Vida Vegan Con 2013: A Joyful Overview

Posted on May 28, 2013 by Hannah

How can I explain the utter magnificence that was Vida Vegan Con 2013? How can I convey the magic of spending an entire filled-to-the-brim-early-morning-to-wee-hours-of-the-night-endless-time-yet-not-enough-time weekend with some of my favourite people and dearest friends in this world, women with whom I share such soaring yet deep-deep-grounded connections of mutual admiration, respect, love, support, excitement, laughter, seriousness, wickedness, joy, and passion for life?

Do I focus on #VVC2013′s inspiring and thought-provoking presentations on writing, recipes, photography, social media, body image, marketing, ethics, and more? Should I describe the endless array of abundant and mind-bogglingly-delicious food to suit every (vegan) taste, both at the conference and in Portland itself?

Is it wrong to tease you with the fact that there was So. Much. Swag. that I couldn’t fit it all in my suitcase and two carry-on bags, so I had to leave some behind (the above photo isn’t even all of it)? Do I start by showing you my Portland eats, or describing the conference feasts and exhibitor treats?

Or should I let the guide for my words be the fact that, only a day out from the conference, I miss the friends I truly went there for so much it hurts?

That Lisa, Amber, Angela, Gena, Nicole, Hannah, Ricki, and Heather light up my life in so many ways I can’t fathom how dark it would be without them? That JL, Dreena, Kate, and Marika are such hilarious, talented, and passionate ladies that I almost can’t believe we were drinking fresh juice, ordering cider, and sipping wine in hotel rooms together mere days ago? That Tess, Mandee, and I literally shrieked in glee about being a posse of Australians when we found each other one breakfast? That I found myself making giggle-comments one session with none other than Jill, The Veggie Queen? That when I ran into the gorgeous Cadry, she knew my blog, and that Jill of Vegan Cuts gave me extra candy at lunch one day?

That quite a few people out there have somewhat incriminating photobooth photos of me that I think I can trust them not to post publicly, because the images are somewhat incriminating for them too?

That I can’t believe how loved and taken care of I was on my birthday on Sunday?

That I would go back in a heartbeat and do the whole weekend over again, exactly? (Including finally joining Instagram?)

I’ll try to write proper posts about #VVC2013 soon. There’s so much I’d like to share with you, delight in, relive, remember. But life is taking off at a whirlwind pace right now, and I want to make sure I’m racing along at tempo with it.

I can’t wait for this year of being 26. I think it’s going to be grand.

My First Canadian Easter, and Brigadeiros

Posted on March 31, 2013 by Hannah

This Easter long weekend could easily have trickled past in a mopeyhearted way for me, as Easter has always been a family-centric holiday in my world. More often than not, Easter has meant a long lunch out in the countryside with my parents, brother, grandparents, assorted other (beloved) relatives, and a table laden with much deliciousness.

In other words, I could have been very homesick this weekend. Instead, I was only a little bit homesick, because I found myself with more invitations to Easter events than I could accept. To everyone who extended hands and homes to me – thank you. So much.

I spent Saturday, the first beautifully-truly spring-like Saturday of the year, in the gloriously stunning new home of one of my favourite Canadians (and work colleagues), Kristy. She and her husband have an eye for art, design, and interior decorating that takes my breath away, and yes. Before you ask, yes, I did ponder whether the poofy skirt of my dress could adequately hide beneath it the vintage pink typewriter you see above.

But then I realised that I’d rather keep Kristy’s friendship than a stolen typewriter, so I stopped my plotting. (Convict roots.)

Kristy put together a wondrous spread of fresh fruit, fluffy scrambled eggs that I think she magicked into existence, and two epic breakfast casseroles unlike any I’d seen before.

In the foreground, we have a Canadian bacon casserole made with English muffins, and in the background a French toast casserole with a cinnamon sugar topping.

Warning: the below photo may surprise some of you.

People, I have found a way to consume the devilfruit.

It is called a mimosa, and it is delicious.

Considering that our brunch spread involved representation from Canada, England, and France (at least in terms of the dishes’ names), it makes sense that my contribution to the day was a batch of Brazilian brigadeiros, right?

Right.

Chewy, sweet, chocolate-y, eminently moreish, and rolled in coconut (rather than the traditional sprinkles), I can only hope that these simple treats in some small way conveyed how happy I was to be a part of Kristy’s Easter celebration. Dear Kristy: you are gorgeous and generous and amazing.

My heart soared.

(P.S. Get the recipe for the brigadeiros here.)

Change, and Rilke’s Sonnets to Orpheus II: XII

Posted on March 29, 2013 by Hannah

As I’ve mentioned recently, I’m looking down the barrel of more transition and change right now, more unknowns, more mists cloaking the future.

Hopes and dreams and longings and anxiety and wishes are all swirling around inside me. While parts of my core wish everything could stay exactly. as. it. is. right. now, when all is magic and smiles and growth and possibilities and flutterings and giggles, I also know that I can’t reach grander and greater and sweeter things unless I keep walking forward into the mist. Ups and downs, successes and failures, hugs and heartbreaks, triumphs and collapses. It’s all there, waiting, ahead.

I choose to believe that it will be wonderful, all of it, over and over again, no matter where I go, or stay, or come from, or return back to, or find myself.

Immediately after typing the above words, I found a poem by the incredible Rainer Maria Rilke that perfectly embodies the concept of not only embracing change, but running towards it with courage.

Change can be sweet.

Sonnets To Orpheus, Part Two, XII

By Rainer Maria Rilke
Translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy

Want the change. Be inspired by the flame
where everything shines as it disappears.
The artist, when sketching, loves nothing so much
as the curve of the body as it turns away.

What locks itself in sameness has congealed.
Is it safer to be gray and numb?
What turns hard becomes rigid
and is easily shattered.

Pour yourself like a fountain.
Flow into the knowledge that what you are seeking
finishes often at the start, and, with ending, begins.

Every happiness is the child of a separation
it did not think it could survive. And Daphne, becoming a laurel,
dares you to become the wind.

Northern Ontario Wilderness Magic with Heathy: Part Two

Posted on March 2, 2013 by Hannah

To read the first two installments of my Northern Ontario adventure, click here and here.

My first day with Heather in her winter wonderland home was marked by naught but joy, deliciousness, laughter, secret-sharing, and the forging of soulsister-bonds. I awoke the next morning wondering if our second day could possibly be as magical as the first.

It could.

After making and enjoying a nourishing breakfast together as the fire crackled in the fireplace behind us, Heathy and I headed out to watch her partner, J, take off from a lake on his fancypants waterplane-machine. (It probably has a more technical name than that, but “fancypants waterplane-machine” makes sense in my head.)

Planes that take off from and land on water! Who knew! This world of ours!

Then lo! More exclamation marks! Suddenly Heathy and I weren’t simply watching J take off from the water from inside a warm building on land; we were inside the plane.

Girls on a plane!

I was giddy with excitement.

Up, up, and away!

Heathy was kind enough to let me sit in the front of the plane with J, and thus I was able to witness, first-hand, J’s astounding skills as a pilot.

I mean, look at all those gadgets and gizmos and thingamabobs I’ve got twenty! (Wait, no, that’s The Little Mermaid.)

We flew over lakes and houses, over trees and snow, down and up and around until we finally landed on another lake and slowly made our way through shards of ice to the shore.

Thank you, J, for an incredible experience unlike any I’ve ever had.

Unfortunately, Heathy was feeling a little unwell after the flight, but it was nothing a little soulsister firepit dancing couldn’t heal.

And a little more, for good luck.

As I’m sure you could guess from the dessert extravaganza of my first night, no day with Heathy is complete without enjoying some sort of epic raw dessert of wonderment. Heathy knows I love carob and nuts, and that I was interested in playing with Irish moss, and so we danced in the kitchen to create the most amazing, luscious, I’m-still-craving-it-now-why-can’t-I-have-an-everlasting-supply-of-it raw vegan Carob Cashew Mousse.

We took the carob topping from Heathy’s Double Choco Strawberry Cake in Raw Food Carob Desserts, increased the amount and switched up a few proportions, and dear holy squee. We done good. We done so good I forgot language speak proper.

And then Heathy went and garnished our dessert with lucuma coconut cashews.

I can’t even. So much wanting. This is why I’ve taken so long to write up these posts; I almost can’t cope with the levels of wanting that accompany the remembering.

Only almost, though, because the remembering in fact makes me deliriously happy, and such happiness is something I never want to forget.

Northern Ontario Wilderness Magic with Heathy: Part One

Posted on February 23, 2013 by Hannah

How can I convey to you, in nothing more than unmoving words on a white screen, the week of enchanted and unexpected magic that I spent with Heathy of Sweetly Raw and Food and Yoga for Life in her northern Ontario home last November? How can I adequately describe the way our kindred sistersouls starting weaving together like lace from the moment we met, and how the depth of our connection combined with the dreamlike surroundings made it seem like every vulnerability was uncovered, yet at the same time like we were soaring, because we were together, curled up by the fireplace, shimmering and understanding everything?

How can I explain what it was that led Heathy to invite me into her home and world, and for me to accept without hesitation (and, in so doing, undertake over a day’s worth of travelling each way), when in truth we barely knew each other beforehand? How can I, long a skeptic of all such matters, explain this in any other way than that the universe made it so, that somehow the stars knew that Heathy and I needed to find each other and begin our deep friendship just like this, cocooned from the outside world by snow and distance, sharing secrets, stories, and an endless array of sweet treats?

I can’t explain it. And perhaps I shouldn’t. Perhaps it is enough to be grateful to the universe for bringing Heather (and her delicious Sweetly Raw desserts) into my life.

Perhaps it is enough to simply show you a glimpse of our magic.

After my flight to Thunder Bay, overnight B&B stay, and four hour bus ride the next morning, Heathy picked me up from the Greyhound station and drove us an hour back to her home. From the moment I stepped out of Heathy’s car and saw the lake glittering with the sun’s light beyond tall silver trees in her backyard, I knew my week was going to be special.

Oh hey there, little squirrel fellow! Aren’t you just a sweetest thing!

Hide and seek! I see you! Up there on your squirrel roof! Don’t worry, I’m not about to steal your squirrel feed.

After all, Heathy and I have almost 4 kilos of intensely amazing raw almond butter inside, and we don’t really want to share either.

After I’d finished the above imaginary conversation with a squirrel, Heathy bundled me up in winter gear and took me off exploring with her little poodle pup, who was so affectionate and lovely that I began to miss my own poodle pup terribly, my poodle pup who recently passed away.

But this is not a post of sadness; this is a post of joy. The joy of new friendship, of wearing reversible mittens both ways at the same time (pink! brown!), of skipping stones across the water and laughingtalkinglaughing breathlessly.

After a little more time getting lost in the beauty of northern Ontario, I experienced the incredibilityfulness of Heathy’s raw pizza wizardry for dinner while also meeting her partner J, who is a man of awesomeness.

The recipes for Heathy’s all-raw buckwheat sunflower seed sundried tomato pizza crust, marinara sauce, pesto, marinated veggies, and cashew cheese are available here. You must make them. Forever. Except leave room for dessert, because…

Is this what heaven looks like?

Wait, no.

This is what heaven looks like.

I may have started to hyperventilate a little bit when Heathy said “dessert time!” and then laid out, on the counter, everything you see above. All raw, all vegan, all so incredibly beyond comprehension delicious that I almost cried with overwhelmed exuberance.

Raw vegan dark chocolate moonie pies, jumbo almond butter cups, jumbo peanut butter cups, pear crumble, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin pie, lucuma pumpin fudge, cashew chocolate clusters, almond chocolate clusters, macaroons…

This is what heaven looks like.

I told you it was magic.

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