Whooo!

I had some tofu defrosting in my fridge, so I decided I should cook it today. I made the sesame tofu from The Garden of Vegan, which calls for Asian chili sauce. I decided to buy some a few weeks ago since so many appealing recipes call for the stuff. So I got the sweet chili sauce. I doubled the recipe (it calls for half a package of tofu) and added additional seasonings as it was cooking. I also made, as you can see, my delightful millet, the recipe for which you can find on www.vegweb.com or on the Vegan Club blog. Also included are some lemon rosemary carrots, another recipe I created.

Maybe I used too much sauce, although I didn't quite double the chili sauce as I did the Braggs and nutrititonal yeast, but it was a bit spicy. I'll make it again, for sure because it's not so spicy that I feel I'm going to die like the Mexican tempeh I made with one teaspoon of chili powder. I always love the millet, because of the mix of seasonings and dried fruit.

On other topics, Bush, in his infinite lack of wisdom, vetoed federal funding for stem cell research. I'm actually surprised it got that far, what with our fetal-rights Congress clearly not caring about anyone who has actually been born, save for a woman in a persistant vegetative state. But some of them apparently realize that these embryos are going to be trashed. Bush, of course, managed to find a handful of families who had "adopted" embryos and had them implanted. Far more embryos die during the process of implantation, since doctors implant several embryos with the hope that one will "take," and far more embryos are destroyed when the couple who created them decide not to go through with in vitro anymore. Since these embryos are never going to be implanted in a uterus and never become human beings, why not see if they can possibly be used to save lives.

I also wonder why those who oppose stem cell research on the grounds that it "destroys human life" don't object to animal testing of medications and medical procedures. After all, animals are bred, raised, tortured and killed in the name of science. And these animals, unlike embryos, actually suffer. They feel pain. Thalidomide was proven safe in animal tests, but caused horrendous birth defects when given to humans. I wonder if other drugs that have been taken off the market were also proven safe in animal testing.

Now, we don't know how safe using embryos would be, but it's certainly worth a shot, is it not? Aren't the lives of people suffering from Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and other debilitating diseases worth more than a cluster of cells about to be destroyed anyway?