Cupcakes & a Great Book for Earth Day
April 22, 2010
Happy Earth Day! Wishing everyone a glorious, gratitude-filled day.
Here is my suggestion for celebrating Mother Earth:
- Get outside; walk, run, bike, hike, reflect. Then come home with a big smile on your face.
- Whip up an easy vegan meal, check out our many recipes for suggstions, hint – the Curried Quinoa Salad with Mango is everyone’s favourite
- Make sure to add dessert – my latest favorite is a raw food treat from Bo Rinaldi of Blosoming Lotus Restaurant - Vanilla Cupcakes with Key Lime Icing! The recipe is below. And here is a link to another yummy recipe for chocolate cupcakes
- And finally curl up with a good book and a cup of tea. On a whim I purchased Where the Blind Horse Sings by Kathy Stevens and was so thrilled to find the review below by John Robbins on the Earth Save International Website
Vanilla Cupcakes with Lime Frosting – Makes 12 cupcakes (or 24 small ones)
From the Complete Idiot’s Guide to Eating Raw
- 1 cup almonds
- 1 cup macadamia nuts
- ½ cup pumpkin seeds
- 6 pitted dates, soaked at least 30 minutes
- ½ cup sunflower seeds
- ½ cup almond butter
- Pinch cinnamon
- Pinch cardamom
- 1½ tsp freshly squeezed lime juice
- 6 Tbsp agave nectar*
- ½ ripe avocado mashed
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Place almonds, macadamia nuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, almond butter, agave nectar, vanilla extract, cinnamon and cardamom in a food processor fitted with an S blade. Process for 15-30 seconds or until sticky mixture of small chunks forms. (Note – if you don’t have a large food processor, do this in 2 batches.)
- With a spoon or small ice cream scoop, measure out 12 cupcakes onto a parchment paper-lined plate. Flatten tops with spoon to hold frosting.
- Place avocado, dates and lime juice in a blender or the food processor, and process until smooth and creamy.
- Chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes to allow icing to solidify as much as possible before spreading on top of cupcakes.
- Frost cupcakes and chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour before serving
Where the Blind Horse Sings – Love and Healing at an Animal Sanctuary
By Kathy Stevens
Review by John Robbins
Every now and then, a book comes along that grabs you and doesn’t let go. Written by the founder and director of Catskill Animal Sanctuary, a haven for abused and discarded farmed animals, Where the Blind Horse Sings is such a book.
Author Kathy Stevens is an exceptional writer. Her story of the birth of Catskill Animal Sanctuary and of the two and four-legged characters who live there is lyrical and alive, alternately funny and moving. Much of the narrative focuses on a blind horse, a former cockfighting rooster, and a ram who arrived so explosive and violent that Stevens briefly contemplated euthanasia as the only way to keep other animals (including the humans) safe. But patience and love persevered, eventually paying off in spades. Suffice it to say that Buddy, Paulie, and Rambo each evolved into larger than life teachers, and through Stevens’ skilled storytelling, their lessons linger long after the book is finished.
Beyond the writing, though, it is Stevens’ intimacy with the animals about whom she writes that distinguishes Where the Blind Horse Sings from other books about farmed animals and horses. Unlike most authors of such books, she is not a researcher interviewing others about their experiences with animals. Stevens lives and works with the animals: she knows of whom she speaks. When she writes, “Rambo arrived full of testosterone and rage,” it is because she was the one to welcome him. When later she describes the night the transformed sheep summoned her to come to the assistance of a blind turkey inadvertently left outside on a cold November night, I wept at the collective victory shared by the human and the sheep she describes as “her greatest teacher.”
While commentary about the devastating impact of agribusiness is interspersed throughout the book, it is certainly not the book’s focus. Joy is its focus: a clear-headed, unambiguous sharing of the joy its author derives from sharing her life with animals the vast majority of the world sees as mere commodities. The animals arrive angry or terrified, but in their safe haven, become so much more than Stevens, a former educator, imagined possible of a horse or a cow, a pig or a chicken. Who they become has changed her life; it might just change yours. It is certainly a book to share with those in your life who’ve not yet made the connection between diet and kindness.
(Information on the work of Catskill Animal Sanctuary available at www.casanctuary.org)
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