Should Old Acquaintances Be Forgot?
Not when they have mad culinary skills. You'll be pleased to know that your old friends at extraVEGANza! sent 2006 to bed fat and happy, and welcomed 2007 with some jaw-dropping new recipes.
New Year's Eve

The evening began with a trio of mouthwatering dishes artfully prepared by Noodles and Splinters: (1) a cashew coconut curry of homegrown kale, onions, leeks, garlic, brussels sprouts, beets, potabella mushrooms, and tofu; (2) a cole slaw of purple and green cabbage, arugula, sesame seeds, sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, vegannaise, and a splash of bragg; and (3) a beet-water infused quinoa crowned with a generous pat of Earth Balance.
Party Time!

The dessert course and subsequent merrymaking took place chez Moles-Vegucator and featured, among other amusements, Moles' chocolate mint cupcakes with a dark fudge ganache and Splinters' ginger martinis. (The cupcake recipe is from Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero's Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World: 75 Dairy-Free Recipes For Cupcakes That Rule. As co-host of The Post Punk Kitchen, Isa is whipping up more than just cupcakes; be sure to check out Vegan With A Vegeance to see what else is cooking.
New Year's Day

For brunch, we enjoyed cranberry scone, tea sandwiches on homebaked white bread (cucumber "cream cheese", and curried tofu), chocolate cherry drops, and olive bread. Yes, those tea sandwiches have been stripped of their crusts, but don't panic; they'll be reborn as garlic breadcrumbs in a pasta dish later this week (after a few days of feverish culinary ambition, it's a relief to drop the pretense and boil up a little pasta to be tossed with olive oil, breadcrumbs, parsley, and red pepper flakes).

Suppertime!

But before getting back to business as usual, we treated ourselves to a delicious soup of beets, pearled barley, black soybeans and pumpernickel croutons. The grand finale kept Splinters and Vegucator hard at work all day long researching, developing, and finally executing a brand new original recipe: cashew cream tiramisu with coconut biscuits and an almond brandy filling.

We've been waiting impatiently for a convincing vegan tiramisu recipe for too long, so we decided to take matters into our own hands. To say the least, 2007 is off to a promising start! Best wishes to you and yours for a happy, healthy, compassionate New Year!