Our Elegant Spa Party

Some friends and I have recently begun to host a monthly get-together where we all use our talents for the enjoyment of our guests (and their friends).  Between us, we have an asthetician who does waxing and other spa treatments, a hair stylist who does awesome cutting, a professional masseuse who's always very in demand, and a professional psychic (that's me!).  Since the spa and hair specialists are next door neighbors, we use their apartments and just keep the door open between the two of them.

I haven't made a lot of money at this gig, but it sure has been fun!  Since two of the ladies are hosting (and have to get everything ready), I've been given the honorary chef's hat.  Last month, I made stuffed mushrooms and a veggie sushi platter (which, unfortunately, I got nooooo good pictures of!), along with some luscious fruit skewers of strawberry, papaya, and kiwi.  But this month I really wanted to do something elegant.

My savory dish was mini-quiche in two flavors: Lorraine and Florentine.  They were very easy to do, and lent a very "elegant teatime" vibe to my vintage goodies tray.  (I used a Bisquick recipe, though substituted Jiffy mix; worked great!)  For the fruit portion of the spread, I decided to make parfaits with a fruit dip which was once said to "drive everyone mad with lust!"  I ordered plastic wine cups from Oriental Trading Company and they made wonderful little parfait glasses.

We also had some simple cheese and crackers -- some nice pepper jack and yummy Babybels paired with the most scrumptious rosemary crackers I've ever tasted.  Carr's rosemary crackers are amazing; if you haven't had 'em yet -- definitely pick some up the next time you get a cracker craving!  Another party guest brought some pineapple platters featuring a stunning array of fresh tasty crudites with two kinds of hummus.  My favorite is the garlic lover's, YUM! :)

All in all, it was a really fun afternoon!  If you live in the Boston area and want to be invited, feel free to let me know.  Our website is at http://www.DawnSoul.com and we always have room for another friend. :)

The Incredible Edible Vegg!

I came across a recipe for vegan egg yolks on The Airy Way.  Usually I just do a tasty tofu scramble with my "secret ingredients," but I thought Zoa's take on vegan egg-style meal was really innovative!  The pictures were so tempting, and the idea of making a tofu "egg white" with a yellow "yolk" just couldn't be filed away for too long.  And yes, there was a footnote about people finding the ingredients to be "gross" -- which, I must admit, I kinda did!  But my curiosity outweighed the gross factor, and I'm so glad it did, because I discovered that it's actually pretty good.  So try it, maybe you'll like it too!

Here are the ingredients from Zoa's blog:

Vegan egg yolk (makes 2 yolks)

1/2 tbsp Veganaise
1/2 tbsp carrot juice (if you don't have carrot juice, just finely grate a carrot and squeeze the juice out of it)
2 tbsp vegetable broth (or 2 tbsp water and 1/4 tsp nutritional yeast)
1 tbsp Earth Balance*
1 tsp cornstarch

(*Admittedly, I did not vegan-ize this recipe all the way.  All I had was "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter," please don't be mad at me!)

The real technique can be found if you click on the Airy Way link above.  The recommended microwaving time is in 5-second increments, which I failed to remember while I was doing my cooking (I had only written down the ingredients.)  As it was, I just mixed everything together -- using the water/nutritional yeast method -- and microwaved it in 20 second increments, whisking the hell out of it after each pass.  I think it took me two 20-second passes in the microwave.  You might need a third, depending on how hot your microwave cooks.  Or you can just follow Zoa's directions and do it correctly. ;)

After I first mixed everything together, I must admit that it that it looked pretty ho-riffic.  I began to have some second thoughts, but decided to press on!

Yeah, it's not a pretty picture.  If it looks like this, you're (unfortunately)
 doing it right.  But... keep going.  It gets better, I promise! :)

After the first 20-second pass in the microwave, I whisked the hell out of it, then did another pass.  It mellowed into a beautiful golden egg-yolk yellow shade.  The consistency was smooth and velvety, with just a hint of lumps from the carrot I grated to get the carrot juice.  And incidentally, I would not recommend omitting the carrot juice from this recipe; I must admit that I don't taste it much at all, but it really does help impart a beautiful eggy color to the finished product.

Somehow, everything melted and melded together
into a beautiful "vegg yolk" starter!

Zoa carved a hole into the tofu and then in a separate post (here) recommended microwaving the tofu before filling the hole with the "yolk" -- it makes the wet tofu give up its water a lot more efficiently, and become more eggy in texture.  I carved my yolk holes, and did my best to shape the tofu.  Mine weren't even remotely as pretty as hers, but hey, I tried!

Yum!  It's not just for breakfast anymore!

The blog posting also recommended that the yolk mixture made a good sauce on its own as well, so for the rest of my 'fu, I made another batch -- only this time, at the end, I added a dash of Montreal seasoning and a packet of True Lemon.  Viola... I Can't Believe It's Not Hollandaise! ;)

All in all, I'd give this experiment a good solid B+.  I'll give it another shot sometime and make it an even better grade in the future.