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.

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!

Terry and I demo’ed a recipe at the BBG Chile Fest yesterday and although rife with drama (or maybe because it was rife with drama) it was a good time. The first weird part was that there was no one to introduce us - a fend for yourself sort of thing. The second weird part was that it was outdoors and there was no amplification. So everyone was shouting for us to talk louder (mostly my mom that traitor!) and there were planes flying overhead.

I implore the masses to go vegan

At one point my pushy pregnant sister actually came up to the front, got up in my grill (no pun intended) and told us we had to talk louder and we had a big sister fight in front of everyone. Somehow Terry and I still managed to complete the recipe - Yucca Latkes with Chocolate Chile Mole and Apple Salsa. The samples we prepared ahead of time came out cold but that didn’t seem to stop anyone.

Anyway, I love the gardens and I it was great to be able to do the demo but from now on I am going to make sure that our demos have mics, because shouting and cooking is no fun. My spies told me that people were whispering “You can’t have Hannukah without eggs!” Yeah, just watch us!

Yucca Latkes with Chocolate Chile Mole and Apple Salsa

Terry and I will be doing a food demo at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden Chile Fiesta on Sunday Sept 30th. We’ll be doing Jewish-Latin Fusion; yuca latkes with chocolate chile mole and apple salsa. Plus, we’ll have mexican hot chocolate mini cupcakes to share. We’re on from 4:30 to 5:15. Every year I’ve been there there’s been a vegan chile and barn dancing under a tent. Sold?

Image stolen from hoveringdog

I love Portland. It feels like a living, breathing John Hughes movie, but without the preppy characters. I’ll be there in a week or two, but unfortunately I’m going to miss the Cookie Contest at the Herbivore Store (read the newspaper blurb - and people say vegans are hostile!) But thanks to Julie Hasson, my maple walnut cookies will be fully represented!

VWAV Maple Walnut Cookies, from serenakrantz

But how will maple cookies go over in Portland? Will they be able to embrace their Vermont brothers and sisters? Will they suffer for their lack of hempseed? Julie and I are not above breaking a few kneecaps to make sure they come out on top, keep that in mind.

This post was left on the PPK message boards.

Theres something new in Bloomington, it’s called the Blooming-Vegan Brunch!

It is basically a party outside every Sunday serving all vegan food. The location is not important and will preferably be different every time. While it is nice outside still, it will be outdoors. In the winter, who knows.

Live music will be present. It will be non-profit. It will be fun. We want ideas and creative people, this will hopefully become something bigger than what it sounds like right now. The possibilities are endless and theres no way for us to limit what will happen. So anything you want to make happen will likely happen, as long as you make it happen…. know what I mean?

I’m looking for anyone that wants to be involved. There are tons of ways to contribute including cooking, making decisions, pulling strings and as previously mentioned, making shiitake happen.

Email us at BloomingVeganBrunch@gmail.com with interests or questions!

Spanks,
The Art-Official Crew

I suck. I should have posted this weeks ago but I have the weight of the world on my shoulders or at least the weight of the Veganomicon manuscript, and hot damn that forker is heavy.

This Thursday June 21st 7 pm at Vox Pop we’re going to have dinner and the soothing punk rock of Eric Petersen. Yeah, Cortelyou Road is the new Ludlow Street. Next thing we know there’s gonna be a vegan restaurant in Sheepshead Bay, that’s how we’ll know that everything is over and it really is time to move to Queens.

I’m not sure what dinner will be yet, perhaps a homemade Thai Curry? There will also be Dog Fish Head beer on tap!

I have lived in NY all my life and it is seemingly impossible yet indeed the reality that I had no idea what the Javits Center really was or where it was or what I was in for. It spans three city blocks and sits right on the West Side Highway, which I’ve surely walked dozens of times, so how could I miss it? I think that sometimes when you hear certain things so often (and “Javits Center” is certainly a phrase that pops up on NPR and infomercials several times a day) you just assume that you know what they are. Same thing with “school vouchers”, or “post structuralism.” I’m clueless, but if there was a lively dinner conversation about them I would just let context be my guide and assume I was an expert.

The Javits Center is the kind of building that strikes me as a wonderful structure to inhabit after the apocalypse. Steel beams, glass ceiling, glass everything actually. Terry, a convention pro, led the way as we roamed its emboothened (I just made that word up! It means “a large space that has booths”) aisles collecting books and comics, mango martinis and aprons. And I will never be for wont of a tote bag again. Thank god for swag.

Anyway, long story short, we signed books, gave out cupcakes and shmoozed. And if anyone ever told me that Clinton’s Chief Weapons Inspector would be helping me decorate cupcakes someday I probably would have thought, “Yes, of course he will.”

Scott Ritter finds cupcakes of mass destruction

Terry and I being foot soldiers

What’s that lurking in the background?

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I look like a Jewish grandmother, but whatevers.