Vegan Holiday Potluck

On Saturday night, I hosted a vegan holiday potluck at my house. It's hopefully the second in a monthly series of vegan potlucks that my friends and I will take turns hosting. I made three recipes from Dynise Balcavage's Celebrate Vegan — Brown Rice Christmas Maki, Peppermint Bark, and a French Hanukkah bread called Rue de Rosier Pain D'Epices. You can see pictures of those dishes in last night's review post of Dynise's new cookbook. But this post will focus on what everybody else brought to the party.

We started the evening with a few libations. I made Peppermint Martinis using vodka and Stirrings Peppermint Martini Mix. And yes, I'm wearing my Xmas apron:

And here's a close-up of my martini. I was afraid the mix would be too minty, like drinking mouthwash. But it was the perfect blend of minty and sweet. The candy rimming sugar is also from Stirrings:

Leslie brought homemade Whiskey Wassail, a spiked cider made with apples, cloves, and a whole orange!

Stephanie (Poopie Bitch on the PPK) brought the Broccoli Quiche from Vegan Brunch. Oh my was this good! Plus, Steph is an expert crust maker. Look at those perfect little indentations!

Greg made Vegan Cheese Balls in Puff Pastry. These may have been ugly as hell, but they were actually delicious. Greg made a homemade tofu-based cheese, sprinkled in some bacon bits, and wrapped the balls in puff pastry. He also stuffed a few potatoes with the cheese mix.

Shay knows I love her Vegan Pizza, so she brought one of her famous pies topped with homemade tomato-shallot sauce, kalamata olives, vegan cheese, and spinach:

And because she's awesome, Shay also made Ratatouille!

Lara didn't have time to cook, but she stopped by Whole Foods and picked up a few dishes that might as well have been homemade. This Asian Noodle Salad had a sesame dressing and shredded carrots:

Lara also picked up some Roasted Acorn Squash with Garlic from the Whole Foods deli:

Mike never comes to a party without his prized Chex Mix, which is always chock full of nuts. I like picking out the macadamia nuts:

Most of my guests were vegan or vegetarian, but our friend Steve is actually on the paleo diet, which is pretty much the opposite of a vegan. He eats like a caveman, but he "cheated" at the potluck and ate a few of his no-no's: grains and sugar. We'll corrupt him one of these days ...

Steve brought a paleo-friendly platter of Raw Date Balls! These little balls were made with chopped dates, nuts, coconut, and cocoa powder. Shay quickly named them Shreddy Balls since some contain shredded coconut:

Besides bringing that awesome broccoli quiche, Stephanie also made tiny Vegan Egg Nog Cupcakes!

And Mike veganized his recipe for Snickerdoodles. Mike is a pescatarian, so he usually makes these with butter and eggs. But he went out to Whole Foods and bought Ener-G Egg Replacer and Earth Balance just for these!

As you can imagine, we were all stuffed after this massive meal. It's a good thing I'm going on Kris Carr's "Crazy Sexy Diet" in January. I'll need some detoxing after all of this!