Vegan ice cream, that is — made with coconut milk and agave instead of dairy/soy and sugar! That’s right, kids, I’m a slave to the prepackaged goodness. So I’ve made my valiant SuperVegan return — the free samples, they beckoned.
Now if only we had an actual summertime in this good-for-nothing foggery…
Some pages from my mini are up on Flickr. I’m working on some other projects right now (I swear!), but they’re currently on deep background. My main act for today, though, was surviving that earthquake. Mission accomplished.
If you’ve led a life like mine, rich in shame and filth, there are few opportunities for being sanctimonious and you have to seize those that offer themselves quickly.
– Another journo goes vegan and rails about how tough his life was without bloody shanks in perhaps the douchiest display yet (think: Bourdain forced to eat curry for a week and then waxing whiny about it to some 150 wpm assistant); but perhaps because he’s British (and employed by the Guardian) the humor makes up for some of the whine. Still, dude could use a cookie.
I guess I’m not the only one annoyed by Adrian Grenier. It seems Hollywood is mounting a multi-pronged anti-green campaign at this very moment…
“Lionsgate has acquired worldwide rights to ‘Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty,’ a spec script by first-time screenwriter Adam Sachs,” who writes for the Harvard Lampoon. The film follows “a lonely reporter and an outspoken teen” through their awkward friendship, at the end of which the teen becomes a hero by standing up to the SHAC “terrorists” to save an animal testing lab. (Because, yes, don’t worry, Sachs specifically assures us they’ll be depicted as “terrorists.” What are they teaching the kids up at Harvard these days?)
Next up is another comedy featuring some of my favorite “terrorists”: Mike Judge’s new animated series for ABC, “The Goodes,” about a family of vegans who mean well but fall into a lot of the usual guilt-laden traps. Of course the frustrating thing is that vegans are a perfect target for great, slightly nuanced comedy (Judge, of course, being known for his nuance…). To be fair, I don’t think he means to villainize veganism with the show — just trivialize it.
But any publicity is good publicity…? Veganism is going mainstream!! Never thought I’d say it, but, um, thanks, Oprah.
Sure, they’re a little too surprised (”10 million Americans!”, “The food is quite good, actually!”, “cut more CO2 than buying a Prius!!”), and yes, we can all thank Oprah, but props to the CNN bookers for going to the source for amazing vegan cuisine, Chef Matteo. (Yes, I’m a hypocrite, but I’m even kind of glad they didn’t mention that stuff costs like $50.)
I was a little more skeptical about the second segment, but that newscaster has such a crush on Russell Simmons, I bet she’ll go veg before the week is out. Don’t underestimate the influential power of cute vegans. (I should put that on the “vegan sex and relationship” survey I got yesterday…)
(via Food Fight)
Danielle Konya’s Bethlehem, Pennsylvania baked-good operation Vegan Treats gets an incredibly glowing little write-up in yesterday’s Washington Post. “The award-winning bombe, also tofu-based, features subtly flavored peanut butter mousse and is coated with a killer Belgian-chocolate shell.”
As the WaPo points out, Vegan Treats do look really amazing (note to self: buy a pastry bag instead of using repurposed [clean!] plastic bags). This is probably why Atlas is always able to pass off last week’s slices as new ones to unsuspecting customers.
But: there is no mention of the cakes’ trans fats. Unless Konya has changed her recipes, these things aren’t gonna be street legal in New York City in two weeks (and I guess D.C. will be getting the surplus). So eat up, kids!
They’re overplayed (to say the least), but cupcakes are still fun to eat, fun to draw, and definitely fun to write about… within reason. So I think I’m going to start honing my craft with another baked good (with exception, of course, for almond-wasabi cakes).
I’m in New York (right now, specifically, Go!wanus) for the MoCCA indie comics fest this weekend, which I’ll be covering for these guys, natch.
But enough about art — it’s breakfast time and I just spent the last week putting together a list of all the New York foods I needed a taste of before I return back westward. So stop reading now if you care more about art than you do about soy.
I knew some of these already, but I didn’t realize what a lot of my favorite foods in New York were until I couldn’t eat them anymore (I never would’ve guessed that dosas would dominate over Veg Palate crispy nuggets):
I think I’ll start with that bagel. I’d also like to track down some kosher candy lentils…
So I finally did it: I made perfectly reasonable looking and tasting vegan chocolate chip cookies without a hitch. It only took a year and a half, no big deal.
These are lightly adapted (healthified) from Dreena Burton’s Vive le Vegan recipe. If you, too, are having trouble with getting your vegan cookies to resemble cookies more than clusterfucks, I suggest using oil for the fat instead of margarine. That way you also don’t have to cream the margarine and sugar, which can be brutal on your wrists (which you should really be using for blogging).
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix the dry stuff and wet stuff separately, then together. Add the good bits. Don’t overmix! Spoon ‘em out and flatten a bit. Bake for 12 minutes. Don’t burn them because then you’ll really feel like an asshole. Makes a dozen, should last you about three hours.
My dad on IM:
you wouldn’t do well, there isn’t much respect for vegans here
I learned that China has a national pork reserve
in deep frozen caves, like our national oil reserve
they keep adding to it, doomsday pork
they love their pork
the students all rush up and ask me to draw pigs for them
I ask why always pigs?
They say, we think pigs are funny.
(and tasty)