A Bridge to Port

I am so excited that the new pedestrian bridge between Port Dalhousie and Jaycee Park is now open! I went for my first walk on it the other morning and was just grinning the whole way across the bridge.

When I lived in Port Dalhousie, I found it so maddeningly car-centric. There are no stores in Port–I mean, there are gift shop-type stores, but nowhere to, say, buy bananas–so one must leave Port Dalhousie to get basic provisions and run errands. I found biking along the main roads in and out of Port to be rather treacherous. Walking along Lake Ontario and/or Martindale Pond was, of course, lovely but running a few errands on foot could take most of the day.

The addition of this bridge allows people to easily walk and cycle over to Ontario Street without having to negotiate car traffic and will make Port Dalhousie an infinitely more liveable and enjoyable community. Huge congrats to all who helped make it a reality!

A Night With Gene Baur

Last night Gene Baur, the co-founder of Farm Sanctuary, came to St. Catharines. He was here to give a talk at Brock University (thanks to Niagara Action for Animals, the Brock Animal Rights Club, the Critical Animal Studies program at Brock and several dedicated inviduals who helped make this a reality). Over 100 people came out to hear him talk – an amazing crowd! Gene Baur’s story is so inspiring! He has gone from selling veggie dogs at Grateful Dead concerts to being one of the most influential advocates for animals in our generation. He has helped bring the message of “compassion for all” and the importance of adopting a vegan lifestyle to countless people, and I’m so glad that he was able to bring these messages to Niagara this week.

One of the things that Gene Baur talked about last evening was the importance of community, of people coming together to voice their anger at the factory farm system, to learn together, to share good vegan food and to support one another in these journeys. This point really resonated with me — although I have “loved animals” all my life and was a vegetarian for many, many years, it wasn’t until I found the vegan/animal activist community here in Niagara that I took the plunge to a plant-based diet. Without a doubt I can contribute this to things like the Niagara Action for Animals potlucks, and meeting the dedicated activists in this region, many of whom I am proud to call friends and colleagues.

Prior to the talk at Brock, there was a private dinner in Gene Baur’s honor at Rise Above in downtown St. Catharines. In attendance were the organizers of the 2011 Niagara Walk for Farm Animals (including yours truly), the top 3 fund-raisers from the 2010 Niagara Walk for Farm Animals, and 4 lucky people who had their names drawn from all of those who had pre-registered for this year’s event. It was such a great group of people, and we all enjoyed the chance to chat with Gene Baur, such a kind and down-to-earth sort of guy. Oh, and the food!! We started with a delicious cucumber-based salad topped with summer fruit and nuts. From there we had an amazing gnocchi (probably one of my favourite things to eat in the whole world!) in a cashew cream sauce. Dessert was a cinnamon bun pudding with vanilla icing. (do I even need to say it was all vegan?!). Simply amazing!

A Garden Dinner

As any gardener knows, one of the best things about having a veggie plot is eating the harvest. This is the best time of year to be a gardener!!

Tonight we had bruschetta made with garden tomatoes, onions and basil. (and, some pretty exquisite olive oil brought directly from Rome, I might add…mmmm….) One of the tomatoes we used was a persimmon tomato, a heirloom variety we got from Tree & Twig this year (via Urban Roots, the newest, hippest garden shop in Niagara!).

For the second course, we tried pan-fried eggplant from Dreena Burton’s book, Vive le Vegan! Again, the eggplant came from the garden, and we topped it off using the the same recipe for raw marinara sauce that we made to go with the zucchini noodles a couple of weeks ago (tomatoes, basil, onion, oregano from the garden this time + more of that amazing olive oil).

Nacheez? Yes Please!

Ok, so you know when you go to, say, a hockey game and get nachos from the concession and they come in those weird little plastic trays with some sort of plastic-looking cheese sauce? Right. Well, there was some weird little part of my brain that always actually liked getting these as a kid. Go to an Oilers game, watch Jari Kurri and Wayne Gretzky put on a show, scarf down some nachos, cheer my little brains out. I guess it was the sort of bizarre not-at-all good for you treat that I only ever had at something like a hockey game so I associated it with special outings even if it was of suspect taste and nutritional value. (Hey, I was a kid – what did I care?!)

As an adult (with supposedly refined taste) and a vegan, these kinds of treats aren’t really on my radar anymore – until now! I’ve just discovered a vegan nacho “cheese” sauce called Nacheez that has all the good parts of my hockey game treat without any of the crap. In fact, this sauce is actually pretty darn good for you – dairy-free, low fat, low cal, a source of vitamin B6 and B12. Of course I just scooped some up with some tortilla chips, but it would be equally yummy on, say, a baked potato or broccoli. And, sure, many vegan cookbooks have “cheese” sauces (I’ve made many of them!), but there is something weirdly nostalgic about buying a jar of this stuff.

Now, if only the Oilers would get back to the way they were in the Kurri-Gretzky days…

A Shout Out to Viva Vegan!

As any vegan knows all too well, it can sometimes be challenging finding vegan products in the local grocery store. (Although this does seem to be getting a lot better in recent months as Daiya, Tofurky and other similar brands have made their way in to the mainstream grocery chains – yeah!) Shops like Viva Vegan in Montreal have stepped up to help fill this gap. Viva Vegan has a great selection of products (and seems to always be getting more in), and the staff are super helpful! This week I placed an order for some products and made arrangements for my parcel to be delivered on a specific day because of a somewhat zany schedule. Due to the perishable nature of some of the food products, I wasn’t too keen on leaving a parcel to linger around in the back of a post office somewhere! Anyhow, there was a slight mix-up in communication between myself and the store staff (and I do mean slight…really not a big deal at all!), and to make up for it Viva Vegan covered the cost of shipping for this parcel. Not at all necessary, but a kindly gesture that goes a long way towards the “warm fuzzies” one gets when shopping at a favoured store.

Zucchini “Noodles”

The DVD that came with Blitzen the Tenure Blender featured Ani Phyo demonstrating some recipes, including a raw vegan marinara served over zucchini “noodles.” I was utterly fascinated! I’d heard of making “noodles” with vegetables before (hi Marlie!), but hadn’t tried it. I immediately ordered myself a spiralizer and tonight I finally got around to trying it out. I don’t know why I waited this long. I guess I might have been a little unsure – do I peel the zucchini first (no)? Do I take the seeds out? (no) Is the spiralizer hard to use? (no) Will this recipe taste as good as it looks? (no, it tastes even better!!)

This was the perfect dinner for a hot summer evening! We gobbled it right up and I can’t wait to make some more! The best part is that the zucchini, tomatoes, and herbs were all fresh from our garden! Yum and yum!

Has The Whole World Gone Mad?

Famine relief delayed, mass murder in Norway, Canadian scientists ‘muzzled‘, a push to close public libraries, a grandmother jailed for having a jar of used motor oil in her trunk, a quiet acceptance that our lakes aren’t safe for swimming.

What the eff is going on in this world!?

Spicy Date

Since Blitzen the Tenure Blender has arrived in my life I’ve been going a little bonkers for the smoothies. They make the perfect meal on a hot day!! My current favourite (although this does switch on a nearly daily basis) is the “spicy date” smoothie.

-1 cup non-dairy milk
-3 dates, pitted
-1 frozen banana, peeled
-2 tablespoons raw oats
-1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
-1 teaspoon flax seed (I often use Udo’s Choice oil blend here instead)
-2 ice cubes

All the ingredients go in at once, Blizten mashes, blends, whirls and in less than a minute it is smoothie time!

Blitzen the Tenure Blender

I’ve wanted a Vitamix for quite some time now and when I got word that my application for Tenure & Promotion was approved Laurie bought me one as a “yay! You got tenure!” gift. Wowie wow on so many levels!

Blitzen the tenure blender arrived in my life 4 days ago and I’m already wondering how I ever lived without her. She is amazing!! I’ve been making all kinds of smoothies (green smoothies! smoothies with fresh Niagara cherries! pineapple smoothies!), and we’ve also whipped up a lovely robust salad dressing (with tahini, veggies, and other goodies in it) and a strawberry-lime sorbet. It is too warm to try making soups, but one of the things that fascinates me about the Vitamix is that you can throw in fresh veg, blend it up and have hot soup (yes, hot!!! right out of the blender!!) in minutes. I know I am dangerously close to sounding like an infomercial here, but I’m really excited about how this really opens up new possibilities for fresh, healthy vegan goodness.

strawberry-lime sorbet

green smoothie

Bunny Bowl

One day this spring I received a package in the mail. It wasn’t my birthday and I hadn’t ordered anything online recently so I was rather curious as I tore open the packaging. Inside I found the most adorable pottery dish – what I’m now affectionately referring to as my “bunny bowl.” I have no idea who sent this to me – there was no note with the package. I’ve asked around, posted on facebook and even resorted to emailing Dirty Girl Clayworks, the maker of my beautiful bunny bowl, and still don’t know who the kind and thoughtful soul who sent me this lovely gift is.

If the sender of this thoughtful gift happens to be reading this – thank you so much. I love it and use it all the time! I’m also now very inspired to send random surprise gifts to people.