First Meal: It’s the last day of the year! We’ll be heading to Bethlehem PA for the annual party at the home of my freshman college roommate Tamera and her husband Keith. It’s also Keith’s birthday. The throw the BEST parties. We always try to make it and sometimes we can’t. But this year we will be there. I ate up some of yesterday’s Kale Salad and packed the rest up in a bag of treats Gary put together for our road trip and hotel stay. I also ate one of the Chocolate Chip Pancakes from yesterday.
First stop in Bethlehem is Vegan Treats! We reserved a Peanut Butter Bomb cake to bring to the party. It’s vegan and gluten-free and totally yummy. I didn’t take a photo of it but grabbed one from their website so you can appreciate it’s beauty.
Second Meal: We checked into the hotel and decided to check out the new outdoor mall across the street. We were looking for food. It’s important to eat before a party when you don’t know if there will be food for you, or enough. We chose a Japanese place called Kome. It was calm and quiet when we walked in but most of the tables were reserved so we sat in bar at a bar table for two. It’s more fun to sit here. I ordered a Vegetable Stir Fry, without any of the offending non-vegan sauces. The server was very knowledgeable and brought us a dish of soy sauce from the kitchen that was vegan too.
Gary ordered some Avocado-Cucumber Maki and Vegetable Maki. I was still hungry and asked for Edamame. By this time the restaurant was packed. It took what seemed like a decade for them to arrive. I took them to go, to eat later. Gary told me I would be grateful to have them later.
Third Meal: The party was fun as always. And the food was really good this year. There was an appetizer plate of Olives, Tomatoes and Brussels Sprouts designed with the vegans in mind.
When I mentioned I preferred avoiding white flour, they made these darlings on Lettuce Leaves instead of bread.
The party dinner table is very festive filled with noisemakers and toys and wine goblets. Our salad was excellent.
The pasta dish was also exceptionally good. It had more vegetables than pasta and a nice lemony flavor.
I supervised cutting the Peanut Butter Bomb to make sure Gary and I got our slices.
Snacks: We left the party about 1pm. We had not had any alcohol since we were driving to the hotel. We brought along a bottle of organic Oko Prosecco and toasted to the New Year.
Yup, those Edamame did come in handy.
