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!