chocolate truffles-all kinds

 rolled in pecans, roasted almonds, cinnamon-sugar, coconut, cocoa powder

dinner party!

so, we had a dinner party and i totally forgot to take pictures before we served up the food. but i remembered just in time before jeff started noshing so i snapped up a quick photo of his plate after he had already started eating-whew...(he is such a good sport!). it doesn't really represent, but it's better than nothing. :)
on the menu:
chickpea/seitan cutlets
potato, veggie, portabello mushroom stuffed turnovers(with yummy crust)
shallot & portabello mushroom gravy
squash
-all on this disheveled plate-

 and for dessert:
an awesome lemon coconut bundt cake(made by my talented daughter)

 and double chocolate pistachio biscotti

i did it! i faced my fear of the cast iron skillet deep fry!

this had been the one thing keeping me from trying to make vegan raised donuts.  i managed to do it without burning the whole house down! i did it v e r y c a r e f u l l y, k i d s.
let me just say, it is taking everything in my being, on a molecular level, to keep myself from jumping over there and diving into one of the whole ones. the kids and i already polished off the holes. we are waiting for jeff to come home before we dig into the others. cause that's only fair. donuts for dinner tonight-can i get an amen?!

red velvet cake

all the other posts on here have been added recently-basically right after i  made them. there have been a few other things i forgot to take pictures of, like my double chocolate molten (vegan)marshmallow cookies. those were phenomenal, which is probably why everyone was too busy eating them to remember to take a picture. i will make those again soon. promise. but i just had to put something colorful on here, seeing as how i having been making lots of brownish colored foods lately with  warm, cozy, spices and cinnamons and such. in fact, i also made applesauce cake and zucchini bread this week but i didn't post the pics because of this very reason. more brownish cinnamon-y foods.

so i pulled this red velvet cake out of my bag. i made this for my husband's birthday(in march). he loooves red velvet cake and i considered it my personal challenge to veganize it for our fam but also to make it WITHOUT the nasty, awful, horrible red dye. i don't use artificial food colorings. so, yes, here it is, sans red dye!

freeform (let's call it "rustic") pear tart

i made this one up. i winged it and made a yummy sauce with spices and nuts and sugar underneath the pears. and, it's my first crust ever. it turned out great! btw, it was about 11x14 or something.

apple pecan spice muffins

oh my goodness i love rugelach

 

oh, the glorious yet humble rugelach. sometimes overlooked by lovers of fancy-schmancy desserts as common, whose flavor and impact is often underestimated. but not by me. i have a food crush on rugelach. for others who might not get so fluttery when they look at this picture, i should add that half this batch was blackberry/chocolate/pecan and the other half was pumpkin/chocolate/pecan. heaven. oh, serious heaven.

pumpkin chocolate chip cookies

 

there's a yummy vegan treat coming in the mail to the first person who leaves a comment with the CORRECT answer to this question: what's up with the dish holding these yummy pumpkin puffs?

cute pig enjoying pumpkins at the Poplar Springs Animal Sanctuary

red quinoa, shallot and portabello sauteed kale with fresh tomatoes and toasted walnuts

vanilla almond biscotti dipped in chocolahtay!