It was another kitchen marathon that involved the whole team. Sophie started out with chocolate snickerdoodles.

And passionfruit melting moments

Jim and I made these Jelly Donut Muffins, which were nearly a disaster when all the jelly melted out of the muffin butts. My then we turned them upside down, filled those holes with more jam, and sprinked with powdered sugar. Crisis averted!

Kelsey made carrot cupcakes and lemon slice.

I made caramel apple cupcakes.

And harkening back to childhood birthday parties, I went a little crazy and made Cupcake Ice Cream Cones!!!

It was a night of crazy deliciousness for a good cause.

We held a Mexican-themed dinner party fiesta! (Yup, that’s right, somebody took Advanced Placement high school Spanish!)

As our entree we served fried plantains with FOUR kinds of sauces! Behold: Guacamole, Salsa Verde, Refried Black Beans, and Tomato Salsa

Things got a little out of control when people started piling on all four sauces at once. WOAH FLAVOUR OVERLOAD!

And that was just to start. Our main course was Potato Chickpea enchiladas with Tomatillo Sauce and Pine Nut Crema, with sides of more refried black beans, salsa, and cilantro lime rice.

Not pictured are the strawberry sangria, and papaya mango lime sorbet that didn’t quite freeze in time for dessert, so the photos on that one will be forthcoming.

Not gonna lie, this was a labour-intensive meal that had our 4-person (and one dog) team in the kitchen all day. Yay team!! (Pictured: Sophie, Jim, Sharon, and Eliot the dog. Not pictured: Kelsey)

The highlight of the day may have actually been discovering Fiji Markets, on King Street (the St Peters end) which provided us with a vast array of spices and hard to come by Mexican ingredients. This pretty much guarantees that every meal we make from here on out will be Latin. Which is cool, because it gives me ample opportunity to make fun of the way Jim pronounces tomatillo. Crazy Gringo!

How do you best mark the unofficial start to summer? TOFU BURGERS!

Kelsey coated these slabs of tofu in some type of peanut-based deliciousness. And then we loaded up on lettuce, tomato, pickles, onions, beetroot and every sauce in the house. Plus some awesome sweet potato fries for added awesomeness.

Check out that sweet condiment decorating action!

Kelsey also made this summery lemon slice, because she rules at life. I won’t say whether or not we ate the lemon slice before dinner, but I will say it makes a very good entree.

The next day after inspiration struck us at Burger Fuel, Jim and I made these Pumpkin Cashew Ginger Balls (hahahaha ginger balls) with some side coleslaw. (Thanks to Cameron for the cabbage!)

Crispy on the outside, warm and soft on the inside. Some of the tastiest balls I’ve ever had in my… Ugh. Sorry, I’ll show myself out.

Sophie cooked up just about everything you see here using recipes from “Vegan Brunch”. She started with these yummy puff pastries filled with seasoned tempeh, capsicum, olives and other assorted goodness, paired with guacamole potato salad. I don’t know why I’ve never thought to combine those two foods before, but now my picnics will never be the same.

But the main attraction here is the waffles. Not just any waffles… Peanut Butter Waffles and… wait for it…

Chocolate Drizzle!

Check out that sweet drizzling action. And since that wasn’t decadent enough we also added scoops of vanilla soy ice cream. It’s also possible that walnuts and maple syrup were added at the end.

And then, because we really hadn’t had quite enough sugar, we thought, let’s end the evening with some hot chocolate.

Is it milk-based chocolate, or chocolate-based milk? YOU DECIDE! I’ll be over here enjoying my Diabetes. MORE LIKE DELICIOUS-BETES!

Feast your eyes on that glorious splendour of mushrooms! There were portobello, flat, button, enoki, and oyster. THAT IS SO MANY MUSHROOMS! It’s loosely inspired by the portobello pie recipe in La Dolce Vegan.

I’m never one to turn down a competition/challenge, especially when it’s mushroom based. So this past Wednesday I threw down, and whipped up a mushroom pie of my own! Mine is based on the Mushroom and Cauliflower Pie recipe from the Veganomicon. All you really need to know about it is that it has an olive crust.

THAT’S RIGHT I SAID “OLIVE CRUST”!

So who’s the winner? I think Jim’s wins the award for “most mushroomiest” whereas mine wins for “olive crustiest”.

Will there be more entrants in the mushroom pie contest??? I think that’s a challenge!

Here is just a sample of some of the foods we have cooked and eaten so far.

Tofu and veggies in a red coconut curry sauce.

Pasta with veggie sausage, borlotti beans, carmelised onion, olives, spinach, roasted capsicum and tomatoes.

Enchilada Casserole! With side salad.

Cous cous with chickpeas, sundried tomatoes, and more veggies. Brussel sprouts on the side.