My pleather boots were made for walkin’

By Monica on August 13th, 2008

In the next two months, Ray and I are participating in charity walks for two amazing organizations that most of you are familiar with: Farm Sanctuary and PAWS Chicago. I know that the missions of both charities are close to the hearts of many of my readers, so I gracefully ask for you to consider supporting one or both of these events. Now, I don’t have Bazu’s courage so I will not be jumping out of an airplane to earn your donations, but I do have a cold cellar stocked with homemade vegan jams. I will happily send out jars of the sugary goodness to the first ten people who donate to either cause. (If you want goodies, make sure to leave your name/blog/identifying moniker when donating so I can contact you!)

If you’ve landed at my blog, you probably already know about Farm Sanctuary and the amazing work they do for the most forgotten of creatures, “farm” animals. Each year Farm Sanctuary hosts a “Walk For Animals” with walks scheduled around the country in honor of World Farm Animals Day. This is our second year participating and I absolutely encourage anyone interested to join a walk happening in their area - it’s a good time!

CLICK HERE TO BE TAKEN TO MY PAWS CHICAGO DONATION PAGE.

If you live in Chicago or watched Oprah’s show on puppy mills, you know about PAWS Chicago. PAWS is Chicago’s largest no-kill shelter, running the stunning cageless facility you might have seen Oprah visit. They also operate the Lurie Family Spay-Neuter Clinic, the nation’s busiest low cost/free surgical clinic. Since PAWS began in 1997, they have reduced Chicago’s euthanasia rate by over 50% and are putting Chicago on the path to be the largest no-kill city in the US. I cannot say enough about this organization. This annual event is extremely important to raising funds for PAWS Chicago’s life-saving programs.

Both charities have been awarded the highest 4 star rating by Charity Navigator - so you can feel good about your donation being used wisely. And I promise that you will feel good eating homemade vegan jam from my very own rhubarb and strawberry plants! Thank you so much!

Foods for Vegans without Power

By Monica on August 8th, 2008

I think Illinois is telling me that it’s time to go, time to pack my bags and move on to greener pastures.  A few weeks ago a storm came through delivering 5.75″ of rain in less than 3 hours.

We had 6″ of water in our basement, which thankfully receded when the sun came out - but it destroyed almost everything stored in our basement.  There was even a feline rescue when one of our cats was stuck atop a wooden box, floating and meowing like mad.  Extra thanks to American Family Insurance for their very helpful reply during this, which was basically “too bad, you don’t have flood insurance, stop calling here.”  I truly feel for the folks in Iowa dealing with real flood waters after seeing what a mere 6″ can do.

Then earlier this week a tornado passed through, and I am so grateful that it didn’t injure anyone, but it brought 80mph winds and left 565,000 people without power and craploads of wind damage.  Lightning struck a giant evergreen tree about 100′ from our house, splitting it in half and sending sparks and horrifying electrical noises through all of the outlets inside the house.  The TV is smoked, all the standard AV equipment is ruined, screen doors were literally ripped off their hinges, and worst of all, Ray lost his Mac and specialized art printer.  Well, worst of all if you don’t consider that my KitchenAid convection oven is also fried - constantly beeping at me, locking the oven door, and showing me error messages about inserting “probes”.  I haven’t heard back from our insurance company yet on how they’re going to screw us on this one, but I’m sure they’ll figure out a way…

Ok, enough whining!  I know that we are very lucky no one was injured, our electric was only out for 2 days, and it’s just “stuff”.  But it does not make for very exciting meals, be forewarned!  Here’s what I was able to drum up with no electricity, no ambition, and a bad attitude:

Fajitas.  A fine way to use up the once frozen veggies now thawing and dripping in your freezer.

A no-heat-necessary taco-pie of sorts, utilizing now un-frozen corn, Spanish rice that needed immediate eating, TVP (which reconstitutes just fine without heat, eventually), a can of refried beans, onion, and assorted salsas, olives, guacamole, and condiments that the FDA advises one to dispose of after 24 hours without refrigeration.

With all those ingredients handy and needing to be used, I was pleasantly surprised to have enough left for taco salads. It may have all been the same regional cuisine, but I think we ate pretty well, considering!

However, the thought of my new bottle of Vegenaise warming up in the refrigerator was highly disturbing, and given that the large bottle is now almost $7 at Whole Foods, I was determined not to let it go to waste.  With this enormous cabbage I scored at the farmer’s market for $2, I knew what had to be done.  (For reference, that is a 10″ chef’s knife in the cabbage, and yes, stabbing a cabbage repeatedly is very cathartic in times of stress…)

Obviously cole slaw needed to happen, and in times of stress, there is no better coleslaw than Sarah Kramer’s sinful concoction of cabbage, pineapple, mandarin oranges, vegan marshmallows, raisins, walnuts, and other good stuffs.  A dessert-slaw, if you will!

And because that didn’t even make a dent in my monster cabbage, a batch of my old standby Dilly Garbanzo Slaw was in order.  With that, the Vegenaise was spared from the garbage bin, and there was plenty of slaw to share.

Dilly Garbanzo Slaw
6 cups cabbage, finely shredded
1 medium beet, shredded
2 carrots, shredded
1 medium red onion, diced
1 15oz. can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1T dried dill
1t dried mustard powder
1t white pepper
1t salt
3/4 cup Vegenaise
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

Mix everything together and refrigerate (you know, if you have electricity) for 2-4 hours prior to serving.

And lastly, many, many thanks to Shellyfish and Veggie for awarding me the Brilliante Weblog award.  As always, I am in awe of the amazing online veg*n community and cannot wait to get caught up on all of your blogs so I can be inspired by delicious foods I can make now that the power is back on!