I'm sorry...hopefully you will take me back

I've been neglecting this blog. It's not you...it's me. Really. Life in December in this house was a little crazy and I never quite found the time to get to it. I thought I would start back up in the new year all refreshed with lots of time but so far life hasn't co-operated. But enough excuses, I'm back and hopefully will be better at keeping up with this because I do really enjoy it!

Christmas around here was an exciting one. Our little one is four and he was just about the most excited I've ever seen for Christmas. We started our countdown back in November and there were actual tears shed when it felt like it was just too far away. We have a few traditions around our house that we enjoy over the holidays. We decorate gingerbread houses together and make some cookies for Santa of course! This year we made Santa some squirrel shaped gingerbread. The big guy was pretty impressed with them, said it was a first!

We had Christmas Day dinner here with Ryan's parents and brother and had our second annual pierogi supper. I totally didn't think to take any pictures but we had pierogis (using my modified version of pierogi from Vegan Brunch by Isa Chandra Moskowitz) with fried onions and cabbage on the side, lots of broccoli (Mac's favourite vegetable might I brag) with two kinds of dipping sauces (sour dill cream and a spicy horseradish dip). We followed it up with homemade ice cream for dessert. Mac went with his favourite of cookie (speculoos) ice cream with two cookies, as did I. The rest were a mix of Mocha Almond Fudge and Cookie both getting rave reviews. Ice cream is kinda my thing now. I keep using Carla Kelly's vanilla base formula to create all kinds of different flavours like most recently Peanut Butter which is crazy delicious especially with a scoop of chocolate!

After Christmas Day, Mac's excitement turned to New Year's Day and counting down to that and also the next time Nana and Papa were coming over for supper! I have never been a big New Years' fan by any means but watching him get all excited about it helped me get into it too. I planned a big meal of homemade Chinese takeout favourites for our New Year's Day supper and even made homemade fortune cookies to finish it off. We had (purchased) spring rolls, fried won tons, fried rice, "beef" and broccoli and veggie stir fry. I was so into the won tons I didn't even eat the spring rolls on my plate which are usually my favourite part. I will admit that two hours later I was sneaking down to the kitchen to find them though...

I also tested throughout the holidays for the different books I'm testing for. Probably not as much as I would have if it weren't so busy I did make Hazelnut Orange Blossom Baklava (which Mac helped me make as the butter guy), Spinach Coriander Roti and Coconut Bean Curry, Drunken Noodle Saga (Pad Kee Mao) and a giant feast of Ethiopian food (all tests for Terry Hope Romero). I also made some excellent spice mixes for Joni's upcoming crafty book as well as some preserves, cookies and muffins all of which have been enjoyed and rarely photographed.

 





And last but certainly not least...Vegansaurus brought Falachos to my attention courtesy of No Face Plate (truly a food genius and I still want to try the Fawaffles) and sweet damn these are tasty! Mine are not nearly as pretty as theirs and are missing some of what they had but I really wanted to try them out and went with what I had on hand. Mine have curry roasted chickpeas, garlic mayo (Vegenaise with fresh minced garlic and a bit of lemon juice), chopped tomatoes and red onions, tahini sauce (thinned tahini with lemon juice, water, garlic and salt), chopped pickles (made for the best bites) and kalamata olives all on a bed of homemade pita chips with the seasonings suggested in the original recipe. I can't believe I never thought to do this but I know I will be doing it again!

P.S. Ryan and I are both drooling now after writing this and looking at the pictures, thinking about these and wishing this is what is for lunch! And I may have just uttered "I wanna put my face in that!"