A vegetarian Christmas

I must keep this short and sweet, as we are anticipating early dinner guests and still have cleaning to do.  The weather seems to be cooperating, so, our friends Sandy, Claire and Sheryl are coming from out of town. Sheryl is Sandy and Claire’s mother. Sandy used to live with Elli and I, long before she got her American citizenship and moved to Chicago to be in love. We are both very happy for her, but we miss her like crazy. Her mom is still in Ottawa, but Sandy couldn’t get a direct flight from the windy city to our nation’s capital, so she’s flying in to the Fartport (Pierre Elliot Trudeau International Airport) and Sheryl is driving from Ottawa with Claire in tow to pick her up. I can’t express just how much it means to me that they’re willing to take a detour from Dorval, into Montreal, to share dinner with us.

Being working artists, Elli and I can’t offer much other than our hospitality – so we tried to put a lot of thought in to our menu for our guests. Unfortunately, one thing we won’t do is cook meat, so we tried to come up with a few sans-carne dishes that would satisfy. This would be much easier if we had an oven. At first we didn’t even take in to account that we were lacking an oven. Elli wanted to make cupcakes and I wanted to do a baked brie, among other grandiose dish ideas that just won’t fly without an oven.

This is the menu we came up with:

• Elli’s secret recipe German potato salad (Not vegan, but vegetarian)
• Veronica’s own recipe spinach dip (one of Sandy’s favourites from when we lived together. Definitely not vegan)
• Stir fry with udon noodles and a spicy ginger peanut sauce (VEGAN!)
• Thai-style fried banana spring rolls with ice cream (VEGAN, when served with soy or rice “ice cream”)

I’m sure all of these recipes will be posted on Two girls, a cat & no oven at some point – but for now all we’re promising is to post the recipe for whatever seems to be the most popular dish with our guests – except, of course, the potato salad. Sorry.

Happy Christmas Eve, everyone! We hope that you get to enjoy some good food and good company tonight, too!

Love,

Veronica and Elli