Could I Have the Gluten--and Not the Beef?

Someone I like and admire a lot is definitely a meat eater.  (That's NOT why I like and admire him!)

He just sent out a message recommending a restaurant that has lots of gluten-free dishes, and his choice was beef with no gluten.

Could I have the gluten--with no beef?

Picante and Sympathy

My sister Suzy and Kathy (who's like a sister) invited me to lunch to give me moral support when I was in emotional pain for reasons I won't go into here.

It was reassuring to see that Picante in Berkeley had a whole menu of Vegan and Vegetarian.

Something for the Panhandlers Beyond Froot Loops

I had Froot Loops ("Get Out" and "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri") left over from the Post-Oscar gathering, and I hate to waste food.  They're actually kind of tasty in a junk candy sort of way.

So I've added the flat Chinese fortune cookies and some mandarin oranges to the box and plan to find someone at West Portal who might want a big snack.  They themselves can decide whether they want to go beyond the mandarin oranges.

Vegan Treats for a Progressive Organization

I wasn't sure that the vegan treats would be appreciated--and I didn't label them vegan because people are so prejudiced against that word (as I once was).  But they were a success.  The cookies went fairly fast (though no one said how good they were), and the sandwiches seemed to be even more greatly appreciated.  The fruit and nuts circles went over big once we figured out how to get them out of the plastic.  The mandarin oranges are always a favorite.

Here are a couple of the products I used.

Vegan Snack Food for an Organization that's Progressive in Other Ways

I'm packing up to take this food to a CARA meeting because I'm responsible for snacks every otehr month.

I know this doesn't look pretty, and I hope it will later, when I take the food out of the re-used plastic bag.

I'm going to use the Farm Fresh to You Romaine lettuce to put the sandwiches on.  The sandwiches are from Tree Line French style nut cheeses as well as from Trader Joe's cream cheese and humus--both plain and red pepper. 

I baked the chocolate chip cookies, all vegan. 

I bought the seedless mandarins, which people seemed to like last time.  (I'm not sure they were all even willing to try the chocolate chip cookies even though I didn't identify them as vegan.  Wouldn't it be funny if they, like me, assume there's dairy and eggs in every cookie?) 

I'm donating the flat fortune cookies, and there were leftover crackers from last time. 

I also am bringing again an item that some seemed to like last time:  self-contained fruit and nuts (figs and walnuts) from Trader Joe's and organic Turkish dried figs. 

I hope they'll like these items.  We'll see!  (The Froot Loops that represented both "Get Out" and "Three Billboards" aren't among those things I'm hoping or expecting them to like!)

The Milk in "Get Out"

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-get-out-milk-horror-jordan-peele-allison-williams-20170301-story.html

"There's something kind of horrific about milk," said Peele, not a dairy drinker. "Think about it! Think about what we're doing. Milk is kind of gross."

Is Jordan Peele a vegan?

And the Oscar for the Best Vegan Dish Goes to...

"And the Oscar for the Best Vegan Dish goes to..."

Back in 1994 I started serving movie-related dishes on Oscar night.  That year we had bread and water for Shawshank Redemption, Le Big Mac for Pulp Fiction, TV dinners for Quiz Show, cake for Four Wedding and a Funeral, and a box of chocolates for Forrest Gump.

Things have evolved, and now I have a post-Oscar gathering on the Monday following the telecast so we can talk about the Oscar presentations themselves--any wrong envelopes?-- as well as the movies that won or should have won. 

The food, too, has evolved.  This is what's on the menu this year:

A peach for Call Me by Your Name

Mushrooms , toast we can crunch on to annoy whoever is sitting next to us for Phantom Thread

Keylime pie for The Shape of Water

Sandwiches and lemonade for The Post

Eskimo Pies instead of Dove Bars for I, Tonya

Froot Loops for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Wafers for Lady Bird (but maybe flat Chinese fortune cookies instead of communion wafers).

Booze and tea for Churchill

Water for Dunkirk

Milk (and still more Froot Loops) for Get Out

Pizza and ice cream for The Florida Project

And one other thing has evolved--my consciousness of where our food comes from and what the ramifications of what we eat on animals and the environment.

So now everything is vegan.