Sammy's first Birthday (All Vegan Party)

I'm a little late getting this post out, as I had a few other blog entries that pushed ahead.  As most of you probably already know, my youngest (Sam), is a lifelong vegan. His life, has only been a year in the making, but he has been a vegan longer than I so I have great respect for his lifestyle choice (ok, we made the choice).  He turned 1 the day after Christmas, and we are hosting his first birthday party with immediate family and close friends (and their children). We felt that this was a perfect opportunity to showcase our newly discovered cooking talents, and make this party entirely vegan.  I cannot guarantee that a "sheet pizza" will not be bought, but I promise you it wont originate from me.  This should be easy, only 40 or so people.  We are also keeping this nut free, as there are always allergies to consider.

I've posted the links to where I got these, I don't claim to have come up with all of these on my own, but if you do see something you like, feel free to leave me a comment, and I'll happily share what went into it.

Our "intended" menu for the days festivities are as follows:

• Gardein Chicken Fingers
• Pasta with Marinara
• Bruschetta w/ Daiya moz
• Olive Tapanade w/ Tofutti cream cheese
• Our Homemade Hummus w/ Pita
• Olives, Red Peppers, Celery, Carrots
• Chips & Salsa
• Mock Tuna Salad
• Sushi (homemade by moi)
• Salad
• Yummy Vegan Chocolate Monkey Cake (a banana cake for Sam) w/ So-D Ice Cream

Most of our food was just staged on a table, so people could just graze as they wanted. We rolled out pasta after a few hours, I neglected to photograph the pasta, but there was nothing so visually interesting about this pasta anyways.  Close your eyes and image pasta.

The party was a wonderful event.  We had a large contingent of friends and family, and the lack of Animal, Dairy or otherwise went completely unnoticed.  I was deemed the sushi chef, so I spent the first part of the event in the kitchen assembling.  It turned out wonderful.  I am very meticulous about the rice, I prepare the water in advance with some Kombu and Sake.  Spend a good 20 minutes washing the rice before cooking it. I bought a Hangiri years back, and it helps the rice come out flawless.  Best sushi rice ever!!!

The sushi turned out awesome

I'm not the best roller in the world, definitely need to work on that, but these bad boys got sucked down pretty quick.

My daughter transforms into a sushi zombie whenever this stuff gets near.  

Watch out, she may feel the same way about braaaaaaaaainnnnnnnnzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Well lets get onto the party, and the birthday boy.  Rachel worked tirelessly on the cake, and some of my vegans on twitter may recall when I was tweeting about some cake malfunctions that were going on the kitchen.  These malfunctions were all addressed, and no one was the wiser :)  This was a "Hanuman" themed party, so our vegan Hanuman came out great

Note the banana above.  This was Sammy's personal cake.

All in all we had a wonderful party, about 40 guests, and Sam stayed up until all but the last few die-hards were long gone. Sorry Toby, we ate everything, there was nothing left for you ;)

First all Vegan party,... and the best part was, no one even knew, and everyone had a good time.  I will be making the sushi again soon though.  For as big as a pain it is, its still pretty awesome.

Happy Birthday Hanuman.