vegansaurus!

We know how much you love the Turlock hens. That’s how we know you’ll be at Harvest Home on Sunday, June 3, for a barn dedication celebration! The Turlock hens got an entirely new barn to live in following their rescue this spring, where they cohabitate with other rescued birds.

Harvest Home wants to thank you for your support in the construction of the barn, as well as show it off, so they’re throwing a little party from 3 to 5 p.m. on Sunday. You’ll eat and drink (vegan-ly, of course), and meet the birds as well as the amazing Harvest Home workers. All ticket sales directly benefit Harvest Home, and this event marks the beginning of the organization’s fundraising campaign for the future “Sanctuary Avian Medical Barn.” Awesome, right? Right!

Buy tickets here, and go party with the birds in their new, wonderful home on Sunday!

[photo courtesy Harvest Home]

Let’s do this, peeps. I’m feeling really confident this week, so maybe I’ll talk to strangers! I think it’s called networking? But I probably won’t; I like people to come to me so I can act awkward and blush a lot, all the while being a little bit overexcited. Winning mix, right? Let’s hang.

SF Vegan Drinks happens tonight, Thursday, May 31, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem, 2323 Mission St. at 19th.

Drink specials are strawberry basil caipirinhas, $3 bottled beer, $4 well drinks, and $5 vegan white Russians! Featured vegan food includes sweet potato tater tots, beer battered onion rings, veggie burgers, and vegan summer sliders. Try not to make the same mistake I did last time and eat all of it in one sitting. The only thing I was acquainted with that night was the toilet.

Confidential to VegLovr: I saw that comment in the last SF Vegan Drinks post, and I think you and I were made for each other, no joke.

Please don’t feed the raccoons.

You guys, the cruising life is not for me. I spent the last week on one of Carnival’s horrific floating frat houses, and between the exciting dinners with my family (not a dry eye or unflipped piece of furniture in the place), the delicious cafeteria food, and the loud people (not to mention children; children everywhere!!!) I feel about as relaxed as if I’d only worked an 80-hour week instead of my usual 60.

I am really glad to be back on dry land. Now that the shaking and rolling that is charmingly referred to as “sea legs” is behind me, and Allen is once again talking to me after being forced to spend a week on the high seas together, things are good again. I was even excited to get back to work and see my coworkers! It doesn’t hurt that there’s a potluck on the first day back and I just ate my body weight in delicious potato and cauliflower curry.

Let’s see what’s going on the internet these days. That’s something else I was excited about, getting back to my websites and catching up on everything Lindsay Lohan did this week (nothing).

Sloths are really in right now, did you know that? After Kristen Bell freaked the fuck out over being near one, people are going crazy for these adorable animals! (Quick question: Are sloths dangerous?) Even Animal Planet is getting in on the act, and running either a web series or a real series (I am not in the habit of watching animal shows, only ladies fighting in pretty houses) on sloths and how awesome they are. They’re even getting them at their most intimate and running clips of baby sloths getting potty-trained, which is awesome because baby animals peeing and pooping is adorable and I love it and they smile an make noises and when I do that I just have to spend a night in jail.

[Can’t see the video? Watch it on Vegansaurus.com!]

Raccoons are also adorable but I have a feeling i’m the only one that thinks so. And I bet I would also freak out if raccoons were coming into my neighborhood and eating all my Doritos.  Although, I’ve never really liked Doritos. When we first came to the U.S. my mom tried some and declared that they tasted like rat droppings (how she knows this I have no idea. She also claims root beer tastes like bee poison. Life in Russia was hard.). I’ve been off of them ever since. Also, when I was a kid, a raccoon climbed into my aunt’s window and killed her or something (that’s what my aunt tells me, but she is also still alive, so…), and it had little human hands (again, just repeating what I’m told), and I’ve been scared shitless of them since. But they’re cute from afar, right?

Here are some dogs chilling with fans and being all cute. Just the idea of laying on the floor with a fan makes me want to take a nap. Did I mention that everywhere we went in the cruise was super hot? I am surprised I do not get heat stroke. Or maybe I did, and that’s why I’m so excited to be at work. YOU DECIDE!

That’s it for this week! Please send me links for next week and have a Dorito-free Wednesday!

[Photo by Brad Woodard / KHOU 11 News]

Are you sick of kale yet? I’m not! I just keep finding new ways to eat it that are better than the last. My new favorite is the wilted kale salad!

Call me late to the party, because I usually am, but my first experience with the mystical wilted kale salad happened on a trip to LA in January, at Mohawk Bend in Echo Park.

Very tasty! Spiced to perfection and topped with crisp jicama slices!

So, I’ve come up with my own version!

Ingredients:
1 bunch kale
1 tsp. olive oil
dash of salt and pepper
juice of one lemon
1 sliced avocado

Instructions
Clean, de-stem and roughly chop the kale. Heat up your pan to about medium-high, with the oil drizzled in. Once it’s hot, put in the kale and keep it constantly moving, cooking between 30 seconds and 2 minutes. You are not sauteing it, but lightly wilting it. The point is, you don’t want it fully cooked, but just heated enough to take some of the bitterness out.

Transfer to a bowl and toss with avocado, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Easy enough, right?

I personally think this salad pairs beautifully with pasta doused in vodka cream sauce!

How do you make your wilted kale salad? Next time, I think I will use strawberries instead of avocado, and balsamic vinegar instead of lemon juice!

Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics is an absolutely awesome vegan makeup brand! They sent me some free stuff to try and now I will tell you all about it!

From their FAQ:

What’s with the ‘Vegan’ thing?
In a time when many cosmetic companies make the claim that their products are “Cruelty Free” simply because Animal Testing has become unfashionable and less cost-effective, OCC felt it was necessary to raise the bar on this issue. We pledge never to use animal-derived ingredients (including Lanolin, Beeswax, Carmine and more) in our products and accessories. Beyond any personal convictions, we simply believe that it’s unnecessary, especially when there are alternatives that are just as readily available, and equally effective in the formulation of our products. Further, you need not necessarily be aligned with animal rights issues to reap the benefits of a vegan cosmetic line: animal ingredients can be amongst the most allergenic and skin reactive, and prevent makeup from being considered Kosher, Halal or otherwise compliant with various dietary (and sanitary!) regulations.

So great, right? Love it. But besides being vegan, OCC is highly celebrated in the makeup world! My makeup fanatic sister was hella impressed when I told her OCC was sending me free stuff. She said people particularly rave about their lip tar. Here are the shades I tried:

My favorite are the Kava-Kava and the Queen, but I think I am square when it comes to lipstick so those are the most traditional colors I’d say. Well the Kava-Kava is kind of 60s pale, which is right up my 60s-enthusiast alley. It would look AWESOME with some seriously heavy black eye makeup. The Queen is so bright that I did a bare eye to complement. 

The lip tars are pretty amazing. They are renown for their staying power and straight-up heavy pigment and I’d have to agree with both those points. This stuff stays on for like ever. And the colors are BOLD and pretty much lovely. It’s a bit hard to get the color off but I prefer that to having to reapply all day. This stuff literally stays on like three hours longer than regular lipstick.

For the eye colors, here are the shades I tried:

These are great! Again, the colors are bold and lovely. I like the sheer colors but the matte Poison is pretty impressive in just how strong it is. These colors go on smooth and are easy to apply and blend. Love them!

As for nail polish, I hate my funny fingers so I didn’t want to model them for you, but my co-worker Leah was kind enough to volunteer her nails:

She said she liked the colors a lot! I tried the Copperhead on its own and it was very nice. The nail polish was a bit tricky to get off as well, but it certainly didn’t chip. And I don’t really wear nail polish but I’ve been under the impression that it’s hard to find vegan polish? Well, OCC has plenty.

The final product I tried was the tinted moisturizer. I liked this as well. Very moisturizing. It’s super-sheer so if you are looking for more coverage, this may not be for you. But if you want just a bit of coverage, you’ll like this.

So if you can’t tell, I love Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics! I even went to their launch party for their new Garden collection. The Ophelia and Belladonna and many of the colors I tried are in the new collection. The party was well-attended and had Babycakes cupcakes! Don’t you love it when a vegan biz supports a vegan biz? I certainly do. It’s just another reason to love OCC!

Guys, if you didn’t know, I got a new job. Yes, that’s why I haven’t been as prolific lately. But I still love you! So I find you great things like Cat-toure! There’s this funny guy Jeff at my work and my intern BFF was like, “you know he has a cat clothing line, right?” And I was like, “hell no I did not but I’m so ready to make him internet famous!” Which is the natural outcome of all Vegansaurus posts. 

Cat-toure is kind of like American Apparel for your kitty pals. It’s some cute-ass stuff. I love the hoodies like whoa. But my favorite part is the model! Look at this bruiser:

Holy crap, let’s cuddle already! I had to ask Jeff all about her. This tough guy is named Liley! Jeff and his wife rescued her when she was one year old. He says she weighed less than four pounds and “was pretty much bald and had mad shit wrong with her.” Now she’s happy and healthy! She’s a Devon Rex and purportedly “mad friendly and mad chill.” She sleeps on Jeff’s wife’s head every night and can do paw (that Devon Rex link says they hella great at tricks). So cute! My Mitsy can sit for treats but if I tried to teach her paw, she’d be like “LOLZ you are hilar. BRB I just saw some dust move!”

Like I always say when we discuss cat clothes, if your kitty don’t like clothes, don’t make her wear clothes. If she don’t care, no harm no foul. Though I think anybody might want to get Cat-toure’s super cute kitty robe for the post-bath routine. I don’t bathe Mitsy too often but sometimes you just gotta. I’m talking pee. Shit just got real.

This is your brain on pork! Specifically, this is “A human brain overrun with cysts from Taenia solium, a tapeworm that normally inhabits the muscles of pigs.” How do pig-muscle parasites get into human brains? Carl Zimmer at Discover breaks it down: When humans eat undercooked meat from a pig that was infected with the tapeworms, those  tapeworm eggs will hatch in a human’s body, and the bloodstream will whisk the new little tapeworms around and up into the brain, where they thrive, forming cysts and giving the human a grody disease called neurocysticercosis.

Because the symptoms of neurocysticercosis are similar to lots of other diseases—it can cause epilepsy, for one thing—doctors like Theodore Nash of the National Institutes of Health say they can only estimate how many people are suffering from brain tapeworms. Dr. Nash tells Discover that he estimates between 1,500 and 2,000 people in the U.S. have them. And even grosser: “Nash and colleagues published a review of the scientific literature and concluded that somewhere between 11 million and 29 million people have neurocysticercosis in Latin America alone.”

Get over to Discover and read the whole article right now. It’s a totally treatable disease, though of course it’d be much easier not to accidentally become infected with parasites if you weren’t eating the animals that carry them. I really wanted to say this to my dining companions last night, who were eating copious amounts of pig, but not being a complete jerk, I refrained. Still, once you see that brain, it’s hard not to see it every time someone mentions the word “bacon.”

[photo by Theodore E. Nash, M.D., via Discover]

Living in California is the best, because you can theoretically BBQ during all of the seasons, and BBQs are my favorite! Just put on a sweatshirt, it gets chilly at night. Once it starts warming up, nothing beats inviting all your pals over to drink some brewskies and grill some food. What’s not to love?

Actually, if I can be honest with you, I’m not having quite as much fun as I should, grilling my food these days. Tell me what you grill—I’m bored of veggies and faux meat.* My favorite part of BBQs has turned into making (and chowing down on) the side dishes! (There has to be more. Tell me there is more than this.)

Here’s my version of a Hawaiian pasta salad. People love this salad. It’s refreshing and creamy. I use penne in it, but I have a feeling most people prefer macaroni. I like to think penne adds an elegance to traditional macaroni dishes! Plus, wikipedia says the shape and design makes for more sauce absorption. See, I’m not completely out of my mind!

Ingredients
1 lb. macaroni noodles (or elegant penne!)**
2 cups cashew cream (I’m assuming you can sub unsweetened soy creamer, cup for cup. It’s very rich and creamy!)
2 cups vegan mayo
1 Tbsp. agave nectar
1/2 cup mild vinegar (I use white rice)
4 green onions, thinly sliced
1 large carrot, grated or chopped. I usually chop.
1 celery rib, thinly sliced
1/4 red onion, diced small
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions
If you are making your cashew cream and mayo from scratch, do that ahead of time, to cut down prep. I never do, but it really is a great idea in theory!

Boil your pasta. Now, I love over-boiled, puffy pasta and everyone turns their nose up at it, but I’ve finally found a recipe that recommends you overcook the pasta, because it’s better able to absorb the dressing. Take that, haters!

Boil until super fat and puffy. Also, throw in some salt, because it flavors the pasta. My friend told me you want to salt it enough that the water tastes like the ocean. I usually toss in a small palmful.

Over-boiled pasta, a.k.a. DOING ME.

While your pasta is boiling, make your dressing. Whisk together 1 1/2 cup cashew cream, 1 cup mayo, 1 TBS agave nectar, 1 tsp salt and 2 tsp pepper in a bowl.

Whiskin’ up some dressing.

Once the pasta is boiled, turn off the heat and drain it. Then put it back in the pot. Add the vinegar and toss until completely absorbed. Now let it cool for about 10 minutes, then add the dressing. Transfer to a bowl and try to let cool completely. Since I am impatient, I wait about a half hour.

Ever so creamy, vegan style!

Add the rest of your cream, mayo, the veggies and mix together. Salt and pepper to taste. Cover and place in fridge for at least an hour. Overnight is best, this is the kind of salad that gets more terrific as the flavors meld! I like to garnish it with some sliced green onions, but I bet a hodgepodge of green onions, thinly sliced celery, and red onion, plus slivered or grated carrot, would look really pretty!

Everyone’s favorite pasta salad, no joke!

*OK, kind of an exaggeration. I am having fun grilling homemade seitan. But even that is getting a little old. I need new ideas, and so I’m turning to you for help!
**You can make this salad gluten-free so easily! Just sub gluten-free pasta!

In under one year I’ve been to Vegas twice! And I don’t even gamble (unless we’re talking about the guys I date, but we’ll save that for another time). I went with another femme fatale you may have heard of—Sarah M. Smart, anyone? Sarah was in Vegas for work, plus it was her birthday weekend, so this whirlwind vacay was taken with our friends Brent and Britney. Party time! Sarah and I often get asked how we have solidified such a strong, vegan friendship and we’re like, “Trips to Vegas, Katy Perry, and a mutual affection for cake vodka!” That’s how it’s done.

Unfortunately, I was a little under the weather for this trip, which meant more poolside lounging and eating, as opposed to a little something I like to call “elegant debauchery.” Poor me, right? Poor, hot-tub soaking me.

I like to stay at the Hooters Hotel and Casino, which boasts three pools and two hot tubs! Don’t forget, they have a sandwich that can be made vegan and eaten poolside, the Sassy San Franciscan!

Now, let’s get to the food! In terms of eating, Vegas has got it going on, if only for a little (entirely vegan) place called Pura Vida. Pura Vida is located in downtown Vegas, which is few miles off the strip. It’s like a part of Vegas only the locals know! And now ME!

The brunch I had at Pura Vida was one of the best vegan meals I have ever had. Chef Mayra is creative, brilliant, and quite the spitfire! It may sound as though I’m exaggerating with my whole “It was the BEST,” but I sent my vegan friend and co-worker, Nate, there a few weeks later when he went to Vegas and guess what: He said the same thing, and also that chef Mayra remembered me! How sweet. Next time you go to Vegas, make Pura Vida your first priority! (Maybe go to Vegas just to eat there?) And make sure you talk to the chef, she will brighten your day!

Brent ordered the empandas for an appetizers and they were delicious! I especially liked that they were very light and not greasy. I can’t find them on the online menu, and also cannot remember what they were filled with! Oops. However, everyone at the table agreed they were tasty and that the chutney they came with was superb! Look how vibrant the colors are!

I am going to Vegas again, hopefully in the very near future, to chow down on this baby: the Latin’tude breakfast burrito. It changed my life. Look at all those colors! So fresh! So beautiful! I might go back to Vegas and ask it marry me; I mean, when in Sin City, right? Another note on chef Mayra’s food—it’s organic, and she has many gluten-free options available. Now go!

Sarah, Britney, Brent, and I also hit up the Cheesecake Factory in Caesar’s Palace. (Please don’t tell anyone I made them go to Kardashian Khaos in the Mirage afterward, okay? Like, for an unsatisfying dessert.) I’m okay with eating at the Cheesecake Factory, because they have this cocktail called the Asian Pear Martini that I just adore! Plus, they have this new Skinnylicious menu, with many vegan or easy-to-veganize options.
I like to get the beets with goat cheese salad, minus the goat cheese. It is still very satisfying, with beets, arugula, pecans, apples and a vinaigrette dressing!

I also like to get the mushroom lettuce wraps! They come with shitake mushrooms, ginger, garlic, water chestnuts and green onions, all sauteed in a light soy dressing. They are very refreshing, especially wrapped in the crisp, lettuce leaves.

Lettuce taco, coming atcha!

Another place the four of us went that is worth mentioning is Red 8 in the Wynn hotel. It is an Asian Fusion bistro, with many vegan options, including vegan dim sum! How exciting!

We ordered dim sum, which I sadly do not have a picture of. I also cannot find their dim sum menu online, but I will say that the jade dumplings feature another love of my life, spinach!

Britney and I split the Gardein cashew Chick’n, celery, mushroom, and ginger entree, as well as the tofu and shiitake. So delicious! Now that I’ve broken the bank at both of the vegan restaurants I wanted to at the Wynn, I don’t feel the need to go back in the near future—unless of course my future sugar daddy is paying.

Chick’n, cashew, celery, mushrooms, and ginger plate!

Tofu and shiitake plate!

I know there are tons of places I didn’t get to in this last trip, but I will eventually. I can’t wait to get back to Vegas! It is my vegan haven!

It’s National Vegetarian Week in the U.K., and to celebrate, the Independent has a nice chatty feature by Kate Burt about Jaap Korteweg’s De Vegetarische Slager, a.k.a. the Vegetarian Butcher shop in The Hague!

You should definitely read the article, it is full of wonderful quotes from Korteweg, and others from prominent English vegetarians arguing about whether fake meat “destroys creativity” or is better for changing a meat-loving world over to a meatless diet. It’s balanced and interesting, you guys! (Just ignore the insect lady and Ms. Joanna “worldwide vegetarianism is wishful thinking” Blythman.)

The point I want to make here is, De Vegetarische Slager is the cutest little shop, which uses “traditional techniques” to make delicious cuts of meatless meat, many of which are vegan! Yes please!

Just look at the house line of fake meats! The ones labeled “100% plantaardig” are vegan.

They’ve got skewers for yakitori!

And lumpia!

The lumpia are made from “Lupine” meat substitute, which I cannot find a translation for. This 2010 show on Radio Netherlands Worldwide features an interview with Korteweg in which he discusses his meat substitutes. He’s the best! His wife is the leader of the Dutch Party for the Animals, which is a political party based on animal welfare. Way to go, Netherlands!

Really, go read Kate Burt’s article, it’s pretty great. And someone send me some vegetarische vlees from The Hague, please and thank you.

[top photo by Chris De Bode via the Independent; other photos via De Vegetarische Slager]

In news that I know you are all anxiously awaiting, another celebrity couple tries out veganism! This time, it’s Zoolander and Melody from Hey Dude! Just kidding you guys, I don’t seriously live in a world where actors are the characters they play. (Yes I do.)

Christine Taylor talks all about the transition here. Regarding her kids, she says they are having a harder time with the switch, and explains “My daughter loves veggies but doesn’t love fruit. My son loves fruit and doesn’t love veggies.” That’s so funny, because you know who else like veggies but doesn’t like fruit? Sarah! I just don’t get it. I even love the kind of fruit that everyone has a problem with—berries with little seeds! All the fruit for me, all the time! (except papaya, I don’t like that one. [Ed. note: WORD.])

Christine Taylor is also the spokesperson for Nourish body care products. I looked into Nourish, and it sounds like an awesome company—vegan and organic! I saw that the products are sold at Whole Foods, so I hopped, skipped, and jumped on over to the store across the street in search of body lotion. Sadly, the Upper Haight Whole Foods only carries Nourish body wash, and I prefer bar soap. Lavender mint lotion, you will be mine—I bet it’s at Rainbow!

xoxo,
Your Vegan Celebrity Correspondent

[photo via Ecorazzi]

TreeHugger reports on Florence, a nurse shark living at the Birmingham National Sea Life Centre in England, who has been trying to follow a vegetarian diet. Florence here swallowed a rusty fish hook three years ago, and vets performed out-of-water surgery to remove it, and since then, she’s refused all fish.

Unfortunately, sharks cannot live on vegetables alone, even delicious, nutritious algae, so Sea Life Centre workers have to pull a Marge Simpson and hide the fish in lettuce to supplement Florence’s diet. Apparently if she even gets a whiff of fish, Florence will refuse the food and wait for the animal-free option.

Aw, Florence! We know how hard it is to feed a carnivore an animal-free diet. Maybe scientists will figure out a way to meet your nutritional needs without compromising your morals. A lady-shark can dream!

[photo from the Birmingham National Sea Life Centre via TreeHugger]