Avocados do not have rectums....

....whaaaaa???

Yes, that was the Quote of the Day at yesterday's Boston Vegetarian Food Festival. My Beloved and I managed to get there right on time and boy was it ever worth getting up early on a Saturday morning! The day started with a talk by Sarah Kramer on travelling as a vegan and she is so entertaining - funny, erudite, snappy, with a terrific presence and a good heaping measure of plain old common sense. She is exactly the sort of person you wish was your next door neighbour, your BFF or your older sister.





No papparazzi, sweetie!!!



But no, the above quote is not attributable to Sarah!

Next up was a legend in the vegan community: T. Colin Campbell. I was so honored to hear him speak and he did not disappoint. The room was packed - and I mean that there were people ranged along all of the walls (several layers deep), others sitting on laps, the gangways were packed with those who chose the floor and still others were crushed in the doorways, just to catch a glimpse. Professor Campbell was the first speaker that day to receive a standing ovation, so that pretty much tells you how thrilled the audience was. His presentation focused largely on how The China Study came about, his work with malnourished children in the Philippines and was very by its nature fairly dense with medical and scientific data. My Beloved loved it and is now interested in reading The China Study, so I'll have to procure a copy for him......



But, no once more, the above quote is not attributable to him either!!

Following Professor Campbell's talk, we were hooked. We stayed for all of the others throughout the afternoon and were alternately charmed by Karen Dawn, greatly entertained and enlightened by Dr. Michael Greger and delighted in Hannah Kaminsky.






Apologies for the terrible pix, but I truly could not get closer. And besides which, I was just so thrilled to have the chance to listen to these folks, I kind of forgot about camera angles....

Karen Dawn is very Californian and incredibly media-savvy. She is a true professional and you can just feel the passion oozing out of her. Highly energized and energizing, it is a privilege to spend time with her. Michael Greger is one of life's born teachers: the kind of peson you dream of having as your professor at university, but sadly never do! He's incredibly well informed and 100% up to date on his material, has all of the facts at his fingertips, knows the research inside out and has the charisma of the showman. His presentation was very audience-focused, with a lot of very dense information imparted in thoroughly entertaining ways. I would drive a fair few hours to hear him speak again!

Sadly, I have no photos of Hannah. Her spot was right at the close of the festival but still the room was packed. She presents as someone who is perhaps somewhat under-confident, but I think that's completely due to her tender age. There is no doubt that she was intimidated by appearing before so many people but I sense that she will grow into the role nicely and prove to be a wonderfully engaging and attractive advocate for veganism. I am excited to see how life develops for her.....

OK, I have tons more to say but it is cold here in my study and I am longing to curl up under the duvet(s) and read through some of the literature I picked up at the festival. So, you'll have to wait for Part Deux tomorrow, when I will indeed reveal who said: 'Avocados do not have rectums!'

Until then, gentle readers, stay vegan. Friends!
:)

Public Service Announcement..well, not really.....

Oh yes, I meant to say...the countdown to the Boston Vegetarian Society Food Festival has started.



It is on Nov. 1st 2008 and is going to be brilliant!

Amongst others last year I met Colleen Patrick-Goudreau and Erin Williams, and I know that Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero were there too. Star-studded!!!!!!

This year I understand that celebs include - but are not limited to - Sarah Kramer, T. Colin Campbell and Hannah Kaminsky. Check it out here!

Also the food is outstanding, atmosphere uplifting and sense of celebration is palpable.

I cannot wait!

If you are in New England on Nov. 1st, attend the BVS FF...you're pretty much guaranteed a great time. Maybe I'll see you there?????

Stay Vegan, Friends!

Rhubarb Rhubarb.....

I have enjoyed the best weekend! Yesterday morning, My Beloved and I managed to rouse ourselves from bed early enough to get to the local farmers' market from which we succeeded in purchasing a whole host of lovelies. Among them was a bunch of fresh rhubarb. OK, so those who know me probably know that I am not exactly gifted in the 'what to do with rhubarb' department but, on this one occasion, I had the perfect recipe.

I recently came into possession of a copy of Sarah Kramer's 'How It All Vegan' and on page 127 I stumbed across a recipe for rhubarb bread which goes like this.

You will need:

2.5 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
0.5 tsp baking soda
0.5 tsp salt
1 tsp powdered ginger
egg replacer equal to one egg (I used 0.25 cup of silken tofu)
0.5 cup of sugar
0.5 cup canola oil
0.5 cup orange juice
1.5 cups fresh rhubarb, finely chopped

And here is how it all goes together:

~ Preheat oven to 350 (more on this later!) and lightly oil a loaf pan.
~ Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and ginger.
~ Stir in the egg replacer (in this case tofu, but I think applesauce would work really well too), sugar, oil and rhubarb. Mix until combined - note that the mix will be really thick and heavy and you'll be tempted to add more liquid, but you must resist! :)
~ Plop the mix into the oiled loaf pan and bake for approximately 40 minutes. I needed to leave mine in for an extra 10 mins, but that is due to the fact that my oven door doesn't close properly (again, more on that later!)
~ Cool at least 10 minutes before setting onto a wire rack for full cooling.

And this is what it looked like.....


The inspiration:



The raw materials:



....which became....



And yes, the mix does look thick and stodgy in the pan:



....but look what it turns into.....



The 'bread' itself is very moist and cakey with a dense crumb. It pairs very nicely with a cup of tea and I think it's one of the finest things I have yet done with rhubarb. I encourage you all to try it! Oh, and if you *do* try it and love it, buy the book!

Now, back to the issue of the oven. Here in Taxachusetts - er, sorry Massachusetts - we are gearing up for a once-per-year-mega-event: the 'sales tax holiday'. For just one short weekend, sales tax on items less than $2500 (I believe) is suspended, in order to bolster wilting mid-August sales. And so, My Beloved and I - having endured 6 years frustration with the 30-year old stove which came with the house - have decided to spring for a new oven. Hurrah! One that has more than one shelf inside and a door that closes properly will be a real blessing! Given that we don't exactly live on takeout but actually cook and/or bake every evening, it seems like we have done our time with the old Kenmore. Oh, the luxury of a door that closes - I can scarcely believe it!

Now, if we were planning on staying in this house, we would buy the 'range' that we so badly want....something with 2 ovens and 6 burners, from Viking perhaps? But as it is, we are hoping to trade up at some stage, so buying that sort of 'dream range' is out of range really. So we made a quick circuit of the big box stores and have decided - somewhat tentatively - upon this one:



I can barely wait!

Other news from this weekend related to jam thumbprint cookies. Yes, I can almost *hear* you wondering what could possibly be newsworthy about this, but here's the deal. My Beloved and I - having shopped til we dropped at the farmers' market - decided to indulge ourselves in a large cafe au lait (soy, in my case) in the sunshine in Pulaski Park. It was a wondererful sunny day and we stretched out on the grass and watched the world go by, as we sipped our coffees. My Beloved was feeling nibbly so bought a jam thumbprint cookie from the coffee shop but, since they had no vegan ones, I refrained. And oddly (I am known as a bit of a greedy guts, it has to be admitted) I felt no compunction whatsoever to even *try* this thing: it just was no longer food to me.

Fast forward to when it was time to bestir ourselves and get moving....My Beloved crumpled up the bag and declared that the cookie was overall 'a bit dry' and not as good as I make at home.
Now, given that my decision to go vegan was initially met with naked fear and desperate whimpering 'But, what am I going to eat????' on the part of My Beloved, this was validation in itself. In less than a year (my vegan-versary is Sept. 9th) my cooking has changed so much that he prefers my vegan baked goods to those of the non-vegan pros!

Nice.

So to celebrate I made him a batch of chocolate-rapsberry thumbprint cookies, as pictured here:



No chicken's eggs, no cow's milk...just delicious!

And now I'm off to nibble one so Stay Vegan, Friends!