Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Summertime Fun; VBC, a Picnic, Gardening & Voting Mania!

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

San Francisco is finally starting to get summery weather, which means it's time for food related get-togethers! In one weekend I was able to attend two foodie functions, the anniversary celebration of the Vegan Brunch Cartel & a picnic with PPKers, organized by Mel from Veglicious!

Saturday afternoon is typically when the VBC crew starts rolling in to the selected location, despite the claim of an 11am start time! By 1pm food starts to hit the table & this particular brunch had an outstanding selection. While I made omelets with salty greens & sausage filling, other delights such as french toast, watermelon salad, blintzes, roasted potatoes, smoky veg-bacon, chocolate balsamic cookies, fresh fruit, & donuts filled our plates. The donuts were made by Joel, who always contributes deliciousness, & came in vanilla glaze, cinnamon sugar, or vanilla sugar; yum! It's safe to say this was the best brunch we've had in the culinary department, it must have something to do with it being the 1 year anniversary! Regardless, I hope we'll have many future brunches with the same quality spread.


Sunday was a gorgeous day, perfect for bike riding, which was wonderful since we had plans to ride over to West Oakland to check out Middle Harbor Shoreline Park with friends from the PPK. The park boasts a beautiful view of the Bay Bridge & the weather couldn't have been any better as we all noshed on the lunches we brought. Grilled peanut butter & banana sandwich, anyone? Mel hooked us up with cookies containing tasty Joe-Joes pieces, while Erin from Vegan Homemade, who just moved to the area, made cupcakes! All in all we had a fun day with food, old & new friends, & bike riding!


In previous posts, I've mentioned my garden & I'm happy to say it's doing pretty well! While the tomatoes never yielded any fruit, we ate many bunches of incredible kale, as well as a few green beans, fresh cilantro & basil, & onions are currently on the way. Instead of buying transplants this time, I decided to try some sprouting seeds; so far, so good! What you see is the start of Oxheart Carrots & Red Chard. Also, there's more kale & other unidentified greens in the background, although those came pre-sprouted. Harvesting my little planter box has been so rewarding, I hope to keep things growing to put on our plates year round!

On another note, in March 2009, SXSW is holding the SXSW Interactive Festival, five days of panel content & parties for entrepreneurs, nerds, bloggers, techies, & more. There's currently a vote going on to pick the panels & I just happen to be a tentative speaker for one titled "Growing Up as an Internet Oversharer" which deals with coming of age on the internet & baring it all for the masses. The panel is hosted by Maria Diaz from One Sharp Broad & of course, a vote to get on the schedule would be appreciated!

Finally, August 31st is the last date to vote for the VegNews 2008 Veggie Awards! This humble little blog is nominated for "Favorite Veg Blog", although the real reason to vote may be the fabulous prizes!

30 comments:

Maria said...

Thanks again for posting a link to the panel, Melisser! I'm really excited to do it and to have you on it, as another former teen girlblogger.

If anyone has questions or wants to discuss it, please email me at maria@Onesharpbroad.com

Anonymous said...

I must be the last person on the PPK who hasn't met another PPKer yet.
I need those donuts to fight the depression the realization's causing, now...

Vegan_Noodle said...

Yall are just now getting summer weather? Jeez, I'm thinking we're in for at least anothe month and a half of it. But it does look like the perfect weather for a lazy afternoon brunch (oh the food!) and a bike ride across the bay. You must be so proud of your little garden! Okay, now going to vote for you for the panel... I long ago cast my vote for your blog with Vegnews :-)

Vegan_Noodle said...

Oh my gosh, you didn't mention SXSW was in Austin!! How cool!

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

Melisser, can I travel around with you next time?? Your latest excursions are ALWAYS so much fun!!!! :0D

CONGRATULATIONS ON THE NOMINATION IN VEGNEWS!!! I was quite elated when I read that in the magazine :0)

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

magazine ----> meant to write website

jessy said...

mmmmmmmm - that looks like the most scrumptious brunch ever! wow! i'm superjealousfaced! :D i need to meet some PPK folks, too. man, i really need to!

you've got my vote! and hooray for your garden update! i love reading about what everyone is growing! makes me so happy!

Leslie Richman said...

Good luck with the garden :)
Mine is chugging along and I am excited about a new book I bought that has instructions on keeping a food garden going through all seasons of the year.

Anonymous said...

I love your blog, and I especially loved attending the brunch vicariously! Thanks for all of the great vegan info.

VeganCowGirl said...

Congrats on the nomination!

The garden looks great and the donuts are just about enough to make me move from Belgium to your neck of the woods.

T. K. said...

I'd kill for one of those doughnuts.

Bianca said...

Dude, you've gotta invite me over for brunch! If my life had worked out the way I planned it in high school, I'd be living in San Francisco right now. Damn...I just want a donut.

Anonymous said...

Aw, I wish I lived nearby, you do the coolest little get-togethers! I don't even know another local vegan, come to think of it... :(

Amey said...

oh man!
looks like I missed some seriously fun times. and tasty food!

i gotta get in on a bay area ppk meetup sometime. sounds fun.

those donuts totally freak me out. hopefully I'll make it to a VBC event one day. It sounds totally fun

:) Amey

sarchan said...

I'm jealous of all your brunch and potluck action. It all looks delicious.

Lisa (Show Me Vegan) said...

I like living vicariously through your posts about vegan socializing (I'm just starting to hear of some local vegans)! Congrats on your Veg News nomination.

aTxVegn said...

I do hope you get to come to Austin. SXSW is so awesome!

Animal-Friendly said...

That brunch looks awesome! I can't believe the assortment of delicious vegan foods, especially those donuts!

Congrats on your nomination! I can't wait to read about all of the winners of the VegNews awards.

Almost Vegetarian said...

Fun read, but was it just me that was craving those donuts?

I really should not read fellow vegan bloggers before breakfast.

Cheers!

Carrie™ said...

Awesome brunch. Oh, those donuts!!

Erin said...

It was great to meet you! Unfortunately my muffins couldn't compete with Mel's Jo Jo cookies :)

A garden in the city, huh? Dave and I both have interviews this week, it's looking like we might actually live in SF. Good to know it's possible to have a little bit of land.

urban vegan said...

Oh, you West Coasters have all the fun!

Jenn said...

Ooh - that looks divine! What does a girl have to do to wrangle an invite to such an event (afterall, I am local)... happy to host an East Bay brunch (and show off my solar dehydrator).

I've been thinking a lot about doughnuts lately... even posted about it.

Rural Vegan said...

That brunch is just ridiculous! Wow! I can't believe summer if just now hitting SF though, it's on its way out here already. Congrats again on your nomination!

How To Eat A Cupcake said...

It's crazy how much those donuts made me drool..............

iledefrancecheese said...

Hello,

While looking for blogs on food, wine and cheese topics, I came across your website and found it very interesting.
I’m emailing on behalf of Ile de France, a French cheese importing company
(Schratter Foods, since 1936). Their most popular and award winning cheeses
are the Ile de France Brie, Ile de France Goat and Ile de France Camembert.
(Ile de France Brie being the very first Brie imported to the US over 70
years ago.)

We would like to know if you would be interested in receiving a sample of
these French cheeses and write about one of them in your blog.
This is our second “sampling project” this year, and you can check online what other bloggers wrote last time: iledefrancecheese.com/blogs

Ile de France Cheese would send you one Goat cheese, or one Brie or a Camenbert to taste and comment on.
Please let us know before September 16th which cheese would you be interested in sampling and writing about.

We are giving you the choice between these three different products, because we plan to send you another type of Ile de France cheeses to sample later on this year if you enjoyed this project.

The cheese will be shipped in a cooler (UPS overnight) the 23rd of September.
Therefore we would need from you an address where someone can receive the UPS delivery.

We hope you will be interested in participating. In case you are not, rest assured, that we would not contact you anymore.

In addition to the sampling program, we are also launching a recipe contest.
The first prize will be $1000. The second and third prizes will be a cheese basket worth $150.
In order to participate, you would need to send us a picture/pictures or a video of you cooking with Ile de France cheese as well as the recipe itself. You may enter any type of dish (soup, sandwich, desert, etc.), as long as it includes Ile de France cheese. (There are no obligations to participate in the contest, weather you accepted and received the cheese or not.)
The recipe contest will start on September 25th and will end on October 15th when the voting will start.
More information on the contest will be posted soon on iledefrancecheese.com.
If you are interested in participating please let us know.

Please do visit our website (www.iledefrancecheese.com) anytime, it is full of cheese recipes, tips, pairing ideas, and much more, regarding other specialty cheeses such as Morbier, Comté or Boursault.

Feel free to pick any of our recipes to write about as well, just remember that you need to mention the source and place a link to our website.

Looking forward to hearing from you,
Alex
alex@iledefrancecheese.com

Jenn said...

I guess he missed the "vegan" part...

Anonymous said...

I'm pretty jealous of your vegan brunch thingy. I'm trying to get one started in my area but so far it's me and like two other people. Lameness.

funwithyourfood said...

thanks for the SXSW info :)

Teddy

vko said...

Hey there!

Looks like you've been having a good summer- that sounds like the tastiest brunch potluck ever...am finally back in blogworld and got lots of catching up to do. Hope you've been well!
xVKO