Hospital Death in Ireland Renews Fight Over Abortion

DUBLIN — The death of a woman who was reportedly denied a potentially lifesaving abortion even while she was having a miscarriage has revived debate over Ireland’s almost total ban on abortions.

The woman, Savita Halappanavar, 31, a dentist who lived near Galway, was 17 weeks pregnant when she sought treatment at University Hospital Galway on Oct. 21, complaining of severe back pain.

Dr. Halappanavar was informed by senior hospital physicians that she was having a miscarriage and that her fetus had no chance of survival. However, despite repeated pleas for an abortion, she was told that it would be illegal while the fetus’s heart was still beating, her husband, Praveen Halappanavar, said.

It was not until Oct. 24 that the heartbeat ceased and the remains of the fetus were surgically removed. But Dr. Halappanavar contracted a bacterial blood disease, septicemia. She was admitted to intensive care but never recovered, dying on Oct. 28.

Mr. Halappanavar, in an interview with The Irish Times from his home in India, said his wife was told after one request, “This is a Catholic country.”

Two investigations into the case have been announced, and politicians have been quick to express their condolences and to call for legal clarity. Kathleen Lynch, a junior health minister, said medical professionals needed guidelines to deal with such circumstances.

In a statement, the hospital said it would cooperate fully with any inquest but that it had not started its own review because it wanted to consult the woman’s family first.

Mr. Halappanavar told the newspaper that he still could not believe his wife was dead. “I was with her those four days in intensive care,” he said. “They kept telling me: ‘She’s young. She’ll get over it.’ But things never changed; they only got worse. She was so full of life. She loved kids.

“It was all in their hands, and they just let her go. How can you let a young woman go to save a baby who will die anyway?”

But Mr. Halappanavar said he saw no use in being angry. “I’ve lost her,” he said. “I am talking about this because it shouldn’t happen to anyone else.”

Medical professionals were less forgiving. During a miscarriage, the cervix is opened, exposing the woman to infection, and the longer the miscarriage persists, the greater the risk, said a prominent medical commentator here, Dr. Muiris Houston. While Dr. Halappanavar’s death was “on the rare end of the spectrum,” and the facts surrounding the case are not all known, Dr. Houston said, she “undoubtedly needed to go to theater,” meaning to surgery.

“If she had gone to theater earlier she might still have died, but perhaps not,” he said. “Medicine is now increasingly driven by guidelines, and the question must be, ‘Did the hospital have protocols in place when a woman presented with such a condition?’ ”

The legal issues are, if anything, more clouded. In 1992, the Irish Supreme Court ruled that abortion was permissible in cases where there was a “real and substantial risk” to the life of a pregnant woman — including the possibility of suicide. But 20 years later, the Irish government has still not passed a law to this effect.

In 2010, the European Court of Human Rights found that Ireland was in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights by failing to provide an accessible and effective procedure to ascertain whether a woman qualified for a legal abortion.

In response, the current coalition government commissioned a report from an expert group on the issue. It was initially expected in July, but was then postponed until September — a deadline also missed. Given the divisiveness of the abortion issue in Ireland, which has prompted two bitterly fought referendums, successive governments have avoided passing any legislation.

The report was eventually delivered Tuesday night, hours before news broke of Dr. Halappanavar’s death. The government warned people not to link the two, but inevitably the death has led to calls for urgent reform.

Read More..

Greece Looks at Offering Creditors a Buyback to Lower Its Debt

LONDON — As Greece’s creditors bicker over the terms of its bailout, the government is examining a more radical approach that could reduce the country’s escalating debt pile in one fell swoop.

Milos Bicanski/Getty Images

An anti-austerity protest on Wednesday in Athens. The government this month narrowly secured parliamentary approval for yet another round of spending cuts and tax increases.

Fotis Plegas G./European Pressphoto Agency

Charles Dallara of the Institute of International Finance argues that the real issue is Greece’s inability to revive its economy.

Essentially, Greece would propose that its private sector bondholders sell back their sovereign debt holdings for a small profit, but at a price favorable to Greece. The move takes a page from the playbook Greece used earlier this year in which the government pressured banks and other private holders to take a loss on their sovereign bonds so Greece could ease its debt load. This time, they would not be forced to take a haircut, but some would most likely balk at being forced to accept a new deal.

The aim is to further reduce an ever-increasing sovereign debt burden that is fast approaching 200 percent of gross domestic product, far beyond Europe’s ideal of 60 percent or less.

Many different strategies about how to address Greece’s debt load are being discussed by its creditors, with the buyback option being just one of several. The government this month narrowly secured parliamentary approval for yet another round of spending cuts and tax increases, putting Greece on the verge of receiving 31 billion euros, or $39 billion, in desperately needed bailout loans. The euro zone is also weighing measures — like extending loan maturities and paring interest rates — that would further ease the country’s financial burden.

While the most pressing need is securing the 31 billion euros Greece needs to survive, arriving at a long-term solution for its bloated sovereign debt is also seen as crucial, given that the economy continues to shrink. An estimate released Wednesday showed Greece’s economy contracted by 7 percent in the third quarter — which makes the debt relative to economic output all the more onerous.

 To that end, a small circle of lawyers and bankers are suggesting that Greece offer to buy back its deeply discounted debt at a price of 27 to 33 euro cents, compared to the 25-cent level where it currently trades. If investors hold out for a higher price, the government could invoke collective action clauses (C.A.C.’s) in the bond contracts that, in theory, would prevent a bidding war, thus allowing the country to retire as much as 40 billion euros of its 340 billion euros in debt.

For example, the 62 billion euros’ worth of new bonds that Greece issued as part of its landmark debt restructuring deal reached with private bondholders in March are now valued at about 15 billion euros, or $19 billion. If Greece were to borrow the money to buy back this debt, it could retire 30 billion to 40 billion euros’ worth of its obligations, depending on the ultimate price it pays.

While borrowing such an amount would be a challenge, Germany — the biggest euro zone economy and thus the biggest contributor to the Greek bailout — could take the view that this would be a better way to reduce Greek debt than to ask taxpayers to swallow a loss via a write-down of public sector bailout loans.

Unlike the last time around, when the protracted wrangling between the Greek government and private bondholders centered on banks, hedge funds and other investors’ accepting a reduction in the bonds’ value, they will not have to suffer a large loss on their bond holdings. Depending on the price, however, they may have to forgo some further upside if the bonds continue to rally after the buyback.

If successful, the debt buyback could significantly reduce Greece’s debt and afford the country a realistic chance of meeting the target of a debt ratio of 120 percent of G.D.P. by 2020 that the International Monetary Fund has set as a condition for it to lend more money. European leaders have said that this benchmark is too stringent and needs to be relaxed.

Of course, the idea has infuriated the many hedge funds that in past months have scooped up more than 22 billion euros’ worth of Greek bonds at rock-bottom prices. With many sitting on big profits after the recent market rally, they are in no mood to sell out cheaply, especially if Greece resorts to wielding a legal cudgel to complete the deal.

“It’s really the dumbest thing that Greece can do right now,” said Hans Humes of Greylock Capital, who has been one of the more aggressive investors in terms of accumulating discounted Greek bonds.

Collective action clauses are legal riders in bond contracts that can make it easier for a debtor country to restructure its loans by forcing holdouts to accept the country’s proposal for a bond swap if a certain majority of creditors agree to it. They were used to great effect during the 100 billion euro restructuring of Greece’s private sector debt earlier this year.

Read More..

Pelosi decides to remain as House Democratic leader

WASHINGTON -- Nancy Pelosi, the liberal San Francisco congresswoman who became the first woman speaker of the House, will seek to remain the Democratic leader in the next Congress.

Pelosi made the announcement Wednesday to a packed meeting of her caucus.

"They say a picture is worth a million words. Well this picture is worth millions of aspirations of the American people," Pelosi told the gathering, according to a Democratic leadership aide in attendance at the closed meeting. "This new class makes our caucus historic. The first time in legislative history that a caucus will be a majority of women and minorities."

"The message is clear from the American people. They want us to work together to get things done. And that's what these folks are here to do. Just like all of you.

"We may not have the gavel, but as I can see in this room, we have the unity," Pelosi said, according to the leadership aide, who asked for anonymity to discuss the private meeting.

PHOTOS: Reactions to Obama's victory

Pelosi had been mum about her plans after Democrats failed to win the majority in Tuesday’s election.

A champion campaign fundraiser, Pelosi is regarded as a polarizing figure. Elected to the House in 1987, she was chosen by the Democratic rank and file in 2002 to succeed Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri as minority leader, becoming the first woman to head a party in either chamber of Congress, as well as the first top party leader in the House from California.

In 2007, she became speaker — and the first Californian to head the House — overseeing passage of the most far-reaching healthcare overhaul since the creation of Medicare, an economic stimulus program, and the revamping of financial regulations, often with little or no Republican support.  But while she — and her Democratic majority — ruled the House, she became a favorite Republican campaign target as evidence of what's wrong with Washington. In 2010, she ran again for minority leader after Democrats lost control of the chamber, but has stayed around in hopes of leading her party back to the majority.

Republicans welcomed the prospect of continuing to have Pelosi as a target.

"There is no better person to preside over the most liberal House Democratic Caucus in history than the woman who is solely responsible for relegating it to a prolonged minority status," said Paul Lindsay, a spokesman for the House GOP campaign arm. "This decision signals that House Democrats have absolutely no interest in regaining the trust and confidence of the American people who took the speaker’s gavel away from Nancy Pelosi in the first place."

PHOTOS: America goes to the polls

Follow Politics Now on Twitter and Facebook

richard.simon@latimes.com

Twitter: @richardsimon11

Read More..

Still on the Lam, John McAfee Says He's Now In Disguise

It doesn’t sound like much of a disguise, but John McAfee is doing his best to change his appearance as he continues to evade the police in Belize.

In a case that seems to get more bizarre by the day, the 67-year-old has continued to call me with semi-hourly updates. The latest disclosure: He claims to have dyed his hair, eyebrows, beard, and mustache jet black.

“I have modified my appearance in a radical fashion,” McAfee said, “I’ll probably look like a murderer, unfortunately.”

The American antivirus pioneer is wanted for questioning in connection with the murder of Gregory Faull, 52, an American expatriate and neighbor of McAfee’s. They both have beachside properties on the island of Ambergris Caye, about 20 miles off the Belize coast. Faull was found dead, face up in a pool of blood, in his villa Sunday morning, shot once in the back of the head. Faull had complained about the barking of McAfee’s dogs — McAfee kept 11 at his beachside compound — and four of those dogs were poisoned Friday night.

When police arrived at McAfee’s property Sunday afternoon to question him, McAfee hid, he says, burying himself in sand and covering his head with a cardboard box. He says he spent 18 hours hiding on his property before slipping away.

He has been running ever since, he says, riding in boats, huddling on the floorboards of taxis, sleeping in a bed that he said was infested with lice.

Since going into hiding, McAfee has repeatedly denied that he had anything to do with Faull’s death. He says that he does not want to give himself up to authorities because he is afraid they will torture or kill him.

He’s convinced that, while he’s away from his compound, the police will plant incriminating evidence unrelated to Faull’s murder. “The police have been to my house seven times,” he said. “I expect them to uncover a cache of fully automatic weapons, four tons of cocaine. Maybe a Soviet submarine.”

The authorities, meanwhile appear to be trying to put pressure on McAfee by arresting friends and associates, according to two sources (who are not McAfee). Since Sunday, police have detained one of McAfee’s bodyguards, William Mulligan; his groundskeeper, Cassian Chavaria; and a local taxi driver, Cesar Trapp.

McAfee said he is outraged by the detentions: “This is exactly what happened to Soviet dissidents when Stalin took power. If they could not catch the man himself, they rounded up all of his friends.”

Read More..

Actor Channing Tatum dubbed People’s sexiest man alive

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Actor Channing Tatum, who set female hearts fluttering in the summer movie hit “Magic Mike”, was named the sexiest man alive by People magazine on Wednesday.

“My first thought was, ‘Y’all are messing with me,” Tatum told the magazine after hearing the news.

The 32-year-old actor, who is married to actress Jenna Dewan-Tatum, is training to play an Olympic athlete in his upcoming film, “Foxcatcher”.

The couple, who have been married since 2009, are ready to start a family, according to People.

“The first number that pops into my head is three, but I just want one to be healthy and then we’ll see where we go after that,” he told the magazine.

Tatum joins a long list of Hollywood heartthrobs who also have also received the “sexiest man” title from the magazine including Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp, Ryan Reynolds, George Clooney and Matt Damon.

(Reporting by Patricia Reaney; Editing by Maureen Bavdek)

Celebrity News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Lance Armstrong Cuts Officials Ties With His Livestrong Charity

In the wake of being stripped of his seven Tour de France titles for doping, Lance Armstrong last week cut all official ties with Livestrong, the charity he founded 15 years ago while he was treated for testicular cancer.

On Nov. 4, he resigned from the organization’s board of directors; he had previously stepped down as the chairman of the board Oct. 17. He has distanced himself from the charity to try to protect it from any damage caused by his doping controversy, the new board chairman, Jeff Garvey, said in a statement.

“Lance Armstrong was instrumental in changing the way the world views people affected by cancer,” Garvey said. “His devotion to serving survivors is unparalleled, and for 15 years, he committed himself to that cause with all his heart.”

Garvey said that the Armstrong family had donated nearly $7 million to the foundation and that the organization under Armstrong had raised close to $500 million to serve cancer survivors.

Last month, the United States Anti-Doping Agency made public its evidence in its doping case against Armstrong, saying he had doped and encouraged his teammates to dope so they could help him win races. He was subsequently barred from Olympic sports for life and was stripped of all the cycling titles he won from August 1998 on.

Since then, Armstrong has spent several weeks in Hawaii, out of the public eye. On Saturday, though, he posted a photograph on Twitter showing him at home in Austin, Tex. He is lounging on a couch with his seven yellow Tour jerseys framed on the wall in the background.

In the post, he said, “Back in Austin and just layin’ around.” The photograph had more than 400,000 page views as of Monday evening, with many people posting negative comments on the page.

“Lance, you have no moral conscious and it’s obvious many of your followers don’t either,” said one person who went by the Twitter handle “irobot,” who also posted that Armstrong needed “professional help.”

A person posting under the name “Aumann” said: “An art thief enjoying all his da Vincis.”

Other people posted words of support, including many who said they still thought Armstrong was the top cyclist in history.

“TomShelton” said of Armstrong’s seven Tour titles, “You earned all 7 of them no matter what is being said about you!”

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: November 13, 2012

An earlier version of this article misstated Jeff Garvey’s estimate of the sum the Livestrong charity had raised to serve cancer survivors. It was close to $500 million, not close to $300 million.

Read More..

Gen. John Allen investigated for emails to Petraeus friend

The sex scandal that led to CIA Director David Petraeus' downfall widened Tuesday with word the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan is under investigation for thousands of alleged "inappropriate communications" with another woman involved in the case.

Even as the FBI prepared a timeline for Congress about the investigation that brought to light Petraeus' extramarital affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta revealed that the Pentagon had begun an internal investigation into emails from Gen. John Allen to a Florida woman involved in the case.

Allen succeeded Petraeus as the top American commander in Afghanistan in July 2011, and his nomination to become the next commander of U.S. European Command and the commander of NATO forces in Europe has now been put on hold, as the scandal seemed certain to ensnare another acclaimed military figure.

In a White House statement early Tuesday, National Security spokesman Tommy Vietor said President Barack Obama has held Allen's nomination at Panetta's request. Obama, the statement said, "remains focused on fully supporting our extraordinary troops and coalition partners in Afghanistan, who Gen. Allen continues to lead as he has so ably done for over a year."

It was Broadwell's threatening emails to Jill Kelley, a Florida woman who is a Petraeus family friend, that led to the FBI's discovery of communications between Broadwell and Petraeus indicating they were having an affair. Petraeus acknowledged the affair when he resigned from the CIA post on Friday.

In the latest revelations, a Pentagon official traveling with Panetta to Australia said "inappropriate communications" — 20,000 to 30,000 pages of emails and other documents from Allen's communications with Kelley between 2010 and 2012 — are under review. He would not say whether they involved sexual matters or whether they are thought to include unauthorized disclosures of classified information. He said he did not know whether Petraeus is mentioned in the emails.

Allen has denied wrongdoing. If Allen was found to have had an affair with Kelley, he could face charges of adultery, which is a crime under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

The Petraeus case has sparked an uproar in Congress, with lawmakers complaining they should have been told earlier about the probe that has roiled the intelligence and military establishment.

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, called the latest revelations in the case "a Greek tragedy."

"It's just tragic," King said Tuesday on NBC's "Today" show. "This has the elements in some ways of a Hollywood movie or a trashy novel."

The issue of what the FBI knew, when it notified top Obama administration officials, and when Congress was told, has brought criticism from lawmakers, who say they should have been told earlier.

The White House wasn't informed of the FBI investigation that involved Petraeus until Nov. 6, Election Day, although agents began looking at Petraeus' actions months earlier, sometime during the summer. Senate Intelligence Committee chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., complained that she first learned of the matter from the media late last week, and confirmed it in a phone call to the then-CIA director on Friday.

That was the same day Obama accepted Petraeus' resignation, and the 60-year-old retired Army general, who headed U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan before taking charge of the CIA, acknowledged an affair with Broadwell, and expressed regret.

Defending the notification timing, a senior federal law enforcement official pointed Monday to longstanding policies and practices, adopted following abuses and mistakes that were uncovered during the Nixon administration's Watergate scandal of the early 1970s. The Justice Department — of which the FBI is part — is supposed to refrain from sharing detailed information about its criminal investigations with the White House.

The FBI also looked into whether a separate set of emails between Petraeus and Broadwell might involve any security breach. That will be a key question Wednesday in meetings involving congressional intelligence committee leaders, FBI deputy director Sean Joyce and CIA deputy director Michael Morell.

A federal law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss details of the investigation, said the FBI had concluded relatively quickly — and certainly by late summer at the latest — that there was no security breach. Absent a security breach, it was appropriate not to notify Congress or the White House earlier, this official said.

Extramarital affairs are viewed as particularly risky for intelligence officers because they might be blackmailed to keep the affair quiet. For military personnel, adultery is a crime under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

According to two federal law enforcement officials, the FBI initially began a criminal investigation of unsigned, harassing emails that were sent, beginning last May, to Kelley, a Tampa socialite. She and her husband, Scott, were longtime friends of Petraeus and his wife, Holly. FBI agents traced the alleged cyber harassment to Broadwell and during that process discovered she was exchanging intimate messages with a private Gmail account. Further investigation revealed that account belonged to Petraeus, under an alias.

Petraeus and Broadwell apparently used a trick, known to terrorists and teenagers alike, to conceal their email traffic, one of the law enforcement officials said.

Read More..

First Look at Jawbone's All New Up Fitness Tracking Bracelet

Jawbone’s Up was one of the hottest gadgets on the market in 2011 — until it cratered and had to be recalled. The activity tracker — an Yves Behar-designed wristband that sent data to a slick iOS app — was an immediate hit, but it succumbed to a slow burn as band after band failed. The company ultimately took the bracelet off the market and offered refunds to anyone who bought one. Now it’s back, re-thought, re-architected and (most importantly) re-engineered. It goes on sale today, and will cost $129.

The bracelet comes in eight colors and is designed to be worn both during the day and at night while sleeping. It tracks movements and counts steps to estimate calories burned and, at night, uses its motion sensors to track the amount of time the wearer sleeps and how much of that was deep versus light sleep. The new Up has a much more robust iOS app, with new features like a bar-code scanner for inputting meals and a power-nap setting that will let the wearer safely snooze for 27 minutes mid-day before the alarm goes off. The app has also been redesigned, and it’s got a lot more information at your fingertips than it did previously. While the initial design was pretty, it wasn’t quite as up front with details, like deep versus light sleep. The app is also pushing updates to wearers now, suggesting that you may want to go take a walk, for example. Additionally, if you go for a bike ride or swim or some other activity, you can enter that into the app.

But the real improvements are to the band itself, and its success or failure depends entirely on whether or not Jawbone has managed to fix the problems that plagued the previous model. Jawbone says it identified two critical flaws that it has subsequently fixed. The first was improper bonding, which Jawbone says was the core issue. Water was able to penetrate the band’s exterior and hit the circuit board, where it rapidly oxidized the bracelet’s capacitors. There was also a secondary issue related to pliancy. The company says it found that cracks and fissures could appear on the circuit board over time. In response, Jawbone improved the bonding process and gave the board more flexibility. The company says it developed its own tests for waterproofing that exceed the IPX5, IPX6 and IPx7 industry standards for watches to take into account things like water temperature and soap content.

In Wired’s demo of the new Up, the internal electronic band is indeed far more battened down than last year’s model. Much of what had been done by hand is now machine made, the band has as a new protective coating, and there are visibly fewer joints and exposed areas. It was difficult to tell whether or not the band is more pliable, but the overall build quality is noticeably better. The big question is: Were the fixes enough? We’ll find out soon. Wired is getting a unit in for testing and will have a review in the coming weeks.

Mat Honan is a senior writer for Wired's Gadget Lab and the co-founder of the Knight-Batten award-winning Longshot magazine.

Read more by Mat Honan

Follow @mat on Twitter.

Read More..

Day-Lewis heeded inner ear to find Lincoln’s voice

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A towering figure such as Abraham Lincoln, who stood 6 feet 4 and was one of history’s master orators, must have had a booming voice to match, right? Not in Daniel Day-Lewis‘ interpretation.

Day-Lewis, who plays the 16th president in Steven Spielberg‘s epic film biography “Lincoln,” which goes into wide release this weekend, settled on a higher, softer voice, saying it’s more true to descriptions of how the man actually spoke.

“There are numerous accounts, contemporary accounts, of his speaking voice. They tend to imply that it was fairly high, in a high register, which I believe allowed him to reach greater numbers of people when he was speaking publicly,” Day-Lewis said in an interview. “Because the higher registers tend to reach farther than the lower tones, so that would have been useful to him.”

“Lincoln” is just the fifth film in the last 15 years for Day-Lewis, a two-time Academy Award winner for best actor (“My Left Foot” and “There Will Be Blood”). Much of his pickiness stems from a need to understand characters intimately enough to feel that he’s actually living out their experiences.

The soft, reedy voice of his Lincoln grew out of that preparation.

“I don’t separate vocal work, and I don’t dismember a character into its component parts and then kind of bolt it all together, and off you go,” Day-Lewis said. “I tend to try and allow things to happen slowly, over a long period of time. As I feel I’m growing into a sense of that life, if I’m lucky, I begin to hear a voice.

“And I don’t mean in a supernatural sense. I begin to hear the sound of a voice, and if I like the sound of that, I live with that for a while in my mind’s ear, whatever one might call it, my inner ear, and then I set about trying to reproduce that.”

Lincoln himself likely learned to use his voice to his advantage depending on the situation, Day-Lewis said.

“He was a supreme politician. I’ve no doubt in my mind that when you think of all the influences in his life, from his childhood in Kentucky and Indiana and a good part of his younger life in southern Illinois, that the sounds of all those regions would have come together in him somehow.

“And I feel that he probably learned how to play with his voice in public and use it in certain ways in certain places and in certain other ways in other places. Especially in the manner in which he expressed himself. I think, I’ve no doubt that he was conscious enough of his image.”

Entertainment News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Well: A Vegetarian Thanksgiving Table

Every year, Well goes vegetarian for Thanksgiving to celebrate the fall harvest and the delicious vegetable dishes that take up most of the space on holiday tables.

This year, we have another terrific lineup of vegan and vegetarian recipes from some of your favorite food writers and chefs. Cooking up a meat-free celebration will inspire you to be more creative in the kitchen all year round, preparing vegetarian and vegan main courses and side dishes that burst with the flavors of the seasonal harvest. Even if you still plan to serve a traditional bird (although plenty of people skip the turkey), Well’s Vegetarian Thanksgiving series will give you some new recipes and inspiration for meat-free cooking to be enjoyed by all the omnivores and herbivores at your table.

To kick off Well’s 2012 Vegetarian Thanksgiving, I asked my favorite vegan chef, Chloe Coscarelli, to offer some of her fall favorites. I first learned about Ms. Coscarelli when I saw her bake her way to victory with dairy-free and egg-free vegan cupcakes on the popular Food Network program “Cupcake Wars.” Since then, she has released a new cookbook, “Chloe’s Kitchen,’’ appeared on the “Today” show and other programs and now plans to release another book, “Chloe’s Vegan Desserts,” in February.

The key to successful vegan cooking, says Ms. Coscarelli, is not to try to replicate meat and cheese dishes with fake no-meat products. Instead, the goal is to develop dishes with rich, satisfying flavors and textures that will make you forget you’re eating vegan food.

“It’s more about finding other flavors,” she said. “That’s a huge principle of my cooking and my recipes. I’m not throwing a bunch of fake cheese and fake meat on top of something and calling it a pizza.’’

I wanted to start our Vegetarian Thanksgiving series with recipes from Ms. Coscarelli because I have had so much success making many of her dishes. Her chocolate pumpkin bread pudding, made with coconut milk and organic canned pumpkin, is now a personal holiday favorite. At my house, we fill our plates with her Maple-Roasted Brussels Sprouts With Hazelnuts and love her Harvest-Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms.

One of my favorites, a homemade fall pizza prepared with squash, caramelized onions and a decadent garlic and white bean purée, is featured below. Ms. Coscarelli also offers a unique vegan take on mashed yams (no butter!) and a delicious cauliflower and black-eyed pea dish that may become a new holiday tradition.

---

“Chloe’s Kitchen”
Roasted Apple, Butternut Squash and Caramelized Onion Pizza

This fall vegetable pizza is a great vegetarian main course, or it can be cut into pieces as an appetizer. The creamy consistency of the white bean purée makes this dish seem like a decadent treat, and you won’t even notice that it doesn’t have cheese.

Garlic White Bean Purée:
1 (15-ounce) can cannellini or other white beans, rinsed and drained
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 cloves garlic
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 to 2 tablespoons water

Pizza toppings:
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 cups butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 cup spinach
1 apple, peeled and thinly sliced

Pizza dough (store-bought is fine, or make your own)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Make the Garlic White Bean Purée by blending the beans, oil, lemon juice, garlic, thyme, salt and pepper in a food processor. Add water, as needed, until a smooth consistency forms. Set aside. Can be made two days in advance.

2. In a large skillet, heat 2 tablespoons oil over medium-high heat and sauté onions until soft and lightly caramelized, about 20 to 30 minutes. Season generously with salt and pepper.

3. While the onions are cooking, toss remaining 2 tablespoons oil with squash and season generously with salt and pepper. Transfer to a large-rimmed baking sheet and roast for 30 to 35 minutes until squash is fork-tender, turning once or twice with a spatula. Remove from oven and set aside. Turn heat up to 450 degrees.

4. Prepare pizza. Brush a large-rimmed baking sheet (approximately 9 by 13 inches) with oil. Stretch homemade or store-bought pizza dough into a rectangle and fit it into the prepared baking sheet. Spread a layer of the Garlic White Bean Purée evenly over the rolled-out dough. (You may not want to use all of it.) On top of the dough, arrange the spinach, caramelized onions, roasted butternut squash and apple slices. Season with salt and pepper, and brush the edges of the crust with olive oil.

5. Bake at 450 degrees for about 15 to 20 minutes, rotating midway, until the crust is slightly browned or golden. Let cool, slice and serve.

Yield: 4 servings

---

“Chloe’s Kitchen”
Coconut Mashed Yams With Currants

Try these easy butter-free, dairy-free mashed yams, dressed up with creamy coconut and an infusion of warm autumn spices. Every so often you’ll catch a plump currant that will make that bite even better.

3 large garnet or other yams, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
1 cup canned coconut milk, mixed well before measuring
1/3 cup maple syrup or packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/3 cup currants, soaked in warm water for 10 to 15 minutes and drained

1. Place yam pieces in a large pot and cover with cold water. Cover and bring to a boil. Cook until fork-tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Drain and return to pot.

2. Add coconut milk, maple syrup, salt and spices, and mash with a potato masher until smooth. Adjust seasoning to taste. Add more coconut milk for a creamier texture and more maple syrup for a sweeter flavor. Mix in currants and serve.

Yield: 6 servings

---

“Chloe’s Kitchen”
Southern Skillet Black-Eyed Peas and Cauliflower With Quick Biscuits

Add a new flavor to your Thanksgiving table with this sweet and saucy black-eyed pea dish. Leftovers can be eaten in a bun, sloppy-Joe style. The biscuits are easy — no rolling or folding required.

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 green bell pepper, seeded and diced
2 cups cauliflower florets, roughly chopped into 1/2-inch pieces
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 (15-ounce) cans black-eyed peas, rinsed and drained
1 (14-ounce) can tomato sauce
1 cup water
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup packed brown sugar or maple syrup
2 tablespoons white or apple cider vinegar
Quick Biscuits, recipe below
Whipped Maple “Butter,”recipe below

1. In a large pot, heat oil over medium-high heat and sauté onions and green peppers until soft. Add cauliflower and cook, stirring frequently, until it is lightly browned, about 5 to 8 minutes. Add garlic, cumin, chili powder, cinnamon, cayenne and salt, and cook a few more minutes.

2. Stir in black-eyed peas, tomato sauce, water, soy sauce, brown sugar and vinegar. Reduce heat to medium. Simmer, uncovered, for 10 to 15 minutes. Adjust seasoning to taste. Serve in soup bowls with biscuits and whipped maple “butter” on the side.

---

“Chloe’s Kitchen”
Quick Biscuits With Maple “Butter”

Quick Biscuits
2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for work surface
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegan margarine, plus extra for brushing
3/4 cup soy, almond or rice milk

Whipped Maple “Butter”
1 cup vegan margarine, at room temperature
1/4 cup maple syrup

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. You can make the dough by hand or using a food processor.

2. By hand: Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Add margarine and cut it roughly into flour using a pastry cutter, until mixture is the texture of coarse meal with a few larger margarine lumps. Work quickly so the margarine does not melt. Add nondairy milk and stir with a wooden spoon until just combined. Do not overwork.

3. Food processor: Combine flour, baking powder and salt in the food processor and pulse for about 5 seconds until ingredients are combined. Add margarine and pulse in the food processor until mixture is the texture of coarse meal with a few larger margarine lumps. Work quickly so the margarine does not melt. Add nondairy milk and pulse a few times until just combined. Do not overwork.

4. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and pat into an oblong shape, about 1 inch thick. Using a 2 1/2-inch floured cookie or biscuit cutter, cut the biscuits out and place them on a baking sheet. Brush the tops lightly with melted margarine and bake for about 12 to 15 minutes, or until they begin to turn golden. Remove biscuits from oven immediately and transfer to a wire rack to cool.

5. Make the maple “butter.” In a mixing bowl, using a whisk or electric mixer, whip margarine with maple syrup until light and fluffy. Refrigerate until serving.

Read More..