Vegan MoFo 2014 – My Awesome Birthday Cake

As I mentioned in my introductory post, my 35th birthday was in August.  I’m sure most of you know what it’s like when it comes to birthdays and veganism – if you have a cake, you’ve probably made it yourself.  That’s what I’ve done almost every year I’ve been vegan (one year Mike helped).

But I decided 35 was a big enough year to warrant having someone else make my cake.  And since I was paying to have a cake made, I figured I might as well do it up big style instead of just getting a sheet cake.

As some of you know, I’m a huge nerd, and Star Trek: The Next Generation is one of my favourite shows of all time.  I’ve seen every episode and all the movies at least once and have the entire series on DVD (I had all the films but they were Region 1).  I’ve even read some of the books and follow several cast members on Twitter (which reminds me, I should be following LeVar Burton).  I have pajamas that look like a command uniform (specifically Captain – 4 pips) and a bat’leth letter opener.

I’ve been feeling especially geeky lately – maybe because of a renewed personal interest in general nerd things and specific Trek things, maybe because I discovered (new to me, not Columbused) or have been paying attention to more geek culture (e.g., The Mary Sue) – so I decided that I needed to have a geeky cake.

So I commissioned an Enterprise-D cake from Alicks Fraser of Licks Cake Design.  Check out how cool my cake was!

The saucer section and other parts were cake, but the warp nacelles were wood covered with sugar paste.  We had a lot of fun disassembling and eating the cake.  Any time someone would eat a bit of the black icing on the bottom, we’d say they were eating space!  Heh.

Everyone really liked it (even Zebby – he was all up in my biz every time I had a piece) and it looked really impressive.  If you’re in Edinburgh or nearby and need a vegan cake, you should speak to Alicks!

Vegan MoFo 2014 - Filthy Toxic Hot Chocolate

Last night, Mike wanted to make hot chocolate. I'm not the best at remembering ratios and stuff for how I like my hot chocolate, so I looked up some recipes to jog my memory. And boy howdy did I not like what I saw. Yes, there was a how to that took 10 steps even though it called for hot chocolate mix and a microwave. But then I saw a recipe that called for cashews (with an hour+ soaking time) and dates. And then I saw some of my most hated words - paleo, no refined sugar, clean eating.

Nope.  Nope nope nope.

Friends, these are not words and ingredients to be used in connection with hot chocolate.

Hot chocolate is a treat. It should have sugar. It should not have dates. And it sure as shit wasn't around in the palaeolithic era.

Instead of my righteous rant against food policing and woo peddling, I give you a recipe for hot chocolate rich in most of the things that are freaking people out right now (I don't have any MSG so couldn't include everything).

Filthy Toxic Hot Chocolate

Serves 2

Handful of chocolate chips

1 c soy creamer

1 c soy milk (more/less depending on how you like it)

1/4 c cocoa (I used Hershey's to make it extra dirty)

1/4 c sugar (more/less to taste - probably less for most people because I like mine super sweet)

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

Mini marshmallows

Place the chocolate chips and a couple tablespoons of the creamer in a small saucepan over medium-low heat and stir until melted. Slowly stir in the remaining creamer. In a separate small bowl, make a paste of the cocoa powder and sugar with some of the soy milk.  When it's as lumpless as possible, add it to the pan along with the rest of the milk. Add in the salt and heat to your desired temperature. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla.

Pour into two mugs and top with mini marshmallows.

I used the new Freedom micro mallows, which contain both carrageenan and hydrolysed soy protein! In case you're keeping track, that's non-organic processed soy, fat, sugar, salt, and carrageenan all in one delicious cup of hot chocolate. It was like drinking a melted candy bar.

Sorry about the terrible picture - it was late when I made it.

If you're even remotely familiar with me, you know that I'm all about comfort and convenience foods, so this ramping up of food shaming (which, let's be realistic, is mostly aimed at and hurts women, and disproportionately restricts non-animal foods) is really pissing me off.  Luckily I'm not the only one.  PPKer MissMuffcake's theme is about vegan finds at Target and was spurred by a series of posts about food shaming.  And really, the PPK is great for calling out food policing and woo.  Because veganism is about the animals, first and foremost, and restricting yourself until you have almost nothing to eat doesn't help the animals (especially when you decide that veganism is the problem and go back to eating them).

So, fuck food shaming.  Eat what you want and do the least harm possible.

Vegan MoFo - Me and Sammiches

I was gonna write about ice cream, pancakes for dinner, and things of that nature today, but a friend was in a pickle (pun intended) about sammiches, so I offered to help.

Ruth, who blogs at dorkymum, posted about Perfect Sandwiches (caution: not vegan!) a few months ago.  Today, a reader commented that she doesn't eat sandwiches because she's dairy-free and (presumably) can't find a dairy-free spread.  Rather than simply comment about dairy-free spreads, I offered to write up a little something for her to pass along.



I wrote a whole bunch of superfluous stuff, and then I wrote what follows, which frankly is enough on its own.  So let's just go with this - a few ideas for spreads and sandwiches that will get you back in the sammich-making game.  FYI - most of this is aimed at the UK reader (e.g., the bits about where to buy), but there are a couple of things that will be helpful to anyone. 

Margarine - Pure do a variety of non-dairy spreads, made from soya, olive oil, and sunflower oil.  These can be found at the vast majority of big box stores.  Some of the big boxes also carry Vitalite, which is my personal favourite.  It's more spreadable and just has a nicer flavour.  You might also be able to find Suma spreads at health food shops like Holland & Barrett, Real Foods (Edinburgh), Roots and Fruits (Glasgow), and Whole Foods (London). 

Mayo - Mayo shouldn't actually have any dairy in it - its creaminess comes from an emulsion of egg and oil.  Regardless, there are a few good vegan mayos.  You can get Tiger Tiger plain or garlic mayo at larger Sainsbury's stores.  There's another brand found at most big box stores whose name escapes me.  Some health food shops will also carry Plamil mayo, which comes in a variety of flavours (garlic, chili, tarragon and chive, etc.).  My current favourite, which I bought at Real Foods in Edinburgh but which should also be available in Brighton and probably London, is Infinity Foods' organic vegan smoked garlic mayo.  I want to eat it with everything!  OK, everything savoury.  It's much thicker than standard mayo, but it's crazy good. 

Mustard - I admit that I rarely eat mustard without something else, but it can be good on wholemeal bread encasing a plain old (homemade) seitan cutlet.  You can make them beefy or chickeny (or even hammy), but they'll all be good with a swirl of mustard.  In fact, mustard is pretty much the only thing Mike will eat on his sammiches. 

Dressings - Some salad dressings would make a great sandwich spread, especially if you can make them yourself and cut out some of the liquid to make them more spreadable.  For a few ideas, click on the look inside thing on the Amazon page for Appetite for Reduction by Isa Chandra Moskowitz.  The salad section usually comes up first, so you could try a few of those out before you buy the book (which I would recommend because it's amazing). 

Sandwich ideas - Check out the (small) selection of sandwiches in the PPK Recipe section.  This is another place where Amazon's look inside feature is helpful - you can preview The Best Veggie Burgers on the Planet by Joni Newman (FYI - if you log in, you can see more).  And if you can wait a while, Tamisin Noyes, author of American Vegan Kitchen (which, incidentally, has a section on sandwiches, though unfortunately has no look inside option) and Celine Stein (co-author of 500 Vegan Recipes and a couple others) are writing a cookbook all about sandwiches!  Tami has 43 sandwich-related posts on her blog!

I hope Ruth and her reader(s) find this helpful.  Or maybe you're new to veganism and didn't realise just how little you actually have to give up in the sammich department!  Either way, hopefully this wasn't just an exercise in remembering where I've bought or seen certain products.

What's your favourite sandwich or sandwich spread?

Vegan MoFo Survey 2010

I kinda forgot about this, and now I look at it and it's 10 pages long! OK, not really.

The weather right now is horrendous. I've heard lots of people say they've never seen it this bad (though I thought last winter was about the same, but, to be fair, that happened in December, not November). Anyway, I had to drop my boss's dinner jacket at the hire place (he couldn't get there safely, and I live nearby). I thought I'd get a taxi, but it turned out that I would've had to have booked it about 3 hours in advance, so I ended up walking. Then I got the bus to Real Foods and did a bit of grocery shopping. I then walked home when it was hailing. The point of this story is that I got home cold and tired and ended up making pasta for dinner (and enough for both of our lunches tomorrow). Therefore, I have no pictures and nothing particularly interesting to talk about, so I decided to do the epic survey. So here we go:

EPIC VEGAN MOFO SURVEY 2010

1) What's your favorite spice or spice blend?
Hands down, without a doubt, cinnamon for sweet and cumin for savoury.

2) You have £20 to spend on fresh groceries and produce for the whole week (with a fairly well stocked pantry of dry goods, legumes, grains, and spices). What do you buy?
Broccoli, cauliflower, organic Pink Lady apples, chard, kale, tofu, green beans, onions, garlic, carrots, potatoes, orange juice

3) What's your favorite way to make tofu?
I think I have to go with scramble. Nine times out of 10, my tofu will end up as a scramble. I love it.

4) Vegan guilty pleasure?
Co-op donuts, Plamil chocolate spread

5) If you could make anyone vegan, who would it be?
My best friend Eva, just because it would be awesome.

6) If you could only read one other vegan blog, what would it be?
Mo Betta Vegan, without a doubt.

7) Were you always interested in cooking, or did veganism change the way you saw and interacted with food?
I'm a Southern woman, and so was my grandmother (as I've mentioned), so I grew up cooking. My mom was never much of a cook - she dumped things out of a can or a box and heated them up - apart from her famous lasagna, and my dad didn't cook anything but chili (until recently). So I learned from my grandma (dad's mom) from a very early age. My mom started working nights when I was about 10, and that's when I started cooking for my family. But I really cooked the way my mom did unless I was baking. That's when I made things from scratch with recipes. I mastered my grandmother's fudge and cherry pie pregan.
But veganism has changed the way I interact with food, in that I now actually cook fresh veg and can't even think of an animal carcass as something I'd want to put in my mouth. I think it's made me a better cook.

8) Excluding analogues, what new things have you tried that you probably wouldn't have as an omni?
Fruits and vegetables. Seriously - I almost never ate fruit and veg as an omni, and now I feel weird not eating something green with every meal. I even drink green smoothies (when commercially available - my immersion blender isn't up to that task).

9) What is the one vegan staple that everyone seems to love, but you can't get behind?
The only things that come to mind are things like quinoa, cashews, dates, etc., not because I don't like them, but because I'm sensitive to severely allergic to all of them. My cheese analogue recipe selection is severely limited, lemme tell ya.

10) What was your first "wow, I'm such a stereotypical vegan" moment?
Not my first (I can't remember that), but I definitely had one two weeks ago when I busted out my stash of nooch at work in an emergency "what will I eat for lunch" moment.

11) First recipe you veganized?
Chocolate chip scones. I think it was originally a Tyler Florence / Food Network recipe. They were the thing I was known for in my circle (and I still have a friend who'll message me to say she misses my scones!). When I first went vegan, people fretted over never getting another one of my scones, so I had to veganize them straight away to prove that I (and they) wouldn't be deprived.

12) What would you like to veganize, but haven't yet?
My grandmother's fudge. Now that we have access to vegan marshmallows and condensed milk, fantasy is starting to look like reality.

13) Favorite kitchen utensil/appliance?
Cast iron pans, immersion blender, and chef's knife

14) Most disastrous kitchen failure?
I'll be honest, I don't have a lot of kitchen failures. There aren't a lot of flaming pans and "ohgodI'mgonnadie!" moments in my kitchen. I think the worst thing that tends to happen is that my muffins come out gummy. I could be repressing some memories, though.

15) First vegan cookbook?
I think the first one I owned (rather than borrowed) was, funnily enough, a book by a UK author from which I never cooked because it was before I lived in the UK, knew from cooking with weight rather than volume, or ate vegetables. It was Easy Vegan Cooking by Leah Leneman, who I later discovered was a lecturer at my uni (I think in sociology or history - I think her academic work had something to do with women's studies) in addition to being a vegan cookbook author. The first vegan cookbook I owned and actually cooked from was probably Vegan with a Vengeance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz.

16) What question about being vegan do you HATE answering?
Pretty much anything from Defensive Omnivore Bingo:

I just have to mention this, because it's hilarious. When I told my sister that I made gravy for Thanksgiving, she asked me what I substituted for the fat. I was like, um...fat. She thought gravy only worked with animal fat. At least now she knows - fat from oil works the same way.

17) If you could tell the world one thing about vegans, what would it be?
Vegan =/= healthy - just because my cupcakes are vegan doesn't mean you can eat four. They do still contain fat and sugar.

18) Funniest vegetable?
The peen carrot:


19) What is a family recipe you have veganized?
I don't know that I have. I want to veganize some of my grandmother's recipes, but I don't have copies of them yet.

20) Weirdest food combination?
chocolate and Marmite - It was the best truffle I've ever eaten in my life.

21) Is there something you wish you could veganize, but can't/couldn't?
As mentioned above, up until recently, I really wanted to veganize my grandmother's fudge recipe, but it's made with marshmallows. Now we have the technology, it might be possible.

22) Favorite ways to prepare tofu, seitan, tempeh, any other vegan proteins?
I don't do it often, but just about anything beer battered is freaking awesome.

23) Are your pets vegan? if so, what do you feed them?
My cat lives with my parents and isn't vegan. Mike and I have decided that, if we get a pet in future, we'll be getting a herbivore.

24) Favorite non-dairy milk?
Alpro Soya unsweetened with vitamins, or Kara coconut milk / Alpro Soya vanilla for coffee and tea

25) What’s one “vegan myth” you’d like to squash?
Vegans are a bunch of skinny, malnourished, smelly, dirty hippies. Have you seen the number of vegan cookbooks devoted to baked goods?! And the most readily available vegan products tend to be junk food (it's easier to find vegan junk food than pre-made vegan meals or even meat analogues). There's a reason why Isa's just released Appetite for Reduction - a diet-friendly vegan cookbook. There's just far too much delicious vegan food to be had (which is another myth I'd like debunked - vegan food is bland and unappealing). And even the vegans who don't shower daily tend to take pretty good care of their hygiene. Honestly, as many vegan celebrities as there are, you'd think people would realise that the stereotype no longer has a basis in reality.

So, that's that. It took longer than cooking and photographing a decent meal. Oh well. I really liked the survey Mo did, so I might double post tomorrow and do that one, along with something of actual interest (like food, with pictures).

Also, I've just ordered Appetite for Reduction and The Vegan Cookie Connoisseur by Kelly Peloza as part of my plan to buy things for myself from the US and have my sister send them to me as my Xmas present (i.e., my present from her is that she's sending me my stuff). I'm super excited to get them both. Hopefully the one will balance out the other. Heh.

Busy day of veganness

This will once again be short because I'm exhausted again, and I also forgot to take pictures (forgot my camera, then when Mike brought it to me, I forgot I had it!).

I had such a crazy busy day! I started out at the coffee morning. I was supposed to be on the tea/coffee stall, but since I was setting up the bake stall, I ended up staying there (which was fine by me). We sold quite a lot, and the people who bought my stuff in the 1.5 hours I was there seemed to really like it.

Then I met Mike at the Edinburgh Voice for Animals' Compassionate Living Fayre. It was quite a small venue, so it didn't take long to get around. But we managed to buy some mint chocolate truffles, several cupcakes and pieces of cake, and a Twilight bar. We had a few free things as well. And it was packed! I was so happy. We actually spoke to other vegans. It was really nice. And for anyone in the Dundee area, there's a couple who do vegan baking and are looking for a place to sell it. I'll update with the name when I can be bothered to get the card out of my wallet. One of the stalls had gingerbread cupcakes which I suspect were from VCTOTW, since they tasted like the ones described in there. They were gorgeous! Now I want to make that recipe (except put more frosting on mine). We also had some delicious mocha cupcakes and mint chocolate cupcakes (mine, i.e. the ones from VCTOTW, are better). The cake slice was a lush chocolate sponge with coffee buttercream filling - I definitely need to make something like that!

After that I went to a roller derby bout to shill more cakes. It was madness! There were so many people there that they were lined up out the door and around the corner (in the rain). And because everyone waited so long to get in, they bought up tons of baking, so we sold more than half of what we had before the bout even started. Before the end of halftime, we'd sold out, so we got to count up and watch the rest of the bout! The best part was that, at this one, there were loads of people who specifically asked for vegan stuff!

Apart from one weak thing that happened at the coffee morning, it was a good day for vegan food!

Gearing up for this year's MoFo and a challenge.

VeganMoFo is just around the corner. I know October seems a long way off, but it's really only 2 months away. Woah! It's a little scary. This year I have a job, so I don't know if I'll be able to keep up like I did last year, but I'll do my best. Hopefully we'll have some other challenges on the PPK like we did last year. I found that really helpful in giving me something to talk about.

So, here's the challenge part. This year is my 5th veganniversary. I went vegan sometime around June of 2005, but I backslid a bit when I moved to Scotland because I was still uneasy with my veganism (OK, I didn't like vegetables), and I didn't know where to buy the things I liked for a while. But I went back to veganism around October - which is the month of VeganMoFo! This year, I'd like to challenge 5 (or more!) of my non-vegan friends and family to try veganism for one week in October and keep me updated on how they do. It would be even more awesome if anyone could pledge to go vegan for the month!

Obviously, if anyone does take up the challenge, I can offer advice (where to shop, unintentionally vegan products, vegan on the cheap, etc.) and recipes as and when they're needed. And if bribery is more your style, I'll bake you some cookies at the end of the week! (Even if you're in the US, they should be OK to ship since it'll be cooler.) So why not help me celebrate the anniversary of one of the best decisions I've ever made and go vegan for a week in October!

MoFail - projects and stuff I never got around to

This here is another catch-up post. I will get in 31.

I had lots of plans for this MoFo, my first but the third for a lot of other participants. Unfortunately, I'm just lazy, and I couldn't be bothered to do most of what I planned. Here are the things I never got around to:

1) A master index of all my recipes - The idea was to put all of my recipes (from cookbooks, blogs, etc.) into a spreadsheet, listing them for every ingredient they contain, so that if I needed to use up my hoisin sauce, I could just search 'hoisin' in my spreadsheet and find every recipe that contained it. There were two reasons I wanted to do this - first, I have a lot of cookbooks and bookmarked recipes, and it would be great to see at a glance what my options are to use up the spinach that's about to go off. The other is that some of my cookbooks don't have the best index, so even though I'm sure an ingredient is mentioned, they might not be listed under that ingredient because it's not a main component. Maybe I'll get around to this if I don't get a contract around Xmas.

2) Clean out and inventory my cupboards - I probably really should do this, especially after the lost cinnamon incident (I swear I bought a package of cinnamon, but I couldn't find it). The thing is, I know most of what's in my cupboards, and more importantly, where to find it. I don't need to be able to see the labels on my herbs and spices to know that the turmeric is against the left side, third from the front, and the thyme is just behind the paprika. But having an idea of what else is in there (so I don't buy and open another bag of pasta before finishing the last) would probably be a good thing.

3) Using stuff I never use - I've got so much cooking equipment. Probably not as much as some people, but I still have a ton. And some of it I never use. I've had my food mill for about a year now, and I think I've used it once (maybe twice). I've used my crepe pan once. I have cookie cutters and a springform pan that are still in their wrapping. I should really make use of this stuff, especially since I paid for most of it.

4) Monday Movie Night - This happened once. To be fair, this was mostly down to my friends not being able to turn up (when it did happen, only one person turned up). I would've liked to have done this more often, because I really enjoy cooking for a lot of people, but nothing much I could've done about it.

5) Make sushi - I bought all the stuff for it. My tempeh might end up going off (again) if I don't get around to it. But I just haven't done it. It's a bit daunting, I guess, but even if it isn't perfect, at least I would have tried.

Of course, there's still later today and tomorrow, so I might be able to do at least one of these things. I might do the sushi. Or maybe I'll make use of my forest animal cookie cutters when I make Mike's shortbread cookies.

I'll leave you with a link to a blog post I really liked about how much being vegan doesn't suck. I have to get ready to go do my volunteer thing, so I might elaborate on this in another catch-up post, but I just wanted to share it.

Catch-up post to kill time - the UK Vegan 100

Just read this over on efcliz's blog, Cooking the Vegan Books, and decided that I'll give it a shot. There are surely loads of things I haven't tried, but I'll probably get a little closer than the US-based version that has things like 'a bagel from [some bakery in NYC]'. Anyway, here we go:

Your mission, should you choose to accept it:
1) Copy this list into your own blog, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Post a comment here once you’ve finished and link your post back to this one.
5) Pass it on!


Hampshire watercress
Haggis (I've actually had vegan and regular haggis. I love haggis!)
Montezumas chocolate (at least, I'm pretty sure)
Melting mozarella Cheezly
Tartex
Granose Mock Duck
Sosmix
Churros at Terre a Terre
Yorkshire pudding
Beans on toast (I need to have this more often)
Crumpets (with margarine, hummus, maple cream, golden syrup, White Bean Boursin from Ultimate Uncheese - they're the perfect conveyance for most toppings)
Mushy peas (unfortunately)
Aldi croissants (I didn't know you could get vegan croissants! Must go to Aldi.)
Bourbon biscuits
Holland and Barrett fruit flapjacks (no, only because I don't care for flapjacks)
Linda McCartney sausages and chips
Marmite on toast
Kent black cherries
Marmite breadsticks (not these, but I've had the Marmite rice cakes)
Beanfeast
Sunday roast at The George
Anything at Birmingham’s curry mile
Rhubarb crumble with Swedish Glace
Paskin’s full breakfast
Jersey Royal potatoes swimming in butter
Evesham asparagus
Potato farls
Bubble and Squeak
Sticky toffee pudding
Irn Bru
Bacon buttie with tomato sauce
Marigold bouillon powder
Booja Booja truffles
Scones and jam
Bird’s custard (I honestly can't remember)
Anything at Dandelion and Burdock
White chocolate
A bought pizza with cheese in the UK
Hot cross buns (bought them for Mike, but I didn't eat them - I'm not keen on raisins/sultanas)
Staffordshire oatcakes
Bread and butter pudding
Summer pudding
Pickled onions
Potato from the Baked Potato Shop in Edinburgh (Almost without fail with margarine, salt, and baked beans)
Wetherspoons curry
Irish stew with dumplings
Mashed carrot and swede
Pease pudding
Christmas pudding
Cranachan
Blue Sheese
Faggots
English muffins
Pringles
Scotch broth
Walker’s prawn cocktail crisps
Mildred’s mushroom and ale pie (on my honeymoon!)
Masala dosa
Realeat fishcakes
Worcestershire sauce
Mushroom ketchup
Pickled walnuts (I'm allergic to walnuts!)
Ribena
Anything at Vbites
Co-op donuts (far too often!)
Picalilli
Ryvita
Anything at Saf
Chip shop curry sauce and chips
Parmezano
Warehouse Café bangers and mash
Innocent Smoothie
Vimto
Eccles cake
Semolina pudding with jam
Linda McCartney country pie
Scallop (potato fritter)
Elderflower cordial (homemade, actually, though not by me)
Spotted dick
Victoria plum
Marigold braised tofu (This is great sauteed with avocado and made into a sammich.)
Clive’s pie
Wagamama Yasai Chilli Men
Sarsaparilla (nothing like root beer!)
Spring cabbage
Holland and Barrett Porkless Pie
Henderson’s relish
Scottish raspberries
Scouse
Colcannon
Fry’s Peppermint Cream
Hobnobs
Roast parsnips
Booja Booja ice cream (no, but only because it's cashew-based)
Champ
Pimms (most unfortunately)
Rice pudding
Nuttolene
Beef and Tomato Pot Noodle
Sesame Snaps

38 - not bad! There are a couple of things that are nut-based, so I can't try those. And then there are the regional things, like food at places in Brighton or London, etc., though I at least am privileged enough to have easy access to the Baked Potato Shop. (So good!) I had some of this stuff pregan, so that doesn't count (the non-vegan stuff, obviously). I think the Vegan 100 could be changed to fit any region (for instance, the original doesn't have anything about eating at, say, Spiral Diner, probably because it was written by someone from either Portland or NYC rather than someone from TX). Anyway, just a little time-waster to catch up on my posts. If I continue to post daily, and maybe do one or two more catch-ups, I'll have a post for every day of October!

Firsties, and what it's all about

This is my first post, obviously, so I thought I'd let you know what this blog will cover. To be honest, I started it because I wanted to participate in VeganMoFo, but it'll cover more than just that, since that'll just be the month of October.

I guess it's first and foremost about food, specifically vegan food, because I'm vegan, and I love food. In fact, I don't know any vegans who don't love food (despite what the haters might think). So it'll also be about veganism and being vegan in Edinburgh - where to eat, where to shop, etc. - and regular food stuff - fun kitchen toys, interesting ingredients, things like that.

There are a few things I feel are related to veganism, or at least my reasons for being vegan - animal rights, environmental and sustainability issues, human rights, and health. I'll probably touch on those things in one way or another. And I may or may not talk about things that are completely unrelated, like film and music, or the newest crappy sci-fi flick (my husband likes to drag me to those). Then again, I saw a vegan message in Transformers, so it might tie in.

Anyway, I hope anyone who stumbles upon my blog likes it.