Last Sunday I got together with a bunch of friends to have my birthday brunch at the Flames Eatery in downtown San Jose. Even though brunch was at 1pm, I was still exhausted from the night before. The night before was the final bout of the season for the Silicon Valley Roller Girls (SVRG, the league that I coach) and it was a double header. The league gave me the best gift I could have asked for; a win for both SVRG teams (bout recap here).

I love the Flames because they have something for everyone. I ordered hashbrowns, tofu scramble with avocado, and a bottomless mimosa! The Flames is known for their mile high cakes but sadly they don’t have any vegan ones. However, the staff of the Flames surprised me with a birthday fruit cup! Everything at brunch was wonderful and I totally had to take a nap when I got home.

Yesterday was my birthday! Here are the highlights.

Hanford made me a special birthday dessert. He mixed all my favorite desserts together to create the ultimate birthday dessert. He first mixed salted dark chocolate into vanilla Soy Dream ice cream. He then went out and bought some plain vegan cake donuts. Finally he made a Marker’s Mark Bourbon and maple syrup reduction. He then mixed them all together to make a ice cream donut sandwich. Awesome.

And Hanford got me some super cute gifts too. He remembered that I had been wanting a handmade lion rug made by Peanut Butter Dynamite. And of course I also got some Lego!

After birthday gifts and dessert, Hanford and I joined some friends at Trader Vic’s. The wonderful folks at Trader Vic’s surprised me with a birthday Mai Tai! Overall, it was a wonderful birthday!

Yeah, Halloween is only a couple of days away and I am in full planning mode. My friend Mark is having a killer Halloween party at his house on Friday. It’s probably going to be a smaller party but I still wanted to make something rad as a party favor. Heidi from My Paper Crane posted an excellent blog entry on some party favors that she made for her Halloween party this year. I LOVED the idea and decided to make some candy poison bottles for Mark’s party. I first downloaded some the poison bottle labels that Heidi suggested and then photoshopped fun names into them (ie. “Holt’s ‘Kill All’ Solution”, “Panda’s Pharmacy”, and “Hanford Lemoore, Pharmacist”). I then Mod Podged the labels onto different bottles that I found at Costplus (they were on sale, woo hoo). Finally, I filled the bottles with vegan candy (pictured are bottles filled with regular and Halloween themed Dots).

Also, if you want a current list of vegan Halloween candy then check out this VegNews article (this is the most up to date). Several of Peta’s Halloween candy lists are out of date and list some candy as being vegan when they are not. As a warning, anything candy that lists “Confectioner’s Glaze” should be investigated.

Halloween is my favorite holiday and this year I have been enjoying lots of different vegan Halloween candy! How could you go wrong with chocolate, marshmallows, and candy corn?!?!

A couple weekends ago I hit up my favorite candy store in San Francisco, Miette (the Hayes Valley location), and bought some Halloween treats. Crystal (owner of Violet Sweet Shoppe) was working and she showed me all the vegan candy they had in stock. My favorite thing that I bought was a dark chocolate skull with Mexican ancho & chipotle chilies, and cinnamon. Chocolate with a bit of heat…..yes please!

I was super stoked to see on Cosmo’s Vegan Shoppe Twitterfeed that they had Sweet & Sara’s vegan marshmallow ghosts in stock for Halloween. I quickly ordered some and tried to patiently wait for them to arrive in the mail. The wait was well worth it because when the ghosts came in they were super cute and delicious. I gave one to my mom and she didn’t believe me that it was vegan; she thought it was too good to be true!

Halloween would not be Halloween without candy corn. Finding vegan candy corn can be quite a task though. Thankfully Melisser of the Urban Housewife came up with an awesome vegan candy corn recipe. I made some for Smack Dahlia’s birthday (she saw Melisser’s recipe in the October issue of Bust magazine and said she wanted some for her birthday).

Last Sunday Hanford and I went to the Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival. I haven’t been in a couple of years and I forgot about how completely horrible the traffic is! We eventually got the the festival after waiting in almost 2 hours of traffic on highway 92 (we only had to drive 6 miles). A couple of our friends warned us but I didn’t think it was going to be that bad

Despite the traffic; we had a really good time. The festival was packed with art/wine type vendors and typical American festival food. They did have a couple of vegan food options but nothing really amazing. We scored some sauteed artichokes, sauteed Brussels sprouts (they looked totally nasty, but tasted really good), and some garlic fries (pictured above). Lara Bar was also had a booth there and was handing out samples. I got two of their flavors, tropical fruit tart and peanut butter & jelly (pictured above), and they were awesome! The tropical fruit tart flavored one tasted like a tiki drink, yum!

This last Saturday was the SF Vegan Bakesale; a benefit for Give Me Shelter Cat Rescue. I am happy to say that the bakesale was a huge success and $2,600 was raised. Not only was a bunch of money raised but all the baked goods were sold out by 2:30pm (bakesale started at 11am). The Bay Area must really love vegan baked goods!

Pictured above is the yummy noms that I picked up from the bakesale. I got there around 12pm and a ton of stuff was already sold out (I was dying for one of Sugar Beat Sweets cinnamon rolls). I ended up buying two caramel apples (a green and a red one), a pumpkin sugar cookie, and a German chocolate cupcake. I had to take a close up picture of the green caramel apple, it was my favorite item I bought. Sadly, I don’t know which bakeries made the items that I bought (there were over 40 bakers who contributed items to the bakesale). If you know who made what then feel free to comment, I want to credit those bakers.

Check out vegansaurus.com’s recap of the event: http://tinyurl.com/yz6qjvj

I don’t know what your plans are for today, but if you are anywhere near the SF Bay Area then I suggest that you make your way to the SF Vegan Bakesale. Over 40+ bakers are donating items to the bakesale, including items from Sugar Beat Sweets (swoon), Fat Bottom Bakery, and the editors of VegNews magazine to name a few. Did I also mention that I designed the flyer? I didn’t have time to whip up anything from my kitchen, so I donated some design work.

The proceeds of the bakesale go to benefit Give Me Shelter Cat Rescue. Do it for the Kitties!!!!

Now for the savory side of Denver!

Rebellion Pizza (2231 S Broadway, Denver CO 80210): Rebellion Pizza is the type of place that works for both meat eaters and vegans. Anyone of their pizzas can be made vegan and they have three different vegan cheese options. Pictured above is the vegan “meat” lovers pizza that I ordered when I was in Denver a couple of months ago. The pizza had four different types of vegan “meat” on it (MorningStar Chicken, Tofurky Italian Sausage, LightLife Pepperoni, and Yves Canadian Bacon). It’s sans vegan cheese and it was pretty good (their crust and sauce were awesome). They also have friendly customer service and killer vegan garlic sticks. Their “Vegans Only” parking sign in their parking lot out back is pretty rad too.

WaterCourse Foods (837 E. 17th Ave, Denver, CO 80218): When I visited this place a couple of months ago, it was super packed at dinner time. However, since I was dining by myself, I was able to be immediately seated at the bar section of the restaurant. After looking over their large menu I decided on the tempeh burger and the vegan seitan buffalo wings (everything pictured above). The burger came with my choice of two sides (I selected the colesaw and the gravy and mashed potatoes). Everything was pretty good except the tempeh patty was slightly overdone. To make up for the dry patty, I put some of the vegan ranch that came with the buffalo wings onto the burger and that made it much better. I would recommend trying this place out because they have a large selection of vegan items and their daily specials looked really tasty.

City O’City (V206 E 13th Ave, Denver, CO 80203): I wish there was a City O’City in the Bay Area. I like City O’City because it’s open late (2am Monday – Saturday), they have a great selection of vegan pizzas, and Monday night is whiskey night! I’m a fan of their whiskey night because they have specials on good whiskey (stuff like Buffalo Trace and Bulliet). They also have great daily vegan specials too.

When I was in Denver a couple of months ago I had a couple of hours to kill before my return flight home, so I shot over to City O’City to check out their daily specials. Their daily vegan special was “Tempeh a la Sylvestre” (potatoes au gratin, roasted tempeh, green bean succotash, and dijon vinaigrette)(pictured above) and it was amazing. I think I would have licked the plate if I didn’t fear getting dirty looks from other customers. Overall, the food was great and on the inexpensive side (I think the special plus drink, dessert, and tip cost me just over $20). The atmosphere was pretty relaxing and they also sell baked goods from the WaterCourse Bakery next door.

A couples of months ago I went to Denver for a business trip and was sweetly surprised with all the amazing vegan food. This blog entry is going to focus on the sweet side of Denver. I am going back to Denver this weekend for the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association’s Western Regional Tournament and I can’t wait to pig out again.

Sweet Action Ice Cream (52 Broadway, Denver, CO 80203) : How could you not love a place that makes their own vegan ice cream? Not only do they make fresh batches throughout the week but they offer more than just ice cream cones. This is the first place I have ever seen that makes VEGAN ICE CREAM CUPCAKES! When I visited this place a couple months ago I had to pass on picking some of these up because they are sold by the half dozen. I was by myself and knew that I could not be trusted with a half dozen if these babies. Sweet Action also makes homemade vegan ice cream sandwiches too. I picked up a peanut butter cookie and vanilla ice cream sandwich (win! pictured above). Another wonderful thing about Sweet Action is that they are on twitter (twitter.com/sweetactionic) and they tweet their daily fresh flavors. Did I mention that I already placed my order for vegan ice cream cupcakes for this weekend (chocolate cupcake, coffee ice cream, and vegan buttercream).

WaterCourse Bakery: bakery goods available at City O’City (206 E. 13th Ave, Denver, CO 80203) and WaterCourse Foods (210 E 13th Ave, Denver, CO 80203). The WaterCourse Bakery does not have a retail location but they supply the sweets for WaterCourse Foods (duh) and City O’City. The bakery is located next door to City O’City; so you know everything is fresh. While in Denver a couple of months ago, I picked up their mini vegan hoho cupcake (middle picture) and a frosted sugar cookie and a cinnamon bun (bottom picture). Everything I had was excellent and I definitely want to get my mitts on more of their baked goods.

East Side Kosher Deli (499 S Elm St, Denver, CO 80246): Want to know a secret? This deli is a vegan chocolate chip mecca! Not only do they have the hard to find butterscotch chips but they have COFFEE chocolate chips that are vegan. Check in the back of this deli for those flavors plus more! Are these chocolate chips good for you? Not really, but they do not have confectioner’s glaze or any dairy in them!

One of the best things about coaching a roller derby derby league is that you get to meet new and interesting people. When I first met Sadie I was alittle bit scared of her, you might be too. However, through working with her on and off the rink I have come to realize that she is a totally sweet girl (the first picture is of Sadie & me). Early in SVRG’s 2009 season we found out that Sadie was pregnant, SVRG’s first baby! Needless to say, we were going to throw her one hell of a baby shower. Sadie’s baby is due next month and we just threw her a SLAYER THEMED BABY SHOWER.

Pia Mess, Kohl Bear, and Double Knuckles did an excellent job of putting the whole thing together. They also made sure to have lots of vegan food too (the “birthing” cupcakes pictured above for example). The highlights of the baby shower were the Slayer themed diaper cake and the Slayer themed baby mobile. I took a short video of the baby mobile but I turnoff the video sound since I was a dumbass and recorded it with lots of chit chat in the background. Another highlight of the baby shower was that Steffen Razor made Sadie’s baby a tiny roller derby uniform! I didn’t get a picture of it but Sadie’s girl is definitely going to be a roller girl in training!

Can’t wait for Sadie’s baby next month!!!!