CreatureKind Corner: Why do Animals Suffer? One Response and Three Recipes

Why do animals suffer? It’s a big question—an ancient, continuing, and persisting question. We have no divine FAQ page about God’s intentions. We have no single, simple, satisfying answer. As humans, we are bound to the limits of our creaturely capacities to interpret scripture, but we can do so in conversation with the church’s rich heritage of teachers, preachers, ministers, and heroes of the faith. 

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Picnic Basket Rice Salad

By Margaret B. Adam Three parts:

         1) Rice

         2) Vegetables and Beans

         3) Dressing and Seasoning

1) Put rice and water on to cook (enough for 4-6 servings, give or take)

2) Gather and prepare some of the following:

½ onion, diced small 1-2 cloves garlic, crushed 1-2 carrots, grated 1 sweet pepper (red, yellow, green), chopped cherry tomatoes, whole or halved any other raw vegetable 1-2 courgettes/zucchinis, very-lightly steam or boil small chunks, or stir fry very thin half moon slices 1-2 bunches broccoli, very lightly steam or boil florets and chopped stalk bunch asparagus, very lightly steam or boil bite-sized pieces a bowl of mushrooms, sliced and sauteed a bowl of skinny green beans, very lightly steamed bite-sized pieces any other cooked vegetable some frozen corn, cook by adding to the pot of one of the above vegetables, for the last minute or so some frozen peas, cook as the corn 1-2 cans of beans, drained (mix and match as you like)

3) About 1/3 of a bottle of your favourite salad dressing (give or take)

Mix all ingredients together, with plenty of salt and pepper and herbs (basil and thyme or your choice) to taste. Serve room temperature or cold (if you've made it the day before and refrigerated it.) This works with any kind of rice, one veg or ten, any seasoning theme. Good for last minute picnic, barbeque, potluck offerings, as well as clean out the fridge days.