Melty, Stringy, Awesome.

At first, the blog post was going chatter on about the Indian feast I made for some buddies. But first, I must talk about Daiya vegan cheese. I tossed some Cheddar shreds into Jess' vegan mac and it was creamy and awesome. But nothing, NOTHING beats dinner tonight. I whipped up some impromptu pesto (cashews, nooch, oil, basil, water, s &p) and layered thinly sliced potatoes and small broccoli florets on top. I then proceeded to drown it in mozzarella Daiya. You see, guys, it's been awhile since I've had a true, "cheesy" slice. It's been a long week, so I indulged.


YOU GUYS. My husband, the omni and discerning cheese eater, says this the best pizza I have made in the history of us, vegan or not. That's a huge nod to Daiya. It's creamy and rich and cheesy....sigh. And without all the bellyachin' on my end.

Now, the feast. I love making people food, especially if they're not vegan. Which is admittedly 95% of the people I know in real life (in Portland even!). I bought Robin Robertson's Vegan Fire & Spice due to my husband's urging and decided to cook all my feast out of that. Many hours and pages later, I managed to pull it off and have 3 dishes finish right at 7pm. Here's what I made:

Spiced Potato Salad - this will definitely be making potluck rounds.

Spicy Indian Green Beans - healthiest dish that night

Curried Mushrooms - Crowd Favorite

Lentils in Onion Gravy - very last minute contender, awesome add.

That, my friends, is a lot of food. I fed 5 people that night, two of them being boys with enormous appetites and STILL had leftovers for some partners that couldn't be with us. All involved love the dishes and I highly recommend this book. Everything I've made out of it has been a hit.