Bake Sale Crazy

On Saturday, I spent nearly eight hours in my kitchen baking treats for Portland’s Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale. It was a gorgeous sunny day, but that didn’t stop me from laboring away amidst clouds of flour and scoops of sugar. In fact, it only motivated me further since I could open the windows and listen to melodic, chirping birds.

One of my favorite tips for making big baking sprees go more smoothly is to prepare your workspace first:

I like to put all of my ingredients, mixing bowls, utensils, and recipes out on my table before I start. Eventually the rows of jars become a scattered mess, but at least I don’t have to run back and forth between my cupboards and work counter.

Here is what I ended up making:

Pizza rolls filled with bell peppers, spinach, marinara, and Follow Your Heart mozzarella;

Lemon cupcakes filled with lemon curd and frosted with lemon cream cheese frosting;

Hello Vegan Bars (recipe in Let Them Eat Vegan by Dreena Burton) – oaty/coconutty cookie crust with caramel, chocolate, pecans, and coconut;

Biscochitos – a snickerdoodle with crushed anise seeds in the dough (recipe also from Let Them Eat Vegan);

Double chocolate mint chip cookies and ginger cookies

Tim and I dropped everything off at the bake sale Sunday morning. Unfortunately, I was so concerned about transporting the cupcakes safely that I forgot my camera. There was  an absolutely gorgeous array of baked goods to choose from; we ended up with one of Kittee’s pretzel dogs, a cupcake from Dovetail Bakery, and a s’mores brownie. Everything was hit-the-spot delicious. And, the sale raised over $2,400!!! Success!

Goodies for Good

Well, today was exhausting! The bake sale organized by Vegan Omaha raised over $3,000 for Japan! Isn’t that incredible? At the end of the day, the only thing left was one little paper cup filled with granola. One guy even ate crumbs off a cookie sheet! Here are some highlights:

After the bake sale a group of us went to Kurry Xpress for Indian food. It was delicious!

Tomorrow the pie making continues and eventually Portland beckons. I am going to miss Omaha!

3, 2, 1… Sushi!

Yesterday was spent baking heaps and heaps of cookies, brownies, cake, and cinnamon rolls for Vegan Omaha’s bake sale for Japan: Goodies for Good. The bake sale is this afternoon and I am so excited to see all the wonderful baked goods lined up on tables and ready to fill hungry tummies!

White Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies and Blueberry White Chocolate Chip Cookies.

We also made regular chocolate chip cookies, double chocolate walnut cookies, oatmeal raisin cookies, ginger cookies, cookies-n-cream brownies, double chocolate gluten-free brownies, and coconut raisin cinnamon rolls!!

Isa and I made a massive mess in her kitchen that progressively worsened as the hours passed:

In between emptying bags of flour and sugar some delicious food was consumed:

Lunch = Veggie Sandwich w/ Side Salad from Daily Grub in Omaha, NE

This sandwich consisted of pepita spread, sauteed red pepper, roasted sweet potato and fresh avocado inside a toasted baguette. I really enjoyed this sandwich! The baguette was chewy and the fillings paired well with one another. I am thinking about recreating this when I get back to Portland so I can remember Omaha with fondness!

Inside the Daily Grub – clean and simple with a chalkboard menu.

Would you believe that up until last night I had never tried sushi? It’s true! Growing up as a picky eater is partly to blame, but it’s mostly because I thought it would be gross. Why did I wait so long?!!

It’s quite possible that a sushi addiction may have blossomed after devouring the above beauties!

Let’s hope that today’s bake sale raises a lot of money for Japan! Keep your fingers crossed please!

Knock, Knock. Who’s there?

Tahini.

Tahini who?

Tahihitoo!

Ah hahaaa! Lame (not really a joke) joke. Goodness, it’s been awhile, huh? Let’s catch up on the last month, shall we?

First, Tim and I celebrated his birthday with cupcakes and lots of laziness:

Jaffa Cupcakes: Chocolate-orange cupcakes with orange frosting and drizzles of chocolate ganache. These were yummy.

Next, I attended an inspirational talk given by Jasmin Singer (big thanks to the Let Live Foundation for organizing this event!). The talk focused on how we can extend our advocacy beyond just the food on our plates, and speak up for animals in our daily lives. It was really wonderful to sit in a room full of people with a passion for animal activism. It’s easy to get lost in the shuffle and forget that we can all do more than just eat vegan food. Watch the talk and learn how you can use your talents to further help those without a voice:

Then, I baked up a few storms for Portland’s Vegan Bake Sale for Haiti. The sale made over $3,000!!! Woohoo!! Here are a few photos of the treats I made (with plenty of help from Tim!!!):

Rocky Road Cookies: Chocolate cookies with toasted almonds, dried sweet cherries, and vegan marshmallows.

Savory Soft Pretzels: Chewy, soft pretzels sprinkled with lots of yummy seeds.

Chocolate Almond Sandwich Cookies: Dark chocolate sandwiched between chewy almond cookie wafers.

And finally, Tim and I visited Out to Pasture Animal Sanctuary in Estacada, OR. There was a big open house and lots of people showed up to meet, feed, and play with the resident animals. This was my first time visiting an animal sanctuary and I absolutely LOVED the experience!! My favorite animal was this sweet lil’ piggie who walked right up to me and gently snorted his wet snout in my face:

Here are some more photos of the animals we met:

My favorite part of the day was feeding the pigs lettuce and seeing just how happy they were waddling around in the mud!

My birthday is Wednesday, so stay tuned for photos of the cupcakes Tim will be baking!!!