Happy New Year

Yes, I'm a week late, but you know I love showing off family and friends at least as much as food; so here's some fun pix from the New Year's Party.

(and a great recipe. I won't leave you hanging without recipes!!).
























My middle "Sprout" blew off her friends' invitation and opted to hang with the less cool adults tonight. (Probably afraid to miss out on family gossip!) It's OK, we had more fun anyway!

This is, of course, three of my lovely sisters, and me.
























I thought the steam from the hot cider added a neat effect to this picture, though maybe it looks like smoke...which it wasn't.

And I assure you, she's drinking cranberry juice, which I suppose, doesn't sound too believeable either.















Just a few of the party goodies - vegan except the cheese plate.
Don't know if you can see them, but we had vegan:

- Chex Party Mix
-Olive Tofu Pecan Dip
- Best Vegan Ranch (can even be made RAW!)
- Gingerbread and Lemon Bundt Mini-Cakes
-Stuffed Mushrooms
-Vegan Fudge (SOOO good!! from "Shmooed Food")
- Black-Bean-Corn Salsa (recipe below)


Easiest Black-Bean-Corn-Salsa-Salad:

1 can, 14 ounces, black beans, rinsed and drained
1/1/2 cups frozen corn kernels (I like tiny white corn here)
1 small red or orange bell pepper, chopped
3 green onions, chopped
1/2 a bunch of fresh cilantro, chopped fine
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons hot sauce, just eyeball the amount
1 lime, juiced
2 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil
Salt and pepper
Combine all ingredients. Let stand at least 15 minutes for corn to fully defrost and flavors to combine, toss and serve. The corn will also place a quick-chill on this as it
defrosts -- no need to refrigerate!

Happy New Year


And hopefully no one will try sticking a cold beverage bottle on your neck.

Stop smirking!
It's cold!

More Christmas... (and Stuffed Mushrooms!)

Christmas Dinner with my family:
(I always love my Mom's dinner table all set with the Holiday china...)

Famous Stuffed Mushrooms:

The stuffed mushrooms are not really famous, but very impressive - and so embarrassingly easy I hate to tell people...

• Buy a package of stuffing mix - whatever brand you can find that is vegetarian/vegan (some have chicken broth, but amazingly, many don't).
• Or make whatever type stuffing/dressing you like, using vegetable broth, of course... (A boxed-mix is just super easy and just the right size)
• Make stuffing/dressing according to directions on package and set aside to cool..
• Buy 20 largish (golf-ball size?) mushrooms.
• Pop the stems out of the mushrooms.
• Chop the stems fine.
• Chop 1/2 an onion and 1 stick celery just as fine.
• Saute in olive oil until soft.
• Add 2 cloves crushed garlic (I put it thru a garlic press - this totally makes the dish, using fresh garlic, but it's up to you) no need to cook it, it'll cook when they bake.
• Mix vegetables with the already made stuffing and 1/4 cup nutritional yeast.
• Stuff into mushroom caps. (If too dry, add a little vegetable broth)
• Pack down firm and mound up in each mushroom. It will shrink.
• Put in baking dish, drizzle a little olive oil around.
• Bake for 25 - 30 min at 375 until mushrooms look softer and cooked.
• They will shrink and dry a little.

Thats it. Yum! Basically it's your fave stuffing or equivalent, and chopped mushroom stems and stuff. Though they don't look impressive here - sorta all jumbled together on this plate. Use your imagination.

My sister finished some last-minute gifts...

My Holiday "must-have": Fruit and Nut Holiday Rice <<-- Click for the recipe, it's an oldie that I posted several years ago...

My brother-in-law shovelling snow off my parent's deck. Took him all morning, there was a LOT of snow up there!!

And last, but, not least, the "Smoking German Figurines" that fascinate us every Christmas... (They have incense cones inside to provide the smoke and I just think they are DARLING!!)

Hope your Christmas was filled with family and friends!!

Stuffed Mushrooms

OK, so you're having a potluck at work and want to bring something tasty and easy and, of course... VEGAN, right? Something that'll shut up the skeptics and won't scare off the timid.

Here ya go. Stuffed mushrooms. They're my default for most potlucks because they go together fast and everyone is terribly impressed! I've used several recipes in the past, but this one seems the best, so far.

Stuffed Mushrooms

24 baby bella or large button mushrooms, with stems

2 tablespoons olive oil, plus additional for baking dish
1-2 (or more!) large garlic cloves, put thru garlic press
1 tsp dried sage
1 cup pecans, hazelnuts (or walnuts if you must - but I hate walnuts, just sayin'), finely chopped
2 Tablespoons dry breadcrumbs

2 Tablespoons nutritional yeast (optional)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/3 cup soymilk
2 Tbsp. silken tofu

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Separate caps and stems of mushrooms, reserving both.

Arrange caps, stemmed sides up, in an oiled 13"x 9" shallow baking dish.
Finely chop stems (in food processor), then cook with garlic and sage in olive oil on medium heat until lightly browned. Stir in nuts, bread crumbs, salt, and pepper and cook, stirring frequently, 1 minute.

Blend soymilk and silken tofu in food proceessor or with immersion blender to a creamy consistancy.

Stir milk mixture into stems/garlic and bring to a simmer, then remove from heat. If it's too moist, add a few more breadcrumbs.
Sprinkle insides of caps with a little salt then divide filling among the caps.
Bake until filling is browned and caps are tender, about 30 minutes. If they start to dry out, cover pan with foil, removing just to let them brown...

YUM!

Thanksgiving 2007

I won't do a long, warm and fuzzy speil about how thankful I am or how great it was to share the day with family. Because all those things are SO true, but they have been said so much more eloquently by many other bloggers out there today and I'm still in a bit of a non-turkey induced food coma of un-creativeness.

Dinner was a collaborative, and all vegetarian, potluck put together by my sisters and myself; We had almost 30 people celebrating with us. Family, significant others, in-laws and friends. (Oh, and the dogs!)

My family is lacto-ovo vegetarian and pescatarian, (I'm the rebel vegan) but at least 8 people there had never celebrated a Turkey-free Thanksgiving. Everyone remarked how wonderful dinner was, even the omnis in the crowd said it was the best Thanksgiving meal they'd had!

Here are random pictures of the day... a few of the people and some of the items we served. (I didn't get pictures of everything, it was set up buffet style on little tables all around the house, but here are a few highlights...)

The non-tofu vegan pumpkin pie and the stuffed mushroom recipes are posted elsewhere here on my blog, I believe, and the others? I'm too tired and too lazy to post recipes right now, but they're pretty simple and basic - probably the same as, or similar to many you'll find out in Google-land.

Not pictured were a multitude of other dishes - all of it lacto-ovo, all of it from scratch - no mixes, no cans, no instant anything... most of it vegan. Mashed potatoes with two types of gravy, cheese-laden-potato something, brussel sprouts, mashed squash, salads and salads, rolls, green-bean casserole, dressing/stuffing, wild rice, some sort of bean patties with gravy, and veggies and dip, cheesecakes, tart, jello and pies. Many pies.

Happy weekend to all of you, hope your day was wonderful.