Celebrate!

As I mentioned, Sunday marked my two year Blogiversary and was also an early Labor Day celebration. I made lots of yummy food, attempting to make up for last week’s family dinner flop. I didn’t get real fancy, but I made sure it was a great meal. I did the traditional end of summer grilling party with Susan V’s Barbecue Ribz and all the sides.

The ribz were something Chase had been wanting, and I made them extra special with his favorite homemade barbecue sauce. Since these are pure gluten I didn’t eat any, but I know most of you have made these and love them. Having never bought, eaten, or even seen vegan ribz before, I didn’t really know what I was supposed to be making. I don’t think I did them quite right, but since there were NO leftovers, I guess I got lucky and got it right.



For our sides I made:

Broccoli and Potato Salad. It was super duper and if you would like my recipe, it is posted here.

Wasabi Coleslaw, a recipe adapted from Anna at cookiemadness.net. Great flavor in a crispy and refreshing salad. I’ve posted my recipe here.

Fresh Fruit Salad, put together from what I had on hand, which was mango, kiwi, strawberries, a pear, and a nectarine.

Homemade Pintos. These were my protein and the leftovers will go on my lunch salads I take to work.

Cornbread, the Damn Tasty! recipe, with green onions and red jalapenos added in.

A baked Mexican style dip, a test recipe from the Happy Herbivore. I topped it with fresh chopped tomatoes, green onions, and cilantro. This is FANtastic! Some corn tortilla chips dunked into this dip is heavenly. As a topping over our pintos and cornbread - awesome.

By the way, Lindsay, the Happy Herbivore, has put together a little e-cookbook which includes this recipe. Please visit her site to get your copy!

It occurred to me that for someone who usually provides a *table shot* of my dinners, I really don’t set a very pretty table. I guess I’m too casual for that. I hope you don’t mind.

My plate – salad, salad, salad, beans, bread - perfect for me.

Banana pudding and/or peach cobbler are the traditional post-barbecue desserts. Well, peach season is over and all my bananas are frozen, so I came up with a trio of desserts that resided happily on a plate in perfect harmony. I made ED&BV’s Cashew Banana Ice Cream, Rice Krispy Peanutty Wafers, and Celine’s Brownie Cupcakes. I wish I had gotten a better plating and photo because it was top notch.

The Brownie Cupcakes are excellent, moist and chocolaty, but not densely fudgy. I had some really nice black cherry preserves in my version and they imparted a nice deep flavor. And I substituted in gluten free flour with no problem. Of course the Banana Ice Cream is always fabulous.

And the Wafers – you gotta try these! It’s so easy. Just mix together one cup rice krispies, ½ cup chopped peanuts, and 3 T. corn syrup, then add a pinch of salt. Spread onto a lightly greased baking pan and bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Remove to a cold baking sheet while still warm. When completely cool, break into large pieces. It’s almost like peanut brittle without all the sticky sugar.

So… redemption for Sunday dinner!