Off To Portland June 24 !

New Leaf Vegan Society is going to Portland ,Oregon !   Well, at least I, Dale Ball, will be going....!

I'll be attending the upcoming Let Live Conference from June 25-the 27th...check it out !   Looks to be mostly local folks as speakers, but Portland is now such a vegan mecca,  it's  natural that it should be there.  There will be speakers coming from the East coast as well....Jasmin Singer from Our Hen House, and Gary Loewenthal of  Compassion For Animals and the World Wide Vegan Bake Sale are flying out.   I myself am coming from Northern Virginia, and am looking forward to a few days of vegan immersion.  Can't wait to visit the Vegan Mini Mall and eat at some of the vegan restaurants in the area !
This year's  conference ( the 3rd ) is...." focusing on creative activism, expanding activist skills, and building relationships in the movement and beyond".   Sounds great.
Oh, what does the stink bug in the Coreopsis have to do with anything ?   Nothing  !   I just liked his ( or her...who can tell ??? )  position on the flower in my window sill.  I set it free outside a few minutes later.   We were "visited" by hundreds and hundreds of them over the last 8 months.   It is kind of hard to get too worked up about them.   the worst they do is sometimes go off and set up a stink, but they don't destroy anything or sting or bite.   Mostly they just die.   In the window sills, behind the plants, in the plants' pot, in the cabinets, under the bed.....

Cinnamon Buns

The need to make these came as a surprise.  After all, Winter baking is behind us, and the flurry of baking for a tabling event with Jocelyn for Valley Earthfest in Berryville, Va ( see her nice coverage of that on her blog Vegan Family Values ) and a few contributions to Gary Lowenthal's World Wide Vegan Bake Sale in Falls Church ( with help from my daughter ,Libby ! ) had me up to my elbows in flour and sugar and nose buried in recipes online and in cookbooks.  I thought I'd had enough for a while.  The outside calls......tomato plants needing planting and staking and caging.  Lettuce and beets need thinning.  And  the  weeding never ends, of course.  But thoughts of  soft warm, yeasty cinnamon buns kept creeping into my brain.   Then I was at Vegan Baking.net, and saw this recipe, and figured it was meant to be !    I had a few alterations in mind, since I have a Bob's Red Mill bag of coconut flour  (a by-product of making coconut milk )  and have been curious about using it.   I ended up only using 3 Tablespoons, along with an equal extra amount of liquid ( as recommended ) because this stuff really sops up liquids !   And instead of using margarine in the dough, I used some avocado oil I had.    I also subbed half of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat pastry flour....replacing 3 tablespoons of the wwpf with the coconut flour.  I used oatmilk in place of water.    The dough was pretty soft, but boy did it rise and stay risen !  I had left out any raisins or nuts, since this was my first time using that recipe, and didnt want to waste any more ingredients than necessary ....if they didnt turn out !
The filling is great....brown sugar, maple syrup, margarine and cinnamon...mix it all up and spread it on the rolled out rectangle just before rolling up and cutting into 8-12 pieces.   Thank you Mattie, over at Veganbaking.net for continuing the research and development of vegan baked goodies !   Next up :   Mattie's fudgy brownies...he sez they are the Ultimate !