Rustling through my suitcase to find my running clothes, I happened to wake up Chloaye. She decided to come running with me to start off Christmas day.
It was such a beautiful morning; however, it was no typical Christmas morning as there was a not a speck of snow on the ground...blue skies all over!
We ran into my dad who was walking our dog suki along the water...he was shocked to see us up so early!
We stopped to play a little volleyball in the park. It got a little muddy and we nearly lost the ball over the cliff a few times...but we managed.
Dad joined us on our run back to the house. We arrived back at the same time as mom, who also went for a little Christmas morning jaunt.
While we opened up our "stockings" (which came in paperbags this year as mom didn't want to lug our stockings throughout the roadtrip) and presents, we sipped a hot cup of coffee.
Santa went all out this year. I even got a tin of sardines!!!!!!
After opening presents, we all started getting a little antsy and decided to make breakfast. We had over-easy eggs, stirfried vegetables, and some toast---just what I needed!
After breakfast, I started on the Christmas Tofurkey because it takes a few hours to prepare. I grated a pound of extra firm tofu and then pressed it into a round colander. In order to drain the tofu, you have to put a heavy weight on top---so a jar of apple sauce seemed appropriate!
It was such a nice day that we decided to go for a long walk after breakfast. I love the fact that you can walk outside late December with only a sweater on in Victoria.
When we got back from the walk, I continued on the tofurkey as I wanted it to be basically done before we headed over to Mer's for dinner.
I removed the "weight" and carved off about an inch of the tofu so that there was still a layer left in the colander.
Then I sauted some onion, celery, apples, and breadcrumbs. To that I added some celery seed, cloves, cinnamon, chilis, orange juice and tamari sauce.
(Oh my gosh...it tasted incredible by itself!!)
When the "stuffing" was completed, I poured it onto the first layer of tofu in the colander.
Then I pressed the left over tofu on top of the stuffing.
I whipped up a quick little "marinade" to baste the tofurkey. It consisted miso, hot water, tamari, orange juice, Dijon mustard, chilis, and garlic --- however, I eyed out all the ingrediants so I can't give you any exact measurements.
After I turned the tofurkey out onto the pan, I did the first baste job!
Then I put her in a 250 degree preheated oven for about 3 hours. Every hour or so, I took it out in order to baste it a little more.
When it was done, we headed over to Mer's for the evening and Christmas dinner.
It was the first time in a long time that the family was all together. It was so good! We spent time chatting, drinking, and snacking before dinner.
And then dinner was served!
I put a mushroom gravy on the tofurkey. Mmmm, I love Christmas dinner. There were mashed sweet potatos, mashed potatoes, curried peas,brussel sprouts, broccoli salad, cranberry sauce, tofurkey and of course turkey. It was scrumdilumpcious!!
For dessert there was an arrangment of baked goods and mom's hazelnut torte.
I couldn't say no to the torte, so I had a little slice!
We lounged around in the living room after dinner, and did a little "secret santa" type thing. Everyone had to bring a small gift to exchange with god knows who.
I started getting really tired at the end of the night...you know what they say about tofurkey...really exhausts ya...must be the hormones...so we planned for the family to come over for muffins in the morning and then headed home!
What a nice Christmas!
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