That’s It Fruit Bars review

Recently, That’s It emailed me asking if I’d like to try their new fruit bars. We got in contact near the end of my semester when cooking and packing food for school regularly can be a difficult task, so this kind of snack was definitely welcomed! Fruit bars are perfect to stash in my locker and camera bags to eat quickly during breaks or while walking from one place to another.

That’s It bars derive their name from the ingredients: fruit and fruit (that’s it!). No gluten, added sugar, or preservatives, and obviously vegan. The three flavors I tried were apple cherry, apple apricot, and apple pear. The flavor and texture of all three kinds reminded me of dried apple rings in bar form with a burst of flavor from the respective fruit in each bar. I liked all three, but my favorite was probably the apple cherry. The dried cherries introduce a new layer of flavor with a bit of tartness that contrasts the apple flavor, whereas the pear and apricot have a similar sweetness to the apple. You can’t go wrong with straight up fruit! That’s It bars are a great morning or afternoon snack to keep hunger at bay until the next mealtime rolls around, all in a convenient little package!

Thanksgiving 2011

While my kitchen is quite equipped in terms of gadgets and ingredients, it doesn’t really have space going for it, so I find myself missing cooking large scale dinners for people. When I found out two days before Thanksgiving that a holiday that I could cook for would be hosted at my parent’s house for the first time in quite a while, I jumped on the opportunity to cook. My full day of class on Tuesday was seemingly neverending, but I spent the last couple hours researching menus, reading through books, and deciding on recipes. I was not going to settle for another holiday of bread, salad, and vegetables while staring longingly at all the delicious vegan feasts on the internet. I want to eat more than vegetables and bread, mofos! I don’t care if I have to eat leftovers for three days (actually I do care. very much. yum) or that there’s already two potato dishes planned (that I can’t eat…which is why I’m cooking more, duh!), I’m going all out!

Here is a teaser of the final vegan Thanksgiving feast:

It was too late to buy a pre-made roast or Tofurkey, so I was set on making my own seitan. Which I kind of wanted to do anyway. I’ve never had a not-turkey tofurky roast type thing for Thanksgiving, so I decided to stop being a masochist and make Joni’s Seitan en Croute. It was surprisingly very easy to make. The seitan dough mixed right up in the stand mixer and the puff pastry was ready to go. I’ll admit I had to google a refresher course on lattice pastry crust, but it turned out to be quite straightforward.

The only alteration I made to the recipe was the addition of apples and sage. I steered away from adding large apple slices to the dough or as a filling for the roast, fearful the cooked apple would create a texture akin to apple pie. Instead, I subbed spiced apple cider for some of the vegetable broth and chopped up an apple into very tiny pieces and kneaded them into the dough. Many of the pieces ended up falling out, so I sauteed those with onions and garlic and stuffed them in the center of the roast as a filling. The addition of sage was easy. I just added a few teaspoons into the dough with the other spices. The liquid smoke I used was also apple-flavored.

Verdict? Even with all the apple-y goodness, the other flavors overshadowed it and I didn’t really taste apple. I wasn’t complaining though because everything about this roast was delicious. It was the perfect texture, avoiding both extremities of gummy and dry, and the flaky pastry crust was the greatest. Now I would like to encase everything in pastry.

No plain steamed vegetables allowed. Ever. These are maple mustard potatoes and beans from Vegan with a Vengeance, with the addition of Brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes.

I just received a copy of Dynise Balcavage‘s new book, Celebrate Vegan. This book is going to save holidays for me. Every holiday you can think of is represented in this book with a complete menu. I was going to make the Thanksgiving menu, but ended up mixing and matching from different menus of the book, and recipes all over the internet and other books. I’m definitely going to make a complete menu from this book soon though!

These are apple cider cranberry donut holes, a variation on a new recipe of mine, apple cider donuts!

Plated! I didn’t make the mashed potatoes, bread, or cranberry sauce, but they were all vegan-friendly. The gravy is the mushroom gravy from Celebrate Vegan!

Leftovers lasted forever and ever. I brought a bag of Dandie’s with me, so I made some marshmallow sweet potatoes because I was feeling gross and nostalgic for the non-vegan version from the previous day.

MoFo’in Cheezy Breadstick Pizza

During MoFo last month, entering the Daiya giveaway required describing your dream pizza. My pizza with “artichoke hearts, garlic, pesto, green olives, kalamata olives, mozzarella Daiya, sundried tomatoes, Upton’s Italian seitan, roasted red peppers, green peppers, and basil” won me some vegan cheese! Although it wasn’t part of the contest, I decided I absolutely needed to make this pizza. I slowly acquired the ingredients over the course of a couple of weeks, anxiously checking my mailbox to see if it was pizza time. One day, the coupons were there! Pizza was happening over the weekend.

This pizza has everything but the pesto, basil and sundried tomatoes because I couldn’t find them at the store I was at for less than a million dollars. Plus, “dream pizza” indicates that it’s not completely attainable.

The pizza dough is the Vegan with a Vengeance recipe, which is incredibly easy to throw together, especially with a Kitchenaid equipped with a dough hook. After topping the pizza with all the veggies, olives, and cheese, I had leftover dough. It was enough for a mini pizza, but there was no room left on the tray and I didn’t feel like getting out another tray and making another pizza. The answer was clear: cheezy breadsticks on TOP of the pizza. It sounded delicious and just crazy enough that I had to do it.

Here is the monstrosity of pizza goodness after some oven time:

It was so dreamy that I completely forgot about the lack of pesto!

Interview with Pamela of Wingbean

Today’s interview is with Pamela of Wingbean, a fairly new vegan catering and food delivery business in Asheville, NC. I’m getting real hungry just looking at all their dishes! Delicious and creative comfort food.
I met Pamela in the very early days of the PPK (6 years ago, holy crap!) and was really drawn to her unwavering devotion to animal rights, and her incredibly kind personality. Pamela is one awesome lady doing great things in the kitchen for veganism.

How did you come up with the name Wingbean?
Scott actually came up with the name, but the winged bean is an actual plant. We wanted our name to be unique, and to evoke images of delivery/speed (wing) and health/vegetable (bean)

How did you decide to start your business and what were the first steps you took?
I was aware of another business in town who does the same thing (and actually worked for them at one point but knew I could improve where they lack). We’ve been wanting to do something with vegan food for a long time now, and many people have supported us and encouraged me to take the steps to start my own food business. I’ve always enjoyed cooking for friends. The first steps we took were creating a business plan and going about getting paperwork done (licenses, permits, etc). It seems kind of surreal, actually, because I don’t feel any different

What kinds of events and vegfests have you been to and what has the response been like?
We were at Asheville’s first annual VegFest and people in this city are awesome. We are also glad to participate in local vegan potlucks (and non-vegan potlucks, but people really like the vegan food!) when our schedule permits.

Who are your customers—vegans, non-vegans, busy people, health conscious?
All of the above! Many of our customers aren’t vegetarian. We have a lot of couples who order. We have families, business people, new parents, people who want to eat healthier, people who just enjoy food and the convenience of our service.

What are your favorite things to cook for yourself at home? What are your favorite meals in Asheville?
My favorite things to cook at home..I like freestyle meals and sides. This week I made a nice red wine-glazed Tofurky sausage dinner with creamed spinach and butter noodles. My favorite meals in Asheville would definitely be the Raggy Road (vegan of course) from Nine Mile (they have the best jerk tofu I’ve ever had), the Altinderfer sushi roll from Heiwa Shokudo- it’s tempeh, almond butter, and maple. It’s so good! I also sometimes bring in my own goodies to Mellow Mushroom and they make a vegan BBQ chicken pizza (I still pick up shifts there so they can do that for employees).

What do you like to do when you’re not busy cooking?
When I am not cooking…uh…I’m always cooking. But no, I like to read or take a hike with my partner Scott and the dogs. Simple things. Asheville is beautiful so we are spoiled with a great view wherever we go.

Thank you, Pamela!

Vegan Baker Wednesday: Hannah Banana Bakery

Today’s vegan baker (and the final vegan baker of MoFo!) is Hannah of Hannah Banana Bakery in Southampton, UK! Hannah and I started talking via Facebook last year where I witnessed her hard work and dedication to baking and cake decorating turn into an amazing vegan business! Hannah makes all kinds of gorgeous tasty treats, and omigosh look how freaking cute she is!:

Let’s talk! You can also follow Hannah on Twitter and like her Facebook page.

How did you first become interested in baking?
I grew up with my mum always baking when I was young. She never wanted us to have crappy processed cake and treats so made batches almost everyday! The funny thing is I remember it being really uncool to have home made food back then and I was really embarrassed about eating it (sorry mum!). When I became vegan I struggled to find treats to satisfy my sweet tooth and there werent any vegan cake books so I had to start making up my own recipes!

How did you decide to turn your passion into a business?
I come from quite a small town in the UK where its still very hard to find vegan treats. I got fed up with not being able to have a cake with my coffee in cafes and having friends always ask me to make them cakes as they didnt trust ‘regular’ cake bakers to know what ‘vegan’ was. I did a cake decorating evening course whilst finishing my PhD and found ways to veganise all the fancy stuff and decided this was what I wanted to do and that there must be other people wanting vegan cakes made with local, ethical ingredients.

What kinds of desserts do you make?
Ha ha! You name it I make it!! I like to pride myself with rising to any challenge! I’ve made cinnamon rolls, waffles, doughnuts, pies, pastries, triffles, fondant fancies, cake pops, choux buns, meringues…..as well as the regular cakes and cupcakes in 18 flavours! At the moment Im trying to perfect an ace no added sugar swiss roll for a customer which will NOT get the best of me I can make ALL my cakes gluten free too (with 13 different gluten free flours!) as well as lots of no added sugar options so everyone gets the cake of their dreams!

What is your favorite cake you’ve made for a custom order?
Ummmm…I’ve really enjoyed the big ones I think. I made a Nemo cake that I really loved and a big round dinosaur with ‘Happy Birthday Bigface’ on it that made me laugh! Personal stories as to why they want that cake really make my day!

Mango coconut Nemo cake!

Besides baking, what was involved in starting up your business? Do you plan to have a storefront?
If I knew all the paper work needed to set up a cake business Im not sure I’d have done it!!! I had to go on a THRILLING 2 day food and hygiene course, get my kitchen inspected my environmental Health, register with the council, register with the tax office, get new home insurance, get public liability insurance, buy MASSES of equipment – I cant close any cupboards in my house! Then there’s choosing a name…designing a logo, designing business cards, buying a website domain, designing a website (all of these were done by the amazing I am Magpie who was a total life saver!), getting a business bank account, business paypal…..YAWN!

What advice would you give to someone looking to start a baking business in their town?
Do it! You will feel fantastic BUT you will be SUPER poor!!! Apparently no new business makes a profit in the first year so have fun living on NOTHING and having everyone thinking you’re loaded! Price ALL your cakes and include things like electricity/water/gas/kitchen cleaner/clothes/washing up liquid…and YOUR TIME!!!

What do you like to do when you’re not making cakes?
I pretty much make cakes for 19 ish hours a day but when I do get a spare minute Im out skating and playing roller derby with the Dorset Roller Girls. I also stalk Bon Jovi whenever I can…SWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!

Thanks, Hannah!

Buffy Tuesday: Lauren

This is the final Buffy Tuesday of MoFo! Though I have plans to continue it somewhat regularly after MoFo.
Get this: I finished Buffy two nights ago. I’m really sad. Though I did start watching Angel yesterday so we shall see how I’m feeling soon. Now how did I finish all seven seasons of Buffy in the past month and a half, go to school full time, do homework and photoshoots, work on new recipes, do MoFo on both my blogs, and every once in a while have a social life on weekends? That’s all I do these days! Life is very exciting. But one day when I was bored in class I figured out that all the episodes of Buffy are about 96 hours total of watching time. See, I could’ve done it in four days if I really wanted!

But without further ado, I present you with Lauren! We go way back on the internet, but we finally met in person this summer in Seattle on the way to Vida Vegan Con. We ate every deep fried food presented to us and discovered the magic of chia seed kombucha (then later found out we’re somewhat alone with this chia seed kombucha magic)! Lauren is originally from Nebraska and just recently moved to Denver. You can find her on her blog, Whoa Wren, and Twitter!

How does the vegan scene differ from Omaha to Denver?
I can get a fancy vegan cheese platter here! Honestly, I haven’t found the scene to be that much different, just on a slightly larger scale, which comes with living in a bigger city. There are also more food trucks here, which is fun.

Name your Buffy favorites: season, episodes, main and secondary characters, quotes.
People are going to shun me for saying this, but I love season four! The overall story arc is pretty terrible, but my favorite episodes are almost entirely contained within this season. I’d also like to take this moment to say that Riley Finn was Buffy’s best boyfriend. My favorite season four episode would either be “Beer Bad” or “Hush”. Favorite non-season four episodes include “I Only Have Eyes For You”, “Fool For Love” and “Gone” because I got my hair cut like that after I saw that episode. Also, “Once More, With Feeling” is magical. Favorite characters include Giles/Ripper, Faith and the anonymous vampire who wears a Hanson shirt in season six.

Favorite quote? “That’ll put marzipan in your pie plate, bingo!”- Buffy Bot, Season 6

If you were to create a four-course (or as many courses as you want!) Buffy-themed dinner party, what would be on the menu?
Forget a dinner party, let’s talk about making a vegan version of the Doublemeat Palace. Vegan burgers, fries, shakes and a little toy monster with every meal. How could anyone refuse?

What are your top five restaurant meals and desserts anywhere in the country?
Hmmmm, those would be City O City’s seitan wings, Watercourse’s vegan cheese plate (both in Denver), Matsu Sushi’s tofu yasai maki (Omaha), Glacier Confections vegan selections (Tulsa), and Chipotle’s veggie burrito. I think I’ve talked about everything but Chipotle.

Veganize some Buffy episodes (example: Bad Egg Replacers)!
I have no idea! This question is hard. I will send you a picture of my cat instead, okay?

What are your favorite ways to spend your free time?
Either with my cat, on the PPK, or running. I also watch “The Vampire Diaries” to fill the Buffy void in my life.

There are chia seed kombucha naysayers! Blasphemy! Tell us about this lovely product and why everyone should try it.
You will giggle the whole time you are drinking it and isn’t the fact that bottled joy exists in the form of chia seed kombucha magical?

Thanks, Lauren!

midwest monday: lindsay!

today’s interviewee is lindsay of vegan chai! i knew lindsay from the PPK way back when, then we met in milwaukee and didn’t know we already knew each other! since then, we’ve been to meetups, bake sales, vida vegan con, and regular get togethers with our little circle of vegan friends. lindsay also loves lowercase letters, so no uppercase letters allowed in this post!

what are your top five favorite meals and spots for vegan food in milwaukee?
oooh, leading off with a tough one! let’s put it this way: i love to eat, and i love to eat out, so this is a little like sophie’s choice. i think i can name my five favorite places, but i don’t think i could really narrow it to five specific meals. how about i cheat and name the places, then list a few things i love at each spot?

1. comet cafe probably gets top billing–i always joke that we should have our own booth! if i’m there before 3pm i almost certainly will order breakfast (either the breakfast burrito or the pancakes), and if i’m there for dinner i’ve been relying on the vegan version of the big luck burger these days (oh! but i also adore the open-faced meatloaf sandwich). and: cupcakes. always. i can never leave comet without feeling positively stuffed to the brim.

2. beans & barley, my first love and definitely an enduring one. my tried & true favorite is the black bean burrito and a cup of soup (every vegan soup they make is delicious; i have never been disappointed), and my newly-discovered gem is the TLT with vegenaise & avocado. and if they’re serving chocolate peanut butter cake or red velvet cake that day, i’m definitely ordering dessert.

3. riverwest coop cafe, tiny and humble and amazingly delicious. due to its diminutive size, i’d say 95% of the time we get our food to go and eat at home, so this is our top spot when we want take-out. for breakfast it’s hard to tear me away from the breakfast muffin, but i just tried their biscuits & gravy this weekend and was blown away! for dinner i usually get the garden & trees sandwich, and if there’s mac & trees in the deli case, i can’t resist.

4. classic slice, our vegan pizza salvation. i know there are other places that serve vegan pizza in milwaukee, but this is definitely the best as far as i’m concerned. and now that they offer vegan slices at the north avenue location, i’m in heaven (plus, we’re in their delivery area! woo!). my favorite off-the-menu slice is the anne curry (minus mushrooms, plus vegan cheese), and i also love their breadsticks.

5. taj mahal, where samosas + chana masala = love. this is a bit of a drive for me, but i will gladly make the trek any day of the week. i usually go for lunch and eat from the buffet, and i love everything but i really could make a meal out of just the samosas, the chana masala, and some rice. seriously, theirs is the best ever.

how did you get involved with the milwaukee vegan meetup group and what is your role?
i originally got involved way back when, before we advertised on meetup, when a local group (citizens united for animals) was doing monthly lunches with alliance for animals-milwaukee (now vive), and right when i started attending, my good friend dave (who runs the chicago vegan meetup) offered to help us get started on the meetup site so that we could reach a wider audience. kim fisher-isaacs from CUFA is still the fearless leader of our monthly events–she picks the places, coordinates with the managers/chefs, and all that important stuff–i just help out on the “post it online” side of things. as i always say when i meet someone new at a meetup, “i’m the one who sends all the emails.” we’ve been on the meetup site now for nearly five years, and we have over 300 members… although as probably most meetup organizers would tell you, significantly fewer members actually attend any given event! still, it’s been a great way to meet local vegans that you maybe wouldn’t bump into otherwise.

what kind of vegan options would you like to see in milwaukee that we don’t currently have?
i have to say, i’m pretty impressed with the options we have–especially on the east side, where i’m lucky enough to reside–but if i were making a wish list i’d say: mac & cheese pizza (i want in on that action!), more widespread vegan ice cream (although i love babe’s & cold spoons, in this town where you practically trip over frozen custard stands everywhere you go, it’d be great to see more vegan options in that department), and a local franchise of gracias madre. <3 i can definitely get behind that idea!

what is your typical week of cooking and eating out like?
i am lucky enough to be married to a spectacular cook, so my typical week of cooking consists of watching erik make delicious things and then hand them to me. it’s a rough life. we eat relatively simply at home most of the time–we have sort of funny schedules and regularly eat dinner at 10pm or even later, and we probably eat mexican food over half the time (black bean & avocado burritos are my favorite). the rest is breakfast for dinner (pancakes & tempeh bacon, or tofu scramble, that sort of thing), comfort food, or whatever we happen to be in the mood for… as for eating out, we go in cycles but we probably eat out a few times a week. we’ll look for any excuse to go out for lunch or dinner; it’s a sickness.

what is vive and how can people get involved?
vive (vegan interest, vegan education) is a group that is based at the university of wisconsin-milwaukee. i’m the faculty advisor for the group, but it’s really run by students. it used to be called alliance for animals-milwaukee (so as not to confuse it with the group of the same name in madison), but we changed the name a few years ago in order to: (a) totally clear up that confusion, and (b) make our focus on vegan outreach more explicit. depending on who’s involved and what they’re most interested in, we engage in a variety of outreach activities, including bake sales, tabling, movie screenings, potlucks, public Q&A sessions, and so on. although it’s a campus-based organization, anyone who is interested in animal rights and vegan outreach is welcome, and we have a facebook page, a twitter account, and an email list to keep in touch with everyone. we recently went through a total change in leadership, so we’re still in the getting-organized stage of the semester, but we’re hoping to have our first fall meeting very soon! if people would like to get involved they can email vivemilwaukee at gmail.com and ask to be added to the email list, and/or they can follow us on twitter at @vivemilwaukee or find us on facebook here.

how has the vegan community and food options in milwaukee changed over the past 5 years?
i think that both the community and our options have been growing steadily, which is just amazing and it makes me really happy. while we don’t have a surplus of vegan-only (or even vegetarian-only) restaurants, we definitely are seeing more restaurants with vegan options on the menu. we’ve also got impressive people like steph running the milwaukee vegan bake sales twice a year, colleen creating the vegan milwaukee site, and jess working on her kickstarter to get an oven (for vegan deliciousness!) at brewing grounds for change–these are all new developments in just the past two years or less! i definitely think veganism in milwaukee is growing, and its presence is being acknowledged. milwaukee is the new vegan mecca; you heard it here first.

[head over here to donate to the compassionate cake/brewing grounds vegan bakery kickstarter that lindsay mentioned above!]

what do you like to do in your spare time?
honestly, i am the very picture of unexciting in my spare time. now and again i get to hang out with my vegan ladyfriends, which is always welcomed and always a total blast, but pretty often if i find myself with spare time, i park it on the couch and watch my embarrassingly hefty DVR backlog, or attempt to read the entire internet. i also volunteer at the wisconsin humane society every monday: i start off with the kitties and finish up with the pups, and i really love it.

thanks, lindsay!

Interview with Chris and Crystal of Food For Lovers

Today’s interview is with Chris and Crystal, the founders of Food For Lovers and delicious vegan queso! I was lucky enough to meet them at Vida Vegan Con over the summer and receive a jar of queso in the swag bag. It survived the plane ride back and I ate the whole thing within a few days of getting home! Then Lindsay told me that we can get the queso at our Whole Foods in Milwaukee!

FFL queso is creamy, spicy, and full of wonderful flavor. And now I’m getting really hungry (that’s what I get for blogging about food during class!). Let’s talk to Chris and Crystal!

First off, you two are super wonderful and adorable! How did you meet?
Thank you! We go way back. We’ve known eachother since the age of 13. Chris played guitar in a few bands and I usually did vocals for these bands. We’ve always been friends. It makes working together (and being married) constant fun.

How did you decide on the name Food For Lovers?
Since the recipe started on my blog, and really exploded thanks to The PPK; we decided to ask The PPK forums for their help finding a business name. There were so many amazing suggestions. In the end, “Food for Lovers” was straight forward and fit. We care about animals, our health, the environment and delicious food. A person who eats our queso probably feels the same way we do.

What are your favorite dishes to make with your queso?
Simple food! We like to fill a tortilla with fresh, in-season tomatoes, lots of cracked black pepper and our queso. We eat our queso over tofu scramble, or in a taco salad.

My favorite is the way my dad makes it. He takes a halved, pitted avocado and grills it. Then, he fills the avocado with hot queso and pico de gallo. You can add chopped seitan chorizo or other vegetables.

What was the process of getting the queso sold in stores? Where can we find it?
We started selling it to a local vegeterian cafe in south Austin called Bouldin Creek Cafe. They have a famous tofu scramble. They make incredible vegan food. Bouldin sold several gallons a week, totaling 300 gallons in our first year, off the menu. We spent a few years just focused on selling it to Bouldin Creek. We met with Whole Foods, and they ate the entire jar of our queso in the very first meeting. That was May/June 2010. We were supposed to be on the shelf that next month. However; our first manufacturer basically wasted our time and money. We had to find a new manufacturing facility right away. Luckily we did, and we love it so much. The delay set us back and we didn’t hit Whole Foods shelves until December. It was worth the wait because our facility is amazing! Our queso is slow cooked in small batches and hand-stirred. We make our queso the same way we used to; only now, we make more.

You can find our locations page here.

How has social networking and meeting other vegans played a role in getting the queso out there?
Our vegan friends have helped us so much. We know that a huge part of our product’s success is thanks to The PPK, the local Austin vegan group (Vegans Rock Austin!), our friends, family and Bouldin Creek. Community is really important to us. As vegans ourselves, we still get really excited when Tofurky has a giveaway or Amy’s posts coupons. Social networking is the best way for us to stay in touch with our favorite friends/companies.

What has been the most rewarding part of starting your business and what opportunities have arisen from it?
When we’re having a tough day, we imagine one person in the grocery store buying our queso instead of dairy queso. Our product is helping to decrease the demand of animal products on the shelves of grocery stores. That’s easily the most rewarding part of owning a vegan food company. Using your skills, to help animals in any way, is our definition of bliss. A highlight for us was being a sponsor at Vida Vegan Con. Everyone present was a huge part of our company’s growth. For us, it all started on The PPK. We had the opportunity to thank everyone individually, especially Isa and Terry. That’s something we’ll always treasure.

How do you like to spend your time when you’re not making queso?
Chris and I still love to make music, but we haven’t had much time for it. Chris develops iPad apps, Android apps, console apps for PS3, Wii and PSP. He just made randomofo.com (a generator of MoFo participating blogs). He made veganstockphoto.com this year, too. We both work from home. He wears the development hat and the business owner hat. I’m next to him juggling a few hats of my own, along with running the business. Sometimes, it’s difficult to turn off work-mode. We spend any free time with our pups. We’re lucky enough to share our lives with two long coat chihuahuas, Charlie & Betsey. They’re vegan, too. We’d do anything for those little ones. It reminds us every day how precious animals are, and to keep working
towards a vegan world.

Thank you Chris and Crystal!

University Thursday: Quinn

Today’s interviewee is Quinn, aka TheAmazonProject on the PPK! He just moved to Chicago from Massachusetts to go to Northwestern! Quinn tells all about the dorm life vegan food situation and what an extreme ice cream food coma feels like. This was shortly after we devoured a combined 9 cups of Chicago Soydairy’s Temptation ice cream at an all you can eat ice cream social! See?

Photo by Brian D

The flavors we ate were pumpkin, chocolate, cookie dough, dreamsicle, and blueberry. Sorry for the lack of ice cream photos, but I think the empty cups speak volumes.
I got Quinn to do a video interview, so here he is!

No more ice cream.

Vegan Baker Wednesday: Jojo of Operation Icing

Today’s vegan baker is Jojo of the non-profit bakery Operation Icing, based in Brighton, UK! She’s been baking up delicious treats and donating 100% of profits to charities. And how inspired is this?: SPECULOOS CUPCAKE! OMG!

Keep updated with Jojo by following Operation Icing on Twitter. Now to the questions!

How long have you been vegan, and how did you become passionate about baking?
I’ve been vegan for around five and a half years and was vegetarian for around 2 or 3 years before that. I’d never actually tried to bake anything before going vegan, in fact, I wasn’t even particularly interested in food! As soon as I went vegan I realised that I couldn’t just rely on pre-packaged food anymore so I bought a cookbook & learnt to make some stuff. After a year or so without baked goods I stumbled across Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World in a bookshop, snapped it up & got baking! Those were the first cupcakes I’d ever baked & I fell in love with baking… not just making the cupcakes but also how excited friends would be when I took them cake, it also seemed like a great way to show people that veganism’s fun & easy!

Operation Icing is not for profit, which is so awesome! How did you make that decision, and what charities have you been working with?
I came to the decision to make the business not for profit when I was organising Brighton’s first vegan bake sale back in May. I realised that I was so much more motivated when I was trying to raise money for charity so I decided that was the way to go. I regularly donate money to Sea Shepherd, The Monkey Sanctuary & the East Sussex Wildlife Rescue & Ambulance Service. I also donate cupcakes to one off events like the tea & cake fundraiser organised by The Poppy Project who provide support & accommodation to women who have been trafficked into prostitution in the UK.

What kinds of baked goods do you make? What is your favorite or the most popular?
For Operation Icing I make cupcakes & brownies at the moment. I would love to be able to do layer cakes but I only have a tiny gas oven so it’s not really viable! I have plans to start selling cookies once I discover the perfect recipe & once that’s sorted I hope to get an Etsy store up & running. My favourite cupcake to make is a vanilla cupcake topped with vanilla / raspberry swirl icing & a mini donut which was inspired by a picture I saw on your blog! My favourite cupcake to eat would have to be my simple vanilla cake topped with pistachio icing, yum!

Is it just you baking right now? Do you have any plans to call for volunteers?
It is just me baking, I have a tiny kitchen so unless I move to larger premises there just isn’t room for someone to work alongside me.

How does Operation Icing function right now? Any plans to open a storefront in the future?
At the moment I run Operation Icing from my house, I had my kitchen certified by the local environmental health people which was surprisingly easy because I don’t bake with anything that could give anyone salmonella! I don’t have plans to open a store front, it would be really awesome but the rents in Brighton are too high for a not-for profit business to work. I have been actively encouraging the lovely Ms Cupcake (who recently opened her bakery in Brixton, London) to come to Brighton & open a store though, I love her sweet treats & Brighton does need a vegan bakery storefront.

What do you do when you’re not baking up yummy treats?
As you can tell by the name of my company I love punk music – the name was inspired by the band Operation Ivy – so I go to quite a lot of shows, spend a lot of time listening to music & I’m also learning to play drums with my shitty band. I try to get involved with local activism as much as possible, this weekend I’m helping to cook lunch at a Sunday Roast Fundraiser for Sea Shepherd. I also write my blog vegan.in.brighton, spend far too much time on Pinterest & travel as much as I can.

Thanks, Jojo! This concludes another Vegan Baker Wednesday filled with delicious treats!