Fruit and Greens Salad:

a nutritionally dense and delicious arrangement of lovely things that should taste way worse but doesn’t.

1 each chopped apple, pear, orange, and ripe mango

1 cup each of chopped honeydew

1/2 cup each of pineapple and green grapes

1 chopped banana

half a head of lacinato kale, cut into thin shreds - *see prep notes*

1/2 cup of thinly shredded rainbow chard

1/2 cup of sprouted quinoa (optional, but delicious!)

1/4 cup dry medium coconut shreds

1/8 cup each of sunflower, pumpkin, and hemp seeds

agave nectar

tsp of fresh, finely grated ginger

black sesame

pinch of cloves

pinch of cardomam

to make the kale so lovely- “wilt” it. Toss the kale leaves (no stems!) in a tbsp of lemon juice and a drizzle of agave nectar, and let it sit while you chop up the rest of the ingredients. When it is uniformly a deeper green, add it to the ingredients as listed above, and finish with a sprinkle of black sesame. Makes at least 8 generous servings. 

That thing I just said about these macaroons isn’t true. Or is it? Make these and they’ll make you…a believer. Super quick, extra easy! Preheat your oven to 350F/178C, and get moving. You’ll be eating these soon. You’ll need:

3 cups of UNSWEETENED medium shredded coconut

3/4 cup flour

1 cup of natural cane sugar.
(for this recipe, I use dehydrated natural cane juice coarse granules found in the indian food aisles and markets that is usually quite cheap!)

1/2 cup of vanilla or original Almond Milk
2 tbsp brown rice syrup

2 tbsp melted Earth Balance spread
*or substitute  the same amount of solid coconut cream or oil

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp salt

Combine wet ingredients, sugar and salt. Stir in the coconut, and let it sit for 10 minutes. Slowly stir in the flour until a thick and well mixed dough forms. To ensure it blends well, use a large spatula, wood spoon or good ol’ your hands.
On a greased or parchment lined cookie sheet, pile the dough in a tapered shape with a diameter just over an inch by about an inch and a half or so tall.  Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until lightly browned on the top and edges. This recipe makes about two dozen, so feel free to octuple it. Let cool and devour.

HIT!! HIT!! HIT!!

FOOD and FRIENDS. The many new friends I met this year and learned the stories of, particularly at the Secret Suppers I hosted, as well as those I got to know better just from tossing them a little food! I was MEGA FUN to feed you all, and hear your passions. Landon showed up to almost every one and ate like a boss, and since he already had fabulous taste, he enjoys a few more veg/vegan establishments now. Jamie Ruschienski is a dude I already knew from his work with his twin brother on cancer fundraising, and I loved getting to know him and the group of friends better. Glenn and Joanne came and enjoyed food while I secretly wished I could scurry away and raid their store Nice Shoes for some fine-ass footwear. There are so many to mention, but I enjoyed getting to know Carmen, Susan, Cathryn, Tim, Kim, Darren, Jordan, Lou, and many many more, as well as reconnecting and deepening connections with Andy, my landlords Shaun and Lisa, my neighbours (Riley and Corvis families especially) and my band mate and friend Alan Calimbas. I look forward to feeding you and playing for you all in 2013.  

..shit… shit… shit…

CONTINUED, CASUAL USE OF HATE SPEECH. So many people say they are angered by political correctness, and they don’t feel its relevance. Many others loosely toss condemning and words steeped in origins of hatred. To those who doubt a positive effect of respectful language, I ask you to imagine formulating your ideas without the use of marginalizing words. Your argument becomes better, more resolute and necessitates actually thinking it through with more confidence before conveying it. 

There are three main words and one practice that I do not love from people, listed below. These aren’t new just in 2012, I just saw tons of it and heard lots of it, and it sucks. Let’s stop it. I’ll even give some new words to replace these outdated terms, or feel free to tell me yours!

1. Referring to a negative situation or someone’s negative behaviour as “Gay.” Since we are all just humans, looking for progress toward our goals of becoming our natural self, negatively stereotyping someone or something as “gay” is offensive to those of us who have a gay relative who has struggled, those of us who identify as queer, homosexual, (or really anyone in the lgbt community, of which there are MANY) and should be offensive to the rest of any of us that have had any personal struggle at all. All hardship is the same, no matter who is enduring it. To negatively infuse sexuality into an opinion on an everyday practice or inanimate object should be seen as an affront that unfairly portrays certain expressions of love and sexuality as inferior, in my opinion. Try using actual negatives like “lame,” “stupid,” or calling the behaviour exactly what it is: “When he dances, he looks very free and flamboyant!” Or - “When this guy working in my department goes around me to the other manager to complain, I get super pissed. He is so passive aggressive!” That’s just stating an opinion. When you do this in a way that is conscientious, people must address your issue and not your lame, silly way of stating your disapproval. 

1. Negatively referring to Males with “female” terminology, referring to cowardly or weak behaviour as “bitch,” “pussy,” or “girly. ” This one especially bugs me, because I have a mother, a step mother, a sister, and a whole family of female relatives who have endured many physical and emotional struggles, and I don’t think any of them are weak. I don’t think their having a vagina or even just identifying as a woman makes them inferior, and I don’t think that of any other women either. To say that a male is a “pussy” because he is less a gender stereotype than he should be, or to dismiss or diminish someone’s efforts with marginalizing terms of gender is essentially saying, “When you do something that offends my narrow view of gender and sexuality, I will reveal even further that my wordview is antiquated and resonates with misogyny.” Alternatives to this usage is easy. Same as number one. Just state what you feel and how you percieve the person’s behaviour: “When Manny wouldn’t take the tackle and instead went down easy, I felt like he wasn’t willing to make a sacrifice for the team. I play hard and believe in us, and believe that it takes a sacrifice to be an effective competitor. I think we should say this to him straight up.” Or: “Dude, quit being a jerk. You’ve been nagging me about something I can’t do anything about.” 
2. Referring to daft or disagreeable behaviour or any individual as “retarded.” In my job as a Support Worker, I am happy to hear that the community all around support and the individual have stopped using that word except when clinically describing clinical aspects of mental retardation without the client present. But I still hear tons of upsetting usage of this word. I could tell you all about experiences I have had with my own clients and how language can affect them, but I will instead urge you to read THIS open letter from an amazing man with Down’s Syndrome to SUPERASSHOLE Ann Coulter after she described President Obama as a “retard” after Romney beat him in the first debate. Please read it. Ms. Coulter gets owned. 
3. SLUT SHAMING: Honestly, friends, who cares. I’ve had sexual partners. Likely you have as well. If a lady has a healthy sexuality, or is downright horny, can you tell me how this differs from you? Have you never had desire, or felt physical urges? Maybe YOU’RE the weirdo. People go out, meet, and they have sex. You’ve tried to, or have, or will. Almost all of you. So shut up. Who cares. People not “giving any fucks” because Amanda Todd had been sexually active, people judging women interested in sexuality as sluts, painting queer/bisexual/pansexual women as “chicks who’d fuck anything,” - it’s all so wooden, and old. We are sexual beings. Some of us more than others. Stop being jealous and go responsibly get yours, or whatever you want. AND. I have no alternative language suggestions here. Stop commenting on it or even making it a thing unless you are willing to have your sexual ethics examined as well. Who even cares what anybody does with their genitals anyway. None of your business. READ A POETIC RANT ABOUT IT INSTEAD.

Tomorrow, the largest chunk with all sorts of miscellany. It will be heavy at the beginning, light as all get up toward the end. Today is just to remind us all to stop trolling and start living in the real world. Inject kindness!

David

How our love added the weight of joy to our heels

Just in walking toward each other!

Nimble. Dexterous, winged, and fit with a gilded spring-

We ground diamonds in our laps with desperate glee and enchantment.

My Sweet Eternal, we had long been dead, reanimating ages of destruction and holding onto each phase of our lovelorn lifeless bodies- and offered it tattered and vulnerable to one another.

Slowly the most welcome isolation collects us.

We return to the womb. We lie down in a tomb. 

We hold each other. We spoon. 

There’s more to sorrow than we would have ever imagined.

 The sun seems to set on those who are who are impassioned to awkwardly bray their anxious devotion. 

Some other force is always waiting to collect us, and there is more to planning tomorrow than we could have ever imagined.

Like moss creeping over cement, the earth comes to reclaim us season by season.

Make haste, my most ethereal Love.

Let youthful feet in heavenly flight carry our infused nimbus of energy smashing unapologetically into a meteor shower of sparks and light!

Mercy is a gift that can span any rift but we must never stop running.

How our love added the easement of comfort to our eventual deaths, read the storied ending.

How the night welcomed us back for eternity, stroking our backs.
How the universe congratulated us for grasping onto one another until we were only a shivering rack of bone and a reminder of the grave and inevitable.

Oh, how we were always as we were on this very day,

Where love added the weight of joy in our step

Just in walking toward each other.

When your softest eon of light stretches its way around the earth

To meet me as I claw toward you, digging in the dirt

The silent and repressed summer will present itself once again.

Sleep will be attained from being settled upon the gasping framework of a taut and malleable structure of a lover and a friend.

When you return to stand before me, shuddering and sweet

I will lift my arms toward the heavens. 

A trapezoid of collarbone and jaw will leave us macerated by a surfeit of ardor and awe.

When your staccato whisper and pleading works its way back to the threshold of my ear

To make the soft white hairs stand at attention so I can hear

Time is exonerated from surging past us without a sympathetic glance.

We will be sustained as the enmeshing of our colours and flesh make us hesitant to feel time’s attempt to advance. 

When you return to stand before me, an enchanted woman on the street,

I will lift you and place you greedily about my torso.

Murmurs and controlled collisions 

As we forget the length and severity of our self imposed division.

Pictured here: Olive tapenade, Creamy Cauliflower, Spinach and Mozza Dip, and fiery sweet enhancing sauce. See previous recipe for olive tapenade. Served with dehydrated smoked carrot crackers, blue and red corn tortilla chips, and raw kohlrabi triangles.

Creamy Cauliflower Spinach and Mozza Dip:

(serves 4-6)

You’ll need:

2 tbsp olive oil

1 Medium white or yellow onion, diced small

2 large cloves of finely grated garlic

1/4 cup each of fresh basil and dill, minced

1 tbsp of fresh rosemary

1/2 tsp celery seed

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp sage

fresh cracked pepper to taste

1 tbsp tamari

1 tsp lemon zest, lemon juice set aside.

2 tbsp tahini

1.5 - 2 cups frozen or lightly steamed spinach

Head of Cauliflower, boiled and mashed

8 ounces of Daiya mozzarella style cheese (1 bag)

1/2 cup original veganaise

1/4 - 1/2 cup of coconut or cashew cream

salt to taste, if necessary

SO. Take the oil, and start a medium sauce pan on medium heat. Saute the onions with the celery seed until soft on the edges and nearly clear right through the center. Once nearing fully cooked, add the garlic, herbs, and dry spices. Don’t cry, pansies, it’s just some onions. Once the onions saute together with the spices and thicken, add the lemon juice, tamari, and spinach. This is going to already taste like the tip of the sweetest dong you ever…sampled? - but! There’s a bit more to do to coax the flavour further out of this raging dip dong. Wow, I am really running on that premise there.

 On low heat, stir in the mayo and cheese until the cheese melts and everything blends together nicely. Add coconut or cashew cream to deepen the creaminess and salt to taste until it looks like a good dip-like consistency, like a thick pea soup. I don’t know what viscosity you like your dip, ok? Just figure it out, clown puncher. Serve warm with tortilla chips or in a sourdough bowl. Or nude, freshly waxed abdomen. However you like it.  NEXT!

Sweet and Fiery Like a Total Hottie Sauce

serves 4-6 

Mix together the following:

1 ounce chilli paste, or even a commercial hot sauce

3 ounces agave nectar

1/2 inch of fresh grated ginger

pinch of chilli flakes

1tbsp of grated carrot

1 small clove of garlic, minced

pinch of orange or grapefruit zest

1 tsp black sesame seeds

salt/pepper to taste

Tell everyone to use this super sparingly- as this is just to accent the flavours and add pleasant and tasty heat, just like I get from your momma who is so fine. Just mix it together and serve in a small dish.

Linger with me here for just a little
While away the time
Is on our side
by side

Connected in the mind
Over matters
Not and is all in all
Who sees
The glass as half empty
hearts and souls

In all honesty
Is the best policy when
You’re sliding, the whole word slides with you
Forever and always
remember 

To stop and smell the war of the roses

When there is no such thing as cannot
See the forest through the trees

trees, trees - shade, shade
Linger here with me for just a little
while away the time. 

A Modern Usage of a Commodity

If you are gorgeous

If you are pretty

If we turn to look at how shapely you are,

Then you will be corrupted if you are porous.

You cannot trust all of those who feel they must jilt you

If you are lithe and cute, then they have to have you

Like a song on the radio they can’t get enough of

Until you are overplayed, you are turned off, and you grow cold.

Any warmth in comparison

Only leaves you scared of being burnt.

If you are a youthful god-

If you resonate the longing of despair and jealousy

Then the chances are that someone waits sorrowfully in silence

Who’s loved you all along and has to watch you

Slowly fade as you become progressively more frightened

Of being beautiful.