It's so hard to say good bye to Kit-tays

A couple of weeks ago while trapping feral cats for TNR (Trap-Neuter-Return), my friends and I found a sweet young little female kitty just hanging out in the breezeway of an apartment building. She definitely wasn't feral, but she wasn't spayed either and acted like she was in heat, so we grabbed her up and took her into the clinic with the rest of the kitties for a spay, rabies shot, etc.

After all the kitties recovered from their surgeries and were ready to be released back out to live their little feral kitty lives, without the ability to reproduce of course, I began to wonder what this friendly kittys story was, did she have a home?, was anyone looking for her?, etc... so I brought her up to the building where I found her and started talking to all the neighbors. They all knew about the sweet kitty and told me that she lived in the down stairs apartment until a few days ago when her family put her outside with a bowl of food and water and then they moved away, leaving her there alone and homeless.

I began to get really stressed out not knowing what to do, I couldn't just toss her back out, she wasn't feral, she was a inside kitty until a few days ago and she likely wouldn't make it out there now that her food bowl was empty, and she has no street smarts. But the last thing I needed was to bring home another cat that may be hard to adopt out since she isn't a kitten. Because I'm sure you know how people like adopting brand new shiny kittens and puppies. All while the shelters are busting at the seems with sweet loving adult cats that are meeting their early undeserved deaths due to the billions of excuses people make for dumping them... don't get me started on that. I wasn't going to let her die in vain, so she came home with me.

Luckily a friend of mine decided that it was time for him to adopt a cat, and he inquired about her. Yay! So he is coming over today to meet her and hopefully he loves her as much as I do, and decides to become her new Daddy. Then comes the hard part... saying good bye... :( I've really become attached to her in the last few weeks, and it's going to be hard to see her go. I'm going to miss her running around and playing like a silly kitty, laying with me, purring, and making some good old kitty biscuits on the soft blankets. It's been allot of fun and I'm glad I met her. I know she is going to a good home where she will be loved greatly, but I will still miss her very much.

I love you silly kitty!

 hehe. This is my BF, Loukas sleeping with her. <3

I'm going to really miss you silly kitty. I hope you have the best new life ever, and I hope to be able to visit you. Until we meet again... <3

Fun with Cupcakes - Easter 2011

I'm a sucker for Easter and all the pretty pastel colors it brings, it's the perfect time for making cupcakes. This year I experimented with two different kinds. The first one I like to call the "Easter Bunny Surprise" cupcake. It is a vanilla cupcake colored green like grass with vegan jelly beans hidden in the center. I chose to put them in after they baked so that they would come pouring out when you bite in, like the Easter Bunny hid them there for you to find. :) This cupcake is topped with yellow butter cream frosting, sand sugar, a cotton candy "bunny tail" fluff, and a lone jelly bean. They were really fun to make and even more fun to watch people eat.

Next up I took inspiration from Bake It In a Cake (which is a super fun website), and made some Fruity Pebble cupcakes. I made the basic Golden Vanilla cupcakes from VCTOTW, but stirred in about 2 cups full of Fruity pebbles, then topped with butter cream frosting, also from VCTOTW, and dipped into more fruity pebbles.

It was a fun day in the kitchen. The only bummer was that my cotton candy bunny tails starting dissolving as soon as I put them on the cupcakes. So if you ever decide to makes these, I would recommend putting the cotton candy fluff on right before you serve them. or maybe it was the fact that it was about 95 degrees here on Easter...

Easter Bunny Surprise Cupcakes

Fruity Pebble Cupcakes

What fun things did you make this Easter?

Late Night Pizza Cravings

It's been a lazy week in the cooking department at my household due to the massive amounts of baking I did for last weekends Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale event. I made a GIANT pot spaghetti on Sunday and decided that we would live on leftovers until Wednesday. But then yesterday, I stopped by Michelle's blog, Lovin Livin Vegan, and started craving pizza. I resisted the urge for most of the day, but as soon as the clock struck midnight, it was like I was some kind of crazed Pizza Zombie, because that's all that was on my mind... PIZZA... BRAINS... PIZZA... So off to the kitchen I went.

Since I was also craving potatoes, I decided to make a potato cashew based garlic cheesy sauce instead of the traditional red sauce that I usually make. Luckily I had a few pre-made personal size pizza crusts on hand, so I didn't have to worry with spending time making crusts from scratch... I was in a hurry to feed my craving after all.

I made 2 personal size pizzas, one for me and one for Loukas. Needless to say, there were no pizza leftovers!

Recipe-(ish)

Creamy Potato Cashew Garlic Cheese Sauce

I made this up as I went along, taking inspiration from other random yummy recipes that were in my head. This recipe makes enough for about 4 personal size pizzas.

• 1 large potato cut into chunks
• 1/4 cup raw cashews, soaked for 15-30 mins (cause that's all the time I was willing to give them)
• 1/2 small onion (or more, or none, what evs.)
• 5 cloves of garlic (cause I like my garlic!)

Put the above ingredients into a small pot and boil until soft. Remove from heat, let cool for a little bit, and pour the mixture (including the liquid) into a food processor or high powered blender (I use a Blendtec), and blend until smooth. Next add any or all of the following spices and blend until you like the taste. Add a little at a time, especially the strong spices.

• 1/4 - 1/2 cup of nutritional yeast
• the juice of 1 lemon
• salt
• pepper
• garlic powder
• paprika
• a dash of cayenne (a dash will do ya.)
• a dash of nutmeg (nutmeg is overpowering, so again, a dash will do ya!)
• whatever else you like!

Pre-bake you crust(s) of choice at 475 degrees, until slightly brown so that your pizza wont be soggy. Remove from oven. Add the Creamy Sauce and veggies of choice. I used yellow squash, zucchini, tomatoes, and a sautéed chopped garlic olive oil drizzle on one; and just chopped tomatoes with the sautéed chopped garlic olive oil drizzle on the other. Put back into the oven at 400 degrees and cook until golden and bubbly. Let cool and enjoy!

Let me know if you decide to try it out, what you added, and how you liked it. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale - Tampa 2011

I'm not one for "tooting my own horn" or "patting myself on the back", but I've learned that sometimes it's good for the soul when you let yourself admit that you've done a good job, and that is definitely the case with my first Vegan Bake Sale of the year, benefiting TNR (Trap-Neuter-Return) for feral and stray cats. Of course I couldn't have done it without the help and support of some very hard working friends, volunteers from Florida Voices for Animals, and Mojo Books & Music. Thank you for helping me turn my vision into a reality, I couldn't have done it without you...THANK YOU!!! And thanks to all who came out to support this worthy cause by making donations and eating yummy baked goods.

We raised over $600 to benefit Spay/Neuter surgeries for feral cats as part of the TNR (Trap-Neuter-Return) Program. This will provide spay/neuter surgeries for up to 60 cats with the use of programs such as the monthly Spay Day at the Animal Coalition of Tampa (ACT) and Feral Cat Mondays at the Humane Society of Tampa Bay. We also raised awareness for ALL animals, and proved that vegan baked goods are even better tasting than the traditional dairy and egg filled ones.

I also want to give a BIG shout out and thank you to Danny and his crew over at Mojo Books & Music for allowing us to have a Vegan Bake Sale at their store for their Annual Record Store Day Celebration. Without Danny and all the awesome people at Mojo Books & Music, this bake sale wouldn't have been nearly as successful. They allowed us to setup inside, which is a big plus for Florida bake sales, they helped advertise it on their Facebook event page, as well as shouting cupcake inspired reminders throughout the day as the bands played. They even put the left over baked goods up at their new coffee bar, and continued to collect donations for us well into the night long after we were gone.

So the next time you are in the Tampa area, don't forget to stop in at Mojo Books & Music, located at 2558 E. Fowler Ave., Tampa, FL 33612. You can find everything from new and used CD's, records, books, DVD's, posters, t-shirts, and more. And coming soon, their new location, just a few doors down, which is bigger, better (if that's even possible), and has a coffee bar that will be stocked with vegan friendly selections. Mojo Books & Music has something for everyone, so stop in today and tell them that I sent you. :)

Now get ready to drool... here are the pictures! =D

Thanks for stopping by!