An obvious dessert was the red wine and raspberry chocolate cake from the same book. This cake was amazing with some fresh raspberries and a scoop of So Delicious Cashew Ice Cream. I think it was one of my best Valentines Day dinners yet! It was also Alex's first Valentines day being vegan, so I wanted it to be special and make something I knew was his style.



The year before that I made Red Wine Seitan and mushrooms, gnocchi and green beans. Red wine just makes stuff fancy, right?





Impressive dinners for friends don't need to be made by you alone! Some of my favorite impressive meals have been when I spent the day cooking together with a friend. My friend Belinda and I spent a few afternoons cooking Mexican food together, one time making tamales, and another time making empanadas! It is such a blast to cook with a friend. These empanadas are both from Viva Vegan! One is a corn masa dough with red chile seitan, and the other is a whole wheat pastry dough with a zucchini-choclo filling. Rice & beans accompanying for authenticity.




If ever you were unsure of what to make for company that would be impressive and comforting, the one true map to your friends' and family's hearts is a giant bowl of Italian food. Spend some time on your sauce -- if you've got a family recipe, now's the time to use it. Prepare everything else while your sauce simmers. Here, I got my sauce going a couple hours early (my father-in-law's recipe, of course), let it simmer and gave it a stir every 10 minutes or so. About 25-30 minutes before I wanted to eat, I made garlicky white beans with spinach, boiled the pasta, and popped some garlic bread in the oven. The result? Extremely satisfying and impressive with relative ease.