September is Summer
Hi friends. This newsletter should have reached you on Tuesday, but some technical difficulties came between us. So here we find ourselves.
Maybe it’s my name, but I am always sad to say goodbye to summer. Even though I live in a city where temperatures rise over 100 often, and even though this particular summer has not been quite as joyful or relaxed as my usual attempted vibe, this to me is the season for pleasure: swimming, popsicles, sunshine, baseball.
I hope you’ll enjoy these final weeks of the season as much as you possibly can, or if “enjoy” is too strong a word (I get it), I hope you find some peace and rest.
There’s refreshing moral clarity in simply treating animals as what they are: feeling beings. They are not objects. They are not capital. They can’t and don’t consent to suffer and die in captivity because we want them to, and they don’t deserve to be hurt just because humans don’t want to be.
— Me, Summer Anne, on animal testing in Human Enough to Hurt
If you are in love with that absolute style icon up top, as we are, check out the rest of photographer Danielle Spires’ retro, hilarious, and beautiful pet and family portraits. We got some things right in the 1980s.
In addition to sharing Danielle’s work with the world, Tenderly editor and all-star Jack Shepherd also shared a truly incendiary take: Oat Milk is Garbage. I have appended an editor’s note to the post to make it clear that Jack’s stance is not endorsed by Tenderly, but click through if you dare — oat milk fans, prepare to go to war. Soy milk lovers, you have found your leader.
How to have fun in the sun without hurting anyone: 10 Cruelty-Free, Vegan, and Reef-Friendly Sun Protection Brands! ☀️☀️☀️ Thanks, Anouska Parr.
Aquafaba ice cream
Tenderly OG Laura Vincent shared a new recipe for this summertime treat that doesn’t require an ice cream machine at all. It’s vegan, nut-free, and soooooo delicious. If you’re more of a mango than a berry, there’s a variation for that!
Cheezy fiesta potatoes
Arabella veganized her a discontinued Taco Bell favorite, Cheesy Fiesta Potatoes. This is a perfect weekday lunch — you’ll need basic spices, potatoes, and vegan cheese, but this is an easy recipe for beginners. Arabella also demoed the process on our Instagram, in case you’re more of a video learner.
Recently in blogging: There’s a new Violife cookbook! Arabella’s cats still love dog toys! Accidentally vegan snacks!
HISTORICAL COMPASSION — 1915
Glimpses at animal rights history from late 19th / early 20th century animal advocacy publications
Thanks to digitized libraries at Google Books, I’ve developed an obsession with diving into the writings of animal advocates who lived and fought for the well-being of animals over 100 years ago. Vegetarians and vegans were rare, but these merciful humans advocated for better treatment of farm animals, dogs, animals used in zoos and for entertertainment, and published radical (for the times) ideas about animal intelligence and emotion. In some ways, the main animal advocacy publication of the late 1800s / early 1900s — Our Dumb Animals — feels like Tenderly’s ancestor — a mix of philosophy, news, cat pictures, pet obits, and personal reflections on the relationships between humans and other animals. I’ll occasionally feature glimpses of the work of those early animal advocates here in the Tenderly newsletter. Today’s peeks at animal rights history are all from the year 1915, 105 years ago…
THE SIMPLEST VEGAN AIOLI
A recipe from Laura Vincent — one small jar
- ½ cup aquafaba (if it’s a little over or under this is fine)
- 1 ½ teaspoons garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons Dijon or American mustard
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon sugar or agave nectar
- ¾ cup sunflower oil or similar plain oil
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
- Place the aquafaba in the bowl of a blender or food processor, or in a mixing bowl if you’re going to use an immersion stick blender. Add the garlic powder, salt, mustard, vinegar, lemon juice, and sugar, and blend the mixture on a medium to high speed until it’s frothy, pale and aerated.
- Blend at a medium speed and pour in the oils a little at a time through the feed tube. Or if you’re using a mixing bowl, slowly drizzle it in while the stick blender is on. Continue blending and adding the oil until it has absorbed into the aquafaba and you have what looks like a thick, creamy aioli.
- Taste to see if you think it needs any more of anything — perhaps another splash of vinegar, or a little more salt? More garlic? Trust your tastebuds.
- Spatula the aioli into a clean, dry jar or container, and refrigerate until needed. Makes about 1 ¾ cups, and it keeps for about three days in the fridge.
CURRENTLY PLAYING
Tunes from Tenderly HQ
Speaking of it still technically being summer, my friend Alex and I made a call-and-response playlist for the final gasps of August. 20 songs spanning genre, from a Da Brat deep cut to some ’60s bubblegum pop and a lot of 2020 tracks, but the vibe is fairly consistent: sunny, breezy optimism. Perhaps we were trying to summon such a feeling.
LOOK AT THIS PHOTOGRAPH
More than words…
