Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Twinkie meets Cupcake, Equal Rights, & Marijke's Farewell Weekend.

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

It's rare that I have a weekend that's not planned out in advance, something always seems to have been on calendar for months. When a glance at the calendar showed unfilled boxes, I felt a bit of relief, as well as excitement about the many things that could be done!

It all started Friday, with some cupcake baking for JennShaggy of Veganize It.. Don't Criticize It!. After an ongoing comment battle between our blogs & my interest in her Vegan Twinkies, we decided a trade was in order. Jenn's Vegan Twinkies are available in two locations in Los Angeles & are highly sought after by locals. I can certainly see why! Moist, sticky, sponge cake in the classic canoe shape house a thick, sweet filling, just like you remember, but without all the processing! In fact, these are better than the toxic treats of your youth & they don't contain beef fat!

I opted to make Jenn a trio of cupcakes from the Sugar Beat Sweets menu; Snickerdoodle, which is my best seller & the favorite of my family, Orange Dreamsicle which uses oranges I picked myself, & Classic Vanilla, which I topped with kosher rainbow sprinkles from Kittee! We exchanged treats & sat on my couch talking about vegan baking, the LA vegan scene, & our careers in the entertainment industry. I had a great time & it was awesome to make a new friend. Check out the cupcakes she took home, plus surf her blog for mouthwatering, creative, vegan recipes!

Another Friday night activity was a march for equal rights in San Francisco. As we celebrate the victory of Prop 2, we also mourn the passing of Prop 8 which bans gay marriage & takes away the rights of many. Thousands of people from the Bay Area came to San Francisco to show that we won't accept this unfair & wrong proposition that should not be about religion, but about love & equality for all. Please consider signing one of the many online petitions about this cause because regardless of how you feel about marriage, no one should be discriminated against.

A few months ago, I received an email from Marijke, a vegan au pair from Potsdam, Germany. She had just arrived in San Francisco & was looking to meet other vegans. I invited her to the VBC picnic & we became fast friends, realizing we had a lot in common. From VegFest to the Halloween potluck to going out dancing, we've spent a lot of time together & shared so much fun, I feel I have a friend for life. Sadly, her year long trip has unexpectedly been cut short & she'll be heading back to Germany this week.

In an effort to show her more of what America & the Bay Area has to offer before she departs, we took a road trip down to Santa Cruz on Saturday afternoon. Armed with leftover twinkies & cupcakes, plus chocolate peanut butter bars made for us by Carmen, a group of us piled in the car to escape the rain of San Francisco & see the ocean. We engaged in an afternoon of shopping, followed by dinner at Saturn Cafe & while the rain eventually caught up to us, it didn't stop us from heading to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk for arcade games, photo booth pictures, & dancing in the sand by the ocean. On the way back, we hit my favorite frozen yogurt spot, Fraiche, which is rumored to be opening a San Francisco location soon!

Sunday was a sleepier day. We all slept in, then Ryan & I headed to meet Marijke downtown for some more shopping. After buying every piece of animal print clothing I could find, we walked to the Ferry Building, home of local, artisan food & wine vendors. We snacked on olive rolls & bought a sour batard from Acme Bread & Marijke had soy Cookie Dough gelato from Ciao Bella. On the walk home, we couldn't resist stopping in 7-11 for Slurpees, after all, we were trying to show her an all-American weekend! A call from friends Alex & Kristen resulted in an impromptu dinner at my place, so I threw together spicy yogurt tofu, red & black quinoa, sauteed kale, & garlic bread for everyone. It was a great finish to a weekend I won't soon forget for a person I will never forget! We will miss you, Marijke! I can't wait to come visit you in Germany!

37 comments:

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

So many goodies and fun!! :0)

Anonymous said...

sounds like such a fun, delicious weekend!

Unknown said...

I found the way to get Chaz to take a few days off and go hang out in SF: mention the snickerdoodle cupcakes!

KitteeBee said...

That is one lucky German girl!! Aw, your road trip sounds really fun, especially dancing in the sand with friends. I am jealous. Glad to see the jimmies in good hands, I knew you were The One.

xo
kittee

x said...

Those twinkies look amazingly good as do your cupcakes, I'm intrigued by the Snickerdoodle flavour!

This post also made me miss my friend in Germany!

Anonymous said...

You're such a great International Vegan Relations chica! I was so sorry to hear about prop 8 - here we were rejoicing about the Obama thing...ugh. I wish people could at least have a legal union like we have in France - but equal rights would make the most sense.
I have never wanted a twinkie as badly as I do right now! Or a cupcake for that matter!

Lindsay (Happy Herbivore) said...

that's how it is here in LA -- we're happy about 2 and mourning about 8. I live by the mormon temple and protests are still going on -- I hope they don't stop. so wrong.

as for the food, sign me up!

Jess said...

YAY!!! I can finally comment on your blog again! For whatever reason, my computer has not been showing me the damn word for the "word verification"... It was just a blank spot that resulted in a lot of frustration & cursing at my computer.

Aaaaanyway. I love this post. Those vegan Twinkies look way better than the store-bought crap, anyway! I had no idea regular Twinkies had beef fat in them... Sick. (I don't eat them, anyway, but blech.) Also, I need to try one (or a billion) of your Orange Dreamsicle & Snickerdoodle cupcakes someday.

That sounds like a perfect weekend send-off for your friend!

Anonymous said...

how awesome that you could get together with jenn. her twinkies are amazing, and i'm sure your cupcakes are too. they sounded delicious. i'm so jealous of your meeting!

it looks like you had a lovely weekend filled with good friends and good food. :D

Marni said...

I laid on the couch all weekend sick sick sick, so thanks for sharing yours. I lived vicariously through you while reading this post, though I've gotta say vicarious twinkies and cupcakes aren't as good as I imagine the real ones to be. :)

There have been many protests about the passing of Prop 8 here in San Diego. I know it's already being challenged by the ACLU. I'm so saddened, as are many people I know.

funwithyourfood said...

okay so what's the best arcade game??
Ms Pac man right?? OR if you can find it, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles..
Looks like fun!

Teddy

Anonymous said...

Spicy yogurt tofu sounds fantastic. What a great weekend you had! I bet Marijke will miss all of you terribly.

Ruby Red said...

I'm so jealous -- there seems like there is are so many fun things to do in San Francisco! The twinkie-cupcake swap sounds like a fun idea. That would be a great way to try new vegan treats and share the ones that are your favorites to make. :) Your impromptu dinner looks delish too! Cooking for other people still makes me nervous, so I admire your ability to pull something together & feed other people at the last minute!

funwithyourfood said...

My best friend HATES nori... we've discovered there are such things as SOY sushi wraps that taste like nothing....
just throwing that one out there for you to try :)

Anonymous said...

i love those twinkies!!! i used to eat them all the time (the real ones, of course). i miss them and now i want to get a twinkie pan. i've seen them sold at urban outfitters. i might just need to make a special trip there.

Vegan_Noodle said...

I also love weekends where I don't have a zillion things planned... but somehoe things always pop up! Twinkies sounds like a fair trade for cupcakes.
And I can't believe prop 8 passed...

Lisa (Show Me Vegan) said...

oh, it's so hard when friends re-locate! I hope you get to visit. And very cool that you participated in the march.

Mrs. LC said...

Those cupcakes look divine! This is my first time commenting I think - I used to look at your blog a lot, and have recently started a blog of my own!

Bianca said...

Oh, I love those kind of weekends too! They're pretty rare in my life, and when a weekend day is free in my planner, I dream of all the awesome things I can do.

And those Twinkies...oh my god! I NEED one...I gotta get to California.

Oh, and boo to those bastards that passed Prop 8. We're even having protests about it in Memphis!

River (Wing-It Vegan) said...

Oh the twinkies and the cupcakes! Marijke is so lucky to have you as her super cool, awesome-cupcake-making friend!

allularpunk said...

for an unplanned weekend, you certainly were busy! it's awesome that you got to show your friend a fun americana weekend before she left, especially since it looks like it was full of awesome food and shopping and the beach. your cupcakes look ever so yumtastic, too.

julie hasson said...

How fun!!

emma said...

i just came across your blog recently and noticed you live in the bay area! i'm from the walnut creek area and was wondering about your favorite vegan spots to eat, considering the only one i know of, or have visited at least, is herbivore. it would be greatly appreciated!

Bethany said...

wow! twinkies, cupcakes and fun w/ friends. Can't beat that! Sounds like it was a blast.

When you visit her in Germany, you'll have lots of fun.

ps. yay for prop 2, makes me happy.

boo hiss on prop 8!

Anonymous said...

i REALLY REALLY wish i would have known about your cupcakes when i was in SF 2 months ago. :(

they look so freaking good! i keep comin' back to stare at them LOL

tofufreak said...

cupcakes please! and twinkies too! :)

Rural Vegan said...

What a fun weekend, ad vegan Twinkies to boot! There are a load of Prop 8 protests today - I'm stuck at work but with everyone there in spirit!

Anonymous said...

Snickerdoodle cupcakes sound amazing, but I'm having trouble imagining it. I think I'd need to taste it to believe it. ;)

ChocolateCoveredVegan said...

I've never had a vegan twinkie :o(

Adriana said...

JennShaggy's twinks are the BOMB!

Anonymous said...

If I ever come to SF, I am gonna call you for sure, too. Snickerdoodle cupcakes? Sounds so fantastic.
P.S. we had a great time at that cupcake place in Berlin. Everything they had was amazing, thank you again for organzing everything.

aTxVegn said...

Those twinkies and especially your cupcakes look fantastic. Oh how I would love to try one someday.

JENNA said...

ooooh those twinkies look good! I had ordered some once from Vegan Honey on Etsy and fell in love. I need to get my hands on some more.

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

woah, that weekend sounds so delicious! I'm glad you got to show marijke twinkies and slurpies, too - both astoundingly delicious and undeniably north american/junk food heaven. :D

MeloMeals said...

Wow.. where to start with all the goodies.. I'm not much of a sweet eater, but I want those twinkies!

Also, your tofu/kale/quinoa dinner looks fabulous!

Becka Robinson said...

I didn't know they had beef fat in them. That's disgusting!

emma said...

thanks so much for your recommendations!i'm excited, i never knew there were so many. i know of one vegan soft serve place in berkeley, but what about other vegan ice cream places?