We tried out Alix from Cute and Delicious’ recipe she recently posted for Vegan Benedict/Tofu Florentine. It turned out pretty good but next time I would use less dijon, the kind we had made it a little too spicy.

This coming Sunday, March 22, at 1:00 there is the next Veg Networking Event at Sante La Brea. The last event drew over 80 people and they are planning for even more this time. Each person will be given 30 seconds to talk about the work they do and the career they want to get into. This event is a great place to promote any upcoming events, to meet people with common interests or to just grab a good bite to eat. After the networking event, there will be a talk by famed chef Zitari from 2:30-3:30pm titled “Going from a Meat-Eating Diet to Becoming a Breatharian.” Here are all the details:

Veg Networking Event
Sunday, March 22nd
1pm-2:30pm
Sante La Brea
345 N. La Brea Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90036

“Going from a Meat-Eating Diet to Becoming a Breatharian”
2:30pm-3:30pm
Sante La Brea
345 N. La Brea Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90036

Please RSVP to Prabhat at prabhat_gautam@hotmail.com if you want to attend either event.

I just got the news in my inbox that BOCA has agreed to stop using eggs in all of their products by the end of 2009. According to a company spokesperson:

…I am pleased to let you know the BOCA brand will be eliminating eggs in all of its products by the end of this year. We anticipate all BOCA products will be egg free in 2010.

This is huge news! I can’t count the number of times I’ve gone to a restaurant or grocery store and had to pass up on some tasty item because it was a BOCA product. Congratulations to Compassion Over Killing, Mercy For Animals and the Animal Protection & Rescue League for their fantastic work in helping BOCA realize the error of their ways. And if you have a second, send BOCA a message to express your appreciation for their decision to cut the cruelty out of their products.

My dog park of choice (if our dogs weren’t assholes and didn’t terrorize every other dog in the park) is Hermon Dog Park in Highland Park. It’s a beautiful area and the ground is nice small pebbles opposed to other nearby parks with dirt/mud that causes the dogs to be filthy after they are done playing. This Saturday the organization Friends of Hermon Dog Park are organizing a rummage sale to help pay for upgrades to the dog park, including planting much needed shade trees and funds for their large annual adoption events. The event is happening from 9 am to 2 pm in the parking lot of Mika Color located at 6000 Monterey Road off the Avenue 60 exit on the 110.

Here’s a handy Google Map to the location of the dog park if you are unfamiliar with where it is located. Like I said, it’s a great park and certainly worthy of any help you can offer.

My Lip Stuff and our farmed animals friends at Animal Acres have teamed up to bring you an awesome way to soften your lips while helping to provide a lifelong home for farm animals with a donation from My Lip Stuff! My Lip Stuff is donating $1.50 from every sale of these special edition lip balms to help Animal Acres in their efforts to help farm animals. Smooth lips and a good cause, can’t beat that combination! You can purchase them on their website here. They have 4 fantastic flavors to choose from: Snickerdoodle-doo (snickerdoodle flavor) – rooster, LeMOOmade (lemonade flavor) – cow, Baa Baa Blackberry (blackberry flavor), and Peppermint Piggies (peppermint flavor) – pig.

ABC News program Nightline is having a special in-depth report tonight where they go undercover inside a chimpanzee research facility with an investigator for The Humane Society of the United States. For nine months they investigated the wretched existence of chimpanzees and other primates who are warehoused or used for research in laboratories at a cost of millions to taxpayers. The subject is very timely with all the news talking about interstate commerce of primates dominating congress and the news. You can check out a preview of tonight’s episode here or tune in at 11:35 PM tonight to see the full story.

Tomorrow is the City of Los Angeles’ Primary Election and like a lot of other people, I’ve been too distracted to really research any of the candidates. Fortunately the California Chapter of the League of Humane Voters just came out with their election endorsements. Seeing that I haven’t done any research on any of the candidates, I’ll be cramming for the election this evening. Their list seems as good a place as any to start. As a reminder, the turnout for this local election is likely to be small, so the power of your vote will be greatly increased. Here’s their list:

Mayor:
David Hernandez: David is a mature, dedicated activist who has fought injustice on all levels of society. He has championed the plight of animals in this city for the last eight years, speaking out for Billy, against pet breeding and the lack of the Villaraigosa’s administration support for shelter animals. He is a man of his word, not a man of empty promises.

City Attorney:
Michael Amerian: An intelligent,progressive career public attorney who we believe would release the resources for and encourage animal cruelty prosecutions. Noel Weiss is a good runner up alternative. Carmen Trutanich seems to have a progressive attitude towards the prosecution of animal cruelty but has some clients in the past who we would not want to influence him in this office.

Controller:
The League of Humane Voters has not made any endorsement in this race. This office has little impact on the lives of animals in the city although we don’t like the idea of rewarding Wendy Greuel when she has displayed such a callous attitude towards the animals in the city council.

Los Angeles Community College District
Member of the Board of Trustees, Seat No. 6
Robert Nakahiro: Mr. Nakahiro has a passionate commitment to the need for humane education in the schools.
_____________________________________________________________
District Elections: Whether these candidates are on your ballot will depend upon your district. You will only be allowed to vote for one at the most. If these names are not on your ballot we did not endorse in your district.
We wish we could endorse in every race but frankly we have been disappointed by the behavior of many of our incumbent city council members. We have listed those who we believe deserve our support.

City Council District #5
Paul Koretz: Twenty years of passing laws to protect animals on the city and state level should not be ignored. Going to the polls to vote for Paul if you are in district 5 is reason enough to make the effort to vote.
Please vote for Paul if you life in these zip codes: 90024, 90025,90034, 90035, 90036, 90046, 90047, 90048, 90049, 90064, 90067, 90069, 90077

City Council District #7
Richard Alarcon: Authored the recent Los Angeles Spay-Neuter ordinance which passed in 2008.

City Council District #9
Jan Perry: Jan has been supportive of many of our issues. She deserves to be re-elected.

City Council District #15
Chris Salabaj: Chris is a new face on the political scene. He will be compassionate relief after four years of the indifferent Janice Hahn.
Please vote for Chris if you live in these zip codes. 90002; 90044; 90059;
90061; 90247; 90248; 90501; 90710; 90717; 90731; 90732; 90744