I forgot to remind people that the picnic is today. Well, if you are around Prospect Park today we will be picnicing by the picnic houses (how appropriate!). If you enter at the 5th street entrance walk past the road - we will be to the left of the picnic houses close to longmeadow.

I made 4 pies - cherry, blueberry, apple and cherry blueberry apple. When I ever I bake a lot of pies I get the urge to punch someone square in the face. I don't know why the violent reaction, it doesn't seem to happen when baking other things. Once all the pies crusts are rolled out though I feel a sense of elation and the anger goes away. I think that whatever the psychology surrounding this phenonomenon would give us some insight into Martha Stewart's life.

In any case the pies look great. And I made potato salad for the first time in my life. I don't know how I've escaped ever making it before but somehow life just turned out that way - my first potato salad at 32.

Well I hope to see some of you there (so that I can punch you in the face).

Russian candy found in Queens. They may feature an abducted child but they were vegan allright. Good thing she had a spare pompom for him because his hair was a mess before.

Making tempeh is something I've always wanted to do I just never had the tits to do it, but Rae at bunnyfoot has! It looks like a really great weekend project and I can't wait to try it - just as soon as it cools down enough for me to get into the kitchen again. Photos, tempeh instructions and an added bonus of improvising an incubator!

I got so caught up in my waitressing nostalgia that I forgot the true point of my writings - the Made Out Of Babies album is out and it is sooo amazing! Julie has the best voice and the music is like metal with a sense of fun. But I suck at describing music so go listen to them and buy their album.

My second point was that I got a vegan plate at Beso (5th ave off Union Street in Park Slope) and it was really delicious. It's not something that's on the menu but ask for it and they'll make you something - mine had sauteed spinach, black beans, this cool ball of rice, guac, mango salsa and perfect plantains.

Last night I went to visit my BFF Erica who bartends at Beso on 5th avenue. We used to waitress there together in the mid-nineties and I was fired because they said I was giving beer away for free but I swear I wasn't! Infact, the person who I supposedly gave beer to was the owner's brother. But that's besides the point - I just wanted it to go on the record that I wasn't stealing beer, not that there is anything wrong with stealing beer.

I miss waitressing, not in an I-long-to-waitress way but in the way that one sometimes romanticizes something after enough time has passed to forget the reality of the situation. My waitressing career lasted about 10 years and the funny thing is unlike some people who were aspiring actors or writers just paying the bills I actually had “waitress” in mind as a career goal. Since I was a little girl thought waitresses were cool, with their pens fastened into their ponytails and aprons and their holding a million things capability. And when I first became a waitress I loved it and I was proud of it once I became good at it. I prided myself on holding 6 plates at once, at being able to take the order of a table of 8 without writing it down, at negotiating with the cooks to get the table what they wanted.

Eventually though it wears you down - you see too much. Celebrities that don't tip (I'm looking at you Forrest Whittaker), busboys that lock you in the walk-in, tables of 20 that tip you 10 dollars on a $600 tab, managers and owners who just don't care how hard you bust your ass, demanding men who think that you are their whore throughout the duration of the meal. Not to mention aching feet and fucked up spinal chords. My waitressing career ended with a slipped disc and back surgery.

The part I miss is the action, the bonding with the other waitresses (and waiters), the way your mind zones out and all your other problems go away at a packed brunch. But luckily there are drugs for that feeling too. (Just kidding - kids don't do drugs! Stay in school!)

Now that the cookbook is pretty much done I have some ideas for my next ventures:

1) An all vegan cupcake book - perhaps only 25 or so recipes but each one will be like no other cupcake that exists, all with pictures and stories.

2) A brunch cookbook.

3) A kids cookbook that I want to co-author with my sister for my nephew Max.

I think I am having post-pardum book depression.

But first I am going to take a week long break from veganism. No, not a break from the vegan diet, just a break from talking about it, thinking about it, debating about it. It's weird, because I am not necessarily an animal rights activist, the meat and dairy industry disgusts me, testing make up on bunnies disgusts me, etc. But since I started doing the PPK and writing this cookbook I've really had to think about these things more than ever and it's become such a huge part of my life where as before it was just a given and just a small part of who I am. This isn't a gripe, I love being a part of the veg community. I've made so many good friends through all this and it's definitely secured my beliefs, but I feel like I'm neglecting other aspects of my life. What those aspects are? I don't know, I've forgotten what I did before all this but I will get back to you in a week or so and let you know.

tagged by   like a week ago but I just saw it. I'm not going to tag anyone else because we need to put an end to this madness.

Ten Things I Dislike (in no order)
1. Insomnia

2. Celery

3. Richmond

4. Small movie theatres

5. Cockaroaches

6. Dirty dishes

7. Bad vegan restaurants

8. Christian rock

9. The beach during the day

10. Speeding cars

Ten things I like

1. Air conditioned book stores

2. Camping

3. Cedar waxwings

4. The beach at night

5. Good vegan restaurants

6. Cats

7. Visiting mom at work

8. Kurt Vonnegut

9. Aimee Mann

10. Laughing

Peta's worlds sexiest vegetarian:

“Vegetarians are sprouting up all over Hollywood! Going green is all the rage among the red carpet set, as more and more celebs are embracing broccoli and giving beef the boot.”

So now in 2 years we can have a bunch of ex-vegetarians running around discrediting us. And thank you for the intelligent US magazine vernacular - I am going to start saying “All the rage” and “celebs”. The legitemacy of their claims* aside - what of the shag carpet set?

I would like to do a poll for the World's Most Busted Vegetarian. Featuring someone that is all worn out from fighting for justice their entire lives. Submit some nominees and then I'll start a poll. Barring that please vote for Weird Al for sexiest veg! Everyone vote Weird Al!

*American Idol winner Carrie Underwood was fishing in one of the AI montages, Avril Lavigne supposedly hunts and eats McDonalds. She may have just recently gone veg though, in which case maybe Peta shouldn't be jumping the gun - how many people go veg for 2 months then shit talk it for the rest of their lives?

Science has possibly discovered a way of growing meat in a lab from the tissues of animals. Of course some animals would still be used as “tissue donors” but I find myself hoping that it works. Of course I wouldn't eat it, but I'm wondering if others see this as a positive thing or as a horrifying thing.
Here's the link.

“Writing in the journal Tissue Engineering, Matheny said scientists could grow cells from the muscle tissue of cattle, pigs, poultry or fish in large flat sheets on thin membranes. These sheets of cells would be grown and stretched, then removed from the membranes and stacked to increase thickness and resemble meat.

Using another method, scientists could grow muscle cells on small three-dimensional beads that stretch with small changes in temperature. The resulting tissue could be used to make processed meat such as chicken nuggets or hamburgers…

Raising livestock requires million of gallons of water and hundreds of acres of land. Meat grown from tissue would bypass those requirements. “

I finally walked up to Nostrand Avenue and checked out this vegan Ital place I've been hearing about for years called Imhotep. It was worth is for the veggie patties - I will definitely go again - but it wasn't as good as Veggie Castle (a converted White Castle in Flatbush now featuring all vegan Ital food!). I am not crazy about stunt meats anyway, but if you are you would probably like this place. The veggie patties were filled with mashed potatoes that were green presumably from collards and kale. The crust was perfectly crisp and flaky - yum. The actual place was somewhat dreary, the tables had plastic coverings over animal print tablecloths and the seating area was small and cramped, but the people were friendly so whatever. The front of the space sold your average health food store items, bulk herbs and spices and a few things I just had to buy - chicken and beef flavored tvp chunks for instance.

For 9 bucks you get 5 items from the buffet, I chose green beans, fried rice, pumpkin, mock duck and chickpeas.

- drumsticks, bbq gluten and some other stuff. It's at 437 Nostrand Avenue off Park Place.