The Sweet Smell of Racism, Sorry About Your Fulbright!

Many of you cool kids who come hang with me are in North America. Have you heard these two lovely news tidbits from your neck of the woods?

Feeling hungry? How about a little Anti-Arab and Anti-Muslim sentiment from one of the largest food chains in the United States? I have no food to showcase here kids, as this has me reeling and feeling a bit nauseated. I’m so angry and bitter about this it’s probably best I don’t go on too much, but I would encourage you, if you feel concerned by large-scale racism and discrimination, to read more here about this ridiculousness, and sign the boycott Dunkin’ Dounuts petition if you should feel inclined.

When I was completing my Master’s Degree in the U.S. I applied for a Fulbright Scholarship to do field work for my Doctorate in North Africa. I wanted to study the voice of feminism in the oral tradition of the Maghreb, specifically in Morocco and Algeria. Those Fulbright folks thought my idea was a little to risquée at the time because, you know, the U.S. was invading Iraq and all that…but hey, I had other options, and found myself in Paris. Boo hoo for me.

But I’m one incredibly lucky Fish- I had a back-up plan. This is not the case for many, and it is most definitely not the case for scholars in Palestine who endure things I could not even pretend to describe here. For many of them, Fulbright is the opportunity they need to to their research, field work, etc. Well, sorry about your luck kids, but since Israel won’t let you leave, we’re pulling your funds! Ha! This brief afticle in the International Hearld Tribune (It’s the Global Edition of the New York Times) explains it well. Seems a bit like punishing a whole lot of people for things they haven’t done. Maybe it’s just me

“C” is for Cookie & “C” is for Céline!

There seems to be a bit of a cookie frenzy in the air, or at least on the vegan blogosphere, thanks in large part to the lovely, cookie-wielding Céline of Have Cake, Will Tavel. I’m all about cookies. Who isn’t? (No, seriously, who isn’t, I want to know as they should perhaps not be trusted…).

One of my faves is the Snickerdoodle. See, I haven’t had one in, uh, I don’t know…a million years, because usually they are full of butter or hydrogenated shortening and well, that’s just, you know, gross. I received a new cookbook over the holidays and I was all excited about a Snickerdoodle recipe in said book because I thought that after long last the Snickerdoodle and the Shellyfish would be reunited.

I tried the recipe. Twice. It was, well, nasty-gross.

I was oh-so-disappointed, as was the entire Fish household, because I had maybe gone on just a little bit too much about how scrumptious the Snickerdoodles are. Then super-chef-extraordinaire Céline posted her becoming-more-famous-by-the-minute Snickerdoodle recipe, and I knew it was time to recreate the doodle-magic.

Me: Hey Guppy, do you want another Snickerdoodle?

Guppy: (laughing) They’re not sticky-noodles, Mumma, they’re cookies!

What is great about Ms. C’s Vegetarian Times recipe-redoux is that she created the perfect sized recipe for a small little school of fish like ours- there are only 3 of us, and so either we a) pig out on cookies as they are cooling because they are so difficult to resist and swear off cookies for a few weeks… or b) see “a”. So it’s OK to eat them all! Really, you can, don’t worry. I got about 8 cookies the first time I made them, and the second time I doubled the batch, which still only made about 14ish cookies. Perfect!

Why are you still reading? Click on the above link to Céline’s recipe already! Go, go, go!