Kentucky Fried Potluck

It was a warm Sunday evening, and I had a big mess o’ buddies coming over to celebrate nothing at all.  I wanted to test out some recipes for a” super top secret” project I’m working on, and spend some quality time with good smilin’ people.  I’ll start out with what I made, and move on down the line.  The only thing missing from this potluck was some Ale-8-One!

A lovely mixed assortment of olives for the first people arriving.  Watch me wrastle with a deep fryer and delight in some salty hors d’oeuvres!

Speaking of deep frying, feast your eyes on my Kentucky Fried Seitan.  I’ve been messing around with recipes for a couple weeks, and I found my winner.  I made a batch with from-scratch seitan, but I have to say that the kind I made from powdered wheat gluten was MUCH better.  I’ll put up a tutorial on Homemade Seitan 101: What Not To Do. I made this with tofu a few days ago too – it’ good!  Do it!  Fry it!

Ah, coleslaw.  The friendly heart attack disguised in salad form.  But wait!  Veganaise to the rescue!  Have no fear of clogged arteries – vegan coleslaw keeps you safe and happy with its crunchy superpowers.

The lovely Audrey made this awesome raw kale salad that went faster than anything else on the table!  The sweet cranberries and crunchy pine nuts went really well with kale, and the dressing was tangy and citrusy.  Perfect for an outdoor/indoor potluck extraveganza!

Brie brought some garlicky roasted carrots!  This might be my new favorite way to do carrots.  There were whole roasted cloves of garlic snuggling around in there.  Enough said.

Gabe brought green beans and turnips she found at the Farmer’s Market.  Mmmm.

Let’s not even pretend this is a Red Velvet cake.  It’s supposed to be.  Looks more like a Carrot Cake, right?  This wasn’t an epic fail, but it was close to one.  I didn’t coat the pans before baking, probably didn’t use enough leavening agent, and needed more beet juice.  All things considered, it still tasted pretty good but it wasn’t my proudest moment!

We ended the night with a rousing game of Smart Ass (you should own this) which my dad slayed.  Congrats JW.  There were also Mint Juleps floating around, collards from Lindsey, and cornbread from my friend Ayla (which you can see in the first picture on the red plate).  We listened to Bluegrass music and discussed the many and varied attributes of Dolly Parton.  It was a great little funfriendjollyjoy night.

Blurry photo of how it went down.