I used random.org to generate the giveaway winners, and out of 82 total comments I want to congratulate #5 – Sophia and #68 – Heather (be well and take care)!  [Look for an email from me to facilitate delivery information]

Sophia said:

Hurrah for presents! Fresh Strawberries from the Edinburgh Farmer’s Market. I wait all year for them to be in season.

and Heather said:

Corn! I live in Florida so fresh Florida corn is the perfect indicator of summer. Pair it with some awesome fresh tomatoes and it’s just pure heaven.

While I can’t speak to the specificity of Scottish strawberries, I’m a gal of Swedish roots who is known to proclaim the superiority of European strawberries to anything I’ve ever had in the U.S., and as for corn, I need say no more than fresh corn salsa and grilled corn on the cob!

It was so fun learning about everyone’s summer favorites, including some regional ones I’ve never had.  Tomatoes and corn definitely topped the veggie list (even though tomatoes are fruits, botanically-speaking, but most of us use ‘em as veggies!), while a tendency toward peaches and berries topped the fruit list.  Sometimes I feel like I have a new favorite every day, but lately I’m really digging peaches, too!  When you get a really good and ripe one, there’s really nothing like it – sweet and summery, perfect raw, alone or alongside some berries,  or tucked into a hearty and warm little scone fresh from the oven… And even though some people go crazy with their overabundant production, zucchini as raw pasta, a tasty and gluten-free replacement for lasagna noodles (whether raw or cooked), and shredded up for some nummy zucchini bread really is a lovely summer veggie.  Check back with me in a week or two though, and I’ll hopefully be proclaiming the succulent glory of my homegrown heirloom tomatoes eaten straight from the vine!

If you didn’t win and are still interested in ordering a copy of swell, please feel free to email me your current snail mail address to mplsnightheron AT gmail DOT com in exchange for PayPal ordering info. I have the majority of my second printing left before they become no more!

I’d also like to take this opportunity, since my grasp of technology seems to have failed me in finding a less-public way of doing this*, to say that the awesome blogger poopiebitch may have officially come up with the title for zine #2:

And I think you should call zine #2 ’swell as well’.

*e-mail, posting a comment… the particular procedure somehow eludes me on your blog.

While plowing through my blogroll over the past week or two, I was suddenly struck with the realization that I am a Big Blogger Idiot.  Somehow I never put two and two together, peddling my wee wares over here and coming across all sorts of food blog giveaways for products and cookbooks and toys over there… but I’ve never offered a giveaway of my own!

In part this is also a celebration, for I just got back from Kinko’s where I printed a second (and final) big batch of zines.  Back when I debuted this little project of mine in April, I didn’t know that I would be standing zine-less less than four months later.  Yep, that’s right – somehow the 200 copies from my first printing have all gone out into the world!  While most of them have made their way to safety within the U.S. to urban vegan meccas and small towns in small states alike and many to people in my own city (Minneapolis represent!), I’ve also gotten to trek down to the USPO with envelopes addressed to Canada, Europe, Australia… even the United Arab Emirates!

Once this second batch of 150 is sold, I’m not sure I’ll be doing any more printings, as I’m hard at work trying to come up with recipes for Zine no. 2 (zomg!) amidst testing for two cookbooks, working full-time, and (hopefully) soon taking on a second weekly volunteering shift.  So, even if you don’t win the giveaway, please feel free to contact me about ordering a zine (or more) before they’re gone for good.  (The procedure is the same as indicated at the end of this post.)

I’m hoping Zine no. 2 will be even bigger and better!  In keeping with my sweet potato love a la swell, here is a yum-picture of them with a Creamy Pepita-Cilantro Dressing of which I’ve recently been enamored (and honestly, isn’t it weird how a couple days later, Ricki posted a similar-looking recipe on her lovely blog?  More on how we’re twin-flavor-souls in an upcoming post!):

Okay, okay, enough blabbering and onto what you are really here for…

I’m giving away copies of swell to two lucky people (one each)!  To enter, please leave a comment telling me what your favorite summer fruit or vegetable is and why (being that time of year and all) by Monday, July 26, 9pm CST. Winners will be randomly chosen and announced by Tuesday night (July 27), and I will contact them via email for subsequent prize-claimings.

Good luck and eat something yummy!

Galactic Pizza: Garden Salad with Annie's Sesame Shiitake Vinaigrette

So it’s been a while, compared to my earlier gusto this month.  Today I’m sitting inside after calling into work because I went through a procedure that’s made me extremely sun-sensitive and embarrassingly and painfully inflamed.  I don’t often talk about myself on my blog this personally, but as someone who struggles between trying to treat my health naturally and feeling pressured into the “quick fixes” of Western medicine, I am often left thinking about how my food choices affect my emotional and physical self, and whether I am making the right decisions sometimes about buying pills or supplements or paying a doctor to effectively put a band-aid on situations that I may have let get out of control for too long.

Tiramisu from Nonna's Italian Kitchen

At times I feel I have an unhealthy relationship with this blog.  Well, maybe not unhealthy, but I find myself making and photographing food by myself in order to avoid the awkwardness of being the home cook/hostess and food blogger at the same time (although I claim to know very little about photography, the better pictures I take involve a lot of time!).  I put a personal pressure on myself sometimes to post the best, most unique, most decadent, newest etc etc creation or picture that I am capable of.  This isn’t my job though – I work a full-time job, I volunteer once a week, and I’m just a little vegan lady with no professional experience photographically or culinarily.  I’m not looking to be the vegan Martha Stewart.  Most importantly, this goes against the main reason I started cooking in the first place: being with and cooking with or for the people I love.  Maybe I’m feeling prematurely old, or veganism has changed the way I relate to my body, but I didn’t always pay attention to how healthy my cooking was(n’t), and lately my body feels like I’m slipping a lot in my eating habits.  I don’t use nutrition analysis software or anything to determine this, but I know I haven’t been doing my best to make cooking (and sometimes baking) a healthy activity in my life as well as a people-oriented one.

Chocolate Pasta with Wild Mushroom Sauce from Nonna's Italian Kitchen

My partner and I have our own sets of health or emotional issues that conflict with wanting to feel total freedom in what we eat.  Sometimes it feels like we are constantly on opposite sides of a healthy-hedonistic spectrum – and neither of us is always the health-conscious and the other the hedonist.  Our roles change a lot.  Through our years of being together, though, we have influenced each other in positive ways: I’ve nearly erased any desire for boxed pre-seasoned couscous or chili mix and invited her into the amazing world of kale, and she has gotten me buying only whole grain breads and brown rice and reminding me to eat more fresh fruit.  My endeavors have not always been met with acceptance, though: my becoming vegan freaked her out a bit (she’s still a vegetarian, but rarely eats non-vegan things at home) and she still seems afraid that I’m “going to go raw on her” (no plans for that!).

Isa's Pumpkin Pie Brownies

So what all this blabber is about, if you’re still reading right now, is that I’m making a concerted effort to make healthier food for us and have her (and other people) be more a part of the process.  I know I’m not all cookies and white pasta and vegan mayo all the time anyway, but you’ll probably see less sweets from me here from now on, and hopefully more colorful and healthier recipes (as far as the colder winter months will allow).  There are a couple of exceptions of course (holiday dinners and birthdays), but for the most part, I’m going to reduce my sugar, wheat/gluten, alcohol, caffeine, and soy, and get down with the fresh fruits and veggies, beans and legumes, and seasonal produce.  All still with nice doses of spices and herbs, healthy fats, and tasty vitamins and minerals that I’ve been replacing with coffee and vegan muffins in lieu of breakfast and lunch.

Vegan Pizza Bianca from Galactic Pizza

Now, about the last part of my post.  For those of you who have been following this blog for awhile, you know that I’ve procrastinated a ridiculously long time on a cookzine I’ve been working on.  I wish I had more concrete answers than it’s still happening… Moving and some new direction halted things a bit.  I felt I was pressuring myself to do too much for a first-time zine, so I’m in the process of streamlining, and working on a couple different simple recipes (testers, be on the lookout!) in addition to typing it all up and designing it and printing it.  Completing semi-large projects has never been one of my strong suits, and the anticipation and fears about sharing it with other people is also a bit scary.  But it will get done, even if it’s been far too long since I first mentioned it.

In conclusion, healthy food=good and zine=happening.  And here is a lovely fall photo for those of you who don’t get to experience it (I grew up in San Diego, I know what I’m talking about):

Fall on 28th St.