Potluck at the T-House

After years of being a habitual potluck attendee (although I like the word 'attender' or 'attenderer' better), I have finally returned the favour to all my hosts (Emily, Michael and Cindy, Lidia although I didn't go, the Press Club, Kristy and Toby's Wedding etc) and hosted a potluck at the T-House.

The theme was 'new', as the T-House has recently been renovated and is therefore newish. The idea was to make a new recipe, use a new ingredient, try out a new gadget, or to recreate an old favourite. Experiment, my pretties!

We also welcomed 'new' guests - Steph and Danni who are new Melbournites (although we had already met them before when Cindy and Michael hosted an Indian potluck to meet them when they were visiting Melbourne earlier in the year, one which I slackly didn't blog about because I was so embarrassed that I didn't have a chance to make anything and that my contribution was a bag of Kettle crisps), and Anna who is a new vegan and blogger.

I made two new kinds of ice-cream from my new ice-cream maker, which I bought because after excitedly picking up "The Vegan Scoop" by Wheeler del Torro, I realised that I also needed an ice-cream maker to actually make the ice-cream in the book about making ice-cream. Yes.

I made peanut butter ice-cream, which is really just PB, soy milk, brown sugar and vanilla extract whizzed up (ie fat, fat, sugar and sugar), and a chocolate version with raspberry pieces. I also made vanilla and was going to turn it into vanilla with white chocolate chunks, but in a moment of forgetfulness I forgot to replace the freezing bowl in the freezer yesterday morning, meaning that I couldn't turn the chilled mixture into actual ice-cream this morning. I improvised, after a moment of unbecoming swearage, and made a banana, white chocolate, nutmeg and vanilla custardy mix.

I also made rice paper rolls, which I filled with vermicelli, cucumber, carrot, bean shoots, enoki mushrooms, and tofu that I had fried off in soy sauce. Rice paper rolls are ridiculously easy to make, but I still need to involve some Asian mint and make them a little prettier. Sometimes I think that my rice paper roll habit is just an excuse to wrap anything in lettuce with mint and dip it in chilli dark soy sauce.

Other savouries included a platter of delicious dips from Anna including olive and chickpea and a pesto; chorizo sausages from Kristy; and a light and fluffy cous cous salad by Lisa. An in-betweener that I would never have thought of but which was absolutely delicious was the watermelon, lime, chilli and coriander salad by Jo. Finally, Buzz made Cindy's magical sausage rolls to delight and acclaim, and as I write he is whipping up another batch for our dinner. The recipe is fantastic, but I also have to give snaps to his preparation. *edit! I rudely forgot Cindy's homemeade crackers and yummo dip, which I didn't snap, but which was eaten up PDQ.

The groaning savouries table.

The rush begins.

The lovely lady authoress.

Kristy's chorizo sausages, pre-cookering.

My blurry rice paper rolls with lettuce and mint. Yes, that is cos lettuce and normal mint. Let's not go there, sistah.

Jo's fantastic watermelon salad.

Anna's tasty dips.

A line up of likely suspects.

Sweets were equally as multitudinous. There was a kiwi sorbet from Toby; white chocolate and peanut cookies from Pip; adorable oaty-chocolate balls presented on a darling double-decker cake stand by Jo; a white chocolate risotto with apples from the ever-adventurous and always-successful Craig; lovely oaty biscuits by Lisa; chocolate balls also I think from Pip, or maybe Jo?; *Edit: Michael!; and gingerbread form Miss T Junior which she ironically presented in animal shapes.

A table about to get diabetes.

Craig's surprising but delicious white chocolate risotto.

My banana-white chocolate-nutmeg-vanilla-ice-cream-mix concoction.

Beautiful oat balls.

White chocolate and peanut cookies.

Lisa poses.


Sam was tuckered out at the end.



Also, it is my second Veganniversary on, putatively, Tuesday. Everybody dance.