I only had a few complaints, some aspects of which were out of the organizers’ hands.  I remembered to wear a hat this year and even bought one of the event hats, but the sunscreen samples seemed to be absent this year.  I stayed in the shade as much as possible, but the sunscreen was a standout example of forethought from last year.  It’s possible they couldn’t find an animal friendly sample for this year.

Another issue had to do with the sound system.  The lavaliere microphones which were being used couldn’t pick up the speaker’s voice unless they were holding them right in front of their mouth.  This created the spectrum of the first food demo I attended being very difficult, if not impossible, to hear to the final demo being a ear drum shattering event as the speaker decided to both shout and hold the mic right in front of their mouth.  A little training for the speakers and testing of the equipment ahead of time might have helped with these issues.

My last gripe was truly mostly out of the organizer’s hands in that it might have been harder to predict.  On day 2, the wind was whipping up quite a fury.  The demo tent sides were blowing back and forth quite violently and they made many of the side seats useless.  The food court umbrellas blew off of their axes several times, that I witnessed, and trying to put one of the umbrellas back was a shoulder dislocating endeavor, as I can attest.  In the first case, the tents could have been secured better on the sides, I would have thought, and in the latter, a bit of tape would have properly kept the umbrellas from blowing to Oz, perhaps.

Enough complaining.  The event overall was a definite improvement over last year and that is saying a lot, since last year seemed quite nice.   Despite my previously mentioned problems, the general organization and feel of the fest was even better a year later.  I felt like there were more vendors, more demos, and more speakers.  In this case, more was better and the grounds were able to handle the decent amount of people who braved the heat, sun, humidity, and wind.  The first day even threatened to rain, but by the time the fest opened, the threat seemed to have passed.

Each day, to start out, I made sure to attend the breakfast demos and came away with some personal revelations on a small scale.  The All American Breakfast demo focused on tofu scramble with a side of vegan (Gimme Lean from Lightlife) veggie sausage.  What I learned here was to let go of worrying about pressing or draining tofu so much in a situation like this.  Worst case scenario, you can cook the extra water out.  Definitely pat the tofu down with paper towels, but don’t worry about the water.  There are cases, marinating for example, where extra water will inhibit absorption, but I will be making more tofu scramble now that some of the water stress has been alleviated.

The other breakfast demo was from Nature’s Path, the fine people who gave out the stellar red and yellow bags.  They had granola with vegan yogurt for sampling along with a bit of waffle.  I love granola, but have never been a yogurt fan before or after becoming vegetarian.  The sample they handed out gave me a way, that I hadn’t really thought of before, to possibly enjoy yogurt in the future.

The one nice surprise of a demo was the arrival of Chicago Diner.  When I saw them in the program on the following day, I knew I would make it to the audience of this one.  I have fond memories of when I used to live within easy distance of this fine eatery and to find them out here in the burbs was a pleasant event.  The demo itself was everything I expected.  They made a spring roll which looked wonderful.  I say looked, because I passed on it just as they ran out of samples.  I was having an interesting reaction to the heat, so I wasn’t too disappointed right in that moment.  Fortunately, the next item they demoed was chocolate mousse and they made sure those missed on the first round were the first recipients on that round.  Quite soothing and delicious and the perfect antidote to a thankfully passing condition.

I didn’t plan this, but I also attended several raw food demos this year.  The first one I went to was just a warm-up since I didn’t make it all the way through, wanting to go to the first breakfast demo, but the reminder about how many times we cook things on a day to day basis was key.  It made me appreciate the later raw food items I was able to try and keep an more open mind about it.  I spent more time at the next raw food demo.  The presenter was engaging and told a great story about her and her hockey playing Blackhawk’s husband going vegan around the same time (coincidentally around the time I went vegetarian).  She then went on to describe the transition to raw food and how her three children have been brought up vegetarian and more and more raw food has made it’s way into their diet.  The dish she started with was a fairly basic salad, but the tip I walked away with was to make the dressing in the bottom of the bowl and add ingredients mixing as you go along.  The last raw food demo I attended, also my last demo of the fest, was one where a chocolate cake was made in about 5 minutes.  The result was delicious and beyond that I learned a few more things about raw food.  I got a better feeling about how the soaking of nuts fits into the whole process and the concept of using avocado as an egg/cream replacer was introduced to me.  I am still going to be cooking things for the time being, but these demos have opened my eyes quite a bit to the world of raw.

I did a round of the vendors and volunteer organizations, but didn’t come away with anything in the way of merchandise or handouts.  Each day I also tried something from the food court area.  The first day I had my old standby, falafel.  It was tasty enough, but not as crispy as I normally like it.  The second day, I tried a veggie dog which turned out to be quite nice in taste and texture.  I finished that meal off with a dessert made up of one spelt doughnut which was quite tasty.

All in all, I can’t recommend this event enough.  The food is great.  The people are great.  The venue, although it has some issues, is great.  The bonus on top of it all is that this year for the first time, they offered a shuttle from a nearby train station, which means that a car isn’t required to attend this event.  It had seemed strange to me that they didn’t provide an option for this in the past and, in my mind, just this fact absolves them from some of the other lack of planning I complained about at the outset.  Good job, Veggie Fest.  I look forward to many more years of celebrating all things Veg.

When I was back in Seattle I attended a similarly branded “fest” a couple of times.  A place for anyone who was interested to come and sample various vegetarian and vegan food and to attend panels on cooking, health, and ethics.  It was called Veg Fest NW there and was organized by Vegetarians of Washington and seems to be still going strong.  I had seen that the brand had more or less made its way here a few years ago, but this was the first chance I able to check it out.  Veggie Fest Chicagoland is organized and took place on the grounds of the Science of Spirituality Meditation Center.  More on the obvious differences caused by sponsorship concerns later.  I was able to make it to the final few hours of the second day.

The event in Seattle took place in one of the meeting halls at Seattle Center, whereas this gathering was spread among tents outside the Meditation Center.  It reminded me of the now defunct Book Fest in Seattle which for a couple of years was inside a building but the building itself was often an aging pier warehouse in November, so the effects of its walls were often minimal.  I missed those Book Fests, so it was nice to find something in this area that had even a small amount of similarity.  It was far from cold and I made the mistake of not bringing a hat, but they were distributing free sun screen which helped me avoid the worst of the sunburn.

The organization of the grounds seemed organized and parking was plentiful.  I was a bit annoyed that something like this was out of the reach of public transportation, but I got over it.  I attended two different panels, one by a web based vegan meat substitute company and the other a demonstration of vegan Mexican cooking.  A nicely produced cookbook was provided and I will be trying some of the recipes from that presentation as well as some of the others soon and post my results here.

The aforementioned philosophical undertone present at this event was not overpowering, but it was certainly obvious.  I commend the Meditation Center for continuing to put on this event and, a side note, the depth of the spanish language accomodations was both interesting and suprising to me for some reason I can’t quite put my finger on.

If they continue with these events in the future I certainly plan to try to make it on Saturday as well.  The overall atmosphere was splendid and it does provide a nice balance to the Annual Ribfest which happens in the same suburb for the 4th of July. The local papers were quick to point out this irony, but with all their statistics I think they have missed the point that some of us are grateful that events of this kind exist at all.

Click on From Link to see Album of other photos

I haven’t written much here about my visits to Wizard World Chicago conventions, but I have nevertheless gone annually for going on ten years now.  I haven’t been motivated to write about it at all over the last few years because about 5 years it started to go down hill, while things like Comic-con in San Diego (which I have had the pleasure of attending twice, in 2004 and 2005) only seem to get better every year.  Wizard World Chicago was very early this year landing in the last weekend of June, when it is normally in the middle of August.

How one defines the success of such an event can certainly vary from person to person.  For me, the availability of exhibitors, the quality of the panels, and the management of crowds and lines are probably the top three aspects of any convention which features media and mainstream aspects.  These were, of course, the things that only seemed to become lower in quality as the years passed for Wizard World and only seem to rise in quality for Comic-con.  Comic-con crowds are rather ridiculous in size, but they still somehow managed to provide places for everyone to go and had very aggressive crowd handlers to make sure human nature didn’t get the best of anyone.  Wizard World crowds are nothing to sneeze at but year after year lately, the crowd handlers have become meeker and meeker, if they were even present.

It looks like the bottom was hit last year, because this is the first year in a while at Wizard World where I have noticed a slight upswing in two out of the three categories.  The panels finally included some interesting Q&A sessions, this year specifically Lou Ferigno discussing reaction to the new HULK movie, two half-way decent movie trailer sessions, and a very well handled Q&A with Missy Peregrym from REAPER, HEROES, and STICK IT to name a few.

As a vegan, finding food at these type of events is always a bit of an issue.  Bringing my own food is usually the solution, which is certainly a way to save some money while I’m at it.  Regardless, this year also featured a fairly decent food court of sorts which was another nice way to deal with crowds and give them a place to eat.  Kudos to the Wizard World staff for this area and here’s to hoping it is still around next year along with continuing improvements, especially in the one area that continues to spiral downwards: the exhibitor area.

I don’t blame Wizard World 100% for the downward path of exhibitor number and quality.  The economy is certainly down and getting people to come to Chicago with the price of gas and the quality of airline travel is probably not as easy as it once was.  I can see how Comic-con San Diego will continue to shine in this area with such easy access to Los Angeles and an ideal place to visit.  The success that Comic-con continues to have is actually a downside in my book with too much to choose from, it becomes painful sometimes to pick among all the goodness.  Not that I won’t be greedily consuming all information that comes out of Comic-con, but in some ways I can find some small consolation in the tiny upswing being witnessed in our own local con.

So far, the things that one might not have on hand to try this: an ice cream maker (duh), a food processor or blender, and access to coconut milk (fortunately cans of it have always been in stock at any grocery store near me).

I’ve had a food processor for years if not decades. I didn’t use for much until I realized how easy and yummy making my own hummus would be, so that requirement was already satisfied. The Ice Cream Maker took some research. I pretty quickly decided I didn’t want to deal with rock salt, so the Cuisinart models started calling my name. Finding the Cuisinart 2 quart model at Sam’s Club for $50 clinched the deal.

What have I learned? Well, the recipe is made for a smaller size ice cream maker. Doubling the recipe overwhelmed my food processor basin, so I’ve come to a nice middle ground at 1 1/2 size measurements for the silken tofu, coconut milk cream, raw sugar, vanilla extract, melted chocolate, and soy milk.

Having made several batches of varying sizes, I can make the following recommendations. Finding the right amount of ingredients to properly fit your maker seems to affect the end result’s creaminess. Making sure to fully melt and properly blend the melted chocolate is key to nice smooth chocolate flavor. Using non-vacuum sealed silken tofu seems to make a huge difference to the texture. Also, using fresh (as opposed to frozen and then thawed) tofu seems ideal, as well.

Since Equal objects to being used in baking, I thought it might be ideal for ice cream, since only freezing is involved. The results have been less than satisfying on the first two sugar free batches I tried so some local diabetics could join in. I had not worked out some of the other issues, however, so maybe one more try is in the cards. So far, the results are very chalky and just seem to be missing the overall creamy quality the sugar filled recipe seems to create. I also tried one of the batches with baker’s unsweeted chocolate which probably also added to the problems. I’m thinking of a peanut butter version for the next try, since the added variables in the chocolate are making it hard to decide if Equal is the culprit. The peanut butter ice cream sure won’t be low in fat, but this is ice cream we’re making here, after all.

I’ll try to follow up with some pictures and results of the latest Equal challenge once I muster up the courage to give it another go.

There is this another recipe I found on Post Punk Kitchen. I haven’t tried it yet. It doesn’t use coconut milk cream at all, but rather goes with mostly tofu for the body. I’m not sure I would like it, but it might work if I’ve run out of coco milk. Another nice tip I might try from this recipe is to use maple syrup instead of turbinado sugar.

I’ve eaten, as I’m sure most vegans have, the store bought vegan ice cream, but it always seemed off somehow to me. With ice cream, the well worn motivation for homemade food certainly applies. Knowing exactly what went into the ice cream makes it taste better for some perfectly good reason.

My mouth is watering for a cone right now. See ya.

Tonight is a big night for Barack Obama supporters. I don’t think we actually expect him to win outright in Pennsylvania. We know better than to hope for that, but if he comes close at all to victory, then it should be over for Hillary. She will probably hang on until the end, but I think we all know that this would be one of those blows that results in internal bleeding which really should be looked at by a doctor as opposed to trying to fight on.

How does this apply to Twitter? Well, because events/happenings like tonight or what sounds like happened at SXSW earlier this year are what Twitter seems perfect for. Maybe Twitter was fixed just in time, maybe not. For a site which has no visible business model, we can be thankful it exists at all. Twitter is a strange beast, but even people’s reaction, or lack thereof, to it being wonky, has been the most fascinating part of all.

I am here today to tell you, in greater, and hopefully more useful, detail about this recipe that so far has been impossible for me to goof up and with one minor modification makes pretty much the best cookies, eating preferences notwithstanding, I think I have ever eaten, let alone am able to make whenever I want.

Many of you probably already know about this recipe but, for those of you who don’t, the original recipe I have fallen in love with is here, from Dreena Burton’s blog thoughtfully posted from her Vive Le Vegan cookbook.

The variation I have learned to go with, which she mentions later in her post, is to use whole wheat pastry flour, instead of all-purpose, which seems to make all the difference and elevates these cookies to greatness. It gives the overall taste of the cookie that little kick that every good cookie needs to satisfy you, make you want to always come back for more, but so satisfying that eating just one can be soooo good as to keep you from wanting or needing to eat the whole batch in one sitting. Having another cookie to look forward to can become almost zen-like in its motivation with these lovelies. I made a batch with all purpose flour and they just didn’t have that same internal combustion going on.

Besides the whole wheat pastry flour, having molasses (I’ve actually been using bead molasses instead of blackstrap because that’s all I’ve managed to find so far) and pure maple syrup are the only relatively challenging ingredients to acquire.

The only other strange thing I’ve encountered is that the amount of chips in the recipe may be high, because I always have some trying to escape the batter. For a double batch (which is almost mandatory for such a good recipe) the only thing I might change is to use a heaping half cup of chips, rather than 2/3rds of a cup.

What are you waiting for? Bake some of these up now and spread the love.

There are several options out there, few of them humane, for trying to deal with little visitors.

A company called Greenfeet has come up with a nifty solution that has worked well for me, at least.

Here is what it looks like in action:

From Flora and Fauna

The little mouse can’t get to the cracker until you let him and ideally you reveal the bait outside far from your home. So far, the mice I have caught haven’t been the smartest ones ever, or were scared out of their minds as mice like to get, and I had to remove the cracker every time before they would leave the green house. They are supposed to chew their way through the cracker when you reveal the exit and run away, or as they seem to around here, hop like miniature kangaroos.  The menagerie gathered so far is up on Picasa.  I sure hope they aren’t all the same mouse!

So, if you don’t like the idea of filling up the landfills with dead mice, then you might want to give this device a try. It takes a little extra work and attention than the other options out there, but the exercise gotten when freeing the little buggers is certainly worth something.

I’m just scratching the surface of what is available here on this free hosted solution, but I like what I see so far.  Took less than 5 minutes to sign up and import the old posts.  Certainly wasn’t painful.

Also, went insane the other day and joined twitter for anyone who wants to follow or be followed: my twitter home.

After the latest outage (which lasted all of 500 milliseconds) the poor thing didn’t want to boot all the way with fsck literally getting zapped. School took over all of my time unfortunately right about then, but now in the summer terms, a tiny bit of freedom has been afforded me.

An interesting series of Ubuntu installation and Knoppix live-CD’s later, the result is the words you are currently reading. NOTE TO SELF: if system says it can’t find fsck and you can’t find fsck then it’s NOT there. Trying simply putting a viable fsck in /sbin with the straggling remnants and everything might be OK.

Barring some network slowness, everything is coming back to life. Next task in line is to get the server migrated to a more easily updated installation…

Wish me luck!

This blog, as much as I haven’t been updating it over the last year and a half will remain alive, but it may disappear for a few days. Please do not distress.

With any luck, the changes I am making in my life will allow me to pay more attention to this piece of me.

I will be attending DePaul University as close to as full time as possible in the Fall having been accepted to their School for New Learning. I will be pursuing a second bachelor’s degree in Computing.

You may or may not have noticed that the escrow closing portion of my blog blurb has disappeared. I will be doing everything possible to keep it disappeared as my life moves forward.

GOODBYE SEATTLE! For now.