Today

My day began with this beautiful, delicious quiche. It was the first time I've made quiche in the several years since I became vegan, and I was not disappointed. I'll track down the recipe and post it soon, but for now you just get the teaser photo.

(That brown crustiness you see around the edges is {drum roll, please} shredded potatoes, hash brown style - what a great idea!)

Carlos' favorite person was in town today - his 9-year-old cousin Calvyn...

We went for a walk at a nearby wildlife refuge...

...isn't it pretty?

It was hazy today, even here on the coast, due to the zillions of wildfires (none of which are very close to us, thank goodness, although they did cause our much anticipated weekend trip to Farm Sanctuary to be cancelled; wah). You can see the haze in this picture, as well as an egret (I wish my camera had a stronger zoom).

We also saw this beautiful deer having a snack.

After a picnic lunch, we continued on for a canoe ride. I didn't take any pictures in the canoe, but here are the boys in the parking lot afterwards.

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope all the moms out there are having a fabulous day, especially my mom, who I am on my way to see now!

Sadly, it seems motherhood is not in the cards for Greta the chicken this time around. I finally found her nest yesterday evening, with ten eggs in it, and to try to protect her from predators, I moved her and her eggs into a large dog crate after dark last night. I awoke this morning to find her highly stressed in the crate, wanting to come out, so I let her out and she headed straight for her original nest. She hung out over there for a few hours, ignoring her eggs in their new location, and then eventually joined the rest of the flock by midday.

I can't say that I'm too terribly disappointed (although it seems almost sacrilegious to say such a thing on Mother's Day of all days!); if we decide to have more chickens, I think I'd rather rescue some than bring more into the world, but I do feel sorry for little Greta, and her little eggs look rather forlorn and abandoned.


Oh well, it's reassuring to have Greta back in the fold, and safe from any scary creatures that could have snapped her up during the night out there in the woods. (That's her in the back.)

Birth of a Christmas Tradition

This morning I made cinnamon rolls as a special holiday breakfast treat. I know I've raved about this recipe before, sorry to be repetitive, but really, if you haven't tried them, you MUST. They are amazing. I suppose it would have been more festive to enjoy them on Christmas morning, but Matt's working on Christmas day, so we had them today instead.


Merry Christmas to all my real life and bloggy friends. I hope your holidays and the coming year are filled with many sweet and wonderful things.

The boy has an APPETITE.

Matt was working on our actual Family Day anniversary, so we went out to dinner last night instead to celebrate. We went to a Japanese restaurant, which is Carlos' favorite (we like it too).

Carlos seemed hungry before the food actually arrived so we experimented with giving him some ginger. Perhaps you can't tell from the pictures, but he liked it a lot, just like his mama.


Then the food came. And came. And came. He ate tons of agedashi tofu, plus more than his fair share of edamame, and a healthy serving of avocado.


He left the restaurant a very happy boy. We then proceeded to the mall (woo-hoo) so he could go on the slide for a while. Too cute!

One year ago today...

Our lives changed forever.

We were given the most precious gift imaginable, our son.

One year ago today, we were united forever with Carlos, the most amazing, lovable, hilarious child I have ever known.

To commemorate this momentous occasion, here is a photograph from that day, December 18, 2006, of Carlos looking fairly freaked out by the scary red-lipped Santa Claus at the Marriott Hotel in Guatemala City.


Life will never be the same. Thank goodness.

Catching up a bit

Well, I survived my little craft show. It was fairly busy on Friday but totally dead today, which sucked. Still, it was fun to hang out with my fellow crafter friends and have girl talk and cookies. Here's a picture of my booth setup; the house where we had the show is so cute... everything looked really nice.


I have been thinking a lot about the role veganism plays in my life and how I can better integrate it into the other aspects of my personality, my family, social networks, etc., so I decided to try a few things at the craft show. First, I made a ton of yummy vegan cookies to serve to our customers, and printed out the recipes (clearly marked 'vegan' - gasp!) to set out next to the plates of cookies. And second, I put out a couple of stacks of 'Try Vegetarian' brochures with my jewelry, like so:


The results were fantastic! Without being pushy about it (I hope), I was able to help spread the word about the benefits of a vegan diet, and hopefully made the word VEGAN itself, and the concept, a little less foreign and scary to at least a few dozen people. I saw a lot of people take the recipe cards, and many thanked me for them and complimented me on how tasty the cookies were. And better yet, a fair number of people took a brochure, and a couple of them even struck up conversations with me about veganism.

My cookies and brochures (as well as the fact that I brought 'Slaughterhouse' to read during the slow times) even sparked some lively conversation with my friends who were doing the show with me. They may never decide to go vegan themselves, but it was cool to at least talk to them more about it than I probably ever have before, and to introduce some facts and ideas that they clearly hadn't considered in the past. Hopefully I didn't overwhelm them with my, um, enthusiasm for the subject matter.

Oh, and I probably should post about Thanksgiving! Carlos and I had a lovely vegan meal with my dear friend Kristina and my mom and step dad (Matt had to work). I neglected to photograph dessert (such a shame), which was chocolate peanut butter pie and pumpkin cream cheese pie (all vegan, of course). I'll try to remember to find links or post those recipes soon.

My dinner plate - clockwise from top: mashed potatoes with gravy, homemade white whole wheat rolls, neat loaf from 'The Peaceful Palate', yams with apples, cider, and ginger cookie crumbles, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and green bean casserole (center). And to think some people out there still think of veganism as deprivation!

A tragically blurry picture of Carlos chowing down on a roll...

...then working off said roll...

...then relaxing with a good book and a belly laugh with Grandpa Joe.

On Turkeys and Thanksgiving, Part 1

Thanksgiving is a holiday that brings up a lot of conflicting emotions for me. On one hand, I love the concept of a holiday that is about giving thanks and showing gratitude, but on the other hand, I'm not so sure that aspect of the day gets enough emphasis.

To focus my own thoughts and energy on what should be the true focus of this holiday, I've put together a short list of what I'm thankful for.

• I'm beyond grateful to have Carlos home this Thanksgiving. When I think back to this time last year and how miserable I was waiting to go get him and compare it to my life now, the contrast is unbelievable. He's so funny and sweet, and I can't imagine life without him.
• I consider myself very blessed with my husband and my marriage, which is now in its eleventh year! Wow.
• I have a wonderful family who accepts and loves me for who I am. My mom and step dad are even going to have vegan Thanksgiving with me and Carlos this year (Matt's working), even though they are not vegetarian. That means a lot to me.
• I have encountered a lot of amazing non-human creatures during my life, including my own dogs over the years (Farley, Hazel, Otis, Paco, Rowdy, and numerous foster dogs), plus the animals I met doing volunteer work. I am confident that the rest of my life will continue to be enriched by many more connections with animals, and I am grateful both for the animals in my past and those I look forward to meeting in the future.
• My professional life is going well; I'm actually starting to make a little bit of money doing something I enjoy very much, which has been a goal for about the last seven or eight years that I have struggled to reach for what felt like an eternity.
• Finally, I am thankful for my veganism and the many ways it has exposed me to joys I never would have experienced otherwise, and to the deep, deep sorrow that comes with the awareness of the endless ways animals are exploited for human enjoyment. Sometimes this sadness feels like a heavy burden, but I'm working to channel the sad feelings into direct action to help animals and people, and that's a blessing. So is the fact that I am alive and able to feel sadness.

Care to join me? Post your own list of what you're thankful for in a comment here, or leave a link to your own blog post on the subject.

When it rains, it pours.

Rowdy's cancer must have been very, very aggressive because this morning, just 2-1/2 weeks after diagnosis, we had to make the painful decision to let her go. Yesterday she took a bad turn for the worse and we couldn't bear to watch her suffer. Even super strong pain medication wasn't doing the trick.

Rowdy had a beautiful soul and brought lots of fun and laughter to our house during the six years we were blessed to have her in our family. She will not be forgotten. (That's her on the left in the above photo, with one of our other dogs, Otis. They were good pals.)

To make matters worse, Carlos has been sick for weeks with a cough/cold, and over the last few days he also developed a fever. Today we took him to see the doctor and found out he has infections in both ears. Poor little guy... we got him some antibiotics and ear drops and I'm fervently hoping the three of us will get some decent sleep tonight for the first time in several days.

Are there any experienced moms out there who care to share tips for keeping the ear drops in the ear???

Birthday Post #2

This morning we went to a wildlife refuge near our house (I've posted about this place before). The morning light was beautiful and the sun was out and I got some pretty pictures. It was a fun way to spend Carlos' birthday morning.

It's been a long time since I've posted and I'm feeling guilty about neglecting you all. This has been a very difficult week for me; my grandpa's funeral was today and I think it was the saddest day I can remember in a long time. I've been spending a lot of time with my family though, which is nice.

And to top things off, yesterday we found out that our oldest dog, Rowdy, has lymphoma. We don't know yet if it's spread to any other parts of her body or not but regardless, it will eventually be fatal. We may be able to prolong her life somewhat and keep her comfortable with steroids and/or chemotherapy, but the bottom line is that we know she's not too much longer for this world. Those who know me probably can guess that this is a pretty huge blow, since our dogs are a hugely important part of our family.


Needless to say, I'm having a bit of a rough time. I'm way behind on filling orders and returning emails, so if you're waiting for something from me, I apologize. I'm going to try really hard to get back into the swing of things in the next couple of days and start getting caught up. I have some new beads and cabochons to photograph and share; hopefully I'll get to that tomorrow.

Thanks to everyone who has sent their kind words and thoughts about my Grandpa; it really helps a lot.

My grandpa died today. It was sudden and unexpected and everyone is shocked and obviously very sad. We love you Sam.

Samuel V. Lermo, 7/29/1924 - 10/6/2007

Scenes from a Semi-Rainy Thursday Morning

Carlos' big cousin is in town, and we have the good fortune to get to hang out with him today and tomorrow. Carlos is having a blast of course.

Driving the fire truck

The two amigos

First day wearing rain boots - too cute!

Goofing around on the fire truck

Carlos, happy to be playing with his big cousin

This is Otis, the dog who loves to love.

This is Rowdy, the dog who loves to eat.

And this is Hazel, the dog who loves to whip the other two dogs' butts.

I'm back...

We got back from our trip yesterday, exhausted and so glad to be home! Traveling with an almost-two-year-old is no picnic, let me tell you. Carlos was really pretty good, but it's just a tough age for traveling. I've decided I'm not going anywhere else for a looooooong time. We had a lot of fun hanging out with Grandma Jeri, Grandpa Joe, Uncle Shelby, and cousin Calvyn though, and Carlos especially enjoyed swimming in the hotel pool.

Carlos & Papa at Knotts Berry Farm

Carlos & Grandma at Knotts (nothing spectacular about the picture itself but I wanted to show off Carlos' 'Pigs are friends, not food' t-shirt)

Carlos & Papa in the pool

Carlos and the object of his undying affection (obsession???) - cousin Calvyn

Matt and I managed to sneak away for a half day and tour the Queen Mary in Long Beach.

Family Day at the Beach

My eight-year-old nephew, Calvyn, is in town this week and I think Carlos is in love. Whenever Calvyn is around, Carlos toddles around with a big goofy grin glued to his face and giggles nonstop. It's pretty cute. Today we took the kids to the beach, along with my dad and grandparents, and a couple of dogs (not ours).

Weekend Recap, aka Why you haven't heard from me in a while

Well, we had a wonderful weekend with our visiting friends, with lots of laughs and good food. We took Carlos to a local fish hatchery, which he totally loved, and hiking, and to the river... it was too windy to swim but he still had fun. I was very bad and managed to take only one picture all weekend, but at least it's a cute one.


Food recap time - the Pasta Fagiole recipe I made on Friday night was very good. Here's the recipe:

Pasta Fagiole

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, minced
1 (14.5 ounce) can stewed tomatoes
2 (15.5 ounce) cans great northern beans, rinsed and drained
6 cups vegetable broth
8 ounces orzo or other pasta (this time I used rotini)
salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in large pan over medium heat. Add onion, garlic, and jalapeno and cook 4-5 minutes, or until onion is soft. Puree tomatoes in blender and add to pot, along with broth and beans. Bring to a boil over high heat. Add pasta, return to boil, reduce heat, and simmer 8-10 minutes.

Easy and delicious! I wish I knew where the recipe came from so I could give credit, but it's one of those scraps of paper that a friend copied the recipe down on that has been in my recipe binder for so long, who knows where it originated.

And we had my favorite summer salad:

Strawberry Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing
(veganized from an old Cooking Light recipe)

3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons Vegan mayo
2 tablespoons soymilk
1 tablespoon poppyseeds
1 tablespooon white wine vinegar
your choice of lettuce
sliced strawberries
1/4-1/3 cup slivered almonds, toasted

Whisk together first five ingredients and pour over lettuce, strawberries, and almonds.

I regret to say that I found the 'Sexy Lowfat Cupcakes' in Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World to be significantly less satisfying than the other recipes I've made so far (which have all been killer). They were edible, but not anywhere near as special as others I've made. Part of the problem was my inability to make them as pretty as they were supposed to be.

Here's what I was aiming for (photo from the book):


And here's where I ended up:


Hmm. Not quite what I was going for. When I tried putting the raspberries on top, they all just slid off the sides. Grr.

We had vegan cinnamon rolls again, and our guests were duly impressed. Man, those things are good. And on Sunday night I made pad thai, which was quite tasty as usual. I wish I had been better about taking pictures of all the food I cooked, but I wasn't. Sorry.

Catching up...

Matt and I had a nice anniversary yesterday - thanks to everyone who wished us well. Here's a picture of the place we got married (also where we picniced yesterday - can you see Carlos hiding behind the bench?) -

We played fetch with Carlos (really) and ate yummy lunch. I have been really bad about remembering to take pictures of the foods I make lately for the blog, but we had tempeh salad sandwiches and a cold quinoa salad with cherries and spinach. It was quite delicious, and I just had leftovers for lunch again today.

For the tempeh salad, I make it somewhat based on a recipe from the Chicago Diner cookbook. I cut one pound of tempeh into 1/4" cubes, brown it in 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil, sprinkle a little soy sauce on it and toss and cool; then mix in Veganaise (this time I used part soy yogurt to try to lighten it up a little) and whatever else you like - I added chopped celery, grated carrots, salt, pepper, Larrupin sauce (a local thing - sorry)... hmm, it seems like there was more but now I can't remember. Anyways, it's really good, especially in whole wheat pocket bread with lettuce and tomatoes.

I think I've discovered that I like quinoa better cold, like in this salad, than I like it hot. I hardly ever eat it because I just don't enjoy it much hot, but this salad was delicious, and I'm happy to find a way to fit this super-nutritious grain into my diet. You can find the recipe here, on the Vegetarian Times website - the only change I made was to omit the cucumber, simply because I forgot to buy it.

This weekend is going to be a frenzy of cooking and baking; our good friends John-Paul and Andrea are coming to visit and I have to treat them right. Maybe I'll remember to take some photos, but don't count on it.

Tonight I'm making pasta fagoile with strawberry salad and garlic bread, with the less-fat cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World (I've ordered you to buy that book before; why haven't you???) for dessert.

Tomorrow for breakfast I'm going to try a new vegan french toast recipe (still searching for that perfect one...), then we're going out to dinner. Sunday morning, vegan cinnamon rolls will be enjoyed by all, with pad thai for dinner and homemade vegan peach ice cream for dessert. Whew! Matt is going to have pruney fingers from all the dish washing.

Ten Years of Wedded Bliss

Today is our tenth wedding anniversary. Matt, Carlos, and I are going to take a picnic lunch to the place where we got married (a beautiful lawn surrounded by trees at a local historic inn), then tonight my dad is going to watch Carlos while we go out to dinner and check out the free outdoor concert in Old Town.

Happy Father's Day!

Vegan Blackberry Cobbler (Grammie-Style)

When I was growing up, I was fortunate to have not only my grandparents living close by, but also my great-grandmother (Grammie) and her sister (Auntie). And when I say close by, I mean like a mile away. Every day after school, when we were young, my brother and I would get babysat at Grammie and Auntie's house, where we would indulge in behavior that was not sanctioned by our parents, like eating rainbow-hued cereals and sweetened packaged oatmeal for after-school snacks and watching cartoons in the middle of the afternoon.

Grammie, 1941

(long before her days of babysitting me)

Those are my memories from my younger childhood; as I got older, the things I remember more about Grammie and Auntie were Grammie's amazing cooking skills (and her love of sharing them with her family) and Auntie's incredible talent for gardening (I think she was mowing her own [huge] lawn well into her nineties).

The two best things that Grammie cooked (in my opinion) were lefse (a traditional Norwegan holiday potato-flatbread-type-thing, maybe I'll post about that at Thanksgiving) and blackberry cobbler, which I always requested instead of cake for my birthday. When I was old enough to be interested, she taught me to make both of these delicious concoctions. Here is her blackberry cobbler recipe, veganized of course, but it tastes just the same!

Grammie's Berry Cobbler

3/4 cup unrefined sugar

1-1/2 cups flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons soy margarine

3/4 cup soymilk

4-5 cups blackberries (fresh or frozen)

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix together 3/4 cup sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt. Cut in the soy margarine until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add soymilk and mix until moistened. Spread batter in a greased 9x13 pan. Well, it won't exactly spread but just try to plop it in there evenly, like so:

Combine the blackberries, 3/4 cup sugar, and almond extract (if you're lazy like me, just use the same bowl you used to mix the batter - a little berry-batter cross contamination never hurt anyone) and pour over the top of the batter. Pour 1 cup of boiling water over the top of everything and bake for 40-50 minutes, or until the crust is nicely browned and the berries are all bubbly, like this:

Notes:

The original recipe called for a full teaspoon of almond extract, and I liked it that way just fine, but Matt thought it was too much so I've halved it for his benefit, but I kind of liked it the old way. (Ah, the sacrifices we make for our spouses.)

The original recipe only called for 25-30 minutes baking time, but it always takes a lot longer than that for me. I may have mentioned this before, but I have an old oven so your results may be different from mine.

Now the only problem is, I made this cobbler today but it's for Father's Day dessert tomorrow - how am I going to resist it for the next 24 hours? I might have to hide it from myself. Tomorrow is going to be a very indulgent day, foodwise. My mom and stepdad are coming over for homemade vegan cinnamon rolls in the morning and my dad and stepmom are coming over for vegan lasagna (I'll try to post that recipe tomorrow night) and blackberry cobbler. Yum!

Tonight, Carlos and I had homemade pizza with VeganRella, zucchini, olives, and mushrooms. And now I have a confession to make. I am not a perfect vegan. I struggle with the vegan cheese issue, and for the last several months, I have been eating Veggie Shreds, which contain casein (for you non-vegans, casein is derived from milk protein or some such thing). My rationalization had something to do with taste and something to do with price - the truly vegan cheeses are so much more expensive!

Well, I've decided to buckle down and be a better vegan, which just means I'm on a quest to find a decent vegan cheese. I don't eat it that often, but I do like to make pizza from time to time. The VeganRella we had tonight was just okay. I was fine with the flavor, but the texture was disappointing. In the past, the most common complaint I've heard about vegan cheese is that it doesn't melt; well, I'm thinking the makers of VeganRella were trying to correct that problem and overcompensated a bit, because this stuff was super melty, like annoyingly so. It was almost watery, and when you bit into it it kind of coated your teeth and stuck to everything. Not good. So - does anyone have suggestions for vegan cheese that (1) melts, (2) doesn't taste like feet, and (3) doesn't coat your mouth and lips with a strange clinging goo???

A Day Late, but Worth a Look...

My Etsy-friend Abby posted this on her blog for Mother's Day yesterday. I just found it today and wanted to help spread it around to as many people as possible... some history and perspective on the original meaning of Mother's Day - fascinating and moving.