Taquito Party & how you can help Prop 2!

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

Oh no! Where has the time gone? Plans for posts seem to be tossed by the wayside, as time slips through my fingers & next thing you know it's been far too long since I've updated. I could give you excuses (like I just spent 5 days exploring vegan-friendly Chicago), but I think I'll let the food do the talking.

I'm not one to fry food. A bit of a klutz in the kitchen, the last thing I need is hot oil sputtering & adding to the many culinary battle scars on my arms. The issue with my no-fry policy is Ryan loves fried foods, namely taquitos, which were a huge part of his San Diego area upbringing. His story about a dozen taquitos with a huge mound of guacamole for $5 has been told so many times, I can recite it word for word now. Luckily our friends Mark & Carmen are not afraid to fry & when Ryan's story had been told to them a few times, they decided to have a taquito party in honor of Carmen's birthday!

It's rare that others make food for us, so I was thrilled to be offered dinner, but another upside is Mark & Carmen are professionally trained chefs! Needless to say, we were in for a great treat. Joined by fellow vegans Alex & Kristen, all six of us brought ingredients to the table & came up with taquito filling combinations. Armed with corn tortillas & a range of options, we decided on black bean, kale, & yuca, as well as tvp chorizo & roasted corn.


As the filling were being crafted by Mark, Carmen set to work on the world's largest bowl of guacamole, much to Ryan's delight. With the fillings finished, a large pot of Spanish rice simmering, & the oil coming to temperature, Carmen piled each tortilla with our delectable concoctions & inserted a toothpick to insure no morsel could escape. Mark took his position of frymaster in front of the oil, & the first round was plunged in to the swirling liquid. Golden taquitos rose to the top of the pot & were quickly whisked on to a waiting towel lined baking sheet. Crispy taquito success!

We all ate piles flavorful taquitos topped with mounds of guacamole, much like those of Ryan's youth. Our plates were also filled with a side of vegetable laced Spanish rice, & amazing roasted tomato salsa, courtesy of Mark. Everyone was thrilled, including taquito loving Strummer, & the TVP chorizo & roasted corn decidedly the favorite of the night. For dessert, we had scoops of Double Rainbow Soy Cream in Vanilla Bean, Cinnamon Caramel, Dulce No Leche, & Mint Chocolate Chip with chocolate & caramel sauce. It was a gluttonous feast for all & we're already crafting up ideas for new fry parties!

By the way, there's less than 50 days left until the November elections & Prop 2 is still working hard to ensure better conditions for farm animals in California. The opposition has collected million of dollars, mainly donated by large factory farms, to stop this modest proposal, while the "Yes on Prop 2!" support has been coming from the people! We're being massively outspent, so we're taking to the streets to gain support from citizens, but need more funds to run television commercials & get the word out. What can you do to help? Donate a few dollars! Even a $5 donation is wonderful, anything you can do to help! I am trying to find 20 people to donate $20, a modest goal of $400 to help this deserving cause. Please consider making a donation, you don't have to be in California & just a few dollars can help to improve the lives of millions of animals!

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!

Portland, VegNews Party, CA Humane fundraiser, & a new family member!

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

Once again time has slipped away & the posts I've been meaning to make, just haven't made their way here. As I mentioned in my previous post, I went to Portland to check out the so-called "vegan mecca". Watch out kids, you have another convert on your hands, Portland is downright lovely! There's so many places to go & see, it was hard to narrow it all down, but I think I covered the city pretty well & even stayed in two different areas while there.

One of the places I knew I had to try was Flavour Spot, the hot new waffle cart serving up a few vegan options. I was a bit skeptical of the maple butter & vegan sausage combination everyone has been raving about, but HOT DAMN, they weren't lying! I found myself savoring each bite & Ryan had taken only 3 bites when he asked for another!


Of course, I also checked out the vegan mini mall, home of Herbivore, Scapegoat Tattoo, Food Fight, & Sweetpea Baking Company who's various goods I tried over my time there. I seemed to find myself at the mini mall every day, whether as a meet up point, a place to grab a treat, or a way to blow a bunch of money on vegan wares. I almost added a tattoo as well, but it didn't work out this time.


I was lucky enough to spend time with Jess from Get Sconed! as she let me crash at her place for a few nights. We went out to dinner at Blossoming Lotus one night & had delicious raw food, much like when she came to San Francisco & we ate at Cafe Gratitude. Of course, I ended the night with this Chocolate Mint soft serve & on another occasion I had Mocha, both were delicious!


Another blogger I met up with was Webly from Fueled By Popcorn who took me to No Fish, Go Fish, a food cart with delicious stuffed sandwich pockets shaped like fish! How can you resist this adorableness?! We finished up at Voodoo Doughnut where the vanilla Chick O Stick was my favorite of what I tried.

Overall, it was such an eventful trip! From bike riding to jumping on trampolines, meeting bloggers & attending a potluck at Isa's house, it's hard to cram all the places I went in to one post! In addition to the places I've mentioned above, I also ate at the very creative & delicious Nutshell, Hungry Tiger Too (with ShannieCakes), Backspace, & Papa G's Deli, plus I checked out the People's Co Op & New Seasons for snacks & supplies. All in all, I loved Portland & I'm happy Ryan & I will be back there at the end of the month for a camping trip & to celebrate 10 years of dating!

Shortly after Ryan & I returned home, an incredible (& strange) thing happened to us. While taking a walk to our co-op, we did our usual routine of fawning over every dog we see. As we approached a man holding a tiny dog, I couldn't help but comment on how adorable his puppy was! Next thing I know, I am being offered this dog for free & find myself walking down the street with a shivering, hungry puppy in my hands itching from fleas. Introducing STRUMMER, our new little chihuahua baby girl. She's about 11 weeks old, 1 3/4 pounds, & has been determined to be completely healthy by our veterinarian. She's already started getting her shots, going to puppy class, & is on her way to being (even more of) a well manner little bundle of joy!

As expected, the VegNews party was a success. I had a great night chatting it up with vegans from all over the country, including Amanda from Walking the Vegan Line who came all the way from Houston, as well as long time friends from the PPK. Food was provided by local restaurants & chefs, desserts were provided by Sugar Beat Sweets, & there were gals walking around with baskets of mini Clif Bars, Sjaaks Organic Chocolates, & Tofurkey jerky for the taking! Not bad, right?

Now for another important party I'm urging people to attend in the San Francisco Bay Area. On Saturday, July 12th please come Spread Your Wings for the animals at a benefit for Prop 2- the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act at the A.Muse gallery (614 Alabama St. SF) from 6-10 pm. There will be wine, beer, and vegan appetizers, desserts courtesy of Sugar Beat Sweets, comedy by Johnny Steele, plus door prizes & an awesome silent auction which includes items like original artwork by Dan Piraro, spa packages, and a Nintendo WII! It's a $15-20 sliding scale at the door & all proceeds go to the animals! I'll be there with mini cupcakes, please don't miss it!

Cakes, Cupcakes, Cookies + Ice Cream; recent sweets from my kitchen!

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

With all of my travels as of late, one would think there wouldn't be much going on in my kitchen, but that's quite far from the truth! Happy to be in my familiar surroundings again, I've been churning out an assortment of sweets from cakes of all sizes to cookies added to ice cream & thought I'd share some of them with you!

As you may know, I've been working on the campaign for Californians for Humane Farms & I'm proud to say, we gathered enough signatures to make it on to the ballot! If you're in California, PLEASE make sure to vote on this important initiative in November. Due to our success, we had a victory party & I decided to bring over 100 mini cupcakes to share with the celebration. Needless to say, it was a bit of work, but well worth it! I was in a rush, so the photos are lacking, but thankfully, the flavors are not; Lemon cupcakes topped with Strawberry Mousse & Chocolate cupcakes with Cinnamon Spice Buttercream. They went over well & were quickly swiped from the table, I even caught people trying to sneak over for seconds! I also had the pleasure of meeting some of the VegNews crew & they mentioned the shindig on their Press Pass blog.

The very next day was my Dad's birthday. His favorite cake has always been German Chocolate, but the rest of the family are not fans, so I opted for a cute little 5 inch cake, so he could share a slice with Ryan & keep the rest for himself. I would have liked to use multiple types of frosting, the sides always look lovely with fudge, but after the mini cupcake extravaganza & having to work that morning, I was a bit wiped out! I did use large flakes of coconut though, which makes for a bit of a different texture than the standard & Dad thought it was a nice touch!

Another event I attended was a weekly dinner co-sponsored by the San Francisco Vegetarian Society & Wellness Central. While it wasn't a potluck, I talked with the organizers & we agreed a cake would be a nice addition to the meal. With all the lovely organic fruit in season, I opted for a vanilla cake filled with Lemon Curd & topped with Strawberry Mousse. It went so quickly, I hadn't even finished my dinner before I had to run & get a slice for myself; I suppose that means it was well received?!

Ryan has been on the road a few times since we've returned from Europe & he's feeling worse for the wear. To cheer him up after returning from one of his business trips, he came home to "Thin Mint" cookies, Girl Scout stylee, a recipe from Kelly & Garrick's cookie book. Of course, I couldn't just stop there; I also made chocolate mint ice cream in my handy ice cream maker, for Thin Mint Cookie Ice Cream ala (the very un-vegan) Dreyer's. I opted to make the components separately, then combine them & re-freeze everything, which worked out great. You do have to work quickly with the ice cream though, it tends to melt faster than expected! We enjoyed the ice cream & cookies over the weekend, but I also hid some cookies from Ryan, so I could take them to friends.

One of those friends, was the awesome Amey from Vegan Eats & Treats who I met up with while sampling the vegan baked goods available in Santa Cruz with my favorite roller derby gal, Panda (aka Megan). We all had a fun day taste testing way too many cakes, bitching about life & love, & enjoying the sunny day. As for the goods we tried, I'll just say the company was better than the cake.

Well, that's all for now. I assure you there's plenty more to come from reviews to more kitchen concoctions. By the way, check out a little piece I did for Cakespy & their Cakewalk series; the first vegan cakewalk & it takes place in Berlin! Enjoy!

Do unto others..

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

While hiding indoors from this awful weather we're having in San Francisco, I thought I'd do a little update about some recent events going on in my world.

Rocket Dog Rescue is an amazing organization in San Francisco who has saved over 1,900 dogs in its existence! Sadly, Pali Boucher, the founder of Rocket Dog, lost her home and three beloved foster dogs, & her parrot in a house fire not too long ago. While I was unable to attend a recent benefit being thrown for her, I whipped up some cupcakes to be sold at the event. Mini Chocolate cupcakes were topped with either Peanut Butter buttercream or Mint icing with crushed chocolate cookie bits & the large cupcakes were dressed with Peanut Butter buttercream & a Scharffen Berger chocolate snowflake piece on top. I received the most lovely email after the event letting me know the treats were well received! Rocket Dog is an amazing organization & I'm glad I could help in a small way.

Last week Amy, Danielle, & I went to Santa Clara University & tabled for Californians for Humane Farms. While we didn't anticipate so many students would be from out of state, we gathered a good amount of signatures from a friendly crowd. We were lucky enough to have donations from two companies to entice students over to our table! Let's Do Organic was kind enough to supply vegan gummy bears in both regular & sour flavors & Vegan Sweeties donated individually wrapped Chocolate Chip & Chocolate Chocolate Chip cookies! The cookies were perfect for students to grab & they went quickly! Of course, gummy bears are a crowd pleaser as well. Laurie from Vegan Sweeties also sent some Blueberry Jammies for the girls & I to test; they were FABULOUS! I named them the "donut cookie", as I felt like I was eating cakey donuts with a little zing of blueberry jam. Vegan Sweeties is mainly mail-order, so if you need cookies for an event, check them out, I've heard the brownie cookies are awesome!

By the way, if you're in California, it's not to late to sign up to reduce the suffering of 20 million animals on farms in this state. Even if you collect a few signatures from friends & family, it will be an amazing help! Every signature counts! Californians for Humane Farms needs 650,000 signatures to see this important bill on the ballot & we can't do that without your help!

Finally, we had another successful installation of the Vegan Brunch Cartel this past weekend. I am lucky enough to be a tester for the new vegan brunch book by Isa Chandra Moskowitz, so I made her Cauliflower & Red Bell Pepper Quiche for the event. This was my first attempt at a pie crust, it was well worth it; the quiche was a success! If this recipe is any indication to what's in store for the book, it's going to be another amazing publication for your kitchen shelf!