Let me preface this article by saying that Jane and I became vegans for health reasons. Over the course of learning about the benefits of a vegan diet, we've read literature on factory farming. And, as with most people, the more we read, the more appalled we become.

Today, watching our local CBS news affiliate, we were very disturbed by a story that was aired on animal cruelty at the Hallmark Meat Packing Company, a slaughterhouse in Chino, California. The Humane Society surreptitiously recorded the abuse of sick and injured cows, behavior designed to get the cows to walk to the slaughterhouse.

Federal and California laws have prohibited the slaughter of "downer" cattle since 1989. The term "downer" is applied to those cows that cannot stand or walk. Cattle categorized as "downer" are not allowed to enter the human food supply. This is intended to prevent both animal cruelty and the consumption of meat from unhealthy animals. "Downer" cattle are at heightened risk for infections ranging from mad cow disease, to E. coli, to salmonella.

The meat processed at Hallmark is distributed by Westland Meat Co., also based in Chino, California. According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Westland sold 27 million pounds of frozen meat last year to federal food and nutrition programs, including those that furnish meals to the poor and elderly across 36 states. Westland is also a major supplier of beef to the federal school lunch program.

The Humane Society is calling for quick action from our government to guarantee the most basic level of humane treatment for farm animals and to protect Americans from potentially dangerous food.

The two employees caught abusing cattle on the Humane Society video have been fired, and their supervisor suspended. The USDA is investigating potential violations of state and federal laws, and has indefinitely suspended Westland's participation in federal food and nutrition programs.

The video below is a segment of the footage that was shot by a Hallmark Meat Packing employee who was working undercover for the Humane Society in the fall of 2007. Warning: Do not watch the video below if you are at all squeamish.

This is just another one of the growing number of reasons why we don't eat meat these days.

For additional information on this video see:

• US Department of Agriculture-- Press Release
• Westland Meat Company -- Press Release
• CBS Evening News
• CNN
• Associated Press

Hi everyone, it's Jane posting today. I'm a Daring Baker, and today is our day to post on the January challenge.

This month's Daring Bakers challenge was Lemon Meringue Pie. I have to admit, I was rather downhearted when I found out what we would be baking. This was only my second month participating in the group, and last month's Yule Log didn't work out well. I didn't want to start off 0-for-2. I mean, vegan meringue? Not likely. But I joined this group to force myself to start baking again. Now that I'm vegan, I've had to re-learn a few things, some of which I've gotten and other things still require further study. But I do know that you can't make meringue without egg whites!

Not wanting to give up before I even started, I went out and purchased the ingredients for the rest of the pie. But what was I going to do about the meringue? I scoured the internet for vegan alternatives. I found one which uses agar and looked like the real thing. Unfortunately, I also found very mixed reviews on this topping and didn't want to risk it as I was planning on serving these to company. (Something I was taught NEVER to do!)
Ultimately, I settled on this concoction:

• 3/4 cup lite silken tofu (firm), crumbled
• 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
• 2 teaspoons hazelnut oil, walnut oil or canola oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Pinch of ground nutmeg

The tofu would add some protein to the dessert which would compensate for the lack of nutritional value in the the lemon filling since I would be using Ener-G Egg Replacer, which doesn't have any protein at all. And this meringue alternative sounded like it would have a nice sweet taste. So now I had a plan of attack. Time to get to work!

We had the option of making a pie, or "tartlets." I opted for the tartlets, thinking I could customize them if any portion of the recipe didn't work out. A far less wasteful approach!

The crust was no problem. I've made crust many times before. This recipe was easily "veganizable" - I simply replaced the butter with vegan butter. Then I shaped the tartlets bottoms and into the oven they went. They looked very cute and I was optimistic.

Now I was getting in to uncharted territory... it was time to make the pie filling. I was able to follow the recipe exactly, with the exception of the 5 egg yolks, and a bit of yellow food dye which was necessary to make the lemon filling look like lemon filling. The Ener-G egg replacer has instructions for replacing whole eggs, egg whites, and egg yolks on the box. So, I prepared 5 "egg yolks." This was the second time I'd used that product and I wasn't really confident that it would work here. But, to my delight, the pie filling was delicious! It just looked a little weak. The lemon and lemon zest didn't really do enough to color the filling yellow. So that's where the food dye came in. Lemon pie filling should be yellow, after all!

Lane was hovering over me as I topped the tartlet crusts. He loves lemon meringue and knew I'd let him lick the spatula when I was finished. We "accidentally" broke one of the crusts, and so, we got a sneak preview of the lemon pie sans meringue. Again, it was truly delicious. Now I was feeling rather confident that this was a dessert I could serve.

But it was time to start thinking about the most troubling aspect of this pie, the meringue. I'd already decided on the tofu topping mentioned above.

People on the Daring Bakers board were commenting that the filling broke down when they put the pie back in to cook/brown the meringue. Well, I wasn't going to have that problem. My topping didn't need to cook. One hurdle down. Unfortunately, I didn't love the way my "meringue" tasted. Neither did Lane. It wasn't bad, it's just one of those things you either like, or you don't, and we didn't. Instead of topping the tartlets like a traditional meringue, I opted to put a light decorative line across the top. I thought the lemon alone wasn't going to be interesting enough, and the challenge did allow for a fruit topping of some sort, so I made a simple warm blueberry and sugar jelly.

When it came time for dessert to be served, I microwaved the blueberries and spooned them over the lemon tarts. Dessert was a hit which was evidenced by the fact that not one bite remained. Yay! My first successful Daring Bakers challenge.

Tonight we had Yves Lettuce Wraps for dinner. This was the second time we've had this product, and both times we've really enjoyed it. It's been over six months since I've had chicken, but this product tastes exactly as I remember the non-vegan version tasted.

The package claims to be six servings, but we get two out of it, as an entree. I guess it might be six servings as a snack! But at 60 calories a serving, who cares how you divide it up, you could eat the entire package for under 400 calories!

They make for fun meal; you get to play with your food and eat dinner with your hands. And, it's a really quick meal to assemble.
To accompany our lettuce wraps, Jane had more lettuce (also known as salad) and the leftover vegetable soup from last night.

Ann Gentry appeared on the Today Show this morning. Jane and I were really looking forward to this segment. We were incredibly excited to have a vegan representative on such a mainstream television program. But after watching our recording of the program, we were terribly disappointed with the whole thing. The segment was only three minutes long, the hosts were chatting over each other... it felt more like a group of high school girls talking about their diets rather than a healthy eating segment on a nationally respected program.

Ms. Gentry is the founder of Real Food Daily (an excellent vegan restaurant with two locations here in Los Angeles which has also sparked a wonderful cookbook: Real Food Daily Cookbook). She is also the Executive Chef of Vegetarian Times magazine, and host of the cooking show “Naturally Delicious.” Knowing her credentials, and having eaten at RFD and cooked some of her recipes at home, we had high expectations for this segment. And we can't say that Ms. Gentry didn't try. She appeared calm and tried to keep things on track. But the Today Show people were busy eating things, asking questions about how to clean the portobello mushroom (which took 26 seconds - almost a 6th of the entire time slot), and greeting each other, all over the audio. Very disappointing.

Most disappointing of all however, was that the recipe Ms. Gentry chose to showcase. Instead of offering a vegan preparation, she chose a recipe that required, as a garnish, parmesean cheese. She did mention that people who are lactose intolerant or "hard-core vegans" could use a dairy-free cheese. Once again, making the vegan choice appear to be a sacrifice, rather than a valid, healthy eating regimen. I would have expected her to prepare an easy, delicious vegan recipe, since the fare at her restaurant is vegan, as are the recipes in the RFD cookbook (even though both the restaurant and cookbook purport to be vegetarian). I guess her choice was based on the fact that "vegetarian" is probably a tough enough sell to most people.

In case you didn't catch it... here's the video. You can be disappointed too! (BTW, this is the segment in it's entirety.

Apparently, Ms. Gentry had four recipes lined up for her segment this morning, but didn't even get to finish the first recipe. Here's a link to the article, and recipes as they appear on the Vegetarian Times website.

Is this vegan thing becoming main-stream? There certainly seems to have been a proliferation of vegan cookbooks, blogs and even stars lately. I did a quick search on Amazon.com and found 9,743 entries under "vegan" books alone! Wow. I had no idea. I mean, the vegan population is only 1.4% of the total U.S. population according to a 2006 poll by the Vegetarian Resource Group. That's approximately 4.4 million of us here. It seems like a large number of books on a topic that might have a limited audience. Unless that audience is growing.

On Wednesday morning, January 23rd, we vegans will have a representative on The Today Show, and she is Ann Gentry. Ann is the founder of Real Food Daily (an excellent vegan restaurant with two locations here in Los Angeles), the Executive Chef of Vegetarian Times magazine, and host of the cooking show "Naturally Delicious" which airs on the Veria Network, which I don't get to see unfortunately. Ms. Gentry is also the author of one of Jane's absolute favorite vegan cookbooks, Real Food Daily Cookbook. (The Today Show airs on NBC in the 7am - 10am EST/PST time slot.) It appears she'll be on in the 9.30 segment, but I could only find that info here, and I'm not sure how valid that information is, so set your TiVos or VCRs for the full three hours if you don't want to miss her. I'm going to!

According to the RFD newsletter, she will be cooking up some delicious vegetarian fare. I'm hoping that means "vegan." If you miss the show, here's a link from an old interview with Ann that provides some valuable vegan cooking tips. Jane and I hope to record the episode, and we'll report on it later in the week, if we are successful.

It's a great to see vegans being represented in such a mainstream media source. Hopefully this is not a fad, but is indicative of a change in the way American's are eating and thinking about food.