Eat Me.

Anything you can do we can do vegan.

Friday, July 25, 2008

Bentos!





Finally the little Bento Sets are ready to go out in the world! Check them out at Wolfbait, Renegade or my Etsy Shop. I love the little coral and red-checked ones made from vintage tableclothes.

New Pet



My new serger! Below is the diagram showing how to thread it....

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Letters I Should Have Wrote

So I always write out emails to people/companies that I have issues with. Sometimes I send them and sometimes I don't. Like today I got an email from a fellow pankaker who is organizing what sounds like a really fun event at a lake/pavillion/beer garden somewhere on the South Side for the Izaak Walton League of Americans. I had never heard of the group but apparently they have been around since 1922 conserving and creating recreational opportunities around the nation. Things sounded really good until the letter stated "I specifically added Vegan Kabobs to the menu for all you veggies out there :)." At which point I scrolled to the end of the email and found the menu which besides veggie kabobs includes 1 LB. Boiled Shrimp Plates, Kosher Hot Dogs, and Steak Kabobs. Now why would a conservation group include beef?! So I wrote a letter I didn't send. And what can you put on a kabob that is vegetarian but not vegan? Cheese?

Here's my letter:

The event sounds like a lot of fun but can you maybe make this point clear to whoever the person mainly in charge of the event is? Beef produces more greenhouse gas than all the cars on the road. Thanks for including the Veggie Kabobs for vegans who reduce their impact on this earth by 20% just by changing their diet can eat something at an event to conserve our nation. Also is the shrimp flown in? It just seems that the menu is not in sync with the mission.

Should I have sent this? Here this group is trying to conserve and make the U.S. a better place serving beef of all things! Manure pits anyone? What I particularly love about Iowa and Wisconsin are the wonderful factory farms. And the best thing about these farms is they smell way better than slaughterhouses!

See I could have put all that in the letter...

Camping!




Cooking the Lemon-Cornmeal-Blueberry Pancakes. Two mushrooms on the hike from hell.

Amos and I went camping this past weekend with my sister Katie and two of our good friends from pankakes. Now I was not aware of this but if you want to go camping in Wisconsin in any reasonable driving distance from Chicago you must book your site about three months in advance. So we were unlucky enough to get to Lake Kegonsa State Park about 1/2 hour after the office closed but lucky enough to get pulled over by the park ranger who told us there were only 2 walk up sites available and we should get there at 8 the next morning.

So we hustled over to camp the next morning, got our spot then headed into the nearest town since the campers on our site didn't have to leave until 3 p.m. In the little town of Stoughton we found a coffee shop with 71 cent coffee and homemade wheat toast and applesauce as well as a really interesting re-sale shop that was more like a thrift store and antique shop combined. Fortified with homemade goodness and a 2$ lawn chair older than Amos' and my age combined we headed back to camp.

If the lake hadn't turned to pea soup and the trails choked with mosquioes we might have done more than take three naps, read our books and eaten some veggie burgers. We did make a pizza for dinner which might have been excellent had I not burnt the crap out of the bottom of it.... It was still good if you just scraped the top off... And of course tho finish we roasted (vegan!) marshmallows for dessert.

The next day after lemon cornmeal blueberry pankakes cooked over an open fire we headed up to Madison to eat at Himal Chuli and there was a street festival going on! We also rented a sea kayak and paddle boat at Lake Wingra which was lovely swimming. Canooning is so much fun. Then it was home again home again - quite a fun trip.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Who is this?!

I was reading the Chicago Reader last night before going to sleep and it made mention of Fruitslinger - a blog about a fruit vendor at my market! Who is it!

Request

I've been thinking about this for a while - if I ever have children I need to ask my family and friends please please please no one buy him/her anything that requires batteries, lights up, makes noise, or propels itself in creepy fashion around the house. First of all I can't stand electronic songs being played over and over at the indiscriminate touch of a two year old - a jazzy version of twinkle twinkle being inturrupted by a even more horrendously updated version of mary had a little lamb on a pudgy finger's cue is enough to make me break out in hives. And if that isn't enough just check out this link. How cute is your chicken dance elmo now?!

Note: Maybe I need to give a shout out to Ellie (as in elephant) here - my little sister's favorite stuffed animal who tastefully played talk to the animals when wound up. Oh what a sad day it was when his voice box finally kicked the bucket from being played probably thousands of times....

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Yo Soy

I just found a cute vegan blog named !Yo Soy! straight outta Culver City California. I'm really sorry I don't know how to make the exclamation point go upside down...

Etsy It!


Is it just me or is this photo AMAZING? Thanks so much to Nick and Erin who took all the beautiful photos for my bike hats. Also thanks to all pankakers that modeled for me. (Hint: I've linked to their Flickr accounts above so you can see all their photos.)

I finally got everything together with respect to listing some hats on Etsy - all with a little (or a lot!) of help from my friends.... Check all the hats out at my Etsy store here.

Now I just need to make all the Bento sets... They will be sold at Renegade Handmade, Wolfbait and one of my favorite online stores Little Paper Planes!

Monday, July 7, 2008

Yeah! Shut up!!

This Q and A from Miss Manners I found on the Tribune site is great! I love Miss Manners... plus you all know how I love to discuss any sort of food related social protocol.

Dear Miss Manners: Dieting in public is a serious etiquette problem in a society that has made saints of women who wear a size 2. It is rude and offensive for a person to attend a joyous food-related outing and spoil the trip by ordering "a small salad."

Public dieting casts a pall of misery over any such occasion. The argument that the outing is about the fellowship is only partially true—the fellowship is enjoying a good meal together. The occasion is about the food.

Holiday dinners and meals out with friends are a time, if not to eat heartily, to at least eat well—even if one chooses grilled instead of fried chicken or replaces the dressing with vegetables at Thanksgiving.

If one must diet in public, it should be done with absolute discretion and must involve a variety of tasty foods chosen from what has been provided. If the dieter wants a diet soda, she should ask for it quietly, as though requesting something with which to take medication and have it poured into a glass to ensure that the nature of the drink is not obvious.

If a person is on a super-restricted diet that requires she eat abnormally, she needs to stay home, instead of making everyone miserable.

Perhaps she can join the group later for a concert or movie if she is not too weak to stay out past 8 p.m.

Gentle Reader: Miss Manners suggests that you try harder not to notice what other people are eating. A lot harder.

Monitoring what other people eat is a good way to ruin a holiday or gathering of friends, whether it is dieters voicing disapproval of hearty eaters or the more rare reaction that you have.

After you stated your desire to ostracize everyone with medical food restrictions, Miss Manners banned you from any discussion about what constitutes fellowship.

Logan Square Love

We had quite the Sunday. Here was the schedule:

10:00 - Logan Square Farmer's Market for the best iced coffee from Vella Cafe and cookies from Tiny Cakes. (Also available from Vella at the market is a Tofu and Soy Chorizo breakfast burrito... we tried it last week - so delicious!! And after eating the cookies from Tiny Cakes Amos called off the store-bought cookie ban.)
11:30 - Ride to Renegade Handmade to drop off hats!
12:00 - Back to the circle to maybe possibly drop of more hats at Boulevard Bikes
12:30 - Pankakes!
3:30 - Bike Polo in Garfield Park
5:00 - Home again home again
7:00 - Candlelight Yoga
9:30 - Taco Salad at Picante Taqueria
10:15 - Karaoke (self esteem is completely crushed)

At any rate I love Logan Square. It's just starting to get really neat things going for itself (like the new food co-op that is moving in near us on Fullerton) and its location is so convenient to everywhere in the city. As an added bonus it's a paradise compared to New Orleans crime-wise.

Friday, July 4, 2008

Bento Sets


Lunch It.

You have all seen the bike hats but this is the newest item I have been producing. They are Bento sets - a traditional Japanese way to package up food to go. Usually the sets contain a little box with dividers to section of three or four different food types and a bento bag or furoshki cloth. Styles range from elegantly utilitarian to over the top cute. I read that some Japanese moms will spend quite a bit of time to make their kids the cutest lunches at school.

This photo looks a bit lackluster - maybe because of the monochromatic color scheme? I can't wait to make more with the colorful vintage table linens I picked up at the Village and my hometown thrift store!

If you don't have a bento box you really should have one. I have one I bought a while back after seeing Sasha's. It says "It is so wonderful to be able to maintain your dreams." The lettering is starting to fade and the little dividers are stained with curry and spaghetti sauce but I still love it anyway.

In related news Amos regularly checks out Vegan Lunch Box and Bento TV - he's sort of a lunch type of guy. But really now that I think of it he is more of a Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner type of guy.

Also here's an idea - if anyone out there has any linens they don't use anymore (or can find any at a thrift store) send them to me and I will sew and stamp you up a free set. Leave a comment and we can negotiate a deal.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

What We Did Last Year


One of my favorite photos from last year.

Right now I'm being all nostalgic for blueberry picking and Commander's Palace.... oh New Orleans!! I am happy that the low for tonight in Chicago is 55-60 degrees rather than 85 but my heart is aching... It's too sad to love cities that are so far apart.

Easy Oatmeal


It's blueberry time again!

When Amos and I visited Sasha and Vanessa in San Fransisco Vanessa made us oatmeal that was super easy to make and I just have to share it with everyone. This is all there is to the recipe: 1-2 cups rolled oats plus 1-2 cups water (or enough just to cover oats). For the four of us we used 2 cups, for just Amos and I we use 1 cup. Let oats soak overnight and you have oatmeal the next morning that is perfect for summer! Vanessa put grated apples in our oatmeal in San Fransisco which made a crazy awesome texture but it is great with just a little maple syrup and whatever fruits or nuts you have on hand. In San Fransisco I think we also dressed ours up with almonds and soy milk if I remember correctly.

Maybe Sasha or Vanessa can dig up the original recipe so I can give credit where credit is due? Also this morning I threw my oatmeal in a fine mesh strainer to drain some extra liquid - but I've always liked my oatmeal super dry.

Inhabitat

This might be my new favorite blog... I don't think I could really be done with architecture forever... this blog reminds me why I love it so much. Now getting way more local I was browsing around trying to find the Renegade Handmade site and found instead another Chicago designer and blogger, Sarah Fox and her beautiful company/personal blog Cursive Design.