Peta Boycott Canadian Maple Syrup Tour

From July 6-10 I joined Peta for their Pennsylvania tour for the Boycott on Canadian Maple Syrup to bring an end to Canada's annual seal slaughter. We did four demonstrations in Scranton, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, and Philadelphia. The Scranton demo was rather quiet and had very little media coverage, probably due to the fact that it was raining right up until we started at noon and began raining again just after we finished. At the Pittsburgh demo the media was there right when we arrived. The Harrisburg demo had a couple different media sources and one additional activist came out to join us. Philadelphia was by far our best demo as we had four additional activists show up. We also had several media sources come to the demonstration including TV and radio anchors. The photo above is from our Pittsburgh demonstration. Jena and Michael were awesome and I really hope I get to do demos again with them in the future.

Overall I would say the demonstrations went really well and got better and better each day. One of the other great things about the tour was some of the awesome restaurants we got to try. We ate at Govinda's to go Vegetarian Restaurant in Philadelphia for lunch on both Monday and Friday. I had the Yellow Split Pea soup on Monday and the Red Bean Soup of the Day on Friday, both were delicious. On Tuesday we had lunch at Taco Bell which was an experience, but I got some sort of salad with beans. Tuesday night we ate at the Double Wide Grill in Pittsburgh which I was totally skeptical about because of the name, but they label everything that is vegetarian, vegan, and wheat free on their menu which is awesome. I got the Cal-i-forn-i-a Salad with no tomatoes or dressing. The salad had lettuce, avocado, red onions, portabella, grapes, pears, and sunflower seeds and was delicious! Wednesday we had Denny's for breakfast so I had grits and fruit salad. For lunch we stopped at Kiva Han in Pittsburgh and I got the hummus & veg sandwich without the bread and the house salad with no dressing or almonds. Kiva Han also labeled vegan items on their menu. For dinner we went to Miyako in Harrisburg which was a Japanese restaurant. I got the avocado roll and vegetable soba soup without the tofu. I had never tried soba soup before but have been meaning to since soba is gluten free and I really enjoyed it. Thursday night we at the the Black Olive in Philadelphia, and it is definitely my new favorite restaurant! Their entire menu is vegan, they don't fry anything, like only use sesame oil and olive oil and are willing to switch which oil they use or omit the oils on request. The staff was extremely friendly and encouraged me to ask questions, whereas most restaurants get annoyed with all my questions about ingredients. I got the Black Olive Gourmet Burger without the bun and tomato and with no dressing on the coleslaw. It was absolutely delicious! For dessert I got lemon sorbet and it was equally amazing! I definitely plan on going back the next time I'm in Philadelphia.

Apple Pancakes

Hodgson Mill sells Apple Cinnamon Muffin Mix that is gluten free and that can be used to make some really tasty pancakes. There is a recipe on the back of their box but I have to tweak it a bit to fit my allergies and vegan lifestyle. I've only made it in half batches but I'm sure it would work just fine making the whole batch at once. For a half batch I use:

-1/2 Box Hogson Mill Apple Cinnamon Muffin Mix
-1/2 cup Rice Milk (plus a tad extra)
-EnerG Egg Replacer for 1/2 an egg (3/4 tsp EnerG + 1 Tbsp warm water)
-1 and 1/2 tsp water (instead of vegetable oil, but I'm sure it would work the same with oil)
-1 Tbsp + 1 tsp sugar

I combine the muffin mix, water, and sugar first then mix in the milk and egg replacer. The box says to cook them on a griddle, I just do it on a frying pan and it works just fine. There is a touch of an apple taste but it isn't that strong, I'm thinking about putting fresh apples into the mix next time.