Keri Cronin

Monthly Archives: December 2010


by Leave a comment

2010

It is hard to believe that in a few short hours 2010 will be over and the year 2011 will be ushered in. All-in-all 2010 was a pretty good year. I started it off with a 6 month sabbatical which I found amazingly productive and restorative. It was nothing short of luxurious to reconnect with my research in such an in-depth way. I’ve also been reminded during this year just how happy I feel when I’m knee-deep in a research project. Work?! This is the stuff that keeps me ticking!

The other big focus for me this year was my commitment to veganism. I’d been a vegetarian for years and years and years, but the PCRM’s “21 Day Vegan Kickstart” in March gave me the push I needed to make the transition to a vegan lifestyle. I’ve been having a great time trying new recipes, learning how to veganize things, reading vegan cooking blogs and, of course, buying vegan cookbooks!

I’m not a resolution sort of gal, so instead I’ve made a list of my top 5 favourite things about 2010. In no particular order:

1) Visiting the George T. Angell memorial in Boston. I’ve been reading so much about his work, so this was pretty special.

2) A fabulous road trip out to Nova Scotia for the first-ever ALECC conference at CBU. Yeah! Here I am trying to blend in with the landscape along the St. Lawrence.

3) Organizing the first-ever Walk for Farm Animals in Niagara. So amazing! I’m still blown away by the wonderful turn-out we had for this event and am looking forward to the 2011 Niagara Walk for Farm Animals!

4) Any and all time spent with Jill the rabbit and Jenny the cat.


5) I’m going to cheat a bit here and combine a couple of related wonderful things in to one point – this year I had my first trip out to the Donkey Sanctuary of Canada and two trips down to Farm Sanctuary in Watkins Glen, NY. All three of these trips were wonderfully inspiring and life-changing. A shout-out to all who give their time, money, labour and love to animal Sanctuaries. May we one day have one in the Niagara region.

And one last bonus point — I had a great trip out west to visit my mom and dad in Leduc this fall. It was a short trip, but we packed a lot of fun in to it!

Happy 2011 everyone! May it be a happy, healthy, productive and peaceful year.


by Leave a comment

A “Baker’s Dozen” at Rise Above

So, I was among the fortunate few who scored a seat to tonight’s “Baker’s Dozen” event at the new Rise Above Bakery in St. Catharines. Now, I’m not one to gloat, but I have to say that if you weren’t there you missed out in a rather epic fashion. Amazing! An amazing 5 course vegan meal in a funky new downtown venue. Fan-flippin’-tastic!

To start, we had a delicious celery-pear soup.

This was followed by a potato and heirloom beet salad.

The next course was tofu in shitake dashi with sesame vegetables.

Next up was gnocchi in a cashew cream sauce. Amazing!

Dessert was a cinnamon bun with vanilla “ice cream” – seriously one of the most delicious desserts I’ve ever had in my entire life.

A great atmosphere and a great night – excellent food, wine, chai tea, art, etc.

Even Jenny (the cat) and Jill (the rabbit) approve.

Word on the street is that these events will take place on a semi-regular basis. If I were you, I’d be sure to sign up for the next one. Seriously.

Huge congrats to Kyle Paton on this new business adventure. I smell success!


by Leave a comment

Solstice Breakfast at Pan

To celebrate Winter Solstice we had breakfast at Pan, one of our favourite downtown restaurants. As usual, the food was spectacular! I had the “Eggs Bryan,” a vegan version of Eggs Benedict: toast, spiced tofu and an avocado-based hollandaise sauce. So yummy and it is especially nice with a glass of freshly-squeezed orange juice.

Niagara folks – if you haven’t been to Pan lately (or at all, for that matter), you are missing out! Great food made with local ingredients – the menu is veggie-friendly, but there is something for everyone! A great downtown location, neat art on the walls, “Baby Hour,” a new dinner menu on Thurs, Fri & Sat, and some pretty fabulous beers and wines – what’s not to love!? (and, no, I don’t work at Pan, I’m just a Pan fan!)


by Leave a comment

Holiday Goodies

We had a few friends and neighbours over yesterday afternoon for a little holiday cheer. And what would a get-together be without food? We had so much fun preparing holiday goodies, including cupcakes (soynog + gingerbread,

pecan “snowball” cookies (recipe from VegNews),

gingerbread and “buttery” lemon cut-out cookies,

and, of course, hummus & pita (recipe from the Chez Piggy cookbook).

It was wonderful to get together with some family and friends to celebrate the end of term and start of the holidays. Our lovely, generous friends brought many treats and goodies, including several bottles of wine that I’m looking forward to trying. In addition, Marlie and Jim brought an assortment of homemade raw vegan “sweet treats”: lemon coconut bars, candy cane and cacao truffles and some raw chocolate flowers.

Nadine, Graeme and Eliot brought delicious vegan oatcakes + a festively decorated cookie made by Eliot.

Shauna, Tim and Adalaide brought a box of vegan donuts from Rise Above Bakery. Such a thoughtful and yummy treat!

And Lesley brought over some chocolates from Maha’s Chocolate – these are both dairy and peanut-free. Can’t wait to try them!

Happy holidays everyone!


by Leave a comment

Guru Goodness

Last night we were in Niagara Falls and ended up having dinner at Guru (thanks to a number of my vegan friends + Happy Cow for the suggestion). I’m always on the lookout for vegan-friendly places to eat, so I was delighted to learn about this restaurant.

It was a brutally cold night in Niagara, but the atmosphere and yummy food at Guru warmed us right up. Our server was very knowledgable about the vegan options and seemed really happy to help us pick out vegan options and/or veganize other options on the menu. We had vegetarian pakora, aloo gobi, channa masala, prantha bread (more than one order – so good!) and rice. Very delicious and reasonably priced — all this + a couple of beers for about $60.


by 2 Comments

pARTners for change

Last evening was “pARTners for change,” a fund-raiser in downtown St. Catharines. The event was a joint initiative between the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine & Performing Arts and OPIRG-Brock, and money raised goes to support student scholarships and community programming through OPIRG’s downtown InfoShop.

We are still tallying everything up, but I certainly felt that the evening was a success. So many wonderful pieces of art in the show/sale (thank you to all the artists who generously donated work), and so many wonderful folks who showed up to enjoy the evening.

Good food, good drink, good company, good deals, good art, and two good causes!

We hosted the event in two spaces – at Pan and at the OPIRG InfoShop. The two locations are just a couple of minutes apart on foot and our lovely antler-wearing student volunteers did a great job of making sure everyone knew where they were going.

Our organizing committee needs to meet and take stock of how things went, but I sincerely hope that this will become a regular event.


by 4 Comments

A Vegan Vibe in Downtown St. Catharines

So, we’ve all been kind of giddy over the vegan donuts that have been for sale in The Peanut Mill and at Pan. Now there is word that the owner of Artisan Donuts, Kyle, will be starting up a new vegan bakery on Summer Street in downtown St. Catharines.

Other exciting news: Bella Noella now features vegan options (courtesy, I believe, of Virtual Vegan Catering) and I hear that Kaz’s makes some of their pub food with Daiya Cheese.

Exciting times!

And, of course, we still love Brookyn’s in Thorold. Had a great spicy bean-tomato soup there the other day for lunch. Yum!


by Leave a comment

Please Pass The Soup!

A cold and snowy day in Niagara today – the first one of the year! brrr…

This calls for some soup!

We didn’t have all the ingredients in the cupboard to make a traditional miso soup, but the following did the trick to warm us up:

-boil up some vegetable dumplings as per package directions
-when dumplings are cooked, scoop out of the water with a slotted spoon and set aside
-let water temperature drop a bit (so that it isn’t boiling, basically)
-spoon 3 Tablespoons (or more if you like) of miso paste into the hot water
-use a whisk to mix the warm water and miso in the pot
-put in 1/2-1 cup of frozen peas
-add a couple of handfuls of sliced mushrooms
-put the cooked dumplings back in the pot
-mix everything together and serve with green onions as a garnish


by Leave a comment

Wild! Rice!

I found this recipe in the latest issue of VegNews and tried it out tonight. I think it might be a good candidate for a vegan contribution to holiday dinners.

Wild Rice with Apples and Butternut Squash
1 1/2 cups wild rice, cooked
1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cups of 1/2 inch cubed butternut squash (from 1 1/2 lb. squash)
2 granny smith apples, unpeeled, cored and cut in to 1/2 inch cubes
1 Tbsp. dried thyme
1 cup of water or veggie broth
1/c cup walnut pieces

Heat oil in large skillet and sauté onion over medium-high heat until translucent. Add squash, apples and thyme and sauté for another 5 minutes. Stir in water/broth. Combine cooked rice, parsley, and sautéd mixture into a buttered 9×13 baking dish. Sprinkle walnuts on top and bake at 425 for 20-25 min.

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.