10 Vegetarian Christmas Recipes

Here are a hand-picked few of my favorite gluten-free vegetarian recipes.


Winter Solstice- with a spectacular lunar eclipse- has blessed us with a turning point. Daylight now grows longer inch by inch. Or is that minute by wintry minute? In spirit, I suspect, it is both. Christmas is almost here, and the season celebrating rebirth, light, and sliding into credit card debt is in full swing. Carolers are caroling. Gift wrappers are gift wrapping. Egg noggers are nogging. The shiny New Year crouches right around the corner. And recipes are flooding my in-box for... ham? Roast beef? Rack of lamb? Wait a duck fat glistening minute, here.

Where are the vegetarian Christmas recipes?

I can't be the only person not forking a slab of meat on Christmas day. I can't be the single solitary soul who doesn't treasure bacon fat like it's a princess tiara. I'm not alone in my imaginings of a fresh and healthy vegan Christmas dinner--- am I?

Okay. Okay. I get it. I honestly do. I realize I'm in the minority here. That to most folks celebrating the winter holidays in all their myriad and nuanced diversity, meat is the centerpiece of celebration. I acknowledge that. I even accept that. Just because I've been a vegetarian 78% of my life doesn't mean I bury my head in the sand of denial. I cope. I deal. I go with the flow.

But just so you know? The UN thinks vegetarianism is not only a cool idea, it may be necessary to save the planet. So here's ten of my favorite vegetarian and vegan recipes for Christmas. With love.


Read >> Source URL: http://soniceview.blogspot.com/search/label/Christmas
Visit So Nice View for daily updated images of art collection

Gingerbread Dudes, Gals & Pups, plus *the best* gingerbread cookie recipe

 
EVERY year, I say I'm going to make gingerbread cookies more often.  And every year, I forget. But I'm making these again next week (and quite possibly the next week and the next).


I'm going to beg you....MAKE THESE COOKIES!  They are some of my favorite cookies ever....soft, chewy, spicy...delicious!


I had a little too much fun making these.  The gingerbread dudes and gingerbread gals were just decorated with a bit of royal icing.


Was it wrong to start pairing off the gingerbread couples? It's like eHarmony for cookies over here. 



{Sign you've spent too much time with your cookies? You start staring at the gingerbread girl wishing you had her outfit.}



Here's a little trick for making hair from Martha:


Use a garlic press (this is the only thing I ever use mine for). Just fill it with dough and....


.....squeeze. 



These gingerbread scotties could not be easier.  A little collar, a little spring of holly...voila! Gingerbread Scottie Dog.


Here is the recipe.  I'm going to go out on a limb and call it the BEST GINGERBREAD COOKIE recipe EVER.  (I can say that because it's not my recipe, it's from the Southern Living Incredible Cookies cookbook.)


Gingerbread Cookies
(modified from Southern Living Incredible Cookies)

1/4 c. water
1 & 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 c. molasses
1 c. butter
1 c. sugar
5 c. unbleached, all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. coarse salt
1 & 1/2 TBSP ground ginger
1/2 tsp. allspice
1 & 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Line baking sheets with parchment.

Stir together the water and baking soda until dissolved. Stir in the molasses; set aside.

Beat butter & sugar until fluffy and combined.

Whisk together flour, salt and spices.

Add to the butter mixture, alternating with the molasses mixture. Begin and end with the flour. Form dough into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and chill 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350.

On a lightly floured surface, roll dough to a 1/4 inch thickness. Cut with a floured cookie cutter and place on baking sheet. Freeze for 5 minutes before baking. {They are going to spread.}

Bake 10- 12 minutes (for a large shape). Cool 1 minute on cookie sheet, then transfer to cooling rack. Cool completely before decorating with royal icing.    


 What are you waiting for?!?  Go make 'em!!
Source URL: http://soniceview.blogspot.com/search/label/Christmas
Visit So Nice View for daily updated images of art collection

Dotty Winter Trees

...otherwise known as the "Trees of Indecision."

As soon as I saw these two-tone trees from A Dozen Eggs, I knew that tree cookies were in my future.

But, since I seem to have an obsession with dots....whether it be on cakes or apples or presents....I added some dots.


The indecision came in with the sanding sugar and the wood grain trunk. To sugar or not to sugar. To wood grain or not to wood grain.  Those were the questions.

{You know you are having serious cookie issues when you wake your husband up at the crack of dawn to say, "Sweetie, which do you like better, this plain tree trunk or the wood grain one?"}


Wood grain it was.

Now, *someone* in my house does not care for sanding sugar.  (Not the way it looks, but the way it tastes.)  Had I known this before marrying him, we would have been in for some MAJOR pre-marital counseling.


I, on the other hand, love that bit of crunch on a soft sugar cookie.  So, I went for half and half.

To make these trees, you'll need:

• royal icing in green, light green and brown (AmeriColor Leaf Green & Chocolate Brown)
• squeeze bottles
• disposable piping bags 
• decorating tips: #2 & #3
• toothpicks
• sanding sugar
• fan shaped paint brush
Dotty Winter Tree Cookie Tutorial:


With a #3 tip, outline the tree on green, piping 3 sections of the tree.


With a #2 tip, outline the trunk in brown.

Thin the green, light green and brown icings with water, a bit at a time, until it is the consistency of thick syrup.  Cover with a damp dish towel and let sit several minutes.

Stir gently with a rubber spatula and transfer icings to squeeze bottles.


Working 6-8 cookies at a time, fill in the trees in the 3 colors of green.  Use a toothpick to spread to edges and pop large air bubbles.


Come back over the filled trees while the icing is still wet and drop on dots of thinned icing.


Fill in the trunks in brown.  Use a toothpick to spread to edges and pop large air bubbles.

Let dry overnight.


The next day, set up a sanding sugar station.  Mix equal parts meringue powder with water.  With a small paintbrush, brush the mixture on the area to be sanded.  Sprinkle on the sanding sugar and shake excess over a coffee filter.  The filter can be used as a funnel to go back into the bottle.



For the wood grain, I used a cookie painted technique from Renee of Kudos Kitchen.  She is a fabulous artist, check out her painted tiles, and she shared a video of how to add wood grain on cookies at University of Cookie.



Basically, mix water with food coloring....a 1 to 1 ratio or so.  Trim your fan brush, so that it is uneven.  Dip the brush into the food coloring mixture, dab on a paper towel and brush onto your cookies. (I used the same technique on the Harry Potter broom cookies.)



Tell me....are you a sanding sugar lover like me, or do you side with Mr. E on this one?

Source URL: http://soniceview.blogspot.com/search/label/Christmas
Visit So Nice View for daily updated images of art collection

Peppermint Candy Cookies & and a trip to . . .

You won't believe how easy these cookies are to make!!!

This cookie idea was inspired by stolen directly from Martha Stewart Living, December 2009.  Why I waited a whole year to make them, I'll never know.


These peppermint candy cookies would be so cute for a cookie exchange, Christmas gifts, holiday open houses...anything, really.

To make them, you'll need:

• royal icing, tinted with AmeriColor Bright White, Super Red and just a bit of Super Black
• disposable icing bag
• decorating tip (#2 or #3)
• squeeze bottles
• toothpicks
• silver luster dust
• candy-shaped cookie 

With a #2 or #3 tip, outline the candy and wrapper in light grey icing. (We're trying for a silvery look.) Reserve some of this icing for later.

Thin the white and red icings with water, a bit at a time, until it is the consistency of thick syrup.  Cover with a damp dish towel and let sit several minutes.

Stir gently with a rubber spatula and transfer icings to squeeze bottles.



Working 6-8 cookies at a time, fill in the centers in white.  Use a toothpick to spread to edges and pop large air bubbles.


While the icing is still wet, go back over the same cookies and draw a cross and an X in red icing. directly on top of the white icing.

Drag a toothpick through the icing in 3 circles, going the same direction.










Thin the grey icing as described above.

 
Fill in the wrapper.


Wait about 1 hour, then add the detail on the wrapper with the unthinned grey icing.

Let dry overnight.


The next day, brush the "wrapper" ends with dry luster dust, using a small paintbrush.  This will give the cookies a sheen, instead of an opaque silver look.


---
Now...to the trip!

If you're on twitter, I've been teasing a little about making a trip to "the happiest place on earth."  There's a reason that for the last two weeks, I've been singing:

"Fairy tales can come true, it can happen to you..."

Saturday, I am going HERE to decorate cookies with some gals.  Did you click over?  HERE, I'm going HERE!!! 


{Who wants to *squee* with me?!?}



So, think of me Saturday, will you?  Send good thoughts so I won't forget how to decorate cookies, and that I don't faint, and that I remember to suck my stomach in.  OK?


I am so, so, so excited!  {You might be able to tell by all of the all of the !!!}


I'll be sure to report back from the land of butter, Wranglers and Ethel Merman! SQUEE!!!


Source URL: http://soniceview.blogspot.com/search/label/Christmas
Visit So Nice View for daily updated images of art collection

BBTB2 Deck the Halls & Ornament Layout

Happy Bitten by the Bug 2 Monday!  This week's challenge cut is a "two-fer".  My lovely design team sister Jeri selected a two part challenge, Ornament 1 or 2 *and* the Deck the Halls phrase from the Winter Frolic cartridge.  There were sooo many possibilities to use these cuts that I was almost overwhelmed by the challenge. 




At first I designed a Christmas card using ornament 2 and the challenge phrase, but then I realized that I was in the mood for a layout.  My ventures in paper crafting began with scrapbooking and I still love to create scrapbook pages.  For this 12 x 12 scrap page I started with a blank base page of light, light pink cardstock.  To the blank background I added the cricut cuts and Christmas morning photographs of my children.

The Deck the Halls phrase cut was created with three cuts:  A smooth white cardstock shadow layer, a red metallic base layer, and silver metallic top layers.  I did not use all of the silver cuts because I liked the contrast of the red metallic on the white cardstock.  

The looped edge full page was designed in Cricut Design Studio.  I placed the loop edge border from the Cake Basics cartridge, welding four sets of loops together.  I copied and pasted the row of loops until I had four rows.  Using the "Turn 90" degree turn button, I turned three of the rows so that the loops all faced outward.  I then welded the loops to a 9 inch round edged square from the George cartridge.  Using a full sheet of SEI paper, I cut out the loop edged mat.




Next I cut out three Christmas ornaments, two from Winter Frolic and one from Joys of the Season.  I cut the shadow layer of all three ornaments in smooth white cardstock.  I used scraps of SEI, Bo Bunny, and Bazzill cardstock to cut the top layer of the ornaments.  A circle from George was placed inside each ornament, but was NOT welded.  The circles cut out and made windows for the photos.   




If you use the cut file - which is available to download from the side bar with the title "Deck the Hall & Ornament Layout" - you will see that there is one page which contains all of the metallic silver cuts.  I actually cut two of the scalloped frames on a different page so that they could be cut in red and green metallics.  They would have looked nice cut in silver also. I trimmed the top of each ornament with ornament print ribbon.




To assemble the page I began by attaching the looped matting to the light pink base.  I then added the large silver frame.  Next I affixed the Deck the Hall phrase into place.  And finally I added the three ornaments to the layout.

Be sure to go by BBTB2 and check out the amazing projects the created by the Design Team.  These women are FABULOUS designers!!!

You know, I am not sure that my children would appreciate that I placed Christmas morning photos on my blog for all the world to see, but I won't tell them if you don't!!



Source URL: http://soniceview.blogspot.com/search/label/Christmas
Visit So Nice View for daily updated images of art collection