Thanksgiving!

A satisfying, filling vegan thanksgiving lunch for any vegans you might have with you:

I kid, I kid. That was thanksgiving lunch that I had with my cousins and family at a country club. I'm not a fan of salad. Fortunately, I had dinner later with J's family.

I left out of the gravy from this picture, but tofurky (?), sweet potatoes, green beans almondine, stuffing, and sweet potato casserole.

Later, I went back and grabbed some apple pie.

Sweet Potato Casserole

I made an extra dessert for the Thanksgiving dinner with J's family, sweet potato casserole. I used the recipe from fat free vegan. Even though this was definitely an omnivorous affair otherwise, the sweet potato casserole went over pretty well.

We grabbed Japanese sweet potatoes by mistake, which I understand to be a little drier and more subtle than normal sweet potatoes. I also learned that you can microwave sweet potatoes to cook them. Mind blown. It took about 35 minutes to get these done in the microwave, two at a time, which is at least a bit shorter than the oven.

I peeled their skins off and stuck them in a bowl with some earth balance.

No potato masher or pastry blender here, so I just went with a fork to mash them up. 

Dumped in the soy milk, orange juice, vanilla extract, sugar, maple syrup, and cinnamon - no nutmeg for me, I am a hater. I added a bit extra soy milk and orange juice, since Japanese sweet potatoes are supposedly a little drier.

Stirred it all up. The result is super sweet - if Japanese sweet potatoes are less sweet, than this would really be overkill with the normal ones.

Spread it in a 2 qt dish, then get the topping ready.

Earth balance, brown sugar, flour, pecans, and maple syrup. I used a fork to cream it all together. It came out thicker than I expected, so I had to drop hunks of it on the sweet potato filling and spread it.

I forgot to take a picture of the finished casserole, but no fear - J saw my camera out and took a picture for me. Since we came to the party late, the casserole came out long after everyone else had gotten food, which is why some was left at the end. Given that everyone got to try it after they had eaten themselves silly, I'm happy that so much got eaten.

Gravygravygravy

Why don't I make gravy more often? It's so good! So tasty! So delicious!

It turns out I don't have to make my whole thanksgiving dinner, because J's dad was all 'yeah! we weren't sure that there would be a lot of food for you, so we ordered you a dinner from whole foods!' They are not kitchen-minded people, so this is really, really nice of them. The whole foods dinner includes a hunk of a "tofu-turkey" (I think it's tofurky, but I didn't see a listing, and they keep saying "tofu-turkey". "tofurky?" "tofu-turkey!" ... it looks like tofurky), green beans, stuffing, and mashed sweet potatoes.

Still, there's no dessert and no gravy in there. So J and I grabbed an apple pie while we were still at Whole Foods (I really need to make my own to re-establish my credibility...), and I got together the ingredients to make mushroom gravy (PPK recipe) and sweet potato casserole (fat free vegan recipe). Since I'm the only one eating my gravy, I did a half recipe.

For some reason, I really like peeling mushrooms before I use them. I dunno. When they're brown on top, they look dirty, and they tend to feel slimier. 

First things first: wh

Left to right: vegetable broth whisked with flour, very very roughly chopped onions, mushrooms.

Saute the onions in a bit of oil for a few minutes.

Add in the mushrooms and spices, saute for a few more minutes.

I notice this the most with mushrooms, but I guess all vegetables do it - they let off so much water!

I didn't have any wine on hand (I don't drink?), so I went straight to adding the broth-and-flour.

And some nooch.

Since I didn't add wine, I added a tablespoon or so of soy sauce, then let it simmer for about 20 or 30 minutes.

I ended up having a bowl of gravy for second dinner. Don't judge me.

Just about time to go home...

I'm finally feeling about 90% (I still have a bad cough), but instead of being able to cook, I have to pack up to go to North Carolina for Thanksgiving. Not that I mind, really.

I figure, though, that if I want any Thanksgiving food, I'm probably going to have to cook it myself. Between the country club (I still love you very much, dad's side of family!) and the deep-fried turkey (I didn't know people actually did that...), the pickings are going to be mighty slim.

I'm hoping to stop at a grocery store on the way from the airport tomorrow, though, to pick up just a few things so I can have a proper - if minimalist - Thanksgiving meal.

Hoped-for Meal:
Mashed Potatoes with Mushroom Gravy (as posted on the PPK)
Roasted Broccoli or Roasted Brussels Sprouts (whichever looks better)
Some Sort of Faux Turkey (I've never had one! I need to find the tiniest...)
Sweet Potato Casserole (the one on fat free vegan looks really good)

Ingredients I would have to buy in NC:

yukon gold - 3lb
yellow onion - 1
cremini mushrooms - 16oz
garlic
broccoli/brussels sprouts
sweet potatos - 4-6
pecans
orange juice
vegetable broth
unsweetened soy/almond milk
all purpose flour
vanilla extract
sugar
brown sugar
olive oil
FAKE TURKEY!!!!one11!!1eleventy

Bringing:
thyme
sage
nooch
cinnamon
(no nutmeg, I am a hater)

I'm willing to go without Sweet Potato Casserole, but it'd be nice to be able to have a dish to share with everyone else (and dessert, dessert is important).

As far as food today goes, I'm kinda boring. I had some soy yogurt and (way out of season) fruit from whole foods, and it was delicious? 

I never eat a lot of fresh berries, because they're so expensive - It's always frozen for me. But I figured I'd treat myself tonight, and had some berries and soy yogurt. Even though the picture's kinda ugly, it tasted wonderful (because... berries. and yogurt. win allatimes.)

Also, everyone: watch Firefly! It's like a western, but in SPACE. And with lots of nonwestern elements. It's really, really awesome. I watched four hours of it last night.