Eat Me.

Anything you can do we can do vegan.

Saturday, August 30, 2008

Wanted to say...

We had a customer the other day that was really into buying a baguette. Which was great until she said "This will fit my purpose fine. Which is foie gras." To which I almost automatically responded but choked back the words "Why - are you going to shove it down the goose's throat?" Thank god Jeanette was over on that side to take her money and isn't completely un-responsibally crazy like I am otherwise who knows what might have happened. Oh Foodies - cruelty is no limit to what you consider edible!

In other news I just got an email update from my old yoga studio (yes I realize it's been over a year since I have practiced there now) telling us to take a deep breath emphasizing the EXHALE to calm our nerves about hurricane Gustav. I probably don't need the exhale quite as much as my fellow New Orleanian yogis who were living on their second floors for two years while gutting and remodeling the downstairs... let's all keep our finger's crossed.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

While you were out...



Someone scrawled "Augtober Lives" on the sidewalk because where the hell did August go? Summer is making up for the horrible winter we had by never venturing above 78 degrees for more than an hour at a time or maybe winter never died....

I have a few things to catch up on:

First I really have to rave about the sweetest vegan ever I met about a month or so ago at the farmer's market. She was visiting from Atlanta and had most of the evening to herself so I invited her to Music in the Park and we had a great conversation about veganism and raw food. Her blog is named raw food passion and mainly documents what she whips up for eats and her reasons behind her diet. In Chicago she was volunteering at a raw restaurant and pretty much taking the vegan culinary tour of the city.

Also I finally have a real job again! With really great people and interesting projects! Four out of five members of my new firm (including me) worked for my previous boss and from what I understand a "detox" period is required after working there. It's funny because my name would not have been passed along had I not mentioned my previous crapaliscious job to a friend in New Orleans... They said they would provide references and boy did they ever - just not how they imagined. I am still going to be at the farmer's markets but am working the rest of the week in the office. And the rest of the time I make bike hats and bento sets. It all works out!

More pictures when I figure out how to bluetooth them from my phone to the computer.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Black Bean Brownies

I finally tried the amazing black bean brownies recipe from 101 Cookboooks for a dinner party last night at my sister's and unfortunately we found them not so amazing. But in typical Erin fashion I did not use half the ingredients listed (no way was I using 10$ worth of agave nectar and walnuts...) and used egg replacer for the eggs. I'm not the only one that this has happened to as Sasha made them as well and reported they were way too "eggy." At least it sounded like her's didn't turn out as a "boiled brownie pudding." No one at the party guessed the main ingredient was black beans though!

In better news I am snacking on dill pickles canned with actual dill as well as garlic I picked up at the market today. Yummy!

Friday, August 8, 2008

DIY Yogurt

For the longest time I have been trying to figure out how to thicken up our homemade yogurt and I finally found the answer! The recipe calls for 1/4 to 1/2 cup dried milk powder. Obviously not vegan. I tried everything from agar to tapioca flour. All starch or gelatinous like substances would gel up in one big yogurt-y goo on the bottom of the container. The stars finally aligned when shortly after salivating over I Am Grateful's menu and seeing cultured coconut yogurt I took a trip to the Korean Grocery where I picked up Coconut Milk Powder! It makes the tastiest yogurt with the best consistency ever. The tartness that comes from the second and third generation starter still shines through but it is naturally sweeter and creamier. FINALLY.

Here is the recipe and how we do it at home. But before all that these are all the reasons why you should make your own yogurt. It is great for baking. It complements your homemade granola. It is awesome drizzled on curries you have prepared too spicy. You can get a yogurt cheese maker and have a fabulous cream cheese substitute. It's good for your tummy. Now on to the process.

First of all we have a Salton yogurt maker. The directions say to heat the milk to almost boiling, then wait to add the starter until the milk is in a very specific ten degree range. This takes forever. Screw that. Amos came up with an easier way. We plug in the Salton. We make sure everything is super clean then add 4 cups soy milk at fridge or room temperature to the container. Whisk in 1/4 to 1/2 cup coconut milk powder. Gently stir in starter. Put container in Salton. Wait 8 - 10 hours. Done.

Read a good little article on the pleasures of yogurt making at 101 Cookbooks. And although the article is not specically about vegan yogurt I do agree vegan or not it is very well enjoyed with a "simple swirl of the best maple syrup I can find."

Note: Really you can do without the milk powder or other thickener as long as you don't mind a runnier yogurt. It still tastes amazing. We also use our homemade soy milk that doesn't have nearly as much sugar and or vanilla as the commercial soy milks... well depending on who makes it. : )

Thursday, August 7, 2008

H2O

A pound of grain uses less than 1% of the water used to produce a pound of meat. US agriculture uses 87% of the water used in the US. It takes 10,000 Kg of water to produce 1 Kg of beef while soy only uses 900 Kg and potatoes 500 Kg.

Source: US Could Feed 80 Million With Grain Livestock Eat, Cornell University Science News, August 1997

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

SAD

I am supposed to be sewing but this just popped into my mailbox in the weekly Organic Consumers Association Newsletter:

PLUNDER OF THE WEEK:
SIX TIMES MORE FISH FED TO LIVESTOCK THAN TO HUMANS
According to the UBS Fisheries Centre in Vancouver, B.C., despite rampant over-fishing and depletion of world fish populations, globally, we are now feeding 14 million tons of edible wild-caught fish to factory farm animals, like pigs and chickens, each year. That amounts to over six times the amount of fish the entire U.S. population eats annually. Wild fish fed to animals on a massive scale include perfectly edible anchovies, sardines, mackerel, and herring, which are ground into a cheap fishmeal and sold for animal feed. In other words a protein source is being fed to animals on corporate farms with a 90% energy loss. Given the global food crisis and the over-harvesting of many of the ocean's commercial fish varieties, careful analysis of resource use by the global industrial food complex is becoming a life or death imperative.

Here is the whole blog on this topic at the OCA's website. Infuriating.

Travel It!




I finally booked our flight to Thailand this weekend! We will be going for the entire month of December with a five day "layover" in Tokyo. I can't wait! My friend Nadia picked up a handful of brochures on the different areas of Thailand from the Thai embassy for me. There are SCADS of national parks with descriptions like "tropical rainforest draped over limestone outcrops" and "home to elephants, bears and even a few tigers" and "has the worlds largest flower, the Raffiesia Kerriii which can grow up to 70 centimeters wide." And all that is in one park.

I am equally excited about Tokyo - although it will be cold. Maybe I can get what I believe Sasha called and "epic haircut" that takes up to three hours to complete. I only wish we could stay longer - but with the blackout dates on my airline miles it was only one month or over two. So there you go.... five weeks is about my capacity for out of country travel. In Guatemala week five is when everyone started to hunker down in their rooms, watch only satelite MTV and order Little Ceasers for every meal. And we certainly dont want that to happen.