Red Velvet Stars and 4th of July Buffet!

Happy (belated) 4th of July! We had some friends over yesterday for a sunny backyard BBQ, and plenty of vegan treats. Red velvet brownies covered in vanilla icing and fruit, mini cupcakes (of course), white cheddar popcorn, salads, veggie burgers, and more!

My Holiday Vegan Eats

One thing I was both looking forward to and a little anxious about was making meals while home over the holidays. I live a 6 hour flight from where my family is, so it's not like I could just pack up my car and bring home all my favorite ingredients. I really wanted to share dishes with my fam that showed off how delicious & flavorful vegan food can be, but I didn't necessarily want to buy the wide array of oils, grains, and products I've collected over the past year of being vegan. I found a good balance- buying a few staples like non-dairy milk and margarine, flax seeds for baking, a little nutritional yeast, and using what was already in my mom's pantry to pull together some holiday meals I was happy to share with my family. It was definitely a little more challenging to find some of the fresh veggies and vegan items I've grown accustomed to, but with some helpful grocery store employees and a few modifications, I whipped up some great vegan eats while home for the holidays!

Vegan Nog!

It's almost the weekend, so how about a little Nog to get in the holiday spirit? I used to love egg nog growing up, but always thought it was a little too thick. The vegan "seasonal" Nog is actually even better than the original, I think!

The above "Seaonal Nog" is made with soy milk, but there is also a coconut milk version. The conconut milk nog definitely has a different (coconutty, duh) flavor. At first I didn't like that one, but then it grew on me.... but I think the seasonal version is still my favorite.

Sprinkle with a little nutmeg, add a cinnamon stick...

... add some spiced rum...

Zaya rum: This stuff is seriously good

... and dive in!

Oh and by the way, if you are a rum person, I highly, highly, highly recommend seeking out that rum pictured above (Zaya). A friend brought it to our holiday party, and holy cow it's amazing. It might be the best rum I've ever had. It's smooth, has a spiced, lightly sweet, almost caramely flavor, and it's pretty darn strong. It's so quality, you might even call it sippin' rum. But it does go especially well with Nog too!

Happy Holidays!

HoHoHoliday Party

Time for another vegan dinner party! Although, this one was filled with so many sweet holiday treats, I'm not sure it's technically accurate to call it a dinner party.... salted caramel corn, ginger spice cupcakes, "Mexican hot chocolate" cupcakes, pretzel bites, spiced Nog, mulled wine, and more!

Cornmeal-Crusted Cauliflower and Truffle Mushroom Gravy

I love love love roasted cauliflower. Usually I just slice it up, toss it in a little bit of olive oil and lemon-pepper seasoning, and that's enough to make me want to devour the entire bunch. But for Thanksgiving this year, I wanted to try a new version: cornmeal-encrusted roasted cauliflower steaks, covered in a creamy, incredibly flavorful, white mushroom gravy sauce with truffle oil. Sounds heavenly, right? It was, and this would make a great addition to any holiday (or winter-time) dinner party plate...

Vegan Thanksgiving Spread!

I'm very excited to share my Thanksgiving with you! I was completely psyched everything turned out so well, and that my family enjoyed it too. I was crazed cooking all day, and the pumpkin pie didn't even get put in the oven until after the meal, but hey, we had tons of great food! I think we have some new traditions on hand...

What to Make for Vegan Thanksgiving

This year, I'm pretty excited for Thanksgiving. It's my first vegan Thanksgiving, and we're hosting my mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and brother-in-law, who are always a blast to hang out with and we don't get to see often enough. I can't wait to have them, show them our new home & neighborhood, and share some delicious food with them. There are so many good recipes out there, I don't know what to make. I'm trying to find a balance between the old traditions and new exciting recipes that would make for great holiday additions. Here are some dishes I'm thinking of making for the big spread!

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Truffles & Vegan Halloween

Happy Halloween! What better way to end Vegan MoFo than with a deliciously sweet spread. We had a Halloween party Saturday night, and yep, I did my crazy hostess thing yet again.... This time, I made bourbon cinnamon cupcakes, candy corn, and pumpkin cream cheese truffles.

Mom's Pumpkin Bread, Veganized!

Thanksgiving day. Christmas morning. Family. Holidays. Pumpkin bread.

These words just go together for me. We can't have a Christmas or Thanksgiving without this bread, and I can't have this bread without thinking about home, family, and holidays growing up. A warm, delicious, soft, incredibly moist, cake-like bread that melts in your mouth with fall spices and pumpkin goodness. The top forms a thin, almost gooey layer of pumpkin that my brother and I would secretly cut off in pieces, like little mice nibbling away at the best part. This recipe has become almost a part of my family identity- it's right up there with steamy Baltimore summers, Cape Cod vacations, New Hampshire lakes, and long car rides in Ford station wagons- and I almost thought about not sharing it to keep the family secret. But, good food is best shared, and so, I give you... the best pumpkin bread ever. My mom's. ;-)

Vegan Valentine's (Vegan Dinner Party #3)

I'll admit I'm not much of a schmoopy, romantic comedy type-of-gal. Usually, I'm not one for pink sparkly hearts. But.... okay, I got a little caught up in things this year. I made schmoopy cookies. And a lot of them, at that. This weekend, I hosted a full-on Valentine's dinner party. What's with all the schmoopy-ness, anyway? 

It must be a vegan thing ;-) . I made so many desserts, we would have needed an extra 10 people to finish them all (although I did send everyone home with a little bag of cookies). Here's a sampler of my third (successful!) vegan dinner party: