Coffee And White Russian ice cream, from Wheeler’s Black Label Vegan Ice Cream

And I mean the best ice cream you’ve (n)ever had. And it wasn’t just chocolate and vanilla or (god forbid) hemp and carob. Our choices were rum raisin, peanut butter, pumpkin and white russian, which tasted like a luscious liqueur spiked vanilla latte - only in creamy frozen form with a generous handful of white chocolate chips.

The namesake of the ice cream first made the ice cream in… god, he told me the whole story and I forgot. He either went to Harvard or MIT where they built replicas of 19th century ice cream makers. I think that’s why the texture of this ice cream is so slammin’, he built his own forking machine!

Judging from the highly uninformative website, the ice cream will be available in Boston sometime in November. This was their first business venture out. But I expect that he won’t have any problems getting it out to the masses sometime soon.

[stuff about cupcake drama deleted]

Other than that, we sold copies of Veganomicon like hotcakes and met lots of people that we had only known from the internet. Of course, we mostly stuck to our NYC friends who had a hard time figuring out how to use a cookbook.

Jason from supervegan.com and jimb and evelyn from veganfriendly.com, otherwise known as our friends.

We got some quality time with Lauren and Josh and picked up some promotional mini-book previews of Vegan Yum Yum. They are both coming down today for an event at Moo Shoes*, so we plan on getting even more quality time. In fact, maybe too much quality time. I’m beginning to feel like I need my space.

*That event is Josh reading from the latest issue of Herbivore. You should come and check out Moo Shoes’ new space. And, fine, listen to Josh’s reading, too. I think it starts at 8pm, but I can’t find the info on their site.

Terry and I are going to be at Boston Vegetarian Food Festival this Saturday with signed copies of Veganomicon. We’ll be at a table with Josh from Herbivore, and lolo from VeganYumYum. In other words, we’ll be at the most drunkest*, deranged and debauching table. We’ll be swiping goji berry juice samples out of people’s hands and pocketing vegan donuts. Stop by!

*God, just kidding! I don’t even drink and you should know that.

Olivia and Jessica selling raffle tickets for setting yourself on fire. Feds lurk in the background, dressed as farm animals. Like, duh, we’re on to you.

Okay, guys. We need some serious self-reflection as a movement. What happened at the Farm Sanctuary Walk For Animals can never happen again! This is how stuff always goes down and we are making little to no progress. Below are my suggestions for things that can be done differently next time.

1) Did we really need to flip over that hot dog cart? Yes, it was a daring daylight action, I’ll give you that. But what did it really accomplish? Those hot dogs are just going to be replaced with other hot dogs and now the hot dog vendor hates vegans and will probably never go vegan. And I had actually been outreaching him for a few weeks now, I think he was about to go at least pesco.

2) The walking on all fours thing. That was sort of…creepy? I don’t know, I understand wanting to be in solidarity with our non-human brothers and sisters, but it still came off as speciesist. Some animals walk on 2 legs, you know. Some don’t even walk. I think the point was lost on everyone.

3) When was the last time slapping milk bottles out of baby’s hands ever changed anything? Besides, we don’t know for sure that it was cow’s milk in those bottles and we…wait, one sec. BRB.

Oh, okay, the lab tests just came back and it was confirmed to be cow’s milk. But my original point still stands.

4) We are against the horse carriage rides. Why were people “liberating” the pedicab cyclists?

5) Nice to say that we were all going to set ourselves on fire afterwards and then look around to see who else was setting themselves on fire and when you see that no one else was because they were looking around to see who else was doing it and so you don’t set yourself on fire. So, fine, no one set themselves on fire. But you can not then go around setting everyone else on fire except for yourself!

I don’t know, the examples just go on and on. I am really dismayed and just feeling a general lack of unity, support and respect. See the carnage for yourself then tell me if you think I am overreacting.

The 80s weren’t afraid of anything. Even the wholesome family sitcoms covered the issues. Drug addiction, child molestation, racism, homosexuality. And that was just one episode of the Golden Girls. I know that liberal-minded people think that the world has become more conservative and conservative-minded people think the opposite, but I think that today’s political climate makes the Tipper Gore VS Twisted Sister controversy seem downright innocent.

Thanks to everyone who participated in this Give Away for bringing back so many memories. I always wonder how I knew what a vegetarian was as a child, and it must be because of some TV show in the 80s. I definitely never knew any real life vegetarians.

But there can only be two winners. After weeding out my friends from the entries, I’ve decided on Mary’s ALF submission.

“Someone already mentioned ALF’s love for eating cats, but in episode 46 of season 2 ALF attempts to get rid of a a stray dog the family has taken in that is garnering attention away from ALF. ALF gives the dog to a mean woman in the neighborhood.

ALF also saves a cockroach that has invaded the house from the family - Willie keeps trying to spray it with insecticide.

There are many important AR references in ALF.”

Yeah, mumbles had already brought up Alf, but I know him and he doesn’t cook anyway.

“I’m going to make the case for ALF. Every time he tried to eat the Tanner’s cat, he challenged our speciesist hypocrisy by highlighting the absurdity of treating some animals as food sources and others as cherished companions. And he does that in just about every episode. Probably overplaying the message a little, honestly.”

Plus Alf is like A.L.F. and that joke never gets old.

The next winner is Sangu for Punky Brewster.

“There was an episode of Punky Brewster where her dog, Brandon bites a neighbor. The neighbor wants him put down, but it turned out that the neighbor was beating her daughter so Brandon bit her to protect the girl. It ended up being an animal/child abuse/dog saves the day/dog gets to live episode.”

I like this one because it makes connections between human and non-human abuses. And, fine, because I loved Punky Brewster.

As for the Mr. Belvedere thing, that episode where Kevin gets arrested for spray painting fur coats completely inspired me! I know that he gets arrested and the lesson is not to spray paint fur coats, but all that I took from it was that it is awesome to spray paint furcoats. Not that I advocate spray painting fur coats!

Thanks to everyone who participated. It was a really tough decision and some stiff competition. I’d like to leave you with a video from an also-ran, because in the 80s you were allowed to call poachers evil without fear of being branded judgmental even if you were a four foot tall purple alien. And even if it was the 90s. (But really the early 90s were just what I call the post-80s.)

Is there anything vegan about these people?

Name a tv show from the 80s or 90s that has an animal rights episode. There were many - so name the show and what the episode was about. Bonus points for youtube clips! I’ll pick 2 people to receive Veganomicon. Have fun!

Edited: After a little complaining, I changed the rules from sit-com to any TV show and changed it to involve the 90s as well.

Way to straighten up for the media. Also, nice dirty apron.

This article features just about everyone in the vegan baking world, but the picture is of me so that’s all that matters. Because I am narcissistic to compensate for my low self esteem. In any case, even without me, it is a really nice article about vegan baking for the Associated Press, which will get lots of exposure. So yay.

That’s quite a manicure, Moskowitz.

There’s also a recipe for Orange Chocolate Chip Biscotti that goes along with the article, but strangely they aren’t in the same news pieces.

Have a great weekend, everyone! I hope to see you at the NYC Walk For Farm Animals on Sunday. And visit the blog on Monday for the next Veganomicon giveaway!

Broccoli Rabe, Capers and Garlic Pie 

I’m not sure what I did before Pizza Plus. Wandered around the streets of Park Slope aimlessly, bumping into baby carriages, eavesdropping on home-owners’ tax conversations and the injustice of it all. But now my life has a point, and that point is Pizza Plus.

In the past I’ve been known to say things like “It melts. So what?” But Pizza Plus seems to have found the perfect melting point for Follow Your Heart Cheese. I feel like the Germans must have a phrase for this melting point because they have a phrase for everything. But it comes out of the oven drippingly hot, then cools down ever so slightly to become…well, cheese for lack of a better word.

Mushroom, Tomato and Basil Pie 

Everyone who works there is really nice and Brooklyn accents are included. They also have a range of fresh, creative toppings. So far my favorite pies have been 1~ broccoli rabe, capers and garlic 2~pineapple, peppers and soy sausage 3~tomatoes, basil and mushroom (also with garlic cause that’s how I do.) And since it’s a real pizza place and not a vegan place they don’t completely rip you off. Yeah, I said it.

Call ahead to make sure they have soy cheese, just in case!

And down the block The Chocolate Girl serves vegan soft serve in chocolate dipped and sprinkled cones. Not quite chocolate-y enough for me, but beggars can’t be choosers.

SonOfSeitan aka Mike Desert aka Mike Sunburn was the clear winner of the limerick contest with such gems as:

There once was a vegan from Tempe
She loved to suck cork quite a plenty
With an Italian one night
Though try as she might
His erection was barely al dente.

And his softer limerickal side:

Our planet is all going to shit
A fact that few people admit
The cows burp and fart
Up pops a Wal*Mart
As I shine an apple off with my spit

But there was a total conflict of interest there because he was a Veganomicon tester. So he’s going to be getting his book early, plus another book later, but I have to pick a second winner. So after a couple of quick IMs with a few accomplished limerickcists I settled on sugarbeettree:

My date likes to fondle the fruit.
My asparagus thinks it’s quite cute.
But when en route
to a steamy en croûte
beware the covert ginger root.

I’m not sure what it actually means. But I think what we’ve learned from all this is that either vegans suck at limericks or maybe everyone sucks at limericks or maybe limericks just suck.

Thanks everyone for playing! Sugarbeet, send me your address!

The next contest will probably be over the weekend and definitely will not involve rhyming.

This is the first in a series of Veganomicon giveaways. We’re going to start off easy with a vegan limerick contest. I’ll choose my favorite limerick from among the applicants and send the winner a signed copy of the book tomorrow. You’ve got until 3pm EST Thursday October 11th to harness all the power of your third grade writing skills and post the best vegan themed limerick you can. The clock starts….now!

These are for Jill, who was looking for a gluten-free Thanksgiving main dish, and she specifically requested something that could be “molded.” Since I guess vegans are compelled to mold stuff on Thanksgiving.

I think this recipe fits all the vegan stereotypes that we’ll start seeing in the “funnies” over the next couple of weeks, gearing up towards the holidays. It’s made of chickpeas, tempeh and tofu. The texture is meaty but with that characteristically vegan mushiness we all love so much. It’s spiced with fennel, sage and just a little hint of liquid smoke. I couldn’t think of a good name for it but then Verdura on the PPK message boards suggested loaffins, and how can that be denied?

It was a fun meal to make because while creating recipes for Veganomicon we were very careful to make things supermarket and omnivore friendly, so we often had to show restraint with things like tempeh and nutritional yeast. But this recipe was like all-out swinging from the chandelier vegan.

I’ll put the recipe up in a bit, I have to go take these x-rays down to the lab. (That’s what people in soap operas say when they need to end the scene and don’t feel like panning in on the actress’s face.)