Valentine’s Day 2010 – The Sweets!

Valentine’s Day isn’t complete without chocolate and dessert! So, of course, I made way more than I should have.

Chocolate Ganache Tart

I used this recipe, substituting 1 13.5 oz can of coconut milk for the heavy cream. I also added rosewater, since I saw a similar recipe for a chocolate tart with it  included. But that made the tart (which otherwise would have been awesome) taste like crap. I actually threw the rest away after me and Jon split half a slice. And I never throw things like that away. But there’s no way I was going to eat the rest. Oh well. Lesson learned! At least it looked pretty.

Pecan Linzer Cookies with Raspberry Jam

I used this recipe, substituting margarine for the butter, Ener-G egg replacer for the egg, and raspberry jam insted of the cherry. THESE ARE SO GOOD. I had to add a bit of water to the dough to make it roll-able, but otherwise this recipe is fantastic.

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing

Cupcakes are from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Icing is of a store-bought, vegan variety because I didn’t feel like making any. I used cinnamon candies and Valentine DOTS to decorate the cupcakes. Wait, what?! Valentine DOTS?!

Yes. You heard read me right: Valentine DOTS!

I love the new DOTS holiday-themed gumdrops. Sadly, I missed the opportunity to purchase and review the Christmas ones. Hopefully they’ll bring them back this year! But these Valentine DOTS are fantastic. Cherry, Vanilla, and Passion Fruit. Do flavors get any better than that? I mean, honestly. And the boxes are just so adorable. I mean, these don’t have bat gumdrops with orange slices for mouths, but they’re still cute.

And, last but not least…

Homemade Chocolates

I just can’t justify spending ridiculous amounts of money on vegan chocolates + shipping when I can make my own at home. This year I decided just to make my favorite flavors + one new kind. Cordial cherries, peanut butter, cherry creme (all favorites), and orange creme (new). I really like the orange creme! I’ll definitely make them again. They’ll be great for Halloween, too!

And that’s it. Valentine’s Day 2010.

I’m not sure if I’ll be doing anything special for Saint Patrick’s Day or not. We’ll see! Either way, Happy Holidays!

– Andrea

Valentine’s Day 2010 – The Dinner!

Valentine I made for Jon out of a Gil Elvgren pin-up.

I hope everyone had a good Valentine’s Day! I know I did. My boyfriend, Jon, came over early and we exchanged cards and gifts. He got me Mary Poppins on DVD, and I got him a Disney gift card for our trip to Walt Disney World in May.

After that, I let him take a nap while I started making our dinner. Jon loves Olive Garden, so I had that in mind when I was coming up with the menu.  Our dinner consisted of the following:

Pesto Pasta with Roasted Vegetables

I used this recipe for Simple Vegan Pesto, and it was so good. This was my first time having and making pesto, and I can tell you it won’t be the last! I used Orecchiette pasta, and I roasted asparagus, red bell peppers, and portabella mushrooms with a little salt and pepper to toss in before serving. SO good!

Minestrone Soup

I used a copycat recipe for Olive Garden’s Minestrone. It was pretty darn close! Plus this is cheaper and makes a whole lot more! The only change I made was only using one can of great northern beans, and maybe a bit more of all the herbs and spices. Jon really liked the soup, so I was happy.

Heart-Shaped Puff Pastry Pinwheels

These are puff pastry sheets filled with spinach, sundried tomatoes, garlic powder, onion powder, brushed with margarine, and spinkled with salt. Ok, actually mine didn’t have salt. But I meant for them to! I rolled up both of the sides to meet in the middle, sliced the sheets, and shaped them like hearts. I thought they were cute 😀

After dinner, we washed the dishes and then went upstairs to watch movies:

We watched Star Wars Episode I:  The Phantom Menace, and some of Dumb and Dumber. It was a fun night!

I have to get ready for work, but I’ll post the rest of the stuff I made tonight!

Up next: Valentine’s Day Sweets!

– Andrea

Valentine’s Day Heart Banner and Plans

Valentine's Day Heart Banner

Look what I just made! 🙂 I think it’s pretty. I just took two, different-sized, heart-shaped cookie cutters and stenciled them onto red cardstock. I then cut out the hearts and taped them onto some fishing line. I know it’s simple, but it’s just so cute. You could also alternate between red and pink, pink and white, pink and purple, red and white, purple and white, etc.. Red is my favorite color for Valentine’s Day, though. (It’s classic!) So I just used red.

Earlier this week, I decided on my menu for Valentine’s Day. Every year, I make Jon dinner and a bunch of sweets and we exchange cards and (sometimes) gifts. This year we’ll be doing the same thing. Here’s what I’m planning on making:

Pesto Pasta with Roasted Vegetables
Minestrone Soup
Italian Salad
Heart-shaped Puff Pastry Pinwheels

Pink Cupcakes with Laced Chocolate Hearts
Chocolate Ganache and Rosewater Tart
Pecan Linzer Cookies with Cherry Filling
Assorted Filled Chocolates

Those are my plans right now. I’m still gathering up recipes and looking at some other crafts. I need to get in my Valentine’s Day box and see what all I can use this year. I still need to decorate, since all I have up is that banner.

We also might go see  Casablanca  at the Alabama Theatre on Saturday, depending on when I get off work, and if we can make it in time.

– Andrea

New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day

On New Year’s Eve, I made some snacks and took them over to my sister’s house where me and my boyfriend were going to shoot off fireworks.

Not a very pretty presentation, but I was still tired from Christmas. 😦

Sweet and Spicy "Meatballs"

I used Nate’s Savory Mushroom Meatless Meatballs, covered in a grape jelly and chili sauce.

Baked Spinach and Artichoke Dip

 This is the same spinach dip I made for Halloween, except I added marinated artichokes and melted some vegan mozzerella on top.

Bean Burger Sliders

Mini bean burger patties on toasted dinner rolls with lettuce, pickles, (vegan) mayonaise, and mustard.

I also bought some sparkling pear juice from World Market, and it was so good.

After eating and watching the fireworks at Walt Disney World via someone’s webcam, we went outside to shoot our own fireworks. All I can say is, boys are dangerous. I just played with sparklers.

Spooky.

Bat Boy.

Kissing at midnight!

And just so I can add more pictures, here’s what I made for last year’s New Year’s Eve:

“Cheese” ball with crackers, tortilla chips and salsa, and veggies with a ranch-style dip.

For luck!

On New Year’s Day last year, I made black-eyed pea patties (for luck), kale stir-fry (for money), and mac-n-“cheese” (because it tastes good). You can read more about the Southern tradition of eating black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day here.

Ok, now I’m all caught up! I promise I’ll try not to get so behind again! Next up I’ll be posting about my Valentine’s Day plans and activities.

Happy Holidays!

– Andrea

Catching up with Christmas (pt. 2)

On Christmas Eve, I went to my grandmother’s house for an hour or so before I had to leave for work. I made a holiday punch:

This had 1 jug of Hawaiian Punch (fruit punch), 1 small bottle of Ginger Ale, 1 can of Apple-Pear-Passion Fruit concentrate, sliced oranges, and plenty of ice. It was amazzzing! Best punch I’ve ever made!

I was too busy doing other things, so the punch was all I made. Or maybe I made that mac-n-“cheese”.. I don’t remember. Either way, it was nice to have other people cook my holiday meals for once 🙂

We had dressing (which was awesome), sweet potato casserole with a candied pecan topping, Field Roast Celebration Roast, green bean caserole, and macaroni and cheese.

I didn’t like the Celebration Roast. It’s too grainy. 😦

Oh, wait! I made some Snowball Cookies, too. I just forgot about them.. haha. They’re my favorites!

After work, I went to Jon’s mom’s house for her Christmas party. Jon made us a Christmas-colored stir-fry with red and green bell peppers, Gardein beefless tips, and brown rice. It was good!

My sister sent home some goodies for us, too:

Vegan holiday goodies tray!

She made lemon bars, cranberry bread, candied pecans, and pumpkin (maple?) cookies. I can’t remember exactly what they were, but those cookies were SO FREAKIN’ GOOD.

On Christmas morning, I got up at 5:00 to open my presents. Jon came over at 6:00 and we exchanged gifts.

My Christmas decorations.

Presents!

I started making breakfast around 6:30 or so and finished around 9:00. My sister and her boyfriend came over for breakfast and to exchange gifts around that time, as well.

"Sausage" and "Cheese" Biscuits

Breakfast Potatoes with Peppers and Onions

Scrambled Tofu

Glazed Cinnamon Rolls

Gingerbread Muffins

And that’s that! For lunch, Jon made us Tofurky sandwiches to take to his dad’s family gathering. When we got back that night, we ate a bunch of leftovers from the day before and played a ridiculously long game of Scrabble. I was tired, so I got cranky and made everyone leave so I could go to sleep. Fun times!

Food-related presents I received: Red, scalloped casserole dishes; tealight chaffing dishes; two red and white scalloped dessert pedastals; Cuisinart ice cream maker; and extra mini trifle dishes.

I hope you all had a good holiday season!

Catching up with Christmas (pt. 1)

Ok, so the holidays made me totally neglect my blog. Sorry about that. I just haven’t really been in the blogging mood lately. But I’m back! First I’m going to catch up with what I didn’t post for Christmas and New Year’s, then I’ll get to what I’ll be doing for Valentine’s Day.

A few weeks before Christmas, me and my boyfriend had a fun night filled with cookies, cartoons, and puzzles.

Chocolate Chip Cookies from Vegan with a Vengance

We did a puzzle of Mickey and Minnie Mouse ice skating. We watched Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman throughout the night, as well. I also drew Jon a picture, and then he drew his own version of it. Let’s compare:

Which do you think is better?

A few days before Christmas, me and Jon went to a Palisade’s Park in Oneonta, AL, to see the Christmas lights.

You'd think he'd be a little happier, sitting next to Santa and all.

Like me!

 

The day before Christmas Eve, I started on my gift baskets:

I also bought a fireplace DVD to enjoy during the holidays!

Favorite basket.

This was my favorite basket. It had a green and red-striped mug, peanut brittle, a candy cane, chocolate truffles, peppermint coffee, pancake mix for two, chocolate-gingerbread cookies, and a cinnamon-scented candle. This went to Jon’s grandparents.

Finished baskets!

Up next: Christmas Eve, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve!

Christmas Morning Breakfast (2008)

Christmas is a special day.. Because Christmas is the only day of the year I make cinnamon rolls! After opening presents at 5 am, there’s not really much else left to do that early other than make a huge breakfast, watch the sun come up, and enjoy the rest of the holiday. So that’s what I do.

Last year’s Christmas morning breakfast consisted of The following:

"Sausage" and "Cheese" Biscuits

I used this recipe for the biscuits, Gimme Lean “sausage”, and Toffuti American “cheese”

Scrambled Tofu

Recipe adapted from Vegan with a Vegeance.

Cheesy Hashbrowns

Shredded potatoes, fried in a skillet with shredded Follow Your Heart cheddar, salt, and pepper.

Cinnamon Rolls

I’ve used this recipe for the past few years, and it gets better every time! There are some other awesome-sounding recipes that would be great for holidays on her blog, so check it out! 😀

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This year I’m thinking about letting go of the cinnamon rolls. I really want to make gingerbread muffins. And if I make muffins, I don’t want to make cinnamon rolls. So I’m trying to figure out what to do. Knowing me, I’ll probably end up making both.. So I don’t know what I’m trying to decide on one for.

I’m also thinking about doing “ham” and “cheese” biscuits this year. Or maybe I’ll have both “ham” and “sausage”. Eh.. I just don’t know I’m still thinking about it.

But there will be scrambled tofu!

I’ve also decided to forget about the hot cocoa mix for my gift baskets. Now I’m debating on wheter or not to include a pancake mix. I’m also debating between regular pancake mix and  gingerbread pancake mix. But I’m already making Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies. So it might be weird to include two gingerbread items.

Do I put too much thought into this?

Oh well. Tomorrow is the big day for cooking! I’m making peanut brittle, chocolate truffles, and the chocolate gingerbread cookies. I kind of want to make sugar cookies, but I’m not sure if I will. Only time will tell.

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I am going to have a ridiculously hectic holiday this year. On Christmas Eve, I’m going to my grandmother’s at 10:30 in the morning for our holiday party. Around 12:00, I have to leave for work. I’ll probably be there until 7:00, and then I’ll be stopping by Jon’s mom’s house for their Christmas party. Hopefully I’ll be on my way home by 8:30 and can spend some time with my mom before getting into bed.

On Christmas Day, I’ll be getting up at 4 or 5 AM to see what Santa brought me. After I open my presents, I’ll be starting on breakfast. Jon will probably be here around 6:30 or so. Breakfast will be around 8:00. Around 12:00, I’ll be going to Jon’s house so that I can go with him and his dad to their family Christmas party, about an hour away. Then I’ll probably be home around 6:00.

Ridiculous.

At least I get to sleep in the next day!

I hope you all have wonderful holidays 🙂

– Andrea

Christmas Gift Basket Planning

In my last post, I was talking about what I wanted to include in my gift baskets this year. Well, I’ve narrowed things down a bit for now. Tonight I attempted some Christmas shopping and, in the process, found some components of my gifts baskets:

Gift Basket Planning

Basket: $1, Mug: $1, Plastic Canister: $1, Scented Candle: $1, Christmas Tree Gift Bags: $.25/each. So my gift baskets come to $4.25/each so far. I still need to pick up some some plastic baggies, but I think I’m pretty much set.

Here’s what I’ve decided to include (so far):

Hot Cocoa Mix, with instructions and a Candy Cane for a stir stick
Scented Holiday Candle (vanilla, cranberry, and cinnamon)
Homemade Peanut Brittle
Chocolate Truffles, rolled in various toppings
Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies

Then I’m going to wrap it all up in a plastic gift basket bag and tie it up with a pretty, red ribbon.

And that’s all I have so far. I’m still in the planning process, but I already like this a lot better than giving away tins filled with mis-matched cookies and candies! I still want to add some kind of dip mix, but I don’t know if I’m going to.

I’m almost done with my Christmas shopping, so I’m finally starting to feel better about the whole holiday season. I hate buying presents, but I do like giving them.

Happy holidays!

– Andrea

Decking the Halls + Waking to a Winter Wonderland

Last night I finally got out my Christmas onrmants and decorations to accompany my lonely tree. My cats seemed very interested in the tree once it was lit up. They all took turns rubbing their faces on it and sitting underneath it, on the tree skirt. It was adorable, as you can see 🙂

Christmas Kitty

I don’t like “pretty” Christmas trees. I like fun, happy, sentimental trees. So my Christmas ornaments consist of cartoon and movie characters, as well as ornaments made by me as a child. I also throw in some red, gold, and green balls to fill in the empty space. I watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas (live action) while I decorated the tree.

Christmas ornaments

After I decorated my tree, I layed down on the couch and listened to Christmas music for about an hour. Then I went to bed and paged through an awesome book I checked out from the library earlier that day called The Spirit of Christmas: Gifts from the Kitchen.

This isn’t a vegan cookbook, but there are so many awesome ideas! I normally give out tins of the same cookies and candies, with some variation from year to year. But this year I wanted to do something different. I wanted to make little gift baskets filled with the best of the best cookies, along with some truffles and other chocolate candies. I also wanted to include small bags of homemade peanut brittle, and some hot chocolate mix. I’m also considering small loaves of holiday breads and/or dry soup mixes. I obviously won’t have the time or money to do all of these things, but that’s what I’m considering. I’m trying to narrow everything down right now.

After I woke up this morning, I watch Sandra Lee’s Semi-Homemade Holiday special on the Food Network.  She had some really cute packaging ideas for homemade food gifts.

When I finally walked out of my room, I was shocked to see that it had snowed during the night!

Peeking outside the window!

So I put on a jacket and some fuzzy slippers and went outside to take pictures of the pretty snow!

Looking down the street.

It normally doesn’t snow in Alabama until at least January. So it was nice to wake up to a winter wonderland this close to Christmas!

Holly berries.

I’m trying to work on my Christmas acitvity calendar right now, so I’m going to get back to that!

Happy Holiday!

– Andrea

A Very Vegan Thanksgiving, 2009

Happy Tofurky Day, everyone!

Me and my boyfriend had our vegan Thanksgiving yesterday. Yesterday also happened to be his 21st birthday, but we had his party this past Saturday. I’ll post more about that soon 🙂

Thanksgiving is a holiday where I don’t like to change much, in terms of food. It’s the only time of the year I eat most of the items on the menu, and I like to keep it that way because it makes the food more special. I think next year I may want to change up the main course. I don’t mean forgoing the traditional Tofurky roast. I just mean adding a new bird-substitute to the table. Maybe stuffed acorn squash, or a seitan roast with stuffing.

But the planning for next year can wait until then. This is what we had for 2009:

 Tofurky and Gravy
Mashed Sweet Potatoes
Green Bean Casserole
Macaroni and Cheese
Roasted Brussels Sprouts
Cornbread Dressing
Homemade Cranberry Sauce
Buttermilk Drop Biscuits
Pumpkin Pie Trifle
Apple Cider

I used the soy sauce/olive oil/ sage baste from the Tofurky box and followed the package instructions for the non-bird. For the gravy, I made a roux and added no-chicken broth, soy sauce, sage, poultry seasoning, and freshly cracked black pepper.

The sweet potatoes were baked for nearly two hours, until soft. Then I took the skins off, mashed them, and added white and brown sugar, margarine, and apple cider.

For the green bean casserole, I used this recipe, and it is amazing. We’ve had it the past few years.

I roasted the brussels sprouts with olive oil, salt, and pepper.

The cornbread dressing has no real measurements, just ingredients scribbled down by my mom of what was in my maw maw’s dressing. It’s basically a loaf of cornbread, two cans vegetable broth, chopped celery and green onion, sage, poultry seasoning, garlic salt, and pepper. Then I put a few bits of margarine on top and baked it at 350 until the top was golden brown.

For the cranberry sauce, I just use the directions on the bag of cranberries. I usually add more sugar than called for, and I also added a splash of orange juice.

The biscuits were a bit dry, so I won’t post those right now.

The pumpkin pie trifle was graham crackers, pumpkin puree + vanilla pudding (from a vegan boxed mix + soymilk) + pumpkin pie spice + cinnamon, and Soyatoo Soy Whip. It was sooo good. But the single mini trifles are enough for two, so we just shared one and saved one for later 😀

And that was my Thanksgiving! I hope everyone else had wonderful food and good company.

What did you have on the table? What would you change for next year?

If anyone is getting out shopping tomorrow, be safe!

Also, this is hilarious: Defensive Omnivore Bingo Card! I’m sure many vegans and vegetarians throughout the country would have been yelling “Bingo!” today if they had known about this. 🙂

– Andrea