Two Winter Celebrations

It just so happens that there are two holidays I celebrate every November.

The first is Thanksgiving. As for the second? Ees my birthday!



My lovely friend made me special cupcakes for my birthday. Isn't she awesome? She has great decorating and baking skills, and she surprised me by combining all sorts of things I love into one cupcake: chocolate, coffee, and almonds. Here we have mocha cupcakes topped with almond butter buttercream, cocoa dusted almonds, chocolate ganache, and toasted almonds. Oh my goodness! These are the best cupcakes I have ever tasted. They tasted even better than my words can describe, and if you can believe it, even more delicious than they look in the pictures. I devoured most of them myself; was nice and shared three of them with others; and have one final cuppie waiting for me in my apartment freezer. I flew home to Texas for my birthday and Thanksgiving, but I am super excited to return to my apartment at school just so I can defrost my last birthday cupcake. Teehee.

I left school a little before Thanksgiving break really started so I could be home in time for my birthday. I went out with my sister and parents for lunch in Austin, Texas at Bouldin Creek Coffeehouse to celebrate. It's a funky vegan and vegetarian cafe downtown, pretty close to the University of Texas campus. I think the fam was a little bit scared off by the menu and the types of people at the cafe, but I loved my food and the alternative atmosphere!



I ordered the Oven Cakes Breakfast, vegan-style -- complete with black beans, vegan blueberry cornbread (with a ramekin of agave for drizzling), and an amazing tofu scramble! Check out this scramble, closer now:

It was noochy and delicious. I loved it a lot! Normally restaurant tofu scrambles don't impress me, but Bouldin Creek does a great job! The cornbread was absolutely lip-smacking too; despite what you'd think with the blueberries and all, this cornbread wasn't sweet in the slightest. The agave tasted perfect on it!



A few days later and it was Thanksgiving time! My immediate family eats out for Thanksgiving because I am the only cook, and no one else wants "my" food. This year they chose a local diner for the feasting spot, a place kinda like Denny's but for cowboys. I equipped myself beforehand with goodies from Whole Foods. I heated everything in the oven before we left for the diner and wrapped it up real good in foil and ceramic, and I whipped it out when everyone else received their meaty Thanksgiving meals at cowboy Denny's.



When it was time to order the food at the diner, I told the waitress I was a vegetarian and had brought my own meal. Once she saw my food, she was like, "That looks really good, actually." Actually?! Haha, it was kind of an insult and kind of a compliment. I guess she expected that something meat-free on Thanksgiving would be boring or gross. Nope, not on my watch.

I noshed on Celebration Field Roast, wild mushroom sage gravy, roasted butternut squash with spinach and cranberries, a rosemary sourdough roll (with a little container of Earth Balance!), and herb roasted beets. Oh wow, this was incredible!

On a day like Thanksgiving, I certainly couldn't forget about dessert! I planned ahead and got some Purely Decadent Snickerdoodle vegan ice cream to enjoy later that night (after seeing a movie with the family), and I whipped up the "You Got Peanut Butter in My Chocolate" Cookies from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan on a whim. I was nice enough to share the cookies with the others, but as for the ice cream? Well, it's deliciousness was something I decided to keep a vegan secret for now. The omnis don't know what they are missing (even though my sis was intrigued -- she loves Snickeroodles, even vegan ones!).





I hope everyone else had a happy Thanksgiving! I am upset that I have to go back and start studying for finals now. Ick, double and triple ick.