I Ended My Strike - A Recipe for Good Eating

A few weeks ago, I declared personal strike refusing to post more recipes. What had triggered this decision was the Supreme Court’s voiding a provision of the Family Leave Act. I was furious at this attack on the job security of working women, specifically women working for a state government or state university who can now no longer sue the state if they are denied family leave under the act.  I’m still angry, but is my small symbolic act making a difference?

I reflected on that last week when my husband and I saw the play Her Naked Skin written by the British playwright Rebecca Lenkiewicz. It was originally performed in London. We saw it performed at Stage 773 in Chicago by The Shattered Globe Theatre directed by Roger Smart. The play is about the militant faction of the British suffragette movement and relationship conflicts they had as they campaigned for votes for women. They committed acts of disruption for which they were often imprisoned. In prison, these women often went on hunger strikes and were violently and abusively force-fed. Some militant suffragettes died for the cause. Her Naked Skin is worth seeing and runs through June. To Chicago area readers out there, I recommend your seeing it.

As for women’s suffrage, some British women were granted the right to vote in 1918 – women over 30 who owned property or who were married to men who owned property. (This was a year ahead of American women and 25 years after New Zealand women.) In 1928, women’s suffrage was extended to all British women over the age of 21. Did their hunger strikes further their cause? We’ll never know because many strategies were being employed simultaneously in the Votes for Women Movement. My hunch is that the hunger strikes hurt the women doing them more than it helped their cause.

Granted, I’m hardly starving because I’ve stopped posting recipes and neither is anyone else reading my posts. Nevertheless, since many enjoy the recipes and I enjoy writing them, I think I’ll start posting them again and here is one as I resume posting my recipes.

It’s fake crab meat and zucchini. It feeds three and preparation time is 20 minutes. It’s good served with rice. That gives us plenty of time left over to contemplate what we’ll do next to make the world a better place.

                                              Fake Crabmeat and Zucchini

8 oz fake crabmeat (usually made from pollock or cod.)

1 zucchini sliced
mushrooms sliced
½ yellow or red bell pepper diced
1 diced onion
1 Tbsp minced garlic
some chopped ginger root to taste
juice from 1 lime
cilantro
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil

Start cooking the rice. While it’s cooking, heat the olive oil in a frying pan. Saute the garlic, onion, and ginger root for 3 minutes. Add the mushrooms, pepper, and zucchini for 3 more minutes. Add the crabmeat. Then add the lime juice, cilantro, salt, and pepper. Let everything cook together for 5 minutes. Serve hot with the rice.