Friday, September 25, 2009

Vegan Bath-tastic

I love bath products and the Vegan Etsy Team is a great source for getting clean the cruelty free way! Bath goodies also make great holiday gifts (the holidays are creeping up!) Here are some of my favorite picks:













Monday, September 21, 2009

Nature's Bounty.

Well, here it is, the last day of summer. It was an odd season this year here in New York; it took forever to get really warm, and then when it did it passed very quickly. I myself didn't manage to do any summery things - didn't get down to Coney Island, or go swimming or bike riding or have a bar-b-q. But I did get to enjoy the wonderful fruits and vegetables of summer, thanks to my landlady.

Mrs. R is 80 years old and as full of moxy as ever, and keeps the entire backyard of our little duplex as a vegetable garden. From it over the past three months has sprung more raddiccio and arugula than you can shake a stick at, not to mention some mighty fine tomatoes and cucumbers. With these we cooked, garnished sandwiches, and enjoyed them on their lonesome in simple salads dressed only with salt, pepper, fine olive oil, and lemon juice.

But the real jewel of it all has been the figs, from the tree that her relatives brought over from Europe as a wee sapling, that has now grown up into a 15 foot tall beauty. Until she began to bring them to us by the plateful, I had never had fresh figs before - only dry. What a surprise!They have a flavor and texture all their own, not at all that comparable to any other fruit I've tasted. The flesh and skin are so delicate that they are impossible to ship or store - this is why you never see them in the grocery. It's also why you can eat the entire fruit, skin and all, right up to the stem.

There is nothing more nourishing and satisfying than food grown in your own backyard. I hope that one day, when I have a backyard to call my own, I'll remember it and have such a beautiful garden as this one!

Until next Monday,

hearts,
Melissa Bastian

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Interview-Dkany

Todays Interview is with Dkany

What kinds of items do you sell in your shop and what inspired you to start
creating them?


I started making jewelry with animal rights messages 2 years ago. I was sick of wearing message T- Shirts . I wanted something pretty, but felt guilty not sending the Vegan message out everyday. I started looking at craft sites for different ideas, bought books on how to make jewelry, and started from there. I made my first Vegan necklace and wore it to work. I am a registered nurse, and while I was caring for a patient she asked, "What does Vegan mean?" I was wondering how she knew I am Vegan, then remembered about my necklace. I then proceeded to educate her on Veganism. I realized that jewelry is a great way to spread the Vegan message all the time and to be fashionable doing it.

How long have you been a member of Etsy?

I have been on Etsy since 2007, and YES I am an addict. Whenever I need or want something I always check Etsy first. I love the craft supplies on Etsy... oh, its so addicting. I love to surf around Etsy and get inspired by all the super talented people in the world.

Do you sell your items outside of etsy, either online or in retail shops?

Etsy is my only online store. I also attend animal rights conferences to promote my sanctuary and sell jewelry. I sell tons of stuff at the conferences.


What kinds of hobbies and interests do you have?
Do you have any animal companions?


I always dreamed of starting an animal sanctuary, and my dream has come true. I am the president of For the Animals Sanctuary, a not-for-profit organization. We have Herbie and Kevina, our bovines, eight goats, two roosters, two hens, six dogs, and nine cats. We have eight acres of land, and lots of love for our babies.

Herbie, our steer, is famous. He jumped off of a slaughter truck in December of 2006, and his escape was on CBS News (watch it on our sanctuary website). I found out that Woodstock Farm Animal sanctuary (WFAS) was rescuing him and needed help finding him a home. We adopted Herbie, and then WFAS told me about Kevina. On December 16th, she was born on a dairy farm, who thought she was a boy- a male bovine's fate is either veal or death. They were drowning the baby boys that day, but lucky for Kevina, she was saved by a worker at the farm. We thought Kevina was a boy, too, so we named her Kevin (namesake of Kevin Kjonaas). The farm thought the umbilical cord was a penis- DUH- so Kevin became Kevina! :)
Herbie and Kevina will be celebrating their one-year wedding anniversary on May 31st. Yes, they got married, and they LOVE each other very much (watch the videos).

Do you have any websites besides your shop that you would like to tell us
about?
Oh yes my sanctuary website www.fortheanimalssanctuary.org

How long have you been vegan and what made you go vegan?

I have been Vegan for 6 years, and before that I was a Vegetarian for 20 years. Veganism is my life. When I was Vegetarian, I thought I was really saving animals, and then I read about the milk and egg industry. I realized I was supporting an industry that tortures and murders Animals. It was like a light switch that flipped on, and at that moment I went Vegan.


What do vegans eat anyway? What is your favorite Vegan food?

I make a killer Vegan potpie. The pot pie is made with crescent roll crust and filled with Morning Star Farm's crumbles mixed with brown gravy, mushrooms, Tofutti sour cream, and potatoes. Its super yummy.

I LOVE Veganaise, Campbell's and mushroom gravy. I love to tweak recipes and make them Vegan. I love making fruit pies. I love to make Rhubarb and strawberry pie that's so easy- you just need a frozen Vegan pie-crust, fruit, sugar, and instant tapioca. The recipe is on the back of the instant tapioca box. You will be amazed!

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Welcome Alfredo!

This week we have a new member: Alfredo! Please take the time to go check out their store and heart them!

Friday, September 18, 2009

It's coming...

Halloween is almost here (of course, I start saying that in August) and the Vegan Etsy team is a great place to stock up on all sorts of Spooky Goodies! Here are some of my faves:


Halloween Vegan Lip Sauce by Kenny Coop - I actually ordered a set for myself and I love it, it's very moisturizing and the scents are nice and subtle.







Handmade Vegan Candy Corn by Sweet Fritsy - Want Want Want!!!!





Halloween Fabric Patchwork Ball by Crafty Panties - so cute!





Ghost Stores by My Zoetrope - so adorable.






And from my own shop, Vegancraftastic, Candy Corn Babies - a different kind of vegan candy corn :)







-Kala (Vegancraftastic)

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

It's All In The Bag- Holiday Promotion at It's Finest


The sample bags are quickly filling and looking AMAZING for this holiday season. We are still taking handmade artisans for our holiday bag, and would love to have more Vegan Etsy Team Members!

What is It's All In The Bag?

We help promote handmade artisans by collecting samples of their work and placing them into handmade reusable totes and selling them worldwide. 100% of the profits from these bags go to an animal sanctuary, which I am still decided whether to have a vote on, or just go with Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary again. (all ideas will be considered!)


It's All In The Bag- Vegan Craft Samples

Our Blog, where we review many of the contributors and other etsy shops!

Our Etsy

Our Facebook, please be our fan, we love fans, we are pretty much rockstars!

Our Myspace

Monday, September 14, 2009

It's almost cool enough to bake...

And when it's cool enough to bake, I think of cupcakes!

Thus, here is my fave recipe for red velvet cupcakes - stolen and slightly tweaked from "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World". If you're a vegan cupcake lover - and you should be - this book is a necessity.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup soy milk or almond milk (I prefer almond)
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup canola or other mild flavored veg oil
2 tablespoons red food coloring (that's a whole big bottle!)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon chocolate extract

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 F and put cupcake liners in muffin/cupcake pans.
2. Whisk together the soy (or almond) milk and vinegar and set aside to curdle. (seems weird, right? but it actually does curdle, and this takes the place of buttermilk in the traditional recipe.)
3. Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl and mix.
4. Add the oil, food coloring, chocolate extract, and almond extract to the curdled soy milk. (I'm usually all for adding extra extract, but be careful with almond - it's powerful stuff! Also, if you can't find real chocolate extract sub with more vanilla and measure generously with your cocoa.) Whisk well to combine.
5. Gently fold wet ingredients into dry, mixing until large lumps disappear.
6. Fill cupcake liners about two thirds full (I use a quarter cup measure to do this - it works out just about right. they really do rise a lot!). Place in hot oven and bake 18 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool COMPLETELY before frosting.

For the icing, I use a vegan variation of my mom's buttercream. You're just gonna dump all of this into a good sturdy bowl and go at it with a hand mixer - it's super easy. It's one stick of softened (not melted) margarine - Fleischman's unsalted is vegan - to three cups powdered sugar. Add two teaspoons of whatever extract you want; there's classic vanilla, and I love to do one vanilla and then one something else like peppermint, lemon, orange, rum, whatever. (You can add food coloring to it too of course to make it pretty.) You'll need a little liquid - any "milk" will do, I use almond - start with 1/8 of a cup and keep adding by splashes as you mix until you've reached the consistency you want. You can also add a bit more liquid and add some cocoa to make a chocolate icing. Just play with it! Icing is fun.

Now for the cupcake porn! A gallery of cupcakes past...

The red velvets I made in my mother-in-law-to-be's kitchen for Christmas 2007.




Gingerbread cupcakes...















with Halloween flare, for the office.





















I made these for my own birthday the other year, which isn't nearly as depressing as it sounds: more ginger. Or were they? These may have had the rum frosting, and I can't remember what cake I paired that with.















And yes, more red velvet, made for A winter holiday bash. Pink! With silver dragees! They were so shiny. If you were there, you probably drank a martini or three. We had a fairly dazzling array of vegan foodstuffs, and I will never stop mourning the fact that I didn't manage to photograph any of it. Maybe one day I'll tell you about it, and then you'll go to bed with visions of individual mini-lasagnas dancing in your head...

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Mbember Interview-The Awesomest Possum

Todays interview is with The Awesomest Possum




How did you choose the name of your shop and how long have you been a member of
Etsy?

I joined Etsy at the beginning of July 2009, after a month or so of lurking on etsy, planning, and crafting. At the time, my husband, Brian, and I were in a phase of calling each other the awesomest, the possumest, or the awesomest possum when we appreciated something the other had done ("Thanks, you're the possumest!"), so it has a cute personal significance. Also, I find possums really amusing animals because of how oblivious and overwhelmed they always seem to be (maybe I identify with them a bit...). And as an added bonus, it sounds catchy! :)




What kinds of items do you sell in your shop and what inspired you to start
creating them?


I sell jewelry involving beads, chain, and wire wrapping. I began creating jewelry last year when, as a new member of my bellydance troupe, I needed to make myself a performance costume (I included a pic of me, with my friend/troupemate Tripta in the background, dancing at an outdoor arts festival to show the results). The more time I spent finding yarn, chains, charms, etc. to adorn my costume with and planning how it all would look, the more I grew to love finding unique ways to combine textures and colors in jewelry materials. So I pretty much decided to teach myself how to make jewelry. It was just for me and gifts for friends/family for awhile, but I grew to really, really love designing jewelry and always wanted to try new things. I and my friends couldn't wear it all, and I couldn't reasonably justify buying so many supplies and making so much stuff without trying to make the hobby just a little self-supporting, so I decided to try selling some of my work.

I should also note that I've been a PhD student in the process of writing a dissertation for the whole time I've been making jewelry. Based on conversations I've had with friends, I've come to believe that everybody acquires at least one new hobby while writing a diss. I'm not sure if it's procrastination or just a desperate need to have something in your life that regularly produces a finished product, when everything else is constantly in process. :)




Do you donate to any charities or do any volunteer work?



I recently became a member of EFA Artists Helping Animals, so I donate a percentage of my sales to the team charity of the month. My husband and I like to donate to animal charities when we have the opportunity and funds to do so--these have included the Humane Society and local animal rescues here in Champaign, IL, and in Phoenix, AZ, where we're originally from. I also work at our local food co-op (I get a discount, so it's not strictly volunteer, but close) as a vegan baker; I make cookies, scones, and frozen pizza dough for the store to sell. Our deli manager is vegan too, so a lot of the food we make and sell in-store is vegan. It's been great showing co-op shoppers how tasty veganism can be!

What are some of your favorite things about etsy?



More than anything, I love the community! I've befriended some really nice people in my teams (Veganetsy, Etsyveg, EFA, and CFE) and also just through forums and shopping. There are so many incredibly helpful and kind people on etsy--and not to mention extremely talented! The teams, especially, are such a great way to meet people who share interests--everyone I meet in Veganetsy pretty much automatically shares my interest in crafting, diy/handmade/local stuff, animals, and veganism! Woohoo!

Also, of course, I love the opportunity to share my work and see the amazing stuff others are doing. I'm fast coming to prefer Etsy to other shopping venues for a variety of things; I've switched to using all mineral makeup with the guidance of the Etsy seller I buy it from, and the monsters I got from Lisa at pandawithcookie easily kicked the ass of any other baby shower gift I've ever bought! ;)




Do you have any animal companions?



My husband and I have three cats and two birds. (Yes, there is some delicate juggling that goes on to make sure everyone gets frequent chances to roam the house freely!) Our parakeet, Spud, is 34 adorable grams of fun and mischief, and I'm very thankful to my husband for all his hard work in hand-training her so we can hold, pet, and play with her. Our white-front Amazon parrot, Patty, is a rescue; she's 20 but they can easily live to be 60 or more! Our cats are all recent additions to the household; after our beloved original kitty, Priscilla, passed away, we just had birds for a little while, but one day on a birdy checkup at the vet we were introduced to Bill, who had been found abandoned and injured outside and brought to our vet. He was on the mend, friendly, and adorable, and he had nowhere to go...so, he became ours. We quickly realized that he needed a friend, since he's young (estimated at about a year old) and we weren't quite fitting the bill as run-around-and-roughhouse buddies for him. We went to the Humane Society and found Pete, who seemed to be an exact personality twin to Bill, and we were about ready to go put in an application for him when over walked Monkey--14, tailless, offering purr and headbutts and all sorts of senior kitty fabulosity. So he came home too. :) All three of them adore each other--we couldn't be happier about how it worked out.




How long have you been vegan and what made you go vegan?



I was raised vegetarian, my parents having gone veggie a couple years before I was born, for ethical and health reasons. My husband became vegetarian while we were dating. A couple years after we were married, we made the decision together to go vegan. As we learned more and more about the horrors of commercial egg and milk production, we realized that, if we were vegetarian largely because we were opposed to the unnecessary cruelty and suffering caused by eating meat, then we needed to go all the way vegan because the treatment of dairy cows and egg-laying hens was at least as bad if not worse.




Do you have any favorite vegan things, like books, websites, stores, etc.?

I am an avid cook and baker, so I love vegan cookbooks. My first vegan cookbook, and still one of my favorites, was The Uncheese Cookbook by Joanne Stepaniak. It's great for making vegan versions of staples like sour cream, and it's the source of my favorite vegan quiche and cheesecake recipes. My very favorite cookbook author is Isa Chandra Moskowitz, of Vegan with a Vengeance and Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World fame. I have all her cookbooks and find her to be just outstanding when it comes to accessible vegan cooking; her recipes are made from affordable and easy-to-find ingredients, and they all come out delicious enough to impress even meat eaters. For someone who likes cooking for others and isn't rolling in money, it's nice to be able to afford to make stuff and not have it scream "THIS IS VEGAN HEALTH FOOD!" to people I share it with. :) I also love VegWeb for recipes.

Since I live a little over 2 hours from Chicago, my favorite vegan destinations are the Chicago Diner (omg peanut butter cookie dough milkshake) and Veggie Bite (omg chili cheese fries). We also have an awesome little vegan restaurant on the UIUC campus called the Red Herring and a local vegan Meetup group, and I love my food co-op (Common Ground) for vegan ingredients.



What are your favorite foods?

As the above clearly proves, I am obsessed with food, so this is a very hard question. Aside from the aforementioned milkshake and fries, many of my favorite foods are homemade. Things I especially love to make and eat include red and green salsa, marinara sauce, alfredo sauce, ice cream, and layer cake. And I love to talk food and swap recipes!



Is there anything else you would like to add or share?

I love, love, love the veganetsy team. I would like to make everyone in the world vegan, but in the meantime, it's great to have this community of talented vegans who are also just incredibly good people. Big hugs to all! :D