Proof I'm a Scot

Oh man oh man oh man.

I have to try this. I have to. I mean, just... wow.

Baked onions with vegetarian haggis
(Source)

-6 medium unpeeled onions, trimmed
-50g sunflower margarine
-50g organic rolled oats
-50g pinhead oatmeal
-50g chopped mixed nuts
-1 onion, finely chopped
-100g mushrooms, finely chopped
-1 carrot, finely chopped
-200g can red kidney beans, drained and chopped
-50g vegetable suet
-1 teaspoon yeast extract
-1 teaspoon ground black pepper
-2 tbs. chopped mixed fresh herbs
-pinch of grated nutmeg
-juice of 1 lime
-1 tbs. whiskey
-seasoning
-chopped fresh chives and parsley, to garnish

Cut a slither from the bottom of each of the onions, so that they stand upright. Cut a cross in the top about three quarters of the way down. Place in a large pan, cover with cold water and bring to the boil. Simmer for 15 minutes, drain and refresh under cold water.

Preheat the oven to 190C (375F). To make the haggis, melt the margarine in a pan and add the oats, oatmeal and nuts. Cook over a gentle heat, stirring, for about 3 minutes until toasted and golden. Transfer to a bowl.

Melt remaining margarine, add the onion, mushrooms and carrot and cook gently for 5 minutes until softened. Stir into the toasted oat mixture with the remaining haggis ingredients. Season.

Snip out the center of the onions with kitchen scissors, leaving the skin and 3-4 outer layers intact. Stuff with haggis and bake for 40 minutes.

Foods of the Future, as predicted by Basio

More Floralia. Thus more flowers:



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So maybe, if you were paying attention to the news a month or so ago you heard that they compared the proteins from the bone collagen of a dinosaur (some proteins escaped fossilization) to that of a chicken, thus proving that chickens evolved from dinosaurs, after all. Up until now the whole "birds from dinosaurs" hypothesis was mostly based on the appearance and the transitional forms; this offers DNA proof of the connection.

Of course you know what this means.

Dinosaurs taste like chicken.

Now, you may not know this, but I really want to start moving away from eating birds. I'm not completely opposed to them, but at this point my mild discomfort with their consumption is tempered by the fact that this school can't seem to cook fish right and if I don't eat chicken my anemia will come back and I will become pale and sickly and prone to dramatic fainting spells at inopportune times, or maybe I'll just have to start swallowing iron pills again.

Anyway, the issue with birds are that they're basically as evolved as mammals, just up a different lineage. They're about equally intelligent and all, so my only arguement is that they're not that closely related to me and the ones I eat-- chicken and domesticated turkey-- are pretty damn dumb. But now I won't eat octopus for their intelligence and chickens aren't that much dumber than cows so...

Back to the dinosaurs. Here's my theory. They're trying to find a way to reverse-engineer chicken DNA to create dinosaurs. Awesome, no? You know it's awesome. Don't lie. See, all we have to do is get two dinosaurs, a male and a female. Then we breed them. Then we raise their offspring for meat.

Think about it. Dinosaurs are lizards so I wouldn't mind eating them. Plus for everyone else, they're either the size of chickens or turkeys anyway, or they're MASSIVE. You serve a Neuquenraptor for Thanksgiving and you have leftovers for at least a week, even if you live in a house like mine where a 25-pound-turkey is gone in three days. You might need a bigger fridge though. Plus that drumstick would be MASSIVE, so the kiddies wouldn't fight over it, they'd kinda HAVE to share.

Plus, that's all healthy meat, right there. Lean, white. Good eatin's. You could raise them instead of cows and feed them eggs, which I don't mind eating anyway on account of they're basically chicken menstruation (Just doing my part to lower your cholesterol). And you know, you give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Give him a Utahraptor and some salt or refrigeration and he eats for like THREE MONTHS. Plus there's nothing in the Jewish or Biblical regulations against eating dinosaurs on account of them not being things that "crawl on the earth." Just can't cook them in milk.

Then you get the eggs, which would make killer omelettes; and you can raise like, a T-rex for meat and feed whole towns when he's killed. T-rex meat would be awesome. And then there's the ultimate factor, the thing I noticed in my Bio book while studying that prompted this whole line of thinking:

T-rexes have wishbones.

And I'm pretty sure that if you could find a way to BREAK a T-rex wishbone, and you got the bigger piece, you could wish for God himself to appear and perform a flamboyant musical number with Ernst Mayr, Isaac Asimov, Ayn Rand and Friedrich Nietzsche and not only would it happen, but it would be FABULOUS.

Caution: Opinions Ahead

It's the last day of the Megalesia today.

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Mistake blogged today about the same thing I was going to blog about, and since I'm crazy-busy, rather than explain, I'm gonna redirect you to her excellent entry on the subject of the protests on T-Hall lawn [Link has been removed because the blog was].

Quick summary: Students For Life put up very graphic posters on T-Hall lawn comparing abortion to genocide. Students For Choice protested the comparison and the fact that the posters were so very graphic and in a public forum. What few warnings they had posted were ultimately useless. Big fuss.

I saw the protesters surrounding the display as I left Ham-Smith after English, but I didn't go nearer-- in fact, I averted my eyes. I was tempted to go when I first heard about it, because I don't think it's a legitimate or fair comparison at all and I don't think they should be forcing their views in such a graphic manner on everyone who walks by T-hall. But then it occurred to me that I couldn't go, because seeing pictures of genocide means I have trouble eating for weeks. Because the last thing I think about when I see images of the Cambodian killing fields is abortion (actually it's bubbles, but you get the point). No, I think of slaughterhouses.

I don't eat meat. I also don't stop other people from eating it. It's their choice. I hate it, I think it's immoral, but I know that they don't consider it immoral so I let it pass, because I don't know for certain that all mammals have as much of a soul as humans do. I believe it fervently, but I can't prove it. So I can't prove that it's immoral to kill and consume them. Thus I don't protest or even comment when people eat meat around me.

Actually, that's kind of the same way I feel about abortion. I can't prove if fetuses do or do not have as much of a soul as newborns do. I can't prove when they get that soul-- no one can. Thus I don't feel I have the right to protest or even comment when a woman gets an abortion. I mean, if it's so late that the baby could have survived outside the womb and been fine, that's different, I'd disagree with that. But 64% of abortions happen in the first three months. Brain waves have been detected on 13-week fetuses, but is that higher thought? And before then-- no brain function-- does it have a soul?

I know what I believe, I just can't, in good faith, foist it on other people without concrete proof. So until I can I let them make their own decisions, about abortions or about meat consumption. And I try not to let it get to me if people around me are doing things I disagree with. But every time I see a picture of genocide victims the first thing that pops into my head is images of factory farms and slaughterhouses. Then it won't leave my head for about a week, so every time I eat with someone who is eating beef or worse, pork (pigs are incredibly intelligent), I get nauseous because I remember the slaughterhouses and then I remember the genocide and then the next thing you know I'm thinking of cannibalism and I'm about ready to puke.

So I didn't go to the protest.

And now I feel queasy.