Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Happy Festivus to All and to All a Good Night!

Festivus is here again!  I didn't do much in the way of celebration.  I'm home alone for the holidays.  Boo.  The yay is that I'm getting a lot done.  I probably should do some writing or something, but I'd rather spend my days watching Dexter and stocking the freezer.  That's just how I roll, yo!

So the holidays always remind me of home.  This year has been a bit fractured, but usually I'd go to my parents house for Christmas.  A long time ago, they stopped making Christmas dinner because of how exhausted they were with the gift buying.  Our Christmas dinner is basically a tapas night...but with way more food.  I quite like that Martin tradition.

So yeah it sucks to be by myself, but it's a great excuse to make a bunch of food to snack on for the week (and freeze) and have a holiday movie marathon.  So far I've watched a good mix of classic Christmas movies, humorous ones, and Christmas horror.  The best gem I've discovered so far is Santa's Slay.  Too funny.

I know most of you have had your holiday parties, but in case you are looking for some ideas for NYE, here's a list of ideas for things that I'm thinking of making.

Vegetable tray with some sorta spread.  I'm torn between making a hummus or trying to get ingredients for the Kale Tofu Spread from 500 Vegan Recipes.  I couldn't find kale anywhere this week!

Vegan deviled eggs using my revamped deviled tofu recipe found in this entry.  This is a definite for me.

Tamales.  I love them, but hate hate hate to make them.  So tedious.

Mini pizzas.  Era picked up some Daiya when he went to LA last week.  I'm at the point where it seems completely reasonable to spend 40 bucks on the 5 pounder.  This stuff is like crack to me.  I'm sprinkling it on ever'thang!

Vegan Bailey's.  I'm gonna make a recipe from one of those top secret recipe thingies.  It says it should last two months in the fridge.  Does alcohol seriously slow spoilage like that?  I dunno.  Bailey's was never my thing, but I'm super intrigued.

Fruit tray with cherries and persimmons.  Maybe grapes.  What can I say?  All of these are the shiz!

Coooookies.  Right now it's all VCIYCJ all the time.  I'm making those choc chip chai shortbread cookies and probably something involving ginger.

Uppin' the game cheeze tray.  Yeah.  This will happen.  Not sure on the cheeze, but I know it will have the Italian Feast Sausages from Vegan Brunch on it.  I'm thinking slices of sausage pierced with pretzels (or as I like to call them: edible toothpicks), some crackers, deli mustard, and a cheese of some kind.

And you can't go wrong with chips and queso.  I know there are, like, a gazillion queso recipes and here's mine.  I'm still working on a sausage variation.

Not Yo Cheeze Sauce
2 cups water
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1 clove garlic
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp mild chili powder
1/8 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp salt (more or less to taste)

2 Tbsp margarine
2 tsp brown deli mustard (stone ground works too but adds flecks of brown)
1/2 cup of your favorite red salsa

In a blender combine water, nutritional yeast, flour, garlic clove, and spices. Blend until smooth. Pour into a saucepan and heat on medium high, stirring frequently with a whisk. When thickened, remove from heat and stir in the margarine and mustard. Stir in the salsa and heat until warmed through. Makes about 3 cups.

Happy Holidays everybody!  I hope it's a joyous one.

7 comments:

Bonnie said...

That sucks that you're by yourself during the holidays, but your plans do sound amazing, actually - so many good ideas in this post!

Santa's Slay was on tv here a couple days ago. I think I only really saw the ending, but it did look pretty funny.

I think I'll spend today baking cookies, too. Happy holidays, Mo!

River - The Crafty Kook said...

Aww, Mo! I'm sorry you have to be alone for Festivus. I want to bake you some cookies or something! Though it looks like you've taken care of the cookie baking already!:-)

Elf is on my must watch Festivus movie/TV show marathon every year! I'm not Will Ferrell's biggest fan, but I do love that movie!

Anonymous said...

I want to come over for NYE! I have spent Xmas alone too, and it is kind of weird but it makes it more enjoyable to have the family blowout the next year because it doesn't feel like you just did it.

Happy New Years!!!!!!!!!!!

The Kuntrageous Vegan said...

OMG i have two sausage recommendations for your sausage queso dip since i've been playing with sausage:
1. The BEST vegan sausage i have ever found is made in Nashville (we have one veg restaurant i'm not sure how this happened) but it's called Primm Springs Soysage (buy the hot variety-it's not very hot) and Whole Foods carries it. Check their site for a store near you.
2. TJ's Soyrizo...but the color is freaky and i season/brown the soyrizo first. I actually made sausage balls this weekend with Soyrizo, Nacho Teese Sauce and heart healthy bisquick lol

p.s. tell me when you've finished this current season of dexter because i REALLY need someone to discuss it with!

The Kuntrageous Vegan said...

uh, post, post script: do you prefer water over nondairy milk in cheeze sauce always, or just this recipe? if so-why?
(i think it would taste better only bc soymilk tastes so weird heated up)

Monique a.k.a. Mo said...

Bonnie-I loved Santa's Slay. It was hilarious.

River-I had a decent time watching a ton of movies and hanging out with the dogs. :)

Lazysmurf-Happy New Year's to you as well!

Lacey-I'll check those sausages out. I prefer water because it's free and I don't see any point of using nondairy milk for a cheesy sauce. It never makes it taste any thicker or creamier in my opinion. Ha ha.

Mihl-I think one of the stores I went to just ran out. Not sure about the other one, though.

dreaminitvegan said...

Bummer you were alone for the holidays but it seems like you found a way to keep busy.

Have a Happy New Year!