Pot Pies and Post-It Notes

Do you ever go off on a "first week of school" tangent?  You know, that week when you buy all kinds of new gear and Lisa Frank folders and line up your neon purple and pink pens in straight little rows across the top corner of your desk?  You spend that entire first week taking notes in full sentences with careful, deliberate penmanship, marking pages with post-it notes as you go.  For an entire week, everything you do is neatly filed away behind tidy little tabs in binders.

I need that week in my life right now.

Business has been picking up, and all too soon my desk has been swallowed by a swamp monster of paperwork, receipts, clean laundry, and fancy dishes.  There is only one thing I can do at this point.  I have to go shopping.  I need a calendar with big boxes I can write in, new colorful pens, and paper clips shaped like rabbits.  How else can I possibly get anything organized?

No, seriously, come tell me to my face that I don't need bunny paper clips in order to clean my desk.  I'm all ears!

How did our house get to be such a mess?  I think what happened is we got to that point where we know we will be moving into our new house soon, so we've given up on tidying this one.  Okay, I'm definitely airing dirty laundry online and apparently also making bad puns.  Heh.  Dad jokes.  Gah, I'm such a dork!

One thing that's going well is business.  Picnic Bakery has been expanding with leaps and bounds over the past year.  And now, for the first time ever, my baked goods are available for purchase at a tea shop in Oakland.  I had the pleasure of meeting Andrea, the owner of Tea Here Now during a recent event at Kitchener Oakland.  She loved my winter vegetable pot pies and peppermint pandas and is now serving them up for lunch in her super adorable, teeny, tiny tea shop.  I'm so pleased to finally have a place to send people when they are craving a Picnic treat.   Not to mention tea.  I've already tried three of her blends and been blown away each time.  So, so good.  I hope all of my bay area readers will stop in to taste one of my pot pies:

Winter Vegetable Pot Pies & Peppermint Pandas

They feature organic locally grown produce in a rich gravy wrapped up in a buttery flaky crust.  They've been VERY well-received by both vegan and non-vegan customers thus far, which means they will definitely not disappoint.  Hop to it!

What else is new?  Oh, Valentine's Day is coming and I have designed some special treats for your Valentine.  From now until February 14th, I am making every body's favorite peppermint panda cookie in heart shape.  They will come in pairs wrapped up in red and white paper liners and tied with bows.  They are $5 a bag and will make a great Valentine's day gift for your friends, coworkers, neighbors, mother, daughter, dog walker, and lover.  Email me to order yours!

Peppermint Panda Hearts

Valentine's Day Peppermint Panda Gift Bags

Oh, and if you decide not to order pandas (or even if you do), you should come out to the SF vegan bake sale this Sunday.  In addition to two dozen peppermint pandas, it promises to have lots of other yummy goodies for sale and the proceeds go to Animal Place.  Animal Place provides refuge to hundreds of neglected farmed animals.  Animal Place's Rescue Ranch is a 60-acre adoption center, placing needy farmed animals into permanent homes.  I think that's as close as you can get to guilt-free dessert.  If you're free on Sunday, I encourage you to come eat your hearts (out)!

Thanks for reading!  XOXO

*Potpie photo courtesy of Paula Wirth / Eat Drink Oakland