Karina's Thanksgiving Plate...

2010 marked a special Thanksgiving, as it was the first that I got to spend it with my parents in probably 8 years. My sister offered her new house in Santa Cruz as a gathering spot for friends and family who could make it, and I was relieved to find out I only had to come up with a few side dishes and a dessert to bring down.


Everyone prizes their helping of meat on Thanksgiving, so I tried to come up with some special veggie substite that would prevent my plate or palate from feeling left out of the festivities. My mother doesn't touch soy and I wanted something everyone could eat, so I decided to start from scratch, and improvise some "beet balls"...

I started by soaking a bunch of raw cashews overnight, and boiling 6 beets until soft and cooked. The next morning, I sauteed an onion and a half, all of the beet stems and leafs, a pack of crimini mushrooms, some garlic, and a left over vegan field roast sausage (soy free) in some olive oil and spiced it with sea salt, pepper, cayenne, cinnamon and curry.

I drained and pressed all of the sauteed veggies with paper towels to pull out any remaining moisture, and put everything in the food processor. I pureed it all until it was well blended (with all of the big chunks gone.)

I added some cumin and more curry...


It was too soft and wet, so I added a cup or two of rolled oats. I also added some agave and chili powder...


When I was satisfied with the flavoring, I chopped up a carton of whole wheat graham crackers and a cup of raw almonds in the food processor, and made a crust for my beet balls to make them crunchy. I formed small balls and dipped them each in a dish of hemp milk and egg, and rolled them generously in my graham almond crust mix to get a good coating.


I packed them up uncooked and took them to Santa Cruz.


Once we were half an hour before eating time, I heated a few spoonfuls of organic coconut oil until melted and extremely hot, and lightly fried each of my beet balls until brownish/black and crunchy on the outside.


I let them cool on a paper toll to soak up the oil, and served them warm.
AHHHHHH- these were amazing! I'm kinda obsessed. Everyone was both highly amused and blown away with them. Its a good thing too, because we were eating leftover beet balls for three days!

I also wanted to get some greens in there, so I decided to recreate a pear and kale dish I had made only a week or two before. I rinsed my fresh organic kale and steamed it until soft. I drained this and packed it up for the trip down to Santa Cruz...

I always stare at special mushroom selections at the local market, but rarely indulge in them because of the higher price. If there is any occasion to go big, this was certainly one of them, so I purchased this lovely bundle of organic brown beech mushrooms.

I sauteed an onion, my mushrooms, chopped garlic, four sliced anjou pears, and fresh rosemary and sage from my sister's garden in some olive oil. I spiced with some salt and lemon. I simmered all of this until soft, well cooked and juicy.

I added the kale, warmed it all up, and added agave, cinnamon, more lemon, and cayenne.
Kale in perfection.

My sister made a vegan candied ginger yam mash...


...Rosemary and garlic mashed potatoes (that Annie whipped up!) in both a creamy and buttery version for the family, and a rice milk and earth balance version especially for me...

And our family's Tday staple of cranberry salad jello mold with a side of mayo (yep, I said it).


Alia's friend Ginger made a potato yam cranberry medley that was heavenly...


And this vegan corn bread stuffing that I couldn't stop inhaling...


Alia got an all organic, locally raised turkey that she named Eda. As in Eda-ble. Clever. So clever, in fact that I had my first bite in Turkey in years!


This was only my first plate full...


Val and Annie getting ready...


Mom and Dad...


And of course, the pinata. What Thanksgiving is complete without a donkey pinata filled with organic skin product samples? No one I care to be at, that's for sure....


After stuffing ourselves to the brim with helping after helping, (not to mention the several bottles of wine that seemed to disappear) the brave souls still standing ventured on to dessert. My sister made an amazing vegan pumpkin ginger pie that I somehow didn't get a picture of, and I made the above Spicy Apple Carrot cake. I will feature that in my next post as I think this one has had enough to digest already!

Karina & Alma's Thanksgiving Twist..

Ariel kindly invited my friend Alma and me to join her family at Thanksgiving dinner. In discussing what foods Alma and I would cook and bring over, we both decided we wanted to take some risks and play with the traditional holiday dishes people have come to always expect.

First thing to spice up: Stuffing. We both agreed that stuffing is more often than not boring. It's dry, dull, and bland, yet it always makes its way to the table.

Seeing as there is no type of bread quite like a fresh loaf of Olive Bread, I decided to start by making french toast out of one. I chopped the loaf into small cubes and soaked them in my batter.

My batter was made up of eggs, vanilla hemp milk, salt, vanilla, cinnamon & a splash of OJ. I used about 6 eggs and estimated the rest of the portions until it looked like enough for my bread.

I cooked my french toast squares batch by batch in a hot pan with olive oil and sprinkled honey and cinnamon over each round to keep them sweet and moist.

I cut up some fresh mint, apricots, and edamame.

In a pan I sauteed onion until soft and translucent, then added sliced eggplant, Portabella mushrooms, and apples. I flavored with Braggs, lemon, salt, pepper, and various other spcies until it was too good not to pick at .

I added chopped up ginger to the mix.

Then I mixed my french toast with the sauteed mix, mint, edamame, apricots and pecans with a little bit of olive oil and packed it into two baking pans.

I melted some earth balance (butter substitute) with garlic and honey and drizzled it over each pan of stuffing. I stuck it in the oven at 350*.

I cooked it for about 30 minutes or so until the top turned dark and a bit crunchy. I drizzled honey over it throughout the process to help lock in the moisture and sweetness.

I'm not lying when I say it was by far the best stuffing I've had to date!

Next task: Mashed Potatoes.

Alma had the brilliant idea of making peanut butter mashed potatoes and it took no convincing me to get on board. We peeled and boiled the potatoes until soft.

After draining and cooling, we returned the potatoes to the pot and added chopped garlic, hemp milk, earth balance, salt, cinnamon, honey,a splash of OJ, and a jar of organic, crunchy peanut butter. We whipped and flavored our mash until smooth and well balanced. The acidity of the OJ and sweetness of honey really allowed the peanut butter taste to stand out without being overwhelming.

If you are like the some of the other guests at the party who admitted they had skepticism when they heard "peanut butter mashed potatoes", take my word that everyone was pleasantly surprised and relieved at this DELICIOUS concoction!

Last, but certainly not least:

No one should go without a juicy, savory protein on Thanksgiving- not even a vegetarian. Alma has gone through her whole adult life remembering a certain chicken dish her mother prepared once when she was a child, so she decided to do her best at recreating it using Seitan. She called it, "Peachy Keen Belly Dream".

She started by mixing several scoops of veganaise, two jars of peach jam, some cinnamon, salt, tangerine juice, lemon, and coarse black pepper.

Once she had a creamy, well-flavored sauce, she added in two packages of Seitan and spread it all out in a baking dish.

She hard boiled several eggs that she peeled and added to the mix.

She baked this for an hour at 450*, then kept it on low in the oven until it was ready to take over and eat. I can't fully describe just how flavorful this was- a perfect balance of sweet and savory. The seitan bites bursted with mouth-watering juices and the baked eggs offered incredible texture and flavor to make this a WOW dish. YUM!

We joined Ariel's family and had one amazing meal to certainly be thankful for!

ariel's making ... vegan chocolate pumpkin mousse

vegan chocolate mousses is one of my favorite desserts, but since today is thanksgiving i made up a new recipe using pumpkin. to start you'll need:

1 organic pumpkin
1 package organic silken tofu
1/2 cup organic powdered sugar
1 cup organic soy milk
1/2 cup organic fair trade dark chocolate chips
2 T cinnamon

wash and cut pumpkin in half. take out the seeds and place pumpkin on a cookie sheet. bake them in an oven at 350* for about an hour or until they're easily pocked with a fork.

don't throw away the seeds! wash them and then top with sugar and cinnamon and place in the oven with the baking pumpkin -- they're going to be a yummy garnish for our mousse.

when the squash is done, scoop it out into a blender.

add 1 cup of soy milk and ...

blend together 'til it's totally smooth.

add the silken tofu and blend again 'til smooth.

add your sugar and cinnamon and mix one more time.

now start melting your chocolate in a double boiler on the stove.

remove half of the pumpkin mix and set aside. add the melted chocolate to the remaining pumpkin/tofu mix and blend.

since we're having thanksgiving at auntie yam's today, i thought i'd make my mousse in a cupcake pan so that they're easy to carry and also in individual servings. using the two flavors, chocolate and pumpkin, i scooped a spoonful of each into the muffin liners and then gave them a swirl with a chopstick and topped with a little extra cinnamon. chill these overnight or for at least two hours -- and don't forget to add the candied pumpkin seeds right before you serve them.

eat, drink and be merry! happy thanksgiving!

kisses,

ariel