A little Friday night decadence

The deli, salad bar & bakery counter at LifeThyme Natural Market, may just be my favorite in this entire city. Having some alone "art time" on a Friday night, I didn't feel like cooking. So I splurged on a little plate of decadence, followed by a dessert that knocked my boots off. Raw agave gelato by Organic Nectars! In pistachio flavor! How do I love thee? Let me count the ways: 12 (flavors), at least.

Shoes a'plenty

There are many leather-less shoes out there, but finding ones for this funky-shoed-fussypot has never been an easy one. Truth be told, I still wear used leather from Ebay, thrift stores, and just shoes I have had since forever in my closet. But anything new I purchase, I try to stay clear of leather for ethical reasons. The argument still remains about the materials of shoes (ie. biodegradability, whether in leather or pleather), so my shoe quest is still an on going one.

I am interested in DIY shoe-making, because if you can't find it you might as well build it yourself, right? Stayed tuned for that.

In the meantime, I found some cute synthetic shoes that I thought I would share on a site that has free shipping and free returns. Now the hardest part is just deciding which ones I like best!

http://www.endless.com

A rant "Time Out"

I've been a pretty quiet vegetarian for 14 years. I prided myself on this for some time, as fighting over food was never desirable to me. It still isn't, but as I get older and uncover more truths, it's getting harder and harder to hold back. I keep learning a piece of "what's behind the curtain" each day, and the more I learn, the harder it is to tolerate the idea of people harming and eating animals. I never preach (and funny, I still get sorely attacked regardless), but I do have my days when I feel truly fed up.

Today is one of them.

So it didn't help any when I opened Time Out New York, the enraging cover alone being the duct-taped mouths of the all-female cast from Sex and the City (already I could feel the offensive blood boiling ), only to turn to page 29 of a real live pig tied up and being scorched to it's death. The photo is infuriating (and grotesque), but then they feel the need to flaunt it with their slug "Eat the whole pig and love it!" They continue on to show a diagram of where you can eat every single part of the pig which, according to Time Out, is "awfully trendy nowadays" and a "trophy achievement for the champion eater." Pretty "awful" indeed. Not only are you killing for the sake of taste, yes taste, but you are boasting about it, using the marketing vocabulary of a sporting event, and a winner at that.



I wish this was entitled "Think, Human" instead.

So, in need of an immediate pick-me up to recover, I grabbed the latest copy of VegNews. Apparently there was a Veggie Pride Parade this weekend in NYC, which I missed. At first I had a mixed-feeling reaction to the idea of this. Then I looked it up. Paris has been having this parade since 2001, although the NYC parade was not affiliated, only inspired by, the one in Paris. It was however inspiring, gave me chills, and how cute it is to hear their French accents saying the same things I say and think and feel every day in my own skin. It made me feel connected, and human, and relieved. Here is a link, to leave on a positive note:

Veggie video clips

Mangia! Mangia!

Tonight was vegan pizza night, followed by "clean out your fridge" dessert. "Back to the Bank" in Park Slope was out of Follow Your Heart, (which I am only moderately fond of anyhow), so I came up with another cheese-like concoction of my own. Made with some sesame tahini, nutritional yeast, rolled oats, water, organic cornstarch, lemon (and no soy!) I used a whole wheat pie crust, and added on homemade sauce, garlic, fresh olives, basil, oregano, and touch of Dr. Cow's Tree Nut Cheese (aged macadamia) for a sharp lil' zing on the taste buds. Not that it needed it; it was dee-lish!

Sided with a steamed greens salad, chickpeas, beet & potato wedges in garlic, lemon & oil.

Heart shaped leftovers for dessert! Using leftover pumpkin muffin batter from Veganomicon in the fridge. There wasn't much left, so I added rolled oats and spread it thinly inside the baking pan. Then I used a cookie cutter, and some "banana cream" sandwiched in between (banana, agave, vanilla extract, flour). The cream needed to be thicker, but tasted good overall!