Growing Oyster Mushrooms

Last month at the Humboldt mushroom fair I bought a box of ready to grow oyster mushrooms.

Mushrooms are super weird. They grew way faster then I ever expected. I think they doubled in size every day. All I had to do was spray them with water a couple of times a day. It was really fun!

Honestly, I had more fun growing them than eating them :p

Homemade Gingerbread House

Merry Christmas! To celebrate Christmas this year I made a vegan gingerbread house from scratch, well except for the candy. There was extra dough left so I made a family of bears to live in the house, a Hansel and Grethel meets the three bears sort of thing. The house was way studier than making one from a kit, and it was fun designing the shape and picking out candy accessories.

Gingerbread Recipe:

http://www.peta.org/living/vegetarian-living/recipes/vegan-gingerbread-cookies.aspx

Kentucky Derby Truffles & Rocky Road Bark

For Christmas I made Kentucky Derby Truffles and Rocky Road Bark gift bags.

Kentucky Derby Truffles were made of pecans, bourbon filling dipped in dark chocolate.
Rocky Road Bark was made of peanuts, Dandies vegan marshmallows, and dark chocolate.

Thesis Defense

After years of researching I finally defended my thesis on students knowledge and attitudes towards trans persons. My study found that both knowing a trans person or increased exposure to different types of media that discussed trans issues (such as TV, books, internet) related to lower level of trans discrimination. It was highly recommended to bring food for the professors to snack on during the defense. So, I went with an afternoon tea theme with bottled black tea, vegan cupcakes, mini sandwiches, and chips.

Thesis:

http://humboldt-dspace.calstate.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/2148/693/Kooy%20Thesis%202010.pdf?sequence=5

Owl Painting

I celebrated turning in the final draft of my thesis by breaking out the paints. I painted this guy to take my mind off school and to brighten up my DOR cubicle.

Childhood IQ & Vegetarianism

In 2006 the British Medical Journal came out with a veg friendly article, IQ in childhood and vegetarianism in adulthood: 1970 British cohort study. The researchers found that children's IQ predicts their likelihood of becoming vegetarians as young adults, thus lowering their risk for cardiovascular disease.

Full text article:

http://www.bmj.com/content/334/7587/245.full?sid=a03367d4-7eec-4f94-8d94-c2fe24bd9045