I'm working on a new vegan recipe book and I need a Title. If you have any ideas please email me or comment on FaceBook, Google+ or Twitter. If your suggestion is chosen you will receive a copy of the new book due out at the end of 2013.
The recipes are a collection of the Viva la Vegan! Recipe Calendars released in 2006, 2007 and 2008 - then later recycled recipe cards. I would like a better title for the book than what I was originally going to go with: Recipe Cards Collection.
Over 3 days mid-April, my good friend and go-to photographer, Carol from Carol Slater Photography and I did a photo shoot for the 36 recipes that will be in the upcoming book. I also spent another 3 other days with preparation.
I'd like to share the wonderful work that Carol has done by the photos below showing my original photos (on top) and Carol's new and improved ones below. You can also click on the name of each dish or the photo to download the Recipes - make sure you sign in!
Here's the ones from the first recipe calendar, released in 2006
I had the pleasure of attending my good friend, Daniel's and his long-suffering partner, Georgina’s wedding in February this year. The wedding was an all-vegan, eco-friendly and non-alcohol event held at Stradbroke Island in Queensland, Australia.
Venue: Deadmans Reserve, Point Lookout, North Stradbroke Island, Queensland, Australia
Gretchen Primack is a poet, editor, and teacher living in New York's Hudson Valley.
She's the author of two poetry collections, Kind (Post-Traumatic Press 2013) and Doris' Red Spaces (Mayapple 2014), and a chapbook, The Slow Creaking of Planets (Finishing Line 2007). She co-wrote The Lucky Ones: My Passionate Fight for Farm Animals with Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary co-founder Jenny Brown (Penguin Avery 2012).
Gretchen is a passionate advocate for the rights and welfare of non-human animals and lives with several of them, along with a beloved human named Gus. She has been a union organizer, a working women's advocate, and a professor and administrator for a college program in a maximum-security men's prison.
Amy Guidry is an American artist residing in Lafayette, Louisiana. She grew up in Slidell, Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans. She attended Loyola University of New Orleans where she received her Bachelors degree in Visual Arts in 1998. She was the recipient of the Loyola University Art Scholarship, which is awarded to only one student per graduating class.
Silva Mirovics from Nutritional Empire has recently released her Handbook for the Aussie Vegan. A book which incorporates Australian Vegan businesses in one handy resource. It includes recipes by some of Australia's vegan businesses, as well as a collection of articles submitted by well-known Aussie vegans.
I asked Silva about the book, the upcoming launch and her Nutritional Empire website.
Quite a few new vegetarian and vegan restaurants have opened up since I was overseas on my 6 month SE Asia adventures. One of them is Tracey Chapman's Peace Pies at Redcliffe, Brisbane North.
High end, vegan fashion label UMASAN and Berlin-based, vegan band Notic Nastic joined forces at Berlin Fashion Week to promote inspiring change in others.
The WWBS is an easy and enjoyable way to raise funds, and to raise awareness about food that is delicious and satisfying but does not involve exploiting or mass-killing animals. Green Earth Group have participated in the WWBS in 2011 plus 2012 here and here.
So, my South East Asia adventures have come to a close. I had a wonderful time and met some amazing people. Even though I hadn't planned to, I was involved in a lot of vegan activism, outreach, food demos and talks - my friends would say, "of course!"
I thought I'd share with you some of the press that was published in Indonesia. (Click on the photos to view on FaceBook in high resolution)
This photo is of me with Metropolis - Magelang Express newspaper on December 17 where an article about myself, my work and my book was on the front cover!
The Vida Vegan Con is happening again! This year (again) in Portland, OR in the USA the second vegan bloggers conference will take place at the Portland Art Museum from Friday 24 May - Sunday 26 May.
I'm speaking on the Saturday about Ethics Beyond the Plate and Vegan Invasion: Community Building
On Sunday I'll be speaking about International Activism.
It's that time of year again, I know you can't wait to find out the Top 10 VLV list of Blogs, Articles, Videos & Pins for the year that was 2012. Well here they are:
Since I've been over in SE Asia, I've attended many veg events and even have another one in December around Christmas. I have been speaking at these events along with giving food demonstrations of my vegan recipes including my Vegan Cheese Sauce:
Tuesday 6 November – Bus from Chiang Mai to Mai Sai
I finally arrived at 01:20 at the Chiang Mai train station – 5 hours late and after 16.5 hours on the train. Exhausted. It was easy to get to the Poi De Ping Hotel from the train station. A driver drove myself and 6 other people to their places. Mine was about 5 minutes away and the drive cost THB100. One of the staff was waiting for me to arrive.
I did a bit of computer work, had a shower and slept for a bit before waking up at 06:30 to call the Green Bus to see if their early buses to Mae Sai were free, but they only spoke Thai on the message. Went back to sleep after realising I’d just have to get the 12:00 midday bus.
When I woke up and had a shower, one of the staff members took me to the bus station – a 2-minute drive on his motorbike – to get my ticket. I paid THB234 (under AU$8) for a VIP back seat 5B. The staff memeber drove me back and I looked around the area for something to eat, but there wasn’t anything. I ended up leaving earlier to get something to eat at the bus station. I ordered noodles with bean shoots, garlic and chilli for THB30. Not that exciting, but okay. I also bought some snacks at the shops and the 7-11 over the road. I realised when walking back to the station that there was a market down one of the side streets, which would have been fun to explore.
Thursday 25 October – Butterworth to Bangkok by train
The Butterworth, Malaysia to Bangkok, Thailand train was meant to leave Butterworth at 14:20 and arrive the next day in Bangkok at 11:24. I booked a KTM sleeper train with Air Conditioning in a second-class berth ANST. It was the 36-Ekspres Antarabangsa. On Coach 10 #10 at a cost of RM 111.90 (just over AU$34.)
The train arrived at the Butterworth station at 14:45 and finally left at 15:00. The sleepers were down as seats. An attendant had told me that you could sit anywhere until we crossed the Thailand border around 19:00 when the berths (beds) would be made up. A Finnish guy sat with me and we had a bit of a chat. He was studying herbal medicine and Muay Thai in Thailand and had been in Thailand many times.
A lot of people got onto the train until we were at Pandang Besar. This is where we all got off of the train to get our Thailand land visas at around 18:30. Because I was crossing over on land (train) and not by air, I could only get a 15-day pass. It’s 30 days if you fly over. I hope this will be enough time for Thailand. If not, I can always do a border crossing and back.
I arrived about 15:20 at the Palembang airport where I noticed a lot of smoke/fog/pollution when flying down. Santi and her partner, Gary picked me up. This was the hottest I’ve been since arriving in Asia on August 7. We drove to Santhi’s to pack some of her clothes as we would both be staying at Jhonson’s (the head of IVS in Palembang) house. We then drove to Taman Golf where Jhonson and his wife, Aphing (nicknamed Cece) live with their two daughters, Vanni and Cici.
Cece cooked dinner: tofu with sweet soy, soup with tofu skin, curry, kang kong, beans and corn with rice:
Today begins a month-long journey for me, speaking at various IVS veg events in Indonesia. Sumatra will be in a couple of weeks, first up is the island of Java.
Chindy and Santhi from IVS picked me up at the Yogyakarta airport with our driver, Siti. We then drove to a hotel to pick up Avara from Living Food Lab and her work mate, Lukman. Avara and her business partner, Steve run the Living Food Lab at Bali’s Green School that I had meant to see when I was in Bali last but still haven’t.
