Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  I love planning the dishes, I love cooking and chopping and measuring and peeling and stirring all day with friends or family, and I love sitting down to a spectacular meal and being thankful for such a blessed life.  I do not love the clean up, but I am not above ignoring the mess until someone else takes care of it...

This year was my first vegan Thanksgiving.  I bought a Field Roast Hazelnut and Cranberry Stuffed Roast, and made mashed potatoes with Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese and soy milk, green beans with mustard sauce, the Mushroom Gravy from Veganomicon, and this chestnut soup from C'est la Vegan--we roasted the chestnuts in the oven and spent about half an hour peeling them...!  Mom made Cranberry Sauce Made Easy and Sweet Potatoes with Apples and Walnuts from vegweb.com and some sweet corn.  Mom of course made pies--a vegan pumpkin pie (it didn't make it into the pic above!) and a not vegan apple pie.  They were delicious, as usual, though I think the best vegan pumpkin pie recipe is still waiting to be discovered.

Mom, the pie expert:

Stand outs were the chestnut soup and the sweet potato bake.  The chestnut soup (I used a couple tablespoons of Earth Balance instead of the soy cream) was silky and rich and the sweet potatoes had a crunchy, sticky coating that was delicious.  All three of us loved both these dishes.  I also loved the Field Roast, though I want to make one myself next year.

(There's the pumpkin pie!)

It's been quite a while since I've had Thanksgiving with my parents, and we had a great time and a great meal.  It was really sweet of them to do a vegan meal with me, though they were a little disappointed, mostly, I think, because a couple of the dishes were too strongly flavored for them.  For instance, they liked the seitan part of the Field Roast, but not the stuffing in the middle. Though none of us were crazy about the Mushroom Gravy, which I felt was too bland.

Here's Dad, looking a little sad...I hadn't noticed he wore a Thanksgiving Day running t-shirt for the occasion...

The dogs were busy playing around most of the day, but begging at the table was a highlight...

I hope your Thanksgiving was lovely and you have a restful, long weekend!

Pumpkin Chili, Salad, and Garlic Bread

I love food.  All food.  I think that's why my veganism is going to last: who cares if I leave out a couple types of food, I've still got so much to try and I love it all.

Not that this is an unusual or exotic meal.  Just the opposite, it's simple and it was easy and cheap.  I usually only have one dish in a meal when it's just me--I love one-pot meals.  But I used a couple little time-saving strategies here so that I had a three course meal every day...though it was still the same meal for a week...any one else do that?  I tend to have the same thing for three days in a row.  This lasted five!

The Pumpkin Chili is from (never home)maker, a site I'd never visited before this review from seitan is my motor.  Seitan is my motor is a great German vegan blog (in English) that I read all the time but have never cooked from because her specialty is baking, and baking is not my thing, unfortunately.  But even when she isn't baking, the recipes look great.

I used my crockpot again here to make the kidney beans from dried, and I tried not even soaking them this time, which worked just fine.  I brought them to boil in water to cover, then cooked them in the crock on high for about 4 hours with a couple bay leaves, an onion cut in half, and a little thyme.  I used some of the cooking liquid in the Chili instead of the veggie broth (just remember you'll need to add a lot of extra salt).  I also roasted a pumpkin and used that instead of the puree from a can, and I sauteed some celery with the onions because I didn't have any corn to add.

The last change I made was I roasted the pumpkin seeds along side the pumpkin and used them to garnish.  It was a good, healthy chili--I have other favorites, but the pumpkin was fun.

I served the chili with a salad.  I tried something new here to make this easy and fast--on Sunday I washed and dried the lettuce, chopped it, and put it in a large plastic container with a tea towel.  I did the same for the other veggies (minus the tea towel): shredded a couple carrots, and chopped some sugar snap peas, green pepper, and celery.  Then I just had to assemble the salad each night, which went really quickly.  I also threw on some onion sprouts and chopped avocado.  I made the dressing in an almost empty Vegenaise jar with dried thyme, mustard, red wine vinegar, and evoo, and used that every evening, too.  I didn't go without a salad all week, because it was so easy.

Finally, I had a slice of garlic toast on the side.  I lightly toast a slice of whole wheat bread, rub it with a half-clove of garlic, butter it with Earth Balance, then throw it back in the toaster oven to get it good and bubbly and crunchy.

Layered Dip

So I don't know why I posted so much here during probably the busiest I've been since graduate school--the last couple weeks of October.  I'm chair of a local Democratic club, and we were canvassing, phone banking, and hosting events, as well as keeping an office open and running.  I was also working on a website, and doing design and layout work.  And going to two or three events and fundraisers a week.  And feeling like I could/should be doing so much more...

Then, I've never been busier at work.  I got promoted to a position I've been gunning for for years, and I'm excited about it, and trying to learn and start all these new things.  But...my old position hasn't been filled yet, so I'm doing that still, alongside trying to prove myself in the new job.

Nervous energy, maybe?

And then...the election happened...what did I do all that work for...???  Maybe the dividends are in the future...blah, blah, blah...

But either way (before or after demoralization), I haven't been doing my usual browsing of cookbooks and blogs, so my cooking is more based on the ingredients I have and what fits into my schedule, so I finally have some chances to post recipes of my own!


Not that you would actually call this recipe, "cooking," but I did manage to take a crappy picture (this is the best one!  what happened here?), and I'm writing up the ingredients.  I might bring this for our annual holiday potluck at work.  It's very rich, and there's nothing "hippie" about the taste, which--I don't know about you guys, but--everyone I know worries about a great deal...

Layered Dip

2/3 can vegetarian refried beans, heated
1/4 c salsa

1/3 c Vegenaise
2 T adobo spice mix (I had this in my pantry...YUM)

1 ripe avocado
juice of 1/4 lemon
plenty of unrefined seal salt to taste
a couple grinds of black pepper

Combine heated refried beans and salsa; set aside.

Combine Vegenaise and adobo spice; set aside.  (I'm going to have to stop myself from just making the Vegenaise and adobe spice by itself next time...)

Mash avocado with a fork and add lemon, salt, and pepper to make simple guacamole; set aside.

Layer bean mix, Vegenaise mix, and guacamole.  Serve with corn chips.

And here's the summer memory of the day, my twin nieces coming to my house and seeing their birthday cake, and both wearing the same, hilarious smile-suppression look on their faces...

Vegan Chili in a Crock Pot

50-mile-per-hour winds?  25-foot waves in Lake Michigan?  It's time for chili!

Vegan Chili in a Crock Pot
 
1 c dry kidney beans
4 small laurel bay leaves
2 t dry thyme or a few sprigs fresh
2 onions, quartered

2 T evoo
1 medium onion, diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 celery stalk, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 small green bell pepper, diced
1 28-oz can diced tomatoes
1 c bean cooking liquid or veggie stock
2 T tomato paste
1 T cocoa powder
1 T chili powder
1 t cayenne pepper

1 t turmeric
1 t paprika
dash cinnamon
plenty of unrefined sea salt to taste

1 T evoo
1/3 package of Boca crumble

Soak kidney beans overnight or quick soak by bringing to a boil for one minute and letting them sit off the heat for 1 to 2 hours.  Change the water; add bay leaves, thyme, and onions.

Maybe it's just my crockpot, but I need to bring the water and beans to the boil on the stove first, then transfer to the crockpot, otherwise they just never get hot enough to start cooking.  I do this in the morning and leave them on at low until I get home from work.  This makes nice, well-cooked beans for me.  I've also had success leaving them on high for four hours--starting them when I'm home for lunch--and they're ready at 5pm.

When beans are tender, begin the rest of the chili ingredients.  Heat olive oil over medium heat.  Add onion, garlic, celery, carrot, and bell pepper.  Cook until tender.  Add tomatoes, bean cooking liquid, and tomato paste and bring to a low boil.  Add spices, drained beans (save that liquid for soup!), and salt, and return to the crockpot on high for an hour and a half (or low for two or three).

When the chili is almost done, cook Boca crumbles over medium heat in a tablespoon of oil for 12 minutes.  Add to chili.

Serve with a little minced onion and some Daiya shreds, if you like.

Makes 3 or 4 servings.

And here's a pic in memory of the summer...

Parsley lounging in the hammock.  Yes, I have to tie her out in my fenced-in back yard.  She jumps my 6-foot privacy fence and runs around the neighborhood, weaving in and out of yards, and jumping other fences for half an hour, when she gets tired and lets me (or a neighbor) catch her.  I would love to hear any ideas to stop fence jumping!

Some Delicious Brown Food

So I remember, as a kid, that a meal like this was frozen, and quite a treat...Stouffer Turkey Dinner or something.  But at some point, I think Mom made it herself.  We would smother pieces of buttered bread with shredded leftover turkey and lots of gravy...wow.  After Thanksgiving, but also after other workday meals, this was one of my favorite dinners.  I'm telling you, this lived up to my memory.  Try it.

Why, yes, that is the worst food photograph ever blogged.  But it was damn good food.  And, no animals were harmed in the making of this ugly food...

To start, that is homemade whole wheat bread at the bottom there.  I followed the basic recipe from The Tassajara Bread Book by Edward Espe Brown.  The "turkey" is a thick slice of Vegan Dad's Smoked Veggie Turkey Lunchmeat (not just good here--eat it thinly sliced on sandwiches or see just how much your dog loves it as a soft training treat...).  And the gravy is a riff off of a Seventh Day Adventist recipe from an awesome book called Cooking by the Book by Marcella Lynch.  I wish I had made notes, because I changed it a lot and I wanted to post it here, but I didn't.  :(  I know I started with some onion in Earth Balance and made a roux, added homemade veggie stock and a little soy milk, and I know I added some Marmite, some soy sauce..and some other stuff...    But I bet a mushroom gravy would be even better.  What's your favorite vegan gravy?

Refried Beans Two Ways

Refried beans are among my very favorite foods, but these ones, eaten this way,  were magical...  Um...magical...?  Why not?  The ones I made here were "Rosario Guillermo's Frijoles Refritos" from World Vegetarian by Madhur Jaffrey (beautiful and useful book - get it).  But it was a very simple recipe, and the key, I think, is to cook your beans originally to a very soft consistency, then to make sure to add enough liquid when re-frying to make them nice and creamy.

Above, I had them with a baked potato with a dollop of Vegenaise and a handful of snipped chives from my kitchen garden, as well as a scoop of homemade guacamole, just simply done with avocado, lemon juice, and salt.  Yum.

And here they are with some homemade whole grain tortillas, cut up, brushed with oil and sprinkled with salt, and baked until crisp, as well as a salad with romaine, jicama, radish, avocado, and salsa.

The moral of this story is: make your own refried beans and eat them often.  You will be rewarded with perfect health and taste buds that sing your praises...;)

Vegan Spinach Salad

Here is some more proof that vegans don't sacrifice taste and in fact eat as well as anyone else (and much better than those people who hate spices, avocados, beets, or anything new).  I heartily enjoyed this salad for four days in a row; having prepared the vegan bacon and the dressing ahead of time, I just threw them together with some spinach and sliced up a few mushrooms.  Rich, complex flavors, and all those fresh greens.  Yum.  Really.

(That's an awesome picture, huh?  Pure luck.  And look how a few of those mushrooms with a little yellow-ish dressing look like hard boiled eggs...a little freaky, actually.)

I started with the Tempeh Bacon.  It needs to marinate for at least a couple hours, then it's fried.  The recipe is from Vegan with a Vengeance...which I don't own...but someone has posted it, and I'll link to it here.  (I do plan to buy the book one of these days.)  The person who posted it doesn't like it much, and, no, you're not going to fool anyone into thinking this is pork, but why would you want to?  It's a really savory, slightly crispy, slightly chewy, rich treat.  It's exactly what I was looking for.  The next component to put together is this Spinach Salad Dressing from Toby Jermain on food.com.  It's so thick, it's more like an onion relish.  But, with all the onion already in the dressing, that's one less component for the leftovers' prep work.  Add the bacon and the dressing over some spinach and thickly sliced mushrooms, and there you go.