Well the flowers have wilted, the bunting is down, the balloons are deflated and the cake is eaten (although the Musical Birthday Sparkling Fountain is still tootling away 20 HOURS after we started it...astonishing and beginning to be a tiny bit annoying..!).
 So - it is time to eat something that doesn't contain SUGAR - hooray!
I feel as though the world is my oyster ... or is that not a vegan thing to say?...is the oyster in the phrase being eaten?...or just symbolically opening up representing all available possibilities?
Anyhoo, we shouldn't get too carried away as of course the oyster never opens THAT wide around here, metaphorically speaking, as there is still Pony's miniscule 'Food That I Like' list to contend with...so today we are having an old favourite that is practically unique here at VegaNation HQ . Not only does Pony like it but everybody else does too and what with it being a bit of a chore to do since we have to make the pastry first and we always have it with green beens and roast potatoes (truly great ones do not happen in five minutes!) it doesn't come around again and again so fast that we are all sick of the sight of it!
So a leisurely day is planned, to the tinny soundtrack of Happy Birthday (thriftily, we are now hoping it will play through until late January and cover Mouse's birthday also...) with lots of reading (I'm reading 'The Hour I First Believed' by Wally Lamb) and with minimal breaks to peel and parboil potatoes etc (I have contracted out the pastry as Sarah does a very nice shortcrust with cheeze in it - why keep a dog and bark yourself?!) I'm also planning to trounce my children at Picking Up Pairs later!

Totally gratuitous pic of 18-yrs-young Smokey on the day we adopted him!

Actually to go back to my book, Wally Lamb, if you're reading this...(are you one of  my TWELVE??!)...I forgave you all the hundreds of self-indulgent pages of family history in 'I Know This Much is True' (the monkey???) but YOU'RE DOING IT AGAIN!!!
We don't need to hear about the main character's family going back to his Great Great (Great? sorry, lost count..) Grandmother, Mrs Lizzie Popper...that's what your Editor was trying to tell you!
So anyway, about the tart...it's a shortcrust..er..crust! filled with a mixture of tofu, olive oil, (fish-free obv.) worcester sauce, black pepper and cajun or creole spices if wanted, topped with halved cherry tomatoes.
We got the recipe years ago off a packet of Cauldron tofu and because we can now only get plain at the supermarket (thank you Tesco..) that's the one we use, but as the newest VegaNation cat could tell you Smokey is best!!