Liebster Award

I've been nominated for a Liebster Award by Rosie from Rosie's Vegan Kitchen, whose blog you can find at http://vegan-in-wales.blogspot.com, and also by Jen from Deer Run B & B, whose blog you can find at http://www.happyvegans.blogspot.com/

Liebster Awards are a fun way for bloggers to promote small blogs that are just starting out, like my blog.  To be nominated, a blog has to have fewer than 200 followers on any platform, so that fits my blog to a T considering I only have one follower, and it's me, using one of my other email addresses!

If a person is nominated, she must answer the questions that have been provided by the nominator and think of ten new questions to ask blogger that she then nominates.  A nominee can't nominate the person who nominated her.  The person has to tell her nominees that they've been nominated.  I guess this is the equivalent of a blog chain letter, but it is a way for a person to get free publicity for her blog.

So here are my answers to Rosie and Jen's questions.   I hope it's not considered un-cool to answer both nominators' questions in the same post, because that's not my intention at all.

I will answer Rosie's first:

1. If you could bring any one animal back from extinction, what would it be?
All extinction stories are tragic, but one which has always resonated with me is the Passenger Pigeon,  and I always kept in my mind the image of Martha,  the very last one of her kind,  languishing in the Cinncinati Zoo until she died.   At one time numbering in the billions, these pigeons were killed very quickly.

2, What would you say is the dish you cook most often?
I make a very nice cream of squash soup, with no cream in it.   It has just the right combination of veggies and spices, and I puree it with my trusty Kitchenaid immersion blender to make it smooth and creamy.   I love it, and everyone who has tried it loves it.  I hope that didn't sound too immodest.

3. If a zombie apocalypse was imminent and you could only take 5 store cupboard staples in your bag before fleeing, what would they be?
I know this might not be anyone's idea of a staple, but I would grab some Lay's potato chips - when you are running for your life, you might want a salty snack, plus Lay's are one of the foods I always said I'd take to a desert island (Lay's and my mum's apple pie).  I would also take Christie's Premium Plus Saltine crackers.  I love them.   President's Choice Original Soy milk would be in my escape kit as well.  I would also take President's choice teriyaki tofu and some fresh veggies.

 4. Tell me about your favourite restaurant, and your favourite dish there.
My current favourite vegan/vegetarian restaurant is Norman's Coach and Horses in London, England.   I have had two dishes there, both fantastic, both vegan, impossible to choose between them.  The first dish I had there was  Tofish and chips - deep fried tofu wrapped in a sheet of nori and dipped in batter - and the chips were fantastic too.  I went back the next day and had a burger and fries.  The burger was the best vegan burger I have ever had in my whole life, and I regret not having one every day I was in London.  I wrote to the pub when I returned home to Canada and asked if they were willing to share the hamburger recipe and I promised not to publish it, but they didn't even reply to my note.  So now I'm on the hunt to recreate that burger.

5. Are you a cat or dog person.
I have three cats (my oldest cat died in January sadly), and I love them to bits,  but I would like to get a dog when I retire, to help keep me active and going for walks.  The cats don't care for the harness and lead at all.

6. What animal do you think you are most like in personality?
I'm tempted to say I'm like a cat but I'm not graceful.   I think I'd have to say I'm like a dog - faithful and loyal and a good friend, and I eat way too much when I get the chance.

7. What new ingredients have you discovered that you love since going vegan?
I love Earth Balance margerine, and Vegenaise in all of its flavours.  I love vegan aioli, and creamy things made with cashews.   I love vegan caramels.  I love tofu scrambles.

8. What are your favourite resources for getting inspiration for vegan food?
I read blogs and magazines and cruise the internet for inspiration.  I also look to the food I ate when I was not a veg-head and I try to veganize it, and I've had some pretty good results.

9. What has been your biggest fail in vegan cooking and have you managed to resolve said fail?
I made a bean stew that was kind of tasteless.   I made it again but doubled the number of onions and garlic cloves, added lots of black pepper and other spices and you would not have known it was the same stew.

10. Do you have a non-vegan childhood favourite food that you have managed to re-create to be sfv?
Yes I do: my mum's apple pie.   She used to make apple pies with Wealthy apples, a variety that is, as far as I can tell, no longer in cultivation.  But I have found other cooking apples that make a wonderful pie, and I make the pie shells without lard of course, and the pies are fabulous.


And now here are my answers to Jen's questions:

How long have you been vegan?  I have been vegan since 2008.
2. Have you ever "fallen off the vegan" wagon, why, and what brought you back to being vegan?  When I was a vegetarian I fell of the wagon when my mother passed away, and my father's sisters came to his house to cook Italian foods for us.  I got back on the wagon as soon as they left, but I've never knowingly fallen off the vegan wagon.
3. Do you have many vegan family/friends?  One of my sisters and my niece and nephew are vegans.  My other sister, my brother and my father are breaking my heart by their refusal to see what they are doing to animals and themselves by eating meat.
4. What kind of music do you like to cook and bake to?  I confess that I'm a baby-boomer - I listen to the Beatles.
5. Have you ever been to a VegFest, and if so, which one… did you have a favorite? This year I went to the VegFest in Toronto.  It was great.  When I retire, which will be soon I think, I will go to veg fests in other cities and countries.
6. What one piece of advice would you give to someone who wants to go vegan, but cannot find their way?  I would tell that person to think of the animals whom they are directly saving by not eating meat, the cruelty that is not happening by not eating meat.
7. Do you share your life with any companion animals, if so, who are they?  I currently have three cats, all of them rescues.  My oldest cat passed away in January after a four year battle with leukemia.  He as a week shy of his twentieth birthday.
8. Where you live, is it relatively easy to get a nutritious, creative vegan meal while eating out? I live in Toronto, and there are plenty of great vegan places to eat here, even in the far flung suburbs where I live.
9. Sweet or savory? Sweet.
10. What would your "dream job" be?  I'm lucky - I'm doing my dream job - I'm a school teacher!


And here are my questions:

 Did you come to veganism slowly and gradually, or did it come to you like a lightening bolt?

2.  What kitchen appliance could you not live without?

3.  Have you lost any friends because of your vegan lifestyle?

4.  Have you made any new friends due to your vegan lifestyle?

5. If you were invited to a pot-luck, what vegan meal/salad/dessert would you bring to try to win converts to the cause?

6.  Approximately how many times have you been asked "But where do you get your protein?"

7.  What are your favourite vegan shoes?

8.  If I were to sneak a peek into your lunchbox on a work day, what would I find in it?

9.   What are your top five vegan cookbooks?

10.  What was the best part of vegan mofo for you, and would you be interested in trying it again next year?



Now here are the blogs that I nominate for the Liebster Award.  These are all great blogs! Check them out!

http://nouveauveganquebec.blogspot.ca
http://salaamvegan.blogspot.ca
http://maythevegbewithyou.wordpress.com
http://elizaveganpage.blogspot.ca
http://www.downhomevegan.com
http://kittensgonelentil.blogspot.ca
http://rogueavocado.blogspot.ca
http://jessicatcooks.wordpress.com