Birthday Brunch

Today is Dennis's birthday! I know what you're thinking, and yes, it does suck to be born on Christmas Eve. It also kind of sucks to the partner of someone born on Christmas Eve, because people born on Christmas Eve tend to hate both their birthday and Christmas. Dennis and I have created our own birthday and Christmas traditions, and he has slightly warmed to both occasions. For his birthday, I always make a big brunchy breakfast, we go to the movies, and then we have dinner at Veggie Heaven. The people at Veggie Heaven have grown accustomed to our tradition, and they usually have a gift waiting for him when we arrive.

This year my plan was to make Puttanesca Scramble and Potato Spinach Squares from Vegan Brunch.  I woke up early to start cooking so that breakfast would be ready when he got up. I starting prepping ingredients and was ready to start cooking when I realized that we didn't have any potatoes. No potatoes! And I really didn't feel like running out to the store with bedhead in my pajamas to get some. What to do, what to do? I ended up making the puttanesca tofu scramble anyway, and I dumbed the frozen spinach that I had defrosted for the squares into it. I also added some nutritional yeast and a little lemon juice, and I melted a little Daiya over the top of it all when I was done. Dennis said the smell of the food woke him up. He had no idea what I had planned for breakfast, so he wasn't disappointed that it wasn't what I had planned. He really, really liked it, and when I told him about the mess-up, he said my mess-ups are always delicious.

And speaking of mess-ups, instead of making a cake, I decided to make Dennis birthday cookies. My friend Deana brought cookies that I knew would be perfect for Dennis to my cookie swap so I asked her for the recipe. I either used the wrong shortening or let the cookies sit out too long before putting them in the oven (or both), because they came out as a big flat mess. I was able to salvage a few bits that resembled cookies from the disaster, and miraculously, they tasted really good.

So the moral of today's story is that even when you mess up a dish or don't have the correct ingredients, just use what you have and make something anyway. Don't be afraid to get into the kitchen and experiment!

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Holiday Cookie Swap

On Sunday I had a holiday cookie swap with Montclair Vegans. Sarah Gross joined us and brought lots of Rescue Chocolate for us to purchase for Christmas gifts. It was so much fun!!

 I made candy cane chocolate chip cookies from The Vegan Cookie Connoisseur.

 Elsa made gingerbread cookies with white chocolate.

 Christine made mocha chip oatmeal cookies from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar.

Emily is new the group and decided to join us an hour before the cookie swap, so she stopped at Whole Foods and picked up some Uncle Eddies cookies.

Jenna made delicious chocolate chip sunflower seed cookies.

 Deana made sesame seed thumbprint cookies. These are perfect "Dennis cookies".

Jen C and Prairie made maple sandwich cookies.

 Lori just moved in to her apartment and her kitchen isn't set up yet, so she picked cookies up at Whole Foods.

 Jen G made chocolate raspberry cookies.

 Amanda made two kinds of macaroons.

Sarah brought lots of Rescue Chocolate!

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Chocolate Party!

The vegan group I belong to had a chocolate potluck party for Valentine's Day last night. I made Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffle Cookies.

The recipe is from Manifest Vegan. I doubled the recipe, because it says it makes about 20 cookies, but I ended up with about 75 cookies and only about half were eaten, so that wasn't necessary. I used 4 bags of chocolate chips to dip the cookies in. Dipping the cookies in the chocolate created a huge mess! I made the mistake of placing the cookies back on the cookie sheet since I don't have cooling racks. The chocolate cemented the cookies firmly to the sheets, and I had to get Dennis to help pull them off. (Note to self: Next time use parchment paper!) Most of the cookies ended up losing their bottoms, but it didn't take away from their taste at all. These cookies are GOOD. They're really intense, so you only need one to satisfy any chocolate/peanut butter cravings. They were a big hit at the party!

I thought I'd put aside my elimination diet for the evening since I knew there would be tasty chocolatey baked treats at the party, but I didn't cheat too badly. I had some hot chocolate made with almond milk which was amazingly good, a few chocolate cover cashews, one rum ball that did contain some wheat, and a piece of extremely rich fudge. I don't know what the fudge was made with, but I'm guessing there was some soy in it. It was so rich that it ruined me for the rest of the evening and I couldn't eat anything else, which was a good thing because there were lots of cookies, brownies and cupcakes. I did wake up with some digestive problems this morning which I find crazy, because I ate such small amounts of offending foods yesterday. But now I know for next time!




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