Christmas Dinner

'And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”' Luke 2:9-14

We watched A Charlie Brown Christmas last weekend where Linus reads this verse off at the end of their little Christmas performance. I had never seen it before and I absolutely fell in love with this cartoon. Every time I read this scripture I hear this boy reading it aloud in his cute little high pitched voice. What a simple beautiful cartoon Charlie Brown was. And how simple and beautiful does Christmas become when we make it about one person: Jesus.
Christmas here was wonderful with family, my boyfriend Ryan and dear old friends the Griffiths. We actually mixed up Christmas traditions this year and attended church on Christmas day, I sang at church with my mom who played the piano, it was such a joy. Missing from church was my dad who was at home with an eye patch. He hurt his eye on Friday, no one has any idea how, but it's red, puffy and swollen and driving him crazy. He's been wearing all these funny homemade eye patches and using all these wierd accents, pretending he's Captain Jack Sparrow and such. It really has added a whole new laugh to our Christmas holiday.
Now, of course like Thanksgiving, we served meat on our dinner table, this time prime rib and ham. We had the traditional mashed potatoes, scalloped potatoes, stuffing and then we had asparagus, salad and a dish that I prepared! I was so excited to make this, I had seen it done on a Tastepotting post and loved the looks of it.

Recipe
1 small red onion
2 summer squash
3 zucchini
4 cloves of garlic,
8 sage leaves
10 basil leaves
half a lemon, freshly squeezed
drizzle grapeseed oil
1/2 C or so vegetable broth
Slice eggplant, zuchinni, summer squash, and red onion 1/4'' thick. The onion may be difficult to keep together but do what you can cause the dish looks extra pretty with the red onion! Mix the garlic, finely chop the basil and sage, juice the lemon, drizzle the oil, and combine in a large mixing bowl. Mix well, tossing the vegetables in the herbs and flavors. I used my new pink spatula from Christmas!
Carefully, layer the vegetable vertically in the dish. I used a 2-1/2 quart corning ware dish. It's a little difficult to do in the beginning, use the left hand to hold them while you add more and more from the bowl with your right hand. No particular order is necessary, I just did it completely randomly.Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Pour the vegetable broth over the vegetables and sprinkle freshly ground black pepper. Cover the dish with the glass lid and bake for 30 minutes or until the vegetables are soft when pierced with a knife.
Serve over grains like quinoa or as a side dish. These were well liked tonight. Enjoy!

Merry Christmas,
<3 Dani

Christmas Eve Tradition: Pizza

For as long as I can remember our Christmas Eve dinner has been composed of one thing: Papa Murphy's Pizza. Buy it pre-made, put it in the oven and bake at home! So I took the opportunity to make another pizza, one of a healthier version of course. Trader Joe's whole wheat crust, pizza sauce and lots of veggies!

Christmas Eve was so nice and relaxing, family hanging out, A Christmas Story on the television, glasses of red wine, stockings full, I couldn't have asked for more. Before bed we completed our last tradition, opening up one present from under the tree.

Recipe
1 Trader Joe's whole wheat pizza dough, pre-made
1 Trader Joe's Pizza Sauce, pre-made
zuchinni
summer squash
baby bella mushrooms
red onion
kalamata olives
black pepper
Take the dough out of the bag and using a little bit of flour handle carefully. Spray a pan with oil and spread the dough over the pan into a large square. Slice some zuchinni, summer squash, mushrooms, and olives.
Spread the crust with pizza sauce and top with tons of veggies, the olives and freshly ground pepper. Now, it'll look like you have a lot on there but they'll shrink as they cook so don't be afraid to over do it! Besides, who could have too many veggies!
Now this will be my new Christmas Eve tradition! The olives were the best part so don't leave them out! Another nice addition would have been garlic, I forgot it :( I also would have preferred to make my own pizza sauce but we got so busy, I hate that excuse but sometimes it's just true. My parents bought me a VitaMix for Christmas though so now making sauces will be easier than ever! Oooh, I can't wait to try it out and have so much fun playing with new recipes!!

More posts from Christmas dinner tomorrow! Merry merry merry Christmas everyone!

<3 Dani

Sweet Corn and Tempeh Soup

I am so sorry it's been almost a week since my last post! Bianca and I celebrated our graduation with family and friends last weekend, thank you to everyone who joined us. The days since have been a little busy with the holidays and such. But tonight I managed to throw everything together for this soup and let it cook while I ran one last Christmas errand. So much shopping and not even completely done yet.

What if Christmas was about giving from your heart and not from your wallet? What has become of this holiday? I know it's talked about so much, the loss of Jesus within the hype of Christmas. But it really is something to give our attention to. It's a struggle for me. To buy and buy and buy and watch as thousands of dollars are spent on mostly unnecessary gifts. While at the mall my thoughts drift to the missionaries in third-world countries, without food or water literally sacrificing everything for the sake of the gospel. And I think, am I giving all of myself? How do I be here in this moment, shopping with my family and imitating Christ who said, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me," (Matthew 19:21). Can't I just move to Africa or India? But God has placed me here, in the midst of a family with abundant blessing unrecognized as God's gifts. Teach me Lord, how to be love. I am learning, daily, because He gives me grace to walk according to His Spirit and strengthens my character throughout.

Well, back to the soup. Mom and Nan liked it. Took my mom a bit, as usual. But she ended up really enjoying it!

Recipe
1 sweet onion
3 sticks of celery
1 chili
3 garlic cloves
1 quart low-sodium vegetable broth
6 heads of corn
1 package tempeh, 8oz
parsley

Chop the onion, mince the garlic and saute in a little grapeseed oil. Let the onions turn golden brown. Add the celery.
Cut all the corn off the cobs. Throw in the corn from three of the heads. Crumble the tempeh and toss in as well and stir.
In a food processor, blend the corn from the other three heads of corn. Pour in the vegetable broth and then the corn mixture.
Turn stove top on low and let the soup simmer for about 30 minutes. Stir well and serve with freshly chopped parsley and black pepper.

So there you go, make this soup before the winters over!

Love you all,
Dani

Butternut Squash and Kale Minestrone

Bianca made this fabulous soup tonight, another perfect dinner for a chilly night in Santa Cruz. The butternut squash almost melted into the broth making it thick and creamy, absolutely delicious! Great job Bianca!

Recipe
-3 celery stalks, finely chopped
-3 carrots, peeled & chopped
-1 white onion, diced
-1 bay leaf, dried
-4 cloves garlic, minced
-1/2 tsp salt
-1 tsp dried rosemary
-32 oz vegetable broth
-1 can diced tomatoes
-1 can white beans
-1 butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into small pieces
-1 bunch of kale, washed and chopped
-1 cup brown rice pasta spirals
Combine all ingredients except kale and pasta in the bowl of a crockpot. Cover and cook on low, 6-8 hours. 20-30 minutes before eating, add the pasta. 20 minutes before eating, add the kale to the crockpot and cover again. Just before serving, remove bay leaf. Ladle soup into bowls.

Enjoy,
<3 Dani

Persimmon Pudding

I love this season of fruit because persimmons are my absolute favorite! Bianca and I saw this HUGE persimmon tree today while driving to our friends house. We stopped at tried to pick some but unfortunately only got a few because it was too high. We even backed the car up real close so I could stand on it and reach higher. We're determined.

This pudding was simple and easy and delicious, like most of my recipes. It's nice for when you're wanting something a litter sweeter. I ate it for breakfast and felt like I was having dessert! Of course, you have to like persimmons or you won't enjoy this pudding at all.

Recipe
2 hachiya persimmons
2 T ground flaxseed
1/2 t cinnamon
Chop persimmons, add flaxseed and cinnamon and blend in a cuisinart. Process until well mixed and there are no chunks of persimmon, you'll want it smooth like pudding.

Yep, it's that simple! Serves for a nice little treat. You can use fuyu persimmons if you'll like, make sure there well-ripened because that puckery thing they have when there not ripe yet is terrible!

Enjoy,
<3 Dani

Bulgur Chili

I am so enjoying being home during this Christmas season. My mom and I completed the interior decorating this afternoon, while my dad and brother took control of the lighting on the house. Which as always, turns out great. We always joke that we're gonna with the lighting contest in town, even though we've never actually entered it. My dad is very proud of his Christmas display on the lawn. Oh, I just love Christmas!

With this chilly winter weather my mom and I are finding lots of delicious soup recipes! Tonight a bulgur chili with cornbread. Never cooked with bulgur before but I will certainly be venturing more into it now. This dinner was such a success, especially the cornbread! I was so excited as I opened up the oven and saw how beautifully it had risen. Never before have I had any success with gluten-free vegan cornbread, until now! I went so far as to say this was my greatest success, only to have my career driven dad come back laughing with, "Even more than college". It was quite funny, as you can tell I get over excited about my cooking at times.
Chili Recipe
1 T grapeseed oil
1 yellow onion
3 cloves of garlic
1 large green bell pepper
1 jalapeno pepper
1 t cumin, chili pepper, paprika
1 pint cherry tomatoes
3/4 C bulgur
1 8oz can tomato sauce
1 15 oz can kidney beans
3 C vegetable broth
Dice the onion, mince the garlic, chop green bell pepper and jalapeno and saute in oil on medium eat. Add spices and let the flavors mingle until the onions are beginning to brown. Add the tomato sauce and halved cherry tomatoes. Next, add the vegetable broth , kidney beans and bulgur. The soup will thicken as the bulgur begins to absorb the liquid so add more broth accordingly.
Cornbread
1 package Bob's Red Mill gluten-free cornbread mix
1-1/2 C almond milk, unsweetened vanilla
2 T ground flaxseed
3/4 C water
In a small container, mix the flaxseed with the water and let sit. It will begin to thicken in a few minutes, this is the egg-replacer. Now, I combine the cornbead mix with the almond milk and then folded in the flaxseed mixture. However, it was very difficult to mix them thoroughly this way. Next time I would try combining the almond milk with the flaxseed mixture then folding in the flour. Spray a 9x9in baking pan with non-stick spray and lay in the dough. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.
Like the Christmas decor? We've got it everywhere!

Merry Christmas,
<3 Dani

Pumpkin Barley Soup

Finally, back to having time to post again! Bianca and I are both officially done with school, wohoo college grads! Time certainly flies, it feels like yesterday we both left to go away to college. So sadly, the Sisters are no longer living together and only have three more weeks to hang out as Bianca will be coming back to our home in Santa Cruz and I will be remaining in Santa Barbara. The blog will continue though :)

First night back home and I went straight to cooking. So nice to be back in my home kitchen and my mom generally likes my cooking too. I'd actually say that she likes that I cook more than what I'm cooking. Though she's liking a lot more of what I've been making! And this soup she really liked!

I saw a recipe in a magazine, can't remember which one now but it was for a Pumpkin Barley Soup with Sausage. I liked what I saw, minus the meat of course, so I bought all the other ingredients and put my own twist to it. I love pumpkin so I enjoyed the soup a lot! My mom cooked up some vegan sausage patties to replace the sausage I had seen in the original recipe and she loved the combination.

Recipe
1 C barley
1 15oz can pureed pure pumpkin
1 quart low-sodium vegetable broth
2 shallots
2 cloves of garlic
1 T grapeseed oil
6-8 sage leaves
salt and freshly cracked black pepper

Dice the shallots, mince the garlic, chop the sage leaves very finely and saute in the grapeseed oil on high heat until shallots begin to brown. Add the barley and stir for a few minutes letting the flavors mingle with the barley.
Add in the pumpkin puree and vegetable broth. Stir until well mixed, cover and let come to a rolling boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook for an hour or so until the barley is soft.
I know, so simple right! And so delicious! Make this before the wintery season is over, it's perfect for a chilly night.

Blessings,
<3 Dani