My thanksgiving menu was delish! We were massively stuffed. It was just the hubby and I at home - which I very much prefer. There have been too many in-laws in my life lately! As my husband is an omni and I am not - there was some compromise on this food-centric holiday. Basically, he said 'There must be stuffing!' and so there was.
I used a basic stuffing recipe from savyvegetarian.com. It called for toasting the cubed bread in the oven first. This resulted in a much drier stuffing in which the individual cubes of bread were still separate. This is the reason that I enjoyed this stuffing and the precise reason why the husband did not. So, perhaps next year I'll switch back to an untoasted recipe - or perhaps not! (insert evil laugh here!)
To accompany that I made a roasted mushroom gravy via vegandad.com. The mushrooms, garlic and onions were roasted in the oven and then made into a gravy. I think this is a good idea, except it called for soy milk. One of several things went wrong: a) I used vanilla soy milk b) I used soy milk that had turned c) both. I think it was c! Next year I will make a roasted mushroom gravy made with veggie stock instead of any sort of milk.
As a side I made baked sweet potatoes, but I didn't put them into the oven soon enough and they didn't finish cooking in time. So for next year I'll make sure to perfect that timing. So we didn't eat those at all!
The entree? It was divine! I've had an old copy of Vegetarian Times (November/December 2005) and have been dieing to make these Roasted Vegetable Conrnucopias and I finally have a 'reason'. Basically, puff pastry is wrapped around a cone made of tinfoil, baked until crisp, then the tinfoil is removed and the cornucopia is stuffed full of roasted veggies. Man! Those roasted veggies were good! spiced with fresh sage, marjoram and thyme! So yummy!!! Def will be making those again next year!!
And of course, for dessert my homemade pumpkin pie! All in all - we were stuffed and very thankful for the food!
The major thing that will be different next year is a holiday cocktail. I'll be drinking some alcohol drink like a cranberry martini or a spiced pumpkin 'Irish' coffee or something!
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
Getting to know you - getting to know all about you
1. Favorite non-dairy milk? Almond milk - but must confess I haven't tried anything other than soy and almond. My bad.
2. What are the top 3 dishes/recipes you are planning to cook? Honestly, I don't really plan my cooking like that. I have a ton of things I want to do but I don't really prioritze - which is why, I suppose, my list gets longer instead of shorter
3. Topping of choice for popcorn? cinnamon and sugar
4. Most disastrous recipe/meal failure? coconut pie (oven door fell off so not 100% my fault) and gnochi - I simply can not get the hang of gnochi
5. Favorite pickled item? sauerkraut
6. How do you organize your recipes? computer, moleskin notebooks, piles of books and mags with bookmarks in them.
7. Compost, trash, or garbage disposal? trash - live in a condo - but I do save veggie scraps and make my own stock. Does that count?
8. If you were stranded on an island and could only bring 3 foods…what would they be (don’t worry about how you’ll cook them)? chocolate, couscous, chickpeas
9. Fondest food memory from your childhood? baking christmas cookies
10. Favorite vegan ice cream? n/a
11. Most loved kitchen appliance? kitchen aid stand mixer
12. Spice/herb you would die without? cinnamon
13. Cookbook you have owned for the longest time? Fanny Farmer - gift from parents
14. Favorite flavor of jam/jelly? raspberry
15. Favorite vegan recipe to serve to an omni friend? wacky cake! simple and easy
16. Seitan, tofu, or tempeh? I like them all equally - which is to say I use them spareingly.
17. Favorite meal to cook (or time of day to cook)? alltimes and anytimes
18. What is sitting on top of your refrigerator? fancy wine bottle holder made out of the glass of an old wine bottle.
19. Name 3 items in your freezer without looking. ground flax seed, frozen hot peppers, homemade bagels
20. What’s on your grocery list? tamaria, wheat gluten, chickpea flour
21. Favorite grocery store? The Big Carrot.
22. Name a recipe you’d love to veganize, but haven’t yet. definatly marshmallows. Bain of my existance
23. Food blog you read the most (besides Isa’s because I know you check it everyday). Or maybe the top 3? bakeralla, 17 and baking, tastespotting.
24. Favorite vegan candy/chocolate? n/a
25. Most extravagant food item purchased lately? pearl onions - I just can't justify them, when a reg onion cut up is the same thing.
26. Ingredients you are scared to work with? nothing
2. What are the top 3 dishes/recipes you are planning to cook? Honestly, I don't really plan my cooking like that. I have a ton of things I want to do but I don't really prioritze - which is why, I suppose, my list gets longer instead of shorter
3. Topping of choice for popcorn? cinnamon and sugar
4. Most disastrous recipe/meal failure? coconut pie (oven door fell off so not 100% my fault) and gnochi - I simply can not get the hang of gnochi
5. Favorite pickled item? sauerkraut
6. How do you organize your recipes? computer, moleskin notebooks, piles of books and mags with bookmarks in them.
7. Compost, trash, or garbage disposal? trash - live in a condo - but I do save veggie scraps and make my own stock. Does that count?
8. If you were stranded on an island and could only bring 3 foods…what would they be (don’t worry about how you’ll cook them)? chocolate, couscous, chickpeas
9. Fondest food memory from your childhood? baking christmas cookies
10. Favorite vegan ice cream? n/a
11. Most loved kitchen appliance? kitchen aid stand mixer
12. Spice/herb you would die without? cinnamon
13. Cookbook you have owned for the longest time? Fanny Farmer - gift from parents
14. Favorite flavor of jam/jelly? raspberry
15. Favorite vegan recipe to serve to an omni friend? wacky cake! simple and easy
16. Seitan, tofu, or tempeh? I like them all equally - which is to say I use them spareingly.
17. Favorite meal to cook (or time of day to cook)? alltimes and anytimes
18. What is sitting on top of your refrigerator? fancy wine bottle holder made out of the glass of an old wine bottle.
19. Name 3 items in your freezer without looking. ground flax seed, frozen hot peppers, homemade bagels
20. What’s on your grocery list? tamaria, wheat gluten, chickpea flour
21. Favorite grocery store? The Big Carrot.
22. Name a recipe you’d love to veganize, but haven’t yet. definatly marshmallows. Bain of my existance
23. Food blog you read the most (besides Isa’s because I know you check it everyday). Or maybe the top 3? bakeralla, 17 and baking, tastespotting.
24. Favorite vegan candy/chocolate? n/a
25. Most extravagant food item purchased lately? pearl onions - I just can't justify them, when a reg onion cut up is the same thing.
26. Ingredients you are scared to work with? nothing
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Book review: Pie
mmm, pie! Who doesn't love pie? Especially around the holidays (Canadian thanksgiving this weekend!) I took this book, Pie: 300 Tried and True Recipes for Delicious Homemade Pie by Ken Haedrich out of the library in anticipation of baking a 100% from scratch pumpkin pie. I've tried this before - which resulted in 6 lost hours and a full trash bin but thankfully the friendship survived! Anyways, this is why I was so excited a few days ago when I successfully baked an apple pie and today I successfully baked a homemade pumpkin pie. In fact, I snorted in the grocery store when I saw a grandmother look over the selection of pre made crusts, especially since I had an actual pumpkin in my basket! Biatches!!!
Sorry, I digress - onto the book! This book has a ton of recipes but somehow fails to include the classics - regular apple pie, regular pumpkin pie, and mincemeat? no included but included are caramel apple pie and chocolate pumpkin pie. But I really like the intro sections - on how to actually make the crust and the detail in how to bake one (fully pre bake, partially pre bake, ect) - just don't try to oil crust! :( I plan on copying some of these baking details and will probably check it out in the future - but add it to my cookbook collection (of over 250 books)? I think I'll pass.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
VeganMoFo: check out these links
I 'accidentally' follow several bloggers who are doing VeganMoFo but the following four blogs are newly discovered thanks to the blog list of all VeganMoFo-ers here
nom!nom!nom!
Kamutflake girl
Tip of your tongue taking a trip
Cute and delicious
And as a bonus 5th link check out Funny Side Up - a YouTuber!
ps. more tomorrow or when I don't feel like throwing up all over the computer! ;)
nom!nom!nom!
Kamutflake girl
Tip of your tongue taking a trip
Cute and delicious
And as a bonus 5th link check out Funny Side Up - a YouTuber!
ps. more tomorrow or when I don't feel like throwing up all over the computer! ;)
Friday, October 9, 2009
Autumn Soup
If there ever was a moment I wish my camera was working it was for this soup. This soup is lovely - thick and creamy - but not so thick and creamy as to resemble baby food or - egads! pudding! Plus it's nice yellow color is reminiscent of autumn leaves!
Butternut Squash Soup
butternut squash, medium
1 T coconut oil
1 1/2 t dried rosemary
salt and pepper
400 mL coconut milk
400 mL water
Cut squash in half and remove seeds. Drizzle with coconut oil, 1 t rosemary and salt and pepper. Roast at 400 degrees for 65 minutes - or until easily pierced. Mash with fork and combine with coconut milk, water, and 1/2 t rosemary in saucepan. Gently heat and enjoy!
Butternut Squash Soup
butternut squash, medium
1 T coconut oil
1 1/2 t dried rosemary
salt and pepper
400 mL coconut milk
400 mL water
Cut squash in half and remove seeds. Drizzle with coconut oil, 1 t rosemary and salt and pepper. Roast at 400 degrees for 65 minutes - or until easily pierced. Mash with fork and combine with coconut milk, water, and 1/2 t rosemary in saucepan. Gently heat and enjoy!
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Would you like some pie with that?
I have cooked many things successfully since I have started cooking - cakes, breads, bagels, pretzels and the like. One thing has eluded me however - ever since that fateful day, in a basement apartment after an epic attempt to make 'simple coconut pie'. Lets just say... my oven door fell off and reinforcements were called in and the pie hit the bin.
I am glad to say that I have overcome my resulting fear of pie last night! After one botched oil(!?) crust and 5 hours I consumed a lovely piece of apple pie, flaky crust and all!
Yesterday reminded me of one of the many reasons that I love to cook - the thrill of it all! After I had assembled the pie I exclaimed 'It looks like pie!!!' The response from my husband? 'Yes.' - in a tone that one would assume that he could actually SEE the pie that looked like pie. (He couldn't).
The same level of excitement (from both of us) was shown as the pie started cooking, came out of the oven and finally was cut. Husband was genuinely impressed that the filling looked like purchased pie filling - he assumed some magical ingredient was needed for that - like gelatin or petroleum jelly! I however, was not worried about the filling.
The moral? Try, Try, Try again and eventually you too, can bake your pie and eat it too!
I am glad to say that I have overcome my resulting fear of pie last night! After one botched oil(!?) crust and 5 hours I consumed a lovely piece of apple pie, flaky crust and all!
Yesterday reminded me of one of the many reasons that I love to cook - the thrill of it all! After I had assembled the pie I exclaimed 'It looks like pie!!!' The response from my husband? 'Yes.' - in a tone that one would assume that he could actually SEE the pie that looked like pie. (He couldn't).
The same level of excitement (from both of us) was shown as the pie started cooking, came out of the oven and finally was cut. Husband was genuinely impressed that the filling looked like purchased pie filling - he assumed some magical ingredient was needed for that - like gelatin or petroleum jelly! I however, was not worried about the filling.
The moral? Try, Try, Try again and eventually you too, can bake your pie and eat it too!
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Raw dessert!
I am now lamenting the fact that it is no longer summer as I found this recipe for Neapolitan ice cream cake that basically forced me to make a frozen dessert in cold, rainy, almost-Thanksgiving October.
The recipe says that this melts fast - but because it's not 4000 degrees above it took a long time to melt to a nice creamy consistency - but I do advise waiting because if you do not it will have a lot of ice shards in it.
Just so you know, my looked almost exactly like the picture - except the layers weren't perfect and the white layer was a little more cloudy - but that's because of the bananas.
This will definitely be made again in the summer! It's super yummy and definitely has the 'WOW' factor. Try it!!!
The recipe says that this melts fast - but because it's not 4000 degrees above it took a long time to melt to a nice creamy consistency - but I do advise waiting because if you do not it will have a lot of ice shards in it.
Just so you know, my looked almost exactly like the picture - except the layers weren't perfect and the white layer was a little more cloudy - but that's because of the bananas.
This will definitely be made again in the summer! It's super yummy and definitely has the 'WOW' factor. Try it!!!
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