Codie and I have both experienced a dip in our vegan enthusiasm this week. I have been working like a honey bee, managing a restaurant and planning weddings! Between dating (a whole other blog!), making time for my family, friends, dogs, cleaning, grocery shopping and blogging, I'm shocked that I haven't succumb to a square of cheddar or two. I have been referring to this past week as "main stream vegan". Blues Festival, Giants Game, Sex and the City 2 with the girls, working weddings, and double shifts at the restaurant... All things that don't give a shit that I am vegan. The blues fest, held in Santa Cruz, was accommodating. As tradition has it, aunt Cathy and I "hock a dog" every year at the blues fest. We start with a few beers then make our way over to the the dog stand where we dress a meaty, all beef frank with the all the fixings and cheers buns before biting into the juicy wiener! This year we did a lap around the food area before committing to a location. We decided on veggie burritos from the El Palomar booth. The El Palomar is on the list of vegan friendly restaurants in Santa Cruz so they didn't look at me like I had three heads (like the chickens being served on kabobs from the booth next door) when I asked if the beans were made with lard or the guacamole contained sour cream. They didn't of course so aunt Cathy and I changed tradition and hocked a vegan burrito with a Coor's Light back instead.
The Giants game was a different story. My date was extremely thoughtful and took me to a vegan restaurant in the city before the game. Herbivore was fantastic! Everything on the menu was completely vegan. I wanted to order something I hadn't experimented with at home so I decided on penne with lemon grass "cream" sauce. It was amazing! I batted my eyelashes at the chef and he told me his secret to vegan "cream" sauce, non diary sour cream. It was decadent and satisfying, a good thing because my fruitless search for something vegan at the game was inevitable.
Working, working, working, oh and working. This has been the greatest challenge thus far! Waking up early after working a double shift at Beefland, reviewing the details of today's wedding over coffee while talking to my Mom on the phone about picking up my dogs, Dara is beeping in on the other line and my sister is texting me about babysitting, all while slapping together an almond butter and banana sandwich to sustain me through the 16 hour day I have ahead of me because I know that nothing on the wedding menu is vegan because I helped plan it (OMG, just writing that makes me want to pop a Xanax)! Next weeks calendar is equally full. Thank god for my vegan buddy Codie:) Namaste
