1 1/2 cups sugar [I reduced to 1 1/4 cups]
2 cups canned pumpkin
2 cups all-purpose flour [I used 2 cups wheat flour]
3 teaspoons low-sodium baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon allspice

(More below the fold…)

…I gave my true love 53 birthday biscuits!

(Crossposted from easyVegan.info, of course.)

As you can most likely infer from the post title, today is the Ralphster’s birthday. My little man, my first-born and -adopted, turns a gray old 11 today. He’s like the Wilford Brimley of the doggeh world, minus the dia-beddies.

I have plenty of Ralphie pix after the jump, of course, but first a recipe for Peanut Butter ‘Nilla Biscuits from Yummy for Dogs. If you like what you see, check out the website and/or order a copy of webmistress Veronica Noechel’s Yummy for Dogs: A Cook Book for Canines. Hey, it’s on my wishlist. I mean, Ralphie’s wishlist. Yeah, Ralphie. (Hint, hint, wink, wink!)

Peanut Butter ‘Nilla Biscuits

These smell incredible!

1 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup oil
3 tablespoons peanut butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup oats

* In a large bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, and oats.

* Stir in oil, peanut butter, vanilla, and water.

* Knead till smooth, adding more flour or water as needed.

* Roll out on a lightly floured surface.

* Cut with cookie cutters.

* Bake on a greased cookie sheet at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

I stuck to the directions, but added some extra flour and rolled oats, as the dough was initially a little oily. I think I also used more like 5 tablespoons of peanut butter, since my “tablespoons” were heaped to overflowing. The dogs love the pb, though!

I have this cute little bone-shaped cookie cutter that the doggies’ grandmother bought for them/me, so I used that to cut the dough. I rolled the leftover scraps into a faux long rawhide bone with the cute little tied ends (for the birthday boy, natch!), as you can see in the photo. All in all, the recipe produced 53 cookies (40 long bones, 12 short bones and one “rawhide”), which fit on two sheets, no problem.

The dogs loved the treats, but don’t place too much trust in their critique; four out of the five of them eat their own poo! (And the fifth eats the cat’s poo - Rennie, I’m looking at you.) I did try the dough before rolling it into cookies, and it was on a little the bland side (for humans), but edible; and yet, definitely yummy for dogs!

(More below the fold…)

UPDATE, 10/7/08: For today’s VeganMoFo recipe, I used some of the leftover applesauce in a bread recipe to make Sweet Strawberry Applesauce Bread. Check it here. Also, the fruit leather? Way yummy - better than the applesauce, even! When rolled up for storage, it resembles salami, which is a bit disconcerting.

————————

I’m cross-posting today’s VeganMoFo post because this strawberry applesauce recipe is soooooo ridiculously sweet and fruity and yummy and you simply must try it!

For more vegan food blogging, you can view my entries here, or check out the PPK blog for daily roundups.

Now that the season of the zucchini is winding down, I’m slowly turning my attention to using those 120+ bags of apples I picked in September. (OK, so I gave most of them away; we only have about 20 bags left, not counting the 20 or so that are still on the trees. But I digress.) While hunting around the internets for an apple-heavy recipe this afternoon, I stumbled upon a super-yummy strawberry applesauce recipe from www.recipezaar.com:

Applesauce With Strawberries

Ingredients

3 lbs macintosh apples or apples (about 9 apples)
10 large frozen strawberries
1/3 cup sugar
1 lemon, juice of
1/4 cup water
1/8 teaspoon allspice

Directions

Peel, core and slice apples 1/4-inch thick. Place apple slices in a large saucepan. Add remaining ingredients and simmer until a sauce consistency, about 45 minutes. Use a potato masher, if necessary, to break up any lumps, but leave slightly chunky.

I more or less stuck to the recipe (I have a difficult time following directions - canyatell?); it’s both easy and insanely delicious. The sauce comes out on the sweet side, so if you prefer your applesauce tasting more like apples and less like candy, you may want to go a little easy on the sugar. If you love strawberries like moi, throw in a few extra berries. Don’t worry, I won’t tell.

This snack is best served warm, but I’m sure it’s quite good cold or at room temp, too.

(More below the fold…)

For those not in the veg*n know, fall is the time to be a veghead! Not only is today World Vegetarian Day (happy World Vegetarian Day, peoples!), October 1 also kicks off VeganMoFo, i.e., the Vegan Month of Food, organized by veg*n culinary genius (and #1 domestic terra-ist) Isa @ Post Punk Kitchen:

Join us for VeganMofo - the Vegan Month Of Food. The idea is to write as much as you can for the month of October about vegan food. The blog entries can be about anything food related - your love of tongs, your top secret tofu pressing techniques, the first time your mom cooked vegan for you, vegan options in Timbuktu - you get the idea.

Last year we didn’t come up with strict guidelines for how often we wrote, but I think the idea is to shoot for every weekday, or about 20 times in the month. Don’t forget to tag your stuff “veganmofo” and you can use the VeganMoFo banner (^up there) on your mofo posts. If you’d like inspiration or would just like to whine about how hard it is, check out the MoFo forum on the PPK message boards.

As the world catches on that vegan food really is the best choice for animals (suck it, humane meat!), the planet (bite me, melting ice caps!) and people (piss off, heart disease!) let’s show them what vegan eating is all about.

One last thing - you may remember that VeganMoFo was in November last year, well, this year it’s in October because there’s more produce and stuff. Also, I’ll be in NYC this November and not really near a computer.

To be included here, just leave a comment on this blog entry with a link to your URL. I will then include you in the RSS feed, once I remember how to update it. You can also join the VeganMoFo Flicker group. Happy writing everyone! If you’re feeling at a loss for how to start this off, why don’t you make your first entry about that?

If you want to participate, it’s not too late. Head on over to the Post Punk Kitchen to register your blog, join the Flickr group, and grab a banner.

I’m taking part over at my AR blog, easyVegan.info (just jump to the VeganMoFo category to view all the posts). I may occasionally crosspost an entry over here, but I don’t want to flood the place with all-veg*n posts, all the time. So hop on over to easyVegan to read my first entry, which focuses on X-Treme Local Eating (otherwise known as, ahem, “gardening”).

If you’ve got a veg*n issue you’d like me to address, drop a comment below. I’m open to suggestions, especially since I don’t have any recipes saved up for the carnival. As of this writing, I’ve only thunk up enough ideas to fill a week - and I’ll be here through 10/31, folks.

Oh, and tomorrow: World Farm Animals Day. Getcher free veg starter kit to commemorate the day here.

————————

Tagged: veganmofo vegan veganism vegetarian vegetarianism blog swarm october food carnival eating locally garden gardening fruits veggies flickr photos world vegetarian day events ppk post punk kitchen wfad world farm animals day

Last week, I shared a recipe for Herbal Tofu with Apples and Pears, a yummy dish for dogs and people. This week, I decided to try out a slightly different version, sans tofu and with loads of caffeine-laden tea. The result? “Candied” Chai Pears. (”Candied” in scare quotes because they’re candy-esque, not really “candied.”)

“Candied” Chai Pears

(More below the fold…)

Tonight, I have a somewhat odd DIY recipe to share: Herbal Tofu with Apples and Pears. The title pretty much says it all.

Currently, we’re knee-deep in an obscene amount of home-grown produce. We’ve got a garden with at least six varieties of tomatoes (grape, cherry, roma, beefsteak and some other kinds whose names we’ve long since forgotten); green pepper; jalapenos; green and yellow zucchini; Italian “spaghetti” squash; cantaloupe; watermelon; gourds; pumpkins…and, um, I think that’s it. I could be mistaken, though.

Since summer blossomed, we also discovered that we have four apple and two pear trees, as well as some blackberry bushes that I refuse to harvest, seeing as they share the forest/pasture border with a whole lotta poison ivy. Berries may be yummy, but they’re still not worth it. We also have two trees that appear to be fruit-bearing, but we’ve yet to name that fruit. So, to recap…we have about 45 bags of apples sitting in our garage, along with three bags of overripe pears and two big fat watermelons.

I devised this particular recipe while doing yoga, my wandering mind trying to figure out what the eff to do with all those apples (!). My Herbal Tofu with Apples and Pears dish is technically “dog food,” but like most of my for-canine concoctions, Shane and I loved it too.

This recipe fills two large baking pans (remember, I bake in bulk), but since the produce shrinks during baking, it actually yields a smaller serving than you might think. Maybe….16 cups after cooking? The entire recipe fit in my third-largest Tupperware container, in any case.

Herbal Tofu with Apples and Pears

(More below the fold…)

LD and I have a tradition. Every year, I ask him what dishes he’d like me to make for his birthday, and every year - without fail - he picks mac salad.** That’s it. Just mac salad. A huge frikkin tub. Which he feasts on for like the next week.

And I have to admit, it’s pretty good. Probably not the healthiest meal I’ve ever blogged, but really effin yummy. Plus it’s a great dish to end the summer with.

Don’t let the photo scare you. I know it looks like some scary radioactive science project, but orange macaroni isn’t all that photogenic. That, and my gourmet food critic photographic isn’t all that gourmet.

(More below the fold…)

Another zucchini recipe!

I made this dish for the doggehs, but it will work well for humans, too.

Kelly’s Applekin Tofu Soup

Ingredients

Applekin Base:
1 15 oz. can pumpkin
2 cups apple cider or apple juice
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1/2 talespoons ground cloves

Veggies:
1 pressed brick of firm or extra firm tofu, diced into 1″ x 1″ pieces
1/3 large zucchini (or 2-3 smaller, store-bought zucchinis), diced into 1″ x 1″ pieces
1/3 cup TVP

(More below the fold…)