Drunken ramblings

Drinking alone, it's almost 1:30 in the morning, and I'm a little drunk. Only a little. It's okay that I'm drinking alone since a) I have been diagnosed with depression and 2) I have a family history of alcoholism. Self medication eff tee double-you bitches! Seriously it's fine though; I'm a fucking LSU graduate, so my liver can take it. They give you extra credit for getting drunk. Hell, I think the first time I puked outside a bar they gave me two credit hours -- and that's graduate hours*!

I came in having no flippin clue what I was gonna write about. I just need to do something since 1) there are a few people that actually follow this blog for some God-forsaken reason and b) I post regularly on SB Nation where I link this blog, which is a network of thinking-man's blogs dedicated to... yeah sports. (And I like to have a fairly recent post on there.)

Sports? But you're vegan. Yes I am. I'm not a stereotypical vegan. I am sort of a guy's guy. I like the three Bs: Beer, boobs and baseball. Some people have this conceptualization of vegans as a bunch of tree hugging hippies. That's not really me. I guess I'm a bundle of contradictions. But this isn't about me -- it's about veganism going mainstream. Though I am an overeducated nerd, I'm also a "normal guy" in many respects. For some reason that seems to go against the typical conceptualization of the vegan -- the peace sign giving, yoga doing, kumbaya singing, tree hugging, slightly effeminate guy that's "in touch with his feelings." Sorry, but that's not me. Hell, to be honest, I'm not even a typical vegan animal lover! My knees don't go weak when I see that rescued baby goat at the communal farm, or your sister's ferret, or whatever.

Veganism to me seems like the most natural ethical position one can take. Animals are sentient beings -- capable of subjective perception. Let's be honest; cows and bulls are pretty fucking stupid. But that doesn't mean we should consume them and treat them as biological machines.

Going off on some animal rights rant is not my style, but at the same time I won't apologize for being a supporter of animals rights. And that's kind of my drunken, rambling, and very likely hard-to-follow point. I am a (sort of) "normal" guy, and I'm an unapologetic vegan. Honestly, I am the future hope of veganism and animal rights. No, I don't mean me specifically; I'm not a narcissist. What I mean is the mainstreaming of the vegan lifestyle and being a reasonable advocate of animal rights.

We need more normal vegans. If a more animal friendly perspective is to be ever be truly mainstream, then people that have mainstream tendencies will need to vegan. Moreover, this needs to become more and more normalized. It needs to be regular. I want to live in a world where being vegan doesn't mean that I am a weirdo, but rather a world where veganism is widely diffused among people that love boobs, beer and baseball, or that love NASCAR, hip hop, heavy metal, comic books, strip clubs, science fiction, model airplanes, S&M, Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, motorcycles, classic cars... you get the point.

I don't know if any of this makes any sense or not. If it doesn't I plead drunkenness.

I wrote this listening to Murs. Murs is vegan, and he is an incredibly talented hip hop artist. This is what I am talking about. Veganism is becoming more and more mainstream and normal.

Some of my fellow vegans on the granola-crunching persuasion might find the idea of veganism becoming more mainstream as being somewhat strange, and on an intuitive level they might find it undesirable. Sorry, but you are just gonna have to put up with my beer drinking, boob loving, sports watching ass. No offense, but I have just as much of a right to be vegan as you do.

This post probably have a zillion typos. It's okay -- again: I'm drunk.

*Gregatron is a proud product of the Huey P. Long School of Government. (No, LSU's political science department is not actually called that, though I think we can agree that it should be.)

BBQ sandwich -- quick and easy meal

This is for Cokaru, who's always looking for quick and easy stuff to make after getting home from work. I know what that's like. After working all day you don't really wanna cook for a long time. Well, this is something you can make in ten minutes, it's really good, and not all that bad for you -- a little fatty, but much better than pretty much any drive thru (which as a vegan is not an option for me anyhow).

The main reason I don't post more recipes is that I don't know how much a given ingredient I use when I make something. I just know -- the instincts I have for cooking don't necessarily communicate well. I pretty much cook on intuition and by "eyeballing" stuff.

Well this time I decided to measure stuff (mostly) so I could post how to make my BBQ sandwiches. My omni mom raves over these. And I don't blame her. They're really good!

Ingredients:
2 cloves of garlic, minced
Half a small onion, diced
3/4 cup of TVP, frozen Boca crumbles, seitan, Match, or your favorite meat substitute (tofu or tempeh won't work though)
Your favorite barbecue sauce
Extra virgin olive oil -- 4 or so tablespoons
Red pepper flakes (to taste -- optional)

Heat up your oil in a pan on medium heat. Add your onion, and let that fry up for a minute or so before adding the garlic and the red pepper flakes. When the onion starts to caramelize then you can add in the meat substitute (I usually use Boca crumbles, but Match "pork" works really well, as does seitan). Cook this up for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. After it get good and heated through, add your barbecue sauce to taste. Some people like it "wetter" than others, so eyeball it, until it looks right to you. (Be careful, as there will likely be a little hot splatter, as the barbecue sauce and oil don't like each other very much.)

Stir this around for a minute or so until it's good and hot. Then add it to your favorite bread, add some pickles, crack open a Schlafly Kolsh, get some Ritz crackers to scoop up the inevitable spillover, and relish the fact that the Cardinals just acquired John Smoltz!