And then on Saturday night, I went over to Stephanie's new house in Cordova for game night with my friends. We played Cards Against Humanity, and Stephanie went all out with the food. She made Eggplant Caponata, which was excellent on slices of toasted baguette.
These Mini Vegan Chicken Salad Sandwiches were amazing. I only ate one so I'd have room for other food, but I wish I would have had more.
There was a trio of Hummus with Garlic Naan Chips.
And Mini Cucumber & Cream Cheese Sandwiches and Mini Radish & Butter Sandwiches. The radish sandwich sounded weird, but it was so good. And now I'm craving more. I never know what to do with radishes besides adding them to salads.
She sat out some Heidi Ho Smoky Chia Cheeze with Crackers. I ended up mixing the caponata with the chia cheeze on baguette slices, and it was delish.
But the star of the show were the Scones & Vegan Clotted Cream. This is my very favorite thing that Stephanie makes, and I bug her all the time to make them for me. It's been about a year since she last made them for a party, so this was long overdue.
I fixed up two scone halves with the cream and Stephanie's homemade Strawberry Balsamic Black Pepper Jam and her Blueberry Lavender Jam. I never had clotted cream before going vegan, so I can't speak for that. But vegan clotted cream is basically the best thing in the world.
On Sunday morning, I woke up early and had a leftover scone. Stephanie sent me home with a couple and a container of the clotted cream. I had these with wild lingonberry fruit spread and lemon fruit spread. I enjoyed these while watching Lost on Netflix.
And then it was time to head to Cassi's birthday brunch at Deja Vu Creole & Vegetarian Restaurant. She didn't want to do anything for her birthday this year, but we made her at least do brunch. Deja Vu only serves beer, so we brought our own champagne. All this champagne for six people! And yes, we drank it all. (By the way, I cannot speak for the vegan-ness of any of these brands. I'm not always that great at making sure the booze I'm drinking is vegan, especially when it comes to wine).
I ordered the Curry Tofu with a side of Collard Greens (not pictured). Fried, coconutty, curry goodness.
I was going to bake Cassi a cookie cake, but she ended up baking her own birthday cake. She does own a vegan bakery after all. But then she left it in the freezer at the bakery, so we didn't have cake at brunch. And that was just fine because I really didn't need any more sweets after all those scones.
After brunch, I went home and took a champagne nap. And then I got up and got busy — cleaning my car inside and out, weeding my garden, doing laundry, cleaning out my fridge, and stocking my new deep freezer. Whew! Busy afternoon, but I got so much done.
I'm pretty bad at checking if my booze is vegan too. Especially since I am not getting into cocktails, a lot of the liquors and brandies, and whatever else tend not to be checked by Barnivore. So I kind-of have to guess. I am really into passing laws that make booze more like foods, and have them list ingredients, because I am learning there is a lot of smoke and mirrors going on to try and keep recipes secret.
ReplyDeleteThat food looks amazing! I am curious to try that vegan clotted creme.
Yup! I'm struggling with some of the booze, too! I have found a few local wineries that I can talk to in great length about the processes and clarifiers they use. SO that's good. And my father makes some and will let me know which ones he uses now too! According to a few sites I have read many of the beers I enjoy happen to be vegan friendly so that's good but I am sure I have slipped up! Once I know I will stay away from that product thereafter.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a fun weekend! I don't usually pay too much attention to the vegan-ness of booze. If things were labeled better, that would be a different story.
ReplyDeleteI loved Grace and Frankie!
Sounds like a great weekend! I'm not very good at making sure my booze is vegan either. The wine I buy from our local supermarkert is usually vegan as they're really good at labelling their wines. But when I'm out at the pub I fail. Anyhoo, great eats as always.
ReplyDeleteVery nice article, thanks for sharing.
ReplyDelete