Grilling Vegan at the Cookout

In preparation for the summer grilling season, I am learning how best to grill veggie dogs and burgers. (I have never been much of a griller and I only have a charcoal grill to work with) One of the major events on the agenda is a vegan potluck at my new house with the big flat backyard (croquet anyone?). One thing I bought to improve the process is a grill grate to put over the one that comes with the grill. This handy product keeps things from falling through and it has handles to pick it up and out. First step was to make sure we used enough charcoal to cover the bottom and keep the whole top hot. With the hotdogs, we put them on the grate, but had to make sure to watch them carefully and turn quite a bit - they get brown (and burned) pretty quickly. With a toasted bun, mustard, relish - very yummy! The veggie burgers were used frozen. I put some olive oil on both sides of the burger and also sprayed some on the grate so they wouldn't stick. Again with the toasted bun and some ketchup, relish, lettuce, tomato and onion (and those coveted grill marks!!!!) - quite delicious.
So I guess we are ready for the cookout - the others will bring vegan side dishes and we will party.

A 90th Birthday Party

Helped plan and execute a birthday party for my mother-in-law - 90 years old. Despite my serious anxiety about the whole thing - there were going to be 25 people, some meat eaters, some vegetarian and some vegan, ages from 18 months to, well, 90! Now that the party is over and was fun and successful, I can talk about it. A big challenge was the food - I provided 3 versions of lasagna. 1 - with meat, 1 - with cheese only and 1 without cheese or meat, but vegan cheese and vegetables. They were all delicious and seemed to satisfy all comers. Other than that there was a cold cut platter, a vegetable platter, salads from potato, 3 bean to mediterranean, snacks from hummus to salsa and guacamole. Drinks were a champagne punch and a regular non-alcoholic punch - both with rainbow sherbet. For dessert, there was a big bakery cake - (quite beautiful), a vegan chocolate chip pie and a strawberry, blueberry pie. We hung pink streamers from the ceiling and put up 2 shimmery happy birthday signs. The birthday girl is a woman with high standards and her smile at the party was clearly genuine. The whole family was together (a rare event) and a good time was had by all.

She has been on this earth for 90 years

Witnessed many joys and tears

Served her country during WWII

A nurse you would want to be in charge!

Worked hard for her family and hopefully had some fun

We are happy to say, at 90, she is not yet done!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MARY!!!!!

Ok - new subject - today I had a faux chicken salad sandwich for lunch from my favorite vegan restaurant. It was quite delicious, but it left me with the question - if it wasn't chicken what the heck was it. Who needs meat??

Superbowl Menu

This is my SuperBowl menu for a mixed vegan/non-vegan group:
Turkey Subs
Tofurky Subs
Condiment Choices: Cranberry sauce, baby spinach, sliced tomatoes, sliced onion, mayo, mustard
Fruit salad with apple, canteloupe, strawberries, pineapple and banana
Tortilla Chips with guacamole and salsa
Rich chewy vegan brownies with both vegan chocolate chips and cocoa (and of course other vegan ingredients
All attendees raved about the delicious, easy and healthy food. We wanted to watch every minute of the game and the commercials, so wanted the food and drinks to be easy to get and not messy or difficult. I even had the 3-D glasses. That was a great game. I was happy for the Steelers, but was rooting for the underdogs and marveled at some of the great plays by both teams. I spent 4 years in marching band in high school and 1 year in college and never cared about the football game. Many years later - now I love watching it. Maybe next year I'll get out my piccolo and play the 'touchdown' song when my team scores. Unfortunately that may whittle down the attendees for the Superbowl party, eh?