Hear me roar.

Feminism is stalking me. Since this is a food blog, I don't really want to bring in too many other issues and muddle up my focus-but I just have to talk about this. Since I've been talking to everyone IRL(in real life) about it, I'm going to try to articulate it here. I just can't get it off my mind. It kind of started with all these suicides recently of kids that were literally bullied to death. They have really been hitting home for me both because I'm a parent, and because I had suicidal thoughts at 11 thanks to bullying. I always felt (and was made to feel) like an ugly ducking-I had bad teeth and a hereditary double chin. Add to that being socially awkward and frequently the new kid and it was a recipe for school day hell. As I got older, I settled into my looks and really began to love myself damn it! Even still, there is a long list of things that I would fix about myself given the opportunity. I've always considered myself a feminist (hey, if you're going to be counter culture you might as well go all out-right?) minus, though not always, the hairy legs, bra burning and whatever other stereotype you'd like to insert here. Please start the first video while you read on. One of my best Texas girls, Frank, put this as the first song on my "Bye-ya" mixed cd and it never fails to make me laugh.

Enter this next video. It popped up on my facebook feed, and I've pretty much been obsessed with it since. It's made me do a few things. First, want to learn how to poetry slam because it looks bad ass. Second, reevaluate the language I use and way I see my role in raising my daughter. It's titled "Pretty" and as most of us with little girls know, it's a word we use quite often. Please watch, and I'll elaborate below.

I've watched it a few times now, and each time it's made me cry like a baby. What am I teaching my children about women? About how we look? About loving ourselves? About the importance of being "pretty"? I do know this. I've recently had a drastic shift in thinking and can confidently say I will never have plastic surgery. My tummy may have skin and marks that will never go away. I earned those bad boys turning two cells into the most amazing human beings I've ever met. My once fabulous rack, that while still pretty fabulous is a lot less perkilated? They took two newborn babies and fed them(well), grew them, comforted them, lowered their risk of cancer, obesity, asthma, allergies and more. My double chin? Well, I can't honestly give it many redeeming attributes-but it ties me to my family and I could have it a lot worse. And if I *did* change those things, I would no longer be exactly as I'm meant to be. What kind of message am I sending to my kids, specifically my sweet little daughter. What if I died getting new boobs?

As far back as I can remember, everyone told me I looked just like my mother. Just.Like.Her. And guess what, my mother hates the way she looks. She constantly talks about how ugly she is. Constantly. So what does that say to the little girl that looks Just.Like.Her? I'm using my "I'm seriously angry voice" now. I will NOT lay that burned on my child. Real women are not like the ones in magazines. The women pictured in magazines aren't like the women pictured in magazines. Women come in all shapes and sizes and are good at a hell of a lot of things other than having great tits or a tight ass. Perfection is completely unattainable and frankly really stupid. Be proud of who YOU are. Yes YOU. You're fucking awesome.

This is to my daughter. I promise you that I will do my best to help you see that. I won't alter my body to make it look more suitable to our cultural preferences. I won't cut myself down in front of you (and I'll try my hardest to not to do it all) so that you can love yourself no matter what you look like. To my most beautiful 12 year old cousin who thinks she's ugly. Not only is she about as far from ugly as you can get, but you are worth infinitely more than what you look like. You are pretty talented, pretty kind and pretty freakin amazing. I can't wait to see who you grow to become and the life force you will unleash on the universe!

To all the women out there who start picking themselves apart every time they open a magazine, turn on the tv or look in the mirror. STOP. Right now. Individuality is where it's at. I'm full of piss, vinegar, feminism, opinions, optimism, LOVE, nurturing, excitement, sometimes farts and I AM AWESOME just the way I am. I love you, and I want you to love you just as much. So be brave, show yourself some love in the comments below! I want all the women you know to get angry about this too-share me with your friends :)

Adventures in rolling (sushi that is)

So first off, I must apologize for my epic fail in blog updates. Turns out that people were actually reading my musings and missed me-so I'm back, with 17 albums of backlogged food porn! Today sushi, tomorrow cupcakes, the next day the world. I could blame it on real life, trips to the motherland (Canada represent!), general computer lameness or rampant venereal disease- but they are all just excuses for being lazy. So here I am, back with a dream in my heart and some wine in my hand. Today's blog brings you my first guest chef-Frank! Frank has been a very dear friend of mine for quite some time. We met through La Leche League and hypnobirthing classes and have seen each other almost weekly for going on years. While we let our kids rip the house apart and sword fight with plastic golf clubs, we often manage to accomplish both dinner and tete a tetes. On the menu tonight-vegan sushi! People often assume vegetarians eat fish, because fish are plants right? I can't think of many upsides, but recent activity in the Gulf of Mexico has made it easier for people to understand why one would want to abstain from eating oceanic life. In light of that, the menu was carrot, avocado (top 5 favorite food eva) and cucumber sushi.

Having never made sushi before, I never realized what a pain in the ass it is to slice vegetables paper thin. In that moment, I was filled with nothing but regret over trading my fancy veggie slicer for a bag of used cloth diapers (if that's not hippie, I don't know what is :D). After slicing the world's thinnest veggies, we added secret recipe sushi rice and rolled those bitches in nori. The results were epic yum. We served 'em up with garlic tamari green beans and kimchi (Korean fermented cabbage heaven).

Thank you Frank for passing on your ancient Japanese-ish wisdom, and for being such a special person in my life.