My darling Em has been up at the cabin for the past couple of days, and I was delighted to make her some of my latest vegan food discoveries (and she was delighted to eat them!). She loved the two-ingredient quinoa bread I’ve been making–especially topped with a smear of smoky paprika sauce and sliced avocados!

Her first night was a celebration meal (complete with Jamie-made birthday cake) for her 28th birthday. I asked her what she would like for a meal for her second evening here and she requested a vegan charcuterie!

So that’s what I did–and it was great fun to make and to eat (and everything was succulent!).

I made three baguettes, a vegan herb cheese, a vegan smoky cheddar, hummus, grilled marinated portobello mushrooms and zucchini (from the garden), and zucchini-chard-chickpea patties with a smoky paprika sauce for dipping. I served it all with some of Biddy’s sweet and sour pickles, medjool dates, cashews and pecans, grape tomatoes, olives, and mango chutney (which tastes great with the smoky cheddar!). Oh, and a bottle of Ravenswood Zinfandel that Johnny brought up last time he was here.

Em loved it so much that I packed her a mini-version to take on the ferry today (with a couple of fresh baguettes). She also suggested I make the vegan charcuterie for lunch for our guests this weekend, which I just may do!

The other recipe for today is also a bit of an assembly, rather than an actual recipe: Summer Vegan Pizza!

For this, I made some quinoa flatbread, and then topped it with very thin slices of vegan smoky cheddar and placed it under the broiler until the “cheese” melted. I then topped it with sliced avocado, slices of marinated grilled portobello, and thin slices of raw onion.

I would make this again in a heartbeat…even for guests!

And in exciting garden news, this happened!!!