Christmas 2007: The Food
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m really starting to love cooking and baking. If you were to have asked me about that five or six years ago, I would have laughed you out of the room - I used to hate it. But some kind of strange nesting bug has hit me lately. I think the main reason for this new hobby and the source of its addictive properties is that it doesn’t happen in a vacuum. You make food for other people, and get a little high whenever they gain pleasure or enjoyment out of eating those things you’ve put hard work into. I also find the experience of making something by hand very rewarding in itself.
At any rate, J and I brought over lots of food and recipes to the family home so we could make some delicious meals for all of the holiday parties we attended. With the last life of my digital camera, I captured some images to share.
1. Work Party (sans J). This consisted of pizza ordered from the university’s catering service (meaning no option for me to order vegan). So I brought leftover Chinese food J and I had ordered from the night before, and two types of vegan cupcakes for dessert - from, you guessed it, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.
Carrot Cake and Lemony Gingersnap cupcakes: While the gingersnap ones are not as pretty to look at, they were my favourite - I loved the unique taste of gingersnap combined with the lemony icing.
The Carrot Cake was sprinkled with chopped walnuts, and had the traditionally satisfying combination of raisins and carrot interior with the vegan cream cheese icing.
Bonus: Makeshift quick lunch before heading over to the family home: Butter Beans and Feta Spiral Pasta. I used vegan tofu feta (delicious!) and rice pasta. I highly recommend it! This meal was so surprising to me - the dijon mustard combined with the carmelized red onion was such a delicious taste, and it was very easy to throw together. I will definitely make this again and again - also the tofu feta was so great. I can’t wait to make a pesto pasta salad with it sprinkled in.
2. Extended family finger-food party. At this event my extended family was gracious enough to supply delicious vegan sushi and mini-quesadillas - but after consulting with them in advance we decided to bring some other food to round out the vegan food presence.At my last birthday party, a good friend Kristen made some delicious black bean quesadillas - I was inspired to recreate them for the party, and luckily she had included the recipe in my birthday card.
Kristen’s Portobello and Red Pepper Quesadillas (+ Guacamole for dipping)serves 4
Bean Puree:
1 clove garlic
1 cup black beans
1 tsp chili pepper
Juice from 1 lime
1 cup cilantro
salt to tasteFilling:
2 large portobello mushrooms
1 red bell pepper (I used lots more for the double batch)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small red onion (I was making a double batch and used lots of extra onion)
pepper to tasteFlour Tortillas (I used whole wheat)- In a blender or food processor, blend all bean puree ingredients until smooth, add vegetable broth if liquid required. Taste and adjust seasoning.
- For filling: thinly slice mushrooms, pepper and onion, add salt, pepper and olive oil. Toss in a bowl together for even coverage. Spread in a thin layer on a baking sheet.Bake at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes.
Assembly: Spread a thin layer of puree over tortilla and top with roasted vegetables. Fold tortilla in half. Broil on low for 2 minutes, flip and broil again for 2 minutes or until lightly browned. Serve with guacamole and/or salsa.
Then make your favourite guacamole recipe for dipping! You’ll need it, the quesadillas are a little spicy. I adore guacamole and believe it to be the nectar of the gods - each time I make it it’s different. I always use a fork to mix it as opposed to a food processor so it is more chunky and textured - things I like to add are red onion, cilantro, tomatoes, cayenne pepper, and lime juice. These quesadillas turned out great - although I have to say that they tasted best straight out of the oven and weren’t as tasty when cooled down at the party.
We also made three types of cupcakes straight out of Vegan Cupcakes Take over the World. The simple vanilla agave nectar ones for my nanny who needs low sugar, the gluten free cupcakes for the gluten free people (we have lots of dietary specificity in my family now as you can see), and finally the Chocolate Mint Cupcakes for everyone else. They were very delicious, though extremely difficult to ice - I think next time I would add more icing sugar to thicken up the icing.
3. Christmas dinner. As you can imagine at this point J and I were a little exhausted from cooking - but I was still enjoying it and willing to get a great dinner ready for us. We made the Chickpea Cutlets from Veganomicon, which were very good. I think for next time I’m going to use less wheat gluten (the protein extracted from wheat that gives it a more chewy texture), since they were very filling. We also made our killer “Bryanna’s Rich Fat-free Brown Gravy” - always incorporating the suggestions by Jennifer McCann of the Vegan Lunch Box blog to add an extra tbsp or so of soy sauce, 1/8 tsp of garlic powder, a pinch of thyme, sage, and some fresh ground black pepper. The mashed turnips with vegan margarine, mashed potatoes, cabbage, and cranberry sauce were all vegan luckily, so we only had to make a few things.
Unfortunately I also had my first dessert mishap - I tried to make the Lemon Bars from Veganomicon and it didn’t work out. It was a tricky recipe with timing, so I expected the failure - I may try it again sometime, but the filling tasted like a lemon lollipop which isn’t too appetizing to me, so we’ll see.
4. Upcoming. After all of that cooking, I’m heading to an upcoming vegan girls night on the 30th where we will drink animal-friendly alcohol, chat, eat delicious homemade desserts and appetizers, and possibly watch a few documentaries. I’m excited for it and haven’t yet decided which treats to make. I’m going to be going a lot more raw in the next month or so with healthier meals, so I hope to not have any leftovers to bring home!
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