A Vegan-ish Christmas

Happy New Year!!! First, news: I got a new digital camera for Christmas so now I can get back to blogging. Yayyy!!!

Second, food!  Christmas 2008 was a bit of an unusual holiday at the Cook house.  M was away for the week and didn’t return until about 7 p.m. on Christmas Day, so most of the presents and stuff happened at night instead of our usual morning.  Also, the food was alot different than normal.  Both of my parents have been working really hard to lose weight and lead a healthier lifestyle, with great results!  Because of this, our Christmas dinner was very veggie-heavy, and actually was 100% vegan outside of the turkey.  It might not seem like alot, but it was really exciting stuff for me!  We had mounds of roasted vegetables: broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, asparagus, and rosemary potatoes.

Here are all the veggies laid out, waiting to be roasted:

 

Then we had to consolidate in order to fit everything in the oven.  Aren’t they gawwwgeous??

 

Here is a picture of the spread, before the turkey came out: there are the veggies of course, plus a quinoa dish (with assorted chopped vegetables and spices cooked in), and in the pear thingy was the most delicious squash soup (made with onions, roasted garlic, broccoli and cauliflower stems, and butternut squash), which my Daddy invented (no pic of the soup itself…but you get the idea.  It was orange.) 

 

As for dessert, traditionally every year M and I spend all of Christmas Eve day baking cookies to bring to our neighbors and friends.  The cookies we always used to make weren’t vegan, with the exception of one: Betty Crocker’s gingerbread!  I was so pleased last year when I realized I could continue to make this holiday favorite. 

 

Since M wasn’t here this year to bake with me, I didn’t go too overboard, but I did make sure to carry on one Cook family tradition, the Tiny Tim gingerbread cookie.  I think this originated 2-3 years ago, when M and I were cutting out the cookies and she accidentally cut off one of their legs.  For whatever reason, we called the cookie Tiny Tim (though I’m aware that Tiny Tim’s ailment had nothing to do with having only one leg!) and every year we make one.  So here he is. 

 

Our other dessert was Gingered Pear Crisp, which I believe is from Eat, Drink, & Be Vegan.  I didn’t have the foresight to bring any of my cookbooks home with me for the holidays, so I got the recipe off of Dreena’s blog. 

 

The pear crisp was delish; I loved the flavor of all the spices in it, and the topping was addictive.  If I made it again, I’d definitely use a different sort of pear (maybe Bosc or really ripe Bartletts), because the d’Anjou pears I used were a little too firm for my liking, even after baking.  I guess I wanted it to have more of a gooey texture like apple crisp, and I think altering the type of pear could make the difference.  Still, a really yummy and festive dessert!

I’m on break for another week and I’ve been cooking up a storm, so I’ll definitely have more posts to make.  Also, I used a Christmas present (Amazon giftcard!) to finally purchase The Everyday Vegan, and I’m really excited to start cooking out of that as soon as it arrives!