Vegan party!

About a month ago, Dan and I hosted a party in DC for our JASC friends to come and eat/drink/be merry & "celebrate togetherness", i.e. our engagement. We had planned for a picnic outside and ordered food and cake in advance, so when it rained that weekend, we had to go to plan B -- which happened to be our favorite sports bar, Rocket Bar. Rocket Bar doesn't have its own food, so it allows you to bring in outside food. This was perfect for us, since we'd already arranged our vegan catering for pick-up!

We had five people staying over at our apartment that weekend, so I tried to start the morning off nice with some vegan cinnamon rolls - a nearly disastrous endeavor, since our oven started smoking, and not in a glamorous 60s kind of way (OK, smoking was never that glamorous.) There was some crud at the bottom of the oven making a terrible smoke, which miraculously didn't leave its mark on the cinnamon rolls. They came out fine - more undercooked than usual, because we were so eager to stop the smoke!

Luckily, the food only got better from that point on. Woodland's Vegan Bistro supplied us with fried "chicken" and macaroni & cheese to feed 15 (and then some), along with barbecue sauce and hot sauce. Dan made some pasta salad, and a friend brought chips and hummus. I LOVE Woodland's vegan chicken, and though it's always better fresh out of the frier, the leftovers kept Dan and I happy for days. And, the macaroni and "cheese" is one of the best dishes in DC, and I'm not the only one who says so.

Our friend Diane got a photo of the plated food -- I was too busy running around ordering champagne and trying to get the jukebox to play good music to remember to take a photo!

We also ordered a cake for the occasion, from Sweet Themez Bakery. They made us a "Cherry Blossom" cake, which was cherry-flavored cake and cherry jam in the middle - we loved it! Again, borrowing a photo from another friend, Yuri.

Sometimes it's not that exciting to have a lot of food and cake left over after a party, but we were grateful for it - with guests staying over the next day, it helped feed us all for lunch and sustained my lunches for a few days afterward. And I could eat that cake for days if I had to!

So, lesson learned - vegan parties in DC are a piece of cake, even when it rains. I won't pretend I wasn't nervous about the logistics of getting us all together & well fed, but it all came out perfectly, and we had a great time hanging out with our close friends.

Homemade vegan ravioli

Last weekend we made vegan ravioli with cashew "ricotta" filling. The pasta dough worked out superbly. I'll share the recipe below so others can partake in the ravioli fun -- it is a bit of work without a pasta roller, but they cook really quickly, and what's better than homemade pasta?

I'll give the recipe, then a few photos of the process, rather than interrupting the instructions with photos - that gets really confusing to follow, I know. So look to the end for photos, and enjoy!

Homemade ravioli! With kalamata olives and spinach over tomato sauce

Salt Lake City Vegan

We just got back from a ski/work trip to SLC, which also turned out to be a vegan food trip (as they all do...) It was like everything we ate just got better and better.

Tiramisu from Sage's Cafe

Cold-weather food

DC weather has been weird this month--we saw the effects of the polar vortex just like everyone else, then it was 50 degrees days later, followed by some near-freezing days. I can't remember if the past two years here were like this, but it seems really erratic.

Anyway, it's been generally cold, and we've been making some soups and curries to warm ourselves up lately. Check it out --

Ramen with smoked vegan goose, baby corn, and bok choy

More vegan holiday meals

We went to Dan's house in Wisconsin for Christmas week, and had some awesome food -- homemade pizza, soups that his mom made, and an all-vegan Christmas dinner!

Dan's mom cooked pretty much everything but the gravy (which I made, but I didn't do that good of a job!) and I helped bake the Field Roast, which is pretty low-maintenance. Clockwise from the very left, you can see the perfectly shaped homemade rolls, Field Roast with gravy and cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes & squash, brussels sprouts, and fruit. I know the sizes seem small, but this filled me up.

This was my first time trying Field Roast, and while I really like many of their products, I have to say I prefer Tofurkey to their holiday roast. But, it did its job filling us up, for sure.

Cinnamon rolls

I also carried on my family tradition of having cinnamon rolls before opening presents in the morning. When I was little, we did the Pillsbury rolls, but I don't think those are vegan -- even if they were, these are way better. I use Vegan Yum Yum's recipe and it always works, even when I accidentally use like half the yeast needed, like this time (needed, or kneaded? ha ha...) I was happy these turned out so well and Dan's family got to try them. 

Dan's mom is also an amazing baker & made tons of vegan cookies and treats -- I didn't get a photo of those, sadly (I was busy taking photos of a kitten...) -- but believe me when I say the cookies were picture perfect & their taste more than lived up to it. 

For New Year's, we were back in DC, and didn't do much on New Year's Eve (I went to work the next day, & we didn't feel much like going out). But, on New Year's Day, we made black eyed peas for good luck.

Black eyes peas, rice, and yes, that's cabbage

The recipe for the black eyed peas is from Fatfree Vegan Kitchen. We might have subbed a few of the vegetables with whatever we had on hand, but it turned out really yummy. The grocery store was out of cabbage heads -- everyone had the same plans, I guess -- so we got some shredded purple cabbage, which is totally not for this purpose, but it's such a nice shade of purple! We put some salt and apple cider vinegar on it and it all worked out.

I hope everyone else had a good holiday season and a great start to the new year. I don't really do resolutions, but I do plan to maintain a lifestyle that helps me and the people around me to feel good. Dan and I will be starting our first year as a married couple, and while I don't think marriage is what makes a partnership special, it will be great to celebrate our happiness this year with our friends and family, and then with each other for years to come. 

On that sentimental note, have an amazing 2014!

Thanksgiving food

(I know this is late for Thanksgiving, but wanted to post in advance of any Christmas or New Year's meals people might need ideas for!)

Thanksgiving has its drawbacks--it's based on a misleading story and it has turned into a tradition of killing and eating turkeys and then watching the news about people duking it out over stuff on sale (I know of more people who make fun of black Friday shoppers than who actually go shopping, which is kind of just as bad?)

I will take any excuse to cook a big meal once or twice a year, though. But our family Thanksgiving tradition, if we ever have kids, will be to explain what actually happened when Europeans came to the 'new world' here, and also how life was much better for turkeys before that time.

This year, we ordered a few vegan smoked goose packages from May Wah and cooked those along with a ton of other dishes:

Too much for one photo!

I'll try to list the dishes from top to bottom: We've got cranberry sauce, sweet potato casserole, store-bought rolls off to the side there, gravy, brussels sprouts, smoked non-goose, stuffing, and green bean casserole. And lots of wine, of course!

Birthday food!

Last Saturday was my birthday, and I got to have some spectacular food...

Tiramisu cake