Happy 10th Birthday to My Youngest "Sprout"

My youngest "Sprout" hit double-digits today, celebrating her 10th Birthday in fine style.

Our wonderful friends invited us over for a most delicious supper, and afterwards, there was much excitement with friends, big sisters, presents, ice-cream, candles and so forth, just like birthdays are supposed to have...

Their youngest daughter was pretty sure she needed to help supervise the unwrapping, it's awfully hard to watch someone ELSE have a birthday when you're only two, after all!

She was actually very good about letting the Birthday Girl open her gifts, and providing running commentary in case some of us weren't sure what the gifts were.

Instead of a traditional cake, my very un-traditional "Sprout" opted for those

"Drumstick" ice-cream-cones. She hates cake, these happen to be her favorites (Hey, they're cheaper than some garish bakery birthday cake anyway - And no - I do not bake, 'nuff said...).

Yes, we all know the ice-cream's not vegan, but she's not always, and that's not the point of this post, get over it.

Not to be deterred by the lack of a cake, we decorated her cone with a birthday candle and sang "Happy Birthday" even though she was hoping to get out of that apparently embarrassing part of the event. Happy Birthday sweetie!!!

I'd also like to point out that I did some celebrating of my own this morning on the way to work, treating myself to my first Starbucks Soy Pumpkin Spice Latte of the season, compliments of my sister and a generous gift card for MY birthday last month.

Hey, I needed to insert SOMETHING vegan in this blog, right? I definitely deserve to celebrate my children's birthday's too, thinking back to her birth, ten years ago today and all the effort THAT was!! And, yes, patting myself on the back for how well my "Sprouts" have turned out, despite their crazy Mom!!

If you haven't tried the Pumpkin Spice Lattes, by all means do. The nutty taste of the soymilk complements the spices perfectly!! Cheers, Happy Birthday and happy Vegan Month of Food Blogging Craziness!!!

Gingerbread Houses and 15th Birthdays

Once again, in keeping with our yearly tradition, we celebrated my middle "Sprout"s birthday with a delightfully messy, sugar-filled annual Gingerbread House-making Birthday party.


















Teen girls and lots of sugar. It gets crazier every year.

But every year the girls are older, they can do more of the prep work themselves, clean up more of their own mess, and their creations get prettier and more lavish.

Everyone loves it. I have Moms calling in September asking if we're making houses again this year.

I always have the house "parts" baked and cooled ahead of time, and after many years of doing this, we have it down to a science.

This year, however, I used the gingerbread recipe from Vegan Dad's blog, as I haven't really liked the texture of the other vegan gingerbread recipes I've used.

I'm not much of a recipe follower, which is why you'll rarely see links to other recipes here; there's millions of better recipes than mine, I just stubbornly prefer to muddle through until I've concocted my own creation (or disaster!).

However, with my daughter's time-honored Gingerbread party I didn't want to experiment. And happily, (as you'll see) the gingerbread turned out great.
(Here are some good cut-out-and-assembly instructions, we use slightly smaller measurements since we're making 6 houses...That equals a LOT of dough!

We DO use commercial Royal Icing however, just to "cement" the house parts together. Yes it has egg-whites. But any and all attempts I have made at decent vegan royal icing have ended up in collapsed houses that look somewhat like a Hurricane Katrina re-creation... Not the effect you're going for at a Holiday party!

However, once the houses are assembled and "set", we mix up some fairly decent vegan frosting for the final (and fun, messy, sticky, icky, sugar-coated) step of decorating...

And no, I am sure some of the candy isn't vegan. Bring on the vegan Police.

Here is my approximate icing recipe (and <-- here is what happens when big sisters get bored with Gingerbread houses); play with it according to the humidity in your kitchen and how much liquid your powdered sugar absorbs.

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"Almost" Royal Icing

7 Tablespoons water

4 Tablespoon Ener-G egg replacer (don't use another brand)

7 cups of powdered sugar (you can make non-bone-char powdered sugar with beet sugar and cornstarch in a coffee grinder, Whole Foods sells vegan powdered sugar too)

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

Mix dr ingredients together. Add to water. I don't usually add all the powdered sugar/cream of tarter, just keep mixing it in until the right consistency. It still takes longer to set up than royal icing

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And just in case you're thinking this is a worthless post with nothing but frosting, here are the amazing vegan chocolate-chip muffins that big sister Jessika made for everyone for breakfast. (She made the birthday cake too! )

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Pretty generous of her since she had to put up with a housefull of "younger" girls all night!

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Chocolate-Chip-Banana Muffins

3 very ripe bananas
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 cup sugar
2 cups sifted whole wheat pastry flour (or white, or whatever)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup chocolate chips, chopped to make them a bit smaller, and tossed with a bit of cornstarch so they don't "sink" in the batter

Pre-heat oven to 360 degrees.
In a large bowl, mash the bananas with a fork till mushy.

Add the oil and sugar and mix together until creamy.
In a separate bowl combine the dry stuff.

Combine with the banana mixture, stirring gently just to combine.
Grease (WELL!) or line a muffin pan, and fill each muffin about 2/3 full with batter. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean.

Here's hoping your Holidays are sweet and memorable.

Grandma's Birthday and Chunky Vegetable Dip

Happy Weekend all! School's out for those of us here in the Pacific Northwest who seem to attend later in the year than most areas. Despite our questionable weather, summer has officially started.

My Grandma celebrated her 85th birthday (doesn't she look GREAT!?!) and a bunch of us (including some of my cousins I don't often get to see) threw her a great little party.

I was the only vegetarian in attendance but there were plenty of good eats for me provided by thoughtful family. Portabellos on the grill, several salads, baked beans and even appetizers!

Grandma was very proud of the Hawaiian "Luau" theme, she's so cute...

OK, so I brought the baked beans (VERY boring, from a can, but I had to travel and didn't have room for much.)

I also made this dip which was a HUGE hit and NO ONE asked if it had creepy vegan ingredients. Try it. Seriously.

Chunky Veggie Dip

1 cup (8 ounces) Tofutti vegan "sour cream"
1/2 cup vegan mayonnaise

1/4 cup finely chopped seeded cucumber (I use the English cucumbers that don't need to be peeled)
1/4 cup finely chopped jarred roasted red pepper (or pimentos)

1/4 cup chopped green onions

1/4 cup finely chopped radishes

1 to 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 garlic cloves, pressed or minced very fine
2 Tbsp. minced fresh parsley
2 Tbsp minced fresh dill (or 1 tsp. dry)

1/4 teaspoon prepared horseradish
1/4 teaspoon salt or to taste
1/4 tsp pepper, or to taste

Directions: In a bowl, combine the ingredients; mix well. Cover and refrigerate. Serve with vegetables for dipping. Yield: 1-1/2 cups.

I served it with raw veggies, pretzels and crackers.

Christmas Eve; Gingerbread House Decorating Party

I'm too tired from marathon cooking, baking and gift-wrapping to think of much creative tonight but I did want to get these pictures posted before the Holiday

My daughter's birthday happens to hit right in the middle of the crazy holiday season, so instead of trying to dream up party games and crafts, she invited friends over to make Gingerbread Houses, a tradition we started way back when she was 8.

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Goodness, what a great time the girls had. They always do. Our kitchen exploded with gingerbread, icing and way too much candy; What more could a teenage girl want?

We pretty much have this down to a science now, we could throw a Gingerbread party for fifty without a hitch, I swear (not that I want to!!)

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Yep, learning from past experience, I had the "house" parts all ready to go (from a kit, no vegan baking happening for these houses sorry!) before the party, icing mixed and in piping bags, and tons of candy ready to affix to the houses once assembled.

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The girls arrived late afternoon and with much teen-age giggling and sugar-induced hilarity, they assembled some very nice looking houses.

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This has been a much-looked-forward-to Holiday/Birthday Tradition with my daughter and her friends since they were in 2nd grade together . It's so fun to see how the houses and decorating have improved each year. (And how much LESS I need to supervise and "help" than in previous years!)

As you can see, the end results were quite creative.

Here's hoping your Holiday's are filled with laughter, fun and lots of sweet memories.
Peace and Gingerbread to all.

Merry Christmas.