How was everyone’s weekend? Mine flew by again… funny how that happens every.single.time. It was actually full of really fun stuff, starting with a dinner with friends on Friday night. I cooked!
Josh and Melissa were over for dinner. You’ve probably seen them on the blog before but I have to give them a shout out anyway. Josh is the blogger behind Lost In the Beer Aisle and Melissa is the founder of Ecolissa (remember it?). They’re both vegetarian (Melissa is vegan) so I challenged myself to cook an all vegan dinner. Actually, it wasn’t even that hard. I cooked real food, like I always do.
Scenes from my kitchen…
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On the menu:
- Hazelnut tahini dip with baby carrots
- Thai red curry with tofu + brown rice
- Peanut butter chocolate chip dough balls
We started with some Azerbaijani dip – naturally vegan! 
Here is a preview of what Josh was drinking – you’ll have to check out his blog if you want to know whether it’s any good 
Melissa and I were drinking organic Riesling she brought over. It was perfect with the slightly spicy dish I made.
This red curry recipe had great reviews on allrecipes.com but it seems like everyone made modifications to it (which by the way is a major pet peeve of mine… if you had to modify it to death to make it taste good, guess what – the recipe is probably not 5 stars!! anyways… we won’t get cranky tonight 
).
I (obviously) subbed tofu for chicken, used light coconut milk, doubled the amount of veggies and included broccoli and bamboo shoots as well. It tasted off for a while until I just kept on adding more and more red curry paste (I used at least 5T by the end). A whole lime’s worth of juice seemed to finally make the flavors pop. It still wasn’t spicy enough for me but Adam talked me out of dumping the whole jar of thai curry paste into the pot. What can I say, I like things spicy
Dessert needed almost no modification.
I am certain you’ve seen Mama Pea’s dough balls all over the blogosphere. Yes? I’ve been drooling over them ever since the Foodbuzz festival (I think she veganized Annie the Baker’s recipe the day after the trip!). My dough was DRY – like powdery dry. I hoped it would stick together in the freezer but no luck. I added about 1/4 cup of water to the dough and worked it with my hands until it seemed to cooperate a bit better and I was able to shape it into dough balls. 10 minutes later came out these lovely pillows.
Peanut buttery perfection. This whole plate was gone by the end of the night. We won’t name names but someone at the table consumed 8 cookies. Maybe even more than one person. Yup, that good.
It was such a fun night!! We didn’t even realize that we talked until past 1am and that is way past this old lady’s bed time. Melissa even informed me that no one wears nude stockings anymore. Is that true???? 
I felt like one of those people that still wear things that were “in” when they were young. Wow, now I really sound old. Haha. Anyways, we made plans to talk fashion and beer again, very soon.
And the next morning, I had to pretend like a late night and drinking did not happen because this slave driver my sister was at my house bright and early ready to run.
I was NOT as excited to run outside. In the cold. Between mounds of snow.
But it was amazing!!! It was actually a gorgeous day out and I did a 4+ mile loop around the river with my sister and she took off for one more finishing 9 miles for the first time (she’s training for the NYC half marathon!). It sure set the right tone for the rest of the day. Oh yes, it was one good weekend full of more good eats and even shopping (thanks parents!!).
Ok, I’m off to pack for my business trip to NY. Melissa, I bought new tights so hopefully I won’t get laughed at in NY.
Ooh, before I forget – the winners of the Now Eat This cookbook giveaway are #15 and #79. Congrats ladies! Please email your addresses to elina@healthyandsane.com and I’ll make sure you get your cookbooks asap.
Sounds like a wonderful weekend! I actually always think the same thing about recipes when people say, “These were amazing but I had to add…..”. Oh well!
Looks like a great spread of vegan fare
. When I made the dough balls, I just plopped the dough onto a piece of plastic wrap, wrapped it tightly, and put it in the fridge for 30 minutes. The dough was much less dry after the resting & chilling!
I was ONE person away from winning the giveaway. Argh
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Thanks for a delicious dinner and a wonderful evening of chit-chat!
Can’t wait to do it again soon.
-Josh
This vegan dinner looks fabulous! Great work!
Melissa’s right — nude stockings have gone to the grave, perhaps permanently!
What a fun weekend
YOu look so badass before your run!
I wear nude stockings – or I did when I worked in an office. I got made fun off all the time. Couldn’t give them up though. Is it a russian thing?
That looks like a fabulous dinner! I hate when people make tons of modifications on that site too. Why rate it 5 stars then? Weirdos.
Enjoy your trip to NYC.
What a lovely vegan dinner! I love all things spicy too. I kinda want some thai red curry right now actually… :p
hehe, i hate stockings, so i hardly ever wear them, but in the winter, since i bought a couple dresses recently… i need to get some tights! looks like a delicious dinner (and dessert), might need to make those dough balls again… or maybe just a small batch
recipes always need modifications, its true! i like my food very spicy as well, so that’s probably the reason for me most of the time:)
Kudos to you on the vegan dinner. I wish I could find organic riesling around here! Might have to scope out Amazon….
Hazelnut tahini might just be the savory counterpart to Nutella. Got to try making some!
I love being uber flexible with cooking styles – being able to cook vegan one night, then roast something meaty the next!
Looks like a fabulous vegan meal! And awesome job getting out there to run – the roads and temps definitely aren’t great right now. You should be proud of yourself!!
Thanks for the awesome dinner, it was delish! I LOL’d when you mentioned the nude tights!
Love your action shots and all of your pics!
Glad your dinner went well – and your run!
[...] Vegan dinner with friends (+giveaway winners announced) [...]
What a meal! 5T of Red Curry Paste? For real? I love spicy but the kind I buy 5Tablespoons would kill you! Thats a lot!! Thats amazing : )
Great job on the run. Sometimes the hardest part is getting out the door : )
I wonder if my paste was a bit older and lost its bite. It really was not spicy at all!
Looks like a great dinner–and dinner with friends is always so much fun!!
[...] instead of cherries for the dough balls and am very happy with the results. Just like the peanut butter chocolate chip dough balls the dough was quite dry, but the taste was nothing short of amazing. Pea Daddy said “Those will [...]