Thanksgiving and a preview

Wow, it's been a while since I last posted.....hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving, though you've mostly moved on to the Winter Holidays by now. Hope you are enjoying those as well...

Here are just a few snapshots of my Thanksgiving dinner this year. I wimped out. I was going to make my own seitan roast again, but saw the new Gardein roast and thought I should try it....and since I always buy a Tofurky (because it's tradition), I had two store-bought roasts. I did make a nice colcannon (mashed potato/parsnip/turnip with cabbage & onion) with homemade cranberry sauce and my mom's awesome stuffing (veganized)!

The new Gardein Holiday Roast:

The ol' standby, Tofurky:

Cranberry sauce in the making:

Pumpkin pie made from a fresh Long Island Cheese Squash that I cooked (though I admit the whole wheat vegan crust is store-bought):

Our desserts (yes, I made cranberry bread too...and our friend, Dave who visited from New Orleans, brought vegan cookies):

Here's the main plate:

And guess what else? I finally bought a kitchen compost keeper (RSVP 1.5 Gal).......and I love it! Now I don't have to waste space in the fridge, or take it out to the backyard compost everyday:

I have biobags that I use inside. I suppose I don't need them, but it's easier to just lift the bag out and throw the whole thing in the composter and then I don't really need to clean the bucket.

I don't usually make New Year's Resolutions, but this year I've got two. Since our basement renovation is finally complete....

.....I can finally resume my p90x workouts!!

And secondly, I need to get back to blogging. I also need to get back to reading other peoples' blogs....as in, I'm scared to open up Google Reader. I haven't read anything in months. I still somewhat keep up via Facebook.....but I've been a little MIA on Twitter as well. I'm coming back!!

Coming up on the blog:

Digital magazine downloads (and possibly free subscriptions to Veggie mags)
Reviewing The Vegg (a vegan egg yolk??)

Stay tuned!!

Eat smart,
T.

Thanksgiving Meal and my first Seitan

That was our Thanksgiving plate! We had Tofurky, a stuffed seitan roast, my mom's stuffing (veganized), sweet potato salad, my kale and carrot salad, and cranberry sauce. All of this, plus cranberry bread and Pumpkin Gingerbread. We had a couple of friends over, so the two roasts were pretty much finished by the end! I adjusted some of these recipes, like using whole wheat flour and cutting down the sugar and oil, etc. 

I think I usually make more for Thanksgiving...including rolls, etc. For some reason, I just didn't feel like making a ton, and I spread it out on three days, so it was pretty easy. You can see my posts of Thanksgiving past here and here.

(Tofurky!!)

This was my first experience making seitan!! EVER!! I was so freaked out. And let me tell you, it was weird.

It was pretty wet, but really stuck together. The problem I had was when I tried to stretch it out to fill it, it kept breaking. Why would that be? And should it be this wet? I followed the directions exactly, oil and all, just because it was my first time making the stuff. This thing was the ugliest roast I've ever seen! (you might want to cover your eyes for the next picture....it's scary).

A big blob. An evil "seitanic" blob. I stuffed it with the bread stuffing (I used sprouted grain bread).

But...it tasted REALLY good! Yay. So I'll have to work on the appearance a little...

Mmmmm......

Then we've got the cranberry sauce and the salads:

....cranberry bread....

And the gingerbread:

That gingerbread is so not good for you.....but it sure was tasty. I only make it once a year!

And of course, some wine....(followed by Belgian beer of course). This is really the ONLY kind of wine I ever drink (from Franconia, Germany, and usually found in these cool round bottles):

(drinking it out of a beer glass, of course!)

Hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving, if you celebrate it. 

What did you make? Have you made seitan before? Have you had Franken wine before?

Eat smart,

T.