Christmas Summary and Happy New Year!

Hi all, it's been a while since I've posted. Holidays make it hard to keep up with this kind of thing.

Well, I've had several food adventures, one being that I tried making Creamy Red Pepper Lentil Lasagna. It turned out fine, except that the only nondairy milk we had in the house was vanilla soy milk, and I made the ghastly mistake of using that to make the cheesy sauce for the top. The sauce tasted like vanilla frosting or something... it was really ... odd. But everybody seemed to like it anyway, so no worries I guess. Just don't try that at home; your family might not be as chill with it as mine.

So on Christmas Eve I stayed up baking so I'd have some nummies for the next day that I could eat. I tried Marbled Banana Bread which has mild chocolateyness in it, and also made an Old Fashioned Chocolate Pudding Pie, but the only problem was I scalded the chocolate pudding stuff and so I thought it turned out kind of gross. However, my sister, who is not LDS, says that it just tasted like a mocha pie and she liked it a lot. So apparently mocha = scalded chocolate?? I found that a little amusing. But my mom also liked it once she had put crumbled mint Oreos on top (Oreos are generally vegan btw). The banana bread turned out awesome.

Also the graham cracker crust I made was pretty crumbly...

My family always has a big Christmas Breakfast. At my house, normal breakfast is fruit and toast, and always has been, maybe with a little bit of cereal. But on Christmas day we have waffles or pancakes, hash browns, eggs, bacon and/or ham, etc. The works. It's also a tradition that we drink eggnog with ginger ale in it. So Dad was wondering what I could eat and drink for Christmas breakfast. Bisquick actually seems to be vegan if you just mix it with water and no eggs or milk, so the waffles were no problem. Hash browns were no problem once fried in olive oil or Earth Balance. I also got some Tofurkey Italian Sausage and cut them up and fried them too. I didn't have any vegan eggnog (the stuff I've tried isn't very good... anybody have recommendations?) but I had some cranberry and black cherry juice with ginger ale instead. All in all I was stuffed by the end of it, especially since I had some banana bread too.

I like my hash browns crispy.

Then recently, my mom and I made some impromptu pizza, using bisquick to make the crust. We baked the crust before putting the stuff on it. So we had three rectangular pizzas, and she made the smallest one with real cheese on it for the picky young'uns, and I made the middle one an alfredo-y pizza and the largest one had tomato sauce with globs of leftover alfredo-y sauce. Both the middle and largest also had crumbled tofu, and all the pizzas had sauteed red onion, yellow squash, and red bell peppers on them. I used one red onion, one small yellow squash, and four red bell peppers. Oh and a can of olives.

For the tomato sauce we just used some canned Hunts sauce, one of the ones without meat or cheese in it. I think it was garlic and herb? And for the alfredo, we bought a carton of MimicCreme which is vegan and made from cashews and almonds etc. I put 3 tablespoons of earth balance in a deep pan and melted it on medium-low heat, then put in two tablespoons of flour and whisked until it made a paste, then poured in a cup of MimicCreme and put in a ton of chopped garlic, probably around 6 big cloves... then whisked it until it was thick (the creme was already pretty thick!) and then added another cup and stirred again on low heat. Just kinda let it sit there on low heat for a little while, stirring occasionally, and added garlic salt until it tasted right. Also a little bit of No Chicken Better than Bouillon, which gave it more flavor.

Pretty awesome. We baked them each at about 400 or 450 F, just until they looked and felt done... kind of a vague recipe, I'm sorry. But maybe I can perfect it later.

In general, it's been a pretty good Christmas, food-wise. The kids still don't like the stuff I make half the time, and there were still a lot of uncomfortable moments of going caroling to someone's house and getting smacked in the face with the bleghy smell of a roasting turkey, and watching my family eat meat, especially my dad's family up in northern Utah at their annual get-together, and listening to my uncles joke about hunting. There will always be hard moments like that. But it has meant a lot to me that my parents are supportive of my choices and willing to try the food I make or even help me make it.

And it has been a good Christmas in other ways too. I have been completely spoiled this year. I asked people not to get me presents, because I was too poor to get presents other than cards for anyone but my mom and one of my brothers (and I wasn't even spending my own money) but by various twists of fate I have ended up with almost an entire wardrobe of clothes both new and used, an e-reader, a fantasy book, a used graphics tablet, a cute winnie-the-pooh mug, and a beautiful necklace. I'm sure I'm forgetting some things....

We always watch a movie on Christmas Eve and this year it was Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Aslan is an important symbol for me, and I went to bed hoping I could learn to see God more like how I see and adore Aslan. Lo and behold, the necklace I got the next day.

In general Christmas was very spiritually filling and emotionally draining. This whole trip has required me to reevaluate a lot of things.There have been miniature crises and long talks and crying spells. It's always hard going out of your comfort zone, but I'm grateful for the chance I've had to spend time with my family and my friends, especially to get to know one of my sisters better and her two precious kids.

Life is so precious....

And this world is so beautiful....

From the drive up north (I drove part of the way!)

And all the beautiful music from/with my family and the choirs they've been in, it really helped me to think again about what Christ's life really meant and what kind of person he really was and is. Something I'd like to share is parts of the 2nd and 3rd verses of O Holy Night, because most people don't sing those, but they are really beautiful especially when sung by a choir.

 The King of kings lay thus lowly manger;
In all our trials born to be our friends.
He knows our need, to our weakness is no stranger,
Behold your King! Before him lowly bend!
Behold your King! Before him lowly bend!

Truly He taught us to love one another,
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother.
And in his name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
With all our hearts we praise His holy name.
Christ is the Lord! Then ever, ever praise we,
His power and glory ever more proclaim!
His power and glory ever more proclaim!

So... I would always get emotional listening to these lyrics, especially "He knows our need, to our weakness is no stranger" and "in his name all oppression shall cease". I would really like for that to be true. As much as we sing peace on earth and good will to men, it is easy to see that the world is not at peace. But God still loves us anyway and would like for us to get there someday. I guess all we can do is trust that Jesus will be there with us to lead us toward that better world, that little child who was born among the animals of the field and grew up to heal all people and give up his life out of love. And we can try to be that kind of person to those around us who are not at peace, and who are suffering either emotionally or physically.
This post has been pretty long and rambly and I probably should have divided it into two, but whatever. To round it all off, here's a tentative list of new year's resolutions.

-Draw more (one finished picture a month)
-Pray more, and with greater sincerity
-GET A JOB.
-Do some kind of garden again
-Publish at least one article (I already submitted one to Sunstone Magazine just yesterday!)
-Stay in touch with my family and friends
-Write to Alma (my brother on a mission in Korea) weekly
-Do better at my blog

I hope 2012 is an awesome year for everyone! And don't believe those silly people who totally misinterpreted the Mayan calendar. If you ask the Mayans they'll tell you it's a load of bullhonky (not sure if that's a real word).