Fakin' Fest 2009!

This past weekend in Portland, fifty+ vegans consumed so much sodium it boggles the mind.

It's also gloriously mind boggling how awesome the first annual Fakin' Fest was.

Just look at this!

Mike's handmolded PIG cake!

All the cool vegans insisted on eating his head first, and we were left with a

pig cake butt at the end of the day.

Dishes ranged from sweet to salty to sweet and salty to savoury and salty and sweet again.

We raised $177.77 that goes directly to Lighthouse Farm Sanctuary, all kindly from a donations bucket at a potluck-picnic with a quirky theme. The entire event was word of mouth and internet based! It was even picked up on VegNews' website!

Not a bad turn out on a day it was supposed to rain and an event that wasn't actually postered around town! There's already talk of a Sausagefest (obviously, vegan!) and next year's Fakin' Fest '10!

Onto the splendorous food coma!

To be honest, I didn't try everything - there was SO much! It was overwhelming.

I was so proud!

Vegan Bacon-topped cupcakes

Dark chocolate dipped Bacon - I really enjoyed my piece of this!

Deanna's bacon and leek stuffed yams

Homemade tempeh bacon

Mac & Cheeze with Bacon-y topping

Yam fries - there was a dip with these..I bet it was smokey!

Tina's Spinach Fakin' Quiche

Mini Eggplant Bacon sandwiches

The Spicy Vegan's Potato Skins! with Michelle's Cheezy Biscuits in the background!

Whoa.

Cartopia Baco-Custard - Maple Bacon Ice Cream! by Lucas and Gregg.

Decadent, decadent, decadent.

Heather's Cute Stuffed Mushrooms!

Yeah! Bacon Baklava. This won honorable mention in a contest!

Extra pig cake frosting and a bacon cake!

Michelle's Cheeze Balls! Loved this.

Stef's Coconut Bacon Cupcakes!

Peas....and bacon!

I brought Herb Scalloped Potatoes with

Daiya Cheddar (which I may despise..) and Bac-os.

Melissa's Risotto~

Bacon roll ups!

I also brought Chocolate Chip Cranberry cookies sprinkled with

Alder Smoked Salt. Alder Smoked Salt, of love.

ONE of the two food tables.

Most of the Fakin' fanatics, towards the end of the sunny afternoon.

And finally, I'd like to showcase my personal proof that I did pay attention in elementary school. Your third grade science fair poster had nothing on this!!

Yeah, those are Bac-os spelling out Fakin'.

RECIPES?

The event's co-organizer, Maeve, and I are collecting recipes that we'll post here and include in a zine. Please email them to getsconed [at] gmail.com if you brought a dish and are interested!

Awards! We had awards for Most Creative Fakin' Dish, Best Overall Fakin' Dish, and Best Fakin' Inspired Haiku! The haiku readings were wonderfully dramatic, and dear. The first two awards went to Webly's Chocolate Bacon Dates and a sweet couple's Eggplant BLTs with dipping sauce.

Thanks again to Lightlife, for donating our prizes - Smart Bacon and Fakin' Strips!

And extra special thanks to my friend Erica, for all the artwork!

Thank you to all who came!

xoxo,

jess

tempeh bacon's biggest fan.

VeganTwitNic #2, Check

We had the second ever VeganTwitNic yesterday in Colonel Summers Park in SE Portland. Nice showing, delicious food, no rain, relaxing in the sun, breaks in the shade, classic picnic times. There was even a watermelon, I kid you not.

I brought Gluten Free Mac & Cheeze with Broccoli

Maeve brought a refreshing raw kale salad, there was a gazpacho like dip, savoury tofu with prunes & olives, rice, gluten free lasagna, dessert and more.

Fruit, coconut pudding and cake parfait!

Part of the spread

I give up trying to make my plate look more than somewhat presentable at potlucks.

Quick stop at Food Fight! this weekend for soap, new Flameboy mango hot sauce, Cheddar Cheezly (some of it went into the mac!) and nectarines, suspiciously not pictured.

All the normal things I replenish.

Now I'm off to embark on Day #1 of Dittering week!

An Italiany Post

A collection of meals with an Italian vibe to them....
or at least tomatoes, or pasta or garlic or all of the above~

Exhibit #1:

Baked Chickpea Cutlet Balls served over fusilli pasta with homemade tomato basil marinara. With sauteed mushrooms and spinach with garlic, and garlic bread.
Carb-attack-amazing.

Exhibit #2

Pesto-Cheezy-Italian pasta bake.

This was made for a PPK Picnic this past weekend, and consisted of a silken tofu ricotta with pesto and chopped, fresh spinach, more tomato basil marinara, some almond ricotta, mini shells pasta, a miso-almond cheezy sauce, orange tomatoes and fresh basil on top.

Exhibits #3 and #4: Homemade pizzas.

The pizza above was marinara sauce, Teese, orange tomato, sweet corn and spinach.

This pizza has cremini mushrooms, orange tomato,pesto and almond ricotta.

Baked:
(sorry for the craptastic lighting)

Exhibit #5

Leftover pizza from It's a Beautiful Pizza, with tomato sauce, FYH soy cheeze (they're switching to Teese in a couple months, FYI), sundried tomatoes and black olives.

Exhibit #6

Mini grilled teese-basil-tomato on french bread.

a day in the life of a pie on the bus.

here's my friend the local peach and rainier cherry crumb pie riding the #9 in se portland.

it was sunny so it wore this protective layer. just for a while. it liked the pink.

in its powdered sugar glory, before being eaten at a vegan potluck:

and the evolution - chopped peaches and pitted rainier cherries. I added the peaches because rainier isn't typically a stand alone pie filling cherry.

crumb topped and pre-baked. the pie was totally homemade, holla. the crust is from Veganomicon.
Next time I'd go with a more traditional lattice crust, since the filling was more sweet than tart, somewhat surprisingly.

and baked, before the dusting of the powdered sugar.

bonus farmer's market haul from Saturday, which makes me warm inside:
I went to the PSU market and picked up the following for:

box of peaches $3
hot pepper 75 cents
sweet corn 2 for $1
fava beans $1 a bag (not totally filled pods..a sale!)
fresh basil $1
tomatoes $3.50/lb
zucchini 50 cents

and a handful of blackberries picked on the welcome home...

and since the oven was warm post pie baking, I roasted some garlic.


coming soon: photos from a delicious meal at Portland's newest vegan restauarnt, and PPK test kitchen cookies.