Keri Cronin

Monthly Archives: November 2010


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Vegan Brock

A few of us Brock-based vegans (and vegan sympathizers) have banded together to form a group called Vegan Brock. The idea is to use social media to spread the word about vegan options on campus – look for us on Facebook and Twitter!

To that end, I was just over in the Guernsey Market to pick up some lunch. While I didn’t see any baking labelled with the new “vegan” stickers today I was delighted to see soy milk for sale in the drink coolers. You can pick up 1 litre tetra packs or the smaller drink box sized containers. I’ve been asking for non-dairy milk on this campus for ages so this is just a wonderful development! Well done Guernsey Market! (This makes a nice change from the 2 on-campus Starbucks locations who offer me the “lactose free” milk every time I ask for soy milk. I think these are the only two Starbucks locations I’ve ever encountered who are so resistant to bringing in non-dairy options. So weird!)

So to all you Brock folks looking for non-dairy options, be sure to support the Guernsey Market in this initiative.

The vegan soup at the Guernsey Market today was a yummy-looking Pasta e Fagioli, but since it is such a warm, sunny day I wasn’t in the mood for soup. I opted instead for a “shaker salad.” I love this idea — you grab a (100% biodegradable) container and load it up with your choice of veggies and beans. Add your dressing and any toppings (sesame seeds, croutons, etc.), put the lid on and shake it up. This makes a nice, fresh, healthy alternative to the prepared salads one often encounters in cafeteria-style places. Today I loaded mine up with: spinach, broccoli, carrots, beets, peppers, olives, and chickpeas. No dressing necessary. Yum!


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For the Birds!

This weekend we drove down to Farm Sanctuary in Watkins Glen, NY to attend the Celebration for the Turkeys. This event, of course, takes place around the same time as American Thanksgiving and is a symbolic way of both celebrating the animals rescued at Farm Sanctuary and remembering those millions and millions of animals who are not as lucky. At this event turkeys like Daphne and Velma get fed tasty treats like cranberries and mashed pumpkin.

We spent a few hours at the farm, hanging out with the cows, pigs, chickens, geese, goats and rabbits. I absolutely love Farm Sanctuary — one of my favourite places on earth!



After spending time at the Farm, we all gathered at the Harbor Hotel for a vegan thanksgiving dinner. So delicious! The menu included: a yummy salad with pomegranate, a pumpkin soup that might just be the best soup I’ve ever had in my entire life, mashed potatoes, a beans and greens mix, Tofurkey, assorted veg and some delicious desserts (including chocolate dipped strawberries).

We stayed at the Marmalade Cat B & B in Watkins Glen and enjoyed a delicious vegan breakfast, complete with french toast. (thanks Sally!) There were 3 lovely cats who lived at the house — Charlie, the orange and white cat, was especially friendly!

Good Groceries was right next to the B&B and it was great to shop for products that we can’t yet get in Canada — things like the Tofurky pizzas with Daiya, Soy-based Whipped Cream and Field Roast sausages. (I know, I know! Prepared foods are not the most nutritious and we generally don’t eat them, yet it was really exciting to see and purchase products I’ve heard about in the vegan blogosphere but have not yet had access to. I promise to use them sparingly!)

While we were down in the Finger Lakes region we decided to nip over to Ithaca. I was so looking forward to going to the Moosewood Restaurant, but it is only open for dinner on Sundays. My disappointment was short-lived though — we found a funky little waffle house that had vegan waffles. Yay!!


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Sunday Vegan Cooking Extravaganza!

I went a little cooking crazy yesterday — I kicked things off with Carrot Cake Pancakes (yum!) and then spent most of the afternoon making a couple of recipes out of How it All Vegan. I tried their recipe for Garden Medley Vegetable Stew (lots of veggies, turmeric, cumin and chili powder…yum, yum, yum) and also the Classic Spinach Lasagna (the traditional ricotta cheese/egg mixture replaced with a mix of medium tofu, non-dairy milk, spices, lemon juice and spinach). I also used Daiya mozzarella-style shreds and the PC Blue Menu Veggie Bolognese Sauce in the between-the-noodles layers. I was pretty happy with how both recipes turned out!

In the evening we went down to Pan, the most vegan friendly restaurant in downtown St. Catharines. A friend was celebrating her birthday and had booked the restaurant for a private dance party. It was great fun — lots of wee kids running around and tearing up the dance floor. Good food, good beer, good atmosphere and good company! Yay!


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These Cupcakes Brought To You By Chaka Kahn

Tonight my iPod played 80s music while I baked Gingerbread Cupcakes. The recipe came from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World (seriously, how can you resist a book with this title?) and the musical inspiration came from my friend and colleague, Duncan MacDonald. (watch this video, you’ll understand).

Gingerbread Cupcakes
-1 1/4 c. flour
-1 teaspoon baking powder
-1/2 teaspoon baking soda
-3 teaspoons ground ginger
-1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
-1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
-1/4 teaspoon salt
-1/2 c. vegetable oil
-1/3 c. light molasses
-1/2 c. maple syrup
-1/4 c. soy milk
-2 tablespoons soy yogurt
-1 1/2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest
-1/4 c. finely chopped crystallized ginger

Preheat oven to 350 and line muffin pan with cupcake liners.
Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and salt in a bowl and mix.
Whisk oil, molasses, maple syrup, soy milk, yogurt and lemon zest in a separate bowl.
Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just smooth. Fold in crystallized ginger.
Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full. Bake 19-22 min.
Frost with lemony buttercream icing — vegan, of course! (blend 1/2 c. vegan margarine softened with 2 c. icing sugar. Then add freshly squeezed lemon juice 1 teaspoon at a time until you reach the desired consistency)


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Vegan Baking at Brock

The day has finally arrived! Today was the first time I was able to buy a vegan baked good from the official food service folks on campus. (a shout out to Brock Animal Rights Club — your bake sales are fantastic! I’m not ignoring you, just looking for vegan goodness to be included in places like the Guernsey Market too!)

Baker Brian promised us vegan muffins and he delivered — some fantastically, yummy, mouth-watering raspberry vegan muffins. I was so excited about the fact that there were vegan muffins in the Guernsey Market that I forgot all about taking a picture of them, so I guess this is a picture-free blog post. Pity as they were quite lovely-looking muffins too!

Thanks Brian! Thanks Guernsey Market! The Brock vegan community is smiling today.


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New Stickers + The Promise of Vegan Muffins

More good vegan news coming out of the Guernsey Market at Brock. Today I went over for lunch and was delighted to find new stickers identifying both vegan and vegetarian options.

I had the vegetable orzo soup — delicious! Thanks so much to the good folks over at the Guernsey Market for these new and improved signs!

And on the subject of good vegan news at the Guernsey Market, we talked to Baker Brian today (sorry Brian, didn’t catch your last name!) and were delighted when he told us that there will be vegan muffins tomorrow morning. I’ve got a 9am meeting so am looking forward to grabbing one of these goodies for breakfast before my meeting.


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Smoo at Brock! Yeah!

I have been pestering and pestering the food services folks at Brock to carry non-dairy milk. There were a few weeks back last year when the “C-block” café offered soy milk (a.k.a. smoo*) to go along with the tea and coffee. I made a point of going to that café whenever I could. I’m not sure exactly when the soy milk disappeared from there, but it has been business as usual (read: only cow’s milk) at the food services kiosks I’ve stopped in at this year. Le sigh…

But today was different! Word went out on the Vegan Brock network this morning that the new Guernsey market had a carton of soy milk out with the other coffee and tea fixings! I had to go and see it for myself!

For a campus in the running for most vegan-friendly university, offering non-dairy options is a bare minimum. If anyone from Brock food services is reading this, please, please, please keep this up! Please!! I understand that there is often not a lot of uptake when options like this are rolled out, but it is also important to understand that we vegans and vegetarians have often given up trying to find these options and instead have resorted to things like buying fridges for our offices to keep food we can eat. (guilty!) It is definitely a vicious cycle.

Communication is the key here and, to that end, I’m delighted that a facebook page called “Vegan Brock” has been started. It is a place for Brock folks to post about vegan options they spot on campus, a way to get the word out. It clearly works — as soon as the notice went up on this page about the soy milk, I headed over to the Guernsey market.

*smoo = soy milk. For years and years regular milk was called “moo” in my house. Now that I’m vegan I’ve adapted it.


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Mac ‘n Cheese — Now With Cashews!

Tonight Laurie and I decided to try a new (to us) vegan mac ‘n cheese recipe. It was a recipe that L. had tried at one of the Niagara Action for Animals potlucks I wasn’t able to attend. She has been talking about it ever since and even found a place where she could order some raw cashews that would have a pretty low risk of being cross-contaminated with peanuts so that I could try this recipe. The nuts arrived in the post and we got cooking!

Step 1: gather ingredients & cook pasta

Step 2: Purée the cashews in the food processor. Add grape seed oil, nutritional yeast, etc… (see recipe link above for more specific details!)

Step 3: Sauté onions, then add cashew mixture. Stir until thickened.

Step 4: Mix cooked noodles with “cheese” sauce. Top with bread crumbs if desired.

This recipe is delicious and definitely fits my vegan comfort food criteria!

PS: this was the perfect recipe for trying out the new Cow Hugger apron from Herbivore! Yeah!


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Sunday Evening at Brooklyn’s

I went with Linda and Laurie to Brooklyn’s for dinner tonight and I did remember my Vegan MoFo project #2, to try other things on the menu besides my all-time favourite Spicy ‘Chick’n’ Sandwich. It was tough to resist the call of the best darn sandwich in the world, but I did it. I ordered a small “Better Than Caesar” Salad and an order of vegan perogies with tofutti “sour cream” (which just happened to be on special tonight). Both were absolutely delicious! There was a lot of food and I ended up getting half the perogies packaged up for tomorrow’s lunch.

Can I just say how freakin’ wonderful it is to be able to go to a pub and have a choice of vegan food to pick from!?? Three cheers for Brooklyn’s!


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A Whirlwind Tour Out West

At the end of October I took a quick trip out to Alberta to see my mom and dad. I only had a few days for travel, but we packed a lot of fun in to those few days! One of the highlights was the new Leduc Rec Centre. Wow! I’m really impressed! (apparently so are the Edmonton Oilers) We had a great time skating and swimming — it was wonderful to warm up in the hot tub after a spin on one of the three skating rinks.

I was also delighted to see the new C-Line transit system set up between Leduc and Edmonton. For years and years I’ve wished for this kind of service and I can’t quite believe it is in place. Congrats to all those who helped make it happen!! This is wonderful! I see the early ridership numbers are a bit low, so come on all you Leduc folks — get on the bus! And while I’m on the topic, shame on Greyhound who apparently held this thing up. Seriously? We’re talking about 2 different kinds of bus services here. The C-Line hooks people right in to Edmonton’s LRT system (oh yeah, kudos to Edmonton Transit on the expansion to this system over the past few years! Amazing!!) and allows for commuting, the Greyhound station isn’t exactly part of a transit hub!

And speaking of new developments, we managed to find time for a quick run in to the newly-redesigned Art Gallery of Alberta (which I still want to call the Edmonton Art Gallery). I especially loved the Reframing a Nation exhibition and Edward Burtynsky’s show, Oil. Of course we couldn’t photograph inside the exhibition spaces, so this image from inside the newly-designed gallery will have to suffice! (That’s my dad waaaaay in the background!)

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