A Hamless Holiday -- Chocolate Hazelnut Mousse

Merry Christmas!! Vegetarian & Cooking! reached 4,000 views today, thank you for that.

I hope everyone is enjoying the day with their family and friends. I had a lovely Christmas morning and I'm excited to spend the rest of the day with J. and my extended family.

The final Hamless Holiday post is the dessert garnished with some red and green sprinkles to bring the entire meal together. Original post from Erica Sweet Tooth.

A Hamless Holiday:
Appetizer: The Melting Pot's Spinach Artichoke Cheese Fondue

Drink: Red Velvet Cake Martini
Main Dish: Roasted Red Pepper & Goat Cheese Pie
Side Dish: Roasted Green Beans & Red Peppers

Dessert: Chocolate Hazelnut Mousse

Ingredients:
Makes 3 1/2-4 servings

-1-1/2 cups whipping cream

-1/2 cup Nutella spread

-2 tbsp coffee, cooled

-Dash of Kahlua
-Shaved chocolate

-Three Ferreo Rochers
-Holiday Sprinkles

Make whipped cream, by mixing the whipping cream on high until stiff peaks are formed.
Gently fold in all of the other ingredients. 

Spoon into martini glasses or parfait glasses.

Garnish with sprinkles, shaved chocolate and a Ferreo Rocher chocolate.

This dessert was delicious -- the chocolate and the hazelnut blended so smoothly and it was very quick and easy to make. This is perfect to serve at any party because you can garnish it with almost anything to make it themed. The mousse was light and airy, a great end to the Hamless Holiday blog series.

Have a great holiday everyone!

A Hamless Holiday -- Roasted Green Beans & Red Peppers

I thought this would be a good side dish for Christmas since the it was so colorful. Green beans are always a good side dish, and this recipe spices it up a bit. I based my recipe from this one.

A Hamless Holiday:
Appetizer: The Melting Pot's Spinach Artichoke Cheese Fondue

Drink: Red Velvet Cake Martini
Main Dish: Roasted Red Pepper & Goat Cheese Pie
Side Dish: Roasted Green Beans & Red Peppers

Ingredients:

-green beans

-red bell pepper (proportion to taste)

-olive oil

-orange zest

-salt

-crushed red pepper

Cut the ends off the green beans and thinly slice the pepper.

Spread out on a baking sheet, top with olive oil, salt, crushed red pepper and  orange zest.
Roast for 15 minutes at 450 degrees.

This was a really easy side dish. It tasted really good and had a kick to it.

A Hamless Holiday -- Roasted Red Pepper & Goat Cheese Pie

                                             

Two more days until Christmas!

Today's recipe is reminiscent of a dish that I had in a pub in England.

Red pepper and goat cheese pie in England....the pub was a little dark, but this dish was fantastic.

To see other foods I had in England check out this blog.

And you can find my remakes of some of those foods: watercress pesto crostinis, cheese and onion pie, halloumi kabobs, grilled red pepper and onion sandwiches, potato-leek soup.

This recipe is incredibly easy to make and has a great presentation.


A Hamless Holiday:
Appetizer: The Melting Pot's Spinach Artichoke Cheese Fondue
Drink: Red Velvet Cake Martini
Main Dish: Roasted Red Pepper & Goat Cheese Pie


Ingredients:
-Two red peppers
-Two-Three Green Onions, thinly sliced
-Goat Cheese
-Four potatoes, mashed
-Milk, to taste in the mashed potatoes
-Butter, to taste in the mashed potatoes
-Salt and pepper
-Puff pastry

De-vein and de-seed the red peppers, roast.
To learn how to roast red peppers (it's easy I promise)
check out this blog from September.

Remove the skin from the red peppers.

Dice along with the green onions.

Mix the green onions and red peppers into the mashed potatoes.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Mix in as much goat cheese as desired.

Divide into ramekins. 

It should make four pies.

Top with puff pastry. 

The puff pastry will sit loosely on top of the ramekin, I pushed mine down around the edges of the ramekin.

Bake at 475 for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Enjoy.

This recipe wasn't exactly like the one I had in England because that one had some sort of a sauce served with it, but overall it was great. I used four green onions in the original recipe and scaled that back to make the recipe taste less like onion. I couldn't tell that there was goat cheese in the recipe though, I put several ounces into the recipe. Overall this was a good recipe and I would love to make it again because it was a hit with everyone.

A Hamless Holiday -- Red Velvet Cake Martini

                                             

I love red velvet cake and this martini is sure to pair well with any Christmas meal, but especially with the red, green and white theme that is the meal that's been prepared for the Christmas series. This recipe comes from Pillsbury.

Sorry about the glasses!! I know it's a martini, but I don't have martini glasses yet, don't worry, I asked Santa for them :)

A Hamless Holiday:
Appetizer: The Melting Pot's Spinach Artichoke Cheese Fondue

Drink: Red Velvet Cake Martini

Ingredients:
Makes Two Drinks
-Whipped cream cheese frosting (from 12-oz container)
-Christmas Sprinkles
-2 teaspoons chocolate-flavor syrup
-Crushed ice
-1/4cup cake-flavored vodka
-1/4cup crème de cacao
-6 tablespoons buttermilk
-1 to 2 drops red food color or red frosting gel

This drink can be two ways -- with food coloring or with gel frosting swirled in the glass. I didn't have food coloring so I just drizzled the red gel into the glass.

Frost the rim of the glass.

Dip into the sprinkles.

Christmas-y goodness.

Put a little chocolate syrup into the bottom.

Drizzle the inside with red gel.

Mix the liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice.
Strain the liquid into the glasses and serve.

This was a strong drink (as are most martinis), but it tasted good. I think if I made it again I would color it red with food coloring, but it's also nice to have a white drink with a splash of red.

Check back tomorrow to see the main dish!

A Hamless Holiday -- Melting Pot's Spinach Artichoke Cheese Fondue

Happy Christmas Week!

Starting today and going through Tuesday the daily blog post will be "A Hamless Holiday" post. Those five blogs all together will form a holiday meal. Keep checking back daily to find out another course of the meal. The theme for the Christmas meal is red, green and white and these dishes all go fantastic together making a feast for your eyes and taste buds.

I did a similar blog series called "A Turkeyless Thanksgiving" during the five days leading up to Thanksgiving and it was a hit. Hopefully this series will be as well. You can find the Thanksgiving posts here: appetizer, main dish, drink, side dish, dessert.

Today's post is the appetizer and is a recipe from the blog Favorite Family Recipes and is a copy-cat recipe for the Melting Pot's Spinach Artichoke Cheese Fondue. If you have never been to the Melting Pot before find your nearest restaurant and go celebrate something! I will warn you it is a little pricey, but it is great for birthday's or anniversaries -- J and I celebrated our two year anniversary there this past September and we had such a great time.

A Hamless Holiday:
Appetizer: The Melting Pot's Spinach Artichoke Cheese Fondue

Ingredients:
-3 oz. vegetable broth
-1-2 oz. fresh spinach, chopped
-1-2 oz. artichoke hearts, chopped
-1 Tbsp. chopped garlic
-2 1/2 oz. Butterkäse cheese
-2 1/2 oz. Fontina cheese
-1 tsp. grated Parmesan cheese
-a small amount of flour
-dash Tabasco sauce

All of the fondue appetizers from the Melting Pot call for Butterkäse cheese which Becky had no problem finding at the grocery store....if you can't find it check out the original post for alternatives.

Heat the vegetable broth (ideally you do this in a fondue pot, I don't own one, I just did it on the stove top).

You want the broth to be hot, NOT BOILING!

Add the spinach, artichoke and garlic.

Combine both cheeses and lightly flour them.
I used a few tablespoons of flour for this. 

Slowly incorporate the cheese stirring in a figure-eight motion.
Once melted stir in the parmesean and hot sauce.

Then you'll have fondue!

We enjoyed the fondue with bread and apples.

Fondue time is always a great time.

This is a great appetizer for any party and is best served in a fondue pot, however, I'm sure that you could also keep it warm in a crockpot in order to make it more accessible than my pot which was heated by the stove. This tasted exactly like the fondue which is served at the Melting Pot. The green from the spinach is sure to tie in nicely with the other blogs this week.

Check back tomorrow!