Kindness Uplifts the World: Turtle

A few weeks ago, on the evening of December 14th, a call came in to the Animal Rescue League of Boston about a dog who'd been found lying in a wooded area Hyde Park, MA. She was covered in bites, scars, open and infected wounds, and was severely emaciated. She was also suffering from compression fractures - from repeated bite wounds - and there was evidence of partially healed fractures in addition.

Her name is Turtle and this is how she looked on that evening:


(Photo courtesy of Amelia Hughes)

She had lived her life as a 'bait dog' - an individual singled out usually because they are of gentle disposition and not suited for fighting. They then become the live practice animal for training fighting dogs. And when they are no longer useful in their role, they are usually killed or - as in Turtle's case - just dumped and left to die.

She was taken to Tufts Veterinary Hospital and is making an incredible recovery. But she's also accumulated quite a debt ($10,000 so far) and hence the reason for this post. I saw this video and wanted to share it with you: it's only 3.5 minutes in length and I imagine Turtle would really appreciate your attention for just that long...



Turtle's full story is available to read here on the Animal Rescue League of Boston's website. Hallmark Sotheby's International Realty is hosting a "spinning" fundraiser to help support Turtle next Saturday - January 16th - at Wellesley's Spynergy Spinning Studio. More information about it is available here. If you are in the Boston area, please do consider attending this great event - great for Turtle's health and great for yours! Or, if you are not in the Boston area, Merry Perry Design of Quincy has created this cute t-shirt:




(front view)




(back view)

The $15 cost per shirt will be donated toward her care and you can place an order - as I will - by emailing HelpTurtleDog at this address: helpturtledog@yahoo.com.

Donations can also be made through the ARL's secure site here.

Remember my earlier post about 'just one thing'? Well, here's an opportunity to do just one thing to help just one animal who really needs it. Turtle.

Thanks, friends.
:)

Vegan Mofo: The Highlight of the Year!

OK, so this is not strictly about food but it is about a food festival - the 14th Annual Boston Veg Food Festival, to be specific!

It's coming up at the end of this month and this year it's extended to 2 days! Saturday Oct 31st and Sunday November 1st will see me - and My Beloved - in Boston living the life. The vegan life! Because, although the organizers plump for the term 'vegetarian', the festival is vegan to the core. Dr Michael Greger will be there, as will Dr Caldwell Esselstyn and Lauren Ulm along with Zoe Weil, Emilie Hardman, stand-up comedians Myq Kaplan and Zach Sherwin, Stella Zhou and Dr Paulette Chandler.

Past favorites of mine have included Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, Sarah Kramer, T. Colin Campbell and Hannah Kaminsky, so you see it is a star-studded event!

Betweeen the munching and the sampling and the learning and the meeting of new folks...oh and the munching - did I mention that?????...it is going to be an awesome weekend so, if you are near Boston, why not drop in and say 'Hi!'? For the New England area, it is the vegan highlight of the year!

Stay well and stay vegan friends! :)

Is raw where it's at for you?

I'm a big fan of Happy Cow - no, not Happy Meat - Happy Cow, the online resource for locating vegetarian and vegan restaurants and stores worldwide. I have used it several times to find somewhere to eat and have resolved always to post reviews of culinary experiences to help build out their database.

So, with that in mind, I've just submitted my review of Grezzo, a raw vegan restaurant in Boston that I visited last weekend with My Beloved and our good friends C and D. This is what I had to say:

Last weekend, I visited Grezzo with friends from out of town. This was my intro to raw food and it was great in many ways. We mainly opted for the sampler menu - many courses, small portions - and were delighted by how much food apppeared. The quality seemed excellent (although, ofc ourse, I have nothing to guage it against!) and the staff were superbly knowledgable, friendly and helpful. The plates looked like mini works of art and often it seemed a shame to eat them.

On this occasion, the chef's taster menu included soups - Mushroom Tea, Thai Hot and Spicy Coconut - appetizers - Grezzo Sliders, Pickled Asparagus Salad, Gnocchi carbonara - salads, and entrees - Tomato Ravioli, Land and Sea, and Lobster Mushroom Fettucini.

The ravioli was nice but way too simple to be a good menu choice. The Land and Sea was a complex dish, artfully presented and delicious, and my husband - initially the most skeptical of our group - particularly liked his entree: the lobster mushroom fettucini which was finished with a saffron 'cream' sauce.

The desserts were wonderful and really, if we have the chance to go again, I think I'll be tempted to skip straight to them! I had the choc brownie sundae with home-made gelato and ultimately had to share with everyone - it was soooo good! The rest of the party opted for the Mexican Chocolate Torte which was good, but heavy on the hot pepper!

Of the experience in general, my husband made an intriguing observation: with raw food, there is little smell. Since smelling the food is part and parcel of enjoying its taste, I guess this was the only thing that counted against it. Of course that's not a critique of Grezzo as much as of the genre of food.

The venue itself is ridiculously small: 'cozy' is an desperate understatement. The few tables really are crowded together and the plush overstuffed dining chairs are a luxury the space cannot really afford.

Overall, it was an excellent intro to raw food and, if you are interesting in dipping your toes in that particular pond, Grezzo is a great place to do it!

Although we definitely all enjoyed the food, the chance to meet with our friends and spend a chunk of time catching up was certainly the best part! Given the circumstances, I think I would have enjoyed a veggie burger and fries on Boston Common just as much, as long as the company was the same! And I am relieved that I have not developed a sudden urge to 'go raw' in the same way as I was overcome with the need to go vegan almost a year ago. My Beloved, too, is breathing a hefty sign of relief, especially as we have just purchased that 'sales-tax free stove'.....

Raw food is fine - delicious, nutritious and all that jazz. Don't let anyone kid you that it's all grated carrots and sprouts - that is a tremendous dis-service to the whole ethic. But I do think that it's also somewhat contrived - 'ravioli' and 'fettucini' dishes without pasta? Hmmm...I know that raw foodists will disagree and that the same skeptical criticism is levelled against faux meats/meat analogs/mock meats/whatever you want to call them. And I eat those things happily, given the chance! But I remain unpersuaded by the whole raw deal. Perhaps it is because the basis of my veganism is ethical and springs from a horror of the atrocities committed against farmed animals and a refusal to partake in or support the industry. It does not spring from health concerns and so the additional nutrition benefits derived from raw veganism just don't cause too big a blip on my radar.

But if raw is where it's at for you, more power to you. And if so, visit Grezzo - the staff really is wonderful and you will be very well looked after.

Main thing is - whether cooked or uncooked - stay vegan, friends!

A Squandered Opportunity....

OK, so I fluffed it.

As readers of earlier posts will perhaps know, I was contacted by the Technology and Business Reporter, Curt Nickisch, of WBUR Boston's NPR station. He was preparing a short piece on the (then) upcoming sales tax holiday (last weekend) and had spotted my blog reference to the planned purchase of a new stove ('Rhubarb Rhubarb').

I was awash with excitement but in classic Amanda-style, I managed to allow my nerves to overwhelm me to the point that I utterly forgot the useful things I had lined up to say. Part of the problem was that he called me at work where the atmosphere is not exactly conducive to quiet chats recorded for the radio - what with the inane pager going off at all times. So conscious that this could occur at any moment, and painfully aware of my (wonderful) colleagues sitting having to listen to my every oven-related comment, I was stumped for what to say.

Yes, I had this marvelous opportunity to tell the dear gentleman all about how **since becoming vegan** I have a renewed interest in and passion for food and cooking. How crowding out (as Erik Marcus says) the animal bodies from my diet has allowed me to learn new techniques, develop new tastes and to savour new pleasures. How much of a shame it is that he lives in Boston because **Western Massachusetts** is where it's at for awesome vegan baking - especially once we get this dang stove hooked up!

But did I say that?
Any of it?

No.

But lesson learned. Having spent all evening rueing my missed opportunity I resolved to let it go. But next time - and there will be a next time - I will be more prepared, more empowered and I will speak my truth.

To hear what I did manage to blurt out, click here and follow the link....

http://www.wbur.org/news/2008/79433_20080815.asp

And, whether in Radioland or elsewhere, Stay Vegan, Friends!
:)

Veganize Boston

--given my thwarted attempts to locate a fine dining restaurant in which to entertain friends from out of town (California, in fact) who perhaps don't want yet another cheeseless pizza or burrito, veganizing Boston seems like a very good idea.

In the face of multiple attempts to find a suitable eaterie, even My Beloved threw up his hands and exclaimed "But where's the **regular** vegan food????"

As a pre-vegan, that says it all.

Go vegan, Boston!