We wish all of our US readers a Happy 4th. Today's post might be a little late for this weekend's festivities, but it'll certainly be of value throughout the summer. It turns out that watermelon isn't just a fun summer fruit -- it contains certain chemicals that might help ensure some fireworks in the bedroom.
Apparently watermelons contain citrulline, a chemical which can trigger the body's blood vessels to relax. According to scientists at Texas A&M's Fruit and Vegetable Improvement Center, this is similar to the reaction a man has when he takes Viagra.
Found in the flesh and rind of watermelons, citrulline reacts with the body's enzymes when consumed in large quantities and is changed into arginine, an amino acid that benefits the heart and the circulatory and immune systems.
"Arginine boosts nitric oxide, which relaxes blood vessels, the same basic effect that Viagra has, to treat erectile dysfunction and maybe even prevent it," said Bhimu Patil, a researcher and director of Texas A&M's Fruit and Vegetable Improvement Center. "Watermelon may not be as organ-specific as Viagra, but it's a great way to relax blood vessels without any drug side effects." Todd Wehner, who studies watermelon breeding at North Carolina State University, said anyone taking Viagra shouldn't expect the same result from watermelon.
"It sounds like it would be an effect that would be interesting but not a substitute for any medical treatment," Wehner said.
Don't look to watermelon to actually replace those little blue pills however, as you probably need about 6 cups of watermelon to ingest enough of the chemical to see any effects. Anyway, it'll be interesting to see who's buying lots of watermelon at the farmer's market this weekend.
No, that's not a typo in the title. Here's the rap... , the hummus recipe is below. I found this video on YouTube the other day. It's stuck in my head, and I've been tormenting Jane with it. Now I'm sharing it with you. Enjoy! (It's not terribly P.C., but I don't think anything is overtly offensive here.)
... and here's Jane's recipe (courtesy of the guy she was dating before she met me... he's Arabic, so this recipe is pretty authentic):
2 15-oz. cans chickpeas
¼ Cup tahini (sesame paste)
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 Tablespoon olive oil
~ ¼ Cup water (optional)
1/2 teaspoon salt
Drain and rinse chickpeas and place in food processor. Add tahini, garlic, cumin, lemon juice, and olive oil and process until smooth. The paste will be thick. If using, slowly add water until a creamy consistency is achieved. Add salt, process until incorporated. Taste. Adjust salt as desired.
Hummus is pretty versatile. Sometimes Jane will add a roasted red pepper to the food processor. Sometimes she'll throw in a bit of spinach. She's also made it in a bowl, just mashed with a fork (no water in that recipe), it's much thicker that way, but good too, and makes for an easier clean-up.
I love Jane's hummus. She gets a little bored with it, but I could eat it every day.
So I'm standing at the stove, fluffing the rice and putting the finishing touches on our dinner, when Lane calls me. He's a few blocks from home and he tells me to come out and meet him.... There are two peahens walking up our hill.
Now for some of you, this might not be a strange occurance, but we live in Los Angeles. And I'm not talking about the canyons of Los Angeles where all the movie stars live, where you might expect to see the occasional mountain lion or bear. I'm talking about the Los Angeles where you can practically open your window and hand your neighbor a cup of coffee if they have their window open too. I'm not complaining (that much), I mostly love where we live. We're on a hill so the houses are pretty staggered as far as eye-level is concerned. And we live in a part of LA where there are actually trees, so you have the illusion of some privacy. But peacocks? That was a first. We've got raccoons, and the occasional coyote, and red-tailed hawks. But peacocks?
What else could I do? I turned off the stove, got the camera and keys and rushed out to see for myself. Sure enough, there were two peahens out for an evening constitutional! I'm guessing they're either someone's pets because we're not all that close to anyplace else where they might have logically escaped from. Or they must have recognized that I'm vegan, they didn't seem too concerned about me. They were close enough for me to reach out and touch them, had I any desire to get my fingers pecked at!
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed today's version of the Wild Kingdom.
Cheers -- Jane
– If you haven’t signed our petition to Oprah asking her to do a piece on factory farming, please consider doing so. We can all work together to make a difference.
It might be time for a road trip to Portland, Oregon. Clearly there's a lot more going on there than I've ever imagined. Oregon seems to have more vegans per square foot than any other state in the United States. Portland has the most strip clubs per capita in the United States. So I guess it comes as no surprise that Portland now claims to play host to the first vegan strip club in the world. When I first moved out to California almost twenty years ago, California was deemed to be the "land of fruit and nuts." We've got nothing on Oregon!
Does anyone else find this extremely bizarre? According to the owner, the only meat you'll find at this place is on a pole. He also claims to be moved by a desire to expose people to veganism. Is his pun intended? Are his strippers vegans themselves? Is his intent to expose his patrons to vegan strippers or vegan foods?
So what is his tagline going to be? "Where's the beef?" or how about "Try our BLTs: Buns, Legs and Tits." If it's a vegan strip club, can it still be referred to as a meat market?
I'm not going to pass any value judgments as to whether strip clubs are good or evil, the fact is they exist. (I deliberately haven't mentioned the name of the strip club because I'm not promoting it. You can google it if you're really interested.) But I am presenting this information to point out that the mere existence of this gimmick serves to show how mainstream veganism is becoming.
