This red sauce is made mainly from dried Mexican guajillo chili peppers, which have an amazingly rich flavor, especially when fried a little.  Also, this sauce isn’t just for enchiladas – it also goes great as a dipping sauce for tortilla chips or as a table condiment for your next Mexican meal.

Red Sauce for Enchiladas

Ingredients

• 8 large dried guajillo chilis
• 2 dried chipotle peppers
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup vegetable broth
• 1/2 large white onion, diced
• 1 large red bell pepper, cut into thin strips
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 medium red tomatoes, diced (2-3 canned whole tomatoes can be substituted)
• 1/2 tablespoon Mexican oregano

Preparation

1. Boil dried guajillo and chipotle peppers in a pot of water until softened, about 10 minutes.
2. Drain the water and, when the peppers are cool enough to handle, remove the steams.
   Tip: If you are making broth from Better-than-Bouillon or a cube, reserve some of the pepper water for the broth!
3. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a large skillet. Fry the softened peppers for a minute on each side on high heat until fragrant. Remove from heat.  Leave the leftover oil in the skillet and remove the skillet from heat.
4. Transfer peppers to a blender. Add the broth and puree until smooth.
5. Reheat oil in the skillet and saute bell pepper, onion, garlic, tomatoes, and oregano until the peppers are soft, about 10 minutes. Add the pepper puree and continue cooking for another minute or two.  Season with salt to taste and serve!

Note: If desired, you can blend the sauce again for a completely smooth sauce, but I like it with the strips of pepper and diced onions.

Cookies for the Holidays

Cookie Parties are a delicious holiday tradition for many families and groups of friends. It is a great way to make a wide diversity of cookies with plenty to sample and spare. This year, why not bring vegan and gluten-free cookies to the party with some of our favorite cookie recipes? This year, I wanted to tackle some of James’ family favorites including some Italian treats like Pistachio Biscotti, Italian Wedding Cookies, and Vegan Rosettes.

If you want to celebrate the holiday with some of our more unusual winter vegetable cookies try our traditionally flavored Sweet Potato Drop Cookies or vibrant Beet Cookies. Or, if something a little more All-American is what you want to bring to the party try our Oatmeal Raisin.

The first rum balls we ever had were made by friend we made while traveling in Peru who wanted something festive to contribute to our very international Thanksgiving feast. This version is both vegan and gluten-free, and is sure to be a hit at your next holiday gathering.

Rum Balls

Ingredients

• 1 cup almonds
• 1 cup pecans
• 1 cup walnuts
• 1 cup dates
• 4 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/4 cup Jamaican rum
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup unsweetened grated coconut

Preparation

1. In a food processor, grind the nuts, dates, cocoa powder, and oats.
2. Place the mixture in a bowl and add the rum to make a dough.
3. Use your hands to roll the dough into small balls and then roll them in powdered sugar and coconut.

Growing up, a family friend of my Norwegian grandfather would always bring over an assortment of Norwegian Christmas cookies each year for the holidays.  He would of course share this bounty of sweets with his children and grandchildren, and I was always delighted for these special once-a-year cookies. Sadly, that family friend passed away several years ago, and both my grandfather and I have moved away from the town we lived in in Maryland, so it has been a long time since he or I have enjoyed, or even seen, those Scandinavian treats.  Moreover, I didn’t even know the names of any of the cookies!

Well, wouldn’t you know it, but Edible Austin, the Central Texas food magazine, has on the cover of its current issue a magnificent photograph of one of the Norwegian cookies I remember best, and it turns out they are called Rosettes!  Inside is a great recipe for them (with spicy Mexican chocolate!) by Jessica Maher of Lenoir.  I read that you need a specialized tool, called a rosette iron, to make these cookies, so I promptly ordered one from Amazon.  Intimidated slightly by the prospect of deep frying, Taylor and I mustered our courage and made our first batch of rosettes this past Sunday – and they turned out great!  They are light, crunchy, and just-sweet-enough, just like I remember them.

Rosettes are delicate Scandinavian fried cookies often prepared for the holidays.  They are typically made with a simple funnel cake-like batter that has eggs and milk, so we crafted this vegan version that tastes just as good and has the added benefit of making more well-defined rosettes.

To make rosettes you’ll need a special tool called a Rosette Iron. We used this Norpro Rosette Iron and found it to work quite well, though we’ve heard old-school cast iron ones work better than aluminum.