It is my honor to introduce some of the finest new blog posts about vegetarian eating and cooking. The dedicated vegetarian bloggers who contributed to this carnival look forward to your comments about living life, vegetarian style.

International Pleasures

Michael, The Vegetarian Foodie, described the Vietnamese Sandwiches he buys. His article will make you wish you were in Seattle.

On the other side of the country, VnV, who blogs at Vegetarian Monologues, tried a variety of international-style vegetarian restaurants and wrote A Vegetarian in New York City.

The Harvest Is In

Stephanie at Stop The Ride has a great Zucchini Strudel recipe online for us: Too Much Zucchini?.

Lucynda, blogger at Quietly Into The Night, has been harvesting her Roma tomatoes and setting them out to dry. Her post on Making Sun Dried Tomatoes tells the story of how she makes and uses them.

Recipes To Try Out

I’m impressed by the Expat Chef’s culinary confidence as he explains Roasted Ratatouille — No Rodents (thank goodness) at The Expatriate’s Kitchen.

Annette, the Frugal Journey cook, gives us a great pasta recipe: Bowties With Black Olives and Sun Dried Tomatoes.

Stretch Mark Mama suggests hearty lentils with rice as a taco meat replacement for new vegetarians: Food Fixin’ Friday: Mexican Style Lentils and Rice. I have to agree with her; I’ve been vegetarian many years and still love lentils with rice in corn tortillas.

Lisa, who blogs at Lisa’s Kitchen, shares a mouth-watering recipe for Paneer Cheese and Vegetables in a Creamy Gravy. I admire this kind of gourmet cooking.

The Conscious Mom, Shrijnana, plans to share her kid-friendly Sunday brunch menus with us regularly. This time she gives us the recipe for a vegan form of quiche and Garlic-Thyme Home Fries in Vegan Sunday Brunch 8/5/2007.

Amanda, the foodie at Eat… and Be Merry suggests a simple and summery pasta recipe, Penne with Vegetable Marinara, in her post: Quick and Easy Monday Night Pasta. Her photo makes this look so good!

Gillian Polack is a Food History expert who offers two classic Australian recipes for biscuits in Biscuits from the Barossa. Very helpful and intriguing.

A Special Treat

Leo at the Organic Test Kitchen tells us the secret to making the best organic Cookies and Cream Ice Cream. Thanks, Leo!

…

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this carnival. I am inspired by your cooking and menu ideas and amazed by the vegetarian food blogging talent out there.

The home page for the Vegetarian Blog Carnival is found at Veggie Chic’s Blog and the next carnival will be hosted there on August 27. You can participate! Submit a vegetarian post at the carnival submission form by August 26. See you then!

Friday, July 13 was my birthday. To celebrate, my boyfriend, Bob, and I went to the coast. It was great to get out of the Klamath River Valley for a few days. I had a great time, bought a bunch of stuff, won money at a casino that gave me play money for my birthday, and slept overnight in a motel.

When we returned on Saturday night at 11:30pm we were appalled to see a bright red mass of forest fire flames on the hill right next to the forested hill I live on. When we left on Friday, that wasn’t there. The lightning that started all the fires hit the Wednesday before. There are dozens of fires burning all through this forest, but this particular fire ignited two days later and came way too close to our little town of Happy Camp.

So my last few days have been occupied with packing for evacuation, storing valuables elsewhere, attending community fire information meetings, writing articles about the fires for Happy Camp News, being elated when it rained heavily on Tuesday night, and in general, feeling like I was misplaced.

Here’s something you never want to see happening less than a mile from your home. This is what it looked like last Tuesday. We had a lot of people praying for us and God sent rain on Tuesday night. Now there are only a few white wisps of smoke coming up in various places from the forest. I pray it doesn’t get this bad again before they get the entire fire under control. The fire is called the Little Grider Fire after Little Grider Creek, a creek that runs a mile southwest of here. The fire was between our town and the creek.

The map shows how close this fire got to my house.

I’ve been going to work every day. Yesterday at the pizza place where I work we were inundated by hungry fire fighters. I guess they had the day off because of the rain the night before. Guess what. Fire fighters like pizza. They kept us busy from noon to closing time, 9pm. Actually I heard that the night shift stayed open an extra hour to accommodate the famished. Seemed like almost everyone wanted their own personal sized mini pizzas, and we probably sold over a hundred, whereas we usually sell less than five of those in a day.

The good news is that the fire moved away from town and it looks like I won’t have to evacuate after all.

I’ll get back on my schedule again soon - I didn’t even have my computer in my home for a few days so I couldn’t do any blogging at all. For now I’ll file this with my thankfulness articles because I’m so grateful my house didn’t burn down.

Bob and I are heading out for our daily fire watch time. We go across the river every day to get a good look at fire suppression helicopters and to see where the smoke is coming from. See ya later!

[Update: since I wrote this I created a Squidoo lens on evacuation planning: Emergency Survival - Plan and Prepare NOW so if Something Terrible Happens, You'll Be Ready!.]

It is product day here at Country Kitchen Pantry, and today I’m going to tell you what I’ve been eating for breakfast every day lately.

Clif Bars are perfect for taking on a long hike, and eating in the woods. Alternatively, they’re great for a quick, nutritious breakfast when you’re in a hurry to blog then get ready for work. They are clean and neat to eat right at the computer keyboard. No crumbs! And they taste wonderful. At least I like them, especially my current favorite flavor, “Peanut Toffee Buzz”.

The buzz comes from a bit of green tea content. Not a lot, but it is a bit of a pick-me-up which I appreciate due to the fact I quit drinking coffee over a year ago. Green tea is much better for us than coffee. We all know that!

Here are the ingredients for the Clif Bar I ate this morning:

Organic Brown Rice Syrup, ClifPro: (Soy Rice Crisps [Soy Protein Isolate, Rice Flour, Malt Extract], Organic Roasted Soybeans, Organic Soy Flour), Organic Rolled Oats, Dry Roasted Peanuts, ClifCrunch: (Apple Fiber, Organic Oat Fiber, Organic Milled Flaxseed, Inulin [Chicory Extract], Psyllium), Organic Evaporated Cane Juice, Peanut Toffee (Organic Evaporated Cane Juice, Peanuts, Cocoa Butter, Organic Brown Rice Syrup, Dry Roasted Peanuts, Natural Flavors, Salt, Soy Lecithin), Organic Peanut Butter (Organic Dry Roasted Peanuts, Salt), Icing (Organic Evaporated Cane Juice, Cocoa Butter, Soy Milk, Soy Lecithin, Natural Flavors), Peanut Flour, Natural Flavors, Sea Salt, Green Tea Extract (50mg caffeine equivalent).

There’s a warning for allergic people: Contains soy and peanuts. May contain traces of dairy and tree nuts. We source ingredients which do not contain wheat, dairy, and are not genetically engineered.

As you can see, Clif Bars use lots of organic ingredients. The label says, “70% Organic Ingredients”. I think that’s pretty good. Sure tastes good, anyhow.

There’s also a cute story on the label about how the founder of Clif Bars had an epiphany in 1990 when he was eating an energy bar, and realized he could make better energy bars at home. He experimented for two years in his mother’s kitchen. His business is an incredible success because his products are outstandingly good. If you haven’t tried a Clif Bar yet, maybe you will now that you’ve read about how much I’m enjoying them.

[Note: I'm not being paid for my recommendation. I don't do pay-per-post blogging.]

[Update, 12/5/08 - I just looked this post up as I intend to use it as a link on my page about Natural and Artificial Sweeteners because Clif Bars use Brown Rice Syrup to sweeten naturally. I noticed that the date on this post is from eighteen months ago, and I'm still eating Clif Bars for breakfast every day! I found some Clif Bars links on Amazon and am adding those here today.]

I tried something new this week: Dreyers Fruit Bars, made with natural fruit. I bought a strawberry bar and it was so delicious, I had to tell you about it.

[Note: I am not being paid for this post. I don't do pay-per-post blogging.]

Normally I’d go for an ice cream bar instead but my boyfriend and I need to lose weight and he pointed out to me that the fruit bar would be better for us. It was not only better, it was outstanding.

Ingredients are: water, strawberries, sugar, carob bean gum, natural flavors, guar gum, citric acid, color from beet juice extract and tumeric, and ascorbic acid. I don’t see much there to complain about though one could cite the sugar… though it is hard to get completely away from in this civilization. There were only 120 calories and of course, there’s lots of Vitamin C as strawberries are known for that.

Do you ever like to visit food sites to see what’s there? I love looking them up. Dreyers has a section of their site devoted to their Fruit Bars… on the front page of the site it says “Fruit Bars: Taste what everyone’s talking about…” and here I am, talking about them. Hmmm…

It says these fruit bars are winners of the ‘Best Taste Award’ by the American Culinary ChefsBest. I don’t doubt it. The flavor I tried is truly delicious.

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I was inspired to write this by JulieZS’s post, Food, Glorious Food at Create A Connection.

Submitted to The Vegetarian Blog Carnival.

Home is a blue and white planet, beneath the stars. I consider earth to be my home. It is good to know that in this entire chaotic universe there’s one planet on which I can rest my feet, where I feel safe enough to relax and enjoy life.

But home means more than just that.

Home is the feeling of relief I get when I come back to town after being away all day. I live in a very small town (Happy Camp, 1200 people) in the center of the Klamath National Forest. It is about 80 miles to Yreka, the next-largest town in the winter time. During the summer we can drive 40 miles north to Cave Junction.

Going out of town for groceries, supplies, or entertainment usually means being gone most of the day. It means hours on wheels. Coming home requires a long drive through the forest on a winding mountain road in the middle of absolute nowhere.

There’s nothing quite as wonderful as parking in front of the post office after getting back to town. I turn off the car, look up at the old wooden Bigfoot statue, and breathe, “I’m home” and “thank you God”. I’m always glad to be back in Happy Camp.

But home means more than just that.

After getting my mail, I drive to the other side of town, up the hill, and up my bumpy, rocky driveway to the three-bedroom cabin that’s been my home for the last seven years. It is such a feeling of relief to come back to this spot, to my familiar surroundings, my kitchen, my computer, my bed.

Home is a place where I can be myself, pursue my interests, and not worry about all the people that are out there, doing other things that I’m glad to be away from for a while.

Home is a sanctuary. A place where I feel safe. A wonderful, peaceful, happy place of my own.

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Inspired by Create A Connnection: Dialogue Friday

Submitted to the All Women Blogging Carnival