carcass-free thanksgiving #2

I made dinner for my mom, aunt & uncle, cousin, grandpa, and my mom's friend Jim.

I made a hubbard squash the size of a portly dog.

Actually I only made half of it because that is all that fit in the oven.

I made some warm artichoke spinach dip.

I didn't use a recipe, but it is just a sliced leek and 4 minced cloves of garlic sauteed in olive oil, mixed with a block of frozen spinach (thawed) and a can of artichoke hearts (drained-n-chopped), 4 ox of tofutti cream cheese, a scoop of tofutti sour cream, salt, pepper, a tiny bit of cayenne, and a little sprinkle of nutritional yeast. Bake til hot. Serve with pita chips so everyone ruins their appetite and forgets to be angry that there is no turkey.

Speaking of no turkey.

The fake turkey was really good and definitely worth all of the work. Although I guess I could have arranged it a little nicer on the platter. Nonetheless, is MUCH better than tofurkey - the texture is much better, it is not rubbery at all. Next time I wouldn't do the roulade though. The stuffing inside was a little damp and the structure of it made it puff up in a stupid way while it was cooking and it was hard to turn. In loaf format I think it would be perfect.


Pretty standard: mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry chutney, stuffing, squash, fake turkey, roasted brussels sprouts, the ubiquitous Pillsbury crescent roll.

I made a rather dreadful pumpkin cheesecake for dessert. Luckily I also made some backup sparkled ginger cookies.

You can see the bad cheesecake there lurking in the background. I should have just made regular pumpkin pie. I feel deprived about it now so I will have to make one to go with the leftovers.

More pictures.

it broasts AND it bribles

Today I spent a million hours making Bryanna Clark Grogan's Soy & Seitan Turkey. (I had to go on an emergency trip to Kmart to get a tiny roaster, during which I could not stop thinking of the 8-in-1 Super Pan.)

The fake turkey looks kind of creepy or maybe I just think it looks creepy because yesterday I watched a creepy show on TLC about malformed conjoined twins.

Before baking. Like a giant toe! It is the roulade format so there is onion/apple/sage bread stuffing rolled up inside. Anyway now it is all baked and resting in the fridge, which is supposed to improve its texture for tomorrow.

I also recreated the tempeh salad with cranberry vinaigrette that I had at the Garden Cafe in Woodstock last weekend.

I shall tell you how to make it because it is really good.

8 oz package tempeh, cut into bite-size squares
3/4 c vegetable broth
Put in skillet, cover, and cook until broth is absorbed. Cool.

2/3 c fresh or frozen cranberries
1/4 c sugar
1/2 c apple cider vingar
Combine in small saucepan and cook on medium 5-10 minutes, until cranberry skins split. Cool slightly and puree in blender or food processor. Put in bowl and whisk in:

2 t dijon mustard
2 T canola oil

Add the tempeh and 3-4 cups of shredded raw cabbage. Then mix in a big scoop of Vegenaise and season with salt and pepper. Mmm. We ate it with roasted sweet potatoes and whole wheat couscous. The cafe served it with wild rice vegetable stew and steamed kale.

carcass-free thanksgiving #1

Welp I see from my helpful poll that my year of blog neglect has diminished my readership to four people, one of whom is a liar, so that frees me up to unselfconsciously ramble about crap just like back in the good old days.

This weekend I continued my trend of forcing Chris O to go on a 6+ hour road trip every five days (This Time With NonStop Christmas Music) and we went to Thanksliving at the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary.


We stayed in a cute little cottage at Phoenicia Village which was very convenient and nice, although the Catskills region in general has a kind of Headless Horseman/Rip Van Winkle creepy feeling about it.


Woodstock Farm Sanctuary is very nice and it was pleasant to go to a vegan-centric event in the midst of the American carcass-mongering holiday season.

Poor turkeys. Well, not these ones in particular. These ones are having some squash.

There were lots of nice goats.

For appetizers they had little phyllo dough cups with mushroominess inside and pieces of baguette with Dr. Cow's Tree Nut Cheese, which was good and goat-cheese like. Then for dinner it was Celebration Roast which I had never had before. I don't think it's that much better than Tofurkey though. It has a stuffing-like center, but the center still has a meaty, seitany texture, which is a little weird.



Dessert was pumpkin cheesecake and chocolate cake with fluffy peanut butter frosting and it was so good that I ate it until my stomach was all gurgley.

On our way home we saw a little jack russell trotting along the road. We opened the car door and he jumped in.

Then we wasted a bunch of time driving him to his house where no one was home and then dropping him off at his vet. He was very cute but a little stinky.

Anyway there are some more pictures.

I think I will update my blog again.

Here is the news.

1. I am moving to northern Virginia next month because I have a new job.

2. I am taking this one and this one with me.

3. All of us are vegan, except one of us cheats by stealing butter off kitchen tables when he is out visiting.