7. Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian

If you’re one of those people who harbor the misguided impression that meatless cooking is all about joyless salads and strange, health-food store offerings like flaxseed, check out this cookbook. Bittman’s recipes for things like blue-cheese stuffed apples and goat cheese and roasted red pepper mac-and-cheese may change your mind.

If you’re already a vegetarian, this is quite possibly the only cookbook you will ever need. Bittman introduces a basic recipe (say, for pancakes) and then gives you a number of variations on that recipe. There are recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert, as well as handy-dandy tables and charts that cover basic techniques (i.e. frying vegetables) and combinations (i.e. which spreads, veggies and cheeses go best together in sandwiches). And while Bittman certainly doesn’t shy away from dairy products, many of the recipes can be adapted to meet the needs of our vegan buddies.

I would offer up How to Cook Everything Vegetarian as Exhibit A as to why you don’t need meat to have a satisfying, balanced, delicious meal.

As if puppy mills weren’t evil enough here in the States – they’re now being outsourced. Apparently, some people still care more about papers than the well-being of an animal:

Puppy mills began proliferating overseas about five years ago, at about the same time that U.S. authorities started cracking down on unscrupulous domestic breeders.

Tom Sharp of the American Kennel Club says that’s when he started seeing bulldogs arriving from Russia and Yorkies from South Korea. With the help of the Internet, Sharp says, dishonest pet stores and breeders could easily get puppies overseas.

“That way, they don’t have to be inspected by the different organizations and the governments here in the U.S., and avoid all the requirements,” he says.

Right now, the only federal requirement an importer has to follow is to provide proof of a current rabies vaccine — documentation that is easily forged.

This is the specific incident that caught my ear on NPR yesterday:

In Los Angeles, one recent shipment of dead and ailing puppies from South Korea got the city’s attention. Twenty of the dogs in the shipment seized at Los Angeles International Airport either had died or had to be euthanized after the trip. The 10 survivors were turned over to the city’s shelter.

Five months later, those survivors — five miniature Maltese and five tiny Yorkshire terriers — were ready for adoption. Hundreds of animal lovers, many wrapped in blankets to keep warm, lined up on a chilly morning in front of L.A.’s East Valley Animal Shelter for a chance to bid on the dogs.

A couple of things trouble me. First, I’m a little conflicted about this auction. (Apparently, city law requires the shelter to hold an auction whenever more than one person wants to adopt a particular animal.) On the one hand, the shelter raised $20,000, and all ten of these purebreds (as well as 52 other pets from the shelter) were adopted. But the article made no mention of whether these purebreds were spayed and neutered. I would assume that coming from the shelter, they would be, but I have a hard time imagining that people would be lining up to shell out $1000 or more for a fixed purebred (one Yorkie reportedly went for $1100).

Secondly, I never have (and likely never will) understand why people are so hellbent on getting that dog with the papers and the bloodline. Is it a status symbol? Is it so they can breed the dog themselves and make a buck or two? I can understand loving a specific breed (I adore mastiffs and pit bulls) but what’s wrong with adopting from a breed-specific rescue group? There are lots of them out there. So, either people aren’t aware of these groups, or it really is just about the papers.

This is where I tend to get very judgmental and very PETA-ish. I often end up disagreeing with PETA’s tactics, if not their positions, but strict regulation of animal breeders is one area of agreement between us. And Oklahoma needs to step it up.

While most other states have cracked down on puppy mills, Oklahoma (as usual) lags behind the curve. We rank second in the country in terms of the number of “under the radar” puppy breeders. And for those who may not get as upset as I about the animal cruelty aspect, there are other reasons why you should care about this issue. Buyers aren’t ensured a good “product” (if you want to view a puppy as a product). The horrible conditions present in some of these breeding facilities can lead to diseases and temperament problems. I’ve heard people say that they buy from breeders because unlike adopting from a shelter, they “know what they’re getting.”

Well, that ain’t always so.

State Representative/veterinarian Lee Denney (R-Cushing) is proposing much-needed legislation. Her bill would establish:

…minimum standards for breeders, including proper housing, ensuring the animals nutritional needs are met and the animals receive veterinary care. The bill would also establish standards for breeders who sell 25 or more puppies a year.

I don’t have a lot of sympathy for those who complain about such regulation. I think it should be downright difficult for people to breed animals, and I would be more than happy to pay higher taxes myself to ensure the proper enforcement of such legislation.

Unfortunately, I suspect I’m once again in the minority on this one.

Consider this my Public Service Announcement for the day.

If you’re anything like me, you might have a list of new-ish albums you want to buy because you’ve heard amazing things about them. They keep popping up on everyone’s “Top 10 of 2008” lists. People who share your musical tastes are raving about them. But sadly, you just don’t have the budget to buy every album that sounds interesting. You’re hesitant to blow $9 or $10 on an album you may or may not like.

That’s why you’re absolutely beside yourself when you find out that Amazon.com is offering downloads of many of the top albums from 2008 for only $5 each! Sure, you have to wade through some crap like Katy Perry, Jesse McCartney and the soundtrack from High School Musical 3, but you can also stock up on stuff like the universally revered Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes and TV on the Radio.

I’m looking forward to spending the rest of the day with all my new music.

6. Running!

Okay, so my meager pace (12 minutes a mile) might be more aptly described as “light jogging” rather than “running” – but, whatever. I still adore it. And it’s a vast improvement from a year ago, when my most strenuous exercise consisted of walking from the parking lot to the pub.

For whatever reason, I find running more enjoyable than walking. Perhaps I simply get bored more easily when walking. Or, as my current theory holds, I enjoy a pretty nifty endorphin rush when running, one that I don’t seem to get from walking. After an uncomfortable first couple of minutes, I hit what I call “the zone.” My heart rate’s up. I’m sweating. My pace meshes perfectly with the beat of my iPod playlist, and I feel really, really good.

And I love the small, built-in goals it provides. I love pushing myself to go just a little bit farther than before. One more minute. One more quarter of a mile. I love working on gradually increasing my endurance and my distance (I’ll work on the pace later). The other day, I ran for a continuous mile and a half – about half the distance of my 5K goal.

And I’ve now identified my first 5K. I recently compiled a calendar of interesting-sounding 5K runs in 2009, and the first one on my list is Tulsa’s St. Patrick’s Day Run on March 14th. A good cause, free beer at the finish line – it’s perfect. I can’t wait.

5. Ft. Worth

And now it’s time to look forward to 2009, which we’re kicking off with a mid-January weekender to Bartlesville, OK. All right, so it’s Bartlesville, but this trip is all about our sweet-ass hotel room at the Inn at Price Tower. Frank Lloyd Wright rocks pretty hard.