Beer is Vegan!

Raw for Lent: Day 42- END!

2011-04-21T01:12:00.006-04:00

Weds, Day 42

Raw rev for and at work which led to trader joe's pom juice for dinner. I cut up avocado and cuke for dinner.

Went and saw ave Q and it was AMAZEBALLS!

Evening snack was pecans and strawberries.

Meme:

day 21 - a song that you listen to when you’re happy

I heavily favor contemporary trashy dance music for my happy times, but I spent so many nights getting ready to go out to the sounds of this song that I can't deny its awesomeness.

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thurs, 43

Breakfast was chia goodness with fresh strawberries, almond milk before heading to the barn. Unfortunately, I totally hit the ground off old Nissa, but I am fine and got back on.

When I got home from the barn, Let Me Crazy was at my house. Post-ride protein shake was more strawberries, almond milk and blueberries with sunwarrior. I ran out to teach, then came back and sliced up a cantaloupe then went to play at the nightlight.

There will be video of this show on Youtube later.

The Crazies and I went to cosmic so they could grab some late night dinner, and I noshed strawberries as we talked into the night.

day 22 - a song that you listen to when you’re sad

in general, this band is inextricably linked in my mind with the general suicidal malaise of my 14 year old self. However, an actual dronecore song about failing to kill yourself is pretty much the icing on the cake for me.

---

Fri 44

I popped a raw rev for breakfast, then went to the gym. When I got back, I cut up a cantaloupe. For dinner, I spun up a walnut sun dried tomato pate and ate it with carrots. Then we went to Greensboro and rocked the shit out of Panda Pile.

day 23 - a song that you want to play at your wedding

My imaginary nonexistent wedding would need to feature this song:

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sat, Dat 45

Lunch was a whole foods spinach and avocado salad. I noshed it through the whole day. I also got my veganessentials order in, so I ate some strawberries with raw nutella, which lacks the spreadability of regular nutella, but is still delicious.

Dinner was kombucha.

When I got off work at 12:30, I walked to McCabes and had a shot of Makers and a PBR. Yeah, started out classy like that.

Raw over.

day 24 - a song that you want to play at your funeral

This is hopeful.

--

Easter Sunday:

I ate raw strawberries at work and geared up for my first meal!

Yamazushi in Durham

Ordered a Seaweed Salad, Miso Soup, Hijiki Rice and Shitake Mushrooms.

This was way too much food but was incredibly tasty. I look forward to frequenting yamazushi.

day 25 - a song that makes you laugh

Maybe it's because I just saw it, but this popped into my head immediately.

Raw for Lent: Day 40-41

2011-04-18T18:26:00.008-04:00

Monday, Day 40...outta the desert!

This morning, I popped a raw rev bar before hitting the gym (didn't want anything too heavy to interfere with working out) and then came home and mixed up a batch of my Kale salad with sesame, along with 5 shredded carrots and a pint of grape tomatoes.

Had a quick band practice, then ate half a cantaloupe and some prunes before heading out to see Scream 4 with Sick and Sean in Apex (it was a safari!). When we were walking up to the 10:10 showing, a mom and her 9 or 10 year old son came up in front of us and bought tickets to Hanna (the movie about the girl who is trying to kill her mother before her mother kills her?). Parenting winning!

Scream 4 was alright. It reminded me a little of watching "Scary Movie" except not as LOL funny. It was pretty nice to see how "meta" (its own words) it was, though. Also, Rory Culkin is a grown up! And someone decided to cast this whole movie from ABC family and Nickelodeon TV shows.

When I got home, I had some grapefruit, then took a 4 hour nap before the Forthrights showed up to crash.

day 19 - a song from your favorite album

Yeah, I think this might be my favorite album. I don't know, though. It definitely is today.

---

Tues, Day 41

For breakfast, I had the other half of the cantaloupe and then rolled up some cucumber avocado "sushi".

I did a little light cleaning, then tossed together an almond milk, strawberry, chia goodness, chia seed mess for my dinner to sustain me through work.

At work, my car got towed. Well kind of. I just had to pay some dude $125 to NOT tow my car. Thanks, world. Met up with Sick, Heather and Miss Steve at McCabes for a minute after.

When I got back, I was ridiculously tired but also tummy growling hungry, so I had some kimchi and then passed out.

day 20 - a song that you listen to when you’re angry

Oh Courtney Love, you always know what to say.

Raw for Lent: Day 38-39

2011-04-18T00:38:00.000-04:00

Sat Day 38

Saturdays are lousydays. Today's meals were made up entirely of spinach salad with guacamole (eaten before and after work), a grapefruit and some cashews. Mike in the kitchen cut me up some celery and radish. Yes, that's all I ate. FML.

day 17 - a song that you hear often on the radio

I feel like I can't turn the radio on without hearing this song on the band like 3 times. Also note, worst music video ever.

Sunday, Day 39, after working Saturday night, I got up to go to brunch only to find it had been canceled. So Sarah ran to Whole Foods and picked up the Sunday Times and some Kombucha.

Worked until 4, then hit McCabes to enjoy some of the afternoon sitting outside and noshing Strawberries. I ran home, fixed a bowl of Chia Goodness with extra chia seeds, strawberries, blueberries and prunes in almond milk, then put on some extra warm clothes and headed to Durham Central Park to watch Who Took The Bomp? outside as part of full frame. The movie totally brought me back to what it was like when I used to have the opportunity to see Le Tigre all the time. And boy, do I miss that time.

We stopped by Fullsteam (who has some kind of Pear Ale? Interest piqued!) for DJ Mel York, who spins pretty rad tunes, then I headed home since I have an interview in the morning.

day 18 - a song that you wish you heard on the radio

Rather than choosing something that would never, ever appear, how about an appeal. Classic rock radio, these guys should count!

Raw for Lent: Day 37

2011-04-15T22:20:00.004-04:00

Got up this morning and had a coconut water before heading to the gym. I came back, nursed my sunburn wounds, applied sunscreen, then had some pineapple and went to the barn. I took out a new dude named Koko who had been previously lamed but is now back in commission as of my riding him. He's super friendly. Also took out my white pony boy Poncho.

When I got home, I had like 3 minutes to shower and get prepped for the raw food potluck in carrboro. So I showered, then sliced up more carrots and celery to go with the pate.

At the potluck, there was all kinds of good stuff. One of the guys makes sauer kraut, which was crazy delicious (so much better than out of a jar). One couple brought a spinach, mushroom, onion and seed salad and another pair brought an avocado, cherry tomato and onion salad, which worked really well as a dressing for the spinach salad. Everyone was really nice and we all hung out. They had an aerial silk thing, but my legs were so shot from all the activity that I declined to try. Also, not graceful, at all.

So now I'm home, sorting through old clothes and planning lessons for tomorrow morning. This weekend is gonna be ROUGH but it's the last one before Easter, woot woot!

<3

Crap, skipped a day on the meme.

day 14 - a song that no one would expect you to love

I think this song is terribly sweet and awfully romantic. Even though, I know, it really isn't.

Raw for Lent: Day 35-36

2011-04-15T02:18:00.005-04:00

Weds, Day 35

*burnout central is hitting, y'all)

Bfast: banana and an uli mana truffle for energy

Hit the mechanic, then came home and organized a little.

lunch: 4 kiwi and some pumpkin seeds. I'm trying to choke back the pumpkin seeds, but I just don't really like them on their own.

For dinner I brought blueberries to work, then met up with my friend Sean at my house before quiz. I cut up some crudite then we headed to Bulls for pubquiz, where the middle round was MUSICALS! We of course, swept it. Although boo for no Sondheim, Porter, Lloyd Webber...Bummerriffic!

When I got home, I whipped up a batch of the sundried tomato-walnut pate and snacked on that with the rest of the carrots and celery I cut earlier.

day 15 - a song that describes you

I listed this song as a song that described my life when I was in 11th grade. It still applies.

Thurs Day 36

Breakfast before the barn was chia goodness with frozen blueberries and almond milk. Very hearty.

I hit the barn and did a very nice lesson, but made the mistake of riding in a wifebeater so am now rocking some lobster sunburn.

When I arrived home, I spun myself some pate and cabbage, then got ready to go teach. I popped together a quick shake of just pineapple core, frozen strawberry and sunwarrior, with a water base. I drank a cup on the way to teach, then headed to Scotty Sandwich's birthday party, where we played a show. Afterwards, we pubcrawled awhile, then I had a handful of pecans and passed out.

day 16 - a song that you used to love but now hate

I just overdid it on this song so hard.

Raw for Lent: Day 34

2011-04-13T12:33:00.002-04:00

Ah! 12 days to go! Whee!

Got up this morning and fixed myself the rest of the nacho and walnut dips with some cabbage. Tried to get some work done cleaning up the house a little.

Made a protein shake for work--

1 scoop sp

1 t spirulina

1 c blueberries

1 c strawberries

1/4 c macadamias

1 c chia

1 c h20

Which I took in. Got off around 10:30, then hung out with some folks for a couple of hours and came home and had some grapefruit, dates and pecans.

More meme:

day 13 - a song that is a guilty pleasure

I don't necessarily believe that you should feel "guilty" about things you like musically, particularly since they're not actually bad for anything but your cred. That said, I probably take a fair amount of shit for liking this. I don't care, though. I still do.

Raw for Lent: Day 32-33

2011-04-11T23:12:00.002-04:00

Sunday, Day 32

So today was the first day that the restaurant I work at ran brunch. You all know that I am a huge fan of LUNCH and its foods; sandwiches, soups, bento boxes. I don't much care for brunch. I'm just tossing that out there. I packed a banana, a mango/coconut juice and half a honeydew (and I already had a 1/2 jar of kimchi I'd left from the night before) to cover the long shift; almost a 9-5!

When I got off work, I came home, then set some nuts to soak to try some new recipes. I ran out to teach a lesson while things were soaking, then went to borrow my friend Sarah's laptop, hit whole foods for missing ingredients and some foodstuffs for the week.

At home, I spun up two recipes from Eating Raw for Dummies. I did their butternut squash nacho sauce, which tastes a lot like spicy, noochy red pepper hummus. It's definitely tasty.

However, the walnut sun dried tomato pate is WHERE IT'S AT.

1.5 C Walnuts, soaked at least 3 hours
6 T sun dried tomatoes, soaked at least 1 hour
(reserve the sun dried tomato soak juice, you will need about 1/2 cup of it )
1/4 c basil
1 clove garlic
1 T oil
1 T Nama Shoyu
2 T lemon juice

Toss everything in the blender

I ate these dips with cauliflower and a red pepper. Found myself downing the pate much quicker.

I then stayed up very late, laying out the new Pink Flag EP coming out on June 18!!!

Meme:

day 11 - a song from your favorite band

Superlatives are definitely not my forte. But if I had to choose, I would probably say that this is my favorite song by my favorite band. At least, tonight it is.

Monday, Day 33

This morning, got up and finished the designing then went and got a wax for the first time in like 3 months.

Princess got back from her comps and I let her try the dips with some flax crackers, and she agreed they were both good but the walnut was the winner. I fixed some cabbage to eat with the dips, then set about cleaning up some.

I spent most of the day trying to get the house in order for a prospective roommate who didn't call/didn't show so she's out of the game. In the afternoon, I finally worked up the guts to try perfect food. It is really not as bad as everyone said it was. I mean, it is ROUGH by itself mixed with water, but so is protein powder. The worst part is the smell; it smells just like fish food, but doesn't really taste like anything to me...then has kind of an icky aftertaste. After choking half a glass down, I just tossed the rest into a smoothie with a cup of blueberries, a cup of strawberries, 1/4 c of macadamias and what was probably a 1/4 scoop superfood.

Later I had some raspberries, two kiwis and a couple of pickles. I wish today hadn't been eaten by so many "managerial" activities. It turned out to be really nice and I would've liked to have gone to the barn. So now, I squeezed some lemon and agave into some water and am having a lemonade as an evening snack. :)

day 12 - a song from a band you hate

Hate is a strong word for bands. But if I have to choose a band I hate, it's probably this one.

Raw for Lent: Day 30-31

2011-04-09T16:09:00.002-04:00

Fri Day 30!!

Got up and raced out to the bard (drank a mango/coconut water) and some canteloupe for bfast, but got my lesson mixed up.

Came home, made some Parfait chia/pear cream:

1/2 c soaked cashews

1 pear

juice of 1/4 lemon

Then mixed it with strawberries and blueberries.

Also made a shake

1 scoop

1 spirulina

1 banana

1 c strawberries

1/2 c blueberries

1/4 c macadamias

ate some pickles when I got home

Meme time!

day 09 - a song that you can dance to

I love dance music. Like, truly, I have an unhealthy love for it. But, if I had to pick the song that I like dancing to most, it would probably be this, because it combines my propensity for spookiness with a love for 80s music.

Sat Day 31

raw organic (last one), pineapple and coconut water.

bought raspberries, a pure cherry and coconut water at trader joe's.

Ate kimchi at restaurant job, left half for Sunday morning shift.

Honeydew after work.

SO exhausted.

day 10 - a song that makes you fall asleep

I went to sleep listening to this album (and therefore, most of this song) every night for about a year. I still call it my "migraine" record, because it always makes me feel relaxed

Raw for Lent: Day 28-29

2011-04-08T00:45:00.004-04:00

Weds Day 29

Today was another emerald kale salad dayyyyy. I put together a batch last night then just sort of chomped it down throughout the day, which was, of course, bear work day.

I had servings of salad before restaurant, after restaurant and before teaching, after teaching/before quiz and after quiz. After quiz I also chomped down on a grapefruit and some dates with their pits out and cashews shoved in instead. :) Those cashew date things were totally calling my name last night.

I also got this rad new app that identifies what you've eaten based on pictures. It's called "Meal Snap"-- it even identifies refuse food!

Meme time!

day 07 - a song that reminds you of a certain event

I feel like music is always linked to events in life, but there is one particular event, where I had an awful night and my best friend (and I should've known it at the time) met me at Kings Point Park and tried to teach me to slowdance while we listened to:

Day 29

Got up this morning and humped over to the gym, where I worked HARD man.

Afterward, I popped half a cantaloupe, then headed to the mall on an impossible mission: looking for a bathing suit that covers my stomach without ruffles or sequins or an ugly print or a skirt attached to it. I can rock neither a bikini nor a 10 year old girly girl special. After approximately 30 stores (seriously, I mall walked the HELL out of crabtree valley) and could not find one. I'm reminded of the great shorts debacle of 2010 (trying to find a pair of shorts with a hem, no sequins or words written on the ass, no fake spray paint but also not up to my boobs/down to my waist). Anyway, finally found something black, plain enough and decent at a sporting goods store.

When I came home, I prepped a new batch of kale, then ate a couple of pickles and headed to see Paul, the stoner-comedy flick about an alien road trip. It was really cute; Pegg and Frost have a real knack for genre comedy.

When I came home, I pounded the kale salad and am now soaking some cashews to make pear cashew cream for tomorrow. Anyway, I had some coconut water and am going to bed.

day 08 - a song that you know all the words to

I not only know all the words to this song, but to every song on this album, and probably every song on every blur album (including b sides) that predates this one too. To say I was a Blur fan back in the day would be an understatement.

Raw for Lent: Day 27

2011-04-06T00:16:00.003-04:00

This morning I got up much later than I anticipated (I had hoped to get my car mirror fixed before I went to the gym) but instead just got up, made breakfast:

1 scoop sunwarrior

1/2 T spirulina

1 c chia gel

1/4 c almonds

1 c water

1 c strawberries

I'm finally getting the proportions down somewhat, so I could actually nearly drink it out of a pint glass.

I went to the gym and also brought my trainer a scoop of Sunwarrior so he could use it on the gym's "go vegan" week (since he is anti-soy). We will see, if he's used to protein powder he might like it. For me, it's not terrible, but the stevia flavor really drives me kind of nuts. I am not a huge fan of artificial sweeteners.

After I got home, I worked on some financial stuff and then had a raw bar because I had another appointment this afternoon; Pole Dancing class.

Yeah, that's right. I caved on a $15 deal on living social and bought a set of 6 classes at a studio here called Vertical Tease. So I wandered around looking for this joint for like 10 minutes, finally found it and joined into the class. We warmed up pretty easy, just a lot of bending and stretching and a little light strength stuff, then we got into it. We learned:

"sexy walk" - parading around the pole and dragging yr toes on the ground behind you (which gives you gummy toes)

"pirouette" - a slightly more complicated move where you pivot on one foot and end up with your back to the pole

"drop" - where you fall backward down the pole and land on your back (holy fuck, I got some bruises on my ass, thighs, shoulders, back and head from this bad boy)

"legs up" - which is basically propping yourself up in plow or neckstand in yoga, then bicycling your legs slowly. the teacher also did this thing that made her legs look like sea anemonies, which we all laughed at but she was like "dudes don't care what looks stupid, they are looking at what is between your legs."

"feet in" which requires you to do some kung fu, pick yourself up and get from your knees to your feet quick-like

"sexy up" which is basically standing up really slow from a touch your toes position

"fireman spin" where you grab the pole with your ankles and spin around to the ground (I have bruises on both of my feet as well as pole-burn,)

"leg wrap" where you spin around the pole, plant a foot then lift the other foot.

So what I learned is that pole dancing is way more painful and awful than I expected. The rolling around on a wood floor I always expected to be painful and bruising, but the amount of skin I left on that thing, especially off weird places like the tops of my feet and toes was truly unexpected. I have to be honest, the sort of sexy parading around and painfulness of it remind me altogether too much of what I would imagine a slave in a Dom/Sub relationship would be. So the place also offers Zumba and Kickboxing, so I'll pole dance maybe one more time in this "intro" class, but I think that it's back to kicking stuff for me. Horseriding provides me with enough stupid bruising and death defying stunts, thanks.

After class, I was basically in CH, so I went to Whole foods and got some more kale in order to make more of that awesome kale salad. It's marinating as we speak, although I may have used too much because it didn't have enough room to bruise when I shook it, but hey, I'm sure it'll still be tasty.

When I was driving, I noticed a gaggle of protestors lined up outside Planned Parenthood. I drive to Chapel Hill at least 2 days a week, usually 3-4 though. When I see a bunch of people there on Saturday Morning, it bothers me some, but I guess I'm just used to seeing the two women with no life protesting most of the time, at 4pm on a wednesday or 8 pm on weds. Seeing like 30 people outside of PP really irked me today. Women have a right to a yearly pap smear that they can afford. Women have a right to reasonably priced prenatal care. Everyone has a right to STD testing. Just imagine what it would be like if you were someone without health insurance, going to get cancerous cells burned off your cervix and a bunch of looney tunes yelled at you, spat at you, while you were going in to do what was probably the scariest thing in your life. Hell, imagine if you were getting an abortion (which, btw, I'm not even sure PP Chapel Hill provides in house. Every PP I've ever been to refers patients to private clinics for abortion services), it would still probably be scary and horrible. But for many women, so is the prospect of having a kid, especially when they are in circumstances where they need to go to planned parenthood (either because of insurance issues or age issues) to talk to someone about that kid. I swear, one day I'm gonna lose it, pull over and start a counter protest. /rant

Before prepping Kale, I went to pubquiz at the James Joyce, which is definitely not my fav pubquiz in the world, but it's better to get out of the house than watch primetime TV.

For dinner I rolled up some avo and cukes in nori, then ate some kimchi as well. Snack was some passionfruit juice.

I also ran across an amazing raw blog today...Raw on $10 a Day. Granted several recipes rely on a dehydrator (and I feel like the vitamix is a more realistic year round kitchen investment, which is why I bought it!) Some of these recipes look AMAZING though, like the pies. Holy balls, I want pecan pie.

For today's meme answer

day 06 - a song that reminds you of somewhere

This song will forever, in my mind, be linked to the S-Bahn, particularly overlooking the hotel Construction between Hackescher Markt and Alexanderplatz, overlooking huge construction projects in 2005. Whatever it was is probably finished by now. But goddamn, did I love this song.

Raw for Lent: Day 25-26

2011-04-03T19:58:00.012-04:00

Day 25

Breakfast was half a canteloupe at work. Work was rough, the backwait didn't show so we started out slow but then got busier and it was less than fun.

I taught in the afternoon, then had to run by my studio to pick up a check, then went by Whole Foods to do my shop for the week. I bought a little less than I have in the past to avoid it going bad, but also, bought something that I could tear into in the car like mongo because I was HUNGRY. I settled on "Just Apples" the dehydrated apple sticks that I liked as a middle schooler.

Dinner, I came home and had raw sushi (cuke, avo, cauli, nori and nama shoyu). Then I remembered that I still had that ice cream, which I wasn't stoked to eat, but I cut up some fresh strawberries into it, let it melt a little, and that was tasty.
For the meme;

day 04 - a song that makes you sad
Easy peasy. The first time I heard this song I wanted to cry. Then I went to college and I really started to understand it.

Day 26

This morning I spun some strawberries into some almond milk and mixed it with some Chia Goodness before heading to the barn to play with my Nissa kissa. She was in a kind of odd mood but I attribute it to the sudden warmth and massive windiness today (a standard got blown over while I was in the ring!). I've put up a picture of her here. She's not the most beautiful horse alive, but think of her kind of like a diesel Mercedes from the 80s. Old, yeah, maybe a little fussy at times, but a classic great ride.

I came home, showered, and spun a quickie shake:
1 scoop protein powder
1 tsp spirulina
1 c chia
1 cup frozen mixed berries
1 banana
1/2 c almond milk
2 leaves of kale

It was good, definitely drinkable and felt very healthy. I headed out to the store to try and find a bathing suit (I swear, I can't hang onto any of my one piece or tanktop suits to save my life) that covers my stomach (for some reason, all of the now UTTERLY inappropriate bikinis I own are easily located. I stopped in to Old Navy, which is full of the ugliest suits ever, then went over to Nordstrom Rack (I have almost dropped a dress size, but definitely have in at least Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klen. And before you judge...I just like to try on nice clothes!) then a quick browsing trip at Crate and Barrel (OMG the new store at southpoint is so NICE) then to target, where I had a contender (a converse one star suit) but it was sort of funny...really baggy around the middle, almost maternity-like.

When I came home, I busted out this amazing Kale Salad recipe, with a couple of changes:

1 bunch kale

2 T olive oil

1 1/2 T. sesame oil
1 tsp cayenne pepper
2 T nama shoyu
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 T sesame seeds (Holy shit, these are expensive!)

juice of 1/4 lemon
1 cup cherry tomatoes
1 carrot, grated

I would also bet that ginger is a good addition to this salad.

I also spun together 4 pink lady apples and a little agave and water to make apple sauce which I have been craving for days. I am still working on the apple sauce, but am definitely done eating for the day.

day 05 - a song that reminds you of someone

This song pervaded the break up with DE. I listened to it a lot of times.

Raw for Lent: Day 25

2011-04-03T00:17:00.001-04:00

Breakfast was a raw organic bar.

At lunch, I ran over to Whole Foods and grabbed a thing of guac and a bundle of celery, then washed the celery in the bathroom of my music studio and cut it with a plastic knife. HARDCORE, yo!

Dinner was a red pepper and an apple Pure bar-- definitely my favorite. Weird, since I generally don't like apple cinnamon stuff. At work, even though I was supposed to be last out, a girl traded with me, so I got to come home early and eat some kimchi while I started reading my GRE prep book. More info on that forthcoming, but right now...ah, I don't even wanna think about it.

The Meme:
day 03 - a song that makes you happy

Oh this is easy. It's the happiest song in the world!
(Please ignore random swedish people in the video)

Raw for Lent: Day 24

2011-04-01T14:50:00.003-04:00

Breakfast this morning was chia goodness, a banana, and the rest of my blackberries, swirled up in almond milk. Hit the gym, worked hard as a mofo. Sadly, had to shower again, but worth it!

I made a shake for work:
1 scoop Sunwarrior
1 tsp spirulina
1 c almond milk
1 c frozen mixed berries
1 pear
1 c chia
1 yellow mango

Then went to work. I got stuck at work pretty late and ended up missing most of the Hammer No More the Fingers CD release party for Black Shark. You should check it out, though, because it's a good record. I listened to like 3 tracks on the way home and have heard tons more at shows all the time :)

I had half canteloupe and a few nuts for post work/hammer show snack and am now just enjoying that I'm not on my feet anymore.

Oh, and continuing my meme:
Day 02 - your least favorite song

This is an easy pick. Not because I love so many songs (which I do) or because I hate so many (also true) but because this song comes with a story. A story that ended in disciplinary action. This song is sincerely torture. It is my Clockwork Orange style rehab thing. And when I was at summercamp, someone chose it as the song my bunk would do a dance to. I may or may not have damaged the La Bouche single. I plead the fifth.

Raw for Lent: Day 23

2011-03-31T14:53:00.009-04:00

Today I got up and attempted a recipe from CIG Eating Raw. It is a carrot ginger soup. I ended up tweaking the recipe a little because after I made it, it was bland.

7-8 Carrots, peeled and cut into 2 inch pieces
1 c h20
1/2 c macadamia nuts
1/2 avocado
2 T ginger
2 tsp nama shoyu
1 T lemon juice
1/2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp dill
1 tsp garlic
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp salt
few grinds of black pepper

I spun the big stuff (nuts, carrots, water) first to grind them down, then added the rest as it went on.

The soup is a sort of curry color, bright yellow and not the greatest consistency, but it's fairly tasty. It's best right out of the vitamix when it's just a little hotter than room temperature. I garnished with a little olive oil, which also helped the flavor I think. I might have added a little too much dill and a little too much garlic but I still feel like the soup is missing something.

I finished the grapefruit before showertime.

Later, I headed out to see Darren Hanlon at Casbah in their inaugural quiet show series. It was nice, he sang unamplified and played Punk's Not Dead as I requested, following it with an even more exciting quick verse of Anarchy in the UK! Videos forthcoming.

I finally broke down, tired of making food, and bought guacamole at Cosmic last night so I would have a snack. I mixed it with bean sprouts and then ate it in cabbage tacos.

On another note, my amazingly talented friend Rusty Sutton is the 30 day song challenge and I'm a big fat copycat, so I'm going to follow along his footsteps.

Day 1: My Favorite Song

I struggled a lot with what I would really consider my favorite song. Owing to overall plays, though, the convergence of several things I enjoy (dance grooves, noise rock, post-punk and ambient noise) and the fact that it is associated, forever, in my mind with going for long walks, I hereby nominate Ghinzu - Blow.

Raw for Lent: Day 18-22

2011-03-27T02:00:00.011-04:00

Saturday, Day 18

Today was the bear day at work; got up and headed to work. Snacked on a raw organic bar on the way over, then had several students in a row cancel, so I made a salad at the Whole Foods salad bar, tossed some guac on it and chomped away.

After teaching, I headed to the restaurant job. I brought a Pure blueberry bar and a pint of kumquats. Note; it is very hard to eat a whole pint of kumquats in one sitting. The sourness eventually started to irritate my stomach a little I think.

Tried Kevita, which is like an off brand kombucha. It is weird. I got the mango coconut flavor and it tasted sort of thick and slimy. I wouldn't recommend it, even though it is cheaper than kombucha.

Made kelp lasagna with the sun dried tomato sauce and cashew cheese. Kelp noodles are disgusting. They have the texture of the crunchy bits in seaweed salad. Alternately, think severely undercooked spaghetti. They also have that weird "packaged in some kind of preservative juice" seaweed flavor (kind of like the shirataki noodles) that I really couldn't get past. I cut up half a cantaloupe instead and ate that. Waste of good sauce. :(

Sunday Day 19

First meal was cabbage and dip. I didn't have to work in the morning, so I busted open my chocolate flavored Sunwarrior protein. Sunwarrior is a raw vegan protein powder that had the best rating of all the ones I looked at, has a complete amino acid profile and packs 20g of protein into a shake, which is probably quadruples my protein intake for the day.

The shake I made was:
1 scoop protein

1 tsp spirulina

1/2 c blueberries

1 banana

1 c almond milk

It wasn't bad just a little too sweet. The visual aspect was very unappealing; kind of a greyish sludge with black speckles in it. I sucked it down over the course of a night's work, then had the other half of the cantaloupe and some kimchi.

Monday. Day 20

Cherry Pure bar for breakfast, then went to do the major shop; I'm sick of a bunch of food so I ran through Goneraw.com and my Complete Idiot's Guide to Eating Raw for inspiration. Cukes are nowhere!!!! How the fuck can I make pickles?

Lunch was another protein shake:
1 scoop sunwarrior

1 c almond milk

1 c fresh blackberries

1 tsp spirulina

The shake was slightly better, and a slightly more purple hue.

While I spun the shake, I tossed together some guacamole and cut it down with peas. Sadly, I think I overused the peas, so it's a little too sweet. I ate it with crudite and Raw One flax crackers. They are pretty much exactly what I remember of raw crackers (crawkers!) which is to say satisfying, but sort of weirdly slimy from whatever they use to hold the cracker together. I also picked up a new type of Rhythm Chips; the bombay curry ones. Sadly, Whole Foods no longer had the other kinds. I missed the nachos :(

I also tossed together this green pea and almond dip recipe tonight. It was not really delicious. Maybe it would be better blended in vitamix, but here was just sort of minced and the consistency of quinoa or something. I quartered a red pepper and put the mixture into the quarters.

Tuesday, Day 21

Nearly halfway there!

This morning I got up, scarfed a banana and some coconut water then headed to the barn. I was able to jump Poncho, the little white pony on my own (outside of a lesson!) for the first time and even though the footing was lousy and I didn't know how much to do with him, we had a good time. Also took out Nissa, my old lady, who was also a good girl, although sort of lost it toward the end, which is fine. We were just hacking, so no real danger.

When I came home, I finally NAILED the protein shake!

1 scoop powder,

1/2 T spirulina,

1 mango

1 c chia gel

1 c almond milk

1 c blueberries

It actually tastes GOOD. Like jello pudding cups. Well, maybe not quite, but very similar. The Chia gives it a pudding quality I think. Tastes for real like chocolate pudding.

Wednesday, Day 22

For breakfast, had chia goodness with banana, a few blackberries and almond milk.

Made a shake:

1 scoop sunwarrior

1/2 T spirulina

1 c grapes

1 c almond milk

1 c chia

1 mango.

It was not bad. Filling enough and healthy feeling. We played a rock show with Turbo Fruits and Pujol (more information on that at the Pink Flag blog). Playing rock and roll without drinking is rough and stuff.

Had an apple, then came home and had a few cashews, then tried to eat a grapefruit and got tired halfway through so gave up and went to sleep.

Raw for Lent: Day 17

2011-03-26T01:16:00.002-04:00

This morning, I got up and went to the gym first thing, then came home and swirled myself up a new batch of non-chunky almond milk. I was going to try my chocolate Chia Goodness, but then realized it is only 88% raw :(! So regular Chia Goodness for me, with almond milk and a 1/2 banana (other half went into making almondbanana cookie dough to quell my sweet tooth). Chia goodness is every bit as awesome as I remember it being, sweet, toothsome, energy boosting!

I also tried another Pure vegan food bar; this time in cherry cashew. It was pretty good. Surprisingly still liking the apple ones best. I went to pick up my car from the shop (FINALLY!) and run some errands.

I grabbed the other half of the cantaloupe/spirulina shake to bring to work along with a raw organic bar (man I am getting lazy), and headed to work. Things were slow, so I got off right at 12 ish and Mishca called and dropped by with a prune shallot vinaigrette for me to use in my fav salad; chard, walnut and pear. I'm really looking forward to it. Spent a minute talking to the chef at the James Joyce, who told me that he sticks a lot of easily veganizable/vegan already food on the menu. So, Durham/visiting Durham vegans, there's another option for now!

As I was leaving I ran into Mark Gladness Band and we talked a little about the good feeling you get from stick-to-it diets and really thinking about food. He remarked that I am getting skinny...hooray, 10 pound mark is probably here!

After work snack is spinach dip with cabbage...it is now my favorite thing to pair with the spinach dip, like little edible spoons! Big long day tomorrow, will probably be full of bars and whatnot, but I'm feeling pretty good about the fact that I've been putting away 3-5 cups of fresh cut raw veggies a day thanks to dips. I could really use another recipe, since this spinach dip is good but feels like I'm going to get sick of it soon. I'll spend Sunday trolling goneraw.com unless a reader can think of something better :)

Raw for Lent: Day 14-16

2011-03-24T21:39:00.000-04:00

Tues, day 14:

I made raw granola, chia, banana and blueberry cereal for breakfast. I was gonna add almond milk, but it has separated and looks icky. The raw granola, btw, is tasty, especially after the chia gel softens it up.

Dinner at work was the leftover shake from day 12 and tomatoes.

Snack was cashews, pecan and grapes.

Weds, day 15:
I accidentally skipped breakfast, so ended up stealing blueberries from the kitchen for my breakfast. I definitely hadn't been eating enough because I kind of had that hunger headache feeling.

I hit up Whole Foods and picked up some guacamole and salsa to mix together (feeling so lazy) for snack. I peeled and chopped up some carrots and celery to eat with the guac, but also bought some kale chips (that were super expensive, but REALLY good) at whole foods by Rhythm Organic. I tried the "nacho" flavor because it had the most vitamin A but am excited to try the rest.

After teaching, I came home and spun together a new slightly tastier shake:1/2 cantaloupe
1 mango
1/2 c blueberries
1 c cabbage

12 oz coconut water
1 tsp spirulina powder

Drank half of it and had a pure apple cinnamon bar for dinner, went to quiz and lost it :(

It started pouring on the way home, so I sat in my car and listened to Room on tape until the rain let up, then I fixed myself the rest of the guac with some more carrots, celery, some cabbage and some cukes as well.

Day 16:
Got up this morning expecting my chia goodness to have arrived from amazon, but no dice yet. Instead, I tried my second "Pure" food bar: the "chocolate brownie" which actually tasted like a chocolate brownie; kind of like that Boston brand kind. It was trippy, but pretty tasty. I also chopped up a 1/4 cantaloupe, a banana, chia gel and raw granola for longevity.

I hit the post office and did some writing, then we had band practice, after which I whipped up a new batch of spinach dip and a new tub of cashew cheese (fermenting as we speak). After practice, I also noticed my Sun Warrior protein, chia goodness and kale noodles had arrived from amazon. I also went to drink some almond milk but it was all cheesy and curdled so I dumped it and set some almonds to soak for tomorrow's breakfast.

For dinner I made cabbage and cukes to eat with the spinach dip (which is really so much better after the onion has had a day to mellow out, but I'm hungry and sick of eating bar-food) and some passionfruit-grape juice and watching grey's anatomy because I totally without a doubt have a vagina.

In other news, I have now tried all of the Raw Revolution bars and actually kind of like their little bite sized awesomeness; theyre great for a little something sweet or a pick me up (and I feel like my supply is limitless). The best flavor by far is the chocolate coconut, which tastes kind of like a mounds bar. I still like the spirulina second best and all the rest are sort of whatever.

I have also been relying on the Raw Organic bars for snackeroos, which are okay but taste sort of like glue to me (I have the chocolate ones). Take what I say with a grain of salt; I don't really actually like chocolate. I only bought the chocolate ones because they were on sale and I'm cheap.

Raw for Lent: Day 13

2011-03-21T15:30:00.006-04:00

Breakfast (after job interview) was carrot and celery with some homemade guac (guac is easy, I tend to avoid the japs in it, but love adding tomato) especially after talking about craving it super hardcore last night. Went to the gym after breakfast and then finished off the green shake.
Instead of lasagna, I tossed together a sort of unbaked ziti situation. Zucchini spaghetti, cashew ricotta and tomato sauce. I tweaked the tomato sauce recipe to make it a little more saucy:

4 sun dried tomatoes
1 c cherry tomatoes
1 clove garlic
1 tsp basil

Process the cherry tomatoes, garlic and basil. Toss the sun dried tomatoes. Let soak for a little bit, then process (if you process too early, the sun dried tomatoes will catch on the blades and make a mess, especially if you like to use a shitty little hand processor like I do).It was really good, but too much sauce/chz for the amount of zucchini. I thought I had two, but I only had one. I was sad to waste good sauce, but I already did my shop for the week.

Later that evening, my gay husband Sean and I went to dinner and a movie. I chose this place Shaba Shabu because they have a roll there that is wrapped in cucumber instead of seaweed and rice, but they changed their menu and took it off. I asked if they could still make it, and they tried (it was kind of a mess) so I just got a salad. Sean and I talked about the whole "what are we doing with our lives" crisis and he ran an interesting idea past me. He hasn't decided yet and so I won't share it here, except to say that it's unexpected, but a good fit for him. You have my support love! <3

So yeah, they don't have the naruto roll anymore, and we went to see Cedar Falls, which was a kind of bizarre buddy movie about insurance sales. It was really cute, kind of funny (very much informed by Anchorman and other early 2000s era Will Ferrell vehicles) and starred Anne Heche, Ed Helms and John C Reilly, our favorite (or at least top 2) of the PT Anderson alumni. Anne Heche looks even more like an alien than she used to (is that possible?!) but we enjoyed it.

For a treat, I came home and made myself a bowl of the Rocky Mountain Creamery Raw Cashew ice cream. It's darker than you'd expect vanilla to be and has that kind of grainy, raw texture. I ground up some cacao nibs and almonds to put on top, as well as a few strawberries. Thestrawberries really were the treat, though. At some point, I'll make strawberries and cashew cream.

Overall I've been eating pretty well and the weight is not falling off me the way it did last year, which is a blessing and a curse. I'm still staying pretty active and probably getting more calories in because of all the work I'm doing. Either way, I feel a whole lot better than I did last lent. Being prepared is nice.

Oh yeah, also interviewed for a personal cheffing job today and didn't get it. Oh well. At least I got to wear my new Calvin Klein dress.

Days 10-12

2011-03-21T15:14:00.004-04:00

It was a rough weekend for foodstuffs; I worked Friday and Saturday nights and was at the barn on Sunday.

Friday, I essentially ate a raw bar, some fruit and wrapped the avocado in nori with tamari.

Saturday was a whole foods day-- I hit the salad bar and made myself a mesculin, cherry tomato, mushroom, celery, cucumber, onion, craisins, coconut flake and lemon juice.

When I got home from work, it was the Kimchi I'd been saving.

Sunday, I was finally off work, but headed out to the barn. Breakfast was a raw organic bar and an avocado. After the barn (which was awesome) I hit Earth Fare, whose raw selection is surprisingly not as good as i remembered it. I picked up some raw granola and raw cashew ice cream, both of which I look fwd to trying, but also some spirulina and made myself a green shake for dinner.

The recipe was
1 mango
2 c grapes (stems too!)
1/2 cabbage (in hindsight, this is WAY too much cabbage)
4 carrots
1 c blueberries
12. oz coconut water
1 tsp spirulina powder

The shake was kinda, well, spicy. It took me nearly 4 hours to get most of it down (but holy crap, when I put on my Calvin Klein dress this morning for the job interview the non-bloatyness seemed worth it), and I still have a little left. Overall though, I felt like it was a mega-healthy dinner.

Raw For Lent: Days 8 & 9

2011-03-18T01:14:00.003-04:00

Today (day 8) I got up and went into work where it was slow. I pounded the ceviche salad and drank some coconut water for breakfast then came home and assembled raw lasagna, using the premade "sauce" and cashew cheese as well as peeled slices of zucchini. It was really fucking good, just sayin'!

Ran to teach lessons, and was peeved because I bought these "raw revolution" bars on amazon, only to realize when they came that they're like, an inch by an inch. Not much belly filling. So I brought two of them to have one every couple of hours. As of this blogging, I've tried 3 of the 5 flavors. The Chocolate/Cashew one is VERY chocolatey, the Cashew one is good, but so far my fav is the spirulina kind. It makes me feel healthy. And tastes kinda green.

When I came home, I fixed myself a juice for dinner:

1 mango (peeled, seeded)
1-2 c grapes (stem ok)
1/2 c chia gel
1/4 c almond milk
2 c spinach

It was tasty-ish, not the best, but felt healthy enough. When I came home, I had some romaine hearts with the spinach dip. I spent like, 3.50 on this fucking Organic Girl brand shit because it's supposed to be like, washed

and clean and shit, and can I tell you something? I found BUGS in it. Dead bugs, sure, but BUGS. I am going back to Foxy lettuce, tout de suite. Fuck this boxed lettuce shit.

Day 9:

Woke up, and went into the pantry to open my Chia Goodness. They don't sell it at Chapel Hill Whole Foods anymore, but I guess the one I have has sat too long, the chia seeds attached themselves to the currants and it was gross so I chucked it. Instead, I made a chia, almond milk, raspberry and banana mix, wolfed it down and headed to the barn. After a lovely ride, I headed back to town, rolled some avocado in nori and then headed to work for St. Paddys day, bringing along a few more raw rev bars. which, for those of you who work in bars, know is not a favorite. Now I'm snackin on some cauliflower.

Doing okay. Craving a burrito hardcore.

Raw For Lent: Day 6-7

2011-03-16T00:42:00.000-04:00

So today was my off-tour prep shit day. I realized that since starting this, I've already dropped like 6 pounds, probably due to both dehydration and essentially not eating for 3 days. It's cool, though, since I'm sort of above my fighting size right now anyway. Good news: I totally am rocking the regular size jeans again as of today.

I got up early, cleaned up the kitchen as best I could, cleaned up my room a little too and then hit Whole Foods for what I refer to as THE GRAND EXPENDATURE (wherein I buy a whole bunch of supplies I don't usually have, like raw nuts, chiaseeds, maca powder, psyllium husk, etc etc) and get all my shit together. So I started the day by making a carafe of unsweetened almond milk, then tossed together my ceviche chard salad, let that sit on the table while I soaked almonds and cashews for the spinach dip and cashew cheese I planned to make. In the meantime, I tossed together a quick tomato sauce.

Quickie Tomato Sauce:

appx 1 1/2 c cherry tomatoes

2 cloves garlic
1 T olive oil

pinch salt
1 t basil

Spin that in the vitamix. I think it would probably be better if it were dehydrated as well, but I just let it sit out on the counter for a few hours, and am putting it in the fridge with the lid ajar to thicken it up a bit.

I cleaned the vitamix, then tossed together some almond chocolate nib cookies (they taste healthy) then went upstairs to clean myself in preparation for a rock and roll show! I plan to make raw lasagna later in the week, and since the cheeze takes a day to set and the sauce tastes better if it has achance to marinate, I figured I'd use my day off to get a head start.

I came back down, made cheese and dip, then made myself a little bowl with some guac and the spinach dip and some Go Raw! crackers (holy shit these rule!) and celery, then headed to Chapel Thrill to see my favorite band from 2009: The RAA!

When I got to the 506, Dork was still there, even though she said she was going to leave. The opening band, Pepper Rabbit were pretty good and I talked to one of the guys outside, they seem super nice. They're playing SxSW this week, so if you're there.

The Rural Alberta Advantage went on next and were fantastic as always. Even Dork stayed untl they played Frank, AB at the end of the set, because they were captivating and the mood in the room was great. I went home and totally passed out.

They also played a lot of stuff off the old album, including Don't Haunt this place:

And a sweet cover of Eye Of the Tiger:

Tuesday (day 7!) I got up early and went to the gym. I'm trying to make sure I eat every 2 hours or so but I'm kinda crappy at it so wish me luck! I had a cookie before the gym, then came home and set about making vegan sushi, with the cauliflower "rice," cukes and avocado. I wish I had pickled some radishes, but I need to get my pickling pants on and get to it. Also the cucumber harvest is apparently shitty because I haven't seen kirbys ANYWHERE.

I packed some chard ceviche for dinner and headed to work, pounding the last 3 dates I had in the car for some energy, then bounced around 10:00, got home, had some celery and spinach dip, dropped the cashew cheese (which is SO tasty!) into the fridge and went to sleep!

Raw For Lent: Days 3-5

2011-03-14T01:19:00.004-04:00

Day 3:

So Friday was actually an amazing day for me; I scarfed a banana then the whole band headed to my favorite museum (possibly in the world, now that they redid it) the MoMA, for an exhibit devoted EXCLUSIVELY to Picasso and guitars. After the museum, we stopped at Caravan of Dreams to pick up some vegan eats and live eats for me.
I ordered the live pizza and the nori salad sandwich, got a hot soup for my dad, as well as an avocado caesar and roasted veggies for my mom. Dork ordered a veggie burger and a salad. So, for those of you who followed my adventures last year, you may remember two things: 1 - I was hardcore craving bread by the time I got to NYC in 2010 and 2 - I got crazy fucking food poisoning at Pure food and wine. For those of you who have followed me longer, you'll know 2010 wasn't the first time I got food poisoning at Pure. This year,after eating this amazing pizza I literally said out loud, in the car with my mom "FUCK Pure food!" The pizza was amazing-- dehydrated chia crust, cherry tomato/garlic tomato sauce, pesto and cashew cream topped with cherry tomatoes, arugula, olives, sprouts and avocado. SO delicious that I'm considering getting a dehydrator. So my review: Caravan of Dreams. No other raw joint I've visited yet (except The Raw Choice lifestyle center, RIP!) has been worth your raw dollars. Also had a coconut mango pie that was just to die for.

Speaking of arugula, before the raw set in, my dadtotally bought us a box of rugulah, the jewish pastry treat. I kept offering it to Sick who was like "uh, no I'm cool" thinking I meant the spicy green, not the tasty cookie. Apparently they go quick. I hope my dad puts the rest in the freezer for when I am next home.

We played a good show in Brooklyn, then came home and had an evening snack (an avocado for me, a plate of chinese food for Dork).

Day 4:
Before Philly I had the nori sandwich, which was not quite as delicious as the pizza, but the chia onion bread totally made up for any topping shortcomings. My mom, as a going-away-good-luck present cut me up what I can only presume was an entire HEAD of iceberg lettuce, along with some radishes, cukes, string beans, broccoli and grape tomatoes and put it into a big freezer bag. You will laugh, but I carted that shit all over Philadelphia. I put it in the crisper of three separate punk houses. I snacked on it before load in. I snacked on it for breakfast. Aside from that sandwich, it was pretty much all I ate, and I'm cool with that.

Day 5:
I spent most of the day grazing on th rest of the salad my mom made for me. We stopped in DC (which was torture, since it was Asylum's vegan brunch!) and went to an asian restaurant where I got a salad (boring!) and drank water while we visited my awesome friend Chrissy. She just moved to a sweet apartment that's like, a 2 minute walk from the main drag of Adams Morgan and is apparently trying every ethiopian restaurant on the street so that when I come back after lent, we can get the very best. Hooray!

We rolled into dirty Durham at around 11:00, unloaded, dropped by my work so I could pick up a schedule (and found out that of course, I'm working St. Patty's Day) then came home where dork and I ate the only thing we each had in the fridge: KIMCHI! I just topped it off with a handful of almonds and am just about ready to go to sleep.

Sorry that this blog has been so foodcentric at first; most of the day-to-day ramblings are covered (or will be) in the band blog over at http://pinkflag.blog.com :)

Raw For Lent: Days 1 & 2

2011-03-10T20:50:00.004-05:00

DAY 1

Did I say woefully unprepared? I meant fucking seriously totally not prepared at all in any way shape or form. Last year, I was raw for about a month before tour, so used to it. This time, I was faced with the temptations of a vegan friendly city, life on the road and tiredness.

For breakfast I had some half sour pickles and a grapple (it's a genetically manipulated apple that tastes like a grape), which was disappointing because I was expecting it to be a braeburn or something. We arrived in Providence and AS220's menu looked SOOOOOO good, but I was good and got a kale salad, eating around the roasted squash. It gave me a great idea though-- pickles in salads. Also, pickled carrots. YUM. (This picture taken after decimating most of the kale).

Later that night I caved when a group of guys who had driven 2 hours to our show sent us a round of drinks, so I got a wine, which really now, is pickled grape juice. Even so, I'm trying to be better and calling it my tour adjustment setback. Plus, anyone who knows me knows that ordering wine is like being caught picking my nosefor me.
Anyway, the next morning, our hostess, Justine, from Math the Band, made hashbrowns for the girls and provided me with a lovely, sweet pink grapefruit as well as bananas if I wanted them, which was awesome. We drove back and discussed going to manhattan (Caravan of Dreams or Angelica's raw entrees are calling my name) but with the rain, the girls ended up getting pizza and I made myself a very very pretty salad of romaine, cukes, pickles, radish, tomato, avocado and vinegar, along with a handful of raw almonds. We are now getting ready to rent a movie and head to the city tomorrow, so wish me luck on this journey! :)

Mardi Gras, a last Hurrah!

2011-03-09T13:34:00.005-05:00

My mardi gras RULED, and what a fucking last hurrah.

We had lunch at Elaine's (a pan-asian restaurant) in Great Neck, where I got a veggie maki bento box. Dork and Sick got boxes too. My box came with miso soup as well and looked so cute!

Went around corner to kensington deli to get pickles for raw days and deliciousness.

My mom took us to NYC so we could pick up dinner before our LI show-- we got vegan treats at atlas (a slice of strawberry shortcake and a coconut doughnut for me, coconut cupcake for dork), headed downtown to Soho and nolita so Sick could sample the wares of Ray's Pizza as well as check out the DASH store (where there was a line!) and which is coincidentally directly next door to the Opera Gallery, which has been my fav modern art dealer since HS. Not that I have themeans to buy modern art.

Spider web roll and house roll from Soy and Sake, ate home then headed out to Mr. Beery's on LI for a rock and roll throwdown with Let Me Crazy (just put out a BALLER new record) and Playing Dead (who get better every time I hear them) who we have played with in NC.

Drank Rastafar-rye and Pyrat rum, switched to Bud around karaoke, sloshy, spilly time. Good friends.

Came home, had vegan strawberry shortcake and a lemon snapple. Life is good. Rawness starts today, and I am woefully unprepared.

New Year, New Attempts

2011-01-13T23:12:00.004-05:00

I have been *the worst* blogger guys!

I'm going to change all of that though. I resolved to try and post at least once a week (and yeah, I'm already late) but will be doing my darndest to keep it up!

So, I stopped at several joints on the way to and from NYC this year, unfortunately, none besides my beloved Vegan Treats were really worth mentioning (except Soy and Sake, which I visited a whopping 3 times in NYC. Holy shit that place could be my life partner) so I figured I'd talk about the obligatory 2010 music post.

And then I realized, no, I didn't buy much new music. I listened to a lot of it, but ultimately found myself disappointed by the large majority of the records that came out last year AS A WHOLE. I wanted to love Corin Tucker's solo record. I wish that Deerhoof capitvated me. I totally don't understand Robyn as a whole.

That said, I did find some shit worth listening to, and I've made you a mix of it.

Download the ZIP file here!

1. Ke$ha - Tik Tok
Love or hate her, there was no escaping Ke$ha this year. And you know what? Her album is rad. I chose this song because it so obviously represents her (it is her "Baby One More Time"). Plus, you know you've shouted along to it, drunk, at least twice.

2. Screaming Females - Pretty Okay
I know this song was previously released, but I am counting it as a 2010 release (due to the Singles compilation happening). This is so worth buying. Buy it. It's so good.

3. Ted Leo & The Pharmacists - Gimme The Wire

Having never really listened to Ted Leo outside of my Nike running mixes, I found myself pretty surprised by the goodness. Moreso by the awesome, Steely Dan meets pop punk feeling to this song. And I say that as a SD fan.

4. Broken Bells - Trap Doors

A lot of people have had some not so nice things to say about the Broken Bells record. I happen to like it, although I do think it's tonally a little inconsistent. Its best work is on songs like this one, where it sticks to dark synthpop. And I think this song sounds like it could've been a Tears For Fears song. Just sayin'.

5. Beach Fossils - Face It

I assume that most of you haven't been living under a rock and know that bands with Beach/Surf names, an abusive hand with spring reverb and generally at least two underfed hipsters in Ray Bans have spawned faster than wet gremlins in 2010. So instead of taking an entirely anti-"beach" stance, I found the band most likely to succeed outside of this beachiness in my heart, mainly because of these sweet ass guitar licks that sound like every boy in every band I ever had a crush on in high school.

6. Veelee - When You Gonna Come Home?

Man, I really wanted to give you guys Blood's Sake, but I bought it on iTunes so I can't share that one. Veelee have been making consistently good minimalist (in the Philip Glass sense) pop/electro. You may remember their year end EP in 2009. Watch out for them. They're based in Carrboro, but I see national tours very soon. Oh yeah, don't be an asshole like me. Buy yr digital copy at their bandcamp.

7. Last Year's Men - Karma

Good on the boys at Churchkey for releasing this song as a free one, as it is easily one of their best. I know what you're thinking; spring reverb, twang-- another surf band? NO. This recording is not what this band sounds like anymore. When they come to your town, go see them, then just hitch yr car to their minivan and enjoy the rest of the tour. They will sweat, bleed and spit on you and you'll love it.

8. Rat Jackson - Summer Hummer

God Bless Rat Jackson. That's all.

9. Tokyo Police Club - Not Sick

I think I might be the only person over 25 who still buys shit that comes out on Saddle Creek. But you know what? I like it. And his voice. And their last record. And this record.

10. Wolf Parade - Ghost Pressure

As unnerving as it is to listen to this David Byrne impression, I like this record. I didn't much care about Mt Zoomer but I think that their break up caused more buzz for the record. And it's cool. Heart the synths, but I am a dance music whore.

11. Yeasayer - Love Me Girl

OMG YEASAYER WROTE AN HONEST TO GOD TRANCE SONG. When I saw them (probably in 2006 or 2007?) I was not a fan and I don't really love the record, but I think this song is great.

12. Four Tet - This Unfolds

Four Tet is one of those things that I never really set out to listen to, but when I stumble across it always seems ever more attractive, and with every listen endears itself to me further. It is clever and self referential (and maybe a little self reverential too) but it totally takes the icky "reading into lyrics" part out of putting on music when someone comes over while still being sexy.

13. LCD Soundsystem - You Wanted a Hit

This whole record is full of songs that have already been written by LCD and appeared on other records. Yeah, they have different names and words, but they're the same. They're still good, just kind of stale. But then there's You Wanted a Hit. Which is different for me somehow. I think it's because it sounds kind of like a Say Hi song.

14. No Age - Fever Dreaming

I really just want to be in this band. There is nothing I dislike about this record. I love that half of it sounds like it was recorded in a studio and half sounds like it was recorded by an iphone in a shitty club with a shittier PA. YOU CAN SLEEP ON MY COUCH, NO AGE.

15. Male Bonding - All Things This Way

Male Bonding are sort of like my poor man's No Age. I like their record a lot too, except the pussy 13th track. WTF Male Bonding?

16. Dinosaur Feathers - Vendela Vida

I have no idea how I came across this song. It just happened. And I just can't deny its ridiculous awesomeness. It reminds me a little bit of what would happen if Franz Ferdinand had a lovebaby with Vampire Weekend.

17. Trophy Wife (UK) - Microlite (acoustic)

Who is Trophy Wife? They're a self declared British DISCO band. And their songs, while dance music, are fucking beautiful, as evidenced by this acoustic guitar based version of their big hit, Microlite.

18. Clive Tanaka y su orchestra - Neu Chicago

This guy is going to be THE next big thing in dance if there is any justice in the world. God, I want to go to a party where he is the DJ. Everything has a fantastically happy feel to it. I can't wait for something to be released NOT ON CASSETTE TAPE.

Mom and Dad's culinary tour, Twinkie Cupcakes, Rue Cler

2010-10-27T14:58:00.005-04:00

So my parents made arrangements to come down this weekend, and we had a blast.
First order ofbusiness was Duncan (and technically Joe) from HNMTF's joint birthday, which happened to be the same day my parents came to town. Ever the troupers, Mom and Dad helped me bake cupcakes to Duncan'sspecifications, and herequested, and Iquote "strawberry coconut...like those twinkie things, with the coconut, you know?"
Well, I do know. I can only imagine he's thinking about snowballs. And who, as a 10 year old, did not love snowballs. So I set to work. For the base, we made a hearty yellow cupcake. We let the cupcakes set while we had dinner at Dale's on 9th street. My parents did the chicken tikka, but I went old school with Channa Masala. I have to say, I know it's easy to make, but I'm a whore for someone else making me Channa Masala. When we got home, I whipped up a fresh tofu strawberry mousse (to be injected) and lastly, a lightly coconut flavored buttercream, then dyed some flaked coconut pink, rolled the cakes and garnished with strawberry slivers. The cupcakes (all 24) were eaten that night. Score!
The next day, we got up reasonably early and had lunch at the Thai Cafe down the street. I tried their eggplant red curry lunch special for the first time. It is definitely an acquired taste-- the texture of rice noodles in a curry sauce somehow feels wrong to me. My folks ended up going salad and salmon routes. They enjoyed it.
That afternoon we went and saw The Social Network, Aaron Sorkin's Facebook creation myth, which I thought was enjoyable, maybe not as good as his TV shows (although did anyone else see a hellofalot of Matt Albie happening in the "Mark Zuckerberg"?). A lot of other people hated it, but the opening scene's breakneck, trademark Sorkin dialogue had me from the get go. Monday night we hit up Sage Veg Cafe in Chapel Hill. They have added their Sabzhi to the regular menu now! Sabzhi is an herb stew flavored with dried lemon and containing beans, lentils and some sort of meat (traditionally lamb, but in the case of a vegetarian cafe, tempeh). It is served over rice and SO good. That's really all I can say about it. After dinner, we settled into a quick game of the awesome scrabble, then rest.
On Tuesday, we did a little furniture browsing, having gotten a jump on the day. We headed to Classic Treasures, Once and Again and Habitat to see if anyone had a decent small sized desk for me to work at. We found a beautiful used pedestal desk with an espresso stain that fits in very nicely. We hit up Mint for lunch,because my dad wanted to try it. We all know I would kill for some Lime & Basil Summer rolls in my life on the daily. The vegan offerings were pretty slim at the Mint Buffet, but I like lentil soup and love pakoras, so it ended up alright.

We saw Secretariat that afternoon, wandered around the mall and play

ed a little scrabble before the big event: Rue Cler. Oh, can I sing the praises of Rue Cler? I can, but first I will relay a story to you. I've been to Rue Cler before. I've had french fries and a mixed green salad. I've never thought of it in any particular way except a place I don't really eat but that seems pretty popular. When we showed up, with a reservation that I had confirmed twice, we had to wait. Like, a long time. They told me this was because someone wrote the reservation wrong in the book, but finally we were sat. I was kind of annoyed by the waiting ordeal, since my folks had been nice enough to concede to me which "fancy" restaurant we would go to (my dad loves Nana's and the Fairview) and this was not helping the Rue Cler case.

Fortunately, we were given a table and we immediately ordered drinks-- Shiraz for the folks and

a Triangle Imperial Amber for me, which is now my favorite Triangle Beer, but could be because I'm just on a huge Amber kick. The nice thing about the vegan prix fixe meal was that my parents were sort of able to eat parallel to me. My father ordered the regular frisee salad and my frisee salad with homemade vegan bacon, fries and vegan cheese (I am gonna call it out, omfg FYH!) croutons with a roasted shallot vinaigrette was THE BOMB. It was so good. I like salad, but this outdid salad. My dad even tried to convince me that his non-vegan frisee salad was actually the vegan one because mine looked better.

Next course was a remoulette (I think) basically a sweet-ish vegetable paste served with sesame crackers and an arugula salad. I liked this course a lot, flavor-wise, but I feel like its analogue, a pate dish, made more sense, since pate is rich and hard to eat in large amounts, whereas this stuff should've been given to me in a pint tub with a spoon.

Last course was a house made lentil sausage with a spinach and (very large, forgotten name) bean ragout. This was the course that astounded me. Mainly because, frankly, NOBODY else stepped up and made a protein. And these guys did. While the seitan texture wasn't perfect, the flavor was so good that it didn't matter at all. The proportions of the dish were right on. Just the right amount of spicy sausage for a forkful of soothing ragout. To be truthful, that ragout could easily have been a meal on its own, but the added protein made it feel like it was special and for us, not just a tossed together veggie plate of random sides.

After dinner my parents retired to the hotel to get ready to leave in the AM and I hit quiz. All in all, I think Rue Cler may have won my heart (and votes) tonight with their salad and main course. Oh, and their lighting is the jam.

BCVC: Vin Rouge and Dos Perros, ALSO a trip to KY!

2010-10-21T19:51:00.009-04:00

BCVC Updates for those who value my opinion!
I hit up Vin Rouge a while back but have just not gotten around to blogging it, although that is no reflection on the quality of VR's offerings. I met Anne Gomez (of noisy-proggers Cantwell Gomez and Jordan) to try the Ratatouille ravioli and have drinks. We sat at the bar and the bartender was very nice and helpful (he checked on the ingredients in the bread and olive tapenade oil). The beer list at Vin Rouge is kind of awful, but their wine list looked pretty impressive, so I can't fault a restaurant called Red Wine for having a lot of wine and not a lot of beer. So, I ordered bourbon!

Anyway, the ravioli came out, and it was wonderful. Three vegetables in an extremely light, delicate, almost translucent pasta shell, surrounded by a pesto and carrot sauce. Due to a camera malfunction, I do not have a photo! It is a truly tasty little dish though, and I recommend saving some bread to sop up the rest of those sauces.

Pink Flag took a trip to Lexington KY last weekend, and stopped on the way in Charleston WV. I think it is the only big city in the state, and it's not really a big city at all. However, if you're a pastoral camping type, I think WV might be your new favorite state in the union. Trees and

mountains oh my. Anyway, we tried to go to an Indian place that was closed and ended up at BlueGrass Kitchen (courtesy of Happy Cow). Bluegrass Kitchen was really cute; kind of hippy atmosphere, playing Bjork. Dork and I each ordered the veggie burger. Mine came without a bun, since there were no vegan breads available, but it was still pretty darn tasty. Also, the fries tasted EXACTLY like what I remember Burger King fries to taste like. Sick confirmed that they did taste like BK fries.

Dork had the flu, and 16+ hours in the car with its uncirculating air etc meant that we all got Dork's disease. Fortunately for me, I have the secret of Persia in my pocket! I recently bought the Sage cookbook and whipped up a HUGE batch of Osh, which I have had for like, every meal since.

I wanted to try the pot pie, too, in the slowly coldening air. Fortunately, this time I called Nosh and they confirmed that they DO NOT have the pot pie for lunch, which means, friendly vegans, there is no lunch offering at Nosh.

We hit Dos Perros got hit up last Thursday. I ordered a rye beer. We had the tamale to start and it was

wonderful. Really creamy, small bits of delight soy nuggets that weren't overpowering. The Pipia Rojo was an incredible sauce, and the rice and beans were amazing. The only problem was that the delight nuggets overpowered the sauce. The next time, I got it "gluten free" style, with sweet potato instead of delight nuggets and, keep in mind that I despise sweet potatoes, it was AMAZING. It was also huge-- I got two whole meals out of it each time I went. As a sidebar, I'd never been to Dos Perros before and the food was really good; I think I might head back if they have vegan friendly food on their regular menu as well.

BCVC: Caffe Beyu and Nosh

2010-10-09T09:56:00.004-04:00

Dork and I were really excited to try the Nosh specials, but apparently they do not serve any of them at lunch, so sorry Nosh, you're getting skipped. I am not going back again after waiting in line for 15 minutes and getting nothing.

While I am wary of any place that misspells the word "cafe," I felt compelled to check out the 3 course meal at Caffe Beyu for BCVC. Dork and I headed over there on Friday for some eats.

We went in and were seated at a teensy tiny table, but whatever, I'm not looking to put together a puzzle, I just want to eat. They do have Brooklyn Brown on tap, which is a surefire way to my heart (I <3 Brooklyn Brewery!). Dork ordered a Mocha Stout from French Broad, and we each ordered the 3 course prix fixe.
The Gumbo, which was the draw for me, was tasty if a little bit thin. I suspect that it will be too spicy for some tastes, but for me it was welcome and lovely. The chunks of mushroom really made it for me. Dork was not quite so impressed, but I think her standards are higher, her being from LA and all.

The entree was made up of baked apples and sweet potatoes, a walnut-craisin wild rice blend, a couple of baked artichokes and bathed in a balsamic reduction. If that sounds like it would be overly sweet, it is. Aside from the fact that I just straight up don't like sweet potatoes (Dork got to eat most of mine), the balsamic acidity did not help to cut the sweetness but rather compounded it. Then, the rice was interspersed with craisins (more sweetness). The artichoke, however, tasted great with the balsamic reduction and the rice. I appreciated the effort (it was pretty) but the chef just sort of...missed. Some kind of protein with some reduction of one of the sweet ingredients could have made this dish stellar instead of just okay.
The last dish was an avocado chocolate pudding, and it was the winner. The chocolate was rich and tasty and the raspberry sauce hidden at the bottom of the martini glass cut the chocolate nicely. The pudding was topped with coconut cream and mint, which offered another good complement to the richness. As we were getting ready to leave, we saw Eleni and Rob (Beloved Binge) and they mentioned they were coming from Rue Cler and hitting Beyu for dessert. If I were a little bit more of a chocolate fan, I would do the same. However, I recommend all chocoholic vegans to hit Beyu for that pudding because it's a fancy little treat.

I would like to shout out our server. I don't remember her name but she was really great; enthusiastic about the menu (especially hyped about the vegan challenge), made sure to drop off voting cards, explained all of the dishes and was friendly and attentive. Caffe Beyu, she is turning 21 this month, and was working Oct 8. Someone buy that lady a beverage!

On the flipside, when we were seated, we were told that we would not be charged an "entertainment fee" unless we stayed for more than 40 minutes. Considering that our food took more than 40 minutes to come out (and nobody can reasonably expect someone to down 3 courses in less than 40, including ordering) I think it's kind of shitty that we were charged for the entertainment, which honestly, detracted from my experience. I mean, I love live entertainment. I like going to rock shows or even having a live pianist at a nice restaurant. We were seated close to the jazz band and I had a half stack turned up to volume 7 during a dinner conversation. I don't want to eat dinner at a concert. That's why pretty much every venue that is worth its salt DOESNT sell food. I'm just griping, it was only $3, but it was just added to my bill and I would've been happier sitting further away from the band and actually able to talk to my dining companion. Just sayin'.

Eating Cabbage, eating at work.

2010-10-04T16:18:00.004-04:00

So I worked on Saturday Night (Oct 2) and even though BCVC went into effect 10/1, the kick off party was 10/3, so as a sort of pre-kick off present, Chef Micah at the Federal let me try the BCVC pakoras a day early. The pakoras are really tasty, although Micah and I had a lengthy debate about what a pakora implies-- for me it is veggies rolled around in chickpea flour and deep fried. Later in the week, he conceded and now we have an agreement on delicious pakora goodness.So the pakoras at the Federal have received some heat from taste testers for their price. Theywere recently made cheaper, so nowthey are $9. We have also sold out of them pretty much every night they run, and I know for a fact that many of the people ordering them and enjoying them are not vegan, so get your butts over here, vegans! The chutneys are the star of the dish obviously. Micah put them in "stoplight" colors. Red is bombay red chutney, and the spiciest. Yellow is mango chutney and is milder. Green is a macadamia mint chutney and is more of a creamy sauce than a spicy chutney. You have to keep in mind that I am a huge whore for spicy food, though. I paired the Pakoras with the French Broad Rye Hopper (no longer on draft) but think the Great Divide Hoss Rye Lager would be a good complement (I like the flavor of rye with the mace and curry flavors). Now that the pakoras are priced at $9, I think they're areasonable dish (they're much higher class than your traditional curry house pakoras). I know that I may seem biased because I work at the Fed and am friends with Micah, but I am mostly friends with him because HE COOKS AMAZING VEGAN FOOD. Trust me, it was our bond during a trying time.

The Federal also is offering lime shortbread cookies that I got to go the other night. They are okay. I like shortbread cookies as much as the next person, but they're shortbread cookies.

I've also been trying to figure out new ways to use cabbage,

since it's cheap and all this eating out is not great for my budget (even more since when I'm eating, I want to drink something that is better than PBR). So anyway, I've been basically just stirfrying with tofu, eating it raw, puttin it on sandwiches. Does anyone have any good ideas for cabbage, the world's possibly most boring vegetable? I'm sick of using it as filler for soups (kinda too sweer) and if I make one more cabbage tofu scramble, I think the vegan police are gonna come pick me up. For the love of Isa Chandra, help!

Speaking of Isa Chandra, the kind of meh sandwich options got me thinking about my "ultimate" sandwich. Obviously, the "ultimate" is a toss up of the trifecta: Blossom Southern Seitan, Candle Cafe Cajun Seitan and Red Bamboo Soul Chicken. Yes, I know this is 3 versions of the same sandwich. It's SO GOOD. Honorable mention goes to anything faking a chicken parm or meatball sub. But, the other old standby of all vegan restaurants is, of course, the tofu club. Everyone has his or her version, and now kids, beer as vegan has one too!

Beer is Vegan Tofu Club Sammy

rye sourdough bread

marinated broiled tofu (Vcon recipe this time)

sliced roma tomato

mixed baby salad greens

lightlife smart bacon

vegenaise

celery salt (it's my secret ingredient).

The key is fresh bread, not overtoasting and stacking perfectly. Obviously, it's not the best sandwich I've ever made, (I think next time, I'd go with the lightlife tempeh bacon, sacrificing crunch for taste).

I'm also still working on a veggie burger recipe to be revealed at some point later in the year. It is still a trainwreck, though. Ideally, I'm looking for a grillable patty, instead of a fryer. We shall see! :)

BCVC IS IN EFFECT!

2010-10-01T17:15:00.006-04:00

One of the greatest ideas to hit the city of Durham since the now-defunct but still beloved Soul Good: The Bull City Vegan Challenge. My friends Eleni (a tireless vegan crusader responsible for the documentary film Seeing Through The Fence as well as tons of vegan outreach) and Shirle' (a personal chef and shameless vegan sympathizer, responsible for the awesomeness that is the vegan brunch!) had an idea to challenge a whole bunch of local restaurants to run a vegan item for one month. They'd tell vegans and foodies about it. The public would vote.

The ladies got together and posted photos of all of the competing dishes. Some of them look fantastic. Some of them are going to get their asses handed to them. (Note to chefs for future reference: seriously, don't ever give a vegan "salad" as an option when you're trying to impress us; we eat a lot of salad. it's not special food. Ditto "vegetable plates." You can make a vegetable plate, but if you call it that, it just sounds uninspired.) Follow BCVC on twitter to get updates and such. And if you're a vegan who was planning to come to Durham ever, come to Durham in October! It'll be FUN!

And today, the competition begins. I actually kind of forgot that it was the 1st, but then I remembered after I had already agreed to go to Parker and Otis for lunch/dinner. I went in and ordered the challenge. I also got a Dr. Brown's Cel-Ray (because I have NY homesickness).

It should be mentioned that P&O is a lunch option for me most of the time because the #14 (white bean spread, onion, avocado, tomato and sprouts on sunflower) is vegan if you switch the sunflower bread for sourdough and pay a $2 surcharge to get a side salad instead of the slaw (ps P&O-- this is bullshit. you should just give people a non-mayotastic salad for free).

The special (which is like #49 or something crazy!) is made up of an artichoke spread (tastes like bean paste with artichoke processed in), carrots, roasted red peppers, red onions, spinach

on a panini pressed wheat and served with a sweet corn, grape tomato and red onion salad. First thought: this salad should be part of the regular menu. I know I've already griped about it, but I will continue to do so because I hope that Parker and Otis's owners (who seem cool and nice) will read this and consider offering some option besides cole slaw! The corn salad was really nice (I love corn though). The sandwich was good. The artichoke spread was tangy and tasty. However, there were some problems. The red peppers were a little too slimy and caused the sandwich to drip when I ate it, then comingled with the paste and caused it to slide out of the sandwich. I liked that there was spinach, a good choice of green that isn't distractingly crunchy, tough or bitter, but bitter enough to stand up to the strange flavor of artichoke. Ultimately, my trouble with the sandwich was balance. The artichoke is good, but I think it overpowered all the other stuff in there. The reason it's not getting my vote for the win? Because #14 is better. And on the menu all the time. And for that, P&O, I salute you.

BUT KEEP THE CORN SALAD PLS PLS PLS. Thanks.

Overall, I'd recommend hitting up Parker & Otis this month to let them know that we vegans appreciate their support and trying the sandwich-- if you're more of a fan of red peppers than I am, you might be more partial. They also have the best coffee in town (Seriously, their iced coffee is the jam) and a very healthy selection of upscale/gourmet foodstuffs and products, as well as a decent beer selection. Their porch is a nice place to waste an afternoon reading the paper, and either sandwich (although #14 gets the BIV stamp of approval) will satiate your hunger and probably force you to finish it even though you're not really hungry anymore :).

*it is also Vegan Month Of Food (vegan mofo!) I think? Every october, right? Vegans out there in veganbloggerland?

So in celebration of the (3rd) vegan mofo in which BIV has sort of participated, here's a recipe for my delicious brussels sprouts. Even brussels sprouts haters can get down with it. It's also fast, which is one of my favorite things about it.

You will need:

a bag of brussels sprouts (like 15-20, or more, or less, whatever!)

3 cloves garlic

~1 tsp rosemary

~1 tsp oregano

~2 tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper

Set your oven to 400 and let it preheat. In the meantime, clean your sprouts. To clean, I chop off the bottom and then peel away the outermost layer that's wilty or spotty or whatever. It will come right off once you've chopped the little root part off. Then cut in half lengthwise and drop into a bowl. After you've chopped all of them and dropped in the bowl, mince your garlic as small as you can get it (I find doing the chef knife smash 2-3 times, then finely chopping leaves you with the sort of chunky paste type thing you want). Drop your garlic in with the sprouts. Drizzle with oil. Rub the rosemary and oregano between your hands to break it up (I use fresh herbs at the end of their growing season. If using dry herbs, this works best. If using super fresh herbs, you may need to chop a little). Use water to get the remaining off your hands. Add salt and pepper (I use about 1 1/2 tsp salt and 1 tsp pepper, but it's yr call-- taste and make sure it's salty enough!). Mix the bowl all together. Cover a cookie sheet in foil, then dump the sprouts and their herby garlic juice on it. Spread them so they're not all touching, but they don't have to be all face down or anything. Pop in the oven for 15-20 minutes (depends on size of sprouts). They'll get all caramelized and burnt at the tips and where there's large amounts of garlic and aromatic and awesome in the middles. Trust me. Oh, and if you're feeling cheeky, try adding some balsamic instead of water and cutting back the salt. Happy sprouting.

On another note

2010-08-09T17:07:00.003-04:00

I love this movie a lot and just noticed that it is on Hulu.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/167845/wristcutters-a-love-story

Just something to pass the time, dear readers.

Baked Ziti & Indian Food, or why I should just give up on Tofu Saag

2010-07-13T15:24:00.004-04:00

Recently, due to the heat wave and other weird psychosomatic stuff, I have had a crazy craving for Indian food. I'm admittedly not the greatest Indian chef...I tend to burn my spices, be heavy handed with the pepper and then sort of sob through my meal. I have been on the road to getting my balances right (don't get me started on the great onion puree debacle of '04) and feel like I'm starting to get there, especially with my favorite dish of all time: Channa Masala.

My Channa Masala recipe is pretty simple:

~ 1 1/2 cups dried chick peas, soaked overnight, then boiled 1 hour in salt water, dump water, simmer another 2-3 hours in new water.

1/4 c curry powder from indian store (get the kind that has turmeric and coriander towards the top of the ingredients. I am not a fan of garam masala, I find it to be too clove and cardamom heavy).

1/4 c cilantro

1 yellow onion, diced

3-4 cloves garlic, diced fine

1 1/2 tsp minced ginger

3-4 Tbsp tomato paste

1-2 fresh vine ripe tomatoes

olive oil

salt and pepper

Get your chickpeas going in advance. Without the soak, you'll just have to cook them longer (and vegan rumor has it they cause more gas), but leave at least 4-5 hours to get them tender as you want them. Ghee is not in my vocabularly, so I start off with olive oil. Into the olive oil, toss your onion and get it going. When it is just starting to turn translucent, add the garlic and ginger. About a minute after, get the curry powder in to toast a little. Quickly add the tomato paste when the powder starts to change color. Chickpeas and enough water to thin out the sauce so it can really get around the chickpeas. Over the next 20 minutes, cook the sauce down over a simmer until the sauce is once again thicker. Add cilantro and fresh chopped tomato just before serving, so they have time to heat to the temperature of the dish but not actually cook through. I pulled out the Channa masala twice, once for my dear friend Jeremy's going away dinner (at which he brought me some fantastic Russian Vodka) and again the next week for my friends the Machete Archive, who hung out.

The tofu saag I attempted was lousy. Used a garlic/onion/curry base, then added tofu sour cream the first time (nope!), cream chz the second (nope!) and diced tofu both times (not bad but still, not there. Any suggestions on the Saag situation, appreciated.

Let's end this post on a happy note: I attempted this baked ziti recipe, subbing ziti for penne, ricotta cheese for my tofu ricotta (viewable in my mega thanksgiving post) and mozzarella for daiya. And parmesan for more mozzarella, which was a bad call, since it was a little too much daiya at the top. It is possible. The ziti came out looking fantastic and getting destroyed by roommates and me in a manner of about 36 hours.

Pineapple Cake, Butternut Squash again and Lime & Basil

2010-07-09T18:50:00.006-04:00

I haven't got much to say about my attempt to make this

cake, except that I used fresh pineapple. It came out pretty good. I guess my number one wish regarding this cake was that the cake itself was a little more pineapple-y. I also wished for a moister cake. Th

is had more the consistency of coffee cake, which is probably apparent from the photograph of the crumbled piece of cake I cut off.

http://priyaeasyntastyrecipes.blogspot.com/2009/02/vegan-pineapple-cake.html

I also returned to Butternut Squash in Chapel Hill with Dork. We ordered the fried tofu to start with, which was tasty. She got a club sandwich and I got a the hemp burger. I was not overly impressed with either sandwich, particularly the burger which was like, three inches in diameter and absolutely drowning in the bread and the amount of mustard on that bun. I think stir fry is the way to go there. We got a chocolate cake for dessert and it was pretty but I've reached a point where I'm off chocolate for good, I think.

Across the street from the shopping center that holds Butternut Squash is probably my favorite Chapel Hill restaurant at the moment: Lime & Basil.

LnB is a vietnamese/pan asian restaurant with a focus on the awesome. I usually just order starters (one or two) and can make a whole meal out of them. This most recent trip, I was with my parents who encouraged me to just order a whole bunch of things I'd hoped to try. Pictured are the fried veggie spring rolls, tofu summer rolls, tofu curry and the edge of my coconut juice. Not pictured is the tofu summer salad. The food is always pretty good, filling and light. I was not particularly taken with the curry, but I'm not a fan of potato in curry in general. Overall I'd recommend the place for a casual lunch or dinner. It's by no means fancy but definitely well priced and accommodating.

Durham Garden Center SALE

2010-06-17T16:10:00.003-04:00

Locals to the Triangle: do you have space in your garden?

I just got an email that Durham Garden Center is literally giving away tomatoes. I can verify this. They have several varieties: large cherry, sweet 100, lemon boy (yellow), cherokee, german...I have about 12 new tomato plants now. Yes, 100% free. They also have watermelons and

They're also running a sale on most annuals, herbs and vegetables for buy one get one free, so I picked up some herbs (peppermint, mint chocolate, ginger mint, cilantro) and some new guinea impatiens. Hooray. Get over there while the getting's good!

40 46 Days of Raw: Day 46 (The end!)

2010-04-04T13:06:00.002-04:00

I woke up as early as possible, drank some grapefruit juice and started my lessons. A coworker agreed to swap shifts with me at the bar so I could start at 4, definitely getting off by midnight. After finishing lessons at 2:30, I scooted over to my fav local bakery, Guglhupf, and bought some pain paysan (house sourdough, 25% rye, 75% wheat). At home, I rolled some cukes and avocado together in nori and scarfed it, then headed into work.

All I have to say about work today was that I can't stand basketball.

Fortunately, I got off around 10:30 due to the pacified masses, came home, took a shower and Sicka and I headed back to the bar to wait on midnight.

12:00 am was a Makers, a Bells two-hearted and a ripped off piece of pain paysan. All guests agreed that pain paysan is effing delicious.

By 12:45 I was pretty wrecked from my two drinks. Miss Steve got me a PBR which I nursed until about 2am, then Sicka drove me home. At home, I decided that my other long-lost friend, pasta, shouldn't have to wait. I tossed some tofu macaroni and broccoli in a pot, then melted down some daiya with silk and makeshifted a mac and cheese. While it cooked, I had part of a Snicker Dude from Liz Lovely. Sick and I also sampled a little bit of bread which was...obviously not quite right. I think I made it through about 1/4 of the mac and daiya before my stomach protested and I had to stop and go to bed. Which is cool.

This morning, my head and tummy reminded me at 7:45 that I have NOT drank, eaten that much salt, or wheat, or processed stuff in over 6 weeks. I pounded water like it was my job. Then passed back out for 5 more hours.

Now, I have to say that my head feels surprisingly okay and my stomach is as good as can be expected.

Reflections on Raw Life:
-Eating raw is pretty rad. You can eat pretty much until you are stuffed and not feel guilty about anything you put in your body.
-Once you purge all the processed stuff, you feel pretty good.
-Your environmental impact can be pretty much negligible, especially during farmer's market season.
-Save money! No more processed stuff! If you avoid all the raw "treats" like cookies, crawkers and so on, think about the cost of eating a banana and a salad every day. Probably 6-10 dollars.

I'm considering picking a day of the week to be 100% raw overall, and then try to do 50-60% the rest of the time. But man, raw recipes, aside from drinks, probably will be few and far between, because I like raw fruits and veggies just the way they are :)

40 46 Days of Raw: Day 45

2010-04-03T00:58:00.003-04:00

A good day...

I bought a pineapple and cut it up, and got inspired.

I call it a Pink Escape (Pink Pina Colada)

~Waste parts of 1 pineapple (the tough ring in the center, the shavings with some of the brown holes around the outside, but not the skin. Eat the rest of the pineapple as you ordinarily would...)
(OR) appx 1 1/2 c pineapple.
~1 medium to large banana
~Appx 1 Cup Coconut water
~1/2 c strawberries

Blend until smooth. Drink with umbrella. :)

This was probably the first drink I ever made that I would rate a 10 on drinkability. I pounded these in like, 20 minutes then immediately regretted it.

at work, I snacked on the rest of the pineapple that I didn't use for the pina colada. Work was nuts, but it was all good, made decent money and still got out by about 12:30. Finished off the pineapple with some Chia. Those who like shakes...MAKE A PINK ESCAPE. It's delicious!

Failure of the evening: baking bread for tomorrow. Using the "getting started" guide recipe from the vitamixI ground up some white wheat berries, made the yeast, mixed the dough and then tried to "knead" in the vitamix...which didn't work, either because the dough was too watery or because it was too hot. But nothing came together, and after about 10 cycles of "kneading" I gave up and baked it as it was. It didn't rise when I proofed it. Boo hiss. Anyone got any advice on vitamix bread baking?

40 46 Days of Raw: Day 44, or Urumbo

2010-04-02T00:37:00.006-04:00

So, today marked the slump. Urumbo was described to me as Shona (a Zimbabwe and South/East African language) for "the troubles." I think they meant it more in the way the Irish say "the troubles," but I'm taking both, man, because I am seriously facing my worst time right now, on the last mile. Number one, my brain is all over the place.

Got up this morning (had the day off) after getting a wonderfully unfulfilling 5 hours of sleep only to find out that my hairdresser is sick and couldn't come. I then failed to accomplish the one thing I was supposed to do today besides get my hair cut. But y'all don't want to hear me gripe, so let's talk food, gardens and veg*n, shall we?

After my stop at the bank, I hit up whole foods and picked up some snacky-poo for myself. I lazied out and got some pre-made guacamole (made in store, the only kind I find bearable as far as premade guacs) and seedless cukes to dip in the guac. I cut the bad boy up and had a mighty filling lunch, then set about my major task for the day, gardening.

As you can see, I got my garden turned over and some of my crops held over from last year (lavender and rosemary) and my bulbs are coming up and making life a delight, particularly on the walkway up to the front door, which is lined with Daffodils and paperwhites, creating a beautiful stink of spring and a splash of color, too. The paperwhite smell, for those unfamiliar, is most similar probably to the Easter Lily (one of my students just gave me a plant for the holiday, it is living in my room), in that it's pervasive, somewhat treacly but overall pleasant.

I believe I mentioned that I'd put in two raspberry bushes last Thursday and over the weekend, they really took! The foliage increased, the plants seem to be in good shape. Granted, the bushes I planted this week were a little more robust straight from the store, but I think you can still see the difference (newbie plants are the two on the left, week-olds on the right). So, if you, like me, have soil that's full of clay and essentially destroys anything but the heartiest of plants (seriously, my lawn is half dead because my yard is totally overtaken by trees, ivy and crabgrass). I also put down a couple of fig tree-lets (that are literally 6" tall right now and absolutely darling).

The real challenge of the day was that my vegessentials order came in today and the temptation to eat something, anything out of that box of joy was great. There were the cookies. There was pasta. There was chocolate and there was fake cheese. There were 3 fake meats I am really excited to try. There are 2 more days. I'm trying, and everyone says they're proud right now but I am JONESING for some processed wheat with partially hydrogenated soy involved. It's taking a lot of will power to pour myself a bowl of Chia with fresh cut strawberries with local honey* or pour myself a glass of grapefruit juice and a handful of cashews (that was dinner and evening snack respectively) instead of just going downstairs and tearing through a frozen bagel. I've had NY bagels in my freezer since early march =/. /rant

Anyway, I'm getting my plans together for the rest of the garden. I just found out that planting basil and rosemary side by side is bad news, so I think the rosemary side of the garden will be for brassicas, since I recently learned that rosemary and basil hate each other and battle it out underground, as do their counterparts. For those unaware, rosemary is a good compliment to things like broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and brussels sprouts. Rosemary and the brassicas should be kept away from tomatoes, peppers, basil, oregano and carrots, apparently. Oregano is also supposedly good for cukes. As far as eye-candy to help yr dirt candy, the 3 big reccs are geraniums, marigolds and borage (new to me this year, but I'll sniff some out).

Any gardening tips out there in the blog world? I've had a heck of a time keeping my brassicas alive, hopefully this year with the division they'll at least get a fighting chance to battle it out with the evil squirrels (seriously, I've had squirrels eating my cucumber stalks before they even reach a decent size through like, 3 attempts last year. I don't want to sprout my seeds only to see them become very expensive sprout feed for squirrels.

Gosh, there I go again. Just trying to resist Liz Lovely's cookies. Til tomorrow, kids.

*Yes, I know honey is not considered vegan. NC has one of the highest number of indigenous flora of any state in the US. People who never had allergies move here and are debilitated by sinus pressure, snotties, sneezies and so forth. I try to work about 1 tsp of local honey into my daily diet at the beginning of the season and have just had some slight itchy eyes. Plus, I'd totally eat a bee, or a wasp. It is one of my secret desires to get a fig that has eaten a wasp. You can fight me on this, but honey (and, for that matter, insect byproduct in general) is not something I get up in arms about. Obvs, when I find out if things are truly vegan for YOU all (like beer) I get that info to pass along, because we all draw our line in the sand in different places. :)

40 46 Days of Raw: Day 42-23

2010-04-01T06:02:00.000-04:00

Oh, some crappy days. Something I ate on Monday really didn't agree with me. I've narrowed it down to the almond butter from Mara Natha (a company I don't really like much to begin with) or the raw crackers =/. Either way, I was in severe intestinal distress for most of Tuesday (and believe me, it's not fun having tummy cramps and having absolutely no appetite when you're a waitress and have to be around food all night). I packed myself another arugula salad w/ strawberry vinaigrette, but ended up just eating a little bit of kimchi, a pickle and some grapes and strawberries that my co-worker Kat (who had mentioned that she thought bringing fruit habitually over candy was a good idea) brought for all of us. Day 42: Bust.

Day 43 was busy, but strangely so. Wednesdays are my double days. I managed to get out of work at the Fed fairly early and head to whole foods Chapel hill to pick up some pineapple and kombucha for a snack. Then, only one of my lessons showed up. The whole day. I finally got back home at about 7, where I worked on LAM! LAM! 2.0 until 8, when we left to play a show at Craig's House in Durham with Just Friends (Ex Fake Accents/Puberty) and So Cow, who were both rad. So Cow are on tour from Ireland and if you dig the Beach Boys, Hefner, or twee pop in general, you should check their schedule and see if they'll be near you. It'd be, as they say, "grand." We got home from the show at 4am, when I realized I'd consumed all of, oh, about 150 calories and promptly shoved an avocado down my throat. So, two days where I probably coulda eaten a little more.

I won't lie, these extra six days are really starting to wear on me. I placed an order from Veganessentials of shit that is sure to make me sick as a dog on Easter Sunday. I HATE having to choose a vegan online shop. Did anyone else notice that Cosmo's seems to have an exclusive on the reduced fat vegenaise (PS OMFG reduced fat vegenaise!)? While VE has all the Larsen stuff (which makes sense, I suppose). Either way, my list of stuff due to arrive on Day 44 is as follows:
Daiya Shredded Vegan Cheese - Cheddar
Daiya Shredded Vegan Cheese - Italian
Organic Cowgirl Veggie Steaks by Viana
Organic Chickin Fillets by Viana
Seven Grain Crispy "Chicken" Tenders by Gardein
Match Meat Vegan Meat Alternatives - Crab
Vegan Sliced Baked Ham by Pure Vegetarian
Liz Lovely Artisan Cookies - Goats A' Grazin'
Liz Lovely Artisan Cookies - Snicker Dudes
Organic Tofu Elbow Macaroni
Bow Wow Bon Bons Truffles by Rescue Chocolate (SIDEBAR: these profit animals, choose these as yr truffles!)

So I can't wait for this stuff to come! :)

40 46 Days of Raw: Day 41

2010-03-30T16:30:00.003-04:00

So, first day of raw extension...I was kind of a heifer. Lunch was guacamole with cauliflower and some raw crackers. I also picked up some almond butter (raw) and some Ezekiel sprouted grain tortillas, which I'm debating eating. Instead, I made chia with almond butter and bananas for a snack, then fixed myself a dinner of an arugula salad with cucumbers, tomatoes, walnuts and avocado with strawberry vinaigrette (my single fav thing to eat with arugula).

Strawberry vinaigrette
1/3 C olive oil
2/3 C strawberries (4-8 fresh strawberries, depending on size)
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp crushed dried mint
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp agave nectar
pinch pepper

Blend until the consistency of salad dressing. Keeps in the fridge for up to a week.

Oh yeah, my pickles came out again and I noshed on them! :)

One other purchase I made, that led to a realization: black cherry juice (the cheapest unpasteurized juice they had), is gross. I think I have to come to terms with the fact that I don't like cherry juice. Something in it makes me gag. So there.

40 46 Days of Raw: Day 38-40

2010-03-27T02:47:00.003-04:00

Man, the past couple of days have been KILLER.

On Friday, I was able to accomplish a *little,* although my Weds and Thurs shenanigans sure didn't help my energy level. First thing in the morning, my dad called asking me how to use the "juicer" and what recipes I could give him for "juicing." When he says "juicer," he means the vitamix. I keep telling him to just kind of experiment but he wants recipes (from books) so I'm just making stuff up to give him. Sometimes they're mediocre, sometimes better. Day 38 was a decent smoothie, but I wouldn't go out of the way to call it mind-blowing or anything. Good nutritional value, if nothing else!

So here's my Day 38 smoothie:
1/2 C almond milk
1/2 C water
1 banana
1/4 head cabbage
1 vine ripe tomato
1/2 c mixed berries
(you can add 1 tbsp maca powder)

I also polished off my cookies before heading to work. For a work snack, I packed a handful of almonds and a handful of cashews. When I arrived, I found a pleasant surprise: fresh fruit! Where I work, the security guy/backwait, Jim, often brings in candy for the waitstaff. Sometimes it is movie candy like whoppers, mike and ikes, dots, skittles and reeses pieces, sometimes it's fancy fare like chocolate dipped pretzels, truffles, jordan almonds etc. This week, he said he checked the schedule and saw I was working and brought in strawberries, blackberries and green grapes. Another server on shift mentioned that it would be great if we did it every week, so we were having healthy snacks instead of scarfing down 800 empty calories every night. Time will tell!

It was a rough night at the bar. A popular local fellow got married and the bar filled to the brim with people who had already had quite a few drinks. This resulted in two bar fights, several spilled and dropped drinks and a lot of running around and headache. It was sort of exhausting.

When I came home I ate my snack as well as some chia, knowing I'd have a rough day Saturday, and oh, how Saturday delivered.

Day 39:
9:15 am I arrive at the studio to wait on my lessons. I taught from 9:45 until 11, then had a break in which I scooted to buy some sheet music for my 12:30 student, as well as pick up a snack at Trader Joe's of a Cherry Pie Larabar and some pineapple slices. I spied a new "healthy" fast food place called Evos that I may or may not try. Their menu looks kind of meh.

Of course, my 12:30 didn't show up, so I waited around until 1:30 for my next lessons, then finally got out at 3:15, headed back to Durham and quickly assembled some pickles (ready on Monday) and chopped up half a cabbage, a tomato, an avocado, a cucumber and poured vinaigrette over it. Unfortunately, by the time I finished chopping, I had to be at work, so into the tupperware it went.

I scarfed it down in fits through the night, which was also ridiculously busy, then finally got to go home and immediately spooned some chia goodness into a bowl with almond milk and a banana. By 2:15 am I was losing consciousness. That's what 14 hours of work will do though!

Day 40:
Well, when I started this, I thought today was Easter and I'd be enjoying some delicious bagels and rye bread and maybe a veggie burger or some hummus. Oh, so I was wrong.

Taught this morning...but was late. I was totally knackered from last night. I had to drive to Raleigh, so I stopped in at Earth Fare on my way back. Earth fare, my beloved. I picked up some Raw Crackers from the Raw Bakery. They are exactly what I remember raw crackers being like...sort of the analogue of Road's End Mac and Chreese. They have most of the attributes I miss in crackers...crunchiness, saltiness...but then weird things I don't want or need (like a sort of fatty oily flavor, a crumbliness from being made of seeds). I am still grateful for their existence and will eat them with guac as soon as I can get to it. I also put away another one of those Raw Organic bars for some energy while I prepped myself a raw sushi salad...I'm working out a dressing recipe which I'll share as soon as it's good enough *to* share. It was tasty but a little salty and definitely too thick to be a dressing.

40 46 Days of Raw: Day 37

2010-03-26T01:35:00.000-04:00

So I retried almond milk now that I got a nut milk bag and I can say with authority: NEVER MAKE ALMOND MILK WITHOUT A MILK BAG. It's ridiculous. Wonderful.

Not wanting to waste almond meal, I pulled together a quick recipe for raw cookies.

Raw Thumbprint Dough Cookies
~1 cup (the leftover from making almond milk) almond meal (still wet is ok!)
1 tsp maca powder
1 tsp raw cacao nibs
1 banana, mashed
1/2 tsp psyllium husk
1/2 c mulberries
8-10 raspberries
agave nectar/maple syrup/honey

Mash almond meal with banana, maca, and psillium. Add cacao nibs and mulberries, mix well, then form into balls. Press into small discs, place a dot of syrup on top to hold a raspberry in place (a little syrup on top too if you like) then enjoy! :)

I also made some chia gel with coconut water instead of regular water to make a sort of chia "jello." For lunch, I polished off the rest of my Go Raw granola with some almond milk and some white Chia. Obviously, I got a few fun things in the mail yesterday, one of which was chia. Chia is a south american seed, a big component in "chia goodness" and has a light, nutty flavor on its own and a tapioca-like consistency. I've been eating the Chia Goodness cereal, but also dropping chia seeds into other food. Aside from being very filling, it also has lots of soluble fiber, water (from the absorption) and beneficial fats. I also got some psyllium husk powder which I'm going to try and get into my body to promote that soluble fiber stuff. Lastly, I ordered some maca powder and cacao nibs.

Me and Mississippi played tennis on what was a beautiful day (intermittent winds, 78 degrees, sunny). Then I came home and planted some raspberry bushes. For dinner, I made raw spaghetti with sauce. I processed some sun dried tomatoes and walnuts into the sauce, but for some reason really wasn't feeling it, so I mixed up an alfalfa sprout, tomato and avocado salad with some balsamic vinaigrette and ate that.

I went to see Free Electric State and Veelee at Tir Na Nog in Raleigh. I have not seen either band since last year, and while both were good, I was straight blown away by Veelee's somewhat anthropological approach to music. From Ginger's drumming paraphernalia (maracas, noisemakers etc) to Matt's almost digeridoo pedaltones, to the wordless vocalizing that permeates so many of their songs. I can't really describe the music except that it is turquoise and entrancing.

Listened to some of our new tracks on the way home, discussed the new Ted Leo and Titus Andronicus. Ate a grapefruit, passed out. A good day.

40 46 Days of Raw: Day 36

2010-03-25T02:43:00.005-04:00

So...it was an interesting day. As you all probably know, Wednesday is sort of my personal "hell day," in that I work 11 til about 3 at the Fed, then go directly to my first of seven lessons at the studio, then drive direct from Chapel Hill back to the dirty D for some pubquiz, my respite and joy for the day.

Restaurant job was good (and I made some decent scratch) but failed to pack any food besides a banana and was worried that I was going to have to wait until 8 to sneak into whole foods and grab something or worse, order a salad for dinner...but I had a cancellation and was saved. At whole foods, I picked up some kombucha, fruit salad, kimchi and a Raw Organic Food bar...the fiber one. Apparently, the chocolatey ones are only 80% raw (then why do you call yourself raw, food bar?), and the only one that is seemingly totally raw is this "generic" fiber food bar. It tastes like every power bar I've ever eaten in my entire life and that is to say: edible, but sort of disgusting. Kind of what I imagine soylent green would taste like. After I opened up the kimchi, someone made a comment that it "smelled like cabbage" in the studio, at which I giggled since I'm totally becoming creepy smelly food person as a raw foodie, more so than I ever was as a regular vegan...and as a regular vegan I was creeped out by most smelly foods that did not involve garlic (yes, that includes peanut butter, yes, peanut butter kind of creeps me out).

I ran home, packed some of my homebrew kimchi up for my friend Mississippi Steve and skeedaddled over to pubquiz. He and my buddy Rusty both enjoyed it, so again, kudos, Yummy Vegan Dinners, for posting an idiot proof recipe. While Steve and Rust ate the kimchi, our team totally ate it at pubquiz. We headed over to Whiskey for our friend Jay from Red Co llar's birthday. One bar turned into another when we popped back to the fed for a very late dinner and lo and behold, there was John Edwards. Yes, the senator who cheated on his cancer ridden wife with like, everyone PLUS a documentary film maker. He was chatting up two age-inappropriate girls who left in a hurry and about 40 seconds later, he was out the door. Beth commented that it was weird that nobody had bothered him and we all decided that it was likely because nobody who drinks at the fed actually gives a shit about John Edwards. Although I will say that he looked rather thin and pretty dapper. Sort of like one of those aging 80s icons (there's one in particular in my mind but I can't think of him, so I'm just going to give you Don Johnson, who is a fine approximation).

And suddenly we were on our way to Teasers.

For those of you unfamiliar with Durham, Teasers is the "nice" stripclub in Durham. We've also got the slightly less-nice Diamond Girls, then the out and out sketchy Quality Bathhouse and Cabaret Royale. Don't mistake these for the whorehouses (Tomcats and whatever the hell that place is on Rigsbee). For those of you unfamiliar with me, check my goodreads. Sex work (and stripping in particular) is a pet passion of mine as a regretfully not-women's studies major in college. I think my life might've been different if I spent about 60 hours a week in college talking about gender instead of just the 20 I spent working at the Women's Center. Man, I worked at a women's center in college, I *am* a cliche.

It was a pretty hilarious evening, given that Rust was our strip club ambassador, helping us see how to tip correctly, what you can buy with a dollar etc. A lot of funny things were said and done. A few highlights:

Goth-y dancer: Come on man you're gonna get me in trouble.
Jay: How do you know I'm not a high roller?
Rust: The HIGH ROLLER in a denim jacket!
(everyone laughs)
Rust: He likes to play it down.

Jay (re John Edwards): Motherfucking white wine.
(ed note: Jay took serious issue with John Edwards' decision to drink white wine as opposed to beer, liquor or red wine. This was said about 16 times over the course of the night.)

Otty: Jay, we've never shared music, but we shared many nipples tonight.

Justine, the very nice stripper: Never bite a nipple in motion.

Creepy Strip Club Regular waiting outside after the club is closed: Y'all take your demented selves out of here. My dick is hard, now move on.

After all that, I came home, fixed myself some chia goodness with raspberries and attempted to make guac using a storebought salsa called fresh cuts, which was VILE and caused me to waste an avocado, I fell asleep. Thanks for joining the adventures.

Oh and I decided to go to 9pm Holy Saturday. :) So it'll be 46 days of Raw from now on.

40 Days of Raw: Day 34/Day 35

2010-03-23T15:22:00.008-04:00

So, not a lot of "news" going on. It's finally officially spring. My bulbs are coming up (see the paperwhite and hyacinth) and so I hit home depot to get myself some new garden stakes, a huge shovel and scoped the veggies for this year. I'm hoping to plant some berry bushes (Anyone have any advice?) as well as tomatoes, cukes, zuccs, and leafies (I've had shit luck with all roughage that aren't herbs) as well as the possibility of an apple or pear tree, and some impatiens.

Eating-wise, it was a pretty bland day. I spent the morning in the recording studio, so had a banana and some kombucha, then hit the grocery store, where I picked up some stuff and ended up punking out and just making broc and guac. Later that evening, I mixed up some chia goodness and tossed some raspberries in with it. I also cut up a mango and it was divine!

Day 35:
Today, I busted out my spiralizer and made some yellow squash pasta. For the haters, I took a picture of the amount of waste. Given the amount of pasta I got (about 3 cups) from one squash, I don't think the waste was excessive. I made a raw tomato sauce of:

2 roma tomatoes
2 cloves garlic
1/8 red onion
1 tbsp "italian spices" (basil, oregano, thyme, parsley)
salt to taste'

I realized after the fact that a lot of recipes call for sun dried tomatoes, but I am not a huge fan of them, so I skipped on them. I thought the sauce turned out pretty good (if a little watery and garlicky). Maybe next time I'll try tossing a sun dried tomato in as well.

Sadly, the mac cheese was kind of vile. I don't know what all those people were talking about. I had my roommate try it too and she said that it "tasted like a nut cheese would taste, I guess." It had the consistency of tofutti but none of the yumminess. So it's in the fridge but will probably transfer to the trash by the end of the week.

I've also snacked on an avocado and am fixing a snack of chia and strawberries for work. I also made a really sweet little bevvy (mashed strawberries, coconut water and some filtered water) while I sat in the sunroom with the pups and watched drag race. I can't wait for it to be smoking hot outside! :)

40 Days of Raw: Day 33

2010-03-21T18:03:00.004-04:00

Day 33: This afternoon, I made a snack of Go Raw Granola with Almond Milk and a canteloupe and sat down to watch the new phenomenon, Me and My Dick!

I've included the first number (the entire play is available on youtube, just let it play in sequence), and I have to say, it's pretty hilarious.

I also pulled together some radish and cabbage slaw for dinner (nothing to write home about, though) as well as some chia and strawberries. The Mac Cheese doesn't seem to be fermenting at the rate described, but the whey has the right scent at least. I'll keep you posted. Apparently this recipe has won all kinds of awards and things, but right now it tastes exactly the same as it did when I pulled it out. Wait and see, I guess.

40 Days of Raw: Day 32

2010-03-20T23:44:00.002-04:00

So, an immensely busy day...

Woke up and went to teach. Several lesson cancellations today gave me 40 minutes to hit Whole Foods and grab a salad and some Vitacoco. After work, I went to Bed Bath to get some Cheesecloth so I could strain out my almond milk and get to work on some Mac Cheese from Really Really Raw Food. It's "maturing" right now.

Last night, Pink Flag played at the Local 506 with Pariah Piranha, 8" Betsy (with whom we'll be releasing a 7") and Athens Boys Choir, who was really funny.

Rob from the Dirty Little Heaters let me onto a little secret; Med Deli in Chapel Hill now has free pickles at their condiment bar, so we got a little snack and ate tons of pickles. So, Triangle-ites, be warned, there are pickles, but when I'm in the hood, there will be none!

I also made a chia snack when I came home, then settled into bed before getting up again this AM.

40 Days of Raw: Day 31

2010-03-20T02:31:00.004-04:00

Today I got up, hit the studio, ran home, took a shower and then had to go to work. Of course, today was the day we ran a veggie BLT =/. Packed some Go Raw granola (which is pretty decent as a snack, but I would still suggest Chia over it for breakfast), and a pepper. We served seaweed salad tonight, which was tempting but I'm not sure if it's raw or safe so I skipped it. On arrival at home, me and the pups had dinner. They got kibble, I got a perfectly supple and ripe avocado. Hooray.

Sorry for the lame post, I'm exhausted.

Sleeptime.

40 Days of Raw: Day 29-30

2010-03-19T02:47:00.006-04:00

Man, so I realized I screwed up my lent count...apparently 40 days goes to Palm Sunday, not Easter Sunday. Me being an idiot, I've been doing the 47 day count for, well, my whole life. It's either me or my mom for teaching me that it goes through to Easter. Anyway, commenters, your choice. 47 days? Or just 40?

Day 29: A day of discovery.

Ch-ch-ch-chia! Oh man, so I bought this "Chia Goodness" and finally, a sect of vegan food whose product names match their actual contents (Raw Crunch, Chia Goodness...as opposed to Leahey Valley's Vegan and Delicious which should really be questionable and vile). I fixed myself a bowl of this delicious treat with some fresh strawberries, almond milk and agave nectar. I've illustrated several different preparations. I tend to like the 2 TB chia breakfast to 4TB almond milk and 2 TB water, sitting for about 30 minutes to get super gelatinous. It really does taste like cream of wheat!

I also marinated some cabbage and broccoli in balsamic vinaigrette overnight. It made a great salad, but it was a little lousy for snacking in a service job, where I was constantly worried I had broccoli in my teeth :).

Day 30: Boring but delicious
Breakfast of Chia and strawberries
Lunch of an arugula, strawberries, walnuts and vinaigrette. Really pretty and quite tasty too!
Snack of a raw crunch bar.
Dinner of Red pepper and chia with banana, as well as some kombucha.

I have two insanely busy days ahead of me, so it'll probably be another dull combo post, but please readers, weigh in and let me know how to approach this! I've really actually enjoyed being raw now that I've gotten into the swing of things (although I am still fiending for bread!) and am considering doing one 100% raw day per week when I can really focus on the technique and then incorporating at least 1 raw meal per day into my regular diet. Maybe more!

40 Days of Raw: Days 25-28

2010-03-17T01:34:00.006-04:00

Day 25:
Headed into Manhattan for a "day o fun" following our tepid show in the bronx. We hunted for basses for Dork at Southside, Ludlow and First Flight. Thing I never knew: guitar shops that are pretty cool for guitars tend to stock only 8-10 basses at a time. Bleh. Sick got pancakes at Clinton St. Baking Company and said they were quite tasty. I talked Dork into getting the Soul Chicken sandwich at Red Bamboo (Since my last trip, it has haunted me in a way no sandwich has haunted me since the Cajun Seitan at Candle Cafe). She thoroughly enjoyed it. I hit up Quintessence and ordered the chips and dip (and oh, holy joy, having the mouth feel of something resembling a complex carb again was wonderful!) as well as the malai kofta, which I wolfed down directly after the guac and salsa. I also stopped off at One Lucky Duck, Pure food and wine's take out joint. I got a raw lasagna as well as a tira misu and a mallomar.

Here's where it gets itchy. On the drive back, I started to feel sick. Pungently sick to my stomach. At home, the girls ordered in NY pizza and I poked at my lasagna. It was totally unappealing since my stomach felt like it had been stabbed. I ended up eating the desserts (bless my sweet tooth) which were totally delicious. I got sick that night and was not right in the stomach until...well, I'm still working on it. I curled up in my mom's bed and drank water and hoped it would be over soon. I can only assume one of two things happened:

1 - I was allergic to a crucial ingredient in the malai kofta. I am slightly allergic to carrots, but not enough to cause that much distress without eating a whole bag of them.

2 - There was too much oil or something I am no longer used to eating in the meal.

I think 2 is more likely, since the thing I found least appealing about the faux lasagna was the overly generous cashew ricotta. I actually ended up eating just the zucchini, tomato and tomato sauce out of the layers and leaving the rest picked at, then moved onto a salad.

Day 26:
Woke up, still sick to the stomach. Watched Sick and Dork eat NY bagels. My mom packed a whole bunch up, which are now sitting in my freezer along with the whole foods veggie burgers for Easter. Yay bagels! I had a couple of pickles and a banana for breakfast, a banana for lunch, a banana for dinner (bananas are supposed to be binding). I drank kombucha as well, hoping to give my flora a fighting chance. The girls stopped off at Pat's for some cheesesteaks. Last time I was in town, I hit up Giana's for what was probably my first and last vegan cheesesteak.

On the way into Philly, we were stuck for about 2 hours in Camden, NJ because the road looked like the pictures I've added. No, that's not a lake, that's Hwy 30. We got to the Terrordome and played with some amazing bands, like Big Attack, The Teenage Whore Moans (it was unfortunately their last show, but they were GREAT!) and Joe Jack Talcum (dead milkmen omfG!). The show was really cool and we were happy to have a good night. We drove about 4 1/2 hours home before things started getting bad, so we pulled over, slept an hour until I peed in my pants a little then got back on the road. Home in Durham by 9:30am.

Day 27:
Still, sadly, not totally right in the stomach, I reached for another banana in the morning and then slept most of the day away. Finally at around 6, I got up the strength to attempt to put some real food in me. I did asparagus, two ways.

Way 1: Creamy asparagus soup, from Goneraw. I actually was not overly impressed by this recipe. Too much lime and just a little...off somehow.

Way 2: Noochy spars
This worked much better for me. I ran the asparagus under hot tap water (about 115*) for about a minute until they turned a little greener, then diced 'em up fine with some radishes. I poured some homemade balsamic vinaigrette over the top then sprinkled with some homemade parma. Can you say good? It was!

After getting a taste of parma again, I also pulled together some grated zucchini "pasta" with some evoo and parma to try and recreate a favorite comfort food (spinach noodles with margarine and parma. so simple, so tasty). It didn't quite hit the same high as my noochy spars, but it was pretty good.

Day 28:
Today, I was a bum and used more produce my mom gave me. Made a banana, flax seed and agave pudding for bfast, then snacked on an apple, some almonds, a yellow pepper and have some cut up broccoli sitting next to me now that might get bumped until the morning. So, until then...thanks for watching, bloggers. Someone asked me tonight what my first food out of the gate will be when I am done with my 100% raw challenge. Any suggestions? Those bagels in my freezer seem like a pretty good call right now...but even more so, I'm craving some Daiya (to be reviewed very soon...not enough testing completed!)

40 Days of Raw: Days 21-24

2010-03-13T01:01:00.004-05:00

Haikus for the tour days

Day 21:
on the precipice
no groceries, I rely
on the salad bar
(romaine, cabbage, broccoli, beets, peppers, strawberries, cukes)

Day 22:
pretty much the same
as day 21 foodwise
but with raw crunch bar

Day 23:
Yabba pot is whack
except their salad dressing
which I hope was raw
(for all the pontificating the Yabba Pot website does, or used to do, since it appears to be down now, I was shocked that they didn't have a SINGLE raw item on the menu and had to ask for a salad)

Day 24:
Getting by on juice
my mom stocked the fridge for me
oh, produce delight!
(and my dad bought the awesome veggie burgers from Whole Foods Manhasset which is so sad for me :()

----

By the way, my band, Pink Flag is on tour which means limited time on the internet and also a lot less food. We practiced for our tour with The Shakes and Astronomers at a secret Chapel Hill show, and since, we've been to Wilmington NC and played with Cheap Girls; Arbutus, MD where we played and had a slumber party with the ADORABLE and totally worth checking out Math the Band; and played Bronx NY tonight on a last minute show with Empire, Two O'Clock Courage, The Kezners, Smile Why Not and Soho Violet.

Tomorrow I plan to hit Quintessence and/or Angelica Kitchen and/or Pure Food and wine OR SOMETHING YOU RECOMMEND. I also found out today that I've been cheating a little by drinking Odwalla smoothies, which I realized today are "flash pasteurized"...whoops. However, besides bananas and apples, they're pretty much the best calorie food I can get at rest stops. We're also going bassssss shopping! Yay!

I'll probably wait to update again until I get home from tour on Sunday. Still looking for NYC and Philly recs :)

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40 Days of Raw: Day 17-20...halfway! Need recs for tour!

2010-03-08T15:36:00.006-05:00

Day 17 - Friday...oh man, I made a gross smoothie. I used the acai juice, thinking it would be good in a smoothie. Boy, was I ever wrong. So, I ended up pretty much wasting a
1 banana, 1/2 c strawberries, more spinach, a carrot, celery, a clementine and a pear to make something I essentially had to choke down. I thought it would be more fruit-punch like. Amazon cherries are no fun at all. :( The rest of the day, I had a snack of avocado and mulberries, which are so cute together!

Day 18 - Saturday. My first Mishap with the vitamix.
I forgot to pack breakfast, so ended up having to wait until 3:30 to get food. The good news? I successfully pulled off a runny ice cream. The bad news, when I tried to pour it into a glass, a HUGE chunk of ice cream came out, tipped the glass and painted my floor, baseboard and a little bit of the cabinetry. The grout is now a resonant blue. I also snacked out on a mango. At Broad Street Cafe in Durham, I ordered a house salad. I have a small bone to pick with like, every restaurant in the world: if you describe your salad as fresh green, garden, "mixed veggies" or even "lettuce, tomato, onion and crutons"...WHERE DOES THE CHEESE COME FROM? I don't understand why you'd put cheese on a salad that is supposedly comprised of veggies, with absolutely no mention of it. I don't like sending food back. I work in a restaurant. You need to tell your customers what's true though!

So I washed the vitamix and used it to chop radishes, carrots and celery, then mixed that slaw with my kimchi to ease the spice a little. It worked and was quite tasty. My dog's ball also fell into the kimchi bowl, which was adorably heartbreaking (she's obsessive) because she'd put it in her mouth, drop it and run, then slink back to it, stare for a while, then try again. It was darling, you have to believe me.

Day 19 - Sunday. Yet ANOTHER Kombucha mishap. I'm starting to think these bottles are structurally unsound. So my entire food intake for the day was a Go Raw bar, some cashews and a grapefruit. I really need to make another batch of pickles. I won't lie, it was a bad day for eating.

Day 20 - A good smoothie! Mix of the following:
1/2 c almonds
1/4 c cashews
handful flax seeds
1/2 c blackberries
1/2 c tomatoes
1 red pear
1 grapefruit
1/2 c spinach
1 c water

So I'm sipping on that. I've found that I'm grazing more now that I've gotten into the groove. I'm packing some cashews, almonds and mulberries from The Raw Choice (I used to get pick up food when they had a lifestyle center...it was SO good. If you're out there, TRC, start doing raw cooking classes and demos again!), as well as some radishes for the later in the shift boredom eating.

Sorry about the delay in posting, by the way, but expect some more delays, since my band is going on TOUR! We are hitting up Wilmington, NC; Baltimore, MD; New York, NY; and Philadelphia, PA. Any suggestions you have for places in those cities (I've heard Yabba Pot in MD is good, and will likely be trying Angelica Kitchen's raw selections unless I'm told otherwise), please let me know!

40 Days of Raw: Day 15 and 16 a new toy!

2010-03-04T17:10:00.004-05:00

So I got up today and packed some fruit, stepped outside for work and lo and behold, my VITAMIX had arrived. I raced through my lessons, so excited about my vitamix. First thing...I cleaned it. Yep, I'm a nerd.

Then I got to business. First things first, sweet sweet almond milk. They recommend filtering with cloth, which I didn't do. The milk is, admittedly, a little grainy, but a little fiber never hurt anybody. I then attempted to make the ice cream recipe using:
1/2 c blueberries
1/2 c bananas and mango
1/4 c strawberries
1/4 c blackberries
1 c almond milk
1/2 c spinach

Let me say, FAIL. However, I did end up with a big fat smoothie dinner, which I quickly downed. Later that night, I also wrapped some avocado in nori for an evening sushi snack, as well as noshing on the avocado spinach dip (which I can't wait to attempt in my vitamix for an even creamier smoother greatness). For the record, Dork tried that spinach dip and said "This is how raw hummus should taste." And I agree. Fuck raw hummus. There, I said it.

This morning, I attempted another green smoothie this time containing:
1 whole grapefruit
1 whole cucumber
1 c almond milk
1/2 c frozen banana and mango
1 handful flax seeds
1/2 c blueberries
5 strawberries

This smoothie was not really as tasty as yesterday's, probably because I used 2 very large, bitter fruits for this drink. I'm going to drag it along to work with me and hope for the best. I'm also planning to pack a raw crunch bar for the fatigue. I'm really looking forward to trying to make ice cream again, as well as some cashew butter!

So, anybody got any great recipes for a new vitamix owner? Man, when raw is over, I'm gonna make some soup! It's gonna be so RAD.

Days 15 and 16: yay getting calories. I've lost about 7 pounds since the start of this experiment (2 weeks ago). It's not that I don't want to drop some weight, but I am worried that it is more starvation method than healthy stuff. I've started doing at home bodyweight exercise to attempt to preserve my muscles. :)

40 Days of Raw: Day 13 & 14

2010-03-02T00:56:00.000-05:00

Guys, I'm not going to lie, day 13 was a doozy. My roommate bought some sourdough bread which tempted me the whole morning. I fixed myself a bowl of ultra spicy kimchi and tried mixing it with the raw hummus I made, which essentially rendered both elements totally unappetizing, so I ended up just swishing it around in my bowl and not eating it. I didn't include a picture because it looks grody. So naturally, when I got to work there was an amazing vegetarian (easily veganized) dish on the specials and I also sold about 15 orders of the hummus plate (which is my staple meal on shift). The scent of hummus and warm pita was kind of overwhelming.

I left work and ran to the Local 506 to catch Pretty and Nice, who stayed over. They were quite enamored with my homemade fermented veggies as well as my darling puppies. Having essentially not eaten all day, I cut up some celery into the kimchi, which helped ease some of the spice. I think next time I'll try cutting radish into it. We stayed up way too late and were planning to try and get up and maybe hit Elmo's diner this morning like we did last time, but work and tour schedule interfered. Alas. Anyway, if you've never heard them, check them out. I believe you can (with some ease) find and download the song Tora Tora Tora, which is pretty rad and the reason I ended up buying their cool, off-kilter pop album.

Day 14: dippy.

Today I set aside about an hour to go to the store, since all I had to eat were pickles, kimchi and that hummus. Of course, I was famished by the time I arrived, wandered the aisles in a stupor and ended up leaving the store with half the ingredients actually required to make pretty much anything worth a damn. Fortunately, I'm crafty. For late lunch I whipped up a Broc and Guac-- avo diluted by peas after I read this scary article on goneraw.com which decries the high fat diets of many raw foodists and blames fatigue and illness on them (I have been tired! I do need energy! This made me feel like I was reading an infomercial.). It was SO delicious.

I hung out with some friends and slowly but surely my blood glucose dropped and dropped to the point that I got a bit of a headache, got giddy and then got a BAD headache. Having not eaten in almost 10 hours, I took my food processor into the basement when I got home and made the creamed spinach dip from goneraw.com while pounding coconut water to try and bring some quick sugar into my blood stream. Can I tell you something? This dip rocks. It ROCKS. It is awesome. When I am no longer raw, I'm gonna buy some rye bread, spread this all over it and refuse to leave the house until it's all gone. Either way, it's still pretty good with cauliflower. :)

Days 13 & 14: Not my best. But stickin to it.

Sidebar-- Giveaway over at a friend blog

2010-03-01T13:13:00.002-05:00

Ginger is the New Pink is giving away a FREE RAW CLEANSE. In addition to this neat giveaway, I'm kind of excited to have been turned on to the blog (thank you Sarah!) because it has lots of sweet raw food info!

Update: I'm a tool and this giveaway already ended. Man, I am lame. I really would love to get a free cleanse!

40 Days of Raw: Day 12, when I FINALLY get Kimchi right!

2010-03-01T01:05:00.002-05:00

So today I finished off my last bit of Sunja Kimchi, just in time to test the waters of my own recipe...and IT IS GOOD. I mean, it's a little spicier than I would ideally make it but the flavors are right! It tastes tangy and salty and hot and GOOD. I used (according to recipe)--

1 whole head nappa cabbage
1 whole bunch green onions
1 7" piece of daikon radish
6 cloves garlic
1 1/2" thumb ginger
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp liquid aminos
3 tbsp gochgaru
about 1 tsp extra salt

and voila, in 2.5 days, I have a cheaper, homemade alternative to the 4.59 a small bottle stuff. Oh, happy day. Thank you, thank you Yummy Vegan Dinners. And thank you to the PPK boards for recommending this recipe.

I'll also be blagging some cool recipes from Chef Shirle in the near future. She told me about a killer key lime pie recipe that sounds crazy good.

So munching on nuts, trying to kill the rest of this grody acai juice (I'm sorry I ever bought it! Next time sticking to the tried and true friends, like passionfruit juice, grapefruit and so on), and now, my freshly milled kimchi! Doing well!

40 Days of Raw: Day 10 & 11

2010-02-28T01:16:00.003-05:00

So, on Friday, I set up two fermentation projects: another batch of my surefire half-sour pickles and an attempt at the Yummy Vegan kimchi. On unfermentated taste...it seemed alright. While I waited for the cabbage to salt, I fixed myself a big ol bowl of salad, consisting of zucchini, mixed greens, tomato, red pepper, onion, walnuts, avocado, pear, celery, olive oil and lemon juice. Can you say mm mm good?

In my haste to go out and see some great rock and roll from River City Ransom, Mosadi Music and Rat Jackson (arguably my fav local band right now), I failed to put the kimchi into a bath (*foreshadowing!*). Coming home late (4am) snack was mixed almonds, cashews and walnuts with kiwi.

Today, I woke up (after a none too refreshing 4 hours of sleep), tossed a raw crunch bar into my bag along with some kombucha, and ran out...only to hear the kombucha crack on concrete of the driveway as I got into my car to go to work. That was an expensive mistake. One of my lessons canceled, so I ran out and bought some Naked Juice over at Whole Foods (on sale in Chapel Hill, 2 for 5. Not a steal, but worthwhile.) In the hour break, I came home and made some more raw sushi.

Upon arrival home from my restaurant job, I found that my kimchi had bled juicy vinegary goodness all over the counter. AND IT SMELLS LIKE KIMCHI! I cleaned it up before attempting to make Raw Kitchen's Homemade hummus. I'm not posting a picture because it is a tub of beige goo, you all know how hummus looks! Besides which, it will pale in comparison to my salad porn. In sofar as taste is concerned, I tweaked the recipe a bit (added more lemon juice, some cumin.) It isn't bad, especially when used as a dipping sauce for cauliflower, celery etc, but on its own, the rather pungent and unmistakable flavor of raw chickpea is a bit overwhelming, even with all the masking veggies in there. I wish I had some red pepper to add. That would probably dress it up a bit. I think it's probably better than just trying to sprout your chickpeas and use a traditional hummus recipe, but this is one thing I'll be happy to cook again when it's all over.

Anyway, I'm exhausted and just wanted to update.

Days 10 and 11? (1/4 way there)...not too shabby.

40 Days of Raw: Day 9, When I get into the groove

2010-02-26T00:59:00.005-05:00

So, today, woke up and decided to attempt to put good use to the rest of my chard and came up with a KICK ASS salad. I've been munching it all day:

Pear and Chard salad:
1 bunch red chard (although any color will do, I like the look of the red)
1 whole red d'anjou pear
1/2 vidalia onion
1/2 red bell pepper
6-7 fresh radishes
1/2 cup raw walnuts

Soak chard in cold water and a little apple cider vinegar to kill any bugs or anything. This is a good habit to get into with all leafy greens. It also perks them up a little bit if they are wilting (this chard was about a week in the fridge, so it definitely appreciated the boost). While it's soaking, cut the pear into quarters, then divide those lengthwise by 4 and slice. Cut the vidalia onion in quarter rounds. Slice the bell pepper into rounds about the same length as the onion. Slice the radishes finely. You can run the walnuts through a processor, bang them with a hammer or crush them a little finer with the side of your chef's knife (the way you'd bang to peel garlic). You can also just use them as is :). Lastly, chiffonade your chard. I'd recommend just slicing around the middle vein as it can be a little tough when eating raw, but you don't have to, and I sure didn't this time. Toss all this stuff into a big tupperware or bowl. Dress as you please.

The dressing I used was a simple homemade balsamic vinaigrette:
1/4 c olive oil
1/2 c balsamic
herbs de province, salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste

Toss into an old dressing bottle, put your goodies in and SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE. Pour as much or as little as you'd like over it.

The pear really helps to balance out the green-y flavor of the chard, while the radishes pick up the peppery tang. I also tried out making radish butterflies. Let's just say that my knife skills need improvement.

Lastly, I mixed up some juice for myself. I used like, 3/4 water, 1/8 coconut water and 1/8 acai juice. I noticed something weird, maybe you have too-- acai has a distinctive spearmint scent and aftertaste, no? Maybe it's just me.

A truffle for an after work treat and we're baller.

Day 9: not hungry, not dehydrated, great new salad recipe? PUNK ROCK DAY.

40 Days of Raw: Day 7 & 8, going out to eat, falling off the wagon.

2010-02-24T15:31:00.001-05:00

So, after all my hard work on Tuesday, I went into work and asked a couple of my coworkers about how to make kimchi. No dice. So I've got a napa cabbage sitting in my fridge. In the meantime, I portioned out some cashews and dried figs for the workday. Of course, had pickles before I left, then worked, grabbed some kimchi and drifted to sleep.

Wednesday, still my most challenging day, I grabbed a new type of raw bar, called Go Raw. This was the flax seed kind and it tasted EXACTLY like an apricot fruit leather with some flax seeds in it. Either way, it tided me over until I got to my destination, Butternut Squash, to meet a friend for dinner. I went to BNS a few weeks before I decided to go raw, noted that they had a raw entree on their menu and bookmarked it in my mind to go back.

When I first walked in, I thought, wow, much nicer than I expected. I don't know why, but I was just expecting a sort of retro cafeteria feel, so I was surprised by the soft jazz, carpets, linen napkins and overall "classy" feel of the joint. I sat down the first time with a book and ordered the tomato basil soup and the thai seitan skewers, both pictured. The soup was complex and tangy with hints of sweetness, roasted garlic, basil and chunks of tomato. The skewers, less so. I found them to be a little tough, the sauce reminiscent of tahini, the rice underseasoned with just a hint of coconut flavor. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. So I went back.

This time, being raw, I ordered the mixed salad (which, to my dismay but not enough to totally stop me, contained corn and edamame beans). If I were NOT raw right now, I would eat the shit out of that salad, all the time. My dining companion ordered the tomato basil soup on my recc, but they ran out, and instead ate the butternut squash soup which she insisted was delicious. I am not a fan of squash, so I'll pass. For entrees, we ordered the BNS salad for her, and the raw plate for me. The BNS salad was reportedly quite tasty and looked beautiful. The raw plate was a decent showing but I took issue with a couple of points-- 1, do not claim to be serving a raw plate with a live dipping sauce if you're going to put it out with a trio made up of sour cream (!), hummus and an avocado dip. Avo dip, yay. Other two, kinda nay. That said, I may have dipped a cuke into some hummus. I can't help it, I haven't gotten around to sprouting my chickpeas yet!
2- If you're serving raw dipping stuff, don't shred the carrot. You can't dip shredded carrot. 3- Don't charge $12 for cruditee and sour cream. I won't even honor it with a picture. The search for a great raw meal out in the triangle continues.

After dinner, I moseyed to the Nightlight club in Chapel Hill with the intention of seeing Kevin Blechdom's new operetta with Neill Prewitt and Leslie Moon, entitled Exponential Death, USA. For the uninitiated, Kevin Blechdom is a performance artist whose primary mediums include electronic music, banjo playing, extended vocal technique and video accompaniment. This particular piece was made up of a story about a demented birdfaced psycho-killer's victims. These victims included the crocodile from Peter Pan, A retarded man bringing home turkey for his wife (that they would dip every morsel in gravy), a Swedish nun and a priest on vacation in America, a drug addict, a SLUT (this was probably the highlight of the evening, with Neill Prewitt prancing around in a leopard print dress holding a torso-sized cardboard vagina just below the hem), and a slew of horses. There were so many clever references to pornography, pop culture and so much laugh out loud goodness that I'm considering going to see it again, in Raleigh, on 3/3. If you read this blog and live in the Triangle, GO SEE THIS SHOW. I may need to skip because my friends Pretty and Nice are coming into town again and I wanna support their goodness (at the Local 506, 3/3).

For your listening/viewing pleasure, a little Kevin Blechdom:

and my favorite Blechdom Song...

40 Days of Raw: Day 6, in which Whole Foods becomes Whole Paycheck

2010-02-22T20:40:00.008-05:00

I've advocated for years that if you shop wisely, you can shop cheap at Whole Foods. Today, I failed. But I'll tell you why!

#1 Splurge item of day: Ulimana Truffles. At 13 a jar, they are steep. But they're truffles. And the truffle I snuck in the parking lot said, "You did the right thing, BS."

#2 Splurge item: More Sunja Kimchi. I can't help it. Until I can figure out how to make edible kimchi, I will let the Sunja company continue to have its way with my wallet.

#3 Splurge item: About 2 pounds of Cashews. I don't care. Nuts are my life right now.

#4 Splurge item: Vitacoco coconut water and some fancy juices to mix with it. I just wanted to toss together a quick pick me up that is not hippie juice. Hippie juice is tiring.

#5 Splurge item: Arugula. Yes, it's $5 a little plastic box/bag thing. But I want to mix it with my chard and some pears to make something earthy, spicy and delectable.

#6 Splurge item: prep food chutney and salsa. I got some mango and salsa. I figure I'll mix them together with other things, make salads, etc.

These things did come in handy tonight when I came home and saw it was SUSHI NIGHT. I hate to be left out, so I popped some cauliflower into my processor, pulled out some untoasted nori, spread the cauli-rice out, laid some cuke strips, avo, radish pickles and finally mango salsa and BLAM. Flavor explosion. The sushi doesn't hold together very well when it gets too big, so for part 2, I made a variation of my (As yet unprinted, holding out for when I open a restaurant, don't you dare steal this as your own) sushi salad. The salad this time was a bed of nori with cauliflower, cukes, avo, radish pickle and rice vinegar. Pictured in the feast, the extremely generous maki rolling Dork did (I believe the filling was rice, avocado and peanuts), tempura broccoli, carrots and sweet potatoes, my sushi salad (with food porn close-up) and of course, lots of water, dipping sauces for the non-raw kids and rice vinegar!

This meal was a lot quicker and easier than I anticipated. I think next time I'll try to grind the cauliflower a little smaller so it gets a little wetter, and maybe do a (I was thinking about this on the ride home, actually) cashew-ginger cream dipping sauce and/or hold sushi together agent. See the first (much better, somehow) roll at right. It's surprising that I was more conservative and successful with the first pass. I think once I got the taste of food for real, I kinda went nuts trying to get more of it and lost my patience. :)

The scent of heated oil was actually a turn off for me, but visually, I have to admit that the sight of broccoli tempura was tempting. As was holding itself together rice-sticky sushi. Observe pretty tempura.

I also purchased a bunch of chickpeas and am considering an experiment in soaking them to get some raw hummus/falafel/legume goodness into my life. Cauliflower just ain't the same without its partner in crime. I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, off to share the cucumber and radish pickle goodness with the world.

Day 6? First time on raw diet where I have had a tummyache from eating too much food, so, I think we win. Raw sushi = totally approved.

40 Days of Raw: Day 4 & 5

2010-02-21T23:23:00.000-05:00

Saturday:
Thank god for those Raw Crunch bars. Taught lessons until 3pm, ate one around 1pm, felt better.

When I came home, I realized I had about 2 hours to shower, pack up and get my butt in gear for the Dirty Little Heaters' CD release. For those uninitiated, you should go ahead to check out the leaked track, "City Square," which, fortuitously happens to be one of the standouts on the album.

I cut myself up some avocado, polished off the rest of that chard salad (yes, I realize I've been calling it kale for like 3 days. it's chard, I know.), ate a fistful of cashews and grabbed one of my other favorite prohibitively expensive raw indulgence foods (besides my new friend Raw Crunch and my old standby for idiots who can't make kimchi, Sunja Medium Kimchi): KOMBUCHA! Don't hate. Dork is actually supposedly growing some someplace, but I'm starting to think that most of us in the house are fermentation challenged.

We ran over to Bailey's for like 3 minutes, then went to soundcheck at 7pm. The whole show was freaking incredible...really high energy, great crowd. What I failed to factor into the equation of not drinking and not eating any cooked or processed foods was that when you play a really raucous show then dance around for 2 hours...you get HUNGRY. Like, touchy, pissed off, might kill-a-bitch hungry. So when we finally got our gear loaded out around 2:30 am, I was ready to go. At home, we all joked around in the kitchen while I inhaled a grapefruit and some almonds and Sick put away some chicken wings our friends had been nice enough to pick up.

Sunday:
Waking up at 10 this morning was a little like dying. I talked to Kyle about how I was more tired than I'd expected to be, giving up drinking. I mean, I literally slept 15 hours on Friday. That's ridiculous. I did my thing, came home and crashed out again until about 3.

At 3, I ventured downstairs to try my kimchi. Those of you thinking positively? Wrong. I kimchi failed, again. This time, I was also icked out by the fact that I put the kimchi in ball jars and they surreptitiously sealed themselves shut, which got my hypochondriac botulism antennae panties in a twist. The kimchi was wrong on so many levels
1 - Not the right color.
2 - Not tangy
3 - Not spicy until the very end
4 - Not particularly tasty

So, it's back to the drawing board. I appealed to the PPK Forums for guidance. I suppose they are my version of going to a chapel. Thus far, the following seem like viable candidates for my next attempts (I'm thinking maybe I should do simultaneous attempts in order to avoid so much heartbreak):
David Lebovitz
Yummy Vegan Dinner

I'm wondering if maybe I should scrap the idea of using ball jars altogether for kimchi since they aren't supposed to seal? Again, any thoughts are appreciated, peanut gallery!

So, time will tell. At least I can count on my tried and true pickle recipe. I should probably have packed a few more. Tonight I busted open a jar of my Sunja's kimchi for dinner, since I'd been hoping to have kimchi, as well as some cantaloupe, raspberries and pecans.

Now I'm sippin on coconut water, trying to decide what I should plan to stock up on this week. I'm relying on nuts as a crutch right now, and am actually eating more fruit than I ever thought I would. I need to find some easy to scarf with no prep veggies that are not red peppers, grape tomatoes or celery.

Day 4: Good, but a little bit more planning could've prevented a lot of heartache.
Day 5: Lazy, but well-rounded.

40 Days of Raw: Day 3

2010-02-19T23:28:00.000-05:00

Day 3 meant sleeping until 4 pm to catch my sleep up to my energy level. When I woke up, I ran to the grocery store to pick up supplies (pre-packaged kimchi, korean chile pepper, raw granola bar type stuff) and set to work.

Yesterday's lunch was more cauliflower and a little kale salad. Snack turned out to be grapefruit. Dinner was pre-packaged kimchi and unsweetened almond milk with raspberries.

The project for yesterday? Pickling!

I started by making home kimchi. I used the recipe (or guidelines) found at Bella Online, combined with my pickling guru recipe from Tommy J's Kitchen to make my half sour pickles and radishes. Yes, I'm attempting to pickle radishes.

I copped on the kimchi a little...used a fresh habanero in addition to the korean chili powder, so ended up with more of a mud, then blended some garlic and ginger into it. In hindsight, I would've probably used 3-4 cloves of garlic instead of the one. The kimchi, overall, looks a little bit light. I let it sit out overnight to cold process ferment before putting it in the fridge. I'll probably sneak a taste on Sunday night. The cuke pickles will be ready on Monday.

Oh and the raw granola bar things? Tasty and surprisingly satisfying, but they are a little steep at $4 a pop. Basically, they taste like a saltier, healthier version of those nature valley granola bars, with superfoods in them (goji berries, blueberries, cranberries and chocolate are the flavors). They're also a little salty, which helps me to treat them like a real meal and not some lame candy bar.

Since it's also a slow afternoon, I'll tell you about my last Falafel Party (pictured at left). I'll admit, our first (pictured at right) was slightly more successful, falafel-wise, but our israeli salad and hummus were spot on this time around. We used the recipe from VWAV to a T in may, and this time were a little more liberal and winged it (which resulted in some tough first falafels that essentially crumbled in the pan). The one thing that's weird about the VWAV recipe for falafels is the amount of baking powder-- it makes them puff up and created a weird air pocket in the middle that you don't get at your fav middle eastern pita joint. Either way, I'll continue making falafel because it's awesome. But not until April 4.

As far as the israeli salad goes, this time I used fresh lemon juice, sea salt, english seedless (or what my parents call "israeli") cukes, grape tomatoes, fresh cracked pepper and a TON of parsley. It didn't keep well, but there wasn't much to keep! A great way to dress a salad like this is to cut the veggies over the container you intend to keep it in/serve it in. Then put the top on, shake it up and enjoy :)

My pointers for making hummus are more vague-- mainly because hummus is so subjective. I prefer a lighter, lemony hummus to the garlic-tastic that pleases dork. The best I've done (and it has taken weeks of mediocre chickpea dips) are as follows:

Roasted Garlic -- appx (all measurements are!) 8 cloves (roasted) to 2 cups chickpeas, 1 tsp tahini, 1/2 lemon's juice, pinch of cumin, 1/2 tsp salt and a few grinds of the old pepper mill. Olive oil until it flows freely-ish.

Red pepper (not roasted!) -- 2 c chickpeas, 2 cloves garlic, 1 tsp tahini, pinch cumin, 1/2 lemon's juice, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 red pepper (fresh!), ~1/3 c olive oil, then water until free flowing.

That's all I've got for now, dear bloggers. At some point soon, I'm going to attempt soaking legumes. Til then!

40 Days of Raw: Day 2

2010-02-18T23:06:00.000-05:00

So, Day 2. 1/20th of the way there.

I ended up making my red kale salad. It turned out pretty good after letting it sit for a few hours. I did kind of over-salt and over-pepper, but it wasn't so salty or spicy that I was unable to eat it.

Kale Salad Recipe (Inspired by recipe taught by The Raw Choice)
1 bunch red kale
1 red pepper
1/2 vidalia onion
1 clove garlic
1/2 lemon
sea salt
red pepper

Wash all veggies. Then, shred kale into 3/4" wide strips that are no more than 3 1/2 inches in length. Cut red pepper into eighths and cut into thin strips. Cut onion into quarter rounds. Squeeze lemon juice over salad, then sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Put in a covered container and shake (you can do this with your hands, but it will be more sanitary if you shake it up and let the salt and shaking bruise your kale). Let the mixture sit out for about an hour, then refrigerate for up to 3 days. Eat and enjoy. The kale should taste like it has been "cooked."

This also may have been due to how hungry I have been. Right now, my #1 problem is not feeling like my belly is full (yesterday I filled up on kale salad and pecans, then brought blueberries and a pomegranate to work, followed by a cashew, cauliflower and avocado plate) but getting enough *energy*. I am dragging ass most of the day. I am dreaming about the positive effects of caffiene. Hippie juice (apple cider vinegar, water and lemon) does not pack the same punch at all. Sorry Dr Bragg.

Day 2 of raw? Improvement, but barely passing.

40 Days of Raw: Day 1

2010-02-17T23:12:00.000-05:00

So, I've decided to try to day-by-day blog this challenge since it is really new (and I'm sure a lot of you who attempt to go raw will go through the same trials and tribulations as I will) and might be kind of interesting.

Today, I ended up working a double and not really being able to get to the store until very late. That meant that I drank my hippie juice (apple cider vinegar and water) first at my first job, then again at my second, and by the time I headed to Bull McCabe's for pubquiz, I was fading. At the pub, I ordered a salad, plain. Eating it meant that I was suddenly famished. I did stock up on some good stuff, though, like swiss chard, green onions, avocado, pecans, cashews, cantaloupe, cukes, peppers, vidalias and sea salt, so as soon as I came home, I started shoveling pecans into my mouth, cut up a cantaloupe and am now basking in the glow of having some food in my tummy. I was extremely bummed to note that they have stopped carrying my vegan kimchi. Yes, I know it's overpriced, but I was really counting on coasting on that for at least a day.

I have a raw salad recipe idea for swiss chard, vidalias, peppers and a lemon vinaigrette that makes a sort of ceviche after it marinates. I may attempt it tonight or tomorrow, and when I do I will post the recipe.

Overall thoughts on first day of raw? Fail. But hey, I'm new!

Lent Challenge: 40 days of RAW

2010-02-16T12:42:00.000-05:00

Hey Friends!

I've got a backlog of AMAZING product reviews, recipes and the like for you, but something big is in the cards. This year, my lent challenge will be, as indicated in the title, 40 days of raw. Now, that means no beer (sad sad) but it also means LOTS of new pickling recipes, a whole slew of raw tricks and a call out from ME to you, my bloggies.

Take some inspiration. I'm by no means a religious person, but it definitely is a test of your strength to think that this was the time when, throughout history, people have sacrificed en masse. This is the time to try giving up that one habit you're afraid of. Lent begins on 2/17 and ends on Easter Sunday (4/4). Join me!

Do you have a favorite raw recipe? If so, please leave a comment and a link! I'm going to need lots of help. I haven't gone raw since June 2006, when I lasted all of 13 days eating Gazpacho for pretty much every meal.

This week's power vegetable will be CAULIFLOWER, because it is effing delicious.

Stay tuned for a progress report as well as backlog updates.

Daiya - A love story

2010-02-14T12:45:00.004-05:00

Oh Daiya, what is there to say? We met, we danced and now our romance has ended.

It all started out when I ordered Daiya from vegan essentials. Half a pound of cheddar, half a pound of mozzarella. Just some modest tastings. Oh my, I didn't know.

I will tell you that Daiya, without a doubt, is the best cheese substitute I've ever tried. Seriously. It makes Teese look like Veganrella. Cheddar Daiya makes the best mac and cheese I've had that didn't involve dairy. No exaggeration. Spinach fusilli, broccoli, silk and some daiya cheese, melted together in a pot creates some seriously good mac and cheese.

I made nachos for the first time ever and discovered that I think nachos are okay. But hey, at least now I've had them! See picture. They look pretty good, though, right?

The mozzarella Daiya is just as good. Want melty, stretchy cheese pizza? I know it looks a little splotchy in the picture, but I threw the stuff on the pie directly out of the freezer so it was kinda clumpy and melted well enough to create soft squishy cheese.

Then, I went raw. Daiya became a memory, like that German boy I dated for 3 months, knowing full well I wouldn't see again until I got over to Europe 2 years later. A great thing. About a week before I got off the raw diet, I went by Chapel Hill Whole Foods to request that they carry it. Time went by and nothing, so I waited, patiently.

One day, while shopping with Dork and advising her on which vegan products to buy (gimme lean sausage for tofu scramble, yves breakfast links for regular sausage needs) I noticed a new package in the dairy case. DAIYA. Literally screamed. The cereal stock guy looked at me like I was nuts. But Chapel Hill Whole-y heard my prayers. Obviously, we each bought some.

I made pizza with broccoli, spinach and smart deli pepperoni on a corn-based gluten free crust (pictured). I made mac n cheese to feed me for days, packed it up and ate it for days. Then went and bought more. I simply couldn't get enough Daiya. I considered asking the store to start carrying Rossini pizza (made with Daiya) since the Amy's gluten free soy pizza (made with Daiya and rice crust) is kind of horrible. Well, not the pizza, but reheating rice crust is not friendly.

Then, around my birthday, something changed. I had a batch of mac and cheese after a night of somewhat unfortunate drinking choices and the next day...I CRAVED DAIYA NO MORE. (Yes, just like that Burger King only TMNT Release). The spark was gone. The taste of it did nothing for me. I could walk past pizza parlors and watch my friends eat blue box with no jealousy.

Of course, that hatred passed. Tonight, Dork told me she was making daiya pizza (mixed mozzarella and cheddar) with fresh peppers, tomatoes and Smart Deli pepperoni (really, is there any other kind?). And when she offered me some? "Oh hell yeah."

NC Beer List

2010-01-11T13:02:00.018-05:00

Over the past year, I've become more interested in local craft beer due to a growing relationship between local brewers and local rock musicians, as well as a growing buy-local mentality. With that in mind, I've started to compile a list of the vegan-friendliest brews for those of you who live in the NC area (or have access to some of these beers). I've withheld my own personal recommendations from this list because it is incomplete and because I hope to possibly pilgrimage (a la Beer Y'all) to some of these breweries and do a side by side comparison of their wares to bring you the best and brightest from each one!

Without further ado, the list thus far:

Aviator - Vegan Friendly
Fuquay Varina, NC

We don’t use isinglass in any of our beers (we did use it in the past…but have discontinued it) and to now we have not used honey.

You can list them all!

Cheers,

Mark.

Carolina Brewery - Vegan Friendly!
Chapel Hill and Pittsboro, NC
carolinabrewery.com

Thanks for your interest in the Carolina Brewery. We always have Sky Blue Golden Ale, Copperline Amber Ale, Flagship India Pale Ale and Oatmeal Porter on tap, plus seasonal beers.Our beers are made with malted barley, hops, yeast and water. None of our beers contain isinglass, dairy, gelatin or honey. For a complete list our beers please visit our website www.carolinabrewery.com.
Thanks, -Jon

Carolina Brewing Company - Vegan Friendly!
Holly Springs, NC
http://www.carolinabrew.com

According to John, "We don’t use any honey, isinglass, dairy or gelatin at all so every beer we make is vegan."

Catawba Valley Brewing - Vegan Friendly!
Morganton, NC
http://www.catawbavalleybrewingcompany.com/

At this time all of our Beers are Vegan, In the past we used some different clarifying agents, (Isinglass to be exact) But I haven't used anything in many years . So were safer , fresher and happier..

Thanks

W Scott Pyatt

Craggie Brewing Company - Vegan Friendly!
Asheville, NC
www.craggiebrewingco.com

My name is Bill Drew and I am the owner/ brew master of Craggie Brewing Company. Thank you for your interest in our beers. Have you had a chance to come to our tasting room to sample our wares yet? All our beers are "Vegan". No clarifying agents or foam inhibitors. We don't filter either. Most of our beers are just malt, hops, yeast, water. Since yeast is a living organism, is it an exception to the rule? Some of our other beers do contain candy sugar, molasses, ginger, spruce tips, strawberries, blueberries, etc. depending on the seasonal recipe. I hope this is helpful. Thanks and cheers!

Bill

Foothills Brewing Company - Vegan Friendly!
Winston-Salem, NC
http://foothillsbrewing.com/

We do not use isinglass in any of our products, nor do we use honey. I believe, as a result, all of our beers could be considered vegan. If you have any more questions, feel free to contact me at jamie@foothillsbrewing.com or directly at 3364079276. Thanks for the interest! Jamie Bartholomaus (Brewmaster)

French Broad Brewing Company - Vegan Friendly!
Asheveille, NC
http://frenchbroadbrewery.com

Thanks for your interest in French Broad beers. We would love to be listed on your blog. We do not use isinglass or any other animal by-product in the production of our beers. Thanks again for checking with us.

Cheers,

Drew Barton

Ham's Brewhouse - Mostly Vegan Friendly!
Greenville, NC
www.hamsbrewhouse.com

It's actually easier for us to list our brews that aren't vegan. The only ones that are not vegan are our Mother's Milk Cream Stout (it contains lactose) and our Sunfest Lager might not be vegan. We filter our Sunfest Lager and our filter modules contain DE (diatomaceous earth), but I'm not sure how you guys feel about DE. Here's something to read if you're not familiar with DE....

http://veganfootprints.blogspot.com/2008/06/diatomaceous-earth.html.

Other than that, all our brews can be considered vegan.

The only fining (used for clarity) we use is Irish Moss, which is made from different kinds of seaweed.

Other than those two, any of our brews listed at www.hamsbrewhouse.com would be considered vegan.

Thanks!

TL Adkisson

Heinzelmännchen Brewery - Mostly Vegan Friendly!
Sylva, NC
http://yourgnometownbrewery.com/

Except for our Ancient Days Honey Blonde Ale, all our other Ales (Gopher, Hoppy Gnome, Gnutty Gnome, Middleworld Brown, Black Forest Stout, Weise Gnome, & Big Amber Ale). We use a cold maturation process to clear most of our beer with an occassional dose of Trub Clear (an Irish Moss product) in our specialty Ales due to the higher protein content of that style. You can find beer style descriptors on our website.
Prosit,
Dieter

Highland Brewing Company - Vegan Friendly!
Asheville, NC
www.highlandbrewing.com

Hi – Thanks for your interest in our brews. All our regular and seasonal beers are vegan. Our regular beers are Kashmir IPA, Oatmeal Porter, Gaelic Ale, Black Mocha Stout, and St. Terese Pale Ale. Our seasonal beers are Cold Mountain Winter Ale, Black Mountain Bitter, Clawhammer Oktoberfest, and Cattail Peak Wheat. Barb @ HBC

Liberty Steakhouse and Brewery - Mostly Vegan Friendly!
High Point, NC and Myrtle Beach, NC
http://libertysteakhouseandbrewery.com

Nice to hear from you and also about your interest in our craft beers. We do not use isinglass or gels here at Liberty, nor do I add lactose to any of my beers. Sometime in the future (as I have in the past), I will be utilizing honey, but it would be advertised as such. I believe I will be making a honey wheat ale in the Spring. One point to make is the fact that beer is created by the metabolism of sugars and other constituents by yeast. There is active academic debate whether fungi, which brewers yeast is a type of, is a plant or animal. I personally (along with most) categorize fungus into its own group and leave the plants and animals into their own respective groupings. I would guess that you would have to interpret the definition of fungus to yourself and decide whether or not beer is in fact vegan. I personally think it is as long as lactose, finings or other animal products are not utilized. If you have any other questions, please contact me at your leisure. Thanks!

Cheers,

Todd Isbell

Brewmaster

Lone Rider Brewery - Somewhat Vegan Friendly
Raleigh, NC
http://www.loneriderbeer.com

Shotgun Betty (unfiltered Hefeweizen) is completely vegan. Our other beers do use finings.

Natty Greene's Brewing Co - Mostly Vegan Friendly!
Greensboro and Raleigh, NC
http://bigdraft.com

the only beer we use isinglass finings on is our General Stout, and the Irish Honey Red contains honey.
all of our beers are vegan aside these two. here is the list of the main sellers:

Guilford Golden
Wildflower Witbier
Southern Pale
Buckshot Amber
Old Town Brown
Cannonball Double IPA
Black Powder Russian Imperial Stout
Red Nose Winter Ale

at our pub locations in Greensboro, and Raleigh we brew over 40 recipes over the year and all of these are vegan.

in a follow up email, Sebastian mentioned:

I missed one, the Milk Stout we do has lactose sugar in it which is derived from dairy products...specifically whey.

Sebastian Wolfrum
Director of Brewing Operations | Natty Greene's Pub and Brewing Company

Olde Hickory Brewery - Mostly Vegan Friendly
Hickory, NC
www.oldehickorybrewery.com

Thank you for contacting the Olde Hickory Brewery! I've spoken with our brew master and confirmed that the vast majority of our beers are vegan friendly. The only beers we make which are not are the Imperial Stout and Christmas Ale, both of which contain honey. The bottles of these are labeled with "made with honey." All of the rest of the beers listed on our website are vegan friendly, as well as our Dopplebock which is new and not yet on the site. Best, Nikol Wuest

Red Oak Brewery - Vegan Friendly
Whitsett, NC
www.redoakbrewery.com

Thank you for your inquiry. We brew 3 different lagers and all are vegan. We brew according to the 1516 law of purity the oldest consumer protection law in the world. This allows only 4 ingredients; Malted Barley, Hops, Water and Yeast. The beers we brew are Hummin' Bird, Red Oak and Battlefield Bock. We do not filter the beer or clarify it. We brew the way all beer used to be made.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

Chris Buckley
Brew Master

Top Of The Hill - NOT Vegan Friendly
Chapel Hill NC East Franklin St., Third Floor, Chapel Hill, NC 27514 100 East Franklin St., Third Floor, Chapel Hill, NC 27514
"I am sorry but we use Isenglass in all of our beers. No isenglass remains in the beer but we do use it to clarify instead of filtering.

Cheers!"

Scott Maitland

Proprietor

Triangle Brewing Company - Vegan Friendly!
Durham, NC
http://trianglebrewery.com/

As of last inquiry (July 2009) all beers are vegan.

Still Awaiting Feedback:

Appalachian Craft Brewery - Fletcher, NC
Asheville Brewing Company - Asheville, NC
Big Boss Brewing - Raleigh, NC
Boyland Bridge Brewpub - NC
Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery - Farmville, NC
Front Street Brewery - Wilmington, NC
Green Man Ales and Brewery - Asheville, NC
Huske Hardware House Brewing Company - Fayetteville, NC
Outer Banks Brewing Station - Kill Devil Hills, NC
The Mash House Restaurant and Brewery - Fayetteville, NC
Mother Earth Brewing - Kinston, NC
Pisgah Brewing Company - Black Mountain, NC
Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery - Charlotte, NC
Weeping Radish Farm Brewery - Jarvisburg, NC

Rocking Songs of 2009

2010-01-11T00:49:00.008-05:00

Hey All.

Back with an update on rock and roll, not cooking (cooking is coming soon though, thanks for your continued support!)

I've gone ahead, like so many others, and compiled a list of songs that were my favorites of 2009, based (primarily) on how many times I listened to them as calculated by both last.fm and how long the mix CD they were on stayed in my car, and whether I still want to listen to them now. This is what I came up with, in no particular order, except maybe #1:

1. The Rural Alberta Advantage - Frank, AB
My roommates were ready to murder me after I discovered this song. I walked around the house all day going "Oo-oo oo-oo" and played it for them incessantly. I figured it out on guitar. And it didn't help that this was kind of a break-up-ish song that made me sob like a 4 year old with a skinned knee. I saw them live and it was just as goosebumpy. Listen, and love.

2. Veelee - Not Getting Anywhere
Yep, I chose the sort of sappy ballad duet as my favorite. I can't help it. I adore it. I was at Veelee's very first show ever, and trust me, you're going to hear about this band. Download their whole, quite worthwhile EP at their web site (linked above).

3. Beep Beep - Human Hair
Beep Beep is probably my favorite band of 2009. I've seen them twice. One of those times, I drove over 500 miles to make sure I caught them. They are a new incarnation of an old favorite who put out an incredible (and criminally underpromoted by Saddle Creek!) double disc this year. Human Hair is one of the "outlier" songs. It is so kitschy and well orchestrated that I felt like it was truly representative of the band for me. Weird, awesome and totally offputting unless you're a little sick. :)

4. Beep Beep - Mermaid Struggle
This is Beep Beep's face-melter. One of my roommates says it makes her feel like she's having a seizure. It makes me feel like I need to take acid and practice playing guitar. If this song doesn't in some way impress you, I feel like we don't see eye to eye. It blends beauty and dissonance so well that I fell in love with Beep Beep all over again the minute I heard it.

5. Red Collar - Tools
You might not be from North Carolina, and so I'll forgive you for not knowing our hometown heroes. Their first full-length, Pilgrim, has been getting lots of play and support around here. Tools has been my favorite RC song for a long time because it captures both the angst and energy the band can bring to a stage show. If they are ever playing in your town, just go to the show. Trust me. No recording can ever do their live show justice.

6. Ida Maria - Queen Of The World
A friend sent me this song saying it reminded her of me. I listened to it and at first thought "A Norwegian Erin McKeown, circa Distillation." Then I listened to it again. Ida Maria, you have written my theme song. If you've ever been an indecisive, possibly alcoholic, definitely lonesome twenty something girl, you will pin this song to your chest.

7. Marina & The Diamonds - Obsessions
You're thinking, God, when will this stupid piano singer-songwriter thing end, right? I had the same thing going on through 2009. I have had enough of Feist and Regina Spector and Nora Jones. But I love Marina Diamond. She is terribly off, self-loathing and basically sounds like someone I would hang with. And she is totally remixable. See if this doesn't get stuck in your head. Just try and see.

8. Fol Chen - Cable TV
You wanna have a good time? Wanna get down? This retro jam cites being broke, being in love and dancing in your underwear to Janet Jackson. It is absolutely infectious, although it does smack a bit of a one hit wonder.

9. The Love Language - Sparxxx
This was my first exposure to local breakouts The Love Language. It made me hungry for more. This song, though, really made me believe that Stu McLamb deserves all the fame and fortune he can get, because this shit is pure pop gold.

10. Japandroids - Young Hearts Spark Fire
The year's biggest garage duo! I missed them twice, once because I was working and once because of singer's emergency surgery and sudden date changes. This song is truly anthemic for those of us who are young, dumb and in love with rock and roll.

11. Bruce Peninsula - Crabapples
Easily the most unique, striking and resonant song on the list. Bruce Peninsula makes use of the stark contrast between simple call and response chorus, and extremely complex drumming. They claim to be inspired by Alan Lomax archives, and I can definitely hear it. When it comes up on my mix, EVERYONE wants to know what it is. Now you do.

12. The Joy Formidable - Whirring
Do you like straightforward girl-fronted indie pop? I DO I DO. I've had to avoid ripping off the vocal melodies on the chorus like 10 times.

13. An Horse - Camp Out
Although somewhat irritated by the album as a whole (and particularly the hyping of it, since it gets quite monotonous), I found myself really vibing on this song and put it on a mixtape without wanting to strangle the singer. It encompasses everything I like about the band, good lyrics, interesting rhythm and quirk. And also it namechecks Hole, which makes me smile.

14. Micachu - Golden Phone
Oh Micachu, everyone loves you! A great taste of the experimental, not-quite right but somehow totally aesthetically pleasing artist who is prone to building her own instruments, second guessing her releases. I was pulling for you to win that Mercury Prize, Mica!

15. Hammer No More the Fingers - Radiation
Durham, NC's "Boys Most Likely" put out a fine effort this year with Looking For Bruce. This song has long held its place at the top of my favorites because it combines two of my favorite things: Eastern European Disasters and DISCO! It recalls the story of
http://www.kiddofspeed.com/ and her rides through Chernobyl.

16. La Roux - Fascination
Another contender for the Mercury Music Prize, La Roux's high register could have taken this dance tune to turn-it-off territory, but somehow, it totally fucking works. The downside for everyone I know is that it led me to believe that I, too, can pull off a song in that register. (Note to readers: I cannot.) It has been exposed to death by now, but I still love it. And its remixes.

17. The Rapture - No Sex For Ben
This song is so obviously a jokey B-side, but those tend to be some of my favorite songs by bands (see: Spice Invaders by The Spice Girls, Rednecks by Blur). It's goofy, has a sweet groove and is one of those songs I always play at parties.

18. True Pseudo - Freaking Me Out
Wanna have a disco-punk-electro freak out? I mean a really booty shaker, sweat out the energy jam? This is it. Turn it up, face the mirror and show me the hair-ography. This song deserves to be blasted at any indie dance party worth its salt.

19. Little Boots - Stuck On Repeat
LITTLE MOTHERFUCKING BOOTS. When I first saw Lady Gaga, I just assumed that her songs would sound exactly like Little Boots. They didn't. I like the Gaga, but Little Boots, holy hell. You are a pop genius. Although she had a big hit with Remedy late in the year, this song had *me* stuck on repeat. I have embarrassed myself singing and dancing to this song more than once. Just try not to sing along. Oh, and download ANY remix you can get your hands on of miss boots. She is remix-ready.

20. The Pneurotics - Sirens
A less-well known local, but deserving of praise, The Pneurotics released their sophomore effort this year. Full disclosure, I was privvy to some early tracks and have a very close relationship with this record. However, this song, since the first time I heard Rich McLaughlin play it at Jack Sprat, has found its way into my ear and heart. It's a proper jam. If you like it, check out Happy Song too. It's all on iTunes.

21. Bear in Heaven - Lovesick Teenagers
Last, but certainly not least, is Bear in Heaven, with a song that to be perfectly honest, I *hated* on first, second, third listen. But then, something happened. I had to hear this off-kilter, possibly pitchy song with a driving bassline. It's so simple. It's so dull. But it is an EARWORM and it will get you. You will march with it, I promise.

Download the a zip file of the whole mix here.
(Bands, I know a lot of you, so you can e-mail me if you are unhappy with the fact that I am sharing your tunes and I will take them off the mix)

So yeah, by no means is this list complete. If you're at all interested in great music from the Triangle, I'd also recommend checking out the Indy's 40 Essential Triangle Tunes. They obviously are locally exclusive, have 40 whole songs picked out and there is some (but little) overlap between our lists. Overall, I'd say it's a good sampling of the music of the area, if you care. :)

Next week, I'm compiling a list of vegan NC beers! E-mails have been sent!

Greetings, from a lazy vegan blogger

2009-10-28T23:37:00.003-04:00

Well, as you may have noticed, it has been months since my last posting. This is not due to lack of cooking or eating (the 3 gallons of Cabbage Pomegranate soup downstairs and my ever more restrictive waistband beg to differ), but because I am BUSY!

Since our last update, I left a 9-5 position to work in a local restaurant as a cook. But then, they didn't hire me as a cook. It's all good, though, because I became a waitress at the same restaurant and have started plotting with the sous chef to bring tasty vegan goodness to the daily soups and specials. Hell, he even ran a soup recipe I GAVE HIM today. There's nothing better than getting to watch your recipes coming back with cleaned plates.

I was looking up Natalie Portman's appearance on Top Chef tonight. She told the chefs that she was "vegetarian" and five minutes later, I saw what looked like a butter exodus occur in that kitchen. I was really icked out by the attitudes of many of the chefs toward vegetarian cooking (ie, "I WILL NEVER BE VEGETARIAN EVER") or the choices made by chefs (this has baffled other bloggers...a leek? as the main part of the dish? really?) and also (and maybe I'm a fatass) the portions of some of the dishes seemed...really skimpy. But yeah, I noticed it was vegan mofo. And that I all but missed it. And now I am sad.

I had a really fantastic food journey last week in NYC (got to hit up Angelica Kitchen, who still, in my mind have the best soup in all Manhattan, Gobo, Red Bamboo, Candle Cafe and the last remaining Zen Palate), I've been working on an array of soups (I want to write my own cookbook focused on my fav meal ever: LUNCH...and Lolo over at veganyumyum has really inspired me!), and lastly, I've been eating my fill at the newest vegan bakery that just opened here in town: Dharma Bakery. It's owned and operated by my former vegan cooking club-mate and college friend Dina Graves, a hari krishna and 2nd generation vegan bakery owner. She has been having weekly open houses to expand her line and let us mooches try to convince her to make stuff we want to eat (like RAINBOW COOKIES).

So yes, in the near future, be on the lookout. I'll be back up and running soon (I have several backlogged entries to finish as well) and when I am, you betta believe there's gonna be some good stuff, fresh new restaurant reviews, product reviews, recipes and dabblings.

<3

It's All Good? Tempeh-tations? How about no.

2009-05-20T15:48:00.004-04:00

So, in my never-ending quest to find delicious, easy pre-packaged nutritionally sound vegan food (funny, all my experimentation with pre-packaged food is really making me excited to MAKE MY OWN), I stumbled across two new products at Whole Foods recently. I'll spoil the article for you. I don't know who names these new products, but I am *certain* that he or she did not actually try them before naming them. See below for descriptions and recommendations for substiutes that are edible.

It's All Good: BBQ Skewers (1 out of 5)

I'll be honest with you. I bought both kinds of it's all good meat, the BBQ Beef Skewers and Chicken Good Stuff (black bean and corn), but after opening and trying the BBQ Beef, I am really reticent to try the chicken ones, even though they were kind of expensive. Yes, the Beef skewers were that bad.

Taking them out of the package, they are like most other fake meat products. That is to say, somewhat unappetizing. Despite that, I soldiered on. Firstly, I'll admit that I cooked them in an oven, not in a pan. All I can say is gross gross gross and we will leave it at this:

Tempeh-tations: BBQ (1 out of 5). Chicken Good Stuff: fuck that I won't even eat it.

Blog Hero Worship: Vegan Yum Yum

2009-04-30T17:05:00.008-04:00

Lolo over at Vegan Yum Yum must be stopped. She is too good. Aside from the *really* informative and still kinda daunting post on Food Photography for Bloggers, the recipes she posts all are easy to understand and way too easy to covet.

So, I didn't mention it here, but I decided to give up wheat for Lent, which meant my Road's End lazy-person's chreese sauce was not allowed anymore. I often like to look at food blogs at work (I'm a food porn whore!) and then get it into my head that I should go home and make these things. Well, I did it. I put my food processor in high gear. Unfortunately, this was during the period where my camera magically disappeared, so there are no photographs.

But, let me share with you some of my wisdom from the experiences. I am still tweaking her recipes, and I'm going to link you over to Lolo until that time.

Vegan Mac and Cheese

http://veganyumyum.com/2007/10/mac-and-cheese-cheeze-yeast/

Vegan Mac And Cheese (v2.0)

(http://veganyumyum.com/2009/01/mac-cheeze-take-2/)

I actually chose to make the 2nd version first because, well, we all know that healthy spells better for me. I used some pretty rad rice fusilli procured at Whole Foods, and then set to work. I have to admit that while I thought the recipe to be tasty, it was...a little off for me somehow. Then I tried the original recipe. Dyou know what I realized? They taste practically the same. The nooch is very strong and (yes, we all like nooch) but I was just blindly following Lolo's recipes, which is silly. My palate and hers aren't quite the same. My mom used fat free american cheese and skim milk to make mac and cheese. I also remembered that Road's End mentioned that garlicky flavor adds a little bit of zip.

So here are my tips for making Lolo's easy mac:

1 - Taste your sauce, but make sure to wait about 30 seconds after you add something new so that it has a chance to dispel.

2 - Taste it before you bake, but DEFINITELY bake. Holy crap, the difference between baked and not baked is not even fair.

3 - Double or even triple the amount of veggies. You will so not regret this.

Here are my tweaks to recipe 2 (I found that since they tasted so similarly, it wasn't worth it to make version 1 again....version 1 is a bit fattier and more rich, though):

1-2 tsp of garlic powder (not fresh, yes, I know that's blasphemy!) help bring out a little more of the "cheddary" flavor
cut the mustard in half. at least. mustard is gross. I also think that nooch tastes a lot like mustard (and there is a lot of nooch in here) so I don't think it's a huge loss
definitely make sure you use lemon juice. fresh. if you use
sub the carrots for parsnips. (a little more "aged" flavor I think)
a dash of onion powder never hurt anyone!
create a "creamy pesto sauce" feel by adding spinach to the sauce while it cooks. so tasty, so worthwhile.
Matzoh meal makes for really sweet bread crumbs.
Use herbamere/seasoned salt to add salt.
a shake of herbs de provence never hurt anyone either!

So I'll get a little more specific at some point, but I'm trying to keep the comfort food to a minimum during these plentiful spring harvest times.

A couple of weeks ago, she posted a recipe for Daifuku (http://veganyumyum.com/2009/03/daifuku/), or what me and Dork call Mochi. Immediately, I was obsessed. Dork and I set out to make this blessed Mochi.

I won't lie. We were really, really bad at this. Like, abhorrent. I forgot to cover the batter when we nuked it. We burned our fingers. We ate whatver we couldn't fold. But, we live and we learn. and I learned, anyway. They were blue and for a week, so were our fingers. They looked like little bruised rocks. See? What did I learn?

Unless you have very nimble little fingers, don't try to cut your dough into more than 9 pieces. It will just lead to sticky, sticky heartbreak.
The best mochi (and easiest to create) were the ones that revolved around fruit. The bean paste is good, and interesting, but it is difficult to maneuver without side or back seepage. The first time, we used frozen mixed berries. The last tiime, it was strawberry season, so I cut up a pint in prep and had them waiting for my fresh-out-of-the-microwave batter.
Pink is a better color for dumplings if you don't want the world wondering what you did last night. Pink fingers are less noticable than blue ones.
Do not EVER try to eat an entire plate of mochi for dinner. This is a bad call and will make you feel like you need one of those little anime sweat-droplets.

In any case, I am SO amped to try the new, awesome Cinnabon recipe posted, since we all know that I am a cinnamon roll fanatic (see any article relating to any vegan bakery I've ever visited).

Until that time, Blog Hero Worship, Lolo, we salute you!

Smothered Tofu, A la Whole Foods

2009-02-05T15:00:00.005-05:00

So, anyone who lives in the Triangle of NC knows that Whole Foods has the market cornered on day-to-day vegetarian eats and shopping. They also know that all of them have pretty extensive salad and hot bars that people use every day. But most of all, I think we can agree that the best day is Smothered Tofu day.

It's mysterious and doesn't adhere to a schedule, but when that mushroomy, gravy-like goodness comes out, it's divine. It's also divinely expensive. At 7.99 a pound, you might find yourself backing off of the cheaply made but delicious gravy in deference to the main star-- fried tofu.

No more! I've cracked the code, or gotten close at least.

So this week's featured meal: Smothered Tofu with Steamed Broccoli.

you will be amazed at how easy this dish is. It takes less than 20 minutes start to finish at its simplest, and even in more complex iterations, won't take you more than an hour (not including 24-hour advance forethought!)

You need:

1 block Firm Tofu - Pressed (If you are looking for a texture a little bit like stewed lamb, try freezing your tofu in cubes overnight)

4-8 oz mushrooms (how much do you like mushrooms?)

2 Tbsp Olive oil

1 yellow onion

1/4-1/3 C soy sauce

2-4 Tbsp Brown Rice flour

First things first-- Heat your olive oil in a generous sized pan over medium heat while you chop your onion. I've discovered that a rough cut actually makse a more texturally pleasing meal, but experiment on your own. Once you get the onions in, cover the pan and let them cook/start to carmelize while you get your mushrooms prepped. The onions can sit there for probably4-6 minutes. Keep an eye on them though!

You can toss the mushrooms in whenever, but my best successes have been tossing them in just before the tofu. If you want to get *really* fancy, you can pan fry your tofu a little before you add it in. If you're lazy and hungry like me, just pop it in by itself.

You'll have to watch once you've added everything because your pan will be pretty full until those mushrooms cook down. You can add more oil, but I usually just toss in some water to encourage the mushrooms and tofu to cook quicker and absorb some of the sweetness from the onions. Once your mushrooms are well cooked, add in some soy

sauce, stir well, then stir in 2 tbsp brown rice flour. Yes, I know that making a roux like this is a terrible faux pas. I don't care. It works just fine. Add water if you need more liquid (always better to have too much than not enough!). Once it takes on a gelatinous, chinese-brown sauce type consistency, remove from heat, frame with fresh (or frozen, I don't hate!) steamed veggies and SERVE. Yay. The gravy from the mushroom sauce also tastes delicious with pretty much anything that comes out of the ground.

Outrageous. And not in the good way.

2009-01-30T10:48:00.004-05:00

I'm still working on those other posts, but yesterday, while watching Top Chef, I noticed something I could not ignore.

Belinda Carlisle is the new face of Nutrisystem. Yes, that company that sends you completely processed, pre-packaged food and claims that you'll "re-learn" how to eat. I'll give you a hint, as someone who has dropped 25 pounds, one of the things to avoid is prepackaged food.

What really upset me about the ad though, was not that BC, my new wave hero, got behind a product I am so vehemently against. No, it's the copy that she reads:

Being a part of an all-girl band was a blast but being singled out as the plump one really bugged me, but, as I got older, and maybe a little wiser I started to get smarter by eating healthier and taking care of myself. At 50, I look better than I did at 30… I’ve kept my weight off for almost a year and it’s such a relief to wake up, go into my closet and wear anything I like. NutriSystem taught me how to eat again.

I can say that BC was many things in the Go-Gos, but I don't think "plump" is ever a word that came to mind. BC was beautiful, energetic and was chosen as the face of the band (I think the world's obsession with Pete Wentz has proven that the lead singer is not the de facto!). Beyond that, even though she was the "fat" girl in the band, she went on to the best-known solo career of any of her contemporaries.

I don't blame BC for this decision entirely. Someone is obviously presenting her with the wrong opportunities (see Rock the Cradle). Although, I don't know if, looking back at my career, I'd want to say, "Man, it was fun being in a girl band, but not as the fat girl!" Whatever. You were in the FIRST all-girl band to write a hit song. And you did it while you had maybe a sliver of a beer gut. That makes it even more incredible.

So, with that in mind, I'm gonna give you guys a cookie recipe. These things GO. I had a craving for something sweet the other night and whipped these bad boys up. I brought the leftovers (after the roommates got to 'em) to work and they disappeared. I doubled the recipe last night and brought half of them to a party and lo and behold, gone again.

Chocolate Chippies!

(adapted in part from Nestle Tollhouse, in part VWAV, in part Nana Watson)

1/2 c Margarine

1/2 C granulated sugar

1/4 C brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp almond extract

1/2 T syrup (corn syrup's fine, or maple, molasses...whatever you want)

2-3 T water

1 1/4 C flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp agar agar powder

1/4 tsp nutmeg

3/4 C chocolate chips (or peanut butter or butterscotch, whatever you want!)

1/4-1/2 C Almonds, whirred through food processor until about the size of rice

Preheat oven to 350. Set margarine out (or microwave 8 seconds), then cream with sugar. Add vanilla extract, almond extract and syrup and mix until blended. I'd tell you to sift the flour but it doesn't much matter, just make sure you mix the soda, nutmeg and agar agar into it a bit before you dump it into the bowl. Start mixing, and add your water as needed. We all know the consistency cookies should be, but in case you forgot, the dough should be stiff but congealed. If it's not sticking together, add water. If it's too runny, add a little flour and a little sugar (about 2:1). Drop the cookies in tablespoon sized balls onto a sheet. Hannah over at Bittersweet Vegan reccomends only using one sheet at a time. This does yield slightly better results, but this recipe will make 2-3 dozen cookies, so I'd rather have em all in there at once. I've tried both. If you want your cookies cooked more evenly, go with one at a time. If you don't care and you just want cookies, stick 'em in there.

For chewy, soft centered cookies, bake 8 minutes. For more traditional crunchy cookies, bake appx 11-12 minutes, or until an even golden brown color. If you're baking more than one sheet, add a minute or two to the cook time and use your oven light and judgment to make the call.

Pictures coming soon!

Root Veggies, Here We Come!

2009-01-24T13:12:00.008-05:00

So I love this season for several reasons! Besides the fact that we're hitting the hump time in the cold weather (soup soup soup!) and that you can get some seriously good, seasonal Brassica oleracea (my beloved brussels and cauliflower!), pears are coming into season, citrus and grapefruit in particular and lest we forget-- ROOT VEGGIES!

My CSA delivered me a nice set of turnips and I'm going to tell you a little cautionary tale. I took my turnips and thought, "Well, I'd like to do something different besides just mashing them." I went onto Foodnetwork.com and found Mario Batali's recipe for Roasted Turnips. Don't ever use it. I wasted two pounds of perfectly good turnips on this acrid nonsense. The paprika burns, the acid in the vinegar completely overpowers the palate and the poppy seeds get too crisp. Just make a mash or a garlicky pan roast, like usual.

Now, the other recipe I am going to tell you about is a bit of a rip off of something I've had at

Blossom NYC, but it is really delicious and nutritious, so I think you'll enjoy it!

The recipe in question is Celery Root puree. It's not really so much a recipe as a super easy, super awesome mashed potato substitute with about 1/3 the calories and twice the flavor!

Celery root is gross looking, should be a little bigger than a softball and hard, but somewhat fragrant.

Celery Root Mash

1 celery root

1 T margarine

1 tsp minced garlic

2 sprigs fresh dill

pinch white pepper

salt to taste

Soymilk to preference

Cut away all the outside gunk (you'll need to use a paring knife, your peeler won't do the job) and then cut your celery root up into about 1/2 inch thick pieces, as though you were making potatoes. Set the root to boil for about 15 minutes, or until it slides off a fork when stabbed. pour off the water, and in the same one, saute your garlic in margarine. Olive oil is fine too, but that "buttery" flavor really sells the whole mashed vegetable thing. Pull out your hand mixer, dump the root back in along with your spices (save salt and soy milk) and blend baby blend! Once it has started reaching the consistency you crave, you should start adding soymilk to make it smoother and salt to make it tastier. Celery root has a slightly root vegetable-y taste, but mostly tastes mildly of celery.

As pictured here, I made a bed of celery root puree, steamed some cauliflower and brussels sprouts, then popped a Holzfaller Cowgirl steak (baked) on top, and enjoyed. It was a very satisfying meal.

Linkage!

2009-01-08T14:05:00.003-05:00

I am working on my full-on report of the NY trip (which is basically a lovesong to Vegan Treats) but I was asked recently by a reader: So not all beers are vegan? Huh?

Some brewers (not many anymore) use isinglass, finings or other animal products in the production of their beverages. Vegan vanguard is always my first choice because she's non-judgy:

http://www.veganvanguard.com/vegism/beer.html

Also, I believe in supporting your local brewers. I asked Rick at Triangle Brewing Company if his beers contained isinglass and he replied "Heck no! We make vegan beer!" That makes me want to buy his beer EVEN more, which helps his business and my community. Even if your local brewer does use animal products, just asking whether or not the beer is vegan will get a businessperson thinking. Before you know it, there might be a special vegan offering all because of you!

NYC for Xmas!

2008-12-30T12:02:00.016-05:00

So I headed home for Christmas and planned a whirlwind trip of NY and the surrounding areas.

First off. I stopped in Richmond for snackiepoos on the way up, and shock shock, Harrison St Coffee was CLOSED. Oh well, I hit Panda Veg. I ordered the home style tofu, a spring roll and the sesame balls. The tofu was not the tofu I'd had at the buffet, and I ended up throwing most of it in the trash, but can I expound for one moment on the joy and beauty that is sesame balls? Okay

, so you have these little balls that get put

in the deep fryer and expand to 3x their size. Nothing amazing there. What is amazing is the crispy, sesame seed coated outside, which yields to a hot, doughy, sticky bun with dense, molasses flavored peanut butter core. I didn't want to eat all of them before I got out of Virginia, but I totally did. They were fantastically delicious.

My first night, I had dinner at new restaurant Dirt Candy. Dirt Candy is a very small restaurant on 9th ave, devoted to, as they

say "leaving the

vegetables to professionals." A 3 person operation, it is a

little snug, but uses that size issue to its advantage. The front-of-house man is very helpful,

charming and friendly. He asked us and all parties seated after us if anyone at the table was vegan and made reccomendations on dishes accordingly. The menu is very small-- 9 items total. We ordered everything on the menu except spinach soup and carrot risotto. Here's how it went down:

The "snack" of jalapeno hush puppies was tasty, but I wish that chef

Amanda Cohen had devised a more inventive way of combining the popcorn sized snacks with the perfect condiment that is maple butter. If Cohen ever decides to make brunch, this would be the perfect thing to serve with, well, every breakfast item possible. It would be ideal on waffles, pancakes and toast. It does complement the puppies, but swabbing them across the butter is a little awkward. I'd like to see a chef who seems interested in advanced techniques like Cohen try something like flash freezing the butter, then surrounding it with hush puppies.

The star of this meal, as far as I was concerned, was the appetizer. My father ordered the greek salad-- I didn't try it due to the cheese, but the

portabello mousse. Can we talk about this mousse for a moment? Honestly, I was scared, but t

he waiter sold me. My love for mushrooms can turn to hate very quickly, particularly when they are pureed, mixed with gelatin and served in futuristic style cubes. BUT these totally scored. The mousse tasted like mushrooms, almost more so than the thinly sliced pile that accompanied it on the plate. The pear confit was a surprising

burst of sweet that worked out. The crostini

added salt and a little crunch to what would otherwise be a mushy dish. I really loved this. I probably could've eaten two of them. I kind of want to

make portabello mousse squares for my friends, but I don't think they'd understand. My mom ordered the regular garden salad, which looked pleasant but was really saved by the grapefruit

pops. The grapefruit pops are essentially grapefruit sections, coated in a hard candy shell. They were divine and have resparked my interest in grapefruit brulee. Hooray butane torches.

I went and saw Playing Dead and Autumn People at Mr Beery's in Farmingdale. Playing Dead are friends of a friend who played the Stately on Labor Day Weekend. They serve up radio friendly rock which holds echoes of local Long Island heroes

Taking Back Sunday. Autumn People are devoted psychadelic noise rockers. I didn't expect to like their set as much as I did, but I really liked the show. Fabian's voice is unexpected, the bass player can really write a bassline and their drummer managed to continue playing as feet, beer, instruments and band members came hurling at him and knocking over his drumkit.

The next day was Christmas, and for Christmas I made the I'm Fucking Hungry Fajitas for my main dish, and a slight variation on VWAV's Tuscan White Bean soup. Add about 2 cups of spinach, then tell me how much you love me. My family was, sadly, pretty wary, but my dad tried some and drank a whole lot of soup the next day.

I also made an apple-grapefruit pound cake. I love pound cake. It's very beautiful, but doesn't keep extremely well because it's so moist, and because the grapefruit on top starts to go bad. Photo at right shows the Cake, and a slab cut off of it, for your delicious joy. I did kind of nick and modify this recipe from my friend Rachel, so I'm going to share my changes with you.

Fruit Pound Cake

Cake:

1.5 C flour

1 C sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 C apple cider (or go half and half, cide and grapefruit juice)

1 Tbsp grapefruit zest

1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

1 tsp almond extract

Icing:

1/2 C shortening

1/2 C margarine

2 T apple cider vinegar

2-2 1/2 C powdered sugar

Grapefruit zest to taste

Preheat oven to 350 and grease a pan. Mix all dry and wet ingredients separately, then mix together quickly, for no more than 2 minutes, then get it in the oven. If you use a bread pan (to make a little loaf cake like me) it will need about 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. If you use an 8x8 pan bake about 30 minutes. You can also double the recipe and make a big honkin' cake with two 8x8s.

While your cake is cooling and shortening and margarine are approaching room temp, peel and section a grapefruit. Then you can mix the icing ingredients together, adding more sugar if it's too loose and more cider if it's too stiff. Ice the cake as you would any other. Part of the beauty of this cake is that you can sub in/out almost any fruit and be alright.

On the way home, I got to go to my favorite place in the world: Vegan Treats.

(Warning, this post is about to become a love song)

How do I love vegan treats? Let me count the ways. Observe the look of almost-mindless ecstasy as I bite into the love of my life, the Berliner. Oh, how I miss jelly donuts.

I have lots of pictures of this donut because i wanted to remebmer it forever, but I won't make you look at them. I also got a slice of chocolate covered strawberry shortcake, two (yes I know) cinnamon buns and a couple of mini cakes to taste. They were so pretty! How could I resist?

The cinnamon buns were exactly as I remembered-- overbearingly rich, smothered in icing, soft and chewy...so totally effing wonderful. I shared them with my bandmates and it got everyone's seal of approval.

I'm just going to leave off with photos of all the wonderful treats now, but I propose a question or a challenge-- does anyone have any *idea* how they get their icing so fluffy and wonderful? I know transfats are involved and don't really care. Most baked goods are not that healthy anyway, and a little transfat to make the difference between satisfying and I-will-eat-this-until-I-cannot-physically-swallow-any-more seems like a fair trade. Maybe it's because my real dream in life is to have a Vegan Treats Satellite here in Durham.

Let's talk THANKSGIVING

2008-12-16T16:51:00.020-05:00

Thanksgiving is by far my favorite holiday. I love food. Thanksgiving is unabashedly devoted to it. Where can I go wrong? Well, this year it was creating too much wonderful food.

We started cooking on Tuesday night, this year, with the Candle Cafe Cookbook (CCC) seitan. Wessie and I went out drinking first, then came home, cleared off our island, floured it an

d got to kneading. The next Morning, I woke up with VwaV's Raspberry Blondies. The batter was FAR stiffer than

I thought it would be, but I didn't care! The raspberry preserves were beautiful. This picture doesn't do them justice. My friend Jill Homewrecker came over and crocheted legwarmers while Wessie and I threw together the blondies. While the blondies baked, we began the arduous task of washing out the dough for the seitan. I know you can buy the pre-sorted out gluten, but I feel like you're cheating somehow unless you put 40

minutes of backbreaking kneading into making your seitan. Maybe it's that "5 miles to school, uphill both ways" good old days mentality. Maybe it's the ab workout that justifies eating oneself into a coma on seitan. It is a *very* good ab workout, FYI.

Once the seitan was resting, the blondies smelled so good that we couldn't resist and ended up cutting into them before the chips

were cooled and gooing them up. Not that any of us cared as we shoved

vanilla raspberry goodness into our mouths.

In the meantime, I started on the lemon tofu cheesecake from CCC and the gingerbread apple pie from VwaV. Unfortunately for me, I ended up having to sift brown sugar. Packed brown sugar. On the plus side, my lemon tofu cheesecake

with pom glaze actually

TURNED OUT this year. The cheesecake was perfectly set, and the glaze was thin enough to be poured over the top of the cheesecake, but thick enough to stay put and not dribble off. I

was super duper amped. see the photos at right of the lovely/amazing dessert pairing.

That night I got to work on one of my favorite "feed an army" dishes: lasagna. I don't mean to toot my own horn, but my lasagna has won over omnis far and wide and can defy the laws of the stomach. I feel the need to share this recipe with you as a result of that. I make product reccs here, but I've used others with good results. For me, it's just the magic combo.

Can't Believe It's Vegan Lasagna

Tofu Ricotta (modified from Angelica Home kitchen)

2 packages tofu

1/4 c extra virgin olive oil

2 T to 4 T lemon juice

2 T to 1/3 c italian style herbs (think basil, oregano, thyme, sage)

2-4 cloves fresh garlic or 1-2 tsp garlic powder

1/2-1 tsp salt

few cranks of fresh black pepper

Put all ingredients into food processor and blend until no large chunks of tofu remain.

Bolognaise Sauce

1 and 1/2 jars Rao's tomato sauce (I like Rao's, I know it's really expensive but there is something abuot the flavor that speaks to me. If you want to go cheaper, you can use 1 jar of premium sauce and 1 jar of regular sauce like prego, ragu, newman's...just make sure that one of your sauces is thinnish. If you make your own, more power to ya, but I like this as a quick meal for when I suddenly have to feed 8-10 people. Or myself, for a week and a half.)

1 package lightlife smart ground (yves is a good substitute but I find it has a slightly greasy aftertaste that reminds me of fatty beef, which I was not a fan of then and am not a fan of now. The boca ground, to me, is pretty much inedible. They tried way too hard to make it "meaty." On another note, if you're trying to avoid processed soy, mushrooms, finely chopped and sauteed in a veggie broth will work well)

1-2 C chopped broccoli

1-2 C chopped spinach (either the broccoli or spinach can be replaced with your fav green leafies, left out or increased.)

Set aside 1/2 jar (or about 3-4 C) tomato sauce. Mix the rest with "meat" and veggie.

"Invent-a-cheesey melt"

1 block FYH Monterey Jack

1 block FYH Mozarella

Grate both blocks and mix together in a bowl. Either fake cheese will work on its own, but I find the Mozarella is a little bland and the Jack is a little strong. Mixed together, they give the affect of a combination of mozarella and parmasean.

ASSEMBLING THE LASAGNA:

Either boil your noodles or get your no-boil noodles ready for assembly.

Pour 1-2 cups plain tomato sauce onto the bottom of a 9x12 pan, spread it around, then cover the bottom of the pan with noodles. Spread about 1/3 of the tofu ricotta on the noodles. Pour about 1/3 of the bolognaise sauce over the ricotta. Take 1/4 of the shredded cheese over the sauce. Make 2 more layers of noodle, then ricotta, then sauce then shredded cheese. For the last layer, put your noodles down, dump the rest of the ricotta on top and down the sides of the lasagna, use your other pure tomato sauce, then sprinkle the top with cheese. Cover with aluminum foil. You can refridgerate overnight or stick in the freezer (but if you freeze, be sure to thaw for 4-6 hours before cooking) before baking. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes, then remove foil and bake another 10. The sauce should be bubbling, cheese on top at least making moves towards melting.

And voila. You'll have 12 servings of deliciousness.

In addition to the lasagna, I had some really beautiful local greens from my CSA

program, including kale, mustard greens and collards. I ripped them up and made some super garlicky greens. I also found some very pretty shitake mushrooms and baby bellas to complete my wild mushroom gravy. Every time I make wild mushroom gravy, I seem to buy too many mushrooms...but wouldn't you? They're so good!

Lastly, I'll leave you with the finished picture, and a few close ups, as well as guests enjoying the food.

The spread, starting at the bottom center and going clockwise:

CCC wild mushroom gravy

CCC Seitan Steaks, pan fried

Garlicky mixed greens

Mashed potatoes

Anne Gomez's roasted root vegetables

Vegan Lasagna

Dairy mac and cheese (Wessie's a lacto veg)

Dairy Crescent Rolls

CCC Lemon Poppy Muffins

VwaV Raspberry Blondies

CCC Lemon Tofu Cheesecake with Pom Glaze

VwaV Gingerbread Apple Pie

VwaV chocolate cupcakes with injected peanut butter mousse and topped with chocolate buttercream

Pumpkin Pie

As you can see, we kind of got into a couple of things before people started eating. I also had to wear a sweatshirt while pan frying the seitan so as not to get oil spatter on my pretty new dress. Someone needs to get me an apron.

Unfortunately most of the other pictures of us hanging out and eating are a little blurry. =( I hope you all had great TGs!

Charoset

2008-12-12T17:52:00.003-05:00

I had a pot luck at work a few weeks ago and needed to provide something I could make in the 20 minutes before work with ingredients I had on hand. Good thing I've turned into a super jew.

Charoset is a traditional passover "symbol" that goes on that plate in the middle (okay so I'm not that good of a jew) and represents the sweet times. Eastern European jews like my dad's fam make it with apples. If you're ghetto like me, anything will do.

Glucklich Yummy Charoset
3-4 Apples (whatever's around...I prefer honeycrisps, but had a few braeburns and a granny smith too)
1-2 pears
1 cup walnuts
handful of raisins
dash cinnamon
splash of maneschewitz concord grape wine (but grape juice or any red wine will work if you add a little syrup)

Finely chop walnuts, apples and pears. Mix cinnamon and wine, if possible. Toss in a bowl with raisins and wine mix. Serve with either main course or dessert. Makes an excellent snack too. Will keep in your fridge for about 4 days.

Field Roast vs. Viana

2008-12-12T17:24:00.004-05:00

Hi Guys...
I know I got *massively* behind on blogging...the holidays, eating healthy and working hard will do that to you!

I'd like to offer some advice on "exotic" fake meats, per my palate.

First off, I probably should let you know that I bring Light Life bologna to work for lunch almost every day. Light Life is my friend.

Secondly, I ordered several products off Veganessentials.com to try and they came in evenly down the line.

We'll start with the bad:
I did not want Field Roast deli slices to be vile, since Field Roast tends to strike me as a little healthier (I can pronounce and understand what all ingredients are). Unfortunately, they are VILE. I ordered the Lentil Sage and Smoked Tomato flavors.

I really wanted to like these but they were inedible. You don't have to take my word for it, but they're pretty pricey, and you'll be happier just making a hummus sandwich. I know I was.

However, there is a company out there that's worth its price tag. That company is Viana's Holzfaller Farms. The products are supposed to look like the image to the right, but they actually look more like large tear drops. Having been a vegan for a while, amorphous, unidentifiable fake meats don't really scare me. I ordered the cowgirl steaks and the chicken fillets.

The steaks are really good, solid seitan. They taste a lot like Field Roast celebration roast, but less salty and without the somewhat peculiar filling. They work very well with greens and mashed potatoes. More than the steaks though, I found the chicken fillets to be worthwhile. The breadding is light (I definitely reccommend baking, not microwaving or pan frying) and the flavor of the meat is also mild. This made it excellent both on its own and used in a dish. I'm very big on garlicky greens at the moment (thanks to my CSA) so I made a little Chicken Parmasean with Collards. It's pictured at right. I just used some of Mom's Brand Spaghetti Sauce and leftover Mozarella Tease, put it in a dish and baked on 350 for about 20 minutes. Picture of it at left. I ate that all up and it was delicious. More to come, soon!

Kimono

2008-11-11T16:01:00.002-05:00

I discovered a new restaurant in Durham at 2505 Durham Chapel Hill Blvd called Kimono. It opened on Halloween. I went with Wessie and ordered the vegetable sushi combo, which includes, for 12.95: soup (choice of clear or miso), salad, 1 vegetable hand roll (avocado, cucumber, asparagus, yellow pickle, plum pickle and carrot), 1 10 piece vegetable maki, 2 pieces each of avocado, cucumber, asparagus, yellow pickle and carrot nigiri. I couldn't finish it all, but I was AMPED. The only thing I wasn't excited about was the miso soup. Even though it was super tofu, seaweed and chives heavy, I also think there was some bonito involved. =( Either way, the sushi and salad are still worth the price, especially since they serve it to you in a boat! I've never warranted a sushi boat before.

I've attached a picture of the apple they chopped up for us after our fourth or fifth meal there over the course of two weeks. Yay fancy apples.