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. 

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

My internet went down the other day so that's why there was no post. Then we traveled yesterday to mee with the family sooooo. 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Enjoy the day with your family.  Can't wait to see all the delicious food
everyone had and shared with family and friends.

Vegan MoFo day 22/Chickpea Patties and pumpkin bundt cake

Is everyone staying warm and toasty?  Whew it's been cold.  We just got a 24hr notice from the weatherman that we need to cover our plants because Tuesday night it's going to dip into the 20's.  Okay it's California people and here that is coooooold! 

The other night I made some chickpea patties.  They turned out quite tasty too I might add.

Keaton liked them served this way on a tortilla with mustard, lettuce, tomato and avocado. I need to find the recipe I wrote down as I was making these before I post it.   

  

This small bundt cake is made using the pumpkin spice cupcake recipe from VCTOW.   

A light glaze would be perfect over this.

Tomorrow I'm going shopping for a few items I need for some Thanksgiving recipes.

Are you all prepared for Thursday? 

Vegan Mofo days 20 &21/ Vacation trip part 2

So I missed a day of blogging for MoFo and I'm so bummed about it.  I was so busy Sat. morning with trying to get everything packed and ready to go for our overnight trip that I didn't have time to sit down at all.  We went to visit a friend we haven't seen in a while so......

Anyhoo I'm back and on to share more of our summer vacation trip on the northern coast of California. 

Farmers Market in Arcata one morning.  Yes it's summer and it was a cooler summer out here in CA.  Up in that area they said most of the summer was overcast like this. 

We spotted this tamale and salsa booth.

Vegan tamales were a score and ever so tasty.

This was really cool to see...raw juice at Farmers Market...very cool.

This handsome speciman was spotted on our way to Fern Canyon.  Isn't he beautiful!

The trees were just so huge and amazing.

 

We ate dinner one night at Humboldt Brews and they had a good selection of vegan choices.

These aren't very good pictures but I had the falafel that came with sweet potato fries.  Check out all of the veggies on top of the falafel.

Another pic of falafel.  Keaton had the grilled portobello but I forgot to take a photo of it.
Check out the menu by clicking above on Humboldt Brews.  They even had tofu as an option.


I'll share more photo's of the redwoods in future posts with more on food as well.
So tired....
Have a nice night.  Back tomorrow.

Vegan MoFo Day 19/ Sami's Bakery-GF sourdough bread

  Per Jessy at HappyVeganFace I ordered some great tasting GF-Bread.  It's from Sami's Bakery.
You have to try it if you can only eat GF-bread.

Yes that's right.  Sourdough!

You have to place a minimum order of $25 but that's okay for us cuz I'm just going to freeze the rest.  I ordered a couple of loaves of sourdough, the millet & flax bread and lavash.    Keaton loved it and I'm so happy he did.  We finally found a vegan GF bread that isn't heavy, dense and chewy.  YAY!\

Enjoy your night!

MoFo day 18/ Pumpkin Scones

Good evening everyone!  Whooo...I'm barely making the post for day18!

I made 2 pumpkin desserts but I'm only posting one right now.  These are pumpkin scones with a cinnamon glaze.  They turned out more on the moist side, you know not as dry as most scones, kind of cake like and really light. 

Pumpkin Scones w/Cinnamon Glaze

serves 8

2 C + 1/4 C. spelt flour(if using white flour use 2C +1T. flour)

1 T. baking powder

1/2 Tsp. salt 

3/4 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. cloves

1/4 tsp. ginger

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

3/4 C. pumpkin puree

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 C. sugar

1 T. molasses

7 T. Earth Balance

3 T. full fat soy milk or non-dairy cream

1 tsp. apple cider vinegar

Preheat oven to 400.  Lightly oil a baking sheet.

In a mixing bowl add the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and spices.  

In another bowl blend together pumpkin puree, vanilla, molasses, earth balance, soy milk & apple cider.

Blend in the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients until completely combined.  The dough will be more wet than dry.

Flour hands and take the dough out of the bowl and place on baking sheet. Form the dough into a 7-inch circle or so and then take a knife and cut through making 8 slices, but keep it in the circle.

Place in oven and bake for about 20min.

Take the baking sheet out of the oven and let sit for about 5 minutes just to slightly cool.  Than take your knife again and gently cut through each piece and place on a cooling rack to completely cool.

Once scones are cool you can glaze.

To make the glaze use about 1 C. of powdered sugar, cinnamon and non-dairy milk until you get the desired consistancy to drizzle over each scone. 

Vegan MoFo day 17/Better late than never

Not much in the way of food today.  We went on a new hike, Farmers Market, than picked up our dinner at Santa Ynez Burrito.  They have really good burritos, I had the grilled veggie burrito. The food is all organic which makes it even better.

So this vacation post is really long over due.  I mean it's November and we took our vacation at the end of August.  We traveled up to the Giant Redwoods in Northern California.  It was so beautiful!  Instead of posting about some of the first places we ate on our way up north I'm going to start with the best meal of our trip and the most exciting one.  Just so you know this was one vacation that there was plenty of vegan options all over the place.  A vegans dream!  Just how it should be everywhere you go.

My husband's friend's daughter(did you get that?) and her husband, bought this Japanese sushi restaurant a few years back in Eureka, CA.  When he found out we were going to vacation up that way he told us to go have dinner at their restaurant. It's called Kyoto Japanese Restaruant.  We heard that  it's best to make reservations because they are always crazy crowded.  I'm glad we did.  It's not a very big place but they are in the process of expanding...again.  So we get there and let Jenni know, the owner who is so nice, that Keaton and I are vegan.  She said it was no problem and that almost everything on the menu could be made vegan.  Keaton and I smiled.   Yippy jump for joy!

This is the miso soup for starters. Yum!

When you walk into the restaurant there is this big white board with the daily specials.  It was amazing how many daily specials there were on top of what was listed on the menu.

Mushroom Veggie Stuffed Squash Blossoms

  Jenni's recommendation was the stuffed squashed blossoms on the daily menu that were filled with crab but she spoke with the chef and he stuffed them with mushrooms and veggies and the batter was rice flour instead of egg.  I have to tell you these were absolutely exquisite!  I can't say enough about them or describe them any more but let me tell you at just one bite,  my mouth was very happy!  Seriously I could of eaten a whole plate full and would have been satisfied but I still had more food to eat.

This was a cold apple salad with a light veganaise dressing and almonds. Keaton didn't really care for it but Dave and I did.






Avocado Rolls and Tofu Tempura Rolls






Keaton ordered the tofu dinner and he said it was really good.  It came with tempura tofu rectangles(front right), rice, a savory cake like rice cake thingy(sorry I forget what it was but it's in the top right corner),  ginger salad(top left), carrot slaw and sliced ginger.

Dave had a non-vegan dinner so I didn't take a picture of that.

If you are ever up on the coast of Northern California you  must stop and eat at Kyoto Japanese Restaurant!

More vacation posts with vegan food to come.