Thanksgiving Menu 2010

So I went a little crazy for thanksgiving, and even though only 4 people came I still made enough food for about 25 people.  I sent everyone home with a tupperware of food, and I still had leftovers for about a week.  Here's a list of what I made, with links to recipes I've already posted, and I'll hopefully be posting the rest soon.

Appetizer:
Stuffed Mushrooms
Hot Apple Cider

Entrees:
"Chicken" Pot Pie
Mashed Potatoes
Mashed Sweet Potatoes
Quinoa loaf (good with mushroom gravy)
Green Bean Casserole
Candied Squash
Rice Pilaf and Apple Sage Sausage

Desserts:
Blueberry Cheesecake
Apple Crisps
Oreo Pie
Vegan Jello (you can get it at whole foods or vegan websites like veganstore.com or veganessentials.com)

Roasted Brussel Sprouts

So I went with some friends the other day to a restaurant called Old Town Social, and I got these really delicious  roasted Brussel sprouts.  Of course, within a few days I had to figure out how to make them myself.  Here's the recipe I've come up with, which is just as tasty as what we had in the restaurant.

20 brussel sprouts, cut in half (top to bottom)
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped or pressed.

Add the garlic and the olive oil in a bowl and let the garlic infuse for a little while, while the brussel spouts steam.
Steam the brussel sprouts for about 10-13 minutes (a steamer is a great investment for any cook).  When it is finished, put the brussel sprouts into the oil and mix them around.  Put all of this into a baking pan and put it into the broiler of your oven at 350.  Let it cook for 10 minutes, then rotate or mix it with a spoon and let it cook for another 10 minutes.  Take out, and serve.

Lasagna

Last night was my office Christmas party, which was a blast.  Since it was catered, I decided to bring a veggie option to share (there's 4 of us now!), and also because I like cooking for large groups of people and am starting to be known for my tasty vegan food.  I brought apple crisps, which has been a favorite since I made it at a baking class at work, sausage and stir fried rice, and I wanted to bring some lasagna too.  So this recipe was born, half from something I found online.  It was all gone by the time I came home, and a few people who didn't know I brought it didn't even realize it was vegan, which is usually how I tell it something was a success or not.

Preheat the oven to 350.  Get a square baking pan out and ready.

Sauce:
2 cans tomato sauce 15 oz
1 can tomato paste  6 oz
1 yellow onion, chopped
about 4 oz of fresh mushroom, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped or crushed
1 tbsp basil
1/2 tbsp oregano
1 tsp thyme
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
dash of cayenne
1/2 a bag of morningstar ground crumbles

Heat this all up together and stir well.  When everything else is heated up and ready to use, take a package of firm tofu and crumble it into the pot.  Stir this in, trying to make sure there are no clumps that are too large.

Take some lasagna noodles and start layering this, the sauce and fresh spinach leaves.  Start with noodles on the bottom, sauce, spinach.  I made the mistake of making the sauce layer too thick, so maybe make it 1/4 inch thick.  Don't put noodles on the top layer because this just burned and I had to pick it off after I baked it.

Bake for 30 minutes.

Peppermint Truffles

Silk has a few holiday flavors that have recently started showing up in stores.  My favorite is the peppermint chocolate milk (they also have nog and pumpkin spice) and I'm going to be very sad when its season is over.  They've got an amazing recipe on the side of the carton for these peppermint truffles, which aren't that much of a pain to make (aside from crushing the candy canes) but taste delicious.

First, finely crush about a dozen candy canes.  I used a hammer and the bottom of a flat bottle.  Then filter it with a sieve.  

If you have a double broiler, great.  If not, what I did was I set a metal mixing bowl on top of a pot of boiling water, which worked reasonably well.  Then you combine:

12 ounces bittersweet chocolate (I used a bag of vegan chocolate chips from whole foods)

1/2 cup silk mint chocolate

1 TBSP earth balance or other vegan butter.

Once this all melts into a nice, creamy mixture, add:

1 TSP peppermint extract or flavoring

Pour this into a shallow pan and put into the refrigerator for about an hour.  You'll want to check on it every so often so that it doesn't get to solid.  Whatever you do, don't leave for an adventure and let it set for several hours, or it will get too hard and you'll have to reheat it and it will become a mess.

Once its done, scoop out about a teaspoon at a time and roll it into little balls with your hands.  Then roll it in the crushed candy cane (or you can use cocoa powder but that's not sweet enough for my tastes).  Re chill it, and serve.  Super delicious.

Pass Along Recipe - Baked Potato Soup

I just wanted to pass along a great recipe I found for Baked Potato Soup.  This was one of my favorite types of soup back in the day, and its great to find a recipe that replicates the taste and creamyness so well.  Its great topped with Daiya cheese, tempeh bacon, and green onions.

http://www.cestlavegan.com/2010/11/loaded-baked-potato-soup/

I'll post some recipes from Thanksgiving soon.  Everything turned out really well, but I made way too much food.  Sometimes I get over zealous about showing how delicious vegan food can be.

Vegan Thanksgiving - Potential Menu

Thanksgiving is my second vegan thanksgiving that I have at my place for coworkers and friends who work too late or have nothing else to do on Thanksgiving.  Here's my preliminary list for the holiday menu:

Cranberry Walnut Bread
Tangerine Sorbet Cups
Blueberry Cheesecake
Coconut Whipped Cream
Strawberry Sauce
Vegan Jello
Oreo Pie
Pecan Pie
Apple Crisps

Chicken Pot Pie
Candied Squash
Mashed Sweet Potatoes
Mashed Potatoes
Spiced Quinoa with Cranberries and Nuts
Stuffed Mushroom/ Pepper Caps
Green Bean or Brussle Sprout Casserole
Steamed Veggies

I'm looking for more suggestions too.

Tofurky Pizza

So a while back I saw on a vegan outreach enewsletter (which I highly recommend signing up for) that Tofurky was coming out with a line of vegan pizzas in the fall.  I was super excited the other day when I finally saw one at whole foods.  I finally tried it with Steve tonight, and it was amazing.  It had the crispy crust that you can only get from frozen pizza.  I haven't had frozen pizza since I was in France a year and a half ago and this was as good as any frozen pizza I had, and probably better than most (because it had the right kind of sauce).  They use daiya cheese, so its great on that front.  We would have gone out to get a second one if it hadn't been 11 o'clock at night and the store hadn't been closed.  I'll definitely be eating more in the near future.

http://www.tofurky.com/tofurkyproducts/pizza.html