PDX: Upcoming Wonderful Things!

Of course I'm going to this:

September 19, 2009

October 3rd, 2009 = Fakin' Fest! A potluck style celebration of vegan bacon and bacon flavored delights! Awards for Favorite Dish, Most Creative Fakin' Dish, and best Pop Culture Pig costume! There's talk of a tempeh bacon speed eating contest!

Donations will go to Lighthouse Farm Sanctuary, which I visited last year.

Maeve and I decided to put this together on a whim after hearing about Baconfest, ewww - Come join the vegan fun! Tempeh Bacon! Coconut Bacon! Seitan! Tofu! Eggplant!!!

The somewhat official site is here: Fakin' Fest 2009

The Facebook Event is here.

Tempeh Bacon is the best, Am I Right?

October 16, 2009 = The Next Apron Activist Dinner, hosted by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. I've dined and volunteered at these in past, and they're always fantabulous. And for a cause! This time, it's for Monkeys.

Check out the menu and more information about the Chimp Sanctuary Northwest Dinner here.

The delicious tempeh dinner from a past benefit

Hello! - look at how much fun Katie Jayne & I had!

I'm sure something SUPER FUN was coming out of our mouths at this moment, or some extreme praise about the dinner...

Speaking of fancy dinners, later this month, I'll also be going to an exclusively vegan, multi-course, family style dinner at the newly vegan-friendly, esteemed Belly Timber in SE Portland. I'll report back, for sure! My first meal there was lovely.

Red Cabbage Gazpacho from Belly Timber

Tempt-ing

The folks at Try Vegan Week gave us Portlanders our first taste of Temptation Vegan Ice Cream this weekend at Vegfest. It was sold as a fundraiser for the informational week.

Ridiculously, on my way to the opening events, I crashed my bike and scraped up my right knee pretty badly. I now have some tough wounds and a story.

When I finally got Vegfest, I sat down with this waffle cone and felt better! Sure I was breaking out of the 'healthier' eating I've been doing lately, but for new vegan ice cream being sold for non-profit reasons? Yes, yes, yes.

My waffle cone was filled with cookie dough and mint chocolate chip. I also had some cookie dough and tried new flavors at the actual Vegfest. I only had a bite, but the Fair Trade Coffee was by far my favorite.
I would flat out call Temptation more gelato-like than ice cream, honestly, but it's still delectable and sweet. I really like gelato! It's creamy and icy.
I read on Food Fight!'s blog this morning that the leftover ice cream will be sold at Papa G's soon! Nice.

Vegfest this weekend & Grocery Outlet in town

My office is closing early today, and I'm looking forward to a very-vegan weekend.
The Portland Vegfest starts tonight, with a talk from Howard Lyman, the actual festival is tomorrow at Benson High School, and on Sunday Webly and I are recording another podcast with the Veganshizzle about the festivities. Here is a $1 off coupon on admission!

If you're coming to Vegfest, be sure to check out the Try Vegan Week table, where they're selling Temptation Ice Cream, in it's Portland debut, as a fundraiser.

Hopefully I'll have a bit of time left for relaxing like Zelda here..

And as to what I've been creating and will be creating, the newest vegetable addition in my kitchen is this January cabbage I picked up from the People's Coop farmer's market.

I used some of the cabbage in a recent almost no oil fried rice concoction - with leftover baked
Pomegranate Teriyaki tofu, cashews and more veggies. I already baked the tofu as slices, and cut into strips, baked again 10 minutes or so, and threw it into my concoction -
I loved how it looked!

Just some tempeh taco crumbles. I missed tempeh lately.

Pre-bake shot of the Sundried tomato and roasted garlic (gluten free) stuffed mushrooms I took to the farm sanctuary work party picnic last weekend.

Hey Portland, if you haven't heard - Grocery Outlet is now open in Hollywood, where the
Value Village used to be.

I was surprised by the lack of fun vegan items, but have hope for the future.

I picked up these random items: Reese's Puffs (for Tommy, as funny gift, and he had a bowl for dinner), Sicilian red wine, Horse Shampoo (I used to use this stuff when I was little, and it's animal free), organic deodorant, Queen Helene Apricot facial scrub (I like this alot), soap and Jason toothpaste.