I know it's a bit late but... Thanksgiving grub!

Howdy everyone! I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving out here in the U.S.A. and for those of you in other parts of the world...I hope you had a great weekend.
I'm so bummed that I haven't been able to blog.   We've had our internet and land line down since last Wednesday.  We've switched to cable but when the technician came on Friday and then left, our internet was freezing up.  Last night we spoke with a friend who is a computer guy and he told us what to do.  So here we are...Monday the 29th!

Moving forward we had a really nice Thanksgiving down at my in-laws.  My brother came out from AZ with my nephew.  We met up with some friends we haven't seen in a while for dinner the night before.  Good times!

Some ingredients used for the meal and dessert.

Vegetable Succotash





This is kind of like succotash but it doesn't have any lima beans in it. My brother-in-law that passed away quite a few years ago, this was his favorite veggie dish I made, so whenever I make this it's in honor of him.  We miss you Zig! My mother-in-law was very happy that I was making dish this year.   The ingredients are: red and yellow bell pepper, yellow onion, chopped garlic, sage(use fresh if you have it), fresh corn, zucchini, yellow squash, olive oil, salt and pepper.  You just heat up some olive oil, add garlic for about a minute.  Then if you have fresh sage add that and saute for about 30sec, if you have dried rubbed sage add later.  Add the veggies and cook until cooked but not mushy.  Season with salt and pepper.  The sage is what totally makes this dish!




Trader Joe's Cranberry Sauce(L), Veggie Succatash(bottom), Mashed Potatoes w/brocolli(right),
Field Roast-Celebration Roast(top) with Golden Gravy.

The potatoes were made by my sister-in-law and she just diveded half and left out the butter and cheese.  The golden gravy recipe I use is from The Real Food Daily Cookbook.  The Celebration Roast from Field Roast is so juicy, it's really really good!  We also had sweet potatoes and a green salad.

 



Pumpkin Cheesecake

This years pumpkin cheesecake was thicker and lighter due to using silken tofu.  You can forgo the silken tofu and sub in more non-dairy cream cheese if you want a richer more dense cheesecake but we loved the taste of this version.  It's almost mousse like.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Crust:

Preheat oven to 350.

2 paks graham crackers(there are 3 in a box)

1/4 C. organic sugar

1/3 C. Earth Balance

1/2 C. pecans, crushed

In a food processer pulse the pecans until crushed(don't process into fine powder)then pour in a bowl.

Next add graham crackers into processer and pulse until fine crumbs.  Add the sugar and Earth balance until combined then add the pecan back in and completely process together.  

In a cheesecake pan pour graham cracker mixture into it and pack down.  Bake in oven for about 7 min.

Take out and cool down.  Once cooled down wrap aluminum foil around the bottom because you will be baking the cheesecake in a water bath and you don't want water seeping into the cheesecake due to the cheesecake pan.

Filling:

2 8oz. containers of Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese or any other non-dairy cream cheese

1 12oz. pak silken tofu, firm 

1 15 oz. can organic pumpkin

1 C. organic sugar

1/2 C. organic brown sugar 

2 tsp. vanilla

3 T. cornstarch or arrowroot
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. cloves

In a food processor(blends better) or hand mixer, blend together Tofutti and silken tofu until smoothe.  Then add the rest of the ingredients and blend until all of the ingredients are thoroughly blended together and smooth.

Pour filling on top of graham cracker crust.

You will  need a baking sheet or something that has at least a 2 inch lip. 

Put baking sheet into oven then put cheesecake pan into the middle of the baking sheet.  Add boiling or very hot tap water into the baking pan so the water goes up almost 1-inch up the side of the cheesecake pan.  The reason for the water is that it keeps the cheesecake from cracking. Bake for 45-50min.  Until cheesecake is set in the middle.  

Once cheesecake is done let cool down to room temperature until putting into the refrigerator.  Chill at least 4 hours but it's better the longer it is refrigerated.  

I will be posting tomorrow.  It's my husbands b-day tomorrow so I'll be making something special. 

The day after....

To all of you out there who woke up early to go shopping you are very brave! I'm not one for waking up that early and dealing with the crowds especially when we got home late last night. So i'm drinking some coffee and trying to stay warm.
I hope everyone had a nice visit with their family and friends yesterday. We drove down to the in-laws and had Thanksgiving with them. My sister-in-law, father-in-law and husbands' birthdays fall between Nov. 20-30th so we celebrated them all and had 3 different desserts for them.

Since the main course was not such a compassionate one (you know what I'm talking about)my son and I had a cruelty free Field Roast(below).


When I had asked my mother-in-law to buy a Field Roast I didn't specify a Celebration Roast but we had this Smoked Tomato Field Roast instead. It had plenty of flavor and could actually feed at least 3 people. I made a vegan gravy as well. One of my favorite Field Roast Sausages is the Smokeed Apple Sage.yum!

This was the dessert I made and it turned out perfect! It's a Pumpkin Cheescake and the recipe is from Just the Food blog but is also in the new vegan cookbook 500 Vegan Recipes. I actually baked this in a springform pan and made a pecan shortbread crust. Here is the recipe below with my changes but you can see the original recipe by clicking Just the Food blog . It's pretty rich so you don't really don't need a big slice.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Pie

Ingredients:
Pecan shortbread crust (or any one you choose)
2, 8oz containers of vegan cream cheese
1, 15 oz can of pure pumpkin(organic)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
3 tbsp Cornstarch(I ran out of arrowroot powder)
1 tsp cinnamon (ground)
1/2 tsp ginger (ground)
1/4 tsp nutmeg (ground)
1/4 tsp cloves (ground)

Pecan Shortbread Crust:
1 C. toasted pecans
1 1/3 C. spelt flour (you can use your choice)
1/3 C. organic sugar
1/2 C. Earth Balance

Directions: First preheat oven to 350.

In a 9 inch spring form pan wrap the bottom at least half way up the sides with aluminum foil. (You'll see why you need this when you bake with the filling).

In a food processor add pecans and pulse until coarsely chopped. YOU DON'T want to pulse into a fine meal. You want to make sure you have a nice crunch to the shortbread. Pour into a medium size mixing bowl and set aside.

Next in the food processor add flour, sugar and EB and pulse until a dough forms. Once that happens pour into the pecans and stir together.

Press dough into the spring form pan and bake for about 15 minutes. It will puff slightly but you don't really want it to brown. Take out and let cool for a few minutes.

Directions for the filling:
Beat all ingredients together in a food processor or electric mixer until smooth. Pour into crust. Place a pan or drip pan full of hot water (about 1" deep) in the middle rack of the oven. Place the foil wrapped spring form pan onto the drip pan. Bake for 45 minutes. Remove and let cool, place in refrigerator until ready to serve, and to set even more.


Note*The reason for the foil is so that the water doesn't seep into the cheesecake and wet the crust. The reason for the water is so the top of the cheesecake doesn't crack.



This dessert you see here is my husbands' favorite that he grew up eating. My mother-in-law makes everyones favorite cake or pie that they like for their birthdays. This pie is a pudding pineapple cream cheese pie. I'm not a big fan of it but the rest of the family loves it and she made it vegan this year. Here is the recipe, it's real simple. Would be a great summer dessert.

Pudding pinapple cream cheese pie:

1 graham cracker pie crust

1 lg instant vanilla pudding box

1 lg can crushed pineapple, drained (squeeze out as much liquid as possible)

2 1/4 c. non-dairy milk(soy was used)

1 8 oz. tofutti cream cheese

In a large bowl pour in a packet of instant pudding mix. Next pour in milk and mix until thick. Beat in cream cheese until smooth. Finally stir in crushed pineapple. Once thoroughly combined pour into graham cracker crust, put in refrigerator until set about a day or overnight.