My friend Amanda from Made it All From Scratch (a fabulous—but decidedly not vegan—food blog) threw her very first vegan dinner party last night in honor of Melissa, a visiting friend (and vegan chef) from Chicago, and her girlfriend Robin.

The menu:
* General Tso’s Tofu
* Cabbage and mushroom spring rolls with homemade dipping sauce
* Hand-squeezed lemonade with blood oranges
* German chocolate cake with coconut

Catherine at the sink and Amanda at the kitchen stove (completely in her element).

Melissa and Robin supervised the rolling of the spring rolls. (It was serious business.)

I stayed out of the way and sipped a glass of riesling.

It was Amanda’s first time working with rice skins, but you’d never know it. There were only five of us, but we definitely ate them all.

Somehow, in our eating frenzy, I forgot to take a photo of the General Tso’s tofu. You’ll just have to trust me when I say that it was both lovely and tasty—especially with Amanda and Catherine’s fancy chopsticks and rice bowls.

We finished the evening off with whiskey and coffee and tiny German chocolate cakes—which were every bit as delicious as they looked. It was Melissa’s birthday, so the cakes were an extra-special touch.

Amanda’s first vegan dinner party was a huge success: I stayed up past my bedtime, drank a few of glasses of wine, made a couple of new friends, and thoroughly enjoyed myself!