The Children We Enslave

 Hey there, friends! While it’s not exactly in keeping with the fun times & delicious recipes theme of the rest of this (mostly inactive) blog, I figured this installment of my semi-regular posts on modern slavery was a wee bit long for a Facebook post. 😂

Kudos on making it this far. This year has been a dumpster fire filled with difficult things, so making the effort to tackle another difficult thing right now is pretty amazing of you. 

From our comfortable homes in countries where WiFi & McDonalds are ubiquitous & the biggest concern most of us face is paying the bills for the lifestyle we’ve chosen, it’s easy to believe that we are far removed from the horrors of little children being beaten & starved by callous taskmasters. 

We demand 2-day delivery & rock-bottom prices. Companies, eager for our business & ready to please, deliver both at the click of a button. 

But everything has a price. 

The brands we know & love graciously do their best to shield us from the price of our low-cost convenience, but it is getting harder & harder for them to hide the fact that those luxuries are paid for with the lives of children whose faces we will never see & whose names we will never know. 

The harsh reality is this: while others may wield the whip, we are the callous taskmasters. 

With my Amazon Prime subscription & my seemingly endless trips to Sam’s Club & Costco, I am no less culpable that any of you-& likely more so than many of you. I’m not trying to preach at you. Rather, I want to share my stumbling journey of improvement in the hopes that it might help others on a similar path. 

I know that each of us have different strengths, opportunities, abilities, & needs. Because of that, I’m not going to go into detail on all the ways to change/advocate/etc.; I think you’re best suited to figuring out what your contribution can be right now. 

I also know that getting started can be the greatest hurdle, so I’ve included several links at the end of the post to help you navigate this problem & I’ll sum up a few highlights from them here. 

Like most of the difficult problems in our lives, the solution is simple, it’s just not easy. Here are a few ways you can get started:

1-BUY LOCAL WHEN YOU CAN

      The closer to home the better, but no location is likely to provide all you/your business might need. Wherever you live, buying goods made in your home country from raw materials sourced in your home country goes a long way towards reducing the number of child slaves working for you. Sometimes local can be less expensive, but that’s not always the case. If you can’t transition all your purchases right now, consider making these changes:

• Hold off on upgrading that smartphone or laptop. 

Cobalt is essential in making rechargeable lithium batteries used in millions of products sold by the tech industry. Tesla, Apple, Google, Microsoft & others have knowingly allowed children, some as young as 6 years old, to be maimed and killed to supply them with cheap cobalt.

I frequently refer to my phone as my “brain” & have no idea how I’d keep track of everyone’s crap without it. I try to lessen my impact by keeping the same phone & other tech for as many years as they are serviceable, repairing instead of replacing, & donating items to schools or organizations that will salvage/recycle them responsibly instead of throwing them in the trash. 

• Spend a couple extra bucks when you treat yourself to chocolate. 

About 1.56 million children—many as young as five—are engaged in the back-breaking work of harvesting cocoa for chocolate in the Ivory Coast and Ghana. Those two West African countries together supply about 70% of the world’s cocoa beans. In addition to facing brutal labor practices, these children are also vulnerable to being sold into the global cancer of human trafficking. Hershey’s, Mars, Cadbury & others have all acknowledged their part in this crime against humanity & have pledged to work to eradicate child slave labor in their industry. Despite those pledges, the corporations in this $100 billion industry have not only missed every single target set, but the proportion of child labor on coco farms in Ghana and the Ivory Coast increased by a staggering 14 percentage points in the past decade-up from 31% to 45% of children living in the two countries. 

Sure, you’ll buy less chocolate (because the ones raising the bar are also kind of spendy), but if you’re anything like me that’s not exactly a bad thing health-wise. 😂

Here’s a site that can help you find brands that measure up (yes, I know the beloved Ferrero of Nutella fame doesn’t make the cut.😭) https://www.greenamerica.org/end-child-labor-cocoa/chocolate-scorecard

• Change the way you look at clothes. 

From high fashion to Walmart, the clothing supply chain is rife with child labor. Is that cheap t-shirt or pair of jeans still a great buy if you know that that rock-bottom deal was made possible only because of child slave labor? Yeah, not for me either. 

The Fair Wear Foundation has a list of over 120 brands that have signed up to its code of labour practices, which do not allow for the use of child labour. Accredited brands must ensure with regular audits that all of the suppliers in the cut-make-trim stage of production meet these standards.

Another great option is to help reduce production demand by purchasing clothes from resell shops. Bonus points to this one for also being cheaper!

2-MAKE YOURSELF HEARD

• Petition lawmakers to require greater transparency & accountability (including meaningful penalties) for corporation supply chains.

If you live in the U.S.A., you can find your representatives, how to contact them, bills they’ve introduced, committees they serve on, and political contributions they’ve received at this website: https://www.commoncause.org/find-your-representative/

• Let your favorite stores & brands know that this matters to you. 

Yes, your letter, email, phone call/whatever to those representatives, stores & brands represent a tiny drop in the bucket. However, if enough of us cause enough of them enough trouble we CAN effect change. 

3-TAKE A DEEP BREATH

We’re all at different places in life. While I firmly believe that we all have changes we can & should make (& I know I could be better about not letting myself off the hook for the sake of convenience), stressing about the changes that aren’t realistic for you right now helps no one & will only lead to burnout & a likely abandonment of any progress you do make. 

So make changes for the better, but do it in a way and at a pace that fit where your life is right now with a commitment to yourself to continue that course of positive change as your circumstances allow. 

And here are the promised links...totally unorganized because I have put off voting in this accursed election long enough. 😒 

https://www.endslaverynow.org/blog/articles/products-made-by-child-labor-with-alternative-options

https://thehill.com/opinion/civil-rights/496573-could-bringing-manufacturing-home-also-help-eradicate-modern-day-slavery

https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-usa-mining-children-trfn/tesla-apple-among-firms-accused-of-aiding-child-labor-in-congo-idUSKBN1YK24F

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/business/hershey-nestle-mars-chocolate-child-labor-west-africa/

https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ilab/our-work/child-forced-labor-trafficking/child-labor-cocoa

http://www.slavefreechocolate.org

https://fortune.com/2020/10/19/chocolate-child-labor-west-africa-cocoa-farms/

https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ILAB/child_labor_reports/tda2018/ChildLaborReportBook.pdf

https://www.careeraddict.com/10-companies-that-still-use-child-labor

https://labs.theguardian.com/unicef-child-labour/

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/dec/16/apple-and-google-named-in-us-lawsuit-over-congolese-child-cobalt-mining-deaths

https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ILAB/ListofGoods.pdf

https://www.epa.gov/international-cooperation/cleaning-electronic-waste-e-waste

King Cake

I almost forgot! For anyone who wanted the winning king cake recipe, here it is. I only did a basic cinnamon filling, but a lot of recipes add a pecan praline to the filling or even fruits. This is really an amalgamation of many recipes and just a good starting point. I didn't have any leftovers to check, but this is a brioche type bread, so I'm not sure that it will stay fresh long (ie, don't make it several days ahead, bc the bread will be quite dry...which is a problem with many store bought king cakes.) If you do have leftovers, I'm sure they'd make a lovely bread pudding or french toast! This recipe makes enough dough for two small (9 inch) king cakes or one large one. If you’re not up for two of them, the other half would make great cinnamon rolls. Again, based on the similarity to brioche, I would think that this would freeze really well. Okay, here's the recipe:
Ingredients
For the dough:
2 tsps yeast
¼ c. luke warm water
½ c. Sour cream
1 c.unsalted butter
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt (or 1tsp table salt)
½ c. sugar
2 egg yolks
2 whole eggs
3.5 c. flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp. baking powder

For the filling:
8 oz cream cheese
1 egg
2 T. white sugar
2 T. flour
1 T cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla

For Icing
Powdered Sugar
Salt
Almond Extract
Heavy cream


Instructions
Make the Dough:
Mix the yeast with the warm water in your stand mixer. Add 1 tsp. sugar and 1 tsp. flour and stir. Set aside to proof.
Heat the butter and sugar together in the microwave. When the butter has melted, add the sour cream and mix until combined and Luke warm. Add to the stand mixture and mix well with beater attachment adding eggs & egg yolks and mix until combined.
Add 2 cups flour, cinnamon and baking powder and continue to mix, then switch to the dough hook attachment, and add two more cups of flour. Let the dough hook knead the mixture until all the flour is incorporated and the mixture looks smooth and elastic. It should be incredibly sticky but still form a mass (ie., the dough can be mostly formed into a sticky ball — it’s not a batter). Transfer to an oiled bowl, cover with a towel, and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about two hours.
When the dough has risen, dump it out onto seran wrap and double wrap it. Put it in the fridge and let it rest 7-8 hours, or overnight.

For the filling:
Combine cream cheese, egg, white sugar, flour, cinnamon and vanilla and beat until thoroughly combined.

To assemble the cake:
While the dough is still cold, divide it in half, and set 1 half aside. With the other half, roll it into a long rectangle. The dough should be fairly thin, like pie crust.
Spread the cream cheese filling down the center of the dough. Using a sharp knife, make cuts down each side of the filling at a downward 45 degree angle. Fold the stops over the center alternating sides to make a braid and arrange on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper into the shape of a ring. Seal the edge of the ring, brush with egg wash, cover with a kitchen towel, and let rest for 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Bake at 375 for 35 minutes, and let cool completely before icing.
Ice the Cake
For the icing, mix powdered sugar with a pinch of salt, 1/2 tsp of almond extract and then add heavy cream until it’s the consistency of a thick and spreadable paste. Top with sprinkles and enjoy!

Hawaiian Bread Is Here!

For those of you out there who love Kings Hawaiian Rolls but hate how much they cost this post is for you! (For those of you who have never tried Kings Hawaiian Rolls I pity you and your sad sad lives). I tried these out on the family this past Easter Sunday and they went over pretty well. Jon thinks the pineapple is too strong, but he's wrong. I found the recipe somewhere online and-as is my wont-messed around with it a bit. I'll probably change it up a little next time because I'd like it a little more airy, but they're still D-lish!

For the recipe

Chocolate Easter Eggs

Okay, these are super easy. The funnest part is that they're hollow! You could fill them with candy (skittles would be fun), a charm/bracelet, money, or-do what I did-and just put a nice quote or scripture printed in a pretty font and tied with a ribbon.

For directions

Our House-Finally

 

The first fruits of our little garden this year. Christopher wanted to plant radishes. He thinks he likes them, but he never really eats them. It was a fun thing to plant because they come up so quickly, but now we have loads of radishes to get rid of. Oh well. 

I decided I'd post the pictures of our house today for those of you who asked about it when we moved in. I know what you're thinking..."But Mindy, it's only been 6 months. Aren't you a couple of years early?" All I can say is that I'm working on not putting things off any more. Crazy huh. Yesterday I even got out the paints and brushes and did some touch-up work around the house. I dunno. Maybe I'm coming down with something. In the meantime, maybe a few projects will get finished.

So, to see the pics

Eat, or do not eat, there is no try!

A cake for my nephew's birthday. The green stuff around the bottom was me playing around with sugar. It's just 1 1/4 c sugar, 2/3 c water and a few drops of food coloring heated to hard crack stage and poured over a tray full of ice cubes. It hits the ice and freezes in funny shapes. Really easy and works great for swamp weeds, lava, coral etc depending on which colors you use. Yoda's head, hands, and legs are rice crispy treat, the rest is cake. He's covered in marshmallow fondant that I shaped with toothpicks and a few other tools. Didn't take as long as I thought it would and I must say, I'm pretty proud of the little guy.

Bacon Ice Cream and Other Important Things

I know what you're thinking. Bacon ice cream?Mindy's really lost it.  That's exactly what Jon thought. He made that scrunched up 'you are crazy woman' face right up to the moment he actually tried it. Then he ate two bowls. I'm telling you, it's delectable.

The recipe I used is from David Lebovitz blog living the sweet life in Paris. So many fun recipes on there I'm going to try. I really enjoyed the candied bacon all on it's own. I suggest making double what he calls for because I PROMISE you will be snacking on the stuff. If you don't want to go to the trouble of making your own ice cream you could always just mix it into a tub of maple ice cream or even just a good vanilla. David uses all half and half which I find is a bit too much for me. I think the next time I make it I'll use whole milk instead. I've really always preferred it that way anyway.

As for the 'other important things' part of the post.....

I read an article by Geneen Roth recently in Good Housekeeping that I HAD to share. It's about food and body image. While that's important, I also think a lot of what she had to say translates really well into how we interact with others and how that can be improved so I'm posting it here. If you get a chance you should really check out some of her books. The woman makes a lot of sense. Anything I added is red and in parenthesis.