More Thanksgiving

It worked out that Mr. GV was off work this Thanksgiving, and we were able to eat our meal at his brother's house.  

We took servings of our dressing and potatoes, plus the green bean casserole and pumpkin pie to share. There were rolls we could eat AND my mother-in-law made bean salad with Veganaise and tofu (instead of hardboiled egg!!!)  This is HUGE.  My mother-in-law always says she can't cook for us anymore, and I know that bothers her.  I have mentioned that my mom cooks for us but I don't think it gets through to her exactly what I mean.  

J came by for a while with my mom and sister, and made a quick friend!

Love this picture of Mr. GV and the little one.  

Babies all over the place!

Thanksgiving Food

This year we decided to reduce the gluten in our Thanksgiving meal.  Mr. GV seems to be having a sensitivity to it, and is eating less of it.  I was fortunate to find some gluten-free products at my local grocery.  

Here's what I put in the cornbread for the dressing.  It turned out....OK.  It certainly wasn't pretty, and took forever to cook, but tasted just fine.  

Mushrooms for the cream of mushroom soup that goes in the green bean casserole.

Getting the cranberries ready to make easy homemade sauce.

Frozen green beans, about to be cooked up for the casserole.

Gluten-free pie crust.  It turned out nicely, even if I did have to piece it together a bit into the plate.  

My "V for Vegan" pumpkin pie, recipe for pie and crust taken from Vegan Pie in the Sky.  

Ingredients for the dressing.  That's sage in the middle----LOTS of it!

This year I found fresh, organic sage, and thought I'd give fried sage a try.  Not sure what I did wrong (perhaps cooking them a bit too long?) because they were more soggy than crunchy.

Dressing

Mashed potatoes

Green bean casserole

Tofurkey (much, much improved over the one we had several years ago.)

Pumpkin pie with Rice Whip.

Thanksgiving

I can't believe I didn't take a single picture of the food prep for Thanksgiving or the actual meal on the table.  We had a lot to choose from---mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, dressing, cranberry sauce (homemade), rolls, Field Roast, sweet potato casserole, and for dessert pumpkin pie and an ooey gooey chocolate bar recipe that I only make a couple times a year. 

I did snap a few pictures that evening:

Mom

Casper

Mr. GV and J playing a computer game.  Naturally Mr. GV couldn't possibly win without J offering up suggestions.  ;) 

Family meal

After my food prep was finished, Mr. GV and I (and the pups) headed over to mom's house. My sister, S, also came to visit.

Here's S and I in the kitchen.


Mr. GV took the opportunity to catch forty winks, er..I mean to ponder the meaning of life.

The pups took the opportunity to hope and beg.

My plate, filled with all sorts of goodies, including mashed potatoes and corn that mom made, carrots that my sister made, and field roast.

Mr. GV's plate. Pretty much the same as mine, with the addition of cranberry sauce.

And then it was time to get down to the business at hand...eating.

And that's serious business.

Mr. GV hopped on the dessert train and added some soy whip to his pumpkin pie.

This was our first Thanksgiving without my dad. Although his appetite hadn't been all that great the past few years as a result of dialysis, he still enjoyed it when his family got together, and he loved to reminisce as we all sat around the table. My mom had the idea to light a candle in memory of my dad, and its light shined on us all as we sat around the table together this year.

Sparky considers human meal time as a spectator sport, and as such kept an eye on things while we ate.

And here is the obligatory picture of mom peeling potatoes. She said I already had one of those from a previous family meal, but you know? Potatoes tend to be a central part of our meals, and I feel that peeling potatoes and mixing cornbread are two of the things I've seen mom do most in the kitchen, so why NOT have another picture of it?

And the rest, after which I needed a rest

Thanksgiving morning I cooked the rest of my contributions to dinner.

First up was an old-school green bean casserole, made with homemade cream of mushroom soup.

Then I tried my hand at some rolls. I made then half white, half whole wheat, from a recipe I found on the Internet. It was a good recipe and I'll make it again.

And the star of a Southern, vegan Thanksgiving: the cornbread dressing. I always use my mom's recipe and veganize it.

Next up was sweet potato casserole, made with the wonderful Dandies vegan marshmallows! For those of you not in the know, marshmallows typically contain gelatin--NOT vegan, (not even vegetarian for that matter, since it comes from animal skin and bones.) But Dandies are vegan, yummy, and

they melt!

The whole shebang, waiting to be packed up and taken over to mom's house to share!

'Twas the night before Thanksgiving...

...and I was cookin'!


Everything I made that night was from The Joy of Vegan Baking, except for the cranberry sauce and cornbread. First up was the pecan crust for my pumpkin pie.


And then the pumpkin pie itself.

Then there was the cranberry sauce. I am not a lover of cranberry sauce but my mom and Mr. GV tell me this is a great recipe. And it's just so much prettier than the kind that has ridges on it from the can.

I made Mexican wedding cookies, Russian tea cakes, or whatever name you know these little bombs of yumminess.

And then, brownies that were so full of chocolaty goodness. Next year I will cook them in a long baking pan instead of a square one so they won't be quite so thick.