VeganMoFo 2016 - Day 2 "Go -To Impress Me Meal"

Oh PULEASE...... could today BE any more over scheduled???? I'm in the kitchen working on the components for a bunch of vegan cheesecakes I'm donating for a charity this weekend. I've got chocolate to temper for the decorations, chocolate crusts to make, not to mention the filling itself and baking of all those cakes.  This, and today's prompt is "go to impress me meal." It just figures.

Heck, I'd love to make you a 6 course meal (no, not really, I don't like to cook, haters gonna hate, I'm a baker not a cook) but you're getting a fabulous vegan BLT from me today. I'm not about reinventing the wheel, meaning when I find recipes that are great, I use them. Not everything around here has to be a recipe I've written.

Vegan BLT
Artisan Vegan Bread
Aquafaba Vegan Mayo
Vegan Rice Paper Bacon
(scroll down for recipes)
Toasted, with fresh tomatoes, romaine and cracked pepper.

Twigs & sticks again... how do we vegans survive.

Bread in the Keys absolutely sucks. If you go to Key West, Cole's Peace Bread has a few accidentally vegan breads and I must say their mango bread is divine. Old Town Bakery also in Key West has a few accidentally vegan breads, they get extra points because they have a purposefully vegan sandwich on the menu using their own baked bread. Otherwise, I'm not vouching for any other bread bakers down here. When I lived up north I ate a lot of bread, every store, restaurant and bakery had good (vegan) bread. Once I moved here, bread became a non-issue. I won't eat it if it sucks, and just as well as I've cut many things out anyway because they cause me problems with inflammation (something I never bothered about in my younger years, but has caused me mountains of collateral damage for my health and ruins so much of my running efforts). Somehow I got turned onto this recipe for artisan bread, but I have no idea who or where I found it. The link for the bread shown in this video is provided after the video, scroll down.

Vegan mayo is now widely available from quite a few brands. I'm still an organic Veganaise gal as my favorite of all time, but JustMayo gives them a good run for the money. Aquafaba is a game changer in the culinary world (notice I didn't say vegan world.... I said culinary world) and I often make my own vegan mayo using the recipe linked below, scroll down.

Lastly, another game changer in culinary world is rice paper bacon. I use a recipe from "yup it's vegan" but the original is called Laekon, and if you google just that one word, you'll find their link. I don't single out any one particular animal product as worse than another, but bacon is evil. Gestation crates are truly a torture device. While visiting a farm animal sanctuary a few years ago, I was "invited" to step inside a gestation crate for the experience. Within seconds I began to have severe anxiety, which would soon lead to a full blown panic attack. Pigs are one of the most intelligent animals on this planet, but among the most abused. If you google "gestation crate" you will see. Rice paper bacon is actually on the menu here now, it's that good. The recipe in the link is gluten free, and I use Bragg's liquid aminos instead of soy sauce. Soy sauce seems to burn easier and the flavor seems not all I want it to be. Bragg's liquid aminos give the recipe a great flavor, I also put a pinch of smoked paprika and black pepper in my version, but you really don't have to use it. I've also tried to make rice paper bacon using liquid coconut aminos hoping for a soy free version, don't do it.  Coconut aminos are high in sugar, they just don't have the same properties as Bragg's, soy sauce or tamari, my attempt burned within 2 minutes.... billowing smoke galore. If you want gluten free and don't want to use Bragg's make sure you choose a wheat free soy or tamari sauce. Also, this certainly isn't a low sodium item, however Bragg's are about 1/3 the sodium of soy and tamari.

I've got to get back to my vegan cheesecakes now, but just know you can buy vegan versions of any of this, including vegan bacon, vegan mayo and store bought vegan bread. There's nothing like making your own, and what's most impressive about this super simple delicious sandwich is once you have the ingredients as pantry staples, you are looking at pennies on the dollar compared to store bought..... impressive indeed.  Let's get to the video, then scroll to the end for the links to the recipes (with credits to the authors)

Let's eat!

Bread recipe credit "It'salwaysautumn.com"
LINK: http://www.itsalwaysautumn.com/2016/02/12/homemade-artisan-bread-easiest-bread-recipe-ever.html

Vegan mayo recipe credit "peanutbutterandvegan.com"
LINK: http://peanutbutterandvegan.com/april-all-natural-day-5/

Vegan rice paper bacon recipe credit "YupItsVegan.com
LINK: http://yupitsvegan.com/2016/04/18/vegan-rice-paper-bacon/

Vegan MoFo 2016 - Day 1 Favorite Food

And we're off! Day 1 of Vegan Month of Food, which happens to fall not so coincidentally on World Vegan Day 2016! Woot!

This year we again have suggested "prompts" to work with, either a topic of the day, or a weekly theme. So far, my plan is to stick to the daily prompts. Today we're being asked for our favorite food. If you know anything about me, you know I love chocolate, Italian food, and sugar. I avoid sugar like the plague as much as possible ... although as these videos unfold through the month you'll see I have no problem being a sugar pusher in my cooking and baking. Last year during Vegan MoFo I was in the midst of quite a few months of high raw, even fully raw many days. I had also eliminated soy, wheat, oil, nuts, sugar, coffee, alcohol and a few other things.... although I'm not presently high raw or fully raw, I pay close attention to sugar consumption as a rule of thumb, which includes no alcohol. I am not here to lecture on soy, wheat, sugar, alcohol, caffeine, or anything else (I will feel free to lecture on veganism though!) because I actually think there's nothing wrong with soy, wheat, sugar or these other things, unless being avoided for medical reason, and consumed in reasonable amounts. What gets most of us into trouble is working to define what is reasonable.

All that being said..... DARBSTER!!!!!!!!!

Video please......

That's a lot of sugar on that plate, and also the first time in about 2 years I had such a breakfast. We had NO vacation this year (thanks Matthew.....) and our only time away from home consisted of a roughly 48 hour whirlwind road trip to North Central Florida for a festival. We crammed in a lot of delicious vegan food.... including breakfast, brunch and sugar.

Breakfast out is virtually non-existent for me considering the line of work I'm in. When I do get such an opportunity I usually opt for savory, or raw... but, damn, this was good.  French toast made with challah bread, banana compote, fresh fruit, tempeh bacon. Oh Darbster, I love you, love you LOOOOOOOOOVE you.

By the way, if you're wondering who has the best and I mean the BEST tofu scramble in the Universe, it's the Manatee Cafe in St. Augustine. Better than mine, better than yours.... better than anybody's. You don't get a video from there though.... thank Matthew for that too.

Happy World Vegan Day.

Go Vegan, Stay Vegan.

See you tomorrow.... I wonder what we'll be talking about.... I've got nothing preplanned. Wish me luck.

xo

Hooray for Vegan MoFo 2016 - Here's My Intro!

Hi everyone, it's THAT time of year.... not just Halloween.... Samhain.... but also Vegan Month of Food! Usually this glorious occasion occurs during September, this year the administrators moved it to November. We're in again this year, couldn't resist.

We had GREAT plans for you.... but typical with life, things change. We planned to shoot some videos during our road trip vacation, but we got chased out due to Hurricane Matthew. Turns out, the Keys were the only coastal Atlantic region in the State of Florida that really did not have any major warnings or watches. Silly us.... we left Paradise with plans of tooling around mainland Florida. Not to be. Next, we had a mini-road trip planned around Central Florida VegFest, but the best we could manage was a whirlwind drive straight through for Festival and come right back home. We shot a few videos ahead of time, I did a few projects with photos ahead of time, and as this intro video explains for you, it is what it is for 2016.

We hope you'll follow along, we're on Facebook, YouTube and right here on this blog. MoFo gives the opportunity for new life on the blog every year. I used to write every day, that was a long time ago. Maybe you miss me, maybe you don't, sometimes I really miss writing.

I'm looking forward to the month, and especially enjoying all the other bloggers and vloggers. Thanks to the administrators for again bringing us together for this international event highlighting vegan food!

Let's go to the videotape!

See you tomorrow!

xo

It Was Me. (CONTAINS ADULT LANGUAGE)

It was me that dozens of drivers passed on the highway chasing the mortally wounded bird. Scores of cars whizzed by far above the speed limit craning their necks to watch what was going on. Of the scores, one stopped to offer and help. To that kind driver with an entire family in tow, I sincerely thank you. To everyone who passed me by, I say fuck you.

I'm so sick from watching animals suffer needlessly and dying horrible deaths.

I was on my way to visit a friend. In my car which I had recently emptied out I had 2 small containers of carrot ginger soup, a smelly beach towel from yesterday's workout at the gym, and a crushed roll of paper towels with about 2 sheets left on the spindle. Gone was the small animal crate I usually have in the back, with the extra towels "just in case." Why did I remove that from the car? To make room for groceries? Probably. Regardless, it was a bad move.

I had just turned out of my street and not even driven a mile when something caught my eye on the side of the road on the opposing side of the highway. Whatever "it" was, "it" did not belong there, for "it" was trapped between the deer fencing that lines both sides of the highway in that spot... a blessing for cutting down deer strikes in that small spot, but perilous when an animal gets trapped between the fencing for whatever reason. As I came upon "it" I realized "it" was not an "it" but rather a cormorant who was wounded. At that time I couldn't tell the extent of the injuries, but without a second thought I pulled over, waited a second, and then did a U-turn to approach her. What I saw made me gasp.....

There she was on the bike path, desperate to fly away from me in my slow moving car now also on the bike path.... but she couldn't fly. She could barely walk. She was mortally wounded. Whoever did the deed did not stop to help, or even to call the Wildlife Officers to put her out of her misery. I grabbed my smelly gym beach towel, flipped on the hazards and went out to her. She was terrified, and tried to run... she tripped over the wing that was barely hanging on. I saw bones, tendons, and blood.... too much blood.

Fuck.

It was me whom all the interested, but not interested enough to stop and help, drivers saw running down the bike path frantically throwing that gnarly beach towel over a panicked, tortured, wounded, bleeding cormorant. It was me screaming aloud to the whizzing cars to slow down, please slow down.  Please stop and help. Please. PLEASE.

No one did.

I could see out of the corner of my eye, yes drivers were interested and watching me, but they were driving way too fast, and also not stopping to help. Three tries with the towel and I finally hooded this living innocent victim suffering so incredibly. In all my years of helping wildlife, I've never had a mortally wounded animal expend so much energy to attack me. She wanted to kill me. I don't blame her. If I were in blinding pain with one of my arms barely hanging on spewing blood over exposed bones and tendons, I'd want to fuck with you big time too.

It was me who was splayed out on the bike path with a smelly gym beach towel over the bird writhing in pain, trying to bite me. You, you were the ones who just looked and did not care. Why?

As she continued her efforts to bite through the towel, I scrambled with 1 hand to capture my phone and made a call to the other happy vegan. I knew he'd make the emergency calls, and be on site within minutes. As I was sobbing on that bike path because there was nothing I could do in that moment to relieve that tortured animal from her pain, someone pulled over across the highway asking if I was ok. No, I'm not ok, someone hit this bird and left her to suffer. Help is coming. Thank you for stopping to help, for caring, for bothering. Because no one else cares. No one else stopped. I am alone in the Paradise sunshine crying, hands covered with blood, trying to whisper calmly to an animal who is in horrible anguish and doesn't give a shit about whispers, words, or anything else because of PAIN.

The other happy vegan rounded the corner in his big truck, within a moment he was out and took over with the bird. I ran to his truck to get another larger, heavier towel. As we were doubling the hooding, FPH pulled up. I offered a less than 10 second synopsis, then begged for their help. There was nothing they could do.... they had to defer to FWC. Please, please, please.... can't you help, can't you get involved? I'm sorry ma'am, no.

It was me who had to beg enforcement for help that they could not give.

We got bird rescue on the line and informed what was happening, who we were bringing in, and what to expect. I jumped into the bed of the truck, grabbed a box full of tools and drill bits, flung them across the bed of the truck and brought it out to the bike path. As gently as possible, the other happy vegan lifted the double hooded bird into the box. No matter how gentle, we know more excruciating pain ensued. She was placed into the truck and off he went for the inevitable.

There she was precious cargo, dying in agony in a smelly used gym towel in a cardboard box that minutes ago was full of greasy tools.

You motherfucker who hit this innocent bird, I think you should know, it was me who wiped the fresh blood of a commorant off my hands at the side of the road on used paper towels dipped in the grass still went from the rain that had freshly fallen before all this started. While it probably was an accident hitting the bird, you intentionally drove on leaving her mortally wounded, in unimaginable pain, to die terrified among speeding traffic, alone.

You hit her and left her to die, but it was me who was left with what you refused to help with. You should know... the suffering she endured was immense. It was prolonged because you did not do the right thing as soon as it happened and make a simple call to emergency. You left her to suffer. You left her alone. You left her terrified.

It was me who will never forget the terror in her eyes and the blood on my hands. For all of this, I say fuck you.

What I Ate Today

I'm a fan of "What I Ate Today" posts on any forum... social media, blogs, videos, matters not where they're at, just that they're at.

Here's what I ate today.

Most days I do make time for breakfast (there's a rare occasion when it's impossible, but that's become more infrequent). For about the last 3 months, give or take, this is what I have:

Oats, shredded zucchini, mashed beans, ground flax, cocoa powder, mashed banana, protein powder.
Topped with a ridiculous amount of strawberries.
I pour unsweetened flax milk over it.
Don't knock it till you've tried it.....

For the last few months, I've recommitted to fitness, not just running. In fact, running has taken a back seat. You'll find me out on the street only about 3 times a week at most. Too many injuries. I've learned my lesson. So, now I'm back at a gym lifting weights regularly. I've also rekindled my love affair with the Spinner bike, I'm on that thing 5-6 times a week, sometimes for as long as 1.5 hours. It's a great workout. I always look forward to a recovery smoothie, sometimes I tuck in some white beans instead of protein powder, today was powder since I had no beans ready:

Post workout smoothie:
Frozen bananas, unsweetened flax milk, chia seeds, cocoa powder, powdered peanuts
with a smidge of protein powder tucked in.

Dinner for me most nights is very uninspired. Usually potatoes, veggies and beans. However, I had something to prove, and this was my day to prove it. On a recent night, we went out to see a friend play with his band at a local watering hole. The place is not generally known for it's vegan-fare, however they always assure us they can provide for us, despite this fact we don't go... trust issues. We decided to have a go at their food since we would be there anyway. I can chalk that visit up to one of the top 5 worst meals I've had since living in the Keys. What they served me that night was an embarrassment on their part, whoever was in the kitchen that night obviously has zero love for their own job nor love of whomever they may be serving. Worse yet, I had a side dish of attitude from our server as well. Now, that same place advertises something called "Bang Bang Shrimp" which obviously isn't even worth investigating in my world, but the name "Bang Bang" sticks in my head.  Oddly enough within a couple days of that super bad dining experience a post came into my personal Facebook feed from "Olives for Dinner" blog for..... Bang Bang Cauliflower!

I was more than a little intrigued.

I rustled up the ingredients, and this magnificent plate of food manifested out of my kitchen. This recipe is fantastic. Just for kicks, I'm making some and going to deliver it to the manager of the restaurant where we had our most recent super bad eating experience; just to reassure them that vegans might actually know what good food is.

Bang Bang Cauliflower!
Recipe from "Olives for Dinner" blog!
EXCELLENT!

Thank goodness our friend and his band were on fire that night at least!

Lastly, my snack today was a bowl of this cereal a local grocer has begun carrying down here, it's made with beans! I love this stuff loaded with a generous portion of strawberries and some unsweetened flax milk. Hm.... 3 out of my 4 "what I ate today" foods have chocolate. I'm sensing something here.....

Chocolate cereal is one of my guilty pleasures, but this one is made with beans!!!

That's what I ate today. See you next time!

"Just a Pigeon"

As I rounded the bend on my way home from errands, I saw her. A pigeon. In the scrub on the side of the road. Dragging her wing.

I drove past, cursing under my breath. Pain, there's always an animal in pain. I hate it, and wanted to pretend I didn't just see what I thought I saw.

Of course immediately I regretted my decision, so I turned around to investigate more. "Maybe she just had her wing flared for a moment.... maybe it's not really broken" I hoped.

In the moments it took to get back to her, she had run quite a bit, and was now picking at berries in the scrub. She was so pretty with her iridescent bands of green and violet. I think she's a racing pigeon, I'm not sure. She was larger than she looked when I first noticed her too.

I pulled off the road, started the flashers, and got out walking towards her. She was well aware of my presence, and not happy about that. She began to move further away. A man was working nearby and observing. I called out to him "do you think it's broken?" He says "definitely." "Should I go for it?" He says "you'll never get her, besides she's just a pigeon." My heart sank.

I gave her enough space so as not to panic her, and went back to the car for a large towel. Then I made my way walking slowly down the street. She soon begin to panic despite my best efforts, and  tried to fly. Instead she tumbled head over. Heartbreaking.

At that moment she essentially became cornered against a low row of coral rocks. That was my moment, and I took advantage of the few seconds. I threw the towel. Miss. She began to run along the low row of rocks, I only had one more chance... throw the towel... perfect landing. She immediately calmed down. I removed my sweatshirt and double hooded her. She was perfectly calm. After I made sure her wings were not trapped awkwardly, I gently picked her up and carried her back to my car. The same man still watched. "You got her!" "Yes. Yes, I did." "Good for you."

Moments ago that man said she was "just a pigeon" but somehow now he mercifully had a change of heart. "I got a number for the bird lady if you need it." "Thank you, I've got it." "Good luck" he said and off I drove down the street with "just a pigeon" as my passenger.

I had to go back to the house because my cell phone wasn't with me. As I rounded a bend on my street, I saw a car at a pull off site that I thought was the bird lady.... looked just like hers. I made the decision to pull off the road and walk through the path to the ocean where she might be. I didn't have the right shoes, and I didn't want to leave the pigeon by herself but after a quick moment's consideration, I thought the best thing was to try and find the bird lady if she was already on my street.

I took the walk through the path. The tidal flats were muddy. I kept walking anyway. I took a wrong turn.... I ended up walking parallel along the road, instead of going towards the ocean where the bird lady might be. Time mattered, I was not out there for a nature walk, but there I was anyway. The sky was bright blue, the sun felt like a summer sun, the terrain was much wetter than normal for this time of year, and everything smelled very earthy. Butterflies were absolutely everywhere, and I heard several cardinals chirping in the mangroves. I wished I had my camera, but knew I couldn't stop for pictures anyway, time was of the essence. After 1/2 hour of wandering and not finding the bird lady, I made a decision to go home and call her. My attempt to locate her was futile, I obviously was off course, and time was ticking.

The day had been so beautiful earlier, I decided to go back out early evening to take pictures.
Instead the sky had clouded over.
The butterflies were all gone.
No deer were lurking behind the mangroves.
No cardinals tweeted to me.
No shore birds waded the flats.
Everything was different, yet again.

The little bird was still in the car, very quiet. No cooing, no murmuring, nothing. She was absolutely terrified, and I'm sure in quite a bit of pain. One minute eating berries in the scrub on the side of the road, the next moment wrapped in strange things in a car, all the while thinking "I need to fly away." It must have been very confusing, and very terrifying.

This was part of what I walked through when I tried to find the bird lady.
It seemed so much brighter and hopeful when the sun was shining earlier in the day.

The call was made, and the transport done. I was not very optimistic, but to my surprise the other happy vegan (he made the transport for me) said that on arrival the bird lady said "I think she will be ok, I think I can help her." Ironically, as the other happy vegan was leaving, she also said something that struck me.... "some people would say she's just a pigeon, but here she matters."

I'm on the side with those who says she matters.

Making Merry in 2015...

Christmas Day, 2015.

Turns out Diesel really loves Christmas.

I slept too late to capture the Christmas morning sunrise, but I was
greeted with immense beauty regardless.

Holy bananas, that went fast. From Vegan MoFo to Christmastime. As I write, Christmas Day is winding down. We had the day off, and made the most of it, innkeeper-style; naps, eating, naps, playing with cats, napping, taking pictures of the animals, naps, looking at the ocean, and naps. Did I mention... naps?

This was probably the busiest month of December for me since moving here. On the few nights we did not have guests, I could be found in the kitchen till 4am pressing cookies, rolling dough, stamping cookies, coloring icing and well, you get the drift.

I made a copious amount of special order "beach" Christmas cookies....
plus a few extras to send to family and friends...

This month, our Big Pine Key Vegan Support Group Meetup had a vegan cookie exchange which was absolutely stellar. Our group is growing and I'm loving it. I started the group because I was feeling a little isolated, and hoped to meet more local vegans. The group is open to non-vegans, but it's mission is solely to promote veganism, help people transition to veganism, celebrate vegan food, support vegans in the challenges we face being vegan in a (so far) non-vegan world, and so forth. I really should have taken pictures..... we had so many cookies, and really there were no duplicates. They were all beautiful, delicious and made with so much love it was overwhelming. After we all had filled our plates, the rest were plated nicely and taken to the local Senior Center as a donation. Spreading the vegan love.

Last weekend myself and 2 friends headed into Key West to spread some jolly to those needing a lift. I stayed up till 3:40am the night before pressing out hundreds of spritz, vegan style, bagged them up and hit the streets. I also made 2 very large platters of Minimalist Baker's gingerbread apple cake in small bundt pans, stacked them high and donated them to the local soup kitchen. We then spent the better part of the day handing out tiny bags of cookies as we worked our way through the city. Sometimes we got some odd looks (see photo below), but honestly in a city like Key West we basically just blended in. We did, however, keep running into that chubby dude in the red suit. Last I saw, he was twirling around the dance floor at La-Te-Da during their 4pm tea party. 

My first "selfie."
Is it a selfie if I'm not the one taking the shot?
Julie on the left, Jen #2 on the right, and
me in the center.
That's how Christmas cheer rolls in the Keys.

Chubby dude in the red suit was everywhere.
Christmas magic, or too much vegan nog,
you be the judge.

I shipped a bunch of cookies out that people had ordered, and managed to scrape up a decent amount in donations from the sale of my mango biscotti that will go to the Grimal Grove to help them offset the code violation fines that were in existence before the current owners took the place over. Grimal Grove is having it's First Annual Chocolate Fest in a few weeks too.... I'll be there vending. Hope you can make it out and support the Grove.

Our current feline lineup.
Can you figure who is who?

Last night we set out our candles of remembrance as we do every year. There were candles lit for homeless animals, homeless people, animals suffering in misery through animal agriculture, and many other people and causes. We lit the last one for our Mother Earth. We set intentions for a world of peace.... a vegan world. After we did that, together we sat and watched the sky go from yellow, to orange to pink and red, then finally we watched the full moon.  Although there were scattered clouds, incredibly none of them covered the moon, at least as long as I was watching. It was so quiet and beautiful. It makes me feel very tiny, unimportant, and contemplative. I don't consider any of that a bad thing.... keeps ya humble, right?

A shot of some of the Panda with Cookie ornaments.
Sure you know Angel in the middle, and Peri on the top, but...
do you know who that is on the left??

Angel in full color, waiting for a wing rub.

All Diesel, all the time.

Turns out Diesel wants ALL the pizza slices and is willing to work hard to get them!

One of Santa's illusive reindeer passing through.

It was an ordeal, but I managed to surprise the other happy vegan
with paw print ornaments of all the furry family.

The other happy vegan helps Angel make her foot print ornament on Christmas Day 2015. 

Princes really got into opening her pizza slice!

We have an invisible cat, her name is Pink Moon.
She has anxiety issues. She lives mostly under the covers.
Here she is before opening her "pizza slice."
Yes, she's under the covers here.... the other happy vegan
opened up the covers, I took the picture, and then we left her
to her pizza slice, under the covers.

I was inside doing some chores while the other happy vegan had Princess outside (on a leash.... remind you of anyone???) and Santa went over. Yes, he really did.... in an airplane with a red light. I heard him calling "Santa! Santa! There's Santa!" and 5 seconds later he was in the house.... turns out Princess was scared of the low flying plane and clamored to come inside. Who can blame her, when you're expecting reindeer and a plane shows up?

Today I took advantage of my morning off and slept to a ridiculously late hour, and woke up to a breakfast of Follow Your Heart Vegan Eggs (OMG SOOOO GOOD!) and Field Roast sausages with fruit. I drank coffee (yup, first time in many months), poured our great maple syrup over everything (no, not the coffee) and didn't have 1 single speck of guilt over any of it. After, we watched the kitties open their gifts, and then took Angel her gift. All the furry ones got "pizza slices" from Panda With Cookie, while Angel got 2 new giant toys of her own. If you don't know Panda With Cookie, you need to find her on Etsy. She makes many cute eco-felted vegan items, including custom animal ornaments. My gift to the other happy vegan was a full set of our animal family, along with a paw print ornament from each animal. Instead of an ornament from Angel, he got a jar full of stuff to make the ornament, and together we worked with Angel to capture her footprint. Her little ornament is in the oven right now. Her feet are pretty big, but I think it will come out perfectly.

Diesel made quick work of her pizza slice. She opened it, batted it a few times,
then became immersed with the paper it was wrapped in.
Kittens!

We get right back to work tomorrow, and it's going to be a long time before I have another day off. The new year is right around the corner, lots of people make resolutions but I don't, actually I consider that silly... UNLESS you make a resolution to go vegan. What I can say about that is why wait till the new year, how about going vegan now. Right this second. You can find the support you need at www.howdoigovegan.com and through support groups too. If you don't have a support group in  your neighborhood, you can always just start one of your own, just like we did here. Of course, you can always write to me, we're on Facebook too, but you already knew that didn't you.

It would seem Christmas is magical for kittens....

We always light candles on Christmas Eve.
These are some of them.
Homeless people.
Homeless animals.
Animals suffering in animal agriculture.
People and animals who have crossed over.
Our Mother Earth.
And others......

The other happy vegan built me a tree. He really did.
He soaked a tree stump for a few days, drilled holes, then stuck some
Jamaican caper and pine branches. Strung some lights, and called it a day.
I was happy.

Luciana didn't work quite as hard to open her pizza slice, but once it was open,
she was quite enchanted with it.

Aggie worked really hard to get to her pizza slice!

Couldn't resist, had to put this picture in. As I was attempting to take a photo of Agatha Rain
opening her "pizza slice" from Panda With Cookie, Diesel came running to play, and
as you see.... leapt clear over Aggie!

Lemon LOVES his "pizza slice" from Panda With Cookie...

Princess LOVES her "pizza slice" from Panda With Cookie.....

So there it is. Another Christmas Day done and over. My wish for all of you is to live with compassion, live your life as an example to others, be proud of your compassionate choices, and help others go vegan and stay vegan. Every day we happy vegans feel the urgency more and more to spread the vegan message. But you already knew that too, didn't you.