WILLAKERS!!!

Tonight I was just ON A ROLL in terms of cooking.  CRUMBS AND CARROTS!  It was ridiculous.  I made the best dinner I think I've ever had, with no recipe to speak of.  I went to the coop earlier today and bought baby bok choy and shitake mushrooms (as well as many other things).  When I got back, I was given the gift of broccoli, fresh from the garden!  I steamed the bok choy and broccoli and then dunked them right in an ice bath.  They were the prettiest emerald green color.  I sauteed sliced shiitakes and seitan, and then added the bok choy and broccoli.  I made this awesome sauce with maple syrup, ginger powder, soy sauce, apple cider vinegar, olive oil, and lots of garlic scapes.  I added the sauce and sauteed some more.  I slid it all into a bowl and topped it with chopped almonds.  The only thing that could have made it better was some rice.  But I wasn't going to wait 20 minutes for my rice cooker to make some, so I just ate it as it was.  IT WAS SO GOOD.  It tasted like Chinese takeout food, but better and healthier.  

Before all this coop shopping and cooking business, I had decided to make cookies.  My baking has been pretty awful lately, because I haven't used recipes or measuring devices, but this time I was determined to follow a recipe TO THE LETTER.  I wanted to make these little lemon buttermilk cookies.  I planned to buy buttermilk and butter at the coop, but while I was driving there I saw a farmer herding his dairy cows in to be milked.  And the cows were just plodding along in front of this farmer, looking rather dejected...I know that they were out grazing all day, and that they have a pretty nice life...but wouldn't it be better if we didn't have the dairy industry?  It would be so much better for the environment.  No more cow poop sitting around, releasing tons of methane (a greenhouse gas) into the atmosphere, perpetuating global warming.  Farms could be used to feed people again, instead of growing genetically modified corn to feed animals we eat.  And if we couldn't live without dairy, then maybe every family could have just one or two cows/sheep/goats to provide them with milk. 

Yes, I'm working on a dairy farm.  And I love it, I really do.  I love milking the goats and making cheese, and seeing an entire process through from start to finish.  But I feel very hypocritical.  Especially because the dairy industry relies on the meat industry, and if you're going to go vegetarian, you might as well go vegan.  What do you think happens to all the males born to dairy animals?  They can't be milked, obviously, so they go to slaughter.  

I wish that I could go live in the woods somewhere, in a log cabin with 2 sheep for wool and milk, some chickens for eggs, and a garden...it's obviously that I've been reading Little House on the Prairie.  But I do wish we could go back to that time.  Those early pioneers worked hard, and they certainly weren't vegans.  But they hunted wild game that had lived a full and natural life in the woods.  Better yet, we could all live in tipis, like Native Americans and hunt with a bow and arrow.  WHO'S WITH ME?

Anyone?

Anyone?

Ah, well.  I'll do it alone.

Moral of this ridiculous tangent is:  I bought soy milk, cocoa powder, and lemons at the coop and made crazy Chocolate Lemon Cornmeal Sablés.  That's what I'm calling them.  The chocolate part came in when I realized that I had too much liquid from using agave nectar + maple syrup instead of granulated sugar...so I added cocoa powder.  It was good!  They're like little crunchy lemony chocolatey bites of yum.  But I'm not posting a recipe.  Because I didn't follow one.  Well...I tried to, but then realized that I was only using lemon zest, salt, and baking soda from the original recipe, and I gave up.  OY, what has become of me?  You can ask my BFFAEAEAEAE, Stephania, and she will tell you how upset I used to get at the suggestion of using whole wheat flour instead of all purpose white.  I followed recipes like I was Hermione in a Potions lesson.  And now?  I can't remember the last time I didn't substitute something.  It's ridonculous.  

SWEET MUSTACHE, I'm tired.  And I have to get up and start making bread tomorrow.  Good luck, me, and good night, all.