Left under the tree for Santa: one quart of each of Silk’s seasonal flavors. Left to right, there’s: Soy Nog, Mint Chocolate and (my personal favorite!) Pumpkin Spice.
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If you’re anything like me, the thought of Silk’s seasonal soy milk flavors send you into such a frenzy that you manage to overbuy at least one flavor (more likely, two or three). Every. Stinking. Year. Luckily, you can extend the shelf life of all that liquid nom by transforming it into an equally nomy frozen dessert.

Last year, I shared recipes for my very own Vegan Pumpkin Spice Ice Cream and Vegan Soy Nog Ice Cream. This year, there’s a new flavor in town: Mint Chocolate Silk. And it’s set to expire…yesterday! Eek! What are we waiting for? Let’s get to it!

Below the jump you’ll find not one, not two, but three (three!) recipes for making ice cream with that extra Mint Chocolate Silk. Recipe #1 I tried yesterday and, while I followed much the same process as in the Pumpkin Spice and Soy Nog recipes, the texture came out more like sorbet than ice cream. (I’ve really no idea why. High water content in the Mint Chocolate Silk? A minor but crucial flub-up on my part? Who knows.) Which is all fine and good – who doesn’t like sorbet, right? – just be prepared to defrost the leftovers in the microwave before doling them out. The “sorbet” gets as hard as a rock once fully frozen!

Recipes 2 and 3 are variations on #1 that should result in a frozen dessert more akin to ice cream. I say “should” because I haven’t yet gotten a chance to try them out. #2 is very similar to the recipes found in The Vegan Scoop, while #3 was inspired by this recipe for strawberry chocolate ice cream, which I made and loved.

Mint Chocolate Silk Sorbet with chocolate bark and garnished with a strand of ribbon candy.
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So. We’ve harassed and humiliated the dog-kids. You’ve seen my shiny sparkly goodies. Twice! And yet, my holiday blogging would not be complete without a FOOD POST!

While x-mas is oftentimes an excuse to overindulge, this year I went overboard – owing in no small part to the fact that I handmade a number of gifts, including a couple tons (okay, I exaggerate, but not by much) of chocolate goodies.

But let’s begin at the ending, shall we? As in: criFSMas dinner!

I did most of the cooking the day before – which was, for us, the 23rd – so that we could be as lazy as possible the day of. I prepared a deep-dish lasagna feast with tons of veggies (green and yellow zucchini, carrots, tomatoes, mushrooms and garlic) and plenty of oozy, gooey cheese (in this case, cheddar and mozzarella Follow Your Heart). (Jump to the end of this post for the recipe!)

I also breaded and froze some vegan mozzarella sticks – my first-ever batch – so they’d be nice and ready for their date with the deep fryer next day. Spoiler: they are terribly delicious, and surprisingly easy to make. (Recipe via Hell Yeah It’s Vegan!)

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Good morning – errr, afternoon (!) – all. I hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend, plates filled to brimming with plenty of yummy vegan food, enjoyed in the company of equally-vegan friends and family (hey, a girl can dream, can’t she?). As promised, today I’d like to share another guest post-slash-book excerpt, this time from Nick Cooney, author of Change of Heart.

Nick Cooney is the founder and director of The Humane League (formerly known as The Humane League of Philadelphia), a farmed animal advocacy group that engages in veg outreach*, humane education, and targeted campaigns – as well as the occasional emergency animal rescue. The group primarily operates in Philadelphia and Boston, with additional campaigns in the Washington DC and Los Angeles areas. Nick holds a degree in Non-Violence Studies from Hofstra University and formerly worked conducting nutrition education programs with the University of Pennsylvania’s Urban Nutrition Initiative.

His first book, Change of Heart: What Psychology Can Teach Us About Spreading Social Change, was recently released through Lantern Books:

Scientific research has generated a wealth of information on how people can be persuaded to alter their behaviors, yet this body of knowledge has been largely ignored by those working to improve society. Change of Heart: What Psychology Can Teach Us About Spreading Social Change brings this information to light so that non-profits, community organizers and others can make science-driven decisions in their advocacy work. The book examines over 80 years of empirical research in areas including social psychology, communication studies, diffusion studies, network systems and social marketing, distilling the highlights into easy-to-use advice and serving as a psychology primer for anyone wanting to spread progressive social change.

As massive as my bedside book pile has grown, I’m afraid that Change of Heart isn’t in my immediate future. However, Elaine has already reviewed the book at Vegan Soapbox, and you can also check out a number of relevant reviews with Nick that have popped up on the internets, including those at Digging Through the Dirt** and Kiss Me, I’m Vegan.

Following is a brief excerpt from Change of Heart; the TOC, introduction and first chapter are also available for viewing at Lantern Books.

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Want To Spread The Animal Rights Message? It Helps To Be “Norm”al

We like to think we’re independent and that we make choices based on what we want to do, not what others are doing. However research on social norms—information about what most other people are doing—suggests we’re influenced by the majority opinion much more than we think. Invoking social norms can help animal activists succeed in getting the public to go vegan, boycott fur, and make other animal-friendly choices. Before discussing how, let’s look at some examples of social norms in action.

Famed persuasion researcher Robert Cialdini and his colleagues worked with a hotel to make changes to room signs encouraging the reuse of towels. Previously the signs had asked guests to reuse towels to help protect the environment, but Cialdini and his team replaced these with signs that simply noted the majority of guests did reuse towels. After switching from an environmental message to a social norms message, towel reuse increased by twenty-six percent. When the signs noted that most guests of that particular room reused towels, reuse increased by thirty-three percent.

This same effect has been shown in numerous other studies. White college students who were told they had more stereotyped perceptions of African–Americans than their peers later endorsed fewer stereotypes. An Oklahoma anti–littering ad campaign that showed littering to be a violation of social norms got the percentage of residents who said they would feel guilty if they littered to rise from thirty-seven percent to sixty-seven percent in just a few years.

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The beauty of a made-up holiday? You can celebrate it any old damn time you want! Traditionally (as in, for the past four years), the husband and I have observed criFSMas on December 24th. Given that I spend much of Christmas Day proper on the phone with far-flung loved ones, it’s just more practical that way. My criFSMas lasagna and mozzarella sticks will wait for no one! (Don’t worry, plenty of food blogging forthcoming.)

For this year’s criFSMas cards, we decided to go with a “pasta and peace” theme. (We aim to put the PASTA back in PASTAfarian here at the Garbato-Brady house, yo! That, and my “domestic terrorist” idea didn’t quite pan out.) Because he’s had a rough year, Ralphie was the obvious choice of cover model. Not to mention, one eye? Totally fits with the pirate side of flying spaghetti monsterism. As per usual, I couldn’t resist creating “outtakes” for each of the dogs. They’re all just so freaking cute, you know? (Rhetorical question; you best say yes!)

The “official” 2010 Garbato-Brady criFSMas card.
- Ralphie -
Wishing you peace & pasta this holiday season!
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Because years spent on the internets have forever ruined my penmanship,
I design and print message labels to affix to the back of each card.
This year’s greeting reads:
Happy Holidays! With love (& lasagna),
The Garbato-Bradys:
Kelly, Shane, Peedee, O-Ren, Kaylee, Jayne, Ozzy & Ralphie
“you’ll shoot your eye out, kid,” the one-eyed cover dog
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Outtakes!
- Peedee -
May your plate overflow with compassion & campanelle.
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- O-Ren -
May love & lasagna warm your belly on a cold winter’s night.
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- Kaylee -
May your heart be filled with joy & gemelli, today and always.
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- Jayne -
May you find friendship & fusilli this criFSMas season!
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Whatever you celebrate, season’s greetings and wishes of peace from all of us to you and yours!

I’ll leave you with this Christmas Manger / Vegan Silent Night video from Bea Elliott. While I’m not exactly a religious person (in the understatement of the year), I find it a bittersweet description of the conflicting feelings I – and many vegans, no doubt – oftentimes experience around the holiday season.

Peace to all; and to all, a good life.

domestic terraist bear is one of teh kewl girls.
Left to right: Kaylee, Jayne, O-Ren and the pirate-polar-vegan-terrorist criFSMas bear.
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Initially, I’d planned on doing a sort of “domestic terrorist” theme for this year’s holiday (read: criFSMas) cards, using the “domestic terrorist” apron from Green is the New Red as the centerpiece. (Product description: “‘Domestic.’ Terrorist. Get it? There’s nothing funny about the FBI labeling environmental and animal advocates the ‘number one domestic terrorism threat.’ But with the Feds attempting to infiltrate vegan potlucks, why not accessorize? [...] Happy ‘terrorizing’! But be careful in the kitchen. Did you know tofu makes you gay?” Vegan chefs are scary, yo! Also: my dog-kids consume a fair amount of tofu. Additionally, they are super-psyched about today’s repeal of DADT. Draw your own conclusions, mkay.)

While my idea was solid, its execution was not: the apron proved way too large for the dogs (which was to be expected, even though it looks super-tiny – not to mention satiny – on the model), so at first I tried putting it on our pirate polar bear.

I think you’ll agree that she looks super-snazzy in it

but she’s also, well, kind of a big girl. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, mind you; she’s vegan and totes in shape. But it proved next to impossible to fit both her and a dog in the camera frame. And so I re-staged the set, hanging the apron from the tree and surrounding it with fake fruits and veggies and a vase filled with pasta-related kitchen utensils.

(Ignore the white fur on the black apron. Living with four white dogs and a mostly-white cat, it cannot be helped.)

Better, but once I went back and examined the photos on my computer monitor, I realized that the paddles looked really odd and stupid. Tremendously so. Plus, there was still a lot of floor and wall showing. Dislike.

So on day #2 of shooting, I ditched the setup and instead opted for a sea of book piles, coupled with a vase filled with angel hair pasta, and complemented with a sparkly “peace” ornament and baby flying spaghetti monster. The new theme? Peace and pasta.

That taste? Perfection!

Not wanting the domestic terrorist photos to go to waste, I decided to make a series of (VEGAN!) lol dogs out of them. And so I give you: domestic terraist doggehs! (And one kitteh, who barely sat still long enough for me to take three pictures of him. His caption is most fitting.)

title: lol ozzy – is a terror allright
caption: “domestic terraist kitteh” is a redundancy
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title: lol ralphie – thot u said petdown
caption: domestic terraist doggeh will take that patdown now, mkay
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title: lol peedee – go boom
caption: domestic terraist doggeh be a walkin’ thyme bomb
(idea shameless borrowed from a blog of the same name)
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title: lol rennie – be happy 2 show u her mitts
caption: domestic terraist doggeh be hostin a v-gun potluck next week
(u bring teh loaded taters kay?)
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title: lol kaylee – kills wit spiceness
caption: domestic terraist doggeh is about 2 es’splode ur taste budz
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title: lol jayne – is be busted
caption: domestic terraist doggeh pleads deh lish
(hint: if you don’t get it, sound it out loud!)
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In many ways, I think I like this series better than the “real” card I ended up with (and the outtakes I made for each dog; yes, I’ve been a busy bee). But hey, there’s always next year. Well, not really. I’ve already got plans for 2011, and they involve Kaylee, Jayne and Joss Fucking Whedon. (One hint: SPACE PIRATES!) 2012, perhaps. I’m sure the theme will still be relevant then, unfortunately.

Good morning, y’all! Long time no see. In the wake of veganmofo, I’ve been so completely and utterly exhausted that the mere though of blogging is enough to send me, diving with no small amount of frenzy, back beneath my unintentionally festive, red-and-white striped bedsheets. (Burnt out, that’s me.) Luckily, I have several guest posts lined up which, along with a few fluffy, holiday-themed pieces, should carry us through the rest of the year! (Emerging from behind the clouds, Mr. Golden Sun shines in approval! Yes, I’m in a weird mood today; a week’s worth of criFSMas chores will do that to a person.) Let’s get to it, shall we?

Zoe Weil is the founder of the Institute for Humane Education (IHE), a group dedicated to training humane educators “big” (read: professional) and “small” (i.e., the rest of us). The IHE offers a number of online courses and in-person workshops to help spread the principles of humane education to teachers and students alike (not that the two groups are mutually exclusive, mind you!), including its Humane Education Certificate Program (HECP) and “MOGO” (most good) workshops.

Coming this January is the 30-day online course A Better World, A Meaningful Life. (In attendance will be Deb, one of my co-bloggers at Animal Rights & AntiOppression; keep an eye out for a possible post or two from her!) Based on Ms. Weil’s most recent book, Most Good, Least Harm: A Simple Principle for a Better World and Meaningful Life, the course explores how we as individuals can align our actions with our values. If you’re like to learn more, keep reading for an excerpt from Most Good, Least Harm, or check out the 8-minute video I’ve embedded above. (You may remember that I also interviewed Zoe for AR&AO back in August.)

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