Thanksgiving... ok it's a little late but better late then never, right?

I simply LOVE the holiday's. Not so much for the family, friends, presents and stress; but because I love to cook. To experiment in the kitchen and to feed people. Thus far Thanksgiving has been just the two of us for a few years, every year I try something new hoping that eventually we'll have IT. I spend weeks before the big day trolling the net looking for what will make the list.

This year was IT!!!! I can hear the angels singing praises of my menu, and the Vore was happy. OK so the Vore had a real turkey and a few other things I always make him and never eat, like that canned cranberry crap that comes out with the ridges. EWWW! Making the fresh cranberry sauce has been my job since I was a teenager, so I just can't make myself eat the canned stuff. So by know you're thinking something like "get on with it, what IS this amazing menu!!" Well here it is: (I veganized a lot of recipes but I'm including links to the originals)

Appetizers:

- Vegan Jalapeno Poppers

- Vegan Sweet Chili Cheese Spread with Chickpea crackers

- Vegan Corn fritters, I added two diced jalapenos and I added a little oil in place of the eggs.

- Vore's bacon wrapped lil' smokies

Sides:

- Vegan Cornbread Dressing, Just omit the egg.

- Vegan Green Bean Casserole, Silk plain creamer and homeade fried onions made this awesome

- Mashed Potatoes, Toffuti Sour Cream and Plain unsweetened soy milk.

- Potato Roll, I used flaxseed eggs (2T ground flaxseed: 3T water)

- Sweet and Smoky Cranberry Sauce (cranberry sauce with oj and chipolte peppers)

- Vore's canned cranberry crap

- Cranberry, Almond salad with Maple Mustard Vinegrette

Main:

- Seiten Roulade with Mushroom Chestnut stuffing and Mushroom Gravy

- Maple Glazed Bacon Wrapped Turkey with pan sauce

For the Roulade I used the seiten recipie from this website, but prepared it accourding to Vegan Yum-Yum's recipie since I used her recpies for the stuffing and the gravy. The stuffing calls for Trader Joe's chestnuts, but as we're in Kansas, no Trader Joes. I did find prepared chestnuts with the Haunakah food. For the gravy I used Mushroom stock instead of veggie. Spread the stuffing on the seiten and wrap, wrap in foil and cook for 90 min.

Dessert:

- Vegan Pumpkin Pie (It wasn't that great, so I'm not linking to the original)

- Chocolate Pecan Pie with Booze (I used Grand Marnier)

I made pie crust for both pies. The Better Homes and Garden's cookbook is what I've always used but I substitute 1Tof water for 1T of apple cider viegar. I could only find 70% cocoa for the pecan pie, it was a little to rich, next year I'll cut back a little.

Please Sir, may I have some more?

Crazy, that is. Life around her has been insane the last few months. So cooking has been unexciting as I haven't actually has time. We've has some tragedies, we've had some school issues, and some work issues. So I'm actually starting to get used to crazy. And the holiday's are about to start. Can't forget about that, not with the Christmas music on the local radio station for the last two weeks and decorations going up around the neighborhood.

I really do love the holidays, for me it's all about food... and the end of finals!!! I go all out for the holidays. My work had an early thanksgiving this last Thursday. The provide the Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and green beans and the rest is potluck. Normally vegans cringe at work meals, for good reason. And the food provided for this meal is the cherry on top, the only thing Veg friendly were the green beans... I think they were canned. EWWW. But I have the most amazing friends and some really awesome coworkers. One other coworker is vegan and she brought her version of Tofurky, it was like eating the best stuffing ever! Quite a few people brought food that two "weirdos" could eat. I brought two dishes, one that I love (and have no pictures of) and a new dish that a friends found the recipe for Tofu Chocolate Cheesecake. OMG, it's so good the vore's didn't know it was vegan!!!!

My usual standby for potlucks is a main for anyone that doesn't eat meat, or a good side for those that do. It's Balsamic glazed oven roasted Veg with Gnocci. It's always a hit and really really easy to make. The cheesecake came from the know defunct Epicurious magazine. Oh how I'm going to miss them! My friend found it when she was waiting for her hair to process at our stylists. Good things really do happen at the salon!!! Keep trying to convince the Vore of that, and know I think I have!

Balsamic-glazed Veg and Gnocci

2 med onion

1 zucchini

2 pints grape of cherry tomatoes

1 head of garlic

1/2 lb mushrooms, I use portabella

1 sprig fresh rosemary or 1t italian seasoning

3 T good Balsamic vinegar

3T oil, I have used both corn oil and olive oil

1 package Gnocci

Cut all of the vegetables ( except for the garlic, tomatoes and mushrooms depending on their size) into large chunks. Peel the garlic cloves. Put all of the veg into a large roasting pan, add the oil and vinegar, stir until everything i coated evenly, add the rosemary. Cook @ 375f for 1-1.5 hrs or until the hard vegetables are cooked through and the tomatoes start to look wrinkled.

Heat salted water on the stove top until boiling. Add the gnocci, they are done once they start floating. This will take about 5-10min. Add the gnocci to the roasted veg for the last 15 min of baking.

Salt and pepper to taste.

**I've made this many times and every time I use a different mix of vegetables, but I always include the garlic tomatoes and onion.

Here is the cheesecake recipe direct from the epicurious website. I don't know if it will be there much monger and this must be shared!!! I made one small change, mostly to do poor planning, but that made it amazing. I used 4oz of 60% cocoa and 4oz of raspberry dark chocolate swirl chips. I didn't look at the weight of the chocolate bar until after I started cooking. Luckily I had the raspberry chips leftover from another experiment. I also used Vegan chocolate cookies for the crust.

Vegan Chocolate Cheesecake

For graham cracker crust: 1 1/4 cups chocolate or regular graham cracker crumbs (from nine 5-by 2 1/2-inch graham crackers) 3 tablespoons sugar 4 tablespoons Earth Balance vegan buttery spread, melted and cooled, plus additional for greasing pan For chocolate tofu filling: 2 1/4 cups sugar, divided 1/3 cup water 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate (no more than 60% cacao), chopped 2 (1-pound packages silken tofu, drained 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch-process) 2 (8-ounces) containers soy cream cheese at room temperature 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract Rounded 1/4 teaspoon salt Equipment: a 9-inch springform pan print a shopping list for this recipe Preparation Make graham cracker crust: Preheat oven to 350°F with racks in middle and lower third and put a baking sheet on lower rack. Flip bottom of springform pan so lip is facing down, then lock in place. Grease bottom and side of pan. Stir together all crust ingredients, then press onto bottom and 1 inch up side of pan. Bake until set, 10 to 12 minutes, then cool completely, about 45 minutes. Make chocolate tofu filling:Heat 1 cup sugar in a 1 1/2-to 2-quart heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring with a fork to heat sugar evenly, until it starts to melt, then stop stirring and cook, swirling pan occasionally so sugar melts evenly, until it is dark amber. Remove from heat and carefully stir in water (mixture will bubble up and steam and caramel will harden), then cook over medium-low heat, stirring, until caramel has dissolved. Remove from heat and whisk in chopped chocolate until smooth. Cool fudge sauce slightly. Purée tofu and cocoa in a food processor until smooth. Beat soy cream cheese and remaining 1 1/4 cups sugar with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until fluffy. At low speed, beat in tofu purée, vanilla, salt, and fudge sauce until incorporated. Pour filling into crust and bake on middle rack until top of cake is shiny but center is still slightly wobbly when pan is gently shaken, about 1 hour. Turn oven off and leave cake in oven 1 hour more. Run a knife around top edge of cake to loosen, then cool completely in pan on rack (cake will continue to set as it cools). Chill cake, loosely covered, at least 6 hours. Remove side of pan and transfer cake to a plate. Bring to room temperature before serving if desired.

Cooks's note: Cheesecake can be made 3 days ahead and chilled.

Kitchen fun

This was the weekend for experimentation. After a long week of getting ready for class, I'm an accounting major, I needed a break. For me that mean being creative. So Friday I pulled out all of my jewelry supplies and made a few things and replaced a few things (VegMama tends to lose earings). Then I started in the kitchen...

First I tried Vegan Dad's Mini Irish Pies. I followed his recipe except I didn't use the crust. I didn't want the extra fat. I have a family picture in a few months and I need to lose some weight. The pies were good but too many herbs for Vore. I saw a post last week on one of the blogs I follow and I was SUPER excited. Vegan Liverwurst!!! What can I say, I'm German. And it was good!!!! I'm having some amazing lunches this week. Now if you didn't like Liverwurst or Braunschweiger in your pre-veg days, you still woun't like it. If you've never had it it's like pate, if somewhat jiggly soft meat type things gross you out ( it unfortunataly looks like canned cat food) your probably woun't like it. But, like Feta cheese, if you close your eyes and breathe through your mouth the first time you try it, it's AWESOME!!!!! And then you can go back to eating like normal. Or you can just chalk it up to the crazy Germans that try to turn every meat into a wurst, or a vegan wurst. LOL, it's probably genetic.

Next I tried some homemade pitas...they taste good, but the picture speaks for itself. They didn't puff so no pockets. I cut them in half so I could use them for my lunch. Needless to say I need more practice!

I've wanted to make good crusty bread for a while. I LOVE bread, but I don't like spending 4-6 dollars for a loaf at the store. I searched around and found that the recipe is the same recipe I learned from my mom, the raising time and baking is a little different though.

I'm going to continue playing with flavors. I think next time I'll add whole garlic cloves to the dough before baking. Crusty Bread @ Home 2t Yeast 1 T salt 3c hot water 6 c all purpose flour. I used a half and half mix of wheat and unbleached all white. Mix the water, yeast and salt in a large bowl. Slowly add the flour. Mix together until all of the flour is incorporated. Set aside and cover (I like to use a clean bath towel), allow to rise for about 2 hrs. Sprinkle flour on the dough, cut in two. Shape the loaves and set on cornmeal. Cover and let rest for 40ish min. Preheat oven to 450 Fahrenheit. Put an inverted cookie sheet on the middle rack. Allow to heat with the oven. Use the broiler pan; you will put 1c water into it when you start baking the bread. Put the bread on the inverted pan, cornmeal side down. Sprinkle with a little flour, cut 2-3 shallow cuts into the top of the bread. Bake for 30 min.

The Vore's Favorite Meal

Being from Denver, originally, has given both the Vore and I a love of Mexican food. Even my parents have a love of the Southwest and Mexico, sometimes I wonder if it's genetic! There is a large Hispanic population on Denver, mostly concentrated around Federal Blvd. Lots of good authentic restaurants and grocery stores. So most of the food I make is inspired by the flavors of Latin America. One of the Vore's favorite dishes is one based on the meal we had at my dad's wedding in Santa Fe, Chile Rellanos. They were the best we've had. These are my interpretation. Chile Rellanos are great with rice and refried beans. Chile Rellanos 1 recipe blue corn batter(below) 5 smoked chilies (see Smokin Chilies in the park) 1 8oz package softened Fat Free Cream Cheese 1 ear corn on the cob, grilled. or 1c cooked corn 3 Tbs pickled jalapeño juice 1c shredded Fat Free Cheddar Cheese 2-3c Panko bread crumbs In a food processor combine the cream cheese, jalapeño juice, half of the corn and half of the shredded cheese, blend until smooth. In a separate bowl add the remaining corn and cheese and the blended cheese mix. Fill the smoked chilled with the cheese mixture. Put in the freezer for 5-10 min, or until the cheese starts to become firm. Cover each chili in the batter and then the bread crumbs. Cook for 15-20 min at 350. The breadcrumbs should start to turn golden brown. Blue Corn Batter 1c blue corn meal 1Tbs pickled jalapeno juice 2Tbs canola oil 1/4c soy milk Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Use to batter Chili Rellanos, tofu, or veggies.

Smokin' chilies at the park

The Vore just got a new toy, a radio. So we took it with us to the park for our weekly BBQ. I knew we'd have plenty of time to kill before the Vore was bored with his new toy, so I decided to bring some chilies I had just gotten at the farmers market. The chilies grown in Kansas aren't as spicy as those I'm used to. The chilies grown in New Mexico are spicy, something to do with the dry climate ,according to the Vore. Regardless of the actual heat of the chili, I always loved them smoked. Well if I'm going to be accurate, grilled.

It's really easy if you have a grill. The Vore prefers grilling with a hardwood charcoal, it burns hotter and longer than the standard stuff, plus it adds the flavor you would get from a traditional smoking method with out the extra time. Just cook the chilies until the skin is charred. Put in a Ziplock bag to cool, this makes the skins easier to remove. When the chilies are cool enough to handle rub, or pull, the skin off. You now have chilies that are ready for any application you would like.

If you don't have a grill, or the time to grill. Put the chilies on a sheet pan in the oven for 5 min per side. The oven should be set to broil and the rack will need to be at it highest level. The skin will start to blister and turn black. It will look different from the char you get on the grill, the taste will be a little different too, not as smoky, be still delicious.

Later this week I'll be making Vegan Chili Rellanos. I'll probably also add them into my Vegan Corn Casserole. I think chilies make the world go round, so they tend to pop up everywhere in my cooking!

Note: (7/28/09) Chilies contain a chemical called capsaicin; it's what causes the heat. Different chilies contain different amounts of capsaicin; they are measured on the Scoville Scale. The bell pepper is a 0 on the Scoville scale, but a habenaros is near the top (just below police grade pepper spray.) Whatever the amount of capsaicin, if you are working with chilies you will want to wear latex gloves when you are working with them. The only way to effectively get rid of the capsaicin if you get it on your skin is by soaking in milk. Milk alternatives do not contain the ingredient that causes the chemical bond to break up so you'll need to use real dairy milk. So just wear gloves, especially if you're using chilies with a large amount of capsasin like habenaros.

The Vore eats Squash!

The Vore always says he HATES squash. I love it. I found some beautiful Patty Pan squash at the local farmers market that I wanted to use for lunch last week. I started looking around my favorite blogs and sites for inspiration when I found Sunny Summer Squash soup at Fat Free Vegan Kitchen. So a big thanks to Susan V the Vore now likes squash too!!!! WOOT, WOOT (as my little sister would say). I took a little creative liberty with the soup, I added a cup of soy milk to make is more bisque like; I was also out of fresh chilies so I used crushed red pepper flakes. I also used the optional ingredients. The tahini adds a mild nutty flavor and really helps attain the creaminess of good bisque. I LOVE the Fat Free Vegan Kitchen. I just need to get that out of the way. The following recipe is taken from her blog with a few changes I added. (http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2008/08/sunny-summer-squash-soup.html)

*Picture curtesy of Susan V, http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/

Sunny Summer Squash Soup 1 large onion, chopped 3 cloves garlic, minced 2t crushed red pepper flakes, (use less if you'd like, but we like it spicy) 2 ribs celery, strings removed and chopped 2 medium (12-14 ounces) gold potatoes, peeled and cut into small dice 1 1/2 pounds small yellow squash, chopped (or young zucchini) 1 pinch white pepper 4 cups vegetable broth 1 teaspoon oregano 1C Plain light soy milk 1/2 teaspoon turmeric (optional, for color) 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast (optional) 1 tablespoon tahini (optional) salt and white pepper, to taste (optional) Serve with: Roasted Red Pepper Bruschetta on toasted French Bread (recipe follows) Heat a large non-stick or enamel-coated pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion, reduce the heat to medium, and cook, covered but stirring every minute or so, until it begins to brown, about 5 minutes (add a little water if it tends to stick). Add the garlic and crushed red pepper and cook for another minute. Add all remaining ingredients except the optional ones. Cover and cook until the potatoes are completely tender (they will mash if lightly pressed with a spoon), about 25-40 minutes. Remove half of the soup and put it into a blender* and puree at high speed until completely smooth. (Be careful--hot liquids can erupt from your blender; I always remove the center cup from the lid and cover the opening with a kitchen towel.) Once it's blended, pour the soup into another pot. Add the remaining soup to the blender, along with any optional ingredients you choose to use, and blend well. Add to the other half of the soup, the soy milk, and simmer for about 5 minutes. Ladle into bowls, garnish with slices of red bell pepper, and serve. Susan V recommends garnishing your soup with roasted red pepper slivers; I prefer to use the bruschetta. I always want something crunchy with my soup so I don't feel like I'm drinking my dinner! :) However you decide to garnish, the flavor of roasted red peppers add a nice smoky sweetness that amazing with the soup. Roasted Red Pepper Bruschetta 1 jar roasted red peppers* 1 large tomato 3 cloves garlic Heat oven to 350. Put tomato and garlic on a cookie sheet, drizzle with any good oil (I like canola oil). Bake for 30 min, or until garlic is med gold. Allow to cool to a temp your comfortable handling. Cut the roasted red pepper and the tomato into larger chunks. You should be able to smush the garlic out of the casings, add this to the tomatoes and peppers. Smear onto the waiting toasted bread. *If you'd like to roast your own pepper, use 4 or 5 and roast at 500 for about 5 min per side. You'll want the skin to char. When all sides are near charred put in a waiting Ziploc bag and allow to cool. When the peppers a still warm but cool enough to handle remove the skin. They are now ready for what ever you'd like to use them for. Susan Thanks again for letting me post your recipe! You rock!

Here goes...

I'm a vegan, most of the time, my husband is not. Trying to cook for two very different diets can be a struggle. I know there have to be more families like our out there, so I thought I'd volunteer as the public Guinea pig! I'll include pictures when I can remember them, though they might not be very good. I only have a camera phone right now. Tonight's dinner is the (belated) birthday dinner the Vore begged for. Bar-B-Que! Well really it's grilled hamburgers, grilled corn on the cob and baked beans. We went to the local park and used their grill, it's been really cool this week. Vore forgot the camera and the charcoal. I was hungry so I wasn't to worried about the missing camera, the charcoal was a different story! The only picture I have is of the grill we used, taken by my camera phone! It does little justice to the beauty of the park. The Vore is picker than any toddler I've met (though truth be told I haven't met many), he wants baked beans out of the can, no "funny" flavors. Luckily he's rather health conscious so he always wants the vegetarian baked beans since they're fat free. The local farmers market is pretty good, and sweet corn abounds! The meat we buy Vore is ground turkey from Phil's Farm (http://www.philsfarm.com/), his animals are hormone free, antibiotic free, treated humanely and the chickens and turkeys really are free range. If Vore's gonna get meat, it's meat I approve! Dinner for me, grilled portabella. There really isn't anything else out there that works well on the grill and subs for a good juicy burger, so many of the meat subs are dry and grainy. The main formula of my favorite marinade is below. Use it as is, or use what ever herbs and spices you like. I've added a little cinnamon before with good results. GRILLED PORTABELLA Large Portabella Mushrooms (s) Buns, 1 per mushroom Oil, I prefer canola, 2T per Mushroom salt, to taste pepper, to taste cumin, 1/4 t per mushroom ground chipotle pepper, 1/4t per mushroom (I always add more chipotle, it all depends on your spice tolerance) fresh minced garlic, 1 clove per mushroom In a small mixing bowl add oil, garlic, chipotle, salt and pepper. Remove the stems and veins from the mushrooms. Rub generously with the oil mixture and let sit for 20 min or so. I usually do this as Vore is getting the fire started. Depending on your grill and charcoal, the mushrooms will be perfect after about 15 min on each side. Remove from grill and enjoy with your favorite hamburger topping. Tonight I had guacamole, pepper jack Veggie Slices, and Morningstar Farms bacon.