You may have noticed I’ve been a bit absent as of late. Yeah, um… sorry about that.

In addition to a heavy workload at my day job, a brief vacation (which will be the topic of an article or post somewhere along the way), and preparing for our daughter’s first birthday party, it’s been a hectic time around these parts. Thankfully, things are a little lighter now and I may finally start catching up on things.

So, the birthday party. I won’t go into too much detail about the party itself, but it was a houseful of adults and one-year-olds, culminating in that wonderful mayhem known as a toddler’s first birthday. My wife and I spent the day before prepping and I’m pretty sure that one of us was in the kitchen for most of the entire day. I was a bit curious as to what the reaction would be to the food since it was all vegan and none of the party’s attendees were vegan or even vegetarian (there were a few pescos, though). We didn’t label the food as vegan except for one reference to “v. cream cheese” and I’m happy to report that the response was simply awesome. Everyone loved the food, top to bottom. One friend whose known me long enough to expect vegan food when they come to our house commented that though he “won’t be giving up [his] omni ways, can definitely say that vegan desserts kick ass.” Nice!

For those of you that are interested, here’s a rundown of what we served (we made it all, except where noted):

Snacks/light fare:

  • Tomato Potato Salad from the new Don’t Eat Off the Sidewalk zine
  • Fresh peach, corn, and pineapple salsa
  • Roasted red pepper hummus
  • White bean hummus (from The Vegetarian Family Cookbook)
  • Fresh spring rolls (aka garden rolls) with a peanut dipping sauce (from Xuan Saigon restaurant)
  • Fried spring rolls (from Xuan Saigon restaurant)
  • Lotus stuffed with seasoned rice (prepared by Huyen’s former co-worker Joyce)
  • Cream cheese, cucumber, and tomato rolls with fresh basil
  • Cold spaghetti salad

Dessert:

  • Salt water taffy (picked up during our vacation at the Jersey shore)
  • Mint Madness chocolate cake from Sinfully Vegan with mint buttercream frosting from Vegan Cupcakes… (adapted from the plain buttercream frosting recipe)
  • Lychee cupcakes with coconut glaze from Vegan Cupcakes…
  • Golden Vanilla cupcakes with buttercream frosting (I made them “extra golden” but went overboard and made them orange, so they became the “Abnormally orange vanilla cupcakes”)… these were made in regular size and mini size for the kids.

Not a bad lineup, if I do say so! I’ve also got to say that my wife did an amazing job prepping all that she did. I don’t quite know how she made the time to do so while also watching the kiddo.

(If you’re one of those “I want to see pictures!” people, keep an eye on my flickr stream. I’ll get around to posting pictures soon.)