SUGAR--

Christmas is nearly over as I write this, and I do not have a sore throat or (much of a) headache. Context matters here, I guess (although I'm sure you can guess without me telling you.) My family has this tendency to really load up on sweets over the holidays (even past the amount we can conceivably stuff our faces with over Christmas assuming we don't care about the consequences later.) When there are sweets around, my usual reaction is to eat them until they're gone. Because sweets are delicious in any quantity (actually, no, but I forget this easily XD.) However, when those sweets contain animal products (which most of the baked things do), it suddenly becomes super easy for me to not eat them (although Mom's sugar cookies are slightly tempting--perhaps next year I'll make my own batch.)

Regardless of how much I like a variety of sweets (or think I do), my favorite thing is actually Chex mix (which is easy to make vegan, especially when my parents usually make two batches anyway.) This year, I also started a new tradition--gingerbread bats! The Lady of the Manners posted her recipe, and her professed love of super spicy cookies was enough to convince me to try it out (unfortunately, I do not have a bat-shaped cookie cutter, so I cut them out by hand until I got sick of that and just started making stars. Next year there will be more bats >D.) I substituted a flax egg and Earth Balance buttery sticks for the eggs and butter in the recipe and they were delicious (although not as spicy as I hoped--another thing to work on next year.)

I also started making tangine from a recipe my mom found online, which everyone enjoyed. There was some tension over the meals between me and my mom because she wanted me to cook separate vegan dishes and I wanted her to adapt a couple of her usual recipes, but I've found that since I don't eat much anyway, I'm pretty satisfied with tangine and stuff from the relish tray. (Perhaps I'll make some gravy and biscuits for Thanksgiving next year--we'll see.)

So. Hooray for new traditions and not having a sore throat. Happy Christmas to those who celebrate it, and happy holidays to everyone else.