Saturday, May 2, 2009

Best recipe you'd never think would be good

This is seriously amazing - very rich and chocolatey. But get the recipe - it's for chocolate avocado "cheesecake." I never would have tried it if very ripe avocadoes hadn't been on sale for .50 at the store near my house, but I'll be trying it again.

Chocolate Avocado Pie

Filling
3 Avocadoes
2 tbsp maple syrup or other liquid sweetener
2 tsp vanilla extract
juice of 1/2 lemon
12 oz of the best quality chocolate you can afford

Crust
One pre-baked pie shell or
1 and 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cups sugar
6 tbsp margarine or butter

If you are making crumb crust, melt the margarine in the microwave. Mix it with the crumbs and sugar and press it into a pie plate or 8x8 square pan.

Filling:

Cut chocolate into small pieces and place into a double boiler. Or, if you live at my house, in a metal mixing bowl resting in a pot with about 2 inches of water in it, turned to medium.

While the chocolate is melting, place avocadoes, sweetener, vanilla and lemon juice in a blender and puree it. Resist the temptation to taste it at this stage because it's not good. Really.

When chocolate is melted, add the avocado mixture and mix well. You might want to taste it to see if you find it sweet enough.

Scoop chocolate mix into your crust and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, but preferably overnight.

This is delicious on its own, or you can serve it with fruit topping.

This was a big hit at the event I took it to, although I didn't mention the avocado until everyone had eaten a piece.

Friday, May 1, 2009

Migrant Worker Raids


More information on the recent raids against migrants carried out in Ontario.

Read the full story here

And if you will be in Toronto on May 2nd, there is information on the May Day rally and March above and on the No One is Illegal website.

Happy May Day


This year, on International Workers' Day, more workers are sounding the SOS than in the past one hundred years.

As we watch unprecedented raids and deportations of migrant workers in Canada, as we watch hundreds of thousands of jobs being lost, as we watch people losing their homes, we struggle together to try to build a better world.

At a May Day dinner I was at last night, one of the speakers talked about how his organization does not use the popular expression "good enough to work, good enough to stay" to talk about migrants. Because they believe all people are good enough to stay.

So on this May Day I am thinking about the people who have been rejected and mistreated by the world of work, about the people who live in terror of losing their jobs, and all those people working, in whatever ways they can, for a better world.

So I offer you two things. You've seen this before, but the prayer to San Precario is most fitting today. More on San Precario here
.
Saint Precarious,
Protector of the precarious of the earth,
give us paid maternity leave
and protect chain store workers, call centre angels
and all flexible employees hanging by a thread.

Give us paid leave and pension contributions,
incomes and free services,
and keep us from being fired.

Saint Precarious defend us from the bottom of the network,
pray for us temporary and cognitive workers, and
Extend to all the others our humble supplication.

Remember those souls whose contracts are coming to an end,
tortured by the pagan divinities
the Free Market and Flexibility,
those wandering uncertain, without a future or a home,
with no pension or dignity.
Grant hope to undocumented workers
and bestow upon them joy and glory
until the end of time.

MAYDAY

And also, I wish more people knew about Saul Williams, because I think he's just great.

You might enjoy this song today - Act III, Scene II (Shakespeare). My favourite line: The Ides of March is always at hand.