Curried Squash Tomato Bisque

It's that time of year when my dad realizes that he planted waaaaay too much squash, and so he pawns it off on his more-than-willing children. Or maybe that's why he plants so much. Either way, I always get a ton of squash from my dad's garden around this time of year and I've found the perfect recipe for using a bunch of it. 

My mom made a vegan tomato squash soup a few years back for Christmas and it was delicious (yeah, my mom rocks). If I remember correctly, it was tomatoes and squash pureed together with some vegetable broth and then sauteed onions were added to it (or maybe the onions were blended in, I can't remember). She gave me the recipe and the first time I made it I taste-tested it and it wasn't as good as my mom's. Not a big surprise there. I let it sit for a while there on my stove and pondered my inadequacy. 

But instead of coming to terms with my failure in the kitchen, I decided to make the soup my own. I added a can of coconut milk to it and some curry powder, garam masala and cumin and BAM! It became something very different and very delicious. The recipe has been tweaked since then, of course. I took garam masala out of it because I ran out and didn't feel like buying more. I'm sure you could put a little in and it wouldn't hurt. And I found that it doesn't need veggie broth, though I'm sure it wouldn't hurt to have some in there if you wanted more leftovers. 

It eats like a meal. And it goes great with saltines or some good crusty bread. 

It's not every year I post an original recipe on this blog. So enjoy, dear readers:

Curried Squash Tomato Bisque

4 cups of butternut squash pulp (other kinds of squash work, too, but probably not every kind)
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 large onion chopped
1 tsp cumin seeds (or 1/2 tsp ground cumin)
28 oz can whole tomatoes with juice
15 oz can of of coconut milk
1 tsp. curry powder (start with 1, add more to taste)
1 tsp. salt
¼ tsp fresh ground pepper
1/8 tsp garlic powder
2 bay leaves

Bake squash (cut in half the long way, place in 1/4 inch of water in a casserole dish, bake at 375 until easily pierced with fork) until tender. Scrape it all out.

Heat oil on med/high heat, add cumin seeds and let them sizzle and/or pop for 30 seconds or so. Add onion and sauté until browned.

Put Tomatoes (with juice) in processor. Blend.

Add squash and onions, process until smooth (the cumin seeds won't blend up and that's fine). If you have an immersion blender, you can blend everything in the pot, but I like to used a food processor and then an immersion blender later if needed. I think it's easier to get a smoother texture that way.

Put that all in a pot, add the coconut milk and heat it up. Add curry powder, salt, pepper and garlic powder (and ground cumin if you didn't use cumin seeds back when you fried the onions). Taste and add more of any of these spices as needed. Add bay leaves and simmer for as long as you want, stirring occasionally.

I'd post a photo, but it's just orange. Close your eyes and imagine the color orange. There you go. That's what the soup looks like. 

OK fine, I'll take a quick photo with my webcam. 

See. Orange. And now you know I have a Maytag stove. 

Reheats wonderfully. Enjoy!

Kale: It's What's for Dinner

Tomorrow is St. Patrick's day. Eat some kale! It's green! Here are some ideas!

Speaking of the color green and kale, I made this:

If you click this here hypertext, it will take you to Zazzle, where you can put the logo on a t-shirt. If you  purchase a shirt, I will make 10% of the whatever you pay. That money will be donated to the vegan education efforts of the Animal Rights Coalition (click on that link - they have a sweet new website).

The idea for this design came when I read 7 Reasons Kale is the New Beef on the Huffington Post.

I get a kick out of the love for kale that many vegans (present company included) espouse. They treat it the same way that unfeeling hipsters treat bacon. It's a cheeky reverence that is matched only by our worship of nutritional yeast (which even has a cool nickname: nooch).

But the reverence makes sense, too. James McWilliams has written a great post: Let them Eat Kale (and Quinoa): Richard Oppenlander Offers a Brilliant Critique. I suggest going over there and reading the whole thing (it's not long). And read the rest of his posts while you're at it. He has a refreshing and powerful way of conveying the ideas and logistics of animal rights.

McWilliams' post makes the Only Kale Can Save Us Now shirt, from Herbivore Clothing Company, ring all the more true. Check out the design on that shirt. My little thing took ten minutes in photoshop. Theirs was done by someone who actually knows how to create beauty from scratch. If I were you, and I was making a choice between my shirt or their shirt, I'd pick theirs. Go ahead. I won't be offended.

Southernish-Style Vegan Thanksgiving

We had Thanksgiving on Saturday this year, and it doubled as Christmas with Jen's mom. I figured I'd put the menu on here, because it was a darn good meal. I, as per usual, didn't take any photos of anything I made. But you can be sure that it looked completely professional and gourmet. Yeah.

The main dish, I guess, was the VegNews Mac 'n' Cheese. It turned out as expected. That's a pretty solid recipe. If you haven't tried it yet, I suggest it.

I also made Southern Fried Cauliflower and a bit of Southern Fried Seitan. I use this recipe, which is just written for seitan. When making it with cauliflower, I roast the cauliflower at 400 degrees for about 15-20 minutes and let them cool off before proceeding with the rest of the recipe as written.

Some vegan blue cheese dressing to dip the deep-fried goodness into. And some Franks Red Hot sauce.

Collard greens 'n' rice.

I also made these baked sweet potatoes that I like. I've never written the recipe down, but basically it's cubed sweet potatoes baked with margarine and pretty much equal parts chili powder and cinnamon (but maybe a bit more cinnamon). And then put marshmallows on top during the last ten minutes or so. But I forgot the marshmallows at home, so it wasn't nearly as good as it usually is. Oh well.

For dessert, I made pumpkin soy cream. For second-dessert, I made the VegNews/Chloe Coscarelli creme brulee.

It should be said that my sister-in-law helped with a bunch of prep work and I would have had to start a few hours earlier if I didn't have her help. She also gave me one of her two kitchen torches, so I'm thinking creme brulee might be a more regular thing at our house (which means once or twice a year, probably). Ooh, or torch-roasted marshmallows for kitchen-s'mores (which is just s'mores without the campfire).

Activism of the Waffle and Educational Kind

The Global Vegan Waffle Party is nearly upon us. The Animal Rights Coalition is putting it on again this year, and if it's anything like it was last year, it'll be awesome.

The event will take place from 10-12 at Fuller Park on 48th St. and Grand Ave. (indoors at the little rec center there) in Minneapolis. The Facebook invite for the par-tay is here.

But maybe you don't live in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. Check out the Global Vegan Waffle Party page here to see a list of parties across the world.

And check out this collage they have on their site:

Anna's there in the far upper right corner. She is now famous.

I'm of the mind that having community pot-lucks and parties like this are a great way to open people up to delicious food that doesn't involve the oppression of other animals. It's a legitimate form of activism.

Events like this also foster community within the animal rights movement, which I think is important. Almost all of us want to belong to a community of some sort. The reason for that (at least in this instance) is not to insulate ourselves from the outside world, but instead to get our bearings, get refreshed, share ideas and commune with those who have, in their own time and way, come to view the world as we have. It's not essential, but it's damn close.

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Speaking of the Animal Rights Coalition, I've been volunteering for them for a while now and I keep meaning to write about how I came to do that, but never get around with it. I won't it in this post, either. But soon...

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After the waffle party, I'm co-facilitating a workshop called Help! I'm going vegan! with Dallas Rising, ARC's program director. We've done this once before and it went really well.

So now we're doing it again as part of ARC's Vegan University program, which includes these workshops, grocery tours and ongoing mentorship for new vegans and people who are transitioning to veganism.

Cool logo, huh? 'Like' the Vegan University page here if you've been wanting to find the vegan you.

The workshop will be on May 28th from 1-3 at Ethique Nouveau, ARC's store where all proceeds from sales go directly into their animal advocacy programs.

Anyway, this is the type of volunteering that I simply adore: Helping people go vegan. If I could do nothing but this all day (when I'm not taking care of my kids and cooking, going out with my wife, etc.) I totally would.

VeganMoFo Day 7 - Mashed Potatoes

Here's Anna singing a song about mashed potatoes a year and a month ago.



Here friend Ella was over. She did not want to sing along.

I'm actually making mashed potatoes today. I don't have a recipe to give, but I can say that the ingredients I find really make mashed potatoes are green onions, garlic salt and cream cheese. A friend of mine tipped me off to cream cheese in mashed potatoes last year and holy crap is it good. I use this stuff.

He also suggested I use a hand blender to fluff them up. It works brilliantly.

What The Hell Do I Do With... Carrots? (and a lot of things to do with kale)

I know, carrots are pretty basic. But hey...

First though, here are some things you can do with kale. 

Lisa suggests colcannon puffs and suggests this recipe for kale chips.

Jacqueline says, "Kale chips are great! Just wash, pat dry, tear into chip-size pieces, removing stems, then toss with a tablespoon of olive oil. Lay them out flat on a cookie sheet and sprinkle with a little salt and nutritional yeast. Bake for about 20 minutes at 400 degrees, turning over once mid-way, and watching so they don't burn near the end. Yummo!"

Erin says, "For a super easy side, I tear it off the stem into a boiling/salted pot of water. Let it double double, boil and trouble for a few minutes, drain, and top with Cajun or Chipotle seasonings and/or garlic salt and/or hot sauce! Also tasty with a chopped fresh tomato on top."

Another Erin (the one I know personally and am friends with) said, "Separate the leaves from the tough stem. Simmer kale in a sauce pan with water for about 10 min (depending on how tough it is), drain it in a collander, then in the empty frying pan, heat up some oil (sesame adds the best flavor), add a bit of garlic for about 30 seconds, toss in the kale and saute a bit, until it dries out a bit and the oil has infused the kale. Then treat it with a squirt of tamari/soy sauce (less tamari if you have less kale; start with a little, taste and build from there to avoid really salty kale) and finish with about a tablespoon or so of sesame seeds."

That's actually the recipe that we make all the time. Because Erin gave it to us a few years ago. It's great, we love it and the kids love it. Thanks Erin!

Radioactivevegan suggests the Garlicky Kale With Tahini Sauce recipe from Vegan With a Vengance which can also be found when you click this here text.. 

Whitehairedveg can only stomach kale with this Mustard-Crusted Tofu with Kale and Sweet Potato recipe from Epicurious. 

Samantha made this Indian-Spiced Kale and Chickpeas and it was fabulous. 

Patrick throws it in smoothies. 

GreensPlease said, "Using whatever kind of kale you prefer (we rotate with whichever looks most fresh at the co-op), chop leaves into medium sliced shreds (like a thick cole-slaw). Chop thinner near the base as you ad more stem - we use as much stem as possible). 

We use a very hot wok, ad a bit of grapeseed oil then chopped garlic for a second then half the bunch of kale. Toss fast to keep the garlic from staying on the bottom. Cook tossing constantly for about a minute and a half. Add a bit of white wine vinegar or lemon juice to taste and remove right away to a serving dish. Repeat with the rest of the kale. If you do too much at once, you'll boil it which we would NEVER do. We like it with some crunch and as much nutritional value as possible. Finish with some sea or kosher salt and enjoy!"

And finally, Anonymous said, "I love the Kale-Potato Soup recipe from Laurel's Kitchen. It's just potatoes, onions, garlic, soy butter, kale, water, salt and pepper, but the simple flavors and hearty texture are really satisfying, especially during the cruelest months of winter."

Thanks everyone for all the ideas! Now I'm hungry for kale. 

So what's your favorite thing to do with carrots? I usually end up eating them raw with some ranch dill dip that we whip up (I'll post the recipe for that next time). Or I shred a couple and throw 'em in a scrambled tofu or a salad. But we're getting a lot of carrots from our CSA these days and I'd like to branch out a bit, so ... 

... what the hell do you do with carrots?

Stats

I rarely talk about the health of my children. I suppose this is due to the fact that when I post photos and video of them it's pretty obvious that they're healthy. I also assume that in this day and age there is enough information out there about veganism to prove to anyone who cares to know that it's healthy for people in all stages of life.

But it occurs to me that some may think that kids of vegan parents can't be healthy, or that their diets are deficient in some way. 

My kids are healthy.

They've consistently been around and mostly above the 50th percentile in measurements of height, weight and head circumference (these are the things pediatricians check to make sure your kid is growing the way they're supposed to be growing). 

They get sick sometimes, sure. All kids do. I'd be concerned if they didn't (gotta build up those anti-bodies, ya know). 

But they don't get sick that much. This could, of course, be due to the fact that they don't go to daycare. It could also be genetic. I'm not going to say that a vegan diet fends off sickness, because while that may be true, it's not provable. Plenty of kids on non-vegan diets stay healthy and rarely get sick. 

The important point to make here is that my kids aren't getting sick because of their vegan diet. The beans, grains, vegetables, nuts, fruit and various processed foods such as soy milk and veggie burgers aren't making them sick and they're not somehow causing them to grow slower or less robustly then their peers who eat animals and animal products. And if the measurements are any indication (and what else could be?), they're growing a bit faster and a bit more robustly than their peers, statistically speaking.

Again, I'm not attributing this to a vegan diet. In fact, I'm fairly certain it has more to do with genetics than anything. The point that I'm trying to make is that there is no measurable negative effect due to their vegan diet. They're happy and healthy.  

"The American Dietetic Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics agree that well-planned vegan and vegetarian diets can satisfy the nutritional needs and promote normal growth of infants and young children." 

-American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Nutrition, 1998; Messina & Burke, 1997

Whenever I read that quote, I always get hung up on that "well-planned" part. What does well-planned mean? Does it mean that we have to keep track of the caloric intake of our kids? Measure every gram of calcium that enters their body? Keep the calipers on hand to make sure they're not losing precious pounds from their chubby thighs? 

Or does it mean that we should just pay attention to what we're feeding our kids? Try not to feed them junk food. Stay away from an excessive amount of processed food. Make sure we feed them a variety of whole foods. Be at least a little knowledgeable about the dietary needs of the children in our care. 

And if that's the case, don't all diets that satisfy the nutritional needs and promote normal growth of infants and young children need to be well-planned? 

"Finish your peas." Were you told that growing up? Me too! That's because our parents wanted us to be healthy. All healthy diets are well-planned. 

I read up on nutrition when I first chose to be vegan. I read up again when my wife and I chose to have our first child. I brushed up a little bit when we decided to have our second. I'll occasionally read up on this or that vitamin or mineral. So yes, I did (and do) a bit of research on nutrition. I hope that anyone, vegan or not, would do the same thing.

But to be honest, my kids' nutrition isn't that big of a consideration in my day-to-day life. I just try to feed my them a varied diet with a vegetable, fruit and grain at every meal. Soy milk. Tofu sometimes. Smoothies quite a bit. I very rarely give them juice, since they eat quite a bit of fruit. I try to keep the snacks healthy, or at least not completely junky. Stuff like that. 

Today, Anna had her 4-year check-up and Liam had his 18-month check-up. Here are their stats. 

Anna:

Weight: 42.5 pounds (90th percentile, which means she weighs more than 90 percent and less than 10 percent of kids her age)

Height: 40.5 inches (67th percentile)

Liam:

Weight: 25.5 pounds (49th percentile)

Height: 33 inches (72nd percentile)

Head Circumference: 48 centimeters (57th percentile)

What the Hell Do I Do With... Kale?

Before we started doing this CSA thing a few years back, I had never even heard of kale. I'm familiar enough with it now, but I still seem to always make the same thing with it. It's a sesame kale recipe which basically involves boiling it and then frying it up with garlic, tamari and some toasted sesame seeds. It's really good. Sometimes it's even great. But it gets old. 

So what the hell do you do with kale? Does anyone have a really good recipe for kale chips? I tried those once this spring and was underwhelmed. 

And here are a few ideas of what you can do with turnips, submitted by the awesome readers of my adequate blog. 

Erin tried turnip fries, too, but hers were a success instead of a crushing failure like mine. She coated them in canola oil, topped with salt and pepper and roasted for 20 min in 450 degree oven. 

Sayward said, "I've only ever done turnips one way - the traditional Scottish 'bashed neeps and tatties', which is basically turnipy mashed potatoes. They were absolutely delicious served with a homemade vegan haggis and whiskey reduction gravy. I blogged about it here."

On Facebook, Bill said the only thing he's ever done with them was put them in a stew. 

Donna said that she throws them in stews and soups, too. She also eats them raw. Also, mashed with some Earth Balance. Oh, and the greens sautéed with lots of garlic. She says greens are the best part of the turnip. 

I have a horrible habit of  never getting around to using the greens on top of things like turnips. Note to self: change that bad habit.

Heidi suggested Irish Colcannon. 

And Kris said, "Roast them in olive oil with potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, garlic and rosemary for a rockin' root vegetable medley."

Thanks for the suggestions!

We did get turnips in our most recent box (still no radishes though), and tonight I made bashed neeps and tatties for two reasons, 1) It's easy and I already love mashed potatoes and 2) I really like saying (and writing), "bashed neeps and tatties." I didn't make Sayward's vegan haggis and gravy though. Maybe next time.

All right. Now kale. What the hell do you do with kale? 

What the Hell Do I Do With... Turnips? (And a lot of things to do with Radishes.)

So, Turnips...


Actually, first of all, I'm going to post everyone's ideas on what to do with Radishes from last week. Unfortunately, I ended up eating all of ours raw before getting the chance to try any of these out, and then we didn't get any in our most recent box. Hopefully we'll get some this week (if you were to tell myself 10 years ago that ten years in the future I would want to eat radishes, I would have called you a crazy liar).


Jacqueline did this: "Just very thinly slice them up, toss with a tad of olive oil, lay out a single layer on a baking sheet and bake them at 400 degrees for about 10-15 minutes, watching that they don't burn." I think this is the one I'm going to try first if we get more this week. I love chips of any sort and these sound really good. I'll probably end up adding a bit of salt. 


Achim had this recipe for radish soup: "Mainly the green leaves are used. Peel and dice 2 potatoes and 1/2 onion. Cook for some 20 min in 2 c vegetable broth. Chop radish greens, add it to the soup, blend it in a food processor or something, add 1/2 c soy milk and some salt (if necessary). Let some thin radish slices hover on the soup."


Lisa makes dressing, "with a couple radishes, some, olive oil, agave, garlic, and red pepper flakes whirred up in a blender. Spicy!"


Tara (or Nate?) at Vegan Piggy made a tabbouleh out of The Kind Diet and blogged about it here.


Hase likes them raw.


Mangocheeks (great name, by the way) also enjoys them raw, dipped in salt and chili powder. 


The Voracious Vegan likes them roasted, but also raw and in a salad. I like that idea. Salads don't usually do it for me, so then I have to smother them in dressing in order to get the level of flavor I like. But I could imagine radishes doing that trick, too. 


A couple friends on Facebook also said they love radishes roasted. 


And finally, my friend Heidi on Facebook said to, "Smear them with fresh butter and sprinkle with coarse salt." I'll opt for soy butter, of course, and it sounds delicious. 

Thanks for all the ideas!

And now on to turnips. 

Here's what I did with the turnips we got:

Don't those look delicious? Well, they weren't. They tasted way to turnipy. Yes, turnipy.

I used this recipe online and I don't know, maybe I didn't bake them long enough. They weren't crunchy at all and they didn't taste that great. 

So hit me with it. What the hell do you do with turnips? 

What The Hell Do I Do With... Radishes?

We got our first CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) delivery this week. In the box was:

Spinach

Radishes

Kohlrabi

Scallions

Baby Dinosaur Kale

Arugula

Head Lettuce

Broccoli

and an Herb pot

So I thought that each week I'd pick something from the CSA box and write about what I do with it, how it tastes, why it's good for you. You know, stuff like that. 

I'm going to call this project, "What The Hell Do I Do With..."

And this is going to be as much for me as it is for you, dear reader (can I call you "dear reader"?). This is the third (or is it fourth?) year we've done this CSA thing, and I still have no idea what to do with, for example, kohlrabi. Seriously.

So I'm going to say what I do with stuff, but then I want YOU to tell ME what YOU do with it. 

So first up: Radishes. 

Honestly, I just eat these raw. Wash them off. Scratch off any dirt that doesn't wash off (unless you like dirt, which hey, more power to you if you do). And then eat them raw with nothing on them (though I suppose a smidgen of salt might be nice). 

This is how my family ate radishes growing up. I don't remember them served any way other than a bunch of raw radishes, straight from the garden, washed and in a bowl on the table. 

I hated them. 

I hated most vegetables and fruits growing up. I don't know why, and I'm thankful that my children don't have the same aversion I did. Though if I could grow up passably healthy eating nothing but meat and grains, I'm sure my kids could grow up healthy eating nothing but beans and grains. And then in their twenties they'd start eating fruits and vegetables again once they they realized that they were missing out on a WHOLE WORLD OF FLAVOR (I'm in an all-caps (and parenthetical) mood. Sorry.).

So, radishes. They're high in vitamin C, folate and potassium. And they have this really great spice thing going on, sort of like wasabi (which makes sense, since they're both members of the Brassicaceae family, thankyouverymuch Wikipedia). It's the kind of spiciness that doesn't hurt your mouth, but sort of makes your nose tingle. 

I love them.

And while I'm sure that eating them raw is the best way to make use of their nutritional value, I wouldn't mind actually preparing radishes in some way that doesn't just involve running cold water over them. 

So please let me know what you do with them in the comments and I'll post some or all of the replies along with next week's installment of ... "What The Hell Do I Do With..."

Her Mother's Daughter (and other Slices)

We went to IKEA yesterday and Anna went to this little play land they have there. It's kids-only. We drop her off and she has up to an hour there and then we come and get her. It's pretty cool.

Anyway, there's this loft that they can climb up to and watch a big screen TV. After she played for a while, she took a break and went up to watch TV (I know all of this because she told me). Here's the conversation we had about it:

Anna: I went to watch TV and there was a girl and she said, "This show is not for you."

Me: So, did you say anything back to her?

Anna: Yes, I said, "This show is for me!"

Me: That's great! And did she say anything back to you?

Anna: Yes, she said, "No! This show is not for you."

Me: Oh. Well did you say anything back to her?

Anna: I said, "Yes! This show is for me."

Me: Did it keep going like that? Or did one of you stop talking?

Anna: I stopped talking.

Me: And you watched the TV?

Anna: Yes.

Me: Because it was for you.

Anna: Yes.

Then I told her to give me a high five and commended her for sticking up for herself. She's assertive like her mom.

This is the kind of confidence I don't remember having as a kid. If I was in that situation I would have said, "Oh. OK. I guess it's not for me," and walked away.

I was never able to separate the concept of confidence from cockiness. I always felt that people who were sure of themselves were also full of themselves. I know now that I was wrong.

And I don't doubt that people will be wrong about Anna too, if she keeps up with this confidence stuff. She'll be called bossy or pushy or stubborn, instead of assertive and ambitious and strong willed.

But screw those people. She's awesome and I'm going to keep giving her high fives.

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Before nap and night time, we talk about happy thoughts; things that Anna can think about as she's going to bed. Usually, it's something that she did that day, like going sledding or eating something she really liked. Stuff like that. We usually supply the happy thoughts, but lately she's been wanting to determine what they are, which actually makes a lot more sense.

Yesterday, one of her happy thoughts was flossing (which is something she just started to do).

Tonight, one of her happy thoughts was, "getting bigger and stronger."

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For supper tonight: Toasted Sesame Kale and Veganomicon's Blueberry Corn Pancakes, which are my new favorite pancake. So easy and so fucking good.

I don't swear a lot on this blog. Maybe you've noticed. But I just did there. That's how good the pancakes are. I'm not going to say it again. Once is enough. But really, they're that good. For an approximation of what they look like, check out the photos here (mine were bigger than these, because I like big pancakes).

Anyway, Anna and Liam both loved the kale and the pancakes (which, oddly enough, went together really good). It was Liam's first time eating kale and he didn't even flinch. He just starting eating it like it was something he'd always eaten. And then he asked for more. He's a good little eater.

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Do I brag about my kids too much?

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I was trying to explain the concept of glasses to Anna; how some people can't see that good and so they have to wear glasses. I could tell it was hard for her to understand so I took a couple photos to illustrate.

This first one is how it looks with my glasses on.


And this is what it looks like with my glasses off (and no, this isn't an exaggeration):



So now she probably still doesn't get it, but it might make a little more sense.

Random Photos

So I have photos. And I want to post them. So here you go.

We made cinnamon buns last weekend. We used this recipe at Vegan Yum Yum. We didn't use a big enough dish and didn't bake them long enough so the inside rolls were kind of gooey and not fully cooked (I think it's mostly because they didn't have enough room to expand, but then agian I'm sort of a bread novice), but the outsides pieces were pretty damn good. Definitely going to try it again with a bigger pan (or 2).

Here they are basking in the yellow glow of our stove light.






Liam's first birthday was in January. At first, we were going to have it at our house, but enough people RSVPd yes that we decided to move the party to a hotel near our house. All we had to do was rent a room for the night and they let us use the pool area the next day. There you go. A cheap pool-party birthday.


Liam wasn't actually too into the cake. He ate some, but like any food, he tired of it after a few bites and wanted something else (this is a blessing in disguise because it means he loves eating new foods).


Sledding in the back yard.


And I made a snow angel.


This was Anna's idea. I thought it looked cool.


She still loves her stuffed friends. George is laying on Rocky (the dog) who is laying on Buddy (the bear).


Anna's frosty window in the morning.




Jen and Liam.








Anna likes to help in the kitchen.


And I suppose the secret is out now. That's right. I'm pregnant.

OK. Not really. Seriously though, my gut is not usually that pronounced. But it is what it is. What can I say? I like food, beer and I don't regularly exercise. Sue me.

Actually, I sort of wear my weight with pride. I haven't lost a single pound since choosing veganism over seven years ago. That's not to say that you can't lose weight by going vegan, but ... well, look at me. I'm not exactly wasting away over here.

I'm still watching Ella on Friday's, much to my kids' delight. Liam has taken quite a shine to her. He even wants to hug her now when she comes over. It's awwwwwdorable.

No Mofo for this Mofo

Ah, VeganMofo, that glorious month where hundreds of bloggers sign up to post something vegan-food-related at least once every weekday during the month of October.

I did it last year. It was fun. I really wanted to do it again this year, but decided I didn't have the time (click here to see my Mofo posts from last year).

So I'm not doing it this year, but it's still on my mind. And to all you VeganMofoers out there, good on ya.

But I feel like joining in a bit on the fun, so here's a photo. Anna made some pickles with her mom and her mom's mom on Saturday.


Be sure to check out all the blogs participating in VeganMofo this year. It's staggering. I love that there is too much veganism out there on the web for one person to ever read in their lifetime. It gives me warm fuzzies inside.

Friday Liam #18

I had a little photo shoot with Liam in the backyard on Monday. Here are a couple.





That's our raspberry bush in the background. It's producing for the second time this summer. The first run gave us about five edible raspberries. This run, I'm hoping for hundreds. In fact, it looks so promising that I'm going to cover the plant with a sheet if there is threat of frost. Nothing I've ever considered doing has made me feel more like my father than that.

Honey, Honey.

I ran across an article today about why vegans don't eat honey.

It's one of those things that people are confused about, and I understand why. In fact, I know vegans who eat honey and I still consider them vegans. I'm not sure that eating honey disqualifies you from being considered vegan and I don't know if it's something to make a big deal about ... I don't know.

I ate honey until just a few years ago. I didn't make a point to buy it, but I didn't refrain from eating things that contained honey either. But if you ask me, I'll tell you I've been vegan for about seven years.

Maybe that's dishonest. I don't know. It's not like there's an application out there that you have to fill out to be a vegan. But at the same time, words matter and I think the word "vegan" should mean something specific, and not just whatever you want it to mean.

Food for thought, I guess.

Anyway, this site is what caused me to realize that honey wasn't vegan (yes, I realize that statement contradicts my previous statements ... like I said, it's confusing and I'm dishonest) and that I couldn't justify eating it anymore. It's an in depth look at honey "production" and the moral implications as it relates to veganism and animal rights. It was illuminating.

And once I read that page, it was easy to stop eating honey. Here's how I did it:

I stopped eating honey.

I know. Groundbreaking, right? The hardest part of any change is actually deciding to make that change. Once you summon the will to change and then commit to it, it's easy.

Going vegan is easy once you decide to go vegan. Give it a try if you haven't already. The animals, the Earth and your body will thank you. Well, none of them will literally express thanks to you. Animals don't speak the language of humans, and the Earth doesn't speak at all. I guess your body could thank you, but then you'd just be talking to yourself...

Anna Wednesday #14 (and some stuff about the MN State Fair)

Anna at the Minnesota State Fair last Friday:



That was her face for the entire ride. If you ask her, she'll tell you she had a lot of fun.

The MN State Fair is notorious for it's artery clogging food (as I'm sure most state fairs are). Cheese curds, corn-dogs, various things on sticks which are sometimes wrapped in fried pig flesh.

Blech.

So I always go with a sort of anti-fair attitude, but then once I get there I remember that it's about so much more than the food. It's about ... the animals that are destined for slaughter! Great!

But we avoid that stuff. We go for the rides, the people watching and the concerts (the Flaming Lips played there a few years ago and last year we saw Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings for free!). Oh, and they have a "green" building that showcases sustainable stuff. And a ton of Minnesotan art, most of which is really good and some of which is portraits made out of macaroni.

I'm not kidding.

Anyway, Mrs. Piggy found this awesome post about vegan food at the fair over at The Saucy Coconut, a local blog that I didn't know existed until a few days ago. We got some tamales and, yeah, they were awesome.

It's Called "Food"

This made me smile:

Kids' Day at the CSA

This last Saturday, a bunch of families descended upon a small farm near Osceola, MN to get dirt under their nails, bugs in their hair and food on their plates.

This is the third summer that we've had a share in Foxtail Farms CSA, but it's the first time we made it out there for the kids' day. I guess it took having photos of Anna picking vegetables for me to finally write something substantial about our CSA.

The first thing we saw when we pulled up were goats and kids feeding the goats. Anna said, "Look, they have doggies!" We corrected her before getting out of the car. (City dweller shame is an embarrassing burden to bear.)


Anna watched the kids feed the goats.


We didn't encourage her to feed them, but we also didn't discourage her. She decided on her own to stand back and just watch.

I honestly do not know why there are goats on this farm. For milk? As pets? There were also chickens, some cows and a bull. They all looked healthy and in good spirits. I decided to ignore the fact of their property status and that they might be used for food. Because it was kids day, and this farm is awesome and we were there to have fun, dammit.


For those of you unaware of the CSA movement, here's a blurb from the Foxtail website:

"CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Each spring, CSA members purchase a "share" of the farm's produce. Fresh vegetables are delivered weekly throughout the growing season, usually from mid-June through October. The farmer benefits by having an established market, while the members enjoy a wide variety of the freshest produce available all summer. In addition, by joining a CSA, members are supporting small scale, local, sustainable farming."

And we get wagon rides!




Here's Jen and Anna on the wagon. Where was Liam, you ask? I was wearing him. It made taking photos especially difficult, given his affinity for chewing on straps of any sort. Hell, for chewing on anything. He probably would have chowed down on the lens had I given him the chance.


Farmer Paul (if I remember correctly) drove us out to the fields. First stop: Potato Town.

The farmer stomped a pitch fork into the hard soil and loosened a clump of potatoes just enough for the kids to pull it out the rest of the way. Anna just sort of stood there and watched the older kids. It looked dirty to her. She's not a total clean freak, but she likes to be generally dirt-free. I instantly knew what was running through her head (because it was running through mine as well ... like father, like daughter, right?) so I told her to just dig right in. "It's OK," I said, "You'll get dirty. You're supposed to get dirty. The dirtier the better."


So she got dirty and picked a bunch of potatoes. It was work. She had to look under things and bend over and pull hard.

Next stop: Carrot Town. There was no hesitation this time. Anna dug right in. A lot of tops of carrots were snapped off, since the pitch fork couldn't be in all places at once. I wonder if we'll get the bottom halves in a future delivery...


Next stop: Bean Town.

On the way to Bean Town, I heard a couple tweens wondering what beans grew on. A bush? A tree? Yes, they eventually decided, beans grow on a tree. And this is what was great about the day. Kids learning where their food comes from. What it looks like before it's on their plate.

I almost cried while watching Anna's hands move through the beans. I saw grace and a fluidity of movement, I saw determination and a keen eye. I saw my daughter pick those beans with her own two hands.


I saw her face beam with well-deserved pride.


In the most recent newsletter that comes with the CSA box we get each Thursday, the writer (who is, I believe, one of the two owners of the farm) said, "...it is only through intense interactions with the physical world that food is generated for people to eat."

I wouldn't call what we did intense. It was an infinitesimal percentage of the work that goes on every day at that farm. But I could tell that Anna took pride in it and she considered it to be a certain level of work.

Later that day when I started to prepare supper, Anna was in the kitchen asking to help. That happens rarely, if ever. But here she was, asking to skin the potatoes; to cut the potaotes. And I let her. With my really sharp knife. How could I say no? She picked these potatoes. It only seemed natural that she wanted to also prepare them. (Note: I held the knife with her and was as safe as possible. Well, I let her try it on her own for one of the smaller potatoes.)

And then she ate the potatoes. And she ate the carrots raw. And she ate raw green beans, too.

[Side note: When we were in North Dakota a couple weeks ago we got to eat my mom's pickles. We came back to Saint Paul and I picked up some pickles at the store. I put a couple on Anna's plate and she looked at them and asked in a dissapointed tone, "are these from the store?"]

Foxtail has interns. They live at the farm and work for room and board. This guy is one of them, I'm pretty sure. He walked alongside the wagon, making sure kids weren't getting run over and whatnot. In the background is where our basil and cucumbers (among other things) grow. I kept referring to it as a grow house, which tells you that I've spent more time in my life watching "Weeds" than I have picking weeds.


On the wagon ride, a kid commented to her parents that the green houses reminded her of something out of a Mario game. I jokingly shushed her and the parents and I shared a knowing glance. Like I said ... shame of the City Dwellers.

After the wagon ride, we sat on the big lawn and ate potluck food, most of which was made from the veggies share-holders got from the very farm they were touring. Fresh food and smiles abounded.

Then I fell in love with a big old barn. Here are my adoring photos of it.






And to top it all off, Anna got to swing on the largest and highest swing she will probably ever swing on. She's still a little leery of "big kid" swings, so she didn't want to go super high. Next year...


And finally, our booty for the day. This is the kind of stuff we're going to get every week for the next month or so, but these tasted better. The vegetables of our labor.


This is "morganically grown" produce here. From the Foxtail website:

"'Certified Organic' is a useful term for food grown by farms thousands of miles away, but we are developing a relationship where the farmer and consumer know and depend on each other. Morganic is local, grown to organic standards, hours old fresh, and sold directly to the consumer. You can talk to the farmer and tour the farm. That is the only way to be sure of your food."

To find a CSA in your area, go here. I strongly suggest it. It's a hunk of money up front, but it pays off. You'll eat fresher, healthier and localer. Yep. Localer.