Vegan Potluck

Well, this picture is of fairly terrible quality, but I wanted to post it anyway. On Saturday, Eli and the girls and I joined fellow Bellingham blogger CM (Vegan in Bellingham) for the vegan potluck she hosts occasionally. Among the tasty offerings: squash-and-bean chili, salad, quinoa salad, banana bread, and lemon-coconut cake. It was all so good! My contribution was chickpea bruschetta. We had a great time and look forward to the next one!

There were a few curious comments from yesterday's post about skunk cabbage, so here's another picture for the wondering folk. It grows in swampy, wet areas... which, as you may know, there are a lot of around here!

And if you want to learn more about Western skunk cabbage (who doesn't?), here is the link to the Wikipedia entry.

Western Skunk Cabbage

A sure sign of spring is the reemergence of that fragrant swamp flower-- the skunk cabbage. Although they share a name and foul odor, the Western skunk cabbage looks nothing like the Eastern skunk cabbage. Also called Swamp Lantern, the Western skunk cabbage has enormous green leaves (the largest leaves of any native plant in the Pacific Northwest) and huge bright yellow flowers. The stamen, pictured here, is about a foot tall. Local Native Americans used to use the giant leaves to line their baskets or wrap around fish to cook over the fire.