happy. new, year?

Yes. Well, hi. Having missed the entirety of the holiday season and then some (but having taken a ton of pictures), I have nothing to show for last year's cold, rainy, but warm-hearted festivities but a deluge of photos.

Thanksgiving app: butternut squash spring rolls w/ chile-cranberry sauce (from Veganomicon).


Thanksgiving spread. Clockwise from top: Chestnut stuffing, pot pies, and mashed potato casserole.


Tempeh & delicata squash pot pies, filled with a pumpkin sage cream sauce.


Roasted brussel sprouts with pistachios and caramelized onions (from The Vegan Table).


Pumpkin Cinnamon-Swirl Cheesecake (from The 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes).


Dough; gingerbread biscotti (from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar).

Unfortunately, I was sick with a dreadful head cold as we finished the batch and developed somewhat of an aversion to the chewy, ginger-y, crunchy snacks. But they made easy, fantastic gifts!

Chai-spiced pistachio brittle, per Hannah's fool-proof recipe from the holiday issue of VegNews, all packaged up for cheapskate gift-giving!


The Dollar Store was my savior in gift giving. Maybe $10 spent on plenty cute Christmas-y tins and treat bags.


Feather (apparently baked) on Christmas morning.


Mom and I on Thanksgiving. (Pictured here are my favorite earrings, which proceeded to be lost - then found shattered on the sidewalk the next morning - New Year's Eve. R.I.P.)

I think perhaps why it's so hard for me to keep up with my most highly prolific and creative fellow bloggers (my god, people, how is it done?!) is that I am... lazy. Lazy. Sure, I feel like a busy bee 24/7, but when downtime shuffles along, I often can't find the interest to blog. Which is odd, because I spend all that time surfing other people's prolific, creative, knowledge-wealthy blogs. Which is not to say, I don't like blogging. I do. It's a somewhat self-indulgent, narcissistic activity. Which I love. Or that I don't bake or cook ever. Because, I do. This is all just... not a priority.

However - I have a lot to say. Really, honestly. In the interest of catering to most food-blog-followers (few of whom have ever visited here, having realized my blogging abilities are kind of a dud), though, I try to keep my personal life largely out of it, focusing on what I eat and cook. But, with the aforementioned laziness and not-prioritizing, I've not really produced quality blogging. You still with me? The rambling's coming to a close, pinky-swear.

So, soon (maybe) I think that I will try to blog more. But on a different playing field. It will probably involve more than just what I eat on a regular (bi-annual) basis. I live in a great city and know interesting people. I can go on a tangent about the time my omni friends gave me shit about wanting to try a new vegan bakery the last time we were in Seattle like no one's business. As self-indulgent as it is, as much as anyone outside my Facebook network couldn't care less, I think I'll be done with MamaVG's and just blog... or whatever.

I act like this is some Conan-worthy sign off. It's really, really not. But, I thought I'd ramble a little and let ya'll know. And, thank you dearly for ever having looked on over here! I appreciate every single one of your comments. I do, honest. To. God. I hope that if I've peaked your interest a bit, you'll follow me should I move along!

harry potter and the deathly {delicious} food of raw.*

Initially I was concerned about enrolling in summer classes. After a year of nonstop productions, theater and class was taking its toll on my social and academic wellness. I was burnt out in all aspects of my mandatory and extracurricular activities, and it was my grades as well as my close relationships that were taking the hit. Getting my two-year community college degree by the time I graduate this next spring is an ambition for sure, but could I really take on even three more classes without much of a hiatus in between?

Fortunately, there are only three weeks left and I've come to enjoy my schedule. Because this is not the school I've gotten used to over the last three years, it doesn't feel like the same old routine that drives us crazy kids, well, crazy, and turns us into those ruthless, stereotypical sadists whose only way to blow off steam is derived from malicious teenage antics.

I don't generally have more than one class a day, though, so I've been able to keep my contact with the non-scholarly world in check. There was that weekend trip to Veneta, of course, as well as some downtime to get back to some good old-fashioned cooking with friends.

And, well, maybe some UNcookin'. The thing I cherish most about the local library is checking out volumes and volumes of cookbooks so that I can browse recipes new and old without having to buy a single one. The system keeps up very well with newly published books, so I was able to request Ani Phyo's newest tome, Ani's Raw Food Desserts fairly soon after its release.

They ain't pretty, they ain't made with patience, and they ain't even made correctly. But the Blueberry Muffins with Lemon Blackberry Glaze sure were tasty (raw foods = TASTING EVERY FLAVOR) and fresh as can be. The blackberries were picked from behind the West Oly co-op and the blueberries from Jo's front yard.


Mirrah, taking a big raw bite.

But moving on from raw goodness, released in... oh, hell, there is absolutely no segue for this. I SAW HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE IN IMAX 3-D, MOFOS.

There are precious few things on this god-given earth that I love more than these series of books and movies that I, having literally grown up with them, hold very near and dear to my heart. If the flesh-and-blood Harry Potter told me that the only way that the Horcruxes would be destroyed, Snape would be revealed as good, and Hermione and Ron would finally knock boots was if I ate a hamburger, I'd probably do it. Whereas, given the same demand from Jesus, I would probably tell to fuck off.

Granted, the movies suck. I'm that Trekkie of the Potterverse who sits there, demanding fidelity to the series, clutching my forehead and sputtering, "You're climbing on top of a goddamn roof?! Shame you don't have some sort of magical object like, oh, I don't know - EXTENDABLE EARS or  an INVISIBLITY CLOAK!" And this wasn't the first time or even the second time I've seen it. This was the third time. And since only the first twelve minutes is in MIND-BLOWINGLY NEAT-O 3D, we needed something else to sustain ourselves throughout the rest of the movie. (It helps that Tom Felton and Rupert Grint are pretty.)

Being without an Ollivander wand and Molly Weasley's precise and harried abilities, we produced a batch of Pumpkin Pasties (from Dumbledore's Vegan Army) the Muggle way for some sustenance as well as some piping hot butterbeers (pictured in an ice bath). The empanada-like pasties turned out perfectly (not to mention adorably). The butterbeers - veganized from a recipe relying on cream soda and very nonvegan Werther's candies (anyone know where I can get my hands on or make some vegan ones, incidentally?) - will be tweaked in the near future as they were merely okay.



As a foodie, I have one more burning comment about this movie. I thought the Harry Potter franchise had somewhat of a multi-million dollar budget, so why are they eating Costco cream puffs tossed with Hershey's syrup in margarita glasses and why is every potion and drinkable substance except for (what I can only assume is) Crush soda and Cool-Whip clearly tap water?

*So, the title needs some work; Scholastic and I are coming to an agreement.

something to get off my chest.

It has been over a year since veganism was first introduced to me. Just one year and it seems like so much longer. I don't collect many details in my long term memory, so I don't remember how long I was considering vegetarianism prior to January of 2007. However, when I saw Fast Food Nation that last weekend of winter break, I knew I could never eat a hamburger again. It was the last straw. That's wasn't even the point of the movie; it's pretty much about corruption and the fast food industry. Vegetarianism barely made an appearance. But the blood and flesh and gore of the movie's slaughterhouse was something I just couldn't stomach - literally.

That summer I discovered the Post Punk Kitchen videos that piqued my interest in both cooking (a love that had gone on the wayside) and veganism - a subject that I'd barely considered months before. After all, I was "vegetarian" for more than two months until I finally gave up fish (I would guess that we could get Pacific Northwesterners to give up meat long before they would give up salmon). Then I discovered books - so many books. And the blogs - oh, my, the blogs! And it snowballed from there.

And now that I'm vegan... I'm a little shocked and appalled. And I don't mean by the Standard American Diet and the food industry (though I am) or by the crazed looks from people who ask me, "How can you not eat cheese? Ice cream?! MILK?!" because, let's face it, I expect that. Hell, that was ME two some years ago! In fact, maybe I haven't been on this side long enough to warrant complaints. But is seniority necessary to be repulsed by particular words and actions? It is one thing to disagree, to make your own choices, and still coexist with my values. It is another to be so blatantly abhorrent to the concept. That, my friends, is repulsive.

I like a newspaper called The Stranger. It's a Seattle-based paper - I get them at the transit center and it's something to read on the bus ride home. One column is called "I, Anonymous" - as the name suggests, they are anonymous ventings. About three weeks ago, a rant entitled "You Vegan Fuck" was published, and I came across it while browsing the archives.

You can read the selection yourself; I'm not even going to comment on it. I can defend the fact that restaurants should just fucking offer more than a measly salad, and I can bemoan those choice vegans who are far too uppity and plenty and make the rest of us look bad (after all - since when did a vegan have to get all bitchy and uppity to get a decent meal in Seattle?). The fact is, I don't know the situation or the relationship or the parties involved - so why bother? I will, however, be appropriately miffed by the comments that follow.

Vegans drive me nucking futs, most aggravating, pompous, self righteous asswipes I've ever had the displeasure of meeting.

You're wrong. all vegans are dicks.

I think the biggest argument against the ideological vegan or vegetarian is that plants are alive too, bitches.

I agree that vegans of both genders tend to be self-righteous, humorless dickheads. I wonder how long they'd cling to the high holy ground they think they occupy if they had the balls to travel outside their western comfort zone, and dined with a Tibetan family that depended on meat for their basic substinence?

And if you were in an especially self-loathing mood, you wouldn't have to stop at the comments. You could really just get your internet connection onto Google and search for the typical anti-veg propaganda - you know, your government-enforced protein requirement agenda, one of those silly debates circling the blogosphere about Jessica Simpson wearing that ridiculous "Real Women Eat Meat" tit-hugging excuse for a shirt, going to PalinAsPresident.com and clicking on the door until Bambi gets wasted...

Aside from my general disgust with the way people sometimes receive vegans, the base argument is... nonexistent. Plants are alive too? Well, until the next time you open a bell pepper and find a brain and a central nervous system comparable to that of any animal up in there with all them seeds and pith, I don't accept that argument. All vegans are dicks? I, personally, won't dispute the statement - I just wish it had been appended with "Just like all people who are gay will hit on you, and all of your grandparents are racist homophobes."

It isn't that we as a collective whole don't have a sense of humor. One would know that if they ever sat and had a conversation, just any conversation, with the average vegan instead of getting all out-of-sorts by the sheer mention of the word. Granted, there are some pompous hipster assholes who are vegans - as is true for ALL PEOPLE. It's simply that, perhaps, the omnivores have less of a sense of humor than we do. I'm the only vegan I know personally; it wouldn't bode well for me to get offended by every little comment. But God forbid the vegan makes an animal-cruelty joke to the omnivore. The defensiveness kicks in and the retorts start shooting. I've experienced cases that when explaining my values (as briefly as possible, because as a relatively reserved person, confrontation makes me uncomfortable) that some omnivores take it as a direct, personal attack. It takes me aback. Once, I was with an omnivore and we were talking about the gluten-free diet because we have a few friends with celiac disease. We were talking about what that means and what that restricts one's diet to, and I said, "I love eating out with people who are gluten-intolerant; they're as much of a pain in the ass as I am at a restaurant." She quickly shot back, "Yeah, but I don't think they made that choice the way you did." I was confused. How did what I say warrant offense? Perhaps she only meant to point out the obvious flaw in my joke, but in what place was she to come off as offended as she did? We both brushed it off and moved on, and there's no indication she ever meant anything malicious. But it still puzzles me.

We can debate the concept of humor and dietary choice as long as we want. Perhaps saying something as flippant as "How's your flesh-and-pus breakfast this morning?" comes off as a more obvious "attack" than "Ah! 'Soymeat,' I see. I guess you do stray from the hemp-and-granola path every once in a while." After all, who wants to think about the food they eat as living flesh and residual animal pus? Isn't that the point of our fundamental diet as vegans? Even in a day where vegans can fortunately manage their diet comfortably in almost every part of the country, societal rejection of veganism does not exist solely in our everyday comments. I mean, has anyone SEEN that bullshit about "VEGAN TERRORIST POTLUCKS?" (Here too!) I don't even want to go there tonight.

It is the last bit of that last quote that has left the most unpleasant taste in my mouth. Self-righteous? Possibly; the writer probably reads more offense into that attribute than need be, but what good would a vegan who will shy away from their values be to the community? "Outside their western comfort zone?" Um, does anyone else find this analogy moot? Because I'm so sure that the average meat-eating American would do so much better. Because the indication that the hypothetical Tibetan family in question's only assured sustenance* is meat DOES NOT indicate to me that their environment is any more oppressive than the average cushy American lifestyle. Or perhaps, the hypothetical vegan would embrace the culture and observe this or this on Buddhist nature or Tibetan vegetarian awareness. Additionally I would suggest that most people who make the argument that citizens of other nations require meat ...and that our failure to do so is somehow ignorant and selfish... have undoubtedly heard the basic "World hunger would be exponentially aided under a worldwide vegetarian diet" argument, stopped at "If we all stopped eating meat..." and refused to hear the discussion from there. My opinion on the average American's daily overconsumption can be discussed at another time.

Perhaps one day "vegan" will no longer be synonymous with "pretentious." Perhaps it will be the same day that there isn't anyone sass-snapping and shrieking, "Uh-huh, Jess, you go girl! You eat that meat! Bitch, I just ate a whole damn piglet! With barbecue sauce! AND CHEESE!" "Bitch, fuck you, PETA - you's a danger to society! You's should be executed like them bitch-ass chickens I eat!" "Real women hunt moose, too; I'm a mother-effing MAVERICK!" (Or, er, anything to that effect.) Until then, I'll be carrying my smack-stick around with my laptop, granola, and Oreos.

And, no, not all omnivores are dicks. I'm friends with great people who are very considerate of, and sometimes even interested in, my values. They may never go vegan for me, but I can just keep making cakes and hope.

*Because, according to Blogger, "substinence" is not a word.