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Creamy vegan scalloped potatoes...

On a whim and out of nowhere (and at 2:54 AM, I'll have you know) I began conjuring images of creamy scalloped potatoes. Odd for someone who must avoid cheese and cream and butter and who- most days- is reconciled to her cheese-free life with a shrugging Lebowski-Zen detachment they write books about. Not to mention, it's been (literally) over a decade since I made this retro recipe, cream or no cream. Alas, I simply couldn't get the idea out of my sleepy Ewan McGregor-esque spiky head. 

The vegan scalloped potato challenge bit me. And refused to let go.

To make my pre-dawn vision a reality this classic recipe would need some serious tweaking. I mean, it's not just cheese you have to replace (and I'm no fan of plastic vegan cheeses, let me tell you). There is cream. And sweet moo-cow butter. Three key ingredients that make this comfy dish so melt-in-your-mouth delicious. Lucky for me I happened to have some dairy-free cream sauce left over from a vegan pasta I had tossed together the night before. A thick and silky hemp based sauce featuring artichokes and wine.

Accident? Destiny? Or simply the collective unconscious zeroing in on post-midnight potato cravings when your serotonin is dropping so fast your heart beat skips and triggers a hot flash?

You decide.