Silent night

I have always been afraid of the dark. It began as a child, for the dark was home to all that was evil, all I had to fear. What lay waiting in the shadows, what lay waiting what I could not see. My eyes are taken away each night, and my parents slept deep down the hall. The single defense I had was to fall into slumber, until morning again came to banish all evil away and welcome me back to the world where the son and my brothers and sisters waited for me.

Now I am a man. Now I see all that happens in the day. Movement. Haste. Stress. Angry people and hateful people.

I sit by my window, searching for calm from this movement, and I hear voices. Airplanes. Cars and Sirens. Birds. Beasts. This sunlit world I love is awake and I can hear it moving.

Again, now at night, I sit by my window and something is different. No voices. No cars. Birds and beasts sleeping like my fellow humans. The world is asleep. I hear nothing, but my own breathing and the Roar of the sleeping world, the void and its light breeze.

I sit in the dark, like my boyish self petrified of what unknown things lie waiting in the shadows, but still I cannot ignore this wondrous silence I am surrounded with. Such silence.
My fear pleads with me not to surrender my guard, but I remind my human fear what terrible things it has led me to do to the unknown, to the misunderstood, to the feared.

I am feared.

Now I sit in the darkness, and I find my calm very easily as my world is asleep, and only I am left to observe.
  

From out there on the moon

[In outer space] you develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, "Look at that, you son of a bitch."

-Edgar Mitchell, Former Apollo astronaut 

Movies

The following list are my highest recommendations for documentaries. Please remember that ignorance is bliss.

1. Food Inc. 
     Addresses the American food machine and the sustainable alternative.
2. The Corporation
     Addresses the nature, history, and dangerous potential of the Corporation.
3. Bag it 
     Addresses a nation addicted to plastic.
4. Black Gold
     Addresses the global coffee trade as well as the prospects of the Fair trade market.
5. Why We Fight
     Addresses America's Military industrial complex and President Eisenhower's warning. 

Story of Stuff

This is one of the first things I would recommend any American watch.

http://storyofstuff.org/

Fair Trade

An organized social movement and market-based approach that aims to help producers in developing countries make better trading conditions and promote sustainability. The movement advocates the payment of a higher price to producers as well as higher social and environmental standards. It focuses in particular on exports from developing countries to developed countries, most notably handicrafts, coffee, cocoa, sugar, tea, bananas, honey, cotton, wine, fresh fruit, chocolate, flowers and gold.


Movies to watch: 


Black Gold- A documentary addressing the world coffee market, the dangers of major corporations, the unknown trials and terrors faced by farming nations, and the beautiful prospect of fair trading. 


Next time you're sipping a cup of coffee, ask your barista how their beans are purchased. 

Vegan Adas Polo (Persian Dish)

My latest version of the Lentil-Rice dish from Iran "Adas-Polo" (Vegan)

1. 3 Cups of Basmati Rice

2. 3 Cups of Lentils

3. 1 Can of tomato paste

4. Lemon juice

5. 1 Red onion

6. Spices: Lemon pepper, cyan pepper, salt, cumin, Saffron, crushed red pepper.

Brief Directions

RICE

1. Cook 3 cups of rice with 6 cups of water in rice cooker, with 2 tbsp Salt, pinch of Saffron and generous oil.

SAUCE

2. Saute red onion in oil with Cumin, Cyan, Red Pepper, Lemon pepper, and Lemon juice. Once browning, add tomato paste, slowly adding water to arrive at thin liquid. Simmer until rice is ready.

LENTILS

3. Soak lentils for 30 minutes. Drain and rinse, boil on high with Salt, Lemon Pepper, and several Onion pieces from tomato sauce, until skins split and begin to become mashy.

4. Enjoy, Namaste.

Detailed Directions

RICE

1. Wash rice 3 times (to destarch and prevent heavy sticking)

2. Place rice in rice cooker (to save time, stovetop option coming soon) with generous oil. Cover 2:1 ratio water (6 cups water to 3 cups rice) and add 2 tbsp salt and a pinch of Saffron.

LENTILS

3. Soak lentils for 30 minutes. Place in Pot and bring to boil with generous oil, 1 tbsp salt.

SAUCE

4. Halve and slice 1 red onion. Place in nonstick saucepan and Sautee on high, cover with oil. Add cumin, cyan, Lemon pepper, and lemon juice to taste.

5. Once onion browning begins, add tomato paste with a small amount of water. This will slightly roast the tomato. After roughly 30 seconds, add water slowly to make a thin liquid, which will be the sauce of your dish. Cover and simmer until rice is ready.

LENTILS

6. Add several onions from the tomato sauce to lentil pot. Boil lentils on high until the skin splits and they begin mashing together (almost overcooked). In the end, do not drain, this will lose your flavor, so be sure to boil down the small amount of water left, and once left to sit the lentils should absorb the remaining liquids. (Do not overcook to dryness)

END

7. Serve Rice with lentils and sauce, Yogurt is a nice side (Organic Please, Cow animals have rights just like the human animal). Enjoy, Goodluck, Namaste.