Baseball and Vegan Crab Cakes

It's been a roller coaster of a week here in Veganville. Our Veganville Carrot Cake Whoopees soon to be called "Veganville Vhoopees" ve zink, are flying off the shelves. Vhoopee! On the flipping fiddlesticks side, my nephew Sammy and his team, the undefeated (19-0) Mira Costa Mustangs Senior Little League All Stars from Southern California played in the Senior Little League World Series Semi-Finals and were ousted by the Bangor, Maine home boys on their home turf. In my mind I have justified the Mira Costa boys as the true winners since they are the only team to stomp Aruba in Pool Play before Aruba clinched the World Series by trouncing the Bangor, Mainers 8-1. Congratulations to Aruba. Mira Costa- you guys rock! 
My friend and student Mo and I listened to the game and made Maine like fare. Sherry and Sandy the terrific gals over at exploitsofaveganwannabe.com graciously shared their wicked good, (that's Maine speak), recipe for Vegan Crab Cakes. We used TJ's "21 Salute" herb mix in place of the "Fiesta Mix" blend that Sandy and Sherry used in their recipe. This is a must try! While you are at it make a gallon of Sandy and Sherry's especially yummy tartar sauce to keep in your fridge. Check out their winning recipes. Thanks girls!
http://www.exploitsofaveganwannabe.com/2010/08/811-not-so-crabby-cakes/

Easy Roasted Corn
A few good husked and cleaned fresh corn
A few spritzes of canola oil spray
A few sprinkles of sea salt
A few shakes of herbs of your choice, (we are now stuck on TJ's "21 Salute")

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with wax paper. Generously spritz both sides of corn with canola spray. Now sprinkle, shake and bake. Turn corn midway through cooking time. And please floss in private.

Vegan Baseball and Cool Shoes

My 16 year old nephew Sammy and his team the Mira Costa All Star Mustangs just clinched the Western Regional Senior Little League Baseball Championship! Yay! Right now they are headed to Bangor, Maine to play in the Senior Little League World Series!  We are one uber proud family! Sammy has been a phenom from the time he was born. He was hitting and fielding before he was two and his first words were golf, hockey, ball and bat. Sammy is not vegan, but this got me to thinking. What if Sammy was vegan? Where would he get a cruelty free baseball glove? Are there even any around? This reminded me of how when I was a kid playing competitive tennis many of my racquets were originally strung with my apologies - cat gut - until I more compassionately switched to something called bluestar nylon which to me had a similar feel. Anyway, with some trepidation, (what if nobody cares), I decided to google vegan baseball gloves. Much to my surprise I found a small factory where they actually customize vegan gloves. Get this, the factory Carpenter Trade Company http://www.carpentertrade.com/material.html is even located right near the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Scott Carpenter the owner, a graduate of RISI, purchased glove making machinery from a Rawlings factory that was closing down. He studied gloves extensively at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and founded the company in 2001.Scott has supplied major league ball players with gloves and you can find a page on how to fit the perfect glove on this fascinating site. Below is a blurb about Carpenter Trade's materials. Thank you, Scott!

FOR THE CRUELTY-FREE CONSCIOUS:

We use synthetics based on their performance; nevertheless, some of our customers are drawn to us for the simple fact that our gloves have never been made with animal leathers. Some web sources advertise “vegan” gloves which are actually cheap imported vinyl gloves made with leather laces and wool. While our gloves never use leather we do use wool for padding. Those wanting absolutely no animal materials can request all-synthetic padding from us; such gloves are the only vegan gloves available anywhere.

I wonder if Scott could make me some groovy new lace up boots or some great new kicks.

Live Confidently by Vegan Chick

In the mean time I'm going to cook up some Vegan dogs and pop some nooch popcorn and get ready for tomorrow's game. Go Mustangs!!! You are the Best of the West!

Trouble in the Snack Shack

Lots of people called my gluten-free muffin names like horse pie, door stop,artifact, gall bladder yesterday. Undeterred, I was not ready to jump the xanthan gum ship. I had a fail-proof cookie recipe up my sleeve and I was ready to bounce back.  Do you even know what xanthan gum is smarty pants name calling reader? Well, Xanthan gum is a stabilizer and a thickener made from a bacteria that rots on cruciferous vegetables. Anyway, Eric left town again, so I have another week until I make the bacteria cookies. In the meantime, let me tell you about my awesome trip to see my family in LA.

It was birthday week for the Aries and Tauruses in the family, so of course we just had to go see my nephew Sammy (the Taurus) and baseball phenom play. We got to see him play second and pitch. My famous Sam Sam cake is named after Sam by the way.
Since we are talking baseball here's my pitch for (pitch get it? bahaha)
Veganville's Sam Sam loaf, a death by chocolate, rich, moist and uber- chocolaty chip loaf. If you have a hankering you can purchase some Sam Sam cake at http://veganville.etsy.com/

Anyway, while everybody was yelling Go Mustangs...I screamed, "Why can't you  all have pleather recycled gloves made from tires? Why is baseball so cruel? " (Sammy gets a hit!)

Thinking I would be better off in the kitchen than the stadium, my sister paged me to the "Snack Shack" where she was brewing coffee.The windows of the "Snack Shack" face the field so I got to watch the action and "moo" between snack servings.
Now I know my way around vegan kitchens.The "Snack Shack" I am appalled to say is not vegan. Still, I wanted to be of service to Heidi and Judy the other sweet baseball mom who was also working the "Snack Shack". Remember, veganism is all about  non-violence and helpfulness.

There were plenty of orders for dye number 7 Gatorade. Apparently some children were confused when I asked them if they would like their Gatorade hot or cold.
I was moved out of the beverage section onto the popcorn. Big seller. Apparently microwave popcorn is called microwave popcorn because one must microwave it. Several complaints and broken teeth later I was switched to the candy section of the "Snack Shack".

The kid who broke his tooth on the unnuked popcorn came back for some Jujubes.

I obliged. Yeah kid,sugar will help you lose your other teeth too, what's another tooth at this point? Come back tomorrow and I'll give you an 8 ball. 

Judy and Heidi took a break and left me to lord over the shack. I took this opportunity to steal some Twizzlers for myself. Apparently they have some video setup in the "Snack Shack".

The next picture was taken after I convinced several families not to buy nitrate laden hot dogs.

Hidden camera again.

The next thing I know that sweet woman Judy was pushing me out of the "Shack" and pulling something shiny out of her Louis Vuitton bag.
Pretty bracelets, Judy.
Put them on, GiGi.
Oh Judy, it was my pleasure to help in the "Snack Shack". I couldn't possibly take a gift...
Half way through the Miranda rights I confronted Judy...
Wait Judy...I thought you were number 7's mommy, then I remained silent for a little while.. I was just kidding about the twizzlers, Judy...

Well turns out you can be a mommy and a police sergeant for the LAPD at the same time..

.

Heidi and Larry want to know if they are in trouble by proxy.

Heidi and Larry are so happy that they don't have to serve time again.

Sammy's team wins too. Sammy's team is 20 and 3.

Two nights later Larry and I ate a delicious vegan dinner at the Veggie Grill http://www.veggiegrill.com/  in El Segundo. I had  blackened vegan chicken with avocado over kale, and Larry had chipotle shredded veggie steak with a tangy BBQ sauce and caramelized onion. I wish I had pictures, but Judy confiscated my camera. Go Mustangs!