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Vegan Care Package Exchange

A big Thank you!! to Lindsay at Cookingforaveganlover for organizing a great care package swap.  My swap partner was Eve from Addicted to Olives.  I came home from Christmas up north in t-town (tacoma, wa to those of you who are not hip to western washington) to find a giant package waiting for me.  My greatest regret is that I did not wait to take a picture- because I dove into it pretty quick.  There's nothing like spending Christmas around a whole bunch of non-vegans (and I will add not vegan friendly at ALL!, yep- my family) to make your heart soar with a whole sh*t load of vegan goodies at your house.  My personal favorite was the dark chocolate covered pretzels- Oh damn they were good.  It also included some great sauce/ dinner mixes, local popcorn and lots and lots of chocolate bars.  

Thank you Eve!!

This is a picture of some of the stuff I included in Eve's package:

I included an old favorite from Eugene- Rusty's handbuilt cookies.  If you find one of these and have not eaten one before- do it, you will thank me!  Also another cookie from Michelle's Naturally a new to me find (I love the lemon poppyseed cookies!).  I tried to keep all of Eve's goodies from west coast sources (It was going to be local, but I got so enticed with the Rusty!)

December- the month of the oven

I don't know how you spent your December, but by the lack of postings here I am assuming I was busy- I have just today really realized it is January and a whole year has just ended (a big one too- with a baby, wildfire, family, and life mixing together).  So we attended  4 Christmas parties, 4 Christmas celebrations, and had a wedding anniversary all within about 2 1/2 weeks.  I have found myself a little at a loss this week- trying to get back to what ever normal is with a 7 month old baby.  Needless to say as the only vegan at most of these events- I did a lot of baking and cooking.  It was really fun- I love the holidays, but I am enjoying not starting the oven at 6 am.

Minty Chocolate with Peppermint Buttercream and Gingerbread cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting (from the Vegan cupcake goddesses).

Marzipan Snowmen (one of my favorites this season!) on Chocolate cupcakes and buttercream frosting and snowy sprinkles.  I also made for this same holiday party chocolate cupcakes with coconut flavoring and buttercream rolled in sugary shredded coconut to look like little snow balls.

I had a bit of trouble with the marzipan.  I bought it premade in a tube.  Good flavor, easy to manipulate- but... I should have seen this coming- this stuff does not keep well.  I tried a couple of different ways to store it the day before the potluck I was taking my little snowmen to.  I ended up having to remake all of them just before I left (only took about 15 mins) and the old sweaty melting snowmen were composted.  It was so sad to see them in the compost bucket among ashes from the fire place and vegetable stems.  I like to think they are in a better place now.

An additional unforeseen problem with these guys was how they were responded to at the party I took them to.  I arrived a little late and after a windy dark drive down the mountain all of my cupcakes had slid together and all the snowmen had been making snow angels.  So once there I quickly corrected the little guys out in the car and made my entrance with my lovely cupcakes.  Party went nicely.  When I came back to the potluck table to reclaim my platter- there were lots of cupcakes left and very few snowmen.  As I turned around I saw someone actually just munching on the snowman they had pulled off a cupcakes still on the platter.  Now, this is something I expect from my friends- especially when they have been drinking sparks or something (which by the way- if I ever need to conjure up a gag reflex, sparks is what I will use as my inspiration).  I'm not super picky about manners- but taking decorations off cupcakes and leaving them all beaten up looking on a platter seems wrong to me- at least take the whole damn thing and throw the cupcakes away if you don't want it.  On top of that I left a plate of the still intact cupcakes for my host in their fridge and when discussing this with them 2 days later, I was informed that a guest had taken the cakes I had left for them! Oh! I guess it was a wild bunch.

Additional holiday parties included about 100 mini cupcakes for my husbands school (snowballs again and plain with cute little dancing snowmen decorations).  I also made a TON of cookies as christmas gifts for about 25 people.  I'll dedicate an entire post to my favorites as I catch up here. Oh! I think I am having sugar withdrawals!!! In fact I am not going to eat any sugar for a couple of weeks (good for the waistline and maybe I won't be so cracked out all the time).   

Galaxy Cake and Thanksgiving Roast

Two big events have passed with out so much as a peep about the delicious meals I have intaked.

1st- I turned 28. My baby boy had a cold, so my fun day of going to coffee and meeting some friends to bake and craft turned into a day at home with not a lot going on.  My big present to myself was gong to be a nap, which didn't pan out either.  The gentleman in my life had to work late so I ended up eating take out from Saturn Cafe with my mom watching Grey's Anatomy.  Not all that different from a normal day, but really not all that bad either.  What was a lovelier part of the day was my adventure in cake making.  I've made a lot of cupcakes lately and wanted to have a big giant slice of cake.  So I made what I would like to call my Galaxy Cake.  

It's a chocolate cake flavored with coconut frosted with coconut buttercream.  What was really special was the awesome package I receive from my BFF Margy which contained 2 types of homemade body scrub (yay!) and a big 'ol jar of homemade vegan caramel sauce.  As soon as the package arrived I attacked it with a large spoon.  The jar came full, you you can see that as this picture was taken the day of my birthday I really had a go at it.   I smeared both layers of the cake with caramel sauce, then frosted.  On teh top of the cake I pipped a circle, then filled it with chocolate from everyone's favorite cupcake book and Margy's caramel sauce.  She found this somewhere online, I'll have to ask her where, because it was damn good.

2nd- In other exciting eating events we had thanksgiving.  I made a pumpkin pie from Karina's Kitchen that turned out fabulous (thank you so much for the recipe!) and I had my first experience with making seitan.  I tell you, it went well, very well indeed.  I used a recipe from Vegan Dad and it was foolproof! See the pictures below, I apologize for their yellow tint, the kitchen doesn't have great bulb light.   I whipped together some homemade stuffing and rolled these beauties up.  They were super easy and so delicious.  I made two hoping to have leftovers, nope!! all eaten, and there were only 2 veggies out of the 13 guests.  It was a hit.  I'll share my pumpkin cinnamon rolls with pumpkin cream cheese frosting soon.. must go bake for my man's christmas party tomorrow- 100 mini cupcakes here I come!! 

NotJello

In the depths of my love for packaged foods I have always as a vegan yearned for a cold, sugary gelatinous substance.  On a recent trip to Staff of Life, a local store here in SC- I found an old friend in a little cardboard box.  Natural Dessert- All Natural Cherry Jel Dessert!  I think I've tried this before, but my memory is a little thin in some places since being pregnant (momnesia they call it), so a shaky memory helps to keep life exciting, as I try things for the first time over and over again. 

I followed the simple instructions on the back

threw it in the fridge and hello! a jello mold!  

We topped it with Soyatoo Soy Whip (a favorite around the holidays), and it was delicious!