vegan chai

the season of label-reading

i swear, shopping for clothes in winter is completely maddening. i've been out a couple of times over the weekend, and i can't tell you how many sweaters, scarves, jackets, and coats i've inspected. the majority of the time i can tell just by looking--and if that fails, by touching--but i was fooled (and/or cautiously optimistic) many, many times this weekend, and i was disappointed more times than not. there's wool all over the place, angora (which was sometimes just labeled as "rabbit hair"), alpaca, and cashmere aplenty. it drives me especially nutso when i see that the percentage is really quite low--it reminds me of the foods that "may contain less than 2% of _____." i mean, come on, if it's "may contain" and it's "less than 2%" are you really so sure you need to put it in there? sheesh.

but yeah, the number of times i picked something up just to find "10% rabbit hair" at the end of the list was more frequent than you might imagine. sigh. at least it helps me curb my spending! heh. then again, each time i found something that was vaygun i would practically do a little jig and feel like i should buy it. there are a ton of really cute scarves at the gap right now, for instance, and almost half of them are straight-up acrylic. are they thick and warm? no. are they gauzy and ruffly and pretty? you bet. i don't really need them, so they're all still there, but i would be lying if i told you i didn't stand there debating for 10 minutes the other night.

yesterday i went to a really cool art/craft show, and i was delighted to see an etsy seller that i'm familiar with selling her wares. i had no idea she was from anywhere near here, but i recognized her adorable wallets immediately. when i touched them, i wasn't 100% sure, so i asked if she used wool felt or acrylic felt. she told me they were a mixture of both. *single tear* oh wells.

thanksgiving, round 2

i went to my dad & stepmom's today for our second thanksgiving, and i ate a LOT of food. whee! at the kids' table, only one person ate the non-vegan food, which made me silently consider switching from adult/kid tables into veg/omni tables. anyhow, my husband (aka the chef of vegan stuffing) came down with a sudden and rather violent case of the flu late last night, so he stayed home and we veg*ns went without stuffing this year, but i was still able to gorge myself. i had a huge plate of sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, a chik patty (hee!), and really yummy vegan gravy. i also had corn and a roll with earth balance. and then a little while later i went back and had seconds of absolutely everything. heh.

for dessert there were several vegan options, including my cupcakes of course! my stepmom made a delicious dark chocolate pudding pie, and she also made some little cookies that are reminiscent of pecan fingers, but there were no nuts in them and instead they had chocolate chips. anyhow, options aplenty is what i'm saying.

i really truly wish i didn't have to see that poor dead bird today, but if i can blot that part out of my mind, it was a very yummy day. 

in other news, my parents have a gorgeous 7-point buck who visits their yard, and we got to see him twice today! he was eating some giant pumpkins and he was totally adorable. love!

vegan thanksgiving success!

we had our postponed thanksgiving today, and i think it went really well! my grandpa made several good-natured and harmless jokes about enjoying his "turkey dinner," and really that was that. we served lasagna and the pumpkin ziti from veganomicon, along with a salad and two kinds of yummy bread (one sourdough, one roasted garlic) with earth balance. everybody liked everything they tried (all of them had eaten our lasagna before, on several occasions), and no one made any veganism-related side comments. it made me soooo happy to be eating a totally vegan meal on thanksgiving, with my family. yay!

for dessert, the cupcakes were totally fine, even made in advance like that, so whew! everyone really liked the pumpkin chocolate chip with the new cinnamon buttercream frosting, so much so that i'm making another batch right now to take to my dad's for tomorrow's thanksgiving (my sister and her family will obviously be there and they love those cuppers). the chocolate went over well too, but that's more of a no-brainer.

i mentioned to my mom that if they would like, we could host thanksgiving again in the future, and we'd even be able to do more traditional thanksgiving food (except the turkey of course), so maybe i planted a seed there. also tonight, my sister (who hosts christmas eve) announced that she'd be serving (vegan) chili this year, and i'm psyched. 

a frosting experiment

so, i was planning to make the fluffy vegan buttercream frosting (from VCTOTW) for my chonklit cupcakes, but i remembered halfway through that the recipe makes a metric asston of frosting. i didn't want it to go bad, so i started thinking about using the first half to frost the chonklit cuppers, and then experiment a bit for the pumpkin chocolate chip. i always make those with the yummy cinnamon glaze, but i thought maybe i'd try adding cinnamon to the buttercream and frosting them instead of making the glaze this time.

so that's what i did!

i tried to frost the chocolate ones in that adorable chubby style, but it was my first attempt so they look more whimsical than professional. i didn't take pictures. hee. anyhow, once those were finished, i started adding cinnamon to the leftover buttercream, 1/4 tsp at a time. when i got to 3/4 tsp, i decided it was "enough" and i frosted the pumpkin chocolate chip cuppers with that, then sprinkled a tiny bit of cinnamon on top just for embellishment. i taste-tested one of them with my husband before continuing with the whole batch, and we like 'em!

so NOW i just have to hope that everything still tastes yummy tomorrow.

thanksgiving postponed

well, after a bunch of scrambling around this evening, we ended up moving thanksgiving to friday, in the hopes that my sister's family will all be able to join us, rather than staying at home. poor sickies. they're all vegetarian so they were just as excited as i am about the idea of a non-death thanksgiving, and we were happy to postpone for them. 

the "bad" news is that based on all of your friendly feedback, i had already baked "tomorrow's" desserts this morning, and now they have to sit around an extra day. i hope nothing scary will happen! i made cupcakes (one batch of pumpkin chocolate chip, one batch of chocolate) but i haven't made the frosting yet. i'll probably do that tomorrow night or friday morning, and hope for the best. in the meantime the unfrosted cuppers are in my cupcake carrier. 

baking for thanksgiving

so, we're hosting thanksgiving for an as-yet-undetermined amount of people on thursday. the guest list is a bit fluid because my sister's entire family of four has been struggling with the creeping crud and getting worse instead of better, so i'm not sure what their status will be. i'm guessing we'll have a total of 10 or 11 people, unless the four of them can't make it. anyhow, we still haven't settled on what we're serving... i think the masses are expecting lasagna, but then i opened my mouth about the pumpkin ziti in veganomicon (which i've never had but it sounds delicious), and now i'm not sure what my husband is thinking about doing. we could also do an "everything but the turkey" feast, but i started the lasagna rumor and now i think that's what everyone wants/expects. anyhow, that's dilemma number one. 

dilemma number two is what to serve for dessert. i'm not doing pumpkin pie, but i'd like to do pumpkin something. i could go with the tried-and-true pumpkin chocolate chip cupcakes from VCTOTW, or i could try the pumpkin crumb cake in veganomicon... anyone give that one a shot yet? and then, because it's my family, i feel like i should do a chocolate-something too. my mom and my uncle aren't super adventurous when it comes to non-chocolate desserts, so i like to have something on hand for the doubters. ooooh, there's also chai cake! that's always good. hmm. my other thing i need to decide is: what is or isn't okay to bake a day ahead? my husband asked if there was a way for me to get baking out of the way before thursday, and i ALWAYS bake the day of, so i don't know the rules. if what i'm making involves frosting, doesn't that have to be done closer to eating-time?

on saturday we go to our second thanksgiving (we do this every year), so i'll probably try to bring a dessert to that, too... and i would have to bake a day ahead for that as well. that crowd is super vegan-friendly and always makes bunches of stuff for me, but i like to bring dessert whenever i can. 

rough day at the humane society

...and i mean that in the best way possible. 

today when i walked into the kittycat area, i had the sensation that i imagine many girls have when they see babies--you know how some girls say stuff like, "oh my god, my ovaries are [fill in the blank] right now"? i think i have that, but for kitties. sometimes i see one and i just have a little pang of love. well, today that happened at least three times, and by the time i left for the day, i was imagining a household with five cats. that's not too many, right?

bachelor #1 has been in our guest lodging area for three weeks now, because he's receiving medical treatment. i believe it's just a stubborn cold. he appears to be (my best guess) a very handsome lilac-point balinese, which of course i was drawn to because he looks like our finley's cousin or something (for those of you who don't know, finley is a chocolate lynx-point balinese and we got him from the humane society when he was a tiny wee kitten, rescued off the street). he has a very sweet personality, and seems eager for attention and affection even when he's not feeling so hot. i love him, and every week when i come back and see that he's still there, i get a little excited daydreaming about taking him home.

bachelor #2 is a newbie, and he's a medium-hair orange tabby. he's aDORable. his fur is a lot like our finley's (which is to say, longish and silky, but not fluffy or thick or matting), and his personality is so sweet. every time i went to check on him today, he popped up with a cute little cricket chirp and came over to the kennel door for attention. when i opened the kennel door, each time, he would give me a head butt and then stand on his back legs, with his front paws on my chest or my shoulders, to give me a snuzzle. lovery. he seems youngish, not a kitten but i'm guessing not a year old yet. want.

i heard bachelor #3 before i saw him. i was doing my walk-through to find the cats with "i can be socialized!" tags, and suddenly i heard a total yowler. it sounded a little bit like when we put finley in his carrier (he is normally vocal but his voice is small and gravelly... until we put him in the carrier, at which point he sounds like he's been possessed by another cat who Definitely Means Business), which made me laugh. i started to look around for the culprit, and found a gorgeous seal-point siamese boy with the prettiest ice blue eyes. he was meowing like crazy and totally wanting attention, so i opened his door and petted him a whole bunch, and eventually picked him up. he's like a giant muscle; it was almost like picking up a boa constrictor with fur. super athletic, this one, but also a mushball because he would have let me hold him all day, i'm pretty sure.

so seriously, five cats sounds like just about the perfect amount, right? 

the pumpkin silk has landed

today i ran home between helping out my family and heading to school to work in order to snag myself a chai. i let my husband know that i was coming home "because i was thirsty." when i arrived he already had a chai waiting for me, as well as a full sigg bottle of water. so friendly, that one! anyhow, he asked me to taste the chai before i left, and when i did i learned that it was a snuggly autumn chai, made with pumpkin silk instead of the plain ol' regular we usually stock around here. yay! he finally found some at our co-op, which means it's now officially pumpkin chai season in our house.

vegan kibble for the doggies

for those of you with vegan pups, what kibble do you (or your dog) favor? we started out with natural balance, and then for a few tummy-related (poop-related, heh) reasons, we decided to switch. we tried both evolution and ami, and she really likes both, but we decided to stick with ami for awhile. anyone else? i know it's kind of crazy to get imported italian food, but we can get it pretty easily close by, so it's not as big of a deal. anyhow, i'm interested in hearing about people's experience with the various vegan kibbles, so please share if you have any input whatsoever!

back home again

well, we're back from our somewhat impromptu trip to chicago, and our bellies are full! we went to karyn's cooked for dinner last night, and we met our friend chris at the chicago diner again today for brunch (and yes, i batted my eyelashes and asked them to make me another pumpkin shake!). we had fun doing not much of anything, and now we're home with some happy happy kitties, an extremely worn out greyhound, and our own comfy bed. maia is totally whupped from 48 hours straight of doggy day care (i think she might sleep until monday!), and it's kind of cute. today is her 6-month anniversary of being adopted, and it's also my half-birthday. big day! heh.

venting for my own benefit

today i was walking out of a store on michigan avenue when i found myself squeezing past a woman in a full-length fur coat in the doorway. just as i passed her ears, i blurted out, "disgusting." it almost felt like i couldn't help myself. i honestly don't know if she heard me, and even if she did i don't know if she realized it was directed at her coat, but somehow i felt a little better. almost like i'd vented off some of my frustration-steam. i know, i'm kind of a jerk, but fur coats seriously make me angry. (i'd yammer on some more, but i'm posting from my iphone due to internet craziness, so i'll keep it brief.)

thank you, chicago diner

holy smokes, my belly is full. we had dinner at the chicago diner tonight and it was ah-MAY-zing. as per usual, i almost shut down reading the menu, because it's so exciting to have eleventy frillion options... but eventually i zeroed in on the sweet potato quesadilla, and it did not disappoint. black beans, spinach, mashed sweet potatoes, vegan cheese, guacamole, and salsa in a spinach tortilla. YUM. it was huge, and i could only eat three-quarters of it (my husband did his best with the other piece). my husband ordered the (vegan) roast beef & cheddar, along with a salad. and a side of mac & cheeze. i was really tempted to order the sweet potato fries as an appetizer, but i reeeeally wanted to save room for dessert, so i restrained myself.

for dessert, i was dying for a pumpkin shake, because i had one there last year and i haven't shut up about it since. apparently the seasonal shake right now is ginger molasses or something or other, but when i asked about the pumpkin, our darling server said he was pretty sure they had the pumpkin ice cream kicking around and they could whip one up for me. while he researched that option, i worked on picking out my second choice (a tossup between pumpkin cocoa mousse cake and a vanilla chai shake), but then he came back and gave me wonderful news: pumpkin shake ahoy!! after a year of extremely fond memories, i was thrilled to discover that it was every bit as delicious as i remembered. good lord, you guys, seriously.

now we're trying to decide if we should return for brunch (served daily, until 3.30pm!) tomorrow or the next day. mmmmmm, vegany goodness.

five years in the making

holy crap, you guys. i'm going into my fifth thanksgiving as a vegan, and (as i've whined about several times before) i was dreading going to family thanksgiving again, especially because on my mom's side it's always awkward and frustrating. but last night, due to a number of family circumstances, something crazy happened: i found myself in the position of offering to host an entirely vegan meal at our house. and they accepted! my husband is an awesome chef and generous person, and i'm totally psyched.

we're going to do thanksgiving, lasagna-style, and i'll be baking a couple of things for dessert... probably something pumpkin and something chocolate. i have to say, i'm a little surprised that everyone went for this option, but it's always nice to be pleasantly surprised. i am seriously so excited. 

from vegetarianism to veganism

today i was training a new dog-walker at the humane society, and in the course of our shift together, she asked me how i got started volunteering there myself. i was all, "blah blah loved dogs, couldn't have one, blah blah animals are cute, blah blah animal rights, right up my alley, blah blah." she took my mention of animal rights and ran with it, saying that she has been meat-free since may, then adding that she still eats fish (baby steps, i guess), and mentioning that it was spurred when her sister loaned her skinny bitch to read. after listening to her for awhile, i let on that i'm vegan (and had been vegetarian for many years before that), and she asked if it was really hard transitioning from vegetarianism to veganism. i find that people ask me that almost every single time. is that common? what do you say? 

i always say something like, "not nearly as hard as i'd made it out to be in my head," and then i can never decide if they'll think i'm lying, so then i blather on and on (and on) about how much of a dairy connoisseur i was, all my life, and yet it really was easier than i thought it was going to be. and then i wonder if my answer is tired and annoying. obviously my goal is to get them to reframe what they are presumably seeing as a Big Obstacle (or i assume they wouldn't all phrase the question that way), but every time, i wonder if they think i'm "just saying that," you know?

i stand corrected: toothpaste edition

many moons ago (well, i guess it was about eight moons, if we want to get all technical), i posted about my toothpaste flavor (tom's of maine cinnamint) getting discontinued, and i asked for recommendations. i also mentioned that JASON powersmile tasted like burning, and that i wouldn't be going down that road again. well, i've changed my mind.

for quite awhile (i'd say at least 4 tubes) we were using the JASON orange-cinnamon-mint nutrismile, and we liked it it, but lately i've realized that i just feel like it wasn't getting my teeth totally clean. the backs of my front teeth started to feel kind of grimy soon after brushing, which, gross. so, i decided to branch out and try a couple of different kinds again when i was out shopping. after learning in spring that JASON powersmile now has flavors other than "peppermint to the max!!" i was interested in trying the cinnamon mint, but unfortunately my co-op doesn't carry that variety, so i instead ended up browsing the nature's gate flavors. i settled on a tube of cool mint gel, which is a combination of peppermint and spearmint. i'm impatient, so i tried it pretty much the instant i got home, and i like it pretty well. my husband likes it too. it's quite minty, but in a good way.

a few days later, i happened to be in whole foods on an impromptu vegan-mentoring trip, and i found myself in front of their toothpaste display. they do carry the cinnamon mint powersmile, so i nabbed a tube while i was there. again, because i'm impatient, i tried it as soon as i got home, and i love it! love! it's very foamy and it has a really nice flavor. i'm so excited! i wish i had been so brave in march, but oh wells. right now we have three tubes of toothpaste going... we have about 15% of our nutrismile yet, which will be gone relatively soon, and then we'll work our way through the nature's gate, but i think we'll be sticking with the cinnamon mint powersmile for the long haul. yay!

of course this probably means they'll discontinue it next year. this is the way my life works.

the pumpkin gods are good to me

today my husband and i went to lunch with a friend, and i suggested a vegan-friendly diner-type place. they agreed, and i was all excited, and off we went. i ordered a big ol' chai to start, and debated back and forth between the ginormous breakfast burrito with hashbrowns vs. the humongous pancakes... the pancakes usually win, but today i chose the burrito. it was amazing! my husband had the vegan scramble and said it was also delicious. 

anyhow, because i'm me, i scoped the dessert menu before we sat down. it changes daily and they always have several vegan selections on the chalkboard. today, much to my delight, one of the vegan desserts was a pumpkin walnut cake. now, i am not normally very big on putting nuts in my dessert, but in this case i was willing to make an exception. the cake was a gorgeous layer cake with buttercream frosting, and there were a few walnuts in the cake as well as on the frosting--just the right touch of texture. it was awesome, and it made me so happy that i live in a very vegan-friendly area of town. 

i was full for the rest of the day. it's nearly 11pm and we're just now having a bit of dinner. 

covering my bases

this is the part in NaBloPoMo where i remember at the last second that i'm going out tonight, and then worry that i might miss my midnight deadline. so, with this horribly content-free cheating post, i am covering my bases. yay! 

but just so that i don't feel terribly guilty about how lame this post is... have i talked about the deluxe junior mints yet? i feel like i've known about them forever but i can't remember if i ever blogged about them. just in case: they're gigantic bonbon-looking things, and they're junior mints, and you can get them at, like, bizarre places like walgreens or gas stations. and unlike junior mints (regular version), they're vegan. if i come home later and realize i have already blogged about this, i will apologize and post again as my penance. 

blabbermouth

i never cease to amaze myself when it comes to talking to new vegans about what to buy. seriously, i'm a total motormouth. i went to dinner with a newly vegan new friend of mine, and we talked for four hours(!) and i think 75% of that was about vegan food and other products. i need to become a spokesperson for the Vegan Products of America or something. who do i talk to about that?

a frustrating afternoon

my  morning got off to a rough start, because i had to cut my workout short (no weights today, alas) in order to get home and make a meeting on time. i was bummed, but still glad that at least i made it to the gym for cardio, abs, and stretching. anyhow, around 1pm, my day went completely south. i arrived for the meeting only to find: (a) that the coffee shop was entirely full, with no available seating to speak of, and (b) i'd been stood up. i waited for awhile until i decided to play with my phone while i waited, upon which time i noticed that--horrors!--i had two missed calls and a voicemail from the person i was supposed to be meeting with. A Person Who Is Not Supposed To Have My Cell Number. like, i've known her for 27 months, and there is definitely a reason she didn't have it. boundary issues, is what i'm saying.

i start to panic, wondering how in hell she got my number, but figuring the jig is up so i may as well call her back anyway. so i do, and she's unable to make our meeting, which, fine, i rescheduled for tomorrow. during the course of the conversation she inadvertently gave up the colleague of mine who gave out my cell number (who is now on my people to kill list), so now i have to figure out how to have that conversation. ugh.

now that i had unexpected free time but a totally slammed coffee shop, i decided to walk two blocks away to another one, in an effort to get some work done (which had been my hope all along). unfortunately, after i sit down there, i learn that they totally don't have free wifi (are you KIDDING ME?), which annoys me to no end, and then after i make my peace with that, i realize that i left my headphones on the kitchen counter, even after specifically unplugging them from my iPod to bring along. seriously.

so, i decided that i would stay until: (a) my chai was finished, and (b) i had made it to a predetermined point in the review i'm writing, and then i'd go home. somewhere in there i started freezing to death, so thank god for arm warmers (stashed in my bag) and also thank god i had a scarf with me, and i kept plugging away at my review. eventually i was really close to my stopping point and really close to finishing my chai, and my bladder was about to explode, so i hustled to get finished and out of there. no sooner did i leave the coffee shop and set off down the block, when it started to rain. for real. rain.

and to top it all off, not that any of you want this imagery but i'm giving it to you anyway: after hustling home as quickly as possible in the rain with a bladder about to burst, i flew upstairs to go potty and then realized the TP roll was empty. i was all, "perfect!" aloud to the dog. she was all, "i know, mama, seriously." and then i was all, "go get me a new roll of TP, please."

at that point i just gave in, had a late lunch, and watched an episode of what not to wear. you knew that was coming, right?

more pumpkin muffins

today i made another batch of pumpkin muffins, because a friend of ours just moved a block away, and he invited us over to check out his new living room furniture. he told me that he was going to go out special to buy the purple (vegan) doritos, and i told him i was planning to bring him pumpkin muffins as a housewarming offering. he was very excited. so, about an hour before we were supposed to head over, i got to baking, and i used up the rest of the pumpkin from my earlier batch, and opened a new can to top it off, creating yet another container of "extra" pumpkin... so stay tuned for the inevitable third batch, ha ha.

anyhow, i made the muffins without incident, and then put them on the cooling rack (still in the pan) for about 5 minutes while i waited until i could pop them out. well, for the second time in as many batches, two things happened that i don't remember happening to me before: (a) the muffins crowned over the top of the pan, and (b) i lost a few tops as i was trying to remove them from the pan. i'm not sure what's up with that. this time, to prevent (b) i tried a new method of removing the muffins, which was to tip the pan upside-down over the cooling rack and try to tap them out. this worked, for the most part, but my aim was poor and i ended up over-shooting my goal with two of the muffins, which in turn hit the countertop hard, and lost their tops. whoops! i ate one, and saved the other for my husband. heh. my friend got the other ten, which seemed no worse for wear.

but here's my question: why are my tops separating from the bottoms? is it just that i'm not letting them cool enough before trying to pry them out of the pan? or is it the fact that they're crowning in the first place?or is it kind of a combination of both? once they're out of the pan safely and cooled properly, they're totally perfect, so i'm wondering if i'm just jumping the gun on removal. master bakers, help a sister out! i've got a third batch on deck!

what not to wear: the vaygun edition

sometime in the past few weeks, i became totally addicted to TLC's what not to wear. i'm not really sure how it happened. i was aware of the show before, and i think i'd seen a couple of episodes, but all of a sudden: boom! i'm recording every episode i can get my hands on, and i'm sitting on the couch watching them back to back to back to back to back. for weeks now! yesterday i watched five episodes in a row; it's craziness.

i honestly started to learn some stuff, and it made me want to go shopping. i always clean out my closet and my dresser twice per year (when switching to/from our summer/winter clothes), but this year i did it with renewed enthusiasm and a new set of criteria. i've bought a couple of new shirts that i wouldn't have necessarily considered before, and now they're my new favorites. i have kind of fallen in love with stacy and clinton. i'm daydreaming about whether or not my veganism could give me that "special something" that would make them pick me... you know, make me all awesome and fashionable without using leather, wool, angora, silk... it could be a good angle, don't you think? i've seen them do an episode on a woman who didn't wear leather, but she totally had cashmere all over her closet, so she doesn't count. 

i want to be on the show! 

possible cons: what if they didn't like my new shirts that i just bought? what if they wanted to force me to get rid of all of my AR t-shirts (and you know they would; they'd be all, um, you're 34, not 14, missy!)? what if nick did something inSANE to my hair because i already stole his thunder by getting a rather major haircut two weeks ago? 

but oh, the pros: carmindy would talk about vegan makeup and brushes on air! they'd send me to mooshoes! they'd consider me a challenge and work extra hard on my behalf! i'd get $5000 for a whole new wardrobe!

okay, i'm getting over-excited. i have like 234 episodes of WNTW waiting on my DVR for me; i'll just continue to live vicariously through all of those girlies.

time to adopt your turkey!

okay, everyone, it's that time of year again... time to choose a beautiful turkey friend to sponsor at farm sanctuary. hooray! this is my fourth year sponsoring a turkey, and this year i've chosen faye, at the california sanctuary. just look at her fuzzy little head! hee.

in semi-related news, i've now heard my mother tell the same story two days in a row about how there's just no way she can "handle dealing with a big dead bird" on thanksgiving. this is the second year that my grandma has been too ill to run thanksgiving herself, so last year my mom ran the show, but delegated the entire turkey detail to her uncle. this year, my great-uncle is also too ill, and won't be attending, so everything falls to my mom. she told me (and then the next day, my sister, in front of me) about how she doesn't mind taking care of the dinner but just "can't handle" the dead-bird aspect, as it looks too much like what it is. gee, what a novel concept. and then she said (both days, as i guess she finds it amusing and cute) that she doesn't mind eating all of the other stuff that "just looks like it was picked off of a bush in that styrofoam package," but that there's no way on earth she can do the turkey. to which i say, AMEN, but also, sigh, because my mom continually finds new ways to frustrate me. 

fairhaven crumblz or whatever they're called now

okay, y'all. i babbled about getting chocolate peanut butter crumblz from vegan essentials, and i was all excited in advance, and then i brought them home and didn't try them for two weeks(!).. what is wrong with me? i really have no idea. but i've tried them now, and they are beyond. seriously. as is becoming a theme with me, i'll say this: they taste a lot like [insert pregan junk food here; in this case, butterfingers], but more natural and less processed and overall more delicious. they are so, so good. basically it's like the inside of a butterfinger bar, with a small bit of chocolate drizzled over the top. YUM.

but! in an effort to give you a link to said crumblz, i (re-)learned that they are currently undergoing a name change. this was mentioned to me at the time of my purchase, but i had kind of forgotten. anyhow, according to the website, they have not only undergone a name change, but they are also now covered in chocolate. yay! i find this a very exciting development. yay yay yay! so, for those of you looking for them, the first link is how you might still find them, but the second link is the new look... not sure when those hit the street. good luck!

more about annie's bunnies!

yesterday when i raved about annie's bunny fruit snacks, i should have remembered to also say that i've just recently tried annie's bunny breakfast cereals. something about me and bunnies, i don't know. anyhow, i've tried the cinna bunnies, and now the fruity bunnies, and they're both really good! 

i got the cinna bunnies quite awhile ago, and i like them but i do wish they were a leeeetle bit cinnamon-i-er. heh. i saw the fruity bunnies for the first time a week or so ago, and i grabbed them as an impulse buy. i got around to trying them a couple of days ago and i love them! they're mildly fruity, kind of like fruit loops but less crispy and overly-sugary, if that makes sense? don't get me wrong, i love a good junk food cereal, but these are a really nice middle ground--they taste "fun" but they don't make you feel like you're being naughty by eating them. annie's bunnies for the win!

blog changes & gummy bunnies

i know i say this relatively frequently, but i changed the look of my blog again. i did it sort of on accident... i was dorking around looking at the new themes, and once instead of clicking "preview" i actually clicked "submit," but it turned out that i liked it so i just let it ride. heh. and then while i was at it, i changed from a two-column format to a three-column format, because i think my sidebar was getting a little unwieldy. and then while i was at it, i added a twitter feed to the sidebar, because i started using twitter the other day and i'm trying to decide if i like it. and i'm just so sure that you guys want to hear even more random minutiae of my day! but anyhow, things look relatively different on the main page, but it's all still mostly the same content.

so, here's a question: do any of you read the blog at the actual site, or do you read it from a blog reader of some sort? i use google reader so i read a lot of my posts there, although i click through to the original source relatively frequently, especially if i want to read comments or (of course) if i want to leave one. i'm just curious if i'm really the only person looking at this window dressing or not! 

in other news, i finally got around to trying my annie's organic bunny fruit snacks today, and they're super tasty. i tossed a little bag into my lunch when i left this morning, and i almost forgot about them. eventually i was digging in my lunch bag for some crackers and i came up with the bunnies, so i gave 'em a whirl. they are really, really good! if you like old-school gummy bears, these are pretty close. they're not dead-on, probably because they're organic and fancy and actually have juice in them (heh), but they're close enough to make me happy. i think i was expecting more of a swedish fish consistency, but they definitely lean toward gummy bears. i tried the berry patch flavor, but there's also a tropical assortment. i'm going to make sure i get a box for my 4-year-old niece, who loves fruit snacks but despairs that so many of them "have meat in them" (i.e., gelatin). i think she'll really like these.

comfort food and friends

tonight i went out with 11 other vegans (or vegans-in-training, heh) to a comfort-food diner-type place that is extremely sweet to the vayguns. in addition to the already vegan-friendly menu, they always have specials and/or fantastic desserts with a little V next to them, hooray! i was with a group of mostly college students, except for me and one or two others, and it was a fun time. we crammed ourselves into two giant booths and ordered delicious food and left completely stuffed. i had an open-faced meatloaf sandwich, which involved sourdough bread topped with vegan meatloaf topped with mashed potatoes topped with gravy. it was beyond ridiculous, and it's totally not the kind of food i usually order, but it sounded good so i went with it. amazing! i ate all but about 5 bites, which i brought home in a tiny box. heh.

and then, for dessert, i was really hoping for the double chocolate mint cupcakes, but there were only 3 left and there were 4 of us who wanted one, so i opted instead for the apple crumb pie. i brought home dinner for my husband (marinated tofu sandwich, plus another slice of pie), and once he was finished we decided we were both so full that we've put aside our pie until tomorrow. oh, delicious comfort food, how i love you so. plus, i finally started working out again this week, so i feel not-so-guilty about indulging at dinner. yay!

whew!

i'm really glad that's over with. also, yay!

nervous

i can't really think of anything to write about at the moment, so i'll just say that i keep alternating between cautiously optimistic and tOtally nervous about tomorrow. it's going to be a long day. we're going to vote in the late morning (you know, after the Normals go to work), and then we'll try to distract ourselves by going out for late breakfast or early lunch... or regular lunch, depending how long the voting line is, i suppose. and then: we wait. 

the vaute couture winners

okay, i feel like a supreme idiot right now. i'd bookmarked the finalists page (where we did the voting) and had been checking it several times a day ever since voting closed. as you may know, there was a message saying "winners announced soon!" and so i just kept checking back. i was totally impatient and excited and curious, and apparently all of that impeded my intelligence, because it didn't occur to me until tonight that maybe i should just go ahead and try the main page, DUH, which showed that there are indeed winners, and then led me on to leanne's blog. DOY. so guess what, the winners were announced on october 22, and i'm just a total moron-face. ha!

for those of you who were curious right along with me, check out her post to see the big winners! it sounds like the real coats are being drawn up now, and the pre-sale will begin on november 10th. so exciting!

the return of the boots dilemma: now with surprise ending!

so, if you've been reading my blog for a long time, you might recall that last fall/winter i was going crazy trying to find tall boots. i had a pair from payless that were serviceable, but i really didn't like them. so i ended up shopping around, spending umpty-bazillion hours on zappos, buying (and returning) stuff from mooshoes and zappos, and eventually just sighing really loudly and giving up.

well, now that it's fall and getting chilly, my thoughts have once again turned to boots. i currently have three pair: (a) the crappy tall ones from payless, still hanging on, (b) the short "jeans boots" from payless, also a few years old, and (c) the snazzy pointy impulse buy from last year, which i still adore beyond reason. i'm keeping the third pair for sure, but the other two really could do with replacements. so the other day, i swung through payless in hopes of finding some updated versions of what i currently have. unfortunately, there was absolutely nothing. meh. then yesterday i spent a really long time on zappos, poring over their boots looking for vegan pairs that i actually liked, and that was extremely irritating (and mostly fruitless). 

today i had to run some errands (including a trip to the mall), and i went to a shoe store i discovered nearby which is heavy on the trendy and also heavy on the pleather. they had lots of cute stuff, but the vast majority of it was stiletto heels and/or peep-toe pumps. cute and all, but not what i was looking for. the few pairs of boots they had were endowed with about 45-inch heels, so those were a no-go for me.

i was about to give up entirely again, but as i was headed to the mall, i remembered that kohl's actually has a pretty decent selection of non-leather shoes, and decided to try there while i was shopping. i did all of my other errands (exchanged a bathmat, bought some concealer and eyeshadow at bare escentuals, and got some new makeup brushes from origins and aveda, whee!) and was just about to leave the mall when i remembered i'd wanted to go to trader joe's. whoops! i turned around and walked back across the entire "village" and poked through TJ's a bit, then headed out for reals. i got in my car, left the parking garage, turned onto the street and THEN remembered (as i was looking at it) that i'd meant to go to kohl's. doy. i was a super-absentminded shopper today! i internally debated whether to just skip it, but in the end i pulled back into the parking lot and headed toward the shoes.

well, they were even more vegan-friendly than i'd remembered! they had tons and tons of stuff, so much that i had to keep reminding myself that i was looking for something Very Specific. heh. eventually i ended up near the boots, and i actually had options! a few had the dreaded calf problem (i still maintain that i must just be extremely muscular, because the alternative is too sad to think about, and i know full well how much i've NOT been working out lately, but let's just keep that between you and me, m'kay?), but there were several different pairs that zipped up fully and i actually didn't hate them. hooray! i also found a few different "jeans boots" (as i always call them) to try on, and lo and behold, i ended up walking out of there with three pairs of boots! my search is over! 

for the jeans boots, i actually did something that people will probably think is goofy, and i bought the same boots in two colors. i just figured, if i've been looking this long for boots that i like, and i find them out of the blue AND they're on sale AND in my size AND they come in both black and brown, i'd better go for it. right? so, i did. i got these, from aerosoles, and they're actually quite comfortable. they have a bit of squish in the insole, so it feels like it will be a kinder boot for a long day, if you know what i mean. i'm really sick of how my cheapo shoes and boots are rarely nice to my feet, so i was happy about that discovery. also, there was a little sign that said "available in wide!" and so i decided to try my regular size, but in a wide width, in case it felt more comfy. it felt great, so i got the wide versions. yay! these boots are pull-on, which i've never had before, but they go on and come off pretty easily, so i think i'm going to really like them!

for the tall boots, i ended up with these from mootsies tootsies. a lot of other people must have liked them, too, because there were only 4 pairs in the whole store, and thank goodness one of them was my size. following my new logic of boot-fit, i would have actually liked to try going up a half-size, but my usual size felt fine even after a loooong day of being on my feet, so i think they'll be just ducky. at only about 40 bucks a pop, i'm pretty excited about my boots-shopping day. here's hoping they hold up for awhile, and i don't have to play this game again for several more years.