Goodbye, summer.

For Thursday: use three of the following: apples, cranberries, eggplant,cream cheese.

I've been dying to make a dessert, so I obviously went with the apples, cranberries, and cream cheese. Sorry, eggplant. Another day, maybe.

I wanted to do something cheesecake-y for sure, but an apple cranberry cheesecake sounded odd. I associate apples and cranberries with crisps and crumbles; hearty and fragrant treats that go great with the chilly weather we welcomed to Minnesota this week. So, I combined the two for something that turned out a lot more elegant than I'd envisioned. Despite all the sugar, it's not too sweet.

Cranberry Apple Cheesecake Bars

makes 12 servings

Fruit layer:

2 apples (I used Fujis), peeled, cored, and diced

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp dried ginger

1 tsp lemon juice

2 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp cornstarch

1/4 water

Crust:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp lemon zest

1/2 tsp baking powder

pinch salt

1 stick (1/2 cup) vegan margarine (cold)

1 Ener-G or flax egg

1/4 cup chopped pecans

Cheese layer:
8 oz tub vegan cream cheese at room temperature

3 tbsp vegan sour cream or soy yogurt

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp cornstarch

2 tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp almond or vanilla extract

Heat oven to 350°, spray an 8x8 brownie pan with cooking spray.

In a saucepan, combine the ingredients for the fruit layer. Cook and stir over medium heat for about three minutes, just until it starts to bubble. Set aside. 

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, lemon zest, baking powder, salt, and egg replacer. Cut in the margarine until it resembles pea-sized crumbs. Scoop out about 3/4 cup of the flour mixture, fold in the chopped pecans, and set aside. Press the rest of it lightly into prepared baking pan. 

On low speed, mix the cheese layer ingredients until smooth. Spread over the crust. Top with the fruit mixture, and spread evenly. Loosely scatter the rest of the crust mixture with the pecans over the top. 

Bake for 45-50 minutes. The crust should be light golden brown. Cool completely before cutting and serving.

Crisis averted!

Somewhere in the black hole that is my kitchen, there is a paddle attachment for my ice cream maker. I see it all the time, acknowledge its existence, and move on to other things. Of course, when I need it, I can't remember the oh-so-clever place that I stored it. It would make too much sense to store it with, I don't know...the rest of the attachments for that machine, or maybe in the drawer full of Cuisinart blades, stand mixer hooks and whisks, bread machine paddles, and sushi mats? NOOOO. I put it somewhere that I would see it every day. Only I don't. So, when I got home at 10:30 tonight to make ice cream, I had a small panic attack as I turn my kitchen upside down trying to find the damn thing. Ah, but I found the Robo-Stir, which I wouldn't have purchased if it wasn't 75% off, and now I know why. It doesn't do anything like the commercial. It sits in the bowl, and it vibrates. That's it. 

So, I used a gadget I could find. My fucking arm. 



It's not 100% frozen solid like it would be close to had I used the right attachment, but I was getting tired. For the record, it's Jell-O vanilla cook & serve pudding made with almond milk, chilled, and then ice creamed. Some twat on Facebook tried to tell me that thickeners weren't needed when making ice cream because "freezing it thickens it." In a polite way, I told her to eat a bag of dicks with her boring ass ice cream; the rest of us were going to make it from pudding, and enjoy delicious, rich, creamy ice cream that has a mouthfeel more like cream and less like...well, ice. So there you go.

Vanilla Ice Cream with Bourbon Caramel Sauce
serves 6

1 4.6 oz box Jell-O vanilla Cook & Serve pudding (it's vegan!)
3 cups vanilla almond milk (soy just doesn't set right)
1 tsp bourbon vanilla extract (Trader Joe's)

Prepare as directed on the box, only add the extract. Chill in the fridge until cold and set. Make it into ice cream in your ice cream maker THAT HAS A PADDLE.

Caramel Sauce

1 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp water
2 tbsp margarine
1 cup cashew cream, coconut cream, or soy creamer
1 tsp bourbon vanilla extract

In a heavy saucepan, combine sugar, water, and margarine. Bring to a boil, and reduce heat. Stir and cook for about 5 minutes (it'll bubble a lot). Very carefully, add the cream and vanilla in a slow stream and stir stir stir. Cook for another couple minutes. Remove from heat, cool for a few minutes. Serve over ice cream.

How to stay warm

One thing seriously lacking out there in the interwebs are Engine 2 desserts. I've found a few that are already in the book, but otherwise, you can forget it. I made this tonight, because I was craving something kind of sweet and warm.

Engine 2 Rice Pudding

makes about 6 one cup servings

1/2 cup short grain brown rice, rinsed

1 14-oz can light coconut milk

1 1/4 cups unsweetened non-dairy milk (I went with rice milk for this one)

1/2 tbsp cornstarch

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp cardamom

stevia, optional

2 cups fruit (anything goes; fresh or frozen. I used frozen peaches and cherries)

In a large pot with a cover, combine the rice and milks. Bring to a boil, reduce to a low simmer, and cover. Check on it every 10 minutes or so, and stir. After about an hour, the rice should be cooked. Whisk in the cornstarch and spices. Increase heat to a low boil, and stir for about a minute. Fold in fruit of choice. Heat through. Add stevia to taste if you want a sweeter flavor. Pour into bowls, and either cool to room temperature, or chill for cold pudding.

2012 Resolutions, Updates, and Pictures

Midnight came and went with hardly an acknowledgment from myself on Sunday. I think this is the first New Year in many, many years that I awakened without a hangover. I had a nasty cold, but that's never stopped me before; alcohol is the Great Alleviator.

One thing I will not forgo is making resolutions. I've made them before and had them stick (quitting smoking, losing weight), with or without stumbling and relapsing. This year, I resolve to blog more often. With that comes creating, experimenting, and experiencing. I also resolve to make more of an effort as an activist. Any lazy sonofabitch can share links on Facebook, but it takes some sacrifice and schedule shuffling to hand out leaflets and talk to people about what it means to be vegan, especially when people just want to fight with you. 2011 was very trying for me in the activist regard; I lost a friend over it, but it made me realize that this is not just something that will eventually pass with me. It's the barometer by which I make any decision. After six years, it's the one thing I've stuck to without a known slip-up; probably because sneaking a cigarette outside a bar or eating an entire pizza after losing 40 pounds only hurts me.

Anyway, here's some pictures I cleaned out of my camera today.

From the night of Paranormal Activity and chocolate-cherry-cheesecake, Aaron's Pumpkin-Pie-in-a-Pumpkin:



From Thanksgiving Day at Dallas & Brandon's:

Wild Mushroom & Walnut Paté (Dallas hates shiitake mushrooms with the fury of a thousand ninjas, but looooved this).



The Beast made another appearance.



Maple glazed carrots.



Creamed spinach and parsnips. This didn't turn out as good as I wanted (but it was much better as leftovers). I'll try it again next Thanksgiving, but now I know how to make it better.



Autumn Latkes from Veganomicon. Props to Brandon for doing all that peeling and shredding. My arthritic hands thank you!



I forgot to take pictures of dessert, which was eggnog pumpkin pie and apple-pear crumble. That just means I need to make them again!

Aaron and Kevin showed up for dessert that day, and showed us a piece from the news that night.

Rescued beagles get normal homes

Then they told us that they were adopting one of the beagles! Meet Kevin Junior:



Junior is still a little scared of stuff, especially doorways. I promised him that whenever I come through a door, I will always have hugs and treats.

That's it for now, but expect more soon. I hope I can keep my word on that.

Chocolate & Cheese

Sometime in September, after I found out that Mofo was October this year, I started to plan out my themes. I seriously considered a week of cheesecakes. I'll probably do it at a future date, but I think I scrapped it this year because I knew that I was going to have to buy new jeans after Chain Restaurant Week, and eating the equivalent of a truckload of Tofutti wasn't going to help matters. Next year, I'll do some healthier stuff and top it off with Cheesecake Week, 'kay?

I actually made this for a party tonight, but it was postponed. I'm sort of glad, because the huge party became a small dinner party, and I got to go home with leftovers. Yayah! I am very happy with how this turned out, and after watching Paranormal Activity tonight, I'm fairly sure the demon has moved from my kitchen to my camera. This was the best picture I took, and look how I cut it off on the top there. Fucking amateur.



Chocolate Cherry Cheesecake
6-8 servings

1 chocolate cookie crust (I used Keebler--it's vegan!)
1 8-oz pkg Tofutti cream cheese
1 asceptic box extra firm silken tofu
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tsp almond extract
1 can cherry pie filling
Whipped topping, chocolate shavings if desired

Preheat oven to 350°. Place crust (keep in the tin) on a cookie sheet.

In a food processor, blend together the cheese, tofu, sugar, cocoa, cornstarch, lemon juice, and almond extract. Scrape the sides with a rubber spatula and blend again. Pour into crust. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes. You don't have to use a waterbath, since you'll be covering up any cracks with the cherries. Once baked, cool the cake to room temperature, and then chill, covered, for at least an hour. Spread cherry pie filling over the cake. Chill until time to serve. Excellent with whipped topping of choice (we used Soyatoo, but chilled whipped coconut cream would be good, too), and chocolate shavings if you wanna be fancy.

Back in the saddle

Last Thanksgiving, I added vanilla and cardamom to the cranberry sauce, and made it AMAZING. I wanted to recreate that, but in a dessert. This is so, so delicious. It's also super quick, because I used canned whole cranberry sauce. I highly recommend pairing this with So Delicious Dulce de Leche ice cream.



Cranberry Crisp
9 servings

1 cup flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup chopped almonds
1 stick margarine (1/2 cup)
1 can whole berry cranberry sauce
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cardamom

Preheat oven to 375°. Spray a 9"x9" baking pan with cooking spray. In a large bowl, combine flour, oats, sugar, almonds, and margarine. Work it with your hands until it's all crumby. Spread have the crumbs in your pan. In another bowl. combine the cranberries, vanilla, and cardamom. Spread over crumbs in the pan. Sprinkle remaining crumb mixture on top. Bake 40 minutes. Serve with ice cream.

When life gives you lemons, or in this case...

exploded caramel apple cookies or melted turtle brownies, you do this.

This is of course after furiously slamming the brownie pan on the counter and yelling "FUCK" at the top of your lungs because you're convinced that your goddamn kitchen is cursed and/or you've completely lost all of your cooking skill somehow. This has been a weird week for me. I wonder if it's some strange hormonal thing because not only can I not cook, but I've gone back and read some things I posted on other sites and it's like a fucking illiterate teabagger transcribed for me. I was tempted to just throw in the towel, but instead, I took the day off from Mofo, made some spaghetti, and slept for about thirteen hours. This morning, I took a couple of my melted brownies, and made the above sundae. The rest are going in the freezer until I figure out what else to do with a baking fail other than toss it in the garbage with what Mischka left on the floor this morning.

God. Why didn't I do a garlic week or something?

Can't gain weight? Read on:

Is everyone aware that Megan Fox recently gave up veganism because she "couldn't gain weight?" Yeah. I had this reaction. Anyway, I have four words for Megan Fox: Mint Oreo Fudge Cremes. See, mint Oreos were already awesome, and vegan, and then they went and covered those fuckers in chocolate. Are you kidding me? These things are like Thin Mints, only BETTER. I always pick them up when I go to Target and feel like a pathetic junkie on the bus as I rip the package open.

Here's another nice surprise: Jell-O cook and serve pudding? Vegan. I shit you negative. It appears that the instant puddings are as well, but the cooking-required ones actually set using non-dairy milk. Now, I highly recommend using almond milk, because soy just doesn't set right, and it tastes funny. But the one thing about this find that's extra awesome? It makes bitchin' vegan ice cream.

So, I made up a batch of chocolate pudding this morning (using Silk Pure Almond vanilla-but the dark chocolate makes an even richer pudding), put plastic wrap over IT (to eliminate the skin on top) and refrigerated it. When I got home, I dumped it in the ice cream maker with 20 or so smashed up mint Oreo Fudge Cremes, and a teaspoon of peppermint extract to make it extra minty.



Flavor: check. Texture and mouthfeel (I hate that word): check. Weight gainable? Oh, check. Come to mama.

Here comes trouble.

This week might do me in, weight-wise. I have a serious weakness for sugar, and in fact, it's the downfall for me whenever I try any kind of "diet" or weight loss regimen. As soon as I start to do great, look good, feel confident...I stifle it all with a half gallon of So Delicious Dulce de Leche. I'll admit again, that if good vegan ice cream didn't exist, I couldn't have kept this shit up for six years.

This week I was going to tackle candymaking. I went out and got a bunch of chocolate and corn syrup, and then don'tcha know, someone else did it last week. I learned that I have a massive ego and don't want anyone to think I'm copying, and (as you all know from my bleeding all over the blog yesterday) I learned that I should just focus on things this week that I can do somewhat blindfolded. Well, except for Saturday's recipe, which I'm very worried about.

This one I pulled out of my ass during the Vikings game, because, if you saw that piece of shit, you'd be distracted, too. The batter came out very mousse-y, and it leavened like a sumbitch. The frosting is cream cheese frosting, mixed with melted chocolate, and poured all over the cake. Sweet Lord. Serve this warm with (what else) your favorite ice cream.


My cream cheese frosting heart started to melt.

Pumpkin Sour Cream Chocolate Cake
Makes one 9" round cake

Wet Ingredients

1/4 cup chocolate chips, melted
2/3 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 cup vegan sour cream
1/4 cup almond milk (or other non-dairy milk)


Dry Ingredients

1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Preheat oven to 350°. Spray a 9" round cake pan (8x8 square) with baking spray.

Whisk together the wet ingredients. Work quickly, because the chocolate will start to harden when it hits the other liquids, so try to mix it up as best you can. In a separate bowl, blend the dry ingredients well with a whisk or spoon. Gradually add the dry to the wet, and mix. The batter will be fluffy and mousse-like. Spread in your pan with a rubber spatula. Bake for 30-35 minutes (do the toothpick test). Cool for 10 minutes, and make frosting.

Frosting:

1/2 can Duncan Hines Cream Cheese Frosting (it's vegan!)
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Microwave for one minute, then stir until blended. Pour over cake.


I'm glad that the only bad thing about this cake is that I took awful pictures of it. I was in too big a hurry to inhale it.

If any of you are poo-pooing the idea of store bought frosting or using cake mixes, then this week may not be for you. I haven't had many run-ins with the vegan police, but I do know that Lindsay over at Happy Herbivore recently renounced the "vegan" title because people were questioning where her sugar was sourced, etc. I do know that she also uses honey, which is a whole 'nother can o' pectin gummy worms, but as for the sugar thing and the questionable ingredients on cake mix labels, I have this to say: If I make something from scratch that I serve to other vegans, I use organic sugar. I don't make shortcuts. When I'm making something for me and the thankless bastards I work with, or my vegan friends who feel similarly, I'll cut corners and use "accidentally vegan" store items. So far, the only people who have nitpicked me about such things have been non-vegans, who seem to think there is a purity rule. The way I see it is, when it comes to things like sugar that may or may not have been processed in bone char, when the day comes that there are no animals being used, then there won't be by-products. There is no purity test. But if you really do stress out about these things, I will post ingredients lists for you.

Coup de grâce

This MoFo has been...a learning experience. I refuse to say "failure," although a lot of the things I have made have not come out tasting as I'd hoped, or outright disappointed me. I guess I should be relieved that the plan I had for next week (candy) is being done this week by someone else (right down to the exact items I wanted to veganize). Part of me feels frustrated that now I have to come up with other ideas, but I'm also somewhat glad because this month seems to be jinxed. I've forgotten things in pictures, I've forgotten ingredients when blogging recipes (only to go back and edit after posting that shit all over the place), and I haven't taken any time off work, thus making grocery shopping, cooking, and blogging something that is just more shit I gotta do instead of something I normally look forward to. I'm also feeling incredibly anxious about tackling things, when I used to feel challenged and excited. Sucks, huh? I guess the only thing I can do is soldier on, finish the month, and resolve to experiment more with things. Starting with this Tarte Tatin.



It started off so well. The caramel was perfectly amber, and then at some point, it burned. If I have anything to teach anyone about veganizing, it's that vegan versions don't take long to get to where they need to be. Case in point: caramel. I put the apples in long after I should have, and cooked it longer on the stove than I should have.


The inside, which was perfect.

I ended up scraping off the burnt sugar on top, and served this with vanilla ice cream, and it was good (not awesome).



What I learned about this dessert is that I can skip the long caramelization process called for in the original recipe. Simply melt, stir, bake. Since everything happened so fast, it can happen in the oven. I'll be tackling this again. Trust me.

Naughty and nice.

You know who's naughty? This guy.


Bowie, doing yoga.

I have never yelled, "Get offa there!" so many times in a week. I've had to close off the bathroom for the first time since he was a kitty for a) stuffing the bathmat under the tub, b) unraveling a whole roll of toilet paper, and c) knocking a teacup off the counter and breaking it. He has taken to chasing invisible prey across my bed in the middle of the night when I have to work at 6:45am the next day, he's scratched up the inside of the doorway from the hallway to the living room, he's knocked over every trashcan in the house looking for God knows what...I'm just about at the end of my rope. Anyone want a slightly used, slightly feral, adorable tabby? Your only requirement is returning to your bed after your shower for belly-rubbing time. His belly. But he gives a good backrub if you let him sit on the back of your office chair. Ahhh...sigh.

BUT, you know what's nice? These:


Gingerbread donuts with candy cane sprinkles

I need to work on these. I was not perfectly satisfied with how these turned out, and wonder if a gluten-free dough would work better (the dough for these was very elastic and hard to shape). I'm going to try another batch sometime after MoFo and edit this entry to include a recipe. People I shared them with liked them, but I wanted a nice cakey donut, and these came out sort of quick-bread-y. Too moist, or something. I think it's the pumpkin. I veganized this recipe, and need to figure out how to make them more gingerbread-y. It didn't seem like enough molasses. I will say they were damn tasty with coffee.

Tonight makes love to all your kind...

tomorrow's making...valentines.



I have a hard time with Valentine's Day. On one hand, I love all things romantical and gooshy and sappy. Chick flicks make me cry. On the other hand...I haven't had the pleasure of experiencing a sweet, romantic V-Day. Well, other than the ones I throw for myself. The closest I came to one was being told (while being dumped for someone else), "If this had lasted, I would have given you the Valentine's Day you deserve." Gee, thanks. *slams head on the desk*



This is something that failed, but I managed to cover it with enough frosting to disguise the fail. Apparently, veganizing cake mix isn't a snap like I thought it would be, at least not nearly as easy as brownie mix is. After 45 minutes in the oven, this red velvet cake had become an erupting volcano. I took it out, scooped out the unbaked part, sculpted it, and threw it back in for about ten minutes. The white top layer is cheesecake, which came out kind of thin. I put the two together, spackled it all together with cream cheese frosting, threw some berries on top to hide the cracks, and voila! Perfect for a romantic weekend with your lover, or one night with your bad self and How I Met Your Mother reruns.

Stunt Week crawls to a close: The Cherberple.

About two weeks ago, my dad sent me a link to this article. I was fascinated, disgusted, and sure of one thing: I was going to make this thing vegan. For those who are scared to click the link, the Cherpumple is what's been hailed as the "Turducken of desserts." Three store bought pies, baked into three cake mix cakes, layered, and frosted with three cans of cream cheese frosting. Makes you sick just to imagine it. Maybe you drool a little.

I'm on vacation starting today. It worked out that the last day of stunt week would involve the biggest stunt of all, and would also fall on my first day off in a bazillion days. I considered sleeping in, but eventually dragged myself up at noon and preheated the oven.

I decided to make a "CherBERple," as opposed to the cherpumple because I didn't want to even try looking for a vegan pumpkin pie, and I didn't want to ruin pumpkin pie for myself (nor anyone I feed this to) before Thursday. The pumpkin pie was replaced with a berry pie.

It took some girl on the intertubes five hours to make this thing. I figured I'd have it photographed and blogged by 6:00pm, leaving me free to...well, do nothing. I can tell you that I hadn't even put the last layer in the oven by six. Also, I burned myself pretty badly with the side of a cookie sheet, so I deserve the extra time. As well as an awesome story to accompany the scar.

Here is layer #1, sometime earlier today:



It's a Marie Callender's Razzleberry Pie baked inside a (Duncan Hines, I think...whichever one is vegan)strawberry cake. Set it aside to cool, and then worked on the second layer: dutch apple baked into a spice cake. When cooled, I inverted the spice cake onto the frosted strawberry layer.



Some minor issues with the structural integrity soon gave way to the cake looking like the Roman Coliseum, and no amount of spackling with two different kinds of frosting (vanilla and lemon) was going to help it. Then the last layer cooled.



This is the only side that was ready for a close-up.

It wasn't until I cut out a slice that the whole thing became a sinkhole.





And here is the "slice," with a little coconut cream.



I couldn't finish it. It had to be a supernova of calories. I'm now off to stop the cake. It's starting to crawl across the counter.

Stunt Week Day 3: Maple Bacon Rice Krispie Treats

I was going to make donuts this morning for another stunt, but my yeast was dead. It took ALL DAY for my dough to rise. I'll try that again tomorrow. Maybe.

In a panic, I took a long lunch and jumped on the bus and headed to the Wedge. They had vegan bacon bits, so I went ahead with something I saw online. I skipped the Nutella and used chocolate chips, and soaked the bacon bits in hot water and maple extract. The result? Absofuckinglutely delicious. Seriously.

Fluffy white stuff

Those of you who were wondering: we got our first snow. It started sometime last night/early this morning, and it just stopped a bit ago. When I ran outside in inappropriate footwear to take pictures, it was already at three inches.





But now I want to talk about some other fluffy white stuff. Namely, whipped cream. Vegan whipped cream. I needed to make some for the recipe Hassan chose from Pillsbury Appetizers & Desserts magazine. I didn't want to resort to canned Soyatoo, because it's not only expensive, but I needed to fold some berries into it, and wasn't sure how that would work. I heard somewhere that Rich's non-dairy creamer could be whipped, but the thought of taking any buses today turned me off. I needed to make a trip to the store, but today was just not the day. I went into the fridge to pull out some leftovers for lunch, and that's when I noticed the box of Soyatoo whippable that I was POSITIVE I had used. Crossing my fingers, I got to work.



It didn't make much. Just enough to fill all the puffs, but only top about ten. I now have a can of coconut milk in the fridge, and will finish these up tomorrow before work. A plea to the makers of Soyatoo: That box is nowhere near big enough. And you need to redesign the canned stuff, because I have now purchased two that got clogged after the first use. Seriously. Someone needs to make a vegan equivalent of Cool Whip. I'm completely terrified that these puffs will look like sad little islands in a pan of slushy cream by morning, and like Minnesota snowfalls, will just be shoveled away. I'll say a prayer for the little guys tonight.

Waiting for the snow

I have never been so ready for winter. I know, I always duck when I say that. But living here my whole life, I know I'd miss the cold and the snow if I moved somewhere warm. My dad packed up everything and moved himself, my mother, and their business out to Hawaii after the Halloween blizzard of '91, declaring that "This will be my last Minnesota winter." Well, he was right, sort of. He retired to his hometown of Valley City, North Dakota, which is not Minnesota, but may as well be. At least Minneapolis has city-run snowplows. Also, driving down to the Cities for holidays kind of puts him back into Minnesota Winter territory.



Shannon also picked tonight's recipe. A very snowy-evening kind of dessert. The original recipe, from Bon Appetit, calls for an obscene amount of eggs. It's supposed to be light, puffy, and soufflé-like. I tried. I whipped silken tofu in a frozen bowl with frozen beaters. I added agar. Powdered sugar. It wasn't going to happen. Instead, I focused on making the pudding taste rich and wonderful, and stopped worrying about being some sort of vegan meringue pioneer.



The pudding is pretty close to the real recipe as far as ingredients go (minus the eggs), with a tofu/Silk Nog/agar/almond extract mixture folded in. The topping is pecans, Earth Balance, brown sugar, gingersnaps, and pumpkin pie spice. The ginger-orange marmalade I used has big pieces of orange zest, which really adds to it. It came out fluffier than I'd expected, which was a nice surprise. In future attempts, I'll add a little cardamom. Because my mom would have.

Thanksgiving 2009

Some pictures from Thursday.

The faux turkey:



I used Robin Robertson's recipe for the seitan, and made a pecan/apple sage sausage/orange cranberry/mushroom stuffing.



Sorry that's so blurry.

Autumn rolls from Veganomicon:



From the same book, Autumn Latkes and Horseradish Dill Sour Cream:





Gingerbread Apple Pie from VwaV:



Pumpkin Cheesecake from VeganMoFo last year (not the cake, the recipe):



Brandon made the mashed potatoes and brussels sprouts. He also supplied the comedy and beer.



'Lona supplied the adorable Floridian accent.



Aaron had seconds. I was impressed. I had one plate and passed out.



Warren helped clean up by catching everything I dropped on the floor.



Dessert is always my favorite.





Taz wants to jump up on the table and join us.



And Milo's in the potatoes.