5, 4, 3, 2, 1 .... Launch!

A launch party that is! We went out to San Francisco this past weekend (and then onto Vegas, the topic of a separate post) to attend the launch party as "VIPs" (haha) for the July/August issue of VegNews magazine. After a delayed flight due to the smoky skies around the city, we finally arrived, dropped our bags at the hotel, and rushed up to North Beach ...

Lunch was at The Usual Suspects, a new (and sadly, may no longer be open?) vegan/vegetarian cafe nestled up against Telegraph Hill (literally!). Since we hadn't eaten all day (and it was 3pm our time), we started with some taquitos served with an creamy dipping sauce. They were gobbled up of course. John went with a big salad topped with lots of veggies and cashews while I had the schawarma stuffed with seitan (no good pic of that). But the best part of the meal? Chatting with Melisser (who was there frosting 200+ mini cupcakes for the launch party, part of her Sugar Beat Sweets business) and sampling her chocolate cupcake with tangerine frosting. Heavenly! Maybe someday she'll give me the secret to what makes her frosting so fluffy.
After a relaxing afternoon of strolling through North Beach, we headed down to SOMO for the launch party at the Electric Works art gallery. After scoping out the silent auction items, we perused the artwork for a bit before the crowds starting arriving. I had a blast meeting VegNews staffers, fellow bloggers, ppkers, and even someone that recognized me from reading my blog (hi Kenya!). The martinis and wine flowed like water. And Lavay Smith and her Red Hot Skillet Lickers jazzed up the evening with their saucy tunes.
During the party, appetizers from local veg eateries (including Millennium, Usual Suspects, and Herbivore) were passed by a wonderful group of volunteers. As dessert time drew near, we stationed ourselves near the bar and managed to score 4 mini cupcakes, courtesy of Sugar Beat Sweets. As you can tell from the photo, they went fast!
Even though it had been a long day, and almost midnight Houston-time, we couldn't not eat at Millennium on our brief trip to Frisco. So we forced ourselves :-) We started off with a roasted beet appetizer with hazelnuts, so delicious. John ordered a salad for dinner... let me just say that it was quite possibly the best salad I've ever tasted. And dang, I don't remember what it was called. There were greens, fingerling potatoes, smoked tofu, other stuff I'm forgetting, but oh I will never forget how much I loved it. For my entree, I had coconut black pepper crusted tofu, served with fragrant rice, oyster mushrooms, edamame and some other veggies. Dessert was a must, even after 1 full size and 4 mini cupcakes that day. I must not have satisfied my chocolate fix yet, because I ordered the chocolate almond midnight. We got it to go and headed back to our hotel room. Most of it was actually eaten the next morning for breakfast!
6:30 am the next morning came fast. The 17 hour trip to San Francisco was a whirlwind of vegan food & sweets, music, art, and new & friendly faces. Wish we had more time, but we'll be back...
I am heading out of town again this Sunday, so forgive me for not visiting blogs the week I'm gone! I do have a post or two lined up to publish while I'm away though. And once I return, I will have some vegan baking bootcamp stories to tell and lots of sweets to show.... NYC here I come! (any advice on where to eat is welcomed of course)

My Own Form of Detox

I am honored to have been chosen by VegNews to receive a VegBloggy award for 2008! I am so excited to see who else has gotten one (here's some I know of right now: conscious kitchen, vegan talk, urban housewife, bittersweet, veganyumyum, get sconed, fatfree vegan kitchen). The July/August issue hits newstands on July 1 (earlier for subscibers), so be sure to pick up a copy! And I really wish this was one of those awards that you could also give to five other bloggers so we could spread the love to all vegan blogs. Because really, I think we all inspire each other and are all deserving of recognition in the vegan/vegetarian community. I'm also excited that this gives me an excuse to stop in San Francisco at the end of the month (on my way to Las Vegas) for the Music Issue Launch Party. Hope to see some of yall there!

Now, back to my regularly scheduled blog post.... looking back on recent posts, there has been a lot of dessert! And I've seen several of you blogging about all the raw food and cleanses and detoxes you have been doing, and this is a great season for it! Now I'm not really on a detox, just a blog post detox (yes, just last night I had a brownie, but it was low fat!). All healthy food in this post. First, a grilled vegetable salad with corn, asparagus, and portobello mushroom over a bed of spinach with heirloom tomato and sunflower seeds.

The mushroom was marinated in red wine, olive oil, and dried basil. The corn was just basted in some olive oil and placed right on the grill for about 15 minutes. As you can see, the grilling of the asparagus was a bit tricky... we lost a few to the doldrums of the charcoal fire! I've tried skewering them in the past, but was just too lazy to do it that particular evening.
For Memorial Day, we brought out the grill once again for more corn on the cob and some homemade burgers! This was my first attempt at a homemade burger and it was not really very successful. I spaced reading the instructions earlier, and discovered the burgers had to chill 4 hours, time that I didn't have. So our tempeh mushroom burgers (grated beet lending the red color) kinda fell apart. John showed some mad skillz with the grill by managing to get them off in one piece!
And finally, the Taco Salad from Yellow Rose Recipes. Romaine lettuce with cilantro topped with taco TVP, avocado, tomato. Joanna's spice mixes (this one for the tvp) are the best. And no oil! Okay, so there was a dallop of sour cream, but the rest of the dressing was just fresh lime juice. I've been making a few things from YRR lately for the review I submitted to our Society of PEACE newsletter.
I hope everyone has a great weekend. Tomorrow I am going blackberry picking!