Shays' Rebellion Almond Porridge

Named after the Shaysites' failed attempt to take control of Springfield Armory in 1787. The Founding Fathers weren't so great if they thought debtors' prisoners were a good idea and that their property was more valuable than the lives of poor farmers.

This recipe makes use of the almond pulp byproduct of the almond milk recipe.

makes 1 serving

INGREDIENTS:

1/4 c. rolled oats

1/2 c. almond pulp

3/4 c. water

6 shakes cinnamon

1 handful jumbo black raisins

1/2 banana, sliced

1/2 spoonful brown rice syrup

DIRECTIONS:

1. Bring oats, almond pulp, and water to a boil in a small pot. Lower the heat and cook for several minutes, until the oats are tender and the porridge is your desired consistency.

2. Shake cinnamon into a bowl. Add raisins and banana slices. Pour the porridge on top, then combine with brown rice syrup.

From Bob Black's The Abolition of Work:

"Sahlins concluded that 'hunters and gatherers work less than we do; and rather than a continuous travail, the food quest is intermittent, leisure abundant, and there is a greater amount of sleep in the daytime per capita per year than in any other condition of society.' They worked an average of four hours a day, assuming they were 'working' at all. Their 'labor,' as it appears to us, was skilled labor which exercised their physical and intellectual capacities; unskilled labor on any large scale, as Sahlins says, is impossible except under industrialism. Thus it satisfied Friedrich Schiller's definition of play, the only occasion on which man [sic] realizes his complete humanity by giving full 'play' to both sides of his twofold nature, thinking and feeling. As he put it: 'The animal works when deprivation is the mainspring of its activity, and it plays when the fullness of its strength is this mainspring, when superabundant life is its own stimulus to activity.'

Almond Milk

Almond milk is unfortunately not as delicious as raw almonds, but it's still good with cereal or baked into desserts. The recipe for this is the same as the one I posted for cashew milk. Which is to say 1 c. almonds, soaked in water for at least 8 hours, plus 4 c. water, blended and strained. Almonds make slightly less milk than cashews because they're harder to grind down, as you can see in the following picture.

What to do with this leftover junk? One option is to bake it into cookies. I make some pretty mean chocolate chip ones with this almond pulp. Alternatively, you can make it into a porridge for breakfast by adding some almond milk, cinnamon, raisins, and brown sugar or maple syrup.

Four million animals have been buried alive in South Korea as a horrible alternative to vaccination against foot and mouth disease and avian flu. The least you can do in response to something so unspeakably atrocious is to email the Minister of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, as well as the American Embassy to Korea.

Tropical Almond Smoothie

 

I had leftover soup for dinner tonight because for lunch I made grilled pb&j sandwiches with some stale bread I've got hanging around. But I also have frozen fruit in the freezer, so I figured I'd make a smoothie for dessert/snack.

This is essentially almond milk plus frozen fruit, but I decided to blend the mylk immediately prior to adding the fruit. I.e., I didn't filter the almond pieces out. I thought that would make it thicker, which it did, but it also made it grainy. If you've got time to make proper almond milk beforehand that's probably a better method.

makes approx. 2 servings

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 c. almonds

2 1/4 c. water

10 oz. frozen fruit (tropical blend)

2 Tbsp. maple syrup

DIRECTIONS:

1. Soak almonds in 1/2 c. water for somewhere in the area of 8 hours (or overnight). Liquefy with additional 1 1/2 c. water in blender. Optionally, strain and pour back into blender.

2. Add frozen fruit and maple syrup. Grind or liquefy in blender until smooth.

In unrelated news, Tiny Mix Tapes published my review of the film Petition today.