Big Ol' Blog Entry!!

This has been a huge weekend of celebrations in my family. My cousin was married on Sunday and today was my grandfather's 90th birthday party! Add all that fun to the fact that we are leaving tomorrow morning for a month... and that's why I missed a couple days of blogging! But I'm back with lots of fun photos:
My cousin's wedding was really beautiful and fun... but since this is vegan food blog, I'll stick to the subject! The food was great! The meal had many vegan options... a delicious spinach/bell pepper/walnut salad, roasted organic tomatoes with basil, vegan polenta with white beans and sage, veggie kabobs, and ... most amazingly ... a veritable smorgasborg of VEGAN CAKE for dessert!!! Here in Santa Cruz, we are most blessed to have the esteemed Black China Bakery, masters of vegan cake. My sweet cousin, even though she is not a vegan, liked the idea of selecting vegan cakes so that our aunt and I could enjoy them. Isn't that just amazing?? My family is so accepting and supportive and loving about my aunt and I being vegans, we are so grateful. So, the wedding cakes: there were so many flavors: chocolate mocha, carrot cake, coconut cake, chocolate raspberry cake, chocolate cake, lemon cake... I must admit, I had two slices! hee hee.

Today, at my grandfather's fun-tabulous party, all the food was vegan except for a cheese platter. Isn't that cool? We had about 150 guests there. My grandfather is one of the most amazing people ever, everyone who meets him is enveloped by his grace and charisma. For this party, my aforementioned vegan aunt and I did the menu planning... This is a great technique that I really recommend to any vegans out there. My aunt and I find that when we do the cooking and menu planning, people are just so happy to be fed that they don't mind if it's all vegan. Plus, then they learn how tasty vegan food is & over time they resist it less & less... and soon, they don't resist it at all!

So, at the party we had some majorly delicious food: Hummus with flatbread & pita, Tomato & Cucumber Salad (from Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen), Jewel Salad (pecans, brown rice, grapes, parseley, ... and a few other goodies - very good), crackers, grapes, raw almonds, a fruit platter, a veggie platter, quinoa salad with dried fruit (from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone), a roasted veggie salad (baby potatoes, summer squashes, cherry tomatoes, onions, mushrooms...), and serious mess of bruschetta. It was so delicious and plentiful. Oh yeah, and there was a cheese plate, which I turned a blind eye to!

And here's the huge birthday cake! Once again, all vegan! It's from the Black China Bakery too, and it's carrot cake flavor. This cake singlehandedly expanded many people's definition of "vegan" today. It was winning people over left and right!

And tonight, with an empty fridge, we went out to Dharma's, one of Santa Cruz's most well-known vegetarian restaurants. I had a big bowl of chili, which Blogger doesn't want me to upload - so you will just have to imagine it! I'm taking off tomorrow, and I might make an update or two... but in the meantime check out our travel blog: balkanadventure.blogspot.com

!!