Paul's 32nd Birthday Dip Party!

I'm a sucker for a theme. When I throw house parties, I usually encourage my guests to dress in  crazy costumes, usually something dead: zombies, dead bougy Victorians, etc. But for Paul's 32nd birthday, we went with a more abstract theme: Last Birthday Ever! You know, since the world is ending later this year and all.

We couldn't really think of costumes for that, but I knew one thing. If the world is ending, I wanna stuff my face with chips and dips before it's all said and done. So we had a dip party!! I made Paul's favorite Black Bean Habanero Dip and purchased some salsa (to save time):

This is just two cans of black beans (drained and rinsed) processed with a generous scoop of minced garlic, about 1/4 cup of salsa, and three habanero peppers. It sounds spicy, but it wasn't really hot at all ... at least not for our tastes. Paul had to add extra habaneros to his portion for desired spiciness.

I also made the Warm Chili Con Queso from 500 Vegan Recipes:

It looks a little like brains here, but I swear it's delicious. It's a TVP-based chili with pinto beans, vegan sour cream, nooch, and soymilk for creaminess.

Of course, you don't have to have chips for dips. Paul also loves to dip things in peanut satay sauce, so I made the Ginger Tofu Satay with Simple Thai Peanut Sauce from 500 Vegan Recipes:

The tofu got stuck to my indoor grill, so it wasn't super pretty. But again, looks can be deceiving. The marinated 'fu was awesome dipped in the peanut sauce. If I make this again though, I'm adding less scallions to the sauce. It was a tad to onion-y for some guests (but I didn't mind the onions).

My friend Shay teaches cooking classes at Viking Culinary School, and it just so happened that her class made a Black Bean Mango Salsa on Saturday. So she brought a cup of that to share. It was light and refreshing (and there were avocados in it!):

And my friend Mike brought some more of his bomb-ass Daiya Cheddar Queso. He made this for a potluck last weekend, and everyone loved it so much that he brought more. He simply melts Daiya shreds with a little almond milk and Ro-Tel, and it's divine!!

For his birthday cake, Paul requested a Chocolate Cake with Birthday Cake Oreo Frosting:

Since Oreo released it's limited-edition Birthday Cake Oreos, we've been eating the heck out of them. I wish they weren't only available for a limited time. :-(

Anyway, for the cake, I used this recipe from VegWeb that I found on Yeah, That Vegan Shit. This may have been the most moist chocolate cake I've ever made. It was so amazing topped with buttercream laced with smashed Birthday Cake Oreos.