Currently viewing the tag: "thanksgiving"
I’d like to cook a proper Thanksgiving feast, but it’s not that simple unfortunately. It’d have to be a reheated prepared meal. And thankfully, that ain’t bad at all. With a Whole Foods near, it’s convenient enough. I ordered their Vegan Field Roast with an extra side of Brussels and popped it in the oven before heading to Mom and Pop’s. With gravy, Earth Balance and a batch of my white pumpkin ginger cupcakes en tow, Thursday morning was an easy feat.
My huge plate: a couple of slices of field roast in a pastry shell, green beans with almonds, roasted Brussels sprouts, butternut squash puree, grain and bean stuffing topped with cranberry-orange relish.
I am thankful for the autumn colors.
With a batch for the kids (check!), a batch for the boyfriend’s family (check!) and a batch for my family, my cupcakes were a real hit! Though I am very vanilla, I kind of love these spiced beauties.
I am thankful I can make a batch of cupcakes from scratch… even if my dinner isn’t. Happy Thanksgiving!
Two little pumpkins have sat on my desk at work since I thought “Pumpkins! Already?!” Now Halloween is long gone and Thanksgiving is upon us. I brought those cute little pumpkins home today to help me bake up some seasonal cupcakes for my grade’s Thanksgiving Feast, the first of the cupcake marathons the holiday will have me in.
Here the baked pumpkin is ready to be pureed.
Orange you glad you have a large food processer? [That was very dumb.]
Here are the minis out of the oven. After a sampling I am relieved they’re perfect! Light, moist and delicious. Yay for 2/3 cup of sugar.
Hey baby.
Sloppy piping.
Ready for transport to school. Look how dark it is. Oh sun going down at 5, you’re ruining my blog photos.
I hope the kids and parents will like them. Check my class’s blog for a report!
It’s funny how much we can pack into a year. And how, stuffed and sluggish with our heavy days, routine trivialities can pull us away from that which we most value. The fundamentals… Beyond our myopia. A sharp left from the winker. Through the man-made distractions. And other such comparative prepositional phrases.
Gratitude is an intrinsically human attribute. It’s not disposable plastic themed favors, fake deciduous leaves made in factories, inked umbers and siennas on flat nonabsorbent napkins, cartoon turkeys. It’s in our action.
Last year I pitched in at the Hempstead Thanksgiving Food Share Bonanza hosted by Long Island Food Not Bombs. (I blogged about it here.) It was an honor to be within their great work, to be part of the good they share. When FNB‘s Jon contacted me about this year’s event, their largest ever, I knew I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to spend the afternoon knee-deep in vegan food… and the good folk who bring so much to communities in need all year round. See you Sunday!
I am thankful to survive, and thrive, through the love and support of friends.
Thanksgiving plans changed drastically at the last minute due to reasons a trained psychologist will need to help me understand. Luckily, I was able to find a place to feast. Here are the highlights:
CP‘s almond pignoli cookies. With a hefty bite of almond paste, these Italian delicacies hit the spot.
My Brooklyn vs. Boston Cream Pie cupcakes from VCTOTW were delish! I piped them full of Soyatoo from my score last weekend.
But since I am the kinda person who loves the insides of things, here it is.
My bountiful plate including roasted kombucha squash, potatoes, canned corn, Swiss chard and chick pea frittata/quiche/tart, sweet potato mash with ground nuts and lotsa agave and roasted daikon, acorn squash and shallots.
Not the most flattering picture of the Swiss chard and chick pea frittata/quiche/tart. 
Kombucha squash, spread-eagle
Shallots and green onion. Bless the five pungent spices!
I am thankful for friends who value food.
Holidays, like Johnny Dangerously, are just another excuse to gather the gang and to eat… and eat well. The hiatus-ed FoodSparrow and her dapper gent hosted a wonderful vegan Thanksgiving potluck over the weekend in their gorgeous Park Slope apartment and we all managed to knock each other’s respective socks off. Conversations sounded a bit like phonics class: mmmmmmm like “My gosh this is delicious!”
Here is the spread: a medley of radishes from The Greek‘s very own garden.
Maple-roasted root vegetables in all the shades of autumn.
My plate may look like a mess but each pile was distinctly scrumptious. A broccoli and sun-dried tomato side with a zing of apple cider vinegar, a delectable seitan and cabbage main course with mushroom gravy, My crazy ravioli that did not stand the test of time, presentation-wise, yummy cole slaw and beet greens. So good!
My poor ravioli fell apart. Note to self, homemade pasta should be served immediately. But still pretty.
Small, dark and handsome, Em’s chocolate-chocolate-cherry cookies were absolutely divine.
CandyPenny‘s vegan version of grandma’s cheesecake was just perfect. And I usually am not a fan of tofu cheesecake! But this dame nailed it with a soft, delicate tofu base with zing of lemon and blueberry topping on a yummy cookie crust.
I haven’t been in the kitchen much at all these days. But that will change very, very soon. The holiday marathon of cooking, pot lucks, food shares and Christmas cookies begins this weekend. And for the first time ever, I will be responsible for the entire Thanksgiving meal at my parent’s house. This is a colossal challenge I am ready for with my a-game. So to carve my intentions in stone, I offer my holiday menu.
Gastronomical delights to all, and to all a good night.
Thanksgiving potluck:
Autumn ravioli medley (butternut squash & sage ravioli and beet ravioli with fava bean sauce)
Pecan and date blondies
Thanksgiving at the family’s:
Seitan en Croûte
Dandied Candied Yams
KZ’s Thanksgiving stuffing
Cranberry sauce not shaped like a can
Garlic-sauteed greens
Tomato Rosemary Scones
Chocolate pumpkin pie
Brooklyn vs. Boston Cream Pie Cakes (from VCTOTW)
Christmas cookie assortment:
Cashew coconut joy
Chocolate chip cookies
Rocky road cookies
Caramel pecan bars
Vegan Samoas
Cranberry white chocolate biscotti
A note about my holiday cookie selection: All but one of my carefully-selected recipes are from Isa and Terry’s amazing new book, Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. All but the cashew coconut joy, which is a My Sweet Hannah recipe. And by carefully selected I mean that I personally find them delicious. There are no peanut butter nor banana-infused treats as these domineering flavors often takeover the entire assortment when combined.
See the rundown on last year’s holiday cookie-a-thon here and below.
Sometime around May this year I’ve noticed that time had entered some hyper drive speed, much to the horizontal stripes slicing the universe Millennium Falcon-style. I’ve been saying, “Before you know it, it will be Thanksgiving, then Christmas and then 2009!” Bidding farewell to the kids at early dismissal yesterday it hit me: what in the world am I going to make for Thanksgiving?! I was living and breathing the semester’s final projects, sitting in front of my computer to the wee hours of the night, shaping my seated rump into a permanent 90 degree angle. Cooking had been put to the back burner, as did my Christmas crafting I ambitiously believed I’d be finished with already, along with countless other personal projects I intended to squeeze in between work, grad school, social Karen and relationship Karen. But here we are, Christmas music already playing the grocery stores and my scoring the last can of pureed pumpkin for Veganomicon‘s Pumpkin Baked Ziti with Carmelized Onion and Sage Breadcrumb Topping.
This past Sunday was Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary‘s Annual Thanksliving Feast! It was a wonderful few hours filled with amazing eats, good peeps, numb toes and some extraordinary guests of honor: the turkeys. 
Besides those feathered friends, there was much to see at the farm.
Hi there! this goat seemed to beam.
The goat who mistook a finger for a carrot.
Making a friend.
Can we pause and revel in the beauty of the pig? Such a magnificent earthling.
With words from New York Times best selling author Rory “Skinny Bitch” Freedman, crazy-sexy Jill-of trades Kris Carr and Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary founder Jenny Brown, it was an empowering afternoon. When you factor in the generous sponsorship from NYC’s vegan footwear source, Moo Shoes (founded by Erica and Sara Kubersky) and the decadent desserts from famed Vegan Treats‘ founder Danielle Konya, you start to realize the vegan world is filled with strong women making a difference. Truly inspiring!
What a plate! Scrumptious field roast with mushroom gravy, citrus sweet potatoes, roasted vegetables, cranberry sauce, kale, pilafs and stuffing aplenty. Mmmmm. The gracious volunteers gave Wok Man an entire second plate with a smile!
Vegan Treats for dessert! Chocolate peanut butter layer cake or pumpkin cheesecake were dished out to complete the wonderful meal.
And what a way to go home: tugging a huge goody bag of vegan snacks, body care and literature. Till next year!
But what about the food?! Having missed the hor d’oeuvres, snacking commenced with our table’s bread basket. Delicious pretzel bread and pumpkin scones tided us over until the feast began.
What a plate! Scrumptious field roast with mushroom gravy, citrus sweet potatoes, roasted vegetables, cranberry sauce, kale, pilafs and stuffing aplenty. Mmmmm. The gracious volunteers gave Wok Man an entire second plate with a smile! 
Vegan Treats for dessert! Chocolate peanut butter layer cake or pumpkin cheesecake were dished out to complete the wonderful meal.
And what a way to go home: tugging a huge goody bag of vegan snacks, body care and literature. Till next year!
Additional reporting here, a la CandyPenny
This past Wednesday during my lunch break I had errands to run. Pancake, my canine life partner, was in dire need of a shampoo and, in order to avoid weeks of a clogged tub and no response from the landlord, I set out to buy an assortment of drain stopper thingies and dog shampoo. I headed to 6th avenue, immediately before 23rd street, which is heavily populated with chain stores, including my destination… Bed, Bath & Beyond.
Through the revolving door I dizzily enter the chaos of Beyond. With products dangling from every inch of the tall walls and a maze-like floor plan, the place can be a bit overwhelming. That’s when it hits me, Christmas music. It seems to speed up all the shoppers around me and propel them into frantic shopping mode. Their wild eyes hunting, their baskets revved, distorted Burl Ives ricocheting through each’s ear like some infectious contagion of consumerism. I calm myself, resisting the pace of the store, walk slowly through the store’s halls and attempt to stay focused. You need to go to the bath area towards the back. Remember, where you bought your yoga mat the last time you were here, like years ago. Yes, when you had just moved and needed a shower caddy. Stay calm. No! You don’t need that. Does that look like a drain stopper to you? In the end I survive. I got my drain thingies and a can opener, fearful of the strange ways Joey had started to open cans after our’s broke, and crept to the express line register which was covered head-to-toe with P.O.P. displays. The cashier monotonously wished me a happy holiday like she had the two customers before me. 
I wanted to take her hand and free her from her post, together we’d run out of that retail hell and catch the M6 giddy with our escape. After subltly motioning to her, Dirty Boots video style, towards the exit she called the next customer to her in a sigh. I left her.
As I exited the store the march of the busy street seemed calmer and Burl Ives faded away. I realized it would not have even registered-Christmas being a month or so away- had I never entered the Beyond…
Today is the official start of the holiday shopping season. The perfect reason to buy nuttin today. Buy nuttin tomorrow, too.
And sponsor a holiday retail worker.
Vegan Reporting By Location
