i had the baby! i had two babies! i had three babies! vegan MOFO day 29

ha-ha, fooled you! c'mon, would i really be posting if i had the baby? perhaps--although that would be pretty hardcore even by vegan MOFO standards. truth be told, no. i'd be nursing or napping. OB-GYN-KENOBE sez little cookie needs more time in the oven anyway.

so i finally got around to making these fudge babies that everyone keeps talkin' about. after eating a few i get why everyone is hemmin' and a hawin' over these things-- they are really good, and gluten free! great snack to make for any upcoming halloween celebration. you could probably get extra creative and make them look like eyeballs or something. what an awesome way to get some energy on without spending $1.75 for a larabar! good discovery, ms. chocolate covered katie!

i'd love to prattle on, but i've gotta go watch survivor--it's my guilty pleasure.

MOFO question: what have you made this month that you've never made before? did you get the idea from someone's blog? if so, who's blog?

my top 4 favorite food posts from 2009 vegan MOFO day #28

i'm low on food porn pics and ideas for an entry so i thought i'd list my top 4 favorite posts and dishes of 2009. i surprised myself by not putting more sweets in this entry, but one can't live on cookies alone...or can they?
two words: diablo dog.
i would do anything for loaf, but i won't do that. seriously, i still dream about this. now that fall/winter is here, nothing would do better than another pan of this stuff.
linda richman would say this east coast coffee cake is "like buttah." i'm getting verklempt thinking about it!
who could forget the freezer purge burritos?

mofo question: what are your proudest food moments in 2009?

foodjacking--taking recipes for a wild ride! vegan MOFO day 27

just look at that pancake! i found a way to utilize the besan flour without it tasting all beany. you just have to use it in a sweet with holiday spice blend, like these here persimmon pancakes. when i had my 'brinner' fest a few evenings ago, i made pumpkin waffles with the besan flour too.

i pride myself on not having recipes, and am known to sprout 8 arms like an octopus, grabbing random things from cupboards and making tasty food. when it comes to pancakes and waffles, i do a bit of hijacking-(or i guess you can call it foodjacking for that matter) from other recipes, using the necessities as a base, then adding my own flair. just look at any basic pancake or waffle recipe from most cook books, make vegan subs, and add what you want. i took a recipe from veganomicon for chocolate chip brownie waffles and turned it on its head! take note of the following:

jen's pumpkin (or persimmon) waffles (or pancakes)
GLUTEN FREE for sweet baby jebus
*i'm not being blasphemous, SBJ is a referee for the bleeding heartland rollergirls and is a gluten free man.

you'll need:

• 2 c. besan flour
• 1 t baking powder
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 1 t cinnamon
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/2 t nutmeg
• 1/2 t clove powder
• 1 1/2 t vanilla
• 1 c non-dairy milk
• 1 c pureed pumpkin (canned is fine i guess, i just had some home made puree on hand)
• OR if making persimmon version, use 1/2 c. persimmon pulp. if going the persimmon route, you'll need to up the milk
• 1/2 c chopped pecans
• 3/4 c dried cranberries
• 1/3 c. canola oil

mix dry ingredients first, then wet. if making pancakes, scoop out about 1/2 to 1/3 measured cup of batter on a hot non-stick pan and cook for a few minutes on each side. for the waffle iron, please follow the manufacturer's instructions. either way, you'll want to make sure to spray pan or waffle iron with some non-stick spray.

enjoy with some EB and maple syrup.

the point of hijacking isn't to rip off someones recipe, it's to use the flour/baking soda/wet ingredient measurements so you don't really have to think about how much to add and to eliminate the guesswork involved in coming up with a recipe if you're somewhat gastronomically challenged like me. i find isa's work to be really good inspiration for coming up with my own unique combinations.

mofo question: CONFESS. are you guilty of hijacking any recipes?

new take on an old tradition, vegan mofo day #26

no kids, i'm not gonna preach about how awesome it is to bake cookie dough in muffin tins so you get a super thick monster cookie cup. i'm gonna tell you that i tried olivia's chocolate chip cookie recipe from fairly odd tofu mom's blog. yummy! i made one alteration for the sake of experimentation in gluten free cooking: i subbed chickpea flour. the results? good--a hint of beany flavor, but otherwise great. am i GF now? no, i just have friends who do that and i wanted to see if that flour translated well in the recipe. if i make ol' olivia's recipe el futuro, i'm sure to use the standard ww flour.

since that cookie making experiment took place last week, i've tried a couple other recipes that used besan flour that worked much better. i'll post that entry tomorrow.

mofo question: have you ever made something for a GF friend? what flour did you use? what was the recipe? how did it work out?

brinner! MOFO day #25

well, it's getting down to the wire. i'm getting bigger, progressively more exhausted, and i bounce back and forth between wanting to cook and not wanting to cook. saturday i had a **burst** of energy and made brinner (brunch for dinner) for a couple of my friends--vegan AND gluten free. a challenge i had never attempted.
the food and conversation were so awesome, i forgot to take pics of the spread! shame on me. so please enjoy these pics of my messy assed kitchen. no worries, the beer bottle isn't mine, it's mr. jewbaccas. the menu was tofu scrambler, oven fries, jalapeno corn gravy-(*inspired from veganomicon, but made with on the fly--i severely cheated by making a gravy with corn soup, instant mashed potatoes, frank's red hot, and chopped pickled jalapenos. very good), french toast, and pumpkin/cranberry/pecan waffles made with chickpea flour. we drank ginger ale mixed with some sort of fancy juice blend instead of mimosas.
so the next day i took pics of the left overs. sorry, no waffles to post! i made the french toast with schar bread-(a gluten free loaf of these adorable mini slices). the downfall of gf bread though is that it is hard as a rock, and doesn't hold moisture too well. so instead of french toast these were frenchy toasty tasting crackers.

for dinner tonight i had more jalapeno corn gravy over a baked sweet potato. deliciously simple. i seem to be really in love with the sweet/savory/spicy combo as of lately. i take back my earlier statement about how i think i'll give birth to a bag of sugar and change that to a Frankenstein mishmash of a baby with a giant cookie for a head, a body made of savory curry, and the arms and legs will be little bottles of frank's red hot.

i'd like to get the following done before the end of the month: make chocolate covered katie's fudge babies-(and take a pick for hug a carb month!), and make an industrial batch of seitan in honor of halloween.

what are your end of the MOFO month goals?

ooooh, me so corny! vegan mofo day #22

i like me some chili. i also like a good pun on a terrible song by the infamous luther campbell. i also like feng-shuiing things. the pantry and the freezer needed to be purged, so this was the result! it's the time of year where it is always too dark to take a good outdoor food porn photo, so i had to use the flash. apologies.

chili-con-corny (get it?)

• 2 c. pinto beans (cooked or canned, it doesn't matter. i defrosted some cooked from the freezer. if you choose to use canned, make sure to drain all the nasty sodium-y bean juice from the can)
  
• 1 can diced tomatoes with green chiles
• 1 can of corn
• 1 c. of tomato soup (prepared, i used imagine brand)
• 1 t chili powder
• 1 T ms. dash chipotle
• 1/2 t cumin
• 1/4 t cinnamon
• 3/4 c frozen pepper/onion blend (kroger makes this, pre-chopped and ready to go!)
• 1/2 t dried garlic, or 1 clove of fresh, minced
• 2 small bay leaves
  

salt and pepper to taste

saute onion/pepper/garlic in some olive oil in a pan. add tomatoes, beans, corn, and tomato soup. add spices and bay leaves simmering for about 10 minutes. cool and store in fridge. tastes better the second day!

i garnished this dish with corn chips, avocado slices, tofutti sour supreme, and frank's red hot. it was super good.

low fat AND tastes good!

hi readers! i don't have much time or energy to post today. i did test the timeless question, "can low fat be tasty?" with positive results. this here is the lower fat banana bread from veganomicon. i added chocolate chips for flair.


what is your favorite low-fat (but tasty) dish?

sweet, meet savory--butternut squash lasagna vegan mofo day #19

this weekend i made some butternut squash lasagna. two pans of it to be precise.
it was awesome. i know people are kind of put off by the idea of sweet and savory in the same dish, and how this could have been a disaster, but it wasn't. just try it. you can still have a side of veggies if you want, but this stuff is fine on its own. above is the second pan topped with some sun dried tomatoes, and below is the pan topped with the soysage-teese topping blend.
i was fairly impressed with the teese cheese. a little definitely goes a long way, and i used one tube between the two pans. some of the leftovers went into le freezer, some in our bellehs, and the rest is going to a couple from shul that just had a baby. what is it with babies this year--'09 has definitely been a baby 'splosion!

jen's butternut squash lasagna

you'll need:

2 9x13 pans
1 box of lasagna noodles ( i used kroger brand wheat noodles)
1 jar of your favorite vegan spaghetti sauce (large jar, large jar!)
1 big butternut squash, that will give you about 6 cups of squash
1 tube of mozerella teese
1 tube of gimme lean! soysage
2 cups chopped frozen spinach
1 cup chopped onion
1T dried garlic OR 2 cloves fresh from a garlic press
ms. dash sun dried tomato blend
some sun dried tomatoes, if you got 'em
canola oil or cooking spray

preheat the oven to 350. peel, chop, and boil the squash. in the mean time, spray or oil the pans liberally. put a thin layer of spaghetti sauce on the bottom of the pan. place three dry noodles side by side over the sauce. in a separate non-stick pan, start browning your onions in some olive oil. once brown, throw in the garlic, then the gimme lean, and after everything is good n' brown, then the spinach. once cooked, put some of that mixture on top of the dry noodles followed with some shredded teese, spread evenly with some more spaghetti sauce. place three more noodles on top of the soysage/spinach blend. once your squash has cooked, drain and mash well with ms. dash blend. spread and pat evenly on top of the dried noodle layer. top off with a little more spaghetti sauce, soysage spinach blend, and top with teese and sun dried tomatoes. you should have enough noodles, sauce, squash, etc. for two pans of this. for the second pan, i ended up having more squash than the soysage/spinach blend, but it still turned out delicious.

BAKE FOR 45 minutes COVERED WITH FOIL. this is super important. all the steam and moisture from veggies and sauce will give life to those dry noodles. bake uncovered for about 8 minutes, and broil for the last two to make the top all nice and bubbly!

pairs well with steamed kale and tahini dressing, but i bet it would even rock harder with some garlic bread.

hello! not a flashy food post, but look--brian posehn! vegan mofo day 18

on a non-food related note, i need to apologize to you readers for not posting. i needed to take a couple days off blogging. friday was a busy day at work, and my work day began on a sad note with discovering our country neighborhood dog dead in the road. he/she was really old and just one of those parts of our rural landscape that you just assume is always going to be around for you to see. i don't want to discuss the details, but it traumatized me for a couple of days. i needed to regroup. how did i do that? i got a good nights sleep and went to a comedy show at the funny bone on saturday...
look kids, it's brian posehn--my favoritest comedian in the whole world! he's 6 foot 6 of pure fart and poop jokes! i doubt that he's vegan at all, but i don't really care. he's super funny. if you don't know who he is, look him up here. mr. jewbacca and myself have loved this man since his days on mr. show and his many appearances on news radio.
i got him to sign my big 'ol preggo belleh. and now for some food that's been hangin' out in said belleh:
simple baby spinach salad with annie's goddess dressing and mujadara
potato spinach squares (fallen apart) from vegan brunch, and a chipotle black bean burger on an everything bagel. kroger's everything bagels are vegan too! they're following the trader joe's cue and labeling things vegan with a special icon.

what did y'all eat this weekend?

fall ain't fall without persimmon pudding vegan MOFO day 15

my pal andi calls this "permission" pudding, but i say it should be mandatory pudding: that everyone try this fall hoosier classic dessert. i posted about this super decadent treat about this time last year, and rather than repeat myself, you can read about the wacky persimmon PLUS GET THE RECIPE by clicking here. trust me: just try it and tell me whatchoo think. unless you're some freak of nature that hates sweety-cinnamon based desserts, you're sure to fall in love with this dish.

there are many recipes out there for persimmon pudding, but this one is the best. as with any baked good it is proper to serve this warm to hot with a big ol' scoop of your favorite vanilla non-dairy ice cream on top.

MOFO question: what is your local favorite dessert for the fall? is there a specialty pie, cake, or cookie that your region takes particular pride in? tell all!

quick...find the squash! vegan MOFO day 14

so...can you see it? i couldn't help myself. i had to top off this mixture of butternut squash, sweet potatoes, olive oil, cumin, cardamon, and cinnamon with my glorious cheater caramelized onions. it was the perfect fall dish to bring to my company autumn cook out. i really thought no one would touch it since it didn't have meat or cheese in it, but the omnivores stunned me by cleaning the tupperware container clean. goes to show you--just bring vegan food, don't label it vegan-(but make it look yummy) and those meat eaters will devour it without you ever having to have an uncomfortable discussion that ends with the idiotic, "but where do you get your protein from?" song and dance. yay!

jen's "cheater" caramelized onions *i've posted this before, i can't remember when!

you'll need:

• one big assed vidalia onion (although any kind will do)
• 2T olive oil
• a mandolin or good knife for cutting
• non stick skillet
• balsamic vinegar
• splashes of water
• 1T turbinado, maple syrup, or agave nectar

cut your onion very thin. with a regular knife, i peel onion and cut the bulb in half. then i cut each half in very thin wisps, right down to the center. with a mandolin i can just rush right through it and get nice thin rings. heat your non-stick skillet with the oil and add onions, constantly turning them over medium heat. they'll sweat, they'll brown, and they'll start to look clear. add a few dashes of balsamic vinegar to them along with the sugar/turbinado/agave nectar and continue to stir around the pan. add some splashes of water if you get stickage. once they look all yummy and caramelized, you're done. use these onions to top a sammich, salad, soup, mujadara, or your favorite veggies.

what to do if you run out of food porn: take a survey! vegan MOFO day 13

yeah, yeah--i'm lame. i'm also very pregnant and bizzay. so here's a MOFO survey for your enjoyment!

1. Favorite non-dairy milk? we only drink Silk in our home. yes, i know that silk is owned by the evil dean milk company, but that's all my spouse will drink. if i had it my way, i'd drink nothing but almond breeze
2. What are the top 3 dishes/recipes you are planning to cook? banana bread, some sort of soup, and katies chocolate ball thingies. now, what i 'plan' to cook and what i actually get time for are two different things.
3. Topping of choice for popcorn? that was a cruel question. i have braces. i don't really eat popcorn.
4. Most disastrous recipe/meal failure? i tested a gumbo recipe for vegan crunk and used the wrong kind of okra for it and while it tasted awesome, i had to keep spitting bits of tough assed okra from it. i spent big $ at the farmers market getting the ingredients too! i wanted to cry.
5. Favorite pickled item? i haven't had them in a while, but i love, love, LOVE pickled turnips. they really tie a falafel sandwich together.
6. How do you organize your recipes? what is this "organization" thing you speak of? i have books on a shelf and tester recipes jammed in pages of the books. i write in my books with recipes that i've tried noting any adjustments to make said recipe more awesome. i don't really have a system per se. most things i cook require no recipe. i'm super punk that way.
7. Compost, trash, or garbage disposal? warm non-frozen months, outdoor compost. i also bring scraps to work to feed to the worm composting bin. i work in garden store, btw.
8. If you were stranded on an island and could only bring 3 foods...what would they be (don't worry about how you'll cook them)?avocados, bagels, and chocolate.
9. Fondest food memory from your childhood? my childhood eating habits were established by parents who ate like crap, so my fondest food memories are of the crappiest of crappy foods: chef boyardee pizza mixes, white castles, and fried bologna sandwiches. why yes, i'm shuddering as i type that. i wouldn't wanna eat any of those things today.
10. Favorite vegan ice cream? i like purely decadent the best--chocolate obsession
11. Most loved kitchen appliance? hands down, the vidalia chop wizard.
12. Spice/herb you would die without? ms. dash chipotle flavor and cinnamon
13. Cookbook you have owned for the longest time? Congregation Beth Shalom Recipes. saddest part? i've never really tried any of them. i should make a point of veganizing some of the dishes.
14. Favorite flavor of jam/jelly? homemade strawberry, and store bought grape.
15. Favorite vegan recipe to serve to an omni friend? miki's pumpkin bread, my husband's vegan chili, or mujadara.
16. Seitan, tofu, or tempeh? Heil Seitan!
17. Favorite meal to cook (or time of day to cook)? i love breakfast food. it's easy and very filling. i also like a nice huge sandwich.
18. What is sitting on top of your refrigerator?many boxes of cereal: cheerios, kix, raisin bran, and life cereal. chips in the back, and an unused PUR water filter.
19. Name 3 items in your freezer without looking. bananas, some sort of frozen meal, and tomato puree.
20. What's on your grocery list? it changes every day. avocados, bananas, toilet paper.
21. Favorite grocery store? i just broke my vegan cherry at a Trader Joe's recently. some of the specialty items are really inexpensive, so i think we'll be making a monthly trip up to indianapolis just to get those things. otherwise, we're a kroger family. my spouse is the coupon king. we also enjoy the farmer's market during the summer, but find some of the stands to overcharge for their produce.
22. Name a recipe you'd love to veganize, but haven't yet. vinnie's mom used to make a "thanksgiving casserole" with her leftover turkey, taters, stuffing, veggies and top it with gravy. i think this is doable with all the vegan unturkey day leftovers: tofurkey, taters, veggies, and gravy.
23. Food blog you read the most Vegan Crunk, Chocolate Covered Katie, Pixiepine, basically all the stuff that gets updated regularly on my blog roll. i patron the ppk parenting forum every single day.
24. Favorite vegan candy/chocolate? endangered species chocolate, it's made in indianapolis.
25. Most extravagant food item purchased lately? teese. i haven't tried it yet, i 'm using it to top my lasagna. i'm very picky and jaded about vegan cheese, so i hope this isn't disappointing.
26. Ingredients you are scared to work with? bread with yeast, and anything that's super expensive. i'd hate to slave over a dish, use the ingredient wrong, and have it taste like blech.
27. Favorite food cart? we don't have a food cart system in btown. so i'll just name my favorite restaurant: samira.
28. Top 3 favorite cuisines! middle eastern, indian, mexican

tofu eatin' zombies! vegan MOFO day 12

i thought i'd dedicate this entry to my favorite vegan/vegetarian athletes: the tofu eating zombies! i volunteer once a month for our local roller derby bouts as an EMT. i work with two other medics, we get into the bouts for free, and pray to the tofu gods/goddesses that no one gets hurt! this saturday's match was the "monster mash up: monsters vs. zombies". there are a few vegan/vegetarian roller derby dames and i want to give them some big veggie props! you can learn more about btown's hot derby action here. the women of roller derby work very, very hard. a minimum of 7 hours a week is required for practice, followed by hefty service commitments of coaching, clean up, public information outreach, philanthropy, etc. at the bout, the BHRG awarded a check for $2,000 to the deep roots animal sanctuary. yay!
tiger beat--everyone has a crush on tiger beat. you'd be stupid not to, because TB is so gnawdorable, nom-nom-nom. TB is noshing on a mock egg salad (or is it tempeh "chicken"?) sammich from our local co-op.

playing for the "monster" side is the Unicoroner--#4 hooves under. i adore her. i expected her to be a monster unicorn this bout, but she chose to dress up like a bee instead. she really knows how to sting her opponents!
party foul will pass on the brains and happily eat a trail mix bar instead when tofu can't be found. grrrrrr! she was mentioned in an issue of veg news this past year which i thought was pretty cool.
my favorite rookie this year is Terror d' Bits. this zombie moves faster than the ones in the dawn of the dead remake. i mean really, really fast. she can skate circles around the track and the other jammer won't even know what hit her. her boyfriend is the infamous lord seitan, a referee who has a seitan recipe i swear by. i tried to get my picture taken with him, but the person who took the photo didn't know what they were doing. i cried a little.
and i cried a little after trying this here red curry tofu from the local co-op. i had been really craving some red curry and thought this would be awesome, but it was really sub-par. there wasn't even a hint of curry flavor in this.
and it doesn't even look that great! i ate it because i hate to waste food. to boot, i had onion-y breath that kept all zombies, monsters, and other halloween related creatures far away from me for the rest of the bout.

the road to enlightenment is paved with granola. vegan MOFO day #9

so in an earlier post i whined about how i can't stop burning granola. thanks for the feedback, everyone! that recipe was adapted from vegweb.com and the directions called for the 350 degree temp, which i thought was kind of high anyway. future batches of muh-muh-my granola will be baked at a lower temp.

mo talks about how she likes to make granola because she's sticking it to the man. agreed--i feel the same way about energy bars. finding vegan ones that don't taste like dirt and are nicely priced-(yes i love you larabar, but c'mon $2 per bar? puh-lease.) can be quite the challenge--until NOW! about these bars: i got the recipe from a summer 2008 issue of family fun magazine, of all places. * side note: when did they turn into "disney's" family fun mag? yuk. the recipe was totally vegan too, which made me immensely happy. i didn't have the exact ingredients on hand so i improvised and found the results quite tasty. here is my makeover:

chewy granola bars

1 c raw pumpkin seeds (ground into a fine powder via a coffee/spice mill)
2/3 c maple syrup/agave nectar blend
1 c raisins
1/4 c chopped dried apricots
1 t cinnamon
1.5 c oats-( i used thick cut, and this worked out fine)

mix all ingredients in a bowl and preheat oven to 275. your hands will get messy. rinse your hands off and with wet hands press mixture into a well greased 9x13 baking dish for 40 minutes. check on sides and top for browning. remove from oven and let it cool completely before cutting.

i thought the bars tasted like really dense oatmeal cookies. in the future, i'll try different fruit/nut combos and add a pinch, just a pinch of salt to the recipe to see if that does something.

i know MOFO guidelines state that we don't need to post during the weekends, so i might just take tomorrow off. i hope y'all have a great weekend!

monster sammie vegan MOFO day 8

i can't wait for my son to get older so he grows out of his cereal/toast/bananas diet and moves onto sammiches that look like this! i call this the monster sammie. simple: vegan spicy chix pattie w/ veganaise, dill relish, and ketchup on an everything bagel. spanish olives serve as the eyeballs and the legs are bell pepper strips. too many legs to be a spider, and while the sammich looks like a crab of sorts, i'd just rather call it a monster in the spirit of halloween.
with plenty of carbs, protein, and a serving of raw veggies--i happily ate this before it could come n' eat me.

tell me about your favorite spooky-(but fun) favorite dishes. you should totally post the pics on your blogs!

product review: kashi sicilian veggie pizza vegan MOFO day 7

i don't have much time on my hands anymore. i thought it was tough working FT and being a parent to one rambunctious toddler was enough--boy howdy am i gonna be motorin' when cookie gets here in december! to save time i do what any good american does: i make a frozen pizza. since there aren't many frozen pizzas on the market that cater to the vegan pallate, i'm always game for trying one when it comes out. which brings me to this product review.

not bad for a frozen pizza, not bad at all. 11 g's of protein and 5 g of fiber per serving too--which is also good in my book. the flavor of the sauce? feh. not that impressive. but the pizza actually looks like it does in the picture, which is always nice. the pizza is small and can be split between two people, or feed one hungry assed vegan. the price is way too expensive, as all kashi products tend to be, so watch for a sale or use a coupon!

bottom line: one small turntable, and a microphone. if time is an issue this will fill you up-(add some additional balsamic vinegar and olive oil to the top), but you aren't going to find pizzeria quality from kashi.

follow your heart is jerkin' my heart around--a tale of woe. vegan MOFO day#6

i saw it on the shelf at my local co-op and thought: could it be true, a vegan bleu cheese dressing? wow! it really is! it's from the makers of veganaise, so it must be vegan! my heart crumbled into little pieces as i read the ingredients:

Ingredients

Vegenaise* (Soybean Oil*, Filtered Water, Brown Rice Syrup*, Apple Cider Vinegar*, Soy Protein*, Sea Salt, Mustard Flour* Lemon Juice Concentrate*), Filtered Water, Fresh Cultured Buttermilk*, Bleu Cheese* (Pasteurized Milk*, Cheese Cultures, Salt, Microbial Enzymes, Penicillium Roqueforti), Vinegar*, Sour Cream* (Cultured Non-Fat Milk* and Cream*, Microbial Enzymes, Live Active Cultures: L. acidophilus & B. bifidus), Sea Salt, Natural Flavor, Garlic*, Xanthan Gum, Onion*, Black Pepper*, Mustard Flour*, Chives*, Spices*. *Denotes Organic Ingredients

yes, kids--it was too good to be true. thank the tofu gods that i read the label before buying it in a state of blissful delirium. oh follow your heart brand--how could you be so cruel? i guess i'm just an idiot for believing that the company only makes stuff for us vegans.

tell me about your biggest vegan disappointment, that item that you banked on being in the clear and it so wasn't. you don't have to even admit you ate it-(although we've all been there!). just discuss the sad.