When I was growing up, my dream was to live in City Island. It wasn’t really about City Island, per se. I loved the water, the boats and the marina and City Island was the only place I had ever been that had those things. Having grown up in the South Bronx where swimming in […]
One of the best jobs I ever had was when I worked in an Italian restaurant. I was in med school and I desperately needed money for food and expenses. My father had just passed away and I was over my head in loans. When not studying, I spent a lot of my free time […]
A couple of years ago, I was perusing Vegan quotes and sayings to share with people on a discussion board. One day I was looking for something light-hearted (there are some really funny Vegan jokes and riddles) and I found this poem. I instantly loved it and looked up the author. That’s how I learned […]
Notes: This is an adaptation of an earlier post, Save the Children. Thank you to C-A-L-F and Evolve! Campaigns for allowing the sharing of pictures. A Mother’s Story Chloe had been happily anticipating the birth of her new baby. She carried her baby inside her for nine long months. They were one, mother and child. It had […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 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 […]
“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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
“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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
