First Brunch of 2012!

Good morning 2012!  We brought in the new year surrounded by friends and stayed up late playing games, listening to music and making food.  There was a lot of talk about food nerdery topics like Chopped, Iron Chef, who makes the best vegan breakfast in Portland, and how the right blender can change your life.  It was perfect. 

After 3 hours of sleep my body said, "Time to get up!"  Jerk.  I went straight for this:

And it totally did the trick, followed by some strong black coffee.  By the time BF woke up I was ready to get busy.... um, making brunch!  I wanted to kick off the new year with something extra delicious and also didn't want to leave the house.  Luckily I had some sweet potatoes, mushrooms and daiya pepperjack shreds on hand.  This is what we ate for our first meal of the year:

Biscuits and mushroom gravy with cheesy sweet potato home fries.  

I used the drop biscuit recipe from the Joy of Vegan Baking, but instead of spooning them out I just made four giant square biscuits.  They had to cook for almost double the time listed in the recipe because of their size.  This is the best vegan biscuit recipe I've used. 

The mushroom gravy is based on this one I found online.  I don't strain it and I add the mushrooms back at the end. I used this at Thanksgiving and it was a hit.  The carnivores actually preferred it to the turkey version. Vegan success.

The home fries are sweet potato with onion, herbs, salt and pepper, slathered in daiya pepperjack shreds. 

You all know how I love the sweet-n-salty flavor combo.  Not enough to dip my vanilla cream sandwich cookie into the black bean dip, like some people did late last night.... but this breakfast served up a nice balance.  Yum. 

Now, the kitchen is clean and I could use a nap.  Everyone else is doing it:

 

I hope your first day of 2012 is off to a great start, whether you're starting a new project or having some cozy relaxation. Cheers!