Thanksgiving Day Vegan Fest Recap

I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day yesterday! J and I were supposed to go to his mom's for a family dinner, but I've been sick and so we decided it best to have our own little fest at home. J, the sweetheart that he is, insisted I relax while he prepared our T-day dinner. About a week ago we had discussed what we were going to make and created a delicious menu:

• Vegan YumYum's Seitan Roulade with Chestnut Stuffing (with pecans substituting chestnuts because we couldn't find prepared chestnuts at Whole Foods)
• Vegan YumYum's Mushroom Gravy
• Garlic mashed potatoes
• NYT Well Blog's Stir-Fried Balsamic Ginger Carrots

So I sat on the couch watching TV as J worked away in the kitchen, running back and forth to the computer and to me with questions and exciting taste tests. The dinner he put together was spectacular. I had been a meat eater for many years, and this was MUCH better than any "normal" Thanksgiving dinner I'd ever had. He even changed up the menu a bit; we'd run out of mushrooms for the gravy, so he made Vegan YumYum's Tangerine Cranberry Sauce (made with orange juice instead of tangerine). Everything was delicious and definitely worth making again! Here's some photos he took while he was putting everything together:

Pecan Stuffing

Finished Pecan Stuffing with Homemade Croutons added

Cranberries, Sugar, & Orange Juice boiling down

Finished Orange Cranberry Sauce

Roulades just out of the oven. We realized we forgot to get cotton cooking string, so J was innovative and used tin foil "twist-ties" instead

Our beautiful dinner!

I had originally planned to bake a vegan French Apple Tart to take to J's mom's house, but as I was sick, I wasn't feeling up to baking. The tart would have looked like this though: 

This was the first year I did not feel overly stuffed from Thanksgiving. I didn't feel lethargic; I felt satisfied and lively. In retrospect, we didn't even need the tart - it probably would have been overdoing it. And what's the point in that?!

I'm glad we had an animal-free meal this Thanksgiving. As I perused Facebook, so many people had the status "Happy Turkey Day!" and it made me feel so sad that people don't realize the meaning behind what they're saying. Thanksgiving should not be a day about killing thousands of turkeys, most of which lived horrible lives in cages too small for them to move. Thanksgiving should be about being thankful for what we have and, if you're going to partake in the act of eating animals, at least have the decency to be thankful for the life you took rather than making light of it and wishing everyone a happy turkey day. 

For me, I'm thankful to have such a loving, caring, devoted fiancé. I'm thankful for our companion animals, kitties Ellie and Bob, who show us unconditional love and have lifted our spirits daily. I'm thankful for the family we've made for ourselves and for the happy home that shelters us. I'm thankful for the life I have and the happiness I can bring to others. 

Let's play catch up...

I apologize for my recent departure from blog-posting. Life has been quite the whirl-wind lately and, unfortunately, my blog has moved to the back burner. In recent news:

-I started a Cupcake Club of the Month with Salt and Pine Bakery and, in my first month, had 5 members! Members receive 4 beautifully packaged cupcakes delivered to their door once a month. Within days of the first delivery, I increased membership to 8. J and I also recently realized that the kitchen in our place may not be all that difficult to certify after a few minor enhancements (mainly dealing with the facet pressure/temperature and finding a suitable door so that the kitties can't come in). I'm excited to move forward and take my business to "legit" status. Have you seen my new logo designed by Derek Kimball of Last House Productions? It's beautiful!

-For a while there, J and I weren't doing much exciting cooking. We go through phases and the busier we are, the less inspired our meals become. I've realized that as my back feels better, I need to really focus on weight loss since I have increased mobility. So I've started going to one-on-one Pilates sessions at Springboard Pilates and I'm planning all of our weekly meal in advance again. Meal planning not only helps with weight loss because it tells you what to eat and when, but it also helps you save money so that you're not buying things without plans. Yay planning! And FYI - Pilates is amazing. I'm loving it so far and recommend taking one-on-one or really small classes using the reformer if you can afford it. It is costly, but in my mind, my body is a worth-while investment. My trainer knows a lot about back injuries and is excellent at paying attention to my facial and body cues and makes sure I won't re-injure myself.

-So since we started cooking planned meals, we've made some awesome things. Here's your recipe recap:

• On Monday we tried Vegan Yum Yum's Pan Fried Tofu, Kale, & Stir-Fried Noodles. The recipe was easy to follow and came out wonderfully. One thing I'll say about Vegan Yum Yum is that her recipes tend to be a bit intricate and can take some time, so if you're in a hurry, I don't recommend trying out her stuff. This dish used a wonderful marinade on the tofu and a dipping sauce based on the marinade.  

• Tuesday's dish was Post Punk Kitchen's Black Beans & Quinoa with Chipotle Raspberry Sauce. Again, a dish that took some time, so don't make this if you're in a real hurry. I also recommend using a food processor for the dressing, not a blender. At the time, we didn't have a food processor (just got one on Friday!) so sauces in the blender were a pain because everything just gets stuck on the blades and doesn't move. The dish was awesome though - we made it with a small hot chile instead of chipotles in adobe because we just don't really like that flavoring all that much. I also used cashews in the sauce because we didn't have any almonds.  

• Wednesday morning I set up the crock pot to make Fat Free Vegan's Spiced Butternut Squash & Lentil Soup.  One of my favorite things about cold weather seasons is using my crock pot. There's nothing like coming home from a really busy day to a home smelling like someone's been cooking and a meal ready to eat. The garam masala in this dish is a wonderful touch and makes the soup smell so delicious.  

• Thursday was Vegan Yum Yum's Pistachio Arugula Pesto with Penne & Sauteed Broccolini.  YUM! Just look at the photo on her website and you'll salivate. J made this dish and I think one of my favorite parts was the miso in the pesto. Such an interesting twist and it gave it a little bit of sweetness. We didn't have any arugula so we used spinach instead....soooo good. I'm curious to try it again with arugula, but it was really awesome with spinach. 

-On Friday, J and I went to Portmouth, NH and had dinner at The Friendly Toast. They've got a lot of vegetarian options, but not so many vegan ones. You can have things modified though...they're totally open to that. And nothing beats the decor in there :)

-Saturday we had a delicious brunch at Local Sprouts. J had a VLT - a vegan version of a BLT with tempeh, lettuce, tomato, and their homemade vegan mayo. I had the sweet and sour tofu sandwich and we shared a little bowl of their vegan mac n cheese. Yummers!

-Today I received the sad news that my family cat Pumpkin passed away over the weekend. My mom got Pumpkin back in 2006 from Harvest Hills Animal Shelter in Fryeberg where she volunteered. He was such a fluffy little cat and we were told that he was an adult...but as it turned out, he kept growing and growing and growing into a 15 pound cat the size of a small dog! He was the most cuddly cat I'd ever had and enjoyed spending an upwards of 10 minutes kneading your chest every night. He loved to jump really high in the air to catch toys and would run after me as I walked across our dining room, pawing at my feet.

After my mom passed away in 2007, my step-father kept Pumpkin until he had to give him up in 2010 because the apartment he was moving into wouldn't allow pets. I tried to take Pumpkin in but my apartment was very dark (I was living in an awful basement apartment) and my kitty Ellie was being extremely dominant and Pumpkin just was not happy. So my friends in Boston offered to take Punky and he's been living with them for the last year or so. They've given his such a wonderful, loving home and I'm so happy he lived out his time with them. I feel just awful that we've all lost him so soon; he was only maybe 6 or 7 years old. In any case, he will be sorely missed by many and I am deeply saddened to receive this news. It's times like these when you realize just how meaningful our relationships with our companion animals become. After my friend called me in tears, I grabbed both of our cats and gave them more hugs than they could stand.

We will miss you, Pumpkin.

Are you out there??

As a blogger, you get kind of bummed when you don't see the "Followers" count increasing steadily over time. You start to think - is anyone out there actually reading this? To quench my blogger-loneliness, I added a nifty little widget "Feedjit" to my page. Over time, I've been noticing that folks from California, Alaska, Washington, D.C., Canada, Boston, New York, and several other countries have been visiting my pages. And although they aren't clicking the little "Follow" button to let me know they're right there with me, I'm confident that they are. Don't be shy friends - feel free to click that button and to leave some comments on my posts! I love answering questions, responding to ideas, and getting advice from readers, so step right up!

As the weather is becoming increasingly more beautiful and the plants around us begin to delight our senses, I've been doing more summer vegan cooking. What exactly does this mean? Well, I've put away my stews, heavy dishes, warm soups and roasted veggies for now, and have started preparing a lot of crisp raw dishes, celebrating the array of summer veggies just starting to show up at the Farmers Market and food stores.

This week Justin and I put together a Korean-style cabbage salad using a head of shredded purple cabbage, some shredded carrots and edamame. Justin made a sweet-spicy sauce that complimented the flavors of the veggies really well.

Korean Cabbage Salad

We also made Vegan Yum Yum's Smokey Miso Tofu and used it to make sandwiches with caramelized onions and mushrooms, tomato, and cucumber. The tofu was delicious and we'll definitely be making it again, though next time I won't use her drying method. When I tried using her method (placing a cast iron pot on top of the tofu to squeeze excess water out) the tofu ended up crumbling a lot and we didn't get as many slices out of it as we wanted. I'll also slice them a little thicker next time. The marinade in the recipe has a surprisingly salty, smokey, sweet flavor. We had some extra and used it on the sandwich as well.

Smokey Miso Tofu

Dinner! Smokey Miso Tofu with Caramelized Onions, Mushrooms, Cucumber & Tomato, Korean Cabbage Salad, and, of course, a pickle

Since this is one of the few times Justin and I have two days off in a row together (he works on Saturdays and has off on Fridays; I have off on Saturdays & Sundays) we decided to do a little exploring. My dad recently gave me the family picnic basket which I'll pack with some left over cabbage salad, hummus veggie wraps, and juice, and we'll head up to Bradbury Mountain State Park for a picnic and a hike. 

What are you doing for Memorial Day? Family picnic? Hiking? Hanging out at home? What are kind of menu are you planning? Let us know! 

YumYum

A week or so ago I was perusing the Internet's vegan recipe offerings when I was reading my friend's blog, Veganoogle, and saw a review for VeganYumYum's Sweet Chili Lime Tofu with Wok Steamed Collards and Quinoa. Done. I've had all the ingredients for a while, but we finally got to it this evening.

This recipe is absolutely a keeper. I had never used the "dry frying" method of preparing tofu, but it worked out really well and I think we'll probably do it again. We actually still pressed the liquid out like we normally do, but it's impossible to get it all out just by pressing. I also love her "tofu math" way of cutting the tofu down into small triangles.

As for the recipe, we made it as is since it was our first attempt, but we'd like to make some changes next time. My fiance thinks kale would taste better (he's not a fan of the earthy underlying taste in collard greens), as Veganoogle suggests, we'd add more garlic, and perhaps some other veggies - shredded carrot, onion, sauteed mushrooms. Rather than make more of the sweet chili lime sauce (which is awesome and could be used in so many other ways), next time we'll just reserve some because we really didn't need to use all of it to glaze the tofu. I also think I'd only use 2 Tbsp sugar in the sauce - 3's a bit much. 

I'd like to try more of VeganYumYum's recipes. We made the Mac & Cheeze (take two) about a year ago and that was pretty good. I'm bummed that it looks like she's stopped posting though; it's a really great blog with some awesome recipes, but it ends in January of 2010 and doesn't pick up again. Bummer. If you click on the archives though, you'll find a really nice listing of some awesome sounding recipes. More reviews of her stuff to come, I'm sure! 

Should we serve...pasta?

Tonight my fiance and I have invited his mother to dinner to tell her we're engaged. My family already knows because the live 9 hours away, but my fiance wanted to wait until we got the ring to tell his mom, and well, here we are!

Now, as you may or may not have figured out, we like to cook. And his mom isn't close minded when it comes to food, though it does sound like she's not especially open to eating a meal made from meat substitutes (i.e. Tofurkey, seitan, veggie burgers, etc.). We sat on the couch around midnight looking through VeganYumYum and VegWeb trying to find inspiration. I found that we kept leaning toward pasta dishes, which is what she normally serves us when we visit her house. I think pasta tends to be a default vegan dish. It's easy and filling and doesn't have to involve cheese or dairy. We were leaning heavy towards VeganYumYum's Pistachio Arugala Pesto with Penne and Sauteed Brocolini, when I turned to him and said, "We need to show her that vegan dishes are more versatile and cook something other than pasta."

He remembered when I had made him stuffed peppers when we first starting dating and we agreed this would be a more interesting dinner choice and would show his mom that we don't just eat pasta! My stuffed peppers incorporate quinoa, TVP, salsa, sauteed veggies and bread crumbs. They're really yummy. In addition, we're going to make a nice big herb salad and I'm going to try baking a Mediterranean olive loaf from The Joy of Vegan Baking. For dessert, I'm going to test out a new From Scratch & Sniff cupcake idea - ginger cupcakes with bosk pear filling, dipped in chocolate ganache, topped with vanilla icing. Yum!

I've got a full day of cooking ahead of me so I'd better hop to it. I'll share my stuffed pepper recipe later; I don't normally measure the ingredients so I'll pay attention when I make it today and try to give you some more exact instructions!