Thanksgiving Update
I know some people have already posted the highs and lows of their Thanksgiving menus on other threads, but I thought it would be fun to hear everyone's hits and misses.
I'll start.
For me, the big miss was the Veggie Turkey made with Garden Protein that I picked up at Whole Foods. Someone posted the ad from the PETA website and I thought it sounded interesting and I picked up six of the little chickies. (The guy at Whole Foods said they were tiny and one person could easily eat two or three.) They weren't at all what I was expecting--sort of a breaded croquette with wild rice stuffing in the middle--and they weren't that tasty. What they WERE was expensive ($25 for all six, enough to feed two people?), but that didn't stop me from tossing four of them into the trashcan when the meal was over.
The hit of my menu (for me at least) was the stuffing, which I discovered tastes much better on the second or third day after making it. I guess today is the fourth day, and I just polished off the rest of it. This year I realized that stuffing is my true Thanksgiving food because that is the one thing I just do not eat (or even think about eating) at any other time of the year! I think next year I'll go back to crumbled up MSF sausage patties instead of the sausage flavored gimme lean.
The big hits for me were the wild rice and barley pilaf with pine nuts and pomegranates, and the cranberry spice bread-- a last-minute whim the night before Thanksgiving, and I'm so glad I tried it! I urge anyone who loves fruit breads to give it a try-- it's so lovely and tart.
I made the sweet potato gnocchi with apple cider reduction, and found that I liked the reduction made with quite a lot less vinegar and quite a lot more cider. I should have much more liberally seasoned the gnocchi themselves, as they turned out to be rather bland. Oh well... the next day, left over, they had soaked in the reduction and they were incredible (much better than right after being made!) The recipe made a TON (maybe my "large" sweet potatoes were a lot bigger than the author's large ones, hehe-- it did take quite a lot more flour than anticipated.)
As always, I make terrible pie. Fortunately, my partner likes pie so well that even terrible pie will do, but it always wounds my ego to make one, hehe.
I prepared a feast for 12 of my closest friends (only one of them was vegetarian) and each had their own favrite.
the only real miss i had was the Maple Wheat Rolls from this site. they tasted great, but were hard on the outside and did not look appetizing. nobody touched them, but they were great reheated and dipped in gravy!
Big Hits:
Pineapple Upside Down Cake: http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=12596
Sweet Potatoes W/ Apples & Walnuts: http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=12566
Vegan Green Bean Casserole: http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=6137
Vegetarian Stuffing: http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=7425
i also made my own recipe for Mashed Potatoes w/ roasted garlic and my own gravy which were popular. all of my guests were very impressed with everything i put on the table!
My meal was disappointing. It just didn't hit the spot like it has every year before. I got lazy & used Silk in my mashed potatoes instead of veggie broth & I didn't like the flavor nearly as well. And I never got around to making pie. :(
Everything else was ok, but just not as good as I remembered or hoped. :P
Next year I will make vegan pizza & pumpkin pie. ;)
My big hit this year was my stuffing. For the first time in 4 years (Ive been a veggie for 4 years) I ate a stuffing dish that tasted a lot like the meat-flavored stuffing. My sister, a tough to please omnivore, thought my stuffing was better than my mom's traditional meat-flavored stuffing. I wish I would have made more! I used the recipe on this site "thanksgiving stuffing" to make the stuffing. I also got around to making corn muffins for the first time. I used the recipe on this site for non-crumbling corn muffins and they didn't crumble. However, despite the sweetness the muffins were not all I had hoped it to be, so this was my big miss. And for dessert I made mini pumpkin pies using a muffin pan which rocked. I used the recipe on www.fatfreevegan.com I highly recommend this site!
And as the break comes to a close I can't help but feel melancholy because I dont wanna return to the busy college life! >:( Hope everyone had a great holiday!
And as the break comes to a close I can't help but feel melancholy because I dont wanna return to the busy college life! >:( Hope everyone had a great holiday!
Yeah, stride4unity, I know what you mean and agree wholeheartedly. I've been on Thanksgiving break from work since November 15 and will return to work on December 4. Been visiting my daughter in Boston. Not only do I not want to return to work, I also fear that I will have forgotten how to do my job. I totally put it out of my mind when I'm away from it and it takes me a while to get back in the swing of things even when I've been away for less than a week. I'm not looking forward to my first few days back.
secondbase, I wonder if you brushed your Maple Wheat Rolls with oil before baking...ours were wonderful on Thanksgiving and as long as they lasted days later. I thought perhaps the oil is what kept ours from getting hard on the outside. They were delicious and will be making a return appearance at our Christmas dinner.
I am grateful to say that we had hits all around for our meal but then we didn't do anything daring or complicated. Simple stuffing, simple steamed broccoli with garlic, the Maple Wheat Rolls (the only "unknown" thing we did ;) )and our tried-and-true barbecued Veat. Oh yeah, and a delicious pumpkin pie.