Squirrel’s Vegan Kitchen

Happy New Year! I hope you all rung in the new year in style, or at least watched a good movie and fell fast to sleep at 12:01. We had a casual evening of Indian cuisine, tequila sunrises and good conversation.

This is the last post I’ll be making to Squirrel’s Vegan Kitchen and I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to being sentimental about it. This blog has been a great experience and you folks, all of you, have made this blog, and the book, such a delight. Reading your respective blogs, trying your recipes, your comments, your emails, mailing books all over the world (South Africa! Australia! India! England! Scotland!) has been a high point in my life and I want to thank you all so deeply and sincerely.

But like all good things, this too must pass. My life has changed a lot this last year and is going to continue to change, rapidly. In addition to my regular day job, I am going to start going back to college next semester, to finish up my bachelor’s and move onto graduate school. I also have some fine art projects going on, both of these things elements of myself that I have ignored for too long.

Along with those such projects, Jim and I have outlined some New Year’s resolutions that I am excited to achieve. Like many other people, we want to save money and stop spending on impulse purchases- foodie extras at the grocery store we don’t need, eating out because we’re too lazy to cook, all of these things will help us funnel more money toward our nemesis- our debt! Our second resolution is one that I am thrilled to embark on: not buying products from countries where workers are exploited. At first we said not buying from China, but there are so many other countries as well, so our focus will be on fair trade, as local as possible, used and thrift store goods as well as plain old living without.

I feel like veganism has made my life both more peaceful and also easier. People love to go on and on about veganism being so hard, etc, but it’s not. We live in a society that not only has plenty- we have too much. Too many choices leads to emptiness. Hollow purchases, indulgence, etc. In being vegan we define our values, we become selective and read labels. I don’t have to worry myself about eating too much junk at work because the cookies and muffins aren’t vegan. It’s as simple as that, not vegan = not fit for consumption. While we all value variety and freedom of choice, setting boundaries and guidelines can actually free you, rather than limit you. It’s certainly easy to indulge in Portland, as a vegan, but as a consumer veganism makes you that much more aware. Where did this come from? What’s in it? What process did it have to go through to get to me? This inquisitive, label-reading trait is the perfect way to cut out the unnecessary junk that muddles our lives.

I realize that this will be both hard to do but also that it’s also easier to Jim and I being that we live in a city filled with alternatives and we don’t have children to buy for. There will be times when desire and temptation will weigh heavily on my weak mind to cave in! Buy it! But I really want to stick to this, to help cure myself of the consumer ill to buybuybuy and never askaskask. I want to live simply so I can focus on the things that really do matter, put my money where my mouth is and free myself from the seductive powers of want.

I want to thank you all again, for taking the time to read my blog, listen to my rambling, tolerate my squirrel pictures, kitty pictures and other assorted furry deviations away from food. Thank you for being so sweet and supportive during my father’s death and for just being good people. It’s so easy in a world that feels so corrupted to feel like people just aren’t good anymore, but you all have proved my pessimism wrong again and again. I wish you all well and I’m sure we’ll stay in contact through the wonder that is the internet.

Cheers,
Kris