I can't say I didn't get quite a bit of rest and relaxation in. Sleeping until nearly 11am isn't exactly a back breaking effort.
But, trying to be a vegan on Labor Day weekend is a bit of a workout.
Friday:
Mom and I went to see Julie and Julia, finally. Everybody and their mothers (quite literally) had seen it without me while I sat there talking about how much I really really wanted to see it. But the thing is, everyone saw it with her mother! So I dragged my mom who wanted to see it anyhow so I guess that's not really dragging...
It was an adorable movie. Critics really don't know a good movie when it's slapped in their faces like a non-dairy whipped-topping pie. The entire movie I had the criticisms of the At the Movies guys going through my head and boy did they just have sticks up their butts the day they saw it. It really is a mom-and-daughter movie. Even the amount of animal-devouring didn't bother me. Heck, if it bothered me, I wouldn't be able to survive in this world. I was a little bothered by the lobsters. That's all I'll say so that I don't ruin anything for those who haven't seen the movie.
The moral of the story is: If Julia Child can live into her 90s after that much butter, then maybe Paula Deen actually does stand a chance.
As for me, I'll stick to my margarine and soy milk.
Saturday:
This past weekend was Irish Fest in downtown Long Grove. For those not familiar with the town, there is a "downtown" area that is composed of very old buildings circa 1800s that have been converted into shops. It makes for a nice little shopping day if it's sunny out and not too hot or too cold. My parents wanted to go because this would have been the weekend they came home from Ireland had their anniversary trip not been cancelled (long story short, they were supposed to go on a week-long tour of Ireland to belatedly celebrate their 30th anniversary but my dad busted his knee again. Ouch.). It was cute, but we didn't stay long. We hadn't entered Bill or Bailey into the dog contests and we hadn't come at a big event time. We didn't eat anything, either. My parents bought some cookies at a baked goods stand, but there was nothing egg-and-dairy free there. To my surprise, I wasn't the first person to ask about those ingredients...I just don't think the women selling the stuff had any idea what it meant. I'll just have to have Robyn, over in her little Irish world outside Baltimore, bake me some vegan goodies and send them over.
Sunday:
Dad wanted to take Mom and I to Apple Holler. Apple Holler is an apple orchard/farm/restaurant/bakery/how many slashes can I get in here? on the border of Illinois and Wisconsin. It was a pretty good idea, actually. There had been quite a bit of alpaca talk at our house lately and he remembered that I wanted to visit an alpaca (take me to a farm to play with the animals and I'll be happy for hours. Yea. I'm a kid.) The "alpaca" on site turned out to be a llama moseying around with the goats, but he was cute nonetheless.
Apple Holler is definitely designed for families with small children. You can feed the goats, go through a child-friendly corn maze, pick apples, play in their kiddie corral, etc. So, after watching the kiddos do their thing for less than 5 minutes, we went inside for lunch. The breakfast buffet was just going down as we sat down and the lunch buffet was going up. As a lacto-ovo vegetarian, breakfast buffets were heaven on Earth. As a vegan, it's like hell on a plate. This buffet was the smallest I had ever seen. A cute little menu listed what we'd find and the three of us knew before going up that I couldn't eat anything because it would either contain butter or be cooked in butter. Nope, not even a bowl of oatmeal.
Rule #1: Don't be afraid of the wait staff and cooks. They aim to please. Dude, they work for tips.
The waitress talked to the cook who whipped me up some oil-fried potatoes (mmm, crusty arteries!) and a thick slab of white bread toast with jelly. I'm not one for white bread or jelly, but it was actually quite tasty. I really wanted cinnamon apples, cornbread, and pancakes, but I take what I can get. I had a stomach ache earlier that morning anyhow. Maybe it was destiny?
We then bought a big bag of fresh picked apples so we can bake a delicious apple crisp with margarine. Woohoo!
Now, what to make for dinner tonight?
jill, my labor-day weekend vegan food revelation: rugelach! danny and i made the recipe out of "the joy of cooking", substituting in some earth balance and some tofutti cream cheese, but otherwise just like they said. they were to die for, especially just out of the oven. do it!!!
ReplyDeleteMmmm, I'll have to try that! I almost died when I discovered vegan sour cream because I can now make my mom's famous cookies that are similar to rugelach. Like I told her, her recipe will live on! I should post about that...haha.
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