World Vegetarian Day & VBC Picnic Edition!

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

This year was the 9th annual World Vegetarian Day in San Francisco & Sugar Beat Sweets was lucky enough to have a table selling vegan treats to the veg masses! While the focus of my booth was cupcakes (I made over 1,000 in 8 varieties) , I also decided to do some special treats which included cinnamon rolls, brownies in both chocolate & peanut butter swirl, & of course, the infamous candy corn from the recipe I shared last year.

As I'm sure you can guess, making 1,000+ cupcakes takes a bit of time, so I did 2 days of baking for the 2 day festival & also had to fill the orders for my regular customers! It was quite the undertaking, but luckily I had Mel from veglicious helping me on both a day of baking & a day of the festival. She also took the photos you see here, as I was busy slingin' sweets!

VegFest is always a great place to see old friends & make new ones; Amey from Vegan Eats & Treats, Laura & Meave of Vegansaurus, Megan of The Sisters Vegan, & Erin from Vegan Homemade are just some of the bloggers I was able to chat with! Also seen over the weekend, Colleen Patrick Goudreau of Compassionate Cooks, who had a booth next to mine, many of the Farm Sanctuary family who were repeat customers, chef Jesse Miner, who brought us goodies from his heirloom beans demo & of course, the crew at VegNews, who wrote a bit about us on their blog. I talked to so many awesome people, I know I am missing some here! By the way, SFoodie, the blog of the SF Weekly, did a piece on Sugar Beat Sweets, including a video. Check it out!

So, what else was there? Awesome speakers including John Robbins & Howard Lyman, food demos by everyone from Sarah Kramer to Antonio Magana, entertainment from musicians, belly dancers, & a vegan acrobat, plus free food samples! Coconut Bliss, Sheese, & Artisana were some of my favorite treats & I picked up an fabulous sampler with 11 flavors of Premier Organics spreads. Mmm, Goji Bliss!

VegFest was a fun & rewarding experience, I can't wait to do it again next year! Just don't ask me to bake 1,000 cupcakes until then. I'll have a booth at the upcoming Bazaar Bizarre, but the production scale should be much smaller.

On a beautiful sunny September day, the VBC convened for another brunch cartel. This time we opted for Dolores Park & an open invitation for all to join us, which didn't disappoint! Many new faces showed up & the food was outstanding! Best food ever? Maybe. I made a coleslaw & a Southern Style Banana Pudding with Vanilla cookies to stand in for Nilla Wafers; it turned out pretty darned good! Vanilla beans flanked the smooth, yet fluffy pudding mixture, while layers of bananas & cookies added texture.

Some of the other dishes we enjoyed were avocado potato salad, chickpea curry, tempeh sausages with roasted red pepper sauce, brownies, pasta salad, homemade beer brats with sauerkraut, & freshly baked rolls with cinnamon butter! Needless to say, it was quite the feast & I always look forward to future brunches.

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!