WASHINGTON, Nov. 30, 2023 – Today, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Economic Research Service released its annual Farm Sector Income Forecast report for 2023. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack issued the following statement:

WASHINGTON, Nov. 30, 2023 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture today announced that it is providing approximately $208 million in automatic financial assistance for qualifying farm and emergency loan borrowers. This announcement is made possible by $3.1 billion in assistance for distressed farm loan borrowers provided in Section 22006 of the Inflation Reduction Act, an important part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda.

Buying a vegan holiday roast is very much like playing Seitan Roulette. A classic Tofurky log is inoffensive at best, but the various competitors that pop up in Whole Foods this time of year ping-pong between “legitimately tasty” and “old boots with a whiff of sage.” If you’re sick of the usual faux-meat options, I have great news: you can totally make your own.

Imitation meat gets a not-entirely-undeserved bad rap, but some of it kinda rules. Mock duck, which is essentially seitan seasoned with five spice, MSG, and sugar, is my favorite. Some varieties are canned, but I think the best kind is molded into a weirdly anatomically correct shape—complete with drums and little riblets—and sold in the frozen section. Texturally, it strikes the perfect balance between springy and chewy; flavor-wise, it’s super savory, but all that sugar helps it develop a caramelized crust when fried. All in all, mock duck beats the pants off of your average seitan turkey, and it’s the perfect starting point for a festive vegan roast.

However, if you tie two stuffed vegan duck halves together and toss it in a hot oven for an hour, you might as well go chew on a vegan leather jacket. Steam is the best way to keep wheat-based faux meats moist and tender, but it won’t give you the burnished crust that you really want in a holiday roast. Solving this problem turned out to be pretty easy: rather than force one vegan meat to be simultaneously moist and crisp, why not get a second vegan meat involved—one that’s actually designed to crisp up in hot oil?

The secret to a good vegan holiday roast

Enter mock goose, which is just sheets of tofu skin seasoned with that triple threat of five spice, MSG, and sugar. It’s usually sold in little folded-up parcels, but carefully peel apart the layers and you’ve got a surprisingly skin-like barding material. Wrapping the stuffed duck halves in mock goose, steaming it in the Instant Pot (or on the stove), and then pan-frying the whole deal gives you everything: moist stuffing, perfectly-cooked “meat,” and salty, crackly skin. It’s the vegan roast you deserve.

Mock duck and goose can be found in the freezer section of most Asian supermarkets. (My market sells Everbest brand mock goose, and I think the mock duck I use is from the brand “Vegetarian Food,” but May Wah Market lists the manufacturer simply as “Company F.”) If you’re not near an Asian market, you can order the duck and a vegetarian mock goose from May Wah online. They deliver anywhere in the U.S., although shipping is expensive ($9.95 or more).

I’ve included recipes for stuffing and gravy here, but I encourage you to use your favorites. If you usually add eggs to your stuffing, though, set a few scoops aside for the roast before mixing in the eggs; they add too much moisture for something that gets almost entirely cooked in steam.

Vegan Holiday Roast Recipe with Walnut-Herb Stuffing and Gravy

Equipment:

• Heavy-duty aluminum foil

• Parchment paper

• Kitchen twine

For the Stuffing:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• 1 medium yellow onion, finely diced

• 2 celery ribs, finely diced

• 1 small parsnip or half a small celery root, peeled and finely diced

• 2 cups dried bread cubes

• 1/4 cup deeply toasted walnuts, roughly chopped

• 1/2 teaspoon dried sage, or a handful of fresh sage leaves, chopped

• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley, celery leaves, thyme, or a mix

• 2-3 cups vegetable stock, homemade if you’ve got it

For the Roast:

• 2 packages vegan smoked half duck, thawed if frozen

• 2-3 tablespoons neutral cooking oil, plus more if needed

• 1 package vegan goose (a.k.a. seasoned bean curd skins), thawed if frozen

For the Gravy:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

• 2 cups vegetable stock, at room temperature

1. Make the stuffing. Heat the oil (or butter, for vegetarians) in a skillet over medium heat, then add all the vegetables and cook for 25-30 minutes, stirring frequently. When the vegetables are super soft and lightly browned, add the bread cubes, walnuts, and herbs. Mix thoroughly and season to taste with salt and pepper.

2. Off the heat, stir in the stock a half-cup at a time. Only add as much as the bread cubes will absorb—this roast gets steamed, not baked, so you
don’t want overly wet stuffing. Allow to cool while you assemble the roast.

3. Lay a sheet of heavy-duty aluminum foil on a large cutting board or rimmed sheet pan. Place a slightly smaller sheet of parchment on top of the foil, then cut four or five foot-long pieces of twine. Arrange them parallel to each other on the parchment.

4. Remove the smoked mock duck halves from their packaging and pat dry on paper towels. Heat two tablespoons of neutral oil in a large nonstick (or cast-iron) skillet over medium-low heat. Fry each duck for 3-5 minutes a side until caramelized and golden brown. Set aside.

5. Unwrap the mock goose and remove any toothpicks holding the sheets together. Carefully unfold to a single or double layer and place on top of the twine. The goal is to completely wrap the duck halves in one or two sheets of the goose; this takes some finessing, so work slowly and patiently. Unfold more sheets as needed, and cover any tears with scraps.

6. Place one of the duck halves, concave side up, on the center of the goose sheet. Add roughly one cup of stuffing, compressing it with your hands or the back of a spoon if needed. Place the other half on top, concave side down, to make a little faux-meat package. Wrap the goose skins over the duck halves, then secure as tightly as you can with the twine. Be gentle, but don’t panic if the twine tears the goose a little bit. It’ll glue itself back together as it steams.

7. You should now have a deeply unappetizing little parcel. Wrap it up tightly in the parchment, then wrap it even tighter with the foil and seal completely. Place in the steamer rack of an Instant Pot or other electric pressure cooker, add a cup of water, and seal the lid. Steam under high pressure for 25 minutes, then release the pressure manually and rest in its wrapping for 20 minutes to an hour. (If you don’t have a pressure cooker, 40-45 minutes in a steamer basket on the stovetop should do it.)

8. While the roast steams, make the gravy: Heat two tablespoons of olive oil (or butter) in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the flour and cook, stirring constantly, for 15 minutes. When your roux is the color of milk chocolate, add the stock little by little and whisk to combine. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until thickened, ten minutes or so. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and keep warm until ready to serve.

9. Finally, heat another tablespoon of oil in the same nonstick skillet over medium-low heat. Unwrap the roast, discard the foil and parchment, and carefully transfer to the skillet. Fry for about two minutes per side, until the mock goose skin puffs and crisps and turns dark golden brown. Be sure to brown those sides, too.

Transfer roast to a cutting board and carefully clip the twine with kitchen shears. Slice into half-inch thick slabs and serve with gravy, mashed potatoes, and more stuffing. Happy vegan holidays to you and yours!

So much of our digital lives now exist solely in the cloud. Companies like Apple, Google, and Microsoft make it all too easy to upload our important files to cloud storage from the moment we set up our devices.

On one hand, that’s a good thing: If something happens to your phone, tablet, or laptop, that doesn’t mean you lose all your messages, photos, and documents—assuming all that info is properly backed up to the cloud. When you get your device fixed or replaced, you can sign back into your account and pull all that data down from the cloud without losing anything in the transition. In fact, I suspect that our collective data has never been more secured than it is today, thanks to the abundance and simplicity of cloud storage.

However, that’s not to say that our backup situation is perfect—far from it. Relying solely on the cloud for data storage can have disastrous consequences.

Google recently lost up to six months’ worth of data for some Drive users

You can see those consequences in play this week: Unfortunately, some Google Drive users are reporting missing files dating back to May 2023. Google has publicly acknowledged the issue and is investigating, but that investigation won’t necessarily bring back any of the files that have vanished from these users’ Google Drive accounts. (I guess they’d just have to take comfort in knowing that Google figured out why it happened?)

For your protection, one Google Drive team member did warn users not to click disconnect account on Google Drive for desktop, and to avoid deleting or moving data in the following folders:

• Windows: %USERPROFILE%AppDataLocalGoogleDriveFS

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Google/DriveFS 

…but that’s not exactly a big comfort.

To be clear, this event is not common. Companies like Google, Apple, and Microsoft host a lot of data from millions, if not billions, of users, without regularly losing any of it. Still, if it can happen once, it can happen again. Perhaps Apple announces next year that iCloud had an issue, and three months worth of photo uploads are now gone. Maybe Microsoft loses OneDrive user’s data next October. You can’t assume these services will be infallible forever.

That isn’t to say don’t use them. I use iCloud for just about everything I do in the Apple ecosystem. However, for anything important, you need to make sure you have a secondary backup in case something goes wrong.

That’s what’s likely playing out with these affected Google Drive users right now: Some of them will have used their Google Drive accounts as a secondary backup for their files, keeping another backup of them stored on a hard drive or another cloud service. They’ll be frustrated, but not panicked, as the lost files will still be in this alternate location. Unfortunately, any users that added these files to Google Drive and deleted them from their computer (or created them in Drive and never made a backup) are likely very unhappy this week.

How to securely back up your files

So let’s talk about a secure backup situation looks like. Say you have an archive of important documents stored on your computer. They only exist on your computer, so if your SSD goes belly-up, those files are toast. So, what can you do? One easy solution is to add a copy of these files to a secondary location, whether that’s an external hard drive or cloud storage. Now, these files exist in two places separate from each other. If the SSD breaks, they’re in the cloud. If the cloud glitches out, they’re on your computer. If the files are super important, making additional backups ensures that should an unlikely disaster strike, you’ll still have access. Having files stored in at least two separate locations is usually enough protection for most of us.

But let’s say your computer is running out of storage, and you don’t want to store the files locally anymore. Don’t simply dump them on the cloud or on an external SSD, delete them from your PC, and call it a day—one backup is no backup, after all. You’ll want to copy them to another cloud storage or external storage solution to ensure there are at least two copies of those files somewhere.

Be careful with automated cloud storage solutions

Where this starts to get a bit tricky is when using automated cloud storage options like iCloud. Apple makes it easy to connect all your data to iCloud so you never really need to think about constantly backing things up. When you take a photo, it stores on your iPhone and iCloud: When you send a message, same thing.

While you technically have two files in two separate locations, a service like iCloud is tied to your iPhone. If you delete a message from your iPhone, it helpfully deletes that text from the cloud too. If you delete a photo from your library, it gets deleted from iCloud (after a 30 day countdown, anyway). That’s by design, and it means your files aren’t totally secure against data loss.

What I like to do is rely on cloud storage solutions like iCloud for general backing up purposes (if I lose my iPhone, signing into a new one with my Apple ID brings all my data back), while also making a full backup of my devices to an external source. You can make a backup of your iPhone to iTunes or Finder on your computer, for example, while still having all your data stored in iCloud. That way, if you accidentally delete a thread of messages from your iPhone and iCloud at once, you can restore from your backup to get them back. The same goes for missing photos, notes, contacts, or anything else that gets lost.

While you can rely on full cloud backups for a similar approach, they tend to back up automatically and overwrite the previous backup, so your chances of restoring to a backup that also is missing the data you’re looking for is high. The tradeoff with external backups, such as to a computer, is they’re less frequent, so you may miss new messages and photos that were added since the last backup. It’s a balancing act, but the point is to protect your data in as many ways as possible.

Photos are probably the thing I worry about losing most, and would be devastated if something happened to Apple’s servers and I lost every photo I’ve ever taken with mu iPhone. So on my Mac, I choose the “Download Originals to this Mac” option in Photos’ settings under iCloud. That way, my Mac always has a backup of the full-res photos and videos in my library, while my other devices can pull from the cloud as needed. Should something happen to the photos on Apple’s end, my Mac has all my media saved securely.

This conversation can get a little in the weeds, especially as you start to focus on specific services. (OneDrive, Google Drive, iCloud, etc.) But the general rule of thumb for all backups is simple: You need to keep all of your important files stored in at least two separate locations. So long as you have another source to pull your files from, you can safely weather any disaster—digital or physical—that befalls your data.

Grooming your dog can be scary for them and difficult for you, but it just has to be done. Once a dog gets too smelly or shaggy, there’s only one way out: bath time. Professionals cost a lot of money and aren’t always necessary for maintenance, so you can do this yourself. You just need to know how to groom your dog the right way, for both of your sakes.

Prepare your dog for grooming

The first step in not traumatizing the dog when you groom them comes long before any bathing, shaving, or nail-clipping: You have to train and prepare your pet for the big moment.

“Remind them that everything is okay,” says New York-based dog groomer Heather Faulds. “Basically, pet them, reassure them that this is okay, take it slow, and show them the tools.” Letting your pooch sniff and examine the tools you’ll be using can go a long way. If you’re using a harness, for instance, leave it around for them to sniff for a day or two before strapping them in. If you’re using a distracting toy, like the ones you attach to the bathtub wall so they focus on that instead of their bath, try using it in a dry setting first so they really like it and don’t associate it with the horrors of bathtime.

Faulds says she goes the extra mile to make animals feel comfortable, baby-talking them and going really slow if a dog is feeling scared. Use the same techniques you use when trying to acclimate your pooch to anything new: Positive reinforcement, a calm tone, and lots of patience.

Assess your dog’s specific grooming needs

Don’t try to tackle everything at once, especially if some needs are significantly more pressing than others. For example, if your pet’s fur isn’t super matted but their nails are long, just reach for the nail clippers, not the fur clippers. Doing too much at once is bound to stress your pet out, so take it slow.

“A grooming session with your pet should always start with a thorough review of your pet’s overall health and current skin/coat condition,” says Michelle Wildman, director of differentiated experience at Pet Supplies Plus. “Next, the actual ‘grooming’ process should start with a safe nail clipping and ear cleaning. Every groom should include a thorough bath and brush with quality shampoo that is made for your pet’s skin type and one that helps improve the condition of their skin and coat.”

If you look your dog over and see that they need a full haircut, but you’re not ready to do that on your own, make sure you communicate with your groomer about what you want the final style to look like—and whether it’s possible with your pet’s current coat condition. Whether you’re doing this on your own or calling in a professional, be realistic: Your pet may never look dog show-ready. Don’t stress them out by striving for something unattainable.

“Sometimes if the coat is too matted, it would be painful to have the pet endure a full comb out, so a close shave is better for the pet despite the ‘look’ afterwards,” Wildman says.

Be patient grooming your dog

“A lot of people think dog grooming is easy until they try it at home for themselves. Dog grooming takes a lot of hard work and dedication. People think us groomers just play with puppies all day but there is a lot more to it than it seems,” says Ashley Sacco, a groomer in St. Louis. This won’t be fast, it will take practice, and you and your fur baby will both learn as you go.

“Challenges owners might run into if grooming at home could be anything from an ugly at-home haircut or skin problems from not properly prepping the dog for grooming. I’ve seen some bad cases of at-home grooming where people have cut the dogs with scissors and had to rush the dog to the vet. Using sharp objects on moving targets can be very dangerous if you don’t know what you are doing. Dogs are unpredictable; you never know what can happen working with live animals,” Sacco says.

Wildman says the same thing: “Grooming pets at home can be very dangerous as pets are very unpredictable. They can move without warning which could result in an accident with the scissors or shears.”

Don’t make fast movements, get frustrated if your dog is getting distracted or nervous, or keep going if, at any time, it feels like you’re losing control of the situation. Saving money and time by knocking out a big task at home is great, but not if it puts your pet’s safety in jeopardy.

Recommended grooming tools

Make an investment in the tools you’re using for this. Sacco says that any successful groomer has high-quality shampoo and products, including professional equipment like a table, dryers, clippers, scissors, combs, and brushes.

To make this as easy as possible, pick up items like these before trying to groom your pooch:

• This pet dryer attachment that stops you from putting direct heat too close to your dog ($18.99)

• This mat that holds peanut butter and can be suctioned to your bathtub to distract your dog ($11.99)

• A quick-dip paw cleaner to handle post-walk messes without a full bath ($8.39)

• A highly-rated buzzer to help you trim while avoiding dangerous shears ($41.99)

• A hanging harness setup to immobilize your dog—as long as you think they’ll be OK with it ($37.99)

• A cleansing and conditioning pet shampoo, like this one with a 4.5-star rating ($8.99).

There are a ton of specialty products for dog-grooming, some more niche than others. It might be expensive to amass an arsenal of tools, but you’ll save money in the long run—and not endanger your dog, which is key. If your pooch has an overly negative reaction to any of these tools, try something else or just take them to a pro.

Sacco even has a phrase that sums this idea up: “Humanity before vanity.” Remember to be careful and patient. A bad haircut is temporary, but a bad experience can stick with your dog forever.

Maintain your pet’s fur between grooming sessions

Even if your dog hates bath time, it’s important to keep them clean. This is especially true before you groom them. Sacco says she washes each dog twice and makes sure they’re fully dried before trying to cut their fur.

Cleanliness and maintenance are important even when you’re not preparing for a big grooming session.

Sacco says, “Get the dogs in when they are young so they realize grooming is a way of life and not something they are scared of. I recommend frequent visits to the groomer for puppies so they learn to trust the groomers. A dog that only comes to the groomer twice a year for a matted shave-down thinks we are trying to hurt them when in reality we are just trying to help. Dogs that come frequently to the groomers end up loving it and wagging their tails the whole groom.” Faulds agrees, saying it’s best to start bringing a dog to the groomers when they’re still a puppy, so getting clipped, primped, and washed becomes a normal part of their lives.

That’s true for at-home grooming, too. Don’t wait so long to take care of matted fur or long nails that the process is infrequent and scary for your pet. Tackling these issues often prevents them from getting bad and prevents the experience from being scary for your dog.

“At home, owners should brush their pet’s coat daily with the right tool for their fur. They can also brush their teeth, and keep their nails clipped. When bathing at home, ensure you have the right shampoo for your pet and the right combs, brushes, and other tools needed for a complete groom,” says Wildman.

We spend a lot of time on our phones, which means we’re always looking for ways to make our lives just a little bit easier. If you’re anything like me, then you’ve probably done your fair share of document editing while on the go using a tablet or a phone. Well, if you’re working off an Android phone, you can actually forego the need to email the document to yourself and just print it right off your phone.

How to print a document off an Android phone or tablet

In recent years, it’s become really easy to print documents from your phone, iPhones included. In fact, most apps offer a built-in way to print directly from the app. If the app doesn’t have a built-in printing option, you can always print from the File Manager on your phone. All you need is your phone, a document you need to print, and a printer that has Bluetooth capabilities (which is pretty much every printer released in the last five years or so).

The easiest way to print a document from your Android phone is to do it through Google Drive. Chances are, you’re probably already storing your files in Google Drive, and if you’re editing them on your device, then you’re probably using Google Docs, Google Slides, or Google Sheets.

• Make your way to the Google Drive app, and then find the document you want to print and open it.

• Now, look for the hamburger menu, which is usually symbolized by three horizontal lines on top of each other. (Some phones might offer three dots instead.) Tap on this to open the menu.

• Scroll down the list until you find the Print option and tap it.

• Next, you’ll need to select your printer from the dropdown list that appears, and then tap Print. Voila: You’ve now learned how to print your document on Android phones and tablets.

Printing from the file manager on your phone is just as easy, too. Find the document, open it, and then select the Print option from the menu.

White noise can be a powerful tool for helping you fall asleep, but not all devices that produce white noise are built to relax you. I once opened my Spotify Wrapped to learn that my top song for the year was something like “Box Fan White Noise Long Loop.” Devastated by the hijacking of my annual music stats, that I started investigating white noise machines.

While I landed on buying a real box fan (for the dual purpose of generating sound and keeping me cool), there are loads of dedicated white noise machines designed simply to produce consistent background noise. And while white noise can be great for helping you fall asleep, research reveals it can also help you focus during waking hours. Here are some of the best white noise machines available, whatever your motivation for buying one.

The best white noise machines for sleeping

Bedtime is where white noise machines really shine. You can opt for a classic one or one with extra features, so here are some options. 

• A classic white noise machine doesn’t have to be featureless. The Houseby white noise machine ($24.98) has 31 sounds, an auto-off timer, and adjustable volume controls. Reviewers say that in addition to simply looking nice (which is important!), it exceeds expectations by having such a wide variety of sound options. 

• The LC-dolida sleep mask and white noise machine combo ($18.59) is killer for those of us who want to sleep in darkness and peace. The eye mask fits over your eyes, blocking out light, while speakers near your ears deliver eight different white noise sounds. A two-hour charge yields 10 hours of playback time, but it also comes with an auto-off timer that can be set between 30 and 120 minutes from when you fall asleep. Plus, it has Bluetooth connectivity, in case you’d like to listen to something else before bed for a change.

• Falling asleep peacefully is one thing; waking up is another. The Reacher sound machine ($35.99) handles both, since it’s also a sunrise alarm clock. You can pick white noise like rain or nature sounds, then wake up hours later to a gradual increase of light designed to mimic the sunrise before the alarm kicks in. 

Products to consider:

• Houseby white noise machine $24.98

• LC-dolida sleep mask and white noise machine combo $18.59

• Reacher sound machine $35.99

Best white noise machines for focusing

Whether you want to get work done or study, having a white noise machine around to provide steady sounds can really help. 

• Try the mini sound machine from Babelio ($18.99) for a white noise machine you can take on the go. Reviewers say the charge lasts a few days, the machine features a variety of sounds, and it’s super easy to travel with, so you can bring it with you anywhere you need to get work done. 

• The Voraiya light therapy lamp ($89.99) has a white noise machine built in, which makes it a versatile machine. It’s one of those lamps that is supposed to replicate the effects of the sun, boosting your mood, but that brightness is good for studying and working, too—so really, this thing has it all.

• The LectroFan Micro2 ($34.99) features 11 white noise sounds, but also acts as a Bluetooth speaker, which is helpful if you’re toggling between noise and recorded lectures or YouTube videos. It can even act as a speakerphone for your calls, so you stay in the zone on whatever you’re working on without having to pick up your phone at all.

Products to consider:

• mini sound machine from Babelio $18.99

• Voraiya light therapy lamp $89.99

• LectroFan Micro2 $34.99