Saint Nick Delivers

Our stockings were hung by the chimney with care... in hope that yummy vegan treats soon would be there.

And what do you know, maybe I should start believing in Santa Claus! Christmas day dinner with my family was full of new, yummy vegan treats. For the main course, I made the Festive Chickpea Tart (thanks to Dreena) from the November issue of VegNews.
I loved the different textures of chickpeas, paired with crunchy walnuts, tart cranberries, and the green (festive!) parsley and spinach. We topped it with a balsamic maple sauce as Dreena suggested, but since I didn't have ED&BV with me, I just made one up (combined some maple syrup and balsamic vinegar (duh) with olive oil and whole grain mustard). The whole family loved this one, and I'm kinda sad that it's already gone :-( Maybe I'll make some more before the winter season is over.
The rest of the dinner was rounded out with twice baked potatoes (topped with FYH mozzarella), broccoli, homemade bread, and a green salad with raspberries and strawberries.

And another new recipe for the holidays... I got my mom (and myself, shhh) a copy of Hannah's My Sweet Vegan and perused it for quite awhile trying to figure out what to make for our holiday dessert. The answer was obvious when I saw the Mocha Devastation Cake. Two layers of moist chocolate cake with a mocha buttercream frosting and crushed chocolate-covered espresso beans in the center and topped with chocolate ganache and more chocolate-covered espresso beans. Wow.

I think maybe I should have crushed my beans a little more because mine didn't look nearly as pretty as the one in the book. And I made a little booboo with the ganache. I got unsweetened dark chocolate, and didn't notice till I tasted it halfway through frosting. Whoops. We ate it anyway and just discarded most of the ganache. Oh, it was sooo sooo good, and I don't even like coffee.
We brought it along (since it made a huge cake) when we went to see my more extended family yesterday. It got devoured. And of course you should have seen the look on their faces when I told them there was tofu in it! I will definitely be making this cake again, but hopefully with the right kind of chocolate, I'll bet the ganache would have made it even better.

I had a wonderful time the past few days hanging out with my parents and brother and sister, this is the best part of the holidays. Since we are all grown up now, our family is cherishing those moments we can spend together as getting everyone in the same place at the same time gets harder and harder.

Sad to say, but I'm back at work today (but I have tomorrow off again). I'm so excited though because John returns home this afternoon!! Hope everyone enjoyed their holiday meals with family and friends. Now it's time to start turning our attention to the New Year... and of course what treats we'll be making to celebrate!