Vegan by Valerie

How to make risotto dinner party-friendly + one crazy run

Hi everyone!

How was your weekend? Mike had I had a great one.  Friday we had our cousin and his wife over for dinner, and I thought I would walk you through the preparation process.

Why?  Because I decided to make risotto…not the best dish to make for a dinner party since it is so time-intensive.  But I really wanted to make my Champagne Risotto with Clamshell Mushrooms, Pine Nuts, and Coconut – one of my favorite dishes!

So to compensate for the fact that the risotto took a loooong time to make, I got a lot of work done ahead of time.  I set the table that morning…

And I got a lot of the prepwork done.  On the menu was:

* Champagne Risotto with Clamshell Mushrooms, Pinenuts, and Coconut

* Mixed greens salad with my balsamic vinaigrette, homemade croutons, tomatoes, black olives, and artichoke hearts

* Garlic bread made with Earth Balance, garlic, and dried basil with a cheesy tomato dipping sauce (recipe to follow)

* My new favorite dessert… that recipe will be coming soon, too!

The day before:

- I prepared the dessert and stored it in the freezer.

- I made the croutons (cube bread, drizzle in EVOO, sprinkle with seasonings of your choice), cool, and store in a ziploc bag in the fridge.

The morning of:

- Cleaned house, set the table.

The afternoon of:

- Brush bread slices with Earth Balance, garlic, and dried basil; cover with foil so that it’s ready to be popped into the oven later.

- Prepare cheesy tomato dipping sauce; cover with foil and store in fridge.  Later that night, I put the dip into a small saucepan to heat on the stove.

- Toast pine nuts, leave on the counter to cool.

An hour or two before beginning the risotto:

- Chop toppings for the salad (tomatoes, olives, artichoke hearts)

- Chop onion for risotto

- Measure out all ingredients for the risotto (i.e., put the 1 1/2 c. arborio rice into a bowl so that when it’s time to make the risotto the measuring step is out of the way and I can just throw everything in at the right time).

These steps saved me a lot of time!  I also take some liberties when preparing risotto…. when I’m in a hurry, I don’t stand over the pot leisurely stirring over low heat for hours.  Instead, I add a lot of hot liquid at a time and crank the heat up as high as I can.  I swear you can’t tell the difference!

Here’s the final product:

Oh, and I promised you the recipe for the garlic bread dip.  It couldn’t be easier!

Cheesy Tomato Dipping Sauce

* 1.5 c. tomato sauce (jarred or homemade)

* 2 c. Val’s vegan cheese topping (1 c. walnuts, 1/2 c. nutritional yeast, and salt to taste in a food processor or blender – I use about 1 tsp. salt but half that would work well too, I just love my salt)

See, I told you it was easy!  Simply mix the tomato sauce and vegan cheese topping together, heat, and serve.

Overall, the dinner party was a success!  I was cooking for two people who have pretty much never had vegan food in their life, but loved every bite.  I should also mention that because she is pregnant I left out the champagne from the risotto and it still turned out great.

***
Saturday…. was an interesting day!  Long story short, it involved a 12 mile run not only in the rain but in a terrible thunder and lightning storm and with standing water up to my knees for much of it and my phone died and because my new phone is in the mail and will be here soon, I basically chucked my old, waterlogged phone into the lake when it started having lights come out of it and it was making weird sounds and I didn’t want to get struck by lightning.

Wow, what a crazy run it was!!! I’ve run in the rain before, but nothing like this.  I have never, ever run 12 miles in a torrential downpour but it was actually a blast.  The temps were surprisingly cool, and once I resigned to the fact that my shoes were soaking wet and that blisters were inevitable, it was a lot of fun.  (Disclaimer:  Running in a lightning storm is not safe and is not recommended!)

***
The rest of Saturday was spent at my in-laws house for a BBQ, and then Sunday Mike and I rode our bikes to Navy Pier to see Inception at the IMAX theatre.  It was pretty cool!! Definitely very confusing like the reviews say, but it was worth going to.  And it was really  neat to see it on the big screen.

What was the craziest workout you have ever had – biking in a tornado?  Running while being chased by dogs?  Do share!

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