Yummy Vegan Cheeseball

Because of my pregnancy-induced soy allergy, this recipe has been a long time in coming. I certainly couldn't post my until-now secret formula for party success without an additional trial of the final ingredient list.

But today is my sister-in-law's baby shower and she requested that I make this delicious dip so Mr. Lemon agreed to the taste test.

Success. So here it is:

You'll need:

2 8 oz. tubs of vegan cream cheese (we like the Tofutti brand)

1 TBLS of vegan Worcestershire sauce (the non-vegan kind has anchovies in it; gross)

1 clove garlic

1/8 tsp. paprika (and another sprinkle for good looks when it's finished if you prefer)

1/8 tsp. garlic and red pepper blend (see photo above)

1/4 tsp. parsley

1/2 tsp. lemon juice (we use the stuff that comes in the plastic lemon but you can use fresh if you want)

Let the cream cheese come to room temperature and put it into a bowl.
Add all the rest of the ingredients and mix up really good with a fork.

Put it in the fridge overnight (this gets the flavors in there).

Shape it into a ball (I'm far too lazy for this step and tend to leave it in the bowl as is).

Sprinkle a touch of paprika on it for good looks.

Serve on Fiestaware with slices of fresh baguette from your local bakery.

Great Day Trip

Last weekend we took a trip from Morgantown up to the Northern Panhandle. It's a route we try to take at least once a year. This year, we took 79 up to Little Washington and headed up 18N. Then we stopped for some great pumpkins at a little Farmer's market just past the sharp left you need to take to stay on 18 to head W. We usually have a big Nearly Annual Birthday Party Pumpkin Carving Vegan Potluck BYOB Extravaganza just before my birthday so we needed to stock up. I bought four little pumpkins to carve out and serve soup in. The Morgantown Farmers' Market sends out a weekly email with updates and recipes and I'm hoping to make the delicious sounding apple pumpkin soup recipe.

18N leads up to Burgettstown where we headed W on 22 and over the bridge to Ohio. From there we took 7 up to East Liverpool, a once booming pottery city. It's pretty dead like a lot of towns in Appalachia where the industry has gone overseas. Luckily, there's an amazing flea market with a huge selection of local antique pottery, cool furniture, and about a million other interesting finds. After spending some time roaming the floors, we headed back over the river and into WV again. We stopped for a photo shoot at the World's Largest Teapot and some gingerale at the Sunoco across the street.

The best part of our day on this trip is always the Homer Laughlin China Co. factory outlet. I call it Fiestaland. In addition to this outlet shop where everything is very well priced compared to retail, they have a room full of seconds. We picked up some great stuff for our retro-look kitchen. The outlet is just past the beautiful singing Newhall bridge that's on the right. The sign pointing down into Fiestaland can't be missed.

After shopping ourselves into a low blood sugar euphoria, we headed the rest of the way down Route 2 into Weirton where we got back on 22 and went east over to Pittsburgh. There's a Moe's burritos just off 60 so we got some dinner there before taking 79S back home.