jacob's dairy-free birthday

So I took a break from my double-life this weekend and helped my friend out with his birthday dinner. Just a few cool people, and I hope you were one of them byotch. Those were Mean Girls references in case you were wondering. ::laughs to himself:: Anyway...

I've cooked dinners for people before, and let me tell you, it's not easy! I'm just looking back on my birthday dinner and my friend Ben's birthday dinner and how whelming (not quite OVERwhelming) they were. Making 3-5 intricate courses to feed even a group of 10 is actually harder than making 10 easy appetizers.

So this is what Jacob and I made for the cool kids who came:

• Beer-battered Chicken Tenders (Thanks to Guy for fryin' the chicken)
  
• Beer-battered Fries
• Stuffed Cucumbers
• Pizza Bites
• Pineapple Chicken Kabobs
  
• Roasted Red Bell Pepper Hummus
• Red Onion Bruschetta
  
• Risotto-stuffed Red Bell Peppers
• Baked Tofu and Veggie Chicken Lettuce Wraps
• Pumpkin Pie
• Fried Strawberry-Raspberry Won Tons (thanks to Guy and Patrick for helping)
  
• German Chocolate Cupcakes (made by Guy and Jacob)

So here's the twist: Jacob's a lactophobe! Well maybe not, but he's lactose intolerant. So everything here was DAIRY-FREE! Also, I don't prefer to eat red meat and poultry, and my friend Josie is a vegetarian. Oh, and this is Angie.

She's vegan. So it was important for us to create a menu that had something that everyone could eat.

Which brings us to the stuffed cucumbers she's holding. She probably looks so happy because it's completely vegan. It's stuffed with veggie ham salad made with deli-style veggie ham, onions, mustard, and honey. They were so simple, yet so refreshing! They're perfect bite-size appetizers.

I got this idea along with a few others from a Summer (I know it's not Summer anymore, but this is southern California afterall) appetizer book from Pillsbury. It's a handy little book.

These are the pizza bites before going into the oven. I would have taken a picture afterward, but they were such a hit they were in our stomachs before my camera could even lay a flash on them. The dough is made with Pillsbury Crescent Recipe Creations. The cheese is tofu-cheese. You really can't tell the difference once you bake it with everything.

So here's the birthday boy himself, holding the risotto-stuffed red bell peppers. Instead of chicken stock/broth, I used vegetable broth. It definitely isn't as good with that substitution, but wasn't bad.


This next dish was probably one of my favorites. These lettuce wraps are so tasty and easy to make.

-Baked Tofu
-Veggie Chicken
-Salted Cashews
-Hoisin sauce
-A head of lettuce

I suggest getting all this at a Chinese market. That's the only place I can ever find plain baked tofu and my favorite veggie chicken (made with bean curd). And while you're there, you can pick up the hoisin sauce, salted cashews and lettuce for cheap. Just chop the tofu and veggie chicken into little cubes, chop or crush the cashews, throw it all in a pan and saute on medium heat with oil (and garlic and onion if you'd like) for 2-3 minutes. Then add about a tablespoon of the hoisin sauce and heat until it's incorporated. Spread some hoisin sauce on a leaf of lettuce, throw the tofu mixture in, and you have yourself a party.

And of course, we can't forget dessert! These fruit-filled won tons get me so excited! I just have to find a better way to make them. I think I will use bigger won ton wraps next time so I can put more fruit in them. Basically, you dice up whatever fruits you would like. In the past, I've put a combination of strawberries, banana, and kiwi inside the won ton. This time we used just diced strawberries, a raspberry, and some pastry cream inside. I wasn't sure how the pastry cream would hold up in there since we deep fry them, but it was actually pretty good! We topped it off here with some non-dairy whipped cream, and a raspberry-blackberry sauce. Just blend a little box of blackberries with a handful of raspberries with sugar and honey and strain out the seeds. If you're like me, it'll be something you'll want to make over and over again.

That's about it for food pictures, so you'll have to trust me when I say mostly everything looked good. This post would be way too long if I showed you everything anyway! But I will leave you with this...


I will try to have Jacob write up an entry on here to tell us about his dairy-free pumpkin pie, just in time for Thanksgiving!