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.

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).

Saturday, I was thrilled to see actress Alicia Silverstone give culinary demonstrations followed by a discussion as part of the Food Network's New York City Wine & Food Festival presented by Food & Wine and Travel + Leisure magazines, Whole Foods Market and hosted by and benefiting the Food Bank For New York City and Share Our Strength.

The veg star tied her hair back and walked us through how to prepare recipes from her new book, The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet, set for release this Tuesday, October 13.

In her book, Alicia discusses the powerful life-altering choice to become cruelty-free and the breakthroughs she experienced. She also addresses common nutritional concerns faced by those new to a plant-based. The book covers every nutritional base, from the standard protein and calcium issues and beyond.

Too busy replaying the clip of Sacha Baron Cohen swooping into the MTV Movie Awards and landing his bare ass in Eminem's face to catch this gem? I understand.

During his acceptance speech for the award for best comedic performance, Jim Carrey told 5.3 million viewers what caused factory farm flu:

MTV Shows

Is Carrey vegetarian? Is this his partner, Jenny McCarthy, rubbing off on him? Is there any experience quite like watching Pet Detective for the eleventh time?

I don't really have any answers here.

Find these and more events in our calendar.

Monday, 6/1

Vegan Brunch release party: Celebrate the release of Isa Chandra Moskowitz's latest and brunchiest cookbook with vegan sausage and pink grapefruit mimosas made by the lovely lady herself. Free.
MooShoes, 7 p.m.
78 Orchard St., between Grand and Broome streets

Two vegan cookbooks released today: The Vegan Table, by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, author of The Joy of Vegan Baking, and The Vegan Scoop, by Wheeler Del Toro of Wheeler's Black Label Vegan Ice Cream

Tuesday, 6/2

Brooklyn Botanic Garden free admission Tuesdays (recurring event)

Wednesday, 6/3

The New York City Bar offers a free program on puppy mills and puppy mill legislation in New York. Register before hopping over. Free.
6-9 p.m., New York City Bar
42 W. 44th St., between 5th and 6th avenues

The second episode of The Goode Family airs at 9 p.m. on ABC. I didn't find the first episode to be overwhelmingly hilarious, but as a friend of mine said, "Considering this is a Mike Judge cartoon, it will get better if it manages to survive, because it will stop laying on the obvious. King of the Hill, for example, was never meant to be a laughing-out-loud affair, and it eventually managed to amusingly reconcile certain aspects of that particular culture war."

Thursday, 6/4

Edible landscaping workshop at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Learn to grow things in your tiny Brooklyn apartment that you can eat! Free. Register in advance.
6-8 p.m., Brooklyn Botanic Garden
1000 Washington Ave.

Food, Inc. premiers in NYC at the Museum of the Moving Image
35th Avenue at 36th Street, Astoria

Saturday, 6/6

Rally for Worldwide Day of Protest Against Horse-Drawn Carriages at Columbus Circle with Friends of Animals, the Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages, HEART and mayoral candidate and current council member Tony Avella.
12 p.m., Columbus Circle

Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary's Spring benefit dinner for the NY Vegetarian Expo. $65.
5:30 p.m., The Women's Club of Albany
725 Madison Ave., Albany, NY

Catskill Animal Sanctuary's Shindig 2009 features six speakers, including Brian Shapiro of the Ulster County SPCA and Amie Hamlin of the New York Coalition for Healthy School Food. $10.
12-6 p.m., Catskill Animal Sanctuary
316 Old Stage Rd., Saugerties, NY

Lately, the editors over at W magazine have got a thing for veganism, sort of, or rather, sort-of-veganism. The V word is popping up all over their editor's blog this Spring. First there was the W Online Exclusive The Best Vegan Accessories, which couldn't battle with Andrea's response list and wasn't entirely vegan thanks to a Stella McCartney cashmere sweater. The list was soon followed by The Trails of a Fashion-loving Vegan-in-Training, in which aspiring vegan editor Dana Wood (who composed the vegan accessories list) lamented the painful irony of being an animal lover/ Farm Sanctuary supporter who, like mainstream media's vegan sweetheart Kathy Freston, can't resist fashioning herself in animal products like wool, silk, and a little leather trim.

Most recently, W magazine continues to tap into the vegan trend with an editor's blog post titled "She's Just Not That Into Meat" on actress Ginnifer Goodwin, star of HBO series Big Love and chick-flick He's Just Not That Into You. The article cites Goodwin's explanation of how she went vegan for concerns of both her own health and the treatment of animals. But wait, what's she wearing? It has to be faux, right? Nope. Click on over to the main W article on Goodwin and we learn that while she's not wearing much (as all good "vegan" celebrities should), everything she is wearing is made of leather and silk, save a pair of jersey underpants and tights.

Um. Okay. I think it's super that Goodwin isn't eating animal products and that she's being outspoken about it. And while I wish people would stop wearing animal stuff, I really don't care what Goodwin wears when she's just chilling out in Hollywood. Still, I do find it terribly annoying that she and W are using veganism as a way to drum up extra web copy, publicity, and street cred, but totally drop the ball on presenting it as a lifestyle that can embrace fashion. After all, shouldn't a magazine of W's caliber and supposed recent interest in veganism have the resources and wits to style a "vegan" celebrity in something other than leather S&M fetish attire? Bummer!

If you watch or read or listen to the news, you may have recently heard the story about the woman who sent a stripper to her high school reunion in her place, and had a film crew document the whole thing. But did you know that woman is SuperVegan's own Andrea Wachner?

The actual reunion went down a few years ago, but the media storm is now--Andrea is the focus of a gazillion news items and blog posts--and will reach a fever pitch next Monday, May 11,, um, Tuesday, May 12 (they keep bumping the segment; who knows, sigh...) when Andrea and and Cricket the stripper sit down with Diane Sawyer on the Good Morning America couch.

Join Team SuperVegan in congratulating Andrea on the world finally catching on to how awesome she is! You can say you read her blog posts way back when. Oh, and here's the trailer for the movie:

Former Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker appeared on last night's Chelsea Lately to tout the benefits of his latest fad diet: freshly squeezed raw puppy juice.

Barker, a former vegetarian poster boy, ate meat for the first time in 16 years to speed the healing of a broken arm. He then gave up his vegetarian diet entirely after he was injured in a plane crash. Barker explained that his latest diet was inspired by the advice of his Los Angeles physician.

Puppy juice first made the news last month when former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin touted its age-defying powers on Oprah. According to Travis Barker, "Puppy juice is great for the skin. It gives my tattoos an awesome sheen, and it's totally worth the incontinence. Plus I haven't had a single herpes flare-up since I began using it."

Asked for his opinion, New York Times food expert Mark Bittman pointed out the environmental benefits of eating an overpopulated species, but added, "Puppies are cute. Why can't he just eat veal like everyone else?"

"It's cruel and barbaric to kill an innocent young puppy just for its miraculous healing powers," added celebrity chef Isa Chandra Moskowitz. "I'd only juice a puppy if I found one already dead, like on the street or something."

However, vegan expert Kathy Freston explained, "He only juices puppies that would be euthanized anyway. And if his doctors say it's necessary, well, who are we to judge?"

This May, Josh Hooten, owner of Herbivore Clothing Company, will ride his bicycle 600 miles from his hometown Portland, OR to Farm Sanctuary's West Coast headquarters in Orland, CA. The ambitious bike ride is both a celebration of his 10 year veganversary and a benefit for Farm Sanctuary. Hooten hopes his feat will inspire folks to make donations amounting to $10,000 to the 20 year old organization that has rescued thousands of animals, saves even more through education and advocacy, and largely influenced his own decision to go vegan.

Visit Josh Hooten's fundraising page to make a donation. (Josh encourages you to get drunk before doing this.) Once you've emptied your bank account, entertain yourself by reading his blog, which chronicles his transition from a regular dude to a cycling machine putting out a whopping 80 miles a day.