World Vegan Day 2008

Happy World Vegan Day! I'm waiting for my cup of tea to finish steeping while I listen to the rain outside. Yes, it's actually raining in sunny southern California despite what the old song says. To those of you celebrating Dia de los Muertos today at the Forever Hollywood Cemetery, I hope the rain is adding to the ambiance.

Having curly hair and being constantly cold, I'm not a huge fan of being outside in the rain. I'm always grateful when the rain arrives on a weekend so that I don't have to sit in 405 traffic, but today is not a day when I have the liberty to hang out at home baking and watching movies. I have a baby shower and a family dinner to attend before the fun part...a vegan meet-up! I think that's a fitting way to spend the evening of World Vegan Day.



Yet another wonderful way to celebrate is by purchasing Happy Herbivore's new e-cookbook, Pudge-Free Holidays. It's finally here and ready to help you create wonderful new memories this holiday season. Pictured above is the incredibly delicious Cornbread Stuffing with "Chorizo." This stuffing features the Southern Cornbread about which I posted a couple days ago from the same e-cookbook. Not only did I enjoy eating this stuffing, but I got multiple compliments about how good it smelled on the days I heated up leftovers in the microwave at work. It was definitely a conversation starter and simply solidified the notion that food is the best ambassador for veganism.

Before I end this post, here's a little anecdote from Halloween last night: I've lived in the same place for 10 years and had literally had one trick-or-treater here (it was 9 years ago) in that time. Obviously, I never buy treats because I never have trick-or-treaters. So, you can imagine my surprise when my doorbell rang last night and I found a miniature SpiderMan and a miniature Bob the Builder (a little girl, no less) on my doorstep. I had one individual-size bag of vegan chocolate soccer balls and one little box of raisins, but those weren't a match and I'm all about fairness. The only thing I found that I had 2 of was ProBars, the Original Blend flavor. The reason this is so awful is twofold: 1) I gave kids meal-replacement bars for Halloween and that is just intrinsically wrong; 2) ProBars are disgusting, loaded with fat, and highly caloric. (I had the Koka Moka flavor once and it was foul, then I tried 3 bite-size samples of other flavors at Whole Foods and they were outrageously salty.) Even though I'd never seen those children and their mother before, I still feed bad about it and wish I'd had something better to offer. Next year, I will be better prepared!

I'm so excited that November is finally here because it means we get to vote in 3 days! Have a fabulous Saturday!