Tuesday, July 22, 2008

July 4th Ice Cream Social & Potluck, Prop 2 Fundraiser success!

Please head over to my new blog at TheUrbanHousewife.com, where you'll find this post & more!

Potluck mania is alive & well in my home! I love a good potluck, from the monthly brunch I attend, to a Holiday get-together, an excuse to have a spread of food & hang out with friends is alright by me. The 4th of July was utilized as a reason to have people over & due to my current obsession with frozen treats, I hosted an Ice Cream Social & Potluck!

We started with a fabulous food feast with everything from Ethiopian food, noodle & potato salads, & sweet potato fritters, to homemade guacamole & other dips, faux meat skewers & BBQed seitan Shawarma! Everyone dug in to the display with fervor & managed to clean out most of the food options & I found myself reminding people to, "Save room for Ice Cream!".

Initially, I worried about a lack of ice cream, everyone seemed to be bringing dishes instead of a store bought item, which is wonderful, but makes for a bad Make-Your-Own Sundae party. In the end, no worries were needed as we had 17 pints & 7 quarts of vegan ice cream! Imagine opening your freezer to all of those containers! I also made a spread of treats & toppings such as brownies, whipped cream, fruit, nuts, custard, caramel & chocolate sauces, & 2 types of cones.

Once it was ice cream time, a line formed from the kitchen in to my living room, as people took turns approaching the sundae station & loading up on goodies. The clear winner was Double Rainbow Soy Cream, 12 of the pints were their delicious confection & they were quickly demolished! (If you haven't had a chance to try Double Rainbow Soy Cream, seek it out, the Vanilla Bean is BY FAR the best vegan vanilla ice cream I've ever had, no soy beany flavor!) In the end, I had 4 loaded up ice cream sundaes & an upset stomach, but it was totally worth it. I love "make-your-own" parties & this certainly won't be the last one I host!


As I mentioned in my last post, Californians for Humane Farms had a fundraiser to benefit Prop 2, a ballot initiative on the upcoming November election which would allow farm animals to stand up, sit down, & turn around in their enclosures. I'm happy to say the event was a success & raised DOUBLE our expected donation amount! The silent auction went amazingly, thanks to the help of donations from Julie Hasson at Everyday Dish TV, Hannah Kaminsky of My Sweet Vegan, Joni Marie Newman of Cozy Inside, & Isa Chandra Moskowitz of Veganomicon!

In addition to helping plan the event, some sweet treats were also whipped up, courtesy of Sugar Beat Sweets; over 100 mini Vanilla bean cupcakes topped with Peach Mousse! Sadly, I was too sick to attend the event, but Ryan was kind enough to take this photo of the mini cupcakes set up. Thank you to everyone who made the fundraiser a success & don't forget, YES ON PROP 2 in November!

26 comments:

Tami said...

I wouldn't think much could top that table of potluck food, but then I got to the ice cream photos! You really know how to throw a fundraiser!

Katy said...

Oh man, I would totally donate money to whatever cause you wanted if you made me food like that! Looks fabulous!

Anonymous said...

peach mousse??? yummm! any chance of you sharing that recipe?

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

FABULOUS potluck fare - OH MY!! Yum.

Anonymous said...

Am I dreaming? Wow. Just, wow. Look at all that vegan sundae AWESOMENESS.

Animal-Friendly said...

Omigosh- that ice cream bar! I think I might faint (and eat way too much) if I saw so much vegan ice cream within my reach.

Anonymous said...

Damn, I missed one bad-ass ice cream extravaganza :( Haven't gotten any Mimicreme yet, but the strawberry batch was successful.

Bianca said...

What a super cool idea! I'm totally stealing that for my next get-together! I love, love, love ice cream sundaes!

Unknown said...

I love ice cream socials!! Yours looks like a total success and having a potluck beforehand is a genius idea!

The cupcakes are adorable and I really love the look of that peach mousse, mmm!

Pink Theory said...

omg! so much vegan ice cream!!

And I second the request for the peach mousse recipe :-)

Anonymous said...

Wow! What an amazing spread. I totally love the idea of an old-fashioned ice cream social for modern times. Sorry to hear you were under the weather. Hope you are better.

Erin said...

An ice cream social sounds like so much fun! And congrats on a successful fundraiser. Once I move I'm going to register to vote post haste so I can get in on the voting action.

Jess said...

That looks like a wonderful success of an ice cream social & potluck! I am drooling just thinking about it... And good for you for helping out with the Prop 2 fundraiser. It sounds fantastic, and your cuppers look amazing as usual! I'd definitely be voting YES if I was a Californian. :)

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the tip on the Double Rainbow soy cream. We've been eating our fair share of the Trader Joe's Soy Creamy lately. It's really pretty good! Congrats on your Prop 2 Fundraiser success!

Anonymous said...

What I would have given to attend... It looks like vegan ice cream heaven!

Vegan_Noodle said...

I am totally going to steal the idea for an ice cream potluck someday soon. I can't believe all that ice cream!! So worth getting a tummy ache over.

And the cupcakes looks perfect as always! Too bad you weren't feeling up to going. What a great cause too... wish TX was doing something like that.

Kati said...

Wow, I can feel the sugar high just looking at these pictures...but in a totally good way, of course.

jessy said...

oh daaaayum! that potluck looks like the most glorious potluck ever! and i think my heart would skip a beat were my freezer to contain all that delicious ice cream! mmmmmmm! the peach mousse & cuppycakes look super stellar! superw00t! :D

Carrie™ said...

Your party sounds like a lot of fun! And congrats on the fundraiser. If I could vote, I would for sure.

Liz Ranger (Bubble Tea for Dinner) said...

what an awesome idea!! I can only imagine the ice cream smorgasbord, but it must have been heavenly. :o

Frani said...

OMGD!!!!!! I LOVE DOUBLE RAINBOW SOY CREAM ICE CREAM!!!! after reading about how delicious the vanilla bean one tasted, i had to try it!!! and to my surprise....IT WAS DELICIOUS!!!!! it was creamy and smooth, and ahhhhhh!!!! XD
thank you for giving me that tip!!! ^-^

urban vegan said...

Congrats! I have never been to an ice cream social...got to find me one.

herbivore said...

I used to love ice cream socials. I doubt a vegan one in wisconsin would be well attended. I wish I lived in san fransisco.

Anonymous said...

OMG a vegan ice cream social, sounds and looks like heaven!

Anonymous said...

What a great idea for a fundraiser. Glad to hear you were able to raise some money for a worthy cause.

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