Ethics Seminar May 17, 2012

This is a little bit of a cop out post, but I’ve been participating in Ethics Seminar at my university this week, so I thought I’d post the ethical considerations there are in my field that I’ve been dealing with. Also, I designed a couple of case studies that you might weigh in on as well–if you want.

When I think about my teaching and research, I generally assume myself to be an ethical participant in the learning and production of knowledge processes. Yet, in the process of thinking about what kind of ethical divides that might exist in my profession, I can identify several potential areas for examination. For the purposes of this exercise, I’ll limit to those most pressing to my teaching and scholarship over the next year; these include 1) the presence of a service learning component in my EN 101 Composition I course; 2) teaching canonical texts as a core requirement; and 3) engaging students in discussions of legitimate cultural relativism and morality in the areas of equality and gender studies.

My EN 101 class involves a service learning component that requires students to serve at a food bank, soup kitchen, or other location that helps alleviate hunger in the DC metro area. Students then write an observation report where they link their experience to the other information we’ve uncovered about hunger. While many of them cite the experience as a highlight of the class, I’d like to ground the experience a little more in questions of their ethical obligations. On the other side of this, I still have issues with my own use of this assignment with the potential for allowing students to use vulnerable populations as laboratories for their own learning. Furthermore, does this involve sympathy on the part of the students or do they harden themselves with logical reasons for hunger?

As a literary scholar trained in ethnic literature and studies, I value engaging these texts in my classroom. Yet, as a teacher in the liberal arts core, I’m expected to teach students a set of agreed upon texts of cultural and community value. This means that somehow I have to balance what I think it’s valuable for students to study without sacrificing their basic knowledge in the areas of literature they expect to see on the syllabus. This means putting someone like Benjamin Franklin in contrast with Elizabeth Ashbridge or Santiago Tafolla. Don’t know who they are? Blame the canon.

Perhaps most urgently, I seek to know to what degree it’s necessary for me to set aside my own emotional and logical reactions to texts and ideas to allow my students to engage with different value systems in the classroom. For instance, a student wrote her final paper on the presence of domestic violence in the literary texts that we read. She was looking for a cultural explanation for degrees of violence and number of incidences of violence. I come from a paradigm that believes culture is important to consider, but in the case of domestic violence, all women, no matter their ethnicity or religion, are potential targets due to power structures embedded in most societies. Therefore, arguing for long periods about who experiences “more” violence serves to divide women on an issue that has some degree of need for definition but a more urgent need for systematic solutions.

I told my colleague that I was going to write a 5 paragraph essay, hahahaha literary joke, but then I didn’t write a conclusion, so I’m even worse than the standard.

Case studies that relate:

Case Study 1

 

Your EN 101 instructor has just informed you that your assignment is to go to a food bank, soup kitchen, or other place that helps alleviate hunger in the DC area. You choose to go to a soup kitchen that you can access on Metro, because you don’t have a car. When you arrive there are many people standing around outside waiting for breakfast; a volunteer coordinator gives you a tour, and soon enough you’re set up at the pancake serving table waiting for people to come in. A steady stream of people go through the line. A couple of people try for a second serving, but the woman in charge of the line turns them away. You’re serving pancakes as fast as you can and you’re smiling at the people in line because the volunteer coordinator told you that everyone who comes to breakfast should get food, a smile, and a bit of dignity. You only notice a few people—a woman with short hair, a man in a Redskins coat, a man in a wheelchair.

 

When breakfast service is over, you’re ready to head back home. As you walk to the Metro stop, a man on the sidewalk asks you for some change. When you look, you realize it’s the man in the wheelchair.

 

What do you do? As a participant-observer in this situation, what kinds of ethics bind you?

Case Study 2

 

You are the donations manager at Mt. Pleasant Food Bank. While you generally have enough donations to meet the needs of your clientele, occasionally you run short—and you always run short on fruits and vegetables. However, you’ve managed to strike a pretty good balance with the demand for your services and the food you’ve solicited from donors.

 

Today, you are meeting a truck from a food distribution company who has offered you some supplies for the food bank. When they arrive, it’s a potato chip company “Fluffles,” and they’re offering your food bank 5000 bags of Blazin’ Hot Chili Loaded Potato Chips. They market tested these, and they were a huge flop, so they’ve been donating them to food banks across the country.

 

The Good Samaritan Act in your state has limited the potential liability of food donors, and the Fluffles company will get a tax deduction for the food that they’ve donated, if you accept it.

 

What are the ethical dimensions of this scenario? What are the “professional ethics” involved? What are the “general ethics”? Does one trump the other?

The Paleo Experiment February 20, 2012

We had some friends over for dinner last night. They eat a Paleo Diet. I didn’t know much about it except from reading my friend’s blog where she talks about what they eat. I’d been afraid to cook for them because I thought our diets would be incompatible (since we’re vegetarians, if you hadn’t figured that out from my veggie recipes and cookbooks). But when I read that she shops at the farmer’s market for her vegetables and cooks up a big stew every week, I thought, Yes, I can cook for them–I’ll just make a stew with no meat.

But you knew we couldn’t leave it at that…

So I made a curried butternut squash soup with coconut milk, an edamame-asparagus bisque (both from Robin Robertson’s 1000 Vegan Recipes), and the Spanish potato tortilla my friend John always used to make for us (which I approximated by following Mark Bittman’s suggestions). They were all great–I like the asparagus soup a little better and I overcooked the tortilla a bit, but it was still delicious. I really enjoyed learning about the paleo diet–we won’t be doing it because it’s simply too radical a departure from what we eat now, but I firmly believe any time you eat more vegetables and less processed food, it’s a good day.

Now I have eggplant, cabbage, carrots, and green peppers in the fridge, because I thought I was going to make a stew with those things, but when I started looking at recipes, I couldn’t resist the other two soups. What should I do with those things? If you don’t have any absolutely must try recipe ideas, I’m going to consult my favorite man on the planet that I don’t actually know: Mark Bittman. I love love love his book How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. It really suits my style. He says, here are the things you must have to make the very basic iteration of this recipe, and then here are 27 ways to vary it up depending on what you have in the fridge and pantry. Never a bad recipe, except once when I ignored the things-you-must-have section. Love his granola recipe.

Cookbook Review: The New Vegetarian Epicure November 23, 2011

I decided to kick off my cookbook reviews before Thanksgiving with a book that was maybe my very first cookbook. My aunt had some kind of book club points, so she let me pick out some cookbooks before I went off to college. I distinctly remember selecting a book called Cooking with Beer. I no longer have that one, as none of the recipes were any good. Not only do I still have this book but also it’s spine is broken in a couple of places from constant use.

When I got to college, I joined the debate team, and two of the coaches used to invite me over all the time when they were cooking vegetarian food. They both had this cookbook, and I felt more special for having it to, even though I hadn’t even cooked from it yet.

I don’t remember what I made first. However, right now, I can tell you that my berry cobbler recipe is located on page 62. I love it and make it at least once of month. I love her disclaimer–”It’s not inordinately high in fat or sugar, so I don’t feel bad giving it to my kids.” I’ve actually removed all sugar from the recipe (except that which is naturally occurring in the fruit) and it’s still delicious. One of the first times I used this recipe was when A, P, L and I lived in that crazy house on 49th street in Portland. I picked blackberries growing outside our house and used them in the cobbler. Since then, I’ve made this cobbler for so many people–most recently our new friends whose son loves it. Seamus will do pretty much anything to get to eat some.

Other favorites from this book are the red pepper pesto, the biscotti, the popovers, and the Tamales with Zucchini and Cilantro filling. I’ve made the Lemon Cheesecake Ice Cream multiple times, and I always forget how good it is. The Cold Melon Soup is a light, delicious flavor, if a bit weird. The risottos in here are really easy and satisfying.

Looking through this book, I realize I’ve cooked too many things from it to name them all, but there are still some that I’m intrigued by. Like Raspberry Borscht. And Eggplant Pancakes in Sweet Red Pepper Puree. And Tomatillo and Squash Soup. I like that there’s so much of her personality in these pages; this book reminds me of so many of my friends, for what they cook, what they like to eat, and the meals we’ve made or shared together. I also like how the book is organized by season and by suggested menus. That means there are a lot of salads, but it gives the idea that we should plan meals to be an event, whether they are big like Thanksgiving, or “Autumn Lunch on the Terrace,” ” A Summer Buffet for a Crowd,” or “Tomato Harvest Dinner.”

If you order this book, don’t do it from Amazon. I’m still mad at them.

Some Quick Updates November 15, 2011

• I’m thinking of starting a review of our cookbooks on this blog. Would you like to know the best vegetarian cookbooks and my favorite recipes from them?
• I finished a book review for the Aphra Behn Online Journal of Women in the Arts, 1640-1830. The book I reviewed was called Separated by Their Sex: Women in Public and Private in the Colonial Atlantic World. It was an interesting, readable explanation of how women, prior to 1690 were able to speak and act on political matters if they were high enough status; after 1700, their status didn’t seem to matter as much as all women were relegated to the private sphere.
• We’ve been working hard, and we’re really looking forward to Thanksgiving festivities!
  

  Jowl shot

• I’ve been playing with the formatting on this blog, and sometimes the pictures come out weird. What I can say about the pictures in this post: They reflect the utter happiness I feel when I don’t have to carry either boy down the stairs.
  

  Leaving the house

• Gilbert still likes his security blanket. He says “teeth.” There’s a surprise!
• I have some observations to make about child development, but those will also be coming in future posts.

Vegetarian Moussaka October 7, 2011

Hello there.

Patrick went to the farmer’s market this morning while I was at work grading exams. (Many complained that it was too hard, yet many others received As, so I guess it wasn’t too hard.) At the farmer’s market, he bought potatoes, eggplant, onions, and green pepper. When I see these ingredients, I think MOUSSAKA!

Things I like about this recipe:

• It’s delicious.
• It’s mostly cooked in the same pan.
• It uses a lot of veggies.
• My kids like to eat it.
• There’s a logical order to the assembly.

Things I’m not crazy about:

• It’s complicated and takes about an hour.
• There’s quite a bit of clean up.

My recipe is based on The Joy of Cooking, but I’ve heavily adapted it for vegetarians. This made two 9×13 casserole pans of moussaka–one to freeze and one to eat.

First off, cut three eggplant into 1/4 in round slices. Salt and set aside.

Take 2 lbs of potatoes, scrub, and slice into thin rounds. (I don’t peel them, but you can if you want.) Heat 1/2 cup olive oil in a skillet. Toss in the potatoes and cook 5 min on medium. Remove potatoes with a slotted spoon. Layer the potatoes in the bottom of both pans.

Cut 4 green peppers into 3/4 in squares. When potatoes are done, cook the peppers in the same pan, about 10 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and reserve the green peppers in a prep bowl.

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Put eggplant on a sprayed baking sheet and cook for 4-5 minutes. Layer the eggplant on top of the potatoes.

In the potato and green pepper pan, cook 2 chopped medium onions. After 5-6 minutes, add 7/8 cup of water. Bring to a boil and then add one cup textured vegetable protein (If you don’t have this or don’t want to add it, don’t worry, just don’t add the water either. Your vegetarian moussaka will still be delicious). Add two cans diced tomatoes and stir. Add 1/3 cup red wine and one teaspoon red pepper flakes. Add salt and black pepper to taste. When heated through and the TVP has absorbed the water, layer on top of the eggplant.

Spread the green peppers over top of the mixture.

Make a béchamel.

Heat, whisking, 4 tablespoons olive oil and four tablespoons flour in a saucepan. When frothy remove from heat, whisk in a little more than 2 cups cold milk and one cup Greek yogurt. Return to heat, continue to whisk. When the mixture boils and thickens, add 2/3 cup grated parmesan cheese. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Pour the mixture over the dishes and cook for one hour at 400 degrees. Let the dish sit for 15 minutes before eating.

 

Thanksgiving Weekend Recap November 29, 2010

Oh, I have a lot to say about this weekend, and I know I’m going to forget a bunch of stuff, but here goes:

Wednesday:

• Patrick and I went to the climbing gym in the morning. It was a lot of fun, since we haven’t been in so long, but omg our fingers were so sore later. I could hardly write Sarah’s check out for my fingers refusing to work. We were both sore from that for the next two days.
• We cleaned like mad on Wednesday and started initial preparations for food on Thursday.
• We tried for a holiday card worth picture. It went. But not well. Here’s the best shot:

Happy Holidays from the Serious Boys

Thursday:

• We’ve declared Thanksgiving to be a family holiday, so it was just the four of us.
• Patrick and I cooked. We made: stuffing in the slow cooker, brussels sprouts in butter, peas, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and sourdough rolls.
• Later we made pies: pumpkin (well, butternut squash), pecan, and apple.
• There was snow on the ground Thursday morning. We took the boys for a very cold 3 mile walk after lunch. Gilbert was warm in the Baby Bjorn on Patrick’s chest. Seamus was cold in the stroller. I had to take off my jacket and drape it over him.
• Seamus learned a new word, “pie.” But he thinks pie is dough with unflavored apple inside. It’s actually fitting because he loves applesauce. I had the fridge door open, and Seamus looked up, asked for “sauce?” and when I didn’t immediately get it out, he walked over to the stash of applesauce in the pantry, pulled out a jar and started carrying it over to me.
• Snow, in happier times:

Snow on Thanksgiving!

Friday:

• We had some friends over to share their leftovers. Delightfully fun. J asks, “What if all we have is pie and green beans?” I respond, “Then we’ll eat pie and green beans.” Doesn’t sound like too bad of a life to me.
• X (Seamus’s bilingual friend) was playing with the orange monkey. I asked him, “Tienes un chongo?” He looked at me like I was stupid. “Monkey,” he said. I guess I’m going to have to get used to it.
• I made a broccoli gratin from Joy of Cooking. I added a copious amount of the smoked paprika my friend A sent me. Delicious. Mostly appreciated by the little eaters among us.
• Pictures of delight:

The cooler noise freaked them out a little. So we played, (a la how does a cow go? moo!) how does a cooler go? Creeeaak!

I'm Stuffed!

Saturday:

• I went for a long run in the foothills with G. We ran the whole distance, almost. I wore my five fingers shoes, that I bought last Thanksgiving weekend. I’ll never run in anything else again. I love running barefoot, or nearly!
• Our friends D and A came over with their little boy C. He’s just starting to master walking. So fun! We also got to witness Seamus actually, actively sharing. He kept holding out his toys and books for C to examine and play with.

Sunday:

• Sarah came, so P and I went for a long ride on the tandem. I have a new seatpost that should reduce the bounce, however, I guess I haven’t been riding enough, because ow! Anyway, it was a beautiful day for a ride, and it was the first time P had left the house in three days!
• P and S went to Costco while G and I snoozed in the recliner. I love it when that happens. His little sighs and pooked out lips when he sleeps are so sweet.
• We went to G and J’s for dinner, and I’m going to have to figure out the celery root salad, because, Yum! The boys loved the pumpkin soup, demanding more and more. We might have had more success taking their holiday picture than our own! A good looking family!

So lots more stuff happened that I’ll remember soon and regret not putting in here, but this is the best I can do to create a RECORD of the WEEKEND. I hope your weekends were great! What did you do?

Report Card November 22, 2010

Well, I usually post recipes that were successful here on my blog, but consider it a favor that I don’t detail the cinnamon rolls I made this weekend. They are hard as little hockey pucks. I think we’re going to make bread pudding out of the carnage.

I’m feeling a little burned out with the holidays, even though it’s not yet Thanksgiving, and even though Patrick has discovered Pandora and the holiday music station is great fun. I don’t really want to cook, or clean, or set up the fake tree, or do anything other than take hot showers and get under the down. If it would snow, that would validate my tendencies some.

Seamus has dry skin. I’ve been rubbing lotion on it in the morning when he gets up and even though it smells like Sandalwood Rose, he seems to love it, signing “more.” I’m not sure if he likes the lotion on his dry skin, the smell, or the massage, but without fail he says, as he signs, “more, mama” and when we finish, “thank you.”

We got his school report card at our parent teacher conference. It was pretty funny, and the best part was that Seamus and his little friend who is a week younger than him play together so much that when it’s time for them to lay down for their rest time, they had to be separated because they keep talking to each other. They don’t have scintillating conversation, just, “Hi” “Hi” “Hi!” “Hi!” “HI!” “HI!” back and forth. I think both boys are going to be talkers because Gilbert is cooing up a storm. He lays in his crib in the morning and talks to himself before we come in to get him.

Gilbert is also perfecting the art of raspberry blowing. He’s been doing it for about a week. Seamus likes to sit over him and echo the noises back and forth. Seamus had his first time out yesterday when he laid down on Gilbert again, after being warned. He was VERY upset when he realized that he was being disciplined. When I hear him say, “Hi” to the baby, I know smothering is about to begin. And he so cleverly tries to make it look like he’s giving the baby love.

There really are more exciting things going on around here and I think, I should blog about that, but then I don’t an I forget. So maybe I’ll start writing myself little notes.

The One Hundredth October 19, 2010

When Friends got to their one hundredth episode, they titled it, “The One Hundredth.” All the other episodes are titled “The One ___” often referring to a minor plot line. This is my one hundredth blog post! We’ve got milestones all over the place this month. Seamus turns 18 months, I’ve been blogging for a year (by the way, that’s how I blog with babies, I didn’t even start until Seamus was nearly six months old–I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating, those first few days/weeks/months with a new baby are hard). Gilbert’s smiling. Things are (mostly) good.

Bullet Updates:

• Mental Health–good, but Patrick and I neither one slept well on Sunday night (even though the boys slept pretty well), so chalk one up to anxiety or whatever, but it made for a tough Monday. I’m feeling optimistic about the future, but I guess I was right a week or so ago, there are chinks in the armor. Looking forward to a visit from my parents and a trip to Denver.
• Physical Health–Patrick and I rode our bikes to the coffee shop on Sunday morning while Sarah stayed with the boys. My hammies were sore later. And yesterday, to combat fatigue, I went for a 23 minute run, in my five fingers. It was the first time I’d run in at least 6 months. It felt great, but again, super sore today, this time in my abs, so something must be working.
• Economic Health–There’s a lot of discussion on the NYTimes.com and elsewhere about the state of the Humanities and how we’re about to experience the great demise. I do wonder sometimes how we quantify the usefulness of the humanities, but I’ll just say this, taking business classes does not guarantee that you’ll get a good job any more than taking English classes does. And really, you can’t teach people how to have a creative, entrepreneurial idea, but you can teach them how to make a plan. Humanities are where we nurture creativity. And job search, I’ve applied for several. Haven’t heard anything yet, but most of them have deadlines sometime between now and Thanksgiving. I have culled several off my list that don’t fit my subject area well. More on this later….
• Food Health–Toddler approved dinner! Last night’s food was a big hit with Seamus. So much so that it’s a good thing there was more to eat than just the Cottage Cheese Pancakes and applesauce. They were super easy: 6 eggs, separated; 6 TBS flour; 1/4 teaspoon salt; 2 cups cottage cheese. Whip the egg whites until stiff. Beat egg yolks, salt, and cottage cheese together. Fold in the whites, and cook in a skillet. Don’t make them too big. The texture was really different from what I expected, but I really liked them. Seamus kept asking for more, and he ate the last one for breakfast this morning. This recipe makes a lot, and you can halve it with success.

Spinach, Millet, Acorn Squash Recipe, and Rice and Eggplant Gratin September 30, 2010

I haven’t done recipes in forever, but it’s getting close to the time of year when eating takes center stage, so I thought I’d share some recent creations. By all means, I actually like summer eating a little better when berries, tomatoes, fresh corn, and so forth are delicious and require little to no cooking. However, fall means pie, apple and pumpkin (which in my family is always butternut squash pie, but that doesn’t sound as appetizing).

Anyway:

Rice and Eggplant Gratin

This recipe’s inspiration comes from the NY Times recent recipe for Quinoa and Squash Gratin. However, I only had a few little zucchinis from our front planter and I had leftover take out rice in the fridge.

1 onion diced

1 eggplant cubed in 1/2 in cubes

3 little zucchinis sliced and halved

Cook all of these together in a pan. Do the eggplant and onion first for about 10 minutes and then add zukes and cook another five minutes. Season with salt, pepper, thyme, and parsley.

3 large eggs

1 cup of grated cheese (I used cheddar)

1-2 cups cooked rice

Mix all of these in a bowl, add the veggie mixture. Transfer to a 2 quart baking dish, and cook at 350 for 35 minutes, or until lightly brown on top and set.

This was easy, delicious, and Seamus ate it too. And it used up some stuff in the fridge.

Spinach and Millet Stuffed Acorn Squash

I love stuffed veggies, and squash are the easiest to stuff. Any grain would work.

1 acorn squash

Roast squash until tender, cut in half, scrape seeds, set aside.

1 cup cooked millet

bag of spinach

1 cup grated Parmesean

Cook the spinach down. Mix these three ingredients together. Season with salt, pepper, basil, and red pepper flakes. Fill squash halves. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

Again, Seamus approved.

My Kingdom for a Horse! September 22, 2010

Our pediatrician has two children in the exact same age spread that we do–16 months. When we went for Seamus’s 15 month well check, we asked how they helped their oldest adjust. After all, they don’t have much in the way of language, so it’s hard to explain. He said they got their oldest a special toy, from the baby, and that while he didn’t seem to understand it at first, he still (8 months later) refers to it as his baby car. We decided to get Seamus a rocking horse. (Hence the title of this post.) Poor kid. He had no idea of the trade off. But he does seem to enjoy his horse, and he calls it the “baby horse.” So there must be something to it.

Richard the Third--I mean Seamus

He’s actually getting very exuberant on it and we’re afraid he’s going to topple head over heels backwards.

Seamus is saying so many new words, including a variation on his name. It sounds like “Shay” but say it in a high-pitched, breathy voice. He also signs more and cheese, which he’s been learning at daycare. Only today when he left with Sarah (who he calls ware-rah), he said to me, “Bye bye. School.” Clearly, he wasn’t too fussed about leaving. When he hears an airplane go over, he points to the sky (inside the house) and says, “pane!” then as the sound fades, he says, “Bye bye.” He says words for (and they don’t always sound the way we say them of course) cereal, keys, outside, pig, sheep, train, truck, in addition to his old standbys. He also crawled across our bed this morning to lay his head on my pillow and say, “Night night. Bye bye.” It’s self-indulgent of course to write all this, but he was playing a game. He can reach the door knobs now, and no knives are safe anywhere on counter tops. But he still gets pooped out:

After Daycare Nap

And this is what my life is often like, as I nurse Gilbert and try to keep Seamus from bopping him in the head as he crawls up on me. Seamus always needs a book read to him, right now!, when Gilbert wants to nurse. It’s one of the many reasons I’m grateful Seamus still goes to pm daycare.

Patrick doing double duty.

You’ll notice there’s not a picture of me doing this because nobody said they were thankful for me! (Dexter reference–you’re welcome, Dad!)

And I wanted to offer up another comparison photo pair:

Gilbert

Seamus

These are from almost exactly the same age.

All in all, we’re doing all right. This is easier in some ways than I thought it might be, but I’m not going to lie. The time between 6-8 at night is about as stressful as it gets. Everybody needs to eat. Most of us need baths/showers. And we’re all tired from the day’s events and sometimes take that crankiness out on each other (excusable from the kids, and understandable in us). Dinner is tough. Which is why we’re so grateful that our friends D, A, and C made and delivered us a delicious dinner again last night.*

That’s all I’ve got for today. I know, scintillating, right?

*When we do our big bike ride with kids down the OR coast, these folks are at the top of our list to join us. Not only are they great cyclists–just our speed–they’re also fantastic cooks. And they have a little boy smack dab in the middle age-wise between Seamus and Gilbert.