Donate to Ride to the Light!

OMG LIFE IS CRAZY! Also, hi! I've got lots of stuff to update y'all on, but it's going to have to wait until next week, because tomorrow I'm leaving for sunny Portland, to ride with some other SUPER AWESOME FOLK for Ride to the Light: Three Sanctuary Century! That's right, I'm going to ride my bike 100 miles IN ONE DAY! I've been training like crazy to kick some ass on the road up there and I can't wait!

I'm gonna post my blog entry from Vegansaurus here:

I know there must be at least a couple people here who like animals and bikes, right? (I mean, this IS commie liberal West Coast vegan cupcake heaven awesome San Francisco, CA.) But anyway, I’m hoping that if you do, you will support Ride to the Light, which is right around the corner!

The Ride to the Light is an annual 100-mile bike ride (a “century” in cycling terminology) to benefit Lighthouse Lighthouse Farm Sanctuary, Out to Pasture Sanctuary, and Project Hope Sanctuary. Some fearless folks from PDX started it in 2009, and that ride raised over $10,000. We’re hoping to smash that record this year by raising $15,000.

The ride takes place on Saturday, Sept. 25. We’ll be leaving from the IDA office in Portland and riding to Out to Pasture in Estacada, Ore., then on to Lighthouse in Scio, Ore. Project Hope is in Mississippi, so we won’t be making a stop there, but they’ll be with us in spirit.

Come along for the ride, or make a donation and help us reach (or even better, exceed) our goal for these three very worthy causes. People from all over (including the Bay Area! Me! Me!) are coming on this fantastic voyage, and we’d really appreciate your support! Any donation is much appreciated and we’d love to see your name on the donation page.

Please also check out our Facebook fan page to find out more about the ride. We’ve got a blog as well! Here’s a video of last year’s ride, too!

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We're miserably short of our goal, so wouldn't you please consider kicking us some cash? Even $5, even $1 would help! If I can do it, you can do it!

I'll be back next with some news about life, upcoming events, and a SIGNIFICANT CAREER CHANGE on my horizon, which I hope you'll be excited about (if you don't know already). Let's just say that I am stoked about life right now and things are great!

Portland, ho!

And the winner of the candle is...

...Kristen of Tree Wool! Congrats!

If you're in the Bay Area and looking for a most splendid way to spend your Saturday, head on over to Mission Bicycle (on Valencia near 19th St) between 11am-4pm and load up on delicious cruelty-free goodies at the San Francisco Vegan Bakesale!



All proceeds go to Rocket Dog Rescue (PUPPIES!) & The Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco (who HASN'T been shafted by a scumbag landlord?)! Rocket Dog is going to have ADORABLE/ADOPTABLE (see how closely those words are related?! COINCIDENCE?! NO SIR!) DOGGIES there too!

So come buy a snack or seven and pet adorable dogs and have a good time! Loads of great bakers and bakeries will be there, including SF's own wonderful and fantastic Sugar Beat Sweets! The ladies will be there around 11:30am with ROCKY ROAD BROWNIES and MORE! God damn I'm hungry now UGH WHY DID I NOT BUY MORE HUMMUS YESTERDAY?! Someone fetch me a brownie!!

In other news: I am almost completely moved into my new place, and took a break from unpacking last night to make a double-batch of roasted applesauce (I used the recipe in Ripe From Around Here by jae steele) and a big bowl of pesto (used my go-to recipe in Vegan with a Vengeance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz). So once I get the rest of the place in order, there will be more posting here.

REVIEW: Liba SF Falafel Truck

Let me tell you a story of lunch. Forsooth, there are not a lot of great vegan lunch options around my workplace (near the Emeryville Amtrak station). There's a shitty cafeteria type area in the Emery Market across the street with some limited offerings, a Subway, and a taco truck. Or you can drive down to Rudy's (I don't drive). Most days I bring my lunch, and if I don't, I wander down to Trader Joe's but god damn if their lentil wrap isn't boring the shit out of me these days. Which reminds me, Trader Joe's does not have one single salad in their "ready to eat" section that isn't covered in cheese and/or meat. TJ's! Why hast thou forsaken the vegans? We eat your chocolate almonds and spicy hummus with abandon, let us now feast upon your lettucey wares!

ANYWAY.

Liba, a mobile falafel truckbar, has started making the rounds to Emeryville! Happy day! Finally someplace I can get a falafel when the idiotic complaints and endless stupidity of my joyless tech support customer service job drive me to commit unspeakable acts. (I exaggerate, it's not all joyless; every day at 2ish me and my department go outside for 15 minutes to play frisbee. It is the best part of my day!)

I was a little not so stoked about the price; $8.00 for a falafel? Really? This had better be pretty damn good, I thought.

Well.

Holy. Shit.

I was going to bring my falafel back to work with me, to entice my coworkers to come with me next week, but alas (for them), I ate the entire thing on my walk back to the office.

I was swooning in such ecstasy while eating my falafel that I closed my eyes in delight so as to better savor the flavor extravaganza happening in my mouth, and I walked into a tree. I. Walked. Into. A. Tree. Now whether that was due to the deliciousness of the falafel or my own lack of spatial navigation skills, I don't know I'M SAYING THAT IT'S UP FOR SPIRITED DEBATE IS ALL. The real tragedy is that I ALMOST DROPPED THE FALAFEL but my ninja skills came in handy, and not just for paying the ninja bills.

There is some straight up gourmet shit on this truck. And more than just the herbalicious chimichurri spread, and the perfectly spiced and fried falafels...I'm talking dill cardamom pickles, lovely cinnamon-y carrots, roasted eggplant and tomato relish, rosemary peanuts, pickled onions, red cabbage with sesame seeds, some fantastic fucking olivey thing, and more that I can't remember. (The only nonvegan items are the feta and the raita sauce.) The pita is perfect, not overwhelmingly gluten-in-your-face-y but still substantial enough to hold all those wonderful fillings. I had it and two small plums and a small handful of almonds for lunch and I feel satisfied.

I'm not sure what they do with their hummus, but surely it must be made of the East Bay's finest crack cocaine, so delicious and creamy and lemony it was. Combined with the spicy harissa sauce, it is a force to be reckoned with. I honestly think it could bring whole cities to ruin if used for evil instead of good. I unapologetically licked the paper wrapper of every trace after I was done with the falafel proper, and felt no shame at all, though some dude walking by unapologetically watched me lick my fingers afterwards GROSS DUDE I'm not into creepy stare-ers, I just love hummus!!! Respect my space!!! If he'd been a cute brown-haired hippie boy named Rain who worked at a bikeshop and wanted to make out with me MAYBE it would have been okay IF YOU SEE SUCH A PERSON SEND THEM MY WAY I'M DESPERATE SINGLE AND ATTRACTIVE AND NOT AT ALL CRAZY!

The Emeryville farmer's market just started up (Thursdays from 12-6 on Haven St next to city hall); I will back with UP TO THE MINUTE INFORMATIONS about that soon.

(I'm clearly very tired.)

(Also no picture for you for I was too busy eating to take a picture but there is one on Vegansaurus)

LibaSF
Mon 11-2: 64th St. & Hollis St., Emeryville
Wed 11-2: 53rd St. & Hollis St., Emeryville

Giveaway: Soy Candles By Phebes!

Tested thoroughly, WITH SCIENCE, FOR YOU!

I'm gonna start this off by saying I'm not really a candle person. I tend more towards incense (OMG HIPPIE GTFO!!!), but hey, I'm always down for free shit. So when Soy Candles By Phebes offered to send me some samples, and also give an opportunity for YOU, my lovely readers, to win a candle, I was all over it.

I got to try two scents, one picked by me (Moonlight Oasis - it has bergamot in it, which I lurrrrve) and the other picked by the fine folks at SCBP (Lavender).

I actually really liked both of these BECAUSE they weren't in your face scenty. Maybe it's because most of my (previous, unpleasant) candle experiences involved Bath & Bodyworks. No thank you, I don't need my room to smell like the cosmetics department at Macy's, I like OXYGEN THANK YOU VERY MUCH AND GOODNIGHT. I just like things to smell nice, and these candles delivered.

These candles just lightly scented the air with their respective scents. I chose Moonlight Oasis but I ended up like the company-selected scent, Lavender, a little better. Maybe because I had a stressful week and it was nice and relaxing.

Added bonuses, the company is vegan-owned and they offer free shipping on orders over $25 (suh-weet).

So, sound good? WANT A FREE CANDLE? YES YOU DO. Soy Candles By Phebes is giving away a candle to one of y'all! Hurray! So just leave a comment on this entry with the scent you'd enjoy most, and be sure to include your name and email address in the comment so I have some way to get ahold of you if you win. I'll pick a random commenter and that person will get a fancy free candle, woo woo! The contest will be open until Wednesday July 21st.

Contest is now over! I'll pick a winner later this week!

Enjoy your day off, eat some pie

I may not be that patriotic, but I motherfuckin' looooooove me some pie. This one is boysenberry. My roommate and I picked the berries up at my grandpa's house in Sonoma two weeks ago. Boysenberries are awesome; if you can get your hands on any, do. They're tarter than blackberries, and make kind of runny pies, but oh man...some Double Rainbow soy vanilla bean ice cream on top, and you can ignore everything else going on in the world while you eat in bliss. It helps that this pie is cute as hell. (Thanks, adorable IKEA cookie cutters!)

The very first vegan pie I ever made, a mix of raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries, was baked on July 4th, 2007. I wasn't even vegan yet but I was definitely headed in that direction. I used a pie crust recipe from Joy of Cooking, subbing vegan butter for the shortening, burned the crust a little, but devoured it happily.

This is it (next to a teriaki veggie stir-fry - man my cooking skills have come a long way since):



Stay tuned for that giveaway I promised last week!

East Bay Vegan Bakesale TOMORROW 6/26! 11am-4pm!

TOMORROW! COME! BUY! CUPCAKES!

Yours truly made pignoli almond cookies (seriously they are THE BEST), you should come buy and eat them. There's going to be tons of other great stuff too, believe me, it will be awesome. And come say hi to me! I'll be the goober in the Oakland A's hat oogling all the baked goods while I'm supposed to be selling them.

I know updates have been kind of sparse lately, there will be more next week, including my first ever review and giveaway (OMG I KNOW RIGHT). There might even be a recipe or two. The reason things have been crazy is that I've been (a) working on my zine/cookbook/thingymabob and (b) getting ready to move! That's right, I'm moving to Oakland, into a superfantastic new place that I know the kitties and I are going to love. Wish me luck and I'll be back soon.

East Bay Vegan Bakesale coming soon!

YAY! The East Bay Vegan Bakesale is coming soon, and the proceeds are going to two of my favorite charities - Walk Oakland Bike Oakland, and the Berkeley East Bay Humane Society, which you may recall I wrote about in my last entry.

Speaking of BEBHS, did you get your copy of Soyfucker yet? It's an awesome art zine (made entirely by vegans!) and the proceeds go to the Berkeley East Bay Humane Society. And it's only $2! I mean damn! TWO easy ways to help animals, and get some cool shit. If you want to submit stuff for Soyfucker #2, the deadline is July 31st! Kelly and I are going to collab on something for it, so, exciting!

Oh and by the way, my talented and recently graduated sister did the art for the bakesale flier, AND she's featured in Soyfucker #1 as well! If you want to hire her, DO SO!

East Bay Humane Society gutted by fire - can you help?

The East Bay Humane Society in Berkeley was gutted by a fire last night. 12 cats died, which absolutely breaks my heart...those poor little babies. All the other cats and all of the dogs were rescued, thankfully, but they are in desperate need of temporary homes, and donations, as well as help cleaning up later. If you can foster or help them out with cleaning and repairs later, email them at foster@berkeleyhumane.org right now. If you can donate, please go to http://www.berkeleyhumane.org/ and click on any of the donate buttons to help them out.

Seriously you guys, if you can help, please do. I used to work down the block from them and I'd see the volunteers walking adorable dogs, and they accept the city's low cost spay/neuter vouchers; it's where we got Pepper and Truffle spayed! They are super nice people and this is so devastating. Anything you can do to help would I'm sure be appreciated.

And go hug your kitties and puppies and iguanas and bunnies and what have you tonight.


Pepper says, please help!


So does Truffle!

Some Isa testers

Tomorrow I'm off to the Magical Land of Make Believe, or as I like to call it, Oregon, to visit friends in Eugene and Portland, get some tattoo work done, and eat as much Yumm! Sauce as humanly possible.

But here are some lovely Isa testers to taunt your tastebuds while I am away.


Bhutanese Pineapple Red Rice, Thai Red Tofu, Green Beans with Thai Basil


Mushroom Tibs, Ethiopian Millet, Ya'ebesha Gomen


OMG Oven Baked Onion Rings, Cool Slaw, Buffalo Tempeh

Baby bundts & bakesale bidness

The Persimmon Bourbon (Baby) Bundts didn't turn out as perfectly as I'd have liked, but I know what I need to do to fix them, and this was the best test run yet! I thought I'd share a picture of them because I thought they were really cute! I used a mini bundt pan and a rose shaped pan for the extra batter (it's the big one under all the little bundts...god damn I love the word bundt).

Anyhoodles, the bakesale made $3,033 yesterday!! That's $606 per hour, according to Laura B!! That is some impressive shit. I love love volunteering at the bakesale, I always get to hang out with friends and meet cool people and buy loads of yummy goodies...among other things, I walked away with a custard filled donut, a maple-'bacon' cupcake, a spinach/potato/Daiya bike basket pie, a 'Cadbury' creme egg, a cheddar jalepeno biscuit that I just ate for breakfast (which, by the way, Abby, was excellent!!), a pear-blueberry galette, a scrumptious brownie, and blueberry bread.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a galette to nom.