Thursday night we had our friends Johannes and his wife Christine, as well as our friend Dom over for dinner.

I made vegan mushroom risotto, which came out pretty freaking well.
three types of mushrooms:

shitake, oyster and button

shitake, oyster and button

Step 1: saute garlic, shallots, 1/2 red onion with sliced mushrooms

mushrooms, onion, shallots and garlic saute

mushrooms, onion, shallots and garlic saute

Step 2: add arborio, stirring constantly for 5 minutes

adding in the risotto rice

adding in the risotto rice

Step 3: add in white wine and 8 cups mushroom broth, cup by cup, stirring until each one gets absorbed. probably about 45 minutes. at this point I also added some seasonings: salt and pepper, thyme and two bay leaves

add white wine and mushroom broth

add white wine and mushroom broth

Came out a bit blurry bc of the backlight, but here’s yours truly in my fabulous Etsy-find Juicy Fruit Lola Apron, which embarrassingly enough I was still wearing when the guests arrived!

the chef in her apron

the chef in her apron

We also had a simple green salad with cranberries, pomegranates and walnuts with a lemon-honey vinagrette, and for dessert this Amazing Vegan Olallieberry Pie!! I was going to make poached pears, but this pie just looked too good at Rainbow Grocery to pass up.

Vegan Olallieberry Pie from Rainbow Grocery

Vegan Olallieberry Pie from Rainbow Grocery

Us non-Vegans enjoyed our pie a la mode with vanilla ice cream :)

Dom, Johannes, Christina and Earl enjoy their pie! We were all incredibly stuffed :)

Dom, Johannes, Christina and Earl enjoy their pie! We were all incredibly stuffed :)

It was so nice to see Dom and Johannes again, and meet Christina! It’s nice to be starting to make some friends who live in the area. Johannes and Christina live about 10 minutes down the road from us- he is doing residency at UCSF and she is in her third year at med school there. Plus it was nice to catch Dom while he was in town, as he splits his time between SF and Truckee.  I was a little nervous about cooking vegan, but I think I can chock this dinner up as a success.