Yesterday I was a bad blogger. We were moving around from place to place such that I rarely paused to take photographs. The day started with me baking a batch of BBQ tofu for the evening’s potluck. Once that was ready, we cruised out to the burbs for a visit with my Dad. It was hard to leave him, especially with the fire going (I’m having some serious fireplace envy these days). Afterwards we swung back by our house to retrieve the food, then headed to the husband’s family gathering. There we settled in…again, by a crackling fire. The guys started watching Finding Nemo but we ladies played a nifty word game, called Word Blind. We need to pick up a copy to play in our lovely (but sadly fireplace-less) lounge. Unfortunately we had to bail before the game was over, even though I was in second place. But I couldn’t argue with my belly. We hadn’t eaten yet and it was time to move on to the vegan potluck of the year, held at the home of the little man’s bio-dad. It’s an event we all look forward to and plan for the other 364 days of the year. It never disappoints and last night was no exception. The company was enjoyable (with over twenty of us gathered, including friends I hadn’t hung out with in a couple of years)…and then there was the food. I took small portions of each dish, trying to savor all, and still sampled less than half of what was available. My plate held homemade tofurky (with even better texture and flavor than storebought), garlic mashed potatoes & gravy, stuffed squash, lasagna, curried chickpeas & cauliflower, homemade croissants, mac’n'cheez, a sweet potato roll, my bbq tofu and rice, and more. Desserts included the husband’s chocolate almond midnight cake with raspberry coulis and candied almonds, pumpkin pie, homemade soy ice cream (two flavors), some sort of banana pudding, and pear & apple crisp, among other things. And if that all sounds too hippie-ish to yawl, well, at least no one was wearing Birkenstocks (not even the non-leather kind). And while I didn’t set out to be one, I’ll fess up…I seem to be some sort of pseudo-hippie mom. The little man just asked for a treat, specifically leftover Halloween candy, for successfully using the toilet. He’s been potty-trained and accident-free long enough that positive reinforcement is no longer necessary. But for a while I got away with pulling a fast one on him…by giving him his daily chewable vitamin as a treat. Eventually he caught on to it. So just now I tried switching tactics…but it backfired when I couldn’t even say something with a straight face. I attempted to sell him on the concept of raisins as “nature’s candy”. Next thing you know I’ll be whipping up some wheat-free carob cookies. Heaven help us.