My Passover Dinner, With the Help of the Velveteen Rabbi

Seders to celebrate liberation for all

Published in the new publication One Table, One World on Medium.

Wouldn’t mind this as my seder plate. Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash

 

Do You Like Me? Check Yes, No, or Maybe.

Do You Like Me? Check Yes, No, or Maybe.
Will you be my 4th Grade Valentine?
Published in P. S. I Love You on Medium.

“DREAM BIG” Candy Hearts Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash

Happy Ironic Valentine's Breakup Day

Happy Ironic Valentine's Breakup Day
Heart-Shaped Tofu and Creamed Corn
Published in P. S. I Love You on Medium

Photo by Paco Rives Manresa — CC BY-SA 2.0

The Welcome Letter of an Inflight Magazine Made Me Cry

Are you going to cry too?
published in P.S. I Love You on Medium.

Plane flying through sunset. Photo by Leio McLaren (@leiomclaren) on Unsplash

Growing Up Jewish in America

I just published Growing Up Jewish in America on Medium.
This is an epic one. I wrote it right after the Tree of Life shooting, then held on to it since then, feeling emotional enough about it that I didn't want to just hit publish. I took another look at it this week, saw that top Hanukkah pic, and thought, "I've gotta get this out there now."

Do You Lie to Your Kids About Santa?

Just published in P.S. I Love You on Medium.
Do You Lie to Your Kids About Santa?
(because I really don't want to.)

Santa figurine and lights. Photo by Caleb Woods on Unsplash

Vegan Most of My Life

It's not a birthday. Not an anniversary. But Saturday was a special day for me. It marked the point when I had been vegan more than half my life. I've now been "vegan most of my life." So I want to reflect on the journey.

Cake I made, 2008

Yesterday, I celebrated with a savory crepe and a roasted banana macadamia ice cream cone at the PT Farmers' Market. When I was a teenage vegan in Florida, I never could've imagined I could get vegan food like that (without making it myself).

Me in 2004 - homemade cheeseless pizza and pudding parfaits

It's why I got so into cooking and baking--there were no restaurant/grocery options for me at the time. I wanted to be vegan, but I never wanted to feel like I was depriving myself.

Me in 2007 at Maggie Mudd's in San Francisco

 I went vegan when I was 17 years + 143 days old (or 2,703 days old). I had been transitioning for years already, since my nausea over a 9th grade fetal pig dissection made me consider for the first time what I was really doing when I ate meat.

It was a slow transition, because I had never met a vegan or even a vegetarian. The one 9th grade friend who called herself vegetarian had actually just quit eating cows/pigs, and so I started that way too.

Eventually, I stopped eating all animals, but I still hadn't met a vegan in real life (though by high school we had the internet, and I had a big internet crush on a vegan who lived far, far away) when, with my dial-up internet, I saw PETA's "Meet Your Meat." I only had to watch it once, and I realized I needed to go vegan.

My Famous Cowboy Cookies

I set NYE 2000 as my moment and went to work learning to bake (my first chocolate chip cookie experiment--just using water instead of eggs--was a big failure) and learning what I could get at various fast food restaurants (because that was still my family's norm). I learned how to read grocery packages, memorizing which long words were vegan and which weren't (I was still eating so much junk with such long ingredient lists). This was before packages put allergen warnings in bold, before stores specifically catered to vegans.

Charles at The Cookie Counter

Me and Baby Tzivia at our old pizzeria

Because I have this experience, of having to do it all myself, and of initially putting off veganism (and even vegetarianism) because I really just didn't know anything about it, didn't know anyone to guide me or model it for me, I want everyone to know that my family is always here to guide you, to talk about it, to explain or to listen, if you're thinking about veganism, or even just eating more plants and less animal products.

Harvest Feast (Thanksgiving) in Florida, 2016

I've read that every 7-10 years, the cells of our body have been completely replaced, even our bones, that we become brand new.

For 2,703 days, I ate animal products, probably every single day (even on Yom Kippur, as the fasting goes from sundown to sundown). I built my body out of other bodies, out of cows' breastmilk, out of chickens' periods. Out of carcasses.

For 2,704 days, I've been vegan.

reading my article in the new issue of Raise Vegan

My body is made out of plants, and it's a strong, healthy body.

It's never too late to go vegan!

Mothers' Day 2018

EPIC day. My mom came into town in the wee hours of this morning, so I was both mother and daughter today on Mothers' Day.

Tzivia'd made bath bombs for everyone with the help of her nana, and she made me a necklace (and filled out this funny questionnaire with this amazing drawing of us) with the help of her dada.

Photo credit to my mom for most of these lovely photos!

Bubbie (my mom) and I got to do the newest Yoga with Adriene video together, and then we picked up Banana Leaf Thai food and headed to the beach! We (Bubbie, Granddaddy, Tzivia and I) spent most of the day at Ft. Warden beach, along with many of the sweet families we're friends with. Tzivia opted to wear this dress and then wade in the Sound and flop in the sand and get it just completely filthy. Love it.

 Ended the day at Finnriver, where Dada had been working hard all day, making pizzas for moms (and everyone else).