Mon petit chou, Hibou

The Mythology of English: Part 1

2012-01-23T21:21:00.004-05:00

Warning - it's about to get nerdy in here! For the next month I will be swamped, overwhelmed and completely reveling in the TEFL certification course I am taking and when I have a few free moments (class was 10 hours today with only a 20 minute lunch break AND I taught a 40 minute lesson to a group of non-native speakers) I will try to share some of the exciting and interesting things I am learning! If you find linguistics or cultural differences or talking philosophically about American culture a snore fest then come back after February 15th. I'll be pretty fixated until then.

It's only 3 days into my course and already I feel like we have covered so much material. One of the aspects I have found most enthralling (its SO totally up my alley) is the discussions we have been having about the mythology of the English language.

Before I get into that though let me back up and talk about why we teach English and some of the different uses of English. English that isn't being taught to non-native speakers fall under three little acronyms: ESL, EFL and EIL. Lemme break it down fo yah (and there will be a WHOLE post about the argument of how the sentence I just used should/can be categorized and whether it counts as English)

ESL - English as a second language. But more directly this means English that is being taught/used in a country where the L1 (native or official language) is English. For example an African immigrant who is learning English IN Great Britian.

EFL- English as a foreign language. More directly this means English that is being taught/used in a country where the L1 is NOT English. For example a French person learning English IN France.

And then the most interesting of the three!

EIL - English as an international language. What does that mean, you ask?

This is where the mythology of English starts coming into play. There is an idea, out there, floating around, that English belongs to everyone now. English belongs to no one. One might argue this and say well English belongs to the English speaking countries and is connected to our culture(s). The only reason people learn English is to communicate and do business with US.

Ah but here's where it gets rich. with EIL the English LANGUAGE is taught but not necessarily the CUSTOMS of an English speaking society. We've all heard of English being used as a "business language" in which case there are usually native English speakers in the situation but consider this curious form of English:

In Thailand EIL is used not to communicate with Americans or the British, but to communicate with the Japanese tourists. The understanding is that while this is an L2 (non-native or second language) for BOTH parties involved, it is one they can both use to communicate. But here is the kicker - along with learning English to communicate with Japanese tourists the Thai also learn the Japanese culture, NOT an English speaking culture. In this sense it is clearly shown that the English language is being used as an international form of communication that is separate from its original contexts and cultures. Just take a second to imagine that. A Thai tour guide speaking to a group of Japanese tourists in English while at the same time using traditional and socially accepted Japanese forms of interaction. Do I have any commenters that could give us an example to illustrate how strange this would be to witness as a native english speaker?

But why English? Aside from that fact that English speakers did a very effective job at conquering and colonizing large swaths of the Earth, along with many other reasons of course, English as a form of communication is seen (myth!) to be democratizing. This seems to be especially believed to be true of American English. Throw out that formal language! Call your professor and boss by their first names and don't you dare think about making OUR nouns gender specific!

English can be seen as a simplified language. In some ways this is true. Consider this: there are 11 ways to address someone in Vietnamese. For example you use the suffix Chi when you are addressing a woman who is slightly older than you, Ahn when addressing someone the same age as you and the list goes on. In English we don't have these levels of formality or such a clearly defined hierarchy of respect. In this way English can be very attractive as an international language because it is perceived that everyone is addressed in equal terms. Interestingly English has the largest lexicon of all the languages. By a lot!

But is English really as democratizing as it seems? Are we really as casual, informal and non-hierarchal as our lack of formal titles suggests? I'll delve into this theme of the Myth of English as well as the Myth of America and their cross-section in my next post but I would love to hear some comments! What do you think?

Book Review: The Accidental Buddhist

2012-01-18T19:15:00.002-05:00

So remember back in September when I mentioned a growing interest in Buddhism? Yeah still interested. In fact I have joined a meditation group that meets in Old Town on Sundays. My legs fall asleep, my monkey mind chatters, but it gets me out of the house and into a group setting every Sunday morning.

As usual, I have turned to books, and a growing stack of them at that, of Buddhist philosophy and musings to explore this interest. Upon finishing The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying I realized that this was a huge thing to undertake alone. All the culture, tradition and Tibetan words were kind of overwhelming and while excitingly foreign, still very foreign. I wanted to write about the book a bit but really felt like I had no grasp on the subject to do so. So I'm backing up, taking it light and moving in slowly.

So I chose a softball book to start. The Accidental Buddhist was an incredibly quick read. If I hadn't started that book at 10pm I easily would have crushed it in a day and even starting it that late I was done with it by early afternoon the next day. But this book, while humorous and silly a lot of the time, packed a whole lot of ideas in one quick punch.

While there is a beautiful, exotic quality about Buddhism, yoga and meditation there are times when it strikes me as so very un-American. And I don't say that in a "Well if you don't like it you can..." kind of way, just...well.... it's not what I grew up with and its certainly not a language I'm familiar with. And I have been to Buddhist meetings or done chanting and thought to myself "What the heck does that even mean?"

Dinty Moore talks about this a lot in the book. As a man who was raised Catholic, turned apathetic to all religion, turned accidental Buddhist, he goes through the process of trying out lots of different forms of Buddhism searching for an American style. He questions the practice of dokusan (basically a private meeting with your teacher that is proceeded by a series of complicated bows and prostrations and has specific rules for where you can sit, when you can speak and when you must leave), he questions the intersection of Christianity and Buddhism (he meets with several practitioners of meditation that hold positions of leadership in the Christian faith) and he questions the possibility of our American gusto marrying with such a calm and careful lifestyle.

The whole concept of an American style of Buddhism can have people up in arms. You'll get people all in a tizzy bringing it up and they'll start defending the tradition for traditions sake. Listen people - I don't buy eating meat just because it's traditional so I'm not going to fall for this "you must sit on your uncomfortable cushion and chant these unpronounceable words because that's the way it's always been" kind of attitude. It seems that the reason "American style" is unappealing is that it seems to translate to a Buddhism that is cheap, self-obsessed, stripped away of all substance, and is brimming full of misguided egos buying every accessory and looking for the magic instant cure to help them relax after a traffic jam while totally missing the point.

But does it have to be that way? Does it have to be traditional strict Buddhism or nothing? Do we who want to practice Buddhism need to turn our back on our culture, throw up our hands and say "Americans are too shallow to get it so I'm going Tibetan." I really don't think so and while Moore doesn't find a definitive answer or American style on his quest he does run across some interesting ideas. At one point Moore actually gets a chance to speak with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and he asks him where he thinks Buddhism fits into modern American culture. The Dalai Lama gives a surprising response. Basically - it doesn't.

While I perhaps wouldn't go as far as that (no disrespect to His Holiness of course) I do feel like Buddhism will need to be adapted to our culture some - while still retaining the things that make it so attractive and worthwhile of course!

In looking at American culture there are several things right up front that clash with Buddhism. For example we are a status driven society. Those who don't strive for more, those who don't compete are seen to not be making progress. Progress is everything in the US - from how we go through school to our jobs to our relationships and whether we have children or not. Those following an "alternative" lifestyle - for example those who don't want a car or those who would rather live with friends in a group rather than with a partner - are often pitied in our society. They are seen to be "failures."

So how can a society with such a competitive drive approach the world without expectations as the Buddhists teach? How can they be mindful, compassionate, even present when we are so consumed with our neighbors car, when we can take our next cruise, or whether or not the color of our jeans is still in style?

Moore writes "By expecting things to deliver everlasting delight, we are setting ourselves up for a fall" He uses the example of wanting a new job and how we are so sure that a new job will fix things. But the excitement of the new job is fleeting and then the cycle starts again. Moore terms this "feeling vaguely dissatisfied." Buddhists call it samsara.

My roommate and I have talked about this in relation to travel. We both are attracted to this idealized dream of a traveling lifestyle but my personal fear is that the NEED for that lifestyle, the fact that it seems IMPORTANT to be somewhere else, only really means that I'm grasping. That I'm placing expectation on it. Moore says "It is the same thing with marriage - we expect marriage to make us happy, and it does for a while, then our problems creep up again, and we think, "Gee, I guess I married the wrong person."

Sitting in meditation, for an American, fights against all our upbringing. We are pushed from a young age to participate, perform, and multitask to our highest potential. And in mediation...well you just sit. And that's it. Don't think. Don't try. Just sit.

Moore gives a perfect example of how our American brains rebel from this idea of just sitting without expectation and instead tends towards setting up mental checklists of progress. Shunryu Suzuki, founder of the first Zen training center in America and author of Zen Mind, Beginners Mind talks in his book about what he calls mind weeds. Mind weeds are the distracting thoughts in your head. The Monkey Mind as it is also called. Suzuki says that these weeds are in fact a good thing. He says just as weeds can be composted to nourish a garden, sitting and watching your weeds can turn them into nourishment for your practice. In response to this Moore writes:

"So here I am, it seems, with a mind full of dandelions and crabgrass, worrying about it, and once again missing the whole point. Weeds are good. Weeds aren't what's stopping me, it's just my Monkey Mind insisting that weeds are somehow bad. If I let the Monkey Mind pronounce me an abject failure before I even begin, what chance will I have against him? ...Quit worrying so much and just do it. Just sit. ... Now I see. The difficulty I have with Buddhism is that it's just too damn simple."

In general I found this book to be engaging and thought provoking. When I finished my roommate and I had a good hour or so conversation about it and the concept of an American style of Buddhism. She brought up the fact that one of the things she appreciates about Buddhism is that it teaches you to question everything, even Buddhism. With that point out in the air I postulated "And why not Buddhism in America then? Why can't we question the chanting and the language?" Im not saying tear it all down and start from scratch. The lessons are there - the teachings are there, but at what point do you continue with the trappings of the rituals when they have no cultural significance? Buddhism has adapted many times. The Japanese have their own style of Buddhism, why not the Americans?

Learning the traditional ways is of benefit for sure. But blindly following a practice that holds cultural significance for a people you are not a part of seems counterproductive. It seems like a story we are telling ourselves. Like a beautiful picture. Like an obsession with the exotic qualities of a tradition that have led us to accept all the bowing and bell ringing as the teachings itself, rather than seeing this for what it is, a cultural manifestation of the root ideas. And in this vein of talk - the root ideas of Buddhism are in so many ways similar to the root ideas of Christianity. In the book Moore draws a link between the ideas of Nirvana and the Holly Spirit.

Father Kennedy, a Jesuit priest as well as being an ordained Zen teacher that Moore meets says "The very meaning of Zen is not to imitate anyone, because there is nothing to imitate, but to be yourself, so it is rather silly for Americans to continue to imitate Japanese, or Tibetan, customs. We respect our teachers and respect the forms that they bring, and we keep them up to a certain extent, but always it has to be an integration with the present moment."

In my newly developed interest in Buddhism, I found that this book had a lot to offer. Not only did it help expose me to some different style but it did so in a modern context.

In the end though I will just have to sit and see. One of the quote I really liked from the book came from Geshe Lobsang Tenzin Negi. He said "All of this talking, this is not really Buddhism. You can get instructions for swimming, but if you want to learn to swim, you have to get into the water."

Where to Eat Vegan: Elevation Burger

2012-01-15T14:58:00.002-05:00

Fairly frequently I get asked if I miss any food from my pre-vegan life. Mostly the answer is no. I make everything I could possibly want when I'm craving something special and frankly, these days I'm getting back to basics and eating lots of piles of delicious winter vegetables and rice. But, every now and then a girl wants a burger and fries.

I found Elevation Burger online when searching for vegan friendly place to meet up with my friends. With locations all over VA, MD, DE, PA, NY and even down in TX, and CA, I was eager to try these burgers out. Elevation serves two veggie burgers, one vegetarian (it has mozzarella in it) and one vegan. They also, interestingly, have a burger called Half the Guilt which is 1 beef patty and one veggie patty. Kinda strange idea.

NOTE: It has been brought to my attention that their buns are not vegan though! So opt for the patty wrapped in greens.

One of the things I appreciate about this place, which has become more common among fast food places, is being able to see your food being made. Behind a sheet of glass scoots the conveyor belt of the grill topped with little hot plates to equally grill your patty as it makes its way to the end of the line. Eating at burger joints that aren't all veg usually mean that your burger sits on the same oil slicked grill as the meaty burgers you have sworn to avoid. Elevation Burger has two grills running down their line, one for meat burgers and one for veg ones, hurrah!

While standing in line we watched them yanking down the crank that pushes the potatoes through the slicer. The fries are shoestring slim and are fried in olive oil until deliciously crispy.

Our burgers were brought out to us by one of the employees, wrapped in paper and overflowing with fries. I got a vegan burger with mushrooms, caramelized onions, tomato and ketchup. My friend got the vegetarian burger with balsamic mustard. My vegan burger actually looked more like the meat burgers with its dark brown color but it clearly had corn, broccoli and red peppers stuffed in with the obligatory burger fillers. The vegetarian burger was an off orange color and seemed to have more rice present than anything else discernible.

While I'm usually pretty happy with my vegan burgers, I used to always order cheeseburgers. I'll say it again, at risk of sounding like a broken record, but is it so hard to offer a vegan cheese? It's not a huge deal really, but it would just be a great perk.

Overall. Decent, filling and really inexpensive. Burgers are less than 4 bucks and fries are around 3. Most amazing vegan burger I've ever had? No, but at 4 bucks who would expect it to be. At the very least it's nice to know it's there. They also offer to wrap your burger in greens rather than a bun which I thought was cool. Don't bring your vegan date here of course, but for a quick bite, especially in the company of meat eaters, this would be a great place to meet up or stop on a road trip.

A New Calendar Year

2012-01-10T21:27:00.005-05:00

I'm not sure I've ever really bought myself a calendar. A planner, yes, but not a calendar. This year I bought one from Fifteen Eleven because I really loved the design but also, each page breaks off to form a postcard with a really pretty, hand-printed design for each month. Email me your address at laceygwalker@gmail.com or leave a comment and I'll send you one sometime this calender year!

By the way, I kinda meant to blog about this place when I first went there one day with Rachel. It's a cute little paper supply store in Old Town Alexandria with some really cute stuff. Here are a few pics from that day we went right after they opened. I've considered getting some hand-printed business cards done here or maybe taking a class.

New Old Things

2012-01-05T15:58:00.011-05:00

Chelsea and I decided to go antiquing on one of her last days in the US. As usual I managed to find things that I don't technically need but WILL use and also as usual spent too much. Chelsea knew of The Emporium of Olde Towne in Gaithersburg, MD from going there with her parents as a kid.

I was really really surprised and impressed with how reasonable the prices are and Grace, the owner, was so happy to have us young kids in her store buying up some history. She told us that she wishes her grandchildren would appreciate her things and the importance of keeping antiques and vintage items in the family. They don't seem to agree with her. In any case we chatted about our travels (I bought several postcards of places I visited in Italy) and presented our cases for why the Italians are worse than the French and visa versa.

In any case here is a look at my treasures.

Blue vintage tin with yellow flowers - $6. This will make a nice cookie tin.

Vintage red and tan pint sized thermos - $12. Are these safe to use? Does anyone know?

Hazel Atlas glass jars with compass lids - $8 each. I LOVE these for storing beans, nuts and dried fruits.

Israeli made trivet- $8

Family postcards - $1 each

Black and white postcard of Italy - $2 each

Colored travel postcards - $2 each

That's it, just wanted to share!

Somewhere New: Richmond VA

2012-01-04T14:17:00.010-05:00

Ok so technically I've been to Richmond. But not really. I've been to Richmond for two different shows and pretty much just went there for the show and then came home. So with the end of the month only days away and knowing that I still needed to fulfill my December Somewhere New, I enlisted the company of my friend Rachel and we spent a really lovely, delicious day in Richmond.

One of the things we noticed quite quickly was all of the abandoned, boarded up, and empty store fronts. This is common in pretty much any city but the area we walked through first had a staggering number of them. Rather than finding this deterring though I really enjoyed the remnants of old signs and we speculated about all the new businesses that could one day fill these buildings.

We found out later that many of the neighborhoods within Richmond are doing quite well, such as Carytown's Mile of Style where I got some delicious vegan chocolate covered hazelnuts, blueberries and apricots and seemed to be chock full of independent antique, vintage and boutique stores.

Throughout the day we walked by lots of places with quirky little attic windows, TONS of balconies and porches and tiny little yards and I kept thinking to myself "oh I could plant beets there" or "I could see myself living in that little attic with no air conditioning, sprawling out on the wood floor with Hibou trying to stay cool in the summer." Turns out rent is really inexpensive in Richmond! I'm not looking to move but it did put my rent into perspective a bit.

For lunch we met up with Ed and Compton at Ipanema. Don't be fooled by their bare-bones website people. This place has good food. I'm told their forte is dinner so I'll have to try that before writing a full Where to Eat Vegan post.

Compton's no vegan but he talked me into (I never need talking into food) splitting a piece of the strawberry apple pie and as soon as I tasted it I regretted not ordering an entire pie to myself. No picture. As usual I ate it all before thinking about photographing it. Prior to that slice of amazing dessert I had the Tofu Sandwich, which again, don't be fooled. Grilled tofu with ovendried tomato, hummus, caramelized onions, and spinach. Sounds simple but the tofu was prepared so well and the bun was dense, flavorful and right on point. Oh and yes...I put ketchup on my sweet potato fries. It's not a crime.

We visited the Edgar Allen Poe Museum, said to be the largest Poe museum in the world. Well...it's cute. For someone who only lived to be 40 and died mysteriously in Baltimore I suppose there isn't much one could put in a museum to commemorate this world renowned poet. Our favorite part of the short self-guided tour was the Enchanted Garden. Now, again, the word I would use to describe this would be cute. The dangling christmas balls and the mistletoe did lend to the "enchanted" feel but all together it was just a well kept, nicely laid out garden that houses a bust of Poe looking rather melancholy.

This is not to say we didn't enjoy ourselves there. We most certainly did.

Later in the evening we went to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, home to a giant, felt, sperm whale and, at the moment, an exhibit of Egyptian mummies (which you have to pay to see of course).

To round out our evening we ate dinner at Nile where we sampled all 10 of their vegetarian (they're all vegan too) dishes. I apologize for not taking pictures but my fingers were rather busy stuffing my face. I will for sure be going back there and although it was only my second time eating Ethiopian food I would give it a glowing review.

Thanks to Rachel, Ed and Compton for a lovely time!

Where to Eat Vegan Maybe: One World Cafe - Baltimore, MD

2011-12-26T20:45:00.001-05:00

I had heard of One World Cafe a few times from friends and one day after browsing the BMA for an hour or so I decided to take the short walk up to OWC to sample their brunch menu.

Now I won't say I was disappointed...but ok I was a little disappointed. It's not that our food was bad, it just wasn't anything to write home about. Their pitch sounds good; casual atmosphere, friendly service, classics made healthier and a dedication to promoting a healthy life on a green planet.

I was interested in the Blue Corn Pancakes but after my horrible pancake fiasco at Asylum I wasn't ready for another disappointment like that. So I ordered the OWC wrap which is mixed greens, guacamole, sliced tomato, grated carrot, fresh herbs and sprouts on a sprouted grain tortilla with garlic herb dressing. My friend ordered a Not Dog with cheese and onions. We split a plate of baked Old Bay fries.

Here are my qualms:

1. Pretty much everything here could be made vegan if they just picked up some vegan mayo and a case of Daiya. No vegan cheese? Really? Do I sound snobby?

But really..I couldn't order the Philly Cheese "Steak-less" or the Eggplant Gyro or the loaded Not Dog or the FBLT or the Tofu Club or the Portobella Sandwich (to name just a few) because of the cheese or mayo on them. For a restaurant that caters to the vegetarian and vegan community, especially a place that gears on things like hotdogs and nachos, to not have vegan cheese just seems like a complete oversight.

Come to find out when I checked their online menu that they DO have soy cheese. It costs an extra $2.00 but it's there. For some reason though their brunch menu doesn't say anywhere that you can substitute soy cheese. Perhaps it's only offered during the week like the soup? I'l never know and the server certainly didn't offer it, which bring me to my next qualm.

2. Service seemed a little lackluster. Our server had to dash away twice. Once to find out the vegan burger of the day and then to find out if they served vegan cakes (which we were told we could only order at the counter and not at a table but we could sit at a table in the front section after ordering said cake from said counter...what?). She brought us everything in a timely fashion and was happy to split our check for us but seemed a bit unprepared or perhaps uninformed about the food she was serving.

3. My food was fine but, like I said, not anything special. The garlic herb dressing on my wrap tasted strongly of herb but not at all of garlic. The guacamole on my wrap seemed to just be mashed avocado spread out paper thin, which was disappointing because I love guacamole and that kinda sold me on the wrap in the first place. Our fries were fine but the Old Bay was just dumped in the center which left the outside ring of fries naked and the inside ring absolutely coated.

Here is my praise:

1. They offer several options for juices and smoothies and the carrot juice I ordered hit the spot.

2. While finding out about their vegan dessert offerings took a little bit of sleuthing the carrot cake cupcake I ordered was piled high with delicious icing and was just the right mix of sweet and spices.

3. The dining room and cafe were both simple but very comfortable and inviting.

Despite feeling kinda let down by this place I would probably try it again. Now that I know they have soy cheese and soy sour cream I could peruse the menu a bit deeper and try some more exciting dishes. I feel like if I lived in the area this would be one of my go-to spots for a treat or a smoothie but my dining experience left me wanting quite a bit more in the way of brunchy satisfaction. After my last brunch experience I think what I'm learning here is that brunch just isn't for me.

Hibou, Beebs, BeeBoo, Boober, Hindu, Bush Baby, Baby Cat, Keeten

2011-11-30T14:09:00.006-05:00

It's been about a year now since I got Hibou back from my mom's house where she was living while I was in France. Please excuse this annoying display of pet-love. These are some of my favorite pictures of her from the last year.

Exploring Home: Part 3

2011-11-30T12:34:00.009-05:00

So it turns out that I kinda went to the same museums over and over as a kid and completely missed out on a lot of great ones in DC. Or maybe I didn't miss out, I just had to wait to grow up to appreciate them. In any case I went to the Archives Gallery to see the What's Cooking Uncle Sam? exhibit. There were a lot of cool old videos and posters of things like Vitamin Donuts and also these beet and potted chicken posters - which I wasn't supposed to photograph I was told after taking the second one. Oops

Did you know that Meatless Mondays started back in the early 1900s? During World War I, the Food Administration under Herbert Hoover promoted “Wheatless Wednesdays” and “Meatless Mondays.” If you haven't caught the exhibit left you still have time but don't wait too long, it closes January 3rd!

While Remi was visiting this past week I was sure to take him to the National Mall to see our monuments and visit a museum or two. Surprisingly, the places he wanted to visit were places I hadn't even been myself. We went to see the Supreme Court, spent an hour or two in the American History Museum and went inside the Library of Congress.

Muppets at the American History Museum

I had no idea how beautiful the inside of the Library of Congress would be and when we came out at closing we were rewarded with a beautiful DC sunset over the Capitol.

In truth I'm looking forward to the cold season a bit because I plan to visit all the museums and have them all to myself! Once the tourists empty out of the city I'll be able to walk around at my leisure and visit more places I haven't explored.

Somewhere New: Fallingwater

2011-11-29T16:31:00.007-05:00

For the month of November I had a companion for my Somewhere New project. Remi, a friend I made while teaching English in France came to visit me for the week of Thanksgiving. Pretty much everything we did last week, aside from visiting with my family was new for me as well as him.

During our week we went to Fallingwater just outside of the town of Ohiopyle. Frank Lloyd Wright built this house for the Kaufmann family in the late 1930's. Unfortunately you can't take pictures inside but this house was really quite unique and modern, even by today's standards. It's actually on the Smithsonian's Life List of places to see before you die.

There were windows that were built into the corners of houses so that when you opened them the who corner of the house stood open to the wilderness and waterfall surrounding the house. The fireplace in the main living room was built around a boulder. Literally. The boulder is the hearth. Oh and the master bedroom, which was really Mrs. Kaufmann's room (they had separate rooms, smart couple!) had this awesome row of window boxes on the inside of the widow to the bathroom. I really recommend visiting the house for yourself because there are all sorts of amazing things he did there. Another fun fact, the Kaufmanns had a weenie dog!

It rained during our trip but it really just made for a better waterfall and a smaller crowd of people.

Look out for next months Somewhere New!

Where to Eat Vegan: Veggie Galaxy

2011-11-28T11:36:00.005-05:00

While in Boston for my weekend away I made sure to eat at both Veggie Galaxy and Veggie Planet. Both are owned by the same people but have their own specialties and vibes.

Veggie Planet in Harvard square boasts some of the best pizza in town and has been serving up pies since 2001. Cool note on their crust- according to their website their crust is organic and is made by Haley House Bakery Cafe which is a non-profit that fosters economic independence for underemployed men and women in the community. I had a lovely brunch there complete with tofu scramble and house-made cheese as well as thick hand-cut slabs of tempeh bacon. While happily munching away I was serenaded by a live vocalist and learned that at night the floor gets turned over to Club Passim

Veggie Galaxy is actually brand new! This tasty diner has been open about two months and already they've been named the Best Vegetarian in the Weekly Dig’s Dig This Awards poll. I've always been a sucker for diner food and vegan diner food is no exception! Milkshakes, omelets, pancakes, melts, onion rings, baked mac and cheese, and all the pies, cake and puddings you could ask for. I was in heaven. Drool over their menu for a bit before you make a decision and save room for their dessert. Their Taza chocolate layer cake is a local slice of decadence.

Thanksgiving Feast at Poplar Springs

2011-11-19T23:20:00.005-05:00

Today was a gorgeous day filled with food, friends and adorable animals. I'm sooo glad I found out about Poplar Springs in time to make it to the vegan Thanksgiving potluck. I've started volunteering there with my brother and while our job consists of scooping up poop and distributing fresh hay it does allow us some play time with the animals.

After a few little hiccups (Pang got repremanded for calling it a farm and not a sanctuary which is actually my fault because I call it "the farm" because it's shorter than "the sanctuary") we settled into a cozy picnic on the grass and flat out stuffed ourselves. Some of our favorites were the curry samosas, the spicy asian noodles, the veggie lasagna, some amazing mashed potatoes, yummy sauteed kale and of course the cashew mac and cheese. We piled out plates high with dessert as well and I must say, I think my chocolate beet cake went over pretty well! Can't wait for next year!

Reuse: Recipe Books and Doodle Pads from Used Menus

2011-11-19T20:08:00.004-05:00

So at the moment I work at a restaurant in old town Alexandria. It's a ten minute walk, it's not my dream job but it's flexible, they have their own farm and the people are nice. One thing that erks me a lot though is that we don't recycle. Not only that but we use heavy card-stock for our menus and then after one use for a banquet they get tossed. So - little pack rat that I am - I've been saving them and making something useful and pretty.

I cut the menus in half. Hole punch them twice and then tie them with ribbon that I have squirreled away from past projects. This book I made for Rachel before her Africa trip. I used a vintage postcard as the cover and glued the plastic sheet on so she could take the postcard out and read the back still.

They're rather simple and I may jazz up the design some. Make hardback covers maybe and sew them into it. But I also kinda like how simple they are. The other side of the paper of course is printed with menu items so only one side can be used for writing but you could certainly draw or paste clippings to the menu side. I figure, even if they get used for grovery store lists its better that then just throwing them away. BUT I do hope some will be used a long time. Like the one above that I plan to write all the Thanksgiving recipes in and give to my mom so she can remake our vegan feast in the future :)

Where to (Tr)Eat Vegan: Taza Chocolate Factory - Somerville, MA

2011-11-16T13:16:00.002-05:00

Sometimes a girl needs a treat. Lots of them. Every day. I'm trying to talk my taste buds out of craving sweets before and after every meal but well...girl's just wana have fun. I'm not a chocoholic or anything but I can tear through some brownies or a chocolate bar when given the chance so I was super pleased to fall upon Taza while I was staying in Somerville. The chocolate factory happen to be right in my friend's backyard practically and because I was there during Halloween weekend I got to partake in the Dia de los Meurtos celebration at the factory.

Know what's great about Taza? This stone ground, certified organic, bean to bar goodness is all vegan! Yay! Plus their process leaves the nutrients of the chocolate intact. That's right I said nutrients and chocolate together. Here's what they have to say: Our chocolate contains many of the vitamins and minerals that are essential to good health, including iron, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, and the vitamins A, B1, C, D, and E. And chocolate has more magnesium than any other food." That's all I need to hear.

For only 5 bucks a person, with one dollar of that going directly towards Sustainable Harvest International you can tour the factory and see chocolate being made on their vintage machines. If you live too far away you can take a virtual tour but you'll miss out on the free chocolate samples.

In March Taza and Cotton Tree Lodge in Belize will be introducing Chocolate Week. A whole week of exploring chocolate from the tree to your chocolate bar..and did I mention it's in Belize? Yeah...

They also have recipes on their website. I seriously want to try their guajillo chili chocolate mexicano cupcake recipe!

Somewhere New: Boston

2011-11-08T19:56:00.013-05:00

So last month I decided to travel more. Everyone says this I guess but I wanted to be serious. So I made myself a little rule: Every month I will go somewhere new. Granted - some months I wont have the funds or the time to go away for a weekend but even if all I can manage is a day trip I'm going to keep to this idea. So for the month of October I chose to run away to Boston. Or Somerville to be more accurate.

Since I was here over the Halloween weekend there was lots of spooky things being offered. The Armory was offered a viewing of of the 1922 black and white silent movie Nosferatu with a live orchestra playing the accompanying music. This was my first time seeing the film and I loved it (although I was reading the book Dracula over the weekend and my brain kept doing that annoying thing where it picks out differences between the two).

The highlight of my second day was walking around taking pictures and going to the dia de los muertos festival at the Taza chocolate factory.

I really wanted to take this weekend to explore things on my own and work on my street photography a little. I ended up having the perfect weekend, eating amazing food and getting to know my old high school friend Colleen again. I can't wait to share where I go next month!

Where to Eat Vegan: Life Alive

2011-10-29T22:49:00.005-04:00

Where do I start with Life Alive. I stayed in the Boston area for 3 days and I went to Life Alive 3 times. This hip joint touts itself as an urban oasis and during this first cold weekend of the winter season it was definitely feeling like a warm, safe haven from the streets.

The Carrot Cake Smoothie is pictured above and was sooooo good. Hemp protein, carrot, banana, coconut ice cream, almond milk and cinnamon. I added ginger as suggested by one of the friendly employees and I was not disappointed.

From soups to salads to rice bowls to smoothies, this place offered a variety of options full of fresh produce and whole grains. I quickly learned that getting a smoothie, cup of soup and rice bowl was way more food than I needed but I happily polished it all off. The next trip I opted for two "demi" sized portions. I really liked how they gave the option of a '"filling bowl", a "demi" portion or they were happy to make the whole thing into a "handy wrap".

With dish names like The Emperor, The Lover, The Adventurer, The Magician and The Feisty Child they certainly aren't the type of place to take themselves too seriously but their food was seriously amazing. My fellow customers were friendly (I made a friend!) and the staff was even friendlier. They sell dried fruit, nuts and chocolate treats by the pound and they have a healthy collection of loose teas that they encourage you to open and sniff.

Every day they serve two vegan soups. I tried a cup of their chipotle sweet potato soup.

Two demi sized plates: the Goddess rice bowl on the right (their signature dish) and the Warrior Salad on the left. The Goddess is comprised of carrots, beets, broccoli, dark greens, tofu and short grain brown rice topped with the Ginger Nama Shoyu Sauce. They reccommend adding avocado, which of course I did! The Warrior Salad is red lentil humms with tofu, peppitas, carrots, spring greens and a sweet miso sauce.

Located on 765 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge MA their hours are 8am to 10pm Monday through Saturday and 11am to 7pm on Sunday. Open every day of the week so you have no excuses not to go if you are in this area!

Vegan Mofo: Boston Beans

2011-10-29T10:59:00.009-04:00

In preperation for my weekend in Boston I decided to indulge in a little beans for breakfast (I know it's a British thing but whatever) on toast. Words aren't very necessary here - just construct and broil until hot and melty. Simple.

Vegan Mofo: Liebster

2011-10-21T12:37:00.009-04:00

Rachel at Passing Daisies was kind enough to award me a Liebster!

Basically, this liebster means "dearest," "beloved," or "favorite" in German, and this award is to spread love and bring attention to blogs with under 200 followers during VeganMoFo! It is a shout out to your favorite blogs. A "hey look at these blogs you may not know yet" to your followers, and just a general pat on the back to pass along. How sweet!

Here's how it works:
1. You show your thanks to the blogger who gave it to you by linking back to them.
2. You reveal YOUR top 5 pics for bloggers with less than 200 followers, and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
3. Post the award on your blog.
4. Bask in the love from the most supportive people on the internet and fellow vegan mofos!

My awards go to:

1. Sonnet of For the Love of Food. This Seattle girl makes my list because she combines great food, travel, photography and homemade beauty products in such an enjoyable way.

2. Richa of Hobby and More who also happens to be a Seattle girl has this great blog where she not only posts her original recipes, many of them Indian and veganized, but she has also been posting a weekly charity or aid group that she loves. Her most recent one featured Help For Animals India which features Menaka - this lovely elephant pictured above.

3. Jen of The Raw Cooked Vegan because she makes raw food look delicious - like these raw tacos! I would love to try to incorporate more raw food into my diet -sans cashew because I'm allergic :(

4. Monica of Dorm Room Kitchen for her colorful, lovely photography and hand drawn sketches. So pretty!

5. And of course Miss Vanessa K Rees of V. K. Rees Photography. She may be new to the world of food photography but she is in no way new to the world of vegan food or photography in their own rights. I asked her recently about her process and she said she likes to think of it as a painting. She includes the 6 elements of style (shape, form, color, texture, space and value) and voila - beautiful art. Currently she is calling for recipes! Give her things to make and photograph and she will even send you the photograph for use on your own blog.

So there you have it - go visit their blogs and give them some love!

Vegan Mofo: The Best Fried Rice and Chocolate Avocado Pudding

2011-10-19T15:38:00.005-04:00

One of my favorite things to make is fried rice. It's easy, it's tasty and it's filling. The oils that I use in my fried rice were originally gathered by Alicia Silverstone in the Kind Diet but we differ on ingredients to go in the rice. This dish is great because it's customizable. You don't need to measure things, you don't have to follow a set of ingredients, just keep tasting till it tastes right! As with a lot of Asian dishes, I have found, a lot of knowing when the dish is done is based on smell. If you want your fried rice to have a saltier flavor, add more tamari till it smells salty. If you want it to be more vinegary add more vinegar until it smells like you have enough. Personally I prefer more salt to vinegar but to each his own.

Fried Rice for 2

1 cup basmati brown rice, cooked
3 organic carrots, sliced into rounds but not peeled
1/2 red onion, diced
1 portobella cap, cleaned and sliced
toasted sesame oil
brown rice vinegar
braggs liquid amino or tamari
(also consider things like peas, kale - which should be added at the same time as the rice, cabbage, daikon, adzuki beans or water chestnuts)

1. Heat about two tablespoons of toasted sesame oil in your cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, carrots and mushrooms. Sautee until the onions are getting translucent and the carrots and mushrooms have taken on a darker, saturated color - about 3 or 4 minutes.

2. Add the already cooked brown basmati rice. Stir the veggies and rice together to mix. Start adding your vinegar and tamari a little at a time. I tend to do about 1-2 tablespoons worth of tamari first, then about a teaspoon of vinegar. Taste.

3. Let the rice and veggies keep cooking until the carrots are soft but certainly not mushy. Keep seasoning as needed. I would guess that I use roughly 3 tbsp of tamari and perhaps 2 tsp of vinegar in all. Serve hot topped with sesame seeds, shriracha or just as is!

For dessert I have been somewhat obsessed with avocado pudding lately. I don't remember where I first saw it but I jotted down the ingredients from somewhere and then just finally got around to making it. SO GOOD!

Oh were you expecting a picture of it? I ate it all....

Avocado Pudding

2 ripe avocados
1/2 cup maple syrup
3 tbsp lemon juice
6 tbsp carob or chocolate powder

1. Put it all in a blender. Blend. Eat.

This dessert is so simple and so tasty. Everyone I have made it for, and I have made both carob and chocolate, agree that it has so much more complexity and character than your standard pudding, while still satisfying that fat-kid desire to finish (or start) the meal with a Snack Pack.

Vegan Mofo Pumpkin Recipe Roundup

2011-10-12T22:06:00.003-04:00

Hey Mofos! I don't have any food pictures to share with you today. My dear friend Katie brought me some apple galettes she made from Veganomicon and I wanted to take a picture of them to post but...then I ate them all. So in the meantime - here are some recipes that I would love to make!

Oh Lady Cakes' pumpkin spice granola and her raw pumpkin pie

Oh She Glow's pumpkin gingerbread smoothie - which I will be making for breakfast tomorrow and her maple baked bean cornbread casserole AND her pumpkin gingerbread with spiced buttercream

Vegan Dad's pumpkin pull apart rolls

Anchor and Feathers' pumpkin syrup

Vanessa K Rees' pumpkin pancakes

Healthy Happy Life's 5 ingredient pumpkin pie which I made for Thanksgiving last year and my Grandma said she liked it better than normal pumpkin pie!

Daily Green's pumpkin sage pate

Manifest Vegan's pumpkin alfredo

Until I get to make all of these goodies I will be longingly thinking of pumpkin patch adventures and keeping a snuff box of pumpkin spices close by for frequent sniffs.

Vegan Mofo: Where to eat vegan: Chocola Tree Cafe - Sedona, Arizona

2011-10-11T11:11:00.011-04:00

Over the summer I got to visit Arizona and during our daytrip to Sedona we stopped at Chocola Tree Cafe for lunch. This cafe actually boasts itself as a sanctuary BEFORE a restaurant, but rest assured, the food is delicious. Part garden, part community space, part gallery, part bakery and raw, live, organic food mecca. Open 7 days a week 9am to 9pm, you have no excuse to not visit if you're in the area!

Check out their menu for such exciting and cute dishes as their Enlightenment Waffles - homemade buckwheat waffles served with a chocolate nut filled Buddha & Coconut creme Om.

The almond chili sauce on the raw kale salad was amazing and even won Rachel over to the dark side of kale! This was one of my first experiences with raw foods and while I was skeptical about raw falafel, I think we were all pleasantly surprised.

Served out in the garden, we ate out meal off of a giant tree stump under the shade of a neighboring tree. Before our food came out we wandered around the garden snapping pictures of flowers and finding all the hidden statues.

Soft Tacos

Raw Falafel Platter - served with creamy garlic dill dip and veggie hummus

Raw Viva Burrito - sundried tomato wrap filled with red bell peppers, red onion, cabbage, vegan cheese, pica de gallo and guacamole

Relaxing in the garden and relishing our spread of food, I believe we would all recommend this place for a satisfying and filling but at the same time light and clean-feelings meal.

Vegan Mofo: Early Fall Avocado Kale Salad

2011-10-08T15:15:00.005-04:00

You know those first few days when it first starts to get blustery and the first few leaves begin to shift in color? That time of year is certainly upon us! Soup! Boots! Hot Tea! Everything to get excited for. But I must admit, the end of summer has it's sadness too. The saddest part of summer ending for me is the disappearance or scarcity of some of my favorite summer eats like sweet corn, tomatoes and avocados.

While I'll admit I eat avocados all year round, like its my job, like its going out of style, like your mama gave you...wait that doesn't work....they have a tendency to get, shall we say, poopy after the summer months. So as my last hurrahs of summer come to an end I have been adding in the last of the summer avocados to my salads, sammies and puddings.

This salad is a massaged kale salad. That is, you wont SEE the avocado because it's been used as a massage oil to slap the kale into a more digestible and palatable form.

Massaged Avocado and Kale Salad

1 cup chopped and washed kale, tough end of stems removed
1 cup chopped and washed chard
2 ripe avocados
2 ripe red plums, sliced
juice of half a lemon
1/3 cup golden raisins
2 tbsp chia seeds

1. Place the greens in a large bowl. Scoop both avocados out of their shells and into the bowl. Add the lemon juice. Use your hands to massage the avocado into the kale until the greens are soft and dark green. This takes several minutes.

2. Top the salad with plums, raisins and chia seeds. Sprinkle a touch or salt and pepper if desired.

Roasted Sherry Portobellos

2011-10-07T00:14:00.005-04:00

Portobellos are a wonderful thing. They can also be an annoying thing because they seem to have made it on the list of "what vegetarians/vegans eat" along with hummus and oreos. Now don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with any of those. It's just that..one gets tired of eating the same few staples at every party, bbq and restaurant.

Nevertheless, I still love a good roasted shroom. This week I bought the caps with the intention of experimenting a bit. Thanksgiving is right around the corner it seems and this year I was thinking of adding a portobello to my list of things I will slave over and probably be the only one to eat (Little do they know I'm ok with that! All the treats for me!) during the feast.

Pre vegetarian/vegan Lacey was a nut for meat. Especially turkey. I've been contemplating what to cook that will satisfy all my taste cravings. My family has a tradition of making Drunk Turkey. Every year we buy bottles of sherry and baste and baste and baste the poor turkey until the house is full of the sweet smell of syrupy alcohol.

So here it is - Test One of Sherry Shrooms

1/2 cup sherry
2 tbsp each of Tamari, olive oil and balsamic vinegar
3 cloves garlic, minced
the juice of half a lemon

Whisk all the ingredients together.

Place the 3 to 4 cleaned caps in a casserole facing up, gills exposed, and spoon half of the sherry mixture into the caps and pour the rest into the bottom of the dish so both sides of the mushrooms get coated. Marinate for half an hour.

Heat the oven to 400. Roast, covered with a lid or aluminum foil for half an hour. Flip the caps over and roast for another 15 minutes or so, uncovered. Serve hot or let them cool and slice them.

These portobellos turned out well but more work must be done. The sherry was actually a bit overpowering. I will be trying them again soon but they worked wonderfully in the sandwich I had for lunch.

Sherry Portobello Sammy with Lemony Spinach and Basil Pesto

Vegan Mofo: Asylum, DC

2011-10-05T18:38:00.003-04:00

For almost a year now I have been wanting to try Asylum's vegan brunch. Hugged up next to lots of other great bars and food joints in Adam's Morgan, it's taken me some time to get around to it but this past Sunday I made it a point to get there.

The decor was what I expected. Chains, skulls and dark black booths with heavy drones of metal playing over the speakers. So far so good. I can get into this - now get to the food!

We sat for a while and waited for menus. None came so we got up and politely asked the busy waitress. When she brought them over she apologetically explained that only the back of the menu would be available. This left us with the vegan options of pancakes, french toast, BBQ tofu and grits or a tofu scramble burrito.

I ordered the pancakes, which are pictured above (Oh did you think those were tortillas too? Nope.) and my friend ordered the burritos. If I had to describe the meal in one word: abysmal. The only flavor I could discern in the pancakes was cinnamon. Cinnamon? They arrived lukewarm so my vegan spread never melted. The sweet potato home fries were soggy. My friend said his burrito was fine but also lukewarm and the Daiya thrown on top of the tofu and beans was done so with no attempt to heat it up or melt it.

While all of use have had to struggle through a subpar meal in our lives, I usually just remind myself that it is only one meal of my life and let it go. As a vegan I know what it's like to eat a baked potato while my family feasts. And that's fine, most places don't cater to vegans. But if an establishment does cater to vegans, and even boasts that they cater to vegans, you expect the food to be good.

The food served to us at brunch this weekend was embarrassing. I couldn't help thinking, as I chewed my tasteless paper-thin pancakes, that this is what people think of when they think of vegan food. This is why they are hesitant when I offer to cook for them or share my food. As any vegan foodie - aspiring home chef will tell you, this simply is not necessary. I've won over many a timid taster with my own vegan cooking. Bad vegan restaurant food is just plain embarrassing.

If you read the yelp reviews of the brunch you'll see mention of vegan chili cheese fries, waffle fries piled high with Daiya, a vegan breakfast bowl, biscuits, and copious sides of tempeh. All of these items were unavailable this past weekend. Were they hiding the real menu from me? I'll never know. Their online menu is chock full of vegan bar food delights.

Maybe they were having an off night. Or maybe an off week. The yelp reviews from this past weekend seemed equally unfavorable. Unfortunately, with so many great places to try in the District, its unlikely I will be going out of my way to eat there again anytime soon. If you want a guaranteed good meal or you want to show-off to your friends by treating them to some vegan eats, my recommendation - skip Asylum. Or at the very least call ahead and make sure they're offering the full menu.

Vegan Mofo: Apple Picking

2011-10-04T10:40:00.011-04:00

Saturday this week I joined some friends for a little ol' fashioned apple picking. It was one of the first crisp fall days we've had and the air was full of cinnamon aroma and to our surprise the sun peeked out from the rain-clouds just as we got there.

Living in a city, our grocery stores are often stuffed with a vast array of top-dollar produce, but sometimes you need to get out of the smog and spend a day in the woods...or orchard I suppose.

We drove out to Stribling Orchard in Markham Virginia. For my fellow DC folks it's about an hour or so out of the city - sans traffic - so count on a little longer. At the moment you can pick Golden Delicious, McIntosh, Jonathan, Rome and Stayman apples. Of course we sampled all 5!

Picking your own apples is great because it gets you out on the farm and you don't have to worry about apples that were shipped across the continent or that yucky wax coating that gets put on grocery store apples! There are tons of options for pick-your-own places. Check here for farms near you.

I haven't decided what to make just yet. My go to is usually Love Soup's Apple Crumble. Any suggestions for me?

Also, check out these fellow MoFo-ers recipes!

Sour Cream and Onion Kale Chips at Cupcakes and Kale

Smokey Mushroom Slowcooker Soup at Vegan Yack Attack

Herbivore Cheese Scones at Vegan Chicks Rock -I can't wait to make these! Reminds me of the only reason I loved Red Lobster, the cheese biscuits!

Vegan Candy Apples done seven ways for each dwarf (she makes her food on movie themes!) at Vegan Cine Grub

Velvety Collard Soup at In My Vegan Life

Vegan Mofo: Black Bean Zucchini Patties

2011-10-03T00:24:00.010-04:00

Hey everyone, it's MOFO time! As I mentioned in a previous post I will only be blogging about vegan food this month so all my Buddhism, relationship, yoga talk will have to be put on hold. But for now, let's talk about food!

These patties are an adaptation from a Whole Living recipe. The patties were meant to be a twist on falafel I believe but I chose to make them more Mexican inspired by switching out the beans, adding spices and changing the topping and of course I veganized it.

1 zucchini
half of a red onion
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup whole wheat bread crumbs*
2 tbsp ground flax seed whisked with 3 tbsp warm water
salt and cracked pepper to taste
2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp chili powder
fresh spinach
pita bread cut into halves
several tbsp roasted corn salsa

To make the patties:

1. Throw the black beans in a large bowl and with a potato masher or sturdy fork mash the black beans down until it forms a paste. Having some whole or partially uncrushed black beans is just fine.

2. In a food processor (or by hand if you want to go all natural!) shred the zucchini and red onion.

3. Add the shredded veggies, cup of breadcrumbs, whisked flaxseeds and spices to the black bean bowl. Use your hands to mix everything together well and then form the mixture into 8 patties.

4. Heat enough oil to coat the bottom of your skillet (cast iron! I can't tell you enough how awesome cast iron is for this kind of stuff) over medium heat. Fry each patty until its brown and crisp on both sides then remove them to a plate.

5. Stuff each pita with fresh spinach or green of your choice. Place a patty on top of the spinach and serve with salsa.

To take the patties to go I found it better to slice them in half and then wrap them in a whole wheat wrap with the spinach, reserving the salsa on the side until you're ready to eat the sandwich.

* To make breadcrumbs place several slices of stale whole grain bread in the food processor and then pulse until the bread is reduced to crumbs. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until toasted, at 400 degrees.

A Lot of Time on my Hands

2011-09-20T15:47:00.005-04:00

So, before the next month starts and I go fully into Vegan Mofo mode in which I will only post on topics related to vegan food and interests, I wanted to take some time to address this other thing that's been building up in my life.

I've had a lot of time on my hands. I've been social, i've been active but I've also been a homebody a lot of the time. I've been researching. Recently several things that I have been interested in or at least aware of have been coming together in my head. Those things being yoga, philosophy, Buddhism, anxiety, inspiration, self reflection, self responsibility, relationships and building a sense of community.

In the next few posts I'll try to talk about those topics and share some links and maybe even start some dialogs. We'll see.

I bought this book years ago, before college, during a Borders trip with my friend Chelsea. On a superficial level I have been drawn to Buddhism since I was in middle school. I had Save Tibet stickers, incense and Buddha sculptures without really attaching any meaning to them. I identified as a Christian for the most part growing up but never felt the connection that the pastors or other followers would talk about. As a child I remember being scared by the Judgement Day sermon. I was convinced the world was going to end. As a teenager I was somewhat forced to go to a non-denominational church with my father. I never felt anything. I decided to abandon spirituality.

Fast forward to a little less than a year ago. Life was changing for me. It all felt monumental. And to be honest I went through some pretty dramatic changes in how I view the world and relationships and what kind of life I wanted for myself. At some point I had a "duh" moment where I realized that I was in control of my life and the situations I put myself in, and that perhaps I should be a little more selfish in the decisions I make.

Here's the irony. In realizing that I needed to be more responsible and take care of myself and my future, in suddenly taking a more "selfish" view of the world, I felt an urge to connect, to build a community, to give back, to be selfless.

Enter Buddhism. Not necessarily chanting to Buddha or shaving my head or taking a vow of silence..but enter openness to learning about Buddhism.

After the Flagstaff Yoga Festival this summer I started pondering the term non-attachment. How I feel about non-attachment I will discuss in future posts but suffice it to say this line of thought lead me down a path of wanting to know a bit more about the philosophy behind yoga and how in many ways it mirrors or intertwines with the philosophy of Buddhism.

So I've been reading this book in earnest for the last few weeks. When I say "in earnest" I mean slowly reading. Rereading. Writing quotes down. Bookmarking pages. Actually digesting instead of just reading. Very Buddhist of me already don't you think!

It's not quite what I expected to be honest. It's incredibly easy to read and accessible. It's inspiring me to want to find ways to "cultivate compassion" in my everyday life. I'll tell you all about it once I'm done, but for now let me share some links!

For those of you who are not familiar with the TED talks, I highly highly recommend you check them out. While browsing the different options lately I came across this video by Joan Halifax called Compassion and the True Meaning of Empathy.

Joan Halifax: Compassion and the true meaning of empathy | Video on TED.com

After watching this video I became interested in learning more about her Being with the Dying series and this lead me to Upaya Institute in New Mexico. It's a Zen center that hold all kinds of retreats and hosts scientists and spiritualists alike.

THIS lead me to the Audio Dharma Podcasts which I promptly downloaded and started listening to. The first podcast I chose was one by Philippe Goldin, who is a neuroscientist, clinical psychologist and Buddhist who is using neuroimaging in tandem with meditation techniques. The series is called Zen Brain: Trauma, Stress, Loss, and Happiness. But there are a ton of other series that I have yet to delve into all of them with different topics and different visiting speakers.

So I've started thinking, if I'm seriously interested in this stuff, in meditation and the philosophy and all that, well perhaps I need a teacher. The Upaya Institiute looks amazing and they do offer jobs in return for housing and teachings but at the moment perhaps that's not feasible.

I can across this monastery in upstate New York called Karma Triyana Dharmachakra that also has some interesting looking retreats.

Something about disconnecting from my phone, facebook, even my blog, living in a vegetarian community for a while and being in a place where I'm constantly learning again is really appealing to me lately. I plan to explore some closer DC options soon.

In upcoming blogs look forward to reading about: Animals Sanctuaries you can visit and volunteer at, my theory of the Community Relationship, new recipes and restaurant reviews, and a complete review of the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying.

Hold me to it blog readers!

Exploring Home: Part 2

2011-09-05T13:25:00.003-04:00

Everyone who goes to DC ends up on the Mall at some point. In fact until more recently that's all I really could think of to do when I though of DC which is sad because I've lived in the DC area all my life. Until moving to Alexandria and having metro access to DC I found it to be an intimidating and terribly boring kind of city to approach. Wrong.

DC has tons to offer in the realm of food, drinks, dancing, art and festivals. The international mixing of cultures here offers a wide array of activities and events and I am only now just beginning to appreciate that. The DC Shorts Film Festival is coming up soon and next spring the Environmental Film Festival will be going on, both of which I plan to take advantage of. Then there's the "yoga buffet" as Katie likes to call it of all the different studios and styles of meditation and yoga. And you know what ya'll? I even signed up for pole dancing classes. It's for my health....

Recently I've been on a walking kick where after taking the metro somewhere I'll just start walking. I know at some point I'll hit another metro stop somewhere and I'll get home but it's been such a great way to actually see the city.

Last week a few of my girlfriends came out to DC and we did a little daytrip that I wanted to share. Inevitably we did start our day out on the Mall but wait! There's a new face on the Mall! The Martin Luther King Jr memorial is finally done and open to the public so we went there first to check it out.

We spent probably 20 minutes or so taking pictures and walking around to read the MLK quotes that are on the walls behind his statue. During our stay we witnessed, by accident, a really cool interaction between two people. An older black man was standing next to a quote from Alabama and he was having a stranger take his photograph. While she was photographing he was explaining that he was 10 years old when the riots broke out in Alabama and that this particular quote had significance from his childhood. A white woman of perhaps the same age was walking by as this man was telling his story and she stopped and listened and then walked up to him and asked if she could shake his hand. She told him that she had been there too and they shared this memory. Rachel and I just looked at each other and said "ugh...someone should be capturing this." So look out in the future for a post about this project idea!

After the monument we went to Teaism for lunch and then headed over to The National Museum of Women in the Arts. This was my first time at this museum and we had the place to ourselves. I get the feeling that it's probably usually pretty empty since it's not right on the Mall. I would reccommend this gallery though - some cool photography and a really cool exhibit on the Gorilla Girls right now! Here's a few pictures of some photos I really liked.

Imogen Cunningham, Jesse Dorr Luca

Ann Hamilton, Untitled #8

Berenice Abbott, Eva Le Gallienne

Anna Gaskell, Override #26

To close out the evening we went to Busboys and Poets for some vegan nachos and a brownie sunday. Day well spent.

Where To Eat: D.C.

2011-09-05T12:21:00.006-04:00

Last week I spent a day in the city with some of my favorite girlfriends and we tried out Teaism for the first time. I used to be a big tea-head when I worked at Shaharazade's in Shepherdstown years ago and while I've backed off quite a bit I do still enjoy a good tea and can sometimes be caught turning my nose up at a bag of tea dust masquerading as a good quality beverage.

We visited the Penn Quarter branch of Teaism but there is also one at Dupont Circle and Lafayette Park (which I have since been to and must say, its not as organized, friendly or well presented as the Penn Quarter one). Two doors up from the restaurant is the actual tea store where you can buy your favorites to take home, but lets get to the good stuff - the food!

While I didn't get to sample the breakfast menu there seemed to be lots of options for vegetarians and vegans for the lunch menu. In fact, if you ask they'll give you a special menu that lists all the menu items and then tells you if things are vegan or gluten free.

I ordered the veggie burger with a side of miso dressed sweet potato salad and a Moroccan mint tea. Other things that looked tasty on the menu included the seitan stir fry, the veggie bento box, and of course mochi for dessert!

In addition, they served beer, wine and fancy sounding cocktails. The atmosphere is casual. You order at one counter and pick up your food at another but the decor was inviting and there was plenty of seating inside and out.

Where to Eat: Flagstaff

2011-08-31T12:36:00.005-04:00

During my stay in Flagstaff my friend Rachel was on the hunt for the best coffee in town. She had read about Macy's coffee and as luck would have it I had also read about Macy's delicious vegan offerings. Their full title is Macy's European Coffeehouse, Bakery and Vegetarian Restaurant, but I'm sure we're all fine with just Macy's right?

Tim Macy, a California boy originally, opened Macy's in 1980 and was the first commercial coffee roaster in Flagstaff. It's obviously earned it's name around town because the place was full of what seemed like a mix of locals and foreign tourists when we went in for breakfast.

Unfortunately their menu doesn't seem to be online but from what I remember of the vegan offerings there was the waffles, tofu scramble, an avocado BLT and some baked goods. Reviewers on Happy Cow raved about the BLT but as I went at breakfast I can't offer my personal endorsement. The waffles with Earth Balance and fresh fruit was just what I was looking for though.

Arizona

2011-08-28T15:24:00.011-04:00

I recently took a trip to Arizona. My first trip to the southwest as an adult and while I expected beauty and an inspiring landscape I don't think I was prepared for how much the city of Flagstaff and the crisp dry air rising out of the canyons would effect me.

Our trip included a three day yoga festival, a visit to the Indian Condos in Walnut Canyon, a trip to Sedona, a day of exploring the beginnings of the Bright Angel Trail of the Grand Canyon, Gallery Walk in downtown Flagstaff, a Navajo festival, several delicious restaurants and plenty of time playing dominoes and cooking with my wonderful family.

Out of this trip Rachel and I have decided to come back in the fall of 2013 to spend a few days in the Grand Canyon. We plan to walk down Bright Angel Trail and camp at the bottom to spend some time seeing the Ribbon Falls and exploring before we come back up the Kaibab Trail. We have also discussed the possibility of MOVING out to the area! I would be interested in teaching on a reservation and Rachel would be interested in possibly working with the different tribes and their crafts.

Also from this trip I may have found a possible career path! The Flagstaff Yoga Festival was a lot of fun! We took Thai Massage, Bellydancing, Yoga Philosophy and then there was this class called In the House of Ganesha. Taught by Candice Garrett, it was a shorter version of a workshop she does on the pelvic floor combined with the root chakra and Ganesha. This was by far my favorite class and I found the subject really inspirational. Candice and her teacher Leslie Howard are working on the west coast to help men and women connect with their pelvic floor muscles to correct and prevent injuries and pain. Candice is the director and founder of Nine Moons Prenatal Yoga. Together they will be doing a teacher training in February that I hope to attend to learn more about how I could blend yoga and therapy to help women with pelvic inflammation and chronic pain.

The big outdoor store downtown. We checked out sleeping bags and shoes for our furture canyon adventure.

Flagstaff neons

Walnut Canyon where we got to visit the Indian Condos. The cliff dwelling people of the Anasazi tribe are thought to have inhabited this area from around 600 to 1400 AD. There were still black charred smoke marks on the ceilings of some of the condos and fingerprints from the construction of the rooms! No one knows what happened to the people here. There was no evidence of war or famine.

I couldn't have asked for a better travel companion :)

You can stamp your passport at the National Parks! I wish I had brought mine.

We met these three lovely photographers who are a part of The Visual Collective. They were doing impromptu portraits in an alley of the main drag of downtown Flagstaff. They asked to take our picture so we in turn took theirs! If I moved to Flagstaff these are the kinds of people and groups I would want to get in with!

One of the most interesting things about Flagstaff is the Native American influence and local population. During our walk downtown we saw this group carrying their banners and passing out flyers to encourage people to stop the expansion of a ski resort on sacred land. The San Francisco Peaks are sacred to 13 tribes of Native Americans and as the ski resorts and shops expand the Native population is protesting.

This site explains that "The Peaks have particular spiritual and resource significance to the Hopi and Navajo. Both of these nations claim ancestral religious rights to the mountain. In the Hopi worldview, Katsinas (spiritual beings responsible for bringing rain and maintaining social and ceremonial order) live on the mountain, to which select tribe members make periodic pilgrimages for visiting sacred shrines. To the Navajo, the mountain is a physical manifestation of sacred forces and also a home to spiritual beings. Both tribes approach the mountain with the utmost respect, and only for ceremony or collection of medicinal plants. To the Native Americans of the Colorado Plateau, the San Francisco Peaks should not be used for personal enjoyment, economic pursuits or even scientific study, as these land uses betray and contaminate this sacred place."

I would be really interested in learning more about the Native American tribes in Arizona. We did get to go to a Navajo Festival and eat some delicious fry bread and watch the Ribbon Dance ceremony and we bought some crafts. At this festival was also a photography exhibit that really kinda blew my mind. Kenji Kawano, Japanese native, has been photographing the Navajo people since 1974 and has been the Navajo Nation's official photographer since 1980. He had a series on display at the festival of the Navajo Code Talkers and the depth of the portraits and his obvious relationship with these people were really inspiring. Check out his portfolio please!

In all I would say our trip was a huge success. I was in love with the weather - no humidity, no mosquitos, cool in the evening and warm during the day. I got tons of inspiration and nature enthusiasm and it was so nice to spend time with family that I don't often get to see. My aunt and uncle are just as fun and youthful as I remember and my two little cousins were surprisingly mature and grown up for such a young age.

I've got two Arizona food posts coming soon!

Where to Eat Rehoboth Beach: The Cultured Pearl

2011-08-16T00:19:00.007-04:00

I recently spent a week with some good friends in Rehoboth Beach and one night we are at this gorgeous little rooftop restaurant. The Cultured Pearl, while mainly a fish and meat serving restaurant was more than satisfying for all the vegetarians and vegans in the group. With plenty of maki roll options and several different salads and plates that could easily be made vegan I was a happy girl, plus did I mention it was gorgeous up there?

This is the Delaware Roll. Fishes are my friends, not my foods, so they get a picture too!

Seaweed salad! So fancy.

Exploring Home: Part 1

2011-06-22T22:20:00.004-04:00

So I moved to Old Town Alexandria in the beginning of May and since then the works (yes more than one work) have been driving me into the ground with some insane schedules. I haven't had a proper introduction to my own town so now I'm determined to take some time to do so.

Tonight I took Trike out on the drawbridge of 495 and as luck would have it, the bridge was going up! I watched this cute little pirate ship come under the bridge while airplanes from DCA flew over us and the sun set in the distance. It was a really nice way to end and already pleasant evening.

More trike adventures to come in the future.

Cherry Lemonade

2011-06-21T15:09:00.006-04:00

Hello Blog Readers!

I know I have been MIA for a while but the works are demanding a lot of my time these days. Don't fret though, I have lots of fun stuff to share! This post features a recipe AND two of my newly acquired old treasures.

I may have mentioned before that Katie and I order a weekly produce box from Argancia. We get a bounty of fresh, local goodies every Sunday (except this Sunday because they shipped our box to someone else, grrrrr) which means lots of yummy food to be made! Last week we got these local Virginia cherries in the box and, unlike their slightly larger, plumper cousins the Bing, these cherries were a little less sweet than I had hoped.

Never to be daunted, I decided to make them into lemonade! If you've made lemonade from scratch before there really isn't much to it and adding the cherries is just one extra step. Make the lemonade the day before you go to the beach or have a cookout so it has lots of time to chill in the fridge.

Cherry Lemonade

3/4 cups sugar
1 cup fresh lemon juice (about 6 lemons)
1 full cup cherries
4 cups cold water

1. Put the sugar and a cup of water in a saucepan over low or medium heat. Stir it often. While you're doing this take your freshly washed cherries and pluck the stems out and then slit them in half. No need to pull them apart or pit them.
2. Plop your cherries in the pot with your dissolving sugar and stir the mixture until the sugar is dissolved and you have a simple syrup.
3. Strain the cherries out but reserve your syrup of course!
4. Combine the cold water, syrup and lemon juice in a pretty little pitcher and mix. Refrigerate until it's time to serve it.

The tea cup in the pictures was part of a house warming present from Pang, isn't it cute?! The small turquoise table cloth is something I bought yesterday at On a Whim in Leesburg. If you haven't been there you really really have to go. They have amazing stuff and I will be posting about some of the other goodies we saw there soon!

Sneak Peeks

2011-05-08T13:00:00.002-04:00

I've been a TERRIBLE blogger these days. I apologize to all my blog followers. I promise you I will be regularly updating soon. In the meantime, here are two sneak peeks of what I have been working on lately. Full posts to follow.

Yesterday Pang and I photographed Matt and Liz's wedding - now Mr. and Mrs. Metz! It was an awesome day with beautiful light and of course some of my favorite friends :) Can't wait to edit the rest of these.

Easter weekend several of the girls and I had a Vegan Tea Party. We made this lovely Chocolate Beet Cake and miss Pang was gracious and cute enough to model for me.

Spring Weens

2011-03-21T15:36:00.002-04:00

My family is ween crazy. I am as well.

Johanna's House

2011-03-15T23:17:00.002-04:00

One of my favorite places to cook and snuggle a pug.

Where to Eat DC: Sticky Fingers

2011-02-21T21:14:00.008-05:00

This Sunday a few of my girlfriends and I spent the day in DC. First stop - Sticky Fingers Bakery!. This sweet sweet piece of sweet shop isn't just about goodies - they have sandwiches, soups, and best of all - weekend brunch! French toast, pancakes, breakfast burritos, biscuits and gravy - and everything is gloriously vegan. And after you have stuffed yourself with yummy food, don't forget your dessert. Ever heard of a little thing called Cupcake Wars? Sticky Fingers is competing this year!

The only problem with this place - seating is seriously limited. This wouldn't be such a bummer if dummies didn't sit around with empty plates in front of them playing on their iphones or chit chatting. But, that's what happens. They sit, ignoring the "hey if you're done, move on and make room for others" sign. They sit, ignoring me pointedly staring at them with my plate full of chili and grilled bacon and cheese sammy. Ok - mini rant over. But be prepared to eat standing up or take it out.

Despite this place being smack across the street from a Target and a Giant, stepping into Sticky Fingers is like stepping back into a 50's style cafe. The decor and retro kitchen appliances definitely add to the charm of this place.

Sticky Fingers is at 1370 Park Rd NW, Washington DC 20010. Hop the green line and get off at the Columbia Heights metro stop. Open 7 days a week.

Philadelphia

2011-02-16T16:20:00.007-05:00

The other weekend a few of my girlfriends and I went to Philadelphia to do some neighborhood scouting and just to get out of Shepherdstown! We decided to ditch the Liberty Bell and other tourist attractions and really just explore different parts of the city and eat tons of great food.

I'm a big dummy and instead of documenting said food so I could write a blog about what Philly has to offer it's vegan patrons, I just stuffed my face instead. I can give you a short - sans photo - rundown of what was good though.
Blackbird Pizzeria had a pretty kick ass cheesesteak, loads of tasty pizza options (though I found the Yukon Pizza to be a bit heavy on the rosemary for my taste) and delicious desserts!
Memphis Taproom was next. We waited a good hour (after a ridiculous cab ride in which the cabbie pulled over and asked US to look up directions on our iphone to direct HIM to our destination) but found it to be well worth it! This place isn't all veggie but they do have some cool stuff like the Old Bay Jackfruit Cakes (which we forgot to order! but then we were too stuffed later to try them) and the Smoked Coconut Club (which we did try, and it was great!).
Sketch was the last place we went. We heard about their awesome burgers and shakes and yes, they were awesome. I was craving some avocado and asked for some on my burger and they gave me a whole half of an avocado!

Aside from eating we also did a ton of walking around and general exploring of shopping areas and possible future hang-outs. Here are a few pictures I did manage to take while I wasnt busy eating. The top two are from an antique store we spent a good half hour in taking pictures. The bottom picture is Pee Pang - my once and hopefully future room-mate. We went the wrong way on the train and had to get off, walk over the pretty turquoise overpass, and then wait for the next train to take us in the right direction. We are so dumb.

This Sunday I'm going to DC with the same bunch of girls to check out possible neighborhoods, restaurants and hang-outs there! Stay tooned - and hopefully I will take a few pictures before I chow down.

MB de Monvel

2011-02-01T00:38:00.004-05:00

I have a little obsession with antique books. People hate to help me move. But it goes perfectly with one of my favorite places to hang out - book stores. Wonderbook in particular is awesome for their mix of antique as well as new books. Over the summer I bought this book - Nos Enfants (our children) because I just fell in love with the illustrations by MB de Monvel. If I were brave enough to devote large swatches of my skin to it, I would get a whole page of this tattooed somewhere. As it is, I'm considering one of the little girls and some birds. Maybe.

Love the back cover too.

Vegan Pecan Pumpkin Muffins

2011-01-19T15:24:00.013-05:00

Mama Lori was kind enough to make these little treats for me the other morning. USUALLY I'm not a big fan of having bumps in my muffins unless its of the chocolate variety. But, to my surprise and delight (I get excited about my tastes maturing) I really enjoyed these. And I enjoyed them even more the next day when they had developed that slightly tacky texture on top. You know the texture I'm talking about? No?

She presented the muffins to me in this delightful and very familiar little tin. I picked this tin of cookies or biscuits as they are called out for Lori while we were in Paris. I've talked about La Cure Gourmande in previous posts. Love their design work.

Makes 12
1 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs (egg replacer plus water)
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 to 1 tsp cloves
1/2 to 1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1/3 cup water
chopped pecans

1. Prepare the vegan egg replacer according to the package. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
2. Mix together the flour, baking soda and powder, salt, and spices in a medium bowl and set aside.
3. In a large bowl beat together the sugar, oil and eggs. Add the water. Add the dry mix.
4. Fold in the chopped pecans and pour into muffin tins.
5. Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
6. Serve with pumpkin butter or a bit of maple syrup!

Heather and Josh

2011-01-03T11:36:00.006-05:00

I had the privilege of shooting Heather and Josh's wedding reception back in the beginning of November. I had a blast - everyone else had a blast - and I just wanted to share a few pictures from the event. Enjoy!

Coast to Cote Week 35 plus extras

2010-11-29T21:01:00.004-05:00

Pang: A great little place called the Source just recently opened up in our town. It's a place in town to recycle, buy locally made goods and organic foods. Lacey came over during her break the other day and we went over to check it out. This little honey bottle and the logo caught both of our eyes. I couldn't get over how cute it was so I ended up making the purchase. It's a local honey from the next town over. We were both wondering why the color was much lighter than the other bottle sitting next to it. I finally Google'd it this morning and found out that it must have been harvested in the Spring time when bees collect nectar from flowers. Now I know why it was also in a smaller bottle. I love how Google can help in answer my life's questions. Thanks!

Lacey: So about a month ago I started volunteering at the animal shelter in Frederick and I would send pictures of the dogs to my dad. He kept giving me a hard time - saying I shouldn't send pictures because he is weak and will want one (duh, that's why I sent them) - but I really got his attention with the two weenie dogs that came into the shelter. I sent him links from Petfinder so he could read up about the dogs and even though those two weenies got adopted before Dad could make a move, it set off a craze in him to find one and before I knew it he was sending me links of dogs from Petfinder too. This dog - who was named Miss Sugar - was one I saw when we first started browsing Petfinder but then she dissapeared. She popped up again this week and when Dad found out she would be in the area he just had to go see her. And now she is ours! She has had a sad little life but we plan to change that. Miss Sugar - now Pocahontas (keeping with the Disney princess theme - we had an Ariel and a Jasmine previously) was a puppy mill mom. Before she had even reached the age of two she had already had 4 litters of puppies (incredible because she is soooo tiny). Once she got rescued from that unhappy situation she bounced from foster to foster and then was adopted by a family who brought her back. They had a hamster in the house that ran loose and Miss Sugar liked to terrorize it. Luckily for Miss Sugar my dad is a sucker for weenie dogs and now she's ours. She's super sweet and hopefully she will warm up to us all soon. She looks a little nervy huh?

Coast to Cote Week 34

2010-11-29T20:58:00.001-05:00

Pang: I had another photo shoot with the Slough's for their fall family portraits over the weekend. The weather couldn't have been more perfect really. In between shots, Haiden stretched out his hands towards me as i snapped a quick photo. Kids are so cute!

Lacey: This past weekend I went to New York for the weekend with my old room-mate Brittney. We've done a bit of a traveling together and I feel like maybe we are getting better at balancing each other's moods and itineraries. Our activities for the weekend centered mostly around museums and food. The first day we went to the MET and checked out the Roman statues and the Egyptian exhibit. We ate at Candle 79 that night (which you must check out!) and were rewarded with amazing food, free drinks and Alicia Silverstone in the building! The second day we went to the Natural History Museum to see the butterfly exhibit (they were flying so close to my head, I was a little creeped out) and then that evening before jumping (or rather pushing and shoving our way) back onto the bus we stopped at Babycakes - an all vegan bakery around the corner from the bustop in Chinatown. Alicia Silverstone's book had tipped me off to this place as well and we were not at all dissapointed. The treats were great, Morrissey was playing and the girls were dressed as pin up 50's girls with their hair up in scarves and their lips painted red.

Eating Animals: A Book Review

2010-11-17T21:40:00.003-05:00

I bought this book on a whim during my lunch break months ago and even though I was excited to read it at the time I somehow let it sit until now. I suppose in a way I thought I already knew what would be in it - what it would be about. I've been reading animal activism, vegan revolution, and vegetarian theory books almost non-stop recently, and this book, with its simple title and well known, vegetarian, novelist writing author just seemed predictable. Turns out, it wasn't what I had expected.

Foer begins his story by giving us a little history on himself - his childhood memories of his grandmother's peculiar relationship with food brought about by her experience with starvation during the war, his flip-flopping vegetarian college life and his strengthening commitment to vegetarianism when he and his wife got married. But even then he said, they still ate meat on occasion. At the time he thought "I assumed we'd maintain a diet of conscientious inconsistency. Why should eating be different from any of the other ethical realms of our lives? We were honest people who occasionally told lies, careful friends who sometimes acted clumsily. We were vegetarians who from time to time ate meat." This was something that resonated with me. Indeed! Why should it be different? Few or perhaps no religious people can say they have lived life to the book - to their God's highest standards. Everyone has slipped up somewhere and had to ask for forgiveness - but despite the mistake were still considered a Christian or a Jew or a Muslim. Yet it seems that with things like vegetarianism - or really just anything that isn't mainstream, something you chose but didn't necessarily grown up with (westerners becoming Buddhist is another example) seems to be scrutinized without remorse. Vegetarians are taunted by meat eating friends (I remember teasing my vegetarian friends myself back in high school) and whenever one of us "falls" and rejoins the mainstream, those friends are there to say "I told you so" and pat themselves on the back for calling your bluff. Now I'm not promoting that vegetarians start eating meat once in a while, but I agree with Foer that we are human, and no part of our life can be perfect, ethical or otherwise. So that was his stance - I'm a vegetarian but when I feel like it, I might eat meat.

But all that changed when Foer and his wife had a baby. Foer writes "Feeding my child is not like feeding myself: it matters more. It matters because food matters (his physical health matters, the pleasure of eating matters), and because the stories that are served with food matters. These stories bind our family together, and bind our family to others. Stories about food are stories about us - our history and our values... We need to explain that the parsley on the plate is for decoration, that pasta is not a "breakfast food," why we eat wings but not eyes, cows but not dogs. Stories establish narratives, and stories establish rules."

And so Foer spends the next three years researching and studying the concept of eating animals. What will he feed his son? How will he explain his food choices to him? Will he be prepared with honest information for all his son's questions? These are his concerns.

The next part of the book I found really interesting is his section entitled "A Case For Eating Dogs." Foer admits that he "spent the first twenty-six years of my life disliking animals. I thought of them as bothersome, dirty, unapproachably foreign, frighteningly unpredictable, and plain old unnecessary. I had a particular lack of enthusiasm for dogs." Doesn't sound like your typical vegetarian huh? But then he fell in love with a stray puppy on the street. He still finds her foreign, he doesn't claim that she has all the same emotions as him though he can tell that she does have emotions even if he doesn't understand them - but he starts to question the idea of food taboo. Specifically dogs being taboo to eat. He tells the reader "I wouldn't eat George, because she's mine. But why wouldn't I eat a dog I'd never met? Or more to the point, what justification might I have for sparing dogs but eating other animals?" And so he decides to develop a case for eating dogs (which is legal in 45 states). And, while obviously, this case is horrifying to us and disgusting even for non-vegetarians, it can't be denied that he makes a strong case. Dog meat is just as healthy as any other meat - there is nothing nutritionally wrong with eating dog meat. Eating dog meat is actually more a part of human history than NOT eating dog meat (the Romans, the Hawaiians, the Dakota Indians, Asian cultures, Indian culture, the Aztecs). The argument of his that I like best - it's local and environmentally conscious. Think of all the stray animals that get picked up in our cities and then euthanized in our shelters and then what? Why not eat them? They had a painless death. Little to no shipping would be involved. Nothing would be wasted. So for all the yuppies that flock to Whole Foods to get their environmentally friendly chicken dinner - why not a stray dog Foer asks. Now obviously he is not actually suggesting this but he's making a point - one that won't go unnoticed.

Next Foer goes into a whole discovery process of the words we use for our food, our relationship with animals, and that the farming industry uses for the practices they use. Alphabetically he defines words. Words like anthropocentrism, comfort food, battery cage, CAFO and so on. Some of his definitions are al little surprising - mostly because in general Foer doesn't use the tone or language of your typical vegetarian (or "animal people" if you're talking to Pollan). But occasionally he busts out with things like this:

BULLSHIT:
1) The shit of a bull (see also environmentalism)
2) Misleading or false language and statements such as:

BYCATCH
Perhaps the quintessential example of bullshit, bycatch refers to sea creatures caught by accident - except not really "by accident," since bycatch has been consciously built into contemporary fishing methods...

And from there he goes on to destroy American's image of fish and seafood as being somehow more humane food to eat - pescatarians take note. Like when he lists all 145 other species of sea animals that are killed (caught in nets or on lines, dragged behind the ship until they die, and are then pulled up, sorted, and dumped back into the ocean dead or dying) while fishing for tuna. While I already knew that fishing for seafood was by no way humane (in fact it made sense to me without having to read any vegetarian propoganda that sea animals may suffer the longest, worst death of all the animals we eat) I somehow was surprised to learn the sheer number of animals that are caught and then thrown back overboard while trying to fish just one species. It does make sense though. The ocean is full of life - how can commercial fishermen charged with the task of serving up our favorite cuts of sushi or our "healthy" steaks of fish possibly bait and catch just one type of fish. Of course other animals would find their way into nets - or be forced into nets such as the trawling nets used to catch shrimp - a miniscule animals that can't be caught any other financially viable way.

But lest you think he spent all his time looking up words online and adding his own witty commentary to what he could safely find from the comforts of his office - the rest of the book proves rather interesting. Throughout the rest of the book he meets with people on both sides of the meat issue and even some people who strangely don't quite fit into either. He joins a young girl who routinely breaks into factory farms on a rescue mission, he includes a letter of a factory farmers defending his lifestyle, he visits a farm where the rancher is a vegetarian, and he spends time on a heritage turkey farm where a vegan is designing plans for a slaughterhouse. Crazy right? Throughout the book he lets these story characters speak to the audience in their own words, publishing their letters to him in each chapter.

In these chapters he examines much of the same area that Michael Pollan did in The Omnivore's Dillema - though I was disappointed to see that both authors spent little to no time talking about dairy farms, the inextricably way in which it is connected to the veal industry (male offspring of diary cows ARE veal) and the way that milk and cheese products (cheese isn't even vegetarian technically) are pushed on americans by our government and their advertising support for the farms. One thing that was interesting though is that he published a letter from the turkey farmer Frank Reese in which Reese points out some interesting things about Polyface Farms - the farm that Pollan so admires and talks up in the Om's D. Reese points out that those animals on Polyface are pretty much the exact same as the animals in factory farms. The chickens on Polyface are bred to develop quicker than normal - meaning they HAVE to be slaughtered sooner than they usually would (usual being how farming was before factory farms and us messing with the DNA of the animals) before they lose the ability to walk when they get top heavy. "Everyone is saying buy fresh, buy local. It's a sham. It's all the same kind of bird, and the suffering is in their genes...So he puts them on pasture. It makes no difference. It's like putting a broken down Honda on the Autobahn and saying it's a Porsche. KFC chickens are almost always killed in thirty-nine days. They're babies. That's how rapidly they're grown. Salatin's organic free-range chicken is killed in forty-two days. 'Cause it's still the same chicken. It can't be allowed to live any longer because it's genetics are so screwed up. Stop and think about that: a bird that you simply CAN'T let live out of it's adolescence."

So what he's saying is - and what I hadn't really thought about before - is that even if we buy free-range organic chicken (which in our heads we think is good and humane and all that) put aside the fact that the animal is killed in the end and the ethical jumbled mess that comes with that, just as an animal, even being free-range and organically raised - the animals starts out its life already messed up. Already bred for meat. Oh and also...they can't sexually reproduce anymore. Not possible. We artificially inseminate our chickens. How many American's know that? Not many I'm willing to bet and how did we even get to this point where animals can't live past a certain age? Foer gets into some interesting history and reveals the humble and naive beginnings of the factory farm and the modern broiler chicken.

During Foer's break-in to a poultry farm he speaks about something that I have been thinking about a lot lately. He writes "everyone has a mental image of a farm, and to most it probably includes fields, barns, tractors, and animals, or at least one of the above. I doubt there's anyone on earth not involved in farming whose mind would conjure what I'm now looking at. And yet before me is the kind of farm that produces roughly 99 percent of the animals consumed in America." What I have been thinking lately is...where are these factory farms? Take a drive in almost any direction from where I live and you will see farm after farm of cows and goats and horses out on the pasture - big silos and barns and gorgeous old farm houses. But they only produce 1 percent of the nation's meat. So where are the factory farms and would I even know it if I saw one? So I googled Factory Farm Maryland. Turns out there are factory farms in Maryland -Perdue Chicken at least and they have a pretty bad rap. The point is the pretty little picture we have floating around in our heads when we think of a chicken just isn't true any longer. In place of the big red barn and the chickens happily pecking at the grass stand mutant chickens with their beaks and toes cut off packed into a building so tight that they can hardly move. But sadder still is that even on farms that offer the chickens a more humane and "chicken-like" life - they are still mutant chickens. It's worthwhile to consider what we have lost in gaining such efficiency in raising and slaughtering animals.

Another topic Foer covers in the book - one that was a welcome surprise to me - is the link between animals on factory farms and the epidemics and possible future pandemics such as swine flu and bird flu that have been moving through the population. In 1918 the Spanish flu ripped through the world sickening an estimated one quarter (50million to 100 million dead) of the world's population. If you want to flip your shit - flip to the part of the book where Foer tells us about the World Health Organizations prediction for our future as far as Influenza is concerned. "Recent history has averaged a pandemic every twenty-seven and a half years, and it's now been over forty years since the last one." Perhaps you are thinking - well that's because we are so advanced now and stuff.... " The director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO) has said simply, 'We know another pandemic is inevitable...It is coming.'" Very end of the world sounding and for someone who just watched 2012 (yeah I know it came out a while ago but whatev) and is currently reading books about Colony Collapse Disorder and the coming demise of our agricultural system - this is all coming as a bit of an overload, scary movie, better travel the world and see the sights before we all die, shock to me.

Much of the rest of the book is split between visiting slaughterhouses and visiting what Foer believes to be good examples of farms and the raising of animals for slaughter.At some point I became aware while reading this book that Foer is not doing what I thought he would be doing. He's not making a case for cutting animal products out of our lives. Foer tells us in the beginning of his book that "a straight forward case for vegetarianism is worth writing, but it's not what I've written here." But even after reading that, I still expected it to be a case for vegetarianism. Well...he actually comes to a conclusion that I had been mulling around in my head since reading the Omnivore's Dillema. A conclusion that put things in the right words and with the right tone so that no one would feel slighted or judged (I'm looking at you Pollan). His conclusion is actually much the same as Pollan's conclusion.

There are good farms out there. It's not realistic to believe that all the world will one day be vegan or vegetarian. It's not logical to hold firmly to a viewpoint that the only thing we should fight for as animal lovers is the abolition of eating animals. There will always be meat eaters. In the end of the book Foer talks about his son's first Thanksgiving in which he will participate and eat with the family. It will be a vegetarian Thanksgiving. After 3 years of research and writing Foer decides to remain firm in his vegetarianism and to pass that on to his son - but he also expresses a huge amount of respect and admiration for the "characters" in his story who showed him that having a title such as vegetarian, rancher, vegan, slaughterhouse designer, doesn't firmly plant you into one camp or another.

The day before I finished this book Pang sent me a message offering me a photography job that she wasn't sure she would be able to take. An old high school friend of her's was opening a butchering shop for deer and wanted her to photograph scenes of butchering and meat. Pang offered the job to me. I struggled with the decision. One would think that given my lifestyle choice it would have been an easy decision but it wasn't for several reasons. One consideration was just that there aren't that many jobs around. Turning down a job almost seemed reckless. But a more bothersome idea floating around in my head was that in a way - I wanted to help this project. After reading about Frank Reese's farm and reading Ben Goldsmith's reasoning behind being a vegan who is helping Reese build a slaughterhouse - I started to feel that just being a vegan or vegetarian isn't enough. As Nicolette of Niman Ranch said " I used to think that being a vegetarian exempted me from spending time trying to change how farm animals are treated. I felt that by abstaining from meat eating, I was doing my part. That seems silly to me now. The meat industry affects everybody in the sense that we are, all of us, living in a society in which food production is based on factory farming. Being a vegetarian does not relieve me from a responsibility for how our nation raises animals - especially at a time when total meat consumption is increasing both nationally and globally." This quote came back to me when I got the text from Pang about the job. In a way - it's a great thing that this person is opening a independently owned butchering shop. The fact that they are opening it either means they see a need in their community for such an establishment or that they are simply passionate about the lifestyle that they have chosen. In either case it is a step away from the direction of factory farming - and that's a good thing. In the end I did turn the job down. I felt that the shoot would be too gruesome for me to complete and still remain composed and professional.

I guess what I got out of this book is that - yes - an animal free lifestyle is for me. It feels right and I can't see myself turning back now - not with all I know and not with the way my compassion for animals has grown since becoming vegetarian. But in the very back of the book - in the Reading Group Guide - Foer talks a little about the difference between animal rights and animal welfare - and I, like him, am not sure exactly where I stand. I think I stand in the middle somewhere.

Anyone else who read the book (or not) want to comment?

The next book I will talk about (I don't know when my blog became a book review site and not a recipe and foodie blog but there you have it) will be:

Coast to Cote Week 33

2010-11-10T14:50:00.003-05:00

Im not sure what is going on with the weird quality on my picture here...sorry!

Pang: Let's get nostalgic, shall we? I went over to my grandparents the other day with my new roommates and showed them around the property. We came upon the little swing that used to be a part of the old swing set we had growing up. For some reason it stuck around and was finally bolted down onto this tree branch. Now the little ones use it...well, some of us grown up grandchildren still use it to this day. Seeing it in this light brought back memories of my cousins and I using it in our tree houses, wrapping the chain around the tree branches...makes me wish I was a kid again.

Me: This past weekend I had the pleasure of photographing Heather and Josh's wedding reception. My arms were aching by the end of it but I actually had a blast watching everyone dance and have a good time and eat candy and cupcakes (they had a candy table set up and a million cupcakes instead of a cake). Now I just have lots of editing in front of me.

Coast to Cote Week 32

2010-11-07T22:22:00.002-05:00

Pang: This week has been kinda blah for me. I’ve been stressing about my move, which turned out to be fine. Subsequently, I’m now stressed out about the unpacking process. I HAVE SO MUCH STUFF. Too much stuff for just one person some might say. I havent been feeling like myself lately, but luckily, I have some great friends and family. My new roommate Meghan gave me a smiley face cookie to brighten up my day.

Me: I managed to swindle Ryan into going to the pumpkin patch with me this past week. He wasn't super enthused and I ended up picking his pumpkin but I'm glad we went - even if we still haven't found the time to carve them or make pumpkin seeds.

Coast to Cote Week 31

2010-11-02T15:27:00.003-04:00

Sorry this is so late folks

Pang: Last week I stumbled upon a super easy recipe for mini pear pies. If you know me well, you know I love all things small, mini, tiny, you name it. I suddenly had the urge and so I went for it. It was SUPER easy cause I didn't manage to mess it up somehow. I did cheat a little and used store bought crust as our stomachs were telling us we didn't have time to wait.

Me: During the summer one thing I love to eat is pasta salads. For whatever reason, this summer, I didn't make ONE pasta salad. So I decided to do it the other day because I had some leftover pasta and kidney beans laying around. I threw in some tomatoes, avocado, shelled edamame and then topped it with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and some italian dressing. I don't know why I waited so long!

The Great Oom: Book Review

2010-10-25T23:14:00.003-04:00

Well...unsurprisingly (since the exact same thing happened last time I tried to start a book club) the first book I picked for a group of people to read turned out to be a dud of a book. When I saw this book at the library and read the tag line of the title "The Improbable Birth of Yoga in America" - I assumed - wrongly, that this book was about yoga. Welllllllllll...it's not. It's actually about this dude - The Great Oom, who went by Pierre Bernard. It's a biography and it spends more time talking about the Vanderbilts and Pierre Bernard's groupies than it does yoga. The book mentions the occasional headstand and gets into the rumors of the groups (who called themselves the Tantriks) wild orgies and secret doings. There are some interesting aspects to the book - it's one of the those "self made man" stories that makes you feel like if only you were more motivated you could make things happen. It IS interesting to see how he swindles millionaires out of their money and builds himself an empire of cars and property and circus animals and pretty girls. Also the stories about Bernard being able to control his breath to the point where he could "put himself under" and literally have a needle passed through his cheek and tongue without the least amount of pain. What wasn't interesting...most of the book. A lot of the book seems to revolve around who was interested in who, who gets married to who, what kind of scandals the group was involved in or reputed to be involved in. So on a scale of enjoy to hate - what did I think of this book? I stopped reading after more than 200 pages. I invested myself into 3/4ths (!!) of the book and yet still decided to put it down. I got bored. Towards the end there were only sparse mentions of yoga - most of the talk centered on parties and circuses. I skipped to the last chapter hoping to read some revelatory last few pages about how he went on to found some incredibly well known yoga group that defined modern yoga as we American's know it. The last chapter is entitled: Family Man. I gave up and moved on. Sorry group - I should have done a little more research before suggesting this book.

This next book SHOULD be more of a success - it has been getting rave reviews and to at least two of the "group", it's a topic we can show some enthusiasm for. The next book I would like to propose to read and discuss is Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer - who also wrote Everything is Illuminated.

Breast Cancer/Animal Awareness Month

2010-10-20T16:25:00.005-04:00

Everywhere I looked these past few weeks I couldn't help but notice the pink ribbon. Being somewhat of a hermit and perhaps more than a little out of touch with society, it didn't hit me until...well today actually. It's Breast Cancer Awareness Month. A few weeks back my mom was telling me about how a local tattoo shop is giving out free pink ribbon tattoos - and well now that makes sense. The weird conga line of people wearing glowstick headbands and pink ribbon shirts in the park last week - makes sense. The teller at the grocery store asking me if I wanted to round up my change to support breast cancer research....duh.

So now that I am "in the know" - only 20 days after the fact - I would like to participate a little in this awareness process. For a pretty long time now I have had breast cancer awareness. Both my paternal and my maternal grandmothers had breast cancer, and my mom (who thankfully hasn't had it) has always been pretty into those pink ribbon magnets and bumper stickers and may even be getting a tattoo now. I am aware of breast cancer. I am aware of what I should be doing (at least somewhat aware) to prevent it and check for it. I am aware there is no cure and that there are tons of organizations throwing money at scientists diligently working towards that goal. But until quite recently, I wasn't at all aware of the part the animals have to play in this disease and it's cure.

According to Pinkribbon.org, breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women right behind skin cancer, so chances are most of us has known someone who has had breast cancer. The devastation it can cause to a woman and her family are immense and widespread and organizations like the Pink Ribbon and the Susan G Komen Breast Cancer Foundation have kept the issue in the public eye - helping raise money "for the cure." But...what exactly does that mean? Where is that money going? The awareness that I would like to bring this month is that perhaps we should look a little closer at what it is we support and fund. We tend (and I am so guilty of this myself) to look at just the big picture. Breast Cancer = BAD. Finding the Cure = GOOD. So in extension, any group pledging to help find the cure is filed into our mental GOOD folder and we can guiltlessly sign over checks to help in the cause. Lets look a little deeper shall we.

While reading Karen Dawn's "Thanking the Monkey" (Im starting to feel like her personal spokeswoman) I was a little surprised to learn that according to FDA law, "no drug is allowed onto the market until it has been put through a battery of animal tests." In the case of breast cancer the animal of choice is usually mice but can also include monkeys, rats, rabbits, cats, and dogs. The debate between whether or not animal testing is necessary or accurate is a hot one. Tons of examples can be found on both sides - from the people at Pro Test to the passionate, if sometimes a little bit nutty, PETA. In looking at the people who are for animal testing I have come across a pattern. Their stance (and I pulled this one from Pro Test, but some others were similar) is that, "without animal research, medicine as we know it today wouldn't exist. Animal research has enabled us to find treatments for cancer, antibiotics for infections, vaccines to prevent some of the most deadly and debilitating viruses and surgery for injuries, illnesses and deformities." Sounds like all you need to know right? Animal testing got us where we are today. It's true. I won't deny that.

But here is what the other side of the issue has to say: Animal testing is not that affective and we have new, more current, animal free ways of testing medicines. As I already mentioned, mice are the animal most commonly used to test breast cancer drugs. PETA quotes the former National Cancer Institute Director Dr. Richard Klausner saying, "The history of cancer research has been the history of curing cancer in the mouse. We have cured mice of cancer for decades, and it simply didn't work in humans." In other words we have successfully learned how to induce and then cure breast cancer in rodents, but can those findings help humans? Medications and treatments that are successful in mice are then moved to human trials. Dawn quotes this from a New York Times report on human trials that were successful in mice, "One in 20 prospective cancer cures used in human tests reaches markets, the worst record of any medical category. Among those that gained approval in the last 20 years, fewer than one in five have been shown to extend lives, life extensions usually measuring in weeks or months, not years." The publication Nature (also quoted in Dawn's book) says that "' Of the potential anticancer drugs that give promising results in tests on mice with cancer, only about 11 percent are ever approved for use in people.'" Doesn't seem like very good odds.

But what makes us think animals are so close to us that we can test them for cures to our illnesses, but yet so far from us that testing on them isn't somehow morally wrong? And what makes us think that a positive or adverse reaction to tests will mean anything for us? As Dawn points out, "aspirin causes birth defects in mice and rates. Ibuprofen causes kidney failure in dogs - even at very low doses," and "at the high doses employed in animal tests- sometimes staggeringly high doses that are necessary because of the dissimilarity in the ways different species process chemicals - penicillin kills guinea pigs." Does this mean we may have found the cure for cancer along the way - then tested it on a monkey or a rat who didn't show any positive reactions - so we chucked it out the window? We won't know the answer to that because unless the drug in question is tested and receives positive results in animals, its worthless as far as the FDA is concerned.

But there are newer methods out there to run tests that don't involve animals. Dr Neal D. Bernard of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine or PCRM writes in his article A Look At Cancer Research about some of the alternatives that are being found. He writes that scientists at the National Cancer Institute were concerned by the "phenomenally low yields" of possible treatments making it to human trials and started to explore the idea that perhaps mice and humans just don't deal with cancer in the same way. Bernard writes that " a new method uses cultures of human cancer cells. These cells are obtained from biopsies or surgeries. In an automated method developed by Robert Shoemaker and Michael Boyd of the NCI, colon cancer cells, breast cancer cells, and many other cell types can be kept alive in test tubes. Substances are applied to these cells, and the results are checked and entered into a computer. Using this method, tens of thousands of potential anti-cancer drugs can be screened." But they won't be allowed to be marketed to humans until they are tested on animals so they can be approved by the FDA.

Well this leads us to an even bigger problem - how do we get the FDA to change it's policy? Well that's a whole 'nother can of worms and honestly Im no authority on any sort of legal, governement blah blah blah action. But, what I do know is that we can give our money to groups and non-profits that pledge to "find the cure" without torturing animals. And yeah - the animals get a pretty sour deal out of this whole "find the cure" business. The companies that test cancer drugs don't run around looking for abandoned dogs with breast cancer or sewer rats with a terrible case of colon cancer - they GIVE cancer to the animals they test. And then they try to take it away - and the animal either dies in trials or is killed at the end of the test.

But lucky for us animal lovers there are plenty or organizations who have received the Human Charity Seal of Approval run by the PCRM who are searching for the cure to breast cancer (just type breast cancer into the search box and you will get the whole list of approved and unapproved charities). Organizations like Pink Ribbon Girls who help young women with breast cancer and the American Breast Cancer Foundation who have cool fundraisers like Yoga For Life. One that I was particularly interested in was the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation where I learned about the Army of Women, a program set up by the Dr. Susan Love RF and the Avon Foundation for Women in which they propose" To recruit one million healthy women of every age and ethnicity, including breast cancer survivors and women at high-risk for the disease, to partner with breast cancer researchers and directly participate in the research that will eradicate breast cancer once and for all." And "To challenge the scientific community to expand its current focus to include breast cancer prevention research conducted on healthy women." To learn more about the project check out their website and be sure to read the FAQ. Organizations like these realize that what we have been doing for the past 25 plus years isn't working. They realize that, yes, American's are AWARE. But we need more than that. We need to try something new. It's sad to think that huge foundations like Susan G. Komen are bringing in money to fund animal testing, but its also comforting to know that there are other groups working towards something new and exciting.

I would also advocate that we all try the Think Before You Pink advice given here by Breast Cancer Action. It's tempting to assume that the pink ribbon you buy from a store is your little contribution to the cure but perhaps it's not having as much of an impact as you had hoped, and perhaps there are even better things you could be doing that support the cure while protecting millions of animals from unnecessary testing.

If anyone has comments to add, opinions, or by all means if you have more expertise in this matter than me (I certainly don't claim to know everything) - please please share your thoughts.

Coast to Cote Week 30

2010-10-20T14:13:00.002-04:00

Pang: I promise no more pottery/firing talk from this point on, but i couldn't help but choose this photo. I went back to the firing on the second night to try to get more shots and check out the pot luck (we all know I love food!). While stoking the fire on the first night, we didn't have to use too many precautions, but on the second night, on top of wearing gloves, when the fire reached it's highest temperature, we had to wear goggles (to protect our retinas), a face mask, and made sure our shirt/jackets were 100% cotton (if not, we risked catching on fire even if a little spark were to fly out). I got to help feed the fire and had to put on a cotton flannel shirt and felt an immense difference in the temperature of the fire. I felt like my face was going to melt off if I stood in front of the open kiln door any longer. When the fire is at this stage, the potteries in the kiln are almost at a liquid state (although they retain the shape). Joy's husband mentioned that if we were to poke a pot with a rod, it would go right through. They put out the fire around 1 am, but even with that, it takes four days for the pots to cure and become solid again. Tomorrow is the big unveiling where the kiln doors will be disassembled (they had to build it shut for the firing) and the pieces will be ready.

Lacey: This week on a lazy Saturday we went to Wonderbook in Frederick to rent some movies and peruse the books. I came across the children's book Nos Enfants by Anantole France. The book is sadly falling apart and was wrapped up in plastic but in fact, this is actually perfect because I have been looking for a falling apart book with awesome illustrations (this one was illustrated by MB de Monvel - who may just inspire another tattoo in the future because his little girl drawings are just my taste) because I would really loved to have framed storybook pages decorating my (future) apartment. These are especially perfect because they are in French and they are already literally detached from the spine. I have a really hard time bringing myself to rip or destroy a book - but if it's already falling apart its ok right? In any case I spent more than I usually would, but I'm super excited to see the finished product one day.

A Club: The Great Oom

2010-10-19T14:19:00.002-04:00

So it seems that there are some interested parties in starting a book club of sorts. This is the book I am currently reading, The Great Oom, just came out at the library. If you want to, read it too and we can chit-chat about it when we're done. If this club idea fleshes out and enough people are interested we can have a rotation of who picks the books and writes the main review? I dunno. We will figure it out - until then - get reading!

Coast to Cote Week 29

2010-10-13T14:42:00.003-04:00

For some reason Pang's links don't copy over so visit her site to click on the links that should be in this blurb below

Pang: I was on assignment for a local newspaper on Monday to visit a couple of pottery studios. These two studios are a part of Over the Mountain Studio Tour. Our first stop was Sycamore Pottery, where I met Ren and Pam, and our second was Joy Bridy Pottery, where I met Joy who designed and built her own wood burning kiln. This shot (my favorite) was actually my last from the first stop. On my way out of the studio, Ren showed me their propane burning kiln that was situated on a trolley. The light seeped in so perfectly and I loved that Ren was perfectly included.

Me: At the Thai and Japanese restaurant where I work we have a new sushi chef. Communication with him can be frustrating at times, but one things for sure - people are loving his new rolls. Kazu, the owner, asked me to take some pictures for the website and for the menu. It's been a little frustrating taking pictures because they will only allow me to take pictures when people order the roll - and I'm also working as a server at the same time - but I'm hoping to get some good stuff out of it. Here is a shot from the first day - the dragon roll.

The Omnivore's Dilemma

2010-10-07T12:04:00.010-04:00

Before I go into way too much detail about this book and how I feel about it - just wondering, just throwing this out there - would anyone like to start a book club? I know I tried this already with Pang and it was only kinda....ok not really successful - but I think it would be really cool to have a dialogue going - more than me just yammering. It can be informal to start. I will just start announcing what books I will be reading/reviewing next. If you wana get the book and read it too so we can chat, great! If not I will just keep ranting on my own. I think the next book I plan to read and review is The Great Oom: The Improbable Birth of Yoga in America by Robert Love. It's brand new in the library and it looks pretty interesting. Now on to the current book!

The Omnivore's Dilemma. It's certainly an interesting book, a well written book - but one I feel a little....ambivalent towards, an ambivalence that has grown and stretched and now threatens to schizophrenically dictate this review. I will try to hold it together but...well I have a dilemma! Im really really not sure how I feel about this book. Perhaps it's because some of the topics covered in this book are becoming increasingly nearer and dearer to my little heart, and it's as if I can see us on opposite sides of the line, and he's just staring me down, "pitying" the poor vegetarian who is in" denial of reality." Or perhaps I'm upset that it's not the happy ending I had hoped for - that in spite of all he witnesses and even participates in - he's pretty much just as close minded and stuck in his ways as when he started the journey. Perhaps I'm torn between the fact that I did indeed learn tons of interesting facts from this book (like yeast can be harvested in your own backyard!) but that at the same time Pollan almost blatantly overlooks going into a deeper exploration of what would support what he might call a "sentimental" or "animal people" lifestyle.

Pollan's book follows, to a certain extent, four meals. The industrial agricultural meal of corn to Mcnugget,the two different kinds of organic - the industrial Whole Foods bought meal and the "local" Polyface farms meal, and the foraged and hunted meal he cobbles together from the general surrounding area of Berkeley California.

The first part of the book I really dug. It was interesting! He explains how corn has become such a huge huge crop in the United States and how it has found its way into so many of our foods - becoming the building blocks of the bulk of our processed food (yogurt, ketchup, candy, cheez whiz - the list goes on) to the point that its almost impossible to eat a packaged food that doesn't contain corn! And it doesn't end at just food, corn is a part of "disposable diapers, trash bags, cleansers, charcoal briquettes, matches, batteries, right down to the shine on the cover of the magazine." He even reveals the identity of the elusive and mysterious Xanthan Gum. He digs into the mystery of why corn has been grown and used so widely.

He then starts talking about how corn is used in the meat industry as feedstock for the animals. I was surprised to learn (I'm not sure why really because it does kinda make sense) that cows cannot digest corn. Ruminants, which are animals that have rumens (cows, llamas, deer, sheep, giraffe, camels, ect) are grass eaters by nature. What happens when you feed ruminants grain? They get sick. Pollan says that "virtually all of them [feedlot cattle] to one degree or another, according to several animal scientists I talked to - are simply sick." Bloat is a concern for ruminants eating grains and is described as " a layer of foamy slime [which] forms in the rumen and can trap gas. The rumen inflates like a balloon until it presses against the animal's lungs. Unless action is taken promptly to relieve the pressure (usually forcing a hose down the animals' esophagus), the animal suffocates." Another common side effect of the animals diet is acidosis. The basic symptom of acidosis is "bovine heartburn that in some cases can kill the animal" or cause the animal to "pant and salivate excessively, paw and scratch their bellies, and eat dirt. The condition leads to diarrhea, ulcers, bloat, ruminates, liver disease and a general weakening of the immune system." I've always heard that cows (and industrial livestock in general) were pumped full of antibiotics but I didn't fully know why until reading this part of the book. Pollan also inspects the other aspects of the cow's diets and finds...well cows. The cows on the farm he is exploring are fed "blood products and fat," or in other words the steer that Pollan bought and is following through it's life is being fed "beef tallow recycled from the very slaughterhouse he's headed to in June." Also in cattle feed are "feather meal and chicken litter (that is, bedding, feces, and discarded bits of feed) " as well as "chicken, fish and pig meal. Wait these herbivores are eating animals and animal waste and even their own species?!

I found this particular meal - from corn to McDonald's to be pretty fascinating. Pollan artfully lays out the history behind the present state of things (the over-production of corn and soy and the mass production of animals for slaughter) and makes links to our current bulging waistlines, all while setting up things for the next two chapters. He accuses (rightfully) American's of being out of touch with their food (a sentiment I assume he handled heavily in his other book In Defense of Food, which I haven't read but have read reviews on, so I know the general punch-line) and says that if we are what we eat, then Americans are unknowingly walking, talking bundles of corn and petroleum (petroleum being the fertilizer, the harvester, the processor, the transporter, and even some of the ingredients of our food).

Pollan is far from the first person to attempt to turn American's off to fast food - but I feel like he does a thorough job of creating a story with which to bind his message in. Not only do we learn about the weird list of ingredients that goes into a chicken nugget but we also learn about the struggle of the corn and soybean farmer who no longer have the option of playing by the "supply and demand" rule we all remember memorizing for our Econ101 classes. Up through this point, I'm pretty pleased with the book. I'm enjoying reading it and I'm looking forward to more.

Next Pollan goes into the organic meal - but as he is soon to find out, organic has different meaning to different farmer and consumers and so he is forced to break down the term a little bit and he explores the industrial organic farm and then a more small scale organic farm.

For the industrial organic farm he compiles his meal from the vast array of organic and natural treats at a Whole Foods supermarket. He describes the shopping as a "literary experience." Marketers in the food business have a tough job - how do they get us to spend more money on items that may look and taste exactly alike? How can they assure us that the organic chicken breast we are buying is more nutritious, more ethical, or more tasty? Pollan wittily names this sort of writing - the work of the food marketer- as "Supermarket Pastoral," and the questions he draws, while walking through the Whole Foods reading pamphlets and labels and comparing organic products that boast different but both alluring aspects (he cites two organic jugs of milk, one ultra pasteurized - touting its long shelf life - the other company said no to ultrapasteurizing and claims they have a fresher, less processed product because of it) exemplifies just how confusing and slippery shopping can be. The recent trend in the United States it to buy natural, organic, and local foods - but Pollan points out that those words are defined differently by different companies and its hard to know, as the consumer, just what you are buying.

So he goes back to the source - the farms - and tries to discover where his chicken (Rosie is her name according to the package) actually came from, and if her described living conditions matched his expectations. I wont ruin all the surprises for you in this book but suffice it to say that the label "free range" didn't quite mean what we would all expect. Something interesting I learned from this little section - the life of a chicken on the Petaluma Poultry farm is only 7 weeks long. Only 7 weeks to produce big juicy breasts of meat. Surprisingly short really!

In this section Pollan also talks about little farms who made it big - like Earthbound Farms who pretty much have a monopoly on organic baby greens - which perfectly segways into his next section - the little organic farms.

Pollan spends a little less than a week on Joel Salatin's Polyface Farm in Virginia to find out what this self professed "grass farmer" is all about. Salatin, and a small group of hired hands and family members, run a pretty fascinating and well orchestrated choreography of animals at Polyface based on Pollan's description. This is what people think of when they think of "free range" or "humanely raised" animals. Salatin's secret to success: letting the animals do what they do best while working within the cycles of the grass. The cows are moved around the pasture to systematically eat the grass, the chickens move three days behind the cows to pick the insects out of the cowpaties, the pigs turn the stacked cowpoop from the winter shed into rich compost. Salatin has all kinds of little inventions and time tested rules that make this dance run on schedule. It's obvious from the way Pollan writes about this farm that he is pretty impressed by it, but at the same time he paints Salatin in an occasional condescending light. I get the feeling in this chapter that Pollan is really looking for a finished meat product that is "good to think" - meaning he can still eat the meat without feeling bad about killing an animal for it.

The chickens at Polyface are killed and prepared and bought right on the farm - and Pollan describes his experience working at the "killing station" and the evisceration part of the job. For the average American, this is not a process we are at all familiar with. Part of what makes Polyface so special is that the slaughter is done out in the open. Salatin encourages his buyers to come witness the process and even participate if they choose. Pollan admits to a fair amount of disgust at the whole process and wonders if he will be able to cook and eat one of the birds he just helped turn from a living animal into a brined chicken carcass. He writes in several parts of the book for the need to have more connection with our food and the processes they go through. He says that if the raising and slaughtering of animals was as accessible and transparent as the process at Polyface people would either stop eating meat or would demand more humane practices. While I can get behind this statement (although for me it wouldn't matter if it was "more humane" or not - it goes beyond that for me, so I still wouldn't eat it) I was disappointed that Pollan didn't spend a bit more time talking about the pigs on Polyface. What kind of life do they lead? How does he feel about animals that are raised in a more humane situation like this but still go to the same slaughterhouses as industrially raised animals?

Pollan's meal from the Polyface farm is shared with some friends nearby (he considered taking it back to California but thought that might tarnish the local sustainability value of it) and both he and the guests proclaimed it to be more chickeny flavored than most chickens. Everyone except one of the son's "Mathew, who's fifteen and currently a vegetarian." Here is where I flinch a little bit. Why currently? Is Pollan suggesting that Mathew is part of some fad - as if he is currently wearing the latest jeans - and his choice (a pretty important and mature choice to even consider at a young age) shouldn't be taken seriously? Turns out that's exactly what he is insinuating as he makes more clear in the last chapter of his book - the self made meal.

In Pollan's last meal he decides to shoot a pig, harvest mushrooms (sounds like hard work but could be fun too!) capture his own yeast, and collect salt. Before shooting a pig Pollan decides (after reading Animal Liberation while eating a steak) that he has to examine his feelings about taking an animal life and the only way he can do so is to become a "reluctant," and "fervently hoped, temporary vegetarian." It's in this section - The Vegetarian's Dilemma - that he start referring to vegetarians and vegans as "animal people." He says that in the first month of eating vegetarian he is still feeling reluctant. "I find making a satisfying vegetarian dinner takes a lot more thought and work (chopping work in particular); eating meat is simply more convenient." What really really irks me about this sentence is that it's just exactly what non-vegetarian's want to hear to pat themselves soothingly on the back and say - see, it's just not realistic. Eating meat is convenient and therefore ok to do. Also, why doesn't he describe any of his vegetarian meals? He goes at length to describe the Polface chicken: "The skin had turned the color of mahogany and the texture of parchment, almost like Pekind duck, and the meat itself was moist, dense, and almost shockingly flavorful. I could taste the brine of the apple wood..." Not one single description of a vegetarian meal. I am forced to believe (not only because of this, but because of the obvious disdain he has for the experiment as well as the practicers of the lifestyle) that he didn't really take this "challenge" from Peter Singer seriously.

He talks a bit about animal suffering too - and says the idea is vexing to him because "in a certain sense it is impossible to know what goes on in the mind of a cow or pig or ape." Sounds like a copout to me. Oh well its impossible to know what animals are feeling so can we really say they are suffering? Nope - lets eat steak. Yet in another place in the book he talks about how pigs are shown to be just as intelligent as some breeds of dogs and he questions why most dogs in America are given Christmas presents yet no thought is given to the pig served as Christmas dinner. He doesn't take it to the next step though - why don't we eat our dogs after they die? Because they are intelligent and sensitive creatures with emotions and bonding abilities? So are pigs but we don't give them that chance. While Pollan admits that animals do feel pain he says that it is not equal to human suffering and should not be viewed as such because their pain is not "amplified by distinctly human emotions such as regret, self-pity, shame, humiliation, and dread."

This I just don't buy as an excuse to eat animals. So I looked to see what others were saying about animal feelings. I came across Arran Stibbe's article Dignity Beyond the Human World of the Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies group. Stibbe write this:

Undoubtedly there are situations where animals feel emotions similar to humans feelings of humiliation, but it seems anthropomorphic to assume that other animals experience dignity and its loss in the same way that humans do. Perhaps, in many cases, the animal in question is feeling pain and distress rather than a loss of dignity.
However, looking at the other side, the human side, it is clear that strategic attempts to humiliate another party differ little whether that party is human or not. It is the same cultural script found throughout the human world: words and actions are used to systematically lower the social status of one party in order to feed the other party's desire for superiority. The mastery and control of animals, demonstrated through confining them, distorting their bodies, or making them perform unnatural feats, delivers at best a very fragile sense of self worth. The fragility occurs because the very act of having to humiliate another in order to gain a sense of self-worth simultaneously reveals deep insecurity.

And here is something I can agree with. Ok Pollan - so humans and animals don't experience the world in the same way - I will give you that. But does that mean we should take advantage of them? That we should inflict pain on them just because their experience of pain is different from ours? Stibbe's article also made me realize what I was trying to grasp as I read Pollan's "arguments" against Peter Singer's points and while I gritted my teeth through Pollan's admission that he "pities" vegetarians. Pollan is insecure. Really insecure obviously. He goes so far as to taunt vegans in the section The Vegan Utopian by saying "the farmer would point out to the vegan that even she has a 'serious clash of interests' with other animals. The grain that the vegan eats is harvested with a combine that shreds field mice, while the farmer's tractor wheel crushes woodchucks in their burrows and his pesticides drop songbirds from the sky." Really Pollan? Really? So it's all or nothing is it? Are you suggesting we adopt the "no shadow" diet now if we really want to be vegan? And why is the vegan a "she"? Is that to underline the opinion that you have that "animal people" are sentimental and out of touch with reality? He goes on to say that "if our goal is to kill as few animals as possible people should probably try to eat the largest possible animal that can live on a the least cultivated land: grass-finished steaks for everyone." Oh how convenient seeing as though you obviously love eating steak. I don't think you really thought this one out. You just let your stomach do the thinking.

Unsurprisingly he decides to go through with the pig hunt and finds in the end a mixed bag of pride, shame, elation, and disgust. But not so much disgust that when he smells the leg of pig roasting that he can't bring himself to eat it.

The most disappointing part of this book. There is no conclusion. He doesn't give us much of anything. He lamely closes out the book with a description of his last meal and thanks the people that made it possible and ....that's it. For as many times throughout the book as he urges us to look at, really look at what we are eating, Pollan fails to see the meal in front of him for what it is, the rotting decomposing corpse of another living species. Or I suppose he does - but chooses to accept that and keep on chewing.

So what are we left to think? He admits that both the McDonald's meal in the beginning of the book and the hunted boar meal at the end of his book are unrealistic - and should perhaps only be indulged once a year. His disdain for the vegetarian diet certainly doesn't lead me to believe that he would promote that option. So we are left with the Whole Foods option and the grass fed animals. Now maybe I'm wrong about this but I'm willing to bet that those two options are the foods that Pollan was probably already eating given the fact that he admits to shopping at Whole Foods and lives in Berkeley, which is known for its foody, local, natural, somewhat elitist cuisine. Unfortunately - American's interested in the subject, perhaps questioning their impact on the environment, their relationship to the animals they eat - will learn a good deal of information about this book. But at the end they will be able to reassure themselves that no one is asking them to give up anything really. No one is trying to "trick" them into thinking vegetarianism or even just eating a heck of a lot less meat can still lend itself to delicious and varied food (I eat a wider variety of food now, with animal products stripped out, than i ever did before). And worst of all, they will probably walk around parroting Pollan talking about how out of touch vegetarians are and may even go so far to say they too pity us.

As you can see, Im confused about this book. Pollan is a masterful storyteller. His writing style is enjoyable. He does quite a bit of research on both sides of the issue. But, for me, I can't get myself behind a book written by someone so insecure that they attack others who are doing someone that he obviously just doesn't have the selflessness or the courage to do. He's too concerned with being ostracized at a dinner party to really look at all the information he has gathered and follow it to it's logical conclusion.

Coast to Cote Week 28

2010-10-07T11:58:00.003-04:00

Pang: In it's second year, Freedom's Run Marathon has attracted so many people that they had to close the registration. Over 2500 people (I don't actually know the number but this was what I was told by locals and business owners) flocked into our little town over the weekend and ran their hearts out. C's mom participated in the 5K for the first time so I was on full babysitting duty. She finished under her goal and we were all so very proud of her accomplishment. later in the morning C, his sister, and I ran in the 1 mile Fun Run aimed towards kids. He was so shy and didn't want to run at first, but we definitely finished the race looking like real marathoners.

Me: Im going to be completely honest with you all. I cheated. I didn't take this picture this week. In fact...I didn't take ANY pictures this week. I was lazy and spent all my free time cooking or with my nose shoved in a book. Next week I will try to redeem myself.

Coast to Cote Week 27

2010-09-30T00:49:00.002-04:00

Pang: Every year, Jefferson County holds a fall arts and crafts festival (Mountain Heritage Arts & Crafts Festival). There were lots of great handmade goods, like animal masks (photos later!) that I wish I could afford, but some really affordable things items too. I got a pair of vintage owl earrings as an early Christmas gift from Meghan. This was the bust displayed at that very booth, filled with vintage buttons!

Me: Gone are the days of tasteless terrible cookies. Ever since I have started making vegan cookies I have had no more problems with my cookies coming out too airy or too just blah. This week I made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies - and while they were not my all time favorite cookie (I love shortbread best!) they came out pretty well. I brought some over to Pang but she wasn't home so it was just me, Remy and some cookies. I saved one or two for her - just because Im a nice friend.

The Kind Diet: A Book Review

2010-09-28T10:58:00.004-04:00

As I mentioned in my last book review, I have a whole pile of vegan lifestyle books waiting for me to tackle, so after Thanking the Monkey I moved right on to Alicia Silverstone's book, The Kind Diet. I had seen this book online before when someone had posted her recipe for Mochi Waffles (pictured below) so I had always wanted to get my hands on it and check it out for myself.

The checking out has been done - and Im even preparing to make one of the recipes from her book today - and I must say.....hmmmm. Yeah. Let me just say before I get into this that I did read the book the whole way through AND I checked out her blog/website AND I watched several videos on youtube of the making of the book, her food adventures in NYC and her little video welcome to the Kind Life.

Alright lemme break this book down for you. The book starts with a short preface written by Paul McCartney - who yes, is an animal lover and longtime vegetarian, but, does not actually display the characteristics Alicia Silverstone is trying to convince you will save your life and the planet. He's not vegan - but - he is a celebrity. Now this isn't me getting up on a high horse and saying "Hey, he's not good enough because he's a vegetarian," Im just pointing out that rather than choose perhaps a less famous vegan, Alicia decided to go for the star factor here and choose a way famous vegetarian. Lets keep this in mind as I go through the rest of the book.

Her first chapter is called Kind Versus Nasty. In this chapter she starts by telling us about how her own "journey" began as a child who one day connected her lamb chop dinner with its animal counterpart. Being only 8 years old, her conviction to go vegetarian was, while heartfelt, unsuccessful. It wasn't until her twenties when she decided to go vegan, after bringing home 11 dogs in one day, all of whom had been scheduled to be euthanized. She then describes how the decision to eat vegan changed her life. She talks about how in just two weeks people were commenting on how great she looked, how energetic and spunky she felt and how she felt her heart opening and felt more in touch with her "truest self and deepest beliefs." She then shifts gears and starts talking about how she and her husband went to see a macrobiotic counselor who pointed out that Alicia still had rampant acne and would benefit from a macrobiotic diet with better skin and more energy. She talks about how she overhauled her diet to include grains and whole foods rather than sweeteners, processed food and white flours and pastas. She even claimed that this helped her "feel things more acutely and sense [her] intuition." While most of this I was able to easily digest (despite the fact that it seemed a little contradictory that her friends all noticed she was looking so great on a vegan diet, yet still had the acne problem), the more talking she did about feeling at peace and calm in her body on this new diet, the more I started to question how much of this she could back up with any kind of research and how much of this was just new age enlightened spirit talk.

She then moves on to outlining the downfalls and hidden cruelty of the meat, fish and dairy industry. For those of us who know something about this already, Alicia wont give you any new information. In fact, she will give you skimpier versions of what you already know. For example she sites an Australian behavioral ecologist's experiments that prove that fish "have longer memories than we assumed, the capacity to learn, and they transmit knowledge to other members of the school." Cool. This is good to know - but why not tell us more specifics on the experiment? I can guarantee you that if I tell my dad that Dr. so and so did "experiments" to prove that fish have the capacity to learn things and remember the things they learn for longer than we thought, he wont get much out of that. Now if I can explain to him the actual experiments "hey Dad, this Dr. did a test where he passed a net through a tank with a small hole in it. After 5 times through the fish had figured out where the hole was and could successfully find the hole each time the net passed through. Then 11 months later the same test was done with the same fish, who hadn't seen the net in those 11 months, and they could still find the hole every time. Crazy right? That information, by the way, came from Thanking the Monkey. Both Dawn and Silverstone's message was the same: fish are in fact intelligent, but Dawn's was not only more convincing to me, but it also armed me with concrete material to share with others rather than just, "well i read in Alicia Silverstone's book that fish are actually able to learn and remember things."

But perhaps I am being too harsh on Alicia Silverstone. In reading her book you can definitely tell that her focus is more about the relationship between the body and the food, not the animal and the food. It's a diet book. Oh...and its also a diet book that seems to be specifically branded for young, twenty something, hip girls. Let's discuss the language Silverstone uses in the book. In the beginning of the book when she is welcoming us to her creation she ends her little preface by signing it: Peace out, Alicia. Ok, I think to myself, she's a fun loving, hippy. Not a big deal. But then she starts talking about food, and words like "naughty, magical, nasty, and sexy," start popping up left and right. In fact, based on the amount of times each of these words shows up, I'm lead to believe these are her absolute favorite words and are the sole words which comprise the scale of descriptions of quality. The words naughty and sexy especially irked me. She uses these words when talking about resisting temptation to eat animal products, and while I commend her for being honest about "nick[ing] a piece of sushi off a friend's plate right at the end of the meal," because this clearly reminds us that she is in fact human and prone to weakness and error, her vocabulary makes me simultaneously believe that she's a eccentric fairy princess writing to us from some utopian far off land. Its ironic because this type of vocabulary, while I'm sure it was meant to be fresh and youthful, was actually kinda alienating and almost a little insulting - and Im only 23 years old.

Never-the-less I read through the rest of the book, looking forward to the recipes at the end. The next few chapters did hold some interesting information. While I felt her chapter on animal cruelty was a bit lackluster, she presents a pretty good chunk of writing dedicated to explaining food. Well...most of it. While she does go into some explanations of tempeh and seitan, which are very useful to people who don't know much about them, she pretty much leaves out information about other ingredients that many of us have no exposure to. For example she has mirin in several of her recipes - but never bothers to tell us what mirin is. Turns out (I googled it) its a rice wine similar to saki thats used for cooking. I work in a Japanese restaurant. I didn't know what this was. I also could have used some descriptions or pictures of hijiki, arame, wakame, and kombu. She also refers to shoyu several times in her book before she decides to define it. What is it...turns out she's talking about soy sauce. She tells us that in fact shoyu "is how most soy sauce is labeled in the health food worlds these days." The health food world or the LA world? I checked my health food store, and even the bottles we have in the restaurant and the bottles of private stuff the chef uses to cook his own meals. No mention of shoyu. Now I am all for recipes that make me try new things or have me exploring my local ethnic markets, but come on, it's not some random recipe I found online, you have a whole book to explain these ingredients! Not to mention - some of these things are expensive. I asked Kazu, the Japanese owner of the restaruant where I work if she could get me some black soybeans (part of a stew recipe in the Kind Diet) at the Asian market. First of all, Kazu didn't even know if they would have black soybeans because she had never used them before and wasn't even familiar with the idea of them, and secondly, when she did find them there, they came in a tiny, expensive package all in Japanese. Now how was I supposed to find that if even my Japanese boss had some trouble? This failure to fully explain the ingredients she was introducing (and she does acknowledge the fact that most of these things will be totally new for a lot of people) just added to the alienation I felt when reading this book.

Plus...doesn't she say we should be eating local foods? Part of the macrobiotic diet is to avoid foods that don't come from your area. For example eating a pineapple in the middie of winter makes no sense for me, according to this diet, because that food is designed to hydrate my body and cool it down, when thats not really what i need. Plus its shipped from far away which means lots and lots of energy and fossil fuels go into that pineapple getting to me. But skim through one of her recipe and you will see all kinds of Japanese ingredients that really don't qualify as local. Perhaps they feel more local to those living in LA who share an ocean with Japan - but even that is quite a stretch.

She says in the beginning of this book that this diet is for everyone. Not just celebrities. I don't feel like she does a great job of convincing the reader of this. From her obvious target audience (throughout the book she cites ways in which this diet will help with your menstrual cramps or ward off breast cancer, she even has a page of "cute vegan boys") to her expensive and complicated ingredients list, Im not completely sure this is a diet for everyone. But she does convince me of several things. I need more grains and veggies in my diet. I could do with less processed vegan substitutes. And, I could certainly switch to sweeteners that don't spike my blood sugar to such a crazy extent.

She also does something I totally love her for. She hired Victoria Pearson to photograph her food. The food looks amazing and delcious and healthy and Alicia and her husband look vibrant and young and happy. Im absolutely a sucker for beautiful photography and this book certainly packs some in.

And while I was a little peeved about Alicia not explaining all the food she suggests we adopt into our lifestyles, I am going to seek out some of them and try the recipes. In fact, I look a break from writing this and made her Fried Udon noodles with cabbage and onions and it was pretty darn good. In closing - Im willing to give these recipes a fair shot. Im even a little excited to find out what this "magical" umboshi vinegar tastes like. Would I recommend this book to others. Hmmm...it would have to be the right situation. If it was a guy - no. If it was my grandma - no. If it was my hippy minded peace loving friend - maybe. If it was someone I knew who already knew lots about animal cruelty and just wanted some recipes to try being healthier and vegan - yes.

All that being said I think her blog is actually a good resource and worth checking out! Also, I would like to add, that in giving this book a somewhat unfavorable review, I don't at all mean that to detract from Alicia Silverstone as a vegan or animal lover. I think its great that she felt so moved to write this book and that her celebrity status will perhaps get it into the hands of more readers. I do think more thought could have gone into certain aspects of the book, as I've already covered. In watching her youtube videos where she is running around NYC (with wild crazy untamed hair - which she comments on in the video) I DO realize that the way she talks in the book is pretty much the way she talks in real life. She does in fact say groovy. She's cute, she's vivacious, and she's thrilled to death by food. I still don't lover her book, but I actually do think I would like her as a person if we were to meet.

Coast to Cote Week 26

2010-09-23T11:08:00.002-04:00

Pang: Our first stop on Sunday was Hudson River Park. It was beautiful and the weather couldn't have been more perfect. this park is the largest park constructed in the city since Central Park and this area used to be piers were ships would dock to unload cargo to the trains. this pile of metal, used to be one of those piers...or so I was told.

Lacey: Its been a pretty mellow week here. Ryan has been sick and now I feel the creepy crawlies in my throat and the coughing has started. Fall is right around the corner (technically it's here) and all I can think to myself is I want to curl up in bed, not be sick, and feel the warm sun coming through the window, because soon the sun wont be so warm, and then there will hardly be a sun at all till spring. Lets enjoy it!

Thanking the Monkey: A book review

2010-09-21T20:31:00.006-04:00

I read a lot of books. But sadly I have a very poor memory for details. Ask me the names of the characters from a book I read a few months ago, heck even last month, its likely I can't tell you. But I love to read. So I do it almost compulsively. I power through books in days but always manage to have a healthy stack of "in the future" books waiting for me. I tend to get stuck on certain topics or specific writers and amass a collection of work to tackle as soon as the current book is finished. My current stack is on the topic of animal rights combined with vegan lifestyle and diet. I've got books from the library waiting, books I bought at the bookstore, and books I ordered from Amazon. I'm set for the next few weeks.

I picked up this book, Thanking the Monday, the other day at the library because one of Ryan's friends at work is interested in learning about vegetarianism and animal cruelty and as Ryan put it "I figured you would have some books to recommend since you know more about this stuff than I even do at this point. I've created a monster." While he may be right that he's created a "monster" as I get more and more into the cruelty free lifestyle and my list of "to read asap" books gets higher and higher - I realized I had no books to recommend that I personally had read other than Skinny Bitch (which was interesting and while it was recommended to me by a dude, I couldn't really see one of Ryan's dude friends going out and buying it).

So I went to the library and searched the animal rights section and came upon Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking The Way We Treat Animals. I came home and immediately started reading the book and now 3 days later I am pretty much ready to hand this book out to anyone and everyone for Christmas. Realistically I can't afford that, and also I don't want to push the issue on people who just aren't ready - but what I will do, and am currently doing, is give this book as much endorsement as possible.

Here is why I thought this book was great: To many people veganism is scary, extreme, and somewhat elitist. Karen Dawn presents a different perspective. A more realistic perspective. Instead of bashing us over the head with her intended purpose from the word go (which is absolutely to convince readers that a vegan lifestyle is not only the morally correct choice but also the healthiest diet option) she begins her book by tackling the broadest topic involved: animal rights. Animal whats? Rights....oh right...they don't have any. At least not the animals who contribute to what you eat, wear, or put on your skin or use in your household. Dawn starts her look at the world of animal cruelty by addressing the questions vegetarians and vegans face on a regular basis from others. Questions like: why do you work so hard for animal rights when there is so much human suffering in the world? Shouldn't that come first? Or: Don't animal rights activists prefer animals to people? She addresses these common questions and tries to put the misconceptions to rest by fully explaining what we mean by the term animal rights and why its so important to be the voice of beings that can't contribute their own voice.

Next she moves to a topic we can all show some interest in: pets. She addresses topics in this chapter such as: what exactly is in your pets food, the practices of animal shelters, keeping wild animals as pets, debunking the myth that fish are unintelligent (really interesting studies she quotes), animals as part of a family unit (and how the government doesn't consider them so, leaving them open to abandonment when disasters like Katrina happen and survivors are forbidden to bring animals to shelters) breeding and the ethical questions that come along with that like tail docking, selective breeding that is detrimental to the breed (think the smashed faces of pugs, adorable, but absolutely detrimental to the species) and puppy mills.

From here she moves into animals in the entertainment industry. From circuses (the elephant stories are heartbreaking and amazing) to zoos to the animals that perform and die making the movies we pay so much (too much man, theaters are so expensive these days. When I was young.....ok I'll stop) to see. This section get me thinking about animal rights and animal cruelty in a way I had never even considered. So wait... the animals that play in the movies sometimes die making it? And if they don't die they can be sold to laboratories or slaughterhouses? What kinda thanks is that for a part well learned?

The rest of the book gets into the things you pretty much expect. The issues with fur, leather, wool, and silk. The absolutely inhumane way we raise and slaughter animals. And the pointless tests we run on animals to proves things like: consuming alcohol and smoking cigarettes while pregnant can damage fetuses.....did you really need to test thousands of animals to prove something we already have lots and lots and lots of concrete human evidence on? These three sections of the book: fashion, diet, and testing presented me with a lot of squirmy information. I remember shirking away from PETA volunteers and their gruesome brochures or looking the other way when those terrible commercials about abused animals would come on the tv. These sections, while reaffirming my choice to go cruelty free, brought back those familiar queasy emotions I always tried so hard to avoid. It was a tough read. Ryan would come home from work the last few days, take one look at my face, and say "you making yourself sad again?" But some of it was completely new information for me. Completely heartbreaking but necessary for me to ingest, process, and hopefully one day share with others who are curious about how we treat animals.

This book is gruesome. Really gruesome. She spares no details. But she also acknowledges the fact that we don't want to sit through a book that makes us feel terrible the entire time. She tries to lighten the mood (while still being absolutely serious mind you) by using ironic titles for sections like: Confining Nemo, Going Clubbing, Finger Lickin Bad For You, The Right to Arm Bears? and All the Worlds a Cage. She also includes loads of cartoons pulled from newspapers, quotes and photos from vegan and vegetarian celebrities, and artwork on pretty much every page. Another thing that hooked me with this book is that she pulls her information from real, recognizable stories. This isn't a book full of finger wagging and "lets just do the right thing because its what I believe is the right thing" kinda talk. Every topic she puts forward in the book is supported by studies, news reports, newspaper articles or interviews. She cites newspapers like the New York Times, Reader's Digest, the Los Angeles Times, and surprisingly several publications geared towards farmers and hunters. In her last chapter she also explains how having a real relationship with our media can have a surprising impact. Letters to the editor, calls to radio stations, and praise for stories well reported and represented can mean future stories and follow-up stories that might otherwise be canceled due to networks fear that the information is too sensitive or gruesome for the American public.

At the end of the book you will leave with your head swimming full of information. Both heartening and disheartening. You will be itching to tell people things you learned, like: Did you know that bees have the second most complex language of any species (ours is most complex of course). Or: Did you know that male chicks born on hatching farms are considered practically worthless and most of them are ground into pet food? Im probably driving Ryan crazy doing all this "fun fact" sharing.

For those of you who are already vegetarians or vegans, go ahead and pat yourself on the back or give yourself a gold star and just feel warm and fuzzy after reading this, knowing that although millions of animals are out there suffer, YOU aren't contributing and hopefully you are even working against it. You'll come away from this book with a bit more knowledge and a few more facts to share with curious non-veg friends and family, while simultaneously reaffirming your life choice.

For those of you who are still eating the carnivorous Western diet most of us were raised on: After you've spent a good half an hour rocking yourself back and forth, tightly rolled into a ball, in the corner of your house that gets you furthest away from the bacon staring you down from the fridge, while clutching your fuzzy little cat or your yappy little dog to your chest, promising that HE wont ever be abandoned or abused or sold to a lab for testing or fed ground up baby male chicks....well, once you've recovered from that. Let me welcome you to the club. If you really read this book all the way through you should be fully on your way towards an animal friendly lifestyle. You wont regret your choice.

Dawn chooses to close out the book by letting her readers in on a little secret. She's a vegan - but she sometimes bends the rules when she feels its acceptable. She gives the example of going out to dinner with non-vegan friends and ordering the veggie burger, even if it may contain traces of eggs or dairy, to show her friends that making kinder choices isn't as impossible as it seems, and to show the restaurant that there are in fact customers who will choose the veggie burger over the beef burger. She reminds her readers that lifestyle is a personal choice. If what you feel you can contribute is not wearing leather, not visiting zoos and cutting out eggs from your diet, well great. You ARE making a difference. If you want to cut all animal products from your life and adopt a dog. Awesome! The point is: being animal friendly doesn't need to be scary or extreme or elitist. Anyone can do it and we are all free to choose at what level we commit ourselves to the cause.

In closing: I heartily recommend this book.

Where Can't I Chant Part 2

2010-09-18T22:34:00.003-04:00

Jeremy and I had another photoshoot to work on the Where Can't I Chant series. We shot at the National Harbor and Downtown Alexandria (two new places for me. I am so ashamed that I live so close to these places and never go there!) and these are a few of my favorite shots from the evening.

2010-09-18T22:34:00.000-04:00

Carotte Rapée

2010-09-15T18:17:00.006-04:00

Few things say France to me like carott rapée. Kids eat it, adults eat it, maybe even the French feral street kittens eat it. It's that popular. The markets of France are always equipped with long bodied, green topped carrots (it's carotte in French) for the eatin'. This week while I was at the Common Market (returning some what I thought would be vegan nutella - which turned out to be crushed hazelnut butter that was all runny and gritty and tasted nothing like chocolate despite the label boasting that it was chocolate hazelnut spread) I saw these beautiful, vibrant red carrots. I didn't NEED them but I felt I NEEDED them. So they came home with me.

And then I was at a loss for what to do with them that would let them shine. And then I thought - if my time in France has taught me anything it's that a single vegetable can be considered a meal because.....well just because i guess. Pumpkin soup, beet salad, avocados eaten with a little balsamic vinegar, leek quiche, you get the idea.

Carotte Rapée can be made lots of different ways but in the end its all pretty similar and pretty darn simple

Carotte Rapée for 4

5 to 6 large carrots, peeled and then grated
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
2-3 tsp balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp dijon mustard
salt and pepper

Whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, and mustard until well combine. Pour over the grated carrots and mix well. Season with salt and pepper. Enjoy.

While the French will heartily chow down on this simple side with nothing but a fistful of bread, I have found that it also works well on sandwiches, on top of salads, and even thrown into a burrito or taco. Any way you choose to eat it, it's pretty great!

Coast to Cote Week 25

2010-09-15T12:27:00.002-04:00

Pang: As I mentioned in an earlier post, a couple friends and i headed to DC to see Best Coast. At one point during the show, Bethany Consentino (vocals) mentioned that her guitarist, Bobb Bruno, will be at the merch table. I yelled out and asked if he was for sale as Bob answered that he would only cost a mere $1...but alas, Bethany had the last words when she said he would be selling for $420. Obviously, I could not afford my very own Best Coast guitarist and I was defeated.

Me: Yesterday I did a photoshoot with Jeremy Litten as part of our Where Can't I Chant series. We went down to the National Harbor in Alexandria at sunset and the view was absolutely beautiful. I convinced Jeremy to hop a rail and get out onto this ledge to snap a few pictures and we both agreed it was worth the risk (the ledge was plenty big enough it was just a concern of security guards!).

My First Summer of Plants

2010-09-08T16:13:00.003-04:00

I've always liked the idea of having herbs and plants. I have always killed any herb or plant I tried to nurture.

But then this summer a couple plants just kinda fell into my lap. And now I am ever so attached to them...

This pretty little basket of herbs came from my friend Katie as a welcome home gift when I got back from France. Inside she planted lemon basil, oregano, thyme, sage, and rosemary. As I drove the little gift herbs home I thought to myself "these will be so pretty for a week until they unexplainably but not unexpectedly die." Well ho ho Miss Pessamist. The end of summer is nearing and they are still going strong. Here is my question though - what happens to them as it gets cooler? Basil is an annual herb while the other 4 are perennial. Uhm....what do I do. Does anyone know? Can they live indoors through the winter. Im so distraught at the thought of them just freezing into the little sad herby icicles. Help me save them!

And then there is this guy. This colorful fern type thing. All summer the ladies at a local plant store have been giving my mom plants, so when she offered me some I figured, why not? This plant was all shriveled and eaten and there were some slimy little leaf eating worms in the box they were in. I planted them half heartedly in a pot with my dad's guidance. They have now almost tripled in size AND sprouted weird "flower" things!

Anyone know what this is? Golden star if you can tell me :)

This ornamental pepper plant was another regift from my mom. I found this old coffee/tea kettle thing at the Harper's Ferry flea market for a dollar! Is this perennial?

So long story short, i successfully grew some plants this summer. Now what? Do they just die?

Coast to Cote Week 24

2010-09-08T13:47:00.002-04:00

So we took a little break from the Coast to Cote project but now we are both feeling like its time to give ourselves deadlines again and push ourselves a little harder to make images every week. We're back!

Pang: On a photo shoot with DJ yesterday, i caught an effortless photograph of Gillian while she was balancing on the railroad tracks.

Lacey: Remy. Best Friends. Period.

Chop Mexican Salad with Cilantro Lime Dressing

2010-09-05T21:29:00.004-04:00

I've been a bad blogger. I apologize. Here is me trying to get back on the horse. So recently I subscribed to Vegetarian Times magazine. Great mag with lots of healthy, quick meals. For those of you that got the July/August magazine you might remember this recipe. I changed aspects of it to suit my taste, but the credit certainly goes to VT on this meal.

I've been trying to eat more veggies lately. I came to the sad discovery that multivitamins aren't inherently vegetarian. I don't know why I thought they would be, but then I was in the Common Market looking at vitamins and noticed they had a bunch marked vegetarian and vegan. Huh....so I did some research. No more Centrum for me. And hey, here is an idea...why not get my vitamins and minerals from a good diet. Yes!

Mexican Chopped Salad

Salad:
1 small head of romaine, sliced
1/2 bunch spinach, stems removed, chopped
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
2 avocados, diced
1/2 cucumber, halved lengthwise and then sliced
the corn cut from one fresh cob, raw
1 can black beans
several large pieces of roasted red pepper, sliced
1/4 red onion, minced
1/2 cup broccoli or alfalfa sprouts

Dressing:
1/2 cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
juice from one lemon and one lime
1/4 cup chopped green onion
1/4 cup cilantro leaves
pinch cayenne pepper

1. Heat the oil, garlic, cumin, coriander, sugar and salt in a saucepan for until the garlic begins to sizzle.
2. Blend the remaining dressing ingredients with the garlic oil. Blend in a blender if you want it to be smooth (I left it chunky)
3. Toss over the chopped salad

I gave this salad to a few friends without the dressing a few days later and the veggies had marinated to the point where they even liked it with no dressing at all. If you want the salad to last a few days keep the avocado on the side and just top each bowl with it rather than putting it in the whole mixture.

Inspiration and Hunger Pangs

2010-08-09T01:31:00.007-04:00

I have often been told by readers of my blog "reading your blog makes me so hungry!" Well recently I have stumbled upon and started reading some blogs that make me just flat out drool. Im absolutely one of those types of people who will buy a cookbook or follow a blog based on pictures alone - and these three blogs certainly pulled me in with their admirable snapping ability but low and behold they furnish us with tasty recipes to boot! Take a look and see what I'm talking about.
(the pictures below are pulled from the blogs I am featuring - permission was granted beforehand and the artists retain all rights)

1. 6bittersweets

I saw this picture a little while back while browsing on flickr and instantly fell in love. And what?! She has a blog to go with these lovely little treats? This self described avid baker is also practically a neighbor! Alright she lives in the neighboring state (VA) but whatever! While bittersweet tends to lean towards the sweeter side of life she also likes to cook - I am anxious to see what veggie fare she will cook up in the future - but for now I will gaze longingly at the mojito cupcakes that currently grace her blog.

2. Bakers Royale is next on the list.

Naomi at Bakers Royale makes my list because this self taught baker makes the cutest treats around. I have absolutely no patience to make my food look adorable or perfect but I have a huge amount of respect for people who do. Her pictures inspire me to wait just a few minutes more before chomping away at my creations to take a second to try to spruce the food up for the camera.

3. I have saved my favorite for last - the talented Celine S over at have cake, will travel. Why is she my favorite? Well just look at her work!

Not only are her images amazing but its all vegan and she even give us the recipe. Well...not always actually. But she has her reasons:

At the moment she is taking photos of burgers for a book she and Joni Newman are working on together. It doesn't come out until next summer but you will want this. Don't believe me? Try this on for size. Celine just posted a picture of a "masa masala burger in sweet potato bun on top of brown basmati rice, green peas and red lentils in tangy tahini dressing." Can't imagine what that looks like (but I bet you are drooling over what it SOUNDS like) take a peak at her flickr and prepare to be hungry!

In the meantime....looking for a new cookbook? I know I always am! Lets get her 500 Vegan Recipes Book!

I hope you all enjoy these blogs as much as I do!

Vegan Pot Pie

2010-08-05T17:10:00.003-04:00

Pot Pie...oh pot pie. When you decide to cut out meat and dairy your brain immediacy jumps to all the things you can't have. "Are you serious?! No alfredo? No cheese fries? No cheesesteaks?"

And then a few weeks go by and a month or two and then you realize: Hey, I can still have those things if I really want them! And they still taste great. Want the proof? I took this pot pie over to Pang and Robin's (a pesca-vegetarian and a meat eater) and afterwards Pang said she had "meat pot pie stomach" and Robin took a bite and for a split second she thought I had "tricked" her into eating meat.

There you have it - meat eaters and veggies alike will love this.

Vegan Pot Pie

1 pack of 4 Fieldroast Apple and Sage Wheat sausages, sliced (so good!)
6 cups vegetable stock
1 cup yellow onion, diced
1 cup carrots, peeled and diced
1 can sweet corn, drained and rinced
3/4 tsp thyme, minced
3/4 tsp sage, minced
3/4 tsp sea salt
3/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1 tbsp nutritional yeast flakes
1 tbsp tamari soy sauce
2-4 tbsp canola oil
3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup vegan margarine (Earth Balance)
1 puff pastry sheet rolled out to by 12x10 inches

1. In a small sautee pan brown the wheat sausages with 1 tablespoon canola oil. Season with salt and pepper. Remove the from pan and set them aside.
2. Next make a roux. To make a roux, melt the vegan margarine in a saute pan over low heat, add flour little by little and whisk constantly until light brown in color and thickened. Set aside to cool. Put the veg stock in a saucepan and bring to a boil.
3. In a 5.5 qt. stock pot, cook the onions in canola oil for 3 minutes then add the carrots, sage, thyme, salt and pepper. Continue to cook for 5 minutes. Add already boiling stock and simmer for 5 minutes. Whisk in nutritional yeast flakes.
Add the roux a bit at a time and continue to cook as sauce begins to thicken. Stir in sausages, tamari and corn. Pour the mixture into a large shallow pan to cool. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
4. Once the mixture is cool, pour into individual ramekins, glass pie pan or small casserole dish. Cover mixture with puff pastry (be sure to leave a small excess of pastry for folding and fluting of the edge) and seal edges. Cut small slits.
Bake for 35 min or until the top is nice and brown and the insides are bubbling though the slits in the crust.

Excuses and Portraits

2010-08-01T16:39:00.004-04:00

Sorry I have been MIA on the blog for a while. I just spent the week in Florida with this girl (my old roomie from college and one of the only people who can put up with my moodiness and not get offended!) and this week I head off to Chicago. Look for more posts soon though! I haven't forgotten about you all so don't forget about me.

Spicy Hummus Wontons

2010-07-19T14:53:00.006-04:00

Over the past few weeks I have been making these little guys for lunch for Ryan and myself - experimenting with different flavored hummus, different folding of the wonton skins, and different toppings - so now I am ready to share them.

The idea is pretty simple. Put little spoonfuls of hummus onto flat squares of wonton skin, fold, fry, and eat!

Spicy Hummus Wontons

Roasted Red Pepper and Jalapeno Hummus
Wonton skins (they usually come in a pack of 100 so perhaps use a 1/4th at a time and freeze the rest for the future)
Extra virgin olive oil
Cayenne Pepper
Shriracha

1. Using your brand new cast iron skillet (oh wait you don't have one? get one! or use what you have i suppose...) pour enough oil into the skillet so that the bottom is covered with a thin layer. Heat over medium heat.

2. Here is how you make them. Use a cookie sheet or a large cutting board and cover it with wax paper. Lay out as many wontons as you can handle (I usually do 12) and put a small spoonful of hummus on each square.

3. Fill a small bowl with water. Dip your finger into the water and gently trace the outline of half the square.

4. Fold each square in half and fold the top two corners down towards the straight edge. They should look like this.

5. When the oil is hot place as many wontons as will fit in the pan without them touching into the skillet. Cook 2 to 3 minutes on each side or until they are crispy and brown. Remove from the skillet and transfer to a paper towel lined plate. Repeat the process with any remaining wontons.

6. Serve with Shriracha and cayenne pepper and even a little more hummus for dipping.

Enjoy!

Where Can't I Chant - A Collboration

2010-07-10T14:46:00.004-04:00

I've been meaning to post about this for a while - I recently started a collaboration with Jeremy Litten called Where Can't I Chant. I just got a new lens (35mm!) so stay tuned for more soon!

Lemon Blueberry Muffins - revisited

2010-07-07T21:41:00.006-04:00

For those of you who are regular readers you are probably thinking its time for me to close up shop and move on with my life. Wait...she's doing lemon blueberry muffins again? Didn't she just do those like 2 weeks ago. Yes, but wait! These are different I promise. Here is why. First...

I got this lovely little antique citrus juicer! I used one of these in France and kinda fell in love with it and decided my life would not be complete until I had one of my own.

Another reason these muffins are different is because this time I decided to go vegan. And for those of you who are about to poo poo this - taste testers (ie the boys I live with who don't have a preference between vegan and non-vegan muffins) have confirmed that the vegan ones are better.

The basic base for these muffins came from the book Vegan Yum Yum, but she made Lemon Cranberry Muffins. Which would have been cool too but I had blueberries. This is the first recipe from her book that I have tried (even though I tweaked several thinks) and now I can't wait to try more!

Vegan Lemon Blueberry Muffins (12 muffins)

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp cornstarch
the zest from 1 lemon
1 cup plain soy milk
the juice from 1 lemon
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
1 small carton blueberries, rinsed and dried
1 tbsp raw sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 400 F and line your muffin tin with paper liners or grease them.
2. In a large bowl mix together your dry ingredients: flour, sugar, baking powder and soda, salt, cornstarch, and lemon zest.
3. In a 2 cup liquid measuring cup mix together the soy milk, vegetable oil, vanilla, almond, and lemon juice.
4. Fold the wet ingredients into the dry until almost combined.
5. Toss the blueberries in a bowl with the raw sugar, then add them to the batter and mix everything together until its just combined.
6. Fill the muffin tins. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Using a knife, pop each muffin out of its tin and either place it on a rack to cool or turn the muffins slightly sideways in the tin to prevent soggy bottoms.

Vegan Oreo Cupcakes

2010-06-29T20:49:00.003-04:00

So recently I bought myself the Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World book...and I love it. These were my first project from the book and I can't wait to try more. I took a cupcake over to my brother who is deathly afraid of the word vegan and even HE loved it. Just a few days later we made a double batch together (its hard to bake with him because he eats them all before they can get frosted!). So...vegans and non vegans alike will love these and I highly recommend the book and I will keep you posted on further experiments!

Vegan Oreo Cupcakes
Makes 12

1 cup soymilk
1 tsp lemon juice or apple cider vinegar (I like lemon juice myself)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup chopped oreos

1. Preheat the oven to 350 and line your muffin pans (I did big ones the first time and minnie the second time)
2. Whisk together the soy milk and lemon (or vinegar) in a big bowl and let it sit for a few minutes. Add the sugar, oil, vanilla extract, and almond extract and beat until the mixture is foamy. In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder and soda, the cocoa powder and the salt. Add in two batches to the wet ingredients and beat until there are no large lumps. Add the oreos.
3. Fill your liners and bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Move the cupcakes to a wire rack and let them cool completely.

Oreo Frosting
1/4 cup non-hydrog shortening
1/4 cup non-hydrog margarine (Earth Balance is a good one and they come in baking sticks!)
2 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 cup plain soy milk
1/2 cup crushed oreos

Beat the shortening and margarine together until fluffy. Add the sugar and beat 3 more minutes. Add the vanilla and soymilk and beat 5 more minutes. Add the oreos. Spread!

Red Lentil Vegetable Curry

2010-06-29T20:34:00.003-04:00

Know what these little guys are?

How about now? Ok so you probably didn't need to guess since the answer is right in the title. That's right! Red lentils!

Missing my Kazu curries while I was in France, I made this dish a couple times and now that I'm a little homesick for said France - Im making it again. This curry can be done with any veggies and Im sure it will still turn out great - it would also be good with brown lentils - but I wouldn't really mix it with green lentils.

Lentil and Veggie Curry

1 soup spoon of olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1-2 tbsp curry powder
1/4 tsp chili powder
2 carrots, sliced
1/2 cup of red lentils
14oz can of crushed tomatoes
2 1/2 cups veg stock
1 tsp chili paste (or skip it if you dont like it too spicy)
1 pound potatoes, cubed
1/2 a head of broccoli, cut into florets
garnish: cilantro, plain vegan yogurt

1. In a big sauce pan heat the oil over medium low heat and then add the onion, garlic, cumin, coriander, curry, chili powder and the carrots and cook for 5 minutes or just until the onion is soft.
2. Incorporate the lentils, tomatoes and the vegetable stock. Bring everything to a boil then reduce the heat, cover, and let the curry simmer for 15 minutes.
3. Add the chili sauce (if using), along with the potatoes and broccoli - cook 15 to 20 minutes more or until the potatoes are tender.
4. Serve the curry over rice, quinoa, or cous cous. Top with a bit of fresh cilantro or some vegan yogurt