Oy vey, its been a while. Six years to be precise. Its a timely return to semi-public life too. 

I mean to get back to writing regularly again - its a great outlet for the general spleen that I hestitate (less and less successfully!) to vent on my social compadres who mostly don't want to hear such serious talk. I guess if you're coming to a blog about politics, religion, and philosophy, you're kind of asking for it, so consider yourself forewarned. There seems to be an abundance of blogfodder these days too, I'm spilling over. 

Its very likely that I will NEVER talk about masks or social distancing here, aside from maybe to discuss the COVID-19 impact on my own mental health, so if you're here looking for advice on how to deal, you won't get any. Its been eight months, you should already know what the smart move is. 

Anyway, I bought a cute little 1940's-built house last year to renovate, so I do have many tales give you many tales of fixing, weed pulling, and experiments with the garden harvest.  Its been so spiritually rewarding - a blessing in stressful times to have something to put some creative energy into - choosing paint colours, installing light fixtures, growing veggie starts, then seeing it all come to fruition. I've brought out the canner many times this fall to aid with my astonishing bounty of tomatoes. 

I'm surprisingly glad also, in the current political climate especially, to have a little piece of land to compound up in for the zombie apocalypse - the feeling of relief is actually palpable, I really recommend it if you are suffering from anxiety over the current state of affairs in the world. I write to you from Vancouver Island specifically, and the Comox Valley to be more precise, which even in the context of the idyllic Vancouver Island is sort of like a piece of paradise (photo), so that is helping to keep me grounded during the political turbulence. It feels good to be physically separated from urban chaos by a large body of water. Even though Vancouver isn't exactly chaotic (yet), it is my genuine belief that when STHF, the big cities are going to be ground zero. 

Paradise aside, I have watched in horror these past several years from my little compound, as every prediction I made becomes made real (see my post on post-millennial evangelism here). The current state of affairs in our once-great neighbouring country is philosophically distressing, and it is alarming to me how many times The Handmaids Tale (not the TV show, the amazing novel by Canadian Great Margaret Atwood - required reading for anyone with an interest in politics)  has creeped into conversation recently. 

Not much that I can do about it all though, sadly, aside from poke the fire of dissent with my metaphorical stick - which I do on the regular. I revel in it, even though it makes me kind of sick and sad to have to do so, but I feel I have no real choice. Acceptance is not an option. 

My love affair with cheese - a bitter end, or everything in moderation?

Saddened by the apparent realization that I may be lactose intolerant.

My recent spate of excessive red meat and cheese consumption left me with some pretty serious heartburn, so I went on a bit of a liver/gall bladder detox to try to re-balance (add: cucumbers, pears and beets; delete: red meat, cheese, refined sugar and chocolate), and within a single day I felt like a new woman.

So of course, to celebrate, I had a seemingly harmless bowl of granola and milk for breakfast. BAM! Heartburn again. Could be the granola, I guess, but what are the chances, really?

This truly does suck. If my life has no cheese in it, I'm not sure how I'll go on. But at least it will help me get better prepared for the post-apocalyptic shortage of luxury goods.

Anyway, I guess for the time being I'll lay low on the milk and cheese, but hopefully it won't mean we have to break up. 

Watermelon-strawberry! Holy mother of god, the best smoothie in the world

Post workout refuelling is always a challenge for me, since I go straight there after work, which means I get home close to. 8pm. I've been especially indulgent with the cheesy deep-fried snacks and red meat this last couple of weeks, so my system is telling me its time to detox.

Enter the watermelon strawberry smoothie!!


I bought a watermelon a couple of months back, and couldn't finish it all before it turned to crap, so I chopped it up and froze it. Same with my last pack of strawberries. As a single girl, it's difficult to get through that big a portion unless I have a bender. A watermelon bender.

Anyway, here's the goods:

- half a cup (ish) of frozen watermelon chunks
- half a cup (ish) of frozen strawberries
- 1/3 a cup (ish) of plain low fat yogurt (my preference is Liberte brand, but Greek style is fine too, just not that crappy watery junk)
- 1 cup (ish) of Sunripe watermelon strawberry juice

Blend to a liquid consistency. Consume, and moan in ecstasy. I feel instantly redeemed for the cheeseburger I had for lunch!

You know, smoothies will be the thing I miss most after the zombie apocalypse.

By the way, I DO NOT. Recommend watermelon smoothies, or blended drinks in general, using unfrozen watermelon. It's hard to believe it could be so different.

Caramel coffee martini

Well what a surprise this little experiment was! The inspiration for this recipe came to me while I was in the liquor store, looking all bewildered and amazed at the enormous array of flavored vodkas! So much to choose from! I stumbled across the salted caramel, and that was it, I just knew.

My friend Brad came over to test recipes with me, and the first one was so good we didn't try anything else all night. Just lots and lots of the same one. The amazing thing is, I have no hangover today!

Anyway...


Fill your martini jigger half full with ice, and in it, place the following:

 - 4 parts Stoli "Salted Caramel" vodka (oh my lord, sooo good)
 - 1 part Kahlua
 - 3 parts half and half

Shake, pour. Makes enough for two large-ish martinis, or three normal size ones. My pitiful little martini glasses are so small that I got four out of it.

I sprinkled on some ground rock salt, and some grated dark chocolate shavings, which were delicious, but I think too messy and way too much work for what they contributed overall. Another idea might be to melt some chocolate and dip the rims in it, and chill the glasses to set it, but holy cow does that ever sound like too much work.


The awesome part of the shavings was that when the martini was finished, the residual shavings looked just like a glass full of ants! Mmmmm!


If you were feeling really decadent, you could top this with some whipped cream, but that's a little too much fat for my liking. I'm trying to reduce the muffin top before my summer vacation. Really, martinis are not the best way to do that.

The next Salted Caramel recipe to test is going to be something with root beer or Dr. Pepper.

Trouble in Paradise

I was home this long weekend visiting my parents, and as always, my mom and I got into talking politics and religion (its your fault I'm like this mom!). For such a contentious topic, and considering the very dark places I've gone in my studies of both, I'm patently shocked that we agree on most issues, at least in the matter of the relationship between evangelical proselytizing and modern ethics.

I was even more surprised though to discover that Mom was already aware of the bizarre trends within the Christian churches in America to increase their membership - such as free beer and staged fights - an appeal to younger men, evidently, to make church more enticing. What she didn't know about was the involvement of the "manosphere," the growing group of men who have become so disillusioned with modern life that they are easy pickings for the proselytizing efforts of the post-millennial Evangelical movement.

The men of the manosphere feel useless and unworthy, and the church is capitalizing on their dissatisfaction, fostering it, and directing their rage at feminism, making them into weapons, effectively, because feminism is entirely responsible for the disbelief in the masculine superiority of the bible. Thus, they have found a common enemy.

Certainly, the blaming of feminism (and atheism of course)  is nothing new for the church, but that they are utilizing the present sense of dissatisfaction of men to boost their own strength is very new, and dangerously exploitative. This isn't something I ever wanted to say, and I don't mean it as an insult, a warning rather, but this particular group of men is extremely vulnerable to exploitation (think of the fascism of Fight Club, and its numerous references to the crisis of masculinity). Not only that, but they are overwhelmed by a repressed violence, which is being fostered by this religious group. To further compound the situation, evangelicals make up a statistically significant portion of the US government. The social and political consequences of this, if left unchecked, could be catastrophic to the equal rights movement.

Yes, I am saying this now: Post-millennial Evangelism is the modern world's fascism. Really, this shouldn't be shocking at all. Any religion that holds proselytizing as its most central tenet is inherently fascist, but presently, it is actively seeking to institute a moral theocracy in America, the intention of which is the 2nd coming of Christ, the manifestation of Revelations, and the End of Days - a "fascism of the people" - and all the world will lose if the campaign succeeds.

As I attempted to explain the gravity of the situation to my mother (no slouch herself in the matter of advocating for reasoned thought), I started frothing at the mouth a little, ranting like a crazy person, and she had to calm me down with a cup of tea. I'm sure she's grateful to know though that my interest in religious studies in college really was only academic, and that I had no plans to run off with a cult. Quite the contrary mom - it was a case of "know your enemy."

Finally, someone admits the truth

The truth about equal pay.

See, now, not the best way to start off the day, running across an article like this:

The reason for the opposition to EQUAL PAY

I'm trying to calmly and logically order my thoughts on this so I can write a proper analysis, but I'm getting worked up into a bra-burning frenzy right now, sitting at my workstation.

Fresh lemon dressing

Mkay, so its back to recipes today.

I'm puritanical when it comes to salad dressing, can't stand store bought of any variety, and I've tried almost all of them. On salad that is. They are fine on other things, just not salad.

Anyway, so this dressing simply could not be any easier.

Juice of one lemon
One large garlic clove
1-2 tablespoons - ish of soy sauce or Maggi (to taste)
One tablespoon - ish of honey (again to taste, I like it more savory but its a personal preference that is easily adapted to)

Put all this into a clear container, and add the exact same volume of olive oil or grapeseed oil.

Blend (I use the Magic Bullet).

It is a minor phenomenon, so tasty and healthy and tasty and healthy and... mmmm. Ohhh yeah, it goes nicely in almost every variety of salad too. I had it tonight very simple, just romaine and parmesan.