There are so many things you don’t understand or appreciate about your family until you are older and can see them from a different, wiser perspective. I’ve been thinking a lot about my mother lately. Probably it’s because Mother’s Day is coming up and I miss my mother terribly. And because I am always thinking […]
Archive | 2011
Book Review: By Any Greens Necessary
Do you ever think about the link between race and food? Author Tracye Lynn McQuirter, MPH does. According to her book, By Any Greens Necessary: A Revolutionary Guide for Black Women Who Want to Eat Great, Get Healthy, Lose Weight, and Look Phat, 80% of black women are overweight and 50% are obese. They have […]
Extreme Vegan Makeover: Sweet & Spicy Tofu/Tempeh Edition
When I was single, I used to eat whatever and whenever I wanted. Since I had no one else to think about, I didn’t worry about meal planning. I rarely cooked; to tell the truth, I really didn’t know how. There were a few recipes that I had picked up from my mother but mostly, […]
Restaurant Review: Rock Da Pasta
We all know how this story goes: you decide to dine out but not at a Vegan restaurant. You anxiously anticipate the meal, wondering what you are going to eat – a salad, a dry baked potato, maybe pasta with marinara sauce or a veggie wrap minus the cow pus…uh, I mean cheese. You dread […]
Extreme Vegan Makeover: Philly "Cheezesteaks" Edition
March was a record-setting month of posting recipes for me. I posted 7 Extreme Vegan Makeovers; 8 if you let me count the one I wrote in March but posted on April 1st. It felt like I was on a roll and I was having so much fun posting recipes and getting positive feedback including that […]
Mercy For Animals Uncovers Severe Abuse to Calves
Got Milk? Got Child Abuse. The number of television commercials depicting “happy cows” on family farms is growing exponentially. But how happy could any cow be when she is raped and artificially inseminated, spending the majority of her shortened life pregnant just to produce milk her babies will never get to drink? How happy can […]
Extreme Vegan Makeover: Fried Matzo/Matzo Brei Edition
It is Passover and there is no better time to think about going Vegan. Well, any time is a good time to think about going Vegan but Passover is all about persecution, slavery and leading those oppressed out of bondage. Yet as people all over the world sit down to retell the story of the […]
One Lovely "Lovely Blog" Award
One of my more annoying fears (to me) is writing blog posts and thinking no one is reading them. I suppose that’s why all bloggers love getting comments; even if people don’t agree with what you wrote, at least you know they are reading it. Comments on Facebook are great but my heart still falls […]
In Memory of Shirley Wilkes-Johnson (1937-2011)
“Vegans can no longer be silent in this most important social justice change…anymore than we could have [remained silent]…by just not owning slaves during Antebellum slavery and saying slavery was a choice. Some things are so wrong they can not be tolerated. Time is short and creating a vegan world has become crucial to saving […]
Extreme Vegan Makeover: "Fish" N’Chips Edition
Every year at the end of the Spring semester, my colleagues and I would attend the commencement ceremony for our College. Graduation is always held at Madison Square Garden with the marquee congratulating our students, the College’s name up there alongside those of celebrities and athletes. We find, press and then dress up in our […]
Extreme Vegan Makeover: Jalapeno Poppers Edition
Lately, I’ve been making a lot of comfort foods. Comfort foods for me do not involve sweets or chocolate or bread or pasta. No, for me, comfort food means fried and crunchy. The timing couldn’t be worse for my sudden need for comfort foods. Spring is here. The weather is s-l-o-w-l-y getting warmer and soon […]
Extreme Vegan Makeover: French Dip Sandwich with Jus and Onion Spread Edition
“Oh my G-d! Oh My G-d! OH MY G-D!!!!!” Tom repeatedly cried out last night. I don’t think I have ever seen a look of such pleasure, such passion, such hunger, such rapture on Tom’s face. His eyes were wide with fascination, his mouth wet with desire. “OH MY G-D!” he exclaimed. And then he […]
Breaking Up With Richard Gere
The other night I had a dream in which I broke up with Richard Gere. Apparently, we were in a serious relationship – I even got to touch his hair (swoon) – but I had no choice. I had to end things between us. Before I get into the dream analysis, perhaps I need to […]
Extreme Vegan Makeover: Sweet and Savory Hamentashen Edition
It’s Purim and even though I am baking-challenged, I decided to try and make Hamentashen. And not just any Hamentashen: Vegan and gluten-free Hamentashen. Purim has always been my favorite Jewish holiday. It’s one of the few happy holidays and as I recall, the only one where you get to sit in the synagogue and […]
Extreme Vegan Makeover: Colcannon Deconstructed: Cheezy Potato-Okra Corn Cakes with Cabbage and Collards Edition
Today is St. Patrick’s Day and I supposed that meant I should cook something green. But I eat green food every single day so I decided to celebrate by trying a green food I’ve never eaten before. Okra. I had never tried okra although I’ve wanted to. But it looks strange and I had no idea what […]
Extreme Vegan Makeover: Aduki Bean Salad Edition
You say azuki beans, I say adzuki beans. Or Aduki beans, or asuki beans or Tiensen red beans or red Oriental beans or feijao beans or red chori. Call them whatever you want but add them to your shopping list. These small, reddish-brown, rounded beans are delicious and so good for you. They have a […]
Paint Creek Animal Rescue
Being a native New Yorker, when I hear Brooklyn, I think of the Bridge, Prospect Park and the many Vegan eateries in the borough across the river from Manhattan. However, lately I’ve been learning about a very special place in a different Brooklyn: Paint Creek Animal Rescue located in Brooklyn, Michigan. Paint Creek Animal Rescue […]
Extreme Vegan Makeover: Vegetable Lo Mein Edition
Lately I’ve had a lot of cravings for Chinese food. I miss going to my favorite places and getting takeout. I miss the cartons (and what’s happened to those lately? Too many plastic tupperware containers. That SO takes away from the Chinese food experience), the chopsticks, the fotune cookies. I even miss the dozen packets […]
Extreme Vegan Makeover: Buffalo Lentil Burger Edition
One of my favorite recipes is my “Chicken-Fried Steak/Buffalo Wings” edition which is a double-dipped hot sauce battered seitan cutlet served over a carrot and celery salad and topped with Vegan Bleu Cheese http://thevword.net/2009/11/extreme-vegan-makeover-chicken-fried/ But I’ve been gluten-free for two months (today) and so I’ve had to renounce seitan. It’s not that I’m gluten-intolerant. Not […]
Restaurant Review: Karma Road
Here is my checklist for the perfect café: Vegan, organic, no refined or irradiated ingredients, gluten-free, eat-in and take-out, green juice, delicious food, friendly people and lots of love. Sounds like a huge order to fill but there is a place that can satisfy all my wants and needs: Karma Road Organic Café. Karma Road […]
Extreme Vegan Makeover: Kung Pao Tofu Edition
When you think of Chinese food, I would bet one of the last ingredients you would ever think of would be mayonnaise. I know that’s true for me. But that’s exactly the ingredient that is in this recipe for Kung Pao Tofu. I wish I could take the credit for this successful culinary matchmaking but […]
Extreme Vegan Makeover: Minestrone Soup with Turnip Greens Edition
Snow, snow, snow. It feels like it’s been snowing forever. Everywhere I look, all I see is white. Don’t get me wrong, it’s pretty but personally, I’m hoping Phil the Groundhog was right and that spring will be soon upon us. This weather just demands foods that are warm, filling and comforting. It is definitely […]
Book Review: Appetite for Reduction
I have a ton of vegan cookbooks and all of Isa’s but this one will most likely never sit on the shelf. Honestly, I look at most of the cookbooks I have as resources for ideas or starting-off points and then I go my own way and do my own thing and the finished dish […]
Extreme Vegan Makeover: Tom’s Grilled Cheese with Spinach and Tomato on Rye Edition
If there are any perks to being sick, one might be getting breakfast in bed. I have trouble sleeping and then it takes me awhile to get going in the morning, but Tom is always up early – reading, working on his classes, etc. When I finally wake up, Tom comes into the bedroom to greet […]