PETA's Vegan College Cookbook: 275 Easy, Cheap, and Delicious Recipes to Keep You Vegan at School is aimed at students living in dorms, an experience I am a decade removed from. Still, I remain a fan of tasty food made cheaply and easily so this book excites me. Yes, nearly all the recipes are carb heavy, many are of questionable nutritional value, and most involve very few fresh vegetables beyond onions, but that's how college is. Shit is real! You don't have time to be sprouting mung beans and basting turducken. You've got books to read and beer to drink!

Frankly, I'm amazed at all the things you can make in a microwave (including cake!). So far I've only made spaghetti and meat sauce. While the sauce—thick with Gimme Lean—was deliciously seasoned, the pasta was a mushy nightmare I am loath to revisit. Though preparing a meal in a microwave is more like a science experiment than cooking, there is fun to be had, and possibly even a tasty cake or two to be eaten. I can't wait to start nuking more things! I think every microwave should come with a copy of this animal-friendly book.

Try some of the recipes now on PETA2.com!

• Companion animals are a more significant cause of global warming than SUVs, claim two New Zealand scientists (slash critical thinkers!) in their book, Time to Eat the Dog?: The Real Guide to Sustainable Living. According to the ABC article on the book, authors Robert and Brenda Vale say that cats' and dogs' carnivorous diets are the problem. Well, hey, plenty of dogs live healthily vegan. Problem solved. Bejesus. Now what about humans' diets?
• Russia plans to send monkeys to Mars. Why not just send humans, hmm? Space radiation, NASA says, and the solution? Radiate squirrel monkeys here on Earth, and proffer funds to the med schools that participate in testing.
• Vegansaurus takes Natalie Angier down with fire and facts! Joshua Katcher, too, with pictures. Do it to it, guys!

• Vegan Drinks is TOMORROW. Free stuff, and booze, and vegans, and what else could you want for a Thursday night?
• Teany's coming back, y'all! The teahouse/maker of delicious baked goods and light meals just began rebuilding the space, more than six months after a fire put them out of business. Pleasepleaseplease, chicken salad melt, come back!!
• Feeling generous? Or, hey, feeling like a greedy, selfish scumbag? 'Til the end of the year, your donations to Farm Sanctuary will be matched TIMES TWO by some secret and super generous donor for the rest of '09. Easy math: $1 for you = $3 for a cuddly lamb or frisky pig. So if you were planning to give nothing because you thought $20 wasn't good enough (which it totally is!), now you're giving $60, and that's, what? Food for a family of four (goats) for a week or two, right?
• OK, guys, more easy math: Buy one of Isa's cookbooks and she will donate ALL the proceeds to Out to Pasture Animal Sanctuary. Christmas shopping: done.
• Governor Paterson spoke at an NYLHV VIP reception held in his honor. Take a looksee at Ecorazzi's interview with him.
• So there's an octopus...snatching a coconut? I don't know. I mean, I've never seen an octopus run like that.
• One of us (Patrick? Maybe?) ate vegan fried ice cream at Soy and Sake. Devourable or detestable? YOU DECIDE. (I've already decided that every system in my body would shut down if I got near that thing.)
• A Ringling Brothers employee outted those elephant-abusing clowns, the Washington Post reported.
• Garden blend mock meat from Gardein appeared at Chipotle in Chelsea! Vegan mainstreaming, YES.

You can stop searching for the perfect holiday gift for your peoples!

The always awesome Isa Chandra Moskowitz is selling signed cookbooks to benefit Out to Pasture Animal Sanctuary in Portland, Oregon. Isa writes,

[Out to Pasture has] a ton of animals to take care of this winter, including horses, cows, pigs and llamas, and could really use the cash right now!

I'll sign the books to whomever you like! And I will include a lipstick kiss for 10 bucks extra. Kidding. Sort of.

To get your signed book, send a PayPal to ppkshop@gmail.com and include the book(s) that you would like. If it's a gift, remember to include the recipient's address! And please let me know who to sign it to.

100% of the proceeds go to Out To Pasture and directly to the animals so order a book for everyone you know!

Shipping included, prices are:
Vegan With A Vengeance - 28
Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World - 28
Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar - 28
Vegan Brunch - 32
Veganomicon - 42

Oh, you don't exchange winter holiday gifts? Me neither. How about buying some books to give as birthday gifts in the new year?

(My birthday is in April, by the way.)

• Ecorazzi announced their picks for top five animal victories of 2009. Check it!
• We ate Match Meats. I wasn't there, but I think I missed out on a good thing.
• Herbivore published a new book, The Art of Herbivore, or Somebody Give the Vegan Corndog a Handclap!. It's got every design they've ever made. Oooh la la.
• Missourians for the Protection of Dogs launched a signature drive to prevent puppy mill cruelty. Missourians: sign it. Everybody else: do what you can. Woof.
• Food, Inc. is now available on Netflix. That's it. I'm getting an account. Yes, I am that behind the times.
• Red Bamboo Brooklyn will close this month. DANG. Owner Jason Wong will re-open the spot as a non-veg restaurant with some of the same veg offerings.
• Sweet & Sara brings us more delicious, fluffy treats, now in the shapes of snowmen, angels, and reindeer! Santa, baby, please add the original s'mores to my stocking.
• New restaurant reviews on 71 Irving Coffee, Cocoa V, and, love of my Midtown lunch life, Green Symphony.

• Did somebody say VEGAN CHALLAH?  Oh yes, VegNews just did! It's going to be a good Hanukkah this year, Jews! (Is eggless challah possible?) Psst...I think I also heard them say "vegan gingerbread cookies." Who's up for a vegan gingerbread house bake-off? Hmmm?
• Farm Sanctuary reminded us to sign their Petition for the Pigs, a letter that asks President Obama to demand that the USDA extend legal protection to downed pigs. Yeah, um, did we all just assume that pigs were covered like certain other large mammals?
• Terry Hope Romero's vegan Latin cookbook Viva Vegan is available for pre-order on Amazon. See how dangerous—and hot—that knife makes her look?
• Metromix declared Dirt Candy's Amanda Cohen Chef of the Year. Amanda Cohen sounds like Samantha Cohen, which means THAT COULD TOTALLY BE ME ONE DAY.
• USA Today reported on school lunch standards: somehow less stringent than fast-food standards! Even KFC won't buy the chickens kiddies are eating as chicken plywood nuggets.

On Tuesday night, Moo Shoes (New York's favorite vegan shoe store) played host to the cookie event of the year.  Veteran vegan cookbook authors Terry Hope Romero and Isa Chandra Moskowitz were on site for the official release party of their latest joint effort, Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar.  Festivities began with passed finger foodstuffs from Brooklyn's own Foodswings, including various chick'n sandwiches and the cutest mini corn dogs you ever saw.  The feature food, though, was of course cookies!  Baked by the guests of honor themselves, offerings of at least eight kinds included a soft and chewy rocky road cookie, a mouthwateringly moist sweet potato blondie, and a classic New York black and white shrunk down to bite size.

After a doting and thorough introduction by longtime friend Eric "the awesome guy" Weiss, Terry and Isa took the makeshift stage to thank the crowd for years of support.  More than a few who were in attendance have been following the duo since the days of their public access cooking show, "The Post Punk Kitchen," and their following has grown astronomically with such hits as Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World and Veganomicon. When asked what's next, Isa responded without a second thought, "more books!"

The ladies then retired to a very professional table at the back of the store where enthusiastic fans literally lined up for the privilege of a signature.  The space was packed with friends and admirers who spent a few happy hours munching the amazing cookies, sipping wine and Almond Breeze, and discussing all things vegan.  The party went on until well after 9pm when we were kicked to the curb - left to dream of cookies past and plan for cookies future, signed books in hand and ready for action.

Writer Jonathan Safran Foer's been getting a lot of media attention lately for the just published Eating Animals, his first book-length piece of nonfiction, which is very much against the eponymous activity. I haven't read it, and I don't expect that I (or most SuperVegan readers) will learn much from it that we don't already know about what's wrong with eating animals. This is not a book written for vegans. But it's a book that vegans ought to have some understanding of.

For better or worse, an established literary novelist like Foer can get people to pay attention to what's wrong with factory farming in a way that more academic or of-the-movement authors such as Peter Singer or Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson cannot. And Foer is relatively folksy and accessible (if not artless) compared to someone like J.M. Coetzee, whose arguments in defense of animals are unapologetically over most people's heads, and who isn't about to do a bunch of press interviews.

Foer finds lots of problems with industrial animal agriculture, and with eating meat in a general ethical sense, but he does not come down against non-meat or non-food animal products. This is a book about meat. That's got a lot of vegans understandably perturbed--an influential guy sets up a strong argument for many tenets of veganism, yet fails to go there. Mainstream media may not care, but it's important for us vegans to understand why Foer isn't vegan, and how he feels about veganism.

Josh Hooten of Herbivore attended a talk by Foer last night at Powell's Books in Portland, OR. Hooten is the right kind of vegan, and he wrote a great report/defense on the talk (which he posted on Facebook, and graciously allowed me to republish here.) Here's the first and last sentences, and you can read the whole thing below.

Foer isn't an animal rights person, he is coming from outside our community and perhaps that is why he is getting the attention he's getting for his new book Eating Animals.
...
As a messenger getting people to think about this stuff for the first time, I think he's amazing.

As readers know, October was the third annual Vegan Month of Food. Started by celebrity chef Isa Chandra Moskowitz, vegan mofos everywhere posted daily blogs in celebration of our favorite subject — food! Vegan Month of Food kicked off with World Vegetarian Day and ends with a bang tomorrow at the Boston Vegetarian Food Festival. In addition to this sandwich of events, here is a completely subjective roundup of things that made October one mofo of a month!

In the Mainstream

Vegan for the Animals
Author Jonathan Safran Foer made a big splash with a taster from his new book Eating Animals, published as a feature article in the NY Times Magazine's Food issue. After reading Eating Animals, actress Natalie Portman went vegan and announced her reasons in her essay "Jonathan Safran Foer's Eating Animals Turned Me Vegan" for the Huffington Post (that counts as a MoFo blog, right?). Blink 182 drummer (and rehabilitated puppy-juicer) Travis Barker has once again seen the light. He says he's back to being vegetarian and "almost full blown vegan now."

Vegan for the Environment
We've been saying it all along but it looks like we may finally be arriving at a tipping point. Even mainstream sources and enviro orgs are agreeing that eating meat causes global warming and going veg reduces your carbon footprint. Omnivore's Dilemma author and foodie darling Michael Pollan stuck his foot in it by stating: "A vegan in a Hummer has a lighter carbon footprint than a beef eater in a Prius." Then retracted the statement the next day. I thought it was fuzzy math to begin with (here's an interview with one of the original researchers and number crunchers), but I hope his blunder doesn't cloud the issue, which is that vegans have a substantially lighter overall effect on the environment than meat-eaters. Duh. Joining the bandwagon, the WorldWatch Institute's latest magazine asks the question, "Carnivorism and climate change: Is it worse than we thought?"

I've got Peter Gabriel's song "Big Time" stomping through my head. Here's why: The all-vegan cookbook by Chef Tal Ronnen, Conscious Cook: Delicious Meatless Recipes to Change the Way You Eat (which was released on October 6), is now number three on Amazon's bestseller list and number two on Barnes & Noble's.

I'm on my way, I'm making it: Big Time!

Chef Tal is beloved by many, but perhaps the most influential in the Tal Fanclub is Oprah Winfrey. (I'm not one to really care about celebrities, but even I admit she's pretty big-time.) Conscious Cook was featured on her show yesterday. For those not in the know, Tal Ronnen was Oprah's personal chef for her 21-day vegan 'cleanse'. Check out today's headline on her home page under the Food section--there's a picture of Chef Tal and the headline: "Go vegetarian with recipes from The Conscious Cook."

Chef Tal is a vegan evangelist through food. Aside from being a creative chef who rubs elbows with the highest echelons of celebrity, Ronnen serves as an adviser to college and corporate cafeterias on veganizing their menus and has worked with major gourmet vegan restaurants (read his official bio). He also helped in the development of the new vegan meat-replacer Gardein (check out SuperVegan's reviews of Gardein).