Modern Wing of the Art Institute

Each morning when i bike in, I walk past Renzo Piano's newest addition to the Art Institute on my way from the millennium bike station to the santa fe.

Chromophobia

Johannes Itten - modernist color theorist, strict vegeterian, gymnastic educator and follower of the fire-cult Mazdaznan- is my obsession of the week. This frightens me. Is this my future? And if it is, should I resist it? Afterall, Itten was kicked out of the Bauhaus which is supercool. Gymnastics could only be good for design, I think.

Richard Rorty (October 4, 1931 - June 8, 2007)

It recently came to my attention that Richard Rorty, one of the best American philosophers, passed away last June. An advocate of pragmatism, Rorty is one of a handful of contemporary philosophers I can read and walk away thinking I understand the issue. I may or may not agree, but that is okay. He got me thinking in a way I appreciated. There is little I can write that can do justice to what he means to my own pursuits, let alone American intellectual life, but it is a voice that will certainly be missed.

"In Memory of Richard Rorty" by Jürgen Habermas
New York Times essay "Thinking Cheerfully"
Articles in Dissent magazine
And in a time in need of hope, I am currently reading Philosophy and Social Hope

Beet Grillin'

Summer is officially here and I am excited that I grilled our first batch of beet's last night. Never grilled beets before but they are damn tasty. Beets were fresh from our CSA (community supported agriculture) with farmer Rob at Montalbano Farms.

rainbows over chicago

saw this on our way home from some grocery shopping.

Wilco Winter Residency

From February 2008

Last Friday night was the first of 5 Wilco shows at the Riviera. We were fortunate enough to go and we were not disappointed. Almost 3 hours of Wilco. We missed the last ten minutes for an early escape to Fiesta for dinner. Last show is tonite.

Something cheery...

So if you are ever looking for something to make you happy go to the Chicago PAWS website, click on adoptions/dogs available for adoption, scroll to the bottom and look at all the pictures of the dogs and cats that just got adopted this week. I probably check it out once a week now and it always makes me smile.

I started going to the Chicago Paws website cuz my good friends just adopted this cutie dog named Ginger and I was obsessed with seeing if their photo had been added to the website. Anyway, it's a fun way to spend 5 minutes looking at all the happy happy cats and dogs. Unless you are looking for a dog or cat to adopt don't look at the pictures of the animals needing homes cause it will just make you sad :(

Heartland Cafe

We had to go up to Evanston on Sunday, so we decided to eat breakfast at the Heartland Cafe. I haven't been here in about 8 years and I remembered really liking it, so I was quite excited. Heartland is not strictly vegetarian, but they have pretty many vegetarian options. However, since eating there 8 years ago we switched from being lacto-ovo vegetarians to being vegan and it was not "all that" this time around. There were 3 different type's of tofu scrambles that we could choose from on the breakfast menu. The tofu scramble sounded good and I would have ordered it except it came with cornbread and the cornbread was not vegan. So, that kinda bummed me out. The other two options were both "pan-handlers" - Heartland panhandler and the Veggie panhandler. Both pan-handlers sounded about the same to me except the veggie panhandler had spinach and broccoli. They also have a buckwheat pancake on the menu which is vegan. Andy and I both ordered the veggie panhandler and coffee. It is supposed to come with bread, but the waitress pointed out that the only bread they have that is egg free is the wheat bread, but that has honey in it. Andy does not care about the bees, so he was quite comfortable getting the wheat bread. I decided to abstain. In retrospect I wish I had substituted a scoop of brown rice instead of the bread, but in the end I was quite full and really didn't need any bread at all. The panhandler was good! Besides for spinach and broccoli it had mushrooms, potatoes, green onions and tofu. It came with salsa on the side which was a nice addition to the scramble. Some things I did not like - 1) when the waitress brought Andy his bread it had 2 packets of butter on the plate. At this point we had made it quite clear that we did not do animal products, so it was a bit flabbergasting when they brought us butter. Maybe he confused her when he said he wanted the honey wheat bread? 2) Why do they not have 1 vegan bread?? Is it that difficult?
I really wanted to like Heartland cause it's a pretty cool concept - they have the cafe, a bar, a store, a theatre, a radio show, a food stand at Lake Michigan in spring and summer, plus they host political and musical events. My main complaint about Heartland would be they seem to be vegetarian friendly, which would lead you to believe they would be more accomodating to vegan's, but that was not really the case. It was annoying that the cornbread and all the bread had dairy, eggs or honey in it. I would go back to Heartland if I was up in Rogers Park, but otherwise there are plenty of just as good if not better veg*n friendly places in our own hood that do a better job and have more choices. I will probably go back to check out the dinner scene cuz that seemed like it might be a bit friendlier to vegans.
If you are up in Rogers Park and you have never been there before it is worth checking out, but be careful when ordering...

Christmas Post...Finally

We were out at my parents house for a couple days to celebrate Christmas and we did a lot of cooking. We made 2 batches of Vegan Yum Yum's mini donuts and ate them Christmas Eve for breakfast. They were a big hit with the omnivores. Andy still prefers them frosted with chocolate, but my new favorite is to dip them in cinnamon and sugar.

Andy has been really getting into making pizza the past month or so. We've been using the Vegan with a Vengeance pizza recipes for the most part. I think the dough turns out really well, especially when cooked on a pizza stone. (We just got one for Hanukkah - thanks Dave and Nancy!) On Christmas Eve we were out at my parents house and Andy and I had volunteered to cook dinner, so of course we decided to make pizzas. We had just gotten the pizza stone and my mom has a BIG kitchen with 2 ovens, so we figured it was the perfect time to have a pizza factory. We made dough for 6 pizza's, but there were only 5 of us so we decided to ONLY make 5 pizza's. We each got to design our own pizza's that way. This was appreciated by the omnivores cuz they got to use whatever toppings they wanted. It was kinda a lot of work for Andy cuz he volunteered to roll out all the dough, but for the rest of us it was just fun...


Meg & Andy design - Tempeh "sausage" crumble, fennel, and potato (VWV recipe)


Mom's design - mozzarella, pepperoni, green pepper, mushrooms, and onion


Shannon's design - Green pepper, mushrooms, olives, feta and blue cheese


Dad's design - Pesto, feta, olives, shallot, green pepper


Another Meg & Andy design - our favorite adapted from the Dolce le Vegan cookbook - Pesto, spinach, shallots, parma, and "faux" feta. Everyone liked this pizza.