A White Christmas

Between gifts from family and friends and of course, Santa Claus, we had quite the bundle to be thankful for this Christmas. 

My favorite Christmas present from Mike was his thoughtfulness. He stayed up late Christmas Eve and unbeknownst to me (as I was fast asleep), he tidied the house and baked all sorts of things while waiting up for Santa. 

He even took the time to write all the dishes down on the kitchen chalkboard. 

How cute is that? 

The dishes with the (v) are vegan dishes as we are striving to be more and more vegan each day. 

He baked Sweet Potato muffins (vegan). 

They were amazing! He found the recipe here.  

Take 1: 

This is the face I get when I ask Mike to pose for a picture. 

Take 2: 

This is him contemplating my request to smile like he means it. 

Here he is with his pumpkin pie made with the last of our garden pumpkins. 

He used this pie crust recipe but substituted spelt flour for the white flour. 

Delicious!

Anyone have a fabulous vegan pumpkin pie recipe to share? 

I spied a little still life as I wandered through his bustling kitchen and asked, "Is this wine?" 

He had poured the wine to eliminate the sediment from the older bottle, and to let it breathe a little. 

Was he surprised that I took a picture of his breathing wine? Probably not. 

This Golden Lentil Stew is a new favorite. I think the special ingredient is the chopped dates, along with the combination of the sweeter spices and more pungent herbs. 

This dish is so good over roasted herb potatoes. 

Here is the recipe, although we opted to not add the pasta. 

Outside, the snow fell and covered each and every branch and limb that the eye could see. 

The stillness of that first snow fall is always quite magical. 

I hope that the holiday season is warming hearth and soul. 

Peace

for 

Everyone. 

Happy New Year. 

xo