Agave Nectar

Ok. I must live in a cave or something because it wasn't until recently that I was turned on to Agave Nectar. Have you tried it? It's just like honey only yummier and without all the guilt.

Food Fight carries it as did my local healthfood store. Agave Nectar is extracted from the inner core of a cactus-like plant.

Go get some and make yourself a peanut butter and Agave sandwich and then dry your tears... because yes. It's so good it will make you cry.

what a day

Such a beautiful warm day yesterday...Someone couldn't WAIT to get outside and run around. Hardly needed a jacket it was so warm.
I love this town...
Nuttin much has been happening since I got back from Toronto. That's not true. I lie. I've been cleaning like a mo-fo. Cleaned and re-organized the Bio-Hazard room at the shop. I've been making many trips to the dump dropping off shop garbage (how sexy) and cleaned the bathroom and organized the book shelves. Wow... what a life I lead. *laugh*

As a treat Gerry got me a gift certificate for a pedicure, so I'm off to pretend I'm a "lady who lunches" and get my feet all done up nice.

my niece and nephew

My niece and nephew are so freaking cute!I like to think they take after me a little...

Rut

I'm in a total food rut. Gerry and I can't stop making stir-fries. EVERY NIGHT this week...

Anyone else get into food ruts?

Dog day

So last summer? Or was it last last summer? Crap... the years all melt together the older I get. ANYWAY... some summer some time ago The Crystal Pool was about to close for repairs. The day before they closed they had "Dog day" and Danica and I took Fergus and Emily for a swim date.

Fergus loves to swim and Emily does not. *laugh* You can see Emily (fatty fat pug) shivering with fear on the far right... please ignore the loud woman in the video praising my dog. I don't know who she is... but she sure is annoying.

A man so nice... I married him twice!

10 years ago today Gerry and I secretly hopped on a plane to Vegas and eloped.
5 years later during The Las Vegas Scooter Rally we hopped on our scooters and did the deed again at a drive-thru wedding chapel. What have I learned after 10 years of marriage?
That dreams really do come true.

Estrella Soap

Jesse from Estrella Soap read my Jan 15th post about the German Apple Peeler and sent me something similar. Actually... the peeling apples part is the only thing similar. This contraption is so old-school and not beautiful in any way. *laugh* But it sure is cool. According to the side of the box, it can pare only, core only, pare and core only, core and slice only or pare, core and slice. Phew!

I immediately hooked it up and tried to peel an apple.
I ended up wrecking the apple. I haven't quite figured out how to adjust the peeling-arm yet. Any tips?
While you're mulling over my sad mutilated apple... why not head over to Estrella Soap and get something to wash your hands with. :)

Someone...

Someone got a new pillow today...

Veg Blog

La Dolce Vegan got a nice review over at Veg Blog.

My favourite quote from the review "She sort of reminds me of Aunt Martha in Sleepaway Camp, but in a good way."

For those of you who don't know the movie Sleepaway Camp... holy mother of Elvis. Rent it. It's a jem. Don't read anything about it or you'll ruin the ending.

In fact just thinking about it creeps me out... the final shot of the movie is amazing. AMAZING!!!

You can view the trailer HERE.
Nuff said.

School

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! I registered for school today... I'm taking some photography classes.

I'm so excited. I haven't gone to school since I graduated from Marvel Beauty School in 1987. *yikes*

You

You too can look as sexy as Char by visiting the GoVegan.net store and ordering yourself an apron.

My trip to Toronto - day five - part two

Later in the evening Sho, Mo and I went to Fressen for dinner. I've been dying to go there for years, but for various reasons it's never worked out.I did have a book party there back in Sept, but we didn't eat anything off the menu.

Everyone kept telling me it was so expensive, but the entrees were all $15 and for a fancy meal like we had... that seemed pretty reasonable. The presentation and menu reminded me of when we went to Candle 79 in NYC.

I had the Grilled Portabelo Mushroom. Marinated and char-broiled mushroom steak served in a lemony pesto, aside grilled potatoes, seared greens and assorted vegetables. I had a slight allergic reaction to the food I was eating... I felt it as soon as I started eating it and it wasn't until later when I read the menu on-line that I realized there was lemon in the sauce. I'm sensitive to citrus. :( Sho had the Grilled Gluten Roast. House made thyme/miso gluten roast in a shiitake, green peppercorn, and red wine reduction. Served with roasted potatoes and assorted vegetables. I can't remember what Maury had (photo didn't turn out) but it was some kind of yummy pasta.

Dessert was a trip and Sho and Mo dug into it and said it was great. I don't do chocolate... but I had some mango. Yum. :) Then we went home and looked at the rough cut of the documentry Teresa Alfeld is working on about me... Then we went to bed.

In the morning I said my good-byes and headed to the airport... as you may have read in my earlier post I ended up hanging out in the Edmonton airport for an extra two hours. Sigh. Travelling is so exhausting.

So that was my trip...a good time was had by all. Especially me. : )

My trip to Toronto - day five - part one

Last day in town?? Already? Yikes.
Sho, Mo and I woke up early and picked up the rest of The Monkey Bunch to drive to Bruce's Mill Conservation Area for the Sugar Bush Maple Festival where they were performing all week for the kids.

They played 3 sets that day and again... I got weepy. The Monkey Bunch is everything a kids group should be. Fun. Funny. Smart. Thoughtful. Entertaining for kids AND adults. I couldn't be prouder of them and the band.

If you have ANY kids in your life. Sons, daughters, neice, nephew, god kids... even just a kid down the street that you think might need a bit of music in his life... GET THIS CD!! You can purchase it HERE. Do it.... do it now! :) The cd has been selling so well that they re-pressed it and it now has 2 new songs. One with Jann Arden and my new favourite song "Sweep The Floor" with Ron Sexsmith.

Thanks to The Monkey Bunch, I'm get to share this MP3 with you today. You can download it HERE (right click and save to desktop) ... but only if you promise to buy the cd after you listen to it.

I also uploaded a few videos of them performing.



I shot them with my digital camera, it's not the entire song... but you get an idea of how fantastic they are.

More about today... tomorrow. :)

Show Photos

Went to a show last night...Posted my band shots HERE. Enjoy. :)

My trip to Toronto - day four

Didn't do much during the day, I was pretty exhausted from all my visiting plus the 3 hour time change was starting to kill me. Sho and Mo left early for a Monkey Bunch gig and I slept in and then wandered up and down Queen St and did some window shopping. I hit Fresh again for lunch (they must think I'm a food stalker) and got some take-out food.

Came home. Ate. Watched a little Dr.Phil and then caught a cab to The ROM to meet Emily's Dad for a ride to McMaster for the film festival. That's Emily with the red dreads and her Dad is the one with the moustache. :) You may notice my new haircut... doesn't it look fetching? I'm also wearing my Herbivore Artist Series cardigan.

The film we watched was A Cow at My Table, which I've seen before and is tough to watch. I actually ended up not watching it, but sat with my eyes closed and just listened like it was a radio program. It was too graphic for this delicate flower... I ended up in tears just from the sounds. Ugh.
The panel was great and we had a really healthy exciting discussion about the film and all things animal rights. After the movie I got to meet some really nice fans of the cookbooks. We hugged. We laughed.

I didn't get home till about 11:30pm and found Shoshana in the kitchen making food for lunch the next day. She was working on a potato salad and it was AMAZING! She threw in yellow peppers, green olives and pickles. mmmmmmm. To die for.

I made sandwiches and we talked and talked and talked until Maury came home from a session working with K-OS.

I think we ended up going to bed around 2:30am. Yikes.

Got this e-mail today and my heart stopped... I thought at first it was hate mail.

Hi,
I made the Amazing Grace Pasta salad and I will never make it again!!

I ALMOST ATE THE WHOLE BOWL !! No joking.........wow that stuff is good. Especially with Vegannaise - have you tried that product? Thanks for another great recipe .........I can't wait for the next potluck to bring it!!

Very cute e-mail. *laugh*
Amazing Grace Pasta is in The Garden of Vegan (page 96).
xoxo
SARAH

My trip to Toronto - day three

What a fun filled day. I woke up and walked down to Fresh for brunch to meet a few of the peeps from the GoVegan.net forum. We ate and ate and ate some more... From left to right we have Fleur, Jenn, Phishielisa, Paulr, Dreamqueen, Carrie (aka Donkry101), some girl named Sarah and Toxicgirl.Again I forgot to take photos of all the food (what a bad blogger I am) but I had oatmeal that consisted of oats, quinoa and barley with apricots, walnuts, bananas, kiwi and soy yogurt. I WAS SO STUFFED that I didn't even have dessert. Fresh has amazing "cheese" cake.Don't mess with a Carrie's cheesecake or you'll get cut. :) Carrie and Paul made Fan Club cards. Too cute for words. They also made T-shirts with me on the front. What a trip. Those guys make me smile. :)Then I ran home to meet with Shoshana. We ran a few errands and then went to Dawn's house to get my haircut. As a woman with very thick Jewish ethnic hair it is really tough to get a good haircut that doesn't leave me looking like bozo the clown. Dawn did SUCH a good job on my hair... best haircut I've ever had. EVER! Now what am I going to do now? Fly to Toronto every 6 months for a trim? *laugh*There was a lot of hair on the floor... yet my hair is still long? How does she do it?? Photos of new haircut tomorrow.

Sho and I grabbed some Veggie Sushi and grabbed a cab to Hart House to watch Maury and Graham perform. They're in a band called The Supers and they played a few of their pop songs with a symphony. It was really cool. The hall looked like the dining hall in Harry Potter, it was GIANT and even had candles floating from the ceiling. The music was amazing in that room...and again I got teary watching my friends play. So talented.

My trip to Toronto - day one and two

I arrived in Toronto around 8:30pm and Sho and Mo took me to Fresh for dinner. We were soooo hungry that I forgot to take any photos of the food. *laugh* It was yummy as usual. Fresh is a nice place to eat. I am always happy with the food and there is nothing I love more then sitting across the table from 2 of my favourite people in the world. We had a good time. The next day my good friend Jen came into town from Kingston and we went to Kengsington Market and hung out with Jen's sister Gillian. Jen's kids Kiran and Gavin were in fine form as usual...
We grabbed some lunch from Herbivore which is Fressen's sister cafe. I had a $7 sandwich. It was ok... for the amount of stuff that was in it you would think it would have been tasty. Instead it was just ... kinda ok...We also stopped in at Left Feet so I could try on shoes and say hello to Steve. I didn't end up getting any shoes (boo hoo) but I got a giant bear hug from Steve and I don't think I'll need to see a chiropractor any time soon.

Gillian dropped us off at the ROM and the kids showed me their favourite stuff. Gavin loves the Bat Cave. Kiran loves the Mummy. While I was looking at the mummy a woman walked up to me and asked me if I wrote books. I said yes and she went on and on about how she loved the books. It was pretty great, I felt like a rock star. :)I liked all the Buddhas.

Later that night Sho and I went to Hugh's Room to see Maury play with Lori Cullen. He plays bass and is amazing and it was my first time seeing Lori perform. What a voice she has... but I think Mo stole the show when he performed "Jack you're dead". I had tears in my eyes watching him play... he's so talented.

Stay tuned for day 3 of my trip...

People are gossiping about me...

AHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!
I love it.

On Sunday afternoon, celebrity vegan cookbook author Sarah Kramer was sighted brunching at Fresh on Crawford, apparently in town for some vegan shoe shopping at Left Feet.

SOURCE

So much...

So much for my theory that West Jet never has delays... here I am sitting in the Edmonton airport delayed for 2 hours. Le sigh. I just wanna go home.

Well thank ELVIS for Wi-Fi or I'd be crying in my bag of chips. That's right... there is NOTHING for me to eat in this airport except "lightly salted" potato chips. Ummmmm who wants light salt? That's bullshit. Give me salt or give me death!! Luckily I have some leftover lunch from the Toronto to Edmonton flight because I fell asleep.

ASLEEP!! Yes. Asleep. I never sleep on planes because I'm too busy flying them with my mind. *laugh* I have NEVER slept on a plane... it freaks me out too much. Somehow (I must have been really tired) I was lulled asleep by the soft soothing tone of Oprah's voice on the airplane television.

I'm burnt out and really ready to go home. This trip to TO was soooooooo much fun but I don't think I got to bed before 2am every night. My trip was full of fun, food and so much laughter that I think I may have wet myself.

I'll update you with photos and all that fun stuff when I get home and after I take a long bath. I smell like travelling. I think I've washed my hands 4000 times in the last hour. Airports are dirty... I think I'm morphing into Howard Hughes. Next thing you know I'll be walking around with kleenex boxes on my feet with bottles of piss collected in the corner of the room.

Ok. I'm out. I'm off to surf the net and look at all the blogs I haven't looked at all week. I have NO idea what's going on out there in the world of gossip.

On the road again...

On the flight to Calgary:
Well yesterday had it all. We woke up to sunshine and by the time we got dressed, had breakfast and got dressed it was hailing. HAILING! Then the hail turned to snow and for the first time all winter Victoria was dusted with a nice light coat of snow. Gerry and I decided to go for a walk and we get 2 blocks from our house and it starts pouring. *laugh* Torrential downpour soaked us to the bone and the poor dog was shivering so badly by the time we got home that I felt guilty about taking him outside for a walk.

Dried him off, hopped into our pajamas to watch a rented movie (what else do you do on a rainy day off from work?). Our movie was interrupted by sunshine streaming into our living room ... what?... and by the time we got up to close the blinds it was pouring again. *laugh* Gerry and I took Fergus for another walk just before bedtime and large puffy snow flakes fell around us as we walked around our neighborhood. Then by the time we turned around to come home it was raining and the snow was gone. Wow.... what a day. You gotta love Victoria weather in March.

Woke up at the crack of dawn this morning (7:30am) to catch my flight to Toronto. For the first time ever ... my West Jet flight was delayed. My flights are ALWAYS delayed when I fly Air Canada and that’s why I never fly them, if I’m given the chance. My flight was only 45 minutes late, so I shouldn’t complain. These poor kids beside me (Who were flying Air Canada) had already been sitting in the airport for 5 hours waiting for their plane to be fixed.

So here I am in the air flying over the Rockies... listening to Check Your Head and eating my yummy Faux Ham and Cheezee sandwiches I made for the flight. Yippee!

On the flight to Toronto:
West Jet is so good to it’s customers... they HELD my flight (do you hear that Air Canada pffft) for me and here I am now in the air on my way to the T dot O. *woot* I ran from one gate to the other. Thanks Calgary... it’s been sweet. All 4 minutes I spent on the ground (Hi Meagan.). So I’m reading the latest Veg News (sex and romance issue) on the flight and who do I see but Erika from Moo Shoes and her husband Justin in the wedding issue. Congratulations you guys... Erika you look sooo lovely and beautiful. And Justin... you know you’re fine. Quit front-in!! Mazel Tov.

I brought the entire season of Undeclared on DVD to watch during the flight, but my plane has satellite television so I’m gonna watch Oprah and finish off the rest of my sandwiches (I brought 3). Yippee!

I don’t know if it’s the sandwiches or the airplane but flying sure does make me farty... I feel sorry for the guy next to me. *laugh*
Later Peeps.

Sumo...

This is the last of the photos from the vault. Memory lane is now closed for repairs. :)
This photo is from my birthday about 3 years ago? Maybe 4. I can't remember... But I do remember kicking Gerry's butt. Best...birthday... ever!And look! My sumo suit even has nipples. :)

I'm off to Toronto tomorrow for the film festival. I hope to see some of you there... I'll try my best to update the blog while I'm away so stay tuned for updates.

Vegan Radio

I'm on Vegan radio again!! It's a longer version of the interview from a few weeks ago. You can download it here... My interview is about 49 minutes in. :)

La Dolce Vegan

Here's my kitchen table full of goodies for the LDV shoot. Sadly this cake got cut off when the shot was cropped... man... it sure was pretty. I was the food stylist on this shoot and I should have moved it over to where the mixing bowl was instead. It was difficult to be IN the photo and figure out the food placement all at the same time. Oh well...live and learn. But despite the cut off cake.. I freakin LOVE the photo for LDV. So here's a few cover mock-ups with some of the outtakes from the shoot. You can see I used the HIAV cover and photoshopped the photos in to see how it looked.

I always wanted the sea-foam green for the cover, but with HIAV and GOV we ended up going with other colors... so in retrospect I'm glad that this color didn't happen until LDV. These photos were taken by my friend Charolette Kinzie. She shoots digital so we had a TON of shots to choose from. Every photo we looked at felt like something was missing...
And we couldn't figure out what it was...
And then we realized it was Tanya...She was missing... *laugh* So I sat down in frustration trying to figure out what to do and I put my feet up as a joke and VOILA!! The cover for LDV was born.