VeggieDag Thursday: Hello, again (and Quick Links for January 2014).

VeggieDag Thursday is an occasional Thursday post
on an animal-free diet and ecological issues.

When asked if I'm a 'vegetarian' or 'vegan,' I don't reply with an answer sure to be laden with labels and agendas. So, I'll say: "No, but I don't eat animals." It's never meat, fish, fowl, or eggs for me, but it's always vegetables, legumes, grains, nuts, and fruits, and, occasionally, artisinal cheeses, although no other dairy.

Re-introducing VeggieDag Thursday for 2014, this is an occasional Thursday post, at which I write 'meatless' on matters of an animal-free diet and issues of the ecology. I might even inveigle beer (or wine or spirits) into the posts. Beer is, after all, in most cases, a fine vegetarian foodstuff. It's liquid bread, made from barley malt, hops (an herb), yeast, and water.

I call this column VeggieDag Thursday in solidarity with the city of Ghent, in Belgium, which first declared a weekly, city-wide "VeggieDag Donderdag" on Thursday, 14 May 2009. More: here.

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Quick links for January 2014:

• Industrial agriculture could be hitting fundamental limits in its capacity to produce sufficient crops to feed an expanding global population according to new research by scientists at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Via The Guardian.
  
  
• Researchers at U.S. Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have discovered a way to turn a small mixture of algae and water into a kind of crude oil in less than an hour, with net-positive energy gain, and potentially cost-competitively. Via Smithsonian Magazine.
  
  
• The Daily Beast examines top 10 diets of 2013. Finds them all "useless."
  
  
• The "101 Organizations to Watch in 2014" which play "a vital part in creating a better food system." Via Food Tank. [List includes Arcadia: "a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating a more equitable and sustainable local food system in the Washington, D.C. area."]
  
  
• "Ingesting a warm chocolate-chip cookie offered the eaters a brief respite from their quotidian woe." A history of the chocolate=chip cookie. Via New Yorker.
  
  
• FDA launching pilot testing program for raw-milk cheese. Via Gourmet Retailer.
  
  
• Cheesemonger at Arlington, Virginia, wine shop Arrowine wins title of title of America’s Best Cheesemonger at U.S. Cheesemonger Invitational. Via Cheese & Champagne.
  
  
• Domino's Pizza retailer offering a vegan pizza .... but only in Israel. Via NPR.
  
  
• Go vegan! The price of choice-grade U.S. beef at wholesale set a new record, due to short supply. (Via Yahoo Finance.) The great goat's cheese shortage of 2014 in Europe and the U.K. (Via The Guardian.) Velveeta shortage seen in U.S. (Via USA Today.)
  
  
  Players on the championship NBA team, the Miami Heat, visit the White House and promote eating well. Host Michelle Obama dunks (sort of)!

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RECIPES

• "Now, bring us some figgy pudding!" Vegan recipe for what's basically bread pudding. Via The Smart Kitchen.
• "Easy vegan croissants." Via Vegan Dad.
  
• "How to make the perfect polenta." Via The Guardian.
• Roasted chestnut and porcini soup. Via Burp.Cook.Eat.
  
• Vegan Hoppin' John. Via Whole Foods Market.
  
• Black-eyed pea coconut curry, with collards, potatoes, & avocado/mango chutney. Via Whole Foods Market.
  
• The trouble with thin sauces when veganizing meat recipes. Seitan Bourguignon, via The Picky Vegan.
  
• The chemistry of cast-iron pan seasoning. A how-to, via Sheryl Canter.

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• Why the name VeggieDag Thursday? Here.
• Read all the posts: here. Follow on Twitter with hashtag: #VeggieDag.
• Suggestions and submissions from chefs, writers, and home-cooks welcomed! Contact me here.