Monday, February 7, 2011

Our Holiday Dinner 2009

This post comes over a year late :( 2010 has come and gone, but I'm just now getting together all the recipes that we used for our 2009 holiday dinner. It wasn't until three months ago when preparing for this past year's dinner that we realized we never got around to completing our blog posts for last year's party! Although many of the recipes have been reused and the overall format of the dinner is the same, there are a few unique menu items from last year's dinner that should still be remembered in case we'd like to use them in the future. So, after long last, here is the menu from our 2009 holiday dinner!

Many of the recipes have already been posted, and those that have not will be posted in upcoming blog posts!



Aperitif
Spiced Cider (hard and virgin)
What better way to warm up from the cold with some spiced cider? Add a little (or a lot) of rum, and you’ll be warm and toasty in no time!


Appetizers
Vegan Chopped Liver and Vegan Caviar
These appetizers are so easy to make and go well with crudites and crackers! Arguably more popular than their non-vegan versions, too :)


Soup
Spiced Butternut Squash & Carrot Soup
What a great orange color! Served with a hearty dollop of sour cream :)


Salad
Poached Pear Salad
For the second year of our holiday dinner, the only modification we made from year one was that we used a sherry vinegar in the dressing.


Main Course
Acorn Squash with Apple, Sage, and Quinoa Stuffing, served with Field Roast Apple Sage Sausages
For 2009, we decided to increase the amount of stuffing we made but decrease the number of squashes to stuff them in! The result: squashes overflowing with stuffing and eagerly eaten by out dinner guests!

Fennel Spiced Flatbread with Apricot Fig Chutney and Smoked Tofu Bacon
The main dish for the 2009 holiday dinner was this flatbread, whose recipe we learned at one of the vegetarian classes at The Chopping Block. The original recipe called for goat cheese, but we decided to use a tofu bacon instead.


Sides
Mustard & Maple Glazed Brussels Sprouts and Cauliflower
For the second year running, we used the recipe we learned from the Vegetarian Thanksgiving class we took at the Chopping Block. We added cauliflower to the recipe in equal parts to the Brussles sprouts, just to give the dish a little extra depth.

Wild Mushroom and Green Bean Casserole with herbed croutons
Instead of roasted vegetables, we decided to do a vegan version of green bean casserole. Pretty!


Dessert
For this holiday dinner, our dessert menu featured a quartet of homemade pies as well as some assorted items contributed by our good friend Lake :) The first four desserts listed below were made by David and myself. The rest were the delicious treats Lake prepared for our dinner! I will not be posting the recipes for Lake's contributions, since we had no part in making them... If you *really* want to know how they were made, you may have better luck bugging him yourself ;-) Here’s the link to his blog.

Sweet Potato Pie
Once again, we used the vegan version of the sweet potato pie we learned to make at the Vegetarian Thanksgiving Class at the Chopping Block.


Apple Pie
We debuted our homemade classic apple pie at this holiday dinner. Very delicious!

Mince Pie
The third part of our quartet of pies is an assorted spiced fruit pie. Warm and light at the same time :)

Chocolate Tofu Mousse with fresh fruit
Obviously not part of the pie assortment, this decadent dark chocolate dip returned for the second year as a nice accompaniment for our fruit platter.


Lake’s Desserts
Pumpkin Pie in a graham cracker crust
The fourth pie of the evening!


Rice Krispy Treats
Made with vegan marshmallows!


Mint Chocolate Landscape Cake
A dessert that’s also a decoration!


Burned Caramel Tree
The dessert centerpiece of the evening!

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