Pee Wee's Veg Adventure, Holiday Treats, & a birthday!

Please head over to my new blog at TheUrbanHousewife.com, where you'll find this post & more!

Happy New Year! It seems 2009 is here & the resolutions are flying. While I didn't make any myself, I hope those of you who did are able to stick with them. Hopefully some of you decided to give veganism a try & will see how easy, fun, & rewarding it is!

I brought in the New Year at my home with a group of friends from the PPK. We decided to have a themed potluck, "Pee Wee's Veg Adventure" & I can safely say it was the most beautiful potluck in puppetland! All of the dishes were crafted up beforehand to keep the Pee Wee Herman theme & we all chowed down on dishes like "Jambi-Laya", "Connect the Dots Quinoa", "Copper Penny Salad", "King of Stuffed Mushrooms", & "Dinosaur Family Kale". Erin from Vegan Homemade brought two delicious dishes, "Simone's French Toast Bites" & "Footlongs for Mickey", which you can check out on her post. For dessert, we had even more themed options like "Cowboy Curtis' Cookie Sandwiches", "Chairry Pie", & "Whacky Tapi-oca Pudding Shooters".

My contributions were one savory & one sweet. I made "Pterri's BBQ Not Wings" which were seitan kabobs on skewers, smothered in sweet & spicy barbecue sauce & "Globey's International Speculaas Brownies", which were a gluten free brownie recipe from the upcoming 500 Vegan Recipes book by Celine & Joni. I'm considering posting the wings recipe, which is inspired by Vegan Dad's Wingz, let me know if it's something you might want to try & I'll post it!

A package arrived on my doorstep on New Years Eve bearing gifts from a cross country vegan bakery. In the recent VegNews contests, I was the lucky winner of one dozen Cowvin Cookies from Sticky Fingers Bakery. I can't think of a more serendipitous surprise! I was thrilled to be able to cut these giant cream filled oatmeal cookie sandwiches in to bite sized pieces to share with a room full of vegans! They're downright delicious & I found myself going back for far too many!

Back to the party; when the clock struck midnight, "Tequila" started playing over the speakers & we did a little dance in Pee Wee's honor! Overall, it was a fun & fabulous night. Good food & good friends are a wonderful way to ring in the new year & create optimism for the year to come. I truly hope 2009 is a prosperous year for each & every one of us!

My holidays were a bit uneventful this year. I had two meals with my family & made a large portion of the food from polenta cakes & roasted veggies to black eyed pea quinoa croquettes & golden gravy, but it all went by so quickly, I didn't do much in the way of photo taking. I did manage to snap a photo of the sweets I made. Mini Mint filled Chocolate Whoopie Pies were a hit, as were Peanut Butter Blondies from the upcoming cookie book by Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero. For Christmas Day, I made the Gingerbread Apple Pie from Vegan with a Vengeance, putting little sakura cut outs on top & serving it with homemade caramel sauce & vanilla bean ice cream. I was certainly stuffed from the sweets by the end of the night!

I love a good surprise, so I was thrilled when a little green box showed up on my doorstep right before Christmas. The always adorable Hannah of My Sweet Vegan & Bittersweet blog fame sent a sweet & chocolatey treat, chock full of cookie chunks, & perfect for adding to my Christmas platter of vegan goodies!

Hannah's surprise & the Cowvin cookies, plus the amazing birthday package I received from Marijke & opened for my birthday today have made for some seriously fabulous mail in the past few weeks. Rumor has it, there's belated birthday gifts on the way as well. I am very thankful & I truly appreciate all the birthday love I've been feeling today! Tonight I'll be having dinner with some friends at ubuntu in Napa. Ryan made me this little widget, so you can hear what I like to listen to on my birthday. Make sure you save it to torture people on your special day, hehe!

Next time I'll start my New York City series (finally), so look out for delicious dining & sweet treats in the near future!

Holiday Survival, Los Angeles Eats, & a Peanut Butter Fudge recipe!

Please head over to my new blog at TheUrbanHousewife.com, where you'll find this post & more!

Happy New Year! I hope everyone survived the Holiday season & is ready for a fun & fabulous 2008! Here's a shot of our vintage silver tree complete with vintage ornaments. I wish I could capture the lighted color wheel as well, but the reflection of the tree on the walls will have to suffice.

The Christmas season started for us with a road trip to Southern California to spend time with Ryan's family. Being so close to Los Angeles, we decided to check out restaurants & meet up with friends. To kick things off, we dined together at Madeleine Bistro in Tarzana, a lovely restaurant with organic, vegan fare & a seasonal menu. The meal was just what we needed after the stress of a long drive! Lemon rosemary seitan with an asparagus crepe and vegetables, as well as a holiday special of "chicken fried seitan" with mashed potatoes, cranberry, & sweet potatoes tickled our taste buds! We wrapped up the meal with a trio of pies; pumpkin, pecan, & french apple & I insisted on the chocolate souffle. At the time, I didn't realize what a feat a vegan souffle can be! It was delicious & I feel as though I should replicate it when I have the time.

Another night brought us to Pure Luck in Los Angeles with a group of awesome friends from the blog world to the PPK! Bazu from Where's the Revolution, Teresa from MaybePigsCanFly, Sharon from To Live and Eat in LA, Trina from Your Vegan Mom, as well PPKers Mike, Jenny Shades, Jenny Stench & friends all gathered to nosh & drink beer together!

The jackfruit carnitas tacos are something that need to be tried to be believed! Ryan & I practically inhaled them with a side of fried pickle chips in BBQ sauce, as well as two more tacos filled with plantains with sweet cream! The jackfruit carnitas tacos have been on my mind ever since this meal, so I'm going to attempt to make them this week.

After the grub, we headed to Scoops across the street only to find they were just about out of vegan flavors! A few of us ended up with some Lemon Jasmine ice cream, not my first choice, but it was smooth & refreshing nonetheless. It sounds like I'll have to make it back to Scoops earlier in the day sometime in the future as we missed out on flavors like Strawberry Balsamic & Tiramisu!

Sharon was kind enough to bring mini cupcakes from Leda's Bake Shop for Ryan & I! Everyone "oohed" & "ahhed" at their lovely decor & they were throughly enjoy later that night in our car before heading home. In addition to the lovely cupcakes, Teresa gave me a copy of Eat, Drink, & Be Vegan & Bazu gave me a Make Your own Chai kit! Aren't I the luckiest?! Thanks again ladies!

On Christmas Day, we were back in the Bay Area to spend time with my family. I didn't think I would have time to bake, but I managed to whip up some goodies for the celebration! Once again the Snickerdoodles from Kelly & Garrick's upcoming cookie book were made with the addition of their amazing English Toffee Bars, which you can find a recipe for here! Make them! The easiest thing I whipped up was Peanut Butter Fudge, which doesn't get baked at all, so you can whip this up for yourself anytime.

Peanut Butter Fudge
Ingredients:
3/4 cup Earth Balance or other vegan margarine
1 cup peanut butter (natural works best, as sweetened will be far too sugary.)
3 cups confectioners' sugar (sifted, if clumpy)
2/3 cup cocoa powder

Instructions:
Lightly grease a 9x9 baking dish, parchment is another option for the bottom.

In a saucepan over low heat, melt margarine.

Remove margarine from the heat and whisk in peanut butter until smooth.

Stir in the confectioners' sugar & cocoa, a little at a time, until well blended. It should be thick!

Smooth & press the mixture into your prepared pan & chill until firm.

Once it's firm, cut it in to squares & enjoy!

This fudge tastes awesome right out of the freezer! It's a somewhat soft fudge, & it melts a bit, so it's nice to have some completely solidified.

In addition to sweet treats, I had quite the feast of savory foods! Family dinners can leave a vegan's plate pretty empty, but my mother was wonderful & prepared the mashed potatoes & green beans dairy-free, plus she surprised us with delicious fruit kabobs. My plate was full with Celine's Seitan "steaks", mashed potatoes & punk rock chickpea gravy, Ryan's cranberry sauce, green beans, & fruit kabobs. Needless to say, I was very satisfied with my holiday feast!

Well, 2008 is here! I started it dancing on a bar & playing Guitar Hero with friends, but after some rest time, I attended a brunch at the home of Shane & Mel from Veglicious Recipes! Mel was the most amazing host & made all the food herself, which included Lettuce Wraps, Peanut Butter coffee cake, roasted vegetables, Apple & Pear salad, & Cherry Coconut muffins, many of which you can find recipes for on her blog! It was an excellent way to start 2008 & if it's any indication of the year in store, it will be a fabulous year!