For Christmas this year, Jane received a subscription to bon appetit magazine.  She received the gift because the giver knew that she was always cooking and looking at recipes.  Unfortunately, the giver did not pay particular attention to the kind of recipes that Jane was looking at, but it's the thought that counts, eh?

So every month, before passing it along to a friend who does appreciate this kind of cooking,  Jane's been looking through bon appetit for ideas.  Clearly, the magazine is not geared towards vegans, but there are some interesting spice combinations and some hints of ideas of things that could be veganized.  There is even the occasional article that we'll read.  But overall, the magazine is definitely slanted towards omnivores.  So you can imagine our shock, when Jane found a clearly marked vegan recipe in the June issue. It's on page 40 and the recipe is for "Grilled Veggie and Tofu Stack with Balsamic and Mint."  And right above the recipe, highlighted in green, it reads "vegan main dish."  You could have just knocked me over with a feather!  It even sounds good!

They also promote the recipe by indicating  that it "isn't just vegan -- the main course is also high in fiber and low in calories and cholesterol.  Of course, the recipe immediately following is for grilled lamb chops.  But still... bon appetit featured a vegan recipe.

Jane and I are struggling a bit. One of our kitties, our favorite, has terminal cancer. The vet has prescribed pain killers, along with some other fun things. And we've been instructed to pay careful attention to her level of comfort and when it appears she is suffering, we should euthanize her.

On a logical basis, I know this is the right thing to do. It is our responsibility to our pets to care for them as best we can. Personally, I would want someone to help me end it when the pain became unbearable. The only difference here is that I expect I would be able to communicate my desires when the time came. The thing that scares us both is that we won't really know when it is the "right time." So we are going to have to make the decision to kill a being. And realistically, it will likely be too early, or too late.

We got the pain killers today. We knew our kitty had been ailing. She has a mass growing on her face, and when she finished her first round of anti-biotics she started smelling really foul, as if she was rotting. (Which btw, is what the vet said is happening with her tumor.) Occasionally she would pass on her food and Jane would spend significant time coaxing her to eat. But our kitty still wanted to hang with us, and she would purr when we petted her. We had no idea she was in pain. After her first dose of pain killer, she was much more playful and her purring was louder. So is she stoned, or had she been suffering and we missed it all?

We love this cat. I mean, really love this cat. She is our child. Our other kitty is great, but he is a pet. This cat has a real personality. Neither of us is happy with the idea of putting her down. She's almost 16. She's had a better life than many people on this earth. But how do you actually make the decision to kill another being? Even if it is the compassionate thing to do?

Yesterday was Memorial Day, the unofficial start to summer here in the US.  We hope you all had a good holiday weekend (if you had the day off).  One of the joys of summer is the ability to grill your food.  Of course, living in southern California we can pretty much grill year round, but we tend to grill a lot more over the summer than we do in the winter.

If you're looking for some vegan recipes to try out on your grill, Amy over at VegCooking (PETAs cooking blog), has a whole bunch of great recipes.  Our favorite is the Grilled Peaches ala Mode.  Generally, we skip the ice cream and use plums instead of peaches.   But this is yum!

And just in case your family or friends give you a little grief over the idea of vegan grilling, you may want to tell them about the five worst foods to grill.  Happy Summer!

It's All Veg Broth!

Hi Everyone,

It's Jane writing tonight.  As the "executive chef" here at the Vegan Bits household I need to clear up a little mistake Lane made in last night's post, the review of Temepeh-Tations.  (And can I tell you we've gotten quite a few concerned email messages about our status as vegans...)  I/We don't use chicken stock, and here's a photo to show you all what's in our pantry, at least as far as broth is concerned.  We've got Trader Joe's Savory Vegetable Broth Concentrate, Trader Joe's Vegetable Broth, and VEGETARIAN Chicken Broth (powdered).  It almost looks like an ad for Trader Joe's, eh?  I actually used some of the boxed broth in last night's dinner.  Hope that clears things up.