Cooking With Dia

I wanted to do something for Hogmanay because the Scottish over here are the most like Philadelphians as far as I can see. In Philadelphia New Year’s Day is a huge celebration, in fact even more so than Christmas. Philadelphia has the Mummers Parade, which I grew up with. It is a day long celebration that goes late into the night. It starts out in South Philly with the Comics and String Bands and ends in Center City with the Fancy Brigade competition. People don’t realize that this Mummers Parade is serious business! The different bands and brigades work on their routines and costumes for an entire year–everything has to be perfect

This morning I woke up earlier than usual to make sure I made it down to the Christmas market in town. You see I was on the hunt for some fresh raspberries, a proper trifle dish and some Drambuie. I didn’t find any of that, until I went to Tesco. Even there, I only found 1 out of 3-fresh raspberries, but it was enough to make me happy. I had to settle for the Famous Grouse and have located an old glass bowl in my attack to use for the dish…it all worked out in the end…or did it? On the twelfth day of Christmas I give to you Tipsy Laird, or as some spell it Typsy Laird, or as the Englishmen and Americans call it Sherry Trifle.

I’m putting two recipes together here because I’m afraid I’m going to need a day off tomorrow from cooking and photographing food. I don’t usually talk about my health problems on here, and I’d hate to start, but I’m feeling really dizzy again, and I’m sure it is just exhaustion. So, a day off is needed. This post is jammed pack full of pictures and recipes for vegan banana bread and vegan apple and raisin bread. Yum!

Wow, already day nine of this mad experiment. Didn’t think I’d get this far, eh? Well, I did. Now, finally for you I made something savory. For my American friends, a sausage roll is something the British snack on. At parties here in jolly ol’ England, there is usually a mountain of mini sausage rolls. I was thinking how funny it would be to veganize them and not tell anyone, to see if they could taste the difference. For the ninth day of Christmas Dia makes for you…something savory-vegan sausage rolls!!!!!!

OK so I guess technically these aren’t mini danish, but the flavor is so similar, I didn’t want to name them tartlets. Again, this is another very simple recipe, that is unless you are making your own vegan puff pastry. Had a weird day: I slipped on the icy footpath near my house, right onto my bad knee and my cane broke. Then I came home to find Brittany Murphy died of a heart attack at 32 years old. She was one of those actresses I liked, part of my generation and all that. I loved her in Girl Interrupted and always felt her acting skills went overlooked by her peers. I’m also still a bit sad that Terry Wogan retired…so yeah, easy recipe for today. On the eighth day of Christmas Dia gives to you Vegan Mini Danish, well, sort of.

If you are a new visitor to my blog, you may think this is a candy blog! I’ve been doing a lot of candy making this past week because I think it’s important to get all of the gift ideas out of the way before it gets too close to Christmas. I promise I will start posting proper dishes soon. This recipe is probably the easiest so far. They are getting easier and easier, but that’s because at this point all of you are cooking your arses off. On the seventh day of Christmas Dia brings to you her Giant Figgy Pudding Truffles!

Ever wonder what to do with left over cookie dough? Maybe you ran out of room on a baking tray while making chocolate chip cookies, or perhaps you thought about saving a bit of gingerbread for later in the week. Whatever the case I have an idea-why not make cookie dough lollies? On the sixth day of Christmas Dia gives to you her recipe for Cookie Dough Lollies.

I had so much fun making this today, and it is something that is extremely simple to put together in a few minutes. In England we have something called Christmas Pudding, Christmas Cake and so on. What these Christmas desserts consist of are a variety of dried fruits and nuts. I thought, “Wouldn’t it be fun to make a candy that used the same idea?” On the Fifth Day of Christmas Dia brings to you her Vegan Christmas Fudge.

*Totally Vegan and Gluten Free
If anyone is looking for a last minute gift idea, this is most definitely it. Not only is it delicious, but it only takes minutes to make–In the microwave and all! Are you gasping? Isn’t it brilliant? It takes about 10 minutes to prepare and make and another 15-30 minutes for it to cool. If you want to impress friends and family with boxes of homemade candy, be sure to give this recipe a go. On the fourth day of Christmas Dia gives to you her Cinnamon and Peanut Brittle.

*totally vegan
No Christmas is complete without some kind of gingerbread, whether it be in the form of a house, little men or ginger snap cookies (my personal favorite). So on the third day of Christmas Dia gives to you Vegan Gingerbread men and women.

*Totally vegan
On the second day of Christmas came Dia’s Shoo Fly Apple Pie. Last night I was in bed sort of pondering why I decided to make 12 different dishes for my blog…in 12 days. The only conclusion that I could come up with is, I’m a little crazy.

I am going to be posting 12 recipes for Christmas, all vegan and all scrumptalicious. I am a big Christmas person, some may find us Christmas people extremely annoying, but I LOVE CHRISTMAS.