Happy (Belated) Holiday/Christmas!

     Happy belated Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa  Christmakah, etc    veggie eaters, food lovers, and all around sexy crews!~

     Christmas ever started with a complete lack of sleep and a meek attempt at dehydrating tomatoes...which took over 12 hours!! But first...my oven got tickled hardcore this time around. I had a Christmas/Holiday party to share with a lovely group of buddies and we played a sort-of Yankee Swap/Secret Santa type of deal. I made up funky money banana bread~ chocolate chips, cinnamon, ginger, cranberries, raisins  walnut, pecans, coconut~ everything was whole wheat, organic, and I slipped in vitamin B12 drops, vitamin C drops, etc... I got a bit too excited. 

Funky Monkey Bread, before and after~ photo taken by VeganBeats

     The next day was the day before Christmas Eve, and I had a lot of dehydrating and baking to do. But I got pretty awful and heartbreaking news...so I lazed up. I had planned on baking four cakes, dehydrating tomatoes, and making a peppermint brittle. These buggers owned my oven...for about half a day!

Oven-dried tomatoes...before the 12 hour marathon~ photo taken by VeganBeats

     Christmas eve rolled up and thanks to tomatoes, cake baking happened all day Christmas eve. I spent this Christmas eve with the ever talented and wonderful Scotty Soul...where the plan was chill, make dinner, exchange gifts, listening to silly Holiday tunes, and watching far too many Christmas movies...
     I didn't get a picture of the yummy dinner we made but I'll gloat a bit. We stocked up on two massive bags of veggies and spices and made a big and beautiful pot of veggie soup.
     Menu~ Scotty Soul's favorite...Soup and toast!

     The recipe is a bit all over the place, but here's a gist:
What We Used:

1. 1 med-large onion, chopped
2. 2 medium sweet potatoes chopped
3. 1 pint of cherry tomatoes, or 0.66 Kg of tomatoes chopped
4. 1 large carrot, chopped
5. 2 small head of baby napa cabbage, chopped
6. 4 leaves of dinosaur kale, chopped
7. 3 leaves of chard, chopped
8. bag of enoke mushrooms, chopped
9. 1/2 medium zucchini, chopped into half moons
10. 1-2 T olive oil
11. 1 T garlic minced
12. 1-3 T black pepper
13. 1 t salt
14. 1 T Chinese pepper
15. 1 T mixed herbs

What we Did:

1. heat a medium/large pot to medium high heat, add the oil
2. When the oil is hot, add the onions and sweet potatoes~ set to low heat and watch
3. After you can smell the sweetness, add the chopped tomatoes *Let this Stew and boil down to make a broth of sorts*
4. Add carrots and garlic.
5. After 10 minutes, add everything else and let boil down to desired thickness!

~Toast optional~

Scotty Soul and dins~ photo taken by VeganBeats

     Scotty Soul gave me such amazing and perfect things...that soon enough I'll get to use ALL THE TIME~ Right now I've got a SICK electric blanket that keeps me super super snugly  And I got some perfume that makes me feel like a sassy lady (hell yea), and as soon as I update to an Iphone5...food will start looking sexier. But the thing I'm beyond tickled for has been chilling at Incheon International...soon...soon~
     Christmas day was a joll at Kia and Sean's!!!! I made an intense and drunky cake for the occasion! So..what is this complexity?

My Christmas cake!! photo taken by VeganBeats

     Ginger rum cranberries, blueberries, and raisins in a dark chocolate cinnamon cake with a green tea, ginger, and rum butter-cream frosting! Rich is flavor and alcohol~ whasa!
     Enough squiggling, let's see what Kia and Sean stabbed and stretched my stomach with! Get a napkin...

scalloped potatoes~ photo taken by VeganBeats

spinach and artichoke dip~ photo taken by VeganBeats

tomato, shitake mushroom, cashew cheese pizza~ photo taken by VeganBeats

stuffed mushrooms~ photo taken by VeganBeats

lentil loaf~ photo taken by VeganBeats~

     There was also olive tempanade, baguettes, babaganoush, jello (agar) shots, alcohol...lots of alcohol, and  a stupid delicious salad chalk full of pomegranate (!!!), apples (!!!!), lettuce (AHHHH!!!!!!), pecans (!!!), and a tofu based dressing. I had bowls of this....bowls....stomach stretching greens gamble~

Grasshopper pie~ photo taken by VeganBeats~

peppermint fudge~ photo taken by VeganBeats~

Grasshopper pudding cups~ photo taken by VeganBeats~

chai cake~ photo taken by VeganBeats

     I drank loads, laughed a lot, ate too much, smiled, and was full of immeasurable amounts of love...

I think I need a tissue break...

Happy Late Holidays!!

New Years is around the bend!!!!