Double Creamy Fruit Salad and Christmas, 2012!

Yes, I know, I'm barely squeezing my Christmas post in before the end of the year!  But, I'm just glad to be doing it.  I have been disgustingly sick for three weeks, and am carving out a spot of energy to do this post.  Actually, without GR and G, Christmas wouldn't have been the same.  GR baked all of our cookies and the Happy Birthday, Jesus, cake, set up the tree and its lights, and decorated inside and out.  She is my Christmas-loving girl - remember her bedroom?  And, G somehow made our tired out carpets look new with his obsessive vacuuming.  Thank you, both!  As usual, my parents came over for breakfast, and we also had two extra guests this year, so it was really nice to get that extra help.

Also, as usual, we had a dinner potluck with the larger, extended family, and I decided to make a salad I veganized from a gathering a long time ago.  When I was in college, I belonged to an environmental club, and at one of our potlucks, a guy brought this simple unnamed fruit salad that had this amazing dressing on top.  It was such a great group, and he was such a cool guy.  He was actually the first person to give me an article on how animals raised for food are treated: it was a one-page article with a photo of a veal calf.  That was the first meat I gave up.  I tried once in high school to become veg but didn't stick with it.  Anyhow, I have saved that weathered article all these years because it was so life-changing for me.  So, that was the guy, and that was his salad dressing, but it was dairy-based.  He didn't seem to really measure anything, I was chatting with him as he  basically just plopped stuff in a bowl, but I've gone strict and offered measurements.  I know some of this fruit isn't in its proper season, but it still tasted great.  Maybe he'll see this and rub his chin with the memory.

The rest of our day's food went like this:

Breakfast:

Our first gingerbread house
Cookies by GR:  Tiger Balls, Chocolate Chip, Holiday Cookies
Happy Birthday, Jesus, cake by GR
Chocolate hearts by GR
Loaded Cinnamon Rolls
Breakfast Potato Skillet
Sausage and Cheese Muffins
Chips
Amazing fruit platter by my mom (unpictured)
Juices, Hot Cider and Coffee

Dinner:

I brought:
Double Creamy Fruit Salad
Tofurky

We also could eat:
Green salad
Rolls
Baked Beans - recipe passed down for generations
3 types of cookies and an apple pie
No complaints here!

On with the pics and recipe.  Have a HAPPY NEW YEAR!  My goal is to definitely amp up my postings.  Hopefully, all the craziness and sickness are behind us now.

Our first gingerbread house!  GR and I mainly did this with JK's little hands "helping" as he could.  GR was surprisingly bossy with this thing.  It was a blast to make it with her.

Our breakfast table.  The fruit platter didn't make the shot.  All was delicious, of course.  :-)

These didn't make the earlier shot either.  GR made these chocolate hearts for us.

Our annual trek to the fire station to deliver cookies.  I love our station and all it's crews!  GR's cookies are being held by the firefighter standing next to SR.  JK's in front with some new Christmas wrestlers, GR's wearing her new Big Bang Theory shirt, SR's wearing her new Christmas dress, and she'll be getting that cast off in a couple of weeks.

A serving of Double Creamy Fruit salad.  A white dressing, in a white bowl on my mom's white counter wasn't the greatest combination, but trust me, this is so good.

Double Creamy Fruit Salad

Ingredients:

Can be flexible here.  Use several cups of your favorite fruits.  I used:

1 pineapple, chopped
2 Fuji apples, cored and chopped
2 bananas, sliced
1 cup of blueberries

Dressing:
1 cup vegan sour cream
1 cup vegan vanilla ice cream

Directions:

Put all fruit in a large bowl.  Ten minutes before serving, take out the ice cream from the freezer and set on the counter.  After ten minutes, add the dressing ingredients to the bowl of fruit and gently fold in.  Do not stir with a hard hand.  You don't want the dressing to become liquidy.  Keep it creamy and billowy.  Serve immediately.  So good you won't believe it.  It's a nice twist on the standard fruit salad.  Feeds five hungry vegans and more!

Apple Streusel Coffee Cake

This is a delicious, moist coffee cake that I recommend you make the day before to give it time to rest. The liquid used is orange juice, which gives it a light, citrusy flavor. I've put in a substantial amount of cinnamon for my husband's taste buds. The streusel comes out thick and sweet,with the edges slightly chewy-hard...yummy. We eat this for breakfast, but you can enjoy this as a dessert, if you wish.



Apple Streusel Coffee Cake
Ingredients:

Streusel:
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup peeled, chopped apples
1 cup sliced almonds
1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
5 Tbs. melted vegan margarine

Cake:
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 softened vegan margarine
1/2 cup vegan sugar
1 and 1/2 Tbs. Ener-G Egg Replacer
6 Tbs. water
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup orange juice

Glaze:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 Tbs. orange juice

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray the inside of a tube cake pan, like Bundt, including the tube, with a non-stick cooking spray. In a medium bowl, combine all the streusel ingredients, except for the melted margarine. Mix well and add the margarine, stirring until well coated. Set bowl aside. In a second medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and baking soda; mix well. In a large bowl, using an electric blender, blend softened margarine and sugar. Add the egg replacer, water and vanilla and continue blending until well mixed. Alternately blend in the flour mixture and the orange juice into the sugar mixture, taking a couple of turns with each. Spoon half of the batter into the cake pan, and top with half of the streusel. Spoon the rest of the cake batter on top of the streusel, leaving the remaining streusel in its bowl. Bake the cake for 15 minutes. Take out of the oven and top with the remaining streusel. Bake for 35 minutes, so an inserted toothpick comes out clean (sticking it through the batter, not the top layer of streusel). Cool completely on a wire rack. When cool, take a butter knife and gently run it around the edge of the cake, including the tube, to loosen any stuck streusel. Put a large plate over the top of the pan and invert cake - it is now upside down. Take your serving platter and place on cake, and flip once again. Your cake is now right side up. Mix together glaze ingredients and drizzle over the top of the cake in a zigzag pattern. If you are eating the cake right away, let it set for at least ten minutes to let the glaze slightly harden. Feeds at least five hungry vegans. So good!