Food I Have Loved: Chocolate Cupcake

Allie's Birthday Chocolate Vegan Cupcakes

Our house, Made by Allie and Me

Chocolatey, moist, lots of icing. Elegant birthday treat.

Food I Have Loved*: Vegan Sopapilla Cheesecake

Vegan Sopapilla Cheesecake

The Remedy Diner, Raleigh, NC

Sweet, creamy, velvety, crunchy, soft. Rich beyond words.

*This is a new category here on this blog. Just quick thoughts about food, meals eaten out or at a friend's place that has really wowed me. Of course it's all vegan.

Food I Have Loved*: Avospacho Soup

 Avospacho Soup

Slice of Life, Sebastopol, CA

Creamy, cold, rich, crunchy. Summer comfort food.

*This is a new category here on this blog. Just quick thoughts about food, meals eaten out or at a friend's place that has really wowed me. Of course it's all vegan.

A Reflection 10 Years Later: Are we sane yet?

I am not watching the news this weekend. In fact, I have stopped watching it already.

I do not want to see the towers fall again. And again and again and again. I saw it 10 years ago, and it was all seared into my brain then.

It was a beautiful September morning in West County. Russ was getting ready for work, and I was lazily lying in bed with our very new, 3 week old daughter. Life was bliss then. A house in the woods, a warm bed and a snuggling infant.

"Turn on the news," he said. "There's been a plane crash."

I didn't really want to see a plane crash, but he didn't normally tell me to watch gory news stories. I'm sure I did a quick mental check if I thought anyone I knew had been traveling and could have been on a plane. A good friend of ours is a pilot and flew his own small plane at the time.

I turned on the TV, and the story had just begun to unfold. Only the first plane had struck. You know the rest of the story, so I won't retell it.

I knew thousands of people would die that day. My heart was sick for them and their families. I knew that life as we knew it had changed that day. I suddenly had the thought, "What kind of life have I just brought this beautiful baby into?" when I just as quickly remembered that we had adopted her. We hadn't brought her into this, she was going to be here no matter what. Thank goodness she was with us.

My next thought was even more sickening...this isn't the end. This isn't the end of the killing, the hatred, the racism, the horror, the madness, the religious fanaticism. It was the beginning. Or, rather, another beginning.

In the magical world of Margaret-land (although if I ruled, Earth might look more like a Star-Trekkian future–people of Earth have united and get along), with me as head of the government, I imagined this: the high road. No retaliation. Peace talks. Find out why these people are so angry with us. Do something about it. Strengthen relations. Come to agreements. Bring accord. Make sure this didn't happen again. No more dead.

I know, I know. I'm a Pollyanna.

But in my heart I did the math. Thousands of Americans dead today. Retaliation. Thousands more dead in another land, maybe double or triple that number. Not even "an eye for an eye" but a whole body for an eye. And if we went to war, we would again double that number of our own dead. More Americans. This time our beautiful young sons and daughters.

I never dreamed it would all go on this long. We went to "war" months after the attack, and just days before my father died. I wondered if he had heard what was going on. Did his heart sink when he heard we were again at war? He served his country in WWII, luckily (for me) in a non-combat position, but he knew plenty of people who died, and plenty of people left with visible and not-so-visible scars from being in a war where you kill people. Our WWII veterans have all almost died away now. Is this when we begin to forget what war is and want to put on another one?

I'm not saying that we should never go to war. I know that Hitler was a horrid man and needed to be stopped. I'm still amazed at how one man can lead so many people into fanatic thinking and horrid acts. And there seems to always be one (or more) of those around. And they should be stopped. But why do so many people have to die before they are?

I don't have the answers. I'm merely a tiny little player in the grand scheme. But there has to be another way. There just has to be. There are plenty of people in our country smarter than me. Why haven't they figured it out?

Sam Harris, of Project Reason, ended his blog post today with this...

Ten years have passed since a group of mostly educated and middle-class men decided to obliterate themselves, along with three thousand innocents, to gain entrance to an imaginary Paradise. This problem was always deeper than the threat of terrorism—and our waging an interminable “war on terror” is no answer to it. Yes, we must destroy al Qaeda. But humanity has a larger project—to become sane. If September 11, 2001, should have taught us anything, it is that we must find honest consolation in our capacity for love, creativity, and understanding. This remains possible. It is also necessary. And the alternatives are bleak.

Doughnuts, Veganism, Alicia Silverstone and Das Racist

Ok, this is just too weird.

I'm not too sure where to start this story.

I'll begin in Portland where I was attending the first ever Vida Vegan Bloggers Conference last week.

On one of our out-of-the-hotel vegan foodie haunts to Voodoo Doughnuts (a whole tray of vegan doughnuts to choose from ... even "creme" filled ... I know, heaven, if there is such a place, is filled with cruelty-free vegan creme filled doughnuts, vegan corn-dogs and just-deep-dried tater tots and comfortable pleather shoes), our family heard a tune being blasted in the glowing pink-walled just-a-touch-too-hot (is that a velvet portrait of Kenny Rogers on the wall?) doughnut shop. The lyrics were simple. The metre was rap.

"I'm at the Pizza Hut. I'm at the Taco Bell. I'm at the cah-h-hm-bination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell."
"I'm at the Pizza Hut. I'm at the Taco Bell. I'm at the cah-h-hm-bination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell."

Now sing that again. And again. And again. And for about 5 more minutes. You got it. You got it. You got it.

I'll be the first to admit that I hate rap. (I hate to wrap, too. Presents that is. Is there a connection?)

But this song struck a chord. Granted, just one chord. Over and over.

My darling husband and darling daughter were with me getting doughnuts. Taco Bell and Pizza Hut are their two favorite places in the whole darn world. Yes, you can get vegan things (hold the cheese) at TB, but PH, well, not so vegan. We're waiting in line with our newly found vegan-foodie friends Cheryl and Kathy (vegan cookbook author) at this hot and stuffy hipster* joint (go look it up, I had to)  when I tell my family to "Listen to this song, I think it will have special meaning for you!"

Oh yeah, new family favorite.

The next day involves a twelve hour drive home to Sonoma County and some googling on my iPhone to learn about the song and its creators, the duo "Das Racist." Silly me, I thought they might be German. (I took two years of German in college.) Come to find out, it's slang for "That's Racist." Pronounced "Dass" not "Dahss." Which is really quite close to how it might be said in German, "Das ist racist." I have no idea how to say "racist" is German.

Fast forward to tonight, when we are just too bored to watch TV anymore (The Soup=Funny. Chelsea Lately=Chuckles, but Tacky. OMG, the Kardashians are on=Just Tacky. Let's google Pizza Hut/Taco Bell again.

We watch some pretty funny YouTube takes on PH/TB, but then I read that Das Racist is coming out with a real album on iTunes on September 13 and one cut has already been released. Once on iTunes, I see that there are a few free podcasts available with interviews.

One such podcast not only includes Das Racist, but an interview with actress and vegan cookbook author Alicia Silverstone. I only happen to write a blog, The Vegan Reduction Project, that includes her book. (APM: The Dinner Party Download. Episode 46.) How is it that the Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell song is so linked to veganism?

I like Pizza Hut. I like Taco Bell. I like Veganism. I like Voodoo Doughnuts. I like Alicia Silverstone.  I like a combination of Pizza Hut and Taco Bell and Veganism and Voodoo Doughnuts and Alicia Silverstone.

I like Pizza Hut. I like Taco Bell. I like Veganism. I like Voodoo Doughnuts. I like Alicia Silverstone.  I like a combination of Pizza Hut and Taco Bell and Veganism and Voodoo Doughnuts and Alicia Silverstone. 

*The whole hipster thing..I just have to say, even though I turned 50 this year, I was doing hipster stuff before I knew what is was. Ironic, huh? And THAT in itself is the definition of hipster. I served PBR  (that's Pabst Blue Ribbon in hipstese) at my birthday party this year, while dressed in my best 50's dress/crinoline/short poofed hair. I've been a vegan for almost two decades (when these 20-something vegan hipsters were still being bottle-fed cow-dairy formula), and I own two totally retro fondue pots. Which I serve vegan cheese fondue in. AND I've been blogging since BEFORE the term "blogging." OMG, I'm an old hipster. Now I know how all those old hippies feel out here in West County. 

"Turn on, tune in, drop out." Oh, what hipster said THAT?