A very vegan Christmas - the food.

Well, Christmas has come and gone so quicky, but I'm still trying to hold onto the lingering essence of what's left. This Christmas, I decided to make some really delicious food to take to my family's house, but I also decided to make a special vegan breakfast. The dish is called Pain Perdu and it means "lost bread" in French. It's essentially a decadent version of French Toast. I got the recipe from the Urban Vegan and it will be featured in her upcoming book that should be out in the fall of 2009.

Here's a photo of it. It's pairs perfectly with a drizzle of organic agave nectar.




I woke up extra early to surprise my partner to a Christmas breakfast table. I took our little rosemary tree and adorned it with tiny ornaments, lights, and a golden butterfly on top! He had no idea I was doing this :) It worked out perfectly because I needed something to do while the breakfast was cooking.




Fortunately, since I am testing recipes for the Urban Vegan's new cookbook, I had a couple really special dishes that I got to make for dinner. I started out making pastitsio, which is a traditional greek pasta dish with some really unique flavors. It incorporates two different sauces, one of which is a delicious bechamel sauce.

Here is the vegan bechamel sauce...




This is the pastitsio all finished. It actually should have been about double the height, but I spread it out across a very large pan to make it look like more. (That's an old restaurant trick.)




Another main dish I served was the Field Roast of course! If you have never had a Field Roast, I HIGHLY recommend that you go buy one immediately. It's perhaps the most delicious vegan roast you will ever taste in your life. While I do enjoy Tofurkey too, this one takes home the gold! I served it up with my yummy, easy vegan gravy that is super quick to whip up and uses hardly any ingredients. I will post a video and the recipe for this shortly.




As a side, I roasted up some potatoes with some rosemary and nutritional yeast. I will post the recipe for this shortly.




Here's one of everything all plated up.




I had quite a few special treats for dessert. Although, I did forget to take pictures of my cookies and macaroons before I ate them all :( I did though get to take a lovely photo of the BEST vegan tiramisu I have ever put into my mouth. It's another test recipe for the Urban Vegan and I think you need to get the book just for this recipe. I have NEVER had a vegan tiramisu that tasted like the real thing, but this is IT.




And here is a little dessert plate featuring nutmeg cake, pumpkin pie, carrot cake, and a scoop of vanilla soy cream.



Well, if that wasn't a complete vegan schmorgasboard, then I don't know what is. I will be posting the recipes for some of this stuff in the very near future, but my next post will be part two of a very vegan Christmas. I will move onto the gifts. I got a ton of great, new kitchen gadgets that I'm excited to break into. Until then, be vegan!

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