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!

Wheeler's Black Label Vegan Ice Cream!

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

For those of you who are avid veg blog readers, you've probably been reading the hype about Wheeler's Black Label Vegan Ice Cream. Everyone from Isa at the PPK blog, Emilie at the Conscious Kitchen to the crew at SuperVegan is raving about this tantalizing treat. Well, I'm here to say, BELIEVE THE HYPE. I was able to get my hands on two flavors of Wheeler's ice cream & I'm here to give you the scoop (sans additional puns).

It all started with a visit to the VegNews headquarters where the goods were delivered after being flown in from Boston. That's right, an actual person brought them on a plane, then walked in the door with a box of ice cream for us to sample! I acquired Chocolate Chocolate Chip (rumored to be Wheeler's favorite) & Passionfruit, then quickly ran home to try them.

I'd planned to wait for Ryan to come home, but decided to have a little taste of Chocolate Chocolate Chip. Wow. It was tough not to devour it all on the spot! Of course, I had to taste a bit of Passionfruit as well & it invoked the same reaction.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip is a smooth & creamy ice cream with a deep chocolate flavor and hand cut pieces of chocolate. The depth of flavor & texture is decadent & unparalleled by any vegan ice cream out there, but it will also give any diary drenched dessert a run for its money.
I decided to use a portion to make a sundae topped with peanut butter & toasted Sweet & Sara marshmallows, it can only be described with one word: HEAVEN. Wheeler's is using Sweet & Sara in some of their new ice cream flavors including "Sweet and Sara Hot Chocolate" & "Ambrosia"; yes, please!

Passionfruit is not a sorbet, but a luscious ice cream & while it didn't immediately register as passionfruit, it does register as smooth, mellow flavored, & delicious. I'm not normally a fruit flavored ice cream person, I like my desserts sinful & over-the-top, but this tickled my taste buds in a way fruit rarely has!

To say I was impressed would be an understatement, both Ryan & I found ourselves wondering how something this creamy & smooth could be a vegan ice cream. While the current market options are fine, this blows them all out of the water! Based on what I've tasted thus far, I give Wheeler's ice cream a solid 4 1/2 stars & we all know how strict my rating system is!

Do yourself a favor & check out the Wheeler's Black Label Vegan Ice Cream blog. While this treat is currently only available on the East Coast, & a Wheeler's storefront is forthcoming in Boston, rumor has it there's other ways you can get your hands on some!