Pee Wee's Veg Adventure, Holiday Treats, & a birthday!

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

Happy New Year! It seems 2009 is here & the resolutions are flying. While I didn't make any myself, I hope those of you who did are able to stick with them. Hopefully some of you decided to give veganism a try & will see how easy, fun, & rewarding it is!

I brought in the New Year at my home with a group of friends from the PPK. We decided to have a themed potluck, "Pee Wee's Veg Adventure" & I can safely say it was the most beautiful potluck in puppetland! All of the dishes were crafted up beforehand to keep the Pee Wee Herman theme & we all chowed down on dishes like "Jambi-Laya", "Connect the Dots Quinoa", "Copper Penny Salad", "King of Stuffed Mushrooms", & "Dinosaur Family Kale". Erin from Vegan Homemade brought two delicious dishes, "Simone's French Toast Bites" & "Footlongs for Mickey", which you can check out on her post. For dessert, we had even more themed options like "Cowboy Curtis' Cookie Sandwiches", "Chairry Pie", & "Whacky Tapi-oca Pudding Shooters".

My contributions were one savory & one sweet. I made "Pterri's BBQ Not Wings" which were seitan kabobs on skewers, smothered in sweet & spicy barbecue sauce & "Globey's International Speculaas Brownies", which were a gluten free brownie recipe from the upcoming 500 Vegan Recipes book by Celine & Joni. I'm considering posting the wings recipe, which is inspired by Vegan Dad's Wingz, let me know if it's something you might want to try & I'll post it!

A package arrived on my doorstep on New Years Eve bearing gifts from a cross country vegan bakery. In the recent VegNews contests, I was the lucky winner of one dozen Cowvin Cookies from Sticky Fingers Bakery. I can't think of a more serendipitous surprise! I was thrilled to be able to cut these giant cream filled oatmeal cookie sandwiches in to bite sized pieces to share with a room full of vegans! They're downright delicious & I found myself going back for far too many!

Back to the party; when the clock struck midnight, "Tequila" started playing over the speakers & we did a little dance in Pee Wee's honor! Overall, it was a fun & fabulous night. Good food & good friends are a wonderful way to ring in the new year & create optimism for the year to come. I truly hope 2009 is a prosperous year for each & every one of us!

My holidays were a bit uneventful this year. I had two meals with my family & made a large portion of the food from polenta cakes & roasted veggies to black eyed pea quinoa croquettes & golden gravy, but it all went by so quickly, I didn't do much in the way of photo taking. I did manage to snap a photo of the sweets I made. Mini Mint filled Chocolate Whoopie Pies were a hit, as were Peanut Butter Blondies from the upcoming cookie book by Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero. For Christmas Day, I made the Gingerbread Apple Pie from Vegan with a Vengeance, putting little sakura cut outs on top & serving it with homemade caramel sauce & vanilla bean ice cream. I was certainly stuffed from the sweets by the end of the night!

I love a good surprise, so I was thrilled when a little green box showed up on my doorstep right before Christmas. The always adorable Hannah of My Sweet Vegan & Bittersweet blog fame sent a sweet & chocolatey treat, chock full of cookie chunks, & perfect for adding to my Christmas platter of vegan goodies!

Hannah's surprise & the Cowvin cookies, plus the amazing birthday package I received from Marijke & opened for my birthday today have made for some seriously fabulous mail in the past few weeks. Rumor has it, there's belated birthday gifts on the way as well. I am very thankful & I truly appreciate all the birthday love I've been feeling today! Tonight I'll be having dinner with some friends at ubuntu in Napa. Ryan made me this little widget, so you can hear what I like to listen to on my birthday. Make sure you save it to torture people on your special day, hehe!

Next time I'll start my New York City series (finally), so look out for delicious dining & sweet treats in the near future!

Sugar Shock; a massive baking post!

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

I am back from Portland! I had a great time seeing familiar faces, making new friends, & eating A LOT of food. I'll be covering the goods in a future post, but in the mean time, get your sweet tooth ready, as I am about to take you on one appetizing adventure that may put you in to sugar shock!

It's no secret, I love to bake! The level at which sweets are being produced is currently at an all time high around here. It may have something to do with a little endeavor I have in the works, but let's just say, they're not all for the consumption of my household or friends! With that being said, let the tour begin!

My friends Jordan & Mike got married. To celebrate, we ditched the guys & had a Girls Night Out which also celebrated the arrival of a friend's baby! I whipped up two types of cupcakes for the occasion; Vanilla with Pineapple Buttercream & Toasted Coconut & "La La Lemon"- Vanilla filled with Lemon Curd & topped with Lemon Buttercream.

I also sent home a little treat for the newlyweds; a Chocolate cake filled with a fudgy Caramel concoction, topped with Chocolate frosting & drizzled in Caramel. Not wanting to send them over the edge, I baked a 5 inch cake, the perfect amount for two to share!


An future vegan spot in San Francisco called "V Restaurant" contacted me for an event they were holding which included a bus tour & a stop in a community garden for dessert. I created this trio of mini treats for everyone to enjoy; Chocolate Peanut Butter Whoopie Pies, Orange Dreamsicle cupcakes, & locally grown organic Strawberries in Bittersweet Chocolate! I went along for the tour & saw familiar faces including Aurelia from VegNews who wrote about the event for their Press Pass blog.

One of my favorite people, Laura B. the vegansaurus had a birthday! I insisted on creating a cake for her special event, hosted at San Francisco's newest veg cafe, The Usual Suspects. My first time working with a tiered cake, it leaves a bit to be desired visually, but this cake was quickly demolished! The bottom layer is Chocolate filled with Peanut Butter Caramel & the top is Vanilla with macerated Strawberries. I frosted the outside with a light & fluffy Vanilla mousse.

Mini cupcakes are super fun to make, although some would say they're more fun to eat! These mini Chocolate cupcakes with brightly colored Vanilla Buttercream were for an event at the Sephora corporate offices. While I don't believe there were any vegan in the house, rumor has it people loved them & were shocked to find out their veg status!

Finally, I bring you a fun project, a goth inspired cake! Birthday girl & awesome artist Netsui commissioned me to create her birthday cake & this is what we came up with. Despite the black marzipan skull & iron cross exterior, this cake is filled with sweetness; Vanilla cake coated in violet Strawberry Buttercream & filled with fresh strawberries!


I hope I didn't send you in to complete sugar shock! Surprisingly, this isn't all of the sweet treats I've been making & you can expect to see more posts like this in the future. Let's hope you can process it all without slipping into a sugar induced coma!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Filled Whoopie Pies & Sweets for my Sweet (chocolate peanut butter, of course)!

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

As I've mentioned many times, I love to bake for others. In fact, nothing I make is for myself, it's always to share! I try to keep busy & attend events almost every weekend, so my baking is always for others & I like it that way. One such event was a board game night a few weeks back, of course I volunteered to make treats. A bit burnt out on cupcakes (gasp!), I scoured the internet for a fun treat to bring that was more exciting than cookies, but still individual servings. I happened upon the perfect item, Kittee's Chocolate Peanut Butter filled Whoopie Pies! I can't help but tinker with recipes, so my changes are noted with a star & listed as optional.

Chocolate Whoopie Pies
Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose unbleached flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup cocoa
dash of salt
1 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup Spectrum Brand non-hydrogenated shortening
1/4 cup applesauce mixed with a 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 cup soy milk
1/2 cup warm water
*1 teaspoon Instant Espresso Powder (optional)
*2 teaspoons semi-sweet chocolate, melted & cooled (optional)

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 375F.

In a mixing bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cocoa, espresso powder, and salt; set aside. (I like to sift my dry ingredients together, but it's your call!)

In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine sugar, shortening, and applesauce/baking powder mixture & beat for about 2 minutes.

Add the dry ingredients, milk & water into the wet mixture & beat at medium speed for 2 to 3 minutes.

Add vanilla & melted chocolate and beat again until mixture is thoroughly blended, but do not over beat, it will be moderately thick.

Using a small ice cream scoop or large spoon, drop by rounded tablespoons onto a Silpat or un-greased non-stick cookie sheet leaving room for the pies to spread. Smooth out the tops of your scoops, as this will affect the aesthetic of your pies.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until the center springs back when lightly pressed or a toothpick comes out clean. These are very cake like in texture, be careful not to over bake them.

Let them cool for a few minutes, then remove them from the cookie sheet to cool on wire racks. They need to cool completely before the peanut butter filling can be spread on.

Peanut Butter Filling
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon Earth Balance or other vegan margarine
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1 3/4 cups confectioners sugar
2 tablespoons soy milk

Instructions:
In a large bowl, beat together Earth Balance and peanut butter.

Add the confectioners' sugar and slowly add the soy milk, beating with an electric mixer at medium speed. Add more milk if needed, then beat at high speed until light and fluffy.

Assemble your Whoopie Pies!
Take one cookie & spread a layer of peanut butter filling in the center, not quite touching the ends, apply another cookie on top & you're golden! woo.

This yields around 16 whoopie pies, depending on the size of your ice cream scoop.

My Notes:
These were delicious & people instantly requested I make them again. The recipe I posted above is halved from the original since it yielded around 35 whoopie pies & I felt like I was assembling them for days! I added the instant espresso powder & melted chocolate to add depth & flavor, as I tend to find cocoa based recipes a bit bland. I noticed the photos of Kittee's pies almost look like french macarons! Mine were much flatter & spread more than I expected, but we're still lovely little fluffy little cakes of joy. Shortly after I made these, the hot ladies at Bake & Destroy Flickr pool started discussing & baking their own versions. Great minds think alike! By the way, Kittee's recipe site & Kittee's blog contain a wealth of information, do yourself a favor & check them out!


Awhile back Ryan & I celebrated another anniversary, 9 years of dating. While most people stop celebrating dating anniversaries once they're married, we thought 9 years was something worth a mention & used it as an excuse to get out of town for a weekend. On a photo shoot, someone had mentioned their friend gave her husband a gift called "Dessert of the Month" & every month he could pick any dessert he wanted & she would make it for him, no questions asked. For our dating anniversary, I decided Ryan should be given the gift of a dessert of his choice every month. The man loves anything peanut butter & chocolate, so his first choice was hardly a shock, Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream Sandwiches. These were inspired by Celine, especially since I was given similar ice cream sandwich molds shortly after her post.

The cookies are straight from Celine's post with a bit of espresso powder added. For the filling, I used a previous recipe I've mentioned for Peanut Butter Gelato, but upped the peanut butter content, threw in a smidgen of agave nectar, & used half almond milk to make sure the ice cream would be nutty & rich! The ice cream was wonderful & we were happy to have some leftover from the sandwiches to cover in Ricemallow & melted chocolate! There was also spaces left between the animal cookie cutter shapes, so I made mini chocolate heart cookies to send with Ryan for work snacking. Ice cream sandwiches are fun to make & went over VERY well, I recommend making these, they keep well for a good amount of time in the freezer, individually wrapped. By the way, are animal shaped foods still vegan? hehe.

I'm pretty sure he's going to ask for something chocolate-peanut butter every month. While the rules stated I wouldn't object to his choices, I must admit I've tried to influence him by sending links & begging him not to request plain peanut butter cookies. I was hoping he'd GO BIG, but that doesn't look to be the case, as he wants peanut butter cups this month. *sigh*

By the way, I'll be working in Seattle next week.

I've been to some great places there, but I'm always looking for more recommendations on places to see, events to attend, bands to check out, & even people to dine with! Feel free to post a comment or get in touch!