Hercules

Yeah Larry, did the cow from the steak you ate last week give consent to the guy at the meat packing plant to slit his throught and let him bleed out until he died, and give consent to let you eat him and crap him out the next day?

I'm pretty sure animals are much happier when they aren't spitting out babies until the day they die. Just my observation though.

As far as the Yankees talk - I grew up with tons of Yankees fans around me. Every year the same thing was said. "They spent so much money this year! They are totally going to win!" I hate that crap. As a Redskins fan I learned that you can spend all the money you want on a bunch of names, but when they are over the hill, choke under the pressure, or don't gel as a team, you won't win. The Yankees are still a circus. As for my Mets - They will go back and forth with the Phillies all year with the new bullpen doing a little better, but then choke down the stretch with K-Rod and Putz struggling along with the offense in September, missing the playoffs yet again.

There are a bunch of different ways to get the batter to stick, but I haven't found a problem with my batter as long it is the right consistency. I have a really hard time finding vegan onion rings at restaurants because most of the time they are dipped in egg, then dredged in flour.

Going into medical labs and breaking computers is not the work of PETA, it is the work of ALF, the Animal Liberation Front. Once again, go back to my rant about knowing what organization it is, and not accusing PETA of any and all animal rights protests. And there is a huge domestic animal over-population problem all over the United States. It is impossible to put every animal into a foster home, or to get them adopted. It is unfortunate, but I believe, along with PETA, that euthanization of animals is the most ethical and humane thing to do rather than let an animal live a horrible life in a cage. Not to mention, it is extremely costly to house animals and give them the best life possible, and there is just not enough manpower to do so either. Go to a local shelter and you will see 80% of the animals that go through the door put down. It is very unfortunate, but just something that has to get done. As far as putting animals down humanely, that is another story. Some states in the south still allow gas chambers to be used where hundreds of animals are hauled into a shack and gased to death. Some states still allow animals and pets to be shot with a gun. There are just some really horrible things done. If it is done with a needle, I'm fine with it. There are just so many animals out there, and if people would just spay and neuter their animals, it wouldn't be happening (by the way, PETA funds a low cost spay and neuter).

Gerd - I thought you might cringe at the thought of pre-mixed seasoning! But I'm glad to hear you are an Old Bay lover too! And thanks for the tip on the broccoli and mushrooms. I love doing the same thing with broccoli already, along with zucchini, but I will definitely have to try the mushrooms!

^^ That is definitely true. When I first had Old Bay, I was a little taken aback. But then, I just started to love it. ^ I love those chips. Being in Pennsylvania, Herrs chips are pretty prominent, so I'm glad I pay cheap price for them. The first time I had the Old Bay chips was when I went to a speech where Jim Herr presented and he brought samples. Honestly, I just used some standard vegetable oil.

^ What do you think he hurt his knee from? And golf may not be a contact sport, but I wake up every morning with horrible lower back pain from the days when I played competitively. Especially with my swing, golf can take a toll.

Alright, so let's forget all of the healthy talk now. I took a new job offer today and I figured I would celebrate a little with some fried, fatty food. We fast forward about a year from when the last update was taken to present day. A lot of things have changed. Instead of a 650 square foot apartment, there is now a 1,900 square foot townhouse. Instead of an 8 by nothing kitchen, we now have a kitchen that is about the size of the room I grew up in as a kid. And, unfortunately, no more Thunder. Now, Philadelphia is known for a lot of things, like Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, it's harsh love for sports teams, and Rocky. It is also known, like many cities, for it's food. But quite frankly, I'm not really all that impressed with what Philly specializes in. The Cheesesteak - come on, how hard is it to screw up meat on a roll? The soft pretzel - give me a real pretzel from New York any day. However, there is one thing that I am completely in love with. The already mentioned things are very simple, but what I love is probably the simplest of all. I know I kind of knock on the other two for being so simple and very hard to screw up, but this is just a combination of things that make you say "Why didn't I think of that?" I'm talking about a fine little dish that can be picked up at any Chicky and Pete's. That is right...... CRAB FRIES!!! No, these fries are not made of crab, but are simply french fries with Old Bay seasoning on them! So I was thinking, what can I do that is just a little better than that? And I bring to you something that is hot off the press, made and devoured just about an hour ago...... Beer-battered Crab Onion Rings Now that is a good mid-afternoon snack! I really enjoy my onion rings, and just about anything else for that matter, with some Tofutti sour cream. What is better to enjoy beer battered onion rings with other than some beer? I place the onto a plate with a paper towel. This is the best time to season them because seasoning will stick to them. A little more Old Bay will do the trick! In about 3 minutes, they have a nice golden brown color to them. Now that the oil is heated, carefully place the battered onion rings into the oil, and now you are cooking! Note: They might stick together in the frying process so it is important to do smaller loads so they don't cook too close together. And another one.... I use a fork to move the onion around to make sure it is covered with batter-y goodness. Place the naked onion rings into the batter. Now pour in the beer and mix everything together. You do not want the mixture to be too thick so that it is clumpy, but not too thin as it will be runny and not stick to the onion. About 8 oz. of the beer did the trick to get it like this. And believe me, the rest of the beer was not wasted! Season the flour with salt, pepper and Old Bay to your liking. I went with a couple teaspoons of salt, a few tablespoons of pepper, and loads of Old Bay. And now the second star of this show (if you counted me, I guess this would be the third star, but who is keeping track?) the best seasoning ever made. ...A heaping cup of white flour is a start. This is an empty bowl. And in cooking, what do we normally do with an empty bowl? Fill it with things. And what do we fill this empty bowl with?.... Now a quick flip of the switch to the fryer to preheat it at 375. If you don't have a fryer, you can carefully heat oil in a pot on the stove. I really like Spanish onions a lot. They aren't too obnoxious in flavor, and have this little bit of sweetness to them. I found a medium sized one that we used this past week, and cut it into varying sized rings. Here is the first star of today's performance, the beer! (If you thought it was me, I thank you, and I am flattered) I'm going with Victory Prima Pils today. I don't really know why, but I like the layers of flavor it has. You can pretty much use anything you like.

That is very good advice on the legumes and beans. I tend to stay away from a large amount of nuts. I'm not a huge protein guy because of the things too much protein can do to your kidneys and liver, so I just get it mainly from broccoli and beans. And yes, if you are looking to lose some weight, try to stay away from the fake meats and only use them from time to time. I know a lot of people that have tried to go vegetarian for health benefits or to lose weight, and have given up after a month because their entire diet consisted of fake fried chicken, fake cheeseburgers, fries and soy cream.

^ Obviously a huge understatement. I think it is kind of hard to argue anything against Tiger Woods anymore.

"I couldn't find Ladyfingers at Publix, so I got Oreos. Then I soaked them in a mix of Sumatran blend and HopDevil for about an hour. Layer with Cool Whip, and there you go!"

If he comes back with a vegenence, I would be really surprised. I mean, if he won this week it would just add to his legacy. I'm not expecting him to put on a show, though, I wouldn't be surprised at all. Hell, he won a major on a bad knee. That was out of this world impressive. 2015 U.S. Open - WATCH OUT TIGER, I'M COMING FOR YOU!!!

Tiramisu is by far my all time favorite dessert ahead of Key Lime Pie. I had an amazing Tiramisu in Rome a couple of years ago. I had been missing the taste of it up until this past Saturday when I actually had a pretty good vegan version of it. My girlfriend's family is Italian, and they occasionally make Tiramisu for dessert on special occasions. They don't use espresso...... they kick it up a notch with straight rum.

^ If you are looking to lose some weight and get on the healthy side of things, this is a great site to check out: http://www.drmcdougall.com/ If you do some searching around and a little googling, you can find some decent recipes to try out if you are willing to go a few meals out of the week without veggie meats. It's actually kind of tough to lose weight as a vegetarian if you don't watch out. I've gone oil and dessert crazy over the past could of weeks, and have seen myself go up abotu 15 pounds over that time.

^ Congratulations on Cedar Point! And I'm glad to hear that the Urban Outfitters thing will work out for you too! Glad to see that you still have that option available. A little update on me. I got offered a job on Monday, that I really thought was going to be a lot better than what I thought it would be, especially since during the interview the guy said that my salary range would be right in line with the job offer. So I was excited. I then had 2 other phone interviews with the National Sales Manager and the VP of Sales just to cement the fact. So, the Director of the new department gave me a verbal offer, and it was $10,000 less than the low salary in my range. I thought my cell phone cut out for a second and I heard him incorrectly. I know that the economy is horrible and all, but I just thought that was a complete lowball. So, I went into total negotiation mode, and here I sit two days later - the base was not changed, but I was able to negotiate a commission increase of 1%, which is a potential increase of $12,000 at quota. It will take a little work to get that additional money that I need to keep up my standard of living, but at least the potential is there. Now, I am trying to negotiate a better vacation and benefits package, as honestly, I have never heard of anything this bad. The union vacation and sick day standards my fly for their factory workers, but they don't fly with me. I also got an email this morning from a place that I have had 3 interviews with over the course of the last 2 weeks. They said they will be discussing all of the candidates this afternoon and will get back to me with a decision. I will wait and see what they have to offer.

Thanks for the feedback! I mean, I don't make anything the quality of say a Gerd, or even a place like HERE but I do try, enjoy cooking, and like to try some differenent things here and there. I hope I can give you a few ideas along the way! That is great to hear you get your vegetables and meats from someone local and treats his animals that way. I'm really lucky to have like 5 Whole Foods somewhere within reasonable driving distance. Being into animal rights like I am, it is important for me to frequent a place like Whole Foods just because of their standards and reputation. Although it is pricey on some things, and I can't necessarily afford it all the time, it is still good to go. Though, I'm able to start purchasing my soaps and laundry stuff at places like Wegman's and other stores just because the market for non-animal tested products is starting to get more mainstream, so I can just pick those up on "regular" shopping trips. You would actually be really suprised at how, well, real the faux meat is. Starting out I wasn't a huge fan of it because it actually slightly grossed me out how real in texture and taste it was. I just kind of grew into it, especially because I got sick of eatting nothing but pasta and vegetables all the time. The vegan Boca burgers are insane, and the Gardenburger grilled chicken in just nuts too (kind of like the old BK Broiler).

The way I figure, the rolls aren't my fault, it is Pillsbury's. So that leaves me with an eh (which I consider fair and on a grading scale would be about a C) and an awesome (which is an A) Average them out, and you have a B. And coming from her, that is pretty damn good!

Oh boy, we all know how Joe is with following recipes...... which would make that idea AMAZING!

Personally I was completely blown away by Heath Ledger's performance. I always saw the Nicholson performance as just Nicholson in paint as said above. I just don't think he added anything to the character other than him just being himself, and that to me is the The Joker and is not that great of a performance. It was a much different movie that he was in, but I just don't think it was all that great of a job. On a side note that has not been mentioned - I wish some people wouldn't keep crapping on Robert Downey Jr. and his role in Tropic Thunder. Sure, it was a crap movie, but I honestly think out of the movies that I have seen from this year, that was the second best performance I saw.

Alright, not to step on Gerd or Joe (alright, maybe step on Joe a little bit), but I've been meaning to post something like this for about a year now. And, now that I am in job limbo at the moment, I figured I would take a little time out of my day of job searching and salary negotiations to give this a try. Basically, as some of you know, I am a vegetarian. For the past 6-8 months or so, I have gone over to the vegan side. I figured that I would post some of my vegan cooking for your viewing enjoyment. And hopefully, things won't get too harsh in here! So here is the first set of pics that I actually took almost a year ago. The story behind this meal goes a little something like this: I was still in school taking 8 classes to try and finish up my degree, and my lovely girlfriend Tricia had just gotten a new job, and was taking classes for her Master's in Psychology 4 nights a week. I would be home on those nights trying to keep the apartment orderly, and taking care of our ailing dog, Thunder. I figured that Tricia would appreciate a good meal on the nights that she worked the regular 8:30 to 5, and then slaved away at class until 10. So, here is the first installment of Jay's Vegan Cafe: Vegan Meatloaf and Garlic Mashed Potatoes Enjoy! The final product. And the final score card: Meatloaf: Her - Eh Me - Good Potatoes: Her - Awesome! Me - Awesome! Broccoli: Her - It's just broccoli Me - It's just broccoli Rolls: Her - Gross Me - Eh Final tally: SUCCESS! Uh oh! Better get another one! After about 35 minutes, the meatloaf is done. Soy milk + Fake butter + Potatoes + 2 cloves of garlic + a masher = Vegan garlic mashed potatoes. Top it off with a little salt and pepper and you have a winner. And some oil in buttery form. FAT!!! Time to get moving on the potatoes. Tricia normally just boils the potatoes and mashes them up. What fun is that? I'm in the kitchen, my watch, my rules. Remember, I'm fat and I like it that way. So, we go with a little soy milk. The mushroom and onion gravy thickening up nicely. And I also made up some Pillsbury Jumbo Cresent rolls baked to golden perfection. You guessed it, VEGAN! Would there be anything else in this thread? While I was going at everything else, I took some time to steam up some broccoli. Now time to make the gravy for the potatoes, but apparently also goes on the meatloaf too. And yes, this mix is TOTALLY VEGAN! A big thumbs up to: 1. BEER! 2. Nothing blowing up yet. 3. Me looking sexy, even with dog hair on my hat. Alright. Remember that big mashed up mess of faux meat? Well, now it is molded and ready to head into the oven with the tomatoes (that I guess weren't supposed to be on top of it) on top of it. A nice caramel brown color. And yes, I'm still a Mets fan. And no, I don't have any faith in them this year. And just a little note, the beer went very well with the articokes and olives that were in the sandwich. ....... Ahhhhhhh, there it is. And now into the fridge to get the lemon ju.... errrr..... crescent rol..... errrr...... Thunder's foo...... errrrr....... lettuc........ errrrrr....... Here it is all mashed up - and the secret is to add a little bit of the tomato sauce into it before mashing. Ok, "meatloaf" prep time. Here we have the meat free meat, some diced onions and green bell peppers, 2 garlic cloves, garlic powder, salt, pepper, basil, oregano, onion powder, minced dried onions and a little bit of olive oil. Now that the water was boiling, throw in the nicely scrubbed potatoes. While at Whole Foods I picked up a roasted vegetable sandwich while I worked up a sweat in the kitchen. Yes, I pre-game dinner. Yes, I know I'm fat. Now I start some tomato sauce for the meatloaf. I don't know about everyone else, but I grew up with a ketchupy pastey sauce on the top of my meatloaf as a kid. Apparently that is not how Tricia grew up with it. Oh well. Some crushed tomatoes, basil, parsley, salt, pepper, oregano and a couple cloves of garlic should do it. Pre-heat the oven to 350. Ok. About an hour to get all of this done and ready. Anyway, the first thing to do back at home is put on a big pot of water. Aside from food you can pick up ZOOM!/Yo Gabba Gabba yoga instruction for the kids. Scary.... For those meat lovers out there, Whole Foods does supply various meats. The only difference is that they are all free range and treated well! We would pick up Thunder's pork and chicken there often! There, we head to over to pick up some non-meat meat. This stuff rocks. So, the first thing that needs to be done is getting the ingredients for tonight's meal. That means, a trip to Whole Foods is in order!

Gerd - How many people do you normally serve on a given night at your restaurant?

Awesome job so far! I've been meaning to post my vegan cooking thread for about a year now. Maybe I'll get around to it at some point!

Because I'm trying to make the focus on the real issues (animals, PETA not being a terrorist organization, etc.). I don't mind that PETA is getting publicity. Are they getting the wrong publicity? Yes, because people just think they are crazy bastards. I just state that by posting news stories about PETA, it is doing exactly what they want people to be doing, and that is talking about animals rights. I think that the people that are posting about PETA hate PETA, but in retrospect, they are doing exactly what PETA wants them to do.

I respect your opinion. This is more of my opinion on the matter. http://bizarrocomic.blogspot.com/2009/02/chicken-mythology.html And did you know that A-1 is actually vegan? They are a terrorist organization? How so? There are other organizations out there that do "terrorist" type things, but how does PETA do anything like that? I don't see them going into medical labs and beating down on company computers like other organizations do. I don't doubt that maybe this was a group of PETA people. However, I just want to make the point that there are a lot more animal rights organizations out there, and the only reason people think that it is always PETA is because they are the most recognizable. PETA employees tend to be the most respectful of them all. Some other groups, and other independent animals rights activists (possibly with PETA literature) tend to be pretty big wackos and give sane and professional activists a bad name. I am certainly not a member or employee of PETA, but people always think that I have something to do with them just because I'm a vegan and have a knowledge of animal cruelty.