So Much to Blog About

Eek! It's been a long time. And there's so much to write about. First off, I'm going to expand this blog beyond vegan food and cooking. I get crazy obsessed about different things, at the moment knitting and comic book/graphic novels. Of course I'm still cooking. I'm always cooking. So don't worry, there will still be lots of food related posts. 

For example -- homemade mushroom burgers! These were my first attempt at making my own veggie burgers, and they were so unbelievably easy. The recipe came from The Happy Herbivore, and the burgers included pinto beans and vital wheat gluten. Here's a picture of the burger, sans condiments.

And one with all the fixings. 

The only thing I would do differently next time is to fry the burgers instead of baking them. They came apart a little on the baking sheet (even with the recommended parchment paper). But these burgers were so good. I'll definitely make them again.

In other news, I am one of the winners of a holiday cookbooklette from Vegan Eat & Treats. I'm so excited! Vegan Eat & Treats' blog is amazing, and I'm sure her cookbooklette will be too. Of course I'll post pictures of the amazing dishes I make.

Here is the comic book I'm reading. 

Yup, it's Batgirl #2 from the DC relaunch (aka the New 52). I still prefer trades to single issue comic books, just because it's a pain in the butt to sort through them all once you've accumulated a few dozen. But I've been listening to a lot of comic book podcasts lately (namely 3 Chicks, Awesomed by Comics, and The Two-Headed Nerd Comicast), and everyone advocates that you buy the singles, because singles are what drives sales and keeps the comics you're reading from getting discontinued.

So. This is my first foray into the world of superhero comics. For years I've been a sporadic comic book/graphic novel reader, but my tastes run towards the literary, the eclectic, and the downright girly. I loved Neil Gaiman's Sandman and am almost all the way through Brian K Vaughan and Pia Guerra's Y the Last Man. I'm plodding along with The Walking Dead as well. The only things I know about Batman, Superman, and the X-men are either from the movies or second-hand knowledge from my younger brother, mostly from when he was a kid and would read Batman/Joker comics. I didn't even know a Batgirl existed. Much less a rich history of Batgirls. And when I found out, the first thought I had was: what a joke! She must be some kind of Batman underling, some stock sidekick figure.

Joke's on me.

I've heard some criticism about this new series, but I've never read any of the old Batgirl stuff, and I like what I'm reading now quite a bit. Batgirl seems like a fully realized young woman traumatized by her past (which includes a grisly run in with the Joker), trying to make her own way in the world of superherodom. It's well written, and the drawing is really, really pretty. 

Two of the comic book podcasts I subscribe to have women hostesses. It's really nice to get a female perspective on what can be an extremely male-dominated pastime. Anyway, it's getting late. I'll post more of what's happening here in the land of Veggie Obsessed soon.