Our delicious vegan Halloween dinner of stuffed intestines, ghosts and bloody sauce was followed by a filthy dessert of mud, dirt, and worms. I scooped out the mud into bowls, someone sprinkled it with dirt, and the worms were passed around. Guests had to extract the worms from their casings before consuming them. The...
Christmas Chocolate Clusters This is a slight variation of my award-winning Trail Mix Clusters recipe. It won Honorable Mention in a healthy chocolate contest and was published in Healthy Cooking Magazine, December/January 2009, p31. I often make a batch of these and eat one or two clusters a day without guilt, knowing I am...
The vegetarian Halloween party was a hit. Despite a few “WHAT are we eating?” comments throughout the evening, all the guests were great sports and tried everything. In fact, despite being so full after the appetizers that they only ate a small portion of the main course, everyone finished all their dessert…. I mentioned...
Vegan Fondant on a Chameleon Cake (Read more about the birthday party and Illusion Food menu here.) Fondant is what you see on tv in all the cake and baking competitions. Typically it is rolled out and draped over the cake, where it creates a velvety-smooth appearance. It’s made from gelatin, corn syrup, powdered...
The Piece de Resistance Amazingly, after three appetizers and a three-part main dish, we still had room for dessert. Good thing, since I had spent three days making it. What birthday party would be complete without a cake? This was only the second time I had attempted to make a fancy decorated cake like...
Chocolate Main Course Soup, salad and dip at the all-chocolate dinner party were followed by a main dish consisting of three separate parts. Fragrant brown jasmine rice, an obscene amount of minced ginger, and orange peel went into the rice cooker to work magic while we ate our appetizers. This provided the base for...
Following the cold appetizers at our chocolate-themed dinner party, where chocolate was included in every course, we had soup. Crunchy corn, silky zucchini, tender onions and sweet carrots mingled in an earthy, subtly-spiced broth. Cocoa powder added richness and depth in flavor, aroma, and color. Inspired by this recipe that appeared in Southern Living...
The All-Chocolate Dinner Party Seeing as how the guests “ooh”-ed and “ah”-ed at the appropriate times, ate everything I served them, and then waddled out the door at the end of the evening, I’d say the chocolate dinner party was a success. It was a belated birthday party, and the birthday girl loves chocolate....
The set-up I am busy developing recipes for an upcoming dinner party. (I hope the birthday girl isn’t reading this!) Because the theme ingredient is chocolate, I need to incorporate it in some form in every course. The obvious cold appetizer is salad, featuring my garden produce. This salad dressing is based on a...
