festive feelings
vegan birthday nachos and peppermint cake
It’s Friday again, and here we are, somehow only two weeks from Christmas Eve? It feels like I blinked and four months just disappeared. And I’ll probably be working on my gift knitting right up until the 23rd, just like last year (though hopefully the knitting will be somewhat improved). The weekend nearest my birthday is always when I traditionally put up the holiday decor— you can put yours up whenever you feel it’s appropriate, but for me, it’s never acceptable until the first week of December. This year was exciting, because we got to put up some of the things that we couldn’t in the past because the cats might destroy them, like a felt advent calendar Jeff’s mom made when he and his sister were kids, where you add a different ornament to the tree each day. Speaking of trees, our little potted pine is having its third Christmas with us, and it’s noticeably bigger this year!
The weather’s been unusually cold (for Vancouver) and we even had our first snow this past Monday. Although we apparently are in for another rain storm, I think the decidedly wintery temperatures combined with the idea that we might actually see our families this year has made people feel extra festive. I for one can’t wait to go shopping with my mom this weekend, and maybe hit up an artisanal market or two before settling in to watch of all my favourite seasonally-appropriate movies while wrapping gifts and baking cookies. I’ll have one of my cookie recipes in next week’s newsletter, and in case you missed it last week, you can check out my gift guide here.
I was so happy to be able to host my preferred birthday party of movies and dinner at my house with a few friends, which obviously did not happen last year. With work being so busy I didn’t have much time for planning or cooking, so I knew I wouldn’t be making, say, a multi-dish Indian feast like I have done in the past. But I chose my movies (School of Rock, New Waterford Girl, and Palm Springs) and assembled the components for build-your-own vegan nachos: a cashew queso sauce, guacamole, spicy lentil ‘meat’, and pico de gallo, with green onions and cilantro for garnish.
The lentils and queso are recipes in Isa Does It and are excellent; the lentils come from a taco filling, and the queso from a Tex-Mex rice bowl. I usually like to add sliced black olives to my nachos, but I forgot to put them out this time (just as well, since there was at least one known olive hater in attendance) and didn’t notice because they were still so tasty and satisfying. I like these vegan nachos at least as much, if not more than the traditional style! We all ate more than we really needed to, because that is the way with nachos.
I knew I wouldn’t have time to make a cake before the party on Saturday, so when Malloreigh asked if there was anything she should bring, I asked if she would pick up some donuts from Cartems since there’s one near them. I’m glad we abandoned the weird cupcake craze of the early ‘10s and settled into the rightful reign of fancy donuts, because they are clearly the superior treat. Cartems is great because their donuts are vegan unless they have a cream filling, and all their signature flavours are also available gluten free. So I was thrilled when Mal and Amy arrived with a box of almost a dozen different flavours for us to cut into pieces and share (I got to keep the leftovers, but my first choices were Nanaimo bar and sufganiyot).
On Sunday (my actual birthday) my dad called just as Jeff and I were deciding where to go for dinner, and he offered to take us out, so I made a reservation for the four of us at Farina a Legna. Because my dad’s partner Sharon is on chemotherapy, it wasn’t really safe to visit until everyone was vaccinated, and then once we all were, time just slipped away, so I actually hadn’t seen them since January of 2020. They came by the house before dinner and we had a glass of Unsworth Charme de L’Ile— the bottle is a graphic design nightmare, but it’s a deliciously dry and complex sparkling rosé.
At dinner we shared a bottle of negroamaro and a bowl of mixed olives, and ordered two pizzas and two pastas. I was sad to hear that they’d sold out of burrata for the pizza special, but the pasta feature with braised fennel, their trademark fennel sausage, and marinara was fantastic. I got the funghi pizza which was also excellent (we haven’t ordered it before because the cream base sauce is a bit much for Jeff), and finished off with an affogato with pistachio ice cream, aka the platonic ideal of dessert. Sharon hadn’t had affogato before and it was such a delight to see how much she enjoyed it. I didn’t take any photos of this night because we were having too nice a time!
Jeff gifted me a bâtard shape banneton and an offset spatula, both of which I got to use this week. I made a beautiful sourdough loaf, maybe not as rustic-looking as a boule, but it’s great for those times you don’t want the most giant sandwich of your life. I marinated some tofu in a garlicky mustard marinade, and baked it to put in sandwiches with lettuce and tomato. To go with it, a kale salad made using the leftovers of last week’s charred leek vinaigrette, some radish, apple, cheddar, and pistachios. While I was putting things away after eating, I noticed the pomegranate seeds which I’d pulled out of the fridge and forgotten to put on the salad when I was plating— heartbreaking! But because Jeff got home later, he at least got to have some.
I made myself a slightly belated birthday cake and got to try out a better way to ice it using the offset spatula (ie. without getting icing all over my hand and sleeve). Each Friday in December, Alicia Kennedy has been publishing holiday recipes for paid subscribers, and when I saw the vegan peppermint bark sheet cake, I knew immediately that was what I was going to make. White chocolate I can take or leave, and generally leave, but when you combine it with mint? Unstoppable. The cake was easy to make and uses large amounts of vanilla and peppermint extracts, which I respect. Refined coconut oil gives the cake a slightly fluffier texture once it’s cooled (compared to vegan cakes made with vegetable or canola oil). I chose to make a thicker cake using an 8” pan instead of a sheet pan, so my cooking time was a little longer, but it came out looking great.
The icing uses cocoa butter to impart a white chocolate flavour, and this wasn’t something I’d worked with before. I did have difficulty getting the cocoa/coconut milk/oil mixture to re-blend after chilling— it was just so solid, the food processor did little more than move it around. I had to let it sit for about half an hour to soften back up before it was able to blend with the sugar, but the texture came out well and it was more chocolatey than I expected (okay that’s a lie, I didn’t know what to expect). I’d bought some candy cane pieces at Bulk Barn for maximum festive decoration, and the experience of eating this cake was extremely magical. Perfect crumb, chocolate-minty goodness, and crunchy candy bits… well deserved after my recent bundt fail.
Also this week, we roasted an enormous winter squash and made squash burritos again (with pinto beans and rice this time), and some squash-carrot soup with coconut milk, cilantro, and curry. The other half of the squash is in the freezer for later. Oh, and I made the perfect oven fries, pictured at the top of this newsletter, which felt like the universe was rewarding me for how hard I worked last week.
Media:
The idea of who can own a recipe comes up again and again, and this article by Priya Krishna covers all the finer points of why it’s so complex, what can be copyrighted when it comes to food, and who stands to lose the most. Recipes are for sharing, but when a recipe creator sees someone else profiting off their hard work and storytelling, things can get pretty dicey. As one lawyer puts it, “It is more of an ethical issue than it is a legal issue,” which means that when it comes to recipes, in a lot of cases it’s simply up to readers and publishers, not courts, to decide what does and does not constitute original material.
I also read this lovely and for me, highly relatable, essay by Helena Fitzgerald: “When Everything’s Wrong, Only Baked Pasta Feels Right”. This piece perfectly encapsulates the feeling of needing to immerse yourself in something that requires your attention, but maybe not a lot of precision or careful timing. The author encourages relishing the warmth and comfort of a large dish of cheesy carbs and sauce when it comes out of the oven, and the security of knowing you have leftovers in the fridge or freezer to keep you from feeling overwhelmed. Additionally, giving food to someone who is struggling or grieving is something tangible and helpful when nothing you can do seems sufficient:
“Handing someone a lasagna feels like the exact opposite of limply saying, “I’m so sorry that happened.” It is heavy enough to act as an anchor.”
People joke about all the casseroles you receive in a time of grief, when you often can’t imagine eating ever again, but sooner or later, you’re going to get hungry. And instead of having to engage in the defeating task of thinking of something to make and then making it, your friend’s homemade mac and cheese, which you stuffed in the freezer a week ago, will be there for you.
Thanks for reading— if you enjoyed this newsletter, please share it with someone new! I like providing this to you for free, but it does still involve time and effort, so donations I can use towards cookbooks or future treats are much appreciated. Anyway, we all know brands on Twitter are largely insufferable, but every now and then, one of them gets in a perfect dunk.